Cecilia Chiang, SF chef who brought authentic Chinese food to US, dies at 100
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Re: Cecilia Chiang, SF chef who brought authentic Chinese food to US, dies at 100
#2Somewhat less authentically, the "Chang" of PF Chang is her son Philip Chiang, who had to change even his own name to better suit American palates. Mongolian Beef, California rolls and a Great Wall of Chocolate, anyone?
Re: Cecilia Chiang, SF chef who brought authentic Chinese food to US, dies at 100
#3Maybe "The Mandarin" was authentic, I don't think I went there, but having lived in SF for 11 years I never found any authentic asian food in SF. I found some in Fremont. There's plenty in San Gabriel, Alhambra, and other places on the north east side of LA but SF, nothing. No authentic Japanese, no authentic Chinese, no authentic Vietnamese, no authentic Korean, no authentic Taiwanese, no authentic Malay/Singapore/Indonesian.
Re: Cecilia Chiang, SF chef who brought authentic Chinese food to US, dies at 100
#4To people who enjoys food: you never know what you've missed if you never been to Sichuan or Chongqing.
Re: Cecilia Chiang, SF chef who brought authentic Chinese food to US, dies at 100
#5Maybe "The Mandarin" was authentic, I don't think I went there, but having lived in SF for 11 years I never found any authentic asian food in SF. I found some in Fremont. There's plenty in San Gabriel, Alhambra, and other places on the north east side of LA but SF, nothing. No authentic Japanese, no authentic Chinese, no authentic Vietnamese, no authentic Korean, no authentic Taiwanese, no authentic Malay/Singapore/I…
SF is big on sauces and spices and has a wide variety of cuisine in general and it might have become a very localized taste to stay competitive on the flavor explosion people look for and compare experiences with.
I’ve had a variety of cuisine from chefs that had the same restaurant in their home country, I also went to their home country and tried the same dish at the same restaurant and found it comparatively bland. Off the top of my head I can only think of a ramen spot in Japan.
Re: Cecilia Chiang, SF chef who brought authentic Chinese food to US, dies at 100
#6Somewhat less authentically, the "Chang" of PF Chang is her son Philip Chiang, who had to change even his own name to better suit American palates. Mongolian Beef, California rolls and a Great Wall of Chocolate, anyone? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._F._Chang%27s_China_Bistro
nothing wrong with that, seems to have done very well for himself.
Re: Cecilia Chiang, SF chef who brought authentic Chinese food to US, dies at 100
#7Maybe "The Mandarin" was authentic, I don't think I went there, but having lived in SF for 11 years I never found any authentic asian food in SF. I found some in Fremont. There's plenty in San Gabriel, Alhambra, and other places on the north east side of LA but SF, nothing. No authentic Japanese, no authentic Chinese, no authentic Vietnamese, no authentic Korean, no authentic Taiwanese, no authentic Malay/Singapore/I…
SF is big on sauces and spices and has a wide variety of cuisine in general and it might have become a very localized taste to stay competitive on the flavor explosion people look for and compare experiences with. I’ve had a variety of cuisine from chefs that had the same restaurant in their home country, I also went to their home country and tried the same dish at the same restaurant and found it comparatively bland…
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Re: Cecilia Chiang, SF chef who brought authentic Chinese food to US, dies at 100
#8Maybe "The Mandarin" was authentic, I don't think I went there, but having lived in SF for 11 years I never found any authentic asian food in SF. I found some in Fremont. There's plenty in San Gabriel, Alhambra, and other places on the north east side of LA but SF, nothing. No authentic Japanese, no authentic Chinese, no authentic Vietnamese, no authentic Korean, no authentic Taiwanese, no authentic Malay/Singapore/I…
What? This statement is so hyperbolic.
- Pho in general in the US is pretty close to Pho in Ho Chi Minh. i.e. Turtle Tower doing Chicken Pho is pretty good and close.
- Dim sum is dim sum. The places in Chinatown serve a Ha Gau or Siu Mai and largely the same in Hong Kong... how is it not authentic?
- Japanese... Nigiri, sashimi is.... authentic? To say there's zero authentic Japanese seems too. Seriously, sashimi how is it not authentic? It's "just" a piece of cut fish.
If you're speaking about quality then 100% I agree. The quality/etc... is not nearly as amazing as the origin locations, but the flavors aren't drastically different.
Come to Singapore where all foods have sugar added which considerably changes the flavor profile.
To claim zero authentic in SF...
[EDIT] To qualify my side - authenticity should be a very low bar, which should be ingredients, quantity and process should match to generally create a similar flavor profile.
It shouldn't matter who, where, what the place looks like.
Re: Cecilia Chiang, SF chef who brought authentic Chinese food to US, dies at 100
#9Maybe "The Mandarin" was authentic, I don't think I went there, but having lived in SF for 11 years I never found any authentic asian food in SF. I found some in Fremont. There's plenty in San Gabriel, Alhambra, and other places on the north east side of LA but SF, nothing. No authentic Japanese, no authentic Chinese, no authentic Vietnamese, no authentic Korean, no authentic Taiwanese, no authentic Malay/Singapore/I…
Yeah I also find this hard to believe. The easiest way to find authentic Chinese food and Asian food in the Bay Area is to look around a 99 Ranch market. There's one in Fremont, which I imagine is where you went, but there's also one in Daly City, and one in Milpitas.
There are TONS of authentic Asian restaurants around each of those locations. Like more than you can believe. Unless you think that all the grandmas eating there are on a Saturday night or Sunday morning are all confused about what they're eating.
(You can't make a good Asian restaurant with ingredients from Costco or Safeway, so you have to follow the supplier ...)
What I will say is that if you are a "tech person" who lives in SF, it's pretty hard to find an authentic Asian restaurant. If you live in SOMA or the Mission, there is almost exclusively the over-sauced Americanized stuff that people here are mentioning.
You have to "try" -- the "default" is to eat bad Asian food. It's hard to get over to Geary St. on a weekday. There's stuff in Chinatown that is good, but honestly I've found it hard to sort through.
Another easy way is to tell is to see if there's a whole fish on the menu... Americanized places won't have that.
One surprising/nice thing about the rise of the delivery apps is that it's made some of the food from the western part of the city more accessible. It opens up some different flavors/cooking.
Re: Cecilia Chiang, SF chef who brought authentic Chinese food to US, dies at 100
#10Somewhat less authentically, the "Chang" of PF Chang is her son Philip Chiang, who had to change even his own name to better suit American palates. Mongolian Beef, California rolls and a Great Wall of Chocolate, anyone? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._F._Chang%27s_China_Bistro
nothing wrong with that, seems to have done very well for himself.
His daughter, Siena, cited in the article is product manager of PillPack, the online pharmacy that sold to Amazon in 2018.