Image
  • Writing
    • Andy Gavin: Author
    • About my Novels & Writing
    • All Writing Posts
    • The Darkening Dream
      • Buy the Book Online
      • Sample Chapters
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Untimed
      • Buy Untimed Online
      • Book Trailer
      • Sample Chapters
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Scrivener – Writer’s Word Processor
    • iPad for Writers
    • Naughty Dark Contest
  • Books
    • Book Review Index
    • Favorite Fantasy Novels
    • Andy Gavin: Author
    • The Darkening Dream
      • Buy the Book Online
      • Sample Chapters
      • Short Story: Harvard Divinity
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Untimed
      • About the Book
      • Buy Untimed Online
      • Book Trailer
      • Sample Chapters
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Naughty Dark Contest
  • Games
    • My Video Game Career
    • Post Archive by Series
    • All Games Posts Inline
    • Making Crash Bandicoot
    • Crash 15th Anniversary Memories
    • World of Warcraft Endgames
    • Getting a Job Designing Video Games
    • Getting a Job Programming Video Games
    • Naughty Dark Contest
  • Movies
    • Movie Review Index
  • Television
    • TV Review Index
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    • A Game of Thrones
  • Food
    • Food Review Index
    • Foodie Club
    • Hedonists
    • LA Sushi Index
    • Chinese Food Index
    • LA Peking Duck Guide
    • Eating Italy
    • Eating France
    • Eating Spain
    • Eating Croatia
    • Eating Vietnam
    • Eating Australia
    • Eating Israel
    • Ultimate Pizza
    • ThanksGavin
    • Margarita Mix
    • Foodie Photography
    • Burgundy Vintage Chart
  • Other
    • All Posts, Magazine Style
    • Archive of all Posts
    • Fiction
    • Technology
    • History
    • Anything Else
  • Gallery
  • Bio
  • About
    • About me
    • About my Writing
    • About my Video Games
    • Ask Me Anything
  • Contact

Archive for Lunch Quest

Ultimate LA Peking Duck Guide

Jan03

Peking Duck (also more correctly known as Beijing Duck) is one of those sublime foods that’s full of contrasts. It’s always good, but rarely perfect. Seemingly common, proper versions are hard to find. And it’s poorly understood and equally poorly distinguished from it’s ducky cousins. I’ve loved it for nearly half a century, enjoyed it in America and China, and recently made an exhaustive study of the offerings in the greater Los Angeles area. Myself and my good friend and infamous fellow-glutton Jeffrey (a.k.a. @xtremefoodies_) co-organized DuQuest, the search for the best in LA. But before we get to the rankings (click here to skip to them) we need to discuss the basics.

What is Peking Duck?

Fundamentally, Peking Duck is a kind of Chinese roast duck. But as far as I can tell there are at least 4 broad categories of roast duck COMMONLY available in LA’s vast bounty of Chinese restaurants (and a few fusion places). They are:

“Real” Peking Duck

For the purposes of this article, I’m focusing on this: A dish from Beijing (Peking) that has been prepared since the Imperial era. The meat is characterized by its thin, crispy skin, with authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin and breast/thigh meat, sliced in front of the diners by the cook. Ducks bred especially for the dish are slaughtered after 65 days and seasoned before being roasted in a closed or hung oven. The meat is often eaten with spring onion, cucumber and sweet bean sauce with pancakes rolled around the fillings.

1A4A9020

(Messy) Peking Duck spread at Tasty Duck

There are two major sub-variants (cutting styles) we will discuss later but for the purpose of distinguishing “real” Peking duck from other types of duck the main marker is spring pancakes. When served with pancakes it’s “real” and without them it’s usually one of the following:

“Pseudo” Peking Duck

Because Peking Duck is a popular premium dish most restaurants in LA’s amazing Cantonese scene offer it on the menu. However, the vast majority of these, nay, perhaps all, offer what I am calling “Pseudo” Peking Duck. This dish, somewhat beyond the already bloated scope of this article, is a variant of Cantonese Roast Duck, typically cooked in the Cantonese BBQ manner and served with steamed buns, hoisin, cucumbers, and spring onions. It’s a close cousin, and often delicious, but the duck itself is prepared differently, cut differently, and served differently. The buns do not offer the sublime minimalist carbohydrate balance of the pancake. The hoisin is usually sweeter, the duck is generally plated with shrimp chips, and most importantly the skin is never quite so crispy. Pseudo Duck can be delicious, but it’s just not the same thing.

1A0A2494

Pseudo Peking Duck with buns at Longo Seafood

Cantonese Roast Duck

This delicious dish is offered at nearly every Cantonese, dim sum, and Chinese BBQ joint in the city. It’s great, but it’s not Peking Duck. This duck is usually rough chopped with a cleaver (Chinese knife) and soaking in jus. It’s very moist and at it’s best has a very satisfying fatty skin. If it has any condiment it’s just some sweet (orange) plum-based sauce.

1A4A1333

Cantonese Roast Duck at Bistro 1968

Sichuan (or other) Tea Smoked Duck or Nanjing Cured Duck

I’m not sure if smoking counts as roasting, but many central Chinese restaurants, particularly from Sichuan, Hunan or Yunnan will offer a tea-smoked duck. As you can tell, I like duck, so I also find this a fabulous dish. The skin is not as crispy and the whole thing is dry with a smoked pastrami-like quality.

1A4A5037

Tea-Smoked Duck at Haige-Star

Nanjing Duck is salt cured and also dry, often cold, and has a lovely flavor. It’s not crispy at all.

7U1A3635

Nanjing Salted Duck at Nanjing Duck

Peking Duck in Beijing

1A0A3067

Aged ducks waiting to be roasted at Country Kitchen in Beijing

I’ve been to Beijing several times but on my most recent visit in 2018 I enjoyed several high end Peking Ducks, most notably at Dadong and Country Kitchen. On previous trips I also ate at a different Dadong, Made in China, and some old school spots. I’ve had high end duck at various places in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and other various other Chinese cities.

1A0A3070

Ducks roasting in the wood-fire oven at Country Kitchen in Beijing

Proper Beijing duck in Beijing is never quite replicated here in the states, although we have a few that come close. Over there, the duck is always dry-aged, seasoned, inflated with some kind of compressed or pumped air, often filled with a special broth, then slow roasted for 1-1.5 hours in a wood-fire oven. Here in LA they always use gas ovens. Wood-fire is just too complicated or expensive, probably because of annoying regulations. In China, a duck pit master tends the ducks, moving them around to cook them evenly. After roasting, some special bits of the belly skin are served by themselves with sugar. This is enjoyed as a crunchy snack with a sweet/salty/fatty contrast. The legs and wings are removed, and the breast meat is sliced into little ovals that contain both juicy meat and crispy/fatty skin. The meat skin pieces are combined with hoisin, cucumber, and spring onion inside a spring pancake and enjoyed rolled up. Remaining meat is often (optionally) stir-fried and the carcass is made into duck soup. Realistically, they don’t make YOUR particular duck into duck soup. Previous carcasses, probably from previous days are cooked into big batches of the soup and served on demand.

1A0A2999

Table-side carving at Country Kitchen

The Components

Peking Duck consists of several different components, each of which is worthy of separate evaluation:

Skin

The skin should ideally be super crispy/crunchy with just a bit of (mostly rendered) fat. It’s traditionally served by itself and often on parts of the meat. The solo skin can be eaten plain, with a bit of sugar, or dipped lightly in hoisin. It can also be placed inside the pancake roll (which I’ll call a “bing” as explained below).

1A0A2324

Crispy skin served atop some meat at Dadong Beijing

Meat

The “meat” of a peking duck consists of three main sub-parts. The most important is the breast, which is served typically in one of two styles in LA (see below) with or without skin. Then there is thigh meat, and at many places the legs and occasionally the wings. The legs (and wings) are eaten mostly by themselves but the breast and thigh bits are generally designed to go inside the rolled pancake (“bing”). Ideally the meat should be juicy and delicious with a distinct duck taste but not an overwhelming gamey or barnyard quality.

1A0A3005

The breast meat with attached skin at Country Kitchen

Pancake

A proper Peking Duck comes with ultra-thin delicate warm spring pancakes. In Chinese these are known as Chun Bing 春饼. They should be almost translucent, durable enough to wrap, and add just that touch of carbohydrate goodness to their task of binding together the contents. A “Pseudo” Peking Duck will often be served with steamed buns instead of pancakes. It’s not a Peking Duck. Even worse, some Chinese American places will attempt to serve “Pseudo” Peking Duck (it’s not roasted like a real Peking Duck either) with (store bought) Mexican Tortillas. Not only does this taste terrible, but it’s sacrilegious and offends the food gods.

1A0A3009

Spring pancakes at Country Kitchen

Hoisin

Peking duck sauce isn’t a true hoisin, but we will call it that nonetheless. Peking duck sauce is a thick, fragrant sauce commonly used in as a glaze for meat, an addition to stir fry, or as dipping sauce. It is dark-coloured in appearance and sweet and salty in taste. Although regional variants exist, peking duck hoisin sauce is not exactly the same as the Cantonese hoisin, but instead is usually made from Tian Mian Jian (甜面酱), a chef specific blend of fermented yellow soybean paste, fermented wheat, sometimes fruit (like plums), and the oil from roasted ducks in additional to aromatic ingredients. Tian Mian Jian translates to sweet flour sauce and despite it often having the work “bean” in the description is not primary made from beans. It should be salty, savory, a bit sweet, medium thick, and have a hint of medicinal/herbal quality. It should not be too jammy, watery, or too sweet. Interestingly, it’s actually one of the most important elements of the pancake roll (“bing”) even though it should be used sparingly. One of the reasons “Pseudo” Peking Duck is often inferior is the use of Cantonese hoisin, which while good, is not the same. Peking duck sauce (hoisin) is used — sparingly — to flavor the rolled up pancake (bing) and and to flavor meat eaten on its own.

1A4A7493

Hoisin (really duck sauce) in the SGV

Accoutrements

Accoutrements are anything else potentially added to the pancake roll (“bing”). Minimally it’s julienned cucumber and spring onion but pickles, melon, and other ingredients are frequently found in China. They make interesting and important combinations of flavor.

