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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When it comes to rushing the seasons along retailers are usually the culprit. As the smoke clears from the Fourth of July's firework's, Back To School supplies hit the shelves. And Christmas trappings come soon after. This year Mother Nature decided to rush the seasons with a pre-Halloween blast of winter. When the weather turned chilly my own mother was fond of saying, "The frost is on the pumpkin." This year it truly is. Herewith then World's Fare's Top Seven Winter Soups, spanning the globe from Bolivia to Malaysia and points in between.

Kreplach from Ben's Best, hefty and haimishe.

Sure you could get the excellent matzo ball soup ($5.50), a fluffy Spaldeen-sized specimen floating in a golden sea of chicken broth. Better still is this Rego Park delicatessen's kreplach ($5.50). Several beef and veggie filled dumplings—Jewish ravioli if you will—take the place of the lone matzo ball. It's what my bubbe would have given me to cure a cold during a late fall snowstorm.

Samygyetang, chicken in a pot by way of Korea and China.

Samgyetang, the restorative Korean soup that consists of a small chicken stuffed with ginseng, glutinous rice, garlic cloves, and chestnuts, among other things is a delicious and effective way to combat the cold. It can be had at many Korean restaurants in Flushing. My favorite place to eat it isn't a Korean restaurant though. It's a Chinese one called Han Song Ting whose owner hails from Shenyang, China, where there is a longstanding population of Koreans. The $15 soup is cheaper than a doctor's visit.

Soto ayam, chicken soup Indonesian style.

At Java Village in Elmhurst find Indonesia's answer to chicken soup, soto ayam ($4). The broth has a yellowish hue thanks to plenty of turmeric. It comes with a hard-boiled egg, noodles, and crunchy topping of koya, a mixture of prawn crackers fried with garlic. For extra sinus clearing power add some fiery sambal.

The customizable kari laksa at Curry Leaves.

What's better than a bowl of kari laksa, the chili and coconut milk Malaysian soup? One you can customize with all sorts of add-ins. Show up at Flushing's Curry Leaves between 4 a.m. and 11 .a.m., when it serves typical night market fare, including curry laksa, with your choice of fixins'. The above bowl teeming with fish cake, fried wontons, pork skin, and eggplant will set you back $6.

A bowl of ranga, Bolivian tripe soup.

Cumbre in Woodside has the disticntion of being one of New York City's few Bolivian restaurants. It also serves a hearty bowl of ranga ($11),a mellow tripe and potato soup. Tender bits of tripe bob in an orange broth that gets its color from aji amarillo, a yellow chili also common in Peruvian cuisine. Should you find the ranga wanting in heat just add a bit of vibrant llajua (ya-hoo-ah), a hot sauce made from jalapeños, tomatoes, and quilquina, a Bolivian variety of cilantro.

Uncle Zhou's knife-shaved lamb noodle soup.

Packed with al dente wheat noodles, slippery bean thread, chewy ribbons of dou fu pi (tofu skin), seaweed, and plenty of lamb the yan rou dao xiao mian (lamb knife shaved noodle, $5.75) at Uncle Zhou's in Elmhurst makes for a filling and delicious repast.

Vietnamese beef noodle soup at Phở Bắc

“We cook beef shank bones and meat for four to five hours in a big stock pot,” Bac Nguyen says of the beef noodle soup ($4.35, small; $4.85, medium; $5.25, large) at his restaurant Pho Bac in Elmhurst. That broth is flavored with ginger, clove and, and star anise. Every bowl comes with a plate containing lime, basil leaves, and bean sprouts. Add a generous amount of each before digging in. Bắc’s favorite bowl is the combination Phở #29 “with everything.” Everything includes thinly shaved rare beef that cooks in the broth, chewy bits of tendon, stippled pieces of omosa (tripe), and navel.

It should be noted that the last of these soups is the lightest and is often eaten in summer, and, I suppose, fall. 

