hey, we have a problem with chocolate, i tell you that. >> anthony: getting into the coffee business.

is ♪ felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪ ♪ found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la ♪ sha la la la ♪ sha la la la ♪ sha la la la la la >> good morning, how are you? mike?

>> start my day. wake up at 2:00. take the bridge, take the bridge. okay, short time. >> just across the east river from manhattan where i live, just over there is an enchanted

wonderland, a stew pot of neighborhoods filled with the languages, cultures, traditions and flavors of many lands. my morning ritual like this. regular coffee, a donut, a kruler if i feel wild and crazy but just across the river, the options are endless. seven trains over main queens like a cable. another country, another region.

get off at roselle avenue, and you'll eat well for sure. this cart sells ecuadorian food. roast pork with sublime crispy skin straight from heaven. oh, that's is sound of victory right there. m morcilla, blood sausage with potato cakes. >> that's really good. a word of advice for people coming to and from work. how often do you think the average person eats at one of these things? >> like the day laborers, the men here, they might be in the tiny kitchens. they don't have time for the restaurants. so for them, might be more eating on the streets. >> sean is the director of the street vendor project. prior to law school, built a

push cart and sold burritos and found a small grant from the university law school and a walk-up with a bathtub and a kitchen. like most lawyers. >> within a mile of here, what would my options be nationality-wise? >> ty be tibetan i don't know w another place with such diversity. >> th >> now, generally speaking, open up a cart on the street. do you need a license? >> you have to have a license for yourself and then you have to have a permit for the cart. that's the problem. >> any spot? >> generally speaking, yes, although there's lots of

restrictions. >> but very much not the my backyard neighborhood in a lot of ways. a lot less interesting than queens. this is a wonderland. i mean, look at what we got here. >> they're trying to change it though, the more it does change. >> always talk about cleaning up roselle avenue. you know what that means. >> if you get higher rents, nicer buildings, they're not going to want to sweep in front. >> that is sometimes the problem, even if it's completely legal and we see it all the time. building managers come out and say, you've got to move, can't be here and even call the police. >> what happens if that happens, when that occurs? >> well, there's me, a young kid out of college. i was ready for that. >> right. >> but if you're an immigrant who doesn't speak english and realistically, scared and they tell you to move, you're going to move.

>> in a perfect world, how many of these would there be? >> i think the more diverse street food we can have, the better. the more pathways for people to start a business, hopefully after five or ten years, maybe they'll have a restaurant. i mean, we don't say there's too many restaurants, do we? so why too many food vendors? >> too many affordable restaurants kind of thing.

♪ [ chanting ]

>> better known as half of the rap duo known as the sweat shop boys, born and raised in queens, the living breathing example of the glorious match-up that is this borough. so it seems just right that a first generation indian dude takes me to a chinese dumpling spot close to his hindu temple. garden dumplings, everything you need in life. >> most of my life, been in melrose, like further east. >> largely or mostly indian? >> our neighborhood mostly pun punjabi and then christians and pakistani. >> the neighborhood over? >> caribbean. and then the other neighborhood, like, whiter but still indian.

so it's hard to escape our influence, which is why i like it here. >> spicy beef and tripes. marinated in sugar and soy, served cold with chili oil. >> traditional indian food at home? what about outside? >> because the food so good at home, we don't go out to eat indian food because my mom would be like, i could make better than this. new york, it's like lo mein and pizza. >> meatballs, pork, ginger, soy. >> coming to flushing when we moved out further east because we didn't have groceries here. temple is over here, so even in long island, we end upcoming back to here or jackson heights like the first places you come. sometimes i joke, it's so diverse but the airports are here. it's just like you get off the 16 hour flight with no money in your pocket from india, where do i live? i'll start with this place.