1A0A2302

Accoutrement dish at Dadong Beijing

Bing (Pancake Roll)

Since the rolled up pancake containing duck meat etc is such an important part of Peking Duck I’m going to give it a name, “bing.” Really, bing just flat cake in Chinese, and chun bing is a spring pancake, but I had to call it something. But regardless, the “bing” is the main event of any Peking Duck. It consists of the spring pancake, lightly coated in hoisin, meat, skin, and accoutrements then rolled up into a thin cigar-like shape, possibly folded over a bit at the ends. All of the above elements are required for a proper “bing” and it is very sensitive to flaws in any of them, particularly the pancake itself or hoisin. The score for this category is about the overall experience of the “bing,” not the individual components themselves. Hoisin should be used sparingly as it can overwhelm other flavors.

1A0A3010

Bing prior to rolling at Country Kitchen

Bones

It’s long been possible to get a plate of the “bones” of your duck. This is the hacked up remains of the carcass. Depending on the technique and skill of the carver these can be merely a pile of roasted bones or contain quite a lot of tasty meat. More recently, LA Peking Duck restaurants will stir-fry these bones either with “spicy salt” or cumin. This last seems to be new and non traditional but it is delicious. These stir-fried versions are almost always better than the plate of hacked roasted bones, which is often inedible. One place even stir-fries the duck tails, which are fatty and delicious.

1A4A1155

Cumin duck bones at Duck House

Stir-fry

For decades it’s been an option to get parts of the meat that aren’t served on the main plates for the “bing” stir-fried or prepped in some manner. The most common are stir-fried with bean sprouts or lettuce cups. I’ve never liked the bean sprout version. The lettuce cups can be fine. Both have very minimal meat and I rarely order them. This is sometimes called “2 ways.”

1A4A8980

Stir-fry with bean sprouts and microscopic duck at Tasty Duck

Soup

Duck soup is often sold in a “3 ways” package with the main event duck, a stir-fry, and the soup. At best it’s a mild chicken-like (but duck) soup with tofu and cabbage. At best it can be pleasant and soothing. At worst the soup is very gamey and kinda nasty.

1A4A0185

Duck Soup at Meizhou Dongpo Arcadia

Overall

An overall score takes all the relevant above elements into account, presenting a score of Peking Duck quality at a particular restaurant.

The LA Presentations

In LA, there are three basic methods of presentation, which end up in two “on the table” styles:

Table-side Carving, Beijing Style

In this presentation, only really performed at Chang’An in Tustin and Meizhou Dongpo, the whole duck is brought out and carved up table-side to the amusement of the guests. The breast skin is pulled off and the breast is sliced into ovals with some skin attached. It’s generally served on little white duck plates. The table-side presentation is not just for show — although it certainly is fun — but has material impact on the overall Peking Duck experience. Sliced duck meat, and particularly skin, has a lot of surface area and it cools rapidly. Ducks sliced in the kitchen often linger there for a few minutes and come to the table luke warm.

1A4A0121

Table-side carving at Meizhou Dongpo

In the Kitchen, Beijing Style

This is pretty much the same as the table-side style, but the carving is all done in the kitchen and the meat and skin are brought out on plates. It should be noted that one appears to get a lot more meat via the Beijing style carve, regardless of it being table-side or not. Generally there are two full plates of skin and meat as opposed to the bowl cut which seems to be closer to half a duck. Kitchen sliced duck will generally be cooler in temperature than table-side duck, and therefore will be drier and seem fattier (hot fat is always better).

1A4A0517

Plated breast meat with skin at Chang’An

The Bowl Cut

Many “classic” LA Peking Duck restaurants bring the duck meat and skin out from the kitchen together on a single large plate. The skinless meat is packed into a soup bowl and then inverted in the center forming a dry packed meat dome. The best skin is cut into rectangular “petals” and arrayed around this dome to form a floral pattern. This system has an efficiency for the kitchen, and does seem to provide some of the crispiest skin in the city (as it’s separate) but the plate is sometimes cool by the time it arrives and the meat is usually lean and dry. Overall, I find it an inferior technique but it does have it’s advocates — namely those who prize the crispy skin above all. There is certainly less meat available via the bowl cut method as it seems to be reserved for the other dishes (that you also have to pay extra for). An additional problem with the bowl method is that there is frequently some delay between carving the duck, arranging the platter, and serving it. The net result is that bowl cut duck is usually not very warm, sometimes room temperature. Hot duck means hot duck fat and is much superior.

1A4A7820

The Bowl Cut at JiRong

The Rankings

Overall ranking is just an order but all of the other categories are rated 1-10. Currently included are only Peking Duck specialty restaurants serving “Real” Peking Duck that I have visited recently and reviewed in detail.

Restaurant Overall (of 7) Bing Skin Meat Pancake Hoisin Accoutrements
Chang’an 1 7 6 10 10 8 9
Meizhou Dongpo Arcadia 2 7 6 9 8 7 8
Ray’s Duck House 3 8.5 9 7 10 9 3
Duck House 4 8 9 6 8 8 9
JiRong 5 8 7.5 5 9 8 7
NC Peking Duck 6 6 9 8 9 5 7
Happy Duck 7 4 8.5 5 5 6 4
Tasty Duck 8 6 4 5 9 9 8
_

Restaurant: Chang’An Tustin

Location: 13051 Newport Ave, Tustin, CA 92780. (949) 324-5558

Last visited: December 10, 2022

_

1A4A0483

Chang’An has a dedicated duck oven and aging cabinet that can be seen by the guests just like top places in China. Besides being a fantastic high end Chinese restaurant, they have superlative duck, arguably the best I have tried in Southern California. It’s brought table-side, covered in Chinese rice liquor and lit on fire to crisp. Then it’s carved up traditionally. Half of it is smoked too. Decor and service here are amazing. Ducks must be preordered and only one is allowed per table for some mysterious reason.


1A4A0503

The Skin was thin and mildly crispy, aged ducky flavor, served with traditional brown sugar. But still this way of doing the duck, better for the meat, compromises the skin ever-so-slightly = 6.

1A4A0517
Meat was served 2 ways, both with some skin on the white meat, straight up = 10 where it was really juicy and full of flavor.


1A4A0532
A second half of the meat was served smoked which was very different, a bit more like ham, and quite lovely = 9.

1A4A0509
Pancake was thin and translucent and there were plenty of them = 10.
Hoisin was good to great. Slightly thin maybe, sweet and savory, quite pungent = 8.

1A4A0511

Accoutrements were scallion and cucumbers as usual plus pear = 9.
The bing together was a 7/10 or perhaps 8/10 as I didn’t pack it right. I should have made a second but I didn’t want the extra carbs.
Extra bonus for table side, duck stand, flaming duck, and smoking!
_
A full review of Chang’An is in the works.
_

Restaurant: Meizhou Dongpo Arcadia

Location: 400 S Baldwin Ave #2045, Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 538-4136

Last visited: December 4, 2022

_

1A4A0122

MDP is a close second for best Peking duck in Southern California and for LA residents, with both Arcadia and Century City locations is far more convenient than Chang’An. They also carve the duck table-side, albeit without any flaming show or smoked second half. The also employ the Beijing style cut. This is a very modern Chinese chain with (particularly in Arcadia) a very elegant and fancy modern Chinese build out. Unfortunately both branches are located in Westfield malls which makes for annoying parking and crowds. They have very nice private rooms and service can be top notch.
Century city is very similar to Arcadia. The duck is essentially the same but the decor isn’t quite as nice and they don’t have the same great private rooms. They do however have a fabulous patio.

1A4A0136

The skin was very thin and crispy but there was less of it because of the split skin cut = 6.

1A4A0132

Meat was super juicy, even a touch pink, with real jus. Excellent. Some was served with the skin on = 9.

1A4A0140

Pancake was thin and resilient, but -1 ding for being folded (may cause sticking) = 8.
Hoisin was very good, but a touch savory = 7.

1A4A0127

Accoutrements were scallion and cucumbers as usual, but extra point for sugar (for the skin) = 8.
The bing together was a 7/10 because the pancake/hoisin is the most important component of that.

1A4A0180

The bones are solid and available in cumin stir-fry.

1A4A0185

Duck soup was very pleasant and mild = 8
Extra bonus for table side carving!
_
A full review of MDP (Century City) can be found here.
_

Restaurant: Ray’s Duck House晶瑞轩海鲜酒楼

Location: 4721 Chino Hills Pkwy, Chino Hills, CA 91709. (909) 606-9046

Last visited: January 26, 2022

_

1A4A3045
The overall spread at Ray’s. They used the modern Beijing cut (in the kitchen) and brought it out on the usual two white duck plates. Ray’s serves a really first rate Peking Duck (even if the leg’s and wings were missing). All of the top three places (Ray’s included) are very good and slightly different. Here the skin is the best of any of the modern cut places being delightfully thick and crispy.

In addition, at lunch they have a really excellent dim sum service. Really excellent. The only problem is that the restaurant is located very far east, about 50 miles from Santa Monica! It’s a shame that 2 of the top 3 places are extremely far from LA proper. I have to come back and try the Cantonese banquet dishes and seafood.

1A4A3037
Skin was thick, crunchy, airy, and quite spectacular, both the separate parts and the bits on the meat — it was all crunchy! = 9. I actually think this skin was even slightly better than the Happy Duck skin. The fact that the skin on the meat bits was also crunchy was incredible.
Meat was served mostly moon cut with the skin, some dark meat by itself. The wings and legs were missing. And while the meat wasn’t as juicy as MDP it was very very tasty with great duck flavor. Probably the third best meat = 7.

1A4A3050-Pano

Accoutrements were scallion and cucumbers as usual. This was the weakest element as they had been cut the previous day (most likely) and were dry = 3. However, in the bing it was hard to tell.

Hoisin was great. It wasn’t goopy thick, nor too sweet, and had fabulous on-point flavor = 9.

1A4A3047
Pancake was thin and translucent and there were plenty of them = 10.

