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Archive for Cui Hua Lou

Cui Hua Lou – Szechuan Shed

Jun16

Restaurant: Cui Hua Lou [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 920 E Garvey Ave. Monterey Park, CA 91755. 626-288-2218

Date: May 13, 2018

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Awesome!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Chinese food is incredible regional, and we are blessed in SoCal with a lot of very specific restaurants (mostly in the San Gabriel Valley). My Hedonist group has returned to this little known spicy Szechuan in the corner of an undiscovered Monterey Park strip mall. We love Szechuan for its spicy/smoky flavors. This is a cuisine that packs a real punch and is one of my favorites in China and CHL is seriously “local.”


The storefront, as usual, isn’t much to look at.


A menu with fairly literal translations.


And the usual minimalist decor.

But we weren’t even in the restaurant proper, but across the parking lot in “the shed.”

Inside they’ve actually cleaned it up (significantly) since last time we were here (2 years ago) — back then there was a bunch of junk in the room including a band saw!

Szechuan pickles. Lots of garlic and some chili oil. Great stuff.

Cold beef tendon with chili. Nice and chewy with that hot chili oil flavor.

Vegetables. For plain steamed veggies these were actually excellent. Mildly pickled.

Cumin mushroom and snausage skewers. The mushrooms are pleasantly chewy and the little dogs delicious and a touch sweet.

Spicy Turtle Hot Pot. This Szechuan stew of turtle, chicken, tofu, and veggies was quite good. Though I’ve had better broth here (with the lame stew) and the turtle meat itself wasn’t doing it for me. I mostly ate tofu, veggies, and the sauce.

 Turtle foot!

Lamb and gizzard skewers. Both good.

Szechuan chicken wings!

Sweet and sour pork ribs. Super yummy intense sauced pork niblets (with the bones).

Another view of the lovely room. Again, it’s much nicer now!

MaPo Tofu. A very good rendition of this classic dish.

Shredded potatoes.

Lobster. Not usual at Szechuan places.

Beef with green onions. Very tasty.

Fish filet boiled in chili sauce. The sauce for this dish was much hotter, more numbing, and better than the turtle broth.

Kung pao chicken.

Mixed noodles. We sorta wanted dan dan mein and they brought these, saying they were better. I’m not saying they were better but they were actually really good for this sort of simple fried noodle dish. Really good.

But we got the dan dan mein anyway. Very vinegary version, different, not so nutty, but delicious.

Noodle pull!

Three flavors of gelato by Sweet Milk Gelato (me):

White Chocolate Lime-Berry – lime infused milk blended with Valrhona Ivoire white chocolate and laced with frutto di bosco coulis.

Gianduja – Valrhona chocolate with Hazelnut Regina (the queen) from Turin

Black Madeira – Blackberry Madeira sorbetto

I have to regale you with the lovely bathroom!
 Check out the mirror!

In conclusion, Cui Hua Lou, while apparently totally undiscovered, offers up some fabulous traditional Szechuan fare. Yarom thinks this is the best Szechuan in the SGV. I’m not sure I’d go that far, as it’s a little too home-style, but it’s certainly one of my favorites. They don’t use MSG. The flavors are great. It has a slightly different mix of dishes than some. But I like a lot of the top Szechuan places, and they are each a bit different.

The service is really friendly, particularly as Chinese restaurants go. Our hostess really took care of us, spacing out the dishes, bringing us whatever we needed.

We went crazy overboard and ordered up about 50% more food than we needed, still this feast, including tax and tip, only set us back $25 a person! If you like spicy, you should try this place. It’s not big, but it was still busy at 10pm!

