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Far SGV – Hunan Restaurant

Apr20

Location: 1015 S Nogales St, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 964-8458

Date: August 3, 2019 & March 1, 2020

Cuisine: Hunan Chinese

Rating: check: Solid

We visited this Hunan place both during or Mandarin Plaza Crawl and as part of a 2 part dinner (after Spicy Moment V2.0).

Located in between the Mandarin Bay and Spicy Moment.

Hunan has a vast menu with pictures and funny translations:

Vast menu.

Peanuts.

Shredded minced pork with corn and pickled vegetable (8/3/19). Super tasty — pork really helps a veggie. Sure to make things really move along later.

Sautéed lamb (8/3/19). Tasty.

Crispy pork ribs with garlic and chilies (8/3/19). Lots of flavor, not so much meat.

Fish filet with fire cracker salt (8/3/19). Very delicious boiled fish with garlic and chilies.

Spicy pickled cucumbers (8/3/19). Also delicious. Generally a fan fave.

The gang on our 3/1/20 dinner visit.

Bacon with garlic (3/1/20). Basically smoked Hunan pork with leeks and garlic. Nice smokey flavor.

Doughy buns (3/1/20) with white chili-garlic sauce. Dipped in the sauce these were pretty awesome (if carby).

White garlic chili oil.

Ginger chicken (3/1/20). Lots of little bone bits in the cleavered chicken. Nice ginger and garlic flavor.

Spicy steamed fish (3/1/20). Whole fish with Hunan chilis. Nice and light. Hunan classic.

Mountain mushrooms and bacon. Great fibrous texture and nice flavor.

Jeremiah was a Spicy bullfrog hot pot (3/1/20). Very tender frog and nice Hunan frog.

Pork with preserved green beans (3/1/20). Nice crunchy “pickled” beans with chopped pork.

Spicy lamb (3/1/20). Soft and fairly tasty.

Grandmother’s pork (3/1/20). With its own buns. Very soft, salty, Hunan pork belly. Melts in your mouth.

Gizzard with celery (3/1/20). Gizzard is a bit chewy and surprisingly delicious.

Sliced beef boiled with chilies (3/1/20). Very mild and very soft beef. Not everyone’s favorite dish.

Overall, Hunan was also very good. Sort of a blend of (more old school) Szechuan AND Hunan, but who cares when it’s tasty. This place isn’t nearly as spicy as Hunan Chili King (or as good) — and there is a bit of a uniformity to the dishes. But it’s certainly pretty good and distinctly Hunan.

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For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

More sweet wine.

And a rhone blend.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, crawl, Hunan, Hunan Cuisine, Mandarin Plaza, SGV, spicy, Wine

Too Tony at Chef Tony

Apr13

Restaurant: Chef Tony

Location: 2 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91105. (626) 803-0028

Date: February 26, 2020

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: Dumplings good, but portions tiny

The Lunch Quest gang is always keen to try a new Chinese spot.
So we trekked out to Pasadena once we heard that the original chef from Sea Harbor was opening up a new “fancy” dim sum spot in Pasadena.

This is in the old 800 degrees space and nicely built out… up stairs at least.

There is an attractive bar.

But our six person party was banished to the “dungeon.” The basement was claustrophobic and smelled of “potty.” Ick. It was pretty off-putting.

The Menu.

Sauces in the usual microscopic dishes.

XO sauce.

Lobster Salad. This is a “whole” order ($28.80). It was tasty, but very small.

Steamed chicken feet in brown sauce.

Shrimp dumpling with gold leaf. These are basically har gow (below) but with a black dough and gold leaf. They don’t taste too different. One of the nice things about Chef Tony is that almost all the dumplings can be ordered by the piece as well as by the order. This really helps when you have a person count that isn’t divisible by 3 or 4.

Har Gow. Very nice classic shrimp dumplings — except they are $2 each and at many places they are $2-3 an order!

Shrimp and Pork dumpling with Black Truffle. Pretty much your usual shu mai but with truffle. They were good, but I’m not sure the truffle actually improves anything.

Baked BBQ Pork Bun. Excellent version with the usual sweet interior.

Shrimp wonton with house spicy sauce. Very nice and delicate with quite a bit of salty flavor.

Shrimp, crab meat, and matsutake dumplings. Nice delicate dumplings.

Juicy Pork dumplings (XLB). Very good example of the Cantonese variant of these.

Pan-fried shrimp & pork pandan bun. Doughy, but with a very nice flavor. Quite tasty.

Deep fried pork dumpling. Just an ok version of this chewy fried type.

Deep fried tofu in Thai sauce. Nice tender tofu. Quite good.

Pan-fried radish cake with XO sauce. I really liked this dish. It had the soft/starchy daikon texture with lots of umami XO flavor.

Squid ink pasta with crab meat and gold leaf. This was a total disappointment. It was just vaguely fishy with a strong red pepper flavor. Not terribly good at all.

Stir-fried rice noodle with beef. This was much better. Like Chinese beef Pad Thai.

Deep fried crispy king prawn. Tasty and super crispy but also super fried.

BBQ Pork. Delicious and pretty much coated in syrup.

Braised eggplant with minced pork on rice noodle casserole. Not a ton of eggplant but I enjoyed the chewy “rice noodle” with the sauce.

Sliced Chinese broccoli with black truffle sauce. Now this was only $6.80, but it was embarrassingly tiny. We are talking 2 inches across!

Sautéed string beans with minced pork. Decent tasting but also about 1/3 the size of a typical version of this dish. It was hard to split 6 ways.

Coconut pudding. These were super cute, but very bland. Basically nearly flavorless coconut jelly (vaguely sweet) pressed into bunny moulds.

Overall, Chef Tony is not a phenomenal experience. The dumplings were actually pretty good, being a bit fancier and smaller and more delicate like they are in Hong Kong. But many of the other dishes were a bit limp. It’s still in soft opening and a few things on the menu (like Chow Fun) weren’t available. Service was fine. QPR isn’t great. Some dishes are laughably small. Some are way more expensive than at a larger “Cantonese Palace.” Some are both. I’d certainly rather go to a place like World Seafood, Elite, or Grand Harbor. For me, Pasadena is also further away than the SGV and more difficult to park in.

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By: agavin
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Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chef Tony, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, dumplings, Lunch Quest, noodles, Pasadena, Truffle

Malubianbian Spicy Stick Pot

Apr08

Restaurant: MaLu Bian Bian Hot Pot

Location: 18194 Colima Rd Ste A, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 820-9206

Date: February 23, 2020

Cuisine: Chengdu Szechuan Chinese Hot Pot

Rating: 12/10 for experience

I’ve been on a bit of a Szechuan style hot pot kick for the last year. For those of you know don’t know, “hot pot” is the classic Chinese homestyle food which is super popular as a restaurant type in recent years. The most “classic” form is “Mongolian” like Hot Pot Hot Pot or Little Sheep. Then there are hybrid more modern joints like Hai Di Lao. And even the cheap student pre-prepped version like Boiling Point or Flaming Pot. But my favorite is the ultra spicy Chengdu or Chongqing style. I’ve had this in Chengdu and last year several opened in the SGV including Chun La Hao and Shancheng Lameizi.

So bringing us to tonight, Malubianbian represents a new style of skewer oriented Chengdu street hot pot. This is one crazy experience so I’ll detail it.

This is in the “Yes Plaza” in Rowland Heights. It’s like teleporting to China because everyone here is Chinese and at the restaurant everyone is about 23.

If you can see, there are about 20-30 people waiting outside.

Inside it’s sort of industrial new Chinese style. Small tables. Uncomfortable chairs. Ineffective hoods. As part of the “experience” a few minutes after we entered I started to cough uncontrollably. Something was just making my throat and eyes itch. I thought something was wrong with me until I noticed everyone else doing it. The server came by to apologize as the chef had just fried up a new batch of chili oil. Lol. I should have known. The place already smelled like chilis, so you couldn’t really smell it, but when you make Szechuan style chili oil (which I do myself) you have to dump 350deg oil over chilies and it releases a ton of pepper compounds into the air which are very “irritating.”

In any case, we didn’t have to wait too long (only 20 minutes) as we had a “reservation” for the “private room” which was this super cute painted closet with a two burner little table. Supposedly it sat up to 12 — but really 8 max. I mean max.

Very cute though.

Wine was a whole saga too. Only Jefferey brought some, but no one, including the restaurant had a corkscrew. He wandered the mall but no restaurant was willing to help him open his bottle (and walk out with it). Eventually we managed.

Like many new hot pot places Malu has a “sauce bar.” This isn’t as extensive as at Chun La Hao or Shancheng Lameizi but was sufficient. It was, however, pretty messy.

This was one of the main sauces I made. They didn’t have the sesame paste or all the fermented stuff I really love at Shancheng Lameizi.

They do have these traditional dry “powdered” sauces. You grab one and then add some broth from your pot to make up a sauce. It congealed very easily and didn’t really work for me, but the sauce bar version was decent.

We got all the broths. On top here is the lame tomato broth and below is the series traditional super-spicy ox fat (those big rectangles that haven’t melted yet) and blend of peppers and 18 spices.

Below is the other lame broth, the “mild” mushroom broth. Above that is the “classic” spicy Szechuan broth that doesn’t use the heavy ox fat.

I exclusively used the fully leaded traditional gut cleansing medicinal purgative spicy ox fat broth — as should anyone who isn’t a wuss.

But what, you say, does one do with these punishing broths? You cook stuff in them. But the format at Malu is interesting. Out in the dining room are about 10 refrigerators filled with skewers and boxes of food. You just wander over and grab the stuff (which seems a touch “unsanitary” but never mind). The staff count your skewers and containers at the end to calculate your bill.

Malu’s particularly unique bit is the whole skewer thing. These cost about $0.35 each and you just shove them in your pot and easily withdraw them. But for some reason I found this a bit awkward and preferred the plates of stuff.

There are a lot of skewer types including nearly all the vegetables, tons of marinated meats, the usual meat/fish etc balls and whatnot. Each bit on a skewer is pretty tiny. Often even half a meatball or the like.

They also have a bunch of plates with more meats and various other “exotic” stuff like duck blood or duck intestine (anyone want a whole bowl of raw duck intestine? we did!). I mostly ate off these because I found it easier.

Fried pork. This is a menu order item. It was just okay.

Spicy beef stomach. This was quite delicious — and chewy.

Special house spicy beef. This was amazing. Tons of flavor (and heat).

Spicy glass noodle. Really mung bean jelly. It was actually warm, which is unusual for this type of typical Szechuan street food.

Crab sticks. Imitation crab. Tasty, but they come apart in the pot.

Luncheon meat. This is always one of my hotpot favorites. Pure pork and fatty goodness. We went through at least 3 orders of this!

Beef. A Staple.

Lamb.

Weird spongy shrimp rolls. I don’t know what to call these, but they actually cooked up as delicious things.

Shrimp balls with actual shrimp and row. These also cooked up great.

Skinned frog. This was just too sad.

Noodles, lotus root, and strange veggie cake.

Pig ear on a stick.

Plus tons of things I forgot to photo.

Odd rice jelly. This was like water jelly. It had a jello texture and was totally clear and absolutely zero flavor. The brown stuff was some kind of syrup and very mildly sweet. You could barely taste it. I suppose it was meant to cool the palette after the inferno.

Fried rice cakes. Another typical Szechuan dessert.

Overall, this was a great experience and TONS OF FUN. The broth is awesome. The format is weird, but fun and flexible because you can get your own stuff. The problem is that the ingredient quality isn’t quite as good as at Hai Di Lao, Chun La Hao and Shancheng Lameizi. Also the sauce bar is only adequate.

Service was fabulous though. Usually hot pot service isn’t the greatest, but it was here. They kept checking on us and the owner came over and was super nice, the manager was super nice. Really friendly and helpful.

It’s very inexpensive too. A skewer is only $0.35!

So I highly recommend if you are adventurous and into new things. Mind your bottom.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chengdu, Chinese cuisine, hedonists, hot pot, Rowland Heights, SGV, spicy, Szechuan cuisine

NC Peking Duck – Double Duck part 2

Apr01

Restaurant: NC Peking Duck 老北方烤鸭店

Location: 17515 Colima Rd A, City of Industry, CA 91748. (626) 839-0000

Date: February 16, 2020

Cuisine: Northern / Beijing Chinese

Rating: Awesome duck and great flavors

Tonight is “Double Duck” night and while we had a “Peking Duck Appetizer” at Happy Duck, afterward the main event was at:

NC Peking Duck — which is a Northern and Beijing style place that is quite new and seemed a bit closer in style to real Beijing offerings.

In case you wondered if they have duck.

