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Lunch Quest – Da Long Yi

Dec01

Location: 250 W Valley Blvd L, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 872-6690

Date: May 20, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese Szechuan Hot Pot

Rating: Very solid spicy hot pot place

Da Long Yi Hot Pot is a relatively new spicy hot pot branch of some Chinese chain, in the Chongking style, but from Chengdu specifically.

It’s located located on the second floor of this classic mall right next door to Shanghai #1 Seafood Village.

The interior has a decent but modern industrial build out.

The “snacks” are extremely minimal.

The sauce bar section is decent, totally workable, but not as good as a few other chains.

I made my usual pair of sesame and vinegar based sauces.

Fried Pork. Super nice fry with juicy pork. Great!

Half spicy, half bone broth. The bone is boring, of course.

Smooth beef. Thick slices coated in egg. Very tender and nice.

Pork meat balls. Great, not those dense packaged ones.

Luncheon Meat. Always one of my favorites.

Fish Balls stuffed with Roe. Great.

Angus Beef.

Beef Tongue.

Lamb Shoulder.

Assorted Tofu.

Assorted Mushrooms.

Lotus root. Love that crunchy texture.

Napa cabbage. Because this is always the favorite veggie, we decided to just order it.

This turned out to be a surprisingly nice spicy hot pot. It’s “almost” as good as Shancheng Lameizi or Chun La Hao, but not quite. Build out isn’t as attractive as either of those. Sauce/snack bar is a bit worse. Actual hot pot food quality was quite good, basically equal. Weirdly, they were completely empty. One employee I think and we were the only customers. Food was great though.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Da Long Yi, hot pot, Lunch Quest, SGV, spicy, Szechuan cuisine

Shanghai #1 2022

Nov09

Restaurant: Shanghai #1 Seafood Village [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

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

Date: April 17 & July 9, 2022

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. Here in 2022 we returned for a pair of dinners to see how it was doing post pandemic.

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.

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.

Smashed Cucumbers with Garlic. Good with some of the other sauces.

Jellyfish Heads. In a nice sweet and tangy sauce.

Pickled Turnips. Sweet and a tiny bit spicy. I like them a lot but some people don’t.

Black Fungus (cloud ear mushroom). I always like this.

Pork Jelly. Very clean version of this dish.

Cold Chicken. Fine, but a bit boring as always. Simple “hainan-like” chicken. Pretty good except for he bones. The sauce was good.

Oil Poached Crab. Very lovely with clean crab flavor. Not so large though (we ordered 2).

Tofu with shrimp and salty egg yolk. Very strong salty egg flavor, but quite nice.

Two Flavor Shrimp. The one with the shell is sweet.

Yellow Croaker with Green Onion. Brown savory sauce and a very nice oniony flavor.

Fried yellow croaker with tea leaves. Very fried but delicious with the sweet vinegar.

Yellow Croaker with Green Onion. Brown savory sauce and a very nice oniony flavor.

Jiggly Pork Hock. Delicious.

Tea Smoked Duck. Crispy and delicious.

Beef with Scallions. Okay but a bit bland and the beef was chewy.

Cumin lamb. They pretty much forgot the cumin and the peppers.

Peppers with pork. Good, although not that much pork.

XLB. Very good.

Vinegar for the dumplings.

Tofu with pork. Great flavor.

Shanghai Style Pan-Fried Pork Dumplings. Heavy, but yummy.

Shrimp fried rice.

Shanghai Noodles with pork and cabbage. Fabulous noodles actually.

Crispy noodles with seafood. Delicious. Great texture and nice flavor.

Caramel Double Chip Gelato — Base is Salted Caramel made by replacing the sugar with house-made Water Caramel. Laced with Valrhona Chocolate Chunks and Toffee Chunks — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #caramel #SaltedCaramel #valrhona #toffee

Overall, these were both really great meals, but the April one was spectacular and the July one just great. Shanghai #1 severs (on a good night) 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 daytime dimsum, but it’s a shame as this Shanghai banquet food is delicious.

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, Chinese Food, Gelato, hedonists, SGV, Shanghai #1 Seafood Village, Shanghai Cuisine

Little Cambodia – Hak Heang

Oct12

Restaurant: Hak Heang Restaurant

Location: 2041 E Anaheim St, Long Beach, CA 90804. (562) 434-0296

Date: February 23, 2022

Cuisine: Cambodian Chinese

Rating: Cambodian drifting toward Chinese

Yarom and I went down to Long Beach in February 2022 to check out a bunch of Cambodian restaurants in a mini crawl. Alas we couldn’t convince anyone else to come with us on this particular day.

Our third stop was Hak Heang which is a Long Beach Cambodian institution.

The interior is vast, dingy, and typical of Chinese banquet halls. On one side a bunch of older Cambodian guys were playing cards and drinking tea.

