A Chinese American buffet in the fairly White suburbs of the Midwest is probably where you would least expect an authentic Sichuan style restaurant to be housed in, but you would be wrong! To my pleasant surprise (and initial skepticism of both my friends and myself), you can find real deal Sichuan flavors at Chuancai Fang, a restaurant inside a restaurant of sorts inside the Formosa Seafood Buffet. In actuality, it’s really the B side of the same restaurant, just with a different menu.
Walking into the buffet we were greeted by a delightfully pleasant host where I explained we were a table of 3 and looking to order from the Sichuan/Chuancai Fang menu. As we were being shown to our table, he chatted in decent Mandarin (better than my sad excuse for Mandarin) to the server that we were here to eat from the Sichuan menu. The server then came over, greeted me (specifically me as the only Chinese person at the table) and peppered me with a few questions in Mandarin I could barely comprehend. I somehow managed and got us some water, hot tea, and a few minutes to browse the menu.
While browsing the menu, one of my friends, who is an aficionado of Sichuanese food, deliberately wanted someone spicy, especially the plate of fried chicken tossed under heaping mounds of peppers he loves. We ended up finding it, luckily, after doing some Chinese language Googling. My other friend, who is less spice tolerant, looked at the menu and found something decent with only 2 out of 3 chile peppers in rating. Here’s what we ended up ordering:
Lazi Chicken and Chuancai Fang
Lazi Ji辣子鸡 – This was the fried chicken dish we were looking for. The chicken was perfectly fried with just the right amount of crispiness on the outside and juicy chewiness on the inside. Most bites had a nice coating of Sichuan peppercorn for a light numbing/tingling sensation. We all agreed, however, that we wish this dish was even spicier since we hope and expected it with the 3 pepper rating. Definitely good, but maybe next time we can ask for it to be spicier
Tea Tree Mushrooms in Fire Wok干锅茶树菇 – This was a dry pot filled with tea tree mushrooms (which are kinda like enoki mushrooms meet shiitake mushrooms), potatoes, cauliflower, thin slices of pork belly, sesame seeds, and celery. The pork belly fat and the decent, but not overpowering, amount of spice really helped to give the dish a lot of flavor. This was honestly my favorite dish of the whole meal.
Stir Fried Shredded Beef with Veg干煸牛肉丝 – The dish contained celery and matchstick slices of brief stir fried with peppers. While the celery and spices were on point, the beef was definitely overcooked and tough. it wasn’t necessarily bad, but just not on par with the other two dishes we had.
Tea Tree Mushrooms in Fire Wok
While we only got to sample 3 of the dishes, all in all it was a fairly impressive, especially given the modest expectations from an otherwise American Chinese buffet. The spice could have picked up a notch (I am not sure if they might have toned down the spice level given that the wait staff could clearly tell we were a group of 2 white guys and an American Born Chinese), but the flavors were very good and something similar to what you might expect in other larger metropolitan areas like Detroit or Philadelphia. It could be that the biotech presence of Eli Lilly in Indianapolis is increasing the number of Chinese immigrants in the region, but either way there is clearly enough demand for this pleasant delight of an authentic Sichuan restaurant within a Chinese buffet. Hopefully there will be more restaurants like this in Indianapolis in the future.
A month and a half ago my mom’s side of the family gathered to celebrate the lunar new year. As my brother and sister-in-law also wanted to show their newly remodeled house, the decision was made to go up to Irvine and have dinner at the Irvine branch of Meizhou Dongpo.
For background information: Meizhou Dongpo is a chain of moderately upscale restaurants from Mainland China. They have dozens, if not hundreds, of locations in Mainland China and have grown their presence in the United States, mostly in metro Los Angeles. Their signature dish is the Beijing style roast duck (or Peking duck for most Americans).
We made a reservation for 6:30 but were able to get seated a little early as they held our table of 12 in advance. Immediately the servers asked if we wanted to place an order for duck and what order did we want (I believe we settled on a half duck). The duck takes a little while to prepare, presumably because of how popular it is, so they take your order for that as early as possible. They are so attentive to the duck question that no less than 3 different servers asked us 4 times in the span of 15 minutes to confirm that we had placed our duck order already. It’s that serious.
We ordered a number of other dishes as well, which you can see in my review below. Mind you, we also attempted to order both fresh crab and a whole fish, but the market price was extraordinarily expensive. The crab went for $35 per pound and the fish was $59(!) a pound. Given that, we quickly canceled both. With that out of the way, here were the dishes we did eat:
Meizhou Roast Duck
Meizhou Roast Duck (half) – Unlike most Cantonese seafood restaurants you find in the US, Meizhou Dongpo correctly used the thin crepes (as opposed to thick mantou buns) you’d find in Beijing. The duck is good with light seasoning and freshly julienned scallions and sauce. I don’t think it’s the best Beijing style duck I’ve had (that would probably go to Berkeley’s Great China) but it is pretty good.
Sole Filet with Scallions – This is what we ended up ordering instead of the live fish and it was pretty good. It had a creamy-dish sauce that was mild but tasty and there were some very nicely cooked bean sprouts
Dongpo Pork Belly with Preserved Vegetables – pork belly was very tender and the sauce hit just the right notes of being both slightly sweet but savory. The preserved vegetables were decent but could have used slightly more bit
Stir Fried String Beans & Mapo Tofu
Stir-Fried Pea Tips – Honestly this dish is really hard to mess up. I couldn’t complain with the copious use of garlic
Wok-Fried String Beans – These were so good that my brother decided to order them twice. The string beans wok fried til just blistering with a general helping of garlic and peppers
Stir-Fried Mushrooms – I really liked the stir fried mushrooms. It was a mix of a couple different mushrooms (like white mushrooms and shiitakes) with a generous amount of garlic and what seemed to be a savory source with soy and hoisin
Mapo Tofu – The flavors of the maps tofu were generally good, if not the most spectacular that I had. It could have been a little spicier and had some male flavor, but it was not bad
Sautéed Diced Beef Filet with Black Pepper – The beef was pretty tender and nicely seasoned. Portions, however, were a little small
Cucumber Salad – This is one of my brother’s favorites. It’s very nicely pickled, though I think they could be even better with a little kick of heat with them
Sole Filet with Scallions
Despite the sticker shock of the crab and fish at the beginning, the food was great, if a little expensive. I would definitely order the duck, mushrooms, string beans, and fish fillets again. However, it was well worth it for the meal celebrating THE biggest holiday on the Chinese calendar. While Irvine has a plethora of Chinese and Taiwanese food, Meizhou Dongpo is a rare place in the area for upscale food for a family meal.