Cold plater with Pig Ears, Cloud Ear Mushroom, Peanuts, and Seaweed. Mostly nice and spicy with good crunch, mala, and heat.

Smashed Garlic Cucumber. Nice version of the garlic cucumber. Extra good with the spicy sauce from the other dishes.

Tofu with Century Egg. Awesome dish. Nice firm silky tofu with the incredible umami and jelly-like texture of the Century Egg. All doused in spicy sauce. Totally to die for.

Szechuan Glass Noodles. Actually a kind of mung bean noodle, here with a spicy sauce, peanuts, and a super umami mushroom paste or sauce. Nice, but I prefer them in the tangy/spicey sauce.

Cold Spicy Chicken. Awesome tender chicken in this fabulous hot, spicy, and a touch sweet sauce. Tons of flavor.

Big Pot Cauliflower. With a bit of pork. Nice and crunchy.

Chili Fish with Glass Noodles. Now these were actual glass noodles. Nice tender fish too and lots of flavor.

Peking Duck with pancakes. This is just one duck (we ordered 2 for 8 people). This meat had the skin more integrated and was very juicy and full of flavor. It was some of the best Peking Duck I’ve had in LA.

Close up on the duck meat.

The typical duck toppings, scallions, cucumber, and really really good thick hoisin.

Ultimate Condiment Box. Tons of interesting things to put in the duck pancake, including sweet and spicy sauces, sugar, candied fruits, melon, etc.

Pancake all done up.

Duck Bones. Pretty juicy.

Fragrant Spiced Lamb. Not their best dish. Sauce/soup was very watery and tasted mostly of mala. Not bad or anything, just the weakest dish out of a lot of great dishes.

Pork and Chive Dumplings. Tons of chive, delicious with vinegar.

House Tianjin Pork Baos. Awesome. Really nice thick skins with a huge lump of very flavorful pork.

Chinese Sweet Bean Roll with peanut dust.

My wife’s Valentine’s Day pick: Dulcey Chocolate Cloud – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Ganache and the rotating ingredient is house-made Vanilla Dulce de Leche — 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 #Valrhona #chocolate #creamcheese #ganache #icing #DulceDeLeche #caramel

Overall, I really liked NC Peking Duck. First of all, the duck was some of the best I’ve had in the states, and even beyond that, they had a really interesting menu with lots of standout dishes. Almost everything we had tonight was great, particularly the tofu with century egg, cold chicken, fish, and the pork baos.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: beijing Cuisine, BYOG, Chinese cuisine, dumplings, Gelato, hedonists, Peking Duck, SGV, spicy, Wine

Tong Tak – Epic Cantonese

Mar27

Restaurant: Tong Tak House Seafood Restaurant

Location: 1265 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 638-3388

Date: February 9, 2020

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Really great execution

Our friend Tony Lau organizes the best Cantonese banquets.

He always manages to find new places that surprise. Tong Tak isn’t exactly new, but it’s new to most of us.

Classic “palace” interior. It was pretty empty too. Sure it was Academy Awards night, but hard to say.

After an initial foray into a private room that was way too small they set us up downstairs at this huge table with the awesome blue thrones.

The whole gang.

Salted peanuts.

Spicy cold marinated cucumbers. Pretty good version of this typical Chinese starter. Nice crunch, garlic, and a bit of spice.

I ate a lot of these because oddly, they didn’t serve any real dishes for 45 minutes despite the place being deserted! Then the dishes came on like a storm.

Chinese Mountain Yams with Raspberry Sauce. Crunchy yam, not slimey (sometimes it is). The yam itself doesn’t have a lot of flavor. Raspberry sauce is a bit odd..

Beancurd wrapped mushroom rolls. Interesting texture.

Marinated wood ear mushrooms. I love the rubbery texture.

Beans. Not sure what kind. Very mild and I don’t love the pastey bean thing.

Hot sauce.

XO sauce.

Spicy clam with vegetables. Very interesting spongy/chewy texture on the clam and very nice crunchy vegetables.

Fried oysters typhoon style. Really delicious. Probably the best fried oyster’s I’ve ever had with the crispy fry and lots of garlic.

Cheesy lobster. Nice tender lobster with a cheesy sauce. Very interesting combo.

Condiments for the duck and pig.

Suckling pig with buns. Nice small pig, actually a suckling. Nice crunchy skin and good flavor.

The pig head returns after a discombobulating encounter with the cleaver.

Beef with asparagus. Tony always orders a straight up beef dish like this. It was fatty and pretty tender with nicely cut asparagus.

Crispy roast pigeon. Very nice hot juicy pigeon. Not too dark, not overcooked at all.

Peking Duck (Cantonese style) with buns. Very tasty as always, but is of course much better with pancakes and cut a bit differently.

Duck part 2: Lettuce cup duck. The meat from the duck mixed with water chestnuts and celery.

Lettuce cups to go with the duck.

Packed lettuce cup ready to eat. These were good.

100 Flower Chicken. 2 ways. Pressed chicken with shrimp paste. This version was mostly shrimp paste. Almost no chicken meat under the skin. Still it was delicious.

Wok cooked vegetables and oyster mushrooms. I like the double texture thing.

Yin Yang Fried Rice. Two types of sauce covering fried rice. The lighter one was asparagus stalks and shrimp in a light sauce. Very savory and delicious. The red one was with chicken and a tomato based sweet sauce. A bit too sweet for my taste.

Dessert Buns. The yellow topped ones were filled with pineapple and egg custard.

Crackerjack Gelato – Smooth Peanut Base with homemade Dulce de Leche Ribbon, Toffee Peanuts, and Caramel Popcorn! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — oh my! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peanut #caramel #DulceDeLeche #Popcorn #CaramelCorn

Raspberry Sorbetto — French Raspberries and a touch of lime juice — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Unusual for me to go so “straight” with my flavors but I wanted a complement to a complex flavor — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #raspberry

Overall, another great night. Really, these Tony Lau dinners are always great. Despite the slow start to the food, service was very good and the execution of the dishes was excellent. Very nice plating and on point flavors. The kitchen’s command of vegetables was particularly impressive. They know how to cut them into the proper shapes and to wok them quickly so they are still crunchy and tender.

It just goes to show that just because a Cantonese place has that “dated” palace look, doesn’t mean the kitchen isn’t first rate. Somehow they have 3 stars on Yelp. I wonder if we just got the royal treatment of if it’s just Yelp haters.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Arcadia, BYOG, Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, hedonists, Peking Duck, Seafood, SGV, suckling pig, Tong Tak, Tony Lau, Wine

Back to Meizhou Dongpo

Mar10

Coming back to Meizhou Dongpo for a 6-7 person dinner on 3/8/20 I had a vastly improved experience. Almost every dish was very good, some great. The peking duck was first rate. Really really good. Many of the appetizers were awesome too like the green chili chicken and cold mung bean noodles. Flavors were far less salty and much more balanced. Service was fairly good too and we had a nice large table outside on the terrace. On this particular night at least, this was as good as many SGV places (but certainly not as good as the best). Really a great option.

Check out all the details here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Century City, Chinese cuisine, Meizhou Dongpo

Last Supper – Ho Kee

Feb21

Restaurant: Ho Kee Cafe

Location: 558 Las Tunas Dr, Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 822-3399

Date: December 29, 2019

Cuisine: Hong Kong Chinese

Rating: Quite good

The last Sunday of 2019, the last trip to the SGV, the last (restaurant) Chinese meal of the year…

Skylar arranged this banquet at Ho Kee Cafe in Arcadia, ordering a bunch of off menu dishes.

The decor is fairly modern.

Our menu was all in Chinese.

And we had this cute private room all to ourselves.

Salty peanuts on the table.

Pork belly with tangy jellyfish — first rate jellyfish, snappy with a great marinated flavor.

Hoisin and sugar to use on the pork.

Causeway style crab — salty and garlicky. Had to crunch thru shells but they were soft enough.

The house collected the garlic afterward so we could snack on it.

House special lobster — excellent — on tasty garlic noodles.

Succulent shrimp with celery — very delicate and nice with good textural contrast.

Vegetables featuring lily roots, mushrooms, greens, and oyster mushrooms — very nice actually.

Lily Snails — but I think was actually conch — crunchy. Attractive plating.

Ginger steamed turbot — very delicate.

Sesame 100 flower chicken — layered with shrimp paste — nice.

Sliced Peking duck — served with buns.

Duck meat and sweet sauce — nice meat, not as boney as some and very moist.

French Style Beef — one of the most succulent and tender I’ve had.

A-choy with garlic — good.

Typhoon Fried rice — a touch dry. Used the same seasonings as the lobster (in theory).

I was winding down gelato production for the year and so the freezers were already off but I did have this large bowl of fresh Sweet Milk Gelato Chocolate Mousse that Jerome and I made a day or so before. This is serious chocolate mousse made with classic French technique and Valrhona chocolate.

The gang.

Overall, Ho Kee Cafe was very good. Pretty similar to Cantonese. Plating was very attractive, service great, and kitchen execution excellent. A fitting way to finish out a year filled with lots of great Chinese food!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Chocolate Mousse, duck, hedonists, Ho kee, Ho Kee Cafe, Hong Kong Cuisine, Lobster, SGV

Capital Sauvages

Jan10

Restaurant: Capital Seafood Beverly Hills [1, 2, 3]

Location: 50 N La Cienega Blvd #130, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. (310) 855-1234

Date: November 22, 2019

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Good for this far west

Finding great Chinese west of the SGV has long been a problem, but the “great wall” between east and west has been cracking with lots and lots of new openings closer to (my) home. Today I visit with the Sauvages Friday lunch group for another one of our epic lunches — guaranteed to finish off your week in style — and a nap. This lunch was coordinated by Tony Lau and John Gordon.

Capital is the latest SGV place to move west, occupying the Newport Seafood Beverly Hills location that failed to work out. Not that I love even the original Newport, but Capital is fairly straight up banquet / dimsum Cantonese.

The space looks pretty Chinese, even in Beverly Hills.

Coves. Gotta have the coves!

Our special menu for today.

We were in the private room.

Some intro champ.

Peanuts on the table.

And addictive candied walnuts.

Plus XO sauce — fermented spicy umami.

From my cellar: 2007 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. VM 96. Taittinger’s 2007 Comtes de Champagne will be nearly impossible to resist upon release. Soaring aromatics, mid-weight structure and soft contours give the 2007 its alluring personality. Lemon oil, white flowers, mint, chamomile and green pear add brightness and freshness throughout, with a persistent, clean finish that makes it impossible to resist a second taste. Today, the 2007 comes across as a slightly more open version of the 2004, with freshness that makes that wine so appealing, and a touch of textural richness that recalls the 2002. Although the 2007 does not have the explosive energy or verticality of the profound 2006, it will drink better earlier. The 2007 has been positively brilliant on the three occasions I have tasted it so far.

2007 Ruinart Champagne Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs. VM 97+. The 2007 Dom Ruinart is the first vintage made entirely by Chef de Caves Frédéric Panaïotis, which shows just how long the production cycle is in Champagne. A striking, tightly-coiled wine, the 2007 Dom Ruinart will leave readers week at the knees. In this vintage, Panaïotis took Dom Ruinart, which has traditionally relied on a relatively high percentage of Chardonnay from the Montagne de Reims and tilted the balance to 75% Côtes des Blancs and 25% Montagne de Reims fruit. As a result, the 2007 is much more chiseled and steely than is the norm. The citrus, slate, crushed rock, white pepper, mint and floral notes really sizzle in this powerful, dramatically rich Champagne, with bright saline notes that add freshness and vivacity to the striking finish. The 2007 is a stunning Champagne by any measure. Although it is very early, the 2007 has the potential to go down as one of the great Dom Ruinarts. It is every bit that special. Dosage is under 5 grams per liter, a pretty striking change from the 2006, which was closer to 10. Readers who can grab the 2007 won’t want to miss it.

Bonus goose web and bok choy. Whole steamed and sauced goose foot!

2008 Dom Pérignon Champagne. VM 98. The 2008 Dom Pérignon is once again stunning. More than anything else, I am surprised by how well the 2008 drinks given all the tension and energy it holds. Then again, that is precisely what makes 2008 such a unique vintage – namely that the best wines are so chiseled and yet not at all austere. Lemon peel, almond, mint, smoke and crushed rocks are all finely sculpted, but it is the wine’s textural feel, drive and persistence that elevate it into the realm of the sublime. The 2008 will be even better with time in the cellar, but it is absolutely phenomenal even today, in the early going. Three recent bottles have all been nothing short of magnificent.

