Transportation, Chinese food, Changing Demographics...

[smokingGun]

Originally Posted by genjy

Wrong on almost all accounts. I don't know where you got it from.

SGV cities have a high Chinese population (ethnic Chinese from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong)--not Vietnamese
SGV has VERY few Chinese restaurants owned by Vietnamese (because they can't replicate the traditional regional styles and pseudo-modern Taiwanese and Hong Kong styles)

My younger Chinese colleague mentioned that many of the newer noodle shops, boba/shaved ice & pan-Asian cheap eats out that way are owned by Chinese Viets. They cater to a teen/20-something demographic and aren't concerned about being authentically regional. fwiw she said that Canton-style cuisine is on the wane and Shanghai cuisine is attracting all the attention and new restaurant money.

[Joy74]

Originally Posted by goolsbyjazz

Just curious as to why no one has even attempted to address the OP's last question about blacks leaving the LA area? This is an interesting observation.

A better quality of life can be found elsewhere. This becomes amazingly clear once you start traveling around. Many are just leaving CA altogether.

[HarryKerryJr]

Originally Posted by genjy

Wrong on almost all accounts. I don't know where you got it from.

SGV cities have a high Chinese population (ethnic Chinese from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong)--not Vietnamese
SGV has VERY few Chinese restaurants owned by Vietnamese (because they can't replicate the traditional regional styles and pseudo-modern Taiwanese and Hong Kong styles)

Sorry. Vietnam all the way. The Chinese have been marginalized.

[HarryKerryJr]

Originally Posted by smokingGun

My younger Chinese colleague mentioned that many of the newer noodle shops, boba/shaved ice & pan-Asian cheap eats out that way are owned by Chinese Viets. They cater to a teen/20-something demographic and aren't concerned about being authentically regional. fwiw she said that Canton-style cuisine is on the wane and Shanghai cuisine is attracting all the attention and new restaurant money.

Yes, and I think the point is that the Koreans and Vietnamese can be savvy business people and they know "Chinese" either sells better or they know that an area is saturated with Vietnamese food and "Chinese" differentiates them. Also, they know that the Anglos are like or prefer what they think is Chinese food, NOT Vietnamese food, although some Anglos have found a few places in the SGV or Garden Grove that are Vietnamese that they have come to like. Look, most Anglos aren't going to find authentic Vietnamese food as one finds on the street and restaurants of Vietnam at all appealing. Most Americans seek Hong Kong, Cantonese style Chinese food or, for the more adventurous, the Shanghai that you cited. And the roots of Dim Sum are in China, along with a good deal of the best Asian food. Sorry, but I consider "Vietnamese Dim Sum" to be a misnomer. The term "Dim Sum" might be applied to anything, but the cultural legacy and its common dishes heads straight to China, and there is nothing Vietnamese about it except the practice of how it's served. It's a lot like how the vast majority of Mexican restaurants here aren't even close to "authentic" Mexican food found in abundance in Mexico, certainly not from the interior. Most of what is Mexican here is Northern influenced and NOT common in the vast majority of Mexico.

As one example, the Lotteria at Farmer's Market used to offer fidello, hardly alien food, but they stopped serving it because nobody (Anglos) would order it as they were unfamiliar with it, and it broke my heart because you can't find fidello in "safe" neigborhoods (like you can't find tripas in safe neighborhoods). Further, that same place had to add--eewwww--enchiladas to the menu because that's what people expected and demanded. I say ewwww only because enchiladas are far too common in Mexican restaurants and done pretty poorly compared to what one finds in Mexico. Good grief, even Central Americans are opening "Mexican" restaurants because it is good for expanding the business. In fact, Central Americans appropriate Mexican food and just as with the Vietnamese serving "Chinese" food, create confusion.

There are some good Chinese places in the SGV, but far, far more Vietnamese and masquerades. It is simply that that is the population.

[HarryKerryJr]

Originally Posted by footballer0607

Hello,
In about 2 1/2 weeks, I'll be headed down to Los Angeles (well, Malibu) for my second year of graduate school. During last school year, I really didn't get to explore L.A. as much as I would've liked, but with a much lighter schedule this year, that looks to change. Anyway, I have some questions about the place.

1. I'm from the Bay Area (born and raised), so I'm used to riding BART. In fact, I barely knew L.A. had a light rail/subway system before I actually went down there last August, though I've been visiting the place on and off since 1989. How reliable/useful is the Metro? How often do trains come, when does it stop running, is it expensive, are the stations safe, etc.

