Good Chinese Restaurants on the Wane?

[Foofoogal]

Honey has a standing order to bring me a bowl of wonton soup on my deathbed if I am still able to sip it anyway. lol

1. Italian
2. Seafood
3. Chinese

in that order my food loves. I only tolerate Mexican food as it is his favorite. I don't exactly know when Mexican food is good but I for sure know when it is bad.

 

[Undertow]

I must throw my two cents in here (albeit late).

When I entered the world of "Chinese" food it was at a place called The Rice Bowl in Beaverdale, Des Moines, IA, run by a Chinese family that has owned the eatery since the mid-40's (or so my grandmother claims).

The place is a "dive" by some standards; it's not very showy or bright, the presentation isn't the greatest, the furniture and decor looks as if it came straight from the early 70's. However, the food is crispy and delicate, the flavors are bold and precise, and the food's texture feels, get this...crunchy.

I've been spoiled, I guess, because the slop you get today isn't appealing whatsoever. I know people that prefer the new to the old, but I chalk that up to experiencing the new and thinking the old is "weird" and "different".

I will say one thing; Chinese food today that has become the norm can stay in the boiling vats it originated.

 

[Fletch]

Sounds like a potential Central Iowa meetup location...when the family had a trip planned from Ames when I was a wee sprog in the 70s, I would ask to be left off at Service Hobby to check out the rare and exotic model plane kits, then over to Reed's for some ice cream.

 

[kyda]

I have to admit that we are spoiled when it comes to chinese food, there is a great one just uo the road from us called The Green Ocean. It has become a bit of a luxury to have it but we enjoy it when we do.

 

[Mojito]

I went off Chinese food after living in Singapore. Once you've eaten the sublime food that is Singaporean (be it any of the mainland China provincial styles, or local specialties like the Peranaken dishes), the deepfried, homogenised dishes served locally just don't seem to cut it. I particularly dislike the battered, deep fried chunks of dried pork served in a sugary sauce that seems coloured with as much red food dye as it can be drenched in and served up as "sweet and sour pork". Many of the Dim Sum restaurants and some of the food outlets in suburbs like Haymarket, Castle Hill and Cabramatta (the latter also well known for its Vietnamese food and population) are excepted from this general censure. I reached rock bottom, though, with the "Singapore Noodles" often served locally - thin egg noodles with a sprinkling of curry powder. This is blasphemous when one has dined even at a basic Singapore hawker stall and been served sublime food. Cold, greasy, fried - ugh!

For a while there, I preferred Thai food, as there were an abundance of good local Thai restaurants run by recent Thai immigrants. Unfortunately some of them have taken to serving lowest-common-denominator rubbish in recent years. On the other hand, some genuine Malay and Singaporean restaurants have opened up here now. I'm no longer scared to order satay - there's a remote chance that the satay sauce may contain actual peanuts. And I've even had a passable Mee Goreng at the local noodle bar (nothing like the Singapore Mee Goreng - sigh).

In Sydney, I *highly* recommend Temasek in Parramatta. It's run by Singaporeans, and they do brilliant Malay and Singaporean dishes. The friends who introduced me to it no longer live in "Paz", but we've still made the trip over many times to dine there or take food home. They've even done a classic Chilli Crab with Australian mud crabs, something my father always fantasised about when we lived in Singapore.

 

[BinkieBaumont]

Swan River Colony being the closest Australian City to Asia does have a plethora of Chinese Restaurants, (and Asian) we have a chain Called Hahns that do lovely meals at great prices I love Pad Thai ( Thai noodles, with a lovely sauce and ground peanuts on top) with its own website and a mission statement maybe it should be Mc Hahns

http://www.hanscafe.com.au/

For a genuine family run Chinese I adore "The South Sea" in Fitzgerald street North Swan River Colony"

http://www.webmenu.com.au/menus/WA/south_sea_chinese_restaurant/

 

[Undertow]

Sounds like a potential Central Iowa meetup location...when the family had a trip planned from Ames when I was a wee sprog in the 70s, I would ask to be left off at Service Hobby to check out the rare and exotic model plane kits, then over to Reed's for some ice cream.

