Restaurant recommendation: Chengdu Taste in Alhambra. I haven’t had Chinese food this good since I was last in China, a decade ago. If you’re in greater LA, strong recommend checking it out. I was particularly delighted to once again have what their menu called “Garlic Arden Lettuce 蒜蓉A菜.” So green and bitter and garlicky-sweet and crunchy, the winning lottery ticket of leafy vegetables.
For a vegetarian like me, it doesn’t get better than good Chinese food. This meal reminded me of a James Beard quote: “In all the world there are only two really great cuisines: the Chinese and the French. China’s was created first, untold centuries ago, and is judged to be the greater-when executed by superb chefs. It is the most complicated cuisine; it uses ingredients no other employs; and it is distinctive in that, for the most part, it is cuisine à la minute.” (I don’t know the source; it’s the epigraph of Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.)
