Halal Chinese main Street

[MOREKASHA]

Just across thestreet from the location of the late Northeast taste Chinese Restaurant and down the block from the Hunan Kitchen of Sichuan (of whatever the longish name is) is a new Halal Chinese place. Looked brand new to me, didnt even get a chance to pop in and look at the menu due to running from the rain but will soon.

[Lau]

yah i noticed this place as well a couple weeks ago when i was coming into flushing, thanks for pointing out

[scoopG]

Thanks for the heads up. It is 一蘭飯庄 (Yi1 Lan2 Fan4 Zhuang2) and their menu has no pork listed.

Yilan Halal Restaurant
42-79A Main Street
Flushing, NY 11355

Tel: [phone]

Open everyday from 11 to 11.

[MOREKASHA]

Is it "Western Chinese" or "Chinese" for the Muslims in the 'hood?

[scoopG]

I do not see many American-Chinese dishes on the menu, if that is what you mean. OK there is General Tso's Chicken but also: Wasabi Artic Surf Clams, Sauteed Lamb Kidney, Shredded Stomach in Garlic and Eight Treasure Tofu. If I had to guess I'd say they are from Shandong where there is a small Hui/Muslim population.

[bigjeff]

hahaha, funny way of asking that question but I feel you.

[JFores]

I tried to figure out where the chef was from once but the level of English is really low there. I asked them what their specials were and they circled a bunch of lamb dishes though. The menu is not very Western China though. Maybe Tianjin Hui or something like that.

[bigjeff]

or maybe simply as hui as the guys with the big breads and the dofu nao? next time I'm there I'll check it out; I love that stuff and I know some chinese muslims who would dig it.

[buttertart]

Where do you get doufu nao? God I love that stuff.

[Lau]

go to the flower shop soy milk lady on roosevelt, she has the savory version (xian dou hua)....doufu nao is readily available its just the savory one that is harder to find (doufu nao is also called dou hua although you probably already know that)

[buttertart]

I thought doufu nao was the savory dish (with condiments, looks a bit like brains in the bowl hence the name) and dou hua the base material - often served with sweet syrup. First had it as a dish in a northern dian xin brunch in Taipei. (Now that would be a good restaurant idea, something along the lines of the Tian Chu/Celestial Restaurant in Taipei, with northern dian xin at lunch and Beijing duck etc at night.)
And thanks both for pointing me toward it.

[Lau]

i believe mainland more northern mainland chinese call it dou fu nao while more southern chinese call it dou fu hua b/c i've had the sweet version called dou fu nao several times, the first time they caught me off guard b/c i grew up calling it dou hua so i was like uhhh what?

[hoi lai]

You can get it at the small food court just past Golden Shopping Mall on Main St. I think the court is called "Lucky Express" It's the last stall (I think there are only 3) It's on the same block as Golden Shopping Mall.They run out by late afternoon.

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Golden Shopping Mall
41-28 Main St, Queens, NY 11355

[bigjeff]

yup, that's the one. Or Oriental Trading, something like that. It's the place with the very good big breads, a smaller medium bread, as well as savory and sweet shao-bing (I like the ones without fillings; the savory one is subtly amazing). They also do you-tiao wrapped in bread for a mega-starch meal. One of the original muslim "big bread" places, the guy used to be in J&L Mall before that closed down a year ago. His son now runs the joint. They also do some nice dumplings as well as filled buns and gigantic mantou.

[kathryn]

This place, right?

Sheng Jian Muslim Little Kitchen
Oriental Express Food Lucky L & LWC
41-40 Main St

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathryn/4122985773/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathryn/...

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Oriental Express Food
41-40 Main St, Queens, NY 11355

[bigjeff]

that's the one! man, I really love their shao-bing; the sweet one is awesome, the savory one is great. they have a habit of doing random pricing though which kinda pisses me off. I've been charged 75 cents, 1 dollar and $1.25 by different people. price should be a buck now for those things; I buy them a dozen at a time for potlucks; it kills.

[buttertart]

Ohh, youtiao shao bing...with xian dou jiang...heaven.

[bigjeff]

you been to this joint? actually they don't have xian-dou-jiang, they only have doufu-nao, but their youtiao they pair not with the rectangular shaobing but with these big 10" diameter "big" breads that are about a cm thick. usually I see people just holding this giant carb thing with one hand and the bowl of doufu-nao in the other and just attacking one hand with the other; it looks crazy.

[buttertart]

Nope. You know the regular shao bing I'm talking about, right? Anybody sell those? Made with browned roux laminated dough? The frozen ones are like wadded-up Wonderbread.

[Lau]

buttertart - ure talking about the taiwanese / shanghainese ones right? lots of places serve them

- no 1 east chinese (ren ren xiao guan): shanghainese breakfast specialist next to the library (green onning) on main street
- yong he: in the flushing mall; make sure to get the dan cong you bing as well (its a cong you bing with a fried egg on it, really good)

all of them serve breakfast and sell shao bing
- king 5 noodle (now only called niu rou mian): on prince street

[buttertart]

Yes, the kind every little breakfast place has along w youtiao and doujiang.
Thanks a lot, Lau, I'll be on the lookout next time in Flushing.

[bigjeff]

oh yeah, definitely the regular shao-bing are amazing; haven't had them in awhile though.

Lau, that place No. 1 East Chinese has been recommended to me a few times for shanghai brekky but I've never been there yet. Glad to hear you second/third the rec.

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No. 1 East
41-27 Main St, Queens, NY 11355

[Lau]

btw fyi if you go, go on the early side, i think that all of them stop serving breakfast by 1, so best to get there ard like 11ish to get all the fresh stuff

[scoopG]

Alas, I see no breads on their menu!