Seattle Bad Chinese Food Scene

[col klink]

Since Batgrrrl and I have been in the Midwest, we've had a number of occasions where we have ordered Chinese food and on every one, we've been sorely dissapointed. It's like my Mom is in back of the kitchen reading from a 50's La Choy cookbook.

It's either feast or famine when it comes to sauces here in the Midwest and 9 times out of 10, whatever you ordered is drowning in an ocean of bad sauce, and except for sweet and sour, pretty much EVERY SAUCE IS THE SAME. It's so incredibly depressing. There's only one dish that hasn't come in a pool and that was the "salt pork" which I had never heard of. They're basically really salty fried thin pork cutlets. I was given the pork and rice. I must have gone through 4 glasses of water!

Sorry about the rant, I just had to get this off of my chest.

By the way, I've never had egg foo young before so again I had no idea what I'd be getting. But what arrived was more like an omelet with pork and mushrooms swimming in brown gravy. I swear they must've used brown gravy packets from grocery store. WTF! I swear I didn't expect anything close to decent food but what the hell is going on around here?

Who would've thought that we'd be desperate for even Safeway's General Tso's chicken and chowmein? I can't imagine how happy we'd be if we could find a restaurant of their caliber.

I will be kind enough not to mention the lack of the basic elements of any decent Chinese or Thai dish in the "ethnic section" at our grocery stores. That pretty much goes without saying and it's too much to unload on you guys. But the next time you hear Pac NWers lamenting the lack of good Chinese food, think of your beloved Klinky dying a thousands deaths by "Chinese Food" here in Minnesota.

[mamster]

Maybe you could hold the state of Minnesota hostage and cut off the smoked meat supply until officials promise to run ads in major Chinese publications touting the hospitable climate of Minnesota.

[trillium]

There is a huge (and I mean huge) population of SE Asians in Minneapolis. Not just Hmong but Indonesian and Malay too. Surely there are at least some decent SE Asian restaurants there?

I wouldn't hold out hope for actually good Chinese food, though. Now you know why we learned to cook it (we moved to Chicago after living in SF). Sorry...

Yan Kit So's book was a great teacher if you're interested. She does better on the food from the southern provinces.

regards,

trillium

[Batgrrrl]

What we have found additionally frustrating is that Duluth does have a Vietnamese population, and there are several "Vietnamese" restaurants--which by and large serve the same pre-made Chinese crap the Chinese restaurants do. Generally these places will have a name like "Vietnamese Lantern", and then a description of "Chinese and Vietnamese Food." One place we went to did have pho on the menu--that was it for Vietnamese, and we were there for dinner, the wrong time of day. The other place I went to for lunch one day had a few Vietnamese noodle dishes. I asked the young man (definitely Vietnamese) if they ever made pho, and he said when they opened, they'd tried it, but nobody knew how to eat it, so they dropped it. It's definitely a case of the market demanding a certain style of food, and forcing restaurants to perpetuate that. It's so frustrating to think that there are certainly people capable of cooking good Chinese and Vietnamese food here, but we never see it in the restaurants. Klink wasn't kidding when he said we were feeling nostalgic for Safeway's China Express.

I'm definitely looking forward to eating out in the Twin Cities more, and cooking more as well--thanks, Trillium, for the cookbook recommendation!

Batgrrrl

[sladeums]

I don't know how much luck you'll have in Duluth.

You can check this link for a few Twin Cities reviews:

Minneapolis / St. Paul select restaurant reviews

They're not great, but maybe you can get a few ideas.

The most frequently cited Asian places in the Twin Cities seem to be:

Quang Restaurant

2719 Nicollet Ave

Minneapolis, MN

(612) 870-4739

Pho Ca-Dao

439 University Ave.

St. Paul, MN

(651) 222-4615

Saigon Restaurant and Bakery

601 University Ave W.

Saint Paul, MN

(651) 225-8751

The latter was also included in one of the Cook's Tour episodes, I believe.

Good luck.

[FoodZealot]

Klink and Batgrrrl,

I deeply sympathize. I once visited a friend in Ashland, OR and he proudly took me to the local Chinese place that was similarly ungood, and had a long tradition of being so. Specialty of the house was a mountain of egg fu yung just as you describe it, looked to be about 15 eggs worth, complete with gloppy brown gravy. Turned me off for life, I think. Overall, it would be pretty glum without decent Chinese food.

Maybe if you find a place that's receptive and has some potential, you could try to convince them that you want it the way they'd prepare it for themselves. Like for their staff meal, or whatever. Or maybe arrange a dinner ahead of time for 6 or 8 that has your dream menu? They might want to share their authentic food. Unfortunately, I recently heard a famous chef say that it's easier to open a new restaurant than to change the menu at a popular place. Sounds like most are pretty reluctant already.

Probably your best bet in the long run, as trillium suggests, is to learn to cook it yourselves. Seems like it wouldn't be that hard, considering the skills and determination required for the sausage treatise and your other exploits. I'll even volunteer to ship you ingredients you can't get out there, if need be.

~Tad

[Placebo]

Is there any chance of getting chummy with the owners or cooks at these places to see if you can get them to make you something more traditional and proper? I wonder if they might not even enjoy someone actually caring abotu the quality and authenticity and wanting it done properly. Or perhaps that's just wishful thinking.

[mb7o]

But do they have crab rangoon?

[Schneier]

There is a huge (and I mean huge) population of SE Asians in Minneapolis.  Not just Hmong but Indonesian and Malay too.  Surely there are at least some decent SE Asian restaurants there?

Sounds like Col Klink lives in Duluth.  I can't help him up there.

Bruce

There are some excellent Asian restaurants in Minneapolis. We have Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Malay. We have good Japanese restaurants. Thai is only okay.

[Schneier]

The most frequently cited Asian places in the Twin Cities seem to be:

Quang Restaurant

2719 Nicollet Ave

Minneapolis, MN

(612) 870-4739

Pho Ca-Dao

439 University Ave.

St. Paul, MN

(651) 222-4615

Saigon Restaurant and Bakery

601 University Ave W.

Saint Paul, MN

(651) 225-8751

Those are okay. There are better.

It's a couple of years out of date, but here is the Minneapolis restaurant guide my wife and I wrote.

Bruce

Edited September 26, 2003 by Schneier (log)

[Sleepy_Dragon]

The comment about "the market demanding a certain style of food" reminds me of a story an acquaintance told me about his Japanese food experience in Scotland several years back. Overall it was awful but the thing that really did it was he and his gf ordering the gyoza, only to have it arrived battered and deep fried.

He asked the waiter why they were like that and was told they used to do gyoza the traditional way but nobody would order them.

I neglected to ask if the sushi was also battered and deep fried.

Pat