Bladen County Hibachi: fresh, healthy, made to order

ELIZABETHTOWN – Originating near Hong Kong, on the South China Sea, a young couple who had never met, came to America to fall in love with each other and carve out their niche in not only a new world, but more specifically – in Bladen County.

For Shu Song Jiang (pronounced Jon), Jin Naiu Jiang and their son, Jason Jiang, their journey here in Bladen County has been long, consistent and faithful to a community that they love.

For Shu Song who speaks little English and what English he does speak, he picks up from speaking with his customer. Jin does a little better with the language, but still speaks broken English. They do have a live-in translator, if you will. Their son, Jason who speaks fluent English and fluent Chinese.

He is an eighth-grade student at Clarkton School of Discovery, is earning straight “A’s,” is somewhat of a math guru, speaks multiple languages and works in the family business six days a week.

The young man is focused on business and helping his family move forward and making sure that the community is getting an incredible experience at “Hibachi Chinese” in downtown Elizabethtown.

In seeking out a path to help out the family business, his passion went toward numbers.

“I have to do the checks and add numbers up and stuff like that,” he said.

Both he and his sister (now living in Chapel Hill) born to the Jiang family were both born in Michigan. Surrounded by family in the upper Midwest, is where they got their start when they came to America 30 years ago. The family are all now citizens of the United States and both children were both born American.

After speaking to her son with a big smile on her face, she looks to me as the youngster who I refer to “Young Jiang” translates with the same smile.

“She says, ‘when we have a family reunion, we meet other families and we all talk in Chinese,” he said. “Because it’s more understood.”

Growing up away from your own culture can be like a wilderness, and when, on occasion the family does get to reunite with family and hear the dialects and familiar phrases of their younger years, it keeps them in touch with their heritage.

Coming from an area near Hong Kong and Macao was certainly a different environment than they encountered in Lansing, Michigan. Jin explains that it’s very cold in the upper United States and says that winter reunions more often than not occur down here in the south.

“We do close down for a couple of weeks around Christmas and go to visit our families,” she said. My daddy was here first. He had just gone through immigration and brought his whole family here. He got citizenship and then our whole family got citizenship.”

“I was 20 years old when I first got here,” Shu said. “I didn’t know my wife until I met her in America. My wife had a friend who knew both of us and we went to a wedding and met each other there.”

When asked who was more smitten, they laugh and say that they don’t like to have competition. It was just something they both felt for each other and as it was explained, their culture seeks out the right match as to how they fit together. It’s wisdom as she explains that when she talks to her children about love that it can’t be all about the looks or the physical. There has to be character and a foundation built first that makes it last. No pun intended.

Shu said that he has been cooking for 30 years and pretty much picked up the trade when he came to America and became a part of the family business in Michigan. For the first 12 years, he was cooking all Chinese food and then in the last 18 years since coming to Elizabethtown they have adopted Hibachi as their No. 1 menu item.

The Jiangs have a unique system at their restaurant. Customers go to a type of refrigerated buffet area where they can choose from fresh and refrigerated items. They put whatever items on a plate that they are hungering for, they bring it to Shu who is at his place behind the hibachi grill and he cooks it right then and there. One order at a time – fresh, hot, health and made to order. You give him a plate full of refrigerated food and he gives you a number. When your number is called, the food is ready to eat.

“Before when we cooked Chinese, we noticed that with all Chinese food, the oil always came first,” Jin said. “It got too greasy. We have learned even cooking at home, we always use stir-fry. Just a little bit of oil – and not make it sticky in the pan.”

The food is different. It’s lighter than most Chinese food. And when you are done, you can tell there’s a difference by the lack of a pool of oil on the plate.

“We got away from too much deep frying,” Shu said. “After cooking for many years, just Chinese, I know that from egg rolls to many other things, it’s always being deep-fried. There is way too much oil in there. I mean, it’s OK, but after I started thinking about it, I thought that we needed to cook healthier. Just a little oil, the people can watch me cook it, it’s healthy and fresh and you can pick from whatever you want.”

He mentioned that watching the people after a meal, there was not as much bloating and they look more comfortable after a meal.

“Some of my own family members have grown too big due to all of that oil,” Jin said. “We are here 60 hours a week and eat this all the time. So we have to be careful what we eat. We don’t want the kids to be large and unhealthy. We try to be healthier first.”

Part of the regime of the Jiang family is inspecting their refrigerated food each morning to make sure things are fresh and ready.

Being in Elizabethtown for the past 14 years, the business, tucked in among other downtown businesses, it reminds you of the quiet, unassuming nature of the family. Although you have to look twice to see it nestled there, once discovered, it is found to be a gem that has been there a long time.

As we are finally recovering from COVID, looking back, you can see that although the pandemic hurt their business, they adapted and became almost as essential workers, still able to prepare and deliver food through a drive-up system.

“Most people were afraid to come out for the dining, even after it was over,” Jin said. “For a while, there was totally no in-house dining. So, we served only for takeout. We were closed completely for about four or five months.”

“Although we were closed, people still called and we opened a little window in the front,” Shu said. “During that time, we didn’t make money. It was very hard, but the community supported us and we felt safe here.”

After COVID the Chinese Americans were very much attacked in the country as were the Japanese after WWII. The Jiang family said that they have always felt at home in Elizabethtown.

“Fortunately, we feel lucky that we moved here,” Jin said. “The people are really friendly and nice to us. It’s like they never think first that we are Chinese or not American people. Again, I feel lucky to move here.”

If you’ve ever eaten in a bigger city, you will realize, looking at the menu at Hibachi Chinese in Elizabethtown that there is either a misprint or they have put out the menus from 20 years ago. The question is always, “how do they keep their prices low?”

“We have only family working here all the time,” Jin said. “It’s family. We don’t have much overhead so we make just a little bit of benefit. It’s good enough to run the family and I feel OK – good enough. We have a lot of people here that don’t have much money and we see that.”

It’s not your typical Chinese restaurant. It’s family. It’s all about blessing their community. It’s sowing into the place they live and their roots have grown strong in Bladen County.

The location is at 136 W. Broad Street in Elizabethtown and they are open Tuesday – Sunday from 11:30 a.m. – 9:30 p.m. You also have a choice to dine in or take-out.

Mark DeLap is a journalist, photographer and the editor and general manager of the Bladen Journal. To email him, send a message to: mdelap@bladenjournal.com