Latest news with #ChineseRestaurant
Ya Biladi
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Ya Biladi
Tangier hosts China's hit TV show «Chinese Restaurant», a culinary fusion of cultures
Tangier is hosting an exclusive season of Chinese Restaurant, Asia's top TV show with billions of views. From May 20 to June 9, La Terraza de la Médina will welcome the show's celebrity cast for a 21-day culinary adventure, blending Moroccan and Chinese gastronomy against the backdrop of Tangier's medina and the Strait of Gibraltar, reads a press release. The show, produced by Hunan TV, is famous for turning each location into a cultural icon: Colmar, France, saw a 70% tourism boost after hosting the show. Tangier's season aims to introduce Morocco's rich culinary heritage—tajines, couscous, and pastillas—to Chinese audiences. Key figures include Dina Ottmani, a Moroccan singer and influencer who lived in China for 13 years, and Chef Lin Shuwei, a star of Chinese gastronomy. They are joined by a stellar lineup: Huang Xiaoming (60M followers), Shen Yue, Zhai Xiaowen (11M fans), Ding Yuxi, Jiang Yan, and Patrick Nattawat. Rif Film Morocco is the local partner, handling logistics and coordination. Filming in Tangier is expected to boost tourism, showcase Moroccan culture, and strengthen Morocco-China ties. Chinese Restaurant has previously filmed in Ko Chang, Colmar, Taormina, and Giverny. The Tangier season promises to be a unique blend of gastronomy, cultural diplomacy, and global exposure.
ABC News
25-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Fears for the future of retro Chinese dining after blaze guts Sundoo in Townsville
The gutting by fire of a much-loved Chinese restaurant in North Queensland after 50 years has left a family heartbroken. The Sundoo Chinese Restaurant in Townsville was badly damaged by a fire that began in the back of the building on Monday. Largely untouched for decades, its distinctive decor made it a time capsule of Cantonese restaurant chic from 1970s Australia. The devastation at the Sundoo comes amid a growing appreciation of — and nostalgia for — older-style Chinese restaurants, as their numbers dwindle. Jason Liang said his parents Paul and Jenny had run the business seven days a week for about 27 years. He said they were devastated that much of what they had worked for had been destroyed by the fire. "[The Sundoo] was pretty much my second home — after school I'd come here and do my homework, I worked here through my teenage years," Mr Liang said. "We watched a lot of regular customers grow up; we watched people come in with their parents, then all of a sudden they bring their girlfriend and now they have kids. 'We've just watched them for 27 years, so there was a strong sense of community. "At the moment we're heartbroken and devastated." Mr Liang said there was a surge in customers at the Sundoo after it was featured on the Retro Chinese Restaurants Facebook page, celebrating the interior design and food of mid-century Chinese restaurants. The group's founder Kelly Parsons said she was saddened to hear of the fire at the Sundoo, which she described as one of the best of its type in Australia. Ms Parsons said the group's 20,000 members shared her fascination and grew up visiting restaurants just like the Sundoo. "I'm eternally fascinated by the … kitsch — the plastic flowers, wallpaper, fancy ceilings, wood panelling and, of course, the food." Chinese restaurants have also played a key social and economic role in regional communities across Australia, dating back to at least the 1890s. Writer and broadcaster Jennifer Wong has written about regional Australian-Chinese restaurants in Chopsticks or Fork, based on the ABC iview series. She said they signified the contribution of Chinese immigration to regional communities, which stepped up in the 1970s. "Back then there were probably only about 50,000 people of Chinese heritage in the country, and there would have been around 13 or 14 million Australian people, so a very tiny per cent of the population," Wong said. She said many would have happy memories of meals in those dining rooms, even as tastes had started to change. "[We are moving] further and further away from a time when these were some of the only restaurants in town," Wong said. "There's a nostalgia and a fondness for those first early food memories." Writer and presenter Benjamin Law, who grew up in his parents' food businesses in regional Queensland, said Chinese restaurants laid the foundation for many members of the Chinese diaspora in Australia. "When I was growing up on the Sunshine Coast in the 80s and 90s, there were so few Chinese people, besides my family, and most of us that were there were growing up in and amongst Chinese restaurants," he said. Law said people were always nostalgic for Australia's past, and that included the local Chinese restaurant. "They might be ostensibly Chinese restaurants, but they're very Australian restaurants too, when you think about it," he said. Jason Liang said the Sundoo's future was still unclear, as his parents owned the business but not the building. He said the restaurant's closure — for now at least — was the end of an era, and its success over the decades was a testament to his parents' hard work. "They've told me over and over again that it's really hard work [and] we're doing this so you can have a better education," Mr Liang said. "Most of the kids don't take over the business anymore — they actually do another trade or profession or make their own business. he said.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Yahoo
Edinburgh fire crews 'using axes to break down wall' after blaze breaks out at takeaway
