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Archive for Lunch Quest – Page 2

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

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

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

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

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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

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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.

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

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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.
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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.
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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

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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.

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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.
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Inside there are a selection of take away snacks.
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The large interior was clearly a diner or family restaurant decades ago.
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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.

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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.
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A sour soup of chicken, maybe fish, and watercress. Unusual flavors but kinda delicious.
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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.
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Sauces and peanuts.
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Yarom with the owner.
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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.

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Our first stop was A&J Seafood Shack.
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It’s well know, but it really is a shack.
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The menu and our order. This place is basically intended for a grabbing a quick lunch plate.
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Grilled oysters. Fresh, sustainable oysters are grilled and served with zingy lime juice and pepper sauce as well as fried garlic.
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Cracking them, they were pretty much just grilled oysters. The “sauces” were all on the side.
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Grilled Beef Stick. Using the best cut of beef, marinated with fresh lemon-grass, garlic, turmeric and spices. Nice bit of char.
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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.
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It’s adjacent to an old 50s/60s billiards hall which I think is still actually open! This is just all so SGV.
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Big menu.
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Peanuts on the table.
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Beef and anchovy patties. A bit salty and “fishy” in a good umami way.

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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.
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Rice stuffed chicken wings. Stuffing slightly bland.

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100 flower chicken. Great. I love this dish.
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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.
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Quail. Excellent.
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House Special Lobster. Delicious.
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Mushrooms with a salty yolk fry.
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Beef with truffle. Heavy on the truffle oil.

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Simple greens.
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Veggies with dried shrimp and crispy taro. Delicious but again super salty.
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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
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Portuguese Tarts.
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Pineapple Buns.
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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!

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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.

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Guan Dong Da Yuan specializes in regional Chinese cuisine from the area across the bay from Korea.
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The interior is fairly cute and they have a private room (not shown).
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The extensive menu.

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

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

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Mapo Tofu — pretty close to Sichuan style

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

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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!

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

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

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On this particular lovely June day Yarom and I ventured into the SGV to try out some experimental places on our vast list.
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First up was Nature Pagoda which specializes in a sort of “herbal” Chinese medicine focused “healthy” food.

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The interior is, shall we say, minimalst.

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There are a few pictures behind the counter.
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And the menu.
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Flamed Quails — pretty good, if slightly dry.
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Stick Combo — okay satay. Nothing great.
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Claypot Ribs with Preserved Sausage — interesting. Kinda mild, but tasty.
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The jus.
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Brown sauce is dumped over it. Not as sweet as I would expect.
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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

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

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The Menu.
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Sauces in the usual microscopic dishes.
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XO sauce.
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Lobster Salad. This is a “whole” order ($28.80). It was tasty, but very small.
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Steamed chicken feet in brown sauce.
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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.
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Har Gow. Very nice classic shrimp dumplings — except they are $2 each and at many places they are $2-3 an order!
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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.
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Baked BBQ Pork Bun. Excellent version with the usual sweet interior.
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Shrimp wonton with house spicy sauce. Very nice and delicate with quite a bit of salty flavor.
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Shrimp, crab meat, and matsutake dumplings. Nice delicate dumplings.
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Juicy Pork dumplings (XLB). Very good example of the Cantonese variant of these.
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Pan-fried shrimp & pork pandan bun. Doughy, but with a very nice flavor. Quite tasty.
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Deep fried pork dumpling. Just an ok version of this chewy fried type.
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Deep fried tofu in Thai sauce. Nice tender tofu. Quite good.
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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.
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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.
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Stir-fried rice noodle with beef. This was much better. Like Chinese beef Pad Thai.
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Deep fried crispy king prawn. Tasty and super crispy but also super fried.
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BBQ Pork. Delicious and pretty much coated in syrup.
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Braised eggplant with minced pork on rice noodle casserole. Not a ton of eggplant but I enjoyed the chewy “rice noodle” with the sauce.
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Sliced Chinese broccoli with black truffle sauce. Now this was only $6.80, but it was embarrassingly tiny. We are talking 2 inches across!
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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.
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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 (1)
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

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

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The outside.

