King Yum (Fresh Meadows, Queens)

[Behemoth]

Also, regarding the Shrimp and Lobster Sauce.

Shrimp with lobster sauce is one of those dishes that will always remind me of being 5 or 6 years old, going out to eat with my grandparents in upstate new york. (It must be a Jewish thing, despite the double-non-kosher ) The restaurant was one of those converted former A-frame steakhouses. I am so glad there is a place for this dish on eGullet. I still love it, but whenever I've ordered it since then, for old times sake, the sauce has been really much too bland. I know it isn't a highly seasoned dish, but I don't remember it being quite so -- bleh. Maybe a road trip to Queens is in the cards for next summer, I could use a good version.

Edited June 19, 2004 by Behemoth (log)

[Rachel Perlow]

At most places it is too full of cornstarch. I prefer it when thickened with only eggs. If it's too blah, ask for extra scallions.

[KasparWeiss]

Jason,

Thank you for those photos. I grew up in that area in the 70s and remember King Yum. I miss New York-style Chinese-American food. Your photos brought back so many memories and I thank you for that. Having been born in Manhattan, raised in Queens and of Asian descent, you could have gotten authentic Asian cooking from King Yum even. You just didn't know what to order or ask for.

Downtown Flushing is flooded with VERY authentic Asian cuisine and has been for quite sometime now. One good take out kitchen opened up in the early 80s on the Turnpike. It's still there too on the south side of the Turnpike between 186th and 185th Streets. It's called Chu Jaing Chinese Kitchen (185-24 Union Turnpike, Fresh Meadows, NY 11366, 718-454-7333). Chu Jaing made better authentic Asian food versus King Yum. King Yum was always so busy churning out the Chinese-American Cooley slop that when asked to make some authentic food by request, their focus was lost. Chu Jaing wasn't like that. There was even a better King Yum-type restaurant on the north side of the Turnpike between 167th and 168th Streets. It was called Seven Seas. They made a steak dish there called Mongolian Steak Flambie. It was about as authentic Asian as John Gotti. However, the marinade was an excellent fusion of polynesian and pac rim flavors. The cut of beef was usually London Broil and they would set it aflame before serving it at your table. Well done of this dish was tender as rare. It's also interesting to note that New York initated the "No MSG" trend in the early 80s. Authentic Asian cooking, such as found in a household Asian kitchen, does not even use MSG.

Oh well.....thank you once again for the pictures.

Kaspar

[Pan]

Authentic Malay cooking in rural Terengganu in the 1970s certainly used MSG. I wouldn't know what's true of other Asian households' traditions.

[Rachel Perlow]

Having been born in Manhattan, raised in Queens and of Asian descent, you could have gotten authentic Asian cooking from King Yum even. You just didn't know what to order or ask for.

Please tell us what we should try next time.

[Jason Perlow]

I remember Seven Seas restaurant -- it was one of my grandparent's favorites, The beef dish you mention was excellent.

Downtown Flushing is in fact, quite hardcore and I have eaten there at various places many times over the last 20 years. East Buffet has become one of our recent favorites and there are several dim sum places there that are very, very good. I also will probably venture out to Spicy and Tasty and Sichuan Dynasty at some point, but I have never been.

However authentic Chinese food was not even in my mindset when going to King Yum -- what they focus on is really what I like about the place. We have so much hardcore regional Chinese food in New Jersey that I see no point of eating that kind of Chinese food when we are out on Long Island.

[AzianBrewer]

I took my wife to King Yum for her birthday last Saturday and it sure brought back some childhood memories.....The cocktails are superb...my Mai-Tai was generously poured with rum. Overall, the food is pretty good but dishes are a bit salty.

By the way, Uncle Eng dropped by our table and shook our hands. We felt a bit uncomfortable as he than stood there for 1 minute and watching us eat. We're saved by the bell when his cell phone "roared".

