New York’s New World Fair

October 24, 2019

On Saturday nights, from April to October, New Yorkers and tourists gather next to the glowing, curvy walls of The New York Hall Of Science in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park for the Queens Night Market. Follow the stream of people passing the Unisphere and end up among trails of patrons clutching paper food trays, napkins, sticks, and skewers tightly wrapped in foil, surrounded by the smoky smell of barbecue and a buzzing atmosphere.  

The open-air, food-focused event is open to the public on Saturday nights from 5 p.m.-midnight, with thousands visiting each year. It features seventy-five vendors hailing from various parts of the tri-state area, each offering food or other merchandise influenced by or representing their cultural heritage, all “celebrating the rich cultural diversity and heritage of NYC and Queens.” 

John Wang, the Night Market’s founder, says, “The goal of the Queens Night Market is to create NYC’s most affordable, welcoming, and diverse community event or space.” A $6 maximum for each food item (with limited exceptions) sets the Queens Night Market apart from other food-centric events in New York, such as Smorgasburg in Brooklyn or the New York Times Food Festival that took place in Manhattan in early October. Wang says, “Affordability is the greatest equalizer and absolutely critical to welcoming all people, regardless of background, ethnicity, or income level.” 

Affordability, alongside the diverse variety of foods offered, drives the event’s success— and has done so since its start in 2015. “We try to curate stories more than we curate food… We’re looking to feature traditional foods, made by the people who grew up eating [them]. That’s really to say that we don’t curate Instagrammable food or novel concepts that will probably go viral, but [don’t] have a traditional aspect that we’re trying to highlight,” says Wang. 

One patron, Rachel Tanglao-Aquitania says, “I was able to find some traditional Filipino foods that my mom always made for me while growing up like lumpia, pancit, and diniguan so it makes me feel like I’m at home and gives a nostalgic feeling.” 

While tradition and nostalgia are important driving factors for the Night Market’s vendors, they also believe in fulfilling Wang’s mission by ensuring that the foods offered are accessible to all visitors. Jessica Spiegel, co-owner of Joon, a stall focused on Persian stews and crispy rice (also known as tahdig), says, “For my partner Amir, who grew up in Iran, this is his ultimate comfort food because this is what he grew up eating, and the food that he has with his family. This is the food that he craves and loves the most.”

“For me, I grew up in Florida and had never had Persian food until I met Amir 10 years ago. Our food is comforting in a different way that I crave it not because I grew up with it, but because… [it] means I’m with family, and because it’s delicious,” she says.  

Sweet or savory? Spicy or something cool? Visitors are sure to find an answer among the rich array of foods offered, a characteristic of one the most diverse counties in the United States.

“There is a large variety of foods and cultures in one place, so I would say that the Queens Night Market offers a lot of diversity. It’s very important for people to broaden their horizons and expose themselves to cultures that are different from their own,” says Tanglao-Aquitania. 

A 2019 YouGov survey examining how Americans and members of seven European countries perceived immigration found that “the most commonly agreed benefit of immigration has been better food.” The study also found that 50% of Americans say that food “has benefited from immigration in the country,” which is seemingly the case in regard to the Queens Night Market.

“In most cases, I think our vendors are probably cooking what is ‘comfort food’ for them,” says Wang, “but might be novel or exotic to others. That’s kind of the point of the Queens Night Market, to give people a chance to experience and learn things from others, to broaden one's cultural horizons.”

With new food-focused events springing up throughout the boroughs each week, the location for the Queens Night Market is by no means coincidental. “Queens is a natural fit and also symbolic in many ways,” says Wang, “By some accounts, Queens is the most diverse urban area in the world, which fits our mission perfectly.”