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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.
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Zoom.
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Sauces.
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Har Gow (shrimp dumplings) – large, but hot and good.
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Chicken feet in XO sauce.
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Pork ribs — ugly but tasty.
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Shu Mai (pork and shrimp dumplings) — large but tasty version of the classic.
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Shrimp and Leek Dumplings — quite nice. One of the better dumplings.
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Sticky rice in lotus leaf — good.
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Crunchy baked BBQ pork bun — slightly mushy interior.
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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.
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Dumplings with an interesting peanut and meat paste inside. I didn’t adore.
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XLB (Xao Lao Bao) – juicy pork dumplings. Very nice version.
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Shrimp paste with almonds – Basically a shrimp spring roll covered in almonds. Interesting texture.
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Another dumpling type with a brown spinach mush inside — not my favorite at all.
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Beef balls — ok.
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Crispy fried squab — very dense and meaty. Not my favorite squab.
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Spicy cabbage — I love this dish as always.
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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

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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.

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Har Gow. Shrimp dumplings. nice.
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Shrimp and Scallop Dumplings.
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Vegetable Dumplings.
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XLB (Xao Lao Bao). Pork soup dumplings. These were tasty, but a bit sticky and pasty.
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Shrimp and Vegetable Dumplings.
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Pork ribs. Ugly but delicious.
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Beef balls. Also ugly but tasty.
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Shrimp Chow Fun. Good for this dish.
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Eggplant and Shrimp Paste. Black bean sauce. A little more unusual.

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

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

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Chewy Pork Dumpling. I always like this texture.
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Bean Curd wrapped veggies.
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Cantonese Luke Warm Roast Duck. Pretty juicy, but very luke-warm, almost cool.
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Pork Hock with Bok Choy. Delicious! Several people popped their pig’s feet cherry on these.
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Fatty Beef Ribs. Rich sauce and thick slabs of beef that didn’t seem so Chinese.
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Chicken Feet in XO sauce.
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Seafood on crispy Chow Mein. Yum!
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Pineapple Buns with custard and real pineapple chunks — great. Had several even though I was very full.
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Macao Tart — ok, a bit mild.
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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 & February 5, 2023

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

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

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Continuing the Lunch Quest series in which Yarom and I explore more casual Asian lunch spots.
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Some friend reviews and an eater article brought us to this new Szechuan entry on Main St.
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Food photos as decor — something I can get behind.
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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).
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The menu has most of the Szechuan classics.
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And by 5/28/21 they made one of those super fancy modern Chinese picture menus.

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

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Cold Sliced Pork with Garlic. Delicious garlic chili oil sauce drowning fatty slices of pork. Yum!

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

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Kung Pao Shrimp.

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

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

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Rabbit with Pickled Chilis and Serrano. Very spicy and slightly sour pickled flavor rabbit. Bones weren’t too bad. Spicy and delicious.

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Sizzling Chicken Gizzards. Chewy, but not so chewy as to be a problem. Great flavor to the sauce but a bit advanced for some.

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Frog with Chili and Serrano. Hot and boney.

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

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Grilled Lamb Chops.

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Toothpick lamb. One of the most flavorful and most tender versions of this dish I’ve had.
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Dry Beef in Chili Powder. This was a bit different — and good.
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Cumin Lamb. Super tender and full of flavor.
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Pork Belly with Rice Flour. Old school traditional.
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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.

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Mapo tofu. Excellent version. First rate really.
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Wok-Fried strong beans. Very nice version with crunchy beans.

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Stir-Fried Cabbage. Awesome vegetable dish with crispy cabbage and that all important smoked pork fat flavor.
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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
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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

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Chocolate Peanut Gelato.

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 and fourth 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.

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Related posts:

