House of Chow brings Northern-style Chinese cuisine to Columbia; before this, only Cantonese-Style Chinese food was served in the area. In Washington D.C., however, Northern-Style food was extremely popular because then President Nixon had recently visited China in 1972, the first official visit by a US president in 20-30 years. Chinese restaurants had sprung up everywhere, imitating the style of banquet Nixon had while in Beijing. This was the first big change from the reserved taste of Cantonese food to the more strident Mandarin dishes.