Kendrick Lamar, Try These Dishes at New Ho King

Welcome to Golden Dragon, a newsletter by Eric Diep about Asians in hip-hop and my takes on trending topics in AAPI pop culture. Golden Dragon is a rotation of interviews, reviews, news, critical perspectives, and random blogs about music I recommend.

In Today’s Newsletter:

• Kung-Fu Kenny’s shout-out in “euphoria” puts the spotlight on a local Chinese establishment in Toronto

On May 3, Kendrick Lamar decided to give Drake a taste of his own medicine with back-to-back diss records.¹ “6:16 in LA,” which you can listen to for yourself here, mentions a different restaurant, this time it’s a Brooklyn pizzeria called Lucali. I’m starting to think K. Dot has a side hustle as a food influencer on his burner account.

On Lamar’s first diss track, “euphoria,” he blew up his go-to recommendation in Toronto. He raps, “I be at New Ho King eatin' fried rice with a dip sauce and a blammy, crodie.” New Ho King is a classic late-night Chinese spot in downtown Toronto that’s open until 1:30 a.m. during the week and 4:30 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. It sounds perfect after a night at the club or bar hopping, looking for big portion dishes to soak up all the alcohol.

I’m happy for New Ho King owner Johnny Lu after learning this week that the restaurant was getting flooded with five-star, positive reviews from Kendrick Lamar fans on Google. The attention to New Ho King and curiosity in trying their fried rice has given them a boost in business. This may go against the “3.5-star rule” in finding authentic Chinese food, but they now have a 4.5-star rating according to their delivery website. “Kendrick’s a good guy,” Lu says in the video package below.

I am a foodie who would drive across town to try a dish if it was that good. I’m looking at other dishes on the menu and I thought it would be fun to pick out the rest of K. Dot’s meal. If he ever reads this, these are recommendations from a guy who used to frequent 69 Bayard for solo dinners in New York’s Chinatown.

Back in Oregon where I was born and raised, my hangout spot was a Chinese restaurant in high school, where our order of pork fried rice, chicken lo mein, general tso chicken, and crab puffs became so popular that it is now a permanent special. I’ve spent my entire life ordering the right pairings of dishes for family and friends.

As he mentions in “6:16 in LA,” Kendrick says he lives a boring life and loves peace. I can’t imagine he ate there in person because that would’ve caused chaos and excitement, the opposite of peace. I think he just had good intel on popular Toronto spots while using Drake’s slang to diss him, which worked out in New Ho King’s favor because they got more customers ordering fried rice. The chef is busy.

To complete K. Dot’s meal, here are five dishes he should try…maybe to order for takeout.