Queens Night Market<\/a> has evolved into one of the most acclaimed, varied and affordable food festivals in the world.<\/p>\nThis year, a virtual U.N. of new vendors is cooking up an array of tantalizing grub, including succulent Egyptian lamb chops, moist banana bread via the breezy island of St Lucia and hearty noodle and meat Beshbermarak from Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach year it gets harder and harder to find new cuisines,\u201d gregarious founder John Wang told The Post of the festival, which kicks off in its longtime home of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park this Saturday for its 11th run, operating weekly from 4 p.m. to midnight.<\/p>\n
Wang, who ditched corporate America years ago to turn his foodie dream into an annual bacchanal, prides himself on featuring otherwise underrepresented countries that make up the metropolitan palette of the Market\u2019s 76 food vendors.<\/p>\n
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New Yorkers look forward to the delicious and affordable annual Queens Night Market every year. Stephen Yang<\/p>\n
\u201cThe genesis of it is that it started as a project that could improve New York City,\u201d Wang said of the fest, which operates weekly until October 31, with a late-season break from August 23 to September 13 for the US Open.<\/p>\n
Wang\u2019s overall mission with the Night Market is to keep prices low and highlight mom and pop vendors who may not have deep pockets, as vendor fees are free thanks to big-name sponsors like Citizens Bank. \u201cEverybody\u2019s buzzword is affordability, but we are an oasis of it here,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t that I wanted to start a profitable festival,\u201d Wang said, stubbornly setting a price cap at the fest\u2019s inception of $6 for any single item sold at the festival.<\/p>\n
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John Wang wasn\u2019t looking to get rich from creating the Night Market, as his goal was to keep prices low and highlight mom and pop vendors. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cThat hasn\u2019t changed, while everything around us is changing. The price gap is getting harder and harder for obvious reasons. But the business model has always been how much I can save on business operations, pass that onto the vendors, who then pass that onto the visitors,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
To keep his low-cost promise, Wang hustles for cash during the off-season from corporate sponsorships and philanthropists.<\/p>\n
Along the way, he\u2019s rebuffed efforts to expand outside of NYC, noting it\u2019s an event uniquely made for the Big Apple. \u201cWe will never veer from aspiring to represent New York City and all of the residents here,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n
The Post received early access to some of the vendors that will be at this year\u2019s food fest \u2014 and all we can say is: get your palettes ready. Here are some standout bites that will be offered at the 11th annual Night Market.<\/p>\n
Peruvian Bites Delicious: Picarones\u00a0<\/p>\n
For anyone who\u2019s been to Peru, Picarones reigns supreme as the country\u2019s star snack.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of the best desserts you can try in Peru,\u201d Raul Vergel, owner of Peruvian Bites Delicious, alongside his wife Flora and daughter Yadhyra, who fry up the crispy and sweet traditional donuts, told the Post. \u201cIt goes deep within our roots.\u201d<\/p>\n
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This year\u2019s Night Market will feature 76 different food vendors, like Peruvian Bites Delicious. Stephen Yang<\/p>\n
Made with a combination of squash and sweet potato, the dough is fried to a golden brown and topped with a choice of their homemade molasses-based chancaca syrup, chocolate or strawberry sauces.<\/p>\n
Hailing from Astoria, Peruvian Bites Delicious was founded last year with a mission to bring the food of their culture to America.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we started, people were telling us to create something new,\u201d Yadhyra told the Post.\u00a0\u201cBut instead we perfected the proper way to make picarones from our relatives, sourced the ingredients and now we can share it with everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside from doling out the delicious treats, Raul says the sweetest part is working with his family. \u201cWhat can I tell you? It\u2019s about getting closer as a family and it\u2019s a wonderful experience to be bonding with my daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soronko Kitchen and Bakery: Meat Pies<\/p>\n
Easy as (meat) pie.<\/p>\n
When Samanta Onuorah and her partner Issac moved from West Africa to New York, they wanted to launch a food venture that honored their roots in Ghana and Nigeria.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a culinary background, and when I came to the States, I was really struggling to find food that tasted like home,\u201d Onuorah told the Post.<\/p>\n
So in 2022, they launched Soronko Kitchen and Bakery, borrowing a tribal word that means exceptional.<\/p>\n
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Isaac and Samantha Onuorah of Soronko Kitchen and Bakery. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n
Their standout is their meat pies, which reign as one of the most popular foods in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou find them at parties, on the street, or in the local markets,\u201d said Onuorah of the handheld snack, which was initially inspired by English cuisine.<\/p>\n
