My Life in Meals

Golden Food Mall - Flushing

This post is really for the adventurous eaters out there. If your willing to make the trek to enjoy some really good, really authentic, and really cheap food - then your going to love this place. I got so addicted that I actually went four weekends in a row! Beware, a lot of the shop owners do not speak English, so you will have to make do with pointing at things that look good!

After hearing about a noodle joint called Xi’an Famous Foods on No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, I eventually built up the nerve to jump on the 7 train and head to Flushing. He just couldn’t stop raving about this place, and I pretty much trust anything that he deems as good! Luckily, their menu is easy to read and the wall is covered with huge pictures of the dishes with English subtitles underneath. They are located in the basement of the Golden Food Mall, Stall 36. I will make this easy for you - the Liang Pi Cold Skin Noodles [A1], Savory Cumin Lamb and Pork Burgers [B1 and B2], and the Savory Cumin Lamb Hand-Ripped Noodles[N1] are the absolute must haves on the menu.

The Liang Pi Cold Skin Noodles are as Anthony Bourdain proclaimed on his show, “phenomenal… like a drug”. I am usually not a fan of cold Asian noodles, but after my second or third time here I finally decided to see what all the fuss is about. The wheat noodles have a texture like you’ve most likely never had before, they are chewy, and springy and porous all at the same time. The hot chili oil and vinegar sauces perfectly soak into every bite.

The Savory Cumin Lamb Hand-Pulled Noodles are much more doughy then the cold skin noodles, and served hot with the same chili vinegar sauce as above. The noodles are so long that they could literally go on for days, making them a bit hard to eat! The lamb is tender and packed with cumin flavor, which reminds me a lot of Indian or Middle Eastern food.

Last but not least, the “burgers” are a must have! At $2.50 a pop, I could fill up my entire freezer with these things. The burgers are really more like sandwiches made with a toasted yet chewy pita, split open and stuffed with chopped meat seasoned in spices, and of course tons of cumin. Both the Savory Cumin Lamb and Pork Burgers are amazing, but the lamb is slightly better in my opinion.

My other go to stop at the Golden Food Mall is Mom’s Hot and Numbing Heat, also located in the basement, look for the orange walls and it’s Stall 15. Beware this place is only for people who have the highest level of heat tolerance (or if you want to send someone on a dare!). On my first visit, when I asked for the menu, the waitress/hostess pointed at the wall. The wall had 4 or 5 wooden slabs with Chinese characters on it, which were obviously of no use to me. On to Plan B - I pointed at what someone else was having, a noodle soup with some kind of meat, which turned out to be lamb. After a few times frequenting this place I realized a few of the people working here do speak some sort of English and you can get by with ordering the “lamb noodle soup”. We get ours extra spicy. Why? Because I have a death wish.

The fiery red soup contains all sorts of goodies besides for the lamb and vermicelli, like potatoes. rice cakes, cabbage, mushroom, a few kinds of tofu, seaweed, and some other stuff I can’t easily identify. Whatever it is, it’s good and it’s “mind numbingly” spicy. It’s also HUGE, and I can eat it about 3 times afterwords so get it in a to-go container even if you plan to eat in.

The “food mall” contains about 10-15 other stalls between the upstairs and downstairs, and many of the others I have tried proved to be both extremely cheap and authentic. If you consider yourself an adventurous foodie then you must try this place! Also, luckily Xi’an Famous Foods now has two locations in Manhattan as well, one in Chinatown and one in the East Village.

Golden Food Mall
41-28 Main St
Flushing, NY 11355
Price: $