Chinese food

Boston Police report delivery men for two separate Chinese restaurants were held up on the same Dorchester street last week.

Around 1:40 p.m. last Wednesday, a delivery worker for Hong Kong Chef at 47 Topliff St. was held up at knifepoint there by three men who'd been sitting on the front porch of 43 Topliff when he pulled up. The suspects were described as three black men, one armed with a knife.

Boston Restaurant Talk reports the owners of the Chinese-food truck will be setting up a bricks-and-mortar restaurant in the Audubon Circle area on the Boston/Brookline line.

The Boston Licensing Board voted yesterday to suspend the license for Golden House on West Broadway for seven days after a Boston police sergeant found it open at 2:50 one morning - 50 minutes past its legal closing time.

The punishment - unusually severe for the licensing board - came despite owner Xian Wan's plea for mercy because he needed extra money due to his son dying of cancer.

At a hearing Tuesday, board members noted Wan has been caught operating past 2 a.m. before and that if he felt he needed to stay open later, he should have applied for an extension in hours - a process that could take weeks, in a neighborhood already fighting mad over early morning food service.

The board deferred any action against another West Broadway eatery, Nanning Wok, which was also caught open past its 2 a.m. closing time, but which does not have a history of closing-hour violations.

The owner of a South Boston Chinese restaurant that has had issues with its legal closing time in the past told the Boston Licensing Board today he had no choice last fall but to stay open late into the night: He needed the extra money because his son was dying of cancer.

At a hearing today, Boston Licensing Board Chairwoman Nicole Murati Ferrer said she was sorry for the situation Golden House owner Xian Wan found himself in. But, she continued, if he wants to keep his West Broadway restaurant open later than his current 2 a.m. closing time, he needs to formally request longer hours - a process that would include notifying nearby residents and meeting with a neighborhood association before the board would take action.

DotRat has video of a guy proposing to his girlfriend right on the floor of the home of the scorpion bowl this past weekend.

Limeduck was sad to see East Asia depart Somerville, but is now thrilled to bits with its replacement, DooWee and Rice, because, well, chicken hearts:

Crispy fried chicken hearts, that is. With fries and sauce. And scallions, but really, I'm mainly talking about the chicken hearts.

Did I mention they were crispy and fried? Sure, they have other stuff, spicy chicken wings, fluffy bao baos, rice bowls, noodle dishes, soups, but really, once you’ve had the "Heart-y Fries," a sort of deranged fusion poutine, the rest all seems trite.

Newton Patch reports the South Pacific in Newton has closed its doors. Fans have already put up a memorial page on Facebook.

Sounds like the Tahiti in Dedham might need a group hug.

The Dorchester Reporter reports city officials shut a Chinese restaurant on Blue Hill Avenue yesterday after inspectors found its kitchen air vent clogged with grease - and its basement clogged with rats and cockroaches.

The Fire Department in particular has paid close attention to the condition of restaurant air vents since the 2007 Tai Ho fire in West Roxbury, which started in a grease-filled vent and which killed two firefighters.

The Boston Fire Department reports a fire that started in a stove at the Ga Ga Seafood Restaurant, 25 Tyler St., went to two alarms after it was reported at 9:46 a.m.

The fire displaced 24 residents living in seven apartments above the restaurant and did an estimated $300,000 in damage - to the restaurant and six nearby businesses - the department says.

The Boston Licensing Board yesterday ordered a Meridian Street Chinese restaurant to shut for seven days after police once again found it serving food after it was supposed to be closed for the night.

Boston Restaurant Talk gets some details on Ming Tsai's proposed Blue Dragon restaurant.

Pop Bop Shop finds both good and meh at Patricia Yeo's Moksa in Cambridge:

Overall, I found Moksa to be confusing. Does it want to be an Asian restaurant or a night club? How can it have dishes that are incredible as well as dishes that taste like nothing? Why was our waiter attentive for the first hour and then he vanished?

Armed with an April food-truck schedule, David at Limeduck is attempting to sample the offerings from each truck. He starts with a visit to the venerable Savory Food Truck 1, which was dishing up Chinese food at MIT probably long before anybody at Clover was even born:

Yep, that's the stuff. Fried rice, a layer of bulk-adding cost-cutting cabbage, no more than three chunks of not-overcooked broccoli, and tons of would-be-crispy-if-n0t-drenched-in-gloopy-sauce white meat chicken. Bad for the earth styrofoam box, flimsy plastic fork. Piquant without really being spicy, served hot and fast, and filling filling filling. There's nothing Michelin-rated here except maybe the tires on the truck, but it's still a national treasure to me.