The many is VAST with a hybrid of Cambodian, Chinese, and Cambodian Chinese dishes. Presumably the owners are ethnic Chinese from Cambodia.
We tried to order Cambodian dishes and asked the server for recommendations. But because we were two people and this was our third stop could only handle two more dishes.

Curry Fish (073). Mam Bo Hoc Nuoc Dua. TONS of flavor, very spicy, and unusual herbal notes.

Ground chicken, Shrimp, and Lemon Grass (098). Ga Tom Xao Cai Ot. Also very delicious and unusual. As can be found at many Thai restaurants this “meat paste” was served with chunks of veggies as a kind of dip or topping.

Hak Heang also has a huge menu and it would definitely be possible to do a large group dinner here. The two dishes we had were delicious and interesting. However, I can’t say the dingy old Cantonese banquet hall vibe — like a relic of the late 70s or something — is super appearing.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cambodian Cuisine, Chinese cuisine, food crawl, Hak Heang, Long Beach, Lunch Quest

One One Dumplings

Sep08

Restaurant: One One Dumplings

Location: 704 W Las Tunas Dr #4, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 282-8695

Date: December 17, 2021

Cuisine: Northern Chinese

Rating: Solid boiled and fried dumplings

AFF and another Friday trip to the SGV to check out some Asian goodness. We actually intended to go to Hui Tou Xiang next door but they were only open for takeout — and since daddy don’t do takeout, we hit up one one.

Small interior.

Very casual sauce containers.

The menu is smaller than the interior and doubles as an order form. And a third of it is crossed out.

Flavors stewed bean curd. Tastes pretty normal actually. Flavors is mostly soy sauce (and maybe some sugar) and a couple of spices like star anise.

Fried pork dumplings. Great crispy bottom.

Stewed pork noodle in soup.

Flavors stewed beef. Presumably this meat is braised in the same liquid as the tofu.

Cabbage, pork, and shrimp. Straight up delicious boiled dumplings.

Pork with soup, steamed. What they mean here is soup dumplings, ie. that frozen or solidified broth was included in the filling before steaming. Delicious of course.

Chive, pork, egg, and shrimp boiled dumplings.

Fried chive, pork, egg dumplings. These had the most perfect pan fried bottom!

The mess.

One one is a simple place, but if you crave straight up boiled and fried jiaozi dumplings, it’s certainly got ’em.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

This is where we intended to go. When they reopen for sit down, I’ll try again.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: AFF, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, dumplings, Friday, lunch, noodles, One One Dumplings, SGV

Xi’an isn’t Shaanxi

Sep02

Restaurant: Xi’an

Location: N Canon Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 275-3345

Date: December 12, 2021

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Better than I thought semi-Americanized Chinese

I’ve seen Xi’an on Canon for years but never even considered going into because it looked so Americanized and kitchy. But Yarom met the owner and she offered to make us a special “Chinese” menu.

The outside patio was mobbed.

But in the wake of the virus most people were scared off the inside.

The normal menu is pretty Chinese American. There are even a bunch of oddball dishes that aren’t Chinese at all like salads, edamame (I guess some Beverly Hills residents confuse China and it’s island neighbor).

They start off with plenty of sauces on the table though.

Drunken chicken. Very nice and moist.

Garlic ginger chili sauce. This is pretty much a traditional hainan chicken sauce.

Sichuan Style Chicken Wontons. Not bad, would be better with pork. No self respecting Chengdu chef would use chicken for this dish. Sauce was a bit sweet.

Tofu with chili and Century Egg. Somewhat bland version of this dish. Needed the sweet/tangy soy sauce.

Scallion pancakes. Could have been crispier.

Friend shrimp dim sum. Excellent. Hot and delicious.

Chicken lo-mein for a wus. For some unexplained reason, our esteemed leader sometimes invites people to Chinese who have no interest in real Chinese food — they order dishes like this because they won’t eat what everyone else does.

Miso cod. What’s this doing on a Chinese menu? Did it hitchhike over from Matsuhisa?
Peking duck. Hoison was excellent. Duck was a touch dry. But they had pancakes and rolled some of them for us.

The pancakes were a tough tortilla-like.

Chinese Broccoli with Chinese Sausage. Very good.

Salty egg fried rice. Nice.

Lamb stew with a bit of anise and black cardamon. Quite good. A touch gamey.

Shanghai Style Dungeness Crab with Shanghai Rice cakes. Great ginger/garlic sauce.

Southern Spicy Prawns. Not my favorite.

Hunan Style braised/steamed pork belly with preserved vegetables. Respectable version of this dish, although I have had better.

String beans. Excellent crunch, a touch under-seasoned.

Sesame Red Bean Buns. Chewy.

Fruit. This was ice cold and kinda nice.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by Xi’an. The meal was quite enjoyable. It’s not even slightly “Xi’an” as in having cuisine even remotely related to the capital of Shaanxi province, for that go here. And I wouldn’t be very interested in the regular menu, but what we had was pretty good. It was kind of hit or miss. I had the feeling the chef is solid, but out of practice seasoning dishes authentically given his Beverly Hills crowd. Some dishes were solid and many were middling — but I love Chinese food and even middling Chinese is quite enjoyable.

