{"id":224924,"date":"2018-02-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/on-the-edge-of-extinction\/"},"modified":"2018-02-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T08:00:00","slug":"on-the-edge-of-extinction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/on-the-edge-of-extinction\/","title":{"rendered":"On the edge of extinction"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sabatini Jr.<\/span><\/p>\n

I craved the Szechuan spiciness of kung pao chicken and the fruitiness of Mandarin-style glaze cloaking shrimp or scallops \u2014 but with the option of sizzling beef or chop suey in case of a sudden change of mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

And the cheaper the better, provided made-to-order plates and full wait service were part of the equation. Panda Express wasn\u2019t going to cut it this time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"On<\/a>
(l to r) Pork-filled pot stickers; Mandarin hot wings; mango shrimp delight (Fotograf\u00edas de Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Decades ago, finding such American-tailored Chinese dishes was as easy as scoring a burger. But the sit-down places that serve them have sadly dwindled, with many relegated to the memories of past generations that shook up their routine diets with what was considered exotic food.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chopsticks Inn is one of the area\u2019s holdouts, although not as antiquated as the 87-year-old Chop Suey|Peking House in San Diego, for example, but a fun step back in time nonetheless. It\u2019s family-run and has been around since 1988.<\/span><\/p>\n

Founded by Chinese immigrant Annie Chui, her lengthy menu also encompasses a handful of Thai and Japanese dishes in an effort to stay competitive. They include pad Thai noodles, red curry chicken, bento boxes and a few teriyaki choices.<\/span><\/p>\n

Visiting as a twosome during lunch, when a host of combination plates sell for as little as $8.55, we stuck exclusively to the Chinese offerings.<\/span><\/p>\n

An appetizer of six pot stickers filled densely with pork sated our hankering for the classic dumplings, which I prefer drizzled in hot chili oil. These were naked and came only with soy sauce on the side. But they boasted a hand-made quality and pleasing, cushy texture.<\/span><\/p>\n

In another starter, we were smitten over the viscous sauce clinging to a half dozen Mandarin hot wings, which were some of the tiniest I\u2019ve seen. They were delectably sweet and spicy, and I suspected star anise was in the recipe.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I asked our animated waiter if that was the case, he responded with a mischievous laugh, \u201cAncient Chinese secret, but a good guess.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He also tried steering me away from choosing breast meat in the kung pao chicken I ordered in lieu of the default thigh meat, insisting with a quirky, instructional tone that \u201cbreast meat isn\u2019t suitable for the dish.\u201d The same applies to sesame chicken, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

I completely understood his point, but in an effort to keep the dish lean I went against his advice and paid the extra $1.50 for what amounted to more peanuts than poultry.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"On<\/a>The dark-brown sauce, however, was thick and addicting, though not as spicy as I would have preferred. I\u2019m guessing it\u2019s made with a base of hoisin sauce and pureed red chilies, the latter of which traditionally appear in whole form at other Chinese restaurants. But these we couldn\u2019t see.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a lunch combo, the kung pao came with decent white rice, a vegetarian egg roll that was crispy and excellent, and a chicken dumpling fried to a tough finish.<\/span><\/p>\n

My companion considered ordering a dim sum platter, but was lured instead by the mango shrimp delight, which worked to my delight as well since what I stole from his plate fulfilled my hankering for Mandarin-style seafood.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ordered also as a lunch combo, the medium-size shrimp were firm, fresh and bright tasting from a sweet and tangy sauce accented by wok-fried carrots, celery and snow peas. Water chestnuts were in abundance, adding further oomph to the favorable, crispy profile of the dish.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chopsticks Inn feels frozen in time with its burgundy push-pin booths, kitschy d\u00e9cor and big, round tables geared for multiple dim sum courses. They\u2019re among the elements I practically demand of Chinese restaurants serving as symbols of a bygone era, when families passed around platters of orange chicken and bowls of white rice while fumbling with their chopsticks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those times actually still exist in rare establishments such as this.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014 Frank Sabatini Jr. es el autor de \u201cSecret San Diego\u201d (ECW Press) y comenz\u00f3 su carrera como escritor local hace m\u00e1s de dos d\u00e9cadas como miembro del personal del antiguo San Diego Tribune. Puedes localizarlo en fsabatini@san.rr.com<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sabatini Jr. I craved the Szechuan spiciness of kung pao chicken and the fruitiness of Mandarin-style glaze cloaking shrimp or scallops \u2014 but with the option of sizzling beef or chop suey in case of a sudden change of mind.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":224925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11548","_seopress_titles_title":"On the edge of extinction","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-la-mesa-courier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}