Elmhurst tour

Elmhurst in Queens is one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in New York City. As expected, the variety of food and restaurants here is as diverse as well. Mare and I have been frequenting (more her than me) this quaint Thai place on Broadway called Boon Chu, and I would say they're up there amongst the best Thai food places in New York City (together with Sri Pra Phai and Ubol's Kitchen).


However, on the way to Boon Chu from the Elmhurst stop on the R, V and G lines, you get to pass by one of my favorite all-time drinks. QUICKLY! Within the past two years, Quickly has opened about four locations in New York City. I found out about Quickly in NYC about two years ago when I was walking around SoHo, and I spied a girl/lady carrying the familiar Quickly drinks. I ran after her and stopped her (I must have nearly given her a heart attack), and politely asked where she bought her drink from. She told me, and that's the start of my Quickly adventures in New York! Me and my foodie tendencies!

I got me a taro ice (slushy) with pearl (tapioca, or as the Filipinos know it - sago) and lychee bits. Mare had a lychee slush with the same add-ins. Having Quickly reminded me of college back home when I couldn't not buy Quickly on the way home because the store was on the way. Yeah, I was a Quickly guy in college, not Zagu or Orbitz, but Quickly. :-)

After Quickly, we then walked down the block to Boon Chu. It's a small space, with 7 tables seating 2 people each. The decor is nice, and the staff friendly. I like the way their menu looked. I liked the menu contents even better! They had a good selection of appetizers (from thai steamed dumplings to satay), entrees (chicken basil, etc), noodles (pad thai, pad see ew, etc) and curries (green, red, jungle, penang, etc). I was disappointed that they didn't have the crispy fried watercress salad that Sri Pra Phai has, but whatever. lol.

Whenever my friends and I eat out, we usually get down to business right away. No more starters. If we do get appetizers, we have them served together with the rest of the entrees. Last night, Mare and I ordered the Kana Moo Grob, Chicken larb, Penang Curry with Beef and Jungle Curry.


There is something about the Kana Moo Grob that Filipinos love. It's basically a sauteed chinese broccoli dish with crispy slivers of pork. The crispy pork and the veggies are a good mix, plus, the taste! Sweet and just a bit tart. I think there's oyster sauce in it, but Maricel thinks otherwise. She says it's soy sauce and fish sauce. Regardless, it was very good!

I also liked the Penang curry. Even though I think it's origins are Malaysian, I tend to go for coconut based curry dishes, regardless. We originally ordered the jungle curry, but it turned out to be not what Mare liked (she does not like bamboo shoots), so we ordered the Penang curry.

The larb on the other hand felt out of place. I guess it's one of those things where you have to have it before the entrees. Larb is a meat salad with roots in Laos. It is unofficially the national dish of Laos according to wikipedia. Larb is made with raw or cooked meat that is then minced and mixed with chili and mint, and then flavored with fish sauce and lime. Our larb was made with minced cook chicken and spicy! almost fiery! But still good!

As I said earlier, I think Boon Chu is one of the up and coming Thai restaurants in the city. Dinner last night was great, and I definitely will be becoming back.

(Boon Chu is located at 83-18 Broadway in Elmhurst, NY and Quickly is only a couple of doors down.)