Have you visited The Donut Factory at 102 Rockdale Ave in New Bedford yet? Here’s a look at some of their AMAZING donuts.

Series Introduction (Move down if you’re familiar with the thread or don’t care)

In this series, we hope to highlight and showcase in as interesting a way as possible, the stories behind our favorite, mouth-watering local dishes. While we’ll focus on greater New Bedford and the South Coast, we will occasionally “travel” to places like Plymouth, Providence or even Boston. I will attempt to keep it light-hearted, fun and easy to read. While I can’t promise to keep you compelled and pull you along with prose – that would take a professional writer – I will promise to be liberal with the drool-inducing images of these dishes.

I grew up in a Sicilian household where everyone – man, woman, child – was participating in preparing meals. It was a “trick” to get everyone together, talking, laughing and of course, the occasional heated debate. Food was a huge part of our identity, where we came from, who we were. There was something special about the atmosphere that revolved around a meal that we prepared.

This is certainly not unique to an Italian or Sicilian household. Every ethnic group in the country has a proud culinary tradition that they grew up around. You can easily replace “Sicilian” with Irish, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Ethiopian, Greek or anything else. This is why food as a topic is always so popular. We humans love our food and that passion goes beyond the gustatory or taste – we crave the aromas, delight in the presentation, are fueled by the atmosphere, and relish – pardon the pun – discussion about our favorite dishes, restaurants or cuisines.

One thing that is often not discussed – is glossed over, or barely touched upon – is the history or background of these dishes. Now, to some, this conjures up the voice of the guy from the “dry eyes” commercial. The terms, for many, are synonymous with “boring,” “dull,” or “It’s time to go.” However, the background can be interesting, fun, or funny and it can be so without being facetious, dumbed-down or popular. I will make every attempt to maintain a fresh balance with those elements in this series.

As always, feedback is encouraged. Anecdotes are wanted. Discussion is paramount. Please join in!

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Want to get into a fistfight? Tell someone that they are flat-out wrong about the best local spot to get caçoila and that your spot is the best. We here on the SouthCoast are rabid about our caçoila and where to go to get it and here in New Bedford, we’ll punch a Nazi in the mouth, I mean, we’ll punch someone that tells us some really bad place is the best place to get it. It’ll be like the “Red Wedding” scene.

I don’t want to even ponder the sheer terror of the concept and reality that there are millions upon millions of people across the country or even the world, that simply never heard the word or…gasp…ever tried caçoila. Clearly, these poor souls were horrible people generating dark karma over thousands of lifetimes during countless kalpas to receive such punishment.

For the rest of us, we know caçoila. Oh, we know caçoila. Our caçoila.

In fact, we know it so well, many have no problem changing New Bedford nickname from the “Whaling City” to Caçoila City. Seriously, whaling is dead, harkens back to a time when we slaughtered the poor things almost to the point of extinction, and no one really cares to call it by that name. It’s a dead name like the industry.

Caçoila, on the other hand, is alive and well. Let’s have it, Mayor Mitchell, we were the Whaling City, then that died and we became the City Of Light. Who even calls New Bedford “The City Of Light”? Caçoila City has such a nice ring to it.

While you’ll find few people that will offer much disagreement and little to no fight when it comes to the fact that no one, and I mean no one, makes caçoila better than our avó or vovó or if you aren’t Portuguese, you’ve had it at someone’s house that is Portuguese. Where the disagreement comes from is where else to get it when you don’t have access to vovó’s cooking and when it comes to that there are eateries with decades of tradition and fans behind them.

Now, I’m not going to tell you where to get the best caçoila – I don’t want to have strangers randomly punching me in the mouth or suplexing me while I’m taking out the garbage or getting a coffee – this is about caçoila, its culinary history and culture.

To begin with – for those ghastly souls who aren’t sure what caçoila is – generally, caçoila is marinated cuts of pork butt stewed for hours with spices like paprika, garlic, allspice, coriander, cinnamon, bay leaves and wine and/or vinegar. Stewed until tender, tender, tender, “fall-off-the-bone” tender. I say “generally” since some folks like to substitute pork for lamb or beef, and every region and family has their own variety steeped in tradition when it comes to the ratios or even specific spices.

