I was just in an amazing Japanese place in Chicago for a 16 course omakase birthday meal a few months late.
Takeya Omakase is in the basement of Ramen Takeya in Fulton Market.
The main chef was Japanese, and he had an assistant chef, who spoke no Japanese, who was a young latino. The food from both was flawless.
Since my degree is in Japanese language and I lived in Japan for about 3 years I love Japanese food but I am extremely particular about where I get it. I often see places saying they do Japanese Chinese and Thai together and I avoid such places. I get tired of seeing Chinese running a Japanese restaurant the same way I get tired of anyone who isn’t Japanese running a Japanese restaurant.
It’s not that you have to be Japanese to make good Japanese food- Takeya is proof. So is my favorite ramen place in the US, coincidentally in Pittsburgh. Ki Ramen in Lawrenceville is absolutely phenomenal, and run by a Chinese guy, staffed by mostly minority cooks. The ramen is as good as any I had in Japan among the good.
I don’t think it’s wrong to call this out when it’s bad but it’s not always the case. But it’s usually very obvious when it’s not good and it’s like this. Some Chu toro from Takeya in Chicago. I highly recommend it
My wife’s of Taiwanese descent, and her Yelp rule for Asian restaurants: ignore the white people posts/ratings, see what the Asian customers said. If no Asian reviews, or they aren’t rating the place highly, then NOTHANKYOUVERYMUCH. Seems to work well.
I’m asian and this used to be the general rule but I don’t think this is true anymore. Nowadays with social media and yelp, all our favorite dining spots have been uncovered. Curses!
Americanized Chinese food can be wonderful and is a 100% valid dinner choice; if you want crab rangoon, General Tso, and those cherry-red boneless spareribs, there’s nothing ‘authentic’ about it, but it’s no less fun & tasty. It’s just a separate kind of cuisine from authentic (preferably regional) Chinese food.
If you should find yourself in LA, you might want to check out Daichan on Ventura Blvd in Studio City.
They’ve added some sushi/teriyaki standards to accommodate the tourist traffic (they’re just down the block from Universal Studios), but their prime focus is “Japanese homestyle comfort food.”
While I don’t get to go that way often since it’s a bit of a haul for me, Mitsuwa Marketplace (Arlington Heights, IL) has a wonderful food court where you can get excellent Japanese food. One of the counters there has a zaru soba that I particularly enjoy.
A good deal further south in Westmont, just off Rt. 83, there’s the International Mall, which has a Chinese food court with a very extensive selection of non-Americanized dishes. That one is a go-to when I make my way up to Micro Center, assuming I don’t go instead to the nearby Taco Grill, where the al pastor tacos are done RIGHT, with the meat stacked on a vertical broiler with a huge chunk of pineapple at the top dripping juice down the stack. They have a salsa bar with everything from mild to XXX hot.
Her recommendations on all of these are spot-on – definitely look for things like a fish tank, a restaurant name with a number in it, etc. But I’ve eaten at plenty of authentic Chinese places and haven’t been to one that just offers “water, Hennessy, and imitation apple cider” as drinks. I know she’s a comedian but is this an inside joke or reference I’m not aware of?
Japanese and Korean cuisine are intertwined. Korea was basically run as a protectorate/colony of Japan from the mid 19th-century to the end of WWII. Many Koreans adopted Japanese names and even the Japanese language. Many Japanese foods became part of the diet of Koreans, just as you can find Russian dishes in ex-Soviet states.
I was wondering that too. Partner is Chinese and a lot of Chinese Chinese places, the kind where the menu is written on a board in Chinese and the person taking the orders defaults to Chinese when he walks up (he speaks Mandarin so it’s ok with him unless they speak Cantonese, which actually just hasn’t happened,) usually just have no alcoholic beverages at all. So maybe that’s what she’s getting at? Not sure…
I wouldn’t say this is a warning sign that the food is bad, just that it’s most likely not going to be authentic. (And I have also used this litmus test for any kind of ethnic food dining.)
Mitsuwa is where my Japanese class in college would take field trips. My japanese rommate after college much preferred Tensuke market nearby. (Note: you cannot buy manga at Tensuke but the food is a bit cheaper)
I would add to this by saying that most ‘any kind of Asian!’ places are nearly always mediocre at everything. “Chinese Food, Sushi, and Pho” is a sign that none of them are probably worth eating.
Oh, no doubt. The appetite of Americans for ersatz versions of great cuisines should never be underestimated. Just look at the success of Taco Bell, Olive Garden, and Panda Express, among others.
It’s all Cantonese here. To the point where we once got horrible (dangerous, because of allergies) service from a restaurant we’d been going to regularly for years since it had opened, when they heard our larger-than-usual group speaking Mandarin to each other.
But besides crappy fast food and “fast casual” versions, Americans have actually created fusion cuisines that are worthwhile. Tex-Mex isn’t “inferior” to actual Mexican food, just different. Likewise the various American forms of pizza are worthwhile even if they aren’t all that much like pizza in Italy. I think the better forms of American Chinese food are worthwhile as well. “Authenticity” isn’t everything.
