Salon praises New England Chinese cuisine

Chinese-American food is the subject here, but not in the usual “best dumplings in Boston” way. The news is that Salon just gave New England Chinese food the full regional-cuisine treatment — not as a punchline, not as guilty pleasure, but as something with its own history, flavor logic, and fiercely loyal following. That matters because this style of food has usually lived in memory, takeout menus, and hometown arguments, not in the national food conversation. Katie Lockhart’s May 3 piece basically says: this is a real American regional cuisine, and people should treat it that way. (salon.com) ### What is “New England Chinese food”? It’s the Chinese-American restaurant food that developed across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont — especially in small cities and suburbs, not just big Chinatowns. The menu is familiar but the details are not. Think scorpion bowls with umbrella straws, flaming pu pu platters, chop suey, chow mei(salon.com)— darker, thicker, and often chunkier than the bright orange packets people know elsewhere. Salon’s point is that the cuisine has a recognizable regional accent. (salon.com) ### Why does Salon call it a “cult”? Because the attachment is intense. People who grew up with this food don’t just like it — they miss it when they leave. That homesick pull is strong enough that businesses have sprung up to ship dishes from places like Kowloon and other Massachusetts restaurants around the country. In other words, this is not just local takeout. It’s exile food — the kind people try to recreate after moving away and usually can’t. (salon.com) ### What makes the food taste different? Sweetness is a big part of it. So is heavy sauce, a glossy texture, and a menu shaped for New England dining habits over decades. The food evolved in family-run restaurants serving local customers, so dishes got adapted toward comfort, abundance, and consistency. That’s how you end up with signatures like sweet-glazed wings, brown duck (salon.com)ddly specific once you leave it. (salon.com) ### Where did that style come from? Turns out the story is less about one “authentic” origin and more about adaptation. Chinese immigrants opened restaurants in mill towns, suburbs, and roadside locations across New England, then built menus around what customers wanted, what ingredients were available, and what would keep a business alive. That’s standard American food histor(salon.com)ood did it too. Salon frames that evolution as the whole point, not a flaw. (salon.com) ### Why are people taking it seriously now? Because American food media has gotten better at recognizing regional hybrid cuisines as real culture. The old framework sorted food into “authentic” versus “Americanized,” which flattened everything. The newer one asks a better question — what did immigrant communities create in a specific place, and why did locals love it? Once you(salon.com)looking like a regional canon. Salon is joining that shift. (salon.com) ### Is this just nostalgia? Partly — but nostalgia is not fake. It’s evidence that a cuisine did real social work. These restaurants were birthday spots, Friday-night takeout counters, date-night lounges, and family default settings for generations. The scorpion bowl and pu pu platter are theatrical, sure, but they’re also part of how the cuisine became communal and memorable. (salon.com)nes ignore it. (salon.com) ### So what’s the bottom line? Salon’s piece matters less as a review than as a reclassification. It takes a cuisine many people treated as kitsch and says — no, this is regional American food with history, local signatures, and loyal believers. Basically, New England Chinese food is getting promoted from nostalgia object to cultural category. (salon.com)