Lots of Arizonans will be sitting down to home-cooked family dinners on Christmas. But for those who are not, some number of them will be eating Chinese food.
History.com traces the tradition of eating Chinese food on Christmas to Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the late 1800s. But today restaurants welcome all kinds of diners — and take-out customers.
Helen Yung, co-owner and chef at Sweet Republic Artisan Ice Cream, joined The Show to talk more about this — and offer a few recommendations.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: Helen, do you have particular go-to restaurants depending on which style of Chinese food you're interested in?
HELEN YUNG: Sure. I'm from Hong Kong, and so my region is Canton, Cantonese food. So dim sum is something that, as a family, we did when I was a kid, we went to every Sunday. So that's kind of in my blood to want to do that every Sunday. I like going to ... Mekong Palace in Mesa for that. Another great place is Great Wall, but it's a little out — further for me, so I tend not to go there as often.
And if I'm not doing dim sum, just for some regular meals, I like to go to Hao Hao in Scottsdale. That's not too far from me. And it's run by longtime owners of Ni Hao, who retired and then got really bored at home and decided that they want to get back up and cook again. And they cook amazing food. And you know who's cooking. It's always — it's a husband and wife team. So wife's up front, the husband's in the kitchen, and he's a great chef.
And for me to the telltale sign of a great Cantonese chef is the use of the wok. How well they control the time and the temperature and get that breath of the wok in the food — wok hei. So I think the main thing is don't take Chinese food to go. You gotta eat it there while it's fresh off the wok. You can really taste the difference.
BRODIE: Huh. So that brings up the question then, if you are going to go, let's say Christmas Eve or Christmas Day — as a lot of people do — you probably have to start planning that now, right?
YUNG: I don't know how many of them take reservations. I would definitely be prepared to wait and go early and not go during the peak hours of, I don't know what the peak hours on Christmas, probably every hour is the peak hour. I try not to go out to eat Chinese food on Christmas. I avoid doing it on that day. But being next to Jade Palace, where our original Sweet Republic is located, they have like multi-hour waits every year since we've been open the last 18 years. I can see crowds of people, just waiting two, three, four hours to go eat there.
BRODIE: Wow. Why do you think it is that Christmas and Chinese food have become so synonymous with each other?
YUNG: I think because it's open. It's available.
BRODIE: Fair.
YUNG: I don't know if it's a chicken or egg situation. Is it available open because there's the demand for it or, you know, which came first? But, you know, Chinese restaurants are famous for being open all the time. There are some incredibly hardworking people. And Chinese food is one of the best foods in the world. I mean, I might be a little biased. It's affordable, too, amazing value. There's always something for everybody. And it's great to bring a family. You're not gonna spend a ton of money, but you're gonna, you know, have a good time, have some leftovers to bring home. Kind of, what's not to love?
BRODIE: Yeah. Well, so do you have sort of a go-to — I know you don't really go on Christmas, you're trying to avoid the crowds. But like this time of year do you have a favorite dish that you might order that maybe is different from what you'd eat in, let's say June or July?
YUNG: So I like to splurge on some fresh seafood out of the tank. And you can get that at Great Wall or Mekong Palace, the bigger restaurants. And you can look in the tank, kind of point at the fish or the crab or the lobster that looks good to you, and watch them fish it out of the tank, and cook it however you like. You can have it deep fried with salt and pepper, or you can have it steamed, which is my preferred way, with ginger and green onion. And it's like, you can taste it, the ocean in the food. It's so fresh. And a tip is get it on crispy noodles so that soaks up all the gravy and sauce that seeps down from the — especially the ginger green onion sauce. It's so good.
BRODIE: So I've got to ask you about Peking duck, which of course is famous from "A Christmas Story." Is this one that you hear from people that they try to, maybe another splurge around Christmas?
YUNG: For sure, I think Peking duck is a splurge for me, too. I think for Chinese people, it's equally a splurge. Because you have this whole duck that's brought to the table and then they shave off just that crispy skin. And then you eat it with the hot pancakes or warm steamed buns, and you put that hoisin sauce on it and some slivered green onions. It's just as good as it gets. The crispy skin with, you know, the fat almost rendered off. That's an amazing dish, but I have to say I sometimes prefer roast duck. Roast duck, you have like the meat is more moist. For Peking duck, they have to cook it longer to render off more fat and get that skin super crispy. But where roast duck, you get like the marinated tender meat and still a semi-crispy skin. And it's also cheaper, too. And it doesn't usually take the extra time. Some restaurant asks like, you know, maybe an extra 30 minutes or they also charge you more money for it. They're both really good. Depends on what you're looking for.
BRODIE: Have you ever been tempted — and I apologize if you've actually done this and I'm just not aware of it —have you ever been tempted to take some of the dishes that you really like at Chinese restaurants and turn them into ice cream flavors?
YUNG: No, that's an interesting question.
BRODIE: I'm not sure how a Peking duck ice cream would go, but it might be interesting.
YUNG: I mean, the closest thing we have done is do a Sichuan orange chocolate, that was actually even in Time Magazine. You know, the Sichuan peppercorns that give you kind of tingling feeling on your tongue. We put that in with a chocolate ice cream, and I think a little bit of orange zest. And we haven't done that recently. Reminds me, I should probably do it again. It was delicious.
BRODIE: All right. That is Helen Young, co-owner and chef of Sweet Republic. Helen, thanks so much. Thanks for making me so hungry. I appreciate that. Happy holidays. Thanks for the conversation.
YUNG: Thank you so much, Mark. It was a pleasure.
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