Oh my...weren't those the days...

Reed's used to serve some of the best ice cream of my childhood and, although still standing, has become more of a "hipster yuppie" location more interested in expensive coffee and cheap Australian wine. Ice cream? Not if they can help it.

Oh well, there's always Snookies!

 

[John in Covina]

One of the shifts that tends to occur is a long time established restaurant with fine dishes sells out and the new owners simply find every way to "save" money when making the same menu resulting a general downgrade of the results.

Anybody remember that some dishes that were served with a garnish of freshly toasted CASHEWS on the top. Then one day you come in and the cashews have been replaced by peanuts. Over time those peanuts get older and older and taste about as fresh as a damp mildewy basement. Yet they, the makers, never notice.

ANother thing that is scarey is the ratings by the health department. Here in California, in the LA area every restaurant is rated by the health department on their ability to handle, cook and serve in a safe manner. The restaurant receives a card with a letter grade A really good little or no important problems then B and C then on to number grades. Each step down from an "A" is the chance you take for bad handling and resultant health situations.

It is scarey how many restaurant operate with b's and less ratings, I won't go in myself.

 

[just_me]

I grew up eating Chinese food in NYC's Chinatown. I love all styles of chinese food, except the super sweet sauced stuff.

I don't care much for places like PF Chang's. Pricey, yuppy Chinese food.

I remember being surprised in Boston when they served bread on the table. Never saw that before, or since, in a Chinese restaurant. The other thing about Chinese food and Boston is that it seems like everyone eats Chinese food on New Year's Eve. lol

The worst Chinese food I ever had was in Price or Helper Utah. Not only were the chinese food dishes terrible, but they had southern fried chicken on the menu.

 

[Diamondback]

The best Asian food I've ever had in my life was a place called the "Mongolian Bar-B-Q" on upper State Street in Santa Barbara, when I was living out there in the early eighties. You pick the meat, vegetables and sauce and hand your bowl over to the chef, who stir-fries it with a long sword on a big round sizzling-hot griddle. Fresh, hot, delicious, and very inexpensive.

I've never seen anyplace like this in the East, and I dearly miss it. It was the one thing I really liked about California.

Ah yes, the "Mongolian Grill" genre. Up here in the Seattle/Portland area, we have a chain called Chang's that's pretty good, all you can eat for IIRC $10 (lunch) or $15 (dinner).

Other than that, good Chinese is really hard to find around here--I've got a little place I usually frequent, but identifying it would compromise my "cloak of secrecy". (Seattleites, if I ever make one of your events maybe I'll tell face-to-face.)

 

[John in Covina]

The worst Chinese food I ever had was in Price or Helper Utah. Not only were the chinese food dishes terrible, but they had southern fried chicken on the menu.

**********
Southern Chinese Fried Chicken?

 

[John in Covina]

I have had the Mongolian Grill style and it has been excellent to good. The big thing is since you select what you want in it and then they cook it you have a good idea as to the freshness and it was truly made to order.

 

[Brian Sheridan]

Brad,
I've got a friend who's anti-veggie. When my wife and I, both vegetarian, go out to eat with him, waiters tend to get confused. lol

I would think that would be easy....tell the waiter, that person gets all of our meat and bring us all of his vegetables.

 

[Brian Sheridan]

We went to Chinatown in Honolulu looking for lunch. I picked the place that was loaded with all Asians. The menu wasn't in English. It was dim sum so I just said yes to everything that came by the table. My wife nearly barfed after I ate the chicken feet and pastries filled with tripe.

 

[Diamondback]

I have had the Mongolian Grill style and it has been excellent to good. The big thing is since you select what you want in it and then they cook it you have a good idea as to the freshness and it was truly made to order.

Also lets you be more finicky about your meat--I usually prefer lean and very thin-sliced, almost shaved, which is better for both soaking up the sauce (I usually hang back from the grill-line a few minutes and allow my stuff some time to marinate before it hits the heat) and for speed of cooking.