>> soup dumplings, piping hot with ground pork and near boiling broth. >> this is why i come here. >> this is dumplings. >> so growing up, what was the national breakdown in school? >> my high school was a public high school but maybe 70% east and south asian, mostly chinese. all the kids went to harvard or nyu, those type of schools and the american dream is alive, it's in places like queens. >> what do you mean? >> still people coming here with nothing and making something out of it and as i kind of lose hope, the idea of like adversity as a positive thing or america as an open place or in a place in so much race and diversity, another place.

>> will america look like queens? >> i guess 2042 is the year that people of color become the majority in this country. it seems like a long time away. but yeah, that is the hope. for adults with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, previously treated with platinum-based chemotherapy, including those with an abnormal alk or egfr gene who've tried an fda-approved targeted therapy, who wouldn't want a chance for another...?

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[ speaking foreign language ]

get lost in flushing for a while and behold the awesomeness.

>> if you're looking for amazing chinese food or korean, this is the place. this joint is high on the list. mushi. they are both chefs and restaura restaurantures. a korean man adopted and raised by a jewish family owns this. >> it was successful right away? >> yes, pretty much immediately. i was looking out of my house and then transfer to this bagel shop from 7:00 to 9:30. ten seats at a time. me and my kitchen in the front and one day, somebody texted me

and goads, congratulati and goes congratulation. pete gave you number one ramen in new york city. i saw the article. i started to cry. >> the owner of casa enrique. the only mexican restaurant with michelin star. >> you started making really interesting mexican food. why? >> my brother come up with idea to open a mexican restaurant and i told him, come on. i never cook mexican food for restaurant. i started cooking for six months at home every single day trying to do different things. >> right. >> and finally, we open a mexican restaurant. >> and you got a michelin star. >> four years in a row. >> nice. >> both are fantastic but tonight, we are eating korean. pork neck bone soup with rice

cakes, pork belly, kimchi and spicy radish and then kimchi and oysters. >> so this dish right here, it's the dish from three years ago. literally came back to korea. >> how old were you? >> 19 to america, 6. >> raised orthodox jew? you still with the program? >> not at all. i'm eating pork. >> that's tough, koreans with pork. >> didn't have much. kimchi was like shunned from my household because it stunk up the whole one and it's not kosher either but now i make korean style ramen and then matzo ball ramen. raised jewish. i can't help it. us cooks gravitate to what our dna is. >> so need help with the korean restaurant? >> i don't know anything about it. i just like it. i gravitate towards those flavors.

>> galbi. short ribs marinated in soy, garlic, sesame oil and then grilled. meat. >> investigate, the number of immigrants all over the world. it's extraordinary. >> it's a funny thing now. caucasians working the line. >> yeah. >> and then asians come in and go, this isn't good. a bunch of white guys. i'm like, what? >> i'm racist like that too. i'm totally like that. if i work at a sushi restaurant, i make racist assumptions about the place if they're not japanese. >> you do the same thing like a korean restaurant and if you only see white people, they don't think it's legit. >> eating at the korean restaurant. >> you want the truth?

>> some people say it's the most

famous place you've never heard of. that's where we are. but once i get into the detail, this is historic. >> back in the 1820s when queens was still mostly farmland and livestock rather than rumbled down jamaica avenue. the manager of a racetrack called the union course opened a nearby tavern to accommodate the lay abouts who frequented his track. called the blue pump room. in later iterations, the old abbey, the union course tavern and finally, near tavern. added a bowling alley after the racetrack closed in 1898 and renamed the place. owned by this man. gordon of the fdny. >> born in jamaica? >> surprised being from the island of jamaica, i moved to jamaica, queens. >> why jamaica, queens? >> my mom was here.

