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Thread: Kung Fu Restaurants & Bars

  1. #136
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    Kung Fu Noodle

    Another TX Kung Fu joint
    Review: Kung Fu Noodle
    By Edmund TijerinaFebruary 13, 2015


    Image 1 out of 10
    William Luther /San Antonio Express-News
    The exterior of Kung Fu Noodle
    There’s plenty of percussion in the kitchen at Kung Fu Noodle, echoes of slaps and thumps that reverberate through the restaurant. Those bangs are a little jarring for the uninitiated, but they soon transform into comforting reminders that this kitchen is performing something special: hand pulling Chinese noodles.


    Once those noodles go into one of the flavorful broths with meats, vegetables and garnishes, they turn into dream-inspiring bowls.

    The banging, by the way, isn’t for show. It helps develop the gluten in the dough. Once the dough is kneaded thoroughly and smacked onto the table, a cook grabs a segment of dough, stretches it until it reaches arm’s length, doubles it and repeats the process until that initial segment has turned into into a large handful of fresh noodles, a little thicker than spaghetti. If the noodles are made right, they should have a bit of a springy texture and readily absorb flavors.

    At this restaurant, the noodles are wonderful. They’re called la mian or “stretched noodles,” a style most associated with the city of Lanzhou in north central China.

    Kung Fu Noodle

    ★★ ½
    6733 Bandera Road at Grisson Road, 210-451-5586
    Quick bite: Enjoy excellent hand-pulled Chinese noodles, hand-made dumplings and well-layered broths in a minimalist setting.
    Hit: Noodles with lamb, dumplings with pork and mushroom, pork and cabbage steamed bun★
    Miss: Place fills up quickly.
    Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday
    Price range: Buns, $1 each; noodle and dumpling dishes, $6.99

    ★★★★Superior. Can compete nationally.
    ★★★Excellent. One of the best restaurants in the city.
    ★★ Very good. A standout restaurant of its kind.
    ★ Good. A restaurant that we recommend.
    (no stars) We cannot recommend this restaurant at this time.

    Express-News dining critics pay for all meals.

    The menu at this restaurant consists almost exclusively of handmade noodles and dumplings. Two types of buns are available on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and they’re also worth carving out time for a visit.

    One of the steamed dumplings combined minced pork, diced cabbage, a bit of fresh chiles and a mixture of spices. The complex flavors skillfully combined meaty, spicy and herbaceous elements. The other, which was solely a steamed bread dumpling, worked well for sopping up extra broth from the noodle dishes. At only a dollar each, these dumplings are not only good eating, but also an incredible deal.

    Get a bread dumpling, because you’ll want to sop up some broth, even after filling up on noodles. The pork broth featured small pieces of meat in a light pork broth that also included bok choy, a touch of ginger and a nice mixture of other aromatics.

    A well-layered beef broth anchored another noodle dish, but the noodles with lamb are a must-order. The lamb broth also included a generous helping of dried chiles, similar to chile de arbol in flavor and especially in heat. During one visit, the heat was so intense that it provoked sweating, coughing and tearing up. Despite the pain — or perhaps because of it — I didn’t want to stop. Even though the heat from chiles hurt, the broth still delivered an incredible amount of other flavors.

    During another visit, the burn from the soup was much more manageable, but equally flavorful. This soup featured a noodle that was about a half-inch wide and called, appropriately enough, wide noodles.

    One quibble: even though the broths had nice layers of flavor, they would have been even better with a touch more ginger, scallions and other aromatic herbs.

    A mixture of stir-fried noodles with diced red and green peppers, celery, carrots and scallions with a touch of fresh chiles proved delightfully vibrant.

    Just as there’s no bad choice from among noodles, all the dumplings work well, whether you’re talking about the pork and mushroom dumplings, beef dumplings or pork and chive dumplings. For an extra dimension of flavor, pour a little black vinegar into a small condiment dish and dip the unadorned dumpling into it.

