Chinese Restaurant

The last boarded-up vestige of the old Oakland Mills Village Center has disappeared, replaced by Congee House, a new Chinese restaurant that residents hope will bring good fortune.Rejuvenation of the long-empty Hardee's building facing Stevens Forest Road is the kind of progress that local leaders want as Howard County looks more toward preservation of older communities after 35 years of fast growth.Neighborhood leaders are delighted to have what Village Board President David Hatch calls "the most visible building in the village center" back in business, but they're concerned that having a second Chinese restaurant might be more than the center can support.

More than 150 Baltimore County firefighters tackled a fire in a Rosedale strip mall Saturday afternoon, which appeared to have started in Jackie Chen's Chinese Restaurant, officials said. At least six stores were involved in the three-alarm fire in the 8400 block of Philadelphia Blvd., officials said. Firefighters, who were dispatched around 12:40 p.m., got it under control around 3:05 p.m. No injuries have been reported, and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Instead of crab cakes and hot pork sandwiches, diners nibbled fried rice and soft noodles yesterday at a new Chinese restaurant in Ellicott City, on the former site of Buell's, once one of Howard County's oldest taverns.Uncle Y.Y.'s Szechuan Restaurant opened its doors yesterday in the building that once housed Buell's, a 53-year-old restaurant that was known for its home-style food and as a gathering place for service clubs.Buell's opened in 1939 and had stayed in the Buell family for three generations.

Each week a nutritionist from the University of Maryland Medical Center provides a guest post to The Baltimore Sun's health blog Picture of Health (baltimoresun.com/pictureofhealth), which is printed here. This week, Shanti Lewis, RD, CNSD, weighs in on ethnic food. Are you craving food with an international flair? Charles Street in downtown Baltimore offers a huge variety of ethnic restaurants. Dining out on exotic flavors from all over the world does not have to increase your waistline.

BEIJING -- In a city where the culinary scene includes Cultural Revolution-theme restaurants and Folies Bergere-style dinner theaters, one of the most entertaining new places to eat is under water.Beginning on Valentine's Day weekend, the Blue Zoo aquarium began offering candlelight dinners in a restaurant that moves through an acrylic underwater tunnel. Over roast pork loin and red wine, diners sit transfixed as scuba divers hand-feed sand tiger sharks and targetfish cruise about the 1.2 million-gallon tank.

Yao Qiang Deng barely glanced at the two defendants, the men twice his size responsible for his months of nightmares. Instead, he focused on the Mandarin interpreter and spoke in his native language about the impact of a robbery prosecutors describe as one of the county's cruelest. "I have difficulties sleeping," the court interpreter translated for Deng. "I have lost wages." Eight months ago, Deng, a chef at the Yao Han Chinese restaurant on Liberty Road who was working to bring his family to the United States from China, was tortured in his bedroom above the restaurant and robbed of his wallet, automated teller machine card and watch.

An elderly man with thick glasses lugs a bag of sweet rice from a grocery store onto a rundown street. In a nearby building, a faded dragon's head grimaces in a hallway hung with yellowed photos. Across the street, a painted wall advertises "family dinners served all hours" at the long-gone China Inn. These are among the few remaining vestiges of the city's Chinatown, a Park Avenue block that once had bustling restaurants, stores and meeting halls, as well as exuberant Lunar New Year's parades.

IF you look by category under "restaurants" in the consumer directory, you'll find that there are more Chinese eateries by far in Baltimore than "American" or "seafood," or even "Italian." But no matter how long the Chinese list gets -- new ones are constantly being added and dropped -- if you ask Baltimoreans with memories spanning 30 years, most will recall one that isn't in the yellow pages: Jimmy Wu's.No, there isn't a Jimmy Wu's restaurant listed -- an never was. Wu was the amiable owner and one-man hospitality committee at his restaurant on Charles just below 25th called "The New China Inn."

Why do you think you can go to a Chinese restaurant and get a huge dish of food for eight bucks? Do you think the Chinese have invented a cheaper way of raising chickens?"

What's a suburban shopping center without a Chinese restaurant? Hunan Legend, which has been dispensing egg rolls, chicken lo mein and other tried-and-true dishes from a Howard County village center for a dozen years, is a perfect example of the breed. The restaurant is spacious and brightly lit inside, with white tablecloths on large round tables perfect for sharing food. The unbelievably lengthy menu offers mostly Hunan and Szechwan dishes, and touches down briefly in Thailand with a version of pad Thai.