The bing pancake together was excellent largely due to all the ingredients other than the scallions being first rate = 8.5/10.
1A4A3064
Duck Soup was bland although at least not unpleasant = 4.

Bones were on the menu, but they didn’t think we needed them = N/A.

A full review of Ray’s is in the works.

_

Restaurant: Duck House Restaurant 鹿鼎記

Location: 501 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 284-3227

Last visited: December 22, 2022

_

Duck House is one of the SGV’s classic… well you guessed it… duck houses. Hostess and owner Catherine used to operate Tasty Duck but moved years ago to this location and she’s one of the best hostesses in town. Not only do they serve great Peking Duck but they have a wonderful all around menu. The decor is excellent in the height of 2000ish Monterey Park style and they have nice private rooms. They prepare the duck in the kitchen with a gas oven and then serve it using the SGV “bowl cut” style. Bones and even duck tails are available a number of ways as I’m sure are stir-fries and duck soup.
1A4A9090
Skin was very thick and crispy, really delicious = 9.
Meat was dry without the skin, but fairly pleasant flavor = 6.
Pancake was thin and translucent, but a bit sticky = 8.
1A4A9044
Hoisin was very good. Not too thick, sweet and savory, with a hint of medicinal tone but not off-putting = 8.
1A4A9064
Accoutrements were scallion and cucumbers as usual plus a spread of pickles, mustard sauce, corn flakes, and raw garlic = 9. These extra four condiments were specially prepared for us by the owner, they aren’t always available, but is totally worth asking about!
The bing together was a 8/10 because the pancake/hoisin is the most important component.
1A4A1155
Bones are very good both salty and cumin style.
1A4A9055
The duck tails are to die for. Little bits of super crispy fat!
1A4A9103
Duck wings are another option.
Extra bonus incredible service!

_

A full review of Duck House is available here.

_
_

Restaurant: Ji Rong Peking Duck

Location: 8450 Valley Blvd Suite 115, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 280-8600

Last visited: November 1, 2022

_

In recent years, Ji Rong has risen to be one of Alhambra’s “go to” places for Peking Duck. You must order ahead here and they serve using the “bowl cut” method, but it’s very dependable and they offer a vast array of modern Beijing food that is quite excellent. This includes a variety of western and Sichuan influenced dishes. It’s very popular and feels very 2010s SGV. The “private rooms” are merely separated areas to the side of the main dining room and it can be quite loud. Service is very efficient but young employees sometimes seem at the mercy of the kitchen staff. They have three ways and all that.
1A4A7820
Ji Rong skin was very crispy and some of the pieces that were thick were about as good as Happy Duck, however there was a slight funk to it so -1. point for that = 7. Thick pieces maybe an 8.
1A4A7823
Meat was packed in a bowl, no skin. White meat was medium dry, also with a slight funk = 4, but the dark meat was better = 7. They do offer the legs with the main dish.
1A4A7827
Pancake was thin and resilient = 9.
Hoisin was very good with really nice balance, not perfect, but extremely good = 8.
1A4A7814
Accoutrements were scallion and cucumbers as usual = 7.
The bing together was a 8/10 because the pancake/hoisin is the most important component of that.

A full review of Ji Rong can be found here.

_
_

Restaurant: NC Peking Duck 老北方烤鸭店

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

Last visited: October 27, 2022

_

1A4A7471
In just the last few years there have been more and more great Chinese restaurant openings in the “far SGV” (Hacienda Heights, Rowland Heights, City of Industry). NC Peking Duck isn’t the fanciest, but it is a Peking Duck specialty place with a broad menu of Northern Chinese Cuisine and very modern Beijing Style duck. They have a couple of minimalist private rooms and excellent service as well as many great dishes. The duck itself is served in the Beijing Style, but carved in the kitchen. Ducks should be pre-ordered.
1A4A7465
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.
7U1A8264
Meat was juicy and flavorful with skin on = 8. On some occasions they plate in the really “classic” double duck dish style.
1A4A7472
Pancake was thin and resilient = 9.
1A4A7478
Hoisin was tasty but “goopy”, extra thick, and with a bit too much medicinal tone = 5.
7U1A8269
Accoutrements were scallion and cucumbers as usual = 7. Before the pandemic they offered this incredible 9 way deluxe accoutrement spread, which would have earned a 10! Hopefully they bring it back.
7U1A8267
The bing together was a 6/10, dinged mostly by the hoisin.
1A4A7476
They offer cumin bones.
7U1A8275
Or very meaty “chopped” bones.

_

A full review of NC Peking Duck is available here.

_
_

Restaurant: Happy Duck House

Location: 18210 Gale Ave, City of Industry, CA 91748. (626) 581-4747

Last visited: October 27, 2022

_

1A4A7495
Happy Duck is also located out in the far SGV. As a restaurant I’m not that much of a fan. It’s just a little mom and pop place with no atmosphere and a fairly boring mixed “duck house” and Cantonese menu. Others like it better. It’s not bad at all, just not exciting to me (no spicy dishes). However they do offer “Real” Peking Duck and it’s pretty decent. Service is very friendly. Ducks should be preordered.
1A4A7499
Happy Duck skin is unusually crispy and delicious, almost spongy = 8.5 (some people in our group think a 9). This skin has its devotees and some people thing it’s the best skin in the city — certainly it’s very good skin. They have a special “torching” technique here that crisps up the skin.
Meat was dry and served packed into a rice bowl and served as a dome (no skin) = 5.
Pancake was house-made but chewy and uneven, really disappointing = 5.
1A4A7493
Hoisin was very sweet but tasty, with a strong medicinal taste = 6.
Accoutrements featured fresh spring onions but flabby cucumbers = 4.
Bing with everything rolled up was a 4/10, dinged hugely for the pancake and hoisin.
1A4A7511
Like most duck places they have duck soup.
1A4A7524
And duck and bean-sprout stir-fry, which is pretty bland and dry.
1A4A7519
A lot of duck houses also have eel sticky rice and this is actually the best version of this dish I’ve ever had. Eel was perfectly cooked and the rice was great too.

_

A full review of Happy Duck is available here.

_
_

Restaurant: Tasty Duck

Location: 1039 E Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 572-3885

Last visited: November 16, 2022

_

1A4A8989

1A4A9020

Tasty Duck was one of our “go to” duck places for around a decade and it’s located in a small, crowded, not-particularly-attractive space in the center of Alhambra. Ducks should be preordered and they traditionally served in the “bowl cut” style. The last time we went they had new owners and tried to cut table-side in the Beijing Style and made a real hack job of the duck. They offer 3 ways and we did “up the ante” by bringing half a pound of fresh caviar.
1A4A8999
Skin was very thin, oily, and not very crispy. And there wasn’t that much of it = 4.
1A4A9001
Meat was juicy, but was gamey, luke warm, and not particularly appealing. Attached skin was soggy = 5.
1A4A9024
Pancake was thin and translucent = 9.
Hoisin was absolutely first rate. Not too thick, sweet and savory, with a hint of medicinal tone but not off-putting = 9.
Accoutrements were scallion and cucumbers as usual, but extra point for sugar and melon = 8.
1A4A9034
The bing together was a 6/10 because the pancake/hoisin is the most important component of that. Caviar was BYOC so not normally available.
1A4A8975
Duck soup was terrible with a barn-like flavor = 2.
1A4A8980
Duck stir-fry. Bleh. I don’t get this dish.
Extra bonus for table side carving — although it was a duck massacre!

_

A full review of Tasty Duck is available here.

_

As the Southern California duck situation evolves I will continue to update this page. There are a couple duck places I haven’t had time to go to such as Ray’s Duck House in Colima (quite far east). In addition I may list places with “Pseudo” Peking Duck and revisit fusion restaurants with Peking Duck like Merois and Chinois. There are also a couple places I haven’t been in a long time, like Shin Beijing, which serve a Peking Duck somewhere between “real” and “pseudo.”

Last Updated: January 3, 2023.

Related posts:

  1. NC Peking Duck – Double Duck part 2
  2. NC Peking Duck again
  3. Happy Duck – Double Duck part 1
  4. Peking Duck at A-1 Chinese BBQ
  5. Duck House without Yarom!
By: agavin
Comments (4)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Beijing Duck, Chang'An, Chinese Food, duck, Duck House, Duquest, Happy Duck, Ji Rong, Lunch Quest, Meizhou Dongpo, NC Peking Duck, Peking Duck, Roast Duck, SGV, Tasty Duck

Lunch Quest – Dai Ho

Dec07

Restaurant: Dai Ho Restaurant

Location: 9148 Las Tunas Dr, Temple City, CA 91780. (626) 291-2295

Date: May 27, 2022

Cuisine: Taiwanese Chinese

Rating: Notoriously reasonably priced

_

Dai Ho has been on my “to try” list forever (maybe close to 10 years). It’s a very small menu Taiwanese lunch place known for noodles and being incredibly cheap (and tasty).
1A4A7139
Typical old school SGV frontage.
1A4A7140-Pano
The extremely casual interior space.
1A4A7142-Pano
Tubs for sale.
1A4A7144
Bean curd and anchovies. Nice texture and a bit savory.
1A4A7146
Mustard greens with Bean Curd.
1A4A7147
Mixed “spicy”. Peanuts, peppers, bean curd, garlic.
1A4A7150
Tripe and Bean Curd. Pretty good for tripe.
1A4A7153
Ground Pork Dry Noodles.
1A4A7157
Ground Beef Dry Noodles.
1A4A7159
Sesame Dry Noodles. Like a dan dan with less spice. Probably my favorite of the noodles — although not as strong as a good dan dan.
1A4A7164
Beef Noodle Soup.

