The relatively new Flushing restaurant M & T is a total dive that specializes in Qingdao cuisine. If my Chinese (which is limited to the back of fortune cookies and Internet research) serves me correctly, Qingdao is pronounced Tsing Tao, just like the region’s famous beer.
Even with the three Chinatowns in NYC, it is not easy to find Qingdao cuisine. It turns out the region is known more for their drinking than their eating. But you imagine the people can’t survive on beer alone. So we went to Flushing to try a very rare type of Chinese food (and because the Time Out list told us to).
After ordering three dishes, it made sense that these people like their beer because the food made me think of Chinese pub food. The only dish we ordered that was not fried was the Qingdao cold noodles, which were not what I expected from a noodle dish. The noodles were in the form of jelly – literally, jelly. The jelly was sliced thick and short and the rest of the vinegary, garlicky dish with carrots and cilantro was delicious, but I couldn’t really get past the texture of the jelly.
The fried dishes were a bit heavy but were all incredibly flavorful and much more thought out and unique than your American mozzarella stick or chicken nugget. Each batter was different and the sauces and presentations were exciting. I’ve honestly never enjoyed fried food so much.
The pork with shrimp sauce was incredible. The meat was tender and flavorful. And the addition of the (marinated?) shrimp sauce added an extra sweet, salty zing to the battered pork. It would make my top 100 easily. The eggplant dish (which we foolishly ordered in the hopes of being our healthy option) was fried just to the point of crispiness, while still holding the vegetable’s soft tenderness.
The item on our list were the fish sticks. TONY (Time Out New York) compares them to Mrs. Paul’s, but these are not even in the same league. These are fresh pieces of a meaty white fish that are battered and fried, topped with crunchy peanuts, sesame seeds and crispy hot peppers. There was no sauce served with the dish (it was almost a dry rub of spices) and I found it just a bit dry. But I was amazed at how fresh the fish was and how light the batter ended up. The crunch of spices was a nice touch, but I wish there were more of them.
The couple that ran this restaurant were thrilled to have us and promised to make more recommendations next time. I will gladly return, just as long as they can recommend a vegetable dish to balance out all the fried food and they won’t make me do a keg stand.
Would M&T’s Feihong Fish Sticks make my Top 100 of the year? Their Pork with Shrimp Sauce definitely would, although the fish sticks still get a 7 out of 10 since they were unique and flavorful, but could have used a sauce or a bit more dry spice.
