The Secret Thai Street Food Buffet Inside an Astoria Market | Eater NY

"Hidden in the back of a Latin market in Astoria at 30-72 Steinway Street, near 31st Avenue, I found a Thai counter run by three Queens moms — Jalen Lucky, Nisakorn Quispe, and Vasinee Levy — serving daily steam-table specials and a set menu that lets patrons mix-and-match regional Isan entrees for under $20. The food is spicy, refreshing, and intense, loaded with house-made chile paste and vegetables like Thai eggplant and young papaya; a combo of sticky rice and three entrees runs $15.50. Chef Lucky’s gaeng om is a standout: a spicy yet refreshing herbal curry soup studded with dill, yu choy, and zucchini and brightened with pla ra and housemade chile paste. A savory pork-belly stew, palo, offers a counterpoint to that heat with tender chunks of pork belly marinated overnight and braised with boiled eggs in a spice mix of black and white peppercorns, cilantro root, star anise, and cinnamon (Lucky adds pickled lettuce). Other dishes I tried included papaya salad with chunks of raw Thai eggplant, pad prik khing laced with slivers of makrut lime leaf, fish-ball skewers caramelized with tamarind, gang som thickened with ground tilapia and dotted with young papaya and shrimp, plus occasional fried chicken and grilled pork. The spot operates daily from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., with about ten brothy, saucy entrees laid out on the steam table and a bright dining area dotted with potted plants and paintings of Thailand." - Caroline Shin