We pretty much ordered everything. There are some variants of above, but we covered our bases. Everything we had was very tasty and the bill was ridiculously low, but I do like a restaurant more more variety!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Lunch Quest – Happy Valley Village
  2. Lunch Quest – Da Long Yi
  3. Lunch Quest — Xiang La Hui
  4. Eating Xi’an – Warrior Lunch
  5. Cocoa Island – Languorous Lunch
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: AFF, Hai ho, lunch, Lunch Quest, noodles, Taiwanese Cuisine

Lunch Quest – Happy Valley Village

Dec05

Restaurant: Happy Valley Village / Shanlitun

Location: 1655 S Azusa Ave E, Hacienda Heights, CA 91745. (626) 669-8406

Date: May 26, 2022

Cuisine: North East Chinese

Rating: One of a kind

_

This unusual “hot pot” restaurant in Hacienda Heights specializes in lamb spine and goose hot pot from the region just west of Korea.
1A4A7076
It’s located in the usual kind of mini-mall and is as far as we can tell one of a kind in California — in that no one else offers this cuisine.
1A4A7080
It has a pretty nice build out.
1A4A7083
1A4A7084
And a colorful decor. Notice the hoods over each table.
1A4A7085
And each table has this built in super hot pot.
menu
The menu.
1A4A7086
1A4A7087
1A4A7089
Five Vegetable Noodles. Mustard and tangy sauce with mung bean noodles.
1A4A7094
Cold beef with garlic sauce. Sauce was great. Beef is dense and pastrami-like.
1A4A7099
Sweet and Sour Crispy Pork. Very breaded. Not actually sweet enough. A bit mild in flavor.
1A4A7106
Lamb spine hot pot with mushrooms and eggplant.1A4A7110
Add in pork belly and pork ribs.1A4A7114
Add in crystal noodles (wide).
1A4A7125
And corn cakes cooked on the side.

1A4A7126
Steaming up.
1A4A7130
Spine had a ton of flavor. Very boney, but worth it. Ribs were the best and pork belly also great. Sauce/broth had huge depth of flavor.
1A4A7131
Inside of the corn bread.
1A4A7133-Pano
This is a pretty focused restaurant where the stew is more or less the thing, excepting the fairly simple set of “appetizers.” But the stew is pretty darn tasty. There are the 5 variants: fish, goose, cabbage & pork, chicken, and lamb spine. You can’t really try more than one per visit so we’ll have to come back sometime and try at least the goose.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

1A4A7081

Related posts:

  1. Lunch Quest – Da Long Yi
  2. Lunch Quest — Xiang La Hui
  3. Happy at Happy Harbor
  4. Happy Table 2X
  5. Shanghai #1 Seafood Village
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Happy Valley Village, hot pot, lamb spine, Lunch Quest, SGV

Lunch Quest – Da Long Yi

Dec01

Restaurant: DaLongYi Hot Pot 大龙燚火锅

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.
1A4A6908
1A4A6955
It’s located located on the second floor of this classic mall right next door to Shanghai #1 Seafood Village.
1A4A6919-Pano
The interior has a decent but modern industrial build out.
1A4A6910
1A4A6909
The “snacks” are extremely minimal.
1A4A6914
The sauce bar section is decent, totally workable, but not as good as a few other chains.

1A4A6923
I made my usual pair of sesame and vinegar based sauces.
1A4A6952
Fried Pork. Super nice fry with juicy pork. Great!

1A4A6950
Half spicy, half bone broth. The bone is boring, of course.
1A4A6932
Smooth beef. Thick slices coated in egg. Very tender and nice.
1A4A6934
Pork meat balls. Great, not those dense packaged ones.
1A4A6937
Luncheon Meat. Always one of my favorites.
1A4A6940
Fish Balls stuffed with Roe. Great.
1A4A6943
Angus Beef.
1A4A6949
Beef Tongue.
1A4A6946
Lamb Shoulder.
1A4A6944
Assorted Tofu.
1A4A6945
Assorted Mushrooms.
1A4A6947
Lotus root. Love that crunchy texture.
1A4A6948
Napa cabbage. Because this is always the favorite veggie, we decided to just order it.

1A4A6918
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.

Related posts:

  1. Lunch Quest — Xiang La Hui
  2. Ultimate New Bay Lunch
  3. Long Lunch at Longo
  4. Hamasaku Lunch
  5. Malubianbian Spicy Stick Pot
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Da Long Yi, hot pot, Lunch Quest, SGV, spicy, Szechuan 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.

1A4A3265
Our third stop was Hak Heang which is a Long Beach Cambodian institution.
1A4A3267-Pano
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.

1A4A3271
1A4A3272
1A4A3273
1A4A3274
1A4A3275
1A4A3276
1A4A3277
1A4A3278
1A4A3279
1A4A3280
1A4A3281
1A4A3282
1A4A3283
1A4A3284
1A4A3285
1A4A3286
1A4A3287
1A4A3288
The many is VAST with a hybrid of Cambodian, Chinese, and Cambodian Chinese dishes. Presumably the owners are ethnic Chinese from Cambodia.1A4A3293
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.
1A4A3299-Edit
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.
1A4A3303
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.

Related posts:

  1. Little Cambodia – Sophy’s Cambodia Town Food
  2. Little Cambodia – A&J Seafood Shack
  3. Newport Seafood Again
  4. SGV Adventures – ACC Chinese Fast Food
  5. Newport Seafood is Special
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Cambodian Cuisine, Chinese cuisine, food crawl, Hak Heang, Long Beach, Lunch Quest

Little Cambodia – Sophy’s Cambodia Town Food

Oct10

Restaurant: Sophy’s Cambodia Town Food

Location: 3240 E Pacific Coast Hwy, Long Beach, CA 90804. (562) 494-1763

Date: February 23, 2022

Cuisine: Cambodian

Rating: Very good, huge menu of diverse dishes

_

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.

1A4A3219
1A4A3221
1A4A3223
Our second stop was Sophy’s Cambodia Town Food. Very odd long building with the entrance hidden in the back. We had to walk all the way around to find it.
1A4A3224
1A4A3254
1A4A3255
Inside there are a selection of take away snacks.
1A4A3257
The large interior was clearly a diner or family restaurant decades ago.
1A4A3225
1A4A3226
1A4A3227
1A4A3228
1A4A3229
1A4A3230
1A4A3231
1A4A3232
The huge menu. Food here “overlaps” in a Thai and/or Vietnamese direction. I’m not enough of a South East Asian culture buff to know if that’s just that, being adjacent, “town food” in Cambodia is loosely similar to Thai and/or Vietnamese or if this particular restaurant just leans that way.

1A4A3235
Beef Jerky. Sophy’s signature dish. Flank steaks deeply marinated, then oven-dried and then deep fried. Served with garlic and vinegar sauce. Definitely dry, definitely flaky and full of flavor.
1A4A3241
A sour soup of chicken, maybe fish, and watercress. Unusual flavors but kinda delicious.
1A4A3245
Banh Cheo. Pan fried crepes filled with ground chicken, shrimp, bean sprouts and onion. Served with assorted vegetables, a variety of mint and crushed peanuts in our tasty sweet and sour sauce. This can (more or less) be found at many Vietnamese restaurants and is probably typical of the Peninsula (aka South East Asia). Regardless, it was delicious here. The egg, tangy fish sauce and herbs all combine to make a lovely fresh combo.
1A4A3251
Sauces and peanuts.
1A4A3258
Yarom with the owner.
1A4A3260

Sophy’s was quite tasty and given the vastness of the menu could be good for a full on 12-15 course dinner. I guess it’s in the “Cambodian corner” of the spectrum of fancier traditional “town food” found in South East Asia and as such has many overlapping dishes with Thai and Vietnamese restaurants, but it’s certainly got plenty of uniquely Cambodian ones as well.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Little Cambodia – A&J Seafood Shack
  2. K-Town Report – Lee’s Noodles
  3. Shanghainese at Southern Mini Town
  4. Chicken Crawl – Tasty Food
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Cambodian Cuisine, food crawl, Long Beach, Lunch Quest

Little Cambodia – A&J Seafood Shack

Oct08

Restaurant: A&J Seafood Shack

Location: 3201 E Anaheim St, Long Beach, CA 90804. (562) 386-2000

Date: February 23, 2022

Cuisine: Cambodian

Rating: Well… it’s a shack

_

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.

1A4A3198
Our first stop was A&J Seafood Shack.
1A4A3199-Pano
It’s well know, but it really is a shack.
1A4A3194
1A4A31951A4A3196
The menu and our order. This place is basically intended for a grabbing a quick lunch plate.
1A4A3203

Grilled oysters. Fresh, sustainable oysters are grilled and served with zingy lime juice and pepper sauce as well as fried garlic.
1A4A3214
Cracking them, they were pretty much just grilled oysters. The “sauces” were all on the side.
1A4A3204
Grilled Beef Stick. Using the best cut of beef, marinated with fresh lemon-grass, garlic, turmeric and spices. Nice bit of char.
1A4A3209
Khmer Sausage. Known as “Kwa Koh” in Khmer, this link is packed with flavors. Filled with hand chopped beef, rice, garlic, galangal and spices. This was my favorite, slightly sweet and fatty.

This stuff was kinda tasty, and the prices are right (aka very inexpensive). Unfortunately, it’s not all sold ala cart and it’s just a shack with a counter to eat at, so good mostly if you want a quick and tasty lunch.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Eating Leshan – Noodle Shack
  2. Seafood Palace Redux
  3. Newport Seafood is Special
  4. Ocean Avenue Seafood
  5. World Seafood is Elite
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Cambodian Cuisine, food crawl, Long Beach, Lunch Quest

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.
1A4A2846
It’s adjacent to an old 50s/60s billiards hall which I think is still actually open! This is just all so SGV.
1A4A2847
1A4A2850
1A4A2851
1A4A2853
1A4A2854
1A4A2855
1A4A2856
1A4A2857
1A4A2858
1A4A2859
1A4A2860
Big menu.
1A4A2862
Peanuts on the table.
1A4A4679
Beef and anchovy patties. A bit salty and “fishy” in a good umami way.

1A4A2870
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.
1A4A4692
Rice stuffed chicken wings. Stuffing slightly bland.

1A4A4695
100 flower chicken. Great. I love this dish.
1A4A4699

1A4A2879
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.
1A4A4711

1A4A2872
Quail. Excellent.
1A4A4718
House Special Lobster. Delicious.
1A4A4728
Mushrooms with a salty yolk fry.
1A4A4733
Beef with truffle. Heavy on the truffle oil.

