I’ve been thumbing through my copy of the Barbara Tropp’s China Moon cookbook, which records the recipes from her casual California Chinese restaurant founded in 1986. She promoted farmers market style California ingredients and aimed to “introduce Chinese home-style cooking to a city that adored good food.” She disavows MSG in her intro, and cooks some dishes which would be welcome today like cumin lamb fried rice, and have similarities to Mister Jiu’s offerings, like Chinese duck confit and tea smoked duck breast. 30 years later, it’s funny that before Mister Jiu opened, the most creative bridging of Chinese and contemporary American cuisine in SF, Mission Chinese, puts shakers of MSG on the tables.
