5 GREAT DISHES TO TRY AT FLUSHING’S REVAMPED GOLDEN MALL

The opening of Flushing’s Golden Mall, 41-28 Main Street, near 41st Road, marked a major turning point in the city’s romance with Chinese food. The basement food court opened in 1990, but it wasn’t until the early aughts that it began to attract widespread attention. Chowhound posted excited descriptions of every stall, and soon food celebrities joined the crowds stumbling down the rickety stairs into its maze-like premises, including Jonathan Gold, Jamie Oliver, Anthony Bourdain, and Eric Ripert.

Visitors were beguiled by the array of regional Chinese cuisines: In one corner was a Sichuan stall selling offal and vegetables from tubs of chile oil and crushed peppercorns, while a Tianjin stall offered a sumptuous display of thick garlic sausages, braised tempeh, and soy-braised trotters. There were hand-pulled noodles from Lanzhou, incendiary hot pots from Hunan and elsewhere, and the original, empire-launching location of Xi’an Famous Foods.

But the basement was eventually superseded by above-ground versions of the same cuisines and became more rundown, until it finally closed in 2019. So, when I heard that the Golden Mall had been reborn following a $2 million renovation, I dutifully rode the 7 train to its terminus, worried that the food court would be a pale, franchise-ridden shadow of its former self. Boy, was I wrong.

The layout is pretty much the same, which felt eerie as I zigzagged past the 11 stalls. I spent an afternoon eating as much as there was to offer, and here are the five things I liked best. After the ranking, a thumbnail sketch of the layout is provided. And heads up, a Manhattan sibling is apparently in the works.

Five good dishes at the revamped Golden Mall

Beef offal soup from Xi Jiang Qian Hu ($10)

This amazing noodle purveyor from the province of Guizhou (pressed between Sichuan and Yunnan), offers a choice of three types of noodles: wheat, rice, and mung bean added to soups and stir fries. The choice of meats includes a dizzying array of offal, of which this soup, laced with plenty of Sichuan peppercorns in a rich dark broth, offers beef tripe, plus the spare swatch of kidney and lung.

Pork and chive dumplings (10 for $6), and Chinese chive pocket ($4) at Yoz Shanghai

This stall specializes in soup dumplings, as well as pressed duck. I skipped both in favor of the kind of dumplings often associated with Shanghai, filled with pork and chives. I also grabbed a “chive box,” an empanada-shaped pastry filled with chives, vermicelli, and egg: a perfect snack.

Classic combo at LaoMa Spicy. ($11)

Also known as Spicy Lover and emblazoned “The Taste of Szechuan,” a long counter offers dozens of raw ingredients, which can be made into a hot pot, a dry hot pot, or a straightforward stir-fry. A special uses what the attendant told me are all vegetable ingredients, including Napa cabbage, fried tofu, celtuce, sprouts, mung bean vermicelli, and a half dozen others, available at several spice levels. I picked medium and got a prodigious tingle on my tongue. You can add meats at $3 each, but who needs ‘em?

Pig’s foot set meal at Yu Yue Long Men ($12)

This counter specializes in casseroles, fried rice, and set meals featuring fish, sometimes set in Hunan and Sichuan recipes. I ordered the soy-braised pig feet, which were great — rich, gluey, sweet, and salty. Egg-drop soup, greens, a tea-boiled egg, and white rice were served with it for a totally memorable meal.

Pastel de Nata at Original Cake (2 for $3.50)

Ready for something sweet? Original Cake is Golden Mall’s only bakery, focusing on one thing: Portuguese egg tarts that came to China via Macao, richer and flakier than their Hong Kong bakery counterparts. Here the pastry is rendered with the flakiest crust imaginable. The place also offers a series of colorful sponge cakes, and nothing else.

The layout

From the northeast corner where the Sichuan stall once stood at the bottom of the stairway that descends from Main Street, in a counterclockwise direction:

The 11th stall is a branch of Viva Bubble Tea.

Additional advice

Most stalls have dining areas of six to 30 seats, and after ordering you are often told to sit in that area and your food will be delivered. There is no common dining area, so you can’t really scurry around gathering several dishes at once and then sit down to eat them all.

Note that some stalls accept credit cards while others do not, so bring cash.

2024-04-19T14:15:17Z dg43tfdfdgfd