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New Chinese restaurant


Shira

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By the way, having lots of experience cooking Chinese food, I can add that there is a distinction between fried rice and chicken fried rice (or shrimp, or beef, etc.). Fried rice is always just a base, and it is plained cooked white rice stir-fried in oil and enhanced with Dark/Mushroom soy (which is super-salty and gives it that distinct brownish colour), and a chopped up beaten egg. After it's stir-fried is when the special ingredients are added, although green peas usually make their way into the dish, along with onions. The chicken or shrimp is added after, so that the dark soy doesn't colour the meat.

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There's probably a substantial difference in the learning curve between a fast food counter and a sit-down Chinese restaurant, in that the fast food purveyor probably isn't going to improve over what they started out with, whereas the restaurant owner gets feedback from the customers and strives to make them happier. Just guessing here.

For pretty good faux Chinese, try the Sunday Chinese feed at Roberto's for 85 pesos, including soup. You even get chopsticks and a fortune cookie. It's more or less Cantonese or Hunan style.

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Helper Guy I was told there was a man cooking and the name was different. I have not been there so can't speak to it.

I was also told that the first one was closing when their lease was up. That would have been a while ago.

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Guest RevImmigrant

First of all, fried rice is a Mexican thing. I've been in Chinese restaurants all over: various places in the US; in Germany east and west; Chinatown in Singapore and Bangkok; most recently Chengdu and Beijing;and even such unlikely places as Istanbul (that one was really good) and Bergen (not great, but much better than here). When rice was served with the meal, it was white rice. In China everything is ala carte so if you want rice or noodles, you have to order it extra.

Thank you for posting your experience and warning us about their food.

I'm at a loss to understand why we can't have one decent Chinese restaurant here. If they had some American/European dishes along with the Chinese dishes, that would give something to offer everyone, so that one could have American/European and the other could have their Chinese. This is how my mother and I used to get my father to go with us to the local Tex-Mex restaurant. He wouldn't eat Tex-Mex, but liked their oysters and fried chicken, so he didn't mind going.

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First of all, fried rice is a Mexican thing. I've been in Chinese restaurants all over: various places in the US; in Germany east and west; Chinatown in Singapore and Bangkok; most recently Chengdu and Beijing;and even such unlikely places as Istanbul (that one was really good) and Bergen (not great, but much better than here). When rice was served with the meal, it was white rice. In China everything is ala carte so if you want rice or noodles, you have to order it extra.

This seems to be my day for doffing my hat to those I respect on this board, only to diss them in the end. Fried rice may be popular here, but it definitely is an Asian dish. All over the Weeb, you'll find references like this: "While the exact origins of fried rice are lost to history, it’s believed that it was invented sometime during the Sui dynasty (589 – 618 AD), in the city of Yangzhou in eastern Jiangsu province. Yangchow (Yangzhou) Fried Rice is still the standard by which all other Chinese fried rice dishes are judged: morsels of fluffy rice tossed with roast pork, prawns, scallions and peas. In American-Chinese restaurants you’ll sometimes find it called "special fried rice."

But of course fried rice is not a staple: it has become a specialty; it appears to have started like stews and soups did: something to make out of leftovers. And peasant-based.

Helper Guy I was told there was a man cooking and the name was different. I have not been there so can't speak to it.

I was also told that the first one was closing when their lease was up. That would have been a while ago.

The times I've been there, they've usually had one or two guys doing the cooking. And yes, I think we all heard that both this place and the Fajita place would close when their leases were up... must be long leases.

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The best Chinese food I've eaten lakeside is in Jocotopec, The Red Dragon. Might I say that when a restaurant first opens they sometimes need to work out the kinks, line up the proper suppliers and learn what it is their clients expect and desire. Give them a month and I'd try them again. I'ts my opinion having been on both sides of the kitchen. Salud!

Red Dragon? Where is this? We eat at the China Inn in Joco, I didn't know there was another one.

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Guest RevImmigrant

Mike, I didn't mean to imply that fried rice isn't Chinese, but that serving it with entrees like they do here is a Mexican thing since Chinese restaurants elsewhere usually serve white rice with entrees (unless everything is ala carte like in China). I personally prefer fried noodles to fried rice anyway and frequently make that at home. When I use rice, I just have white rice; I've never made Chinese fried rice.

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Mike, I didn't mean to imply that fried rice isn't Chinese, but that serving it with entrees like they do here is a Mexican thing since Chinese restaurants elsewhere usually serve white rice with entrees (unless everything is ala carte like in China). I personally prefer fried noodles to fried rice anyway and frequently make that at home. When I use rice, I just have white rice; I've never made Chinese fried rice.

Ah, so.

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I tried the Chinese restaurant in the mall today. I asked the girl if it had changed and she said no-the same as before. The food seemed the same as before-tasty.

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We are here for just a couple months and Asian food is one of our favs, is this place still open and where exactly in Jocotopec is it? ....and would anyone know of any others between Lake Chapala dn Jocotopec open and worthy of a visit?

"The best Chinese food I've eaten lakeside is in Jocotopec, The Red Dragon. Might I say that when a restaurant first opens they sometimes need to work out the kinks, line up the proper suppliers and learn what it is their clients expect and desire. Give them a month and I'd try them again. I'ts my opinion having been on both sides of the kitchen. Salud!"

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Countries that have a strong food culture like Mexico, i.e. their own national and regional cuisines, are in my opinion less open to the cuisines of other countries. Countries with a weak food culture (Canada, England come to mind) are much more open and tend not to insist on fusion, but authenticity.