2004 Philipponnat Champagne Brut Clos des Goisses. VM 96. Broad, ample and pure, the 2004 Clos des Goisses seems to be going through a closed period. The wine’s texture an tension are evident, but all of the wine’s energy is focused inward. The 2004 is without question a brilliant, striking Champagne, but it needs time in bottle. Disgorged December 2013.

Bonus seafood stuffed spring rolls.

2011 Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile. VM 92+. Pale straw-green. Minty green apple, jasmine and minerals on the enticing nose. Bright flavors of green apple and ripe citrus fruits are joined by stone fruits and minerals on the long finish. Has enough acidity to maintain clarity and cut. According to Pierre Trimbach, this is on a par with other great recent vintages for this bottling.

2015 Weingut Schnaitmann Uhlbacher Götzenberg Riesling Großes Gewächs. 92 points. Apple, peach, pear, lemon zest with a hint of petrol. Long dry finish. Well balanced. This is an excellent German Riesling.

2014 Schoffit Riesling Rangen de Thann Clos St.-Théobald. VM 92. Bright golden yellow. Musky, chalky aromas of ripe peach, flint, orange oil and lychee. Then more crushed rocks and orange oil nuances than peachy fruit on the dense palate. Finishes lively with well-integrated acidity and noteworthy length. Leaves a lingering impression of steeliness, heightened by the only 7g/L residual sugar and razor-sharp 8.1 g/L total acidity; but strikes me as rounder and more tactile than the Sommerberg, most likely thanks to higher pH (3.4 compared to the Sommerberg’s 3.1). At only 12.1 percent alcohol, this is very easy to drink already.

Stir fried conch with XO sauce. Tony loves conch. It did have a nice crunchy/chewy quality.

Steamed lobster with Fresh Garlic. Classic simple steamed lobster with garlic.

Alzinger Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Loibenberg (didn’t catch the vintage in my photo).

From my cellar: 2012 Weingut Knoll Grüner Veltliner Reserve Loibenberg. 93 points. Rich bouquet combines candied pineapple, dried apricot, flinty minerals and white pepper. The fleshy, unctuous palate is marked by acacia honey, herbs and smoke plus a touch of botrytis. Complex and certainly voluptuous at 14.5% alcohol, this Grüner Veltliner combines a supple sweetness –which is why it is labeled as a Reserve and not a Smaragd–and a salty tang on the finish. Excellent potential.

2013 Schloss Gobelsburg Grüner Veltliner 1ÖTW Reserve Ried Renner. VM 95. From Renner’s geologically complex Urgestein mix characteristically emerges a Grüner Veltliner of comparable complexity that’s indescribable without resorting to mineral vocabulary, and that is certainly true of this 2013. But there is so much more going on that it nearly makes me dizzy. A heady nose of lilac and iris, radish and raw ginger, along with hints of citrus and roasted root vegetables, sets the tone for what follows, an explosively concentrated interaction of grippingly piquant, pungent, incisive and brightly juicy elements. Apple and lime, caramelized parsnip and golden beet are mingled with smoky nut oils and laced with ginger, radish, iris root and white pepper. The reverberating finish adds to a kaleidoscopic whirl of the aforementioned elements an otherwise ineffable ore-like depth and saliva-inducing salinity. I was holding my breath that what I first tasted would be captured in bottle with complete success, and that’s happened.

Filet of cod, Virginia Ham with Chinese vegetables. This is an unusual dish, but in looks and ingredients. Having the cod, mushrooms, vegetables, and Smithfield ham is really… interesting. The ham dominates with its strong salty flavor.

Lettuce cup with shrimp, Chinese sausage, jicama and pine nuts. Very tasty for this common dish. Nice presentation.

2001 J. Rochioli Pinot Noir East Block. BH 89. Quite deep and ripe on the nose with a distinct vegetal component and in contrast to some wines in this flight, this is very clean and pure. The palate reveals round, supple and sweet flavors that are relatively forward and deftly oaked, indeed the wood is almost invisible. There is good density and a succulent sweetness to the finish where the structure is buffered by good sap. I quite liked this.

2007 Bergström Pinot Noir Durant Vineyard. VM 90. Deep red. An exotically perfumed bouquet offers scents of red berries, cinnamon, clove and smoky minerals. Lithe, finely etched red berry flavors gain depth and power with air, taking a turn to bitter cherry. The spicy element expands on the taut, nervy finish. Pretty sexy now, but has the vibrancy and balance to reward patience.

2005 Radio-Coteau Pinot Noir La Neblina. VM 90. Medium red. Bright, spicy aromas of cherry and minerals, with a deeper note of cherry pit. Picks up a cocoa powder note on the palate and repeats the fresh cherry note. The spice notes return on the sweet, persistent finish, which features a dusting of fine tannins. This gained in brightness with air, suggesting that it will hold well in a cool cellar.

Crispy whole suckling pig. Excellent pig, nice crispy skin.

Kistler Pinot Noir Cuvée Catherine (can’t read vintage again).

2009 Marcassin Pinot Noir Blue-Slide Ridge Vineyard. 94 points. Great nose. Lots of wild black cherry there. But there is a bit of alcohol. Palate similar. A “big” Pinot. Loads of fruit. But again, some heat on the finish diminishes this for me.

Stir fried filet mignon with macadamia nuts. I’m not really a huge fan of these “French style” beef dishes, but this was unique with the macadamia nuts — and quite delicious.

2007 Domaine de la Mordorée Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de la Reine des Bois. VM 93-96. Inky ruby. The nose offers a highly complex, wild array of dark berry and floral scents, along with anise, herbs and smoky minerals. Utterly stains the palate with deep black and blue fruit flavors complemented by strong notes of lavender pastille and tobacco. Tannins come up with air but the fruit seems to suck them up. Finishes with a strong wallop of luscious blueberry and mocha and outstanding persistence. This looks to be one of the best wines of this superb vintage.

2000 Domaine de la Vieille Julienne Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reserve. 96 points.

2000 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape. VM 91+. Very good deep red-ruby. Roasted plum and black fruit aromas, with notes of violet, dark chocolate, smoke and game. Fat, lush and superripe; shows more of a roasted character than the 2001, but also boasts solid acidity. A huge, full-blown wine with exotic notes of roasted herbs. Finishes with big, dusty tannins and excellent length.

Salt and pepper stuffed eggplant. Nice and garlicky!

Capital house stir fried special. This was a unique “crispy” stir fried veggie dish. Very interesting texture.

Braised abalone mushroom with snow pea sprouts. This classic vegetable dish is covered in the meaty abalone mushrooms.

Crispy pan fried egg noodles with chicken. I always love variants of this dish with its mix of saucy and crispy.

1994 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Rangen de Thann Clos St. Urbain Vendange Tardive. 98 points. Absolutely glorious. A monumental bottle. Deep amber color. The nose is a kaleidoscope of goodness: honey, caramel, apricot. Viscous, layered, long. Perfect acidity on the back end. Truly exceptional.

Macau egg tarts.

Strawberries and Cream Gelato — A dairy strawberry base with Avignon Strawberries plus Strawberry Jam Ripples and Strawberry Wafer Cookies — 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 #strawberry #cream #jam #wafer #cookies

House favorite and my son’s birthday pick: Triple Chocolate Cloud – As usual the base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Ganache and the rotating ingredient is crushed Oreos — 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 #Valrhona #chocolate #creamcheese #ganache #icing #Oreos

Strange bonus: 2014 Groth Cabernet Sauvignon. 91 points. Solid napa cab without being exciting in anyway. On the nose a nice bouquet of pencil shavings, a hint of earth of red fruits. Sinewy chewy mouthfeel, with Cassis, deeper red fruits in the entry, shortish finish dominated with oak tannins was a bit of a disappointment. Overall, it felt like there was decent material here but a general feel of safety first wine making is a bit of a let down.

Fruit.

Overall, Capital Seafood is quite solid SGV-style Cantonese banquet (as well as dimsum). I’d say that the food quality is about on par with middle of the road SGV Cantonese. Price is higher, but still not bad. Tony and John worked with the manager, King to create this very interesting menu and we had a variety of nice wines. Service is excellent, particularly with a special party like this. We did all the wine service, and there wasn’t really enough space for more than 3 glasses (too few) but they did this interesting hybrid food service where they brought out the large dishes, then individually plated about 2/3 of the dish and served it to each person, but leaving enough for repeats for us gluttons. This worked out quite well and was less chaotic and much neater than the lazy-susan craziness across so many wine glasses.

As always, Sauvages is great fun.

For my catalog of Chinese restaurant reviews in China, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Cantonese cuisine, Capital Seafood, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Gelato, Sauvages, Tony Lau

Tang Gong at Night

Nov29

Restaurant: Tang Gong [1, 2]

Location: 111 N Atlantic Blvd #350, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 888-5188

Date: October 20, 2019

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Very solid banquet Chinese

Our friend Derek has been the manager variously at Elite Seafood, World Seafood, and China Red. Tonight we return for one of those awesome Tony Lau special Cantonese feasts.

Now he’s helping open up Monterey Park newcomer, Tang Gong.

Tang Gong is upstairs in the Northwest Corner of the busy Garvey/Atlantic intersection.

In an era when the Cantonese Palaces are closing, it’s rare to have a new one opening up — including all the glitzy Hong Kong style trappings. These places cater (haha) to big Chinese weddings.

We had a nice single table private room with lots of space.

On the table to start, candied walnuts (yummy) and peanuts.

Conch with shrimp paste. Nice chew, crunch from the celery, and a bit of yummy “shrimpy” flavor from the paste.

Cantonese hot sauce and mustard.

Scallop covered in shrimp paste. One of these pan fried dishes that is related to a dimsum dish. A whole scallop covered in shrimp “macnugget” material.

Salt and pepper prawns. Super delicious huge prawns so deeply fried that you eat the whole thing shell and all.

Whole suckling pig. Awesome and porcine.

Yarom (right) and Tony Lau (left) with their bones.

Cantonese style Peking duck. Served with buns, hoisin, etc. Not as good as real Peking duck — as it’s not so crispy — but still delicious.

Roast chicken. Super moist. Some of the best chicken I’ve had in a long time.

Black pepper beef with asparagus. Always wine friendly, if a touch “boring.” Very tender.

Roast quail. Always excellent.

Garlicky Greens. Great, perfect for the colon.

Chard with egg and mushrooms. Now I’ve never had this Chinese vegetable dish before. It had a slightly sweet and sour (more sour) taste. I preferred the classic garlicky greens but this was certainly interesting.

Crispy egg noodles.

Beef topping for the noodles.

The noodles with the topping.

More noodles with beef and bean sprouts. Carby, but delicious.

Mochi-type balls with red bean (the dark ones) and custard (the light one). I LOVED the custard flavored ones. Really nice jelly consistency and rich custard inside.

Red bean and coconut jelly. Loved these too. I always like these weird smooth jiggly Chinese desserts. Some of my favorite Chinese desserts.

Nocciola Caramello Budino Gelato — Nocciola custard base made with Pure PGI Piedmont hazelnut paste, infused with house-made caramel (instead of sugar) then mixed with toffee and topped with Toffifay — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — so good it’s an instant signature flavor –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #hazelnut #nocciola #caramel #caramello #toffee #toffifay

Key Lime Pie Gelato – base is a key lime egg custard, layered with house-made frozen graham cracker and covered with house-made meringue — 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 #KeyLime #lime #custard #meringue #GrahamCracker #cookie

The manager Derek posing with Yarom.

Overall, very solid new place. Service (thanks Derek) was of course perfect. We loved the private room. Tony always does a great job of planning the menu and tonight was no exception. Lots of classics and lots of interesting new dishes. Highlights were the crispy prawn, chicken, duck (of course), pig, scallop with shrimp and more.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, duck, Gelato, hedionists, SGV, suckling pig, Tang Gong, Tony Lau

Jiang Nan Spring

Oct25

Restaurant: Jiang Nan Spring

Location: 910 E Main St, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 766-1688

Date: September 11 & November 3, 2019

Cuisine: Shanghai Chinese

Rating: Very good, but probably not the best in the SGV

Yarom and I set out on another small party SGV adventure and chosen Jiang Nan Spring (which we hadn’t been too because of this review from the LA times which asked “Does Jiang Nan Spring have the SGV’s best Shanghainese food?”

After our reconnaissance lunch (9/11/19), we returned (11/3/19) for a big group dinner.

They have a newish storefront on Main in the heart of Alahambra.

Interior is clean and free of the usual wall menus, TV’s etc.

For our 11/3/19 dinner we dined in this private side room (2 tables). This made for one of those giant 2 table CF dinners — I do much prefer my Chinese dinners to keep to one table.

The menu.

Boiled peanuts on the table.

