West Virginia’s “Wild” Chefs

west virginia 9 dragons

Kin Tsoi is the executive chef at 9 Dragons restaurant inside the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races. Kin, who was born in Hong Kong, helps to bring international flavor to West Virginia. Kin marries local ingredients with his authentic Hong Kong cooking style to create the perfect East meets West menu.

What are some of your favorite local ingredients you like to use in your dishes?
My menu includes a whole grouper, which is prepared with ginger and scallions. I think this is a good example of brining West Virginia and Hong Kong together in a dish by utilizing popular ingredients from each location. There’s also a Beef Tendon and Brisket served with a Korean style stew that I think helps blend the styles as well. This area is full of a lot of really nice locally grown or wild ingredients, and I like to include them whenever possible.

What do you think makes 9 Dragons stand out among other Asian restaurants?
The menu at 9 dragons is different from what people think of when they think of “American” Chinese food. It’s much less greasy and less salty, and we tend to use less sauce than what you would normally find in an Asian restaurant in America. We do have some more widely recognized dishes, like General Tsao Chicken or Sweet and Sour Chicken, but we try to also include more traditional, authentic dishes as well. Many of our chefs are originally from China, so they have been trained in very traditional ways to prepare food. Our guests have the opportunity to experience a pretty traditional Chinese meal without having to leave West Virginia. We also serve our food on a “flow” basis, so food goes out to guests as soon as it leaves the wok, which is a more traditional way to serve. We love that we can bring our guests a traditional Chinese dining experience in their hometown while utilizing some ingredients from their home.

2 COMMENTS

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