Food & Cooking
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L.A.’s main Chinese drag awaits California COVID reopening

Bertie A. Kinser

As California prepared to fully reopen, business at YungHo, a Taiwanese breakfast cafe on Valley Boulevard in San Gabriel, was almost back to normal.

Customers streamed in to pick up fried turnip cakes, rice porridge and youtiao, a churro-like fried dough, to go. A science teacher placed a large order of black sesame mochi and warm soy milk to celebrate her last Zoom class.

But the phone constantly rang with people asking questions that hinted at the upheaval of the last year: “Are you open for indoor dining?” “What items are still on the menu?”

Manager Andrew Zhang gives change to a customer at YungHo cafe.

Manager Andrew Zhang gives change to a customer at YungHo, a Taiwanese breakfast spot on Valley Boulevard in San Gabriel.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Valley Boulevard was a “complete ghost town,” the cafe’s manager, Andrew Zhang, recalled.

As vaccinations picked up and case counts

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Food & Cooking
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Try this Chinese restaurant for luscious noodles

Bertie A. Kinser

There is a Chinese restaurant in Mesa that has a really good hamburger. Don’t believe me?

I’m not messing with you — the Shaanxi pork hamburger is really one of the best things on the menu at Taste of Qin, along with the savory Chinese crepes and the beef burrito. It may sound like fusion food, but these items are 100% Chinese, and are hallmarks of the cuisine of the northwestern province of Shaanxi. 

These street foods are usually side dishes, because the main course is a big bowl of garlicky noodles with a fierce blend of chili and vinegar spice. 

While it still hasn’t hit the mainstream, Shaanxi cuisine is gaining prominence in the U.S. because of its culinary rock star, biang biang noodles. These thick belt-like beauties have been popularized by New York restaurant Xi’an Famous Foods and Valley spots like Shaanxi Garden in Mesa. 

Now there’s

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Food & Cooking
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Chi Chinese Latin fusion restaurant and bar opens in Miami

Bertie A. Kinser

In addition to its main dining room, Ch’i at Brickell City Centre will have an outdoor garden, a lounge and a market for to-go ordering.

In addition to its main dining room, Ch’i at Brickell City Centre will have an outdoor garden, a lounge and a market for to-go ordering.


MICHAEL PISARRI

Brickell’s latest destination wants to be your everything — and you can get a sneak peek this week.

Ch’i, a dining-and-nightlife venue from the locally-based Grove Bay Hospitality Group and Breakwater Hospitality Group, opens later this month with four concepts: an outdoor garden, an Asian-themed marketplace, a cocktail lounge and — most importantly, say its creators — a dining room with a menu highlighting Chinese-Latin cuisine.

“We’re a restaurant first,” says Emi Guerra, co-owner of Breakwater, the group behind The Wharf and Rivertail. “We’re a restaurant that happens to throw a good party.”

The 12,000-square-foot indoor/outdoor space, set in the former home of American Harvest on the third floor of Brickell City Centre, includes three full-service bars and two DJ booths.

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Food & Cooking
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Chifa Du Kang restaurant has Peruvian Chinese food in Miami Florida

Bertie A. Kinser

title=

Chef/owners of Chinese/Peruvian restaurant Chifa Du Kang, Jingquan Du and his wife Juana Du, stand behind a smorgasbord of dishes from their menu, at their restaurant, in Miami, Florida, on Monday, May 17, 2021.


Daniel A. Varela

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Chifa Du Kang, located on Bird Road in Westchester, bets on authentic Chinese dishes but includes the flavors and ingredients of Peruvian cuisine on the menu.

Owner Jingquan Du explains that “chifa” means “to eat” in Cantonese, and that is what they call Chinese restaurants in Peru, where he emigrated when China was still isolated from the global economy. Du began learning Spanish at night school in China in the late 1980s, then moved to Peru with the support of a great-uncle, who already was living in Lima. Upon arriving in Peru, he spent another year learning the language while helping out at his uncle’s restaurant.

Shortly after, Du opened his own

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