With the pandemic continuing at least another 6 months to a year, at least, before possible widespread distribution of a successful vaccine, like many folks, I have turned to honing my cooking skills in lieu of being able to eat out. While I do love takeout from my favorite places, it’s still not quite the same and I have learned to embrace my new kitchen culinary adventures, especially in my new home with much wider counter space.
Some of my friends have even remarked how good my food looks on my Instagram and have asked for what recipes I use. I figured I might as well turn it into a blog post so my slightly expanded audience of readers can also see what I’m cooking up and which recipes I’m using. I’ll also give some tips and tricks that I have found useful/helpful during this time.
Recipes/Cooks I Follow
First, I want to shout out the various cooks and chefs that have written and published a number of recipes that I have loved to use and go back to over and over again.
Number one among them is the family behind the cooking blog/website The Woks of Life. They have volumes of recipes that are really good, especially compared to other similar recipes I have used for certain dishes. Read down for specific recipes I love, but their blog is full of how-tos, tips, and even guides to various ingredients. If you’re newer to cooking Chinese food, I would definitely give those how-tos and introductions a read.
Next shoutout goes to Fuchsia Dunlop, a renown chef and expert in Chinese cuisine, especially Sichuanese food. Yes, she is white, but I do find her knowledge to be quite extensive and her writing to be rather approachable. In fact, I have her cookbook Every Grain of Rice in my kitchen and used a number of recipes from it. For my vegetarian/vegan friends, many of her recipes in the book are vegetarian friendly or can easily be adapted to be vegetarian as well. Her latest book, the Land of Fish and Water goes in depth to the food of the Jiangnan region (Shanghai along with Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces of the Yangtze River delta).
Since I am Cantonese and do love Cantonese cooking, I’ll also shoutout Tony and Karen’s Kitchen on Youtube. Yes, Tony speaks in Cantonese but there are easy to understand English subtitles. There will also be links to his recipes from the YouTube to his English language blog. From there you can learn some excellent Cantonese classics or foray into some Hong Kong “western”/fusion cuisine.
There are definitely other sources I have gotten recipes from (including from my cousin for a modified quasi- family recipe of Hong Kong style “Russian borscht”), but those would be my top 3 sources where you would have well over a month’s a recipes to cook with if you cooked something new every day.
Go-To Recipes
The recipes below generally go from what I view as “easiest” to “most involved” but your mileage may very.
Ants Climbing Up a Tree and Dry Pot Cauliflower
“Ants Climbing Up a Tree” by The Woks of Life– a new in my repertoire but honestly this recipe is SO EASY. You do need to go to your Asian grocery store to find chili bean paste (Lee Kum Kee my preferred brand for almost all things), but after you prep the ingredients, which isn’t a lot, it cooks in minutes and get a hearty dish for 3-4 people to share.
Tomato with Egg (Chinese style) – the Woks of Life and the New York Times both have their separate recipes and my version is like a combo of the two (I do use ketchup to add some sweetness/thickness to the sauce and make it more like cha chaan teng style Tomato with Egg but I don’t use cornstarch as NYT suggests). While the recipes themselves are simple, what really trips up the dish is cooking the eggs. I suggest lowering the heat and folding in the eggs gently, but quickly, to get that fluffy texture you want for the dish.
干煸四季豆 (Dried Fried String Beans) by The Woks of Life – While I never got my mom’s recipe before she passed, this is the next best things for me. The key to this recipe is to shallow fry the green beans and then pat the oil dry after to make that signature wrinkly/crisp texture without it being too oily.
干鍋菜花 (Dry Pot Cauliflower) by The Woks of Life – This is one of my current recipe staples. It’s fairly easy, hearty, and pretty flavorful. Instead of pork belly I use bacon and slice the raw bacon into bite size pieces but either way will be tasty. This year you can even find these Chinese style cauliflower at Trader Joes but you can also get a large head at a local Chinese supermarket (like a 99 Ranch or T&T Supermarket)
Slivered Pork with Golden Chives and Steamed Eggs
Slivered Pork with Chinese Chives by Fuchsia Dunlop– I actually use golden chives for this dish but honestly any chive variety should be fine. While the portions itself is fine for a small side dish, I recommend doubling the amount of everything for something heartier as a main/co-equal dish at the table.
Twice Cooked Pork and Purple Amaranth with Fermented Tofu
Twice Cooked Pork– The recipe I use is from Dunlop’s book but this Serious Eats recipe is very similar and should be just as tasty. Dunlop’s recipe calls for boiling the pork belly only 20 minutes but also to chill the pork belly overnight.
乾炒牛河 (Stir-Fried Rice Noodle with Beef)– The Tony’s Kitchen recipe is my first and favorite one to make this classic comfort Cantonese dish. You definitely need to separate the fresh rice noodles which is a lot of labor, but helpful in making sure the rice noodles don’t stick. I still haven’t mastered stir frying the rice noodles to a point where they are as smooth, separated, and not as sticky as a restaurant or a pro ,but the results of this dish are nonetheless delicious.
Other Easy Meals
Like many other people, I can get exhausted or lazy and just need a quick dinner so here’s a couple very easy things to cook with little effort.
Ma Po Tofu – Yes, you make make some great homemade recipes for this, but honestly I am all about just using a Ma Po Tofu sauce packet either from House Foods (Med Hot) or Lee Kum Kee. If you’re using Lee Kum Kee, I recommend using 2 packets. Cube a packet of tofu, cook the ground pork, and throw in the sauce and then tofu and you have a hearty main dish in minutes.
