Eater LA's 10 Essential Cantonese Restaurants in LA

I question about Newport Seafood being on this list…

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which label are you questioning - essential, cantonese, both?

Cantonese

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I hear ya. They’re more Vietnamese in style than anything. It’s funny how the article mentioned Newport’s “bò lúc lắc” which isn’t even Cantonese…

And here’s how the restaurant describes itself:

Unlike traditional Chinese restaurants, Newport Seafood’s cuisine brings together a fusion of many Southeast Asian flavors including Chinese, Cambodian, Vietnamese and Thai elements.

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my little saigon expat opinion - the food at newport seafood was what I considered “cantonese” growing up, but I learned as an adult it’s what moonboy403 posted; interestingly, I’ve also heard it described as influenced by chiu chow cuisine which I see is not listed in that description.

I do appreciate the FTC shoutout though!

" A huge thanks to JeetKuneBao and the crew at Food Talk Central for helping to unearth this gem."

As for the Longo Seafood rec, the picture that was used is representative of what bad Canto cooking is with that sweet and sour sauce pooling at the bottom of the plate.

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i’ve also thought so as well. But a friend, who knows the owners, asked them and was told it’s more Vietnamese and not Chiu Chow.

me too!

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I’m an idiot, don’t listen to me :sweat_smile:

Thanks for the feedback, guys. My justification for including Newport Seafood and Boston Lobster is admittedly a pretty tenuous one; that ginger and scallion lobster is a Cantonese banquet staple and both places do very solid work with woks and lobsters (fucking Newport keeps pulling pieces from my lobster, though). With that said, I do think I could have done better by omitting mention of the bo luc lac (1000% Vietnamese, I know) but I mean… if you’re not getting the bo luc lac at Newport what are you even doing…?

Things I thought were pretty hard to find: Nice, crunchy salt and pepper shrimp / salt and pepper squid, really fresh, subtly seasoned steamed whole fish (the kind you can get at Sea Harbour). I think the discerning ones here would have found those more representative of Cantonese seafood but, I mean, order salt and pepper shrimp / salt and pepper squid every time you go to a seafood banquet hall and you can imagine the supercut of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” playing when your plate arrives.

Seriously though, thank you for the Ruby BBQ rec (God that place is so good). You guys are always 100% worth the shout out for the passion and legwork and bang-bangs that happen here.

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they’ve been doing that for 25 years now, I consider it a Newport Seafood signature move.

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they’ve been doing that for 25 years now, I consider it a Newport Seafood signature move.

:rofl: an emeril lagasse’s “BANG!” of petty lobster theft

Chiu Chow is Cantonese.

Newport’s family is Chiu Chow via Cambodia via Motherland.

Chiu Chow is very prominent in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.

I might even argue that Trieu Chau in Santa Ana is Cantonese. Ruen Pair in Hollywood serves Chiu Chow food amongst papaya salad and curries.

Speaking of Chiu Chow

No Seafood Palace???

And Sham Tseng is Chiu Chow which is more known for the marinated duck and goose nut Eater mentions the usual.

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Trieu Chau directly translates to chiu chow.

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Diana Zheng just wrote about food the the Chiu chow diaspora in her book Jia! Food of the teochow diaspora

Will defer to @JeetKuneBao but as I understand teochow cuisine is heavily influenced by Cantonese cuisine. Diana actually interviews the Owner of Newport who is of teochow descent and includes the lobster recipe in her book.

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Then why doesn’t Newport Seafood’s owners call their food Cantonese, rather than the fact that their food has influences of Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai? Oh, and there’s this…

South China Morning Post differentiates Cantonese from Chiu Chow with their references.

My knowledge of Chiu Chow cuisine is very limited but from the little that I know, their style is quite different from traditional Cantonese cooking.

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No, it’s not.

Just like Viennese cuisine =/= Austrian cuisine

Edit: nm i am a potato today

You are comparing a city within a country vs country as a whole

The Bai people is one of 50 ethnic minorities living within Yunnan Province. But the food of the Bai people would not be considered Yunnanese cuisine.