    Just be aware that there are only a handful of tables and the ambiance is austere, with mostly bare walls, a few pictures hanging, some red paper lanterns around the cash register and a single television showing country music videos. Hey, the noodles may be from China, but the restaurant is still in Texas.

    etijerina@express-news.net

    Twitter: @etij
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  2. #137
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    Follow up on the Kung Fu Saloon debacle

    What is it with TX Kung Fu joints?
    Kung Fu Saloon agreed to pay small fine over dress code, racism claims
    Sarah Blaskovich Follow sblaskovich Email sblaskovich@dallasnews.com
    Published: February 9, 2015 12:38 pm


    Christian Randolph
    Kung Fu Saloon is a bar with arcade games located on a bustling corner of Uptown Dallas.
    After complaints of racism surfaced against Uptown Dallas bar Kung Fu Saloon in mid-2014, the case is now closed.

    Kung Fu reps entered two “no contest” pleas on Jan. 26 related, in part, to allegations from Dallas resident DeAndre Upshaw, who said he was turned away at the bar in May because a bouncer said his Converse sneakers violated the bar’s dress code. Upshaw, a black man, told The Dallas Morning News in May that his white, female friend was wearing the same Converse sneakers and was granted admittance into the bar that night.

    The bar did not have a dress code posted publicly at the time of Upshaw’s incident. Upshaw believes he was turned away because he’s black. Kung Fu said it does not deny entry “based upon race, ethnicity, gender, religion or any other status,” according to a statement from the bar on May 20.

    Upshaw and others filed formal complaints against the bar, and City Manager A.C. Gonzales promised to investigate Kung Fu Saloon “very aggressively.” The investigation considered Kung Fu’s potential violation of Section 3l-3(b)(2) of the Dallas City Code, which relates to unlawfully refusing admission to an establishment because of dress or grooming.


    Jerry McClure
    The city has concluded its investigation with Kung Fu Saloon, a city spokeswoman confirmed Monday morning.

    At the time of the incident, Upshaw launched a social media campaign urging others to share #NoKungFuDallas. The city reiterated its commitment to the investigation: “Discrimination is unacceptable,” said Beverly Davis, assistant director of fair housing and human rights, before the investigation began.

    Kung Fu in Dallas has since posted its dress code, which prohibits baggy clothing, gang-associated clothing and obscene emblems, among other things.

    In a Feb. 9 statement, the bar hopes it can move on. “We made this decision in order to move forward without further proceedings, and in hopes of refocusing our full attention on providing a welcoming entertainment experience to the community,” the statement reads.

    Kung Fu is required to pay two fees of $400 and receive deferred adjudication for 90 days, according to a city of Dallas memo. (Hat tip to the Dallas Observer for reporting the news first.)

    Kung Fu reps have also agreed to write letters of apology to Upshaw and Jesse Okiror, according to the city memo. At press time, Upshaw had not received his letter yet.

    Upshaw feels like the case ended well, he told The Dallas Morning News. “From the very beginning, my entire goal was that I wanted them to acknowledge that what they were doing was in violation of the law,” he says.

    “Anytime you can bring about change … it’s worth it,” he said. “It took a lot of time and effort. I believe it was worth it.”

    The Department of Justice is operating a separate investigation.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  3. #138
    "Texas needs Kung Fu!"
    Chan Tai San Book at https://www.createspace.com/4891253

    Quote Originally Posted by taai gihk yahn View Post
    well, like LKFMDC - he's a genuine Kung Fu Hero™
    Quote Originally Posted by Taixuquan99 View Post
    As much as I get annoyed when it gets derailed by the array of strange angry people that hover around him like moths, his good posts are some of my favorites.
    Quote Originally Posted by Kellen Bassette View Post
    I think he goes into a cave to meditate and recharge his chi...and bite the heads off of bats, of course....

  4. #139
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    Kungfu Noodle revisited

    Kungfu Noodle: Using Their Noodle
    With just 10 items on the menu, Kungfu Noodle puts a masterful focus on each dish
    By Julia Celeste


    Photos By Jessica Attie

    There are two things diners should not expect on a visit to Kungfu Noodle: ambiance and an extensive menu. The restaurant offers a relatively spartan dining experience where the goal is to order, slurp and depart. The minimalist decor (including a banner in Chinese characters that spells out Kungfu Noodle House) is cheerful and clean, and the service fast and efficient.

