John Wang - The World Eats Here

T he W orld E ats H ere : Amazing Food and the Inspiring People Who Make It at New Yorks Queens Night Market

Text copyright 2020 by John Wang and Storm Garner

Photographs copyright 2020 by John Taggart, unless otherwise noted

Design and illustrations copyright 2020 by The Experiment, LLC

is a continuation of this copyright page.

All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or online reviews, no portion of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

The Experiment, LLC

220 East 23rd Street, Suite 600

New York, NY 10010-4658

theexperimentpublishing.com

THE EXPERIMENT and its colophon are registered trademarks of The Experiment, LLC. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and The Experiment was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been capitalized.

The Experiments books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk for premiums and sales promotions as well as for fund-raising or educational use. For details, contact us at .

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request

eISBN: 978-1-61519-664-7

Cover design, text design, and illustrations by Beth Bugler

Cover photographs by John Taggart (food), Storm Garner (crowd), and iStock.com/Alex Levine (lights, front and back)

Back cover photograph by John Taggart

FINGER FOODS AND OTHER SMALL BITES

MEAT AND FISH, FRONT AND CENTER

SANDWICHES

SALADS

FLATBREADS, TORTILLAS N MOREWRAPPED AND STUFFED

RICE, NOODLES, AND PASTA

SOUPS AND STEWS

PASTRIES AND SWEETS

DRINKS

John Wang

THE QUEENS
NIGHT MARKET

Its magic hour on a Saturday night: The summer heat melts away with the setting sun as a cross-section of the world gathers on a sliver of land tucked behind a science museum in Queens. Scents from Mauritius to Moldova to Mexico whet thousands of appetites. Family members come closer together, daring each other to taste morsels of far-flung origin. Children crowd the dance floor, replaced by grownups indulging in a little Cha-Cha Slide or improv tango as bedtime rolls around.

But the relaxed ease and palpable sense of joy belie the serious ambitions behind this weekly gathering: to create NYCs most diverse, welcoming, and affordable community spaceand to celebrate the people, their food, and their stories that make up this incredible international city.

In a city chock-full of food fairs, food events, and food experiences, the Queens Night Market stands out among its peers. Now entering its sixth season, the Queens Night Market is NYCs most diverse food bazaar: It has drawn over a million patrons and averages nearly fifteen thousand visitors each Saturday night. But its not trendy and fashionable, per se. Its obsessively democratic and accessible. A quick scan of the visitors reveals a uniquely representative distribution of ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic status. The food stalls themselves tend to be multigenerational family affairs, with the younger generation often taking direction from their forebears, as three generations laugh, cook, eat, and bond under the same blue 10 x 10 tent.

I was born and raised in Texas, but my love affair with night markets began during the childhood summers I spent visiting family in Taiwan. While I was there, I begged daily to explore the night markets. Theres an ineffable electricity in the air when a city gathers in a welcoming space until the wee hours, oblivious to the class or cultural divides that might otherwise separate us socially. It was a feeling I wanted to replicate in NYC.

And thats how the Queens Night Market was born: out of my fondness for Taiwans ubiquitous night markets, my distaste for the skyward cost of living in NYC, and my sheer adoration for the citys cultural and ethnic diversity. In spite of standard business school doctrine, I set out to prove that a business could cut across most socioeconomic and cultural barriersnot just in theory, but in practice. From the outset, the target demographic was literally everyone.

Living in a city that is increasingly unaffordable by the day, I was convinced that affordability was the single greatest equalizer. Besides, whats the point of living in a foodie city if few people can afford to enjoy the food? So I came up with a novel $5 price cap, with a few $6 exceptions, to help ensure that the audience would be a real mosaic of ethnicity, age, and income level.

I fully expected the headwinds to prevail, but it was exactly the kind of risky, sure-to-fail project that I had given up my corporate lawyer job to pursue. In some ways, my complete lack of experience was a blessing in disguise. The inexperience allowed me to dream without the strictures of standard practices and choruses of it-cant-be-done, and ultimately, to create something I would actually want to attend myself.

And it worked: To date, the event has launched 300 brand-new businesses in NYC and represented over 90 countries through its food. NYC is home to more than 150 nationalities, with over 120 of them in Queens aloneand we aspire to represent all of them through our vendors one day.

Storm Garner

THE QUEENS NIGHT MARKET
VENDOR STORIES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

I met John in 2014, when he was toying with the idea of starting a night market in New York. Though I was too much of a mess to date him or anyone at the time, I fell in love with him as a friend and wanted to help actualize his dream. So using my writing and filmmaking skills, I made his first Kickstarter video, sent it to all my foodie and journalist friends, and connected him with a few people who I hoped could steer his vision toward realization.