And they treated us like royalty. Overall a great time.

I didn’t bother photographing the wines.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Beverly Hills, Chinese cuisine, hedonists, Wine, Xi'an

Chengdu Impression

Jul21

Restaurant: Chengdu Impression

Location: 21 E Huntington Dr, Arcadia, CA 91006. (626) 462-9999

Date: November 7, 2021 and May 1, 2022

Cuisine: Sichuan Chinese

Rating: Great kitchen, terrible service

I wanted to go here for years but a combination of distance, the pandemic, and the challenge of getting Sichuan groups together made it a bit hard. Finally I got here in late 2021 and the kitchen was so good we swore to go again.

It’s located in the North SGV, more Arcadia, on a busy street.

The interior is modern and deserted. Both times almost no other customers. They have 2 privates rooms as well.

This is the upstairs. The first time we ate up here.

The second time we had the large private room.

This is the menu — however, both times, despite my attempts in advance to pre-order stuff, they were “out” of a mysterious range of items. I think it’s staff shortages in the kitchen honestly.

Cold Tossed Cucumber. The second time we tried to order this (on the second visit) they were “out” supposedly because the chef declared that the sauce was “too complicated.” This has to be some kind of staff shortage.

Hot and Sour Jelly Noodle. Good, but could have used a bit more sour to my taste. Texture was on point. Notice the take out container. They really wanted to service us everything in these crap containers with plastic forks and spoons. I went and had a talk with the manager and only by playing up the blog card managed to get them to use real plates. I think they have returned their rental dishwasher or something.

Sliced Pork Belly with Spicy Garlic Sauce. The sauce in particular was incredible. Really awesome and on the second visit when we tried to reorder, again the chef declared the sauce “too complicated” and wouldn’t serve it. Weird!

Boiled Pork Dumplings. Because they were out of the wontons on the first visit. These were basic.

But on the second visit we managed to get wontons! Numbing Spicy Wonton. Nice soft wrapper, very intense numbing sauce (almost a soup).

Couples Sliced Beef and Tripe. Good sauce, beef was a bit tough.
Chinese bread for the beef.

Pungent and Spicy Chicken. Sauce was full of chilis and quite excellent. I particularly liked the bamboo shoots in here.

Chicken in Chili Sauce. Different, less “oily” variant than I usually find.

Cold Chicken Noodles. Really excellent noodle dish with that sweet and tangy quality.

Pickled garlic!

Sliced Sole Filet and Tofu in Sichuan Peppercorn Sauce. Delicious and perfect rendition of the dish. Super moist and soft fish with lots of numbing. Not as spicy as Sichuan Impression.

Kung Pao Shrimp. Delicate and almost floral. Incredible version. There might be some lychee in here for sweetness.

Spicy Lobster (preorder). Nice tender meat and good flavor. They did charge a LOT for this, however. Pre-ordered and brought too early because they can’t resist bringing the pre-order stuff.

Bullfrog Dry Pot with Sichuan Vegetables. Awesome version of this dish, particularly the crunchy lotus root and soft potato.

Braised Sea Cucumber with Minced Pork. The pork was awesome. The cucumber was a bit chewy (and not so strong on flavor).

Bullfrog Stewed with Spicy Ginger Broth. One of the classic Sichuan Bullfrog variants. Quite nice meat.

Beef Tendon. Very jiggly, but nice.

Shredded Beef with Sour Sauce. Interesting.

Chengdu Style Beef Jerky. Very dry but a lot of flavor.

Honey Roasted Duck (Pre-order). Really excellent, super jucy sweet duck. Polarizing as Yarom and David didn’t like the sweet. The rest of us loved it.

Country Style Sliced Pork with Shisito Peppers. Excellent meat with great salty flavor.

Angus Beef Ribs. Interesting. Very fatty, but quite a lot of flavor.

Crispy Spciy Diced Chicken. Fabulous version of this dish with plenty of aromatic chili vibe and a very darkly 2-3 time fried chicken.

Wok Fried Cabbage with Garlic and Minced Pork. Super delicious with a nice crunch and good pork flavor.

Twice Cooked Pork. Perfect. Leeks were great.

Dan Dan Mein.

Mixed up. The flavor was quite good, if a touch sweet.

Mapo Tofu. Very good version of the dish. Not that hot, but lots of numbing and deep flavor.

Raspberry Sorbetto — French Raspberries, a touch of lime juice, and a splash of Amaro — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — I had to add a bit of Amaro for my “art” otherwise it would have been too simple — #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 #amaro

Hazelnut at the Ritz Gelato — Nocciola (hazelnut) custard base made with Pure PGI Piedmont hazelnut paste then mixed with house-made caramel and crushed Ritz Crackers (for that salty offset) — 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 #hazelnut #nocciola #caramel #caramello #ritz #crackers

My son’s favorite — Triple Chocolate Cloud Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Ganache and chopped 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 #oreos #ganache #icing #NestléCrunch

So in summary:

I think the actual Sichuan kitchen here is great, maybe the best I’ve had in the greater LA area. But there are serious problems with the operation.

