Writing a cookbook that involves historical research is no easy task. Here at the Appetite for China headquarters in Brooklyn, I’ve been recipe-testing like crazy for the past few months while devoting countless hours to library research. My grocery receipts are too scary to add up. The to-be-read stack of books by my bed about 2 feet high. But in the spring I’ll finally get to take a “break” and head out of town to dig deeper into Chinese food across the US.
So far I’m planning on these following cities, for both day trips and lengthier stays. Please let me know if you have recommendations for not-to-be-missed Chinese restaurants, bakeries, and other food-related desintations. Bonus points for restaurants with a lot of history, regional Chinese food specialties, and anything else unique! I have a short list of places in mind already, but could always use more recommendations from locals.
San Francisco - San Francisco was my home for the better part of a year, but I still feel like there is a lot more to explore, especially in Oakland, Millbrae, and Cupertino. And judging by your responses to my post on being disappointed with the Chinese food in San Francisco, there are also plenty of places within city limits that I should try.
Los Angeles – I’ve visited LA countless times, but usually end up binging on the excellent Mexican and Thai food that is harder to find on the East Coast. This trip will be 100% Chinese food, so send me all your favorite spots! I plan to start off in LA’s Chinatown for historical purposes, then venture out to San Gabriel Valley.
Miami – Miami has been on my to-go list for a long time, mainly because of the Cuban-Chinese and Peruvian-Chinese food. Recommendations for non-hybrid restaurants also welcomed!
Washington DC – I’ll be down in DC for a day trip for research at one of the Smithsonian museums. Any special spots to visit in the nation’s capital?
What are some of your suggestions for other great Chinese restaurants around the US with historical or regional significance?
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Related posts:
A Globetrotter’s Guide to Unusual Chinese Restaurants
When Chinese Food was Glamorous in America
I absolutely loved San Tung in the Sunset for San Fran. The dry fried chicken is excellent and it makes me smile just thinking about it.
That said, I’ve lived in DC for 7 years now and am still continually disappointed by the Chinese food here – there is excellent Ethiopian, some great Korean in Annandale, and a Thai place in Arlington I adore… but I’ve yet to find Chinese that holds a candle to what I’ve had in SF, NYC, or Vancouver – or even as good as the Americanized stuff I grew up on in the suburbs of Portland.
Cuz her food is AWESOME!
http://gastronomyblog.com/2009/08/06/mamas-lu-monterey-park/
Check out China Boy in Chinatown, DC. Not your traditional restaurant, but they make everything in house, from noodles, to buns, to chow foon, to dumplings! They’re mostly a bulk wholesale vendor, but they sell dishes on the side.
DC itself is not great – although there is one decent place for lamien – China Express on 6th street NW. There is also Great Wll for authentic MaLa Szechuan, good for DC but not objectively great
However, the suburbs (you’ll need a car) provides real value – Rockville has A&J, northern CHinese dim sum and worth the trip. Michael’s Noodles in Rockville is also quite good. In Virginia, the best to offer is TemptAsia on Little River Turnpike – good szechuan and Cantonese. Also, X.O. Taste on route 50 is excellent Hong Kong style cuisine, with terrific roast pork on the weekends.
Feel free to e-mail me if you need directions. Some of this is on the blog – alltastesame.blogspot.com
Check out “House of Dumpling” on Taraval in the Sunset district. Northern style dumplings and soup dumplings, incredible green beans, many daily specials.
I agree with the first commenter- DC Chinese food scene is lacking. The best Chinese food in the area is in the suburbs: many joke that DC’s “Chinatown” is actually in Rockville, MD. This area boasts a new and extremely popular Sichuan Pavillion (http://scpavilion.com/index.html), a great old favorite Michael’s Noodles (http://michaelsnoodles.com/), and the super find of Taiwanese Bob’s Noodles 66 (http://www.yelp.com/biz/bobs-noodle-66-rockville).
There is also Hollywood East Cafe in Wheaton (http://hollywoodeastcafe.com/) serves Hong Kong-style food, with a very popular dim sum. And, also in Wheaton, is the highly recommend Nava Thai (http://www.yelp.com/biz/nava-thai-wheaton) the best Thai in the area.
There’s also a Joe’s Noodle in Rockville, though I have never been it is routinely written up in the papers/magazines.
Most of the regular Chinese restaurants in Miami are pretty bad by California/New York standards, I think. There may be a few solid places in North Dade, though. Aren’t there only like two Peruvian and maybe one Cuban Chinese places? Good excuse to go to the beach, anyway. ;)
In SF, there is a Guatemalan bakery (Universal Panaderia) that intriguingly serves chow mein. The place on Taraval is actually called Kingdom of Dumpling (and a new competitor, Dumpling Kitchen, sprung up down the block recently). Let me know if you’d like a tour guide for exploring!
jon wolfsthal and Candace are right, the real Chinese food in the DC area is mostly not in DC itself.