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

Wines pictured below:





Related posts:

  1. Serious Szechuan
  2. Spice Up Your Life Szechuan Style
  3. Szechuan Everywhere
  4. Hunan Mao
  5. SGV Nights – Seafood Palace
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Cui Hua Lou, Gelato, hedonists, SGV, Sichuan, Szechuan cuisine, turtle, Wine

Cui Hua Lou – Authentic Spice

Jun03

Restaurant: Cui Hua Lou [1, 2, 3]

Location: 920 E Garvey Ave. Monterey Park, CA 91755. 626-288-2218

Date: May 28, 2016

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Awesome!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Chinese food is incredible regional, and we are blessed in SoCal with a lot of very specific restaurants (mostly in the San Gabriel Valley). My Hedonist group has returned to this little known spicy Szechuan in the corner of an undiscovered Monterey Park strip mall. We love Szechuan for its spicy/smoky flavors. This is a cuisine that packs a real punch and is one of my favorites in China and CHL is seriously “local.”


The storefront, as usual, isn’t much to look at.


A menu with fairly literal translations.


And the usual minimalist decor.

But we weren’t even in the restaurant proper, but across the parking lot in “the room.” When we arrived some staff or friends were eating (and drinking A LOT of beer). They cleared out as soon as we walked in.

Domaine de la Pépière (Marc Ollivier) Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Clisson. Light and fresh.

Salted peanuts.
 Cucumber with Jelly Fish. Not bad for jellyfish. The cucumber had a nice marinated crunch.

From my cellar: 2011 Veyder-Malberg Grüner Veltliner Weitenberg. 92 points. Excellent. Opened about 8 hours prior to drinking. Pale-mid straw in colour with a nose of green apples and stones. Bone dry and predominantly mineral in the mouth with green sourish apple, vegetal and wet stone overtones. Medium acidity with a distinct tartness which is very refreshing and long in the aftertaste. This is still a very young Veltliner which is several years away from reaching its peak. When it does I estimate that it will deserve a higher score, maybe substantially higher

Beef tendon with chilies. Nice chili flavor with very gelatinous tendon slabs.

Bean noodles with cucumber and mustard sauce. Nice bright mustard flavor.

2014 Weingut Josef Leitz Riesling.

Cumin garlic skewers. Intense and delicious.

Mushroom and “Chinese Hot Dot” skewers. The hot dogs were awesome, tender and a little sweet. The mushrooms were a little chewy.

Lamb and chicken wing skewers. Tasty.

From my cellar: 2006 Mas Martinet Priorat Clos Martinet. VM 92+. Saturated ruby. Pungent aromas of cherry, black raspberry, sassafras, licorice and vanilla. Pliant cherry and dark berry flavors are braced by a zesty mineral quality and framed by silky tannins. Becomes smokier and deeper with air, picking up black tea and herbal qualities on the finish. The finish is sweet but a bit clenched, with fine-grained tannins lending grip. This seems to be holding back today but I like its balance and concentration.

Stewed Lamb in Casserole. This is one of the house special dishes. It comes like this and then heats to a boiling (and spicy) temp. Below the mutton (the meat is incredibly tender, although on the bone) is a seething pit of chili sauce, cabbage, soft tofu, and glass noodles. The sauce has an incredible flavor with a good bit of numbing Szechuan peppercorn. It’s incredibly delicious and unique to Szechuan cooking.

2007 Dönnhoff Kreuznacher Krötenpfuhl Riesling Spätlese. JG 92. honey lemon, grapfruits with hint of perfume floral and Mosel like mineral tones. Juicy intense palate with rich lemony, citrus notes and hint of sweet yellow fruits that firmly supported by the mineral backbone with bright acidity that flow on to the very clean, grippy finish with ripe acidity to go along.

Pan Seared Chili Pepper. Maybe Jalapeño. Delicious with a good middling heat.

Pork belly with garlic. Like super fatty bacon in garlic sauce.

From my cellar: Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese Goldkapsel Auction. 93 points. Great stuff.

Kung Pao Shrimp. As good a version of the classic as you can find. Not that spicy.

Potato with Chili. Looks and tastes a bit like al dente noodles. A nice subtle flavor too.

