A Ride on the #7 Train (Eastern Section: Jackson Heights and Corona)

Follow me on the continuing journey through Queens, the World's Boro.

*** During weekends and nights, always check subway status for the #7 and all subway trains by visiting www.MTA.info. The #7 is undergoing a complete replacement of the signaling system, so weekend service is frequently disrupted. Furthermore, ongoing repairs in some under-river tubes due to superstorm Sandy also re-route trains onto different routes, so the train you need take along 8th Ave, for example, might be running along 6th Ave instead.***

The bridge linking midtown Manhattan with the boro of Queens has 3 names. The Queensboro Bridge. The  59th Street Bridge. And the newly dubbed Edward I. Koch Bridge (b.2011). (How'm I doin'?) It opened in 1909 helping to alleviate the overcrowding in Manhattan's east side tenement neighborhoods. Trolley service used tracks on the outer roadways until 1957, when the railway was removed.

In 1915 the IRT Flushing Line (#7 Train) opened serving Grand Central Terminal to Vernon/Jackson Station in Queens providing full service, Times Square to Flushing, including the express by 1927, causing the growth spurt that turned the sleepy colonial-era farm villages along the new train's path into the working class and middle class neighborhoods they remain today. The immigrant settlers of the day were primarily Irish and Italians, followed by Jewish, and Greek, et alia.

Incidentally, Germans had settled in Brooklyn and Queens since the days of the American Revolution. Hessians and other Germanic groups who were hired as mercenaries by both the British and the American sides. After the Revolution, many settled in the region, including the Dutch farmlands in today's Brooklyn and Queens. (Brooklyn and Flushing are both names derived from places in the Netherlands. Breukelen and Vlissingen).

But much of what had been developed until that time in big-brother Brooklyn in its building spurt following the US Civil War were elegant bourgeois neighborhoods with their rows of stately brownstones on pretty tree-lined streets, little-sister, Queens, provided a fresh alternative to the squalor and urban decay of inner-city tenement life for the working classes. And go there they did, and still do.

The Italians and Greeks have all but disappeared from Jackson Heights except for a few hearty elderly. The evidence of the Italians departure is the recently closed Italian Farms grocery store on 37th Ave. Evidence of the Greeks' former presence remains in Saints Constantine and Helen's Greek Orthodox Church. But fear not! Italian and Greek communities are alive and well in nearby Astoria. Moving in on their heels are large and ever growing communities of people from all over Latin America.

It is much easier to list which nations of Central and South America are not represented in Queens as a whole than to list which are. Costa Rica, Honduras, Belize (but there are Salvadorean, Guatemalan and plenty of Mexican), Panama (but there are plenty of Colombian), Suriname and French Guiana (but there is a very large Guyanese community in Richmond Hill/Ozone Park.

At any rate, the diversity of central queens is a mind-boggling microcosm, all radiating outward of the 74th St/Broadway stop on the 7 (Jackson Heights/Roosevelt Ave stop on the E, F, M or R trains). Assuming you walked along Roosevelt Ave from Woodside, you will approach the busy intersection of  73-74th streets, Broadway and Roosevelt Ave. This particular section is the center of a very vibrant Hindu, Sikh and Muslim community of settlers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet and again, Bhutan. Along 74th St is the Merit Kabab and Dumpling Palace (I would also call it a Biryani house, serving various versions of the Muslim savory basmati rice dish. In the front window various treats are on display, ranging from flavorful Sikh Kababs and other tandoor roasted meats; samosas, pakora and other fritters; paratha, puri and other breads.

Most Hindus are vegetarians, with varying degrees of orthodoxy (some being ovo/lacto, and some of the strictest, who will not eat anything of even a color that resembles red meat! eg.tomatoes, beets, cherries, etc.) Although now a Muslim Halal eatery, I remember when when the Merit was a fry-stand selling fried chicken, shrimp, scallops, fries and onion rings from this very modest establishment, but as New York always adapts to the changing times, the Merit has found a new purposeful existence. Similarly, the hot dogs carts are less and less as time goes by, being replaced by Halal food carts serving the very popular and tasty chicken on rice.

Continue further north along 74th St and you will find the Jackson Diner (34-47 74th St). Another neighborhood classic reworked to serve its changing community. It is now an Indian restaurant that serves a very popular lunch buffet. There are several Indian buffets in Jackson Heights, but this one stands out because of the additional feature of a Masala Dosa bar, making the legume flour crêpes with a spicy potato filling. Be sure to have a soothing Mango Lassi after the seething chilli assault on your tongue.

