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Specials at Sands

Sep05

Restaurant: Sands Chinese Restaurant 金沙中餐館

Location: 15706 Arrow Hwy, Irwindale, CA 91706.  (626) 338-6686

Date: December 30, 2023

Cuisine: Southern Chinese

Rating: Very good and lots of interesting dishes

_

1A4A4439-Pano
Sands is a a newish Hong Kong / Cantonese place that Keong and Sklar really enjoy. Keong setup a very extensive custom banquet here on the second to last day of the year. Only problem is that it’s so far east — but at least there wasn’t much traffic.
1A4A4442-Pano
This is a smallish mom & pop place, but they do have “fancier” food available for advanced order. The owner was the chef at some famous restaurant in Macau.

1A4A4449
Double Boiled Winter Melon Soup. Interesting textures. A touch sweet and bland for me, but with some white pepper was quite pleasant. Had a lot of the tasteless but vaguely sweet melon. Some fish maw, mushrooms, and shrimp.
1A4A4453
1A4A4460
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Lobster Salad. I’ve had this at least 2 times before. It’s like ambroisa salad, the Chinese lobster edition. Not to my taste as it’s sweet and the mayo and sweet fruit overwealm what was a very nicely cooked lobster.
1A4A4470
1A4A4473
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Lotus Leaf Rice. Over-steamed, bland and heavy. This was my least favorite dish of the night and the most carbacious.
1A4A4480
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Steamed Cod. Lovely delicate cod. Hard to pick up with chopsticks as it was so delicate, but great taste and texture.

1A4A4488
Sichuan Cold Chicken. Yarom ordered this because he didn’t want the rice. Turned out to be quite good. The sauce was full of “flavor” and delicious. Chicken was juicy.
1A4A4493
Mushrooms with Shrimp Paste and “Lobster Sauce.” A delicious silky bite. The broccoli, as we shall see, was a stable for the night.
1A4A4497
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Crispy Fried Chicken. Great crispy fried chicken as described. They also debuted what was to be one of many little figurines made out of pressed flour and/or sugar or something.
1A4A4503
Pipa Tofu. More broccoli and these “oyster-like” tofu fried balls. Delicious actually. Better than the real oysters (a few dishes later).
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Sweet and sour sauce for the fried stuff.

1A4A4512
Steamed Tofu with Minced Shrimp. Silky and delicious.
1A4A4519
Deep Fried Oysters. The real oysters which were a touch heavy and fried — but I never love fried oysters. Did have a cool dragon head.
1A4A4524
A5 Beef. Very soft.
1A4A4535
Braised Stuffed Duck. Interesting duck. Very rich and quite delicious. It was stuffed with a LOT of stuff, known as the 8 treasures. List comming up.
1A4A4550
The 8 treasures!
1A4A4536
1A4A4539
Beef Cube with Sichuan Sause (spelling intentional). Felt a little pork-like and was in one of those Panda Express type sweet and sour sauses (hehe).
1A4A4541
Braised Pork Belly. Very decadent.
1A4A4546
Oatmeal Shrimp. Never had this before. Actually pretty good!
1A4A4554
Lettuce with Fermented Bean Curd. I prefer with cabbage, but this was pleasant too.
1A4A4556
Chicken Skin Spread with Shrimp Paste. Another crispy chicken, this time sort of a version of 100 flower chicken. Hot and delicious.
1A4A4559
Deep Fried Taro Tossed with Sugar. These actually weren’t bad for a weird Chinese dessert.
1A4A4565
And it included yet another cute figurine.
1A4A4566
Yar! Ghostly skeletal praline pirates are marauding — Pecan Pirate Praline Gelato — An eggy ultra-smooth Texas Pecan base layered with my creepy skull-shaped New Orleans style Vanilla Bourbon Pecan Pralines — 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 #vanilla #bourbon #pecan #praline #candy #halloween #spooky
1A4A4516
Overall, a great and very interesting meal. There were lots of new dishes here, which I love, and lots of great ones. Interesting Southern Chinese style, simutaneously fancy and home style. Lots of fry. Not every dish was sucessful. Despite my comments, they mostly worked. The Lotus Leaf Rice was the only true dud. I just have issues with the sweetness of some of the others. But I absolutely love trying new things and this was chock ful of them. The staff were incredibly nice and really cared. As of 12/30/23 they were still applying for their Liquor Liscense.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Tong Tak – Epic Cantonese
  2. World Seafood is Elite
  3. Rice Yummy
  4. Big at Bistro Na
  5. Jiang Nan Spring
By: agavin
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Posted in: Food
Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, hedonists, SGV
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