Kam Po

Kam Po, 5884 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA, 703-578-4017 (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [City Paper]
They have Chinese dishes and Peruvian dishes, with mutual influence running both ways. Visitors to Lima will be familiar with the concept, the place is run by Chinese Peruvians. An interesting novelty, and reasonably good, but it doesn’t beat trying either cuisine pure up.

John Chia, the owner of Kam Po, says he chose Leesburg Pike near Baileys Crossroads for his Chinese-Peruvian eatery because it is convenient for the region’s estimated 75,000 Peruvian transplants as well as other Latinos. “Old ethnic neighborhoods, all your restaurants were walking distance,” he says. “Now 99 percent of my customers come in cars.” (Kam Po is what in Lima would be called a chifa , run by Chinese immigrants to Peru who moved to the D.C. suburbs, bringing their own brand of fusion food with them.)

“Ethnic Goes Exurban: Washington’s Sprawl, As Told Through Its Migrating Restaurants,” by Tyler Cowen, The Washington Post, September 3, 2006

Related Posts: