A Tale of Two Cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco, Seldom Does The Chinese Restaurant Twain Meet

With booming Chinese populations for over 50 years triggered by the end of the United States' restrictions on Chinese operations, one might expect many Chinese restaurants to have operations in both cities.  But indeed, independently operated Chinese eateries with locations in both San Francisco and Los Angeles have been a real rarity over the years.  

As a result, as the locus of better Chinese food has shifted over the years from San Francisco to Los Angeles, the directional travel of citizens of one city seeking better Chinese food in their home areas has shifted.  Not surprisingly, with San Francisco being the initial and dominant port of entry for Chinese migrants for over a century, was the unchallenged center of Chinese dining in America for almost 150 years.  Indeed, many people still presume that San Francisco is still the Chinese food capital of the United States.  Whereas Los Angeles residents used to fly or drive north to the Bay Area for the better food in the last century, like my wife and I did in 1980 when we flew to San Francisco one morning and had lunch and dinner at the Chinese restaurant du jour Kam Wah in Chinatown and then flew back, it's now NorCal folks now flying or driving south on Chinese culinary expeditions.

Kam Lok, San Francisco

My first recollection of a dual Chinatown operation was 40 years ago, when Chiu Chow Restaurant had locations in both Los Angeles and San Francisco Chinatown.  But that didn't last for long. And 25 years ago, Pacific Heights’ Gourmet Carousel also had a large Los Angeles Chinatown location for a short while. I also remember both Chinatowns having a Kim Tar Restaurant, as well as more recently suburban branches and I vaguely remember San Francisco’s Golden Dragon having an affiliate down in Los Angeles with a different name. (It could have been Golden Palace, but at this stage my memory has failed me.)

In the 1990s, there was a restaurant called Silver Wing in Alhambra which shut down and moved to  Cupertino.  More recently Liang’s Kitchen opened up in Cupertino after operating a number of branches throughout the Los Angeles area (and even Flushing, New York) but all of those branches have closed--except the one in Cupertino.  And Michelle’s Pancake House operated in Cupertino, San Gabriel and Industry, of which have also since faded into the night. 

Currently there is a new crop of dual metro Chinese eateries.  In 2017, Alhambra's Little Swan Cafe opened up a branch on Stockton Street in San Francisco Chinatown, with both still in operation.  Meanwhile, San Francisco Chinatown's Fancy Wheat Field opened up its Green Wheat Field branch in 2018.  Industry's Xian Kitchen opened up a branch in Milpitas in 2017 and another one in San Jose in 2021, though the latter has shut down.  (There is also a Xian Kitchen in Louisville, but it serves Filipino food!!)

And just a few months ago, Rowland Ping's Bistro Together opened up in Hacienda Heights as the new San Gabriel Valley branch of the Ping's Bistro chain with locations in San Mateo, Cupertino and Fremont.  (Rowland refers to the fact that they call this their Rowland Heights branch, even though it is not actually located in Rowland Heights.  But what do you expect from NorCal folks?) 

In the past few years though, with the advent of Chinese restaurant chains, operated by large overseas owned companies, there is a lot more shared dining operations between Northern and Southern California.   But with probably over a thousand authentic Chinese restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley, and perhaps a comparable number in the Bay Area, the commonality of Chinese restaurant operations in the two regions do not overlap in any meaningful degree, making the Chinese restaurant maps quite distinctive.  And because of this, it makes prospects of living in San Francisco or Los Angeles and visiting the other more intriguing.

 

  

Return To The Bonaventure

 

If you remember my previous posting a few years ago on the Chinese banquet food at the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown LA, which was the awfulest meal I ever had, you might be interested in this update. Things have changed as most of the food was quite edible, but this was still not a typical banquet. For one, when the doors opened the appetizer plates were already on the table, and white rice was served on a dish like an entree. 

 

 

This was the annual dinner of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association.  I actually was a member of the group over 40 years ago, but dropped out when my job duties took on a National Office focus.  Festivities started with an extended lion dance presentation.

 

As noted in the 2022 article, almost all the food was inedible.  However I had heard that the food had improved in subsequent years, and indeed this food was quite edible.  But while the food also looked Chinese, the taste and feel of the food wasn't. The shrimp in the walnut shrimp was not crunchy, though not soggy, it was meaty.

