GOLDEN MALL
41-28 Main Street
Queens, NY

ON THE DUMPLINGS

YAMAHOMO
Dumplings were tasty, but to me a bit too chive heavy.

HAMAMAMA
I wasn’t feeling too adventurous – tried more dumplings (this time steamed — flavorful and fresh as well, but preferred our first stop).

JONES
I preferred the basement food court dumplings (steamed) rather than the leek dumplings at the counter (pan fried). But they were both delish.

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ON THE CHINESE BURGER

RICKY
Lamb sandwich – if I didn’t buy these myself I wouldn’t have guessed these were Chinese. These tasted like really spicy Moroccan lamb tangine in freshly made english muffin.

YAMAHOMO
Chinese burger tasted like a taco, because of strong cumin flavoring. Again, lamb smell was everywhere and I was getting nauseated by this time.

HAMAMAMA
Intriguing, but as Yamahomo said, “It tasted Mexican”… because of the spices — cumin? Maybe they should change the name to Chinese taco?

SONJA
“Chinese burger” was quite good…more like Chinese Manwich, no chewing needed. Actually the guy said it was pork but totally tasted like super soft Korean kalbi jjim (braised beef).

KELLY
The Chinese hamburger was good because the filling was chopped meat, and it reminded me of Korean “kalbi-jiim”. The meat was wrapped in a tortilla-thin bun which was lightly toasted. It was good, but half of it went into the trashcan.

TYSON
I had seen and read about most of the various stalls inside the Golden Shopping Mall, but it was my first time trying this location of the Xi’an “lamb burger” joint (the one in the now-closed Shi Fong mall was good, at least based on my sole visit in July).

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ON THE COLD APPETIZERS

TYSON
The cold-gluten-noodle “salad” liang pi was tasty as always, although this version seemed to lack as much chili oil in the ‘dressing.’

KAYOKO
Liang pi ROCKED! Very refreshing, would be great on a hot tropical day.

TYSON
Also, there was a Sichuan / Hunan stall that had dumplings and nice appetizers / room-temperature prepared foods; the dry tofu slices with chili and Sichuan peppercorn were $3 for a large styrofoam box-full, and were tasty.

HAMAMAMA
Loved the spicy tofu dish that Tyson got in the food court– reminded me of the cold appetizers that you can get at Spicy & Tasty.

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ON THE MALL

YAMAHOMO
Totally shocked. Utterly speechless.

HAMAMAMA
I had always wanted to go to the food courts in the mall, but was too intimidated. Glad to be going with someone who had experienced them before. There were more menus written in English than I was expecting – but the tight quarters and just the overall “unknown” still made it quite intimidating.

JONES
I do enjoy watching the food preparation and trying to guess the ingredients (note to self: do not ever bring Health Department brother on an Umamiventure).

TYSON
Probably as a result of Julia Moskin’s recent Times article on Flushing as a food destination, there were more non-Chinese than I’ve ever seen down in that smoke-filled basement. I definitely want to further explore the network of stalls at the Golden Shopping Mall, especially since many of them now have picture menus posted on their walls with English captions.

But I’m taking some time out for the post that everyone has been waiting for- FLUSHING! I brought on Tyson as our guide- he’s a true Flushing Pro who had a meticulous agenda mapped out for us. SWEET! I had wanted to tour Flushing since our very first Umamiventure- we had walked across the street to Flushing Mall and the food court like nothing you would find at your local mall- stay tuned to see what I’m talking about.

Tyson incorporated a mall into the itinerary, as well as some stand alone shops to mix things up a bit. I was going to try to do this all in one post, but it’s pretty hefty, so I’m gonna break it up into 3 parts. Va bene? Ok.

This was a totally awesome trip, in my opinion one of the best Umamiventures we’ve had (16 people came out!). Some weren’t so enthusiastic, however… read on for all the feedback.

Most importantly though, thank you Tyson for showing us around!!! We couldn’t have done this without you!

Photos by Hamamama, Jones and Tyson.

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Chinatown to Chinatown Shuttle
Pick up is like every 5 minutes on Division, right east of Bowery.

This is so sweet- for $2.50, you get a shuttle ride from Chinatown Manhattan to Chinatown Queens (Flushing), which only takes about 30 minutes. We got to watch the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies on a flatscreen all the way there- could you do that on the subway? I don’t think so.

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$1 Pecking Duck Pancake Sandwiches
Corner of Main Street and 40th Road


A takeout window we randomly stumbled upon as we waited for people to get together, right in the thick of Flushing. Check out the neon signs- you can’t miss it.

HAMAMAMA
I can’t forget the one nice surprise that was not on the scheduled tour – the $1 warm, crispy peking duck in the little bun. What a bargain!

SONJA
Peking duck takeout was the best! Needs a little more cucumber but what a fantastic idea.

KAYOKO
How amazing is it that this is only $1? Seriously, they are made to order, the buns come right out of a large steamer and the beautifully marbled duck is nestled within.

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Qin’s Lamb Noodle
13631 41st Ave, Queens, NY
T: 917.838.1011

HAMAMAMA
The noodle shop was interesting and needed to be accompanied by someone who has been there and/or spoke Chinese as the menu was entirely in Chinese. Tried a little bit of both the lamb and beef noodle soup. Though the noodles were fresh and homemade, thought they were too thick & doughy and without the chili sauce the broth was bland… an interesting find and definitely off the beaten path.

TYSON
Delicious. I love the cloud ear mushrooms, the strips of tripe, and the unidentifiable pickled vegetables… This is the ultimate noodle (literally–it’s one gigantic noodle!), in texture and mass… I still like Lanzhou/fujianese hand-pulled noodles a lot too, but Qin’s has more subtle broth and better toppings.

YAMAHOMO
I don’t like the smell of lamb. I like to eat lamb chop, but hate the smell. I have a lot of olfactory issues. Probably I would eat a lot of cheese if I didn’t have a nose, but the smell always keeps me away from stinky stuff. The place smelled of lamb, lamb, and lamb! The fact that a place where only customers are Chinese, and no English is spoken exists in New York is quite amazing. Noodle was weird. The way the chef stretched it and dumped in the water was cool, but way too doughy. Soup? What soup? It was white, so I am thinking they put lamb bones but it didn’t taste like much. We had to put in a lot of salt and hot sauce. Toward the end, I had to evacuate from the place to breath fresh air. Failure for me.

JONES
I wasn’t crazy about the lamb noodle venue, partly because I have a low mutton-stink tolerance, and partly because I wanted the broth to be richer (like tonkotsu ramen, maybe?).

RICKY
The lamb broth didn’t have much flavor, adding pepper oil helped it. It was pretty evident that the chef cut corners by using a pressure cooker instead of simmering for hours judging by the way the lamb cubes retained shape as if they were just cut.

SONJA
I had the beef noodles that were only slightly improved by copious amounts of chili oil. Only took a few bites but it was lacking…in everything?? There was no flavor. Noodles were nicely elastic though.

KELLY
The beef noodles were just freaking nasty, and it was even nastier when you had to throw out the remains in a bucket that had a sieve on top (which was one of those cheapo neon green baskets you find at Asian marts).

KAYOKO
Like nothing I had ever had- perfect for a cold winter day. I enjoyed the broth- it was light and drinkable. The noodles were really doughy, mochi-like. I especially liked the tripe and pickle toppings. It was neat to watch the guys behind the counter pull these noodles though- they were really sweet too (even though we couldn’t really communicate properly).