Old China Town Paradox

Where can you get good Chinese food when you are not in the Chinese soil? China town seems to be the common sense for non Chinese people. However, speaking the truth, I rarely had decent Chinese food in any China town, incluing San Francico, New York, Toronto or Yokohama. The foods are OK, but the sitting area is never comfortable. The decor is always the owner's homegrown taste, lighting is commonly dim (so that dinner cannot spot the soiled table cloth because they were not done professionally but in the owner's home laundry machine). Most restuarants are run by the owner, who picks up the phone taking take out orders then runs to the wok to cook. The shop is basically ran by the couple, one cooks and the other handles the accounting and hospitality department.

Waitrons are either temporary (grad students working night shift to save for next semester's expense), or the owner couple's relatives, who you see year after year. There were 2 types of owner's wives (not to be discriminative, but most chefs were male). One type is the hard working one, who never manages to make herself look more presentable. She sits behind the counter, making sure the money is collected. She would also put on the plastic glove cleaning up the table or dishes when shorthanded. The other type always keeps herself pretty, have the nails meticulously done. She would articulates her Chinese style, almond eyes and so on. Smile flirtatiously to every male customer (she also remembers their names). Never dirty her fingers with kitchen work.

The quality of ingredients is not of the best because the restaurants constant struggle of saving cost. I was told, in New York, the final batch of fish market's sales is scarvengered by Chinese restaurants. The old China town restaurants keep feeding the city with cheap and somewhat authentic food. They are fine to survive but cannot pocket more to rejuvenile the food and service.

There is a Chinese saying goes like "You would know how to eat and dress after being rich for 3 generations". Oversea china town tends to be too seedy and overly Chinese to have comtemporary high quality dinning experience. Of course, there are exceptions, those who insists to do their food the original way for decades.

The best hope to get nice food is to trace those Hong Kong immigrants after 80s.