It ‘s not as if there ‘s never been reasonably authentic chinese food near the USC campus. Some 30 years ago, there was Campus Chinese Restaurant on Vermont Avenue ; it made a terrific pepper chow mein, but it fell victim to the 1992 riots. More recently there was Bamboo Express in the University Village plaza, which served authentic Western Chinese food aboard Panda Express–type items, but that shopping center fell to the wrecking ball. interestingly, the owners then opened up Qin West restaurant in Chinatown and then another branch on Westwood Boulevard, bringing the first authentic mainland Chinese food to both Chinatown and the Westside. then there was the Shan’xi Food Truck that haunted the USC campus ; it did thus well that it morphed into the sit-down House of Bao restaurant, the second authentic mainland-style chinese restaurant in L.A. ‘s Chinatown. however, that restaurant folded after precisely a few months, and I do n’t know if the truck operation ever came back. Likewise, I presume the Bamboo Wheel Shanghai-style truck went out of occupation when the associated Bamboo Creek Restaurant in Monterey Park closed down .
I had heard hints that there were respective chinese food trucks presently parked around the USC campus. however, driving down Jefferson near McClintock by external scholar house, I spotted only one chinese food truck, Tasty Wok and three taco trucks, including Tacos Guadalajara and Fluffy Tacos. I besides drove by the versatile little shop centers on Figueroa but saw only the places that have been there for many years. I guessed that the popcorn chicken at A Cup of Joy on Figueroa would have to do for authentic taiwanese food, along with the on-campus asian food court at Fertitta Hall for the non-international students .
I turned to the folks at the Food Talk Central message board to ask where USC ‘s mainland chinese students went to satisfy their chinese food needs. The answer has two parts. Initially most of the responses indicated that a draw of the chinese students at USC live away from campus, in luxury downtown apartments, or possibly in San Gabriel Valley mansions. That would explain the miss of authentic Chinese restaurant options that are differently common in campus communities from Champaign, Illinois ( which has at least 10 authentic chinese restaurants for the big contingent of overseas chinese students ) ; Manhattan, Kansas ; Athens ( Winterville ), Georgia ; Fayetteville, Arkansas, and credibly hundreds of early university towns across America.
But even if a fortune of the mainland taiwanese students left campus at night, they had to eat somewhere during the day. And surely not all of them lived away from campus. Since today ‘s mainland chinese students are much less slope to widen their culinary horizons than anterior generations of alien students from Hong Kong and Taiwan, where did they get their mainland food sterilize ? The actual answer to the question of where USC ‘s mainland chinese students go to get their chinese food was finally provided on the Food Talk Central message control panel by the beyond doubt food writer Dommy Gonzalez ( besides known as Dommy ! ), who lives in the USC area and who explained that what looked alike greaser trucks parked around Jefferson and McClintock were actually chinese food trucks that did n’t bother to change their names .
Going back on foot to Jefferson and McClintock confirmed that it ‘s all dependable. All four trucks served taiwanese food. The truck that said Tacos Guadalajara when I drove by on the street, said J. C. Foods on the street side and was festooned with chinese letter, as were all the trucks. Fluffy Tacos did n’t bother giving itself another diagnose and I do n’t know if G & G Express Foods renamed itself from something else or not .
Each truck had a “ menu ” in the class of probably 40 to 50 pictures of dishes that they served, about entirely mainland-style dishes, plastered on the side of the truck. Prices were fair, with most dishes less than $ 10, some including combos with rice and soup. I was surprised to see an apparent nod to healthier ingredients here in California, as I ordered ground wimp won ton soup from one hand truck ( ca n’t recall seeing that anywhere ) and a popcorn wimp roll ( like to the omnipresent Shandong beef roll ) at another. But most of all, it was big to learn that, evening at USC, there are authentic Chinese food options for the mainland chinese students at these and other chinese food trucks in the area .
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