A Mecca for Chinese Food: The New World Mall Food Court

The New World Mall in Flushing Queens, a Mecca for Chinese food, is home to an enormous underground food court with over 30 different vendors offering Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Korean cuisines, along with tons of tables to eat at. On a recent Tuesday, arriving a little after 12pm was not nearly early enough for it to be easy to find a space to sit at. Every table is packed with families, couples, and friends. At the New World Mall food court, strangers share tables as well as smiles and friendly glances. No one bats an eye when an unknown person sits down next to them or asks for a seat. 

The bold, red and yellow LED Chinese characters above each food stall were eye-catching and could lead to some wandering, but that’s only until you lay your eyes on stall 28, Xian Cuisines. This spot offers Chinese food from Shaanxi, a northwest region of China that specializes in lamb, mutton, and noodles. At this fairly small vendor stood an even smaller Asian woman who was taking orders, speaking almost entirely in Chinese. On the wall behind her lay eight images depicting a different soup or noodle dish that’s offered, and underneath were red Chinese characters with the English translation below stating “Special flavor/  nutrition fresh/ traditional cooking.”

As we waited in what we believed to be the line to order, we watched as a group of Chinese women cut right in front of us and start to give their order. Later, when off-handedly telling our tour guide about this, he explained that these women did not “cut” us in line at all, but that in Chinese culture, you are just supposed to walk right up and order; there is no line. 

For $10, Xi’an Cuisines serves chili chicken, speckled with black and red spices, and bathed in a deep orange sauce, in a styrofoam plate alongside flat QQ (a word to describe bounciness or chewiness) noodles. The cold chicken, despite being deceivingly hot, was surprisingly sweet, while still having a hint of spiciness that would be suitable for even a spice-hater. The QQ noodles were, as the name suggests, thick and chewy; they balanced out the sharper flavors in chili chicken.

To the left of the noodle chicken plate was a bowl of translucently beige soup filled with thin slices of tender lamb and Chinese pancake, and decorated with bunches of cilantro. The white pancake cubes were soft, mushy, and lacking in any sort of flavor. Similarly, the stew was heavy and salty with hints of the meatiness and greasiness of the lamb.

The same greasiness continued into the large Chinese burger, a thin crispy bun filled with a brown mountain of juicy, minced lamb that soaked through the parchment surrounding it.

After stepping outside the New World Mall, you are fully immersed into the Chinese culture of Flushing Chinatown. Clear plastic bags of yellow, brown, and green spices and herbs, filling the sidewalks with peppery, earthy, and warm aromas, are inescapable wherever you go. Chinese characters are written on every storefront, with hardly any English, while the streets are populated by almost entirely Asian people, many of them carrying umbrellas on a bright, sunny day.