From Portside Culture <[email protected]>
Subject The Queens Night Market’s new guide brings the international flavors of the city’s boroughs into your home
Date May 19, 2020 12:05 AM
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[The many flavors of the Queens Night Market, a popular open-air
multicultural food bazaar in the heart of the borough, are captured in
a new book that tells the story behind the market and conveys its
flavors in recipes from the vendors. ] [[link removed]]

PORTSIDE CULTURE

THE QUEENS NIGHT MARKET’S NEW GUIDE BRINGS THE INTERNATIONAL
FLAVORS OF THE CITY’S BOROUGHS INTO YOUR HOME  
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Michelle Herrmann
May 13, 2020
Smithsonian Magazine
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_ The many flavors of the Queens Night Market, a popular open-air
multicultural food bazaar in the heart of the borough, are captured in
a new book that tells the story behind the market and conveys its
flavors in recipes from the vendors. _

John Wang, founder of the Queens Night Market, and his wife, Storm
Garner, co-author of The World Eats Here, John Taggart

 

John Wang has a lot on his plate. Five years since launching an
open-air food market in the heart of Queens, New York, he’s facing
the very real possibility that the COVID-19 pandemic will derail what
was bound to be another incredible summer of international flavors,
ranging from Filipino _dinuguan_ to Haitian _diri ak djon djon_.

An ex-corporate attorney, Wang had no culinary work experience prior
to launching the Queens Night Market in 2015—just fond memories of
the night markets he visited during his childhood summers in Taiwan.
As a youngster, he became captivated by the electricity given off by
the crowds and vendors in a public setting, where people gathered and
mingled over food until the sun came up the next morning. He wanted to
reflect that vibe in the Big Apple, but adapted it to fit its
multicultural melting pot. “We decided that if we were going to do
that in New York City, we would do something that resonated and spoke
more to New York City,” says Wang.

Last year, an average of 13,000 attendees came per night rain or shine
to the market, held on Saturday nights from mid-April through the end
of October (with a short break for the U.S. Open) behind the New York
Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Queens is the most
diverse county in the United States, and the variety of foods
representing more than 90 countries is proof. The market’s a
multigenerational gathering, too, as family members share in the work
of overseeing pots and counters and attendees of all ages eye the
grills, skillets and fryers in vendors’ tents. Here, visitors can
eat their way around the globe, sampling Jamaican jerk chicken, Indian
_dosas_, Cambodian _amok_, Salvadoran _pupusas_, Tibetan _momos_,
Polish _pierogis_, and Norwegian _fiskegrot_.

While waiting out the pandemic, those who love the market, and even
those who have just heard about it for this time, can direct their
focus to a new cookbook that tells the story behind the bazaar. _The
World Eats Here: Amazing Food and the Inspiring People Who Make It at
New York’s Queens Night Market_
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contains 88 recipes from just over 50 vendor-chefs whose cuisines
reflect more than 40 countries.

“It’s nice to have something that’s out there, in a physical
form, that keeps us connected to New York City, and maybe even the
world,” says Wang.

Co-authored with his wife, Storm Garner, a filmmaker and oral
historian, _The World Eats Here_ is more than a recipe collection. It
is also a biographical account. Each recipe is paired with a profile
of the Queens Night Market vendor who makes it, describing the
cook’s personal history and motivations for starting a food-related
business. These narratives were derived from interviews Garner
conducted for her thesis, part of an oral history master’s program
at Columbia University. “We wanted you to know about their culinary
achievements, but I thought it was really important to get to know
them as people outside of the food industry also,” says Garner.

Wang played the role of intermediary between the vendors and editors,
identifying ingredients, measurements and techniques that were
otherwise passed down by experience or word of mouth and translating
them into written and tested measurements and directions. “We tried
as best as we could make sure that [the dishes] were all replicable at
home,” says Wang. Alongside color photographs of the market and key
players, the cookbook’s illustrations of vendors, dishes,
ingredients and preparations give it a scrapbook feel. On other pages,
visual aids provide step-by-step guidance in more methodical recipes
for foods such as Ukrainian blintzes and Mexican _huaraches_.

The experiences of Queens Night Market vendors are as varied as their
cuisines. Some are all-in with their food businesses. Others have day
jobs and work in various professional backgrounds—medical, finance,
law, hospitality, education and tech, to name a few. For them, their
food entrepreneurship could be a hobby or side gig. Still others do it
to share their culinary heritage with the public or spend quality time
with their families while working at the market. Participating vendors
hail from all five boroughs.

