Chinese Restaurants

I recall many years ago while working in Stockholm going out for dinner to a Chinese restaurant with a group of colleagues all from different countries. Each of us, apart from the Swede, commented on how the menu was so different to the Chinese food they were used to in their own country.

Yesterday I listened to The Food Programme which looked at Chinatowns around the world and how the Chinese restaurant cuisine had adapted to local customs and each nation's Chinese restaurant menu has dishes not seen elsewhere, and also a Chinese restaurant in Shanghai which now gives out fortune cookies, and idea imported from the USA and unknown in China.

They programme, which won the James Beard Best Radio Award can be listened to here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07cmmkb

Peter, thanks so much for posting this. It was very enjoyable.

I am a great lover of Chinese food and took cooking lessons in NY's Chinatown for years. I definately find that all Chinatowns have their own personality and dishes. New York is very different from San Francisco. Actually, Flushing, Queens is now the place to go in New York because the recent immigration is out there and the food is fantastic with many provinces represented. Melbourne, Australia's Chinatown can hold its own with anyone and has it's own feel. I am going to London next month and have already told my friends there that first priority is Chinatown. I now live in South Florida which has great food but horrible Chinese. This is amazing because there are so many New Yorkers living here. I can't understand it. I have to go to London for a Chinese food fix.

By the way, I feel exactly the same about Indian restaurants and will be heading for them in London also.

...the Chinese restaurant cuisine had adapted to local customs and each nation's Chinese restaurant menu has dishes not seen elsewhere...

This is of course common with all cuisines cooked abroad, but I wonder if the dynamic is more developed for Chinese restaurants than others. Not sure why that would be the case. Perhaps because there are so many Chinese people they have been migrating so many different places around the world for such a long time that there has been time for all the multiple variants to develop.

Plus, I wonder to what extent the other 'global' cuisines (French, Italian, American, maybe Thai and Japanese as well?) are driven by globalized trends in consumption (which would lead to less variation) as opposed to migration patterns.

I am going to London next month and have already told my friends there that first priority is Chinatown.... .

Is the London Chinatown interesting? My memories were that it was not exactly full of great restaurants. I know lots of (wealthier) Chinese people have been moving to London (and the UK in general) in recent years, but not sure how much that is driving the demand for Chinese food. Although of course the city is a global metropolis and there is plenty of delicious food if you look in the right places!

Rahsaan

Interesting? I don't know. It's compact, the centre primarily one pedestrianised street packed with Chinese restaurants, businesses and shops, plus adjoining streets.

In theatreland between Leicester Sq and Shaftesbury Ave. See www.chinatownlondon.org for interactive map and details of the 80 restuarants there.

I have never eaten in any of them.

I recall that the largest Chinatown in Britain is in Manchester.

IMO London's Chinatown isn't "interesting" in the way that others (say Flushing, NY) are, but it's solid, good cooking, and beats anything I have locally now. I've never spent a lot of time there. As Peter indicates, it's basically in the theatre district, and it's just a very convenient place for dinner before a show. Will maybe comment after I've experienced it again.

I recall that the largest Chinatown in Britain is in Manchester.

Really. Now that is interesting. I've been to Manchester a couple of times in the past few years and have always been looking for food but never ran across that. Will keep that in mind for next time.

The difference in Chinese restaurants in Britain and America is like day and night. Here in America, we fix our own oriental food; as most restaurants are cookie cuter alike.

The difference in Chinese restaurants in Britain and America is like day and night. Here in America, we fix our own oriental food; as most restaurants are cookie cuter alike.

Maybe in New Hampshire. But the big trend over the past 5-10 years in the big American cities has been regional Chinese (as well as Thai and other Asian countries) food, very far from cookie cutter.

[Robin Garr]

Maybe in New Hampshire. But the big trend over the past 5-10 years in the big American cities has been regional Chinese (as well as Thai and other Asian countries) food, very far from cookie cutter.

I was just wondering about that. I would have said "over the past 30 years," but yeah.

While the Bay Area has lots of neighborhood Chinese-American places (usually Cantonese), the number and variety of regional cuisine restaurants is astonishing. This guy is trying to list all of them:

https://www.hungryonion.org/t/regional-chinese-roundup-3-0-sf-bay-area/4640/19

While the Bay Area has lots of neighborhood Chinese-American places (usually Cantonese), the number and variety of regional cuisine restaurants is astonishing. This guy is trying to list all of them:

https://www.hungryonion.org/t/regional-chinese-roundup-3-0-sf-bay-area/4640/19

Ernie, long time haven't heard from you. What's the best Chinese restaurant your part of the world. We buy things Ranch 99 market so we get down there once in awhile during the day. Lunch???

Hi, Lou. I really like China Village on Solano in Albany, and King Tsin, also on Solano a few blocks east at the Berkeley border. Both of them are Sichuan cuisine. Next door to the Ranch 99 complex you'll find Saigon Seafood Harbor, a big dim-sum and Cantonese seafood palace, and Daimo, also for Cantonese.

The guy who maintains the list I linked to above is pretty meticulous, and you probably can't go wrong with any of his choices.

There was a big Chinese restaurant in Richmond Virginia around 1970 when I was in graduate school. One of our professors who (probably) knew the owner and was "into" real Chinese food took a batch of us graduate students there for lunch and I had a sea bass steamed, with black bean sauce that was burned into my memory, an icon of Chinese food! I liked it so much that I went back by myself a few weeks later. The dish I got had cheese flavored chow mein noodles, and peas out of a can!!! So the standard fare was at the very low standard of Virginia comprehension, and the chef only put himself out for people he knew would appreciate it.

From reading -- I think some of the best Chinese food in North America may be in the town near Vancouver (Richmond again?) where many of the Chinese residents of Vancouver have migrated in recent years. We had a great Chinese meal with Jenise and Bob in Vancouver proper during our visit a couple of years ago, but apparently the other town has the best stuff and attracts a "real" Chinese clientele. We hadn't rented a car and so getting there was too difficult.

http://www.insidevancouver.ca/2015/03/2 ... e-results/