manda

Golden Shopping Mall – Part I

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Last week I discovered this magazine Edible Queens on the counter in the visitor center in the Queens Botannical Garden. And lo and behold I see two of my favorite chefs on the cover, Eric Ripert and Anthony Bourdain! Rob and I are big fans of Bourdain’s “No Reservations” on television and Eric Ripert is, well, god of all things Seafood in Manhattan. Flushing is still a very daunting place to me (especially since I can’t speak Mandarin to save my life) but this article Feasting on Flushing was just the ticket.
Walking down the stairs into the “shopping mall” was like entering a new world, full of little Asian-family kitchens. It was hot and steamy but the smells were unbelievable. Even the sounds of meat being cleaved, vegetables sizzling, fresh noodles being smacked and formed could bring tears to many an Asian’s eyes.
We ordered as much as we could carry, which included the jia cai he zi (chive pies), chu jiao (pig’s feet), zi ran chao yang (lamb burger), and liang pi (cold skin noodles). The chive pies ($1.50) were exactly how Rob’s mother makes them – huge, bursting with chives, studded with dried shrimp and scrambled egg. The pig’s feet were delicious and a great deal ($5 for 2 orders). The lamb burger ($2.50) was a tasty surprise, as it tasted of mexican chili spices. The liang pi ($3.75) won this round: the sauce was fantastic and had a nice little kick to it.
And even still, there are easily a hundred more dishes available in this place! So many dishes to try…so little time. But we will be back hungry for

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manda

Dessert Club ChikaLicious

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There was a great article in the New York last month that a friend sent me: Gramercy Tavern’s Nancy Olson Rates New York’s Cupcakes We’ve been to Magnolia’s many a time and I agree that they overdose on the frosting.  So Robo and I visited ChikaLicious (which btw is dangerously close to our apartment) and ordered the Smores, Mocha, Red Velvet, and Black & White cupcakes.  They were smallish, about the size of home-made cupcakes, but so worth it!  EDIT: We went back with cupcake fanatics Gen & sis today and here’s the final rundown:

Smores – the marshmallow frosting/topping was actually burnt/toasted so you could taste the carmelized marshallow
Mocha – good but the espresso-chocolate ganache filling wasn’t gooey enough – if it were warmed up it’d be excellent
Red Velvet – Robo’s favorite   the cream cheese frosting was to die for…had just the right amount of cream cheese and sugar to make it light but yumyumyummy!
Black and White – solid, no complaints there, just a great cupcake.
Caramel – the sweetest of them all, beware: the cake was nearly saturated with caramel sugar
Coconut – fragrant with the toasted coconut on top, but only so-so
Triple Chocolate – deefinitely a must for a chocoholic, the chocolate frosting wasn’t overly sweet and you could taste the dark cocoa in the cake

We finally got pictures – sorry about the poor lighting

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