1A4A2899
Simple greens.
1A4A4747
Veggies with dried shrimp and crispy taro. Delicious but again super salty.
1A4A4750-Edit

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
1A4A4753
Portuguese Tarts.
1A4A4757
Pineapple Buns.
1A4A4738-Pano
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.

Related posts:

  1. Silk Worm Road – Guan Dong Da Yuan
  2. Noodle Harmony
  3. Chicken Crawl – Savoy Kitchen
  4. Tong Tak – Epic Cantonese
  5. Bubbe’s Kitchen – Traktir
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Embassy Kitchen, hedonists, Lunch Quest, SGV, Tony Lau

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.

1A4A8591
Guan Dong Da Yuan specializes in regional Chinese cuisine from the area across the bay from Korea.
1A4A8592
1A4A8601
The interior is fairly cute and they have a private room (not shown).
1A4A8593
1A4A8594
1A4A8595
1A4A8597
1A4A8600
The extensive menu.

1A4A1141
Kimchee. It is near Korea, after all.
1A4A1149
Baloon Flower. A different kimchee-like marinated veggie. Excellent.
1A4A1138
Hot Stone Eggs with Tofu. Very Korean and good stuff.
1A4A1158
3 Types of Dumpling. Ron didn’t like. It thought they were workable Jaozi (boiled dumplings).
1A4A1152
Guandong Smoked Chicken Bone.
1A4A1164
Yanji Sweet and Sour Pork – mochi-like chewy batter that was actually pretty enjoyable.
1A4A1168
Stir-Fried Silk Worm!
1A4A1174
Hot Stone Beef with Vegetable.
1A4A1177
Spicy Crunchy Chicken Cartilage. It was a boney meal!

1A4A8613
Spicy Crispy Chicken Cartilage (different day) — pretty much Kung Pao Cartilage and tasty for it.
1A4A1188
Eggplant with Green Pppers and Potato. Excellent as well as colorful.
230157477_10223111645353399_6354833706067511909_n
Sautéed Cabbage. I love this dish.
1A4A1201
Stone Fried Pork Slices – like a savory/salty version of Panda Express pork.

1A4A8602
Mapo Tofu — pretty close to Sichuan style

1A4A8610
Stone Beef with Enoki Mushroom — soft and succulent.
1A4A1206
Korean Style Cold Noodle Dish.
1A4A1214
Guandong Stewed Spare Ribs with Green Peppers and Rice Noodles. Interesting polenta-like cakes.
1A4A1218
Guandong Stewed Pork Belly with Rice Noodles. Great textures.
1A4A1222
Guandong Pork Bone. More bones (delicious).
1A4A1195
Fried Rice.
1A4A1183
Caramelized Sugar on Sweet Potato.
231095145_10223111647633456_210406827596488622_n
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).

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

1A4A8587-Pano

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

Related posts:

  1. Silk Road Journeys – Shaanxi Gourmet
  2. Kang Ho-dong Baekjeong
  3. Darya – Down the Silk Road
  4. 888 Seafood – Banquet
  5. China Red by Day
By: agavin
Comments (1)
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.

1A4A8559-Pano
Stop #2 was this old school Chinese BBQ joint, which has been going strong since the 80s with the same owner/managers.
1A4A8561
Small interior, but cute in its own way.
1A4A8562
Menu of BBQ specials. They will even do goose with some notice.
1A4A8566
1A4A8564
1A4A8565
The big takeout menu.
1A4A8569
BBQ Pork w/ Honey Sauce — excellent.
1A4A8578
Roast Duck with Plum Sauce — very succulent and tasty.
1A4A8567
The aforementioned Plum Sauce.
1A4A8572
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.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. SGV Adventures – Ruby BBQ
  2. SGV Adventures – Nature Pagoda
  3. Adventures in Street Food
  4. Fast Food Sushi?
  5. Northern Chinese
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
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.
1A4A8523
1A4A8524
First up was Nature Pagoda which specializes in a sort of “herbal” Chinese medicine focused “healthy” food.

1A4A8528-Pano
The interior is, shall we say, minimalst.

1A4A8525
There are a few pictures behind the counter.
1A4A8526
1A4A8527
And the menu.
1A4A8534
Flamed Quails — pretty good, if slightly dry.
1A4A8542
Stick Combo — okay satay. Nothing great.
1A4A8544
Claypot Ribs with Preserved Sausage — interesting. Kinda mild, but tasty.
1A4A8548
The jus.
1A4A8554
Brown sauce is dumped over it. Not as sweet as I would expect.
1A4A8558
Not exactly expensive, but overall I thought that Nature Pagoda was bland. Maybe Chinese health food is just like American!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. SGV Adventures – Ruby BBQ
  2. Adventures in Street Food
  3. Adventures in the Screen Trade
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Lunch Quest, Nature Pagoda, SGV

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.7U1A8984
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.
7U1A8986-Pano
This is in the old 800 degrees space and nicely built out… up stairs at least.
7U1A8989
There is an attractive bar.
7U1A8991-Pano
But our six person party was banished to the “dungeon.” The basement was claustrophobic and smelled of “potty.” Ick. It was pretty off-putting.

7U1A8995 7U1A8996 7U1A8997
7U1A8998 7U1A8999 7U1A9000
7U1A9001 7U1A9002 7U1A9003
7U1A9004

The Menu.
7U1A9005
Sauces in the usual microscopic dishes.
7U1A9006
XO sauce.
7U1A9029
Lobster Salad. This is a “whole” order ($28.80). It was tasty, but very small.
7U1A9008
Steamed chicken feet in brown sauce.
7U1A9013
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.
7U1A9019
Har Gow. Very nice classic shrimp dumplings — except they are $2 each and at many places they are $2-3 an order!
7U1A9022
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.
7U1A9032
Baked BBQ Pork Bun. Excellent version with the usual sweet interior.
7U1A9038
Shrimp wonton with house spicy sauce. Very nice and delicate with quite a bit of salty flavor.
7U1A9043
Shrimp, crab meat, and matsutake dumplings. Nice delicate dumplings.
7U1A9053
Juicy Pork dumplings (XLB). Very good example of the Cantonese variant of these.
7U1A9060
Pan-fried shrimp & pork pandan bun. Doughy, but with a very nice flavor. Quite tasty.
7U1A9116
Deep fried pork dumpling. Just an ok version of this chewy fried type.
7U1A9092
Deep fried tofu in Thai sauce. Nice tender tofu. Quite good.
7U1A9057
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.
7U1A9063
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.
7U1A9109
Stir-fried rice noodle with beef. This was much better. Like Chinese beef Pad Thai.
7U1A9044
Deep fried crispy king prawn. Tasty and super crispy but also super fried.
7U1A9096
BBQ Pork. Delicious and pretty much coated in syrup.
7U1A9077
Braised eggplant with minced pork on rice noodle casserole. Not a ton of eggplant but I enjoyed the chewy “rice noodle” with the sauce.
7U1A9083
Sliced Chinese broccoli with black truffle sauce. Now this was only $6.80, but it was embarrassingly tiny. We are talking 2 inches across!
7U1A9104
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.
7U1A9073
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.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Lunasia Dim Sum
  2. Shandong Dumplings
  3. Chef Yu Bo & LQ Foodings
  4. World Seafood is Elite
  5. Westwood Chinese – Northern Cafe
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chef Tony, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, dumplings, Lunch Quest, noodles, Pasadena, Truffle

China Red by Day

Mar04

Restaurant: China Red [1, 2]

Location: 855 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 445-3700

Date: January 23, 2020

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: A- dim sum

_

Continuing our Lunch Quest series of random lunch visits we decide to check in on the China Red dim sum.
1A0A8202

For some reason I’ve been on a run of places on the slightly more “Eastern” half of the main SGV. Slightly more annoying drive too as it’s 10-15 minutes further.

7U1A6178
The outside.

7U1A6177

1A0A8206-Pano
The interior is typical midsized Cantonese. There is some DM (deferred maintenance). This is very Chinese, but the place is only a couple years old and is showing some wear and tear.
7U1A6179
Zoom.
7U1A6190
Sauces.
7U1A6181
Har Gow (shrimp dumplings) – large, but hot and good.
7U1A6183
Chicken feet in XO sauce.
7U1A6187
Pork ribs — ugly but tasty.
7U1A6194
Shu Mai (pork and shrimp dumplings) — large but tasty version of the classic.
7U1A6199
Shrimp and Leek Dumplings — quite nice. One of the better dumplings.
7U1A6203
Sticky rice in lotus leaf — good.
7U1A6206
Crunchy baked BBQ pork bun — slightly mushy interior.
7U1A6208
Pork Rib Chow Fun — I didn’t realize that this was just the ribs on top of some chow fun. I would have ordered a different one had I known.
7U1A6213
Dumplings with an interesting peanut and meat paste inside. I didn’t adore.
7U1A6214
XLB (Xao Lao Bao) – juicy pork dumplings. Very nice version.
7U1A6221
Shrimp paste with almonds – Basically a shrimp spring roll covered in almonds. Interesting texture.
7U1A6222
Another dumpling type with a brown spinach mush inside — not my favorite at all.
7U1A6226
Beef balls — ok.
7U1A6229
Crispy fried squab — very dense and meaty. Not my favorite squab.
7U1A6219
Spicy cabbage — I love this dish as always.
7U1A6233
Double Shot Gelato — Hot brewed espresso gelato with house-made dark chocolate hazelnut ganache — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — this will keep you up! — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #chocolate #valrhona #espresso #coffee #hazelnut #ganache

Peppered Lemongrass Ginger Creme Brûlée Gelato — A blended milk and Thai coconut cream base steeped with lemongrass and ginger and then juiced up with yuzu and black pepper. For sugar, I used coconut palm sugar and even torched the top! — 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 #lemongrass #ginger #CremeBrûlée #BlackPepper #coconut #yuzu

China Red is a solid “made to order” dimsum place. It’s better than pretty much all the cart places, but it’s not the best ever, and the menu is pretty small and straightforward. Which place is the best in the SGV is always changing, but generally 2-3 are A+ and a whole bunch are good but not quite as good — that’s where China Red falls.