  1. Noodle Harmony
  2. Szechuan Impression Tustin
  3. Long Lunch at Longo
  4. Chong Qing Special Noodles
  5. Jiang Nan Spring
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.
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Anyway, today it carried us to Najing Duck House which specializes in Nanjing style cured duck.
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And we met up with Tony Lau, Kirk, and some others.
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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!
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Much of the food is cold and cured and on display in this takeout deli cabinet.
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Oh yes, Nanjing style cured Turkey Gizzard!
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The very short menu.7U1A3610
Boiled peanuts.
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Shredded seaweed. Pretty much as described.
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Pickled cabbage with soybeans and mustard greens. I loved these. I love cabbage. I love fermented. What’s not to love?
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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.
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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.
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Turkey liver. Foie gras it ain’t. Decent enough though, if livery.
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Sliced turkey leg, Nanjing style. More deli-slicer action. This was actually a very lovely cold sliced turkey leg. Salty, but tasty.
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Boiled dumplings stuffed with pork and shepherd’s purse. Great. I love these home-style dumplings.
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Boiled pork dumplings. More goodness.
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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.
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Nanjing style meatballs. Meaty good.
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Half a Nanjing style duck. Much like the turkey, but duckier. A bit of a salted ham flavor.
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Beef shank noodles with bok choy. The meat was great. The soup was simple.
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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.
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Nozomi is in the heart of the vastness of little Japan that is Torrance.
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This is a real deal sort of Japanese place with the tatami rooms, etc.
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The menu.
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Yarom brought this wine, which was good for a new world (fake) chard.
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Lunch specials come with a salad.
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And miso soup (of course).
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Sashimi Lunch (can’t remember if it was “special” or not). Good sized chunks of very fresh fish.
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Sashimi Lunch. You get the nigiri and the cut roll.
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Cut Toro Roll.
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Uni and Ikura (salmon egg).
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Toro, red snapper (tai), mackerel, crab (kani), clam, squid, and eel. All good stuff.
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Negi-Toro ball. Chopped toro and green onions.
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Toro handroll — one can never have too much toro.
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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.
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Next door they had this crazy chestnut and bobo place.
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Chestnut donuts!
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And more.
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And two types of fresh roasted chestnuts.
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Plus the 85C for weird Taiwanese baked goods and coffee.
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Unbearably cute.
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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

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Another of these small lunch outings with Yarom and I, this time also joined by Tony L.
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There aren’t a ton of Shandong specific places in LA.
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And this one is in the heart of old town Pasadena.
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The homey interior.
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They make them here.
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The menu.
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Peanuts, celery, cucumbers, shredded potato. Cold appetizers.
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Hot and sour soup. I love this old school classic.
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Lamb with fennel dumplings. I adore this boiled kind and the lamb ones have a lot of flavor.
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Dry shrimp with egg and leek dumplings. Yeah, they look the same, but they don’t taste the same.
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Chicken and celery. Nice celery flavor.
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Ginger and spiced cabbage juicy steamed dumplings. These were among my favorites, with very delicate skins.
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Pan fried pork bun. Yum!
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Pan fried pork dumplings. Pretty much the Shanghai style kind. A bit bready, but the crispy bottom is fun.
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Fried chicken bones. Not to the American taste, but full of flavor.
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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

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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.
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They have a newish storefront on Main in the heart of Alahambra.
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Interior is clean and free of the usual wall menus, TV’s etc.
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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.
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The menu.
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Boiled peanuts on the table.
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Shanghai Duck (9/11/19). This cold marinated duck is flavored a lot like pork.
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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.
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Cold Smoked Fish (11/3/19). Classic Shanghai style cold fried fish. Smokey flavor.
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Pork belly slices in garlic chili oil (11/3/19). Very tasty pork as the spicy/garlic sauce was excellent.
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Chili oil.
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Scallion pancake (11/3/19). Fine for what it is, but I usually find this a boring dish.
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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.
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Beef Roll (11/3/19). Not usually my favorite dish either, but a pretty good version of it.
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See the inside.

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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.
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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.

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

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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.
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Shanghai Style Pork Hock (11/3/19). Classic Shanghai dish.
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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!
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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.
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And with pancakes — which were good but a bit large.
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Hoisin and green onions.
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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.
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Yarom gnaws on one anyway.
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Vegetables, soy beans, and bean curd (11/3/19). Very interesting dish. Nice crunchy texture.

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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.
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Seaweed fried fish (11/3/19). Crispy moist “fish sticks.”
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Walnut shrimp (11/3/19). The classic, tasty, but lots of mayo.

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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.
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We special pre-ordered Beggar’s Chicken (11/3/19).
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The chicken is inside this pastry and they wallop it open with the mallet!
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Inside it’s very moist, with tender meat, sweet Shanghai-style sauce, chestnuts, and other fruits and vegetables. Very interesting, if a touch rich.

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Shanghai Purple Rice. Starchy!
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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

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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.

