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"Chef &lt;strong&gt;Quealy Watson&lt;/strong&gt; has\u00A0never been to Asia. Everything\u00A0he knows about Chinese, Japanese, Indian, or the rest of that vast region\u2019s cuisine he picked up from cookbooks and the Internet. But who cares anymore? Authenticity and rigid adherence to tradition\u00A0are overrated. Deliciousness is king. That\u2019s the only way I can explain the wide-ranging, irreverent, and profoundly irresistible menu at &lt;a href=\"http://hotjoysa.com/\" target=\"_blank\"&gt;Hot Joy&lt;/a&gt;. Twenty years ago, dishes like Szechuan beef chili with Fritos or dirty fried rice with chicken liver would have gotten you kicked out of culinary school. Today they\u2019re called \u201Cdude food\u201D or \u201Cstoner snacks\u201D (or, as I like to think of them, the kind of over-the-top eats you crave after\u00A0a long night of drinking). It\u2019s all part of a growing subgenre of ethnic cuisine (see: &lt;a href=\"http://missionchinesefood.com/\" target=\"_blank\"&gt;Mission Chinese Food&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=\"http://www.mottstreetchicago.com/\" target=\"_blank\"&gt;Mott St&lt;/a&gt;) that, when executed with passion and skill, rewards the pleasure center of the brain just\u00A0as much as some preciously foraged $100 tasting menu. The vibe\u00A0also helps: Hot Joy is a helluva time. That, combined with its Chinese-restaurant-of-yesteryear pastiche decor, is what ultimately won me over. A meal at Hot Joy is a trip, whatever your state of mind (if you want to hang with the cool kids, &lt;strong&gt;go any time after\u00A011 p.m.&lt;/strong&gt;, when cooks from other local restaurants head over to\u00A0Hot Joy for snacks, drinks, and late-night revelry). If you haven\u2019t cooked with MSG before, give it a try\u2014chef Quealy Watson, Hot Joy, San Antonio, is a big fan. Loaded with fresh herbs and sturdy kale and then set off by a bright and spicy dressing, this is an ideal counterpoint to the more decadent dishes on the table. Don\u2019t worry\u2014you won\u2019t need to buy any crabs to make these mind-altering wings. The crab flavor comes from a jarred condiment that\u2019s pretty easy to find at Asian markets; if not, use the shrimp version. Hot Joy chef Quealy Watson, who\u2019s from Louisiana, grew up on his mom\u2019s dirty rice; that dish helped inspire this bastardized fried version. The chicken-liver base tastes very concentrated and intense on its own, but becomes nicely balanced in the finished dish. Jaew is a tart, smoky dipping sauce from Thailand, usually served with grilled meats and sausages. Hot Joy chef Quealy Watson takes it to a Tex-Mex place in this eggy, cheesy rice dish that might remind you of nachos (it works). Watch the step-by-step video here. How to make killer fried rice at home, with tips and video from Hot Joy, one of Bon App\u00E9tit's Best New Restaurants in America 2014 From Maine and Washington, D.C., to Texas and Seattle, these are the Best New Restaurants in America 2014, selected by Andrew Knowlton "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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