Last Saturday I had dinner at Fu Run in Queens. I was looking for a place to eat in Queens that had out-of-this-world amazing food for cheap prices (that’s not too much to ask, right?). I searched on yelp, chowhound, road foods, you name it but finally settled on a place who’s dessert was listed on last year’s Time Out New York’s 100 Best Dishes in NYC. I read a rave review here and jotted down their selections but I wasn’t expecting much. Mostly because despite the fact that I’m something like 1/16 Chinese I hate Chinese food. Ask me out for Chinese food and this is the face I’ll give you as I think about trying to swallow general tso’s chicken or sweet and sour shrimp.
But I was hoping that this place would be a little more to my liking as it seemed more authentic based on the menu than the run of the mill operations (which I’ve been told by friends that grew up in China, have little to do with actual Chinese food – so take that General Tso and your crappy chicken!)
I was right, in that this place was amazing! I wasn’t sold on any of the things we ordered, but I’m not one to disregard bloggers or yelp posters, and so we went with their two most popular dishes: the spicy green bean jelly sheet appetizer
and the muslim lamb chops.
OMG. I’m going to say that it was the best lamb I’ve ever eaten in my life (sorry Mr. Keller). First braised and then covered in cumin spices, it’s the first time I’ve understood how meat can melt in your mouth. We had some leftovers to take home and I happily helped myself to it all for breakfast on Sunday. And right as I put my fork into the heavenly lamb, I knocked my entire plate onto my dirty, cat fur covered carpet. I was so upset. But also not deterred, I scooped the entire thing up, placed it back on my plate, picked off a few cat hairs and munched my way through a delicious breakfast. Gross? Probably. But it was THAT good!
But the entire reason we had leftovers in the first place was because we wanted to save room for their Ba Si – which is what had made it onto TONY’s 100 Best Dishes in the first place.
Muslim Lamb Chops and Ba Si pictures courtesy of Eat This NY
It’s basically caramelized fruits. Is taro a fruit? How about carrots? Wow this is a Jersey shore moment – I just watched the episode last night where Deena thought that shame was the same as integrity – this feels like that. Regardless, the Ba Si was pretty good. The apples were by far the best with the carrots being a close second and the taro a distant third. But you can order just one ?fruit? instead of a medley so we’ll go that route next time.
Tip for you, the Ba Si takes 20 minutes so if you are in a rush, order early. Though we were nervous because we had only 90 minutes from when we sat down at our table to when the parking garage for our car closed and Fu Run was able to turn our table over in under an hour. They are that good. And we were that fast at shoveling food in our faces.
HawaiiGurlinCT Ratings: 
(4.5 musubi)
There were some cons – parking sucks, long lines to sit down (though that’s because they are aweome), and I wasn’t super amazed by their leek and egg pancakes, but all that got nullified by being the restaurant that has made me love (and lust after) Chinese food.
Hawaii Girl Stories 