Soronko makes three variations: one filled with succulent chicken, another with juicy ground beef and a third veggie variation.<\/p>\n
They season \u2018em with garlic, onions and sage. The crust, meanwhile, is a labor of love.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s essentially a shortcrust pastry made with a rich dough,\u201d she said. \u201cPut them together, and you have a very flavorful, flaky and buttery handpie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tastes of the Silk Road: Beshbarmak<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not often you happen upon an eatery that specializes in the food of Kazakhstan (country in Central Asia) \u2014 so Raushan Niza, the purveyor behind Tastes of the Silk Road, wanted to change that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recently moved to the US and my family is getting used to the food here,\u201d Niza told The Post.<\/p>\n
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Raushan Niza created Tastes of the Silk Road to bring the food of Kazakhstan to the masses. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery weekend, my son would ask me to make Beshmarak. Now I\u2019m going to make it every weekend. Dream come true for him!\u201d<\/p>\n
From the words besh, meaning \u2018pie\u2019 and \u2018marak\u2019, meaning fingers, her signature dish heartily layers steamy beef, lamb, onions, noodles, all piled high.<\/p>\n
True to its name, it\u2019s designed to be eaten with your hands. \u201cBack home, you\u2019d start eating it when you\u2019re born,\u201d said Niza, who said she\u2019s proud to share her eats with the Night Market. \u201cIn Kazakhstan, it\u2019s at every family gathering.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamala: Mini Knish Nosh<\/p>\n
A tasty landmark of the Lower East Side, knishes are now front and center at the Night Market thanks to Mamala\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Founded by Dani Finkel, her booth was inspired by dinners with her grandparents. \u201cI felt like I was running from my past, but when I got to a certain age, I started to think about my Jewish family table,\u201d she told The Post.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandmother was always cooking. I wanted to start a food business as an ode to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Dani Finkel\u2019s grandparents inspired her to create Mamala. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n
Aside from whipping up flavorful kugel (the noodle pudding made with sour cream), Finkel handcrafts authentic knishes, the potato-filled comfort food.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an ode to Yona Schimmel\u2019s,\u201d she said of the 1910-circa eatery on Houston Street known for the warm snack.<\/p>\n
Finkel\u2019s variation is topped with gribenes (fried onion and chicken skin), alongside a dollop of spicy mustard and served with a shooter of pickled turnip for good measure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love cooking and I love food,\u201d said Finkel, whose main gig is that of a digital strategist.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to do something to make me super happy. The internet is not a nice place to be right now, and feeding people is the last thing we can do as humans to interact in that lovely way, no matter where you are from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bevo\u2019s Kitchen: Banana bread pudding<\/p>\n
Growing up on the sunny shores of the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, Gracia Clery-Leonce first learned to cook thanks to her father.<\/p>\n
But when she moved to the states to work as a laboratory scientist, she began to notice \u201cSo many different illnesses because of what people eat, so I decided to start a business that sells healthy foods,\u201d Clery-Leonce told the Post.<\/p>\n
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Brevo\u2019s Kitchen\u2019s banana bread might taste decadent, but it\u2019s surprisingly healthy. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n
As a result, Bevo\u2019s Kitchen specializes in plant-based spins on the colorful and tasty food of the island.<\/p>\n
Much of it is made with bananas, which are plentiful on the island. \u201cSt Lucia in general is very healthy,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t do typical fast food.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alongside a filling banana salad and a lip-smacking juice made with the yellow fruit, Bevo\u2019s specializes in yummy hunks of banana bread pudding.<\/p>\n
Each slice is topped with a cherry, a nod to her colorful culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An image collage containing 3 images, Image 1 shows Bread pudding squares with maraschino cherries on a silver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[79953,78267,42606,9,24,78268,63,122,124,123,80021,80022,3323],"class_list":{"0":"post-201919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-food-festivals","9":"tag-john-wang","10":"tag-kazakhstan","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-night-market","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-queens","16":"tag-queens-headlines","17":"tag-queens-news","18":"tag-samanta-onuorah","19":"tag-samantha-onuorah","20":"tag-stefano-giovannini"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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