‘Kung Pao Chicken’
There is a saying attributed to Jonathan Gold that goes something like “‘A’ is for ‘American’ Chinese food, ‘B’ is for ‘Better’ Chinese food and ‘C’ is for ‘Chinese’ Chinese food.” The letters, of course, are in reference to the health code and if you’ve ever been to China, you would know this to be true. Thus, when I heard great things about the dumplings at Emperor Noodles in San Gabriel and then found out it had a “B” rating, I got pretty excited to try it out.
While no one has yet scoffed at the idea of my eating Indian, Italian and American food in Tanzania, I have received quite a different reaction about eating Chinese. Yet, Chinese I ate. Once again it was night time and The Flame Tree restaurant was close enough to my hotel to be considered a safe distance. The place is run by a Chinese woman and deals in continental (European) food as well as the aforementioned Chinese. But I was truly interested in seeing what Chinese food in Tanzania would be like.
In a nondescript little stretch of Lankershim in North Hollywood, there is a restaurant called Dragon Street. It’s Chinese, no wait, it’s sushi…no wait…I’m not really sure what they are, but I do know they serve Chinese food and sushi. But screw sushi, I have no need for that, so when I went to Dragon Street, I was all about the Chinese food. Like any good Asian restaurant, Dragon Street had itself a nifty little lunch special. As usual, I looked right at the Kung Pao Chicken.
Although the Grilled Cheese Truck is the newest member of LA’s fleet of food trucks, Don Chow has already been roaming the streets in search of hungry night life for months.
The truck isn’t nearly as shiny as Kogi or Nom Nom, but I’ve never felt the need to be served from a shiny establishment. In fact, when I did catch up with the Don Chow truck in Venice, the cheap sign had fallen off and it looked like any other generic taco truck. Good thing my girlfriend noticed a small sign on the front of the truck ensuring us it was Don Chow.