[Jason Perlow]

By the way, Uncle Eng dropped by our table and shook our hands. We felt a bit uncomfortable as he than stood there for 1 minute and watching us eat

Well, the guy is in his 80's. Its not like he can move very fast!

[bethala]

No, this is not the Horta from the classic Star Trek episode, "Devil in the Dark". It is no less scary though -- Pork Egg Foo Young, smothered in gravy. It is as delicious as it is scary.

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jason, this place looks absolutely fantabulous. i have only one question: is the gravy on the egg foo young the starchy, roux-type variety or the translucent type? looks roux-y in the photos but wanted to double check.

[Jason Perlow]

Definitely Roux-y.

[azlee]

I'm speechless! I was born and raised in Fresh Meadows (we're talking the early 1950's), and this was our local Chinese restaurant. (This is not entirely true- for the earliest years of my life we went to a place on Horace Harding Blvd., on the eastbound side, whose name I can't remember

That restaurant has switched hands at least 10 times, and gone under different names, but I know which one you are talking about. It was MY local chinese restaurant growing up -- my mother and father live on Horace Harding Blvd, on the Little Neck/Great Neck border.

No, you're WAY too far east. The restaurant I grew up at was indeed on the south (Eastbound) side of Horace Harding, but no more than 3 blocks west of 188th St. (where the Bloomigdales was.) On that same stretch was a deli called (unless my memory clouds) Deli Masters. A little more west and you'd be to Francis Lewis H.S. where I went by the way. Are you thinking of someplace way farther east?

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markk,

i know the place on Horace Harding to which you refer. we used to go from the 70's thru the 80's. first with my parents whenever we went to bloomingdale's and later when i worked at bloomingdale's. i haven't thought about that place in a very long time but it brings back great memories. thanks.

[bethala]

Definitely Roux-y.

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for me, that alone will make it worth a trip. thanks!

[Jason Perlow]

Definitely Roux-y.

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for me, that alone will make it worth a trip. thanks!

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Yeah, I'm not a fan of the dark brown clear stuff some places put on EF-Y. Roux gravy is the way it's supposed to be made. King Yum is -the- classic.

[AzianBrewer]

Definitely Roux-y.

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for me, that alone will make it worth a trip. thanks!

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Yeah, I'm not a fan of the dark brown clear stuff some places put on EF-Y. Roux gravy is the way it's supposed to be made. King Yum is -the- classic.

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The roux type is definitely the OG....the clear dark version is perhaps introduced during the Szechuan invasion around the late 70's and 80's.

[bethala]

Definitely Roux-y.

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for me, that alone will make it worth a trip. thanks!

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Yeah, I'm not a fan of the dark brown clear stuff some places put on EF-Y. Roux gravy is the way it's supposed to be made. King Yum is -the- classic.

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The roux type is definitely the OG....the clear dark version is perhaps introduced during the Szechuan invasion around the late 70's and 80's.

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the OG and definitely the superior version. i'm always so excited to see EFY on a menu, but then so let down if i come to find it's made with the clear stuff.

[Jason Perlow]

EF-Y 'wif da Roux is the OG Shizznit, Yo.

[ltlevy]

I saw this thread and was prepared to take a trip down nostalgia lane. A friend and I (both growing up on "real" Chinese food) decided to take our wives (His is Filipina and mine is Chinese) to see what we meant when we talk about Chinese food.

We went and while it was a great flashback, I believe some of my tastes have changed by my indoctrination to traditional Chinese food.

We had the House Special WonTon Soup, and that brought back very fond memories, as did the Shrimp Egg Roll. I was never a Shrimp and Lobster Sauce eater, but that was also quite good.

The roast pork (both as BBQ ribs and as a roast pork and veggie dish) lacked the flavor that I've found in Char Sui. In fact the waiter made a comment to my wife about it being Lofan Char Sui, and was very surprised when I translated that to my friend.

I don't know if we'll be able to drag our wives back there, but it was a great trip down memory lane.