Daheen Wang Mandoo in a quiet moment.

Beyond table-cooked barbecue Korean cuisine sometimes seems quite mysterious. Every Korean restaurant east of Union Street in Flushing’s Murray Hill seems to be a hyperspecialist, with storefronts devoted variously to healthful porridges, soondubu, kimbap, and many other subsets of Korean cookery. So it comes as no surprise that two places specializing in wang mandoo, or king dumplings have opened recently in the neighborhood. Having never tried wang mandoo I decided to take a bite out of these majestic dumplings for this week’s Twofer Tuesday.

Time to make the mandoo at Daheen.

With its orange and white dressed workers Daheen Wang Mandoo,  which opened back in November, appears to be the Krispy Kreme of Korean dumpling houses. And based on early reports of lines out the door back when it opened in November Daheen is as popular as the donut chain. It was rather calm the day I visited

Daheen’s spokeschef presents a Wang Mandoo.

At $2 a pop Daheen’s wang mandoo are bountiful, bready, and cheap. They also come in neat little orange paper sleeves adorned with a funky cartoon chef. Based on the Korean phone number, and the joint’s popularity  I’m guessing Daheen also has a presence in South Korea.

Daheen’s mandoo,  packed with pork, glass noodles, and green onions.

The pillowy steamed buns are filled with a mixture of ground pork, glass noodles, and green onions all seasoned with black pepper. One makes a nice snack. I also had a red bean bun ($2), which was just as puffy and stuffed with red bean paste.  Not a bad deal at all for $4.  I asked the guy behind the counter about a menu posted on the wall and he said all they were carrying at the time was those two steamed buns.

Da Myun Kook Su opened just a few weeks ago.

Da Myun Kook Su on the other hand serves 13 types of noodles, including three varieties of cold noodles. No doubt I’ll be back to try those noodles, but my mission the day I visited was mandoo. 

Da Myun’s wobbly brainlike kimchi wangmandoo.

Kimchi wangmandoo ($8.95) come six to an order at Da Myun. The menu suggests that this serves two to three people. I am not quite sure who those people are. For the brainlike dumplings were so good  I could easily have packed away a second order. Note I said dumplings not buns. At Da Myun wangmandoo are not steamed buns but rather dumplings. Delicious thin-skinned beauties stuffed with pork, veggies, and enough kimchi to pleasantly warm the palate. They are some of the strangest looking and tastiest dumplings I’ve ever had. Da Myun serves its kimchi wangmandoo with an abbreviated selection of banchan—pickled yellow daikon, a cabbage slaw, and a delectable little rice cake.

I’m hard pressed to say which mandoo spot is better. Go to Daheen for a carb fix that’s cheap, tasty, and, if you’re lucky, quick. Go to Da Myun for bizarre brain-shaped dumpling deliciousness, or if the line’s too long at Daheen.

Daheen Wang Mandoo, 152-24 Northern Blvd., Flushing, 718-321-2007
Da Myun Kook Su, 41-10 162 St., Flushing, 347-368-6557

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Mama Su's, combines a  Teutonic specialty with soup dumplings.

Much as I love all the global cuisines in Queens what really intrigues me is the breed of self-styled fusion restaurants that can only occur in such a diverse population. I'm thinking of such combinations as Indonesian-Latino, which was offered at the short-lived Tropika. And then there's Himalayan Hut, which serves Indian-Chinese favorites like chili chicken alongside American Chinese standards like General Tso's. Add to this growing list Mama Su's in Bayside, which specializes in xiao long bao, or Chinese soup dumplings, and German wursts.

Mama Su's specializes in German sausages and
Chinese soup dumplings, among other things.

When he saw what I had dragged him out to Bayside for my hapless wheelman seemed displeased. What I had read on Chowhound was indeed true. Mama Su's serves soup dumplings along with seven varieties of German sausages. The extensive menu also includes other dumplings like shao mai ($3.75) and several varieties of steamed buns ($1.50 and $2.75), as well as such Chinese dishes as salted pepper shrimp ($10.50). Despite my friend's protest, I ignored the rest of the menu and stuck to the plan.

Mama Su's crab soup dumplings. 

Pretty soon we were presented with an octet of crab soup dumplings in a bamboo steamer. Mama Su proceeded to tell us how to eat them, but I assured her we knew from xiao long bao. Each pouch was filled with a mixture of crab, and pork, along with a bit of broth. I have had better, but these were tasty enough.

Bauernwurst? Is this a hofbrau or a Chinese joint?

We chose bauernwurst, a pork and beef link, from the list of German sausages. The coarse ground sausage was flecked with bits of mustard seed. It was an odd but tasty followup to the dumplings. So why is German sausage being served at an otherwise Chinese establishment? According to the woman behind the counter, who it turns out is not Mama Su, the owner has a friend from Taiwan who now works for Schaller & Weber. Actually German style sausage isn't such a stretch for a Chinese spot. The kielbasa-like link da hong cha is fairly common at places in Flushing specializing in the food of Tianjin.

"There was supposed to be a Mama Su, but she left because the construction took too long," the gal behind the counter told me. "We are all Filipino-Chinese here," she added. Only in Queens can one find a German-Chinese spot run by Filipinos. Now if I can just get them to start serving their home country's porktastic dishes like crispy pata, they'd really be on to something.

Mama Su's, 212-22 48 Avenue, Bayside, 718-229-6262

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Himalayan Yak's namesake momo are packed with juicy morsels of meat.

In the run-up to the Asian Feastival, World’s Fare will be profiling the participants. The Feastival’s mission is to showcase the diversity of delicious Asian cuisines in New York City’s most delicious and diverse borough. Korean, Thai, Malaysian, Filipino, Nepalese, Indonesian, and regional Chinese are just some of the cuisines that will be represented under one roof.  Today we take a look at Himalayan Yak, which brings a cuisine from the rooftop of the world to Jackson Heights.
 
