Further Proof that the Best Chinese Food in America Is in Southern California
Linda Burum's piece in the Los Angeles Times today on all the terrific Shanghai-style food being served in the L.A. Basin made me realize once again why Los Angeles is where we can all eat the best Chinese food served in this country. Are there any dissenters on this issue?
New York has some pretty good Chinese food, but in its breadth and depth and sheer quality it can't really compare to the restaurants in southern California's San Gabriel Valley. Ditto for San Francisco. Other cities like Boston, Philadelphia, and Seattle may have small Chinatowns and the occasional upscale fancified Chinese restaurant (Susannah Foo's in Philadelphia comes to mind immediately), but none of them overall compare favorably with Los Angeles. Maybe some L.A.-based Serious Eater will host a Chinese restaurant crawl in L.A. That would be fun.
Photograph from MR+G on Flickr
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7 Comments:
Just don't get confused between L.A. and "L.A. Basin". Monterey Park (30 minutes East of L.A.) is amazing... but L.A.'s Chinatown (located Downtown) sucks.
Chinatown vs. Chinatown: S.F., Boston & New York beat out L.A. pretty easily.
Zach Brooks at 12:24PM on 06/06/07
I agree with Zach. "Greater Los Angeles" area is more accurate. Especially if you include Orange County.
There's a huge Chinese immigrant population all over southern California, with a large number being middle and upper-middle class willing to drive long distances in their BMWs and Lexuses to eat the food that they miss from back home.
At least that's the case for my parents, who came from Taiwan.
kathryn at 4:10PM on 06/06/07
Good point both of you. Friends took us around when we were there in late winter and could not believe how good the food was but it was not LA proper and definitely not LA's Chinatown! But SoCa beats NYC in Chinses any day of the week.
Deb07 at 5:33PM on 06/06/07
Can someone name a place or two in L.A.? I would love to put this assertion to my own tastebuds when in L.A. later this year.
adrocks at 1:15AM on 06/07/07
I ate at Ocean Star in Monterey Park a bunch and found it to be exceptional- especially if you like the gigantic banquet hall style of Dim Sum restaurant.
Zach Brooks at 11:20AM on 06/07/07
Adrocks: The article is a fantastic reference, but a non-Shanghai winner in LA is Din Tai Fung. Here's a piece/love letter I wrote in its name.
TheKnife at 10:59AM on 06/08/07
Los Angeles has the best Chinese food. It's odd that at a time when New York is going through a chinese food rut, LA's going through a chinese food explosion, but it's pretty much the reality of the immigrant experience. The best chinese food is now in the ethnoburbs rather than in a city's Chinatowns. I've eaten in NY and SF chinatowns, but the suburbs in east LA was an absolute revelation.
Go to Din Tai Fung and Meilong Village for dumplings.
tran103 at 3:39PM on 08/14/07