 

[Lincsong]

I wonder if Mueng Cheung Lau is still open in Hilo, HI????

 

[green papaya]

We went to Chinatown in Honolulu looking for lunch. I picked the place that was loaded with all Asians. The menu wasn't in English. It was dim sum so I just said yes to everything that came by the table. My wife nearly barfed after I ate the chicken feet and pastries filled with tripe.

yep, thats where you go for the authentic Chinese dishes, go where the Chinese eat.

they would never go to a place like Panda Express or Mongolian BBQ thats for "LO FANS" lol

all that fried sweet and sour stuff is crap, the people that run the restaurant dont even eat that stuff, it's purely Americanized thats what most people are looking for so thats what they make.

 

[Undertow]

all that fried sweet and sour stuff is crap, the people that run the restaurant dont even eat that stuff, it's purely Americanized thats what most people are looking for so thats what they make.

And now that causes me to beg the question (and not directly at you papaya ):

If Chinese or Chinese-American cooks are making this stuff, this sweet and sour heavily-sauced stuff, does that make it Chinese food?

What makes a food "authentic"? Is it because the food is prepared by a specific race of people? Or because it's served a specific type of restaurant? For instance, how is one taco more authentic than another?

I ask this question because so many things have become Americanized over so many years, by so many races of people, that it seems like nothing is really authentic anymore unless you're in the country of origin eating peasants' food made by 15th generation inhabitants.

Look at Sushi; there are many forms of sushi but the most widely known is a "quick" style that's only been in existence for around two hundred years. It was primary sold by food vendors on the street and was certainly nothing to shake a stick at. It gradually became popular, especially among the poor, and made its way over to the States. And you can bet I would think sushi made in a Japanese restaurant, by a Japanese chef would be authentic Japanese food. But who knows? Sushi started in China. [huh]

 

[Inusuit]

Count your blessings.

You don't have to search for fine dining in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

 

[Mojito]

And now that causes me to beg the question (and not directly at you papaya ):

If Chinese or Chinese-American cooks are making this stuff, this sweet and sour heavily-sauced stuff, does that make it Chinese food?

What makes a food "authentic"? Is it because the food is prepared by a specific race of people? Or because it's served a specific type of restaurant? For instance, how is one taco more authentic than another?

I ask this question because so many things have become Americanized over so many years, by so many races of people, that it seems like nothing is really authentic anymore unless you're in the country of origin eating peasants' food made by 15th generation inhabitants.

Look at Sushi; there are many forms of sushi but the most widely known is a "quick" style that's only been in existence for around two hundred years. It was primary sold by food vendors on the street and was certainly nothing to shake a stick at. It gradually became popular, especially among the poor, and made its way over to the States. And you can bet I would think sushi made in a Japanese restaurant, by a Japanese chef would be authentic Japanese food. But who knows? Sushi started in China. [huh]

It's a fair point. Goes both ways, too - I was fascinated by the Japanese spin on some Western foods when I visited briefly (loved their Mozart Kugal Balls, complete with manga Mozart portrait on the wrapping). Much modern cuisine seems to be fusion to some degree or another - we see a lot of "authentic" Indian food touted, but most of these dishes, particularly the curries, had their origins in what was served on P&O liners! The Singaporean dishes I mentioned that I love are often sublime examples of fusion - the local Peranakan style dates to early Chinese settlers who married local Malays. Are they any less an "authentic" style because they go back only a couple of centuries rather than many hundreds? And is Chop Suey any less a respectable dish because it may have originated with people of Chinese ancestory in 19th Century America, or does it gain respectability because it may have originated in Taishan in the Guandong Province of China? Surely it should stand or fall on its own merits, unless one is preparing a menu specifically for regional authenticity.

I think the quality of the food is what counts. I am not against influences going either way - unless they turn dishes into a crude, homogenous, bland load of carbs and fat. Like the deep frying of many "Chinese" dishes in America, Australia and other parts of the world.