They are clearly “barely in business.” The restaurant is empty and given how crowded most SGV restaurants are this is hardly a good sign. They tried both times to serve on plastic wares. The front of house staff, while friendly, lounged around a good deal of the time. They didn’t replace plates, clear stuff very often, or bring napkins etc. We had to constantly go out to find them to get things and to order — only to discover them chatting with each other in the hall. The kitchen was out of items both times. Oddly out of stuff. We also had a third “failed” dinner between these two where they canceled it on us because they were “doing renovations.” I suspect they were just short staffed or had some permitting issue. The unavailability of basic dishes like cold cucumbers because the sauce was “too complicated” was laughable. Even in the private room where they will give you real plates they gave us mostly plastic silverware.

Additionally, the second visit was oddly expensive. It seems they priced the pre-order dishes (like the lobster and duck) really high. Maybe $200-300+ for just the lobster!

Anyway, it’s really a shame that they have these logistical issues because the subtlety of the cooking is for the most part very good and they do have a lot of interesting items on the menu (when they are in “stock”).

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, Chengdu Impression, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Gelato, hedonists, SGV, Sichuan, Sichuan Cuisine, spicy, Wine

Embassy Kitchen Expedition

Mar29

Restaurant: Embassy Kitchen

Location: 218 S San Gabriel Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 286-8148

Date: August 28 & September 9, 2021

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Very tasty, but lots of MSG

Over the years Embassy Kitchen has been on my radar. I missed a couple dinners there due to scheduling conflicts and we even showed up once years ago and when they declined to allow us to open our wine the group rebelled and moved to Beijing Tasty House. Anyway, I managed to go twice in 2021, both for a test lunch and then for a Tony Lau dinner.

It’s adjacent to an old 50s/60s billiards hall which I think is still actually open! This is just all so SGV.

Big menu.

Peanuts on the table.

Beef and anchovy patties. A bit salty and “fishy” in a good umami way.

Deep fried chicken cartilage. Garlicky. Delicious but very salty. Here you chew right through the “chicken knees” (chunks of chewy cartilage. This isn’t always easy for those of the Caucasian persuasion.

Rice stuffed chicken wings. Stuffing slightly bland.

100 flower chicken. Great. I love this dish.

Tilapia rolled up around ginger. Delicious but very salty. This is a polarizing dish. Not only is it salty fried fish but there is this tangy and bitey bit of fresh ginger inside. I loved it, but not everyone did.

Quail. Excellent.

House Special Lobster. Delicious.

Mushrooms with a salty yolk fry.

Beef with truffle. Heavy on the truffle oil.

Simple greens.

Veggies with dried shrimp and crispy taro. Delicious but again super salty.

Almond Chocolate Cloud Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Toasted Sicilian Almond Cream and Dark Chocolate Rocas! — 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 #almond

Pinoli Gelato — Siberian Pinenut Gelato — 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 #pinoli #pinenut

Portuguese Tarts.

Pineapple Buns.

Embassy Kitchen has a number of unique and interesting dishes and great flavors. It does however, use a lot of salt and MSG and I could really feel it both after both visits. Worth it. The ambiance is classic SGV with that unique blend of 50s/60s buildings with interesting “hybrid” Chinese American decor. Certainly our Tony Lau dinner made for a great night!

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: Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Embassy Kitchen, hedonists, Lunch Quest, SGV, Tony Lau

No. 1 Charcoal Really Is

Mar09

Restaurant: No. 1 Charcoal BBQ

Location: 112 N Chandler Ave #101, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 281-5288

Date: August 22, 2021 & March 13, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese BBQ Skewers

Rating: Fabulous food — Highly recommended for the adventurous

Yarom and I discovered this Chinese BBQ joint while exploring the area (and eating at a nearby Northern style place).

It’s around the corner from Garvey, not far from the lots of places I’ve frequented.

Inside is amusingly peculiar, the current Chinese BBQ place having clearly taken over a space that was once an 80s or 90s Japanese restaurant, complete with sushi bar and wood paneled tatami private dining rooms. In typical Chinese fashioned they didn’t redecorate. As far as I can tell most of the business in summer of 2021 is takeout.

The magic occurs here in this sloppy looking (but tasty) charcoal grill under the hood.

You can still see the sushi freezers on the bar. Everything is just cluttered with random crap.

We used this private dining room, which while a bit awkward to climb into was very cute and the atmosphere was way better than the messy front room and its constant stream of takeout customers.

The menu.

Western Chinese skewer powder.

Jellishfish — quite good, although it could have been tangier. Notice the “plates” that consist of styrofoam takeout containers ripped in half.

Tofu with century egg — delicious with awesome savory notes.

Cucumbers with slightly peanuty dressing.