Shanghai Duck (9/11/19). This cold marinated duck is flavored a lot like pork.

Cold Drunken Chicken (11/3/19). Nice for this kind of cold bland chicken. It had some good flavor, very nice (if cold) texture, and was quite moist.

Cold Smoked Fish (11/3/19). Classic Shanghai style cold fried fish. Smokey flavor.

Pork belly slices in garlic chili oil (11/3/19). Very tasty pork as the spicy/garlic sauce was excellent.

Chili oil.

Scallion pancake (11/3/19). Fine for what it is, but I usually find this a boring dish.

XLB (11/3/19) pork soup dumplings. Decent version of the always fabulous pockets of steamed pork. Not amazing house-made versions like at Juicy Dumpling, but still good.

Beef Roll (11/3/19). Not usually my favorite dish either, but a pretty good version of it.

See the inside.

West Lake Beef Soup (9/11/19 and 11/3/19). A mild goopy soup with tofu and beef, it was actually delicious. I had several bowls. I’m not sure what was so good about it — certainly texture — but it was very addictive.

Spare Ribs in Lotus Leaf (9/11/19 and 11/3/19). I’ve only had this dish once before, at another West Lake / Shanghai style SGV place, Chang’s Garden.

Inside is a sticky-rice coated pork spare rib. Delicious. Succulent, and lotus flavored. Rich and delicious. Very soft.

Sautéed Shrimp (9/11/19). I asked them if they had the green tea version, and they said they did, but we got the more regular Shanghai version. The shrimp were super succulent and with the vinegar quite delicious. Still, I wanted to try the tea version again.

Shanghai Style Pork Hock (11/3/19). Classic Shanghai dish.

This was a controversial dish. Among those of us who love “real” Chinese food, we LOVED this dish. It was moist, fatty, jiggyly (yes), but had tons of fabulous porky flavor. The other table, with lots of lightweight Chinese eaters found it “too fatty.” Of course, it’s supposed to be fatty!

Peking Duck (11/3/19). Even though it’s not a Shanghai dish, they do offer peking duck. The meat itself was solid but not the best ever or anything. Good flavor, but the skin wasn’t the crispiest possible.

And with pancakes — which were good but a bit large.

Hoisin and green onions.

David L, as always, demanded the “bones” from the duck. Sometimes there is meat on the bones, not really here. But I won’t be critical, as that means it just went into other dishes.

Yarom gnaws on one anyway.

Vegetables, soy beans, and bean curd (11/3/19). Very interesting dish. Nice crunchy texture.

Salted Egg with Chinese Squash (9/11/19). Like Zucchini with salty egg. Ick. I didn’t like this dish at all. Yarom did, but I’m not a fan of this sort of vegetable.

Seaweed fried fish (11/3/19). Crispy moist “fish sticks.”

Walnut shrimp (11/3/19). The classic, tasty, but lots of mayo.

Fried Tofu & Ground Pork with hot sauce (9/11/19). Or maybe it was Hunan Tofu. Not sure. This was actually pretty hot. Not exactly MaPo or Szechuan in style, but quite good.

We special pre-ordered Beggar’s Chicken (11/3/19).

The chicken is inside this pastry and they wallop it open with the mallet!

Inside it’s very moist, with tender meat, sweet Shanghai-style sauce, chestnuts, and other fruits and vegetables. Very interesting, if a touch rich.

Shanghai Purple Rice. Starchy!

Chocolate Peppermint Gelato — Chocolate base made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and melted in peppermints, mixed with Mint Oreo Cookies — 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 #Valrhona #chocolate #oreos #peppermint #mint #ChocolateMint #MintOreos

Pistachio Lemon Cookie Gelato – using my new egg yolk based nut formulation with a custom blend of two Pistacchio di Bronte DOGC sources to produce an intense pistachio base, with layers of Southern Italian Lemon Cookies — 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 #pistachio #sicily #nuts #LemonCookie

Overall, Jiang Nan Spring has a good kitchen and most dishes were really tasty. I think the chef (or the menu) leans toward Hangzhou (the old Southern Song capital just south of Shanghai). I don’t really agree with the Times — I think Shanghailander is slightly better, but this was certainly a very good place, in the top 3 LA Shanghai places I’ve tried no question.

Our big two table CF dinner was polarizing as all the people who like adventurous Chinese food (including myself, Yarom, and the AFF) all loved it and the people who like their Chinese more “American” found it a bit over some magic textural or fatty line. They can head back to PF Changs!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, hedonists, lunch, Lunch Quest, SGV, Shanghai Cuisine, Yarom

SGV Adventures – Ruby BBQ

Oct21

Restaurant: Ruby BBQ Food

Location: 9561 Garvey Ave Ste 1&2, South El Monte, CA 91733. (626) 279-6854

Date: September 20, 2019

Cuisine: Southern Chinese

Rating: Tasty, if a little “downscale”

Lately, because Yarom and I are diehard Chinese Food fanatics and it’s hard to find others willing to drive all the way to the SGV during the week for lunch, the two of us — with occasional extras — have been sampling some of the more casual eateries on our list of new places to try.

Enter Ruby BBQ Food — yes they actually include the word food in their name — just in case BBQ wasn’t clear enough. This is a very casual Southern Chinese place in a more Vietnamese section of the SGV.

It’s real casual, with a takeout counter and menu on the wall.

But it was crowded. We had to wait 15-20 minutes for a table.

They have roast ducks and the like to go too.

Now just to give you a bit of the flavor of the place, and these downscale SGV joints, ignoring Yarom’s protests I include this photo. This particular lady was at the counter ordering/waiting right in the middle of the lobby. This did not, however, stop her from clipping her nails and leaving them on the floor of the restaurant. Very local crowd. Still, bear in mind, I ate here right after and I’d happy eat here again. They actually have an “A” too.

The menu.

Free vegetable soup. Kinda boring.

Besides the soup, Yarom and I ordered 10 dishes for just the two of us — that’s just how we roll.

Eggplant Szechuan Style. Delicious. Soft eggplant dripping in tasty garlic sauce. Not particularly spicy.

Dry sautéed string beans. Also good. Nice crunchy beans.

Ruby BBQ Rib. Cold with great piggy flavor.

Golden pork. This and the next dish were pretty similar, both not too different than a panda express type dish. This one had less bone, I think, but the sauce was sweeter and a bit more overwhelming.

Pork chop. This one was more chew it off the bone and was very slightly better. But both were good.

Bamboo duck. Unusual heavy brown gravy with those rolled bean curds. The duck meat itself was dark and boney but the overall flavor was excellent.

Egg with shrimp. Surprisingly delicious shrimp omelet.

The owner of the restaurant just could not believe that we ordered so much so she gave us the last few dishes “to go.” She insisted. We opened them and ate them at our table anyway.

Ruby steamed chicken. My least favorite dish. Basically Hainan chicken. Fine for what it was, but it’s steamed chicken.

With a bit of garlic sauce.

Mapo tofu. Not spicy, but nice texture.

BBQ Duck. Quite good, particularly juicy and delicious dunked in the sauce below.

The duck sauce.

Apparently everything comes from “dept 01” but as you can see, it’s not an expensive department. Even the signature meaty BBQ dishes like the duck were barely $11!

Yarom with the owner and his leftovers.

Overall, while the atmosphere is “amusing” the food (particularly for the money) is pretty tasty. This is like working class real Cantonese/Chiuchow and while the Chinese equivalent of a greasy spoon, like many American greasy spoons, it’s also delicious. Service was gracious.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Now just to continue to paint the complete picture of this colorful little corner of Los Angeles — and part of what I think makes our great city great — I did photo the classic “old school Monterey Park bathroom.” It’s quite a looker. Again, not bashing Ruby BBQ. I like it and find it’s “unrefined” quality genuinely charming. Just painting the full unvarnished picture.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BBQ Pork, Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, lunch, Lunch Quest, Ruby BBQ, SGV, Yarom

Yunnan Night

Oct11

Restaurant: Yunnan Restaurant

Location: 301 N Garfield Ave. Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 571-8387

Date: August 25, 2019

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Really interesting and delicious

I’ve been looking forward to this one, as I always love unusual regional Chinese.

It’s the usual SGV sort of frontage, including the B rating.

The huge menu.

The space is divided between a more formal back half with semi-private rooms and a more casual front.

Yunnan restaurant is well known for its extensive buffet of cold authentic Chinese appetizers.

All sorts of yummy cured and spiced meats.

Including the weird parts.

Like chicken feet.

Wood ear mushrooms, pigs ears, and some kind of fried treat.

Pickled vegetables and chicken.

Spiced tofu and garlic cucumbers.

Bean curd rice noodle. This was one of my less favorite dishes, although it was still tasty. Just soft and mild with the silken tofu.

Local chicken with spicy sauce. Not a bad version of the cold spicy chicken in chilies.

Cold tofu with preserved egg. I really like this dish with the tofu tofu, pungent and salty egg with tangy sauce.

Lamb with pickled pepper. Tasty and strong, with soft meat and lots of of flavor.

Fish with Szechuan special sauce. The classic boiled spicy fish. Hot with big chunks of fish.

Yunnan cured pork with leek and green pepper. This was an amazing dish. Salty, with tons of cured ham and leeky flavor.

Frog with Pickled Pepper. Tangy and hot. Lots of bones, but delicious.

Szechuan Special Cured Crispy Duck. Really tasty, pastrami like meat.

Crispy cured beef. Another great dish. Like a salty chipped beef. Crunchy and delicious.

Omelet with shrimp. A solid omelet with succulent shrimp. Extra delicious with the chipped beef.

Eggplant in Garlic Sauce. Fairly salt, and unusual, but great flavor.

Service was very friendly at Yunnan and they recently got their liquor license and let us open our wines. But beyond that this is delicious and interesting cuisine. Quite salty, with a lot of cured meats and pickled vegetables.

Afterward off to Salju for a bit of sweet.

For my catalog of Chinese restaurant reviews in China, click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, SGV, Yunnan Rstaurant

Chun La Hao – Infernal Pot

Sep20

Restaurant: Chun La Hao Chong Qing Hot Pot

Location: 5701 Rosemead Blvd, Temple City, CA 91780. (626) 766-1230

Date: August 5, 2019

Cuisine: Chong Qing Hot Pot

Rating: Tied for best hot pot I’ve ever had

After Yarom and I met up in March at the awesome Shancheng Lameizi for some fiery hot pot (which blows the boring mild hot pot out of… something) we decided to drag some more people to a different new, higher end Szechuan Hot Pot place.

Chun La Hao is located in the same Temple City mall as Grand Harbor and right across the street from Bistro Na. It hails from Chong Qing, the largest city in Szechuan and well known for its brazen, no holds barred take on spice.

They have bar style munchies and tea in the waiting area.

And a modern Chinese decor much like the aforementioned Bistro Na or Shancheng. It’s more spacious than either of Shancheng’s branches.

Our table for size was still a bit tight — for us big westerners.

The menu is the usual check sheet and with an extensive list of favorites and freakish culinary bits one can boil up. Aka duck intestine, black tripe, pork aorta and the like.

The have the best “snack bar” I’ve yet seen at a hot pot. Extensive munchies.

The usual kind of peanuts and crisps.

A big assortment of pickled things like spicy cucumbers, kimchee like stuff, etc.

And more weird crispy stuff.

Here are some I got. The cucumbers were great. The kimchee was very hot, even by my standards.

From my cellar: NV Pierre Péters Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Cuvée de Réserve. JG 91+. As is customary with this bottling from Rodolphe Péters, the wine is a blend of fifty percent of its base year of 2014 and fifty percent from last year’s blend, which had gone into the family solera of reserve wines that dates back to 1988. The vins clairs here do not entirely go through malo as fifteen percent are non-malo wines, with the range raised in a variety of vessels, including barrels, stainless steel tanks and cement vats and the wine spend two years aging sur latte. The new release is very good indeed, offering up a youthful blend of apple, pear, hazelnut, chalky minerality, incipient pastry cream and spring flowers. On the palate the wine is crisp, focused and full-bodied, with a good core, still pretty brisk acidity, frothy mousse and very good backend mineral drive on the long and nascently complex finish. This is very good today and will be even better with a couple of years in the cellar.

We ordered the maximum spicy classic Chongqing ox fat broth and a light mushroom broth for the losers.

Here it is all fired up, at the end too when the spice has taken over some of the wuss side.

Chun La Hao also has a big sauce bar. Bigger perhaps than HDL but a bit smaller than SL.

A slightly better view. There are all the classics here and more, plenty to make a great sauce. They lack a few of the weird (and delicious) fermented options at SL, but otherwise it’s pretty complete. All the base components are here. Spices, sesame oil and paste, soy sauces, vinegars, etc.

