"Excuse me miss.What happened to Main St. Burger Shack?"

As I have noted before the more Chinatown changes the more it stays the same. And so it goes with the bright and shiny food court in Flushing's New World Mall. Several of the miniature restaurants have closed, notably the abysmal pizza joint, which has been replaced by a decent-looking Korean spot. The latest victim is Main St. Burger Shack. I was quite surprised to find it supplanted by Xiao Yuan Huang, aka Taiwan Market Foods. I never tried the former occupant's namesake product, only some of its surprisingly good  Peruvian chicken. Disappointment vanished in a flash upon seeing "braised pork belly crushed peanut in steamed bun" ($4.95) on the menu. Also known as gua bao, these sloppy hand-held wonders are the very essence of  "Taiwan Market Food."

Put some pork belly in your belly.

At just under $5 this dynamic duo is one of the food court's best deals. Each bao holds a generous portion of braised pork belly dressed with pickled greens, sweet crushed peanuts, and cilantro. It's sweet, porky, crunchy, and peanuty all at once. And let's not forget those luscious bands of belly fat that have been cooked to a silken texture. The bright acidity of the pickled greens ties it all together. The best thing about this sandwich? There are two to an order. Eating one is kind of satisfying, but it's so good you'll want another almost immediately after finishing the first.

Gua bao are sometimes referred to as "Chinese hamburgers," so I guess I have eaten a burger of sorts at No. 18. Incidentally the ghost of the former occupant lives on in the cash register. The receipt still read Main Street Burger Shack. Oh, and rotisserie baby chicken ($8.95) remains, presumably with a Taiwanese marinade rather than a Peruvian one.

Editor's note: Main Street Burger Shack is one of the many places mentioned in World's Fare 24/7, my guide to eating along the 7 line that appears in the latest issue of Edible Queens. Don't worry there are plenty of other places to keep you occupied 24/7. Find a copy of the latest issue here.

Xiao Yuan Huang (aka Taiwan Market Foods), No. 18, New World Mall Food Court, 40-21 Main St., Flushing
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This morning I awoke from a food coma brought on by trying to eat every meal for the last two weeks at the now shuttered M. Wells. Stepping outside I noticed a dirigible lazily traversing the skies above and I knew it was that time of year. Time to talk about what to eat during the U.S. Open. Here then, a list of Seven Things to Eat During The U.S. Open. Most of these places lie along the 7 line or are a short walk from the stadium. For a complete guide of where to eat along the 7 line be sure to check out World’s Fare 24/7 in the fall issue of Edible Queens. You'll find plenty there to keep you busy long after the Open ends.

Anyone for crawfish?

1.  Ma la xiao long xia at Sliced Noodles in New World Mall No. 21, New World Mall Food Court, 40-21 Main St., Flushing
Fresh lobster can be had at the stadium, but when’s the last time you ate a lobby at a sporting event? For a championship level crustacean experience take the 7 train to Main Street. Head over to Sliced Noodles in the New World Mall Food Court and order the ma la xiao long xia, or spicy little lobsters. Just under $10 buys a small mountain of crawdads bathed in chili sauce shot through with ginger and Sichuan peppercorn. If you simply must have lobster an outfit aptly called Live Seafood will gladly oblige with whole lobster prepared in a variety of styles, including spicy and ginger scallion.

A Colombian kitchen sink burger will fuel hours of tennis watching.

2.  Super Especial Hamburger at La Dulce Vida
107-22 Corona Ave., Corona, 718-271-3033
Skip the stadium's burgers and take a trip to Colombia instead. That country takes an everything but the kitchen sink approach to the humble hamburger. Find La Dulce Vida not far from the action in nearby Corona. The Super Especial Hamburger ($7) is topped with all manner of things. Some are conventional: bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mayonnaise. And some are not: ham, garlic sauce, pink sauce, Russian sauce, and potato chips.

Why get just lemon ice, when you can have spumoni.

3. Spumoni at the Lemon Ice King of Corona
52-02 108th St., Corona, 718-699-5133
If you have room for dessert after that burger cross the street to the Lemon Ice King of Corona. Get a signature lemon ice. Better yet, try a spumoni new for this season. Head over to William F. Moore “Spaghetti” Park where locals play bocce late into the night. Watch a few frames and feel lucky to have had the chance to take in two great sporting events in one day.

4. Mixed Grill at La Porteña, 74-25 37th Ave., Jackson Heights, 718-458-8111
Cowboy steak can be had at the stadium’s Champion Bar & Grill. For a cowboy experience Argentine style take the 7 train to 74th St. and dine at La Porteña. Order the mixed grill ($18.95 for one, $29.95 for two). It’s a carnivorous combination of skirt steak, short ribs, pork sausage, blood sausage, sweetbreads, and tripe.

Perfect for a midnight snack.

5. Sandwich de media noche at El Sitio
68-28 Roosevelt Ave., Woodside, 718-424-2369
This Cuban spot—with its sunny orange counter—is as old school New York as it gets. Get the sandwich de media noche ($4.40), essentially a Cuban sandwich on darker, sweeter bread. With a cup of café con leche ($1.50) it makes for a perfect midnight snack or prematch meal.

Game, set, crunch: Crispy papaya salad.

6. Thai home Cooking at TCP
63-19 39th Avenue, Woodside, 718-651-6888
Sure you could go to the wildly popular (and excellent) Sriprapahi just down the street along with dozens of other tennis fans. Instead head to TCP or Thailand’s Center Point, a mom-and-pop outfit that recalls the old days when Sripraphai was but a humble hole-in-the-wall. Aom “Annie” Phinphatthakul prepares such dishes as crispy papaya salad ($8.50), a riff on the classic som tum and crispy thousand egg with basil sauce ($10), three batter-fried preserved eggs were set atop ground pork in basil sauce. Shop for Thai ingredients afterwards at TCP’s adjoining grocery store.