It is this variety which is cause for all the hoopla and disagreement on who makes the best, but truth be told you would really be hard-pressed to find genuinely bad caçoila. You are likely just to find caçoila the way you prefer it and dislike or even bad-mouth the other ways. If you still can’t picture it, think “BBQ Pork pulled sandwich Portuguese-style without all the BBQ sauce.”

While you can, of course, find caçoila as a dish with let’s say potatoes and onions, some classic Portuguese red peppers, and sides of rice, olives and perhaps a basic salad it is probably the caçoila that reigns supreme in popularity. Using a “pop” or pãom of course. Want one of those aforementioned punches in the mouth? Go ahead and make that sandwich with an English muffin, some rye bread, gluten-free, fat-free, cholesterol-free, pro-PaleoKetogenicAtkinsSouthBeachDukan5:2, you Nazi.

The sheer practicality and handiness – pardon the pun – that comes with a sandwich when it comes to the very industrial, busy and blue-collar SouthCoast make it a favorite. You may not have time to seat and eat, you may want to continue to work, perhaps drive (you didn’t hear that from me!), keep watching the game on TV or something else. One hand on the sandwich, the other free to do other things.

Also, there is the frugality and affordability: for about $5 you can get a sandwich with some fries on the side, at the vast majority of local restaurants.

So where does caçoila come from? How many calories does it have? Who invented it or came up with it? What was vovó’s that name so we can send her flowers, love letters, and put her in our last will and testament? Well, that’s like asking “Who invented fire?” or the wheel, or breathing. It hardly matters. Especially when we can’t taste her caçoila anyway. We can, however, taste the caçoila from all the living, breathing, vovó’s in the area and that’s what matters.

If you could find out who made the first and/or had access to that original recipe as if there was some “Ur-Caçoila” it might even turn out to be so unlike your favorite way of making it that you wouldn’t like it. And no one is going to tolerate you punching a vovó in the face, pal.

There are significant differences in other Portuguese enclaves around the world anyway. So, if you are prone to being triggered you better not go to Hawaii where the Portuguese there added pineapple and a little ketchup to their caçoila sandwich. There are even sick, sadistic and twisted rumors that you can optionally add avacado. Definitely fascists.

Now, one thing that always puzzled me, and being a Grammar and Spelling Nazi (in spite of making a ton of mistakes in those departments myself) and even irked me being a First Worlder, when people would insert an “r” in the word. They would say “caçerla” and I would think “Listen, buddy: we are in the land hating on the letter ‘r.’ We lop it off of the ends of words, we skip its existence in the middle of words, we just don’t like that letter – it’s ‘pahk’ not ‘park’, it’s ‘tahtah’ sauce not “tartar” sauce. So what possessed you to add one where there isn’t one?” Why are you coming at me, bro?

I get the same feeling when I pour my bowl of cereal and find out there is no milk. It’s pure rage. I take it out on people by replying to “Have a good day!” with a “No thanks.” or “No one tells me what to do.”

Anyhow, it turns out I am a miser, curmudgeon, a cranky old man because that mysterious ‘r” that seems redundant turns up in certain regional Portuguese dialects where you will see the word as caçoila, caçoula or caçarola.

Damnit. I wanted to hear myself complain.

Looking for a great stocking stuffer? Buy a $50 Pub 6T5 (736 Ashley Blvd) gift card and get $5 for yourself. Looking for a great place to spend New Year’s Eve? Enjoy prime rib, a lobster tail and the company of some amazing people! Reservations: (508) 995-6065

Owner Rick Trapilo provides the details along with some amazing lunch specials on pizza, prime rib and more!

Here’s a look at Pub 6T5’s “New Bedford” Pizza – Linguica, onion, pepper, mushroom and a garlic olive oil crust.

Owner Rick Trapilo explains what makes Pub 6T5’s pizzas so delicious and provides a behind the scenes look at how their Margherita, New Bedford, and The 6th Bristol pizzas are made. Stop by 736 Ashley Blvd in New Bedford and try a pie!