>> what did your mom do for a living? >> she didn't have all the education in the world. just had to do odds and ends, clean floors and just do whatever she had to do to get things going. i think it's pretty much the similar story of immigrants that come to the united states. they come and work hard because it's the land of opportunity and they find a way to kind of make it out of a rut. or at least using that platform to have someone like me to have their offspring become a little bit more than they were. >> the story is i'm a regular beer drinker at this joint and the thought of it disappearing is like unbearable. where am i going to drink now? that's not your story. >> i knew this place was important, you know? i just felt something special and being someone that's from queens, something that special like this shouldn't disappear.

it was two days from closing hour i walked into the place. the wave located. someone had to tell you and say, you know, it's around the corner to the left, to the right and someone tells you about it. i think they think you're worthy enough to discover such a historic place. >> historic for a lot of reasons, not the least, in my mind, because the greatest american film ever made was shot here. a lot of it was shot here, right? what scenes shot here? >> a very pivotal moment of the movie. >> wait, wait. let me remember. is he right there or right here? right here. just looks over at maury and he's decided maury's going. >> he's going, might as well. >> maury was a problem from the beginning. any reasonable businessman would have. and here's a question nothing to

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[ speaking foreign language ]

[ speaking foreign language ] [ speaking foreign language ] [ speaking foreign language ]

[ speaking foreign language ] it is tempting to think when reflecting on jackson heights of india but queens is always

changing, always in flux. a landing spot for people from all over the world. new arrivals from tibet being an example. sandwiched between two cell phone stores and a couple of jewelry shops is lots of fast food. >> this particular neighborhood now, been the first stop. a big latino neighborhood but the presence is well known and very fitting that now, tibet community looking for a home, where are they going to go? >> so you guys go out together? >> in queens. i remember the same little league. >> what position did you play? >> they put me in the outfield. i was terrible. >> which outfield? >> the right side. >> join me for dinner with his friend and neighborhood advocate, ali. >> i like to call up a friend of

mine, mr. ali. voters and advocating for political issues that come up. >> mr. president, i know you're not too good at listening but you'll have to hear us now. listen, americans are not going anywhere. latino americans are not going anywhere. and we contribute to this country. we pay more taxes than you do. >> why? >> i have a sense of what i think is right and what needs to be done. i can't sit back and let people who are being underserved continue to be underserved. >> you have your work cut out the next four years. >> but we have to organize this. no other way to do it. america wouldn't be as great if people didn't organize it. >> it's both unique and disturbing that you're also from

queens. because the values that you have in running on are not the queens values we know. and i guarantee. all of us will make sure you don't forget where you came from. >> how much traction are you getting within the community? is there a hunger for that or takiing some convincing? >> a lot of people, because it's just such a new community, they're just trying to make it in america. maximize whatever they have. even space. cell phone store or phone card store, a little space to put a restaurant here and maximize everything we can. but then there are other people that get it, that believe in the promises of america. >> hand torn noodle soup with chili and ginger. >> when you think it's only a matter of time until you're

replaced? another incoming group or, you know, apocalypse? >> neighborhoods are constantly changing in new york. everything in flux. nothing is static. even all of our communities that have come in, we have transformed these neighborhoods that we moved into. it's hard to make a claim for ownership when my parents moved here too. so there is that constant, i don't want this to be sently if i gentrified, but am i gentrifying it? >> szechuan peppercorns. steamed dumplings stuffed with beef. >> a lot of people, they see this community and for them, it's like the nightmare scenario. what's the best things in queens other than diversity? just everyday practical matter? >> you wake up every day in queens and allowed to be who you are. you can't say that about every place. maybe not in the places our parents come from.

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♪ ♪ i love you baby applebee's 2 for $20, now with steak. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood.

further out in queens, somewhat forlorn looking but beautiful rockaways.

>> this is rockaway park. now call it far rock away and rock away beach. that's why we call it the rock aways. a lot of different parts of it. >> a writer and local activist. >> you from queens originally? >> i was raised in the city but i lived in queens for most of my adult life now. >> and rockaway now? >> i left here about a year after hurricane sandy because the way sandy hit and kind of, you know, shook people out of where they were, you didn't want to put your family through that again. the risk of that. >> how bad did it get hit out here? >> this was like something out of a movie. >> hurricane sandy pounded the east coast in 2012 and many communities suffered but the rockaways were hit with particular ferocity. how was the response? >> it was good, one of the best things about what happened right

