Chinabites

Posted: Jul. 19, 2008

I stepped out of the apartment for a late lunch this afternoon wanting to try something new but not really wanting to spend a lot of time and money on a cab across town.  I also felt compelled to get some Chinese food, as I will be sorely deprived of it in a few short weeks.  I was craving Kung Pao Chicken and silently lamenting the fact that all of the Sichuan restaurants in Wudaokou are kind of nasty.   During the 3+ minute wait for my building’s elevator, I decided that my goal for lunch would be to find a good, new Sichuanese restaurant in the greater Wudaokou area.

As I walked east into Wudaokou, I saw the newly opened high rise mall they’ve been building for the past 4 years and remembered that I’d seen some new restaurants inside it as I passed it coming home the previous night.  I marveled all the way up 5 flights of escalators at the sheer number of staff and customers swarming the clothing and makeup stalls.  The fifth floor was, how shall I put this, completely insane.  The center was an open space filled with all manner of arcades and games, including dancing games, toy grabs, and the like.  These were being happily patronized by a clientele of everyone from grade school boys to middle aged men who looked a little bit out of place.

The perimeter walls were filled with all different manner of restaurants, many of which should be included in the chinabites listing sooner or later.  I saw a Sichuan themed personal hot pot joint, but passed it up for the old Chengdu standby, Grandma’s Kitchen (!!!).

The branding of this chain is awesome, with faux old-timey appeal fashioned of creaky wooden floors and red plaid tablecloths.  One half expects to see some white haired matriarch placing an apple pie on the windowsill to cool.  I have a distant memory of a rumor from years ago in the early days when Grandma was just building out the Beijing arm of her Chinese empire near the old US embassy … something about how the staff asked for a wage increase and “Grandma” fired them all.  Have no idea if it has any basis in fact, but the idea of colonialist/capitalist Grandma always sorta warmed my heart.

Anyway, I had the vegetarian breakfast which was competent.  At 30 kuai it is slightly pricier than the other western breakfast heavy-hitters in the ‘hood, Lush and Bridge Cafe, as they both include a beverage.  The coffee at Grandma’s was pretty mediocre, but at least there were free refills.

On my walk home I was stopped by a British guy interviewing foreigners for some radio program and I told him what I knew about the area.  I reminisced for his cheap mic and tape recorder about how almost every building in the neighborhood had been built in the last 6 years and 10 years before that it was all just fields.  In the last 15 years they’ve put up more 10+ story buildings in a 1 mile radius of my house than in probably all of Central Virginia combined.  Yes, Wudaokou, you’ve come a long way.  Now let’s get a decent Sichuan restaurant in here, pronto.