Ben's Best Kosher Deli, 96-40 Queens Blvd., Rego Park, 718- 897-1700
Han Song Ting, 37-02 Main St., Flushing, 646-236-0081
Java Village, 86-10 Justice Ave., Elmhurst, 718-205-2166
Curry Leaves, 135-31 40th Rd., Flushing, 718-762-9313
Restaurante Cumbre, 67-03 Woodside Ave., Woodside, 718-476-2200
Uncle Zhou Restaurant, 83-29 Broadway, Elmhurst, 718-393-0888
Phở Bắc, 82-78 Broadway, Elmhurst, 718-639-0000

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Slabs of pork belly are spread across the conical cast iron grill.

It’s not often someone introduces me to a new eating experience in Queens. It’s even less often that I give them credit, as this food writer is partial to hogging the 718 spotlight. Nevertheless credit must go to food bloggers James Boo and Chris Hansen for turning me on to Tong Samgyeop Gui the other night. A smiling cartoon pig beams from the front of this restaurant deep in the heart of Queens' K-town. The specialty here is pork, specifically samgyeopsal gui, or grilled belly. 

I’ve eaten my share of Korean barbecue, but I’ve never seen a tabletop grilling device quite like the ingenious one here. It’s a circular cast iron dome, with a channel around the edge. There’s a good reason for the shape of the grill and that channel: pork fat. Order the specialty of the hosue and the waitress drapes several slabs of pork belly ($19.99 for two) across the center of the dome. This is ringed by a generous heap of kongnamul (seasoned bean sprouts), kimchi, and a goodly scattering of sliced garlic cloves. As the belly spits and pops, pork fat perfumes the air. A river of it also runs down toward the edge of the dome, imbuing the sprouts and kimchi with porcine benevolence. You will most likely be spattered with a bit of hot fat. It’s a small sacrifice to make for the feast to come.

Belly up to the grill for a porcine feast.

After cooking for a while the strips of belly are cut into neat little rectangles. Once they’re brown and sizzling it’s time to dig in. Take one or two (in my case two) pieces of belly and place them in a lettuce leaf along with some kimchi and bean sprouts, both of which are by bow infused with pork fat. Add a clove of garlic, a bit of salty bean paste, pickled daikon, pickled jalapenos, and scallion salad. Lastly add a sole peppercorn, roll the whole thing up, and take your taste buds to Korea.

The little bundle contains a riot of flavors: juicy fatty pork, pungent garlic, fiery and fermented kimchi, and cool crunchy daikon. Somehow that peppercorn always winds up in the last bite, singing through with staccato note of heat. It is your signal to pick up another lettuce leaf and commence the symphony of flavor all over again. It's worth noting that there were precisely the correct number of peppercorns for every wrap I made. No more, no less. “How’d they do that?”, I asked. “These guys are professionals,” Hansen replied. Indeed they are.

Many thanks to my pal James Boo of The Eaten Path, for the above photos.

Tong Samgyeop Gui, 162-23 Depot Rd., Murray Hill, 718-359-4583

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This is just part of Han Song Ting's extensive new menu.

After eating at Mei Shi Guang Chang for two weeks straight I took a solemn vow not to visit  for a month. Apparently my promise was not solemn enough. Staying away from the "beautiful food court" in the basement of Flushing's New World Mall seems impossible. On my last walk-through I noticed the good folks at Han Song Ting had posted an extensive menu. They are now serving their excellent take on the Korean ginseng and chicken soup samgyetang ($7). I almost ordered the restorative stew that's known as a palliative for sweltering heat and humidity. Then I saw the ram soft tofu stew. ($7).

Han Song Ting's yan rou dou fu bao.

Soondubu, or spicy silken tofu stew, is one of my favorite Korean dishes. Many a time I have found comfort in a bowl of creamy tofu curds in fiery broth. Han Song Ting's ram soft tofu or yan rou dou fu bao was a pleasant surprise. Typically soondubu is made with a combination of beef and seafood. Ming Song Zheng, the cheerful head cook here hails from Shenyang in China's northeast.That would explain the use of lamb, or in this case ram. It was spicy and comforting with an underlying lambiness. Served with rice, kimchi, and potatoes ram soft tofu stew is one of the best deals in this brave new food court.

Han Song Ting, No. 6,  New World Mall Food Court, 40-21 Main St., Flushing
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