– New Bedford Pizza – Linguica, onion, pepper, & mushroom.
– The 6th Bristol – cheeseburger, bacon, tomato, and green onion with BBQ sauce.
– Margherita Pizza – roasted garlic spread, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella, tomato, balsamic drizzle.

Who loves Thai food? Here’s a look at the Chicken Pad That and Yellow Curry at The 9th Monarch at 634 State Road in Dartmouth.

Pad Thai – The most famous Thai noodle dish, stir-fried with roasted ground peanuts, bean sprouts, egg, tofu, and scallion. Shown with Chicken.

Yellow Curry – mild yellow curry and coconut milk with pineapple chunks, peppers, onions, tomatoes, and squashes. Shown with chicken.

Series Introduction (Move down if you’re familiar with the thread or don’t care)

In this series, we hope to highlight and showcase in as interesting a way as possible, the stories behind our favorite, mouth-watering local dishes. While we’ll focus on greater New Bedford and the South Coast, we will occasionally “travel” to places like Plymouth, Providence or even Boston. I will attempt to keep it light-hearted, fun and easy to read. While I can’t promise to keep you compelled and pull you along with prose – that would take a professional writer – I will promise to be liberal with the drool-inducing images of these dishes.

I grew up in a Sicilian household where everyone – man, woman, child – was participating in preparing meals. It was a “trick” to get everyone together, talking, laughing and of course, the occasional heated debate. Food was a huge part of our identity, where we came from, who we were. There was something special about the atmosphere that revolved around a meal that we prepared.

This is certainly not unique to an Italian or Sicilian household. Every ethnic group in the country has a proud culinary tradition that they grew up around. You can easily replace “Sicilian” with Irish, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Ethiopian, Greek or anything else. This is why food as a topic is always so popular. We humans love our food and that passion goes beyond the gustatory or taste – we crave the aromas, delight in the presentation, are fueled by the atmosphere, and relish – pardon the pun – discussion about our favorite dishes, restaurants or cuisines.

One thing that is often not discussed – is glossed over, or barely touched upon – is the history or background of these dishes. Now, to some, this conjures up the voice of the guy from the “dry eyes” commercial. The terms, for many, are synonymous with “boring,” “dull,” or “It’s time to go.” However, the background can be interesting, fun, or funny and it can be so without being facetious, dumbed-down or popular. I will make every attempt to maintain a fresh balance with those elements in this series.

As always, feedback is encouraged. Anecdotes are wanted. Discussion is paramount. Please join in.

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“Tis the season and nothing says “Thanksgiving” and “Christmas” more than the food and drinks that come with them. When these holidays are mentioned they conjure up the various seasonal flavors and aromas we all love. Often, a drink is needed to destress or unwind after the work, stress and sweat that goes into the planning, cooking, shopping, decorating and everything else that goes into making the holidays go off without a hitch.

Summer has its drinks that conjure up sand, sunshine, and beaches. Coconut, little umbrellas, citrus, and fruit put summer in your drink. When it comes to fall and winter, a whole new host of ingredients come into play – hazelnuts and chestnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, apple, et al.

The fun in these drinks shouldn’t be limited to simply spiking some eggnog or hot chocolate when there is a myriad of traditional seasonal drinks that have been around for decades, even centuries. Want to treat your guests to a pleasant surprise? Offer them more than just a cocktail, but perhaps a little ice-breaking – pardon the pun – chit-chat about what the cocktail is, how old it is and where it came from.

Here are 7 traditional holiday drinks with a little history presented in a light and fun way.