    Yali Wang, daughter of the chef-owners Yufang Han (her mom) and Huachun (her dad), explains why the menu is limited. “Every item takes a long time to make. And we’re just a small family,” she say. Yes, it’s that simple. And that straightforward fact creates the flavors that make Kungfu so craveable despite the limited options.

    Noodles here are slapped and pulled into shape on kitchen counters (sometimes you can hear the action) and develop a characteristic “springy” texture with the help of an alkaline added to the dough. Ranging from wide to thin, the handmade noodles remain the centerpiece of the restaurant’s main dishes, turning steaming bowls of broth into a satisfying meal.

    Both the stretched noodles with beef and the handmade noodles with pork are broth-based dishes filled with ample amounts of baby bok choy, meat and spaghetti-size noodles. The broths are mild but flavorful and won’t challenge any wimpy palates. Those who like a bit more bite appreciate the hot oil and Sriracha politely provided at the table.

    The handmade noodles with lamb, filled with hand-cut broad noodles and hearty ground lamb, deliver such a spicy punch you won’t need to add any extra fuel to the fire. Keep a few extra napkins nearby as the sinus-clearing begins right after your first swallow. Don’t worry. You’ll be used to it after a few more slurps and looking forward to more after your final mop of the bowl.

    Yali says the lamb and beef broths are a delicate hands-on endeavor. “My mother gets here very early in the morning to make the broths. Then she starts on the dough for the noodles and dumplings,” she explains.

    Ah, the dumplings.

    “Kungfu” loosely translates to “the skills achieved through hard work.” And while the tiny restaurant’s broths and noodles clearly demonstrate those skills, the dumplings are a shining example of them. As an order of about 25 hand-crimped noodle packets steams its way to the table, start mixing your dipping sauce from the condiments on the table: two tablespoons of soy sauce, a soupçon of vinegar, a drizzle of hot oil. Do your best to let the dumplings cool and the flavors develop. You can’t make a wrong choice from the three options. Pork and mushroom delivers the Zen-balanced flavor of both ingredients, the beef rendition is a steak-lover’s dream, and there’s a somewhat lighter flavor in the pork and chive mix. No matter which you order, you won’t be able to eat just one. In addition to the handmade dough, all of the fillings are ground by hand from larger cuts of meat and fresh herbs and spices.

    On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, in-the-know patrons rush in for handmade buns. At $1 each, they’re a steal. A manly fist-sized, bright-white, soft, doughy bun is served either plain (called Chinese buns) or filled with a chunky mix of cabbage, carrot, ground pork and red pepper flakes. According to Yali, the buns are another true labor of love. “We used to be open seven days a week, and my parents would work very late into the night to make the buns on Monday nights,” she says. “It’s a very special dough and takes a long time to rise. We could only make so many, and we were running out on Tuesdays, even though we said we had them Wednesdays too. People were very disappointed. So we decided to close on Mondays to make more buns, and now we don’t usually run out.”

    Yali says they have been considering adding several new dishes to create a larger menu, but they’re not quite ready to do so yet. Instead, look for unique items on a handwritten specials board. One such special, the Five-Spiced Egg, has the subtle flavor of black tea, cloves, star anise, cinnamon and fennel that had been infused into the hard-boiled egg. The board said it would go best with the lamb bowl. We ate it like an appetizer instead.

    Bring your own beer or wine if you like, or enjoy hot tea and canned soda. You’re sure to return to try everything the menu offers at least once. With just 10 items to sample, each priced at $6.99 or $1, frequent visitors can expect to quickly become Kungfu masters with mad noodle skills.
    Don't Miss Dishes

    1. Neither the clear sweet potato noodles nor the opaque tofu noodles are made in house, but the sweet potato noodles with beef still manages to hook you in with a satisfying broth and thin slices of tender meat.