2012 Turley Zinfandel Cobb. VM 91. One of the more immediate, fleshy wines in this extensive lineup, the 2012 Zinfandel Cobb Vineyard is an excellent choice for drinking over the next handful of years. Suave, silky and juicy on the palate, the 2012 is built on a core of open, resonant fruit. Sweet spices notes add nuance in a distinctly supple Zinfandel with tons of near-term appeal.
 Hot braised eggplant with garlic sauce. Awesome garlicky flavor, with some significant heat (of both sorts).

2001 Marquis Philips Shiraz Integrity. 94 points. Notes of mint/eucalyptus, leather, plum and dark fruit with a very subtle funky/bretty undertone that is rather enjoyable. Medium- to full-bodied with nicely integrated tannins and flavors of spice, vanilla, blackberry liqueur, and herbs. Hint of leather coming in on the finish. The most complex and ready of the four- solidly in its window and probably won’t improve in my opinion. Should hold at this level for a couple of years, but I see no reason to wait.

Sweet and sour spareribs. Little sweet bits of porky yum.

Boiled fish in chili sauce. A great version of this dish. The fish was very tender and the broth was delicious.

Dan Dan Noodles.

Wilson mixing it up. One of the biggest challenge is getting only part of the noodles and an even distribution of the chopped meat at the bottom. Clearly, when Marco Polo brought noodles back to Italy this became the seed for Bolognese sauce, as aside from this being quite spicy, there is a definite similarity. This particular version wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, and doesn’t have the nutty sesame quality the dish sometimes does, but it was certainly enjoyable.

Tomato and egg. Classic Chinese breakfast.

Cabbage with preserved shrimp. A nice mild cabbage with just a hint of salty dried shrimp.

Fried corn. Slightly sweet and could have almost passed for a dessert (certainly in Chinese terms). It blended great on the plate with other items like the above tofu, adding a bit of crunch, salt, and sweetness.

The “private room” has a karaoke machine.
 And even more terrifying, a meat band saw.
 Yeah, this is the kind of thing killers might use to dispose of the body!

In conclusion, Cui Hua Lou, while apparently totally undiscovered, offers up some fabulous traditional Szechuan fare. Yarom thinks this is the best Szechuan in the SGV. I’m not sure I’d go that far, but it’s certainly one of my favorites. They don’t use MSG. The flavors are great. It has a slightly different mix of dishes than some. But I like a lot of the top Szechuan places, and they are each a bit different.

The service is really great, particularly as Chinese restaurants go. Our hostess Elaine really took care of us, spacing out the dishes, bringing us whatever we needed.

We went crazy overboard and ordered up about 50% more food than we needed, still this feast, including tax and tip, only set us back $25 a person! If you like spicy, you should try this place. It’s not big, but it was still busy at 10pm!

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

We went close by to Salju for some awesome snow. In this case pineapple snow, passionfruit, strawberry, almond jelly and boba.

Coconut snow with blueberry, mango, and condensed milk.
 And more coconut snow with mochi, gumi bears, and rice balls!

Related posts:

  1. Spice Up Your Life Szechuan Style
  2. Posh Spice
  3. Hills of Gold and Spice
  4. Serious Szechuan
  5. Huolala Hot
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Cui Hua Lou, hedonists, Salju, Sichuan, Szechuan

Serious Szechuan

Jan29

Restaurant: Cui Hua Lou [1, 2, 3]

Location: 920 E Garvey Ave. Monterey Park, CA 91755. 626-288-2218

Date: January 26, 2014

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Awesome!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Chinese food is incredible regional, and we are blessed in SoCal with a lot of very specific restaurants (mostly in the San Gabriel Valley). My Hedonist group has returned to this little known spicy Szechuan in the corner of an undiscovered Monterey Park strip mall. We love Szechuan for its spicy/smoky flavors. This is a cuisine that packs a real punch and is one of my favorites in China.