I've spoken to three Chinese and Korean restaurant owners in Guadalajara and their answer is always the same: Mexicans pressure for the tastes they are familiar with. Otherwise they won't eat it. So the owners cave in and serve it. Cream cheese in sushi, but not wasabi, is another example - so many Japanese sushi places and none have true sushi chefs. A lot of the cooks in so-called Chinese restaurants are Mexican who may have worked in an Asian restaurant in the US - they're two steps removed from the real tastes - they didn't grow up with them - and unless they have an Asian person continually revising, they slip. We won't have good Chinese food in Mexico until more Chinese arrive and Mexicans open up to the real flavours of other cuisines. But I don't think a fast food joint at Laguna Mall really qualifies as a restaurant anyway.

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[" Countries that have a strong food culture like Mexico, i.e. their own national and regional cuisines, are in my opinion less open to the cuisines of other countries. Countries with a weak food culture (Canada, England come to mind) are much more open and tend not to insist on fusion, but authenticity.

I've spoken to three Chinese and Korean restaurant owners in Guadalajara and their answer is always the same: Mexicans pressure for the tastes they are familiar with. Otherwise they won't eat it. So the owners cave in and serve it. Cream cheese in sushi, but not wasabi, is another example - so many Japanese sushi places and none have true sushi chefs. A lot of the cooks in so-called Chinese restaurants are Mexican who may have worked in an Asian restaurant in the US - they're two steps removed from the real tastes - they didn't grow up with them - and unless they have an Asian person continually revising, they slip. We won't have good Chinese food in Mexico until more Chinese arrive and Mexicans open up to the real flavours of other cuisines. But I don't think a fast food joint at Laguna Mall really qualifies as a restaurant anyway."

Well said. Canamex. Your remark about sushi places in Guadalajara, where so-called "sushi" places proliferate reminded me of a news item in the Guadalajara press a few years ago. The Japanese government decided to appoint a committee of sushi experts to rate the authenticity of Japanese restaurants located all over the world with a special emphasis on sushi. They came to Mexico during the course of their research and traveled all about the country including Mexico City and found not even one restaurant in all of Mexico that could be certified as serving authentic Japanese cuisine - much less authentic sushi. The owner of one of Guadalajara´s most popular restaurants specializing in sushi lamented that if he served sushi even approaching the minimal standards demanded bt the Japanese experts, his customers would leave him in droves and he would shortly be out of business. Plus, he could never afford to make his sushi with raw fish of the quality demanded by the Japanese as it would be far too expensive for him to serve even if he could find it in Mexico in the first place.

When we moved to Chiapas in 2006, we were looking forward to our first trip to Huixtla, Chiapas near Tapachula in the tierra caliente near the Pacific Coast because it is locally famous for its large Chinese population which migrated to the region in connection with the construction of the railroads there in the 19th Century. The town was supposedly choc-a-bloc with Chinese restaurants so, when we finally made it to Huixtla in about 2008, we looked forward to trying the Chinese food there even though we were somewhat skeptical as we remembered the terrible "Cantonese" food in California that was traditional therein the 1960s and meant to please the palates of unadventurous Americans and, to a lesser extent, the Cantonese peasants who migrated to California to build the railroads there. Well ,needless to say, the Chinese restaurants in Huixtla and in neighboring Tapachula were numerous in number and, as far as we could tell, after braving one or two, utterly terrible Chinese "All-You-Can-Eat" buffet joints where it was nigh unto impossible to even choke down the dreadful buffet-style food, we gave up that quest for good.

When we returned to San Cristobal after our visit to the coast, we stopped in at the local Subway next to the tourist-favored main plaza for a giant Italian sub and the Mexican owner was in a talkative mood. He knew us as we had been there a few times before so he welcomed us back and lamented to us that if it weren´t for local foreign residents and tourists, he would be out of business as local Mexican residents refused to eat his, to them, "exotic" fare. Keep in mind that San Cristóbal is a fairly sophisticated city for the Chiapas Highlands and Canamex´comment that residents in areas with a strong ethnic food influence were "less open" to exotic foreign foods than people resident in areas with a "weak" local food culture. Keep that in moind the next time you are gorfing down that "exotic" Subway sandwich.

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We are here for just a couple months and Asian food is one of our favs, is this place still open and where exactly in Jocotopec is it? ....and would anyone know of any others between Lake Chapala dn Jocotopec open and worthy of a visit?

"The best Chinese food I've eaten lakeside is in Jocotopec, The Red Dragon. Might I say that when a restaurant first opens they sometimes need to work out the kinks, line up the proper suppliers and learn what it is their clients expect and desire. Give them a month and I'd try them again. I'ts my opinion having been on both sides of the kitchen. Salud!"

The only Chinese restaurant in Joco that I know of is the China Inn. There was a Red Dragon restaurant in the Ajijic plaza. There was a Chinese buffett on the plaza in Joco. For the China Inn-on travelling to Jocotepec from the East when you come to the first traffic light if you go straight it is on the left after about 2 blocks. You can park in the Aurura Bodega parking lot and walk up the street.
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The Thai restaurant near LCS is one of the better Asian restaurants around. You'll need to adjust your expectations. If you're expecting what you find on the west coast of the US or Canada, you'll be very disappointed. If you see it as good, but different, you'll be happier. Mexico is not a great destination for Asian food. It's great for Mexican food, though!

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