Tom And Jerry

Nothing cartoonish or funny about this classic that marries brandy, rum, and eggnog and served hot but the cartoon characters did get their names from the drink. The “Tom & Jerry” has been around since the early 1800s when British journalist, and writer on popular culture and sports, Pierce Egan, made the drink popular by elevating the “spiked eggnog” to the next level, called it the Tom & Jerry based on characters in his book Life in London, or The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn Esq. and his Elegant Friend Corinthian Tom. Say that five times fast. Then say it fives times fast after having a few Tom & Jerry cocktails

As is evident by any trip to the supermarket during the holidays, folks love eggnog in many flavors and one flavor that goes well with it is vanilla and in my opinion, a vanilla “Tom & Jerry” with a light sprinkle of nutmeg is the best version of a “Tom & Jerry.” Some like to put a sprinkle of cinnamon, a little sugar to sweeten the deal and for presentation some beaten eggs. The flavor? Think of a homemade sugar cookie.

Incredibly easy to make, but be forewarned: very addictive!

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Mulled Wine, Glögg or Glühwein

The first time I had this popular Christmas drink was while on sabbatical backpacking Europe. I was in the Rhineland-Palatinate in Southwest Germany attending an outdoor film festival. Yes, it was cold. Yes, the Glühwein – which I absolutely loved – made the weather bearable. Well, that plus the blanket they offered.

Traditionally the wine is red, but of course, white wine is an option. Heck, here in Portugal, er…I mean, the SouthCoast you can do it with green wine. Heat the wine, add mulling spices which typically are cinnamon, fennel seed/star anise, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, orange or lemon, and ginger and voila: instant happy. How long has mulled wine been around? Since ancient Rome. How popular is it? You’d be hard pressed to find a European nation that doesn’t enjoy some variant and that incles eastern Europe and the Baltic States. It can also be found in Canada, Russia and even Turkey.

Popular variations include using Port or a Madeiran wine, fruit wines like cherry and blueberry, mit Schuss or with a shot of brandy, akvavit (Glögg), or vodka. If you are a fan of Victorian England and/or Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” then you know about the “Smoking Bishop” variation which used citrus fruits that are roasted until caramelized. Can you say “Yuuuum!!”?

There are even variations of the “Smoking Bishop” called, the Smoking Archbishop (w/ Claret), Smoking Beadle – a sort of church usher (using ginger wine and raisins), Smoking Cardinal (using Rhine wine or Champagne), and a Smoking Pope (using Burgundy win). They all sound good to me!

Wassail or Hard Cider

The word Wassail instantly conjures up Christmas Carols as it is synonymous with the virtually dead activity. Whatever happened to that?

The word is an Old English word was hál, meaning “be healthy” which was itself taken from Old Norse. That’s just hoity-toity talk to say that the word goes back a looooooong way. In fact, to the Middle Ages when it was used a good thousand years or more, ago. So long ago, that you wouldn’t understand the English if you heard it today. The point is that the word and drink was common parlance at one point in England well before the United States existed.

The reason for its popularity and why it is associated with Christmas is because Wassail is a cider-based drink and apples are harvested late in the year and there is typically a surplus. What to do when you have a surplus of fruit? Make booze, of course!

The hot, mulled punch or cider was originally made from a mead – fermented honey – in which roasted crab apples were tossed in. Sound familiar? Yes, this is the original “bobbing for apples.” Apparently, someone thought “Mead is gross. Let’s just make booze from the apples and forget the mead.” Kick it up a notch by mulling it with nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and some sugar, then heat it up since it was cold outside and you have wassail – the perfect hot cup of something with alcohol in it to warm your bones while caroling.

Well, we know that booze heating you up is just an Old Wive’s Tale – these wise ladies got a bad rap if you ask me – but its placebic effect was enough. Along with thinking the booze was heating you up, was the ginger which actually does improve circulation. A little ginger, a little placebo, and you were warmer or at least you thought so. “It’s real to me damn it.”

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Eggnog

Once upon a time, in the Pleistocene Era – which for those of you who don’t know, is in the early to middle 1970s – eggnog was a popular holiday drink mom would make and kids would go mad for it. The first eggnog of the season was a momentous one: it officially signaled that school vacation was coming, lots of holiday specials on TV, driving about looking for Christmas trees, and unwrapping presents was all right around the corner.

The story behind the word is an ugly, dull one that covers centuries and many nations. Yeah, not going there. The only fact surrounding the word is that the first known use of the word “nog” was in 1693. What about the “egg”? Not going there either. Who cares about that stuff?