Joe’s Noodle in Rockville is pretty good.
Don’t bother going any farther north than that in MD. There are only two real Chinese restaurants near the Baltimore area, Grace Garden in central Maryland and Hunan Manor (which is new) in western Baltimore. The Virginia suburbs may have some decent Chinese places although they skew heavily toward Korean. Does a NoVA person want to chime in?
Houston, btw, has a large Chinese immigrant population (in addition to Vietnamese) and has many good authentic Chinese restaurants. Probably nothing of historical interest, however (like everything else in Houston — it’s new — but recent Chinese immigrants keep the food better!).
The first thing thing that came to mind when I read this post was San Tung but it looks like someone beat me to it! :P
Besides San Tung, here are a couple of other places that I’m always craving:
* Old Mandarin Islamic on Vicente between 42nd and 43rd – love their green beans with tofu and lamb with green onions. Bonus points if they seat you in the room past the kitchen.
* Shanghai House on 37th and Balboa – they’re known for their xiao long bao and they do a saucier version of San Tung’s dry fried chicken wings. Shanghai Dumpling King down the street is also worthwhile.
* Asian American Food Co on 21st and Noriega – they have freezers full of dumplings that are hand made at the store. The owner also has a restaurant called Kingdom of Dumpling on 27th and Taraval.
Growing up in Southern California, my family would drive out to the San Gabriel Valley every other weekend for great Chinese food. I’m a sucker for the shark fin scallop dumpling at Seafood Sea Harbour Restaurant in Rosemead (totally un-PC, I know). I think they have some of the best dim sum outside of Hong Kong.
I also have found memories of the the house chicken and green onion pancakes at Earthen Restaurants in Hacienda Heights.
Yes, please do consider Houston. It has an interesting Asian immigrant history which is reflected in their food. You have a few really good Cantonese Chinese places like Fung’s Kitchen and King Bo. Than a wave of Taiwanese immigrants arrived bringing their casual cuisine. Next came the Vietnamese, and then finally the mainland Chinese. Most of the best restaurants are along Bellaire and Beltway 8, sort of a new take on a traditional Chinatown.
I fear Candace is right, I’ve never heard a recommendation for Chinese in DC. I’ve heard great things about MD eats but can’t vouch for it. I can vouch for China Garden dim sum on Sundays in Rosslyn, VA (about 15 mins outside the city) and Miu Kee for great won ton soup and spicy shrimp a little further down the road in Falls Church.
That’s interesting! Does the Guatemalan bakery serve anything Chinese other than chow mein? A great aunt of mine lives in Guatemala and I’ve always wondered about the size of the Chinese population there and the extent of their influence.
As for Miami, I think there are a couple of Peruvian-Chinese and at least 2 or 3 Cuban-Chinese places. And New York’s Upper West Side alone has 3 or 4 of the latter, to my knowledge. So it’ll be interesting to see how different the Cuban-Chinese restaurants in Miami differ from, say, La Caridad 78. And there’s nothing wrong with side excursions to the beach. :)
I have gotten at least 4 separate votes for San Tung so far, both on this blog and on Facebook! Good to know that it’s highly vouched for!
Diana, love your blog and your recipes never fail me when I need to add some flavor to my life! There are two places that can be singled out as the best and most authentic chinese food in the DC ‘area’: Joe’s Noodle House in Rockville and Hunan Manor in Columbia, MD. Both are a bit of a hike but are worth it flavor-wise and portion-wise (take friends!). Joe’s has fantastic Mapo Tofu and stir-fried greens, while Hunan Manor has great seafood and vegetarian dishes (if that’s your thing). If you want other Asian options, Vietnamese at Four Sisters in Tyson’s Corner, Va is a perennial favorite. Enjoy DC!
Being a Chinese seafood junkie, I sought out the ever-popular Newport Tan Cang in San Gabriel and was not disappointed. All the amazing items in the aquariums to eat…
Having lived in DC/NY/Houston, I have to say that DC is known for its Vietnamese food, not Chinese. Having said that, the best I’ve found in DC over the past 6 years are XO Taste (like someone else recommended), but especially for their live seafood. I love their fried battered lobster with minced pork and scallions. A favorite of late night workers and chefs, they open every day until 2am. Otherwise, my favorites are in Wheaton & Rockville. Hollywood East for interesting dim sum (depends on what time you get there to get the interesting stuff). I hear their regular food is great too, especially anything XO, but I haven’t made it out there for anything but the dim sum. Also, there’s authentic Sichuan (spicy, too) dan dan noodles and such at Sichuan Gourmet. However, I prefer Hong Kong Palace, which actually is a HK cook serving Sichuan food – I love their cumin lamb and their spicy soup/stews and their battered egg & corn. He also runs a relatively new joint called Uncle Liu’s Hot Pot – Sichuan hot pot. And the hot broth is hot, mild is a whitish broth and not. So there are some gems if you look hard enough, but a lot of misses in DC.
