It's a great place
Posted on 06/13/2021 2:27:37 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Midtown favorite combines cheap-eat prices with quality ingredients
Charlie Hong Kong is a Midtown mainstay that features a variety of Asian dishes centered around local organic produce and nutrient-dense foods. Open seven days a week from 11am-10pm, the popular local spot has been owned by Carolyn Rudolph for 23 years. Her passion is using food as medicine and making sure the entire community has access to affordable and healthy food. She spoke to GT recently about the cuisine they serve and the philosophy behind it.
What is Charlie Hong Kong all about?
CAROLYN RUDOLPH: It’s a quick service restaurant, but it’s not fast food because everything is made to order and made fresh every day. We chop 500 pounds of organic produce every morning. We want our food to be approachable, with an Asian street food feel, and to be a welcoming place where our entire community can come and nourish themselves and their family. Because our food is so plant-based, our relationship with our local farms is essential. That produce is what defines us and Lakeside Organics, the farm we partner with, really focuses on soil quality and that’s what produces vegetables with high nutrient density.
What are the top dishes?
Our Spicy Dan is absolutely our number-one best seller, without a doubt, it’s one of our signature dishes and basically defines our restaurant. It has eggless wheat noodles which are made specifically for us, locally grown organic greens, and a coconut peanut sauce. It’s cooked in a wok, and is very creamy and nicely layered—the sauce really clings to the noodles and covers the veggies. It’s very flavorful and abundant. The community really embraces the dish; it’s extremely popular. We also sell a lot of our teriyaki chicken rice bowl. It’s served over jasmine rice and is garnished with green onion and pickled and marinated daikon and carrot. People love adding our housemade hoisin and chili garlic sauces to it. We prepare the food so that people can spike it up by adding spice to satisfy the individual palette. We also do our own unique Vietnamese chicken noodle soup. We char whole ginger and onions and add spices to the slow-cooked chicken bone broth. We use a thicker rice noodle and then garnish the dish with basil, green onion, lime, and jalapeño. It’s very popular, especially during cold season; people are really drawn to it when not feeling well, and it’s very nourishing.
1141 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz, 831-426-5664; charliehongkong.com.
It's a great place
Okay Nick, what’s your stake in this place?
It’s not just noodles is it?
5.56mm
I like the green curry, the Thai soup, other things.
Now I am starving.
the pho ga needs chicken
Me too. I used to go there after spending the day on the ocean kayaking or on the SUP. I haven’t been for a few years tho. I’d usually get takeout and go back to my stereotypical cheap Scruz motel.
Maybe will get back there at the end of summer.
/Where did you go kayaking?
They’re even substituting brown rice. With what? Meat?
Usually out of the Santa Cruz harbor kayak rental and then around to the beaches. I went to La Selva and back once - ended up in some current IIRC and nearly went to Moss Landing instead. Also, loved to go just out beyond the surf lineup towards Pleasure Point and watch. Depending on the conditions I tried to make sure the onshore breeze and tide were always in my favor for the return...Once I tried surf kayaking at Cowell’s just to see if I could make it work, ended up with so much sand in my ears it took 3 days to come out. I found that on a SUP, I could use my body as a sail and as long the chop didn’t undo me I could go quite a ways out.
Sometimes I went down to Moss Landing ( Elkhorn Slough) or Monterey and launched there instead - so lovely. Santa Cruz coast was way friendlier than San Mateo, but further from home. I lived on the Peninsula for 20 years. Some things I could have done - I regret not trying kite surfing. Also I wished I surfed more on the SUP, it’s a lot easier for micro surf. If I went back I would probably go out on a small sailing trimaran or catamaran, lot safer after 55.
“Charlie Hong Kong is a Midtown mainstay... owned by Carolyn Rudolph
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