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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”

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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.
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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.
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It’s real casual, with a takeout counter and menu on the wall.
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But it was crowded. We had to wait 15-20 minutes for a table.
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They have roast ducks and the like to go too.
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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.
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The menu.
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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.
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Eggplant Szechuan Style. Delicious. Soft eggplant dripping in tasty garlic sauce. Not particularly spicy.
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Dry sautéed string beans. Also good. Nice crunchy beans.
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Ruby BBQ Rib. Cold with great piggy flavor.
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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.
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Pork chop. This one was more chew it off the bone and was very slightly better. But both were good.
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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.
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Egg with shrimp. Surprisingly delicious shrimp omelet.
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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.
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Ruby steamed chicken. My least favorite dish. Basically Hainan chicken. Fine for what it was, but it’s steamed chicken.
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With a bit of garlic sauce.
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Mapo tofu. Not spicy, but nice texture.
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BBQ Duck. Quite good, particularly juicy and delicious dunked in the sauce below.
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The duck sauce.
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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!
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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.

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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.
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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

Ring in Tang Gong

Sep30

Restaurant: Tang Gong

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

Date: August 14, 2019

Cuisine: Cantonese Dimsum

Rating: Great new made to order Dimsum

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Our friend Derek has been the manager variously at Elite Seafood, World Seafood, and China Red.
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Now he’s helping open up Monterey Park newcomer, Tang Gong.
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In an era when the Cantonese Palaces are closing, it’s rare to have a new one opening up — including all the glitzy Hong Kong style trappings. These places cater (haha) to big Chinese weddings.
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And a huge private room (where we were located).
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Derek posing with Yarom.
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The dim sum menu. Like most Cantonese places, there is banquet at night. They had just opened a few days before when we arrived.
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Chicken Feet with House Sauce. Sometimes this is called XO sauce. It’s not exactly the same as regular XO sauce.
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Beef Tripe with Scallion and Ginger. Sounds gross. Looks gross. Tastes great. Chewy, yes. But delicious.
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Steamed Pork Ribs with Garlic. These also aren’t the best looking items in the world, and there are the little knuckle-like bones in there, but the meat taste was fantastic. Very juicy and full of pork flavor.
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Har Gow. Shrimp dumpling. Classic, straightforward, and enjoyable as always.

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Pork and Shrimp Shui Mai. I always order the classics when checking out a new place. These were solid, much like Elite’s.
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Fried Pork Dumpling. These have that chewy fried mochi shell and delicate pork inside. Really delicious.

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Sea Cucumber and Dried Scallop Dumpling. I hadn’t realized this was “in a soup” (should have looked at the pictures better). This makes it hard to share but it was scrumptious. Lots of interesting umami flavor.
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Pan Fried Leek Cake. There is some shrimp or something in here too. I love these for their greasy shell texture. Pretty much a “Beijing Pie.”

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XLB (Juicy Pork Bun). Soup filled lovelies. Solid renditions of these. Not the great kind you get at a specialty house where they make them constantly fresh, but still very enjoyable with the vinegar.
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Baked Crispy Pork Bun. 10/10. Light slightly sweet crispy shell, airy interior, and sweet BBQ pork. Awesome.
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Shredded Duck and Seat Pea Rice Roll. Interesting. The peas are either an interesting or distracting textural element alongside the chewy soft chow fun.
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BBQ Pork and Corn Rice Roll. More straightforward and I think I enjoyed a bit more.
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Seafood Salad Roll. Fried with a creamy “seafood salad” inside. Delicious though.
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Baked BBQ Pork Pastry. The buttery pastry version with the same BBQ pork.
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House special lobster. Good, typical.
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Peking Duck. The meat itself was good, although maybe it could have been a touch crispier. I prefer the pancakes to the buns, but the hoisin was good.
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Crispy BBQ Pork. Interesting pork pretty. Quite delicious.
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BBQ Chicken. Super succulent chicken.
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Traditional Beef Chow Fun. Pan fried noodles with beef.
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Braised E-Fu Mein. I liked these crispy noodles even better. Tons of flavor and very addictive (viva la grease!)

