Le Yen hangs on to tradition

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Though it’s been years since my first trip to Le Yen, I still spend most of my time there the same way: pressed up against a window, eyes trailing the cars streaking down Atlantic Avenue. It’s a habit I can’t quite explain, but it’s also telling of [...]

Chen’s: Hole-in-the-wall? Or best place ever?

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Right up there with gravity, relativity, and all that other mumbo-jumbo sits another, less recognized but nonetheless universal principle: The Gastrointestinal Theory of Dining Out—or, as it’s more commonly known, You Say Tomato, I Say Barf. I believe it goes something like, “For every reason you love [...]

Journey back to 1952 at Ming’s Restaurant

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Ming’s comes from another era of suburban Chinese restaurants, when the cuisine was always Cantonese, when the kitschy décor was inevitably as thick, sweet and sour as the sauces, and when somebody at every table was obliged to joke that they’d all be hungry again in [...]