The storefront, as usual, isn’t much to look at.


A menu with fairly literal translations.


And the usual minimalist decor.


From my cellar: 2001 Ulrich Langguth Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Spätlese. 90 points. Quite ripe – more Auslese in style – with a typical Mosel flavor profile. Enjoyable, and a good value for an ’01 Spatlese.

This warrants opening what I might call the “great foodie wine pairing debate” as I find people at my dinners fall into two camps: the “a good wine is a good wine” camp and the “food and wine complement” crew (of which I’m the later). Chinese in general, and Szechuan in particular, is a tricky match as it’s full of vinegar, soy and fermented flavors, and bracing heat. I happen to think Riesling generally pairs well with Chinese, but spicy foot demands a certain sweetness — the more spice the more sugar. However, those in the first group often “don’t like sweet wines.” Interestingly, I’ve noticed that my camp tends to line up with the Burgundy drinkers and the first group with the fans of massive (over) extracted wines.


Bean curd tofu with scallion. Soft silken tofu with scallions and salt (MSG?). Being a lover of this kind of tofu I very much enjoyed this dish — although it was a little salty.


Cucumber with Jelly Fish. Not bad for jellyfish. The cucumber had a nice marinated crunch.


2003 Zilliken (Forstmeister Geltz) Saarburger Rausch Riesling Spätlese. 89-94 points. Beautiful, lush Mosel Riesling. Light straw-brilliant in the glass. Nose of an integrated bouquet of stone, ripe pineapple, mandarin orange, young leather (fleshiness), and light metallic petrol (light). The attack is not tart: it has enough acid to be propped up, but not an awful lot more. A little fatness to the palate even. Yet, it seems a balanced, delicious wine that is in a good spot. Yum, yum. Nice length too. Thumbs up!


BBQ Mushroom. Lots of cumin, chewy mushrooms, and some gradual but significant heat. Pretty delicious.


Beef Tendon in Xiang Ziang style. Lots of cumin. The idea of tendon is a little disturbing, and this has an unusual (for westerners) texture, like a root vegetable (almost), but more chewy. Still, it’s pretty good considering.


BBQ Lamb. Others might call this cumin lamb. A bit dry, but very flavorful.


2009 Bodegas Vinicola Real Rioja Vina Los Valles Crianza. 86 points. Nothing really wrong with this value Rioja (at the price point), except it’s a total fail as far as pairing with Szechuan cuisine. It would be nice at a Madrid Tapas joint.


Potato with Chili. Looks and tastes a bit like al dente noodles. A nice subtle flavor too.


Stewed Lamb in Casserole. This is one of the house special dishes. It comes like this and then heats to a boiling (and spicy) temp.


Below the mutton (the meat is incredibly tender, although on the bone) is a seething pit of chili sauce, cabbage, soft tofu, and glass noodles.


The sauce has an incredible flavor with a good bit of numbing Szechuan peppercorn. It’s incredibly delicious and unique to Szechuan cooking.


2003 Tenuta San Guido Bolgheri Sassicaia Sassicaia. IWC 93. 80% cabernet sauvignon and 20% cabernet franc) Dark ruby-red. Appealing smoky, minerally aromas of red cherry, blackcurrant and plum, with a hint of truffle. Quite suave on entry, then smooth and fine-grained, with good mineral lift to the decidedly sweet red fruit flavors. This broad, rich and supple wine boasts tremendous length and silky-sweet tannins. A great Sassicaia that falls roughly between the ’88 and the ’85 in style at the similar stage of development, although I’m not sure the new vintage will attain the heights reached by those earlier wines.

This was a gorgeous wine… between courses… because as soon as that Szechuan heat kicked in, particularly the numbing effect of the peppercorn, all the fruit was stripped out  left only tannins on the palette. Now the pacing of the meal allowed me to enjoy it, just not exactly with the food.