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

Related posts:

  1. Derek moved to China Red
  2. Ring in Tang Gong
  3. Jiang Nan Spring
  4. Shanghailander Arcadia
  5. SGV Nights – Seafood Palace
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: BYOG, Cantonese cuisine, Chinese Food, Dim sum, dimsum, Gelato, Har Gow, Lunch Quest, SGV, Yarom

888 Not So Late

Feb14

Restaurant: 海珍大酒樓 888 seafood restaurant [1, 2]

Location: 8450 Valley Blvd, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 573-1888

Date: December 19, 2019

Cuisine: Cantonese Dimsum

Rating: good cart dimsum

_

We had such a good banquet dinner at 888 Seafood a couple of weeks ago that we decided to return and try their dimsum during the day. It should be noted that 888 has been around for a long while — decades — and is still a cart place. I.e. everything rotates around on the steam carts.

7U1A4390
Har Gow. Shrimp dumplings. nice.
7U1A4373
Shrimp and Scallop Dumplings.
7U1A4375
Vegetable Dumplings.
7U1A4378
XLB (Xao Lao Bao). Pork soup dumplings. These were tasty, but a bit sticky and pasty.
7U1A4384
Shrimp and Vegetable Dumplings.
7U1A4389Shu Mai. Not a bad version of the classic.

7U1A4395
Pork ribs. Ugly but delicious.
7U1A4397
Beef balls. Also ugly but tasty.
7U1A4400
Shrimp Chow Fun. Good for this dish.
7U1A4405

Eggplant and Shrimp Paste. Black bean sauce. A little more unusual.

7U1A4407
Greens with Sauce. Comes on the dedicated greens cart.
7U1A4417
Crunchy top pork buns. A bit sweet and really nice texture.
7U1A4449
Baked pork buns.

7U1A4424

Shrimp paste with Green Pepper with Black Bean Sauce. Pretty good, actually.

7U1A4427
Chewy Pork Dumpling. I always like this texture.
7U1A4428Tofu. Very light and delicate. Nice soft texture.7U1A4432
Bean Curd wrapped veggies.
7U1A4410
Cantonese Luke Warm Roast Duck. Pretty juicy, but very luke-warm, almost cool.
7U1A4440
Pork Hock with Bok Choy. Delicious! Several people popped their pig’s feet cherry on these.
7U1A4443
Fatty Beef Ribs. Rich sauce and thick slabs of beef that didn’t seem so Chinese.
7U1A4453
Chicken Feet in XO sauce.
7U1A4433
Seafood on crispy Chow Mein. Yum!
7U1A4447
Pineapple Buns with custard and real pineapple chunks — great. Had several even though I was very full.
7U1A4459
Macao Tart — ok, a bit mild.
7U1A4456
Dimsum at 888 was solid, but not particularly interesting or super fresh. Definitely a notch or two down from the made to order places. Shells were a bit “sticky” which indicates they have been sitting in the steamers for a bit while they wheel around. Non dimsum dishes were more interesting. This is more like the way SGV dimsum was 10-15 years ago.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Capital Dim Sum
  2. World Seafood is Elite
  3. Late Night Longo
  4. Ring in Tang Gong
  5. Tim Ho Wan – Dim Sum Pedigree
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Brunch, Cantonese Chinese, Dim sum, dimsum, dumplings, hedonists, lunch, Lunch Quest, SGV

Lunch Quest — Xiang La Hui

Feb05

Restaurant: 香辣汇Xiang La Hui

Location: 621 W Main St, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 703-4165

Date: December 21, 2019 & May 28, 2021 & January 23, 2022

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Some great dishes. Very solid modern Chengdu style joint

_

Continuing the Lunch Quest series in which Yarom and I explore more casual Asian lunch spots.
7U1A3970-Pano
Some friend reviews and an eater article brought us to this new Szechuan entry on Main St.
7U1A3973
Food photos as decor — something I can get behind.
7U1A3974-Pano
1A4A7074-Pano
But the inside is of that newer style appealing to the under 30 set with a touch of decor and smaller rectangular tables (as opposed to the older “palace” style places).
7U1A3976
7U1A3977
The menu has most of the Szechuan classics.
1A4A7002
1A4A7003
1A4A7004
1A4A7005
1A4A7008
1A4A7009
1A4A7010
1A4A7011
1A4A7012
1A4A7013
1A4A7014
1A4A7015
1A4A7016
1A4A7017
And by 5/28/21 they made one of those super fancy modern Chinese picture menus.

7U1A3985
Cucumber in garlic. Excellent. nice crunch. lots of garlic. only missing the spice.
7U1A3990
Chicken w/ chili sauce and pepper. Whole cleaver-ed chicken. Lots of bone but tons of flavor. Green and numbing and gorgeous.

7U1A4030
Cold Noodle (with chicken) — delicious with a nice vinegary flavor and great texture. Much better than the dan dan.
1A4A1809
Jelly Noodle with Spicy Sauce. I like these, but the cold noodle with chicken was the best here.

1A4A1865
Kung Pao Shrimp.

1A4A1825
Happy Chicken. Garlicky “hanging” chicken. Pretty good.

7U1A4011
Dan Dan Mein. Fairly typical Chengdu Style. Not that nutty or spicy though. Ok.
7U1A4014
Stirred up.
7U1A4018
Stir Fried Rabbit with Green Pepper. Super hot, lots of mala, and very very tasty. Little bones though.
1A4A1819
Diced Rabbit in Chili Sauce. A slightly different rabbit variant.

1A4A1830
Frog with Chili and Serrano. Hot and boney.

7U1A4000
Shredded Pork with Garlic Sauce. Classic, not bad. A bit sweet for Yarom.
1A4A1835
Twice Cooked Pork. A classic.
1A4A1839
House Special Pork Belly. Nice and fatty with a bit of preserved vegetable underneath.

1A4A1854
Grilled Lamb Chops.

7U1A3994
Toothpick lamb. One of the most flavorful and most tender versions of this dish I’ve had.
1A4A1860
Dry Beef in Chili Powder. This was a bit different — and good.
7U1A4024
Cumin Lamb. Super tender and full of flavor.
7U1A4032
Pork Belly with Rice Flour. Old school traditional.
1A4A7045
Live spicy roasted fish with Rattan Pepper. You get to pick your “add-ons” individually. We added all sorts of stuff here including crab sticks, spam, lotus root, etc.

1A4A7031
Mapo tofu. Excellent version. First rate really.
1A4A7026
Wok-Fried strong beans. Very nice version with crunchy beans.
1A4A7072
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
1A4A1868
I love this flavor — Peppermint Bark Gelato — Base is pure peppermint milk (subbed the sugar with crushed peppermint candies) and it’s laced with house-made double-sided peppermint bark, Valrhona Dark Chocolate and Ivoire White! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — The Peppermint Bark recipe was developed by a famous pastry chef and author, the mum of a Naughty Dog Alum @nancy_baggett — this year I added the two layer thing which is awesome — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #dessertgasm #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peppermint #bark #Valrhona #chocolate

On the first visit, I would have liked to try more dishes, but of the ones that I had, at least half of these were great and the other half were pretty good. It’s not as consistent as Sichuan Impression, but the chicken with chili sauce, toothpick lamb, rabbit, and cold noodles were fabulous.

On my second visit I found everything we ordered to be excellent, particularly the toothpick lamb, mapo, and cold noodles. I’m upping my “rating” to consider this one of the best Sichuan kitchens currently operating in the SGV. The style is quite representative of Chengdu.

On our third visit we had even more. I continue to think this is one of the better straight up modern Chengdu Sichuan places. And they allow corkage no problem. Service is a little scattered though.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

1A4A1873

Related posts:

  1. Szechuan Impression Tustin
  2. Noodle Harmony
  3. Szechuan Impression West
  4. Jiang Nan Spring
  5. Chong Qing Special Noodles
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Dan Dan Mein, Lunch Quest, SGV, Sichuan, spicy, Szechuan Chinese, Xiang La Hui

Earl Grey – Nanjing Duck House

Jan29

Restaurant: Nanjing Duck House

Location: 9961 East Valley Blvd

Date: December 5, 2019

Cuisine: Nanjing Chinese

Rating: Looks funny — tastes great

_

Lately, Yarom and I have been doing more lunch excursions — particularly to Chinese places that aren’t really going to cut it for wine dinners. I’ve named this series Lunch Quest.
7U1A3582
Anyway, today it carried us to Najing Duck House which specializes in Nanjing style cured duck.
7U1A3653
And we met up with Tony Lau, Kirk, and some others.
7U1A3583-Pano
This is one of those tiny SGV places with no decor — although they don’t have a drop ceiling — and exactly one employee. She was taking orders AND prepping the food. Tony had to help her out by busing!
7U1A3589
Much of the food is cold and cured and on display in this takeout deli cabinet.
7U1A3593
Oh yes, Nanjing style cured Turkey Gizzard!
7U1A3590
7U1A3591
The very short menu.7U1A3610
Boiled peanuts.
7U1A3613
Shredded seaweed. Pretty much as described.
7U1A3650
Pickled cabbage with soybeans and mustard greens. I loved these. I love cabbage. I love fermented. What’s not to love?
7U1A3616
Nanjing style beancurd. What’s brown, rich, savory, slightly sweet and has a texture like a mop sponge? All true but it was actually great. Loved it.
7U1A3597
Turkey gizzard, Nanjing style. Sounds extreme, but once you slice this dense cured muscle with the deli-slicer it’s quite delicious with a nice firm chew and a lovely cured flavor.
7U1A3600
Turkey liver. Foie gras it ain’t. Decent enough though, if livery.
7U1A3619
Sliced turkey leg, Nanjing style. More deli-slicer action. This was actually a very lovely cold sliced turkey leg. Salty, but tasty.
7U1A3624
Boiled dumplings stuffed with pork and shepherd’s purse. Great. I love these home-style dumplings.
7U1A3643
Boiled pork dumplings. More goodness.
7U1A3626
Wonton soup with pork wontons and egg strips. Also lovely. Reminded me a bit of a better version of the classic wonton soup I’d get in my youth.
7U1A3631
Nanjing style meatballs. Meaty good.
7U1A3635
Half a Nanjing style duck. Much like the turkey, but duckier. A bit of a salted ham flavor.
7U1A3640
Beef shank noodles with bok choy. The meat was great. The soup was simple.
7U1A3646
Pork rib noodle soup. Again the meat was great. Rich. Soup was exactly the same.

