Why People Like The New Yorker

This is what you get for choosing to live in a swamp.

Seriously, the District is not a particularly civilized place. Edible chinese food is the least of your worries.

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And yes, that is exactly why folks love The New Yorker. Ain't that piece great? Chuck Schumer may indeed be a little bit weird, but the piece nicely gets at precisely why he's the golden child.

Amen.

Immigration reform? From NY to DC?

Meiwah, at 24th and New Hampshire, is surely the best in this benighted city, and rivals the best in THE City.

"t's not just that the city is full of "bad Chinese food" (a rather different cuisine from good Chinese food) but it's really bad bad Chinese food."

It is actually a completely different cuisine. I know an anthropologist who is studying the phenomenon - for some reason people from China put up restaurants that they call Chinese, but serve food that they freely admit is not Chinese food. The restaurant owners that she's spoken to think its crap as well.

I would guess that if you went into the kitchen you'd find a bunch of people who were not trained chefs. There is a network of employment agencies centered in NYC's Chinatown that ferries illegal immigrants around the country to work at various Chinese restaurants (the Chinatown buss being an offshoot of this). Speaking to a woman who worked at one such agency, she confessed that you didn't actually have to have any culinary skills to work in the kitchen of most Chinese restaurants - only the authentic kind.

Which is making me hungry for some Grand Sichuan... mmmm...

I suppose the Bailey's would tell him to improve the quality of the food by 50 percent.

And should we even start on the pizza in DC?

Matt, you ever try Full Kee? Just curious if you think that (and/or Tony Cheng's) represents the higher end of Chinese in DC. Can't say I have great experience with DC Chinese restaurants -- those two were the ones I went to most frequently (which wasn't really that frequently).

But you have all those great Ethiopian restaurants on 18th...

DC:

Good - Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Seafood

Acceptable - Italian, American-Standard,

Bad - Chinese, Pizza

We should at least be able to solve the Pizza problem.

City Lights is the only tolerable place in town.

Chuck Schumer wants me to vomit. What an idiot.

It is one thing to generally keep in touch with the values of one's constituents. It is another to invoke an imaginary insurance salesman and a part-time physician's assistant in crafting one's views on intelligence agency reform and global warming: "Middle-class people don’t think everybody should have to drive a tiny little car to achieve improvement in global warming."

Schumer reminds me of George Bush or Newt Gingrich in how he states the obvious in a tone that suggests he has just delivered another priceless nugget of political brilliance. Average Americans would rather not sacrifice their current standard of living in order to solve the climate crisis? Really? Wow! Who'd a guessed that one?

But wait! Is it technologically and economically feasible to sufficiently reduce carbon emissions without driving around in tiny little cars? Somehow I suspect the answer to that question might be beyond the pay grade of the poor old O'Reilly-Baileys.

Plus he stabs the party in the back -- yet again! -- by suggesting that "the Democrats" don't get it about property taxes and attacking "liberal elitism."

Matt: Full Kee is usually very good Cantonese (especially the noodle soups and congee), and New Big Wong often has stuff that's just as good, although it's more hit or miss -- but you're right that both would be middle-of-the-road in NYC. The vast majority of the area's Chinese population has moved to the burbs, where almost all the best DC-area Chinese food can be found. In addition to, e.g., the Taiwanese food at Bob's 66, and several decent Cantonese places in NoVa, we happen to be undergoing some strange glut of wonderful Sichuan places lately, including China Star (not as spectatular as when Peter Chang was cooking, but still very good), Hong Kong Palace, Joe's Noodle, and, most recently, Peking Cheers.

And of course, we have other strengths here: Our Vietnamese, Ethiopian and Korean put NYC to shame, for whatever that's worth. And you're currently living in DC's best food row -- Oohs and Aahs, Pyramid, Thai X-ing, Tropicana, Etete, etc.

City Lights used to be pretty good. That cockroach in the teapot kinda put me off, though, and I haven't been back since. In any event, if you want Chinese food, take the Red line to Rockville or Wheaton.

[Bad Chinese Food] is actually a completely different cuisine.

When I was a teaching assistant at the University of Florida, there was a Bad Chinese place a block from our offices called (swear to God) "Chiney Takey Outy." (The college newspaper once referred to the place as "Tacky Ethnic Slurry.")

But the food was really, really perfect Bad Chinese Food.

DC has Pizzaria Paradiso.

If you don't actually want great pizza, you don't have to go there, but don't pretend that DC doesn't have great pizza.

Now I live in L.A., where bad Chinese is very rare. That's even better.