This is my “mild” (not really) vegetable sauce with a soy vinegar garlic base.

And my fiery sesame flame garlic “meat” sauce.

The presentation is cute. A red army truck brings the Veggie Combo Platter of various greens.

Oddly, no cabbage in the combo, so we ordered some.

Lotus root provides a nice crunch.

Lately I’ve taken to Square Bamboo Shoot as a source of great texture and fiber.

Mushroom Combo Platter serves up even more fiber.

The tofu combo platter brings handmade tofu, black tofu (which was kinda gross), fried beancurd and others.

Fish Filet was marinated. It looked pretty, but was filled with bones.

Cuttlefish dumplings look like sticks of wax, but cook up to be delectable chewy sticks with a hint of seafood.

Luncheon Pork is one of my favorites and I got two orders. Basically spam, this stuff is soft and delicious.

Mini Sausage are fun.

Pork Meatballs were clearly house-made and the best I’ve had. Really tasty.

Fatty Beef. Delicious.

Beef Brisket. Moderately leaner.

Beef belly is also fatty and delicious.

Lamb shoulder was delicious. Too bad under all that spice one can barely tell the meats apart :-).

Beef Tendon isn’t a white boy favorite, and is very gelatinous when cooked up, but tastes amazing (if you can handle the texture).

Pork is good too and needs to be cooked a bit longer.

It’s a bit crowded at the table and the uncooked food is on shelves at the edge of our alcove, a bit hard to get at.

Sure makes a big mess.

Check out the congealing spicy ox fat after it’s had a chance to cool down!

They have a funny timing game you can play once per table to “earn” a discount too.

Overall, service was great. Decor is good. Snack bar is best in class. Sauce bar is an A-, but still great. Plating is the best I’ve seen at hot pot and the flavor was spectacular. If you can handle spicy hot pot, this is one of THE places to go. Seriously it’s as good as a similar place in Chengdu or Chongqing!

It should be noted that only 2 of the six of us (Yarom and I) were brave enough to eat from the spicy side. I ate entirely spicy, consequences be damned! It’s well worth it, but part of the experience is the catharsis and adrenaline rush. Expect coughing in reaction to the toxic fumes and insanely great heat.

Afterward, to cool down, we went across the street to Meet Fresh.

Counter order Asian Shave Ice place.

Very nice decor.

Shave ice with various beans and taro pudding and the like.

Super mango shave ice with sweetened milk and ice cream. Yum Yum! Plus some milk teas and the like.

Flan shave ice with ice cream, two kinds of flan, various jellies and jiggly bits, and all sorts of other cool stuff.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Chongqing Hot Pot, Chun La Hao, hot pot, SGV, spicy, Szechuan Chinese, Szechuan Hot Pot

Mandarin Plaza Crawl

Sep18

Earlier in the year, Yarom and I hatched and plotted this particular all afternoon mega crawl at the Rowland Heights Mandarin Plaza — partially at least while sucking down some serious hot pot in said plaza. This place is far from LA proper, way out 40+ miles to the east but is in the heart of the “new Chinatown”.

Restaurant: Leung Kee

Location: 18908 E Gale Ave, Rowland Heights, CA 91748

Date: August 3, 2019

Cuisine: Chinese BBQ

Rating: check: roast pig before noon

We start at 11am, “meating” (haha) up at the former Sam Woo BBQ, now Leung Kee Chinese BBQ.

It’s right smack in the middle of this huge mall that contains tons of Asian restaurants, including Chinese, Korean, Thai and more.

They do a lot of takeout biz, pigs and ducks and the like.

The space is typical old school SGV.

Boba must be a new thing.

The menu.

Tea comes in a mug!

And there is free eggdrop soup — which was pretty darn good.

Macau style roast pork. Must have just been reheated as it landed on our table in 2 seconds, but pretty tasty.

Crispy beef. Very fried, but very delicious.

Peking Duck. It wasn’t the best peking duck, maybe a bit soggy, but peking duck is always pretty good.

Buns instead of pancakes.

And sketchy extra duck meat — that was actually pretty good.

Overall, just fair. Pretty much what you’d expect. But I like pretty much all (real) Chinese food at a good bit.

Restaurant: Mandarin Bay Seafood

Location: 1015 S Nogales St, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 839-7738

Date: August 3, 2019

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: check: Just ok

Next up, we leave the actual mall and cross the street on foot to:

Meet up with more people at noon at:

Cantonese Mandarin Bay Seafood Restaurant.

The gang (minus yours truly).

The takeout menu.

It’s noon, by 1 minute or so, so time for wine.

From my cellar, a touch too dry — bone dry rose sparkling from France.

Nice.

Second free soup of the day, hot and sour — this was not good hot and sour. I saved the stomach space.

Marinated Jellyfish. Vinegary and chewy good.

Salt and Pepper Shrimp. Salty, crunchy, very tasty.

Salt and pepper squid — somehow we ended up with the same prep twice. These were good too.

Ginger and Green Onion frog. Kinda fried, but the sauce was great.

Overall, Mandarin was fine too, but nothing super exciting.

Restaurant: Spicy Moment

Location: 1015 S Nogales St, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 581-4966

Date: August 3, 2019

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: check: Surprisingly good, big menu

Next up we walked 2 doors down.

To a new style Szechuan place.

This is what I mean by new style. They still have the ugly drop ceiling, but they have made a tiny effort at decorating.

The menu is gargantuan.
This is a great wine on any day, and particularly great on a hot day with Chinese.

Recycled from the Vietnamese crawl.

Grilled pork jowl with Yunnan sauce. Delicious.

Fish in pickle pepper soup. This wasn’t spicy, but it was amazing. Really, really delicious. Soft tender fish and very distinct and lovely sour flavor.

Dry pot pork rib and shrimp. Also filled with potatoes to sop up the sauce. I generally like dry pot and this was particularly delicious. Lots and lots of flavor.

Black pepper lamb shoulder. Not spicy, but very tasty with a strong onion flavor.

Eggplant with garlic sauce. Fine rendition.

Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by Spicy Moment and would totally go back for a full meal. Plus they let us drink our wine on the down low. Menu is huge and execution was good — and interesting. It should be noted, that as of Feb/March 2020 Spicy Moment “rebooted” into a totally different, more homestyle Szechuan place with the same name. I have, of course, already eaten there.

Restaurant: Hunan Restaurant

Location: 1015 S Nogales St, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 964-8458

Date: August 3, 2019

Cuisine: Hunan Chinese

Rating: check: Solid

Then we popped back to this spot:

Located in between the Mandarin Bay and Spicy Moment.

Hunan is more old school than Spicy Moment, but it also has a vast menu:

Vast menu.

More sweet wine.

And a rhone blend.

Peanuts.

Shredded minced pork with corn and pickled vegetable. Super tasty — pork really helps a veggie. Sure to make things really move along later.

Sautéed lamb. Tasty.

Crispy pork ribs with garlic and chilies. Lots of flavor, not so much meat.

Fish filet with fire cracker salt. Very delicious boiled fish with garlic and chilies.

Spicy pickled cucumbers. Also delicious. Generally a fan fave.

Overall, Hunan was also very good. Sort of a blend of (more old school) Szechuan AND Hunan, but who cares. It was excellent. While the pictures above cover what we ate during the crawl, I’ve also been to this place my specifically, and a more detailed write up can be found here.

Restaurant: Happy Tree House BBQ

Location: 18904 E Gale Ave, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 581-9886

Date: August 3, 2019

Cuisine: Chinese Skewers

Rating: check: hmmm

When I was spotting during the hot pot night, this place seemed intriguing.

Happy Tree BBQ. It’s a new style skewered meats place.

Very snazzy new interior.

Real coals.

And this warmer thing on the table where they put your skewers.

Powders.

Seaweed salad. Tastes like it looks.

Spicy octopus salad. Ok, but the sauce tasted a lot like Sriracha.

Beef skewers. Not bad.

Shrimp skewers. You eat shell and all.

Hot dogs. Well they didn’t call them that, but they basically are.

Chicken skin skewers. Crispy!

Lamb skewers. Pretty good too.

Chicken wing skewers. Just so so.

Overall, we were kinda disappointed in Happy Tree. Chinese skewers aren’t nearly as good as good Yakatori. They’re fine, but not super exciting. This place looks good, and is probably packed with young people on dates in the evening, but it just doesn’t feel as “Chinese” somehow. I’m not really sure where in China this kind of food is actually from.

Restaurant: Silk Road Garden

Location: 18904 E Gale Ave, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 581-9886

Date: August 3, 2019

Cuisine: Uyghur Chinese

Rating: check: great

So our final place is all the way west.

And merely across the parking lot next to the first spot.

It’s Uyghur Chinese like Dolans and has the decor to match. Very cute and intimate.

Being Uyghur doesn’t mean their menu is any smaller! They have skewers here too — I bet they would be better.

Garlic pickles. Nice crunchy garlicky cucumbers.

Yellow noodle with cumin lamb. Delicious tender cumin lamb on top of spaghetti-like noodles.

Meat and Vegetables in Homemade pastry. A giant golden meat pie. Extremely hot on the mouth, but tasty.

Special homemade noodle with minced beef. A western Chinese bolognese — tons of flavor. Nice thick al dente noodles.

Manti, meat and onion filled dumplings. These were superb, with really delicate skins. They could have used a dipping sauce though.

They had a little freezer of ice cream macarons.

Overall, I was also very pleasantly surprised by Silk Road. First rate execution. Small, intimate, and clearly cooked with precision. The dishes are typical of the region — half way between Shaanxi and Afghan — focused on lamb, and delicious.

In Summary, we only hit 6 of the perhaps 20+ restaurants in Mandarin plaza, and we “only” had 8 people, but we dined like Emperors on a cross China trek! Seriously, so much variety of style. The far SGV (aka Rowland and Hacienda Heights, Dimond Bar, etc) is where a lot of exciting culinary growth is.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Chevy and Mary may have skipped the first place (the BBQ) but they made up for it by getting shave ice and boba tea!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, crawl, food crawl, hedonists, Hunan Cuisine, Mandarin Plaza, Rowland Heights, SGV, Szechuan cuisine, Uyghur Cuisine, Wine

Bistro Na Birthday

Jul22

Restaurant: Bistro Na’s [1, 2]

Location: 9055 E Las Tunas Dr #105, Temple City, CA 91780. (626) 286-1999

Date: June 15, 2019

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Upscale Chinese, solid kitchen

Chinese Restaurants in the SGV are slowly going more upscale in a way that’s different than the Cantonese palaces of Monterey Park of yesterday. In any case, I wanted an interesting place for my now 3rd annual SGV birthday dinner and so I’d thought I’d return (for a third time) to Na’s.

And one of the latest is Bistro Na’s located on Las Tunas near this cool:

Teapot fountain!

The interior is very elegant Chinese, almost traditional but in a new way typical in China today. Ornate wood carvings, lanterns and antique music instruments abound. Technically it bills itself as “Imperial Cuisine”. Maybe there is some of that, but it’s also a bit of Chinese greatest hits. Still, it’s a different cuisine than nearly every other place in the SGV with more ornate plating.

The menu is a hardcover thick paged photo tome!

Tonight, finally, after have been “denied” twice I got one of the 5 private rooms. They seat about 12, but we squeezed in 13. There is one larger one that seats 14-16.

Tonight I tried out ordering this preset banquet menu. It’s a “package” and I ordered it for 10 as we had a couple kids. We added a couple dishes to it. I’m not sure the menu is actually not more expensive than getting all this from the menu manually. I’m way too lazy to add it up. But more than half the cost is in the king crab. This isn’t a discount king crab place.

From my cellar: NV Drappier Champagne Rosé Brut Nature Dosage Zero. VM 90. Pale orange. Mineral-accented red berries and citrus fruits on the nose, complemented by hints of candied rose and white pepper. Stony and precise, offering lively strawberry and orange zest flavors that expand slowly with air. Closes spicy, stony and tight, with very good clarity and floral persistence.

Okra in Seasoned Dressing. These are cold appetizers. I like okra, weird hairy texture and all. This had a nice vinegar tang.

Chef Su’s Pork Feet Jelly. Yes, a vinegary jelly of pig’s feet. Actually very tasty. Nice firm jelly texture and vinegar tang. Like a pig feet jello!

Na’s Drunken Chicken. Pretty much Hainan chicken as far as I could tell, but somehow different. Most people loved this dish. It was fine, but to my taste not a ton of flavor.

Plain noodles for the boy.

Sebastian brought: NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée Edition 167eme. 93 points. Bright clean and wound up. Nice minerality and cut with good volume. Serious breed in a lighter package for this edition.