BBQ Chicken Heart. This is a lot of chicken hearts. They taste like chewy liver. I could have done without.


Chung King twice cooked pork. Very tender and flavorful, and not as spicy as most of the dishes here.


Tilapia with Bean Sauce. Not my favorite this time around. The fish might have been a hair overcooked and the goopy gelatinous bean sauce is a hair off-putting.


1997 Sean Thackrey Orion Rossi Vineyard. Rhone Report 96. Immediately identifiable as syrah, the nose was bursting with blueberries, blackberries, and a hint of eucalyptus. The blue and black berries continue on the palate, adding a little bit of leather/tobacco on the mildly tannic, medium to long finish.

The bigger is better camp loved this wine. It’s not really my cup of tea though, and certainly not with Chinese. With some lamb chops, sure. And we had lots of lamb, but it was covered in cumin and Szechuan pepper!


Scallion Noodles. A boring version of the noodles (those black things are charred scallions) for the vegetarians.


Kung Pao Shrimp. As good a version of the classic as you can find.


Szechuan style bean curd. This is known as Mapo Doufu. It is a combination of tofu (bean curd) set in a spicy chili- and bean-based sauce, typically a thin, oily, and bright red suspension, and often cooked with fermented black beans and minced meat, usually pork or beef. Ma stands for “mazi” (Pinyin: mázi Traditional Chinese 麻子) which means a person disfigured by pockmarks or leprosy, the latter is also called 痲 má or 麻風 máfēng. Po (Chinese 婆) translates as “old woman, grandmother, crone”. Hence, Ma Po is an old woman whose face was pockmarked. It is thus sometimes translated as “Pockmarked-Face Lady’s Tofu”.

It’s one of my favorite dishes and features a wonderful texture, bright taste, and a searing numbing heat.


2002 Sean Thackrey Orion Rossi Vineyard. IWC 92. Red berries, Grand Marnier, Thai basil, geranium, eucalyptus, bitter lime, quinine and resiny oak on the nose. Then thick and dense but penetrating in the mouth, with primary raspberry and strawberry flavors complicated by an exotic apricot note and framed by lively acids. A fascinating, firmly built wine that showed a compelling sweetness as it opened in the glass. Finishes with very sweet tannins and impressive persistence. My score is intended for the initiated: you know who you are.

Same big wine, but younger, and from a somewhat inferior year.


Fried corn. Slightly sweet and could have almost passed for a dessert (certainly in Chinese terms). It blended great on the plate with other items like the above tofu, adding a bit of crunch, salt, and sweetness.


Dan Dan Noodles.


You mix it up. One of the biggest challenge is getting only part of the noodles and an even distribution of the chopped meat at the bottom. Clearly, when Marco Polo brought noodles back to Italy this became the seed for Bolognese sauce, as aside from this being quite spicy, there is a definite similarity. This particular version wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, and doesn’t have the nutty sesame quality the dish sometimes does, but it was certainly enjoyable.


2009 Domaine des Sabines. 90 points. Ruby color with just a slight tinge of blue remaining, surprisingly almost opaque. Nose has peat moss, dirt, wild mushrooms, roasted coffee beans. A hint of licorice with savory notes, plus some dried tobacco. Something sweet here too on the nose – perhaps a touch of bret? On the palate – black cherry, blackberry, roasted or grilled plums. Truly though, this wine is all about the earthy notes and the wood – roasted espresso, caramel, hazelnut, dried leaves and a bit of burnt toast. A minerally, gravel note pops up on the finish too. Chewy mid-palate texture. Tannins are moderate for Bordeaux, and nicely ripe. I know it is 2009, but for LdP, the density is impressive. Medium body. Give it an hour of air and the tight tannins round out and shows off a lovely soft supple quality. Heat shows up a bit on the finish, weight of fruit almost carries it off. I can see this wine with slow roasted braised beef short ribs and caramelized onions. Or a wild mushroom risotto – thinking chantrelles.

