Chinese

Woks still pop at Chinatown’s Wo Hop

Woks still pop at Chinatown’s Wo Hop

Posted on by Pat and David
The James Beard Foundation's America's Classic designations tend to shine a spotlight on homey, old-fashioned eateries. Maybe more to the point, the nominations reflect a kind of culinary nostalgia for the comfort food of someone's childhood. Last December, the JBF named Wo Hop (17 Mott St., New York, NY; 212-962-8617; wohop17.com) in Manhattan's Chinatown to the America's Classic honor roll. Since we're spending a month in Manhattan, we made Wo Hop our first lunch-time stop. The restaurant has been in business continuously since 1938, making it one of Chinatown's most senior establishments. If you want to taste what New Yorkers used to think Chinese food was, this is where you come. The New York Times notes that Wo Hop offers an “authentic taste of an...Read More
Mei Mei chef Irene Li is double awesome herself

Mei Mei chef Irene Li is double awesome herself

Posted on by Pat and David
For our readers not from the Greater Boston area, Irene Li and her siblings are the force behind the Mei Mei food truck and (now closed) Mei Mei Dumpling House (meimeidumplings.com). They're also the authors of one of the best cookbooks to hit the shelves just before the pandemic shut down the world. It's called Double Awesome Chinese Food: Irresistible and Totally Achievable Recipes from Our Chinese-American Kitchen. The ‶double awesome″ refers to Mei Mei's signature scallion pancake sandwich. Two flaky scallion pancakes spread with a little basil pesto enclose some cheddar cheese and two oozing eggs. The Double Awesome comes with spicy ketchup on the side for dipping. The name says it all. Part of what we love about the dish is that it...Read More
Chinatown noodles fortify jazz buffs

Chinatown noodles fortify jazz buffs

Posted on by Pat and David
Montreal's small but bustling Chinatown sits between the east end of downtown and Old Montreal. It's literally steps from the Place des Festivals where outdoor concerts and performances take place during the Jazz, Circus, and Comedy festivals. The neighborhood is a remnant of the days when Chinese laborers helped build the Canadian railroads, which were headquartered in Montreal. Like most Chinatowns in North America, the community has welcomed immigrants from Southeast Asia. (Montreal is a worldwide magnet for people leaving former French colonies, including Indo-China.) Nonetheless, the neighborhood still maintains a Chinese identity. Pedestrian rue de la Gauchtière is lined with all manner of gift shops, grocers, and restaurants. But at lunchtime (any day but Monday), we like to detour to Restaurant Noodle Factory, a...Read More
‘Stir Crazy’ makes simple, fast, tasty Chinese

‘Stir Crazy’ makes simple, fast, tasty Chinese

Posted on by Pat and David
Rarely does a new cookbook so readily insinuate itself into our weekly menu planning. Stir Crazy by Ching-He Huang (Kyle Books, $24.95) is the latest volume of make-at-home Chinese cooking by the prolific Taiwan-born chef and host of Cooking Channel shows. The subtitle—“100 Deliciously Healthy Stir-Fry Recipes”—speaks volumes. The recipes for two servings include estimated prep and cooking times along with calories and grams of carbohydrate, protein, and fat. Few dishes exceed 400 calories per serving, yet every one is a satisfying one-dish meal, especially if paired with rice or noodles. It's no secret how she keeps them in nutitional bounds. Wok cookery uses very little oil, and cooking times are brief. Most ingredients are readily available in most supermarkets. Once we embraced the book,...Read More

Toronto Chinatown awash with flavors

Posted on by Pat and David
“Growing up in Chinatown,” said chef and culinary educator John Lee, “was a Duddy Kravitz kind of experience.” He was making a very Canadian reference to Mordecai Richler's nostalgic novel of the Canadian Jewish immigrant experience. John was showing us around his childhood haunts in Toronto's Old Chinatown. (It's not to be confused with at least five other Chinatowns east of Toronto proper.) The Toronto neighborhood radiating from the corner of Spadina Avenue and West Dundas Street was a Jewish immigrant neighborhood for the first half of the 20th century. As the Jewish population moved north after World War II, Chinese immigrants flooded into the area. Of Korean descent, Lee waxed nostalgic about his Chinese and Jewish friends as well as the old-time Jewish shopkeepers...Read More

It’s smart to get Luckee in Toronto

Posted on by David
Susur Lee was always my favorite contestant on season two of Top Chef Masters, but it took a while until I got to eat his food instead of watching him make it on TV. This year I finally made it to his jewel box contemporary Chinese restaurant, Luckee, at the Soho Metropolitan Hotel (328 Wellington St. W; 416-935-0400, luckeerestaurant.com). This polished restaurant serves some of the best meals in an already food-obsessed city. Much more than a gastronomic shrine directed by a celebrity chef, it's flat-out good fun. I'm not the only one who thinks so. On my last visit Will Smith was in town shooting yet another movie where Toronto stands in as a generic North American city. He and his entourage took over...Read More