    2. Be careful not to chomp into a dried chile arbol as you dig into the fried noodles with vegetables. The hot-oil-laced stir-fried veggies are a crunchy foil to the thin handmade noodles. It’s the only non-soup noodle dish. Just ask to add pork or beef.

    3. Share an order of dumplings, then get another to take home. They’re easy to reheat: Place in a glass bowl, add a teaspoon of water, cover and heat.

    Chefs/Owners: Yufang Han and Huachun / Cuisine: Chinese Noodles

    Kungfu Noodle, 6733 Bandera Road, 210-451-5586, Lunch and dinner Tues-Sun $
    This place does sound good.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  5. #140
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    I love noodles. Unfortunately, since 4 years ago I've developed a gluten sensitivity and have to avoid all gluten. But fortunately, I can still enjoy good noodles that are made from rice flour (preferably brown rice flour). I cook them myself in various dishes, and for all intents and purposes there is no difference taste-wise from regular wheat noodles.

    Back in the 70s, there used to be a local vegetarian restaurant called Kung Food.

  6. #141
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    "Back in the 70s, there used to be a local vegetarian restaurant called Kung Food"

    All the best names been taken already -
    "The perfect way to do, is to be" ~ Lao Tzu

  7. #142
    There are 2 things about noodles.

    1 toughness or elasticity of noodles.

    Hand pulled is better than machine made. I went to Hawaii in 1992 before the outbreak of gulf war. I visited Chinatown in Honolulu. I like the noodle there. They showed how they made noodles.

    2 soup base or tang tou 汤头

    These are well kept family secrets even today.


  8. #143
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    Toad Style

    FTW! Five Deadly Venoms themed restaurant!

    Kung Fu-Themed Vegan Restaurant 'Toad Style' to Open in Bed-Stuy
    By Camille Bautista | July 20, 2015 5:22pm
    @CamBautista


    Toad Style's mushroom lentil burger with home made cashew tapioca cheese.
    Toad Style

    BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — Three friends are looking to expand Bed-Stuy’s affordable, on-the-go food options with a new kung fu-themed vegan eatery on Ralph Avenue.

    Toad Style is set to open at the end of July, featuring items like mushroom lentil burgers, esquites with almond cheese crumbles and cayenne chili spice, and twists on classic sandwiches.

    Owner Jillian Camera said she and co-owners Tyler Merfeld and Ian Graye were tired of traveling out of the neighborhood for high-quality, accessible restaurants.

    “We’re not just catering to vegans,” Camera, 25, said.

    “We want people to get quick food that’s not greasy and fried. We're trying to be another option. We just happen to think in this day and age it’s not necessary to use animal products, and we’re trying to prove that.”

    The 14-seat restaurant at 93 Ralph Ave. takes it name from the 1978 martial arts film, “Five Deadly Venoms,” which follows five kung fu fighters with their own animal styles.

    “Toad style is immensely strong and immune to nearly any weapon. When it's properly used, it's almost invincible,'” Camera said, quoting the movie. “I think of it as our mantra."

    The trio makes all the dishes from scratch, along with creating their own vegan-version of ketchup, mayonnaise, cheese and butter, she added.

    Toad Style also pans to be plastic-free for its take-out, delivery and in-house dining by utilizing bamboo utensils and paper products.

    Sandwiches are expected to range between $7 and $9, and the eatery will serve up two daily soups and a selection of rotating salads.

    Menu items include fried wonton cashew, vegan ricotta raviolis with red onion and garlic marinara, and a vegan hearts of palm lobster roll with tomato cucumber salad.

    Camera added that the eatery's name "symbolizes what we’re trying to do: a clear focus and objective to be the best and focus on what we think is really important, especially with a lot of the politics revolving around vegan food."

    The Toad Style space will be decorated with old kung fu posters and also features a backyard, which the owners hope to open in the near future for additional seating.
    Anyone near this place and want to review it? If so, contact me.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  9. #144
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    Kung Fu Panda Noodle Shop

    You know, it would be an excellent promotion for the Kung Fu Panda Noodle Shop if they sent the Associate Publisher of Kung Fu Tai Chi on a complementary press cruise to review this fine new establishment.

