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My wife is from China and she is the only one in her entire family who doesn't live in China. She's lived in 3 different cities in China all in different regions, so I've been lucky to be exposed to some amazing authentic Chinese food from various regions. At least in a handful of North American cities, at least there's some pretty good authentic stuff. We've had some really great authentic Chinese food in NYC, Chicago (way better today than it was 5 or 6 years ago), LA, Bay Area, and Toronto. We haven't been to Vancouver but I'm sure there's a lot of awesome stuff there too. She did grad school in Baltimore and would go to DC a lot, but weirdly doesn't have anything good to say about the Chinese food there.
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One of the things that surprised me was how much better the Chinese food in Houston is than Chicago. I wasnt expecting it to be so. I expected it to be relatively even since the Chinese population in both cities is almost identical. There are many areas where Chicago far exceeded my culinary expectation, but that was a let down for me.
One of the things that surprised me was how much better the Chinese food in Houston is than Chicago. I wasnt expecting it to be so. I expected it to be relatively even since the Chinese population in both cities is almost identical.
I'll say this. When I first moved to Chicago, Chinese food was meh (minus a few places). In the year or so leading up to when I moved out of Chicago, it noticeably got way better. There has been a pretty sizable influx of people from mainland China move to Chicago and the vast majority have either moved downtown, Chinatown, or the heavily Chinese areas near Chinatown (Bridgeport, McKinley Park, or Brighton Park). The food got noticeably better and more authentic there, and quickly. 5+ years ago, I wouldn't have a ton of great things to say about Chinese food in Chicago. Today though? It's much better.
My wife is originally from NE China (Liaoning) and there is a spot in Chicago that makes dumplings from her home region. She says it is the best dumplings she has had anywhere in the entire US - and many other people from China we've recommended go there have agreed. Luckily they opened a fast concept downtown and it's the proving grounds for what could be an expansion into NYC, SF, DC, and LA in a few years if it does well. We took her parents there while they were visiting the US about 2 months ago (we had a wedding in Chicago at this point) - they thought it was extremely legitimate using a word in Chinese I've never heard before to describe when something is especially good tasting. Her parents live in Shanghai now, but a few years ago we took them to a place that does food from where her dad grew up (unfortunately the restaurant sold to some people from Hunan) - one of the dishes they told me was more authentic than what they've had anywhere in Shanghai (which apparently doesn't have great food from this particular region of NE China). I made my wife try a new Xi'an restaurant that's in Lincoln Park of all places - she didn't want to go but to her surprise it was very good. We ended up taking her parents there as well as 3 of her friends who had flown in from China for our wedding. They all agreed it was extremely legitimate and were kind of shocked. One of those who used to live in NYC - and when I asked my wife and her friend to compare to Xi'an Famous Foods, they told me it's no contest that this place is better and saying that XFF is "not very authentic anyway." For our wedding we also got some shu mai served during cocktail hour from a local restaurant which to our surprise was super good and some of the best we've had in the US. Same deal - that restaurant is only a few years old.
These places are all only a year or a few years old. Before about 5 years ago, I wouldn't even mention Chinese food in Chicago as being that great but in all honesty there's some very good places that have opened in the last few years there. Unfortunately downtown doesn't have anything that's super good (a few places that are not too bad though), though I spotted a few places in West Loop area that look new and look pretty good.
I know this sounds bad, but honestly in Chicago I would only try the Chinese places that are just at most 4 or 5 years old. If they're 10+ years old, minus maybe a handful of places, it's not worth it. And if they aren't in those areas I just mentioned including Uptown and a few in Lincoln Park and Lakeview now, it's not worth it.
P.S. Also and interestingly, there's a lot of half secret development going on in Chinatown Chicago right now through a company that has a big partner from Flushing. There are a few places from Flushing that have opened in Chicago recently and I believe there's a bunch more places like it coming in the next year to Chicago that you can find in Flushing or Brooklyn's Chinatown. This company has recently built a new retail plaza with room for 40+ new food places and are currently building a new 200 room hotel with about 8 restaurants all from Flushing, as well as a big Chinese grocery store from Flushing, a huge spa, etc.
Last edited by marothisu; 11-14-2019 at 05:30 PM..
Yeah that's very true. Or, what we associate with a particular cuisine is really only a minor part of it. From a personal standpoint, Turkish cuisine is a big example of this. The real cuisine is hugely diverse but in the US most of what people get is heavily meat centric. My vegetarian friend (Indian) went there earlier this year and was really worried about not being able to find vegetarian food due to his perceptions of what Turkish food is via America. He was shocked at how easy it was to find it there.
My wife is from China and she is the only one in her entire family who doesn't live in China. She's lived in 3 different cities in China all in different regions, so I've been lucky to be exposed to some amazing authentic Chinese food from various regions. At least in a handful of North American cities, at least there's some pretty good authentic stuff. We've had some really great authentic Chinese food in NYC, Chicago (way better today than it was 5 or 6 years ago), LA, Bay Area, and Toronto. We haven't been to Vancouver but I'm sure there's a lot of awesome stuff there too. She did grad school in Baltimore and would go to DC a lot, but weirdly doesn't have anything good to say about the Chinese food there.
Also definitely true about the Indian food. It's really weird how that works out too. There's actually a pub in Chicago that doesn't hide it at all - they say they're a "British Indian Pub" but the food is actually pretty good there FWIW.
One of the things that surprised me was how much better the Chinese food in Houston is than Chicago. I wasnt expecting it to be so. I expected it to be relatively even since the Chinese population in both cities is almost identical. There are many areas where Chicago far exceeded my culinary expectation, but that was a let down for me.
I found it good when I visited last year, but I was also actively looking for good places and it looked like there were a pretty large number of good places.
I found it good when I visited last year, but I was also actively looking for good places and it looked like there were a pretty large number of good places.
The number of people born in China living in the city limits of Chicago increased by over 33% from 2010 to 2018. A very high percentage (like over 90%) live in only a handful of areas - Bridgeport, Chinatown/Armour Square, McKinley Park, Brighton Park, Douglas, Uptown, and downtown. All of these areas are adjacent to one another except Uptown.
If you are eating Chinese food outside of one of these areas (excluding Brighton Park which is a newer area for Chinese and doesn't have much Chinese food yet), there's a good chance it's either not authentic or it's not that good. And actually the Chinese food downtown is for the most part only so so minus a few places. Though I did notice a few new legitimate looking places and more bubble tea joints open up the last time we were in town. There's a few legitimate places to lately pop up in Lincoln Park, Lakeview, and near Wicker Park though but not too many. That very good Xi'an place we tried is in Lincoln Park of all places.
The amount of good Chinese places in Chicago today is noticeably a lot more than it was even 5 years ago. Which is great because on average before that it was pretty solidly mediocre. Not that it's on average as good as the Bay, LA, Toronto, or NYC but it's definitely improved of late and a lot of new legitimate places have opened.
Well, you all can keep parsing Chinese food while the DC food scene and restaurants keep racking-up accolades like the #1 spot on Esquire's best new restaurants of 2019 list as well as the Chef of the Year!
I'm always suspicious of lists. Especially a list put out by, well, in this case, WalletHub. Who are they and how credible is their research? Seems like anyone can publish a list now a days on all sorts of topics. Maybe Portland is the Paris of American in terms of cuisine, but I seriously doubt it.
Last edited by Angelino19; 11-16-2019 at 07:21 PM..
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