Whoa! Not sure what happened, but I had writers block while writing this post. I just could not get the words to flow. Hopefully I will get back on track again soon.

So, how ‘Far East’ would I go for a restaurant? Well, from my childhood home in Los Angeles to the ‘Far East’ Cafe in Little Tokyo in Downtown Los Angeles, it was about 7 miles, so, not too far.

The Far East Cafe first opened it’s doors in the 1930′s and is housed in an 1890′s Beaux-Arts building in the Little Tokyo Historic District of Downtown Los Angeles.

Beaux-Arts is a heavily classical style taught at the L’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris in the 19th century. The terms “Beaux Arts” is the approximate English equivalent of “Fine Arts.”

Back in the 1960′s, I recall my parents always saying let’s go out for “China Meshi”. This is the Japanese way of saying Chinese Food or more literally, China Meal, whenever they were talking about going out for Chinese food. There was a couple places that we use to go for Chinese food back then and Far East Cafe was one that we went to on occasion. When I first walked into the Far East Cafe, I couldn’t help but notice the dark colored wood panels that divided each of the eating booths. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any other restaurant with that type of interior design, either back in those days or even today.

The food was good, and I remember I had a few favorites that I requested, every time we went there. Mmmm, Chashu (BBQ pork), Almond Duck and Pakai (sweet & sour pork), which is still one of my favorites today. Anybody hungry?

On Saturday, June 7, 2008, the Far East Cafe hosted a reunion to celebrate the life of Gim Suey Chong, who was a long time waiter at the restaurant from 1950 to 1974, and the legacy of the famous Far East Cafe with relatives and new friends.

Well, the Far East Cafe name is no more, the restaurant has changed it’s name to the Chop Suey Cafe. I can’t speak about the restaurant or the food as it is today, so if anyone has been there recently, leave me a comment. Thanks!

Wikipedia.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Tokyo,_Los_Angeles

The following links tell in much more detail about the history of the Far East Cafe:
http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/article/2771/

http://chsscorg.blogspot.com/2010/01/far-east-cafe-reunion-by-raymond-chong.html

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2006/08/appreciating_the_far_east.php

One persons memories of the Far East Cafe:
http://www.kuidaosumi.com/TOwriting/w-chinameshi.html