Stir Fried Chinese Greens – Stir fried veggies are very quick and versatile. All you need are aromatics (ginger, garlic, and any kind of onion/shallot) and a leafy Chinese green (bok choy, you choy/choy sum, Chinese broccoli, etc) will do (though you may want to blanch the Chinese broccoli if you use that). Add the sliced onion to the wok to cook and the ginger for about a minute. Quickly add the garlic and stir fry that too (so it doesn’t burn). Then add the leafy green of choice, seasoning with salt and pepper and cook until your choice of how crunchy/tender you like the greens.
Frozen Dumplings and Instant Ramen – Ultimate laziness? I boil some Asian dumplings (I generally like pork with chives or pork with cabbage ones), then make instant ramen (my go to brands are Tung-I onion flavor or any flavor of IndoMie). Add stir fried greens of choice and voila, easy meal.
Tips/Tricks
Things I’ve learned cooking during this pandemic that have been helpful:
Always have some kind of allium on hand, even when you think you might not need it. Onions, garlic, shallots? Just buy some as you shop as they’ll always come in handy.
Cooking a lot of Chinese food? Keep some ground pork in hand. A lot of recipes I like require ground pork. It’s versatile, it’s easy, and it’s cheap. You can substitute ground pork for ground meat/vegetarian substitute of choice but ground pork will give it that great flavor.
Sauces/Cooking Liquids to keep on hand – Shaoxing wine (very versatile and can use in stir frying), light/regular soy sauce, dark soy sauce (thicker, more rich soy sauce usually for coloring), hot chili oil (never enough!), oyster sauce (lots of quick and easy umami), and vegetable/chicken stock (can even use to cook rice).
Hope this helps and inspires you to add some Chinese food intro your pandemic cooking routine. If needed, you can definitely contact me here or on Instagram for any questions or follow up.
My trips of Vancouver always contain a stop for dim sum at a restaurant I’ve never been to before. This weekend’s quick stop to see a friend going to grad school at UBC was no exception. This time we decided to go to Yue Restaurant (formerly Yue Delicacy) which was on my list to try from last year.
Yue Delicacy is a relatively small to medium size Cantonese seafood restaurant in one of the many food-centric strip malls that dot Alexandria Road in Richmond, BC. Parking was tight, albeit we were able to grab a spot quickly. Though if you don’t have a car, it’s a reasonably close walk from the Landsdowne Canada Line SkyTrain station. My friend, her friend, and I walked in at 11:30AM on a Sunday and waited a few minutes for a table with a reservation I had placed a couple days prior. However, I’d say the reservation might not be necessary as while the restaurant was full, there weren’t that many people waiting for a table.
Once seated we marveled at the very stately decor that was elegant yet modern (which Chef Tony could have learned from). But after a quick scan of the decor, we zoomed into what mattered most, the food! There were a number of things we wanted to try and eat so we ordered the following 9 dishes (all the Chinese names are correct, but the English names are approximate as I didn’t snap a photo of the English dim sum menu):
Pork Spareribs with Black Bean Sauce (豉汁蒸排骨) – These were probably the meatiest and fattest pork spareribs I have eaten in years! For the most part it was super juicy with just enough black bean sauce to give a depth of flavor, but not overpower. I would definitely eat more of these again!
Chinese Broccoli with Ginger Sauce (生炒薑汁芥蘭片) – In contrast, this dish was not that good. While the leaves seemed fresh, the stems were definitely a little old/too ripe with that acrid bitterness you can taste with not as fresh Chinese Broccoli. That said, the ginger garlic sauce was good which helped make the dish a little more edible.
Shrimp Dumplings at Yue Restaurant
Steamed Shrimp Dumpling (水晶蝦餃皇) – These shrimp dumplings were nearly perfect! Perhaps not as good as Kirin at City Hall or Ming Court in Hong Kong, they were on the smaller side but with skin that was thin, pliable, but dexterous with a filling of fresh shrimp, lightly seasoned, with a good snap. This is definitely an exemplary set of har gow that I wish all dim sum restaurants in North America would imitate.
Black Truffle Steamed Scallop Dumplings
Black Truffle Steamed Scallop Dumplings (黑松露帶子餃) – These dumplings were very good. Think a purely shrimp shu mai, add a scallop on top, and then add a little bit of black truffle and black truffle oil! That’s not to mention the dish roe on top as well. I think I still prefer the shrimp dumplings, but these were amazing with a nice balance of fresh seafood taste with the richness of the truffle and roe. Both the scallops and shrimp filling at that perfect snap which can be so hard to find.
Chicken Feet (金醬蒸鳯爪) – I’m not much of a fan of the dish but one bite of the skin showed that it was decently double fried with a good, but not gratuitous, amount of sauce. The dish is still too boney for me, but if you like chicken feet, this is a good set of them.
Taro Cake (五香芋絲糕) – I generally prefer daikon cake but this taro cake was perfectly fried with a crunchy exterior but soft and chewy interior. It also wasn’t too oily too. It’s probably one of the best versions of this dish I’ve had.
Red Rice Noodle Roll with Chinese Doughnut at Yue Restaurant
Red Rice Noodle Roll with Chinese Doughnut (鬼馬紅米腸粉) – These rice noodle rolls were made with slightly sweet red rice noodles that wrapped around a freshly fried Chinese doughnut that was stuffed with a shrimp and fish meatball. With the dark soy sauce they give you to dip it in, these rice noodle rolls were pretty solid and held up very well. The slight sweetness of the red rice noodles didn’t come out too well, but the shrimp filling and Chinese doughnut crunch more than made up for it.
Lamb Fried Dumplings at Yue Restaurant
Lamb Fried Dumplings (孑然羊肉餃) – These potstickers were interesting with its crispy extra dumpling skin that looked like wings of sorts. The filling of minced lamb and chopped vegetables had a heavy lamb taste, but the flavors meshed well together.
