A recent outing to Main Street in Flushing's Chinatown area revealed some interesting food choices available for adventurous shoppers.

The A & N Food Market at 41-79 Main Street is an Oriental supermarket with the customary array of goods, including a produce section that is not very extensive by the standards of Manhattan's Chinatown. There are, however, some good prepared meats, priced by the pound. Among those that I have enjoyed are tender honeycomb tripe ($5.90), thinly sliced and surprisingly tender spicy pigs' ears ($5.90), without the characteristic crunchiness or chewiness pigs' ears often have, and delicious spiced beef tendon ($7.50), with an almost melting fatty consistency.

Another market with some unusual offerings is the New York Supermarket at
43-53 Main Street, across from the Queens Botanic Gardens and on a block otherwise dominated by stores and restaurants of Pakistani, Indian or Afghan orientation. This market has a wide selection of live seafood in tanks, most in pretty good shape if activity is any indicator, as was the case with the eels. In addition to those live offerings which were swimming, there were baskets of crabs, which is not uncommon in Chinese markets, as well as the less typical live turtles and frogs, some of which were attempting to hop their way to freedom.

Our final stop was the ground floor of East Buffet and Restaurant at 42-07 Main Street. The downstairs features food to go, among which are "Bar-B-Q"
choices, various cooked meats priced by the pound. In addition, and our selection, was a bisected whole smoked pig's head weighing 5-6 pounds, which seems to be available on a hit-or-miss basis. When I reheated it at home in the microwave oven, half a head completely overwhelmed a standard sized dinner plate. The head contained more meat than I expected, and almost custardy brains, but there is no getting around the fact that the meat was a relatively minor component, compared to the enticingly browned skin and the fat. The inner surfaces of the bisected head had been coated with a tasty, but salty, dark rub before cooking. Although everything except the bones and teeth was edible, and scrumptious, this was a veritable cardiologist's nightmare and is best suited to be an infrequent indulgence.