    Kung Fu Panda: First a movie, now a cruise ship restaurant
    Cruise Log
    Gene Sloan, USA TODAY 9:06 a.m. EDT July 31, 2015


    (Photo: Zero Lu )

    Forget celebrity chefs. The latest star to get a restaurant on a cruise ship is a make-believe panda.

    Royal Caribbean on Thursday unveiled the first restaurant on land or sea themed around Kung Fu Panda, the DreamWorks Animation flick about a panda named Po who aspires to be a kung fu master.

    Added to Royal Caribbean's eight-month-old Quantum of the Seas, the Kung Fu Panda Noodle Shop serves dim sum, noodle bowls and traditional Chinese desserts in a family-style setting. Items are priced a la carte at $2 to $5 a plate.

    The eatery debuts as Quantum of the Seas transitions to a vessel aimed primarily at the Chinese market. After an initial season of sailings out of the New York area, it has spent the last two months sailing around the globe to Shanghai, where it arrived this week.

    Quantum now will be based in Shanghai year-round offering three- to eight- night itineraries to Japan and Korea.

    At 168,666 tons, Quantum is the third largest cruise ship ever built and boasts such groundbreaking features as a deck-top ride into the sky and a bar with robot bartenders. It can hold nearly 5,000 passengers.

    USA TODAY Cruise reported live from Quantum's maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. Click through the carousel at the top of this story for a deck-by-deck look at the vessel's public areas. The gallery below offers a glimpse at some of its swankiest suites.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  10. #145
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    Kung Fu schnitzel

    Okay, okay. Not a real food truck. But it should be...

    Beer with Kung Fu schnitzel? Britain's Beer Alliance outdoor ads poke fun at street food
    Added 10 hours ago
    by Grace French


    British Beer Alliance: digital ads encourage drinking beer with an array of unusual foods

    Britain's Beer Alliance, the umbrella body representing the beer industry, has launched a new series of digital outdoor ads as part of its £10 million 'there's a beer for that' campaign.

    Devised by creative agency SapientNitro, the ads are aimed at reigniting Britain’s love for beer and highlighting the drink's versatility with various foods, even with those as leftfield as 'Kung Fu Schnitzel' (a fictional food brand to illustrate the modern popularity of fusion street food).

    The campaign launched yesterday (24 August) and for the next five weeks ads will appear on digital billboards across London, Birmingham and Manchester.

    The ads will appear in the late afternoon and early evening in train stations, high streets and roadsides to coincide with passersby deciding what and where to eat.

    Mark Hunter, SapientNitro's executive creative director worked alongside creative team Edward Copeland and Lee Williams. Dan Burn Forti was the photographer and Mindshare handled the media.

    Hunter said: "Food and drink are such a huge part of British culture, so with Britain's Beer Alliance we looked to create an integrated story across media channels and digital to show how beer in all of its flavours and styles can really add to the enjoyment of a meal out or at home."
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  11. #146
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    Slightly OT

    I enjoyed this article. Tam touches on a lot here. Although I'm such a banana that Mac & Cheese is more of a comfort food for me personally.

    How it feels when white people shame your culture’s food — then make it trendy
    My family's food went from 'Chinese grossness' to America's 'hottest food trend.'
    By Ruth Tam August 31 at 6:00 AM Follow @ruthetam
    Ruth Tam is a writer based in Washington, D.C., where she web produces for The Kojo Nnamdi Show.


    Ngau lam is Cantonese braised beef brisket, made with at least seven spices. (Ruth Tam)

    When I’m craving comfort food, I’ll take my father’s ngau lam over mac and cheese any day. Although it takes the better part of a day to prepare, his Cantonese braised brisket stew always soothes my stomach and my soul.