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Canton Style Steamed Greens. Very tasty.
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Beet Greens (you can see the purple color) steamed with garlic. These were more bitter and I didn’t like them as much as the straight up greens.
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White Chocolate Peanut Gelato — I hadn’t made a White Chocolate base in a while so in light of my rent “experiments” in chocolate took another pass at it — came out awesome, using all Valrhona Ivoire chocolate layered with house-made Peanut Dulcey Ganache — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peanut #WhiteChocolate #valrhona #ganache

Hpnotiq Blue Hawaiian Sorbetto — like a frozen cocktail — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Thai Coconut Milk, Pineapple, Lime, and Hpnotiq liqueur –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #Hpnotiq #BlueHawaiian #pineapple #coconut #lime
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Overall, very solid new place. Service (thanks Derek) was of course perfect. We loved the big private room. Dimsum was “typical good” very much like Elite or Derek’s time at World Seafood. We didn’t have too much that was really novel, but the execution on all the typical dishes was excellent. I want to see how they settle into the rhythm of things in a couple weeks and return.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

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Related posts:

  1. Ring the Ji Rong Gong
  2. World Seafood is Elite
  3. Capital Dim Sum
  4. So Many Palaces, So Few Sundays
  5. SGV Nights – Seafood Palace
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: BYOG, Dim sum, dimsum, Gelato, hedonists, lunch, Lunch Quest, Monterey Park, SGV, Tang Gong, Tony Lau

Tim Ho Wan – Dim Sum Pedigree

May16

Restaurant: Tim Ho Wan

Location: 2700 Alton Pkwy, Irvine, CA 92606. (262) 888-8828

Date: May 15, 2019

Cuisine: Hong Kong / Taiwanese Dim Sum

Rating: Solid, new format, but not amazing

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Tim Ho Wan, the Michelin-starred dim sum restaurant from Hong Kong, opened last week in Irvine at the Diamond Jamboree Shopping Center.

It’s the first Southern California location of Tim Ho Wan, which has 47 outposts in nine countries, with U.S. restaurants in New York City, Las Vegas and Hawaii. The restaurant earned worldwide acclaim when it opened in 2009 as a 20-seat dim sum restaurant in Mong Kok, Hong Kong, earning a Michelin star a year later. The restaurant has continued to earn a star for nine consecutive years.

Tim Ho Wan is best known for its baked BBQ pork buns, made with a sweet, sticky char siu (barbecued pork) encased in a cloudlike fluffy bread with a sweet, crunchy top. In addition to the buns, there are the usual dim sum favorites, including har gow (steamed shrimp dumplings), siu mai (steamed pork dumplings with shrimp), braised chicken feet with abalone sauce, congee with pork and preserved egg, steamed egg cake and fried turnip cake.

And the restaurant is known as much for its long wait times.
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Mid week, Yarom and I, dedicated Chinese eaters that we are made the full on 1 hour+ pilgrimage to the OC just to try the new “hot” dim sum place.
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It’s one of those newish maxi-malls (10 years or so) — a bit nicer than a traditional strip mall but cheesy construction. There were all the usual suspects like 85 degrees, hai di lao, etc.
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11:15am — 3 hour wait!  Yep! The buzz is a-buzzing. We were lucky though and were only 2 people (we had a third join us mid meal), so we got seated in about 35 minutes.7U1A1002
Meanwhile we went next door and got some 85 degrees coffee.

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Besides the regular tables there is a bar, but it’s not open yet. This will make coming in by oneself easier/faster eventually.

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The main dining room is attractive, with some build out, but it’s quite casual. Even more downscale maybe than Din Tai Fung and set up for smaller 2-4 person parties (younger audience) and not the traditional giant round tables of a big Cantonese banquet house. More on this later at the end.
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The menu is small, and everything (pretty much) is pictured on the placemats.
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The older sheet. Today about 1/4 of the items were not available, as they haven’t come “online” yet. It’s still in soft opening.

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Tea.
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Steamed Rice Roll with Shrimp and Chives. As I always mention, in my family, when I was a kid, this was called “shrimp slime.” We liked it then, I love it now. This particular one had nice fluffy texture, but the taste was a bit reduced. Maybe less grease? (which is a good thing in dim sum). The sauce was a bit mild too, not as sweet as it usually is.
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Braised Chicken Feet with Abalone Sauce and Peanut. Nice abalone sauce and good texture on the little chicken claws.

