Not long ago, I found myself delighted by a restaurant in Flushing with the noncommittal name of Golden Palace, serving the cuisine of northeastern China. The owners hailed from Liaoning province, and the food was amazing. Instead of white rice, there were puffy, pale-yellow baos made from corn flour, and dishes dotted with wobbly agaric mushrooms. Such northern Chinese standards as lamb with cumin contended with recipes that scrambled eggs with unfamiliar leafy vegetables. Pig skin in aspic and noodles that were dead ringers for spaetzle seemed to represent German influences from Shandong, another northern province that had once harbored a German "concession."
So, when a restaurant from Shandong opened just around the corner, whose owners emigrated from the port city of Qingdao (where German-style Tsingtao beer is still brewed), I was there in a flash with a carload of friends. M & T Restaurant is just as anonymous-looking as Golden Palace, and the friendly staff can't wait to try out their English on you. In the three months that I've been eagerly eating there, the menu has evolved, and now the specials once inscribed in Chinese that fluttered on paper strips have been translated.
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