Food takes us to all sorts of places. A single bite could unlock a memory, promise far-flung adventures and, in some rare cases, bring you back home.
That was how I felt stepping into Alice's Kitchen in Temple City for the first time, that disorienting and giddy experience of somehow having been delivered thousands of miles away to my childhood city. I have been to my fair share of Hong Kong eateries in the SGV, but never had I felt transported.
The Hong Kong touch
Alice's Kitchen opened in Monterey Park in the summer of 2019 — months before COVID 19 shut down indoor dining. Those strange times were a nudge for the owners to figure out the restaurant's post-pandemic future, says longtime supervisor Tim Yu. To get an edge, they opted for a complete makeover of the space by leaning deep into its Hong Kong roots.
"Diners now like to post photos and videos on social media, right?" said Yu in Cantonese. "They decided to go with the theme of nostalgia."
Alice's Kitchen specializes in quintessentially Hong Kong fare — fast, cheap, everyman items like pineapple buns (with a thick slab of butter inside), wonton noodles, ham and egg sandwiches, Hong Kong milk tea — or what Hong Kongers would call cha chaan teng food.
The direct translation from Cantonese is "tea restaurant," but cha chaan teng (birthed after World War II to provide affordable Western food for locals living in the then British colony) has become more aligned in spirit to the age-old American diner. Bare-bone, no non-sense eateries serving bare-bone, no non-sense food.
Classic Hong Kong style tea and coffee
Classic Hong Kong style tea cafe food.
For Alice's Kitchen, it meant bringing things big and small from Hong Kong, including shipping over a bona-fide (and decommissioned) taxi that's now parked at its Monterey Park location.
"Even for us who work at the restaurant, whenever we go back to Hong Kong, we'd be thinking about what to bring back to add to the displays," said Yu.
Doubling down
Yu says business started to pick up toward the end of 2021, about six months after most pandemic-related restaurant restrictions ended in California.
"Many of our customers live in Arcadia, or Chino. They kept telling us to open another location closer to them," Yu said.
When it came time to expand, Alice's Kitchen doubled down on the concept at its new, second location in Temple City — a.k.a the place I walked into that took me back to Hong Kong.
The open floor packed haphazardly with chairs and tables, the blast of Cantopop barely audible above the restaurant's din, the faux storefronts peddling vintage Hong Kong curious — all combine to conjure the image of a dai pai dong, a dying breed of downhome street restaurants in Hong Kong.
By one estimate, the number of this culinary establishment has dwindled from hundreds to at most a couple dozens in that city.
Seeing it alive and thriving oceans away in the San Gabriel Valley, to this Hong Kong immigrant at least, gives "comfort food" a whole new meaning.
Interior of Alice's Kitchen in Temple City.
Customers eat noodles at a street food stall, or 'dai pai dong' in Cantonese, in Hong Kong in 2016. The eateries are a nostalgic throwback to Hong Kong's past.
A newstand with Hong Kong magazines from the 1980s at Alice's Kitchen in Temple City.
A bus stop from Hong Kong.
A faux storefront micmicking a real estate office from Hong Kong.
A display with posters and other vintage curios from Hong Kong
