54-46, that's my number: the Queens thread

The Thai area of Elmhurst has become very charming over the years. Last night we tried Pata Papelan - fun bar with good cocktails but absolutely TERRIBLE food. I'm pretty sure one of the dishes was literally a microwave meal from Costco. Another one had canned tuna in it, another was I'm pretty sure made with packaged ramen noodles. The fourth one was just inedible and I don't know where it came from. Also otherwise nice atmosphere was reduced a bit by oversized TVs in a small space and bad music. Still, would return for a drink only, maybe after eating at one of the legit great restaurants on Woodside Ave.

Had a drink there once but no food. Was fun. But we LIVE at Khao Kang across the street. Our absolute number 1 place to eat in New York.

Also can't remember if I mentioned it, but 3 Aunties, the new thai market across the street from Sripraphai that took over from Inthira is great. They have all the grocery stuff but also prepared foods and snacks cooked up on a hotplate in the back. Got some very gingery herbal sausage out of the freezer and fresh green chili sauce.

We almost went to Khao Kang - those were the two places that the same person recommended to us. I'm really shocked that she recommended Pata (unless she hadn't tried the food and just liked the drinks and atmosphere). I'm really mad we didn't go to Khao since we don't get out a lot and this felt like a wasted meal. Is Spicy Shallot good? Was pretty full.

Honestly I guess it's close enough to us that I could just bring home takeout on the way from work.

Spicy Shallot is ok, its more standard fair. They have some of the real stuff and is probably better than your average thai place, but it's popular with local youngsters who get sushi as well as thai dishes. I wouldn't go there over Khao Kang, Ayada, Chao, Srip etc.

Yeah I've had good experiences at Chao, Srip and Ayada. Guess Khao is next to try.

Khao is totally different, everything's pre-made and on a steam table and you get your choice. They can't dumb it down for you because it's already made. You pay a buck extra to get a fried egg. I don't know how they fry eggs and the stay runny just sitting there.

Go on weekends and there's additional specials like homok and great deserts.

certain dishes are so spicy and flavorful that they remind me of the first time I had really kick-ass thai, where your mouth and brain and stomach are all buzzing with delight and confusion.

Almost went to Khao tonight but it doesn't really have much room to sit and had the kids with us, so we went to Ayada. It's still really good, left feeling almost high. Whole fish with mango sauce.

A huge difference between Ayada and a lot of typical american thai places is that they have such fresh ingredients that you can eat a really good meal that doesn't rely heavily on rice, noodles, curry, etc. We shared a couple of salads and the fish and I didn't even touch the rice. Felt much better than I usually do after thai food.

We had a late lunch at Sripraphai today. Usually avoid it on weekends but it was excellent. Really nice when the back is open and we brought our 6 mo old. They are super kid friendly there and there were tons of kids. They bring a plastic plate and a little cup and all the main servers love the babies. They have a new menu with an item I'd never seen before, chicken laarb meatballs. It was like they took some chicken laarb, made little meatballs out of them and fried them. They were really good. Good junk food, would be great w/ beer.

sounds good. I haven't been to srip in a long time, glad it's stayed good. Sometimes these destination places decline in quality.

Ayada was pretty nice to our kids too. We were in the original room, which is a little more laid back than the new room, and they were very accommodating and the waitress thought my 2-year-old was hilarious. My kids loved the food too, which I was psyched about, since it means we can go back with them. We just got them some chicken satay, steamed DUMPLINGS! and a soup, but that stuff was still good.

I finished the BBQ pork salad when we got home and I literally drank the juice/dressing on the bottom of the container when I was done.

lol I have no idea how DUMPLINGS!! wound up written that way, not phone typing

it's an old-school auto-replace

DUMPLINGS! you say? DUMPLINGS!?!

I've been feeling more and more in love with Queens lately. Last night had an amazing time with the family at the night market, today had a great time at the Botannical Gardens fall festival. I'm starting to not want to leave my borough. Brooklyn is losing its interest for me.

2 bedroom apt for 2150 in my building:

https://streeteasy.com/building/55_05-woodside-avenue-woodside/515?card=1

great location across the street from a park.

well all i need is a roomie

Dan you do need a car out there, or do you not mind walking a bit to the train?

you would have a few trains <10 min walk there.

7, EMR

er, sorry, just 7 and MR I think

But you could transfer to the E or F pretty easily.

I am incredibly spoiled where I live, less than a block from Broadway station

About a 14 minute walk to the M/R train on Norther Blvd, 10 or so minute walk to the 7 train at 61st st, which is an express stop (very helpful). Also it's an LIRR stop so if you want to pay for it (or hope they don't take your ticket) it's 10 minutes to Penn Station. Going local its closer to the 52nd st 7 Stop.

I also have a car, parking is not the worst, not as good as it was 10 years ago but better than most of brooklyn. Building has a garage though, there's a wait for the spot but it's 150/mo, which is an absolute steal, though some spots are really squeezed in awkwardly.