Overall, I was surprised how interesting (and good) this place was. Service was a bit slow as there was only the one lady doing EVERYTHING. And most of the food was grey, cold, and kinda sketchy looking — but it tasted pretty good. Small menu though. We had almost everything except for the seasonal corn noodles (have to try these).

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. More Mark’s Duck House
  2. Duck House – Crawl part 4
  3. Mark’s Duck House
  4. Tasty Duck Will Bring You Luck
  5. Tasty Duck X 4
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Chinese Food, cured meats, duck, lunch, Lunch Quest, Nanjing Duck, Nanjing Duck House, SGV, Tony Lau, turkey, Yarom

Expedition Nozomi

Dec30

Restaurant: Nozomi

Location: 1757 W Carson St # L, Torrance, CA 90501. (310) 320-5511

Date: November 13, 2019

Cuisine: Sushi

Rating: Great value, really good sushi

_

My friend Steven came recently to one of our Chinese dinners and wanted to “return the favor” by showing us one of his favorite sushi spots in Torrance.
7U1A1564
Nozomi is in the heart of the vastness of little Japan that is Torrance.
7U1A1565
This is a real deal sort of Japanese place with the tatami rooms, etc.
7U1A1566
7U1A1567
7U1A1598
The menu.
7U1A1596
Yarom brought this wine, which was good for a new world (fake) chard.
7U1A1569
Lunch specials come with a salad.
7U1A1570
And miso soup (of course).
7U1A1573
Sashimi Lunch (can’t remember if it was “special” or not). Good sized chunks of very fresh fish.
7U1A1576-Edit
Sashimi Lunch. You get the nigiri and the cut roll.
7U1A1582
Cut Toro Roll.
7U1A1584
Uni and Ikura (salmon egg).
7U1A1592-Edit
Toro, red snapper (tai), mackerel, crab (kani), clam, squid, and eel. All good stuff.
7U1A1586
Negi-Toro ball. Chopped toro and green onions.
7U1A1589
Toro handroll — one can never have too much toro.
7U1A1591
Spicy salmon handroll. Nice and crunchy.

Overall, very good sushi. Not the best I’ve ever had, but super good for the price. If this were near me I’d come once a week for lunch — sadly it’s all the way down in Torrance.
7U1A1599
Next door they had this crazy chestnut and bobo place.
7U1A1600
Chestnut donuts!
7U1A1601
And more.
7U1A1602
And two types of fresh roasted chestnuts.
7U1A1603
Plus the 85C for weird Taiwanese baked goods and coffee.
7U1A1604
Unbearably cute.
7U1A1605
And the sea salt coffee.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For LA sushi reviews, click here.

Related posts:

  1. Sushi Sushi = Yummy Yummy
  2. Sasabune – Dueling Omakases
  3. Let’s Go Again
  4. Seaweed Sushi
  5. Hamasaku Lunch
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: lunch, Lunch Quest, Nozomi, Sushi, Torrance

Shandong Dumplings

Nov18

Restaurant: Shandong Dumplings

Location: 80 N Fair Oaks Ave, Pasadena, CA 91103. (626) 578-9777

Date: October 8, 2019

Cuisine: Shandong Chinese

Rating: Great home-style dumplings

_

Another of these small lunch outings with Yarom and I, this time also joined by Tony L.
7U1A9358
There aren’t a ton of Shandong specific places in LA.
7U1A9420
And this one is in the heart of old town Pasadena.
7U1A9359-Pano
The homey interior.
7U1A9418
They make them here.
7U1A9369
7U1A9370

The menu.
7U1A9398
Peanuts, celery, cucumbers, shredded potato. Cold appetizers.
7U1A9373
Hot and sour soup. I love this old school classic.
7U1A9376
Lamb with fennel dumplings. I adore this boiled kind and the lamb ones have a lot of flavor.
7U1A9381
Dry shrimp with egg and leek dumplings. Yeah, they look the same, but they don’t taste the same.
7U1A9415
Chicken and celery. Nice celery flavor.
7U1A9384
Ginger and spiced cabbage juicy steamed dumplings. These were among my favorites, with very delicate skins.
7U1A9389
Pan fried pork bun. Yum!
7U1A9406
Pan fried pork dumplings. Pretty much the Shanghai style kind. A bit bready, but the crispy bottom is fun.
7U1A9393
Fried chicken bones. Not to the American taste, but full of flavor.
7U1A9412
Pork. Boney, but there was lots of meat here.

Overall, this is a tasty place. The dumplings were way better than the couple meat dishes we had, and were great for casual homestyle dumplings. I really do love all dumplings, particularly the boiled and “juicy” soup dumpling kinds.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Day of the Dumplings
  2. XLB – Soup Dumplings!
  3. Dumplings the size of Grapefruits!
  4. Dirty Dumplings
  5. Westwood Chinese – Northern Cafe
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: dumplings, lunch, Lunch Quest, Pasadena, Shandong Dumplings

Jiang Nan Spring

Oct25

Restaurant: Jiang Nan Spring

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

Date: September 11 & November 3, 2019

Cuisine: Shanghai Chinese

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

_

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

After our reconnaissance lunch (9/11/19), we returned (11/3/19) for a big group dinner.
7U1A7468-Pano
They have a newish storefront on Main in the heart of Alahambra.
7U1A7471-Pano
Interior is clean and free of the usual wall menus, TV’s etc.
7U1A0668-Pano
7U1A0676-Pano
For our 11/3/19 dinner we dined in this private side room (2 tables). This made for one of those giant 2 table CF dinners — I do much prefer my Chinese dinners to keep to one table.
7U1A7474
7U1A7475
7U1A7476
The menu.
7U1A7477
Boiled peanuts on the table.
7U1A7481
Shanghai Duck (9/11/19). This cold marinated duck is flavored a lot like pork.
7U1A0576
Cold Drunken Chicken (11/3/19). Nice for this kind of cold bland chicken. It had some good flavor, very nice (if cold) texture, and was quite moist.
7U1A0580
Cold Smoked Fish (11/3/19). Classic Shanghai style cold fried fish. Smokey flavor.
7U1A0583
Pork belly slices in garlic chili oil (11/3/19). Very tasty pork as the spicy/garlic sauce was excellent.
7U1A0585
Chili oil.
7U1A0597
Scallion pancake (11/3/19). Fine for what it is, but I usually find this a boring dish.
7U1A0601
XLB (11/3/19) pork soup dumplings. Decent version of the always fabulous pockets of steamed pork. Not amazing house-made versions like at Juicy Dumpling, but still good.
7U1A0604
Beef Roll (11/3/19). Not usually my favorite dish either, but a pretty good version of it.
7U1A0609
See the inside.

7U1A0593

7U1A0594
West Lake Beef Soup (9/11/19 and 11/3/19). A mild goopy soup with tofu and beef, it was actually delicious. I had several bowls. I’m not sure what was so good about it — certainly texture — but it was very addictive.
7U1A7493
Spare Ribs in Lotus Leaf (9/11/19 and 11/3/19). I’ve only had this dish once before, at another West Lake / Shanghai style SGV place, Chang’s Garden.

7U1A7496
Inside is a sticky-rice coated pork spare rib. Delicious. Succulent, and lotus flavored. Rich and delicious. Very soft.

7U1A7499
Sautéed Shrimp (9/11/19). I asked them if they had the green tea version, and they said they did, but we got the more regular Shanghai version. The shrimp were super succulent and with the vinegar quite delicious. Still, I wanted to try the tea version again.
7U1A0612
Shanghai Style Pork Hock (11/3/19). Classic Shanghai dish.
7U1A0622
This was a controversial dish. Among those of us who love “real” Chinese food, we LOVED this dish. It was moist, fatty, jiggyly (yes), but had tons of fabulous porky flavor. The other table, with lots of lightweight Chinese eaters found it “too fatty.” Of course, it’s supposed to be fatty!
7U1A0624
Peking Duck (11/3/19). Even though it’s not a Shanghai dish, they do offer peking duck. The meat itself was solid but not the best ever or anything. Good flavor, but the skin wasn’t the crispiest possible.
7U1A0628
And with pancakes — which were good but a bit large.
7U1A0603
Hoisin and green onions.
7U1A0635
David L, as always, demanded the “bones” from the duck. Sometimes there is meat on the bones, not really here. But I won’t be critical, as that means it just went into other dishes.
7U1A0632
Yarom gnaws on one anyway.
7U1A0641
Vegetables, soy beans, and bean curd (11/3/19). Very interesting dish. Nice crunchy texture.

7U1A7510
Salted Egg with Chinese Squash (9/11/19). Like Zucchini with salty egg. Ick. I didn’t like this dish at all. Yarom did, but I’m not a fan of this sort of vegetable.
7U1A0646
Seaweed fried fish (11/3/19). Crispy moist “fish sticks.”
7U1A0650
Walnut shrimp (11/3/19). The classic, tasty, but lots of mayo.

7U1A7505
Fried Tofu & Ground Pork with hot sauce (9/11/19). Or maybe it was Hunan Tofu. Not sure. This was actually pretty hot. Not exactly MaPo or Szechuan in style, but quite good.
7U1A0654
We special pre-ordered Beggar’s Chicken (11/3/19).
7U1A0655
The chicken is inside this pastry and they wallop it open with the mallet!
7U1A0657
Inside it’s very moist, with tender meat, sweet Shanghai-style sauce, chestnuts, and other fruits and vegetables. Very interesting, if a touch rich.

