When I first got to Flushing, I did not realize how big this part of Queens was. I started out on main street where it is mostly Chinese immigrants that populated the area. Everything was in Chinese, the signs, menus, prices and the writing on the products. The thing I found most interesting about this area of Flushing was the stand of all different kinds of food, hot food, fast food, fruits, vegetables, fish and meats and a lot of things that I have never seen before. One of the mini supermarkets that I went to on Main Street had an enormous variety of Chinese candies mostly hard candies and chewable candies like starbursts shaped and flavored all differently. The drinks were even foreign to me, mostly the types of soda. The soda sold in the markets along main street and the Hong Kong supermarket are not like coca cola or sprite the colors of the drinks are even unique, there was bright green, purple, red, pink in thick glass bottles that had this little ball in the cap that had to be pushed through into the bottle so it could become carbonated. The food was not entirely strange to me. A lot of the Chinese food was the common things we see in Chinese restaurants around Staten Island, but there were a lot of things I did not recognize. The different kinds of fish cooked in various ways I have never seen before was this fish I saw at a street vendor was the whole fish just grilled on a stick.

Ten minutes away from Main Street, Flushing turns into an entirely different place. By Kissena Blvd, it becomes populated with Jewish families and a lot of Muslims. Around this area, there are only about three supermarkets that sell fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats. Compared to Main Street there were markets that sold all different kinds of food everywhere. This part of Queens had mostly fast food places to eat with a couple pizzerias, one of which I went to called Valentino’s and a lot of food stands and restaurants that sold Hallah food because the area was highly populated with Muslim families. Another thing I found most interesting was the parks; there are tons of parks by Kissena Blvd. The people who live in this area hang out in the parks more often then people in my neighborhood of Huguenot does with a park being right down the block from my house. The park was crowded with all different kinds of people; some people seemed like they were just talking a walk through the park if they had nothing to do. I asked people in the parks if they had any other information about Main Street, but they all said the same thing “it’s full of Chinese people” and that’s all they had to say. One thing I found funny was that one person told me they call the area where Main Street is “chino main” because of all these Chinese people and that you can only buy Chinese food and products there.