 

While the soup looked the part, it turned out to be tofu mushroom soup in a dark broth, something I have never ever seen in a Chinese restaurant.  And the waiter did not put a big tureen of soup on the table and spoon it into the individual bowls.  Rather, he carried a relatively small tureen that only contained enough soup for five bowls.  After dishing that out, he disappeared and we thought that it was it.  Only five or ten minutes later did he come back without another tureen to fill the rest of the bowls.

 

 

 
Meanwhile, the beef was not the customary filet, and while not tough came in hard chunks--sort of like brisket meat, but not tender. 

 

The giant scallops had an undistinctive flavor.

 

 

Worst of all was the fried rice.  It wasn't even fried.  Looks like Uncle Ben's and tasted like it too.  Dish wasn't touched by anyone at our table.

 

 On the good side, the jellyfish and the seaweed in the appetizer plate were very good.

 

And the mango pudding was as good as it gets, very naturally flavored.

 

And afterwards I found out that two of the entrees missed our table completely. Outrageous!  While I didn't go hungry this time, certainly nobody for whom the quality of the food is a major consideration should have their Chinese banquet at the Bonaventure.

No complaints for the event as a whole, though, as I got to visit with Dolly Gee, Chief Judge of the Central California US District Court, pioneering Chinese-American attorney Nowland Hong and Congresswoman Judy Chu. Also got to see my grandson Eli on stage banging a gong held by my son Eric.

 

New England Style Chinese Food Delivered Directly To Your Door

In one of the first articles on Chinese food I wrote for the old Menuism website, I described how certain regional Chinese American specialties were unique to a particular geographic area in the United States, such as the chow mein sandwich in Fall River, Massachusetts and fried breaded cashew chicken in Springfield, Missouri.  In the same vein, there were general styles of regional Chinese food identified with a certain locality, such as New York Chinese food (though the specific characteristics might not be entirely precisely understood.)   In any event, these dishes could only be experienced by visiting the specific locality involved, and while interesting, not interesting enough to justify a long trip by itself.

Strangely, while by far the greatest number of online requests come from former New Yorkers looking for New York style Chinese food in their current place of residence, of all the restaurant food that gets shipped cross country via UPS wrapped in dry ice, the only Chinese food  available that way is New England style Chinese food.  It is provided by a company called Bamboos Nation Interstate.    It took me a while, but I think I figured out why you can buy New England style Chinese food online for home delivery, but not New York style.  The answer is dual.  First of all, the concept of New England style Chinese food is well defined.  It is marked by dark fried rice, fried chicken fingers, boneless breaded fried chicken with almonds, shrimp in dark lobster sauce, boneless spare ribs, often served at restaurants with a Polynesian motif that serve pupu platters.  (The "dark" factor attributable to the fact that these items are cooked with molasses, a recipe not used anywhere else in the country.)  And secondly, there are a substantial number of Chinese restaurants in New England that check all the boxes and are still operating.  Consequently, Bamboos National Interstate has a core group of restaurants that they work with regularly, which is supplemented by other restaurants on a rotating basis.

Actually when I first found out about Bamboos Nation, I hesitated about ordering.  For a full meal the cost was about $150 for the food and a similar additional amount for shipping, all for Americanized Chinese food which I wouldn't find particularly tasty.  The thought of eating New England style Chinese chicken fingers was tempting, but the rest of the menu with chop suey, fried rice and chow mein dishes was totally unappealing.  But then I saw that one of the participating restaurants also had hung su gai, a form of almond boneless chicken that never showed up in California, and that I could do double orders of both dishes instead of single orders of unappealing dishes, then it was a no brainer, and I sent in my order.  

Since Bamboos Nation only ships out once every week or two, with shipping it took almost three weeks for my shipment to arrive.  How exciting when my package came from Tahiti Restaurant in suburban Boston!

 

 

 

Loose items in the box.  Teabags.

  

 

A can of Dole pineapple chunks? 

 

 

And a flyer.

 

Condiments.

All the cooked food wrapped up and kept cold.

Inside the insulated bag were all the containers of food.

Oyster pail of rice--with a metal handle.  Haven't seen one of these with a handle in a long time, but apparently they are still commonly in use on the East Coast.  We ditched the handle in California a long time ago.

Hung su gai sauce.

At last!   Full version of hung su gai!

Seperate order of chicken fingers.

Lastly, giant egg rolls.

Even though it's been quite a few months, I still have a few frozen chicken fingers that I haven't eaten yet.

