RIGHT, Tsai Lee’s kitchen requires the best ingredients available, and the Farmers Market provides a good source of vegetables. He also enjoys gardening at his Carpinteria home.


BELOW, appealing to the eye as well as the stomach is a tenet of Chinese cuisine. Some intricately carved vegetable “flowers” aren’t just for decoration and may be eaten.


BOTTOM, light touches of sauces and condiments bring out the flavors of the fresh ingredients.


menu which features the Szechaun and Mandarin fare more familiar to American palates. His special dishes include Taiwanese-style spicy stewed beef noodle soup, fried and steamed fish dishes, curried tofu, and Taiwanese hot pot. It is his never-ending search for the perfect ingredients that results in keeping the restaurant full all 364 days a year it is open. It is closed Thanksgiving. For example, it is not uncommon for Lee and May to sift through 20 pounds of fresh snow pea leaves (yes, leaves) for a yield of only four to five pounds of acceptable leaves.


Ingredients are procured by regular visits to Santa Barbara’s Fisherman’s Market and Farmers Markets along with frequent deliveries of Chinese produce and groceries from Los Angeles’ China- town.


Being a stickler for details has paid off—Uncle Chen has received the highest compliment a Chinese restaurant can achieve: “When Chinese people come here they order off the menu, what- ever my father recommends or whatever he has


78 carPinteriaMaGaZINE


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92