Ku-Shiang Restaurant

Before the recent influx of diverse emigrants, Flushing was a stronghold of expats from the multicultural island of Taiwan, who frequented restaurants like Ku-Shiang. The front counters at this small, decades-old spot are stocked with Taiwanese takeout items like tea-smoked eggs, or “Japanese lunch boxes” that highlight the region’s diverse culinary influences. At the back tables, stainless-steel chopsticks and earthenware sit at the ready for traditional bowls of homey, spicy beef noodle soup and sanbeiji, or “three-cup chicken,” which takes its name from its equal portions of sesame oil, rice wine and soy sauce. Here it’s listed as “chicken with basil in casserole,” and arrives in a thick, pewter-colored pot, the bird’s flavorful meat coated in sweet brown sauce and brightened by a fistful of anisey Asian basil leaves. One of the best dishes is even simpler: a clam soup in which shell-on mollusks soak in a gingery clear broth, a reflection of the region’s island culture.