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Foot fetish (not everyone loves a good chicken foot).
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Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf. A dim sum classic.
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Inside the meat and sausage bits of the rice were good, but it also tasted a bit under-seasoned. Not salty enough? Texture was pretty good though.
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Braised Beef Brisket with Turnip. Just like mom’s Rosh Hashanah brisket with potatoes! Actually pretty close. Beef was excellent. Soft and full of flavor.
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Braised Beef Brisket with Thin Rice Noodles in Soup. Soup was delicious. The meat was the same as with the turnips — and just as good. The noodles are a bit thin and soft, which is traditional with this soup, but I like more al dente noodles in general. The bowl size, which is hard to tell here, is single person small. It’s not the bigger bowl that most Chinese places use. More on that later too.

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Pan Fried Noodles. Very simple, classic pan fried egg noodles. Nice taste and light texture though. A bit less greasy than the most traditional version. I’m thinking they use a different (or less) oil than traditional Chinese.
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Steamed Pork Spare Rib with Black Bean Sauce. Bone in. The usual sketchy looking pork niblets, but great flavor. Also maybe a touch lighter than usual at most dim sum places.
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Deep Fried Spring Roll with Egg White and Shrimp.
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You can see inside the fluffy egg white. Very nice light roll. Good crispiness, good texture on the filling. Slightly lighter grease though so I think the flavor was a bit muted. The sauce is more a slightly sweetened soy. I kinda like the sweet sauce for this kind of fry. This may be a Taiwanese influence?
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Deep Fried Bean Curd with Avocado and Shrimp and Golden Chives. It’s bean curd, but fried up like a spring roll. The inside with the avocado was interesting and flavorful, adding a bit more heft than the fluffy Spring Roll. Again a sweet sauce would have worked.
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Steamed Vegetable Dumplings. Nice texture on the skin and chunky vegetables inside. Light skin too which I like. Still a touch under salty/greasy?
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Steamed Dumplings with Shrimp and Chives. Great texture again for the skin, but soft on the inside and muted in flavor.
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Har Gow. Steamed Shrimp Dumplings. Nice skin, big chunk of meaty shrimp. This was the best dumpling and fairly classic.
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Steamed Beef Ball with Bean Curd Skin. Nice soft meat ball with a good beefy flavor.
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Siu Mai. Steamed Pork Dumplings with Shrimp. Small like I like them, and very good texture, but again had that slightly muted flavor.
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Steamed Rice with Minced Beef and Pan Fried Egg. Rice less sticky than typical Chinese rice (on purpose). Pretty much a flat layer of the same meat as the beef ball on the rice, with a fried egg and the sauce from the Rice Roll. The whole thing was pretty great. The beef on the rice, with the richness of the egg, and the sauce soaking into it all.
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House Special Baked BBQ Pork Buns. Soft crunchy outside. A good bit of sugar.
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Inside was delectable sweet pork. This was a great pork bun. As good as I’ve had. It’s of the slightly crunchy type. There are several other types like the steamed white ones, or the baked syrup glazed ones. I probably like this and the glazed ones best.

Tim Ho Wan is interesting. They are clearly making a play at becoming (expanding?) a little empire of fine casual focused dim sum eatery. It’s very new generation. Very millennial. The table layout is for 2s and 4s instead of the giant round tables of the big old Cantonese palace. The decor and format are more casual. The menu is smaller, maybe 1/4 the size and focused only on the dim sum greatest hits. Also importantly there is no “second chef” and giant banquet menu. It’s all the same focused small set of dim sum.

Service, particularly for being in soft opening, was excellent. They kept checking on us. They were speedy. Some confusion but they were on it double checking and made sure everything was perfect in the end. They are clearly very dedicated to improving and doing a good job. There were some minor quirks, like they had no chili oil (only chili sauce) — but they promised to get some by next week!

Plate/order size is smaller than a tradition dim sum house. I actually like this as it allows more dishes. They don’t have any large plate items. This is more consistent with the likes of DTF (Din Tai Fung). It works better with parties of 2.

Food wise, the textures were consistently good, which is the standard thing that many dim sum places mess up. Food was pretty fresh and very hot and not soggy. Problem for me was that on many dishes the flavors felt muted or light. I think it’s under seasoning. Maybe there isn’t so much salt (MSG?). Maybe they use a lighter oil. There is this standard dim sum oil taste that I really like and it wasn’t present or at least was very much more reserved. That oil and salt thing is one of the things I love about dim sum. As I mentioned, the menu is fairly small. We ordered every dish available the day we went and all are pictured above. There were about 6 or so on the menu that weren’t online.

