Fancy Chinese food is here to stay — and it's about time - new york times chinese restaurant review hot dish

How does Chinese food become synonymous with fried noodles and sticky food in the United States?
The sweet meat is complicated.
But, regardless of history, the association still has a shame today: Chinese food is fast and greasy and should not cost too much money.
But Asian-American chefs in California today are challenging
Long term ideas on what kind of food they should eat from an early age and taste-
How they should be valued.
"It's really just trying to bring these familiar flavors into something different," said Mei Lin, 33 . " She opened an art district restaurant called "Night Shadow" in January, Sichuan spicy quail, Cantonese Curry
The light prawn toast shares the menu space with beef tartare and onions.
Food is not the only thing that is evolving.
Elements that are usually not available in traditional Chinese restaurants --
Tasting menu, emphasis on service, luxurious decoration, innovative cocktail menu and wine pairing-
Also appeared.
From the Bay Area to Los Angeles, this shift can be traced back. A.
Depart from the San Gabriel Valley in the West
The first thing that comes to mind is to solve the perception that Chinese food is cheaper.
We are creating stepping stones for ourselves.
This is not necessarily to create Chinese restaurants that pay more attention to the West, but to drive the ambition of future cuisine.
The younger generation of chefs combine childhood nostalgia with professional cooking ribs, local ingredients and exquisite dining practices to drive awareness and acceptance of Chinese cooking in new directions and new
"The first thing that comes to mind is to solve the problem that people think Chinese food is cheaper," says 27-year-old Jon Yao, a chef at Kato in the west of Los Angeles.
"We are creating stepping stones for ourselves.
"There is no strong precedent in the United States. S.
For Taiwanese cuisine, Yao Ming, the winner of this year's James Beard Foundation's Rising Star Chef Award, is bound to lead.
On the first floor of a shopping mall, he spent $95 and $10-course dinner —
Sea trout cooked with black vinegar, steamed Spanish water chestnut, soy and ginger, chicken liver --
Apply riff on pineapple Borough
As thoughtful and elegant as the European tasting menu, but only half the price.
"It is very difficult to keep it in the range of Taiwanese food, but we are working very hard," Yao said . ".
"We are just trying to push a boundary that has not been pushed before.
Because Taiwanese restaurants in the United States always tend to "This is our shallots" or "This is our three"cup chicken.
"Yao Ming is in the early stage of planning a Chinese --
Taiwanese gourmet restaurant in Los AngelesA.
He hopes to move in the direction of Corey Lee's three children, Benu. Michelin-
Star restaurant in San Francisco.
Since its opening in 2010, Benu has gradually moved from mainly western-
According to Lee's time under Thomas Keller, tilt the dishes into carefully tasting dishes --menu-
Only heavy Chinese curved format.
41-say, this is not the intention from the beginningyear-
Korean-American Lao Li.
But when he observed which classes most resonated with diners and took into account the greatest joy the kitchen brought him, he realized: "The dishes I feel very proud of or the ones I really like to cook have some reference to my growth, or the story of how Asian-Americans fit into the local culture," he said.
"So this is not a conscious turn --
I think it's a slow change, or a slow evolution, and let's think more about it.
"Now, Li estimates that eight of the 20 or so dishes on his menu come from Chinese cooking, such as chicken wings stuffed with abalone and artificial shark fin soup. Lobster small dragon treasure, and a Guangdong quail dish with XO sauce.
"Our feature is something like Xiaoyu," Li wrote in an Instagram post on December. "There are other ethnic foods such as kimchi and dumplings --
On our menu, because they are delicious, but also because they are at least as professional and delicious as any Western food preparation I can think of, I would like to prove that they have a place on the high table.
The Night Shadow Forest also cited a cook in the Bay Area as an inspiration: Brandon Jews, his restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown, Mr. Nine's, since its opening three years ago, it has always been one of the hottest tables in the city.
Chinese American chef Jews who grew up in San Francisco and trained under Michael Tusk of Queens' said, "When I opened Mr. nine's restaurant, it thought San Francisco was its own area, if I can express the region in the context of China.
His scallions, therefore, were made with naturally fermented sour dough appetizers;
His $110 purchase of Beijing roast duck comes from Sonoma County poultry.
The 39-year-old did not shy away from tradition.
For example, there is a pot sticker on the menu, an undisputed victory for Chinese cooking that every restaurant has heard.
But he thinks it's a way to get into the food: If you like pot stickers, he'll think, maybe you'll try chicken feet Tailin next time.
Last month, he added a trendy cocktail bar to Mr. Nine's former banquet space, called Moongate Lounge, where Chinese
Inspired cocktail (
One is bourbon, oolong tea, green walnut and black sesame honey;
Another Scotch whisky with lapsang sochu and grilled brown rice)
There are snacks such as smoked oyster fritters.
Best ingredients
However, the first-class service, as well as the price of food and drinks carefully made by a classical trained chef.
This is a sensitive topic for any chef who tries to responsibly pay fair wages and sources, but for Asian-American chefs it is a particularly troublesome place.
