Birthday Bites with Hua – Part 2

I’m in love with New York’s subway transit and after a few days of taking the subway I was feeling like a pro except for that one time my bestie Sam and I ended up in Coney Island instead of Brooklyn.  We forgot to look at the subway letter and hopped on the wrong subway.  Thank goodness we were quick learners and it never happened again.

The following day our friend Kou joined us and we managed to take the subway to Penn Station and took the train to Flushing, New York.  To be all honest, I wasn’t expecting us to hop on the train to Flushing but it was quite the adventure! Flushing is one of the three Chinatowns in New York.  As soon as we stepped off the train, we could all smell the aromas of Asian food.  It literally felt like we stepped into another country. We stumbled across a mecca of food stalls on multiple long streets showcasing roasted duck and pork, meatballs on skewers, fish displays, nuts, fresh fruits and vegetables.

I can’t speak for my other two friends, but I felt like a kid in a candy store not sure where to start so I naturally allowed my stomach to take the lead and we ended up at Jade Asian Restaurant for dim sum.

If you’re not familiar with dim sum, it’s served in steam baskets or small plates in small bite-sized portions carried in steel rolling push carts.  It’s typically paired with hot tea.  Yum Cha means drink tea however I’ve also heard people using Yum Cha interchangeable with dim sum meaning entire meal so make sure to drink tea while you’re enjoying your meal.

We knew we were in the right restaurant for dim sum because we were surrounded by local Asian grandmas and grandpas.  I love any kind of dumplings and short ribs.  My friends really enjoyed the chicken feet.  That’s something I have yet to try.  The only thing missing was hot pepper, but thanks to Kou, she magically pulled a bottle of hot pepper from her purse.  She is a legit Asian person and means business when it comes to her hot pepper.  You always need someone like that in your crew.  Dim sum was amazing!

Across from Jade Asian Restaurant was Korea’s Paris Baguette.  Of course we had to walk over and take a peak.  If you have a sweet tooth like me, you’ll love this place.  My favorite was their Boston Cream Croissant Muffin.  It was AMAZEBALLS!!! It’s a cross between a croissant, muffin and donut filled with the loveliest vanilla cream topped with an edible white and milk chocolate twist straw.

After getting our sweet tooth fix we walked over to the Golden Shopping Mall to check out the infamous food court in the basement.  I was overwhelmed and impressed with this food court.  Typically food courts tend to cater to fast food, however this is a far cry from that.  This place is legit!  There were fresh pulled noodles, dough balls rolled out to make dumplings, meat on skewers grilled fresh and right in front of you, kimbap made to order and etc.  These food stalls were better tasting than some sit-down restaurants.  We had a plan of attack to only order one thing and meet up in the central of the food court so we would only eat small portions in order to try as many types of dishes as possible.  That was the plan at least.  Sam ordered a dolsot bibimbap with a side of soup.  That’s an entire meal in itself.  Kou bought a variety of meat skewers and I ended up ordering two rolls of kimbap!  Who were we kidding?  We literally ate dim sum an hour ago on top of dessert.  We had to call it quits for a few hours.  Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs.  Stay tune for part three for more good eats and places I visited.