A few steps further north is Patel Bros supermarket, a full-sized marketplace with a lovely array or fresh vegetables, spices, frozen foods and other foodstuffs from the subcontinent. No meat is sold here. Shopping at an Indian supermarket is a great way to be thrifty. If you are gluten intolerant, there is a vast array of flours available to use that contain no gluten; if you are diabetic, or follow a low-carb lifestyle, many flours on-hand satisfy different dietary needs and restrictions. For example, health food stores sell buckwheat flour at very high prices. Indian stores sell kuttu flour very inexpensive. Chick pea (fine or coarse), lentil; mung bean; soya; oats; millet; semolina, (coarse for farina, halwah and bread; fine for bread and pasta); buckwheat (for Japanese soba noodle dough, or French "Gallettes de Sarrasin" or buckwheat crèpes); sorghum; corn meal (even fine ground corn flour, not to be confused with the corn flour as sold in the UK/Australia which is what we call corn starch here in the US, but all of it is available, as well); various grades of rice flour for different purposes); amaranth; chestnut (for Italian Castagnaccio), are all flours sold in Indian grocery stores at a fraction of the price online or in health food stores, and all but semolina contain zero gluten.  I like to try my hand at experimenting with different flours, making sweet or savory spiced crèpes to accompany leftovers. Then they're not left over anymore.

The neighborhood is also filled with many sweet shops and chaat shops, selling quick and inexpensive snacks. Continue to the corner of 37th Ave and turn right. You will actually be walking to the next stop on the #7 train, 82nd St/Jackson Heights, but it's a better choice then being rattled by the noisy elevated train every three minutes. Slowly, but quite surely, the neighborhood loses the spiciness of the sub-continent and takes on the sazón and sabor of Latin-America. There appears to be a preponderance of Colombian, Mexican, Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Argentinian/Uruguayan (don't tell people from either of these countries that I classed them together, but the fact is they argue over who invented the Tango and who are better grillmasters; 1-the famous Tango singer, Carlos Gardel was born in Uruguay, not Argentina, 2-the Tango is the heritage of the platense culture, shared by both countries along the Río del Plata, 3-the mixed-grill parrillada is gaucho culture, shared by Argentina and Uruguay equally; and both countries are represented here in Jackson Heights, both near Roosevelt Ave.) Bolivian, Chilean and Brazilian are limited, but present, and not too far, but Paraguayan, alas, is no-where to be found in Queens. But it just goes to show you, in my long career as Tour Guide and entire life as a New Yorker, the Paraguayans I have met I can count on both hands.

[Where was I? Oh, OK!] Another EXCELLENT Thai restaurant I have been visiting over 20 years now is Arunee (78-23 37th Ave). Then a little further on is La Boina Roja Steak House (Colombian; 80-22 37th Ave) I like to mention because of their extensive meat selections, moreso because of the carnicería (butcher shop) selling Latin cuts of meat and their house made Colombian chorizo sausage. This is another treat for those like me who like to browse foreign grocery stores. At 80th St turn right and head south towards Roosevelt avenue again. On the corner of Roosevelt and 80th St is Cositas Ricas. Colombian bakery and restaurant, open 24 hours! (Can I rent the room above the kitchen?) Colombian cuisine stresses rotisserie grilled or breaded chicken, fire grilled steaks, pork, fish and seafood, some wonderful soups and stews, delicious arepas, or corn cakes, some filled with meats and cheese. Admittedly, Colombian cuisine is quite heavy on starches like rice, potato, yuca and corn. And most Colombian restaurants pair the main course with starchy sides, but they tend to be lenient with allowing substitutions. So if you are following a carb-conscious lifestyle, fear thee not. Forego the rice, potato, yuca and arepas and ask for frísoles y ensalada instead. A particular favorite of mine are the Colombian bakeries and piqueteaderos (snack shops). A visit to a Colombian bakery to me is such a treat I will need to address in a separate post.