A Trip To The Enigmatic Chubby Cattle BBQ

About four years ago I described my visit  to Wagyu House in Industry, which was the most stunning and possibly most popular Chinese restaurant in all of the San Gabriel Valley.  Wagyu House was part of a budding empire called the Chubby Group, which has opened Chinese and Japanese branded restaurants across the country.  Wagyu House was wildly successful, probably the highest grossing Chinese restaurant in the San Gabriel Valley.  Strangely, though, while the Chubby Group is opening all kinds of restaurants at an accelerated pace, they surprisingly closed Wagyu House about a year ago.  But shortly thereafter they opened up a branch of their Chubby Cattle BBQ chain less than a mile away in Rowland Heights.  And then Wagyu House opened up as a straight up hotpot, Chubby Cattle Club.  And also in Rowland Heights is yet another member of the family, iWagyu.  While Chubby Cattle locations have been opening in numerous locations both in the San Gabriel Valley and elsewhere's, I had not bothered to visit any of them since Chubble Cattle BBQ are all you can eat Wagyu restaurants with different price tiers starting in the $50s range.  Not being a large meat eater, it didn't make sense for me to go there, particularly since I had already eaten at Wagyu House, which was hot pot based.

The Chubby Cattle BBQ locations did follow the precedent set by Wagyu House of being highly patronized and having a high level of customer satisfaction.  But there has also been controversy with a large number of naysayers, particularly showing up on Reddit, and aimed at some of the Chubby Group's business practices.  You can check out some of the more specific comments on Reddit concerning topics like sourcing and quality of their Wagyu, questions about their membership and rewards programs, the unbelievable number of cookie cutter 5 star Yelp reviews that thank their servers by name, health inspection issues and probably more.

But the fact is Chubby Cattle has a lot of satisfied customers with good food so I finally decided to check it out.  The surroundings of Chubby Cattle BBQ are quite nice.  Not quite as exquisite as Wagyu House was, but certainly very nice.

 

The feature, of course, is Wagyu.

 

Yellowtail sashimi

 Steamed eggs

 

Grilled silken tofu.

 

Come hungry and you will get your money's worth. 

You Can Go Home Again--And I Can Eat Dim Sum Without Leaving Town

So those of you who follow me on social media may know, last year I declared I would no longer eat dim sum in Los Angeles because it was so vastly inferior to that in the San Francisco Bay area.  Of course that didn't mean I would refuse social engagements with family or friends if dim sum were involved.  Nor did it mean I would not test out the goods at newly opened dim sum restaurants.   But it did slow down my dim sum consumption, which had not been that great anyway,  to a trickle locally.    

However, late last year I received a tip that Sea Harbour in Rosemead had revised its menu sometime since my most recent visit, and in fact after checking it out online it was time for a return visit.  And indeed, Sea Harbour is back on my list.  It didn't take long for me to be convinced when I ordered my beloved crispy baked bbq pork buns, still called French style bbq pork buns on the Sea Harbour menu.  I had always ordered this item on my visits to Sea Harbour, even though it was a cut below all the Bay Area versions, and even the equivalent snow mountain bun at Family Pastry in Los Angeles.  However, this bun had been reformulated to match my favorite versions.

 

Also on the menu was one of my Bay Area favorites that I had not seen in the San Gabriel Valley, best described as double thick gelatinous cubes.  Up north they were usually ginger buns, but this one was called date pudding.  Just as good though.

 

Not a Bay Area exclusive, but it was great to see this red rice crispy shrimp cruller rice noodle roll at Sea Harbour.

 

 XO squid ink spicy scallop and shrimp dumpling.

 

New style chicken bao are large with a leafy pattern.

 

Chicken knees (or is it knuckles or ankles?) anyone.

 

Truffle siu mai with shrimp and pork.

 

Interesting to see they still have the old "intestine" style rice noodle rolls.

 

Fried egg tofu in Thai sauce.

 

Milky white egg tarts.

 

Crispy pork pastries

 

Preserved meat rice casserole.

 

Gold leaf shrimp dumpling.

 

Bean curd skin with abalone sauce.

 

Radish cake

 

Xiaolongbao

 

Shrimp and vegetable dumpling

Rice noodle rolls with spare ribs

 

 Gold leaf lava buns.

 

Now that Sea Harbour has stepped up its dim sum, hopefully other San Gabriel Valley dim sum purveyors may follow.