White and Black Sesame Balls at Yue Restaurant
White and Black Sesame Balls (麻茸煎堆仔) – Dessert was sesame balls with white and black sesame seeds on the outside with white sesame seed paste as filling. While we were dismayed that there were no sesame balls with black sesame paste, the dessert was still a hit with a very nice crunch flavor that lasted til we finished all the savory items.
All in all, I would rank Yue Restaurant as my number 2 dim sum restaurant in the Vancouver area after Kirin. It is definitely a place I would recommend to go to and certainly beats other places like Sun Sui Wah or Chef Tony in my book. Since it’s a newer restaurant, I would say Yue has a lot of promise, especially as it keeps on perfecting newer, more innovative dishes. While Kirin might offer a solid, near blemish free take n mostly classics with a very refined experience, Yue has all the ingredients needed to be the best dim sum restaurant in the Vancouver area (very high praise given the competition!) in the very near future.
This weekend is the opening weekend of Crazy Rich Asians, the film based on the bestselling book of the same name by Kevin Kwan. And while many of the articles for the film focus on its importance in Asian American representation in Hollywood or the cultural conflict of the plot between traditional class hierarchies amongst rich Chinese versus “rags to middle class riches” Chinese Americans, I, of course, want to write about the food mentioned in the books and movies. In the book series there are liberal mentions of various places that the exorbitantly rich of Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai dine in, which does include places open to the public and are relatively affordable. Below you can find a few of those places found in the film and/or books in Singapore and Hong Kong and my thoughts on them (if I have been). Be aware, there will be some spoilers of the movie and/or books below.
[Following that you’ll find my reflections of the movie].
Singapore:
Newton Food Centre – After Araminta and Colin pick up Nick and Rachel up they head to Newton Food Centre where they order from different stalls specializing in their own dishes. I’ve never eaten at Newton Food Centre but in the scene you can see the foursome chow on various Singaporean dishes like Satay at TKR Satay, Oyster Omelette at Hup Kee Fried Oyster Omelette, and ice kachang at 88 San Ren Cold and Hot Dessert. For reference, in the book they actually go to another hawker centre, Lau Pa Sat, though Nick prefers the satay at Newton.
Hong Kong:
Roast Goose Rice and Tong Choy at Yat Lok
Yung Kee – In the books, Yung Kee is described as the place where the uber rich go dine on roast goose. And while the refined trappings of the restaurant remain intact, a family feud a few years ago led to a split. The better Kam family roast goose now lies at Kam’s Roast Goose in Wan Chai (in decidedly less upscale digs) which also racks up a Michelin star, unlike Yung Kee. Although Kam’s Roast Goose is fantastic, I do have a preference for Yat Lok (also a Michelin star earner) in Central.
Fook Lam Moon– Although I don’t recall this so-called “Tycoon’s Canteen” being in the books, it was mentioned by Kevin Kwan as a place where old money still eats. And honestly my one visit to their TST location showed perfectly why, and it’s not because of their food (which is good but not mind blowing spectacular). It’s because of their service, where they have a number of private rooms, a multitude of wait staff to refill your tea cups so you never have to, and even nice small shelves so your bags never, ever touch the ground (or hang over your seat). Reservations are probably required but it’s not too hard to make one online.
Dim sum at Lung King Heen
Lung King Heen– In the book when Rachel is at the bachelorette party on Samsara Island, Kitty and Alistair are purportedly seen at this three Michelin star restaurant, the first (but now not only) three Michelin star Chinese restaurant in the world. The food might not be the most innovative compared to other high end Cantonese restaurants in Hong Kong, but the dishes are well executed. Like most higher end Cantonese restaurants, the cheaper option is to eat the dim sum ate lunch (which even for 2 people will probably set you back around $40 USD). Advanced reservations of a month or two are advised.
REFLECTIONS
And now to my reflections on the film. Of course, there’s many things I could say about the movie, but I want to focus on how particular parts of the movie affected me. Like Love, Simon, Crazy Rich Asians was an important movie in terms of its cultural impact as a romantic comedy to me. While neither obviously hewed super close to my experience, both movies were well made movies based on reader adored books (of which I read both books before either were movies) that hopefully launch a number of other movies beyond the straight, white upper middle class narrow confines of the vast majority of major studio romantic comedies of the past.
Crazy Rich Asians itself resonated with me loudly in no small part because Kevin Kwan wrote the book for and in the perspective of the Asian American experience, especially those like me who are Millennial children of immigrants. The impetus to root for Rachel is because Rachel is like many of us, children of Asian immigrants that moved to the United States with immense sacrifice to hopefully provide opportunity for their children. (To be clear that’s not the entire Asian American experience which also includes refugees of war as well as those whose families had means to send their Baby Boomer and Gen X children to colleges in the US and Canada)
As such, what Rachel deals with in her trip to Singapore to meet Nick’s family and childhood social circle, she, like us, have a very fish out of water experience when visiting the Asian motherland. There are customs and traditions, regardless of your class or ethnicity (though in the Crazy Rich Asian series, accentuated by class) that are generally known but not quite fully experienced until you visit your ancestral home (or in Rachel’s case, a nation where the majority of folks are Chinese like herself). And in those moments many Asian Americans realize that you’re not quite [Asian ethnicity] enough, but similarly you’re not quite “American enough” for non-Asian, especially white folks, at home.
This is crystalized in 2 of the most powerful scenes of the movie: the dumpling making scene and the mahjong scene [major spoilers ahead]. In the dumpling making scene, Rachel makes dumplings for the rehearsal dinner along with a couple of Nick’s cousins, Nick’s aunts, and Nick’s mom. There’s visible tension between Rachel and Nick’s mom, Eleanor, which comes up to a head when Eleanor catches Rachel as Rachel is lost finding a restroom. The end of the conversation, after Eleanor regales Rachel on how she wasn’t seen as good enough to marry Nick’s dad, hits with a sting when Eleanor, played by the incomparable Michelle Yeoh, tells Rachel that she will never be good enough.
