Los Angeles is one of the country’s most diverse cities, so it is only natural that there is plenty of world-class dining of an equally diverse sort to be found there. The city is probably best known as one of the top destinations for Mexican food in the United States, but the depth and quality of Chinese Dining in Los Angeles are likely just as impressive.
That has not always been the case, though. In fact, the undeniable quality of Chinese Dining in Los Angeles today is a relatively recent development, and likely one that has only recently become possible at all.
For decades, after all, the standard Chinese fare in Los Angeles, unlike in San Francisco to the north, was of a sort that had been designed specifically to please fussy, extremely conservative American palates. Blending a range of influences from Chinese cuisine, mostly that of the country’s Cantonese-speaking regions, and turning them into dishes that Americans of the nineteenth century could immediately accept, the ostensibly Chinese food to be found in L.A. up until recently was simply not very exciting.
What has happened since is mostly that Americans have become much more adventurous about eating and trying new things. That has allowed restaurateurs from mainland China and those with deep ties there to set up shop with restaurants that serve truly authentic dishes from their homelands.
While virtually all of these restaurants do rely for a substantial portion of their business on fellow Chinese immigrants, most also regularly serve Los Angelenos from a range of other backgrounds. It is quite common today, for example, a party of Los Angeles restaurants to seek out the best Sichuan cuisine in a particular part of the city, something that would have been unheard of a couple of decades ago.
For those looking for great Chinese food in California today, then, you can try here in Los Angeles and typically end up with a genuinely great meal. The unexciting Chinese-American palaces of yesteryear where Egg Foo Yung and the like reigned supreme are no longer anything like the last word in Chinese food dining in this city.
