Kathy Fang estimates that she spent between 10 and 15 years trying to convince her father, Peter Fang, that they should have a cookbook for House of Nanking (919 Kearny Street), their 37-year-old restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
“He’s like, ‘Nope, we’re not doing any cookbook,’” she said in a recent interview from their 17-year-old SoMa restaurant, Fang. “Because he always thought that if I release a cookbook, everyone’s going to know how to make this, and no one’s going to come to eat at the restaurant. And I said, ‘Dad, it doesn’t work that way!’ Cookbooks are ways to celebrate the restaurant. I have tons of cookbooks, I don’t necessarily cook from all those restaurant cookbooks, but I love seeing them. I love knowing, oh, this is how they make it, and a lot of times there are stories associated with it.
“And then the other aspect of it was my parents created something that I feel is quite iconic,” Fan continued, “and really truly an accomplishment considering they immigrated here from China with less than $40 in their pocket, barely spoke English, and found a way to save money to create a restaurant that was only meant to put food on the table and give me better opportunity. Then it turned out to become such an institution and such a popular place. I thought it would be sad if one day the restaurant didn’t exist anymore, for whatever reason, all those stories, those memories, those recipes would be lost.”
Fang eventually convinced her father that it was a good idea to write a book, and recently revealed that House of Nanking: Family Recipes from San Francisco’s Favorite Chinese Restaurant will be released on September 30 (and is available to preorder now).
One big challenge that she faced when starting the book: there wasn’t a written archive of recipes for House of Nanking.
“The Chinese culture of cooking food, even from my family, is that no one writes anything down,” she explained. “Even at the restaurant, the way we learn, nobody writes anything, it’s all by memory and by feel. I also feel there are a lot of people from my generation that want to cook all these dishes that their family used to make, and have no idea how to do it.
“So there are multiple reasons. Now it just feels so good to be able to finally put something together, really in honor of what my family have been able to accomplish. It’s also an ode to all immigrants who have come here and basically done what we have been doing. Our story’s not extraordinary, it’s very common.”
The excellence in these businesses, in this food, isn’t that common, I countered. House of Nanking has famous fans, including Sean Penn and Keanu Reeves, who made it Neo’s favorite noodle shop in The Matrix 4, and circulates as a top restaurant recommendation among comics such as Bob Odenkirk, Kathy Griffin, Jimmy Kimmel, and Brian Posehn.
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“Well, I would say yes, the amount of success that they were able to create,” was more than above average, Fang said. “My dad is completely self-taught; he didn’t originally learn anything in culinary arts back in China. In fact, he didn’t think he was going to go and become a chef.
“We have customers who come here 30 years in, 37 years in, and talk to us about dishes they can vividly remember. To me as a chef, and even as someone who loves food, it’s impactful when you can remember something, a food memory. That means something is really good. Because we eat three times a day, every single day. And for someone to remember something you’ve made so vividly, that means you’ve really accomplished something special.
“So in that sense it is quite extraordinary. It’s very hard, the restaurant business is one of the hardest businesses to be in. Most restaurants fail within the first two years and there are so many different factors. So the fact that we are still here 37 years in, and still so busy is quite an accomplishment.”
The book includes not only House of Nanking recipes, but dishes that her parents made for her at home, like a favorite steamed pork hash with egg that she recently demonstrated on her Instagram account.
“The book is incredibly story-driven,” Fang explained. “It’s really a chance for me to honor my family, and what they’ve been able to accomplish. To honor all the immigrants who’ve sacrificed and moved to a place that they don’t know at all, and really deeply rooted themselves to support their families. And in turn to support a community, and society, and the city that they belong to.
“When I asked my parents, if you could move anywhere else… They don’t want to go anywhere, they want to stay here. Their home is now San Francisco. They could go back to China, they could go anywhere, but now, they are rooted here. They don’t even want to leave Chinatown! My dad still eats breakfast in Chinatown, lunch in Chinatown.
“This has become their home. So I think it’s important to share that there are a lot of people like this around us and sometimes we forget how hard it is for them to actually have rooted themselves here. It’s important to appreciate that.”
Check out my full interview with Fang in the video below:
Tamara publishes the California Eating website, newsletter, and zine, and has just launched the Food Book Club.
