Post #672095 by tiki mick on Sun, Mar 24, 2013 9:24 AM

On 2013-03-24 08:49, JOHN-O wrote:
Actually just as a point of clarification, the ex-Tiki golf course that's now a Chinese restaurant, Yen Ching, is not what I would consider a true Chop Suey restaurant. For one thing they they advertise themselves as Mandarin and Schezwan, not Cantonese. Also both chop suey and egg foo yung are conspicuously not on the menu.

Yes I know it may appear like I'm spitting egg rolls there, but the types of places I'm calling attention to have a very specific vintage lineage to mid-century culture (and thus a spiritual relationship to Tiki IMHO).

Here's some of the criteria I apply...

1. Did the place open prior to Nixon's visit to China ? Having a pre-WWII pedigree would be the best but these places are almost extinct.

2. Do they explicitly advertise the word "Cantonese" or "Chop Suey" ? Having "Chop Suey" in vintage neon is the bee's knees.

3. Chop suey and egg foo yung have to be the menu (chow mein is still too pretty common). Also as I stated before, to me hom yu and pressed duck are the 2 dishes that really differentiate a true Chop Suey joint from a generic "Chinese food for White people" place.

4. Also this last point is really a personal observation of mine. The quality of Chop Suey cuisine seems to be proportional to the percentage of Mexican American patrons, at least in LA. I'm not sure why that is, I think they have the right palates for the good stuff. Case in point, not too long ago I was at Canton City in Montebello. Although they opened a little late for the genre (1972?) they have a solid Cantonese menu and a pretty good pressed duck, albeit a little salty (FYI, you have to ask for the brown gravy otherwise you get it with sweet & sour). Anyway on that Saturday night the place was packed with Latino customers eating in and picking up huge orders of carry out. I was impressed. :)

You are probably right, John. Yen Ching is not exactly a chop suey, but is more as you describe: "Chinese food for white people".

I do think the reason you find a lot of mexicans eating at these places might be because of where they are located? An interesting side note: My favorite restaurant is actually a korean tofu joint on garden grove blvd. The owners and staff hardly speak english. It is as authentic as you can get, but every time I am in there I see mexicans eating, sometimes in large groups. I have no idea how they communicate what they want to eat...but that stuff is very spicy, so maybe that's the appeal.