The Finest Chinese Restaurant in the World
The Readers Speak
In our first issue, we excerpted a section from John Krich's forthcoming book "The Long Munch," the gruelling saga of his around-the-world search for the best Chinese restaurant. Below, readers nominate their choices for the coveted crown.
Pacifique-- just up the hill from the Belleville Metro station in Paris. Try the squid salad to start and then the abalone and sea cucumber cassoulet.
Duner Tor
The King Tsin on Solano Ave in Berkeley, California. I ate my first chili pepper there (by mistake) 30 years ago. ( More exciting than losing my virginity, you bet.) Try the "Pan Touched Chicken". Unique.
Walt Hutchinson
The best Chinese restaurants in the world, in my humble opinion, are in the Monterey Park and Alhambra sections of Los Angeles. For dim sum: Harbor Village and Ocean Star. For noodles, Chiu Chow restaurants like Kim Chuy and Kim Tar. For seafood, Live Fish Restaurant. I could go on and on. There are few to zero "round-eyes" in these places (and no pretensions). Check it out.
Elliot Feldman
I appreciate the mention of Tse Yang and was interested to learn it is a chain. The Tse Yang in New York certainly provides very good Chinese food. But my vote in that city is for Chin Chin. Both reside on the Upper East Side. But while Tse Yang is stodgy and dark, featuring a high-end version of the traditional tacky glittery-wall-paper-and-aquariums faux-swankery of the traditional Chinese corner place, Chin Chin is much more interestingly designed (and with an ambience to match). And the food is more varied, although they, too have some traditional dishes, including a fantastically delicate steamed salmon and a filet mignon with black bean sauce that brings tears to my eyes in hungry memory. Yum.
Josh Harlan
One of my favorites is the Zhen BeiPing in downtown Taipei. They are well known for their ducks and other dishes.
David Steelman
English Department
Soochow University
The best Chinese restaurant in the world is Ton Kiang, a Hakka restaurant at the corner of Geary and Spruce Streets in San Francisco. Any night of the week, it's crammed with Cantonese families celebrating the happy turning-points of their lives over steaming plates of salt-baked chicken (to be dipped into bright green sauce of chilies and pickled garlic); Pacific oysters on the half-shell, steamed with a spoonful of black-bean infused rice wine and scallions; creamy-textured unbitter Japanese eggplants split diagonally and stuffed with minced shrimp; sweet entire flounder, fried until the very bones are crisp, strewn with sprigs of cilantro and threads of ginger; mounds of spinach so fresh and verdant it looks Photoshopped, barely wilted in a red-hot wok, and aromatic with morsels of toasted garlic; and sizzling clay pots brimful of toothsome chunks of beef brisket and onions, perfumed with star anise. Soul food from the other side of the world.
Steve Silberman
Editor at Large, HotWired