And 2 Amys. Nothing quite like DiFara's, but an awfully good pizzeria (as is P. Paradiso) in its own way.

DC's cats and dogs are of lower quality, hence worse Chinese food.

DC's cats and dogs are of lower quality, hence worse Chinese food.

I think you meant to leave this comment in yesterday's Steve Sailer thread...

Amazing how much a person eats over the course of a lifetime, or even a year.

Here in Minneapolis, there is a lot of Bad Chinese Food. The best Good Chinese Food place looks like it's nothing of the sort. Shuang Cheng, right near campus, has fabulous food, particularly the fish or anything in the black bean sauce. The atmosphere is close to that of the McDonald's down the street, and the service is, uhm, spotty, in that there is one good waiter, and the rest are terrible.

Damned good food, though.

Second the vote for Two Amy's. It's really some of the better pizza I've had anywhere, certainly in that particularly style of pizza.

I also second the vote for Di Fara's, but even most New Yorkers aren't willing to make that trip.

It's not just that the city is full of "bad Chinese food" (a rather different cuisine from good Chinese food) but it's really bad bad Chinese food.

Perhaps the truest single line ever typed on this site.

There's some good Chinese places (or, at least, good bad Chinese places) out in the suburbs, though. Mandarin Wok at White Flint Plaza, baby!

I don't know about Chinese, but I ate at a Thai place some yearsback (1998?) up in Georgetown that absolutely excellent, both food and service.

"I also second the vote for Di Fara's, but even most New Yorkers aren't willing to make that trip."

DeMarco's on Houston is owned by the family that owns DiFara's. It's supposed to be almost as good, and you don't have to leave civilization to go there. Although, as of this week, there seems to be a severe bullet hazard at DeMarco's.

The DC area pretty actually has pretty great Chinese food, and other than top-notch soup dumplings, almost anything you can get in Manhattan you can get here, at least as well prepared or better. The only catch is that it's all out in the 'burbs. There is one place in the city for authentic Szechuan, though:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/food/restaurant.php?rID=1740

For pizza, 2Amy's is the best, with the Georgetown location of Pizza Paradiso a close second.

Matt: Full Kee is usually very good Cantonese (especially the noodle soups and congee), and New Big Wong often has stuff that's just as good, although it's more hit or miss

Agreed on both. The fried noodles at Chinatown Express are also pretty good. But this is really the very best DC has to offer, and by NYC standards it's distinctly middling. There's some better stuff in the suburbs.

Are we complaining about a lack of good Chinese restaurants or a lack of good places with bulletproof glass that serve bee with broccoli?

"The only catch is that it's all out in the 'burbs."

Similarly, you can get great sushi in Omaha. The only catch is that it's all out on the coasts.

Yeah, well try eating at a taco shop not located in San Diego (or to a lesser extent, the Mission District of San Francisco). Egads!

It's been a dozen years since I lived in DC, just north of "Chinatown". I recall getting decent dim sum, and the markets were pretty good. Has that all disappeared?

I rather like "Tokyo Taipei" (for one thing they know the right name is not Washington Baltimore). It is way the hell out in Bethesda right across from White Flint shopping center. Semi decent Sushi there too (that's the Tokyo part)

Dudes and dudettes, may introduce you all to Mr. Chen's Organic joint, right on the corner of Connecticut. and Calvert st, below the Baskin Robbins. The inside is plain jane, but delivery is cool.

The general tso's shrimp is lightly battered and spicy, not that fried ball of hidden shrimp that's common...but the 'it'sa'is the garlic fried spinach...even after it's cold-up for leftovers it is flavorful and yummy. Cold spinach...good? Oh, yeah. Puts city lights to shame. Oh yeah...hook yourself up with a beef satay, three for 4 bucks, I think. Talk about tangy...man!!

I'm in geneva now for 2 years and I miss it so bad. The chinese food here is what you would expect for a land locked, European country with a fetish for pungent, cheese soup. I take whatever I can get now and appreciate it. Man, I wish I had Beef Roti from Teddy's Roti shop!!!!

peace in the middle...

For good Chinese food you need to head to Columbia, MD. Even the smallest take out place makes great food.

I'm also rather in love with Jenny's at Waterfront.

Yeah, well try eating at a taco shop not located in San Diego (or to a lesser extent, the Mission District of San Francisco). Egads!

There's plenty of good Mexican food all up and down the Central Valley, especially from those cheap little taco trailers that bounce from place to place (no doubt evading the FDA & INS at the same time ...). Woodland is particularly worthwhile for taco stands.