House Special Beef — there was a delicious brown MSG sauce (pictured below).

Crack sauce.

Pig ears.

Cold lamb with house special sauce.

Cold sesame noodles.

Lamb “Casserole”. Not bad.

Shredded potato. Great.

Stinky Tofu. Stinky!

Spicy tofu sauce.

Dumplings with 3 ingredients. Typical boiled dumplings.

Spicy Crawfish — great sauce, hard to eat as usual.

Spicy “casserole” (aka Mala hot pot).

Extra spam.

Beef tongue

Lamb skewers. All these skewers had a lovely charcoal flavor and were sizzling hot and delicious. The awesome tablewares continue with some cheap paper plates.

Pork.

House special spare ribs — boney but incredible flavor.

Sausages — a bit sweet and awesome.

BBQ Leek — great.

Beef tendon.

Chicken Feet.

Fish Tofu — a touch sweet and spicy.

Lamb Brisket. Good enough we ordered seconds.

Cabbage with garlic — incredible. Really stunning cabbage dish.

King Oyster Mushrooms.

Enoiki Mushrooms.

Grilled BBQ Squid — a touch fishy but good.

BBQ Garlic!

Ball of Quail.

Reminds me a bit of:

Sliced potatoes.

Garlic with a side of eggplant. Also awesome.

Crispy Chicken Bones. Amazing sauce and crunch.

Mascarpone Coffee Crunch Gelato — A base infused with Mascarpone Cheese then blended with house-made Coffee Crunch — created 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 #mascarpone #cheese #coffee #CoffeeCrunch #candy

Grapefruit Aperol Tarragon Sorbetto — Cold pressed Fresh Grapefruit juice from my garden, Aperol and fresh Tarragon! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Unique and bracing — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #grapefruit #aperol #tarragon

Strawberry Jam Gelato — an awesome dairly Strawberry base swirled with Strawberry Jam — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — sugar time! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #strawberry #jam

Our fun little room.

Our wines for the night.

No. 1 Charcoal is one of those surprising SGV finds that make the drive east so so worth it. Despite the amusingly “casual” (or ad hoc) hole-in-the-wall style of the restaurant and the crappy disposable “serving dishes” the food here was actually incredible. It was just full of flavor. Highly recommended for the adventurous.

A second visit in March of 2022 reconfirmed that this is a darn tasty place with a fun room.

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: bbq, BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, No. 1 Charcoal BBQ, SGV, skewers, Wine

Iron Teapot Dome

Feb05

Restaurant: Iron Teapot Dum Sum & Bar

Location: 10306 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90034. (310) 736-1803

Date: August 18, 2021

Cuisine: Dim Sum

Rating: Good food, terrible service system

I was surprised to hear that a “real” dim sum restaurant had opened in Culver City. It’s certainly a neighborhood I know well having had an office there for years and owned and operated a restaurant (just blocks from this location). The concept is basically a menu like the “daytime” menu from a regular Cantonese dim sum place, without the evening banquet menu.

The interior space is tiny, right on busy Venice Blvd near the many good Indian and Mexican places.

They have a large outside patio which was great on this warm August night. They also have one of those whacky “staff free” ordering systems where you order on your phone, no physical menus, just a QR code, and the food comes to the table. This turned out to be quite the issue (more on this at the bottom).

Chili oil, ginger, mustard.

They give you containers where you can mix your own blends which is nice.

Fresh chopped persian cucumbers tossed in a sesame oil with sweetened and salted garlic.

涼拌海蜇. Cold jellyfish marinated in a sesame oil, vinegar and Chinese spices.

哈高蝦 – Crystal Shrimp Dumpling.

Crystal steamed dumpling made with shrimp and chives.

大烧卖燒賣 Sui Mai. Plump cylindrical steamed dumplings made of juicy pork and ground shrimp topped with fish roe/Masago.

排骨. Steamed pork spare ribs in a garlic and black bean sauce.

咖哩雞餃. Curry Chicken Crystal dumpling. We’re dim sum on the westside, we have a license to be a bit different. It’s nice to see some variants from the usual dim sum like this.

鮑魚糯米鸡 . Abalone, Chicken, and sticky rice wrapped in a lotus leaf glutinous rice steamed and steamed. Abalone is a sea snail that tastes like heaven.

The interior.

Braised Chicken Feet, in a sweet garlic soy, sesame oil and onion sauce. This version is not as saucy and gloopy, allowing you to enjoy succulent bird feet tendons & skin the right way.

Honeycomb beef/cow stomach braised and steamed with five spices, garlic, and sweet soy so that it tastes like.. um… um.. heavenly goodness.

叉烧BBQ Pork – BBQ tender pork with a sweet Chinese BBQ sauce.

咸水角. Fried Soft sweet Mochi stuffed with ground pork and chicken. Classic favorite that is crunchy on the outside with soft mochi filling.

Classic steamed Turnip Cake with ham prepared with a light fry (different from the traditional pan fry).

