A Food Tour of the World--Without Ever Leaving the NYC Borough of Queens

New York City’s Times Square is sometimes referred to as the “Crossroads of the World.” But if the meeting point for humanity is a patch of pavement just outside an Applebee’s, where you might find a barely dressed cowboy arguing with a grown man in an Elmo suit, the world deserves better.

Thankfully, you needn’t travel far to find a true global intersection. A few subway stops away lies Queens, a place visitors often hurry to leave—which is understandable if you’ve just landed at its ramshackle John F. Kennedy Airport. But those who ignore “the World’s Borough,” an actually deserved sobriquet, miss out on one of the city’s main draws.

Nearly half of Queens residents are foreign-born, a significantly higher proportion than in the city’s other boroughs. With more than 160 languages spoken, it’s one of the most diverse urban areas in the world. That diversity is reflected in its food, too, a key lure for more adventurous visitors.

To see firsthand how easy it is to teleport around the world in Queens, I gave myself a mission: I’d spend one calorically intensive day hopping between three different neighborhoods—one each for breakfast, lunch and dinner. As much as possible, I would put my fate in the hands of locals. Here’s how it went.

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