Although diners have long been willing to pay high prices for Asian cuisine such as sushi, their attitude towards Chinese cuisine is generally different.
Low-prison
Price mentality can't escape-
Even for some of the best young chefs in the country.
Jews use examples of traditional European cooking styles to illustrate the difference in expectations between diners: willing to pay for one "national dish" rather than another.
You're not complaining about the price of agnonotti baked last night.
The rest of the dumplings are basically returned to you.
"When people say, 'Why is it so expensive?
"I would love it if they want to eat Italian or French," he said . ".
"Chinese food is equally refined.
"I'm sure you didn't complain about the price of agnorotti baked last night," he continued . ".
"A leftover dumpling that is basically returned to you.
Yao raised the price of Kato Taiwanese in January.
From $85 to $95, he said it was the difference of $10, causing a "strong response ".
"The customer we got said, 'I can't believe we paid $95 for this small piece of fish,' he said. '".
"First of all, I think, 'This is not Tiny', and secondly, this is a very expensive fish that we get every day.
"Benu, $310 per person, is booked almost every night and is one of the few restaurants that have successfully entered the upper floors (
San Francisco's traditional Chinese restaurant has eight tables and a $225 tasting menu, which is no longer good --received).
Lee knows that his customers have paid "extraordinary prices" in his restaurant, a concept that can be difficult for many diners to understand, especially for Asian food.
Expensive banquet foods such as abalone and shark fin soup have always existed, of course: "appreciation of food (
Senses and technologywise)
It's not new in Asia, because most cultures there have a long tradition of highly refined dishes, "Li wrote on Instagram.
"But this is the United States. our local food is usually not so respected . . . . . . Ironically, for the same reason, these preparations may be polarized for Asian Americans, whose exposure to Asian cuisine is primarily at home or at cheaper restaurants.
"In addition to the price issue, Chinese American chefs are considering how to bring creative things to their cooking while tasting authentic flavors and preparing --
When they feel that the restaurant is too far away, it creates a complex feeling.
For Asian Americans, these preparations may be polarized, and their exposure to Asian cuisine is mainly at home or at cheaper restaurants.
Johnny Lee is the head chef of Arcadia Hainan chicken expert side chicken and now occasionally eats Chinese food
A few months ago, I visited the harbor at a dim sum restaurant in Chinatown.
He said he wanted shumai but they didn't.
They only ate truffles.
My main complaint is
I don't like black truffles in shumai.
But there must be this sport in Chinese restaurants that try to use Western luxury ingredients like foie gras, truffles and caviar, but sometimes they just put it on top. ”The 32-year-
The old chef suspects that some restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley are loading this high mark
High-end food that attracts wealthy diners
Especially the new round of deep
Immigrants from China
And charge them more money.
But this approach does not pay off for some people.
After opening in the summer and blowing itself from tou to become the preferred destination for Chinese cuisine in the region, the San Gabriel restaurant Opal suddenly announced that it will transition to group dining only.
In a short business hour, luxury Vegasmeets-Restoration-
The hardware restaurant is basically empty and lively.
Stir-fried black pepper and beef, coupled with honey-roasted black buttery pork, the apparent luxury is not enough to attract diners.
Life away from the Chineserestaurant-
Restaurant owners are also pushing west.
Sichuan Impression, Capital Seafood, Dingtai Fung are all in their popular SGV restaurant, and Vivian Ku) taiwan attractions and other more Leisure restaurants on the west side of Yinhu pine crane and The New Joy of Highland Park, help to complete more geographical distribution --out picture.
"The west side has changed from the wasteland of Chinese food to the holy land of Chinese food," said David R . "
Jackie Chan, a resident of Los Angeles, has been following Chinese restaurants in the United States since the middle
In their 1970 s, they ate an amazing 7,500.
"A few years ago, people were talking about the meal card, 'If Dingtai Feng opened a branch in the West End, wouldn't it be great?
The answer from most people is that you should live so long.
Today, Dingtai Fung, which has seven branches in Southern California, has launched Little Dragon treasure, making Jiangnan dishes almost as common as cashew chicken.
While this is an exception, not a rule, regional expression of Chinese food has also increased in recent years. Peppercorn-and chili-
Sichuan is rich in flavor, but tastes in other regions are also very attractive.
Dolan's Uyghur dish is the most popular food in Xinjiang, western China: hearty manti dumplings and big pot chicken, noodles and fat, chicken nuggets.
The Hunan restaurant, which opened in Monterey Park more than a year ago, has a layered rural flavor of braised meat, hot dry pots, and fermented beans and radishes.
Instead of faithfully making provincial dishes at night shadows, Lin is trying this form.
This week, she added a new dish to the menu: a large piece of pork cutlet inspired by the time she worked for Wolfgang Parker in Spago, which tasted like white pepper andspice powder —
The bright, sharp taste of Taiwanese popcorn chicken.
The dish sums up where she came from and where she has been, and she wants diners to accept the dish, a convincing explanation of modern Chinese cooking.
"I am very proud of what these chefs have done: Re-inventing Chinese food and Chinese flavor," she said . ".
"I want the public to see what it is, too.
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