Eggnog brought the whole house together because the kids could join in drinking it and the adults could get the spiked version. It was fun as a kid, to pretend you were joining the adults and maybe, just maybe an adult accidentally put a little booze in yours. You could even placebo yourself into swearing it happened and you were a bit tipsy.

Traditionally a mixture of milk and cream, some whipped egg whites, egg yolks and sweetened with sugar before whipping it into a froth, you then would sprinkle a little cinnamon and/or nutmeg over the top. Adults could add a little whiskey, rum or brandy with it and for those cold days you could warm it up.

These days, you “run to Cumby’s” and choose from 813 flavors including cookie dough, Oreo, sugar cookie, etc. Is that stuff even have egg or nog in it? The ingredients are usually listed something like milk, sugar, cream, sugar, egg whites, sugar, egg yolks, sugar, and then sugar. You can even get eggnog “creamers” whereby you can make eggnog lattes, add to your coffee, or even pour into you custard mix. Of course, all of those creamers come in the 813 flavors.

Call me a throwback, but I’ll take the homemade traditional eggnog over those cleverly disguised “milkssugars” any day. Same with the coffee. Can we just leave some things alone?

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Hot Toddy

The Hot Toddy is a perennial favorite and one that tops many people’s list. Why? Well it has booze. That’s it. Just kidding.

The word Toddy was gifted to us from India – the culture that also gave us words like pajamas, bungalow, loot, and punch as in liquor and fruit. They also gave us vindaloo, roti, curry, raga, Yoga, Bollywood, Sanskrit, and Nithya Menen. Good people, those Indians.

The Hot Toddy became famous or infamous depending on your point of view, as a nightcap. The typical Hot Toddy was some warmed whiskey, water, honey, a dash of clove and cinnamon, and optionally use tea instead of water. Place a slice or lemon on the rim and you will have sweet dreams of chestnuts roasting on an open fire. If not, at least it would put you in a good mood and your heart wouldn’t be an empty hole, your brain wouldn’t be full of spiders and you wouldn’t have garlic in your soul. No one likes a mean one around the holidays.

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Brandy Alexander

Changing gears a little, we have the Brandy Alexander – a cocktail containing brandy (duh), creme de cacao, cognac, and cream that has been around since the 1920s. You know “brandy” but who the heck is Alexander? That’s a road that is just going to be more arguing. Let the snobs argue, we’ll just sip, enjoy, and smile.

Speaking of snobs, the drink has been associated with sobs, the rich, the wealthy and famous since its inception. From royal weddings, a Russian Tsar (Alexander, duh), and in movies like Tattoo, Days Of Wine and Roses, and Two Lovers to being John Lennon favorite and mentioned in books by Kurt Vonnegut and Chuck Palahniuk. Have a few and you can easily pretend you are a tsar, celebrity, famous musician or musician and entertain all your friends.

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Poinsettia

This last one I’ve been hearing and hearing and hearing about and it seems it is growing in popularity to the point that it wants to be added to the list of holiday cocktails. The simple drink is a detour from all the previous ones in the sense that it is a mixture of Cointreau, champagne, and cranberry juice. Alternatively, you can replace the Cointreau with the more affordable, Triple Sec.

The champagne adds the festive quality that comes with the holidays. The cranberry adds the seasonal (and regional) aspect and the Cointreau is the orange in the lemon or orange citrus element you see in so many of the other drinks. Not sure heating it up would be very appetizing though. I’ve never had warm or hot champagne, but I’ll pass on that.

Where does the name come from? Well, the color of the drink and the flower match and of course, the Poinsettia flower is a common one on the holidays.

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Honorable mentions go to the popular Hot Buttered Rum and English Christmas Punch which need no write-up to detail, the Ovaltine – “You’ll shoot your eye out!” and the Mayan Hot Chocolate which can be spiked to make them “festive” for the holidays. The Mayan Hot Chocolate is the adult version of hot cocoa that has cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, honey, and a little kick to warm you up courtesy of a chili pepper.

