New York’s Queens neighborhood offers its residents and visitors the chance to tour the world and try various plates and cuisines that satisfy everybody’s cravings, according to Agence France Press (AFP).
"Of the five boroughs, Queens is the one with the most diverse population and cuisines... with over 100 ethnicities, by my count," said Robert Sietsema, a food writer for Eater.com.
Located between the East River and Long Island, Queens, also known as the “neighborhood of the world,” hosts a wide variety of restaurants offering plates from Southeastern Asia, Egypt, Yemen, Mexico, and Columbia, as well as the savory Spanish Paella, Greek Moussaka, and the delicious Entraña from Argentina and Uruguay. Four more restaurants are scheduled to open this month to introduce new cuisines from Turkey, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Italy, according to Eaters.com.
Restaurants in Queens are characterized with a unique vivacity inspired by the neighborhood’s residents, 2.5 million out of 9 million New Yorkers. "Tibetans and Nepalese have recently arrived in Jackson Heights, for example," Sietsema said, referring to one of the most vibrant neighborhoods of this borough.
Street wanderers can pick the plate they like from the restaurants’ vitrines. But those willing to settle in Queens should set a roadmap, like Andy Doro, Instagram influencer and founder of everycountryfoodnyc.com, who set himself the goal of touring the world without leaving New York-- culinarily speaking -- by eating his way through as many ethnic restaurants in New York as he could. He got stuck at 145 countries. “These places include Hong Kong, Macau, and regions that many do not see as countries such as Tibet,” adding that “It's very easy to get to 110, but currently, I am focusing on the newly opened restaurants.”
The tour starts from the Diversity Plaza, in the heart of Jackson Heights – which was the first destination of the Colombian community until the second half of the past century. The region currently welcomes “the largest number of middle-income white people interested in ethnic diversity.”
