A Ride on the #7 Train (Last Stop, Main St, Flushing)

Travel to the End of the #7 train and Experience the Sights (and Smells) of Downtown Flushing

From Mets-Willets Pt. station the train travels over the polluted Flushing Creek, past a large shopping complex until it finally descends to the underground Main St Station. The bustling intersection of Main St/Roosevelt Ave. In colonial times this was called Vlissingen and was settled in 1645 as part of the New Netherland colony, but largely settled by the British. The word "Flushing" is an anglicization of the Dutch name. A notable historic detail about this sub-colony was that a letter was written in 1657 in Vlissingen by the numerous Quakers in the settlement pleading for religious freedom and the end of oppression. They were categorically chastised and pursued wherever they settled for their belief in not taking oaths or swearing loyalty to the King, and for refusing to participate in military service, as, for them, God is their only authority, and they vowed pacifism. This document is called the Flushing Remonstrance, and it is the first article regarding freedom of religion in the present United States. In 1662, John Bowne was arrested and imprisoned for allowing those rowdy Quakers to have their silent Meetings in his home. His wife was a Quaker. 

The Bowne House still stands at 37-01 Bowne Street, about 2 blocks from the Quaker Meeting House, at 134-16 Northern Blvd.  These places are an easy side-trip if you want to include it in your eating itinerary. Bowne was banished from New Amsterdam. He sailed to Ireland, then to England and then to Holland to finally make a plea with the Dutch West India Company. Immediately, the burghers in Holland wrote a letter to Governor Peter Stuyvesant in New Amsterdam ending the oppression of the Quakers and officially establishing religious liberty in the colony. This is the first example of religious freedom in the present United States. This was 1663, one year before the British took possession of New Amsterdam.

When you exit the train at Main St, walk forward, to what would be the front of the train, and take the long escalator on the right side up to the street. Forget that you see the large department store right there. Turn to the right of it and enter the New World Mall at 136-20 Roosevelt Ave. It opened recently, in 2011. This first stop is like a day-trip to Asia. The ground floor has a large Chinese supermarket with a dizzying array of fresh fruit, some exotic varieties like Rambutan, Lychee, Mangosteen, different varieties of Asian pears and melons when in season, and a similar variety of vegetables. At the back is a series of live fish and seafood tanks. The rest of the market is standard fare Chinese markets, if you are from New York. If not, you might take an hour or more strolling through the aisles looking at all the exotic ingredients and condiments. A few stalls along the wall by the fruit section and near the front entrance, by the cashiers sell a few tidbits you can buy and share.

Take the escalator up one flight and you are in the Chinese mall itself, small shops selling items from mainland China and Taiwan. One more flight up and there is a huge restaurant called, well, Grand Restaurant. It is a Dim Sum house for late breakfast through lunch hours, serving a full menu as well. I have eaten there several times and have never been disappointed. If you have never been to a Dim Sum meal, it is such a treat. Ladies push around different little push-carts selling the food. Everything is in small portions, kinda like tapas. There's a cart that carries the fried food: spring rolls, different dumplings and buns. There's a steam cart serving steamed food. Shu mai, tofu rolls or other filled pork or shrimp dumplings. There's a cart serving rice porridge. There's another selling desserts and sweets. It's nice to go with a few people so you can order lots of different dishes so that each of you has a piece. The portions are small, as are the prices, so you can order a nice variety and eat as much, or as little as you like. The ladies mark a menu card with each selection you make and that's how the bill is tallied. Popular custom is to order a large platter of noodles for the table and then the rest is Dim Sum. Communal eating is just fun! Yes, it's there if you want it, and it is one of the better places I have seen for Dim Sum. But the real draw for this place is the basement food court.