Mixed khatsa combines the flavors of Tibet and with those of Sichuan.

7.  Tibetan-Chinese at Phayul, 74-06 37th Rd., Jackson Heights, 718-424-1869
There are so many Tibetan and Nepalese restaurants in what’s still known as Little India that I’ve taken to calling it Little Tibet. Phayul, where the chef offers what he calls Tibetan-Chinese, is one of the best. There are excellent momo here ($4.99), the crescent-shaped beef dumplings that are Tibet’s national dish. Tibetan-Chinese offerings include mixed khatsa ($8), wobbly strips of tripe and creamy bits of tongue dressed with chili, garlic, cilantro, and sesame seeds, and Sichuan peppercorns. If you’re lucky you’ll get to watch a few Tibetan hip hop videos while dining.

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Burgermeister Adam Kuban at the now defunct joe's Best Burger in Flushing.

Today marks the debut of Seven Questions, wherein various borough luminaries disclose their darkest secrets (not really, they’ll talk about Queens and its food). Most often the subjects will be culinary types, but not always. Adam Kuban, the masterind behind the blogs Slice and A Hamburger Today kicks things off.

1) Last time I checked you were a Brooklyn boy. When and why did you move to Queens?
I got married. I was renting in Park Slope. My wife owned (and still does) in Astoria. I hate the term "no-brainer," but that's what it was. Been here a little more than a year now and love it. With a few exceptions, Park Slope has a surplus of overpriced mediocre restaurants that serve ultimately forgettable meals. In the sense that you might as well have gone somewhere really good and paid maybe $10 extra a person for a satisfying meal. Astoria has a lot of best-in-city places worthy of traveling to—and the mediocre, just-fill-my-belly places are cheaper than the Slope.

 2) What are your favorite things to eat in Queens?
Most of my picks are Astoria-based, since I live there and am ultimately pretty lazy when it comes to traveling. BZ Grill's pork gyro, OMG. That's one of the best-in-city places in Astoria. Rosario's Italian Deli [also in Astoria] for the pizza. A hidden gem. His sandwiches are also really good. Vesta on 21st Street, also Astoria. For dim sum, we've been going to whatever name Perfect Team Corporation changed to—in Flushing.

3) What are your top picks for burgers in Queens?
Burger Garage in LIC. I think they're doing something comparable to Shake Shack, which is my favorite burger in the city, hands down. Sweet Afton in Astoria and Donovan's Pub in Woodside are also good.

4) How about pizza? Who's tops?
Oh, you're gonna make me pick one? I suppose Nick's in Forest Hills. Outside the ones I go to near home, it's the one pizzeria in Queens I find myself at time and again.

5) OK, Adam, I'll let you pick another. My second favorite pizza in Queens is the square pie from Rizzo's—but you HAVE to eat it there. It suffers on delivery. Rizzo's is so adamant about eating the pizza in the pizzeria that they have a special deal—if it's your first time, they say they'll give you a free pizza if you eat in.

6) What do you make of the Voice blogger Lauren Shockey's assertion that parts of Queens are starting to look like parts of Brooklyn?
Oh, really? I don't think I saw that piece. I assume she's talking about LIC? Well, I think Queens has its own charm, and I'd hate to see it start looking or feeling like parts of Brooklyn, which really just have the same vibe as hipster neighborhoods in any given city of a certain size.

 7) Do you miss anything about Brooklyn?
Not really.

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Mr. Met and I had quite a year.

Hard to believe it’s been almost a year since Edible Queens’ publisher, Leah McLaughlin, asked me to start World's Fare. So to celebrate this humble blog’s almost birthday, I present my 20 favorite posts of 2010.

It takes the form of a Best of List, but only because I succumb easily to peer pressure from other bloggers. After all, as the old song goes, “the best is yet to come.” Feel free to tell me about your favorite posts in the comments. As for resolutions, I plan to hit the gym more. That and learn how to make hand-pulled noodles and mozzarella.  On to the list...

Best Polish Grandma Food in an Otherwise Latino Neighborhood: U Dzika
Favorite Flushing Feast: The Inaugural Ambassador Dinner at M&T
Best Indonesian Steam Table Soul Food: Java Village
Strangest Dish:Minzhongle's Noodle Hat
Best Peruvian Viagra in a Central Asian Hood: Cuzco's Leche de Tigre
Most Regal Chinese Chestnuts: Flushing's Chestnuts King
Biggest Bosnian Burger: Bosna Express
Shortest-Lived Indonesian Latino Fusion Restaurant: Tropika Deliciosas
Best Chinese Breakfast Burrito: Tianjin Xian Bing's Da Bing Jia Niu Rou
Grooviest Gastronauts Outing: An Epic Peruvian Feast at Urubamba
Best Haute Comfort Food: M. Wells
Loveliest Liberian: Maima's in Jamaica
Best Korean: Hahm Ji Bach
Most Gargantuan Sandwich: Coatzingo's Cubana
Best Grill Shot: General Tso Style Sweetbreads
Savoriest Shenyang Pencillin: Han Song Ting
Best L.A. Galbi Served in a Spa: Spa Castle
Most Heroic Hamburger: La Dulce Vida
Best Video Slice of Deli History: Ben's Best
Best Face Sucking: Ma La Yang Lian with Josh Ozersky

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