Tasting Queens

There's two ways you can do Queens. One is to make like a good tourist, and visit all the landmarks and attractions in Queens, like the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows, or the Museum of the Moving Image, the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Queens Zoo and other places like these. Or, you could do it by taking in the multi-hued cultural spirit and visit the community pockets which together form the Queens constellation. This might sound melodramatic, but its true. Brooklyn represents the true spirit of New York and Manhattan is its public face, but Queens is a mini-sample of the multi-ethnic cultures and communities that flourish in different pockets around NYC.

You go to Jackson Heights, and its like you're standing in India. The spices of Indian street food and restaurants offering tandoori, nans, dosas and idlis and sambar and Indian sweets, the sari and jewelry shops, the language, the Bollywood songs being belted out by DVD sellers. Its like you're in a twilight zone in the middle of NYC. You go to Downtown Flushing, and its Chinatown at its best. Quaint shops, cheap food, the smell of tea, rice bowls and dim sum.

You go to Astoria, and you'll end up thinking that Scotty beamed you up to Greece by mistake. There's some fantastic Greek restaurants there, all competeing to serve the best feta cheese, charred octopus and lamb chops. You walk into the Titan Foods supermarket, and its like they bring you Greece in cans and packages - Olive cans, anchovies, Greek groceries and desserts. If you're in Astoria, don't forget the Bohemian Hall and beer garden with its icy beer and BBQ's.