    I love the cooking process almost more than the flavor. My father cuts a square of cheesecloth and adds cinnamon, star anise, cloves, peppercorn, ginger, orange peel and a sweet root with no English name to its center. He ties it into a neat bundle and lets me hold it to my nose before dropping it into a rich broth in which brisket, tripe and tendon simmer for hours until tender.

    Before all the ngau lam ingredients converge in a giant pot, the brisket, tripe and tendon must be blanched. It gives off a hot, heavy stench that permeates every room of the house and adheres to every fiber.

    My childhood home in suburban Chicago always smelled like whatever we were cooking. Visiting us meant cloaking yourself in the scent of haam daan ju yoke beng, a dish of steamed pork and salted egg, or the perfume of mapodoufu, tofu and minced pork with a spicy chili and fermented black bean sauce.

    I didn’t mind the smells growing up because I wasn’t aware of them. That is, until a high school friend declared my house smelled of “Chinese grossness.”

    The comment clung to me like the smell in my home. My embarrassment hit a peak when my father installed a 5-foot-long fish tank in our family room so he could steam fish at home — extra fresh. I tried to pretend the blue fish swimming around in the murky green water were pets, but the lack of tank accessories gave away our true intentions, stunning my white friends.

    My hunger for my family’s food was overpowered by my desire to fit in, so I minimized Chinese food’s role in my life and learned to make pasta instead. Little did I know that Americans would come to embrace the dishes and cooking styles that once mortified me. The Cantonese foods of my childhood have reappeared in trendy restaurants that fill their menus with perfectly plated fine-dining versions of our traditional cuisine. In some cases, this shift has been heartening. But in too many others, the trend has reduced staples of our culture to fleeting fetishes.

    The shame associated with immigrant foods (until they become foodies’ favorites) isn’t unique to me or Chinese dishes. In her new book, “Maangchi’s Real Korean Cooking,” Korean cook and YouTube star Maangchi writes fondly of Korean soup soy sauce. In South Korea, all of her neighbors would boil their own. In the United States, though, the soup was received differently:

    “I remember boiling my Korean soup soy sauce when I lived in Missouri, and my apartment manager knocked on my door. ‘What’s that smell? I got a complaint from your neighbor.’ I was so embarrassed that I didn’t make soup soy sauce again for a long time, even after I moved back to Korea.”

    Even now, as an accomplished cook in New York City, Maangchi doesn’t boil soup soy sauce in her home. Instead, she takes it to a creek at the base of the Henry Hudson Bridge and boils it in a portable gas burner “where no one will complain.”

    This experience is so universal that it recently became canonized in pop culture. New York chef Eddie Huang retold the story of his daily lunchroom shaming in a scene from “Fresh Off the Boat,” an ABC sitcom based on his memoir. When young Eddie takes a carton of noodles out of his lunchbox, his white classmates react with disgust: “Ying Ming’s eating worms! Dude, that smells nasty!” Back at home, Eddie demands his parents start packing him “white people lunch.”

    The lengths to which immigrant families have gone to hide the way we feed ourselves break my heart. But something has changed. In cities big and small, Asian dishes and flavors have become popular among foodies at chic eateries. Foods that were once considered too strong, too spicy, too smelly or too obviously-from-an-animal for my white friends are now on Restaurant Week menus nationwide.

    A month ago, I saw a kimchi burger on the menu at Macintyre’s, a new bar in Washington’s upscale Woodley Park neighborhood. It’s just two miles north of Drafting Table, which sells a duck-and-hoisin-sauce grilled cheese. And a few blocks from there is Masa 14, which features crispy chicken wings and meatballs on its “Dim Sum” menu. Downtown, Wolfgang Puck’s The Source offers lobster bao buns and “Chinoise-style” chicken salad.

    In one way, this is a positive change. Now that I’ve gotten over my fear of stinking up my kitchen, the growing number of Asian grocery stores means I don’t have to visit home to get ingredients for homemade Chinese food. Greater acceptance of international eateries allows immigrants, professional chefs and otherwise to explore their culture and dual identity proudly, instead of behind closed doors or at the edge of the Henry Hudson Bridge.

