Food festival in NYC to celebrate diverse Chinese cuisines

NEW YORK - Authentic Chinese cuisines will be up for grabs during a food festival next month in New York City's Queens borough, which aims to showcase the diverse regional culinary culture of China as well as boost local small businesses.

Scheduled for April 13, the 2019 Flushing Food Festival will see about 15 restaurants offering over 1,000 sample dishes, which range from spicy Sichuan entrees, Yunnan's rice noodle soup to sweet red-bean cookies, according to the Flushing Business Improvement District, organizer of the event.

More than 400 tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis to visitors, who can choose and enjoy up to three dishes free of charge on that day. People can also book for a ticket online as of April 1.

A number of Southeast Asian food vendors will also participate in the event to share their specialties, such as Vietnam's pho, or rice noodle soup. The festival will also feature a live jazz band and other performances for all attendees and visitors.

Located in eastern Queens, Flushing is home to the fastest expanding Chinatown in New York City due to a large influx of Chinese immigrants in the past decades. It's also been considered the "mecca" for regional Chinese food as people from various parts of China have settled here.