Behind the nondescript storefront with its necessary neon window signs, Towson Best does indeed serve some of the best Cantonese food in the Towson/North Baltimore area. A group of young and unfailingly friendly owners and staff greet all who enter and set the tone for casual lunches and dinners that make you not only want to return for the food and but also to patronize a place run by such nice people. The room is divided by long planters. To your right is a tidy eight-stool sushi bar with its pristine fish and smiling chef, small booths and a few tables.

This year more restaurants than ever seemed to be open for Thanksgiving. But Christmas is still Christmas, and most places are closed on Dec. 25. Yes, many Chinese and Indian restaurants remain open on Christmas Day. But I always thought the annual Christmas Day dinner in a Chinese restaurant was one of those customs more honored in the breach than the observance. At least around here. Below are the handful of Christmas Day options I have found so far. Anything else I learn of will be posted on Dining@Large ( baltimoresun.

Around this time last year, after picking up my son from a Sunday afternoon climbing session at Earth Treks in Columbia, we drove to a nearby Chinese restaurant to pick up dinner. To our surprise, my son's government and politics teacher and his daughter were in the waiting area. It is not surprising, really, that my son's high school teacher and his family would like Chinese food. There's just something mildly shocking about seeing teachers you respect in ordinary situations.

If the world of Chinese restaurants can be divided between those with chopsticks on the tables and those with silverware, Wing Wah Restaurant in Pikesville is a knife-and-fork kind of place. Tucked among storefronts on the 500 block of Reisterstown Road, Wing Wah serves generous portions of moderately priced, mildly flavored Chinese fare. It has a neighborhood feel to it, starting with the signs on the entry doors that warn you not to park in the nearby Jiffy Lube lot, lest you be towed.

Sharen Udell prefers wearing dark colors, but the hostess at Tapas Adela knows how to make her look stand out with pops of color and unusual accessories. "I'm not a designer person. I don't follow trends," says the 45-year-old Canton resident. "I like to put different stuff together to create my own look." The look: Red ribbed cotton-blend turtleneck Bebe sweater. Black asymmetrical cotton American Apparel skirt. Black fishnets. Black leather pointy-toe boots. Black rabbit fur pom-pom scarf.

Baltimore prosecutors said Monday that a man who opened fire in a Chinese restaurant last year has received a 10-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to assault and using a handgun. In an attempted robbery March 6, 2008, prosecutors said, Fernando Perez, 24, shot his own accomplice and a 15-year-old girl inside Yeung's House Chinese Food in the 4500 block of Reisterstown Road. Both suffered minor injuries. Four other people in the restaurant at the time were uninjured. Perez, of the 2400 block of Loyola Northway, pleaded guilty Sept.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- A 12-year-old boy who was kidnapped at gunpoint Nov. 27 from his Connecticut home was found unharmed early yesterday in New York City by law enforcement officials and returned to his home in Meriden, the FBI said yesterday.But the case was far from closed, as the authorities continued to search for the two Asian men who had carried the boy, Wei Yang, out of his home without a jacket, shoes or socks after tying up his sister and mother.The FBI's Connecticut office, which is handling the investigation, was unusually secretive about the case, saying that the release of any additional information could jeopardize the investigation.

Tucked between Dave's Natural Market and Produce Galore in Wilde Lake Village Center, Hunan Family Chinese restaurant serves standard and specialized Chinese fare. "We like being in Columbia," owner Zhi Chen says. "There are a lot of people here who love to eat good Chinese food." While looking for a Chinese restaurant to buy just over two years ago, Chen says he fell in love with "Columbia's prettiness." He particularly likes being in Wilde Lake Village Center. "It's really the center of town," he says.

China Chefs, which opened in 1989, is tucked behind the Howard County General Hospital in back of a shopping center that is mostly medical offices. In all its years in business, the restaurant has rarely advertised, and it gives the impression that it prefers to be a place that only the discerning have discovered. On the wall, framed restaurant reviews from its early years claim that it is one of the best Chinese restaurants in the county, maybe even the state. (The key points are helpfully highlighted.

An elderly man with thick glasses lugs a bag of sweet rice from a grocery store onto a rundown street. In a nearby building, a faded dragon's head grimaces in a hallway hung with yellowed photos. Across the street, a painted wall advertises "family dinners served all hours" at the long-gone China Inn. These are among the few remaining vestiges of the city's Chinatown, a Park Avenue block that once had bustling restaurants, stores and meeting halls, as well as exuberant Lunar New Year's parades.