    Gravitating toward “new” cuisines is understandable, and when done well, immigrant food can provoke discussions about personal history and shared diasporas. I’ve seen this happen at restaurants such as China Chilcano, which describes the history of Chinese and Peruvian fusion that influences its menu, a bare minimum that many restaurants ignore.

    But while some eateries get it right, the United States’s take on “ethnic” food often leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

    Recently, I discovered I can order bone broth, like my grandmother used to make, in New York City — the same way I would order a cold-pressed juice.

    “2015 is the year of bone broth!” the “Today” show declared in January. “These days, the hottest food trend is a steaming cup of soup.” The morning show touted bone broth as a newly discovered wonder food of “Paleo dieters and wellness enthusiasts,” making no mention of its grounding in Chinese culture.


    A soup version of Cantonese braised beef brisket. (Ruth Tam)

    In the United States, immigrant food is often treated like discount tourism — a cheap means for foodies to feel worldly without leaving the comfort of their neighborhood — or high-minded fusion — a stylish way for American chefs to use other cultures’ cuisines to reap profit. The dishes of America’s recent immigrants have become check marks on a cultural scavenger hunt for society’s elite. One conspicuous example is an upcoming eatery in Washington’s Petworth neighborhood that packages discount tourism and high-minded fusion into one menu. The as-yet-unnamed restaurant seeks to re-create Southeast Asia’s “expat experience” — not for Asian residents in D.C. but for D.C. residents who crave the feeling of visiting Asia with other foreigners.

    “When you travel in Southeast Asia, you have two experiences: the cultural experiences with the temples, food, and people, and then a phenomenal traveler’s culture, too,” chef Alex McCoy told Washingtonian. “That’s the inspiration for this place. We want to introduce people to Thai cuisine, but frame it in the eye of a traveler.”

    This cultural appropriation stings because the same dishes hyped as “authentic” on trendy menus were scorned when cooked in the homes of the immigrants who brought them here. Fashionable food from foreign cultures may satisfy a temporary hunger, but if you’re trying it for shallow reasons, you’ll be culturally unfulfilled in the long run.

    Instead of attempting to expand our palates with best-restaurant lists and foodie fads, we should find deeper ways to explore the diversity of dishes that have come to the United States.

    We need food writers like Monica Bhide, who appreciate not only diverse tastes, but also the cultures that produced them. We need more cookbook authors like Maangchi, who documents traditional recipes so fans of Korean food can participate in culinary rituals. We need more publications like Lucky Peach, which treats immigrant food with the same complexity that is bestowed on the all-American burger. And we need more films like “The Search for General Tso” that examine our relationship with “ethnic” food.

    Americans are increasingly interested in where food is sourced. Surely, that interest should extend to a meal’s cultural roots as well as its biological origins.

    My dad’s ngau lam is not gross, but I never want it to be given the “fad” treatment. You should try it the way he likes to prepare it — after he blanches the cow stomach, adds the bag of spices and lets it cook for hours.

    The best meals are more than the sum of their ingredients; their flavors tell the stories of the rich cultures that created them. When the same respect is afforded to immigrant food as traditional “American” food, eating it will sate us in more ways than one.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  12. #147
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    I'm a brisket hound, not surprised the Chinese Cuisine Police have arrested this dish for questioning. Great article, great to hear her setting the record straight.
    Last edited by PalmStriker; 08-31-2015 at 12:24 PM.

  13. #148
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Western MA
    Posts
    953
    Nice article. As a professional, I can totally relate, especially seeing as I've been stealing what I learned in China for my own cooking. Actually the same thing happened to my mom in school when she brought her mom's Syrian cooking in for lunch.

  14. #149
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Crouching Tiger Restaurant 臥龍街



    I must make a point to try this place out next time I'm near Redwood City.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  15. #150
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Great Lakes State, U.S.A.
    Posts
    1,645
    Great video add, looks fantastic! I would think with the name they've chosen they will be booked solid. Chinese food is such an addiction! No Mercy from these chefs.

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