afterwards is the way people came together who lived here but also came in, pitched in, brought food, generators, but officially, it was like, government, the governmental groups. they dropped the ball. >> what was the problem? >> weren't ready for it. the rockaways, by design, never a place for a lot of good investment or infrastructure anyway to begin with. >> why? look, this is what you would call prime ocean front property not far from new york city, what's going on? >> this is a place historically where the city and robert moses in particular really used as a dumping ground for the undesirable groups that the city didn't necessarily want to deal with. >> back in the day, it was a summer destination for middle class until the improved rail system lured them to the beaches of long island. >> they threw a bunch of housing projects in here and a lot of low income people out here and

it wasn't a place that the serious took seriously. since then, we also had a lot of working class whites move in. more of the western end and so you kind of see in the rockaways shape out along race and class lines and the one dynamic that's changed after sandy is a lot more like young professionals were coming out here. maybe looking intentionally to brooklynify the rockaways. it's like the brooklyn riviero. >> if you're a person who's not homeowner or struggling to pay rent. will leave you bind. i don't think a lot of people thought that would happen here. on rockaway, a sense of security you're out in this lazy beach town and would like to be on the beach with two people from miles and miles and that's great. won't have that anymore or a place for you to be able to have that.

some people may be more it and might be shortsighted because this might not necessarily involve the same people who are here. >> it never does. what's a perfect day in the rockaways? >> a perfect day, obviously, hit the beach but you don't want to find a place where there's no sand. you want to find a place that's off the beaten path. grab a bite to eat, maybe have a couple of drinks at night and watch the waves crash and near the airport, watch some of the planes fly over. it's a different feel. you don't feel like you're in new york when you're out here. when i first came here, i was a city kid. i was used to living in the hustle and bustle of the city that never sleeps. when i got here, it was like this tranquility, this feel that you're not in the city and it's great because it makes you feel like you can sit back and be

with your thoughts. as a city kid, it gave me a lot of perspective. any time you can come here and be away from stuff and be with the water, with your thoughts, it's a great thing. this is your wake-up call. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. ongoing pain and stiffness are signs of joint erosion. humira can help stop the clock.

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♪

>> laurie: is that a hundred dollar bill? >> anthony: yeah. i feel dead inside, laurie. this is going to bring me around. >> laurie: keep telling yourself that. >> anthony: hi, all of it on number two to win first. thank you. you've got to be in it to win it laurie. >> laurie: five dollars on number five to win please. >> anthony: it's the middle of winter there are only a few hardcore race enthusiast here, also me and friend and author laurie woolever. >> laurie: here they come.

>> anthony: and a winner. all right you won your first race. >> laurie: you know in a way you didn't win anything but -- >> anthony: not quite good enough. i love this place. the ponies, the beer, the looming sense of despair and melancholy. did i mention they have jamaican beef patties. >> laurie: people like it here because you can get your emotional feel for the horses you can look down into the paddock and people like to sort of see sort of how the horse is behaving. >> anthony: all right i smell victory, or is that horse shit? >> anthony: fourth race number two to win. >> anthony: oh no. ughh, smoked. i need to win on a long shot now. i need to get well. i need to come back. >> anthony: built on the side of a former conduit for brooklyn water works that brought water

from eastern long island to the ridgewood reservoir, aqueduct racetrack opened in 1894. the glory days of horse racing are long gone, but for those few proud remaining degenerate gamblers with a few bucks and a dream, aqueduct is still there. >> anthony: it's a judgment free zone here though. >> laurie: totally. >> anthony: it's kind of a come as you are situation. >> laurie: yes, i think that's true of queens in general and you can kind of fly under the radar, you know? you have not been harassed too much today right? >> anthony: no, guy comes up to me he says "hey you look like anthony bourdain." i said yeah i wish i had his money, he says "you're right, that [ bleep ]." it was great. it was like the perfect encounter. >> laurie: that's queens. nobody gives a shit. ♪

