Crab rangoon. Sesame chicken. Fortune cookies. To millions of people raised on takeout across the U.S., they all taste like childhood. But not to Edwin Zoe of Boulder’s Michelin-recommended Zoe Ma Ma as well as Pearl Poké and Denver’s Dragonfly Noodle. Growing up in the Midwest, where his father ran a Chinese-American restaurant, he thought they tasted—well, phony.
“As a young immigrant, I felt like American-Chinese cuisine was considered less authentic, low-grade fast food, so I really tried to distance myself from it,” said Zoe. “But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve really come to appreciate it. Even though some people say it’s not Chinese food, I’ve reached the conclusion that it’s just a branch on the Chinese culinary tree. From the gold miners and the railroad workers to subsequent generations of immigrants, it has its own very rich history.”
Most food historians would agree. To label a particular dish or style of cooking “authentic” or “inauthentic,” they argue, is to misunderstand the ways in which foodways evolve around the globe. Colonizations, migrations, socioeconomic and technological shifts, and countless other factors ensure that most cuisines are neither “pure” nor static; they’re a moving target, reflecting both cultural change and multicultural exchange.
Now Zoe is honoring that historical reality with San San. Adjacent to his poke joint just off Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall, his newest venture opened on August 3 to showcase “American-Chinese cuisine in a way that elevates it,” in his words, “so people can think of it as something to celebrate rather than something they just order out of convenience.”
Edwin Zoe’s Ode to Chinese-American Cooking
The space housing San San sets the stage for such celebrations: It reads fancy but feels comforting.
“I don’t know the exact definition of ‘bougie, but I think it means a more upscale, refined environment,” Zoe joked. “We have custom furniture [whose] fabric reminds me of those Genesis luxury cars, and the colors are very vibrant.”
Against that backdrop, the chef presents a relatively concise selection of appetizers like garlic-chive dumplings and velvet crab-and-corn soup as well as entrees such as steamed sea bass with fermented black beans, ginger, and scallions. There’s also a Friday night special of prime rib with whipped horseradish cream and fried rice.
Zoe plans to update the menu seasonally, but two signatures in particular exemplify his vision for the restaurant, and they may sound familiar.
“The first iconic Chinese-American dish was chop suey,” noted Zoe. While its exact origins around the turn of the 20th century are hard to pinpoint, he “just had this image that some American probably ate it with the railroad workers and thought, ‘Gee, this is really delicious. What is it?’ And they said, ‘Uh, chop suey,’ which literally means ‘whatever’—whatever scraps that they had. Which really speaks to the resiliency of that generation.”
Zoe’s seafood-driven rendition, by contrast, manifests the bounty of his own modern-day surroundings. “We use beautiful large prawns, jumbo scallops, calamari, and eight varieties of vegetables, [because] we’re so blessed with access to so many quality ingredients in Boulder,” he said.
The second dish, General Tso’s Chicken, has its roots in a Hunanese recipe that stateside cooks liberally adapted to appeal to American palates. In the original version, “the sweetness is not so pronounced, and the sour note isn’t citrus but rather vinegar,” explained Zoe.
His homage to the take-out staple, which is brined and fried in gluten-free batter, doubles as a filling for bao come lunchtime. Which, he added, will also feature a classic cheeseburger.
“In the early days of American-Chinese restaurants, they couldn’t just serve Chinese food and expect everybody to like it, right?” he explained. “So what they ended up doing is serving burgers and meatloaf and what have you.”
To pair with it all, Zoe enlisted the help of former Mateo owner Matthew Jensen in developing what he called “a really fun beverage program.” Mixed drinks range from old-school tiki tipples such as Mai Tais and Singapore Slings to his personal favorite concoction, the Kiku Blossom with sake, elderflower liqueur, and grapefruit juice.
The cocktail menu’s rounded out by a handful of Old World wines as well as Asian beers. But Zoe’s especially jazzed about San San’s happy hour.
“I think it’s arguably the best in town,” he enthused. “I call it a ‘progressive happy hour’: From 3 to 4 p.m., our Sapporo draft, house wine, and house cocktail as well as [select] appetizers are $3. At 4 o’clock, they cost $4; at 5 o’clock, $5.” Cin cin to that! (After all, the toast derives from a Chinese expression.)
Building a Boulder Legacy
But San San isn’t just a tribute to the ingenuity and grit of generations of Chinese immigrants who came to the U.S. in search of a better life and forged a new culinary tradition in the process. The name, which loosely transliterates as “Three Mountains,” is a nod to the Flatirons, indicating the respect Zoe aims to pay to his adopted hometown.
“I love Boulder,” he said simply. “It’s truly one of the most special places that I know. So I would like first and foremost to be able to provide to my community delicious Asian food that’s good value, and Zoe Ma Ma has done that. In 16 years”—he paused to do the math—“we’ve served almost a million meals.”
And for many of his neighbors, those meals have furnished not just physical nourishment but emotional sustenance.
“More than once we’ve had people in tears,” he noted, recalling one recent patron who told him that her mother had just died, “and eating my food reminded her of home. This is an industry that’s very challenging to succeed in, so when guests react with genuine appreciation, it’s a tremendously rewarding experience.”
Their support during the lockdown phase of the pandemic, explained Zoe, was immeasurable. Without it, he said, “no amount of government programs were going to keep the doors open.”
Speaking of the trials and tribulations of the restaurant trade, Zoe also takes pride in his long-term efforts to improve conditions for the sake of his colleagues across Colorado.
“In 2016, I was very involved with raising the minimum wage when the overwhelming majority of businesses were opposed to it,” he pointed out, “and I feel like that has been beneficial for low-wage workers.”
Additionally, “for almost two years, I sat on the state task force for the Colorado paid family leave act [FAMLI], and the recommendations that we formulated were . . . essentially what was adopted in the ballot that got passed,” said Zoe, who has since heard from former employees about the ways in which the program has helped them. “So I would like to think I’ve had a positive effect on other people’s lives.”
So he has. Thinking back to when he opened Zoe Ma Ma in 2010 to showcase his mother Anna’s cooking, he admitted, “gets me a little emotional”: With all of eight tables, it had an outsized impact on a town that, at the time, mostly housed the type of Chinese take-out joint that he repudiated.
As beloved as it instantly became, he now believes that there’s room on the aforementioned Chinese culinary tree for all kinds of branches and blossoms. And he’s proving it—one great dish and good deed at a time.
Visit San San daily from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. 2014 10th St., Boulder, sansan.food