Edinburgh fire crews raced to a blaze on Saturday afternoon. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was alerted to the fire at around 4pm. At least four appliances and 10 firefighters were dispatched to Duke Street in Leith, with locals seeing them use 'axes and saws to break down a wall'. Police Scotland were also on the scene and had taped off the street. It's understood that the flames were coming from the basement of a Chinese restaurant. READ MORE: Edinburgh police tape off home and forensics scour the scene as campervan 'torched' READ MORE: Edinburgh police probe latest firebombing outside home as gang war rages on A local resident who was passing by told Edinburgh Live : "There's four fire trucks and police and the streets all taped off. "They're using axes and saws to break down a wall, because there's fire coming from the basement in The Lucky Buddha." Sign up for Edinburgh Live newsletters for more headlines straight to your inbox The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service confirmed they were in attendance. Police Scotland have been approached for comment. Join Edinburgh Live's Whatsapp Community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Reading Chinese takeaway 'closes permanently' due to redevelopment
A Chinese restaurant is 'closing permanently' due to the development of their current property. Dragon Inn, located in Reading Road, Winnersh, is a Chinese restaurant and takeaway offering a traditional Chinese dining experience. After being made aware of the future redevelopment, they were forced to find a new venue for the restaurant. In a letter to customers, they said: 'Thank you for your continued support. Due to redevelopment of the property, our current takeaway will close permanently after June 30, 2025. 'We are excited to announce that we will be relocating to a new location in Lower Earley, where we will continue to serve delicious Chinese food.' The new address is 1 The Parad, Earley, Reading, RG6 7NZ. The owners added: 'We look forward to welcoming you at our new shop and appreciate your support during this transition!'
Malay Mail
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
Foong Hew Whye and Chan Min See of Restaurant Jie on working at Robuchon au Dôme, ‘asam laksa' and chicken rice, and the challenge of ‘borderless Chinese' cuisine
KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — 'It is, at its core, a Chinese restaurant, but one that borrows freely from the chefs (sic) many experiences... There is no dogma here, no rigid adherence to an imagined past. And in that way, it feels true.' In February, just five months after Restaurant Jie opened, Darren Teoh, chef-patron of two-Michelin-starred Dewakan, featured it in a long, occasionally meandering Instagram post reflecting on authenticity in cooking. Teoh's post, part rumination on authenticity and part unexpected endorsement, thrust the then-largely unheard-of restaurant, the latest venture from the Tinkermen Collective, into the sights of KL's fine-dining circles. 'We're full tonight,' said Wong. 'Actually, we've been pretty busy lately — fully booked most nights.' Wong Yin How, founder of the Tinkermen Collective, was standing in the middle of Jie's dining room. The serial restaurateur had popped in to check on things before rushing off to one of Tinkermen's 16 other outlets. The Japanese yellowtail dish being plated. — Picture by Choo Choy May At the kitchen counter, chefs Foong Hew Whye and Chan Min See moved quietly through the final stages of plating the Japanese yellowtail dish. It's a refined, deliberate composition: a short, circular mound of yellowtail tartare sits at the bottom of the plate, flecked with fine bits of mint, pineapple, chilli and onion — the classic garnishes of asam laksa — along with the juicy flesh of Tambun pomelo. An intricate tuile separates the tartare from a dollop of caviar, meant to be broken off and eaten in composed bites. Visually, the dish is an evolution of a salmon and pomelo number from their first menu, a riff on Chinese New Year yee sang. But here, the inspiration is firmly asam laksa, says Foong. 'The condiments in asam laksa are very refreshing, very green and aromatic,' she said. 'But I thought the soup would be a little boring for the customer. So I modified it into a tartare, making it a refreshing start for the customer.' Foong, 37, is the head chef at Jie. She's joined by senior sous chef Chan, who has worked with her for close to a decade, ever since they met on the opening team at Nobu Kuala Lumpur. Chan, now 32, later left for the three-Michelin-starred Robuchon au Dôme in Macau — an institution perched at the top of the Grand Lisboa Hotel, as much a temple to haute cuisine as it is to opulence. Foong followed her three months later. 'It was very stressful. We worked more than 14 hours a day, and sometimes we wouldn't get a break for almost three months,' Chan recalled, her eyes carrying a look of haunting admiration. 'Staff turnover was very high. But it was my first time seeing and handling a lot of new ingredients from France and Japan.' Chan, 32, was the first of the two to work at Robuchon au Dôme in Macau. — Picture by Choo Choy May Foong reflects on her time there a little differently. 'It was a totally different experience (from Nobu). Robuchon has a lot more discipline involved — it's very traditional, very classic,' she said. ' But I found the classic dishes to be the most innovative, like the tomato mille-feuille and lobster gelée. Robuchon came up with the mille-feuille dish like 10 or 15 years before then, when there was no internet to do any research, and everything came from his own mind. I think it's incredible, and I think he's a legend.' Chan also recalls a dish that blew her mind at the time. 'The Saint-Jacques — it's a type of scallop — and spaghetti dish. They use the spaghetti to create a dome — that was insane! 