2. Growing up in and around Oakland, I'm used to going into San Francisco and accordingly, pretty high-caliber Chinese food. What are the best part of Los Angeles for that (in particular, dim sum?)

3. I have noticed 1 thing about Los Angeles as I've gotten older: it seems that many black residents are abandoning the city. If this is true, then where are they going and why are they leaving?

BART is a commuter rail service, although in SF and Oakland it operates similar to a Metro, so our Metrolink is the equivalent of BART as it primarily serves the suburbs just as CalTrain does. SF Muni Metro would be the equivalent of our Metro (light rail, subway, and buses).

LA Public Transit is only as good as where you live, so living in an area that has good access to public transit determines if you drive or not, but you will need a car for things or places our public transit doesn't serve well. Just a few places with good access to Metro RAIL public transit are downtown, Koreatown, Wilshire Center, Hancock Park, Hollywood, Pasadena, Culver City and soon Santa Monica for just a few. The Westside is served primarily by buses with Expo line being the sole exception, but many do get around using Big Blue Bus and Metro bus.

For Metro go to www-dor-mta-net

and for Metrolink commuter rail go to www-dot-metrolinktrains-dot-com

Good Luck

[drshang]

HarryKerryJr,

The SGV, overall, is much more skewed toward Chinese and Taiwanese rather than Vietnamese. There is plenty of information online that shows ethnic demographics in the SGV cities, and what you say is wrong.

Restaurants in the SGV do NOT cater to "anglos," and your post contradicts itself by saying that Viets will open Chinese restaurants to cater to white people when in fact if you actually go to the SGV and go into a Chinese restaurant you will clearly see very few white people in most of those restaurants. Your notion that most of the Chinese restaurants are owned by Vietnamese is just not true. If you want to say Korean owned sushi places, yes, that is true to a pretty large extent.

To answer the OPs question, the Chinese food in the SGV is excellent. Most will say that the Bay Area does have superior dim sum, but as another poster said, Elite and Sea Harbour are generally considered to be the two best dim sum places in the LA area. That said, overall I think LAs Chinese cuisine surpasses the Bay Area due to the sheer variety of excellent regional cuisines we have here.

[genjy]

Originally Posted by HarryKerryJr

Yes, and I think the point is that the Koreans and Vietnamese can be savvy business people and they know "Chinese" either sells better or they know that an area is saturated with Vietnamese food and "Chinese" differentiates them. Also, they know that the Anglos are like or prefer what they think is Chinese food, NOT Vietnamese food, although some Anglos have found a few places in the SGV or Garden Grove that are Vietnamese that they have come to like. Look, most Anglos aren't going to find authentic Vietnamese food as one finds on the street and restaurants of Vietnam at all appealing. Most Americans seek Hong Kong, Cantonese style Chinese food or, for the more adventurous, the Shanghai that you cited. And the roots of Dim Sum are in China, along with a good deal of the best Asian food. Sorry, but I consider "Vietnamese Dim Sum" to be a misnomer. The term "Dim Sum" might be applied to anything, but the cultural legacy and its common dishes heads straight to China, and there is nothing Vietnamese about it except the practice of how it's served.

There are some good Chinese places in the SGV, but far, far more Vietnamese and masquerades. It is simply that that is the population.

Those are pretty insightful thoughts regarding Chinese and Vietnamese food. Too bad none of them applies to the SGV.

I do agree with you to some extent in general that Vietnamese businesses tend to creep slowly into Chinese areas, though that really hasn't happened yet in the SGV cities--save a few tea shops and pho places.

SGV remains a high Chinese population area because of the previous wave of immigrant Chinese homeowners and the current wave of rich Chinese investors. It is not a Vietnamese or even Vietnamese-Chinese area by any stretch.

[Senshi]

Originally Posted by Joy74

A better quality of life can be found elsewhere. This becomes amazingly clear once you start traveling around. Many are just leaving CA altogether.

Not really. It may be cheaper to live in other places but certainly not better. Worse weather, worse people and just a crappy experience all together if you want a modern 21st century lifestyle. Maybe if you yearn for the 1950s you'll find happiness other places.

Anyways, in regards to the dwindling black population, a lot of the demographic shift has been going back to the Southeast. Atlanta, for example, as become the cultural center for black entertainment it seems. Some of it has to do with the sky high cost of living in Los Angeles. I'm sure some have resettled to San Bernardino or the Palmdale/Lancaster areas where it's cheaper. Maybe safety concerns? (not like those areas are any better now!)

It could also be due to the influx of central American immigrants in traditional black neighborhoods.