I do often take the F train home from work to Roosevelt then take the 7 back if I have errands to run closer to the 7 train than to the M. Or if I have to get Sammy's Halal. It's not that bad a walk from the 74th st jackson hts station.

I really think it's the best location, across the street from Doughboy Park/Windmuller Park. We take our baby to the swings every day across the street, surrounded an epcot center worth of cultures practicing traditional dance in the park or whatever.

Walking distance to Sunnyside and Jackson Heights, a little further to Astoria in one direction and Elmhurst in the other. The best food in the entire city all around, just an embarrassment of riches. Also quite suburban if you want it to be. Not far from the Queens Center Mall, Old Navy, Guitar Center, Home Depot etc. Having a car is great, easy drive down to Bushwick and Greenpoint where all the "cool" stuff is.

But to answer Dominque's first question...the walk to the 7 is really close and it's convenient. The walk to the M is through residential area, the walk to the 7 goes by my bank, my pharmacy, great snacks etc. (Rico Pan Bakery, crazy good Colombian bakery)

Parking in Jackson Heights is pretty bad

I do miss living a block or two from the subway though. That really is the best.

oh yeah def. Jackson hts parking sucks. This part of Woodside is much better. There's even a secret block where there's always a spot and no street cleaning. We used to leave our car there when we went on vacation before we shelled out for the garage. It's a few blocks further away but always there if we couldn't find something closer.

There's just something about Woodside where it's hit or miss between residential and light industrial that makes it more low-key than Sunnyside and Jackson Heights which are more densely residential and commercial.

Might as well share this here I guess. Apparently she was last seen at a bus stop.

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/22550043_10155822672690439_3587305165427879436_n.jpg?oh=27e0466af8d2bbf4815c1e44b8e5ec4b&oe=5A7B275B

Oh, just heard that the girl (and a friend who also ran away) are safely home. Yay!

What's the deal with Whitestone? I went to the gym there tonight because the location closes an hour later than mine. Only time I've ever seen a dude working out in a Trump tank top.

They used to have a drive-in there. You could sometimes see the screen from the 7 train or from the highway, I think.

No, that Drive-In was in the Bronx, on the other side of the bridge.

Flamenco night first Saturday of the month at Terraza these days.

Could AEG get a real venue and stop forcing me to travel to this borough already?

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/van-morrison-touring-playing-forest-hills-with-willie-nelson-releasing-lp/

Tell me about Woodhaven

I know one hip couple who bought a house there. The bar from Goodfellas is there. Not to be confused with the diner from Goodfellas which was just destroyed in a fire yesterday. It's convenient to the mall and on the way to the beach. It's kinda suburban? I don't know, I wouldn't recommend it.

Better options may be Glendale, which is real queens but ridgewood-adjacent, or Woodside which of course is the best neighborhood in New York.

Prices in Glendale are kinda high now. Does woodside have reasonably priced houses?

Yeah, Woodhaven is weird. You might as well live in NJ or SI.

No I don’t think there are cheap houses here. Affordable apartments relatively though.

I have some friends who bought houses in Woodhaven—seems to
comparatively affordable. I don’t love what I’ve seen of the neighborhood. Seems kind of a mix of new-wave downtrodden and old-school socially conservative. But if you’re inside a nice house all the time, maybe it doesn’t matter.

Yeah we have artist friends who moved there and are hearing those "artists are moving there" rumblings. It's pretty close to where I live now and I guess I've sort of driven through it a bunch of times, although it's sort of a blur what's glendale vs maspeth vs woodhaven vs ozone park vs richmond hill

I guess in the great narrative of gentrification, there's a couple degrees of artists...there's the ones who are like "i just want to live cheap and have room to work!" to the ones who are like "I'm raising a family" to the ones who are like "there's this one cute bar and a decent coffee shop" to "we're close to Bushwick.

I get the urge to stay in the city and on the trains but at some point, maybe Maplewood or hudson valley really makes sense!

There's a 2 family on my block in woodside going for 1.2 mil.

I would much rather live in Maplewood or Hudson Valley if there weren't specific reasons to stay in the city, the housing stock in a lot of these neighborhoods suck and you have no yard.

TBF, the subway is probably at an all-time trough of usefulness in my life, as I have to car commute to work, my kids either walk or school bus to school, and they're too little for it to be comfortable to take them places on the subway on the weekends.

Wait, I thought your kid(s) was(were) pre-K age. Time flies

thing is to live affordably in NYC you start getting to an area where there is no train or the train is so useless that it really begs the question of why stay in the city? Obviously there's a 1000 good reasons too, but that's something else.

I'm bummed that I don't have a yard...but I live across the street from a little park and playground and my daughter is there 2 times a day.

wife can commute to her job by J train and I drive anyway, any suburb would either make her commute longer or both of our commutes longer.