LA Weekly (Kevin article) - Sushi Can Be a Transcendental Experience at These 5 Restaurants

[ipsedixit]

@MyAnnoyingOpinions

What I would say finally about Chung King and other Sichuan restaurants in the pre-Chengdu Taste era is this: a number of us ate Sichuan food in the SGV pretty continuously in the years before Chengdu Taste opened. Our first meal at Chengdu Taste made it clear that we were at a more elevated level of Sichuan cooking. But it didn’t make us go: “oh man, everything we’d eaten till now was shit and this is just a different universe”. I suspect this is borne out in most people’s experience. I think for most people there was a continuity and the starkest change was from menus driven by more traditional and rustic preparations to more contemporary dishes and approaches (and better ingredients–especially at Szechuan Impression). Again, the new restaurants are markedly better.

It is, of course, entirely possible that we don’t understand Sichuan cuisine at all or enough to evaluate or recognize stark differences but in that case our enthusiasm for Chengdu Taste and Szechuan Impression is also suspect.

(I’m not a big fan of Jonathan Gold either but I don’t think his praise had anything to do with Chung King being crammed full of Chinese diners in the early years.)

Agreed.

As I said before, I don’t disagree with you on the fact that Chengdu Taste (and its brethren) were most definitely not pioneers of Sichuan / Szechuan / Szechwan cuisine in LA. They simply represented a more evolved iteration of the cuisine. Updated, perhaps. Maybe even fusion. Maybe.

Sort of like Mark I was the introduction of the Iron Man suit. The Mark 48 suit in the upcoming Avengers Infinity War might be totally transformative in its modularity, but it is still an Iron Man suit. Still Tony Stark behind that mask. Just like its still those damn peppercorns in those dishes.

[secretasianman]

@CiaoBob

cumin-y as fuck

if that’s something you like (and wandering even farther off topic), you might consider the cumin noodles now on the menu at liang’s which i tried this past weekend:

what caught me off guard was the latent heat; after about 5 minutes, i started perspiring profusely and went through about 5 napkins.

[Srsly]

I came to this thread based on the title to say that it sucks that Kevin is still writing for the Weekly and it would be great if he would bucolically cut it out but also damn there’s such great info in this thread and those cumin noodles above look very dope and like several other people here I liked Chung King but not nearly as much as I like Chengdu Taste so basically I think what I’m saying is that this website is great, good job and well done to everyone except Kevin and the new owners of the LA Weekly.

[CiaoBob]

Yum. I went to Liang’s about 2 years a go on your “say-so” and loved it. Need to return.

[secretasianman]

they’ve expanded into two more locations (which may be more convenient for you depending on whence you hail), though they’ve abandoned the liang’s franchise moniker and adopted the name of the place they first took over in arcadia: “cindys noodleworld” which now also boasts a branch in focus plaza. i fear that the name choice will prompt some from taking them seriously, which would be a shame.

[CiaoBob]

The Atlantic location, South of Garvey, is prob the closest for me - hailing from West LA.

[JThur01]

A couple of things to point out…

First, the difference between Chongqing-style and Chengdu-stlye Sichuan. There are differences.

@MyAnnoyingOpinions

And while I have great affection for the Yunnan this and the Chongqing that, and while I wish Hacienda Heights’ Shufeng was not quite so far away, there is no doubt: Chung King is still the gritty, grungy, pickle-spiked star of the local Sichuan restaurant community

Shufeng Yuan never got/gets enough love around here or CH. Mainly I guess because it has spent most of its time in Rowland Heights, though it did have a location in Focus Plaza for a year, and, somewhat bizarrely, closed a short-lived location on Garvey near Atlantic just as Chengdu Taste was being discovered. The latter was their fault as there was little signage up 'til near the end of a fairly short run (and even then, the signage was in Chinese).

It annoyed me the number of white Westsiders who raved about Chengdu-style dishes and rabbit being on the menu at Chengdu Taste, when Shufeng did some of those exact same dishes, was Chengdu-style and they did/do them quite well.

Hopefully, I’m not telling any tales out of school here, but as Chung King’s star waned, JGold told me he thought Shufeng was probably the best Sichuan around.

[JThur01]

@MyAnnoyingOpinions

What I would say finally about Chung King and other Sichuan restaurants in the pre-Chengdu Taste era is this: a number of us ate Sichuan food in the SGV pretty continuously in the years before Chengdu Taste opened. Our first meal at Chengdu Taste made it clear that we were at a more elevated level of Sichuan cooking. But it didn’t make us go: “oh man, everything we’d eaten till now was shit and this is just a different universe”. I suspect this is borne out in most people’s experience. I think for most people there was a continuity and the starkest change was from menus driven by more traditional and rustic preparations to more contemporary dishes and approaches (and better ingredients–especially at Szechuan Impression). Again, the new restaurants are markedly better.

I hate to excerpt an overall outstanding post, but this exactly. The gulf was not as great as portrayed, and some of the “unique” was not unique at all. Well stated

[secretasianman]

i wasn’t sure but for some reason i thought you were near glendora.

i do really like liang’s though. for reasons i can’t fully articulate i put them in their own category even though most of the menu items suggest a shaanxi regional background.