Restaurant: Long Xing Juicy Dumpling
Location: 140 W Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 307-1188
Date: April 14 and June 22, 2018 and January 27 & March 30, 2019 and July 15, 2023
Cuisine: Northern Chinese Dumplings
Rating: Great dumplings and tons of variety
As any loyal reader knows, the SGV is my favorite dining zone. It’s amazing how many Los Angelenos aren’t aware of the mecca for Chinese Food and culture. The SGV has a feel and style that is entirely unique, entirely Southern California, but very different and quite Chinese. Today we head out for a multi-stop lunch extravaganza. Many of the participants were doing a 48 hour “staycation” out here. I just went out for a couple hours.
Welcome to the Maxi-Mall. The California Mini-Mall’s GIANT SGV cousin.
Entering the 2 level maxi.
A view of part of it from upstairs.
Juicy Dumpling is upstairs. You could spend all day in this mall, there are so many restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, and massage places.
Juicy is home to the jumbo dumpling with a straw, which is a bit of a gimmick.
The big menu.
You order by sheet. I filled out 4 sheets for waves of orders in advance, as I am a pro Chinese Food orderer.
The nice but typical room.
Our big table.
And the glassed in dumpling workshop!
Just like the pasta room at Felix!
We had to sneak the wine under the table — literally.
Smashed Cucumber Salad. Very tasty version. Tons of garlic and an almost sunomono-like sweet vinegar marinate.
Cold Beef Shank. Pretty much as you’d expect.
Deep Fried Crispy Eel. I liked this dish a lot, but it was many people’s least favorite as it was oily, fishy, very crispy, and sweet. Unusual combos for “white folk.” An advanced dish.
As was Preserved Egg with Tofu. But the pros like Yarom and I agreed this was a great dish. Really interesting and fabulous combination of soft cool tofu with salty umami 1000 year-old egg and what’s probably taro powder. Sort of a salty/sweet and smooth/dry soft/firm poles of taste experience.
Smoked Fish. Sweet, crispy, dry/wet, and delicious. Like the Shanghai version.
House Cold Spare Ribs. The delicious sweet red Chinese pork.
Giant Crabmeat Juicy Dumpling (6/22/18). You eat this with a straw! People said this was a gimmick, but the slurry of crab and pork inside this thing was to die for. And after you burn your tongue slurping it out you can cut it up and eat the shell like pasta.
Straw baby!
Me slurping!
Sweet Pork XLB (xao lao bao). Also known as Juicy Pork Dumpling. Really nice version of the classic. Soft skin. Juicy. Good filling. Maybe not as good as a Din Tai Fun, but great still. We actually ordered two types — savory and sweet. Never had the sweet before (pictured above).
Savory pork XLB. The classic every other place with XLB has.
Pork and Crab Dumpling. Great version of the pork and crab, with delicate but pronounced flavors. I think better than the DTF version.
Pork and Shrimp Dumpling. Whole good sized shrimp in each — delicious!
Fish Dumpling. Surprisingly excellent. Maybe even my favorite of the set.
Vegetable Dumpling.
XLB in the bath.
Boiled Pork Dumplings. I love these homestyle variants.
Crispy Onion Pancake. Not the most exciting dish, but people wanted it.
Fried meat wonton. Very nice texture and flavor. Who doesn’t love dumplings.
Fried fish wonton. Again I was surprised how good the fish ones were.
Beef rolls. Good version of this.
Salt and Pepper Crispy Cake. Buttery dough stuffed with pork and rolled in sesames.
Rich but delicious.
House Golden Crispy Cake.
Fried chewy mochi with amazing pork. Too bad I was getting very full. I still ate a couple.
Giant vegetable buns ordered by a vegetarian.
Hot and Sour Shredded Potatoes. I always love these as they are hardly a vegetable, more like Chinese French Fries.
Stir Fried Bean Seedlings with Garlic. Not bad for greens.
String beans. Good.
Garlic Eggplant. One of those perfect sweet, slightly spicy, and very garlicky eggplants.
A kind of boring noodle dish ordered by a lightweight.
Shanghai Shrimp in “supreme” sauce. Very succulent.
Hot Spare Ribs. Delicious sweet red ribs — hot.
Cumin Beef. Nice. Tender too.
Yangchow fried rice. The classic everything fried rice.
Kung Pao Chicken. Not your typical Szechuan prep, but more a pretty spicy brown sauce prep. Good though.
Shrimp with crab roe and peas. Scrumptious. Loved this dish.
Fish filets boiled in chili. Lots of mala surprisingly — very good. Hot hot.
Garlic Shredded pork. Fish flavor pork. A bit of heat. Pretty nice actually.
Red Bean Puff Pastry. What passes for dessert in China — not bad actually, I like the texture.
Chinese sesame ball soup. Eye balls in goo! Actually kind of enjoyable.
Since red bean isn’t my thing, I brought gelato on 6/22/18 when I returned. Made by me, of course: Almond Boba Tea Gelato — Oolong tea steeped milk, Romano Almonds from Noto Sicily, and topped with Boba! Here I discovered that boba get really really hard in the freezer. Next time I will have to keep them separate and add them.
On 3/30/19 I brought these:
Nocciola, Espresso e Bacio Gelato – using my new egg yolk based nut formulation with Piedmontese hazelnut to produce a stunning hazelnut base, then adding in house-made espresso caramel and chopped up bacio — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Espresso #coffee #cafe #hazelnut #Nocciola #caramel #bacio
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Gelato – the base is a Fior di Latte but I made it with brown sugar instead of white so it matched the cookies better. Inclusions are cubes of house-made gluten-free (almond flour) artisinal chocolate chip cookie dough with Valrhona chocolate chunks! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #CookieDough #ChocolateChipCookie #Cookie #chocolate #valrhona #BrownSugar #GlutenFree
Overall, I loved Juicy Dumpling, every time I’ve come, and will certainly return many more times in the future. I even chose this place to bring my friend Brent for our crawl. Sometimes I like this kind of northern more casual dumpling style over the more ornate Cantonese Dimsum. Just a different vibe. They also had a huge menu of other dishes. On my March 30, 2019 visit we finally ordered a bunch of the other dishes and they were quite good. They allowed us to open and drink our wines too.
Because we are hedonists, and despite being full (on 4/14/18), we had to go next door for “lunch 2.0” at Spicy City — just had to be done.
Lucky they have a red interior.
The dishes bar. Despite being super full, Yarom and I both ordered for a crazy over-eating-fest.
Cold dishes of soy beans and more pickled cucumbers.
And more cold dishes of smoked chicken and spicy pig ear.
Had to get some MaPo Tofu (pocked marked old lady face tofu). One of my favorite dishes and this version was at least a 9.
Best eaten over rice.
Then dan dan mein. Another of my favorite dishes. The spicy city version tastes great but is a little too soupy without as much nutty flavor as I like.
You mix it up.
This version has no pork — boring!
Tea Smoked Duck. Another great Szechuan dish. Like duck pastrami chunks.
Outside you can check out the size difference between a Hedonist and the typical youthful SGV denizen. And observe the whacky Chinese youth fashion. The photo doesn’t really do the outfits justice.
For part 3.0, had to get some Boba Tea.
Almond Milk Boba Tea. Good tea, but unfortunately hidden by the opaque glass.