About 10 years too young.


Chung King Spicy chicken? I’m not sure which dish this was, but there are little DEEP fried and very dry chicken nuggets in there dry-tossed with long red peppers. It was actually quite tasty.


Hot braised eggplant with garlic sauce. Awesome garlicky flavor, with some significant heat (of both sorts).


Boiled beef and fish. Along with the Mapo tofu, this was my favorite dish of the night. The “broth” is very similar to the lamb casserole and features a tremendous heat born of both red chilies and Szechwan peppercorn. The meat and the fish were both tender and full of flavor. Really quite wonderful (if intense).


BBQ Garlic. Another fabulous dish. Now, eating a whole skewer of this might get one kicked out of bed, but it’s worth it!


Boiled peanuts. These are cold and a bit slimey. I have read that eating lots of boiled peanuts (instead of roasted) avoids peanut allergies for some reason. The roasted ones taste better, but there is nothing really wrong with these.


Kung Pao Chicken. Pretty much the same as the shrimp, but a wonderful version of this Chinese American classic that has real heat and puts PF Changs to shame.


Our table was so overloaded with dishes that we had to stack them!

In conclusion, Cui Hua Lou, while apparently totally undiscovered, offers up some fabulous traditional Szechuan fare. For this second visit we went crazy overboard and ordered up about 50% more food than we needed, still this feast, including tax and tip, only set us back $31 a person! If you like spicy, you should try this place. Just don’t tell too many people!

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

We had about 18 people in our party alone!

Related posts:

  1. Spice Up Your Life Szechuan Style
  2. Chengdu Taste – Power of the Peppercorn
  3. Hunan Chili Madness
  4. Sometimes You Want to Get Crabs
  5. Tasty Dining – Wuhan Dry Hot Pot
By: agavin
Comments (7)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: China, Chinese cuisine, Cui Hua Lou, hedonists, san Gabriel valley, Sichuan, Szechuan, Szechuan cuisine

Spice Up Your Life Szechuan Style

Sep23

Restaurant: Cui Hua Lou [1, 2, 3]

Location: 920 E Garvey Ave. Monterey Park, CA 91755. 626-288-2218

Date: September 20, 2013

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Awesome!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Chinese food is incredible regional, and we are blessed in SoCal with a lot of very specific restaurants (mostly in the San Gabriel Valley). Yarom (the leader of my Hedonist group) invited me out to try some spicy Szechuan and a totally undiscovered place he found while wandering around. We love Szechuan for its spicy/smoky flavors. This is a cuisine that packs a real punch and is one of my favorites in China.


The storefront, as usual, isn’t much to look at.


A menu with fairly literal translations.


And the usual minimalist decor.


1999 Joseph Phelps Sauvignon Blanc. IWC 87. Expressive, floral aroma combines melon, grapefruit, mint, licorice and fresh herbs. Supple yet tangy and firm, with nicely focused flavors of lemon, grapefruit, licorice and fresh herbs. Slightly elevated alcohol leavened by brisk acidity. Nice combination of texture and brightness.


Seaweed with chilies. Very pleasant, with a firmness and just a bit of heat.


Jellyfish heads and cucumber. More a texture dish, but it had a bit of a vinegary tang.


2011 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett. IWC88. Aromas of passion fruit and nut oil. The creamy tropical fruits flavors are light, well-balanced and elegant. Certainly fun to drink.


Cured beef shank. Like Chinese pastrami, with a bit of a smokey flavor.


Shredded stomach with scallion. Pork stomach really. I’m not an offal fan, but this was as good as stomach gets.


2007 Lamborghini (La Fiorita) Era Umbria IGT. 88 points. Good dark fruit and cherries on the nose. Significant fruit in the taste along with some herbal notes and good acidity. Medium length with some good tannins at the later part. May need more time to develop.


Stewed lamb in casserole (house special #1).


