‘The fight is always somewhere in us’: Asian American history and a Little Tokyo combo meal

LOS ANGELES TIMES
BY FRANK SHYONG

The chashu shumai combo from Tokyo Gardens holds a place of honor among the taste memories of Japanese Americans in Los Angeles, a fabled casualty of Little Tokyo’s evolution over the years.

It’s a generous serving of caramelized chashu pork paired with four shumai, rice and pickles that has not been served since 2013, when Glen Ishii’s grandma hung up her apron to make way for Ishii’s restaurant, Jist Cafe.

Then the pandemic struck. Business fell by more than 50%, Ishii said. So last month, the former executive chef of the restaurant at the Omni Hotel decided to try something new that was also something very old: his grandmother’s recipe. READ MORE