Flushing Mall Update

[FattyDumplin]

went back after a long hiatus. couple new things in there (i think).

on the far left, the oden place has been replaced by the taiwanese stall that was there before. this place is great. the best big intestine noodle soup in flushing, imho. and their tenbula and chinese sausage are also very well executed. i'd highly recommend this place and in its re-incarnation appears to have much better customer flow.

right next to it is a stall for liang pi xian food. i had the lamb hamburger, which has the strong flavors i love, and the noodles mixed with spices and lamb meat.

anyways, i'd stopped coming here b/c i'd grown sick of ay chung and yong he, but with the new selection, which is a great mix of shanghainese, szechuan, xian, and taiwanese, now that the korean / japenese places are gone, i'll definitely be back on a regular basis.

[c oliver]

I've saved this as well as an older thread on this. We live in NoCal and the only time we walked down into this, I was so overwhelmed (not in a bad way but not having a clue what to eat) that we wound up leaving (we actually HAD already had dim sum so weren't starving either!) This is such a gold mine that I appreciate all who guide us. Thanks.

[Lau]

fyi the taiwanese place is the the gua bao guy that used to be in the now defunct roosevelt food mall

[FattyDumplin]

interesting. so i keep seeing "gua bao"... what I actually have no idea what it is.

anyways, my wife was so excited to see him back. she calls him "a bei" or uncle when she sees him. and the food is very simple but yummy.

[Lau]

gua bao is a mantou (a steamed white bun) filled with stewed pork belly, chopped peanuts, chopped cilantro and this sweet sugary powder...if uve been to momofuku, david chang accidently created one (i think he was going for a peking duck bun using pork belly)...it is my all time favorite taiwanese street food

just google'd it and here's a pic: http://photograzing.seriouseats.com/2...

[FattyDumplin]

got it. it's almost like the thing you see which is a thin crepe wrapped with some shredded meat, peanuts, some julienned vegetables, cilantro, etc, on the streets in taiwan.

[Lau]

sorta similar

[chefjellynow]

not the clearest pic but here is one for ya fatty. this is from the flushing mall Taiwanese stall

[c oliver]

OMG, that looks incredible. That's pork belly? What else?

[Lau]

see my description above

[c oliver]

Oops, sorry. Must have more cilantro than I would have thought. But, for me, you can never have too much. Thanks.

[Lau]

actually sorry i did leave something out...the other main ingredient is suan cai, which is chopped up vegetables (one of the best things about it actually)

[c oliver]

Excellent!

[bigjeff]

fatty; i do love that night-stand thing; haven't seen it anywhere else but ya, that's a good time. and then thing reminds me of the "da-bing-bao-xiao-bing" which i only had a few years ago on my last trip back; must be a relatively new invention.

[FattyDumplin]

hmm, i haven't heard about the da bing bao xiao bing. i have seen the da chang bao xiao chang - the sausage wrapped in a sausage. i don't get it, but there were long lines during my last trip back.

[bigjeff]

heh, ya, I like both. the da bing bao xiao bing has many of the same stuff (julienned/pickled veg) crushed peanut, etc. which they then put into a larger crepe along with a smaller crunchy/crispy one, sort of like a "chiao-guo", deep-fried crispy yummy. They then give it a whap so the inside crunchy one breaks up a bit and you end up with someone crispy inside, along with the fillings, wrapped by a substantial elastic outside one. it's awesome.

nice writeup and short video here:
http://mrnaomi.wordpress.com/2008/02/...

[FattyDumplin]

that sounds damn good. will need to try when i go back to taiwan this winter.

[c oliver]

You definitely got my attention with the reference to momofuku's pork bun. It is SO wonderful. It's excellent to know what to call something. Thanks.

[bigjeff]

ya, the gua-bao is the O.G. for real.

[kathryn]

Formerly known as Temple Snacks! Yay!