The quality of Chinese food in NYC

[Steve Plotnicki]

Ed - Even though the number of different Chinese cuisines available today is far greater then when I was growing up (70's), I feel like the general quality of Chinese cuisine in NYC has deteriorated over the last 30 years. Do you find this to be the case as well? Or are we just more knowledgable these days and as a result we have become tougher to please? I have found that most Chinese food these days is a mass-produced version of Hong Kong cuisine, especially banquets. If I went to Golden Unicorn, Ping's, Sweet 'n Tart of The Nice Restaurant, could I tell the difference between their Salt Baked Squid?

[eatingwitheddie]

THE QUALITY OF CHINESE FOOD IN NYC: 2002 VS. THE 1970'S

Over the 35 years that I have been compulsively tracking the American Chinese restaurant scene there have been many changes. The late 60's and early 70's brought about a Chinese cooking authenticity revolution in this country that was exciting and extraordinary. Chinese regional ethnic cuisines from Szechuan, Hunan, Shanghai, Fukien, Hakka, Yunnan, Beijing and other areas could all be found here in one variation/adaptation or another.

Since so many dishes are prepared a la minute in a wok, the quality of a dish was/is often a function of the skill of the particular stir fry chef cooking it. In a small restaurant, let's say a family run business, where there were only 2 or 3 wok stoves and a chef at each, it would be easy to control quality: have 3 really good chefs and all your food would be good. If you had 2 good ones and 1 pretty good one, your food would be a reflection of that: 2/3's good and 1/3 so so. That's why small family run Asian restaurants can be so good. If just a couple of people can cook well, then the kitchen is set up for success. I am always on the lookout for these sorts of places, and throughout my life they have consistently been around for discovering - and sometimes they're found in the most unexpected places. We recently had great fresh squid in a little family run Chinese restaurant in Alassio, Italy on the Italian Riviera, and again wonderful cooking at a small but highly rated family run restaurant in Victoria, BC.

In the late 70's and the 80's the American Chinese restaurant industry expanded so that there was suddenly a take-out joint on every block, but unfortunately as a result, the number of good cooks available was spread thinner. Young stir-fry studs, stir-fry cooks who could work two woks at once and be highly productive, after cooking for just a couple of years, would leave their jobs and open small places of their own. It became very difficult to find kitchen staff members with the many years of experience required to cook really first rate food. For instance in 1973, when we opend Uncle Tai's resturant in NYC, we had about 15 chefs in the kitchen. Our number 5 chef had 20 years expericience, and our top stir fry cooks had all previously been head chefs. A decade later a number 3 cook might only have a couple of years of experience. The industry was spread thin and the result of this dilution was a lack of sophistication and quality. Many of the local take-outs ended up with almost exactly the same menus. Worse yet, they used the same B-minus/C-plus recipes. The traditions passed on from master to student were not the best ones, and unless you were learning to cook in Hong Kong or Taipei, it might have been difficult to find a master to learn from. During these same years in mainland China, fine cooking and luxury goods were distinctly out of favor and anti-revolutionary so many of the finest culinary traditions died or were at best clandestinely practiced. This had great effect.

Nevertheless when we entered the nineties and immigration laws changed, we suddenly had an influx of Chinese, and many members of this newly arriving community were more sophisticated and closer to the source when it came to culinary traditions. This signaled a new authenticity revolution: but rather than being oriented towards bringing good quality Chinese cooking to the American community, the new authenticity was geared to the greatly expanded 'overseas' community. Simply put this meant the most exciting new Chinese restaurants were geared toweards the Chinese community not the American one. There were repercussions. In NYC. for example. the foodies who in the past may have flocked to high end midtown eateries such as the Shun Lee Restaurants were now more excited about other Asian ethnic cuisines: Japanese, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese. In order to find cutting edge Chinese places one now had to venture into the city's expanding Asian enclaves: Flushing, 8th Ave in Brooklyn, and Manhattan Chinatown became the areas where all the action was. And this was echoed all over North America.The quest for exciting Chinese cooking would bring you to a surburban Asian mall outside of Toronto, or to Monterey Park in LA.

So to answer the question, when was the food better, one must know about this history. In 1975 you could go into a number of midtown restaurants and find world class Chinese cooking. Now you need to go to a small family run place, or perhaps a large HK style glossy restaurant, but one where there is a head chef who can cook really well.

You must remember one critical thing: Chinese restaurants can be setup to do two types of cooking: regular a la carte dishes and banquets. Very often the chef who can organize and operate a large restaurant feeding hundreds or thousands of customers in a day, has a totally different set of skills from the chef who can cook a wonderful banquet for a table of 10. Plus there is lot of skill involved in simply getting that head chef to put out the really good stuff for you. For example if I want a terrific meal in NYC I might head for Pings. But, only if I order in advance, and insist that Ping cooks it himself. He is a wonderful chef. When I go there to eat off the a la carte menu the quality varies greatly, and I cope with that by ordering items that I know they do well most of the time or that don't require such great skill and /or concentration. The same holds true at Shun Lee. The food off the regular menu is usually quite good, though it can be somewhat Americanized. But if you put out an effort (and some big bucks) and arrange a banquet with Michael Tong the owner, they can really blow you away. It's been my experience that chefs of all persuasions are most likely to strut their stuff when they realize their client truly appreciates their craft/art.

As to which of the restaurants you listed has the best Salt Baked Squid, I don't know, we would have to progressively try each restaurant. Even then it would depend on 1) the quality of the squid they were starting with 2) and which chef cooked it. In fact if you were to sample each restaurant's version I don't think you could really make a good judgement until you had done this same exercise 3 or 4 times. And even then it might be different a few months later after a couple of stir fry chefs had moved around. By the way, the correct (Chinese) name of this dish is: Pepper (as in hot pepper) & Salt Squid. I find the use of the word 'baked' to be silly. It is obviously (and always in my experience) fried!

[Steve Plotnicki]

Ed - Thanks for that terrific answer. I really wasn't trying to find the best Salt Baked Squid but I was making a point about how the quality is invariably the same from restaurant to restaurant. But you have identified a key aspect of Chinese dining that I don't apply when eating a meal that I apply to dining in a French restaurant all of the time. Off menu dining arranged in advance with the restaurant or even at the beginning of the meal. But I have to say there are cultural impediments to this. At some places like Shun Lee, the level of communication is good enough to get this done. But I'm not sure I could have a conversation with a host at Golden Unicorn and feel comfortable that I have adequately explained the type of meal I want. Nor might I add is the typical waiter at my table usually ingratiating in a way that might inspire me to do that. I have to agree with you about Ping's though. I haven't eaten in Chinatown but I have eaten in Elmhurst and by fat they are the most inevntive restaurant in the city. And their dim sum was the best I've had in this town by far.

[Jason Perlow]

Yeah, Pings has always been my dim sum destination of choice IF I am in the city. Otherwise I defer to my local in Fort Lee, Silver Pond. Which of late has gotten MUCH better because they've brought in a new and very innovative chef.