My all-time favorite book of food essays is not by MFK Fisher, Jeffrey Steingarten, or A.J. Liebling. It’s by a Canadian reporter named John Allemang. _The Importance of Lunch_ (which is out of print in the US but can easily be found on [Bookfinder](http://bookfinder.com/) or [Amazon.ca](http://www.amazon.ca/)) features a number of remarkably unstuffy pieces about food and modern life. It’s impossible to imagine a write more down-to-earth than Allemang, who is opinionated (he loves to make fun of the tall food chefs were assembling in the 90s) but also understanding. He’s got kids who are picky eaters. He gets it.
It’s one of those books you can pick up any time and open to any page and be struck by some understated insight. I was reading it on the bus the other day and opened to this passage about Chinese food:
> An essential of modern urban life, as far as I can tell, is having a Chinese takeout restaurant to call one’s own. The joint you dial up on a Saturday night, when you don’t feel like the sameness of your own cooking, should have a place in your heart–or at least a menu under your fridge magnet.
This made me sad, because I don’t have a Chinese local. I have a few Chinese restaurants that I love, and none of them deliver to my house. In fact, the closest Chinese restaurant that I really like (Sichuanese Cuisine Restaurant) is two miles away.
There is a Chinese restaurant nearby in the form of Broadway Wok & Grill. I used to go there back when it first opened, and they had a pork and garlic sauce dish that was notable for its generous amount of vegetables. But since they expanded into the space next door and turned it into an extremely offputting bar, the food seems to have gone downhill–though I haven’t actually tried it in over two years. Maybe I need to give them another chance. They deliver, though the minimum order is $20 (and they’re only six blocks away). Iris is so impressed by pizza delivery that she might actually swoon if rice comes knocking.
What’s your local?
**Update:** After posting this, I remembered that one of my other favorite food writers, Steven Shaw, once wrote a eulogy for his local:
> Hunan K was not a good Chinese restaurant, or even a mediocre Chinese restaurant. I would characterize it as a bad Chinese restaurant, though I don’t mean that in a bad way. Having grown up with bad Chinese food, I find that certain perverse examples of it — egg foo yung smothered in gelatinous brown gravy; day-glo red sweet-and-sour chicken — bring me comfort. I’m gratified that Shanghai, Teochew, and other regional Chinese cuisines are now expressing themselves in America, but I’d be sorry to see the bad Chinese restaurant breed die out.
Lee’s Asian on California Ave is our local, and although Lee’s is fantastic, I wish Snappy Dragon was still our local!
Mandarin Gate at Aurora and 100th is my local. They’re okay…neither bad in a good way, nor exceptionally good, but they’re better than the numerous other local places. They deliver, and it’s supposed to be *free* delivery, but there’s always an additional $1.50 on my bill. Since the bill is written in Chinese, I can’t tell what I’m being charged an additional $1.50 for, and I never remember to ask.
I don’t have a local one, either. Probably because we’re in Seattle and we don’t have these takeout places that seem to exist ion all the movies. Or maybe because all the Chinese restaurants in Seattle are trying not to be one of those places. Hm.
If I were to have a local takeout place, it would be Kau Kau, but we only get their barbecue pork. Or that new place next to Ho-Ho’s in the ID. Gosh, if only Kirin in Richmond, B.C. was local. Then the choice would be easy!
Happy Garden in Burien, a solid half-step above the stereotypical mediocre Chinese delivery place.
We were really sorry to move out of Chinatown, where our local (Taiwan Cafe) was pronounced by my boss (who is Taiwanese-American), “Holy shit this food is fucking awesome.” We found it via Chowhound, where it’s a perennial favorite.
Our new local is Sichuan, where we order off the special menu, and is very good: Qingdao Garden (which Dan tells me is the same word as Tsingtao, as in the beer). Get the pork with cilantro.
Lani, we’re renting a place in Vancouver this winter that is one block from Kirin. I sense a midnight dumpling run.
We’ve talked about moving to the ID. Not that our current garden isn’t happy, but we’ve lived within a few blocks of the same spot (in five different apartments) for all of our ten years in Seattle, and new surroundings would probably do us good, at least for a while. Choice of Chinese restaurants would be a bonus.
You think you’ve got it bad, mamster? I live in New York, fer chrissakes, and we don’t have a local. (Not one that’s edible, anyway, even by Steven Shaw standards.) So now we either drive two miles to the solidly above-average places in our old neighborhood, or drive two miles the other direction to the excellent dim sum place (World Tong on 18th Avenue and 63rd Street, if anyone’s wondering).
Meanwhile, is there something about neighborhood Chinese restaurants and declining food quality? It seems like almost every one I’ve seen open has been good at first, shading to mediocre and ultimately to inedible, before closing and turning into a boutique. It seems a strange business model, especially in an industry where there are usually (in NYC anyway) half a dozen direct competitors within walking distance.
Chef at Wok up north on Greenwood around 125th or so is great for exactly what you are referring to. They deliver too.
http://www.chefatwok.com/
Louie’s on 15th in Ballard. It’s comfort food to us. Dry-Fried Cantonese Steak and Almond Subgum Chow Mein are our old standbys. Definitely fits the bill as a “local.”
Paul and I refer to this as cheap Chinese. As in, “what are you in the mood for tonight?” “cheap Chinese”. Our go-to cheap Chinese place is also Mandarin Gate. Our “not cheap” Chinese delivery preferences are Rocking Wok and Snappy Dragon.
I’m spoiled I think, I have Rocking Wok for Taiwanese, Snappy Dragon for certain Chinese, China First which is actually very good if you ignore the menu and ask for what’s fresh that day, and New China Express when I want good bad Chinese, or what Lauren calls cheap Chinese.
Liza where is Taiwan Cafe? Is it the place that was called Sandy’s Gourmet? I’m dying to know.
Liza and Taiwan Cafe are both in Boston, unfortunately.
Unfortunately, we haven’t found a cheap-Chinese place in Seattle that we actually like. I guess we got our taste-buds conditioned in San Jose and have never recovered. Rocking Wok is our stand-by for take-out/delivery any night of the week. We love several places in the ID, but it’s too far for last minute take out, darn it. We’ve pondered living nearer the ID too.
Right, a trip to Boston it is then.
My local place is called “Le Printemps”, formerly “La Chine”.
The trick with chinese restaurants here in Belgium is that they never last longer than 3 years (something to do with taxes). After about 3 years, they just close and someone else opens a brand new restaurant at the same place and … with the same typos in the menu ;-)