Light & crispy fried soft tofu with salt, pepper, and five spice. 椒鹽炸豆腐.

Cuttlefish & Pork Soup Dumpling. Juicy pork dumpling mixed with the unique flavor cuttlefish. Blue Xiao Long Bao.

韩元–辣椒油. Ground shrimp and pork filled wontons in a spicy peppercorn, malat chili oil.

腊肠包. Classic steamed bun wrapped over classic Chinese sausage. Dim sum “snausages”.

Classic Dim Sum dessert made with an egg custard baked in a flaky puff pastry (Not the less tasty pie crust style). This is the better style.

黑流沙包 Premium dessert made with black squid ink and filled with a sweetened salted egg yolk that is specially prepared to ooze out like Lava. Made only by highly skilled Dim Sum chefs. Remember not to pop this in your mouth. Open it over your plate and enjoy the oozing heavenly goodness of the sweet salted egg yolk.

馬拉糕. Ma Lai Go is a dim sum classic steamed sponge cake that’s extremely soft, springy and sweet.

The gang.

The dim sum itself was actually quite good. Maybe not on a piece by piece basis quite as good as a great SGV dim sum place, but quite solid. Almost as good and better by far than someplace like Bao or Dim Sum House. And there was a nice variety of dishes. More even than many regular dim sum places, but missing some of the more homestyle Chinese items like congee or Cheung Fun (which is a total dim sum staple).

The main problem lay with the weird phone based ordering system. Now granted, we were there only a couple weeks (maybe a month or two) after they opened, so hopefully they have fixed some of the bugs — but it was awful. We ordered. Stuff arrived in a completely random order with huge gaps between dishes. At first, they were stuck in some kind of infinite loop where they brought us “3 sets of crystal shrimp” then “3 sets of har gow” then they did waves of those again (even though we had only ordered each once). Then they did a third wave of same. They didn’t charge us for all the repeats, but it took like 90 minutes (and nothing else different came out) so people pigged out again and again on the same dishes and were too full to eat the rest. Instead of the 35 minutes the above would take at a normal Cantonese place (too fast) the above took like 3 hours (too slowly paced). Pacing was WAY off with big gaps and very little control. It was just a bit comical. We also had too many people for this kind of restaurant (8-10). 4-6 would be better.

But the manager was very nice and tried to reign in the chaos a bit (not totally successfully) and they comped a bunch of stuff.

The restaurant has no parking, but (sketchy) street parking is plentiful. I also worry that they won’t survive as the food is very Chinese and Culver City is a TERRIBLE neighborhood for authentic flavors. Sorry, but having owned a restaurant there it was pretty clear that the locals are nice, curious and all that, but very “Mayberry”.

In any case, I have to go again and see how it has progressed.

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By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Culver City, Dim sum, hedonists, Iron Teapot, Wine

Shanghailander Sojurn

Jan14

Click here for the full detailed review.

Pork Belly

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Hacienda Heights, Shanghailander

Silk Worm Road – Guan Dong Da Yuan

Nov08

Restaurant: Guan Dong Da Yuan

Location: 639 W Garvey Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 545-5555

Date: June 24 and August 1, 2021

Cuisine: North Eastern Chinese

Rating: Tasty!

On 6/24/21 Yarom and I ventured into the SGV to try out some experimental places on our vast list, the #3 spot was here. It was good enough that we came back in August with a big 2 table group to try out more dishes.

Guan Dong Da Yuan specializes in regional Chinese cuisine from the area across the bay from Korea.

The interior is fairly cute and they have a private room (not shown).

The extensive menu.

Kimchee. It is near Korea, after all.

Baloon Flower. A different kimchee-like marinated veggie. Excellent.

Hot Stone Eggs with Tofu. Very Korean and good stuff.

3 Types of Dumpling. Ron didn’t like. It thought they were workable Jaozi (boiled dumplings).

Guandong Smoked Chicken Bone.

Yanji Sweet and Sour Pork – mochi-like chewy batter that was actually pretty enjoyable.

Stir-Fried Silk Worm!

Hot Stone Beef with Vegetable.

Spicy Crunchy Chicken Cartilage. It was a boney meal!

Spicy Crispy Chicken Cartilage (different day) — pretty much Kung Pao Cartilage and tasty for it.

Eggplant with Green Pppers and Potato. Excellent as well as colorful.

Sautéed Cabbage. I love this dish.

Stone Fried Pork Slices – like a savory/salty version of Panda Express pork.

Mapo Tofu — pretty close to Sichuan style

Stone Beef with Enoki Mushroom — soft and succulent.

Korean Style Cold Noodle Dish.

Guandong Stewed Spare Ribs with Green Peppers and Rice Noodles. Interesting polenta-like cakes.

Guandong Stewed Pork Belly with Rice Noodles. Great textures.

Guandong Pork Bone. More bones (delicious).

Fried Rice.

Caramelized Sugar on Sweet Potato.

