Finding Food in Flushing

Ok, my family just left and I can catch up. But I have to apologize in advance for the bad photos. I am so distracted when eating with large groups of people that I forget to take pictures! They arrived monday night and were pleased to know that I could order excellent Chinese takeout at 11:30 pm. Ah, New York Living... My mother answered the delivery and was told we wouldn't have been charged tax if we ordered in  Chinese. Good tip.

On to Tuesday. A group of us drove to Flushing, and when we parked, my family wanted to eat at the first place we saw. I wanted to ask around. My mom got no help from an old woman, but then I asked a hip-looking young woman. She only spoke Mandarin, so she told me mother we had to walk through the Sheraton Hotel and turn right to find the restaurant she recommended. It would have been impossible to stumble upon. Of course, I can't tell you the name of the place except in translation "Gu Huerng" (meaning ancestral village) located at 135-40 39th Ave, Flushing. (718) 888-8798. They only speak Mandarin, but the menu has English.

What we had:
Hot and Sour Wontons- regular meaty wontons in a hot red soup
Dan Dan Noodles- spicy meat sauce
Fried Pork Roll- delicious, came with pickled daikon and carrot- I thought it was fish but they called it a chicken roll in Chinese, so it may be a mix of meats with water chestnuts, then fried.
Spicy Squid Taiwanese style- Good! a light sweet and sour with spicy red pepper.
Deluxe Noodle Soup- we chose rice noodle.
Fried Chicken w/ salt and pepper- good but not so particularly Chinese.
Stomach and Sour Cabbage Soup- ok, mostly broth.
There was a menu that you could pick two small plates and get the large soup for $12.95.
We added on top of that, and our bill for six people was about $30.

It was a good first experience of a Taiwanese restaurant.

Oh, for dinner. A feast at Taverna Kyclades. The faves were a plate of lightly battered spearings, little whole fish. My sister saw it on another table and had to have it, and the fish. My brother ordered fried baby shark- it was great, even though it is on the extra-high mercury list on the Green Guide's Fish Picks. The whole red snapper, too, was liked, although I stand by the old grilled octopus, fried calamari, lemon potatoes... they don't love the lemon juice like I do. And just when we were stuffed, the free dessert came out. It's a sort of bread pudding with cinammon and wrapped in phyllo- I have grown to really like it. (oh, and they have normal hand soap!)