Marianna asks:

Any reccomendations for EDIBLE chinese delivery in Allston? "Good" would be even better!

A Chinatown restaurant caught serving well past its 2 a.m. closing time again was slapped with a one-day license suspension.

A manager at Bubor Cha-Cha, 45 Beach St., told the Boston Licensing Board at a hearing this week he didn't really know why the restaurant was still open at 3:15 a.m. on May 7 - when police issued the eatery a citation - but thought it might have been because the restaurant was short-staffed that night and so was simply slow to fill orders.

Lt. Det. Eric Eversley, however, told the board that around 3 a.m., he saw three people enter the restaurant, get seated and given water and silverware - as 14 other people already in the restaurant continued to tuck into their food. Eversley said the drinks were non-alcoholic.

The restaurant earned a similar citation in October for the same offense; at the time the board issued only a warning. Board Chairwoman Nicole Murati Ferrer said she'd had enough:

"You can't operate past 2 a.m.," she said. "I don't care if you have one chef or 20 chefs, there are no ifs ands or buts."

Susan B. asks:

I am craving good, quality Chinese food and I have no idea where to go in Boston/Allston/Brookline. Any suggestions?

We finally got a chance last night to try Seven Star Street Bistro, Roslindale's newest Chinese takeout place (is there some zoning code we don't know about that prohibits sit-down Chinese restaurants in Rozzie?).

The Hunan Sesame Chicken was wonderful. So was the Steamed Black Forbidden Rice (is the "forbidden" stuff crack? Because I didn't want to stop eating it). I feel my connection to Golden House on Washington Street wavering.

The Peking Ravioli, though? They were OK, but the dumpling part was kind of flavorless - only dipping them in the Hunan Sesame Chicken sauce really redeemed them. In contrast, the Peking Ravioli at Number 7 Chinese Food in West Roxbury represent Peking Ravioli perfection - it's hard to stop stuffing them in your mouth. I'm getting hungry just writing about them (Golden House doesn't offer them at all).

Seven Star Street Bistro on Belgrade Avenue opened last week after finally getting permission from the Zoning Board of Appeals to serve takeout. Fans of Chinese "street food" had been waiting for the opening for several months.

Seven Star is at least the seventh Chinese restaurant to try to make a go of the location; it was preceded by Roslindale's only Taiwanese place.

The Boston Licensing Board today rolled back the legal closing time of Canton Eatery, 339 Meridian St. for selling and delivering food after it was legally required to be closed.

Steve Selnick has a severe allergy to peanuts. He's chronicling his experiences eating out on Peanut Free: Boston:

Knowing that my meal officially wasn't happening (cross contamination is one of the scariest things to me) the manager put the icing on the cake. He said that if I had an allergy so bad that I would have anaphylaxis (which I would) that I shouldn't be eating out ... at all.

So with this friendly display of allergy ignorance, I can't advise anyone with a peanut allergy to come anywhere close to P.F. Chang's.

Gourmet Dumpling House on Beach Street in Chinatown feels you have a right to know.

The Small Boston Kitchen reports on a Chinese New Year celebration last night at the newly re-opened Dumpling Cafe on Washington Street downtown:

The steamed dumplings were so soft and tender, each bite packed with the flavors of fresh vegetables and various meats.

A take-out place that says it will recreate the "street food" found in Chinese cities is hoping to open by the end of January in the Belgrade Avenue space formerly occupied by Roslindale's only Taiwanese restaurant.

You can already take a look at Seven Star Street bistro's menu, which, unlike all the other takeout places in the area, does not go on and on and on (you can also make suggestions on the impending eatery's Facebook page).

Maybe 7 will prove a lucky number, since this will be the seventh Chinese take-out place to set up shop at the address.

Christine Li, a Canton native living in Boston, recently started More than Just Dim Sum, on which she provides suggestions on what to order in a Chinese restaurant and reviews a local Chinese restaurant each week.

A Dorchester man was arraigned today on charges he repeatedly smashed a man with a high chair at Moon Villa Restaurant on Edinboro as another man was busy stabbing him, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.