Daniel Nalladurai, a native New Yorker of southern Indian descent, and
his wife, Helena Kincaid-Nalladurai, who also run a film production
company, were interested in entering the food industry. The couple
approached Daniel’s parents about sharing his mom’s recipe for
chicken curry with dosa (the latter is a rice pancake made from a
fermented batter that looks similar to a crepe) for preparing and
selling at the Queens Night Market. It has resulted in the creation of
what’s now Dosa Mama, a side business with Daniel, his wife and his
mother handling the cooking.

Daniel, who grew up and still lives in Flushing, finds that the night
market reflects what the city is about, even in the midst of seeing
neighborhoods change. “We feel [it’s] like the true representation
of what New York is and what New Yorkers are.”

Wang’s vision was shaped by New York City’s diverse population and
its upward cost of living. The market was to be more of a social
mission than a cash cow. “I wanted it to be community based, and
affordable,” says Wang.

The rules of the market dictate that all food items cost no more five
dollars (a few goods are exempted and can charge an extra buck.) As
for vendor fees, Wang says he figures out the costs to operate the
market every night and divides that amount among the expected number
of vendors.

Trinidadian Sean Ramlal runs Caribbean Street Eats with his wife,
Savatree Singh, and the Flushing family operates this side business in
New York City’s food truck and market scene; at the Queens Night
Market, their fried shark sandwich, a Trinidadian street food, sells
fast. He thinks that the market does well because of its
family-friendly atmosphere and international variety. It doesn’t
hurt that it is held in Queens. “You have everybody wanting to come
and taste foods from different countries,” says Ramlal. “[It’s]
very unique to have a place like that.”

Wang has been happy with the market’s growth in just five years.
“The first year, we were in a little corner of a parking lot and now
we’ve taken up close to three or four football fields worth of
space,” he says. “The number of countries we represent through our
vendors is increasing.”

2020’s planned culinary map includes more than 50 vendors—new and
returning—gastronomically representing the Americas, Europe, Africa
and Asia. The Caribbean island of Dominica is planned to make its
debut. Other coinciding food-featured countries will include Antigua,
Bolivia, Cambodia, Egypt, Hungary, Mexico, Myanmar, Norway, the
Philippines, Venezuela and Sudan.

To date, the market has helped to launch 300 New York businesses. Like
many food purveyors across the country though, the Queens Night Market
vendors’ livelihoods have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic
in various ways. Some have had to work from home and seen sales
plummet. Restaurant owners have either shut down operations or
switched to takeout and/or delivery-only service.

Participants Valentin Rasneanski and his wife, Liia Minnebaeva, of
Wembie, a bakery known for their Russian and Eastern European
pastries, enjoy that the market is a friendly community setting, where
they can test out recipes. “It’s a nice place to be,” says
Rasneanski.

At the Queens Night Market, the Bensonhurst, Brooklyn-based couple is
known for Liia’s Bashkir farm cheese donuts—a childhood treat from
her youth in Oktyabrsky in western Russia that is featured in the
cookbook. As for her husband, the cookbook also includes his Moldovan
family’s recipe for _plăcintă_, a round or square shaped cake with
fillings such as a soft cheese.

The couple, who met while working at a restaurant in New Hampshire,
had applied for a wholesale license to grow their business, but their
plans are now on hold. They’re staying positive. “Whatever happens
to us right now will make us stronger and perform better in a better
way,” says Rasneanski.

Bronx resident Sokhita Sok credits the market in her starting Cambodia
Now [[link removed]]. Through the Queens Night
Market residency program, she established a food kiosk within the
Falchi Building in Long Island City, where she sold lunch choices of
chicken skewers, _cha kroeung_ and Cambodian curry noodle soup. Its
operation there ceased on March 18. “Eventually, we’ll come back
up at some point, but it’s going to be a long haul,” she says.

While the pandemic has put the re-opening of the market on hold, Wang
is involved with Fuel The Frontlines [[link removed]],
which hires Night Market vendors to provide meals for healthcare
workers at Queens hospitals and EMS stations; Queens County is home to
the largest number of COVID-19 cases
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remotely interviewing vendors about their experiences in the COVID-19
pandemic and will contribute some stories to the Queens Memory
COVID-19 Project
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Proceeds from cookbook sales will be divided between the oral history
project and the night market.

Wang and Garner, who reside in Manhattan, view the cookbook as a
strong visual representation of the market. Wang notes that attendees
can revisit their experience through its pages and try their hand at
the recipes. Garner thinks that it’s a way for home cooks to expand
their culinary repertoire, and get to know vendors through what they
cook.

“It’s not a perfect substitute, but it’s the best we can do for
now,” says Wang.

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