I found my Cupertino Village

Unfortunately life in the Bay Area has spoiled me and I took for granted all the wonderful, delicious, tasty, yum-tastic, Chinese food that beautiful California has to offer (+1 point for West Coast...the best coast). A good friend realized my disposition was bit more gloomy than usual and suggested a trip out to Flushing. I was skeptical, especially after paying $16 for a plate of bok choy in Manhattan but let me just say, IT WAS AWESOME*!

*Caveate: It was "awesome" because Flushing has the type of Chinese food that I'm familiar with (i.e. not Canto), and spoke the dialect that I'm familiar with (Mando). This Chinatown was also not pungent/is something rotting as others I've been to.

ANYWAYS...

First stop, 80 cent pineapple bun? Yes please!


Crispy on top, slightly sweet and fresh out of the oven. My favorite bun out of the repertoire of buns Chinese bakeries typically offer.

Next up, hand pulled noodles and beef soup. They have a stack of dough and pull noodles fresh as you order it. Chinese hand-pulled noodles is one of my favorites, the texture and chewiness is especially unique. I desperately want to learn how to make it myself. For now I'll settle for this:

The meat was good, but I now appreciate my Dad's slow braised beef so much more. Maybe if I tell him he can mail me some?

We finished off with shaved ice for dessert. Check out the spread of selections:

Friend wasn't familiar with the toppings so she defaulted to me. So I got red bean and more red bean because I love red bean.

The trip ended with a stop at TenRen for pearl milk tea and grocery shopping where I got yelled at for questioning whether or not I got correct change back. Not everyone went to Kumon so I'm slow with the numbers.

I was feeling slightly doomed about the Asian food sitch in NYC, but can now breathe a sigh of relief. David Chang can suck it, no more overpriced noodle soups from his cult restaurants for me!