Dumpling Galaxy

This stylish spot lies down the street from the Queens Botanical Garden, which is especially apt since the Chinese name — Bai Jiao Yuan — of Helen You’s love letter to tasty dough-wrapped morsels — means 100 Dumpling Garden. Stars include innovative dumplings like duck meat with mushroom — xiang gu ya rou jiaozi — and beef curry, or ga li niu rou jiaozi. The latter are lovely in a fried preparation where they are cooked upside down to form a constellation bound by a sheet of crispy dough. They wind up tasting like a Jamaican beef patty. Special off-menu dumplings include yang rou xiao long bao, lip-smacking, unctuous lamb soup dumplings. Were it just a jiaozi joint Dumpling Galaxy would still be Flushing’s best restaurant, but what sets it apart is a deep menu of delicacies such as crisp pan-fried sole (xiang jiun long li) and garlic spareribs (suan xiang pai gu). What’s listed simply as braised pork turns out to be hong shao, or wobbly, red cooked pork belly that falls apart at the mere sight of a chopstick. Round out your feast with a platter of fried hot peppers, whose Chinese name, hu pi jian jiao, means tiger-skin hot pepper.