Posted by Michael Nagrant, July 3, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Nothing says 4th of July like a smoky cookout. Unfortunately for city dwellers here in Chicago, outdoor space for monster barbecue gatherings comes at a premium. Likewise, because the Fourth is a major national holiday, hopping over to your local barbecue shack isn’t really a viable alternative, as most of them would be closed.
Thankfully, we’ve got no shortage of restaurant-owning Chinese immigrants here in Chicago who happen to be fond of ignoring major American holidays and keeping their places open. There are a lot of options to check out, but after lighting a few hundred sparklers and popping off a brick or two of Black Cat fireworks, my personal 4th of July Chinese barbecue spot of choice in Chicago is Sun Wah BBQ.
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Posted by Michael Nagrant, May 23, 2008 at 11:30 AM
Though the name sounds the same, Ben Li is not the mop-headed Australian born musician that dated Claire Danes—that’s Ben Lee. On the other hand, chef Ben Li also rocks it out…Sichuan style in the kitchen at his spot Double Li in Chicago’s Chinatown.
Many of the restaurants in Chinatown are run by Chinese immigrants who are decent home cooks, but not formally trained. Even if they’re formally trained, they tend to serve up a lot of Cantonese-American style eats, like cloying sweet and sour chicken, almond boneless chicken, and that tiki-fave crab rangoon to appeal to American palates.
Ben Li, on the other hand is a culinary school trained chef from Chongquing. As a result, he understands nuance and balance. He undergirds his fiery chili-inflected dishes with the right amount of sweet, sour, salt and umami.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 17, 2008 at 3:50 PM
The L.A. Times details the genesis of some of Southern California's favorite Hong Kong–style coffee shops, places that serve a mish-mash of dishes: "escargot, Russian borscht, Spam-topped noodle soup, German-style pork knuckle, French toast, Chinese chow fun and a panoply of Italian-style pastas re-imagined for Asian palates."
Seems these hotspots took a long and winding march to the L.A. area. First, Russians fled to Shanghai after the Bolsheviks came to power. There, they set up cafes, which had a nice go of it till '49, when the Communists took over. They scurried to Hong Kong, where the mix of HK residents, mainland Chinese, and British spawned a unique type of establishment, one that gave many Hong Kong residents their first taste of Western food while at the same time taking on aspects of the Chinese culture at large. And then, of course, they made the jump across the Pacific. A guide to Hong Kong–style coffee shops in SoCal.
Related: The Comfort Food of Hong Kong [IHT]
Posted by Zach Brooks, February 6, 2008 at 1:15 PM
Photograph of General Tso's Philly Cheesesteak from DJ Grocery
Coming up with a theme for this week's sandwich should have been easy. Yesterday was Fat Tuesday, but po'boys have been pretty well covered here on Serious Eats. It was also Super Tuesday, but I couldn't seem to find any mention of candidates' favorite sandwiches. Tomorrow is the start of the Chinese New Year, but "Year of the Rat" does not exactly make for sandwich inspiration.
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Posted by Michael Nagrant, September 20, 2007 at 12:00 PM
Ed Levine made ethnic and cheap eats safe for America, or at least New Yorkers, anyway. In some ways, his seminal work, New York Eats, put pastrami and pizza on the same table as foie and truffles. It's precisely why I've been excited to contribute to this site, as my personal philosophy is that haute cuisine and the antiquated starred review system panders to people who are more likely to equate the cost of a meal with the quality of a meal, the same people who shove food in their mouth but never taste it, the folks rocking mediocre Cristal because that's what Jay Z clued them in to. I believe that the Italian beef sandwich should be as vaunted as a Waygu beef, and that's why I'm here. So in the vein of Mr. Levine, I've put together a short primer below on some of Chicago's truly best and relatively cheap ethnic joints that are as relevant as our four-star palaces like Alinea and Charlie Trotter's.
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 18, 2007 at 3:00 PM
With the good neighborhood Chinese restaurant something of an endangered species, I am happy to report that the Grand Sichuan International on 24th Street and Ninth Avenue (212-620-5200) is still turning out first-rate, moderately priced food. GSI is a mini-chain that periodically gets the "gone downhill" reports from diners, but based on Monday night's meal, the food at 24th and Ninth at least is, if anything, going uphill. Here's what we had last night, with nary a loser in the bunch:
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Posted by Adam Kuban, June 15, 2007 at 1:30 PM
Eating Beyond Sichuan [New York Times]
Posted by Ed Levine, June 6, 2007 at 11:00 AM
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?
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 11, 2007 at 1:24 PM
It's sort of a blogging triple play, but what the hell. Serious Eats friend Ganda Suthivarakom linked on Eat, Drink, One Woman, to another blog Jozzard, which had a not very appetizing photo of what sounds like an incredibly delicious dish they both had at Amazing 66, a newish Chinese restaurant in New York: "it was essentially a hollowed-out chicken, deep fried, then stuffed with rice and sausage. So there was no actual chicken in the chicken." That last sentence could have been a Yogi Berra-ism, but this chickenless chicken sure sounds good.
Amazing 66
Address: 66 Mott Street, New York NY 10013
Phone: 212-334-0099
Posted by Lia Bulaong, April 19, 2007 at 4:30 PM
"Peking duck is one of the most perfect dishes. That crisp, lacquered skin, rich and moist inside, wrapped in freshly made pancakes with sweet fermented paste, cucumber, and white Chinese leek. But it's hard to find a rendition that satisfies."
Fuchsia Dunlop says a good duck is hard to find, but shares a recommendation for visitors to Beijing. Do you have a favorite place for Peking duck where you live? Tell us about it!
Posted by Alaina Browne, December 2, 2006 at 3:29 PM
The five best Chinese Restaurants in Southern California according to NYTimes' Mark Bittman. His favorite out of the bunch is Triumphal Palace:
Six of us — one of whom now claims she will be married here — shared 24 dishes (about 18 of which came within 10 minutes), and while all except the predictably sad desserts were good, some were incredible. These were barbecue pork belly, firm cubes of slow-cooked, crunchy-skinned fresh bacon that, I swear, were a dead-on replica of a dish Alain Ducasse used to serve at about five times the price; Chiu Chow-style dumplings, with thick, chewy, slightly crisp rice-flour exteriors filled with (could it be?) jasmine-scented meat; deep-fried carrot cake, in fact a savory-sweet custard-filled dumpling; boiled baby bok choy in fish stock, which, like the duck I’d had at dinner, contained some secret ingredient that was the Bomb; and a wonderful layered creation of pan-fried sticky rice with egg.