Mascarpone Coffee Crunch Gelato — A base infused with Mascarpone Cheese then blended with house-made Coffee Crunch — created 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 #mascarpone #cheese #coffee #CoffeeCrunch #candy

Blood Orange Campari Sorbetto — Blood Oranges from Avignon with a bit of Campari — 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 #sorbetto #BloodOrange #Campari

I really liked this place as it was interesting and regional. A few of our crew who like their Chinese more boring (aka Southern Chinese only) didn’t like it at all, but they were offended by all the bones and silk worms and whatnot — for me that was part of the charm (and flavor).

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Right across the street is Sham Tsem and the famous “Hooker Motel Ballroom.”

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, Guan Dong Da Yuan, hedonists, Lunch Quest, SGV, Wine

SGV Adventures – ACC Chinese Fast Food

Nov05

Restaurant: ACC Chinese Fast Food

Location: 38 S Palm Ave, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 281-8577

Date: June 24, 2021

Cuisine: Cantonese BBQ

Rating: Tasty!

On this particular lovely June day Yarom and I ventured into the SGV to try out some experimental places on our vast list.

Stop #2 was this old school Chinese BBQ joint, which has been going strong since the 80s with the same owner/managers.

Small interior, but cute in its own way.

Menu of BBQ specials. They will even do goose with some notice.

The big takeout menu.

BBQ Pork w/ Honey Sauce — excellent.

Roast Duck with Plum Sauce — very succulent and tasty.

The aforementioned Plum Sauce.

Stir Fried Chinese Broccoli with Garlic — very solid classic veg. The extremely nice “boss lady” (aka the owner) insisted that we get some greens to help with our digestion — I think she was taking us under her wing.

ACC was surprisingly excellent. I suspect that their regular Cantonese dishes are decent but very Chinese American style, but their BBQ was first rate. We are thinking to go back with a big group, take over the whole place, and get a whole bunch of roast meats.

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By: agavin
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Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, duck, Lunch Quest, SGV

SGV Adventures – Nature Pagoda

Oct29

Restaurant: Nature Pagoda

Location: 312 W Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 570-8333

Date: June 24, 2021

Cuisine: Herbal Chinese

Rating: Hmmm

On this particular lovely June day Yarom and I ventured into the SGV to try out some experimental places on our vast list.

First up was Nature Pagoda which specializes in a sort of “herbal” Chinese medicine focused “healthy” food.

The interior is, shall we say, minimalst.

There are a few pictures behind the counter.

And the menu.

Flamed Quails — pretty good, if slightly dry.

Stick Combo — okay satay. Nothing great.

Claypot Ribs with Preserved Sausage — interesting. Kinda mild, but tasty.

The jus.

Brown sauce is dumped over it. Not as sweet as I would expect.

Not exactly expensive, but overall I thought that Nature Pagoda was bland. Maybe Chinese health food is just like American!

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By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Lunch Quest, Nature Pagoda, SGV

J Zhou Prequel

Oct22

Restaurant: J Zhou

Location: 2601 Park Ave, Tustin, CA 92782. (714) 258-8833

Date: June 17, 2021

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Amazing (if pricey) crab

Today is the third day of our epic Foodie Club June mega week, and tonight is a special La Tâche dinner deep in the OC, so we wanted to “warm up” (sans wine) with a bit of Orange County Chinese food.

J Zhou is the fanciest of the OC’s big Cantonese palaces and I’ve heard good things about it for a long time.

There were 3 of us, but we had our own private room as Fred is friends with the manager.

The daytime dim sum menu.

Seafood dumpling in egg wrapper. These were delicate and delicious!

XLB. A decent, but not amazing version of this classic.

Roast Squabs or Quail. I thought these were some of the crispiest and meatiest little roast birds I’ve had in a long time. Delicious!

We pre-ordered a huge king crab and they prepared it 3 days. This first way was just simply steamed with a bit of vermicelli underneath soaked in crab juices and soy. Incredibly fresh and sweet — hey they did bring in the live crab a few minutes before!

King crab typhoon style. Crispy and amazing.

King Crab Brûlée. Egg custard in the crab shell was also silky smooth.

We didn’t sample that many dishes because we had an epic wine dinner just a few hours later, but what I had was all excellent. The crab in particular was amazing, but it was full premium price per pound — no super steal discount at all. I would like to come back and try a full dim sum spread.

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By: agavin
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Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, Foodie Club, J Zhou, King Crab, Orange County, Tustin

Rice Yummy

Jul13

Restaurant: Rice Yummy

Location: 8801 Valley Blvd, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 872-0491

Date: April 25, 2021

Cuisine: Shanghai Chinese

Rating: Solid Shanghai Cuisine

Shanghai #1 Seafood Village opened roughly 10 years ago to great fanfare and was for years a solid SGV Shanghai style place. It closed recently with the pandemic but the owners have this smaller more casual Shanghai place.

The facade isn’t too fancy. The menu has most of the Shanghai classics, although at the time we went even the limited menu wasn’t all “in stock.” They didn’t even have the classic pan seared dumplings.