'No adhesives, just the starch of the spaghetti and your skill in getting it to stick. And we had to do it for a gala dinner, three days straight.' After four years of honing their craft in that exacting environment, Foong and Chan decided it was time to bring their refined skills back home. In 2019, they returned to Malaysia, settling in Foong's hometown of Ipoh, where they opened Communal Kitchen & Bar, a casual restaurant-café-bar, just a month before the pandemic hit. The venture was short-lived, but fate intervened. A chance encounter a year later with one of Wong's restaurant managers would set the stage for their return to KL. Foong had interned at one of Wong's restaurants early in her career. While on a trip to KL, she bumped into Becky — now the manager at Jie — who mentioned that Wong was looking for someone to lead a new restaurant. 'They came to Ipoh and tried the food, and he said we needed a larger market instead of staying in Ipoh,' she said. 'Otherwise, it would be a waste of what we learned in Robuchon.' One of Foong's first jobs was interning for restaurateur Wong Yin How, and by chance in 2021, their paths crossed again. — Picture by Choo Choy May In 2022, Quin opened in The Five, Bukit Damansara, with Foong and Chan at the helm. Styled as a modern French restaurant, it was the ideal platform for the duo's training and precision to shine. But what they really yearned for was much closer to home, even if the spark came from somewhere else. 'After being overseas for so many years, we were really craving Malaysian food. We were dying for it,' Chan laughed. 'When my mum used to visit me overseas, I would say, 'Please Mum, when you come, please cook and bring sambal petai udang.'' The shift came after Wong took the two chefs to WING, chef Vicky Cheng's critically acclaimed contemporary Chinese fine dining restaurant in Hong Kong. The experience opened a door. 'It was a moment of inspiration for us — why can't we do something like this in KL? Not Hong Kong Chinese, but Malaysian Chinese cuisine,' Foong said. 'That's why the first menu featured dishes like chicken wings with glutinous rice, fish curry with red snapper — we keep the soul of the dish, but we try to refine it and present something more elegant.' It hasn't been without its challenges. 'We question ourselves a lot, because a lot of diners are familiar with Chinese comfort food,' Foong explained. 'They say, 'What is the value I get from dining here?' So we pick our minds, working on how we use our European technique and ingredients, and present the food. Like the chicken wing from the previous season, we used foie gras in the filling, representing the yin and yang of Western and Chinese cultures. Everybody liked that dish.' The chicken rice course at Jie. — Picture courtesy of Restaurant Jie While some techniques like making lobster gelée now come naturally — having produced 40 portions a night at Robuchon — mastering certain Chinese ingredients has required a different kind of learning curve. 'Before it reaches the customer, we do many, many trials of research and development,' Chan said. 'It can take almost half a year for one dish.' The menu at Jie changes every three months, which means Foong and Chan are developing new ideas almost daily. 'It's our daily routine – when we're eating, whatever we're doing, anything can become an idea,' Chan said. Many of those ideas come from simple comfort food. The centrepiece of the season two menu is none other than the working man's champion: chicken rice. 'It's a free-range chicken that we dry-age for three to four days, then we grill it over charcoal. The skin ends up very different from your typical 'roast chicken' outside,' Foong explained. 'It has a smoky aroma, and if you pay attention, the skin is a little bit like the skin on roast pork. It's very crunchy, breaks easily.' 'A lot of people say, 'Why am I paying so much for chicken rice?' but once they try it, it's a different story,' Foong remarked. 'In the end, people kept asking for refills.' Foong is now working on something inspired by coconut chicken soup. 'We haven't run any trials yet; we also just learned some dim sum techniques recently, so we're going to try and have dim sum in our next menu or the one after that.' Recognition matters to all restaurants, but in the age of paid influencer posts and agency-managed buzz, Jie seems to have found something rarer: organic, word-of-mouth momentum. Foong and Chan emphasise that how the customer feels is ultimately the most important part of a restaurant experience. — Picture by Choo Choy May One man's pontification is another's endorsement. Chan described Teoh as iconic; Foong said she was 'touched' by his feedback. 'He's trying to bring up Malaysian ingredients and Malaysian culture, which is what you see at Dewakan. We're trying to bring up Chinese culture in Malaysia, so the starting point is similar. We're both trying to bring up Malaysian culture.' For Foong and Chan, though, what matters most is how the customer feels dining at Jie. 'As humbly as we can, we want the customer to feel that our food is sincere. I think that is the most important thing,' Chan said. Foong echoes that sentiment when it comes to defining success. 'I think most people immediately think of Michelin or other awards, right? Of course, we're happy if we get it, but it is not our goal. My goal is for the guest to leave happy, satisfied. The rest is a bonus.' Restaurant Jie73-M, Jalan Setia Bakti Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur Open Tuesday to Saturday, 6-11pm Tel: 012-325 0885Instagram: @ * Follow us on Instagram @eatdrinkmm for more food gems. * Follow Ethan Lau on Instagram @eatenlau for more musings on food and mildly self-deprecating attempts at humour.