Can a dumpling be considered a country’s national dish? It can if that country is Tibet. The crescent-shaped dumplings known as momo are wildy popular with Tibetans and Nepalese who flock to Jackson Heights for a taste of home. At least a dozen restaurants in the area serve momo, but Himalayan Yak, tops the list for me because it serves momo made from the restaurant’s namesake meat. It’s also the area’s first Nepalese restaurant and can be said to have started the enclave of Himalayan restaurants and businesses I like to call Little Tibet. (Interestingly enough the restaurant sources alls the meat for its yak dishes from Vermont Yak, which has the distinction of having that state’s first yak herd.) 

Turmeric, coriander, and ginger give Himalayan’s Yak’s momo a savory kick.

Yak meat is higher in protein than beef, yet it also contains far less fat. This fact never ceases to amaze me since the yak momo here are always incredibly juicy. They’re also incredibly flavorful having been seasoned with ginger, turmeric, coriander, cumin, cilantro, and green onions. On a good day I can easily  polish off an entire steamer’s worth.  

Bhaktcha markhu: pasta as dessert.

Himalayan Yak has a lengthy menu filled with many Indian and Nepali  dishes, including one of my favorite tripe preparations, the fiery dhoepa kkhatsa, and some wonderful vegetarian thalis. One of the most intriguing dishes is neither filled with gnarly offal nor humming with spice. It happens to be a dessert called bhaktcha markhu, which somehow manages to channel my mother’s home cooking.  The menu lists it as “Hand made pasta lightly rolled in roasted barley, sugar, butter and grated sauce.” The chewy pasta is sweet and nutty, reminded me of Mom's pasta with ricotta and sugar. It's just the thing after what’s often a meal filled with the fire of chili, ginger, and garlic. It also tastes a helluva a lot like store bought cavatelli, mainly because as I found out the other day, it is. The Yak can be forgiven for taking such a short cut, if only because they’ve managed to serve a dish from a half a world away that brings me back to my childhood on Long Island.

Himalayan Yak will be making its signature momo ar the Asian Feastival on September 6 from 12-5 p.m. Tickets can be purchased here. Be sure to check back for more posts about participating restaurants and shops.

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Himalayan Yak, 72-20 Roosevelt Ave., Jackson Heights, 718-779-1119

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The stretch of Whitney Avenue just off Broadway in Elmhurst has been home to the yellow and green Lao Bei Fang Guo Tie for more than five years. Even though it lies only a few subway stops away from World’s Fare headquarters in Rego Park, until very recently I’d only eaten there once or twice. On those few occasions I’d had the guo tie, or dumplings, never the “beef hand-drawn noodle.” This woeful neglect is largely due to all the time I spend exploring the restaurants and food courts of the borough’s larger Chinatown in downtown Flushing. Over the past week, I’ve been getting to know the folks at Lao Bei Fang Guo Tie, or Old North Dumpling House, and their food, which typifies the cuisine of Liaoning province in northeastern China.   

Not only does the sesame-seed studded
niu rou jia bing rhyme with Liaoning, it's quite tasty.

Rather than dive right into a bowl of soup or scarf down some dumplings, I started with the sesame pancake with beef, or niu rou jia bing. As I dug into the wedge, a man returning an empty soup bowl to the counter smiled and said, “The Chinese pizza is very good, yes?”

A look under the hood reveals slices of beef lashed with hoisin sauce.

At $2.25 the multilayered treat is a cheap, satisfying snack. It contains scallions, but it’s way better than a mere scallion pancake.

Pork and chive guo tie—Lao Bei Fang’s top seller.

After school, a steady stream of kids flocks to Lao Bei Fang for fried pork and chive dumplings. At $1.25 for a quartet of plump specimens who can blame them? Rather than order by name, they simply say, “Give me four,” or, “Give me eight.”

Yan Wang’s husband taught her how to make hand-pulled noodles.

The dumplings and sesame pancake with beef are delicious, but the most amazing thing about Lao Bei Fang is the hand-pulled noodles. Watching Yan Wang stretch and braid the dough, intermittently slapping it on the floured stainless steel counter with a loud thwack before tossing it into the air again, is mesmerizing.

A blur of motion ensues as one becomes many before being tossed into  boiling water.

Blink and you might just miss Wang creating dozens of strands of hand-pulled noodles from that first long rope.

Ban jin ban rou or "half beef and half beef tendon" noodle soup.

Not only did watching Wang pull noodles for half hour put me in a meditative state, it made me fiercely hungry. Satisfaction was to be found in a bowl of beef tendon noodle soup ($4.95). Chewy chunks of beef tendon and morsels of meat—both scented with star anise—floated beside bok choy and long strands of springy noodles made just moments before she handed me the steaming bowl.  

Back home, I consulted my seldom-perused copy of Harold McGee’s On Food And Cooking, with an eye toward learning more about hand-pulled noodles. Amid talk of “…texture created by both their weak gluten and by amylopectin-rich starch granules,” I found a passage from something called “Ode to Bing” that spoke to me. Written many centuries ago by Shu Xi, it reads in part, “Flour sifted twice/flying snow of white powder…And we knead, and we shape, and we smooth, and we stretch./Finally the dough detaches from our fingers,/Under the palm it is perfectly rolled out in all directions/And without a break in the haste and hurry/The stars separate and the hailstones fall.”  Quite a fitting sentiment for Old North Dumpling House and its ancient culinary craft.

Lao Bei Fang Guo Tie, 86-08 Whitney Ave., Elmhurst, 718-639-3996

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