Best Chinese Restaurants
Zoe’s in Somerville, where the Chinese go to eat
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008I did my WBUR interview with Here and Now at Zoe’s in Somerville, which is ote cited asone of the most authentic Chinese restaurant in the Cambridge/Somerville area. (See Yelp reviews, which have mixed opinion on the authenticity).
It’s a place where the dominant language spoken over tables is Chinese — especially last night since […]
My Greatest Chinese Restaurant in the World, on the brink of bankruptcy?
Saturday, March 8th, 2008So the restaurant that I picked as the “Greatest Chinese Restaurant in the World” is struggling and may be on the verge of bankruptcy, according to the Vancouver Sun, which is really sad.
Sam Lau’s business (like many Vancouver Chinese restaurants) is being hammered by cheap flights to Hong Kong and the weakness of the […]
Newsweek! An interview at Tang Pavilion
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008Newsweek has a pretty lengthy feature in their books section this week by Jennie Yabroff (who asked really engaged questions about immigrations and bigger thoughts, where I really had to think, like didn’t have stock answers for).
For the interview, we went to Tang Pavilion, near the MoMA in Midtown East, which is known for its […]
Wakiya NYC Gramercy Restaurant: Review & Reaction
Sunday, August 12th, 2007I’ve visited six continents and 23 countries trying to find the world’s top Chinese restaurants outside of China. Wakiya in New York is not one of them (though it is priced as though it were). This is all the more sad because the original Wakiya restaurant in Tokyo is truly one of the most intriguing […]
Dispatches from Wakiya (the Tokyo, not NYC, version) — one of the Best Chinese Restaurants in the World
Monday, July 16th, 2007As New York ramps up for the launch of the Yuji Wakiya’s eponymous restaurant in the Gramercy Park Hotel, it might be interesting to look at the original Wakiya in Tokyo.
That restaurant is discretely tucked away in an alley in Akasaka, an upscale neighborhood known for its ryotei, discrete high-end restaurants favorbed by Japanese powerbrokers […]
Jamaican Chinese food? Jamaican Chinese reggae?
Thursday, June 21st, 2007Tomorrow I’m heading to Kingston, Jamaica with my friend Eric Lee (who I know from Chinese camp from the time we both still wore braces) to do research on the Chinese Jamaicans, and Jamaican-Chinese food and the importance of Chinese Jamaicans in the reggae music industry.
The Chinese started arriving in Jamaica in the 1850s-1860s to […]
Wakiya Watch: Yuji’s Google count rising
Wednesday, June 20th, 2007Many of the “Japanese” restaurants in this country have Chinese chefs (those Asian guys behind the sushi counter? Chances are they have never been to Japan). Florence Fabricant profiles the hot new Chinese restaurant with a Japanese chef: Wayika, which will be opening up in Gramercy Park Hotel next month Yuji Wakiya, who is a […]
Will America’s best Chinese restaurant be headed by a Japanese chef?
Sunday, June 17th, 2007Today we will being our countdown to a non-specific date…Chinese food aficionados are waiting with baited breath for the mid-July opening of Wakiya in New York City after Alan Yau (of Hakkasan fame) was unable to get a visa for his chef for Park Chinois and thus canceled the project.
Yuji Wakiya, who is Japan-Japanese, is […]
NYT: Why immigration reform affects your Chinese takeout
Sunday, June 17th, 2007Tim and Nina Zagat of (yes as in those Zagats) have an interesting op-ed piece in The New York Times about why Chinese cuisine in the United States is stagnant — and they blame it (partially) on the difficulty with getting visas for Chinese chefs. This is something that I have thought long and hard […]