“You will never be good enough” is a phrase that serves both the plot narrative and a line that touches like a cattle prod to Asian Americans like myself. On one side, people like me are told by our Asian immigrant family and family (or people in general) living in Asia that we will never be good enough to meet expectations, including language fluency and respect for ancestral cultural norms. We are, in effect, too American. But then outside of Asian American enclaves at work or school where we try to fit in, we are criticized for having an accent (even if we might not have one – in which case we’re praised for having “surprisingly good English”), eating gross looking or stinky food (which then get popularized a decade later by white chefs that “discover” it), accused of eating cats or dogs (when we don’t), or exoticized for real or assumed body features and sexual desires. It may not be as pointed and direct as what our family members or those in our ancestral lands would say to us, but the effect is the same, we’re too Asian to be an American. It’s a dual hit for Asian Americans like myself who try to bridge our identities and be proud of these different identities, but are told that we aren’t good enough for either.
But as much as those words in the dumpling scene hurt (and when I shed a few tears on my second watch), the mahjong scene near the end turns the table and shows how Asian Americans can have agency and a potential to use perceived weaknesses into strengths. In that scene, Rachel invites Eleanor to play mahjong where they have a pointed conversation about family and cultural compatibility vs. following your heart. What Eleanor doesn’t know, but Rachel soon reveals is that she rejected Nick’s engagement knowing that what Eleanor thinks is a winning hand (marrying Nick) is not one at all and in Nick’s current situation it would be lose-lose. So Rachel chose for him and shows the strength and power of Asian Americans. Rachel then leaves, revealing that she would have had a winning hand but knowingly gave it away to Eleanor (which you can read more in AngryAsianMan’s excellent primer on the scene). The scene shows that Asian Americans like myself actually do understand and respect both the Asian cultural traditions of familial piety and American cultural understandings of individualism and freedom to follow your passions. But the choice isn’t either or; by understanding both cultures you can make your own decisions and not be boxed into one way of doing things.
The movie isn’t perfect by all means, but the books and the movies are so emotional and powerful for Asian Americans who have experiences like myself because it’s one of the first stories we’ve read and seen on the screen that reflects our dual cultural experience. It’s not a story by and for the people (especially the fantastically rich) of Singapore. It’s not a story even for immigrants like my parents who do live in the US now but their major cultural upbringing was from where they were born (who I’m sure will like most of the story anyway, if my aunt is any indication). It’s a story by and for Asian Americans, like Rachel, born and raised in America.
In Part 4 of this #BARTable Asian food series finally heads to my hood, the town of Oakland. Continuing along the Richmond-Millbrae line this guide will take you through West Oakland, 12th Street/City Center, 19th Street, and MacArthur Stations.
West Oakland
To be honest, this is the first station we can skip. The two places in remote walking distance of this BART station that serve Asian food are 2 Chinese American takeout spots, neither that serve food that’s any good.
12th Street/City Center
Downtown Oakland’s BART station is surrounded by Asian food, especially given its proximity to Oakland Chinatown.
Hainanese Chicken Rice at Shooting Star Cafe
In Chinatown one can, of course, find a veritable cornucopia of Chinese food and only blocks away from the station. For Hong Kong style cafe food, I like heading to Shooting Star Cafe (especially good for desserts and Hong Kong style milk tea) and Baby Cafe. For dim sum you can head to Restaurant Peony for arguably some of the best dim sum in the East Bay or Tao Yuen Pastryfor some classic Chinatown grab and go dim sum. Gum Kuo and neighboring C&M Bistro are go to spots for Cantonese roast meats, though Gum Kuo also has excellent noodle soups and rice noodle rolls.
Dim Sum at Peony Seafood Restaurant
For non-Cantonese food in Chinatown, Spices 3 is the place to go for Sichuanese food and Shandong serves thick noodles and fabulous dumplings if you have a hankering for the heartier fare of Shandong province. And for one of the few Bay Area restaurants with Guilin style noodles, you can go to Classic Guilin Rice Noodles.
Chinatown, however, doesn’t just have Chinese food. For Cambodian food there is Battambang. Vietnamese food can be tastily sampled at one of my downtown favorites, Tay Ho, who’s signature item is the northern Vietnamese dish banh cuon. And for vegetarian Southeast Asian dishes, slightly out of Chinatown on 13th and Franklin is Golden Lotus.
The other side of Broadway in Old Oakland has a few Asian treasures as well. In Swan’s Market is the excellent AS B-Dama that serves great Japanese food. Le Cheval is a spot for decent Vietnamese food closer to the Oakland Convention Center.
19th Street Oakland
Further up in Oakland in Uptown and the northern part of the downtown business district are also a number of Asian restaurants, though they aren’t quite as concentrated as Chinatown. Some of these places below can also be accessed by the 14th Street or Frank Ogawa Plaza exits of the 12th Street/City Center stations but it was easier to delineate each BART station’s offerings at 14th Street.
Clear Dark Ramen at Shiba Ramen
Near 14th and Broadway you have some of my favorites for a work lunch break. I go to Shiba Ramen‘s Oakland restaurant every time I want a comforting bowl of ramen. For Afghan food, there’s the newly expanded Kamdesh. On 15th Street there’s Ma Me House for a pared down menu of solid Vietnamese food and Ichiro Sushi for solid sushi and lunch specials that are filling, but reasonably priced.
Further north, closer to my current office are a few more Asian spots centered mostly around 17th Street. There’s Aburaya for some extremely tasty Japanese fried chicken. A couple doors down is Pho 84 where you can eat classic Southern Vietnamese dishes in slightly more refined settings. Around 22nd and Broadway is one of the few Taiwanese restaurants in the East Bay, Taiwan Bento, where you can eat some Beef Noodle Soup and Gua Bao. If you need some fruit tea or boba to wash down your lunch at any of these spots you can saunter down to Yokee on Franklin Street where you can get some delicious boba or very Instagramable fruit teas.
MacArthur
The final Richmond-Millbrae line station in Oakland is MacArthur, conveniently also the closest to my apartment. It’s also the closest station to Temescal, the neighborhood that contains Oakland’s largest concentration of Korean food in Oakland (yet interestingly enough Koreatown is just to the South).