Fingus mixed with Bitter gourd. Interesting textures and VERY bitter “gourd” (the green stuff). Back at MIT in the early 90s, taking new students out to Chinese and making them try “bitter melon” was a hazing ritual!

Truffle Mushrooms. Mushrooms with truffle oil and salt basically. I think I might have preferred them without the truffle oil.

We asked for mustard, instead of Chinese mustard, somehow they had deli mustard!

Smoked Pork Rib. Really yummy pork nibblets!

From my cellar: 2011 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Saint-Aubin 1er Cru En Remilly Cuvée Nicholas et Mathis. 92 points. Pale gold with citrine highlights. Pungent nose of extremely overripe stonefruit with an underlying citrus/mineral aroma. Tart citrus zest, dark wildflower honey, wax & crushed shell. Well rounded and versatile.

Stands for the about to arrive Emperor and Empress jars!

Emperor’s Jar soup. We ordered this off the menu. Inside is Beef Tendon, Mushroom, Fish Maw, Quail Egg, Sea Cucumber. The broth is a very thick chicken stock. Very very smooth. Lots of collagen.

This is empress jar soup. It includes Beef Tendon, Mushroom, Fish Maw, Quail Egg, Sea Cucumber, Forest Frog. Better for Yin than Yang! Women are supposed to eat this one and men the one above. I actually really enjoyed the silky texture and subtle flavors.

They also gave you a bit of these (Pickled Chili Peppers, Cilantro, Fermented Tofu). The pickle is kinda like a pickled pepper one might find in a good hoagie!

Ginseng Chicken Stew. Ginseng, Beef Tendon, Chicken. Very pleasant. Simultaneously, mild and intense, if that’s possible.

Scallion pancakes ordered off the menu for the kids.

Yarom brought: 2009 Domaine Huet Vouvray Franc de Pied Le Haut-Lieu. JG 94. The 2009 Vouvray “Le Haut Lieu” Franc de Pied bottling from Domaine Huët is the current release from this small plot of ungrafted vines. The wine does not have a sweetness designation on the label, but it shows just a touch of sweetness and probably would be classified as a light Demi-Sec if there were one on the label. The nose is still fairly youthful, with a sense of reserve that nine year-old Vouvray will often show, offering up a refined bouquet of quince, lemon, chalky soil tones, beeswax, lanolin and lovely, delicate white floral tones in the upper register. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and light on its feet, with lovely intensity of flavor, excellent focus and grip, bright, seamless acids and simply superb length and grip on the adolescently complex finish. There is certainly a difference between the French roots here and the Le Haut Lieu made with vines grafted onto American rootstocks, as this wine delivers a more elegant profile on both the nose and palate. This is a stunning young bottle of Le Haut Lieu, which is approachable at age nine, but still really in its infancy and will not reach its plateau for another seven to ten years and should drink magically for the next fifty years. A beautiful wine.

The giant king crab for our special menu.

Yarom and my brother posing with the crab.

King Crab Legs, steamed with Chinese (rice) wine. Very tender and sweet.

King Crab Fried with golden egg yolk and baked pumpkin. The salty rich coating. Not my favorite shellfish prep, but one the Chinese love for its richness.

King Crab steamed egg in crab shell. A very light fluffy savory custard I term “Crab Brulee.” Not much actual crab meat in this part.

Go crab!

Scallop with fried corn. Similar sticky salty egg yolk. Both were delicious. Cohesive grainy texture.

Dry Braised Black Cod with Chili Sauce. I loved the crunchy ginger bits in the sauce.

From my cellar: 2008 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Monthélie 1er Cru Les Duresses. VM 88. The 2008 Monthélie Les Duresses is a beguiling, inviting wine laced with dark red fruit. This beautifully balanced, vibrant red carries through nicely to the finish.

Diced Black Pepper Honey Angus Beef. Super tender and soft. Great Chinese beef.

Ordered off the menu: Spinach with Sesame. Coated in a miso like sauce, very interesting. Not typical at all to have greens “coated” like this. Lent a sweet taste and a distinct texture with the sesame seed coating.

Na’s Secret Tofu. Very interesting texture. I liked it. Sort of soft in the center with that semi-dry fry aspect as well, a stretchy give to the coating. Mild salty flavor.

Squid and Shrimp Fried Rice. Delicious Umami salty fried rice. Amazing with the sauce from the fish (above).

Ordered off the menu: Pea Tendrils with garlic. Nice colon sweeper.

Na’s Beef Prime Rib. Bone-in. Very tasty, soft, cooked all the way through and tons of beefy flavor. Extremely soft from the long cooking and fairly high fat content.

From my cellar: 2014 Domaine Dujac Morey St. Denis 1er Cru Les Chaffots. 92 points. Delicious berry juice.

Sweet and Sour Cabbage. Ordered off the menu. Sebastian was jonesing for more veggies and ordered not one but two of these. They were good but his eyes were bigger than his stomach and we didn’t even finish one.

Stir Fried Bok Choy with Mushroom. Light but pleasant.

Crispy Shrimp. This was our favorite dish so far. The shrimp were bursting out of their shells a bit like molting cicadas! Shells are cooked at a high enough temperature that much of the chiton denatures into sugars and they can be eaten.

It should be noted that this was substituted in on the menu for the Na’s Braised Pork Belly because somehow, despite the fact that we had a set banquet menu, they ran out!

Na’s Assorted Eight. Assorted traditional Chinese desserts. Weird, gooey, slightly sweet, and mostly filled with bean paste. They looked fabulous, but aren’t actually that tasty. Textures are nice though.

I brought some gelato as usual.

Salted Caramel Chocolate — House-made salted caramel forms the core of this base which then is layered with house-made Valrhona dark chocolate ganache and Valrhona milk chocolate chips — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — my best salted caramel yet — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #caramel #chocolate #Valrhona #ganache

Crema Fiorentina Zabaione — Marsala Orange Vanilla Zabaione base with Blackberry Mango Coulis — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Very close to the oldest gelato flavor!! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #orange #Zabaione #CremaFiorentina

Fruit Plate.

Sebastian brought: 2006 Château Léoville Poyferré. VM 91. Full ruby-red. Ripe aromas of currant, milk chocolate and smoky oak. Lush, sweet and full, with superripe yet backward flavors of dark berries, dark chocolate and minerals. Wonderfully layered, structured wine whose excellent vinosity and firm tannins call for several years of patience.

Overall, a nice place. The allowed corkage and service was very pleasant — we had a dedicated server in the private room but he must have been handling a couple of them because he was pretty harried. He tried really hard though. They have some weird policies. There was a $100 deposit for the room, which is fine, but they put it on a gift card and you are supposed to use it at the time. Our server forgot (and so did I) so he paypaled me back the $100. Weird but nice.

They brought us wine glasses (not great ones, but they have them). We handled the wine service. There was a good amount of plate changing. Took a while to get going even though we had the pre-ordered menu. They seat all the private rooms in two seatings at 5pm and 7:30pm so all 5 of them were sitting at once. That doesn’t make it easy on the server. All in all it’s excellent service for SGV Chinese, SO much better than we had the week before at Happy Table. But still a bit confused.

Food is interesting. Beautiful plating. Not the most flavor forward of the Chinese cuisines. Pretty good, but also expensive in a relative fashion. Ended up $145 a person all in with a good tip. Now we had Emperor’s jar and King Crab, but if you go to a Top Island or the like you can get that much cheaper too. Still a novel and fun experience. Gorgeous room.

While a bit pricey for the SGV, the atmosphere is lovely and the plating much more elegant. Some dishes were excellent and some just pretty good. I’m not really sure what regionality of Chinese it is. Sort of Beijing/Shanghai maybe? They say “Imperial.” It does feel very contemporary Chinese and is certainly not aimed at white folk.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: birthday, Bistro Na's, BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Emperor's Jar, Gelato, Imperial Cuisine, pork, SGV, Wine

Happy Table 2X

Jul15

Restaurant: Happy Table [1, 2]

Location: 203 West Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA. (626) 872-6677

Date: June 8, 2019

Cuisine: Northern Chinese

Rating: Solid

Four years ago I last went to Happy Table, where it had replaced New Bay and before it Sham Tsem. Usually I would merge the meals but this was significantly different, and a peculiar service experience, so I’m writing it up as its own meal.

Front looks the same, minus the new sign.

We had half the big private room, which was fine given our 13 — which somehow managed to fit at the table!

From my cellar: NV Drappier Champagne Rosé Brut Nature Dosage Zero. VM 90. Pale orange. Mineral-accented red berries and citrus fruits on the nose, complemented by hints of candied rose and white pepper. Stony and precise, offering lively strawberry and orange zest flavors that expand slowly with air. Closes spicy, stony and tight, with very good clarity and floral persistence.

Jellyfish heads and cucumber (marinated). Delicious. Nice bit to the jellyfish, great crunch to the cucumber, good vinegar flavor.

Peppers stuffed with pork. Pretty nice too.

Bean curd salad with cucumber. Refreshing.

From my cellar: 2011 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Saint-Aubin 1er Cru En Remilly Cuvée Nicholas et Mathis. 93 points. Pale gold with citrine highlights. Pungent nose of extremely overripe stonefruit with an underlying citrus/mineral aroma. Tart citrus zest, dark wildflower honey, wax & crushed shell. Well rounded and versatile.

Live crab.

Live crab (now dead) with garlic. A slightly dry prep.

Shrimp with garlic and glass noodles. Nice.

Tea smoked goose. A touch dry, but meaty. A cold cut.

Pork with sea cucumber. Great dish. Both pork and sea cucumber was very good, but not as good as the sea cucumber the other night at Shanghai #1 Seafood.

Crispy beef. I’ve always liked this dish. We ordered 2.

BBQ lamb chops. This was their signature dish and it was fabulous. Juicy, tons of cumin flavor. Sizzling. 4 sauces. We ordered a second. Really great.

Roast duck. Kinda like the goose, but duck and less dry.

Cumin lamb. Given how great the BBQ lamb was, this dish sucked. Off flavors and salty.

Fish boiled in chili sauce. Classic Szechuan dish. Not much mala. Fish itself was good. And it was decently hot. But it didn’t have that hot numbing flavor that it should.

Spicy Chicken (or was it rabbit?). Pretty good.

Pork belly with preserved vegetables. Hunan dish. Actually quite delicious, if a touch salty.

Mapo tofu. Not bad, but not really Szechuan at all. No mala.

Pork meat balls. Polarizing, but I loved them.

Chicken cartilage skewers. Pretty good, but some complained of no meat. lol noobs.

Lamb skewers. Great. Much like the BBQ lamb.

Beef skewers. Tougher. Fine, but not awesome like the lamb.

Maybe this was the rabbit. Can’t remember.

3 flavor dumplings. Very nice boiled dumplings.

Eggs with pork and preserved vegetables. There is a first time for everything. I took a bite and it was so distgusting, so salty, that I spit it out. Foul. Nasty. Never had a dish this bad in the SGV.

Blackberry Mango Amaro Sorbetto! — like a frozen aperitivo — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — although I do need to improve at decorating in the Pozzetti –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #mango #blackberry #amaro

Chess Chocolate Oreo Gelato — Valrhona medium chocolate base with layers of Valrhona Ivoire white chocolate ganache and crumbled Oreos — 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 #cheesecake #chocolate #valrhona #WhiteChocolate #oreo #chess

Peanut Chocolate Caramel Ganache Reese’s Gelato -Sweet Peanut Base with house-made Valrhona Chocolate Caramel Ganache and mini Reese’s Peanutbutter Cups! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — the ganache is delicious but the 80% Valrhona I used swamps out the caramel — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peanut #reeses #peanutbuttercup #ganache #Valrhona

Overall Happy Table’s food was a touch weird. I’m not even sure what region it really is, but the Northern and Szechuan dishes were pretty good (although I’ve had better). The Seafood and more Cantonese dishes were so-so. I guess it’s a north west (Chinese) restaurant. Some dishes were great, like the lamb chops and some loathsome like the egg with salty vegetables. Many in the middle.

Service was just laughable. I’ve been to the SGV hundreds of times and China several times and am very used to Chinese service standards. This was among the worst I’ve ever had. There was only one guy who spoke English, and all the others left us to him. He was nice, but so over worked we had to keep hunting him down. He pretty much avoided taking our order for 30 minutes straight. They brought the food to the table fast enough (on ordering) but there was basically no bussing. We kept moving empty plates ourselves out onto another table. I was raiding the main floor of the resteraunt for napkins, chopsticks, glasses, whatever. It was hilarious.

But the whole meal, with a big tip was $36 a person. Get a load of that!