>> laurie: all right number two right up, up top. >> anthony: yes. >> laurie: come on number two keep it keep it. >> anthony: it's a close race, it's a nail biter. >> laurie: are you kidding me? >> anthony: dropped like a stone. >> laurie: way to suck, so promising. >> anthony: no braces for my little girl. >> laurie: it's not over. there's always another race. we test all of our paints and stains for months. or even years. because you deserve paint that's done right. that's proudly particular. benjamin moore. the standard for paint professionals.

only at local paint and hardware stores. ♪ this goes out to you, to you, to you and you ♪ ♪ if i can do it, you can too if i can do it, you can too ♪ ♪ see life, life is a moment ♪ the story doesn't need the writer's involvement ♪ ♪ so edit this for me ♪ don't embellish and twist it, please ♪ ♪ don't embed it in mysteries ♪ edit this for me ♪ 1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2 ♪ ♪ ♪ raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ♪ ♪ bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens ♪ ♪ brown paper packages tied up with strings ♪ ♪ these are a few of my favorite things ♪ ♪ ♪

stella artois.are a few of my favorite things ♪ voila! pockets. enjoy! why let life....keep you from enjoying life...

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>> ray: i'm ray, i'm from guyana originally. my father raised birds so i ended up with the same hobby. it's called bird racing instead of like running races they can sing and race you know. the first bird to chirp to 50 won the prize.

they're worth a lot of money, and if he become a champion he win a couple races, the price goes up 10,000, 8,000 dollars. ♪ you've got to be as gentle as possible. so i just hold it in my hand because if you hit bumps i rattle him you know? i want him to be as calm as possible. >> ray: i'll find parking as close as possible to where we're going so the birds don't be exposed to the cold weather. >> ray: right now we're trying to warm up the birds. sometimes you bring a bird today and he's not in the mood nothing happens we just get another day. alright you ready? ♪

>> anthony: the world is in queens and like the world as a whole, it is constantly changing. here in the jamaica neighborhood, a growing number of immigrants from african have put down roots and with them restaurants catering to their tastes. like here at africana. >> blessing: my name is blessing osagiede. i come from nigeria and this is a nigerian restaurant. we started in 2000. the first three years were really, really tough, but thank god we're still alive were here

we're healthy. my mother had a restaurant in nigeria, for 20 years before i came here. i love to cook. when you come in here you feel at home you feel like it's the motherland, you know. >> anthony: this food is really good. >> sarah: it is very good and she was worried about it being too spicy, i don't think it's too spicy. >> anthony: no never a problem for me. >> anthony: sarah khan has made it her mission to find and write about some of these great little off the grid places throughout the borough. >> anthony: you're studying the intersection between food and culture. how did you get to that point? >> sarah: so i kind of cobbled together a way to travel, learn languages, and eat. >> anthony: and do you ever worry that by celebrating these communities you're helping destroy them? >> sarah: oh absolutely, absolutely.. >> anthony: i worry about it. >> sarah: but, you know, those stories need to be told, through what they do, though how they survive. >> nikita: my name is nikita. i have been here in new york since 2001.

i am from gujarat, india. ♪ >> anthony: every meal, every dish, has a story, often a very personal one, often a story of hardship, separation, difficult times, but when somebody cooks for you they are saying something. they are telling you something about themselves. where they come from, who they are, what makes them happy. >> kim tase-soo: my name is kim tase-soo. i came to queens from seoul in 1974 and stared living here. >> anthony: a whole hell of a lot of people in queens, the people who make the borough what it is. who make it such a great place to eat and explore are very far from the places that they once called home. ♪ but queens is home now. ♪

♪ [ fireworks ] >> anthony: this is the story of one man, one chef, and a city. also, it's about france, and a lot of other chefs, and a culinary tradition that grew up to change the world of gastronomy. it's about a family tree, about the trunk from which many branches grew. and it's about food, lots of food. great food, some of the greatest food on earth. ♪ ♪ i took a walk through this beautiful world ♪