“Pakistani people love spicy goat and lamb dishes,” he said, “and you can’t get those anywhere else in New York. Even the Tibetan and Nepali people come here. They have their own restaurants, but they like these dishes too.”

South Asian food in Jackson Heights today is as diverse as the diaspora itself: 73rd Street has become a Bengali restaurant row, and the neighborhood now boasts two dozen Tibetan and Nepali kitchens and carts — exponential growth from a mere handful a decade earlier. As Fatima Kamil, the third-generation manager of Jackson Heights’ Kababish puts it, “The food is a lot more specific nowadays. Before there might be an Indian place or a Thai place, but now it’s Bangkok Thai or Esan Thai, which makes the food way better.”

This is especially true in Elmhurst, the neighborhood just south of Jackson Heights across Roosevelt Avenue. While Thai immigrants have lived in the area for decades, once-sleepy streets like Woodside Avenue have recently transformed into edible exhibits on the range and depth of Thai cooking.

“There was almost nothing here when I opened six years ago,” says Boyd Vich, the owner of Tea Cup Cafe, an unassuming pastel-painted shop popular with young people from Thailand, Tibet and the Philippines. Now he shares the street with half a dozen regional Thai restaurants and groceries, each with its own niche. “A lot more people in Queens have been to Thailand, so I want my food to be original and authentic.”