Lastly, is my personal favorite which is not a cocktail, but just something you pour over the “rocks”: DiSaronno on the rocks. I don’t like 35 flavors competing in my glass, and I don’t need all the extra calories from fillers, creams, eggs, etc. Just something about Amaretto that reminds me of the holidays.

The only drawback to the drink is ordering it a bar. You have to look both ways, make sure no one is listening and say “DiSaronno on the rocks, please.” You don’t want to be “that” guy.

Love chicken or duck? Here’s a look at the Red Pik Paw chicken and Tamarind Duck at The 9th Monarch at 634 State Road in Dartmouth.

Red Pik Paw – Sauteed chicken with pepper, mushrooms, scallions, and cashew with special pik pao sauce served on a bed of lettuce.

Tamarind Duck – Crispy half boneless roasted duck, sliced & topped with diced onions, peppers, carrots, mushrooms, and baby corns, in-house special ginger tamarind sauce.

It takes a lot of hard work to make delicious donuts! Here’s a look at what it takes to bring you the amazing sugar glazed donuts at The Donut Factory on 102 Rockdale Ave.

Here is another installment in our Who Remembers? series. You can browse previous articles by using the search bar on the right or by clicking here. These articles are strolls down memory lane. In some cases, the buildings, but new businesses have replaced them. In other instances, the buildings or even the properties have been razed. Instead of a building, it may be a TV show, personality, or commercial that no one longer exists. Either way, it can’t stop us from taking the Memory Lane stroll!

As always we would rather this be a discussion. No one knows this area better than those who grew up here! Please, leave constructive criticism, feedback, and corrections. We’d love to hear your anecdotes. Please share!

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Once upon a time, there used to be high-end Chinese restaurants. In this golden age, the fancy decor resembled a palace in Beijing’s Forbidden Zone, the dishes offered were of an uncommon variety, and the customer service was exemplary. You could even dress up for the occasion.

People wanted “cheap, cheap” even if it meant sacrificing ambiance, menu variety, or quality. First, the combination plates came. Then the buffet came. These restaurants slowly died or replaced and now the words Chinese Food conjure up the question “Buffet or order to-go?”

Those of us longer in the tooth will remember a time when buffets weren’t so common and they weren’t even a preferred dining choice. There are still a few placed in the region where you can find these remnants, but generally speaking the idea of dressing up to have Chinese Food has lost its luster.

One of my favorite restaurants of this type – actually, one of my favorite restaurants of all-time – was Tofu Restaurant that was “on the bridge.” While technically it was on the “Fairhaven” side of the bridge it was a popular destination of people on both sides of the bridge.

Tofu replaced a Ground Round that was in the spot previously and today that spot is a news and magazine shop with a Dunkin’s Donuts next door.

The building had that classic Chinese exterior with large, dark, carved wooden beams, ornate and elaborate columns at the entrance, and large extravagant gate-like doors to greet you. It was like a fancy restaurant from Tang Dynasty traveled through time and crash landed like a TARDIS.

Inside was just as fancy, elegant and highfaluting. There was a bar to your left once you walked in and a quintessential fish tank that was populated with all manner of different fish to your left. Gazing into the interior one could see that just like the exterior, it was like traveling through time and space to a building in ancient China with all its royal trappings, decorations, and pomp. A full setting at each of the dark, wood tables, bamboo, plants, tapestries and Chinese woodcuts were spread throughout and the aroma coming out of the kitchen gave you a glimpse of the deliciousness that was waiting.

One of the things that stood out immediately when you visited was that you were always warmly greeted and escorted to your table and then your coat or jacket was drawn from your shoulders and when you sat in your chair you were assisted into place. I do not remember a place since Tofu that did something similar. The concept has died out in this region anyway.

The customer service was impeccable. I remember one time that my brother elbowed his fork off the table by accident and by the time he had bent over and picked it up the waiter was already at the table with a fresh, clean fork. While not a big deal in its own right, it highlights how attentive the service was. These days it seems like you need an airhorn and those small, orange flags the runway workers use at airports to get anyone’s attention.

