This article was produced by National Geographic Traveler (UK)
The most famous of New York's five boroughs is Manhattan. The trendiest is Brooklyn. There is the forgotten one (Staten Island) and the one that tourists visit only to watch a Yankees game (the Bronx). Then there's the most interesting: Queens, a borough of more than two million people and one of the most ethnically diverse regions in North America.
This diversity is seen in its food. You come to Queens to eat at restaurants that take you back to an incredible meal you had in a village in Thailand, or the tacos you enjoyed in Oaxaca, or the incendiary kimchi stew you sipped in Seoul. Or, in my case, to drink a Czech beer on tap at the Bohemian room and open-air garden, in the Astoria neighborhood. I visit about twice a year to relive my days in Prague.
Queens was once home to hundreds of beer gardens and breweries, reflecting the 19thEuropean immigration in the 17th century. But anti-German sentiment after World War I, and then Prohibition, caused most of them to close. The Bohemian Hall, opened in 1910, has survived, perhaps because it is Czech. During my visit, a pint of Budvar – the original Budweiser – is accompanied by a live band playing songs by Prince and Fleetwood Mac. This is just one example of the ethnic anomalies in the district.
(How to explore New York's immigrant past through food)
There are still vestiges of immigration from central and eastern Europe, but they have been largely eclipsed by arrivals from the rest of the world over the past quarter century. It's a neighborhood where hundreds of languages are heard and ATMs offer a myriad of languages with which to transact.
After my beer, I board a Citi Bike – from New York's bike sharing program – and take a pleasant ride through the green gardens of Sunnyside – home to a Romanian and Moldovan community – the formerly Irish neighborhood from Woodside and up to Elmhurst. My destination is Zaab Zaab, a Thai restaurant in the heart of Elmhurst’s “Little Thailand.” There I meet Joe DiStefano, who wrote 111 places in Queens you can't miss and who leads food-focused walking tours in the borough. With a table full of Thai dishes in front of us – including a whole roasted fish, super spicy papaya salad with black crab, and even spicier duck larb – Joe explains why he loves the region so much: “The borough has helped New Yorkers are more open-minded to new foods and discovering new things. There is nothing else in North America that comes close to the rich diversity of Queens.
After lunch, we stroll through P'Noi Thai Thai Grocery (Woodside Ave), a small store in the heart of Little Thailand. Its shelves are stocked with curry paste, coconut milk and rice noodles. Ratri Sil Ratdochot, 65, works there, who beams when Joe enters. “Joe!” I saved some fresh durian for you,” she says, handing you this stinky fruit ubiquitous in Southeast Asia.
I bid them farewell and head towards Jackson Heights. During the 15-minute walk, the Thai alphabet signs disappear, replaced by those in Tibetan and Nepali. On the border of Elmhurst and Jackson Heights is a church-like building with a tall nave and colorful Buddhist prayer flags. A sign indicates that it is the United Sherpa Association. Inside is a room with high ceilings. A Nepalese man, his New York Yankees bag beside him, prostrates before the large altar, on which sits a large Buddha in lotus position next to a photo of the Dalai Lama. Ang Sherpa, a monk dressed in saffron and brown robes, runs the center. “I love this part of Queens,” he told me. “We don't have to go far to frequent traditional Nepalese and Tibetan restaurants, and there are often Himalayan cultural festivals here.”
Leaving the center, I pass under the elevated subway line 7, nicknamed “the International Express” because it passes through the most diverse neighborhoods of Queens. Trains rumble above Roosevelt Avenue, where the smell of cooking meat mixes with the sweet smell of peppers. Crossing a street lined with carts and Mexican and Ecuadorian bars brings you to Jackson Heights itself.
Greek until 1982, Jackson Diner on 74th Street is today one of the most famous Indian restaurants in New York. “We’re in the heart of a classic American melting pot,” says owner Manjit Singh. “When Indians started living in Jackson Heights, they would come back to India with electronics and other things. Today, it’s the opposite: Indians go to India to bring back things they can’t get here, like real wedding dresses.”
Along the street are sari shops, Nepalese restaurants and Al Naimat, a Pakistani sweet shop, whose glass counters are filled with ball-shaped candies made from sugar, milk and nuts. And the 37th The avenue is the Apna Express pharmacy, where plastic flowers, wall clocks and lamps reign supreme. “I have visited other Indian, Nepalese and Bangladeshi communities all over the United States,” notes Saleem Jahangir, the owner. “But Jackson Heights is a cultural phenomenon because in other parts of the country you feel this pressure to fit in.” Here, one can reveal or display one's own culture with complete confidence. You can be who you are – and it will never be a problem. That's what I love about Queens.
