When it comes to Christmas Day traditions, I’m a fan of eating a big nap-inducing meal at a Chinese restaurant packed with Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, and atheists. My go-to place is Shanghai Garden, where there’s a line out the door and down the sidewalk, and people hold numbered cards that the hosts bring out to deal with the Christmas crush.
“Have you ever tried Bamboo Garden?” a friend recently asked when I told him about my Shanghai Garden tradition.
I had not. The friend told me Bamboo Garden is kosher, something Shanghai Garden—with its steaming bowls of pork-infused hot-and-sour soup and delicious salt-and-pepper squid—is not even trying to be. I don’t keep kosher, but if you do (or if you are vegetarian, vegan, or otherwise strict about putting meat in its place), then you should know about Bamboo Garden.