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, Happy Table, Private Room, SGV, Wine

SGV Style – Deferred Maintenance

Jul08

Restaurant: Shanghai #1 Seafood Village [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 250 W Valley Blvd. San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 282-1777

Date: June 2, 2019

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Very authentic Shanghai style

The San Gabriel Valley is a veritable treasure trove of Asian dining, particularly regional Chinese. Shanghai #1 Seafood Village is the LA branch of a high end Shanghai chain specializing in banquet dining.

The decor is Stark meets Chinatown. Interestingly, as cheesy as it is, it’s fairly authentic. It is however, some 7 years after I first went here, looking a bit “shabby.” This is typical of Chinese establishments as they don’t seem to do a lot of maintenance.

We had the private dining room tonight. Mysteriously, even though it was a Sunday night and the place was EMPTY, at first they gave us a table in the main area. We had to ask for the private room. It’s much better though.

Tonight we had a slightly more wine focused group — non of the non-drinking riff-raff — and an attempt to get some interesting menu items to go with it.

The menu is like a giant full color fashion catalog for food, but I thought I’d show a couple pages by way of example.

From my cellar: 2006 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Rosé Brut. VM 96. The 2006 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Rosé is at once rich and refined, a simply fabulous Champagne Rosè I won’t soon forget. Intensely perfumed, with the Pinot Noir-derived red berry and cranberry flavors that are not just concentrated, but also remarkably pure. It is one of the better Rosé bubbles I have had in the last year.

Marinated sweet turnip. Delicious and crunchy.

Shanghai style smoked fish. Dry and smokey with a sweet soy glaze.

2009 Dom Pérignon Champagne. VM 94+. The 2009 Dom Pérignon is open, seductive and radiant, as it has always been. Soft curves, mid-weight structure and tons of plain allure make the 2009 impossible to resist in its youth. This bottle, the best I have tasted so far, offers a distinc citrus and floral-driven profile that adds a good deal of brightness. Above all else, the 2009 is a gorgeous Champagne to drink now and over then next few decades. This is the first time in the house’s history that a vintage was not released sequentially.

Vegan tofu “duck”. Not exactly duck like, but a delicious beancurd with a nice firm texture.

Bamboo shoots. Delicious and crunchy. Delicate flavors.

Lotus root stuffed with sweet rice in a tea marinate. Very interesting texture and a lovely tea flavor. But a bit cloyingly sweet this time around.

2010 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. VM 95+. The 2010 Chablis Les Clos is all about understatement and balance. White floral notes meld into white stone fruit in this utterly gracious Chablis. Clos can at times be fleeting and elusive, and there is certainly some of that in the 2010. Still, it is impossible to miss the wine’s textural finesse and sheer overall balance. I will not be surprised if the 2010 continues to get better in bottle.

agavin: singing!

Braised sea cucumber with brown sauce. Ever since I had good sea cucumber in Shanghai, I’ve been jonesing for it — and this was certainly delicious. Maybe not AS good as the one at Shanghai Tang, but still yummy.

Hot and sour seafood soup. I thought this would be more different. It was pretty much hot and sour soup (maybe with a bit of crab or something in it). Still tasty though and I do love hot and sour.

1996 Nicolas Joly Clos de la Coulée de Serrant. 92 points. A deep yellow/light gold center and clear rims. The medium+ intensity nose offered up ripe pear, tangerine, hazel nut, and some minerals. In the mouth, this wine had a lovely jelly-like texture. It was a bit heavy on the wood at first but this mostly blended in with time. It had good acidity and very good length after extended air. This developed extremely well. I know that this bottle got several hours of air before we started drinking it an it needed a couple more to show its best.

Lobster steamed with onion, garlic, and ginger. Very nice, light, delicious lobster prep that showed off the lobster without hiding it under a layer of fry.

Cabbage. I love Chinese cabbage.

House Special Stone Pot Fried Rice.

2013 Domaine Dujac Morey St. Denis. VM 90. Pale, bright red. Inviting perfume of raspberry, mocha, coffee, brown spices and wild herbs. Sweet and supple but vibrant too, with harmonious acidity framing the flavors of raspberry, pepper and fresh herbs. Finishes with nicely refined tannins.

Assorted Seafood in Abalone Sauce. There were whole abalone in here, jellyfish, more sea cucumber, a brown thing I have NO IDEA but with a beef-like texture (it was delicious), and quail or duck eggs. Interesting dish. Very Chinese (full of luxury ingredients). Not as good as the standalone sea cucumber, but still great.

2011 David Duband Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Aux Thorey. VM 90-92. Dark red/black stone fruits, wild flowers, sage, tar, rosemary and leather are some of the many notes that flesh out in the 2011 Nuits St. Georges Aux Thorey. The 2011 is soft and sensual to the core, with a caressing, expressive personality that offers considerable appeal, even at this early stage. There is much to like here.

Shanghai style sweet and sour fried fish (squirrel fish). This was one of those goopy straight up orange sweet and sour sauces, but it was awesome. Particularly dripped over rice. And the method of flaying the meat out and frying it created a much crisper effect, even if the appearance is a bit horror movie.

2003 Marc Sorrel Hermitage. VM 90-93. Good full ruby. Aromas of blackberry, cassis, menthol and bitter chocolate. Extremely ripe and impressively dense (the alcohol is 15. 2%), with port-like flavors of black fruits and dark chocolate. Very rich but just this side of heavy. Finishes with powerful but fine tannins. Impressive for this classique bottling. This will be approachable early but has the stuffing to age.

Special Shanghai BBQ red pork. Oh so fatty and oh so tasty!

Shanghai Whole Duck. Not what I expected, and kinda crispy and deep fried, but with a delicious smokey taste and very tender.

2016 Domaine Lucien Boillot et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Les Corbeaux.

XLB (soup dumplings). Nice versions, always delicious!

Pan fried Shanghai Style pork dumplings. Have to order these here, the juicy meat inside is amazing.

String beans with XO sauce. Nice version of the classic.

Peanut Chocolate Caramel Ganache Reese’s Gelato -Sweet Peanut Base with house-made Valrhona Chocolate Caramel Ganache and mini Reese’s Peanutbutter Cups! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — the ganache is delicious but the 80% Valrhona I used swamps out the caramel — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peanut #reeses #peanutbuttercup #ganache #Valrhona

Mangoberry Cheesecake Gelato — raspberry/mango cream-cheese base with blackberry/mango ripple and house-made graham cracker crumble — 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 #cheesecake #mango #raspberry #blackberry #GrahamCracker #coulis #ripple #creamcheese

Overall, this was a really great meal. First rate Chinese and quite authentic and typical of high end banquet meals in China. I’ve been here many times and finally enjoyed getting some “tricked out” dishes like sea cucumber. They were great. Service was good. The place is QUIET these days. Maybe they subsist on dimsum, but it’s a shame as this Shanghai banquet food is delicious.

I flighted the food into waves and it was quiet successful in terms of pacing and size. We also had only 8-9 people which is perfect for both table spacing and dish sharing.

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

They have a Karaoke setup in the private room!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, pork, SGV, Shanghai #1 Seafood Village, Wine, XLB

Chinese Fusion – Nightshade

Apr12

Restaurant: Nightshade

Location: 923 E 3rd St #109, Los Angeles, CA 90013. (213) 626-8888

Date: March 23, 2019

Cuisine: Chinese Fusion

Rating: Really tasty, imperfect service

Tonight was a a smaller Foodie Club dinner with core members Erick and Larry and newcomer Kim (owner of Khong Ten in Santa Monica).

Nightshade, located in the Arts District in Los Angeles, is a flagship concept and first restaurant for chef Mei Lin along with partners Francis Miranda and Cyrus Batchan of No.8. The highly anticipated project will draw from the culmination of Lin’s personal culinary history – from helping her parents and extended families in their Chinese restaurants as a child in Detroit.

The sure have jazzed up the formerly hideous neighborhood a bit with street art.

Sort of gilding the turd, but it (mostly) works.

And while Nightshade has the standard arts district brick front.

The inside though is elegant instead of the usual industrial look.
The menu is small, so even with four people we just ordered the entire menu. Turns out they also have a bunch of great looking secret larger pre-order dishes like a duck and a big steak — wish we had known.

NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée Edition 164eme. VM 97. Krug’s NV Grand Cuvée 164 Edition is a total knockout. Based on the 2008 vintage, the 164th Edition shows all the crystalline tension and energy that is such a signature of the year. At times, the 164 reminds me of the 2008 vins clairs I tasted after harvest. The flavors are brisk, delineated and pulsing with energy, while the more oxidative notes that are such a signature of Krug Champagnes are not especially evident. A wine of total pedigree and class, the 164 reminds me of some of the great Grand Cuvées of the 1960s and 1970s I have been lucky to taste over the years. No Champagne lover will want to be without this spectacular, captivating wine. All that said, readers should be patient, as the 164 is painfully young, austere and in need of serious cellaring. (Drink between 2027-2047)

oysters on the half shell, passionfruit emulsion. These were nice. Bright flavors from the sauce. It pretty much hid the oyster flavor (retaining the texture) but was still good.

hokkaido scallops, coconut vinaigrette, crispy ginger, coriander. Sauce was great. Bright flavors here.

baja kanpachi, radish kimchi, shiso, kohlrabi. This dish missed a little. It wasn’t bad in any way, but was mild flavored and the sauce VERY mild. I couldn’t really taste that much shiso (which I love).

NV Krug Champagne Brut Rosé Edition 21eme. JG95+. The Krug Brut Rosé “21ème Édition” is from the beautiful base year of 2008, with the oldest reserve wine in the blend going back to 2000. The wine was disgorged in the spring of 2015 and is a blend of fifty-one percent pinot noir, forty-one percent chardonnay and eight percent pinot meunier. Ten percent of the pinot noir in the blend is still red wine from Krug’s own parcels of vines in the village of Aÿ. The blend is a slight departure from many releases of Krug Rosé, as hail in the village of Ste. Ghemme in 2008 dramatically cut back the quality of pinot meunier from this vintage, so that Chef de Caves Eric Lebel opted to use all reserve wines for the pinot meunier portion of the blend. The very complex wine offers up the characteristically refined and gently exotic bouquet that this cuvée is cherished for, wafting from the glass in a blend of cherries, a touch of pomegranate, orange peel, beautiful, savory spice elements, rye bread, a complex base of soil tones , dried rose petals and incipient smokiness. On the palate the wine is full, complex and still quite youthful in terms of structure, with vibrant acids, a lovely core, elegant mousse and a very long, perfectly balanced and seamless finish. This is already beautifully complex, but I would love to revisit it five to ten years down the road and see what the passage of time does to this beautiful constellation of aromas and flavors. (Drink between 2018-2050)

beef tartare, sesame, egg yolk jam, kochukaru. Very nice beef tartar. Interesting “thick textured” shrimp toast. Went well though as it’s mild, and added some good crunch.

tom yum onion, coconut dip. Like an awesome blossom with a kind of Thai-flavored coconut dip.

tamarind glazed carrots, toasted coconut, carrot top emulsion. Good for carrots.

sunchokes, strawberry molé, seeded granola. Can’t really remember very well.

1995 Domaine Anne Gros Clos Vougeot Le Grand Maupertui. VM 92. Deep red-ruby. Extravagantly rich aromas of blackcurrant, pepper, smoke and tar. Large-scaled, deep and very sweet; explosively fruity and impressively tactile. Chewy tannins are buried under a wave of finishing fruit. A knockout Clos Vougeot truly worthy of its grand cru status.

koshihikari rice congee, xo, pork floss, onsen egg. We mixed this all up. It was one of the best dishes with both a homey carby quality and a delicious umami flavor from all that goodness including the XO sauce.

squid ink bucatini, cuttlefish bolognese, gochujang. Always love this kind of seafood / ragu type pasta.

lasagna, pork ragu, tofu cream, prickly ash. Very interesting light delicate texture made from many layers of wonton wrapper pastry! Quite nice, but we needed two of them and they closed the kitchen on us early and wouldn’t give us any more (more on that later).

Erick brought: 1996 Domaine Robert Groffier Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Amoureuses. VM 93+. Saturated ruby-red. Supersweet aromas of raspberry, currant, graphite and sweet oak, plus an exotic suggestion of citrus fruit. Silky and sweet, if rather unforthcoming in the middle palate; offers great concentration and a near perfect sugar/acid balance. Firm tannins are covered by fruit. Great whiplash of a finish. This has considerable early appeal but will be even better after seven or eight years of additional bottle aging.

prawn toast, cantonese curry. Really good. Nice firm texture to the “toast” and great curry sauce.

szechuan hot quail, japanese milk bread, house pickles. This is a variant of the fried chicken bits in piles of aromatic chilies — the classic Szechuan dish that I order all the time. Nice, with moist larger meat and a good bit of heat. Although I would have liked the giant chili pile. I probably enjoy a great version of the classic slightly better — partially because it’s bigger!

coconut mousse, lime coconut granita, pineapple, nata de coco.

