I made a trip out to Flushing today beyond my usual hours in class to try the new sit-down restaurant version of New York’s favorite Western Chinese chain, Xi’an Famous Foods. Named after a quirky regional dish (supposedly onomatopoeic) with its own ridiculously elaborate Chinese character (see above and below), Biang did not disappoint.

Though I would caution that this is certainly not a vegetarian-friendly establishment. We had all sorts of spicy skewers (cumin lamb, cumin chicken gizzards, and cumin chicken wings), cold mung-bean jelly “sliced into slivers and dressed with chili oil,” “weird-flavored” beef shank slices (this time not the result of poor transliteration), and of course the eponymous biang-biang noodles, of the pork zha jiang variety.

Holy…

Downtown Flushing is a foodie’s paradise and a claustrophobe’s worst nightmare. Perfect for a Sunday afternoon amble if you don’t mind the constant enticements from Chinese pastries, bubble tea, Korean takeout, street noms, etc.

A month and a half into 2013, five weeks into the new semester, and fourteen days into the Year of the Snake – things are moving along swimmingly, I think.

I start a new job tomorrow, which will alter my triangular movements about New York just slightly. Now instead of trekking all the way up to Morningside each day, I’m just a hop, skip, and jump away near Union Square! Bring it on, Snakey!