Hi again everybody! Thanks for all the great replies!
I almost went to R&G when I was in San Fran, but I didn't ever get around to leaving the city. The place I ate most of my Chinese meals at was this enormous building - that looked much smaller from the outside - where one walked past the bustling kitchen, which was surrounded in windows (including the front windows, for passers-by to watch.) Inside, almost nothing was in English, and the menus were put up like wallpaper, with perhaps hundreds if not a thousand entries. The price of the food ranged from $1 per item to up to $10. I typically ordered random items from the $1, $2 and $3 sections. I ended up getting some roast duck with bones and crispy skin, some orange-curry slimy squid (it was either boiled or steamed, definitely not stir-fried), something a bit similar to Ma Po DouFu but with a lot of fermented black beans, more meat, some mushrooms, and very little tofu, and a couple other things that I can hardly remember now.
I'll ask where the cook is from next time I go. Thanks for that tip!
The situation with my Chinese restaurant is that they are actually a very good, friendly restaurant, but they have the misfortune of having established their business in a very redneck town, where they are unlikely to have many Asian costumers or to have access to many Asian ingredients. So to keep good business, they are in the habit of making fairly bland or Americanized dishes. Last time I was there, a whole table of four ordered "sweet and sour chicken," which in most parts of America really means "fried chicken in syrup." Another man ordered Moo Goo Gai Pan chicken - and requesting no vegetables of any kind. And I've never seen anyone in there apart from myself and the staff drinking hot tea.
Anyway, they've been glad to make more traditional Chinese dishes for me, and I've been quite pleased with what they've made so far. The only thing that confuses me a little about what I've got is that the ma la jiang that I had wasn't half as spicy as some Indian vindaloos that I've had, and I had got the impression that ma la jiang was supposed to be about on par. But I could've just gotten the wrong impression?
Anyway, on the subject of Indian food, since Bob brought it up, I can't seem to cook any Indian dish without it tasting the same as any other Indian dish.
The recipes I've got all use basically the same spices, so that my murgh makhani is essentially the same as my tikka masala that is essentially the same as my murgh madras.
I guess once I found out where the chef is from, it may be a little easier to figure out what to ask for -- unless of course he's from the West (Chuan) in which case I'm pretty much back where I started.
Ok, thanks again, bye for now!