7U1A7514
Shanghai Purple Rice. Starchy!
7U1A0663
Chocolate Peppermint Gelato — Chocolate base made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and melted in peppermints, mixed with Mint Oreo Cookies — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #chocolate #oreos #peppermint #mint #ChocolateMint #MintOreos

Pistachio Lemon Cookie Gelato – using my new egg yolk based nut formulation with a custom blend of two Pistacchio di Bronte DOGC sources to produce an intense pistachio base, with layers of Southern Italian Lemon Cookies — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #pistachio #sicily #nuts #LemonCookie

IMG_0393
Overall, Jiang Nan Spring has a good kitchen and most dishes were really tasty. I think the chef (or the menu) leans toward Hangzhou (the old Southern Song capital just south of Shanghai). I don’t really agree with the Times — I think Shanghailander is slightly better, but this was certainly a very good place, in the top 3 LA Shanghai places I’ve tried no question.

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

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

7U1A0586
7U1A0587

Related posts:

  1. Shanghailander Arcadia
  2. Ring in Tang Gong
  3. Day of the Dumplings
  4. Happy Table 2X
  5. SGV Nights – Seafood Palace
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, hedonists, lunch, Lunch Quest, SGV, Shanghai Cuisine, Yarom

SGV Adventures – Ruby BBQ

Oct21

Restaurant: Ruby BBQ Food

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

Date: September 20, 2019

Cuisine: Southern Chinese

Rating: Tasty, if a little “downscale”

_

Lately, because Yarom and I are diehard Chinese Food fanatics and it’s hard to find others willing to drive all the way to the SGV during the week for lunch, the two of us — with occasional extras — have been sampling some of the more casual eateries on our list of new places to try.
7U1A7234-Pano
Enter Ruby BBQ Food — yes they actually include the word food in their name — just in case BBQ wasn’t clear enough. This is a very casual Southern Chinese place in a more Vietnamese section of the SGV.
7U1A7237-Pano
It’s real casual, with a takeout counter and menu on the wall.
IMG_2400
But it was crowded. We had to wait 15-20 minutes for a table.
7U1A7239
They have roast ducks and the like to go too.
7U1A7243
Now just to give you a bit of the flavor of the place, and these downscale SGV joints, ignoring Yarom’s protests I include this photo. This particular lady was at the counter ordering/waiting right in the middle of the lobby. This did not, however, stop her from clipping her nails and leaving them on the floor of the restaurant. Very local crowd. Still, bear in mind, I ate here right after and I’d happy eat here again. They actually have an “A” too.
7U1A7240
7U1A7241

The menu.
7U1A7246
Free vegetable soup. Kinda boring.

Besides the soup, Yarom and I ordered 10 dishes for just the two of us — that’s just how we roll.
7U1A7248
Eggplant Szechuan Style. Delicious. Soft eggplant dripping in tasty garlic sauce. Not particularly spicy.
7U1A7251
Dry sautéed string beans. Also good. Nice crunchy beans.
7U1A7261
Ruby BBQ Rib. Cold with great piggy flavor.
7U1A7265
Golden pork. This and the next dish were pretty similar, both not too different than a panda express type dish. This one had less bone, I think, but the sauce was sweeter and a bit more overwhelming.
7U1A7267
Pork chop. This one was more chew it off the bone and was very slightly better. But both were good.
7U1A7275
Bamboo duck. Unusual heavy brown gravy with those rolled bean curds. The duck meat itself was dark and boney but the overall flavor was excellent.
7U1A7281
Egg with shrimp. Surprisingly delicious shrimp omelet.
7U1A7283
The owner of the restaurant just could not believe that we ordered so much so she gave us the last few dishes “to go.” She insisted. We opened them and ate them at our table anyway.
7U1A7288
Ruby steamed chicken. My least favorite dish. Basically Hainan chicken. Fine for what it was, but it’s steamed chicken.
7U1A7289
With a bit of garlic sauce.
7U1A7293
Mapo tofu. Not spicy, but nice texture.
7U1A7302
BBQ Duck. Quite good, particularly juicy and delicious dunked in the sauce below.
7U1A7304
The duck sauce.
7U1A7305
Apparently everything comes from “dept 01” but as you can see, it’s not an expensive department. Even the signature meaty BBQ dishes like the duck were barely $11!
7U1A7307
Yarom with the owner and his leftovers.

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

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

IMG_2399
Now just to continue to paint the complete picture of this colorful little corner of Los Angeles — and part of what I think makes our great city great — I did photo the classic “old school Monterey Park bathroom.” It’s quite a looker. Again, not bashing Ruby BBQ. I like it and find it’s “unrefined” quality genuinely charming. Just painting the full unvarnished picture.
IMG_2398

Related posts:

  1. Adventures in Street Food
  2. Best Geoduck Ever
  3. Chicken Crawl – Red Chicken
  4. Adventures in the Screen Trade
  5. Yunnan Night
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: BBQ Pork, Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, lunch, Lunch Quest, Ruby BBQ, SGV, Yarom
Older Posts »
Watch the Trailer or

Buy it Online!

Buy it Online!

96 of 100 tickets!

Find Andy at:

Follow Me on Pinterest

Subscribe by email:

More posts on:



Complete Archives

Categories

  • Contests (7)
  • Fiction (404)
    • Books (113)
    • Movies (77)
    • Television (123)
    • Writing (115)
      • Darkening Dream (62)
      • Untimed (37)
  • Food (1,481)
  • Games (100)
  • History (13)
  • Technology (21)
  • Uncategorized (16)

Recent Posts

  • OOToro Double
  • Robo Eats – Anarbagh
  • Fred loves N/Naka
  • Major Major Major
  • Far East – Beijing Tasty House
  • Home Sweet Spicy Home
  • Quick Eats – Bafang
  • Quick Eats – Peking Restaurant
  • Quick Eats – MK BBQ
  • Wolfing it Down

Favorite Posts

  • I, Author
  • My Novels
  • The Darkening Dream
  • Sample Chapters
  • Untimed
  • Making Crash Bandicoot
  • My Gaming Career
  • Getting a job designing video games
  • Getting a job programming video games
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • A Game of Thrones
  • 27 Courses of Truffles
  • Ultimate Pizza
  • Eating Italy
  • LA Sushi
  • Foodie Club

Recent Comments

Archives

  • March 2023 (9)
  • February 2023 (11)
  • January 2023 (14)
  • December 2022 (11)
  • November 2022 (13)
  • October 2022 (14)
  • September 2022 (14)
  • August 2022 (12)
  • July 2022 (9)
  • June 2022 (6)
  • May 2022 (8)
  • April 2022 (5)
  • March 2022 (4)
  • February 2022 (2)
  • January 2022 (8)
  • December 2021 (6)
  • November 2021 (6)
  • October 2021 (8)
  • September 2021 (4)
  • August 2021 (5)
  • July 2021 (2)
  • June 2021 (3)
  • January 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (1)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • August 2020 (1)
  • April 2020 (11)
  • March 2020 (15)
  • February 2020 (13)
  • January 2020 (14)
  • December 2019 (13)
  • November 2019 (12)
  • October 2019 (14)
  • September 2019 (14)
  • August 2019 (13)
  • July 2019 (13)
  • June 2019 (14)
  • May 2019 (13)
  • April 2019 (10)
  • March 2019 (10)
  • February 2019 (11)
  • January 2019 (13)
  • December 2018 (14)
  • November 2018 (11)
  • October 2018 (15)
  • September 2018 (15)
  • August 2018 (15)
  • July 2018 (11)
  • June 2018 (14)
  • May 2018 (13)
  • April 2018 (13)
  • March 2018 (17)
  • February 2018 (12)
  • January 2018 (15)
  • December 2017 (15)
  • November 2017 (13)
  • October 2017 (16)
  • September 2017 (16)
  • August 2017 (16)
  • July 2017 (11)
  • June 2017 (13)
  • May 2017 (6)
  • March 2017 (3)
  • February 2017 (4)
  • January 2017 (7)
  • December 2016 (14)
  • November 2016 (11)
  • October 2016 (11)
  • September 2016 (12)
  • August 2016 (15)
  • July 2016 (13)
  • June 2016 (13)
  • May 2016 (13)
  • April 2016 (12)
  • March 2016 (13)
  • February 2016 (12)
  • January 2016 (13)
  • December 2015 (14)
  • November 2015 (14)
  • October 2015 (13)
  • September 2015 (13)
  • August 2015 (18)
  • July 2015 (16)
  • June 2015 (13)
  • May 2015 (13)
  • April 2015 (14)
  • March 2015 (15)
  • February 2015 (13)
  • January 2015 (13)
  • December 2014 (14)
  • November 2014 (13)
  • October 2014 (13)
  • September 2014 (12)
  • August 2014 (15)
  • July 2014 (13)
  • June 2014 (13)
  • May 2014 (14)
  • April 2014 (14)
  • March 2014 (10)
  • February 2014 (11)
  • January 2014 (13)
  • December 2013 (14)
  • November 2013 (13)
  • October 2013 (14)
  • September 2013 (12)
  • August 2013 (14)
  • July 2013 (10)
  • June 2013 (14)
  • May 2013 (14)
  • April 2013 (14)
  • March 2013 (15)
  • February 2013 (14)
  • January 2013 (13)
  • December 2012 (14)
  • November 2012 (16)
  • October 2012 (13)
  • September 2012 (14)
  • August 2012 (16)
  • July 2012 (12)
  • June 2012 (16)
  • May 2012 (21)
  • April 2012 (18)
  • March 2012 (20)
  • February 2012 (23)
  • January 2012 (31)
  • December 2011 (35)
  • November 2011 (33)
  • October 2011 (32)
  • September 2011 (29)
  • August 2011 (35)
  • July 2011 (33)
  • June 2011 (25)
  • May 2011 (31)
  • April 2011 (30)
  • March 2011 (34)
  • February 2011 (31)
  • January 2011 (33)
  • December 2010 (33)
  • November 2010 (39)
  • October 2010 (26)
All Things Andy Gavin
Copyright © 2023 All Rights Reserved
Programmed by Andy Gavin