So in terms of actual dim sum quality, places like Elite and Grand Harbor are a notch better at current. I can hope that Tim Ho Wan tunes up a bit, but it’s also possible that they are deliberately going for a lighter less coma-inducing style. It has this new faster/more casual format too, but with a long wait, that’s offset. Eventually though, it probably will be easy to get in on a weekday — it’s always going to be a long wait on weekends. Of course, there is always 85 degrees while you wait. And for me the long drive. I hope one opens on the Westside up here!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

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  5. Dim Sum is Shanghai #1
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Dim sum, dimsum, dumplings, Har Gow, Hong Kong, lunch, Lunch Quest, Orange County, pork buns, sticky rice, Tim Ho Wan, Yarom

Dolan’s Uyghur Cuisine

Mar04

Restaurant: Dolan’s Uyghur Cuisine

Location: 742 W Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91803. (626) 782-7555

Date: February 5, 2019

Cuisine: Uyghur Chinese

Rating: Excellent execution, and closer to Afghan than Chinese

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There are a bunch of new SGV places that Yarom and I have been wanting to try so we’re making a point of heading out for some small lunches to do forward recognizance as we just don’t have enough dinner slots available.
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Dolan’s, which is a new Uyghur place celebrating the cuisine of Western China — the part above Tibet known as Jing Jiang. Perfect for lunch to as they are Halal and don’t allow alcohol.
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The interior has a distinctly “western” style — and considerably more style than most Chinese places. While the building was probably some mid-century family restaurant they have added the Islamic style “windows” and tile.
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Copper tea pots.
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A big menu featuring lamb, lamb, and more lamb! Good thing we love lamb!
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Cucumber with garlic. Cucumber salad with garlic dressing. Pretty typical Chinese appetizer but this was a great one with really crunchy cucumbers and nice tangy (garlicky) dressing.
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Cold Beef Salad. Sliced cold beef with chili sauce. Not sure what is salad about it — except maybe the green onion — but this was also a great dish. The beef was dense, almost like tongue, but thinly sliced and the tangy/spicy sauce was excellent.
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Fried Tomato with Egg. Scrambled egg with stir-fried tomato. Yarom ordered this Chinese comfort food and it turned out to be a nice rendition of the dish.
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Uyghur Goshnaan. Uyghur style hame-made Naan filled with lamb, onion, and green pepper. This is a specialty of the house, although it was one of our least favorite dishes. The meat inside was delicious, and the outside nicely made, but there was so much breading that it drowned out the meat.
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Manti. Uyghur style dumpling filled with ground beef. These are stylistically close to XLB (but with beef) and also to Afghan Manti. I love both of those and I loved these. The skins were delicate and the filling really flavorful. I started using some of the chili sauce as a dip, but the waiter told us that Uyghur do not eat them with sauce. Still, I think they would be best with the yogurt, tomato, and green chili Afghan sauce.
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Laghman. Traditional hand pulled noodle served with stir fried veggies and lamb. We think it was lamb. The meat was very flavorful and this dish overall was like an Uyghur Jewish “beef stew.” The carrots were cooked really well too. The noodles (you can glimpse them underneath) were tasty but a bit heavy.
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Braised Lamb. Lamb stewed with wolfberry, chili sauce, and pepper over round noodles. This lamb was also very good and the round noodles were even better — fabulous actually.
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Roasted Mutton Leg. Marinated mutton leg made with family recipe. Just lamb meat — but tender and delicious.
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Lamb kebabs. Sheep must be very scared when they cross into Uyghur territory! But these were some of the best lamb kebab I have had — hot off the grill and super tender and with just the right amount of cumin and spice.
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Fried cabbage. Stir-fried cabbage with chili dressing. Nice and crunchy and really delicious! Loved this dish.
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We didn’t have this baklava, but they had it on the counter.

Overall, not only was Dolan’s super interesting, but they were delicious as well. It’s related most closely to Western Chinese, but not totally Chinese in style (food-wise, decor isn’t Chinese at all). The kitchen was excellent though, and everything was extremely tasty — you better like lamb though!

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

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By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Dolan's, Dolan's Uyghur Cuisine, lamb, Lunch Quest, SGV, Uyghur Cuisine, Western Chinese
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