Inside the hot pot. This stuff was awesome. Probably the best dish (of many). Tasty tender lamb and this amazing hot chili sauce that really had a nice flavor.


Skewers of lamb on the left and Chinese hot dog on the right. Both were rubbed with cumin, making the lamb classic cumin lamb. The sausages were amazing, like sweetish hotdogs rubbed in cumin.


Some more skewers, lamb and chicken wing.


2009 Kongsgaard Syrah. Parker 97. The 2009 Syrah Hudson Vineyard is simply breathtaking. White flowers, spices, savory herbs, licorice, graphite and new leather are some of the many nuances that add complexity to a core of deeply expressive dark fruit. The 2009 impresses for its stunning textural elegance and sheer brilliance.


Cured beef shank in sesame bun. Basically Chinese pastrami sandwich!


Sweet and sour fish. Nice tender Tilapia with a flavorful sweet sauce.


1996 Lanessan. Parker 88. A sleeper of the vintage, Lanessan’s 1996 boasts an impressively saturated dark ruby/purple color, and knock-out aromatics of melted chocolate, asphalt, and cassis. Deep, rich, and medium-bodied, with excellent concentration and purity, this impressively-endowed, flavorful, well-structured wine should be at its finest between 2004-2016.


Beef tendon Xing Ziang Style. Unusual but pleasant texture in a tasty spicy sauce.


Potato with chili. Basically shredded potato with a slight vinegar and oil tang.


2011 Joh Jos Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese. Parker 94. A yeasty, smoky prickle as well as the effect of dissolved CO2 causes the nose to wrinkle from a glass of Prum’s 2011 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese A.P. #18, but behind that are heliotrope and lily-of-the-valley along with ripe apple, pear and melons that in turn inform a delicate, subtly creamy palate of striking transparency to stony, crystalline, alkaline and smoky black tea and liquid floral nuances. This shimmers and excites even as it soothes in a lingering, uplifting, glowing finish. It will certainly merit attention for the better part of a half century.


Kung Pao Chicken. One of the best versions of this classic dish I’ve ever had. Lots of very flavorful Szechuan peppers.


1999 Guiraud. Parker 90. Tasted as part of a vertical held at the chateau. There is a sense of conservatism to the Guiraud 1999, but it still retains attractive scents of dried honey, marmalade and a touch of chlorine. The palate is actually better than the nose, with a lovely seam of acidity and effervescent marmalade and quince-tinged fruit that is very precise toward the long finish. The ’99 should be looked back on as a success in an oft-forgotten vintage.


Pork XO sauce fried noodle.


You mix it up like this and there is lots of pleasant heat to go with the al dente noodles.


Check out that chili oil left in the bowl!


Twice cooked pork. Another fabulous dish. The pork had some heat and sweetness, with a whole lot of flavor.


Ma Po Tofu. One of my favorite dishes. This classic Szechuan dish was the spiciest of the night. The pleasant soft tofu is just on fire. The name literally translated as “Pocked Marked Old Lady Face Tofu” which is quite amusing.


Fried corn. Slightly sweet and passed for a dessert. But afterward,  we went down the street to a shaved ice place, which I’ll blog about seperately.

In conclusion, Cui Hua Lou, while apparently totally undiscovered, offers up some fabulous traditional Szechuan fare. If you like spicy, this place was really very good. Cheap too as this feast, including tax and tip, set us back $21 a person!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

Related posts:

  1. Hedonists Hunan Style
  2. Birthday Party, Hedonist Style
  3. Sicilian Style – Drago
  4. Food as Art: Chanukah in Style
  5. Life of Pi – part deux
By: agavin
Comments (6)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Cui Hua Lou, hedonists, Hot Sauce, Joh. Jos. Prüm, lamb, Ma Po Tofu, Monterey Park, san Gabriel valley, Sichuan, Szechuan, Szechuan Chinese, Szechuan Pepper
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