On Sunday afternoon, the fourth day of the Lunar Year, the streets and restaurants of Flushing's Chinatown were packed with families celebrating the Year of the Rat. In case you're wondering, that headline – like many of the Chinese people in Flushing – is Mandarin. It translates roughly to "Congratulations and best wishes for a prosperous New Year."
Even though it was already 1:30 p.m., the urge for dim sum was all-powerful, so we're glad we remembered that Tung Yi Fung keeps its dumpling carts rolling until well into the afternoon. The 37th Avenue restaurant was packed with families eating whole fish and noodle dishes, traditional foods associated with prosperity and longevity, respectively. There were also plenty of little red envelopes filled with New Year's money being given out to the kiddies. Since we didn't have a big enough crew with us to order a whole fish, Gothamist had some shrimp-packed har gau and an order of shiu mai.
Then we saw a dish that was a first for us. It consists of about a dozen tightly rolled ribbons of chang fen, or rice noodle, standing like soldiers in a pool of sweet soy sauce. Scattered atop this formation was a generous portion of pai gwut, or pork spareribs. They were meatier than the normal specimens and instead of the ubiquitous black bean and garlic sauce they came slicked with a sweet glaze. Alternating between bites of the toothsome pork and the slippery noodles, we briefly considered unrolling the little ribbons. Deciding against such childish behavior, we contented ourselves with the thought that the pai gwut cheng fen had satisfied the New Year's custom of eating noodles.
Rarely does one have the chance to celebrate the Year of the Rat and the return of winter in the same day, much less the same half hour. Perhaps the stars were properly aligned, but more likely it was the approaching arctic air mass. When we first saw the cute little guy above it was about 3:15 p.m. By 3:30 snow was swirling around his head and we were seeking shelter.
So with the wind blowing snow sideways, Gothamist ducked into Sweet-n-Tart Cafe for a steamy bowl of tong shui, a sweet medicinal soup. In keeping with the sudden change of weather we went with snow jello and lotus seeds with almond tea. Snow jello is a bit of a misnomer; the pleasantly crunchy frilly white bits are actually silver tree-ear fungus, which is said to have medicinal properties. We also had something called crispy mango. Just like mozzarella sticks, except filled with hot mango jelly.
Tung Yi Fung, 135-29 37 Ave., Flushing, (718) 886-8233
Sweet-n-Tart Cafe, 136-11 38Ave., Flushing, 718-661-3380
