Hidden in a far corner of the New World Mall food court, overshadowed by the ice cream crepe stall next to it, is a stall called Yanbian. But you won't see any English that names it as Yanbian, the name is only written in Chinese and Korean. Yanbian is an autonomous region in Northeastern China where a large population of ethnic Koreans live, and it was after this region for which this Korean Chinese-operated stall in the food court was named.
Yanbian has a very small menu of noodles and rice dishes prominently displayed in the front. Under the menu laid a spread of skewered food items such as octopus, beef balls, crab meat, tofu skins, etc. For a mere $1, you may have two skewers of any variety of your choosing. The item to note on the menu here is the Korean cold noodles. This is a bowl of buckwheat noodles served in a chilled broth, perfect to cool you down in hot and sticky summer weather.
I did not have to work on July 4th and had wanted to get some dimsum for lunch. But my favourite dimsum restaurant, Ocean Jewels, aka Asian Jewels, was insanely busy at noon and I did not want to brave that crowd. Then I thought I would try the new Grand Restaurant at the top of New World Mall. That restaurant, too, was stupidly crowded. I think the entire Chinese population in Queens decided they wanted dimsum in Flushing on July 4th this year. Dimsum plans abandoned, I headed down to the basement of New World Mall, to the food court.
I had cold noodles from Yanbian before, and I remembered how much I liked it, so I went back. A few other people were ordering from the stall, but it wasn't crowded like some of the other popular stalls were. I selected six different skewers and gave them to the lady working the front of the stall, together with an order of cold noodles. Altogether it came out to be $9. The lady took my skewers and gave them to a cook in the back. In about five minutes they came back to the lady boiled and cooked. She carefully squeezed two different kinds of hot sauces and some peanut sauce onto the skewers and handed them over. The cold noodles were also ready at about the same time. A cook laid the bowl of noodles and other ingredients down on a counter, and scooped up some chilled broth with a ladle and carefully ran the broth down into the bowl. The result was a bowl of buckwheat noodles with a few pieces of lean cold cut beef, thinly sliced strips of cucumbers, half a boiled egg, a couple of pieces of watermelon and apple, topped off with gochujang and finely diced peanuts.
Yes, the cold noodles were just as delicious as it read. The tender buckwheat noodles swimming in the chilled and slightly sour broth had a cooling effect with every slurp, the pieces of beef and boiled egg added substance, and the watermelon and apple complemented the flavour of the broth with a bit of sweetness. This is the kind of meal you want on a hot and sticky NY summer day. read more