620331 Sat May 16 09:41:46 -0700 2009 0 33 Food Media and News 0 4689346 [Although this is a nostalgia piece, I think it belongs here because it's SF-specific, and many of the restaurants discussed are still open and fair game for comparisons between then and now.] I stumbled across this 1982 New York Times piece and find it a fascinating bit of history and an interesting context for assessing today's Chinese restaurant scene in San Francisco -- how much has changed and how much hasn't (like Lo's description of Yuet Lee!) Full-service standouts in Chinatown then were Yuet Lee, Sun Ya (currently Chef Hung) and Lichee Garden (interestingly NOT for dim sum). Her review of dim sum parlors shows how much has changed: Hong Kong Tea House is now Y. Ben House, Asia Garden is now New Asia, Tung Fong is now Dol Ho, and the Canton Tea House was destroyed by fire when one of its cooking carts exploded. Louie's of Grant Avenue is long gone Regional cuisines have fared better; Henry Chung's Hunan has prospered and expanded, Ton Kiang (Hakka) has moved and expanded (but shifted to dim sum for its cash cow), though China House (Shanghainese) was gone long before my 1992 Shanghainese food epiphany and Narai (Chaozhou) somehow came and went without my noticing. Anybody remember it? Lo's assessment of tourist-oriented Grant Avenue restaurants is still valid, as is her characterizatrion of Yang Siung (then at Battery St.) The article is HERE: http://is.gd/AroG Sat May 16 09:41:46 -0700 2009 131118 Xiao Yang