From the thread [thread=341739]here[/thread] on malls, someone mentioned how they dislike various Chinatowns because they are “dirty and smelly”. Personally (and apparently I’m not alone in this) I like exploring the Chinatown when I visit a new city just because it’s “dirty and smelly”, i.e. has a genuine character that hasn’t been homogenized by some refugee from a Disney Attraction Planning committee; it’s not really like visiting another country, but it’s at least a little taste of it. Unfortunately (and peculiarly given its frequent appearance in film including the eponymous Roman Polanski retro-noir) the Los Angeles Chinatown is but a crumb, a bare 12 blocks of Westernized Chinese food and mass-produced Taiwanese plastic junk. Little Tokyo is better and has a more interesting history, and while one can get some good–and presumably authentic–native cuisine in Thai Town and Koreatown, they aren’t really walking-around areas.
Having been to Chinatowns in Boston (fun) and San Francisco (unspeakably wonderful) I wonder what other cities have good Chinatowns. I’ve heard good things about Philadelpia, and of course Vancouver has a large East Asian contingent, but I’ve heard Seattle’s is pretty artificial and I was never terribly impressed with Chicago. What other Chinatowns have people been to?
Nah, we’ll open it up to any self-identified ethnic enclaves; Asian, Mediterranean, Filipino, whatever. I just no one shows up raving about Brighton Beach.
Toronto’s “Chinatown” (it’s actually more Asian than specifically Chinese) is a great place to visit. It’s a very large section of the city that goes on for blocks.
The one on Spadina I know well and will discuss here.
The question is: what makes a good Chinatown?
Ours (the Spadina one) is amazing because it excels in the usual Chinatown offerings:
great restaurants (including not one but four Chinese Buddhist (ie vegan, but especially interesting) restaurants)
three massive grocery stores
countless herb stores to ensure that all your tiny dried shrimp needs are met
several amazing kitchen/restaurant supply stores
bunches of veggies (home-grown)/coconuts/rice wrapped in banana leaves/etc for sale on the street
stores that sell nothing but fruit that I have never seen before
bakeries with delicious filled buns
a few small shopping malls, one of which had their food court shut down by the health department
Plus, there’s a liquor store, several art supply stores, at least one kickin’ optometrist, a millenery, and other random, great stuff. It’s surrounded by the University of Toronto, Kensington Market, Queen Street (club and fashion district), and Baldwin Street (two blocks of nifty independent restaurants).
To top it all off, it’s got the El Mocambo, where Pierre Trudeau’s wife partied with the Rolling Stones. (Us Canadians take our sexy political scandals where we can get them.)
It is dirty and smelly, but only at night, and I never cease to be amazed at the tidiness with which merchants stack their empty boxes.
[on preview]Bugger! Scooped by Little Nemo while I was writing. sigh
I’ll second Manchester. London’s is too bland and tourist-oriented - plenty of people spend time in the centre of Manchester yet never discover this wonderful place, literally just yards away.
I’ve been to San Francisco’s Chinatown. I was overwhelmed and almost intimidated by it - I am such a suburban girl!
Portand has a Chinatown, but it doesn’t seem overtly such to me, except for the one large Chinese gateway, the ornamental street signs that inform you so, and of course the gorgeous Chinese Classical Garden. I think the Chinese here may have blended into the melting pot moreso than in San Francisco. PDX Chinatown has been absorbed by new, non-Chinese businesses and Oldtown.
Philadelphia: I’m a native (of the city not the Chinatown) & I love it, purportedly the 3rd largest in the US, and a good 100+ yrs old. One of the more vibrant ethnic neighborhoods with great cheap eats in a city filled with vibrant ethnic neighborhoods with great cheap eats.
DC: Yes, “Chinablock,” and dingy at that.
NYC: Which one? Everything from the tourist experience to the rip-off faux Prada bags… take your pick. Swallowing Little Italy too.
Note you can get from each of those to the others very cheap on ‘Chinatown buses’ with awful loud Chinese pop and plenty of shoving. Best bargain in East Coast travel & an experience to boot.
Abroad:
Bangkok: HUGE, about 10% of the city, very very cool, accessable from the Chao Praya river barges which are one of the best travel bargains on the planet (crosstown for about 20 cents American, with awesome views).
Lima: Weirdest. More Indian stuff than Chinese on offer, more Latino Peruvians selling it than not. The city has made an effort to erect fakey Chinese gates and tile the ground with cheap “Chinese” tile. Many actual Chinese herbal and accupressure/-puncture/cupping and bleeding type places with graphic photos of procedures and sales pitches written in what even I can tell is poor Spanish.
I like how dirty and smelly it is, too. Ah, when you know the restaurant’s an upscale nose-in-the-air kind of establishment 'cause it got a “PASS” on its latest health inspection, that’s when you know you’re home. God I love this place.
It’s not a lot more industrial and less glamorous than the “other” one across the bay, but it has a lot going for it. It’s extremely real. Not a tourist or tee-shirt-shop in sight. It’s clean and the streets are wide but it’s also still very lively, with vegetable sellers on the street and old men walking around in long Chinese robes and people doing exercises in the parks. It doesn’t stop at China- You can find Cambodians, Laotians, Burmese, Thais, Vietnamese, Japanese and Koreans and probably some people I’ve forgotten about. The food is great and dirt cheap (unless you opt for one of the many fancy dress-up serious food places)- my favorite Vietnamese sandwich joint offers wonderful meal-sized spicy sandwiches on fresh french bread for two bucks- buy five get one free. There are no crappy Chinese-food-for-tourists here. Every other restaurant in Oakland is Chinese, so there is too much competition. There is a lot to explore, from cavernous shops to an unassuming fortune cookie factory. It’s one of my favorite parts of the city, which is good because it is huge, taking up a large part of Oakland’s downtown.
Toronto really has six Chinatowns. Heck, so many Chinese live in the GTA now that the term is outdated. Nearly the entire Scarborough area can be considered “Chinatown”, it’s huge.
Ironically, Scarborough Chinese tend to see the old Spadina/Dundas Chinatown as dirty, smelly, uncultured and slowly being taken over by immigrant Vietnamese.
While all Chinese don’t look alike, I’ve discovered that all Chinatowns do: same red and green color schemes, same faux pagoda architecture, same tacky gift shops and restaurants.
I like Montreal the best, since the signs are in Chinese and French. No English.
Vancouver’s Chinatown was really cool to walk through – markets with humungous whole fish, etc., interesting tea & bun shops, and for a little relief from the congestion, the truly beautiful Sun Yat-sen Garden, which has lilyponds, classic Chinese architecture, and about a photo op a minute.
San Francisco’s has large elements of mass-produced Taiwanese plastic junk mixed in with fantastic restaurants that are typically located well off the beaten sidewalk. Much more fun at night.
And Ruby Rouge – incredible dim sum hall. As good as I’ve had anywhere.
Couldn’t track down a promising place to eat in Vancouver’s Chinatown (either from looks or guidebooks). Best Chinese I had in town was on Denman St., right off the bay.
