Chinese Food Part 1

"There is no good Chinese food in L.A.," is a plight I hear often from New Yorkers (no, not other Europeans because it is simply not embedded into the culture, tradition, and daily life as much outside the little island called Manhattan). While I can offer no solace regarding speed of service--when new in town, I ordered steamed white rice and broccoli on the run here expecting a 5-10 minute wait, right? And had to negotiate the lady's 45 minute time estimate down to 25 minutes--aaackk!!-- I CAN steer you to some pretty darn good Chinese food here in the Southland.

In this entry, I will focus on two places on the Westside:

--Royal Star Seafood

One reason this place is so good is that it originated in Monterey Park, which my Chinese friend says feels quite like China. Royal Star is filled with Chinese and Jews, always a good sign. My NY/NJ Jewish friend Mike introduced me to the place when I was a new arrival, and we made it a tradition to close the place down by arriving at a NYC/European hour for dinner, like 9. (Like most L.A. eateries, they stop serving at 10, but wait! Before you start getting all choked up about never eating good mushroom dumplings or wonton soup in the wee hours, there's good news in the next entry!)

WARNING: The following ridiculous aside in NO WAY has any negative bearing on the quality of my experience or my high opinion of Royal Star, and you shouldn't read it, if you are too highly suggestible or squeamish. Ok. Stop reading, unless you are ok with the last couple sentences NOW. Ok, the rest of you. Here is the ridiculous aside that I cannot resist sharing. Mike and I have a special pet name for this restaurant. We have called it The B.O. Restaurant for years. Why? Because we are juvenile? Of course. But also because even though the food is so good and never made my highly sensitive digestion the least bit uncomfortable, the place had this remarkable smell of B.O. upon entering. We'd acclimate and forget about it after a minute, but we just couldn't figure it out for the longest time. We guessed it had to be in the cooking somehow, but how?? Then one night, I sprinkled some cumin powder in a pan with oil to start a stir-fry...and the "aha" came. It bears a remarkable similarity to manly armpits. I must say, it has made me hunger for my husband's musk in a whole new way.

-Mao's Kitchen
This Venice Beach eatery is such a find. Not only is the food interesting, cheap, fresh and delightful, but the decor is a bizarro conversation starter, and it's open until 10:30 on weeknights and 3 am on Fridays and Saturdays! I lived on the chow fun for about 2 years. I highly recommend the black wood-ear mushroom dumplings, and can say the only thing I had there that was no good was the garlic something--I think chicken. Too much oyster sauce or fish sauce and the chicken tasted fishy--truly yucky. The service, usually in the hands of foreign exchange and/or surfer punk types, can be maddeningly slow, but the kitchen is all Chinese. The owner Jake is also an awesome guy, and the people watching is excellent.

Soon I'll be going to Chinese food with my Chinese friend May and will hopefully have some recs east of the 405.