Check out inside. The faint white cubes were coconut jelly. The mouse is the white, the green the lime, and the pineapple inside. Weirdly deconstructed but absolutely fabulous flavors. Great, great dessert. Refreshing too.

guava, cream cheese, white chocolate. You break the (white chocolate) top. The guava and cream-cheese are below. Nice too.

almond sorbet, tangerine ice. Also really nice and refreshing. Interesting textures with the soft chocolate-textured sorbet rings and then the ice underneath.

silkened tofu, rhubarb, shiso, basil seeds. The weirdest of the 4 weird desserts, but tasty too.

I have to say that the desserts were excellent. But they aren’t a balanced set as all 4 were frozen, and sort of light fruits. All very refreshing but nothing in the cakey/bready or chocolate families. All technically very interesting though, and individually delicious with great texture factor.

Tonight’s crew, minus me.

Overall, this was a great meal. Often these small Foodie Club affairs are more enjoyable than large format dinners. We had a good little crew, ordered everything at the restaurant (minus the pre-orders, more on that below), brought excellent wines, and had a fabulous time.

Food was very good. I like that it’s upscale fusion with Chinese (and some other Asian) influences but not just special plated forms of Chinese dishes. Many dishes were very good: onion, scallops, tartare, congee, shrimp toast, pasta, lasagna, quail. That’s a high percentage! They weren’t super big and even with all that (the complete menu) for 4 people we could have eaten a couple more (more on that below).

Desserts were EXCELLENT. Really good. But not a wide ranging set. All too similar in form and profile. They need some chocolate etc.

Which brings me to a couple service points: Server was friendly, but there was some confusion going on (they are very new) and they weren’t super attentive. They did (mostly) follow my instructions of bringing the dishes one at a time. We also asked about 2/3 through to double up some of the courses that were ALREADY COMING (some time away, not anywhere near done) and they told us the kitchen was closed. But they never warned us about “last call”, and we could see the guys working in the kitchen making dishes. There was no cleaning up going on. And our remaining savory dishes kept on coming for 20-30 more minutes. So they easily could have done it. They hadn’t closed up. This is an example of not putting the customer first. Not that we went hungry, but we were peeved. Not a good thing for a restaurant. I’m still a bit peeved 3 weeks later!

Also, we kept seeing these really awesome looking big duck and steak dishes. We asked before we ordered and were told they are pre-order. But it’s not even mentioned on the menu (and we looked online) so how were we to know? They ought to list them like Majordomo does. We would have liked the larger dishes and they were needed on this menu that barely has formal mains — and no red meats (other than the tartare).

We handled the wine service (opening and pouring) but they let us open four bottles (and they pocketed the corkage, good deal by them but as long as there isn’t an enforced bottle limit I’m fine with it).

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more crazy Foodie Club dinners, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Arts District, Asian Fusion, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Fusion, DTLA, Foodie Club, Nightshade, Wine

Molten Lava Goodness

Apr01

Restaurant: Shancheng Lameizi

Location: Mandarin Plaza. 18932 Gale Ave, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 581-8808

and 1530 S San Gabriel Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 766-1700

Date: March 7 and March 26 and May 7 and June 22 and December 27, 2019

Cuisine: Szechuan Hot Pot

Rating: Best Hot Pot restaurant I’ve been to

On the middle night of my 3 day class trip to the SGV Yarom made the trek out east to join me for what Erick and Skylar said is the best new Chongqing style hot pot.

They describe themselves on their website thusly:

Our secret recipes of the soup base all come from Chongqing, so that our customers can taste the authentic flavor of hot pot from that mountain city. Apart from that, more than twenty kinds of free special snacks also attract many diners and lead to our good reputation, making the company prosper in the dining industry for more than twenty years. Our tenet of providing quality and comfortable service also makes every one of our customers “come with joy and leave with satisfaction”. Our specialties are delicious, rich-flavored and good for your calcium supplement. Their functions of skin care and regulating Qi and blood are also good for your health. Our soup is daily fresh-made.

This branch (there are a couple) is located in busy Mandarin plaza. There are like 15-20 Asian places out here and we are returning in the summer for a crawl.

There is even a bit of outside decor.

Check it out, they spent some actual money.

There is even an outside hot pot patio! (the tables have the built in hot pots). I’ve never seen this before.

Inside has a cute bit of decor, and tiny Chinese girl sized booths. We were initially offered a 2 person booth like the near one on the right — Yarom and I, being neither a couple nor particularly petite waited for a four person sized table.

Then 2 weeks later I was out in the SGV by myself picking up some gelato equipment and decided to try out the Alhambra branch. Similar elaborate building — I didn’t see the patio, but friends say it’s there. I went back again 5/7/19 too because this place is just that good.

Inside has another of these “fancy” Chinese decors that would cost an American 3 million but probably only cost them $300,000.

They have the best “sauce bar” I have ever seen, although you have to pay $1.50 a person for it. It includes more than just sauce like these snacks (which I didn’t eat).

More snacks.

Dessert. Very Chinese. Bean stuff sesame balls. Kinda dry and not worth the carbs.

More snacks. Peanuts, dried lima beans, etc. These were good. Shrimp chips.

Not sure what all these were. Some red beans. Some weird mysterious sweet things. Like those sperm on the left. Kinda gelatinous and sweet.

This is the main sauce components (there were a few others, not pictured, like garlic, peanuts, etc. This stuff was awesome. So many different super Chinese fermented spice flavors.

Very detailed pan across of all the sauce components!

Various toppings to add into your sauce mixes. The soy sauces, vinegar, oils are separated out.

Never heard of this oils, which makes it cool.

You fill out the menu while waiting.

From my cellar: NV Philipponnat Champagne Royale Réserve Rosé Brut. BH 92. A moderately fruity nose reflects notes of cherry, strawberry, raspberry, yeast and a subtle citrus nuance. There is a really lovely sense of energy to the delicious, round and nicely voluminous flavors that are shaped by a moderately fine effervescence that carries over to a lingering and solidly complex finish that is drier than the 9 g/L of dosage would suggest. One of the aspects that I particularly like here is that unlike many examples of rosé that tend to be prettier than they are deep, there has very good depth. Like the Royale Réserve, this could easily be held for further aging but it is so attractive now that there is no particular reason to do so.

agavin: perfect hot hot pot pairing

I developed 3 sauce blends. This is the “light” blend with a lot of vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and various fermented flavors. Trying to be vinegar heavy.

This is the “meat” blend with a lot of peanut, sesame, and other spicy fermented flavors. Very thick and and heavy but delicious with the meat.

A different day’s sesame based blend.

This was a “fermented” flavor. Tons of peppers and every weird fermented chili thing I could find. Interesting and delicious.

And another take on fermented flavor of death. I added every type of chili oil and everything fermented.

Sauce refills.

Crispy Pork Appetizer. I really wanted to order some pork rind like things I saw on another table, but ended up with these, basically like the fried pork chunks that are in a good version of the sweet and sour pork. Pretty delicious actually. Like pork tenders.

We got the hot pot split with bone broth and super spicy Szechuan hot pot (the slurry of melted ox fat, chilies, and peppercorns). I asked for max heat. They also have a 9 way split but it’s more so people can have their own area. They only have 2 broths.

Starting to heat up.

Furious boil (on the left).

Video of it boiling.

On request, you can even get a branded bib — I highly recommend you do!

Certified Angus Beef Short Rib. Very nice meat.

On top was Lamb Shoulder. Also really good.

Fatty Beef Belly — richer!

Some other meat.

Streaky Pork. Thicker and full of flavor.

Meatball Combo (beef? and a fish ball).

Tofu Combo. Lighter and heavier tofu.

Rice cakes. Carby but great texture.

Vegetable combo. Various cabbage and greens. These are really good sauce vehicles and helped wash things down.

Some root vegetables.

Yarom brought this Cab from the night before — still in awesome shape and strong enough to overcome the heat.

On top, Special Luncheon Pork (spam). So good we had three orders! Below was Mini Sausage which have a lot of flavor and open up when cooked.

Raw Pig brain! Yeah, it’s really scary. I made sure to cook it really really well.

Chicken gizzard. Very very chewy. Can’t say I would recommend.

Spongey mushroom with shrimp. Surprisingly delicious. Interesting spongey texture too.

Fish Filet. Chunks of thick deboned whole fish that you drop in — in my case into the spicy side — to get that Szechuan boiled fish effect.

Mushroom combo to add even more fiber to the mix — plus one of our extra luncheon meats.

Wood ear mushroom. I love these guys.

Special baby bamboo shoot (5/7/19). On one of my return trips they had added LOTS of specials, including all sorts of intestines. I skipped those and got this sheet of delicious fiber — along with the mushrooms and chili oil keeps one fully regular. Notice that I again ordered the baloney.

Lotus root. Always add some nice texture to a hot pot.

You can order fried or white rice if you like.

The girls next door ordered quite differently with quail eggs, bean curd, and PIG BRAIN!

The bill is 100% in Chinese!

Overall, this was probably the best Szechuan style hot pot I’ve had, up there with my friend Wendy’s epic home cooked New Years hot pot (which isn’t spicy, but had really good stuff). I think Shancheng Lameizi was actually better than the place we went in Chengdu and definitely a little better than my local favorite Hai di Lao. The atmosphere was very Chinese, the ingredient quality was excellent, service good, they allowed us to open our wine ($10 corkage, which they might not have even charged), the broth, particularly the spicy broth was insanely good, and the sauce bar was unparalleled for blending weird intense Chinese flavors. Now, do bear in mind, that given the super spicy soup base, and my thick chili laden slurry of sauces that what goes in the pot is largely about texture. lol.

Apparently there is a branch at Valley and San Gabriel, right near the Crack House, Shaanxi Garden, etc. When I went 2 weeks later it was just as good! Very crowded at lunch too (and this is a HEAVY lunch!). I’ve now been at least 5 times and it’s always great.

Oh, and do bear in mind that hot pot like this is a form of high fat “cleanse.” As they say at Killer Noodle, “mind your bottom!”

For my catalog of Chinese restaurant reviews, click here.

This minimall is hilarious. Tons of different places. Don’t know what this kind of BBQ is (appears to be a Chinese take on Yakitori), but the slogan is amusing.

This old school 50s or 60s place has become a Benihana clone — but more Chinese.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: beef, Chinese cuisine, hot pot, pig brains, pork, spicy, Szechuan Hot Pot, Yarom

Quick Eats – Earthen

Mar29

Restaurant: Earthen Restaurant

Location: 1639 S Azusa Ave. Hacienda Heights, CA 91745. (626) 964-1570

Date: March 6, 2019

Cuisine: Taiwanese Chinese

Rating: Solid goodness

This week I had a 2 day gelato making course in Walnut, right in the heart of the eastern SGV (Hacienda Heights) and since I was staying over of course I took the opportunity to hit up some extra great Chinese.

Earthen is in the same mini-mall as the awesome Shanghailander Palace.

The inside is typical of these newer cafe type Chinese places. “Some” build out, as opposed to the older ones with absolutely none, but not much maintenance. They have no liquor license so it’s not a good spot for a wine dinner. But it was perfect for a quick solo dinner.

Hot and soup soup. I just had the feeling that this old comfort food from my youth would hit the spot. And this was a nice version of the classic. I actually ate pretty much this ENTIRE 4 person bowl (small) myself. It wasn’t the best hot and sour ever, but it was quite good, maybe an 8. Had the texture form the soft bean curd, egg, and the slightly crunchy bamboo and stringy mushrooms. Nice and tangy.

House special cold chicken. Like Hainan chicken with a garlic soy sauce. Cold but succulent. Bone is still all in there, Chinese style. Not a strong flavor, but very pleasant.

Garlic shrimp. I really shouldn’t have gotten a fried dish, but I LOVE this tangy garlic sauce type. It’s a bit of the way toward a sweet and sour sauce. Sticky. It would have been good without the breading too. Certainly tasted good with it — although I didn’t need the carbs.

Earthen hit the spot. All three dishes were quite delicious Taiwanese comfort foods. I do think they use a good bit of MSG as I felt it for the next couple hours afterward. Not a big surprise. Technically they were supposed to be open to 10pm and I had planned to slide in there at 9:15ish on my way out to the area, but fortunately I made good time as they closed at 9 and I was the last customer.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.