But who cares about all that? Remember the food? While there were some Chinese classics and standards there were plenty of dishes that you just don’t anymore. Some were original to Tofu and others would now be considered obscure. One of my favorite dishes of my entire life was a dish called a Mongolian Hot Pot. While it’s been something like 20 years since Tofu closed its doors and I’ve had it, just these words have me literally salivating.

The classic Mongolian Hot Pot usually refers to a pot of rich ginger-based broth joined by a dozen or more ingredients spread out on a wooden block, but this version was a large clay pot with everything placed in it already. It would be tossed in an oven to simmer and marinate until all the mouth-watering flavors married. Inside the pot was an assortment of vegetables like Bok Choy, straw and Enoki mushrooms, wood ears, bamboo shoots, sliced chestnuts, green onion, and other ingredients I can vaguely recall.

The coup de grace that transports this dish into the foodie heaven stratosphere are two ingredients: the plump, juicy and succulent Shiitake mushrooms which add texture and lots of flavor and the tender, juicy perfectly cooked morsels of pork whose fat would dissolve into the stock leaving an unctuous velvety and Umami element. To eat it was life-changing!

There were a lot of uncommon dishes similar to this on the menu like some of the best Ma Po Tofu (“Pock-Faced Lady” dish) I’ve ever had, Peking Duck, Mantou (steamed Chinese buns), Baozi (stuffed Chinese buns – like dumpling buns), there may have even been Shark Fin Soup.

The owner was a man called Lonnie – I don’t recall his last name – but he was very kind and affable fellow. Once I bumped into him in Chinatown in Boston and he treated me like a long lost friend, showed me around and even bought lunch. He was from the “old country” and wanted his restaurant to be just like the ones you would see back in China – from items on the menu, to decor and ambiance, to customer service.

He was very proud of the restaurant and it was quite popular with the locals… until the cursed bridge “got” to it. When the bridge was down for an entire year for repairs (shipped of to the south) many businesses on the bridge suffered greatly and Tofu became one of the casualties, along with a friends business that also operated on the bridge. What was a simple, quick trip to a fantastic lunch or nice night out became a “We have to go 15 minutes around and through backed up traffic to get to Tofu.”

Almost instantly the restaurant’s clientele came around less frequently and to make up for it, Lonnie altered the menu to have cheaper items and prices. When that didn’t work, they added a buffet to it and that was the sort of last-ditch effort in a death spiral. Lonnie simply couldn’t afford to keep the doors open and struggled while the bridge underwent repairs. That hideous bridge cost more than the dollars wasted on it. It ruined people’s livelihood, careers and businesses.

While Tofu survived during that year, the blow to the business was one he couldn’t recover from and in spite of the fact that the bridge was allowing through traffic, people had either dropped Tofu from their mind or when they tried out the “new” and not improved restaurant and menu they were disappointed and didn’t come back.

Eventually one of the better restaurants in the area closed their doors and I heard Lonnie and much of his staff went back to Asia, likely bitter from the experience. They did something with passion, care, and excellence – they did everything right, but good ol Massachusetts does what it always does – kills businesses with red tape, excessive paperwork, permits, licenses, and permits or perpetual road/infrastructure construction.

The only other places I can recall that were upscale Chinese eateries – whether they are now or not – were Chong Hing towards Fairhaven/Mattapoisett way that I believe is a car lot or condos, Chuck’s China Inn on Acushnet Avenue and Cathay Temple in Mattapoisett. There may be or have been others but my memory is poor. These places may be excellent in their own rights, but no restaurant in the area today offers the style of customer service that Lonnie and Tofu offered.

The only place that came close in my experience was the one in either Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun. It was even more upscale, and that restaurant was an authentic Chinese Restaurant with the menu in Chinese and English and offering dishes like Bird’s Nest and Shark Fin Soups, 5-course Peking Duck, Wan Dou Huang (Split Yellow Pea Cake), offal dishes and more.

Mind you I enjoy the many Chinese Restaurants in greater New Bedford, but we are now left with luncheon specials, buffets, and casual dining expereinces. You have to head to Providence or Boston for something different than that.