For Korean food there are a number of options including Daol Tofu House and PyeongChang Tofu House for their namesake, and tasty, versions of soondubu. Hancook is the new restaurant in town that has Korean style hot pot. And further up Telegraph is Bowl’d, which serves a number of Korean dishes but best serves Bibimbap. Want Korean BBQ? I would venture a little further afield to Mosswood to Ohgane, a wonderful place with delicious BBQ that’s only $22 for All You Can Eat 10PM-2AM each day.
KMG at Hawking Bird
Temescal doesn’t only serve Korean food, however. Other Asian places include the oft-lauded Burma Superstar for Burmese. Down the street is Hawking Bird, the fast casual offshoot of James Syhabout’s Hawker Fare serving decent versions of khao man gai (Thai style chicken rice). Across the street from Hawking Bird and Burma Superstar is Marufuku Ramen which serves a pared down menu of excellent ramen.
So while San Francisco has plenty of Asian food, take a BART train across the Bay to Oakland where your taste buds can expand with all these excellent options. I dare say that some of these restaurants are better than anything San Francisco has to offer on their particular cuisine.
First, I should note that I was not deliberately seeking out Asian food on my trip to Walt Disney World with my family. I know some of my readers may find it hard to believe, but I would have been perfectly content with Fish and Chips from the UK Pavilion at EPCOT and multiple servings of hash browns at the closest Waffle House (which I, in fact, did do for my first meal).
That said, my siblings were fully invested in tasting this Disney World food bucket list which included a number of Asian items. As I am game for trying any type of food, I happily went along and ended up having enough content for a blog post.
As a caveat, this post is really limited to EPCOT and Animal Kingdom. I personally avoided Magic Kingdom (which is essentially a larger Disneyland) as much as I could and had no time to eat at Hollywood Studios. So with that noted…
EPCOT
My first day at Walt Disney World this trip was spent entirely at EPCOT, which is also my favorite Disney theme park. I could probably just spend a whole day at the World Showcase part of EPCOT and still not be bored.
As noted above, for lunch I had actually wanted to go eat fish and chips at the United Kingdom pavilion but my sister vehemently disliked the proposal. We found the French options to be fairly pricey so we scooted along to Morocco. Since I wasn’t in the mood for Moroccan food we ended up compromising by eating at Japan pavilion’s Katsura Grill.
Spicy Seafood Ramen at Katsura Grill
Katsura Grill is Japan pavilion’s fast casual eatery with a number of items including bento boxes, ramen, udon, sushi rolls, and appetizers. My sister ordered a bento box while I decided to go with the ramen. I got the Spicy Seafood Ramen which was served with a lightly spicy seafood broth. The shrimp were cooked decently, though I didn’t taste that much garlic while the broth was a bit lighter than I hoped for. The ramen noodles were cooked decently but all in all the dish could be described as solidly average. I did try some of my sister’s Chicken Teriyaki Bento which was pretty decent with chicken that was cooked well and had a good amount of sauce without overpowering the chicken. All in all Katsura Grill was basically a Disney-fied version of mall food court Japanese food.
After lunch we strolled along to the other pavilions, stopping to get our EPCOT passports stamped at the US, Italy, and Germany pavilions before swinging by the China pavilion. We took a small break by the koi ponds at the China pavilion where I took the opportunity to go to Joy of Tea, the drink stand of the pavilion. Over there they had a Lychee Iced Tea that was super refreshing and perfectly sweetened with lychee syrup. I would highly recommend buying a cup of the tea for a nice stroll around EPCOT on a hot, sunny day. Honestly, the tea tasted as good as some of my favorite bubble tea places and I’m glad my sister-in-law found the place.
Animal Kingdom
After our first day of food at EPCOT my sister and sister-in-law texted me that they wanted to try a couple items the next day at Animal Kingdom. After doing some quick research I found out that both of those items could be found at Yak and Yeti, Animal Kingdom’s Asia area full service sit down restaurant. I quickly made a reservation for 5 for 2PM on Disney World’s app, which allowed my sister and I to wait and take a ride at Pandora’s Flight of Passage.
We arrived a little bit early for our reservation but nonetheless was seated in about 15-20 minutes. The decor is what I would describe as a fascinating “attempt” at something Nepalese or Bhutanese but with some Southeast Asian motifs. That aside, we settled into our rather large table and ordered the following:
Ahi Tuna Nachos at Yak & Yeti
Ahi Tuna Nachos – My sister-in-law’s pick was a heaping mound of nachos with marinated ahi tuna and some Asian style slaw. While it might have been a shareable “meant for 2” it certainly fed a lot more. I personally don’t like tuna very much but I did enjoy the dish and I found the crunchiness of both the nacho chips and the lettuce greens to work very well with the wasabi aioli. I would definitely order again
Dim Sum Basket – The dim sum basket had a couple of each item, some were hit and some were miss. The hits included the cha siu bao and the pork potstickers, both steamed really well with flavorful fillings. The shrimp dumplings and siu mai were a bit of a miss though and didn’t come near decent quality for them, even if I did admire their attempts at a thin dumpling skin.
Korean BBQ Short Ribs and Dim Sum Basket at Yak & Yeti
Korean BBQ Short Ribs – We added an additional half order of the ribs and the regular rib order was definitely large enough for 2 people. The ribs themselves were pretty good, with meat falling off the bone and a sauce that combined traditional barbecue sauce elements with a hint of gochujang (a Korean hot sauce). The shoestring fries were perfect and the slaw helped cut a bit of the richness of the meat. Like the nachos, I would order these again.
Chicken Fried Rice – The fried rice wasn’t anything to write home about, but was pretty solid and was a nice filler and way to sop some of the sauce in the nachos and ribs.
Garlic Noodles – The garlic noodles were perfectly cooked with a decent amount of sauce, though could have used a little more garlic. We honestly ordered this as a cheaper filler item instead any of the lo mein options and while this was fine, an order of lo mein probably would have been better.
