Ancient Chinese secret

OK, so maybe the turn of the 20th century—about the time the small Delta town of Locke was founded by Chinese immigrant laborers—isn’t exactly ancient times. Few places in the Sacramento region can lay claim to the title Chinatown more than Locke, and many of the current residents are descendants of the workers who built the Delta’s bridge and levee system. While the Locke Garden has changed hands several times over the years, the restaurant, like Locke itself, remains an anachronism, a faded reminder of an engineering marvel built upon a million plates of chow mein. You can enjoy that same food today: Twice-cooked pork, honey walnut shrimp. They’ve got it all here, and while it’s perhaps not the greatest in the land, it’s the only thing going here in Chinatown besides Al the Wop’s. So kick back, enjoy the food, and thank the Chinese you’re not underwater.