LA Chinese food is just as good as Vancouver's

Kirin seafood in Richmond district was good tonight for upscale Cantonese seafood. It is pretty expensive though and there are lots (I mean valley Blvd lots) of places to choose from in that area. Urban sprawl is just booming!

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Will second Kirin for their excellent dim sum too.

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Thanks David for your great take on this. Decided to give it the ol’ reblogaroo: Food Expert Declares LA's Chinese Restaurants Are on Par With Vancouver's - Eater LA

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High praise. What accounts for that?

Combination of the Koi Palace lineage and quality plus the inventiveness of the dim sum selections.

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Well maybe not, according to this NYT article. Sorry if its behind a paywall for you. It seems like writer might be combining the best tasting with the best tasting within the easily accessible area. I’ve never been to Vancouver but it’s certainly on my list.

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I think the article is a few years too late. From the early 90s until maybe 5 years ago, fans of Chinese food would make the pilgrimage up to Richmond B.C. to partake in the better Chinese food there. My comment from the 90s was that the smallest food court counter in Richmond was as good as or better than the very best Chinese food in Los Angeles. These days hardly anybody from LA goes up to Richmond for Chinese food compared to the old days. Yes, they have better dim sum and other types of Cantonese food up there. But now that Cantonese food is just a small part of the Chinese food spectrum in North America, as far as Chinese food goes you can’t put Vancouver on a pedestal over Los Angeles.

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It’s also the New York Times, which would never print anything admitting Los Angeles was better than anything. It might praise Montebello, though :grinning:

The one time the NYT came close to this, was the video Bittman did (in Irvine). Comments were filled with folks from NY and SF complaining that it couldn’t be possible for L.A. to have better Chinese food than their cities :roll_eyes:

My ears are burning …

No really, my ears are burning – help!

chandavkl is spot on. Nah, it’s not me. I’m not into trashing others, though I will trash the trashers :grinning:

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I think the Times has published multiple food / restaurant stories / reviews where people admit that the produce in California is generally better and more diverse than what they get in New York.

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Vancouver might not be worth a trip just to eat Chinese food any more, but if you’re there, it would be crazy not to eat a lot of dim sum.

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+1. Or an occasional food foray just to see what’s going on.

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True, but that’s “California” as a whole vs. “Los Angeles.”

Clarissa Wei did a great job in her SF Chronicle Chinese New Year section article stating the superiority of LA Chinese food over the Bay Area’s, with quotes making the proposition pretty much incontrovertible.

…but what were the comments like? :wink:

LA Chinese food sucks.

true. but SGV chinese food rocks.

Well, quoting a well known SF Chinese restaurant owner to matter of factly agree probably blunted the comments.

With the caveat that

Some aspects of the dining scene up north surpass Los Angeles’, such as dim sum specialists and certain regional cuisines, both well-known (Hunan) and more specialized (Jiangxi).

Also Uyghur. Are any of the Korean-Chinese places in LA as refined as Great China?

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