I prefer Houston’s. Its Chinatown has grown into huge shopping malls and large areas of the city. I second Fung’s Kitchen for dim sum if you’re ever in the area, best I’ve ever had. They have tons and tons of shops in Houston that specialize in specific things.
I’ve heard great things about the cheap and plentiful Boston Chinese food…saved a friend’s (whose bf is Chinese) blog entry with his nostalgic tour of Boston Chinese joints, places he grew up. Just in case I visit someday.
Good eating!
Houston has some really great Chinese food! Like the previous commenter said, Houston has tons of shops in Houston that specialize in specific things–you can definitely find a great “whatever you’re looking for” in Houston :)!
I second the recommendation of A&J for northern Chinese dim sum. They have 2 locations, both outside the city: 1 in Rockville, MD and 1 in Annandale, VA. If you have time for multiple meals, consider the Annandale location as you can grab great Korean food there as well.
Phuong – I grew up in Boston and can definitely wax nostalgic about a bunch of dim sum, Vietnamese, and Malaysian spots. What is the name of your friend’s blog?
It would be fascinating to see a Chinatown that is comprised of large shopping malls. Certainly a departure from anything on the east coast or San Francisco!
you might want to check out Tyler Cowen’s dining guide–he’s the local restaurant-blogging guru:
His list of Chinese restaurants as of 2010:
http://www.gmu.edu/centers/publicchoice/faculty%20pages/Tyler/ethnicguide2010.htm#Chinese
Blog:
http://tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com/
I wish I could give a personal rec since I’m from the area, but I don’t think I’ve been to the best places. And my tastes are not that advanced–e.g. I’ll happily eat at Fortune, although its dim sum probably doesn’t stack up compared to really good dim sum. There is one place in Fairfax that had some good spicy szechuan eggplant and twice-cooked pork–possibly China Star. It sounds like you may not have time go beyond DC proper, though.
Not to my knowledge – they mostly do Guatemalan tamales and simple breakfasts, I think, in addition to selling their baked goods.
I’ll be interested to hear what you turn up in terms of Miami Cuban Chinese – the only place I was able to turn up with some quick searches was this: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2004-01-22/restaurants/real-cuban-chinese-style/1/
You also might want to hunt for some places in Miami that serve Chinese-Jamaican food…there is a significant Chinese-Jamaican population in Miami and I think there must be at least a couple of places like this: http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/12/1468855/restaurant/Kendall-Pinecrest/Jamrock-Jamaican-Chinese-Cuisine-Miami
I know everyone says DC doesn’t have great Chinese food, and that’s true…if you’re considering Chinatown. Sichuan Pavillion at 18th and K NW, however, is amazing and authentic.
It’s packed for lunch, and sometimes crowded for dinner (though there is literally nothing around there but offices), and is one of my all-time favorites in the area.
Thank you everyone for your great suggestions! I will keep all of these in mind when I travel in the spring!
No pun intended, the very best chow fun, and I prefer spicy bbq pork chow fun, is at Won Kok Center, on Alpine and High Street, in the Chinatown section of old Los Angeles. Give it a C+ for atmosphere but an A+ for the chow fun, which is very tasty, with plenty of special wok flavor and loaded with juicy pork char siu. The remainder of the menu is very tradition, pre-fad Chinese some intended for the Anglo palate but much more aimed at the local Chinese community. By LA standards, this place is a very casual, sincere relic, but the chow fun is A+.
My neighborhood szechuan spot is so good. It is called Sichuan Fortune House. It’s not in SF, but in Pleasant Hill, an East Bay suburb. It was recently featured on Check Please!, so it’s getting a lot of visitors from SF, Berkeley, Oakland, and the Peninsula.
There are some good spots in San Mateo by the railroad tracks. I am not sure what they are called though.
Miami is pretty poor for good Chinese food, though there are some places. NE 163rd Street in North Miami Beach has most of the good ones, as well as having most of the Chinese Grocers in the area.
You’ll need to find the right menu, of course, as the places I’ve tried have a ‘American’ menu, and then one that’s more authentic.
My own favourite is Sang’s, for Dim Sum.
Hi, I don’t know if you left for your trip yet!
But here are some good places to visit for L.A!
The best Dimsum place by far is at New Capital Seafood in Diamond Plaza. There are a few great Taiwanese places around the Rolland/Hacienda Heights area as well.
Traditional Taiwanese Tea and snacks: Ten Ren Tea Station located also in Diamond Plaza (It’s the best one compared to other baby branches :)
Class 302 also serves awesome Taiwanese food; with the best snow shaved ice in the world! Try the green tea and mochi!
I’ve been in China town a few times, and there are a few restaurants around there that are pretty good but I don’t have their name. So hope the Dimsum and Taiwanese places helps!