Photograph by George Sakkestad
Bing Tam offers a smoked chicken dish at Jasmine Chinese Cuisine.
By Suzanne Cristallo
"I love to cook for them," Bing Tam says of his takeout customers, who make up a third of the business at Jasmine Chinese Cuisine restaurant in Los Gatos. Acknowledging that the pace of life has increased greatly since he opened his doors 15 years ago, Tam says diners swarm in after work to pick up the meals they have neither the energy nor the time to fix after long commutes. "Besides, it's as inexpensive to eat here as it would be if they bought and prepared it at home."
Tam, 53, has been cooking since he was a child helping his mother in Hong Kong. He and his wife, Lee, came to San Jose in 1976. He worked "at anything" in the restaurant business, eventually buying and selling two restaurants before settling on Jasmine in 1982, and moving with their three children to Saratoga. He formed the TamLee Corporation for the purchase of the place along with his wife and longtime cook, Bill Wong, as the stockholders.
"We're experts on hot and spicy food," he says of the Mandarin and Szechwan cuisine they serve. "Our employees--five besides myself-- work like a family because we've been together here so long. That makes us consistent."
They offer a simple menu covering beef, pork, poultry and seafood with several vegetarian dishes, soups, rice and noodles. Customer favorites are Mongolian beef and Kung Pao and Hunan chicken for $6.95. In fact, everything except seafood is $6.95 or less. Specials such as tangerine chicken and honey walnut shrimp with nonfat dressing are offered everyday. "We'll handle special requests anytime, but people want the same things," Tam says of his customers who have been coming for years. His children have grown up working in the restaurant on weekends--two are now at UC-Davis--and customers' children have grown up eating there. "They come back to say hello," he smiles.
Jasmine Chinese Cuisine, Lyndon Plaza, 20 S. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos. Open for lunch Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Dinner Mon.- Thu., 4:30-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 4:30- 9:30 p.m. Closed Sun. 395-2373.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, January 22, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.