It's Always Sunny in LA: #20: Chinatown

The other day while driving to my closest Home Depot, I drove through Little Ethiopia, Koreatown, and Little Armenia. And that's just around Hollywood. This city has dozens of cultural neighborhoods, like Little Tokyo, Leimert Park (African), Historic Filipinotown, Fairfax (Jewish), Olvera Street (Mexican), Thai Town, Little Moscow, Little Saigon, and of course, Chinatown.

Only a few of these made my final list, but Chinatown was the first one I wanted to visit. Not to mention the fact that my boyfriend is Chinese and has been dying to show me some "authentic" Chinese food. After San Francisco's Chinatown failed us with "Americanized" food, we set our eyes on LA's main Chinese neighborhood. Ronny picked out three restaurants, one for dim sum, one for noodles, and one for seafood.

We drove through the Dragon Arch, found parking, and began our tour. I wanted to go to dim sum first... because to me it is the tamest and has the most options. I wouldn't call myself a "picky" eater per se... but when it comes to unusual things I've never seen or heard or tasted before (and when I can't even read the menu to find out what's actually in it!), I have some hesitation. We met my friend Marsha at the dim sum place, which... Well, I think it's best described by Ronny's Yelp Review:

The place is very dirty, tables cleared off with a quick swipe of a wet rag. There was a dude just sitting in there tweaking out and asking people for money. Nothing looks too sanitary.

But... unusual cleanliness standards and strange patrons aside, the dim sum was DELICIOUS and according to my Chinese boyfriend, incredibly authentic! Ronny, Marsha and I ate till we were full, for less than $15 total. We got steamed BBQ pork buns, pork shu mai, shrimp har goa, and this weird sweet crumbly pastry that was neon yellow. It was all delicious and filling. Oh, and Ronny gave it 4 stars on Yelp, and that's saying something.

After dim sum we walked around some of the obviously touristy gift shops. I wanted to get a little souvenir, and went through several shops deciding between a small Buddha statue, a paper lamp, a money tree, along with lots of other super random Asian things, before settling on a small red good luck charm keychain thingy. There were actually some pretty interesting, inexpensive things around, but I didn't want to push it.

The "strip" of Chinatown, since it's really just one street with all the shops and restaurants, seemed to be centered around Mandarin Plaza, which is a mall of sorts, filled with Asian-interest shops and vendors. Though it all seemed a bit touristy to me, there was one thing that made it feel more Chinese. A woman was playing some sort of flute instrument on the steps of the Mandarin Plaza. I don't know what the instrument was called, but I'm pretty sure it has been featured on every single Asian movie soundtrack released in Western culture. It just sounded very stereotypically Chinese. I also thought the lady looked like Wing (from South Park, and an actual Chinese celebrity) but Ronny said that was racist.

It is worth noting, also, that I saw something I've never ever seen before. You know how MOST restaurants have a big blue A posted in their windows, showcasing their Health Inspection rating? Well for the first time in my life, I actually saw a C in a window. In normal LA, a "C" would put a company out of business in a minute. But in Chinatown this stuff doesn't matter as much, because the food is so good!

One of these lovely "C" restaurants was our Noodle House. The three of us ordered 2 bowls of noodles and soup. One was egg noodles and one was rice noodles, and both had meat and seafood. By that time in the afternoon, it had gotten a bit cold and overcast outside and the noodle soup was very satisfying. Only downside is we had to order cans of Coke because the water glasses were very dirty.

After that we were so full, we didn't even go to the seafood restaurant. And honestly, noodles is one thing, but I REALLY don't want to order fish from a place that probably has rats in its kitchen. Marsha left, and Ronny and I walked the length of the street, then turned around to go back to our car.

My takeaway from Chinatown: if you want to find authentic and incredibly cheap Chinese food, this is the place to go. But if you are expecting banners and buildings that make you feel like you are in China (or even in a touristy Chinatown!) you will be let down. It was really only one street (Broadway) and I really didn't get a taste for Chinese culture. Honestly, having a meal with my boyfriend's mom teaches me more about Chinese culture. It certainly wasn't as quaint as the Chinatown in SF, and it's not NEARLY as big as expected (in my perception, it's a fraction the size of Koreatown). But I had a lovely afternoon trying new food, and was definitely a great experience! I look forward to checking out other ethnic neighborhoods in the future!