I grew up in the Bay Area, have lived in SF for more than a decade, and just recently moved to Sausalito. I run the Asia Pac group for my company, have an office in Beijing and travel frequently to Shanghai, as well. In my spare time (!), I am in the process of moving our Paris office to Zurich, so have been spending a lot of time in Europe.

I have four native Chinese staff that I sit with every day, and they give me "the scoop" on which restaurants are authentic, which ones are maybe not authentic but good, and lots of other tips. My staff in Beijing takes me to many of the high end and low end favorites in Beijing. To be honest, very little of what I eat in Beijing resembles what I eat in SF.

The point of this long winded description? My experience is that a lot of what I find in Paris and other intl. cities is much closer to what I find in SF than in Beijing or Shanghai. What I like about this is how the regional cuisine affects the core Szechuan/Hunan/Hakka/Cantonese dishes that I recognize or like.

fduvall