Given the relative size of the cities, it's a little unfair to compare NYC to DC without including the DC suburbs, where there's excellent Chinese food (not necessarily the fancy kind, but authentic regional styles beyond the classic American Chinese restaurant Kung Po/General Tso stuff).

For someone who links to Tyler Cowen regularly, you should really familiarize yourself (if you haven't) with his single greatest contribution to public life:

http://www.tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com/chinese

Also, what the heck is Goldberg talking about by mentioning Philadelphia. I don't know as much about DC proper, but I lived in Philly for nine years as a graduate student, and besides ultra-fancy Susanna Foo, the Chinese food sucked donkey. There was some ok Vietnamese and one good Burmese place, but in my experience Northern Virginia, if not DC, is almost infinitely better than Philly is for most any kind of East or Southeast Asian cuisine.

"Yeah, well try eating at a taco shop not located in San Diego (or to a lesser extent, the Mission District of San Francisco). Egads!"

Kurt M is right -- there are many places to get awesome tacos other than the Mission and San Diego. I've been to great taquerias in LA, the Bay Area, the Central Valley, Santa Barbara, etc. Just don't ever leave the state.

On the westside of L.A.- "Jr's Seafood" On Santa Monica Boulevard is unusually good. The simplest appetizers (fried calamari) is a quantum leap better than okay-decent Chinese Restauran ts.

One dirty secret of immigration/emigration is that good cooks can make decent living in their home countries. One corollary is that they will not put up with sub-minimum wage jobs anywhere.

That said, one has to go to the heart of America to find astouding examples of bad cousine. Once in Colorado I went to a steakhouse where they had "French Onion Soup": your regular beef gravy with raw onions chopped and thrown in, topped with a soggy slice of bread with melted cheese. Provo, Utah, features a Thai restaurant that is quite, quite bad. Pizza I once found in PA somewhere near Route 80, 100 miles from Ohio was so inedible that it had to be some secret receipe.

Out there there are entire restaurant chains devoted to celebration of very bad food. Including Chinese, of course.

I'm surprised that only Goldberg's take on domestic politics "rubs you the wrong way." Did you read his bilious denunciation of Carter's book featured in its entirety prominently at the Amazon website? There was a national campaign to remove it which partially succeeded.

I don't read the New Yorker any more (not because of Goldberg), but I'll never trust anything the guy says after that flame job.

MY - We already discussed this. If you pay the non-Canton tax you get better food. Knock on the back door and say 'kan knee na boo chao chi bye' and you will get a table in the kitchen and the best Chinese food you have ever tasted.

The quality of the average deli in this city is much lower than you find in New York City and the New York suburbs. I say the low quality of delis is to do the ethnic differences between NY and DC.

An important question. The Szechuan place mentioned in a link above notes that the chef will give you authentic Szechuan fare if you ask. "Authentic" being an effective synonym for "unbearably hot".

Long ago, I decided that food is not a rite of passage or endurance contest. There were once reasons -- as in "spoiled to the point of rot" -- for the distractions of capsaicin. Modern storage and refrigeration have mooted that. Anything beyond 5000 Scoville Units is beyond flavor and into discomfort and pain.

Since no one else has yet pointed it out, I'd just like to say that there is very good Chinese food available in the DC suburbs.

Ditto to the folks above who mentioned the great ethnic food in the DC burbs. It's kinda like taking the 7 train to Queens. It's a hike from the city but the food is worth the trip. (By the way, I do agree that with a couple of exceptions the Chinese food within the DC limites is usually crap.)

University Blvd. in Silver Sprimg for Indian. Rockville or Annandale for Chinese. Centerville for Korean. Kenilworth Avenue in PG County for Central American. Altho there are some great spots in the city -- 7th Street for Ethiopian. Chez Antie Libbie on Georgia for Senegalese. .

Have you tried the pizza at AV on NY Ave? It's a great thin crust. Try the white with fontina or the red with black olives and pepperoni.

A Chinese acquaintance once informed me that Chinese tended to settle in certain US cities based on the region of China from which they came; so that different US cities have different Chinese cuisines that track back to the different Chinese regions. This is why, for instance, Bostonians like me tend to think of New York Chinese food as being inferior to that produced in Boston's Chinatown--the regional differences come through even in the generic chop suey type dishes--we're used to our Boston-Chinese cuisine, and it's regionally different from New York Chines cuisine.

The same acquaintance told me the key to recognizing a good Chinese restaurant was dim sum--and that dim sum for lunch was the preferred way, because that's how the Chinese themselves like it.

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