REMEMBER old New York, where immigrants strived, cultures collided, grit outshined glamour and ethnic restaurants were filled with ethnic crowds, not Instagramming foodies? Before Manhattan commerce was diluted with H&M and Starbucks, and Brooklyn became half hipster playground, half suburb substitute? That city lives on in Queens, where the forces of gentrification have barely nipped at the edges of the city’s most expansive borough, home to 2.2 million people, from (it seems) 2.2 million backgrounds. Though its coastal areas have only just begun to recover from the destruction of Hurricane Sandy, most of the borough’s vast territory was untouched by the storm, and is full of sights and sounds unlike anything you’ll find a short subway ride away in “The City.”