Post #700043 by mike and marie on Wed, Nov 20, 2013 4:30 PM

On 2013-11-18 09:45, JOHN-O wrote:

On 2013-03-21 19:16, JOHN-O wrote:
Just like first wave Tiki bars are a disappearing slice of mid-century Americana, so are Chop Suey restaurants. In Los Angeles for example, most of the 1950's-1960's places have fallen by the wayside, victims of changing tastes in Chinese food. OG places like the Far East Cafe and the New Moon have evolved (devolved really) past their Chop Suey roots and the legendary Man Fook Low is a distant memory.

So for those of you who cherish vintage Chop Suey as much as vintage Tiki (and really shouldn't we all?), here's a couple of surviving places that still figuratively keep the old Chinese lantern burning...

We almost thought we had an assigment for you. The other day we found this, exhibit A:

and exhibit B:

Exhibit B in particular is a lesson on the fleetingness of fame, because there is almost nothing else online of this "world famous" Chinese and American drive-in restaurant. One lonely matchbook on eBay, and it's used---otherwise, nada. But someone on a Chowhound thread on Chop Suey joints wondered if China Land was "the foremost exponent." It was taken over by a son, who passed away in 2010. Two other locations remain, not drive-ins but stripmall restaurants called Land of China. Doubtful there is any tiki involved here at all, in any way, although when finding the glass we did think that maybe there was a chance, perhaps an "exotic" drink menu at least, so we searched, but no---just some data for the chop suey thread.