OK. So I am taking you to a mall style food court, yeah? Uh, no!! This is a mall style food court in a Chinatown, with 32 stalls serving regional foods from far-reaching provinces in China and other parts of Asia!! This is NOT your local take out joint serving Chop Suey, Moo Goo Gai Pan or Sweet and Sour Chicken; this is Chinese Chinese food. No Sbarro's Italian Eatery. No Mickey D's Burger King or KFC. No Orange Julius. No Sushi-Boy. No Cinnabon. No Subway. No Chick-Fil-A. Heck, there's not even a Panda Express!! So, take the elevator to the basement, or just double back down the escalators to the lowest level and you find yourself in the middle of a large cafeteria filled with Chinese people, speaking, mostly, Chinese (or only Chinese) holding chopsticks, slurping noodles from huge bowls of steaming soup, or huddled around a hot pot, sukiyaki or shabu-shabu. Maybe they have already slurped their noodles (it is considered completely respectful to slurp your noodles. It shows the cook, or your host/ess that you are enjoying your meal), and have moved to dessert in the form of a Boba sweet drink with tapioca balls, or a towering concoction of shaved ice snow with a large array of toppings. There is a Japanese stall serving teriyaki and yakisoba, mediocre at best. There is a Vietnamese stall.  There is a crêperie. Some stalls have the visual aid of laminated pictures describing their menu items. Some have no menu to show, and only Chinese characters, which is never helpful, (nor is it technically legal). I have voiced my opinion to those places saying that to come from a communist country to take advantage of our free-market system, only to exclude their western hosts by not having any information about menu items in English is wrong in so many ways, but my pleas fall on deaf ears. A favorite eatery of mine is the hand-pulled noodle stall where a chef well trained in his art cuts a chunk of dough off the block, kneads it then starts to roll it out into a thinner and thinner baton, folds, stretches, slaps on the counter, and does this repeatedly so that one hunk of dough-turned-dowel is ultimately stretched and pulled and folded, over and over again, until he has a fresh-pulled bunch of noodles that he tosses right then and there into the boiling water, to order, and within mere minutes, you have a steaming bowl of noodle soup to slurp yourself, or a quick stir-fry. Definitely browse all the stalls first. When I go, I like to see the actual food as it is being eaten by the customers. I explore the cafeteria floor browsing the tables and when I see something that catches my eye, if I say "Hey, where'd you get that stir-fried cut up lobster?", this may not help me. So, I just meekly beg their pardon for the interruption at their table, point at the dish, pan around with an open hand to the stalls and shrug my shoulders and open my hands in a questioning gesture. They always understand my body language and kindly point to the stall where they bought the dish. Whenever I eat there I ask for chopsticks. Many of the counter workers are teenagers. They chuckle when this westerner asks for them. I always respond by saying that I have been using chopsticks longer than they have. It always makes them laugh.

Exit the Food Court by taking the escalator up to street level, onto Roosevelt and turn left. Cross Main St at the corner. The next corner is Prince St. Turn right onto Prince St. This quieter pocket of the neighborhood has an array of authentic regional Chinese restaurants. Dim Sum (again), Shanghainese, Taiwanese, Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese. Make the right turn onto 39th or 38th Ave and turn right again onto Main St. Go under the railroad bridge. There are several Chinese markets, not nearly as interesting as the one in the mall. You will pass 41-10 Main St (Xi'an Famous Foods), but you will pass this Xi'an Famous Foods because I am sending you to the original Xi'an Foods in the basement of the Golden Shopping Mall at 41-28 Main St. Find the entrance and go downstairs to Xi'an Famous Foods. The bazaar of cheap stores above effectively conceals the entrances to this little hole-in-the-wall food court down below. I use that term quite literally, and respectfully. This tiny 200 Sq Ft. (18.58 Sq M.) that puts out some of the most exotic Chinese food I have yet seen has now expanded to an empire of over 10 locations, in Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, even in Chinatown, where he is teaching the Chinese what Chinese food really is!! 

Celebrities like Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern have featured Xi'an Famous in their popular TV programs. They have been mentioned in numerous articles in newspapers and by other famous bloggers like myself. I have three words to sum up Xi'an. Spicy Cumin Lamb. Xi'an is located in central China. Rice is not common in this cuisine. However, noodles are, but they are broader and flatter, hand-made on the premises. Meats are served in a soft bun. The food can be spicy, including spices and ingredients which may not be classically associated with Chinese food, as we are accustomed to seeing it. Like cumin. Like lamb. They also serve a few dishes using Tingly Beef. I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that 'tingly' refers to Szechuan Pepper Corns as one of the exotic ingredients because they leave a tingly sensation on the mouth and tongue. And the Shaanxi Province of China where the city of Xi'an is located borders Szechuan Province. I have often seen a large vat boiling on the back burner, cooking the stock for tomorrow. Another home-made bone broth!! The noodle dishes are offered either dry (dressed in sauce) or served with broth. You know which I'll have!   

One more stop before we head back on the #7 train. Find Main St and walk back the way we came, back under the railroad bridge. At the corner of 40th Rd is Happy Food (40-28 Main St). OK. After the food court at New World mall, this is my second place to go. After I do whatever I am in Flushing to do I ALWAYS stop here to take some nibbles home with me for a late night snack, as no one is hungry right now. This chaotic place has the ubiquitous roast ducks and roast pork hanging in the front window. Dozens of choices of prepared food, from stir-fried noodles and rice dishes, to deep-fried and sauced fish, and several excellent dim-sum items. You order a determined number of specific items (eg. rice and three ingredients) of the food in the hot trays; you order dim sum and dumplings individually. The total is written on a piece of paper. You go to the cashier to pay then pick up your order. There is a usually crowded seating area in the back where you'll have to elbow up next to your neighbor, if you are even lucky enough to find a seat. Let's face it. Look around you. Most of the customers are Asian, and you are eating where they eat. Chaotic as it is, this is the real deal! Again, no Chop Suey here.

And that's what's it's like in all of these ethnic enclaves we have visited along the route of the #7 train. No La Torita mock-ups of Mexican food, serving canned salsa and jarred queso dip. No mock-ups of any food. These are the restaurants of the people of all nations, serving people of all nations. How lucky am I to have all of this right outside my front door! #7 Train