Alice's Mandarin Taste a Combination of Cooking Cultures

Alice Hui, of Alice’s Mandarian Taste, started her restaurant in 1989 with the intention of getting herself off the ground but ended up broadening tastes of both Chinese and American patrons.

“I was a new immigrant and I had to start from somewhere to make a living,” she said. “I found that most of the Chinese restaurants when I came here were Cantonese and Polynesian. I don’t speak Cantonese, and they told me names of Chinese food I had never heard of. It was more like half American and half Chinese, but it came out nothing like Mandarin Chinese.”

Hui said she set out to make herself a niche in traditional Mandarin cuisine, which combines a lot of regional tastes just within Mandarin China itself.

Hui said she lived in both Shanghai and Xi'an, a city in the North of China and the capital of the Shaanxi Province. She said even in both those cities, there were many stark differences in cooking.

“Most people in China don’t travel,” she said. “They only know one style, but because I had the opportunity to study both, I knew the differences and that’s why I love all of it as far as cooking. People from Shanghai, their taste buds tend to be sweeter and lighter, while it’s saltier and spice in the north with more flour, pasta and noodles.”

Hui said it was this kind of combination of food cultures that allowed her to assimilate and pick up trends in the U.S. She said it was kind of jarring when she first got here.

“It was a culture shock at the beginning,” she said. “I really loved it, people were welcoming and they taught and helped me. It’s very different because I grew up in one culture with no other nationalities. You learn something new from everyone you meet. It’s very interesting and you see the way people eat is very different too.”

Hui said she tweaked many dishes, but only slightly. She said she wanted to keep it traditional without making it too foreign to the American palette.

“I still like the Chinese traditional style and I try to give customers better quality,” she said. “People responded immediately. They loved the food and I tried to learn the American culture at the time. It’s funny, when you’re doing business you meet so many different people. You do need to change certain things, but also keep the cuisine true.”

Hui said the town of Sharon has been good to her in the past 20 years, and she does her part by donating to many of the local youth sports teams, the schools and the senior center.

Alice’s Mandarin Taste is located at 37 Pond St. and is open 11:30 am - 9:45 pm, Monday-Thursday 11:30 am - 10:45 pm, Friday & Saturday Noon-9:45 pm, Sunday Closed