Garrett SnyderLeading up to this year's Best of L.A. issue (due out Oct. 4), we'll be counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes.
63: Slippery Shrimp at Yang Chow.
It's a pretty simple directive — when you go to Yang Chow, you order the slippery shrimp. Everyone does it: Chinatown tourists, L.A. city workers, late-night partiers migrating from downtown, and of course, just ordinary people who like their fried shrimp covered in a sweet-sticky sauce. It also doesn't hurt that the dish was featured on the Food Network.
And yet no one can really find an objective way to describe slippery shrimp; like Heraclitus river, you can never actually order the same version twice. At times the sauce is very spicy, sometimes only mildly so. At times it's saturated with enough garlic to wilt flowers, and other times you could swear someone drizzled a jar of honey over the whole thing. But in the middle of that shifting sweet-spicy-garlic-gooey dialectic are those plump little shrimp, dusted with cornstarch and fried in the classic Panda Express manner — no hint of slipperiness, mind you, unless you suck with chopsticks. It may be inconsistent, but it's never anything less than delicious.
It's good thing too, because although we're not economists by any measure, we'd hazard a guess that a considerable part of Chinatown's economy relies solely on this dish.
Check out the rest of our 100 of our favorite dishes. Suggestion? Write us a comment.
100: Lukshon's Dan Dan Noodles
99: Cemita de Milanesa at Cemitas Poblanos Elviritas #1
98: Chichen Itza's Cochinita Pibil
96: La Cevicheria's Bloody Clam Ceviche
94: Peruvian Chicken at Pollo a la Brasa
93: Squash Blossom Quesadilla at Antojitos Carmen
92: Thai Boat Noodles at Pa-Ord
90: Furikake Kettle Corn at A-Frame
89: Live Santa Barbara Spot Prawns at Providence
88: Fried Pig Tails at Night + Market
87: Egg Salad Sandwich at Euro Pane
85: Truffle Honey-Laced Fried Chicken at Manhattan Beach Post
84: Mool Naeng Myun at Yu Chic Naeng Myun
83: Chicken Vampiro at Mexicali Taco & Co
81: White Anchovy, Tomato and Fresno Chile Pizza at Pizzeria Mozza
80: Shu Mai at Elite Restaurant
79: Tandoori Chicken at Al-Watan
78: Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding at The Hungry Cat
77: Agedashi Tofu at Izakaya Bincho
74: The Sea Urchin Tostada at La Guerrerense
73: Wood-Roasted English Peas at Tar & Roses
72: Persian Mulberries at Weiser Family Farms
71: Hunan-Style Preserved Pork with Tofu at Hunan Chilli King
70: Brisket Banh Mi at Gjelina Take Away
69: Yukhwe Bibimbap at Oo-Kook Korean BBQ
68: Lamb Pie at Beijing Pie House
67: Son of a Gun's Uni and Burrata
66: Pastrami Reuben at Art's Delicatessen
65: Beef Koobideh at Kabab Mahaleh
64: The Whipper Burger at Hawkins House of Burgers
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