Sorry folks, I’ve been absolutely swamped with work and such. Alas, my blogging has been essentially non-existent. However, I promise to get back on the hobby horse momentarily. While you were sleeping, I’ve been out and about and taken a couple of trips to Hugh Acheson’sEmpire State South. While y’all wait on that … check out Cliff’s notes! Now on to the sad but true.
Wan Lai (4897 Buford Hwy) is apparently the latest BuHiChinese hot spot to go tits up. Infused by EatDrinkMan [If you don’t follow him – you are dead to me] and confirmed by DrZachary thru their own website, this place is gone to the Dead Pool. Take it upon Spark Plug to have the goods as well … her photo is the one above.
Let’s all mourn for a restaurant that most every foodie in the city hit up more than once. I’m sure there’s more to the story, but I’m not privy to any of it. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, might I suggest that ignorance is bliss. If you have a hankering to find out more about that chicken, check out my first impression.
By now, most every food fanatic in Atlanta knows that in order to sample authentic Chinese fare, one must grab their gas card and head north. Hong Kong House, the newest entrant into this combative cluster fuck, is no exception. You see, while the restaurant’s location might be typical, the food there is anything but.
Save for a few notable exceptions, the trail of ATL non-westernized Chinese restaurants starts in Doraville and drifts up into Gwinnett and beyond. The intersection of Buford Highway and I-285 might serve as this community’s centrifuge, but the lineup extends well beyond. Case in point: Johns Creek is home to Hong Kong House (5710 State Bridge Rd, Johns Creek, GA 30097). Located in a converted Rio Bravo at the intersection of Medlock and State Bridge, you’ll find HKH in the same lot as the big Regal Cinema up yonder.
Walking into the cavernous cave [side note: aren’t all caves cavernous??], you can’t help but a get a little shell shocked. While many a folk are used to more homely establishments like Wan Lai and Ming’s, Hong Kong House is different in that it is both large (spacious) and in charge (kinda nice). Such was the setup for one of the better Chinese meals I’ve had since this journey of ours began.
Now that that is out of the way, y’all should check out Eat It Atlanta’s recent trip with the Legend to Tasty China in Smyrna/Marietta. It was one impressive looking meal that was worthy of The Legend’s birthday (as denoted by the video above). Of Particular note, PC himself was back in the kitchen. Alright y’all, gotta go grab some lunch. Back soon to write you up some stuff to look at.
Chinese Soup Dumplings (xiaolongbao and tang bao) courtesy misoponia
In Atlanta, and many other cities across the states, the popularity of Asian cuisine seems to be growing. In years past, it was essentially relegated to take-out status whereby hurried families grabbed their nearest American-influenced Chinese food (see: Mongolian Beef, General Tso’s Chicken, etc…). Nowadays, we just can’t seem to get enough of the stuff. Thanks in part to the education doled out by blogs like Take Thou Food (website), Chow Down Atlanta (web), and Eat, Drink Man (web), foodies from all walks of life can’t seem to get enough of that far off cuisine that drapes Buford Highway.
Though the methods used to both execute and consume Chinese food are as varied as the people themselves, I see many a people anxiously dive into dumpling buckets in a fashion that might not be ideal for the task at hand. This habitual flocking of forks and hands leads me to ask and answer two questions: What are soup dumplings? and How do you eat them?
Peter Chang is easily the most talked about Chinese chef over the past few years to plant a flag in Atlanta. His work is a thing of legend and is the single biggest reason Tasty China caught the attention of so many Chinese food fanatics (myself included). According to Tom Maicon of Atlanta Cuisine, Chang is back with a vengeance.
After departing our fare city for Nashville, and after a short stay in West [Note To Self: Richmond is not in West Virginia] Virginia (from what I hear), Maicon has confirmed that Chang is back in the Dirty South. In the short term, PC is setting up shop at TC. However, Tasty China owner Dahe Yang plans to open a new restaurant with Chang somewhere in Sandy Springs.