Honestly the portions of food at Yak & Yeti are such that we could have done without one of the side items and still been pretty full. The food here was definitely better than EPCOT and a lot more innovative too. I almost went back to Pandora to take a bite of pineapple lumpia but my stomach was sufficiently stuffed after lunch.
All in all, the Asian food in Disney World is solid, if not spectacular. That said, very few people, including myself, really go to a Disney theme park for the food. But there’s enough quality food items at Disney World to also make some of the meals memorable, in addition to the rides and the overall ambience. That said, Disney could learn a lot from the kitchens at Universal’s Harry Potter worlds in terms of making food that is remarkably tasty but also reasonably priced. Hopefully with Disney’s theme park expansions, even better and more innovative food will be coming to a Star Wars or Toy Story land near you.
When someone goes to Austin meals are generally filled with breakfast tacos or Texas barbeque, especially beef brisket. While I definitely had plenty of breakfast tacos and BBQ on my recent work trip, of course I had to try what Austin is decidedly not known for: Asian food.
Because the vast majority of my trip was catered, I only had a couple of meals on my own to explore town. Given my access to a car was also fairly limited, I decided to see what options there were around downtown Austin. Fortunately for me, there was a well reviewed place within walking distance of my hotel that also served dim sum (but, sadly, I was not able to make it to dim sum).
So on a Friday night I walked a few blocks from my hotel to Wu Chow. While still busy around 9PM, it wasn’t too long to get a table. While I waited I scanned the decor, which I would describe as some sort of “upscale contemporary Asian motif” with dim lighting and lots of dark wood. It’s the type of decor that would have sent alarm bells on the price tag if I were in San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York but the prices were comparatively reasonable.
When I sat down I ordered one of their mocktails and browsed the menu, which leaves heavily on Sichuan and Shanghainese flavors. While I would have loved to order more, having a limited stomach meant that I stuck to more “classic” dishes to give a little better judgement and comparison of the food. I ended up settling on the following:
Shanghai Soup Dumplings at Wuchow
Shanghai Soup Dumplings (小籠包) – In reviews, the soup dumplings came up many times as one of the noteworthy dishes. The dumplings did not disappoint, coming out freshly steamed with deliciously rich soup and tender, well seasoned pork meatballs inside. The dumpling skins were a little thick but tore just right so they were perfect to bit into. Would definitely recommend.
Dry Fried Local Green Beans
Dry Fried Local Green Beans (乾煸四季豆) – This version of the classic was simple and the “wok hei” came out very well, giving that perfectly stir fried snap a good version of this dish is known for. It could have used a bit more spice to help flavor the dish but otherwise it was simply delicious.
Mapo Doufu with Minced Pork
Mapo Dofu with Minced Pork (麻婆豆腐) – The interesting part of this dish is that instead of chunks or cubes of tofu, it was like a shallow dish of steamed silken tofu with simmer mapo sauce on top. Once I got used to the different style, the tofu and the sauce blended well. I think it could have used a little more Sichuan peppercorns and bean paste to kick up the spiciness but all in all it was solid.
At about $11-15 per entree item, the food was a bargain too in terms of prices I was used to (albeit I admit this could be considered moderately pricey for an Austin resident). But regardless of the price, the dishes are great and on par with what you can find in a larger coastal city with more Chinese residents. If you’re looking for a culinary detour after eating enough breakfast tacos and BBQ, I would certainly recommend trying a taste of Wu Chow when you’re in Austin.
Part 3 of this series takes us to admittedly the hardest, and generally most consistently evolving, BARTable area in terms of surveying the Asian food landscape. Why? Because it takes us to the heart of downtown San Francisco where a number of San Francisco Asian retail and culinary districts are located and the landscape of food in the area is ever evolving. Part of my hesitance to finish this part of the series is on how fast everything changes but I just realized that I can’t be paralyzed by the constantly evolving landscape, otherwise I’d never finish this post and move on to the next post, my stomping grounds in Oakland.
So here we go, a BART station by station guide to downtown San Francisco as of March 2018.
Civic Center Station
Civic Center and the Tenderloin is home to San Francisco’s Little Saigon, a community of Vietnamese immigrants that started springing up in the 1970s and 1980s as refugees from the Vietnam War and its aftermath immigrated here. Over the past few decades the strip of Larkin Street in the Tenderloin has been a center of Vietnamese businesses in the city. As such, you’ll find wonderful places to taste Vietnamese cuisine such as the Vietnamese Chinese style wonton noodle soup at Hai Ky Mi Giaand neighboring Them Ky. You can get Southern Vietnamese style pho at Pho 2000 and Northern Vietnamese pho and other items at Turtle Tower. Banh Mi chain Lee’s Sandwiches also has a location on this stretch of Larkin between Eddy and O’Farrell.
While Vietnamese cuisine has been in the Tenderloin for decades, that last ten years has seen a wave of Thai cuisine in the neighborhood. This includes an outpost of the swanky-ish Ler Ros and the more mom and pop San Jai Thai. If you want Northern style Thai with some fantastic Lao specialities, there’s Tycoon Thai.
Powell Station
Pad Kee Mao at Kin Khao
Powell Street Station is the stop for Union Square, the central shopping hub of the city and the area with an endless array of hotels catering to the millions of (mostly well to do) tourists that travel to the city. As such, I generally don’t recommend any Asian restaurant around Union Square and the parts of SoMa near Powell.
However, there are a few bright spots. Northeast of the station, slightly removed from the tourist and shopping hubbub, are a few solid choices. Among them include Chinese hot pot chain Little Sheep, delicious ramen shop Mensho Tokyo, Korean restaurant 707 Sutter, hole in the wall Filipino diner Tselogs, and Vietnamese Chinese seafood restaurant Kim Thanh.
Right by the BART station in the heart of the hustle and bustle are some good options, especially if your wallet is a little more hefty. Michelin starred Kin Khao serves terrific Thai food (their tasting menu, though pricy, is absolutely worth it) and Hakkasan serves solidly refined Cantonese cuisine. And not to be remiss is Tin, a good Vietnamese restaurant in SoMa.
