Happy Garden

Well, it only took me about 5 years living in Astoria (7 living in NYC total) to find some decent chinese food. There is a cheapo chinese joint for almost every Starbucks here in the city and all it's boroughs, but the quality generally leaves something to be desired. That was, until I happened on "Happy Garden". I forget just how I happened on them exactly. I think I just was searching online for a new place to go since my last "this can sort of pass as food" chinese place just wasn't cutting it anymore. It is frightening if you ever leave NYC and order chinese food, because the chicken actually looks like chicken, and not some other questionable game. It can be disturbing, and yet...I definitely still eat it. Well...Happy Garden truly is an entire garden full of happy. Happy chicken, moist on the outside, crispy and General Tsao-y on the outside (only if you order General Tsao's). They have eggrolls with fresh ingredients inside a tender, flakey shell and just the right am0unt of egg roll greasiness to really hit the spot. In the first week of discovering this place (on yelp.com), my roommates must have ordered from here at least 3 times. I found myself yearning for a night to be home so I could order in again too. Very quickly the lady on the phone recognized me, but it wasn't just because I was ordering from them a lot. It turns out that we are one of the only customers to request fortune cookies. She finds this absolutely absurd and hysterical, like I am requesting that the delivery boy tapes his eyes back so they look even more chinese or something. I have never been more paranoid about asking for fortune cookies! It is strangely common these days, at least here in NYC, for them not to automatically give you fortune cookies, and I find that highly upsetting...so I request them. This, for reasons I may never fully comprehendm is high comedy.