Continue east along Roosevelt Ave and pause at La Gata Golosa (The Gluttonous Cat), Colombian bakery & piqueteadero, at 82nd St. You are now at the center of Colombian life in the US. 'La Pequeña Colombia.' This corner is a transfer point along one of my possible commute routes home. I take the #7 train upstairs from Manhattan to 82nd St/Jackson Heights station where I connect to my bus home.  I come down those stairs above your head and hope the ladies on the corner have some goodies left for me to take home. Improvised shopping carts are rigged with little charcoal grills over disposable metal trays to roast fresh corn-on-the-cob, Mexican style, spread with mayonnaise, sprinkled with sharp and salty cotija cheese then sprinkled with spicy-hot ground chiles, squeeze of lime. Her friend next to her usually sells her homemade tamales right from the steaming tamalera sitting over similarly-rigged disposable trays. Hot on the spot! Occasionally someone is there selling tamales tolimenses, hailing from the Tolima department of Colombia. I have had Colombian tamales (tamales antioqueños) many times before. These are akin to the Venezuelan hallacas made with hominy meal (Masarepa or HarinaPAN) as the starchy base.(Mexican tamales are made from Nixtamal, or harina from nixtamalized corn (soaked in an alkaline solution.) This process gives the Mexican tortillas that special flavor not present in American corn meal, and also makes the corn more highly nutritious as the calcium hydroxide used frees minerals and vitamins from the corn allowing your body to absorb them more readily.) Tamales tolimenses are unique in that they use rice and also dried green peas, which ultimately have an effect  in reducing the carb content of the dough, even if just a little. And instead of being neatly folded into rectangular shapes inside a banana leaf, these are round fat discs bundled into a banana leaf then tied at the top, so you immediately see they are very very different. Tidbits of chicken and succulent pork filling make these treats a complete meal. Both Colombian tamales are in comparison much larger, and stress more the meat component than their Mexican counterparts. Often present near this corner is a lady selling obleas con arequipe. An oblea is wafer thin waffle-like cookie sandwich filled with dark rich arequipe (dulce de leche) spread. Certain to satisfy a sweet tooth, but not too decadent to send you into a repentent guilt trip.

A mainstay of "La Pequeña Colombia" is Casa Rivera, Latin-American market and butcher shop selling chorizos and meats (Latin cuts) at the butcher counter and a large array of grocery items from all over South America and beyond.Available here is a rather hard to find ingredient. "Guascas" (pron. WAHS-cas), a dried herb sold in little plastic packets, which is an essential ingredient for making Ajiaco Bogotano, a rich chicken soup or stew utilizing three different types of potatoes, considered one of the national dishes. And if you are like me, you will just buy this exotic ingredient and worry about how to use it later. There are plenty of Ajiaco recipes available online.

Incidentally, in recent years, young professionals and startups have been settling in Jackson Heights, as is done in neighboring Woodside as they find the relatively lower rents in central Queens more attractive than the trendier and more expensive neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Manhattan. I have noticed more and more caucasians with baby strollers walking 37th Ave, something completely normal, of course, that seems a bit out of place for the neighborhood, where many of the caucasians are elderly long-time residents. This is a trend I am noticing more and more. Many neighborhood locales are taking on a hipper vibe. This holds true for Arunee Thai's new 37th Ave location, and is most certainly the case for SriPraPhai back in Woodside.

Food trucks serving Ecuadorian food are abundant in the neighborhood as well, along Roosevelt Ave. If you are still hungry, just continue walking east. In the 80s and 90s streets you will find dozens of Mexican, Colombian, Ecuadorian and Peruvian to stave off the crave.

Notable natives of Jackson Heights include Lucy Liu, actor and comedian John Leguizamo. Corona, the next neighborhood along the #7 line, was also the home of Louis Armstrong. Corona was also mentioned in the Simon & Garfunkel song: "Goodbye to Rosie, the Queen of Corona. See you, me and Julio down by the schoolyard." I am sure there are plenty of Julios living in Corona, for along with a slowly dwindling Colombian and Cuban community, and a growing Mexican and Peruvian community, Corona is also home to a very large Dominican community. La Cabaña Antojitos (39-17 103rd St) is a casual and small but popular Dominican Restaurant in a neighborhood where Dominican restaurants are quite plentiful. An old-school Corona highlight is the Lemon Ice King of Corona (52-02 108th St), seen in the opening credits of "The King of Queens" TV show, featuring over a dozen flavors of the popular Italian Ices, all made on site. Across the street is an active bocce ball court. And a notable upscale Italian restaurant there as well is Park Side Rerstaurant (107-01 Corona Ave). While a bit of a trek from the #7 train, it is well worth it on a hot summer day, and it gives you a true glimpse of New Yorkers being New Yorkers. So, continue on the #7 train to 111th St Station, and walk south on 111th St, then walk back east one block at 51st or 52nd Aves. And, yes, that was Flushing Meadows/Corona Park you followed on 111th St. This was the home of both NY World's Fairs (1938-39 and 1964-65), and is the home to the US Open Tennis Tournament held late August to September every year. The park is also the home of CitiField, the stadium of the New York Mets baseball team. Riding on the #7 one more station will take you to the Mets-Willets Point station. From this vantage point the baseball stadiums are to the north, and the tennis stadiums are to the south. Next stop, Main St, Flushing. All aboard!! #7 Train