For while you read...this is a long post.
"Strange Mercy", St. Vincent
What sparked the debate in the media was one David Chan of Los Angeles (?), a whopping 64 years old, a Chan (!), who has been fielding all sorts of requests and questions about Chinese food in the ENTIRE UNITED STATES. Which is fine. Because someone will always have an opinion on something. Go on, read it!
Chan claims that there is no good Chinese food in New York.
No. Good. Chinese. Food. I'm going to veer off the New York bit for a second here and just address the Chinese food bit. As I'm sure Chinese foodies know, there is no "Chinese food" just as there is not "American food". It just doesn't exist. You're talking about what 50-something different ethnic groups eat in a huge country. But let's say you were playing devil's advocate and you were trying to get me to talk about Han Chinese people, because that's it's own separate ethnicity (apparently) and since it's the most represented one, we can move onto more valid ground. But I'm going to knock you down because even among Han Chinese there is a wide geographic divergence (obviously) that basically creates different cultures. The Beijing-er and Shanghai-er and Guangdong-er will tend to side-eye each other because she claims her cuisine to be the best.
A quick and dirty summary of just THREE types of Chinese food:
Beijing (northern) region: salty, spicy, roasted/barbeque, pickleds, thick noodles. Strong flavors are key.
Shanghai region: less salty, fun textures, buns, dumplings
Guangdong (and Hong Kong) region: Dim sum. Thin noodles, seafood, fine pastry flakes, barely any salt.
Let me get this out of the way: I am immeasurably addicted to dim sum. Dim sum is what I was raised on. I am half Guangdong stock and don't you ever forget it! I love the people that make dim sum because it takes technique. You need technique to cut the noodle as thin as possible without breaking it. You need it to make the radish pudding (? no English words) the perfect texture. It all comes down to how many years you've been cooking, who you learned from, and how much time you are willing to spend cooking a day. Do I claim any authority in judging dim sum? Yes, proudly, even though I don't cook it. The biggest insult you can throw at a dim sum dish is that it is tzoh ("coarse"), meaning that it has obviously not been made with care: it has no nuance and its texture is akin to wet sock.
Good dim sum has (almost) nothing to do with good taste. In my experience the taste of any particular dish is the same across decent dim sum joints across the planet. The idea is that your dim sum chef has been handed a recipe that he should know by heart, and every other dim sum chef knows by heart. Why is there basically only one recipe for egg tart? Or barbeque pork? Because that was clearly the best recipe that allowed a dim sum establishment to continue luring customers to survive. Anyone who has been to Hong Kong, the capital of dim sum, knows that in the minds of dim sum critics, the food is the bottom line. No amount of decor or whatnot can save you from a bad chef. The proportion of salt/herbs/stuff you are supposed to put into a sauce is basic and easy to copy. If you get it wrong, your business should be shuttered immediately. The next disaster probably happens when you're trying to turn your goop into something edible. Hence, texture!
Chan tells us that there is no good Chinese food in New York. Ok, I remember now that I have thrown out the Chinese food part. I am also going to ignore his introductory non-argument (to summarize: other people say that NY sucks and that supports what I have to say).
Let me move on to the part where he starts to rationalize New York's inferiority by bringing in demographics. To make no distinction between Chinese cultures is kind of bleh (he's a 3rd-generation American who doesn't know how to use chopsticks, and I question him ever having stepped on Chinese/Hong Kong soil, so let's say he is a little bit ignorant), but to then turn 180 degrees and start talking about nuanced social leads in cuisine seems maybe like a step in the right direction.
Let's walk him through it step by step:
1) As first brought to my attention in a Business Week article two decades ago and reinforced by a book and New York Times articles written by Jennifer 8 Lee, Chinese immigration to New York for over two decades has in large part originated from Fujian province.
I can't. I read something in a magazine twenty years ago and something by Jennifer 8 Lee. Yes, Miss 8 Lee is Fujianese. The 1980s diaspora to Manhattan undoubtedly carried many Fujianese, who started businesses and shipping/warehouse enterprises centered along East Broadway. Which is certainly true even to this day.
2) The Fujianese are largely working-class people, and many of them are undocumented. Check out Manhattan’s Chinatown, particularly the portion off East Broadway, and you can see this densely packed area is largely minimum wage territory. Obviously, the entire New York Chinese community isn’t working-class, but there is a heavier weighting in that direction.
Somewhat offensive/questionable, but that'll do for now. How can you "see" minimum wage in New York City? Also, have you ever been outside of E. Broadway (for those of you from outside of NYC, East Broadway is a section of a long street)? How about Mott Street/Grand Street/Canal Street/Mulberry Street/Bowery/etc? Do you see wholesale businesses anywhere? Do you not speak enough Chinese to recognize that everyone is speaking Cantonese (ding! ding! ding! Hong Kong! Guangdong!), and not Fujianese? HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO MANHATTAN'S CHINATOWN IN REAL LIFE AT ANY POINT IN THE PAST 30 YEARS?
3) Rather, for over 30 years the San Gabriel Valley near Los Angeles has been marketed in Asia as the “Chinese Beverly Hills.” Wealthy Chinese investors would buy houses in the San Gabriel Valley and send their families to reside while themselves continuing to live abroad. Meanwhile, a heavily professional technical upper-middle class Chinese community has spread across the San Gabriel Valley. Indeed the economic strength of the Chinese community is shown by the fact that there has been little residential real estate price erosion here during the great recession, and prices in the most expensive San Gabriel Valley city of San Marino are at historic highs. This is a community that demands and can afford the best Chinese food.
Bordering on irrelevance. But I will keep up with the premise that money demands Chinese food (basic) because this is getting fun. Apparently in the 1980s the Chinese started buying up San Gabriel Valley and pumping it up with some sort of "professional" "technical" economic prowess. I agree that history here is different: the first wide-enterprising Chinese in NY were probably Fujianese, while the successful Californians were not...they were from Hong Kong, which Chan omits for some reason. The wealthy upper-middle class of the Hong Kong of the 1990s was emigrating at high volume so they could avoid the 1997 takeover by China. So, yes, a heavy cultural/class division separates the two populations you are talking about.
And you are saying that the Hong Kongers in California can demand and afford the best Chinese food. No, they are not asking for pork dumplings and broccoli fried rice (no less yummy, nonetheless). You are obviously talking about dim sum. Whew! Why did that take so much effort for me to get out of you!?
The premise of your argument is that wealthy immigrants from Hong Kong to California can afford expensive Hong Kong-style dim sum, while the working-class Fujianese in NY cannot. Your basis of categorical "Chinese food" is apparently dim sum. My most fundamental question is: Why are you judging Fujianese people by their inability to make Hong Kong-style dim sum, which is not part of their culture? Other questions: Do you even like dim sum? Have you ever been to Hong Kong (sorry, repeat)? Did you know that a large number of Hong Kong dim sum chefs have emigrated to work in New York? Do you know what restaurants I am even talking about? Why are you obsessed with lemon chicken?
I'll admit that I don't know California dim sum, but Toronto, which you apparently live for, was a disappointment. So back off, Chan. Don't insult something you know nothing about.
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