Montgomery Station
Three Treasure Bao Zai Fan at China Live
Montgomery Station drops you off in San Francisco’s Financial District. While there are are a few gems during the lunchtime rush like Señor Sisig‘s regular food truck locations on 2nd Street and Pine Street, it’s a rather barren place as a whole for quality Asian food.
However, Montgomery Street is the closest BART station to San Francisco Chinatown. While the hike to Chinatown is generally uphill and requires at least a 10-15 minute walk from the BART station, most places in the neighborhood aren’t too far to be considered unwalkable. Closer to the BART station on the flatter Kearny Street you can find such restaurants as vaunted Cantonese seafood place R&G Lounge, Taiwanese tea and food experts Hanlin Tea Room, and Sichuanese noodle specialist Chong Qing Xiao Mian.
Further up the hill include upscale Eataly styled restaurant/food emporium China Liveand a number of longstanding Cantonese places. These include Kam Po, a delicious purveyor of Cantonese BBQ, and Lai Hong Lounge, a dim sum and Chinese seafood restaurant.
Embarcadero Station
Wood Oven Roasted Branzino at the Slanted Door
And finally at the eastern end of San Francisco before BART heads through the Transbay Tube is Embarcadero Station. Like Montgomery Station there isn’t a plethora of Asian food around it, as expense account new American and European influenced restaurants are generally the norm. A couple bright spots do exist though (and both are also fairly pricey): Yank Sing, a solid purveyor of dim sum with 2 locations, and The Slanted Door, a Vietnamese restaurant that may not live to its previous heights but still serves well executed food.
Downtown San Francisco, overall, has a great volume of Asian restaurants though finding a good one can be like finding a needle in a haystack. Hopefully this guide can help cut across the clutter and won’t be dated too soon.
I can’t wait until the next part of this series though, as I head across the bay to my hometown of Oakland.
West Covina is probably most known as the setting for the acclaimed (and hilarious) TV show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend or ,to many San Gabriel Valley locals, as the town with the mall. While it is a fairly diverse city, one thing it isn’t known for is dim sum. Dim sum lovers in LA can rattle off a number of beloved dim sum seafood palaces in Monterey Park, Alhambra, Rosemead, Rowland Heights, San Gabriel, and even Temple City but West Covina, sandwiched in between the Chinese enclaves in the West San Gabriel Valley (i.e. Monterey Park) and the East San Gabriel Valley (i.e. Walnut), is conspicuously left out of the mix.
But now West Covina may have a legitimate dim sum contender amongst the fiercely competitive scene in the San Gabriel Valley. Sheng Hui Dim Sum opened in December and this West Covina dim sum joint already has garnered favorable reviews in foodie forums and by “celebrity diner” David Chan. Though to be fair, the part of West Covina it’s in is on a part of Valley Boulevard that’s practically Walnut or nearby Rowland Heights. In fact, the closest freeway exit is Nogales Road off state route 60, the same exit you would take to shop at the Rowland Heights 99 Ranch Market.
Nonetheless, I took my Chinese New Year trip down to SoCal as an opportunity to taste how Sheng Hui stacks up to the more famous places in the more established communities of the 626. I came around 1PM on Presidents’ Day and there was a small line. Sheng Hui is in a very small space and, thus, ordering can be a bit confusing. There is seating, but only about four 2-top and one 4-top tables and you’ll have to wait until they are clear. Otherwise you can order to go, as most people do. If you do wait for a seat you can either fill out the order tick sheet beforehand and wait or wait to sit down and then fill it out. I opted to do the former to save myself time once I sat. I ordered the following, though by the time I sat down around 1:30PM a couple items I wanted were sold out.
Steamed Shrimp Dumplings at Sheng Hui
Steamed Shrimp Dumpling 鮮味蝦餃皇 – These were pretty good with wrappers that were dextrous and not too thick. The shrimp filling was decent as well with chunks of shrimp mixed with bamboo shoots for texture and a dash of salt and pepper. I’d say a solid 8 out of 10 for a shrimp dumpling.
Roe Shrimp Shui Mai at Sheng Hui
Roe Shrimp Shui Mai 魚子蝦燒賣 – Honestly these were some of the best shui mai I have had outside of Hong Kong (and heck, better than some I’ve had in Hong Kong). The pork and shrimp were moist and tender with perfect amounts of seasoning. What’s most significant though is that they put fresh roe on top on the shui mai after they’ve steamed to perfection. Honestly that is what makes the difference. Most dim sum places cook it with the roe, practically destroying the flavor of the roe, but over here you can taste both the succulent meat filling and the delicate flavors of the fish roe on top, all for $3.18.
Sticky Rice Chicken Wrapped 荷香糯米雞– They were actually sold out of what I wanted, the steamed spareribs rice, but this was a solid consolation. There were two jumbo sized packets of chicken in sticky rice. I like how the flavor of the sticky rice wasn’t too overpowered from the juices of the meat and sauces. However the meat was only so so and the dish was decent but not anything wow-ing.
Choy Sum Fried with Garlic 蒜香炒菜心 – This was a hearty plate of choy sum that was well worth the $5.99 paid for it. The choy sum was fresh and the garlic gave the dish a simple, yet flavorful, aroma. I wish there was slightly less oil but that’s just quibbling.
Coconut Little White Rabbit at Sheng Hui
Coconut Little White Rabbit 椰絲小白兔 – Dessert was basically these cute little marshmallow shaped rabbits with dusting of coconut shavings. While they seem rather incongruous with dim sum, they tasted pretty good! If only there were some chocolate and graham crackers to go with it for some s’mores.
The verdict? Sheng Hui is pretty good with some of the best classic dim sum dishes in the San Gabriel Valley (and therefore the entire nation). I love that the dishes are steamed very fresh and there’s high turnover which means little to no items are oversteamed. I do like that they also have some creative items too in addition to the classics. But above all, I love that they do the classics right. I hope these small mom and pop business puts West Covina on the map as another San Gabriel Valley dim sum destination.
SINO IN SOCAL 