Chinese food in a bar...

I ate at this really interesting Chinese restaurant called "Chop Wok" in the Valley the other night. KC discovered it quite serendipitously as he was working late one night and didn't want to eat room service. As it turns out, this place is a classic hole-in-the-wall joint that looks rather like a bar in the Bahamas facing an identity crisis in the desert. The tiki-hut style entrance, the big Texan hat against a big red star, little colored glass beads stuck on the ceiling in a unexpectedly well-designed pattern, a paper red dragon and 2 ceramic pigs with wings hanging from the ceiling, guitars and drums autographed by local bands arranged on the walls, a picture of Jimi Hendrix, a shiny mannequin made of mosaic, Deep Purple album covers...I could go on.

Yes, I am still talking about a Chinese restaurant - the menu offered a wide variety of Chinese food, with some interesting combinations such as Kiwi-Strawberry chicken (huh?) and Cantonese scampi shrimp, as well as a pretty lengthy section for vegetarian food. Surprisingly, we couldn't spot a single Chinese person in the staff. The menu offered all items by pint or quart, and our appetizers and dinner were served in little takeout containers even though we were dining in. We played foosball as we waited for our dinner to arrive and ate at the bar. The food was pretty good and surprisingly low-priced for a town like Scottsdale - I tried the scampi and lived to tell this tale, though AS and NS later mentioned that the chicken didn't seem as fresh as they'd have liked it.

But, needless to say, the completely unconventional, rather surreal, combination of good quality, Chinese food in a Southern, unpretentious bar playing some great music, was what really won me over. Why can't we have a place like this in the city by the Bay?