Not a peep! Though I have gotten some emails from them lately asking me to promote their new video series!
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I never go into it with the intention to slam a place. As you rightly note, it is someone’s (more than one someone’s) livelihood, and it’s all too easy to nitpick from afar. Even with places that I don’t much care for, I still go into the second (and sometimes a third) visit hoping to find that ONE dish that’s really awesome that I can praise, even if everything else is kind of meh.
But in terms of hearing back after a negative review: It’s rare. I feel like most of the time the chefs/restaurateurs just try to pretend like it never happened in those cases. Sometimes it feels that way even when it’s a mostly glowing review that makes one or two small criticisms!
There are a few restaurant owners that really seem to embrace criticism, though — or at least are unfazed by it. That’s always refreshing.
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How about Antoinette?
I feel lucky to have followed in the footsteps of some excellent food writers at the Express — folks like Jonathan Kauffman, Jesse Hirsch, and John Birdsall, all of whom I read and admired long before I became a food writer myself. I think they were good models of critics who were interested in all different kinds of food, who had a good nose for sniffing out the out-of-the-way places, and who took a more “writerly” approach to each piece. Of course, I love and am inspired by Jonathan Gold. Who doesn’t love Jonathan Gold? And I think Ligayan Mishan, who does the Hungry City column for the New York Times, is a beautiful writer.
Non-food writers, I’m mostly a fiction guy — love Murakami, of course. Have a strong affinity to Flannery O’Connor and some of the Southern Gothic writers. Of course, sometimes I look at my own writing and think people like that would find it altogether too flowery and ridiculous!
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I love Murakami’s food descriptions, which always seem to center on a single guy cooking some wonderfully simple dish with great seriousness and focus — that perfect bowl of spaghetti, as you note. I admit I am the kind of nerd who has a binder where I’ve typed out recipes such as “Scrambled Eggs a la Kavalier & Clay” (salami is the key ingredient), or “Tomato Sandwich from Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” (there is butter and mustard in it, if I recall correctly).
In my own home cooking, these days I’m big on slow-scrambled eggs (Kenji, who did one of these Q&A’s before me, has a great recipe) and red-cooked pork belly (which is a work in progress — glad to hear any tips!).
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Yes, I did hear from Dominique. I think that was one of those cases where, because of the timing, the public perception — fairly or not (mostly unfairly, I think) — was that I had “killed” the restaurant. Anyway, it was funny because when I spoke to her she insisted, several times, that she had not read the review.
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I was a high school English teacher who just always wanted to become a writer of some kind — novelist, poet (oh God), whatever. Anyway, I got burned out from teaching and decided to give freelance journalism a whirl — I had briefly worked for an English-language newspaper when I was living abroad in Taiwan for a year.
Long story short, I like food a lot and am very interested in it, so without really planning it, several of my first more significant freelance pitches that got accepted were food-related. There was one on third-wave coffee and another on the Edible Schoolyard program in Berkeley — both for the Express. At the time, I always thought that being the food critic for the Express would be my dream job. And here I am!
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Bun Mam Soc Trang, without question. I also really miss the dumplings at Tian Jin Dumplings.
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I have not!
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Have you heard if Bun Mam Soc Trang is coming back or not?
You’d be better off asking industry folks this question. 
I don’t know — I don’t think every restaurant has my photo on the wall or anything like that, but maybe I’m naive. Most of the time, I feel like I’m not recognized. There are a very small handful of chefs/restaurateurs (like, I can count on one hand) who have not only figured out who I am but have MADE IT KNOWN TO ME that they recognize me — like, they’ll say hi when I walk in. All I’ll say about that is that it makes me VERY uncomfortable.
My favorite thing, though, is one restaurateur who recently told me that he had been hoping that I would review his restaurant and had been asking around about me — apparently, none of the people he talked to knew what I look like. In fact, a bartender told him that he had heard that I was actually a white person who just had a Chinese last name! I got a kick out of that one. (Which isn’t to say the rumor isn’t true!)
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Yes, I think that’s right. I guess you could say it’s in the spirit of not “punching down,” but I’ve always felt like if there’s some mom and pop restaurant that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention, what’s the point of even reviewing it just to knock it down? So if it’s a small, relatively obscure place, and you see that I’ve reviewed it, there’s a good chance that I think it’s pretty good. (One of the consequences of this is that there are probably, I don’t know, eight to a dozen places that I visit in a year, on my own dime, that I intend to review but wind up not writing about because they turned out to be mediocre.)
The flip side of that is that almost all of the places I’ve written very negative reviews of are very expensive places that turned out to be awful.
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Thank you! That means a lot. I think the biggest advantage is the amount of freedom I have to write about what interests me, particularly in terms of the restaurants I choose to review — especially the really casual, low-end, “ethnic” places that I tend to get most excited about.
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Probably the Guilin noodle spot. But lately I’ve been kind of into that new HK-style spot, Baby Cafe.
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For a period of time, we had a full-time staff photographer who shot videos, too — and they were great! For the time being, it just isn’t something we have the budget or manpower to do well.
I explored several Taiwanese restaurants for an article I wrote for the now-defunct web publication “Real Eats” about stinky tofu — a real passion of mine. Anyway, I think the article is lost in cyberspace now. If I ever get my act together enough to set up a personal website, maybe I’ll republish it.
But in the course of researching that piece, by far my favorite place was Joy Restaurant (5 Joy) in Foster City, which doesn’t label itself as Taiwanese per se, but serves the kind of Taiwanese-inflected Shanghainese food that you see a lot in Taiwan proper. Their stinky tofu is excellent, as is their lion’s head meatball. Pretty decent Taiwanese breakfast.
Come to think of it, it’s been at least a year or two since I’ve been back, so I think I’m due for a revisit.
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I don’t think I’ve written about Chez Panisse! One of these days I will.
I also like Popeye’s fried chicken a whole lot!
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I think that’s all the time we have for the Q&A tonight. Thank you very much Luke Tsai for joining us today and sharing your perspectives and stories with us! Best of luck with uncovering the next gem!
Check out Luke’s reviews and food writings on East Bay Express here.
And thanks everyone for the questions. Have a wonderful time eating around the East Bay!
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My favorite thing to do with leftover Popeyes is to add banh mi toppings to my chicken/biscuit sandwich.
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hi Luke, it’s Andria, your restaurant photographer at EBX.
At the shoots, I like to ask owners if they’ve noticed you dining or remember interacting with you. No one’s ever been sure, most have no idea, and I haven’t yet seen your pic up (which would probably be uncommon at a mom and pop spot). I wanted to say good job on maintaining the anonymity!
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