Las Vegas dining is ruled by big-name chefs like Wolfgang Puck, Joël Robuchon and Daniel Boulud. But the restaurants from the famous types are usually more expensive and less well reviewed than their New York and Paris counterparts--and are sometimes set in fake New York or fake Paris.
The New York Times has word this week, though, on a genuine ethnic neighborhood in Sin City--the makeshift Chinatown that has sprung up over the last decade. This being Las Vegas, even Chinatown is set in a mall:
Ask any Chinese tourist and you'll find that Las Vegas' Chinatown is high on their checklist. Tour buses regularly motor a mile off the Strip to stop at Chinatown Plaza, an open-air mall founded in 1994 ...
"Everyone in China knows about Chinatown here," one woman said. "They go to the Strip, and then they go to Chinatown."
Like so many other Chinatowns, Vegas' has a great restaurant scene, with everything from Sichuan to Korean on offer. And, yes, there's plenty of karaoke.
Tired of wasting your time in New York's Chinatown gulping down noodles and getting three I ♥ NY shirts for $10? Turn up your budget one notch, and check out Swing Fridays at Grand Harmony Palace on Mott Street.
Cover is $15 and includes live music until midnight. Food and the full bar are available but aren't included. Fear not, first-timers: Lessons are on the house at 9 pm.
Upcoming weekends will feature Michael Arenella and the Dreamland Orchestra as well as George Gee and the Jump, Jivin' Wailers. Totally reminds us of that scene in "Swingers" when Jon Favreau dances with Heather Graham. But, you know, in Chinatown instead of Hollywood.
On the outskirts of Berlin, a Chinese couple is working to build at €500 million Chinatown that'll be the first in Germany. But classic European bureaucracy is gumming up the works: The project has been in development for three years and ground has yet to be broken.
Before the bulldozers can start rumbling, all manner of paperwork needs to be finished. That has Chinese developer Hongbin Ren learning about Europe before he can share his culture with Germany:
He had never heard of some the expressions he was reading, phrases like "spatial planning procedure," "development of the local public transport system" and "substantiated preliminary draft development plan." It was time for Mr. Ren to get to know the real Germany.
Until then, he had seen the country as a place with good air, wide-open spaces and industrious people. He was about to encounter the invisible Germany, the land of ordinances and regulations.
Totally reminds us of trying to buy stamps in Italy. With some luck, work on the Chinatown project could start by this summer. There'll be lots to do: Blueprints call for pagodas, gardens, an opera house and even a replica of the Great Wall of China.
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by BS
