Eating My Way Through Asian Feastival

It was initially painful stepping inside the Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel in Flushing, Queens on such a stunningly beautiful Labor Day, but the noodles, pork and sake-fest that was the Asian Feastival more than made up for the absence of a beach day. Plus, some of the tastiest food samples of the day were stationed on the outdoor patio, under the blue sky and sun (who noticed the many planes making their descent into LaGuardia?)

It’s the first year for Asian Feastival—a one-day culinary festival and tasting event celebrating local, authentic Asian cuisines in Queens—and hopefully not the last. The day featured panels about Asian food, demonstrations of how to cook Asian food, and lots and lots of Asian food tastings.

Over 20 restaurants dished up generous tasting portions of all kinds of Asian cuisine, from Thai, Korean, and Japanese, to Malaysian, Filipino, and Indonesian. Kheedim O, who makes Mama O’s Kimchee, put down his delicious fermented baby bok choy—which I am personally obsessed with—to drop some tunes for the crowd.

Madonna’s “Holiday” and L.L. Cool J’s “Jingling Baby” blared on the speakers as chefs, authors and gourmands scarfed down Qingdao cold noodles, masala dosas, and quail-egg stuffed meatballs.

Unlike other events of this sort, where lines are long and food is hard to come by, here, it was easy to get your fill, and there was plenty to go around.

A highlight for me was Nan Xiang Dumpling House’s freshly-made xiao long bao (pork soup dumplings), which were still rich even without the crab guts that I like in my dumplings.

I also devoured kimchee-wrapped pork belly from Hahm Ji Back; Katsuno’s char-grilled Spanish mackerel sashimi, which was mild and sweet with a nice fish taste and a bright, citrusy kick; and Himalayan Yak Restaurant’s momo dumplings stuffed with yak, which tasted like a slightly more gamey, less fatty beef. 

The standout panel was “The Next Generation of Asian American Cuisine,” where young chefs described how hairstyle changes and greasy snacks helped launch their careers.

Akira Back (Bellagio’s Yellowtail Restaurant), shaved off his blue hair to get Kenichi Aspen’s chef to stop “laughing his ass off” and take him on as a mentee (he did), while Eddie Huang (Baohaus and Xiao Ye) described how “ghettofying” Pat LaFrieda meat and fancy chicken with Cheetos or salt and pepper potato chip breading is the key to his food’s deliciousness. The room was packed and everyone was roaring.

Joe DiStefano (Edible Queens’ World’s Fare Blog) capped off the day with a taste-hunting tour of Flushing that, like our stomachs, quickly expanded, from 20 to around 40 people.

Temple Snacks mysteriously refused to serve us Taiwanese stinky tofu, but instead provided braised tofu with chili sauce and steamed pork intestines.

And we had some outrageously tasty, chewy, hand-pulled liang pi (cold skin noodles) from Xi’an Famous Foods, which Anthony Bourdain once described as “like a drug, I can’t stop.”  I didn’t want to stop, but I was working, and we had more ground to cover.

At Tian Jin Chinese Restaurant, we peaked amusedly at a chef shaving pigs feet with a disposable razor, but the smell of star anise drew our attention back to the owner, who heaped all manners of intensely-flavored meats upon platters for us to try.

Everything we sampled—from pork tongue to rabbit to chicken neck—was infused with five-spice through a method called “flavor potting,” and was all delicious.

On the lower level of the Golden Shopping Mall, we elbowed our way through the narrow passage that’s lined on both sides with food stalls. As Joe pointed out, the vendors are “moving targets”; you don’t know if they’ll be there the next time you showed up.  We were here for Xie Jia Tsai, which was still open, and available to give us samples of rao dong (head cheese), which we ate on the slightly less cramped streets of Flushing.

After that, we said goodbye, holding our stomachs and professing that we wouldn’t be hungry for days. That, of course, didn’t stop me from cooking a full dinner two hours later, and I ate the whole thing.

Flushing Mall Food Court
133-33 39th Ave.
Flushing, Queens

Tian Jin Chinese Restaurant
135-02 Roosevelt Ave.
Flushing, Queens

Golden Shopping Mall
41-25 Main Street
Flushing, Queens

Thanks to Wendy Chan for putting on such a great event, and to Joe DiStefano for sharing some of his favorite Flushing bites.