It’s amazing how often one can drive by a restaurant and never even think to enter. It’s even more astounding when one breaks from tradition (Peking Duck), samples the grub, and finds that the restaurant is a real gem. Such is the case for Wong Kee BBQ & Peking Duck, a stealth bomber Chinese restaurant in Norcross, GA. Even if the meal wasn’t flat out perfect, there isn’t a single reason to think that our abbreviated lunch experience at Wong Kee won’t go down as one of the more scrumptious samplings of this calendar year.
Tucked in the corner of Ben Thanh Plaza (know to us Gaijin as Oakbrook Square Shopping Center), foot traffic for this strip mall usually goes the way of Hong Kong Supermarket. To (Peking duck) complicate matters, Wong Kee’s immediate neighbor is the widely overrated Bento Café (which I’ll recap in the next few days if not hours). As a consequence of those two hot topics, this “little Chinese restaurant that could” seems to get a little lost in the mix. After a single glance, that appears to be a real shame.
Having just spent a good 30-minutes stuffing my face full of Celia’s, Spark Plug and I left Brother Chris behind and went to top off over at Bento Café (Peking Duck). On our way through the Ben Thanh parking lot, two words of mystical harmony caught my eye: “Peking Duck.” One look in the window and we were hooked. Adventures were in order and Wong Kee gladly obliged.
The love affair with Frank Ma South has come and gone in this city. Late in 2008 when Frank Ma moved in with the gang at Chopsticks in the Emory area, all hell broke loose. Most everyone got all giddy at the idea of a seemingly authentic Chinese restaurant located somewhere other than BuHi. I was never all up in that … shocking I know. At the time, I recapped my thoughts on “THAT SITE” during my pre-blog days.
Suddenly, like a fart in the wind, Frank up and vanished. In his wake, chef’s have come and gone and the crowds have thinned. However, the menu remains basically the same. I’ve been diving in and out of there intermittently since Frank’s departure with the latest visit being yesterday for the Chinese New Year. While the restaurant still satisfies my urging for non-nationalized Chinese grub, it’s still unable to compete with our cities top dogs.
Buford Highway restaurants carry with them a certain pedigree that is often unsubstantiated. The straight shot road that stretches from the inners of the city to well beyond the loop is home to a number of ethnic delights. However, self-proclaimed foodies seem to treat any establishment located on or near BuHi with unabashed reverence. Call it guilt by association.
Public enemy number one, none other than the ever popular Café 101. The large, free-standing rotunda that sits about a half-mile inside the loop, has been there for years. It seems like a good two or three since I myself last sat down to sample C101’s goods. So though this isn’t quite a first impression, this isn’t a full review nor a quick hits post.
So the Keng Gang, aka Chinese Southern Belle … DOT COM [think Expedia] has graduated from Eggrolls & Sweet Tea and moved onto viral videos. So check out the video, and hit up their calendar to see where the mother/daughter team is heading next.
There is a certain dance that occurs every few months in Atlanta’s Chinese restaurant community. The formula is simple: Well regarded chef shows up; foodies flock to said location; chef up and leaves soon thereafter; foodies follow. Rinse and repeat. It’s happened with Frank Ma, it’s happened with Chef Chang (of Tasty China), and it’s happened with countless others. The latest rendition finds us at Bo Bo Garden up in the Doraville/Chamblee area.
The chef, whose name is still a mystery to me, showed up a few months ago at Wan Lai, a Cantonese job up BuHi. Word spread like hot sauce at a cook out and foodies flocked (myself included). Most loved it, some enjoyed it (that’s me), and a only a few turned their nose up. Then, like a fart in the wind, the head chef, his wife, and a handful of others vanished. Turns out, that group shot up the street and settled in Pinetree Plaza.
Wan Lai (4897 Buford Hwy) is apparently the latest BuHi Chinese hot spot to go tits up. Infused by EatDrinkMan [If you don’t follow him – you are dead to me] and confirmed by DrZachary thru their own website, this place is gone to the Dead Pool. Take it upon Spark Plug to have the goods as well … her photo is the one above. 