Spicy cold chicken. This is generally a Sichuan style dish, and generally has more sauce, but it was tasty here.

Sweet and sour jellyfish — very crunchy, sweet tangy sauce. This was a bit polarizing. I liked it, but not everyone loves jellyfish.

Smashed cucumbers. Always a favorite.

Shrimp two ways. Left hand ones were very nice. Very delicate and paired nicely with the vinegar sauce.

Sweet and sour cabbage with pork. Excellent with lots of porky flavor.

Tea Smoked Duck.

XLB. Since they didn’t have the pan fried Shanghai dumplings we had to make due with the steamed version.

Pork Hock. Super juicy and tender. Not a lean cut.

Pork Belly with Tofu – very soft and flavorful. This was even “leaner” than the previous pork, but packed with porcine flavor. The different soft textures of the meat and tofu were wonderful together.

Ginger chicken. Very succulent.

Grandmother’s Pork with egg. All bound together in that classic Shanghai sweet soy sauce. Notice the fatty pork theme going on.

French Style Beef — very tender. I’m not even sure where in China this dish is from. Certainly down south near Vietnam. Or maybe it’s just Vietnamese Chinese.

Steamed rice (yummy). Very light steamed rice with nice vegetal and porky notes.

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

Rice Yummy didn’t have a massive menu, and the interior was a bit small and not much to look at, but the Shanghai cuisine was well made and delicious. As this was my first trip back to the SGV since before the pandemic it was a very enjoyable and delicious dinner.

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By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, hedonists, Rice Yummy, SGV, Shanghai Cuisine

Far SGV – Hunan Restaurant

Apr20

Restaurant: Hunan Restaurant [1, 2]

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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More sweet wine.

And a rhone blend.

By: agavin
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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.

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By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chengdu, Chinese cuisine, hedonists, hot pot, Rowland Heights, SGV, Sichuan, 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 & May 2, 2021 and April 24 & October 27, 2022

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.

The Menu 4/24/22 (reduced from how it was before the pandemic).

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

Smashed Garlic Cucumber (older & 10/27/22). 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.

Century Egg with Chilis (4/24/22 & 10/27/22). Fabulous savory egg with very strong pickled Hunan style chilis.

Szechuan Glass Noodles (2020 and 4/24/22 and 10/27/22). 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/spicy sauce.

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

Child Chili Chicken (4/24/22). Great bang bang sauce with a bit of peanut butter in it.

Fried fish with seaweed (5/2/21). Pretty much a Shanghai dish, but still good here.

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

Peking Duck with pancakes (everytime). 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.

Duck presentation on 5/2/21.

Duck presentation (4/24/22).

Duck presentation (10/27/22).

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. They haven’t had this since the first time I went in 2020.

Pancake all done up.

The full DuQuest duck analysis (based on 10/27/22) is:

NC skin was ultra-thin and crispy, and gets an extra point for some of the pieces having some meat/fat on them = 9 for fatty pieces and 7 for regular ones.
Meat was juicy and flavorful with skin on = 8
Pancake was thin and resilient = 9
Hoisin was tasty but “goopy”, extra thick, and with a bit too much medicinal tone = 5
Accoutrements were scallion and cucumbers as usual = 7
The “burrito” together was a 6/10, dinged mostly by the hoisin.

Duck Bones. Pretty juicy.

Stir fried duck bones (5/2/21 and looked similar 4/24/22 and 10/27/22). Very nice version of “duck #2.”

Duck Soup (4/24/22). Very mild.

Crispy chicken (5/2/21). Great version.

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.

Delicious “bacon” (aka preserved pork) with garlic and leeks (5/2/21 and 4/24/22).

Beijing Style Pork (5/2/21). With the fermented bean sauce, slightly sweet.

Big Pot Cauliflower (2020 and 4/24/22). With a bit of pork. Nice and crunchy.

Smashed garlic eggplant (5/2/21 and 4/24/21).

Bok choy (5/2/21). Simple but delicious.

Jiggly Pork Elbow (4/24/22). Certainly not a lean cut!

Seasoned Rack of Lamb (4/24/22). Nice lamby flavor and good “hot fat” factor. Serious fat later. Seasoned western style with cumin.

Sauces for the lamb.

XLB (5/2/21). Always a favorite.

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.

Returning here on 5/2/21 the food was still very good but the restaurant was suffering from immediate post pandemic operational changes. They had clearly been doing takeout for the previous year (good for them and I even had it once and it was very good), but hadn’t yet switched back over to normal service. I think we were the only dine in party and the menu had been pared back substantially. Hopefully soon they’ll be back to 100%.

Returning again on 4/24/22 the food was pretty much back up to the level of 2020 although the menu was still a bit reduced and they were missing some “fancier” items like the 9 condiment container.

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By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: beijing Cuisine, BYOG, Chinese cuisine, dumplings, Duquest, 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.

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