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.
Anyway, today it carried us to Najing Duck House which specializes in Nanjing style cured duck.
And we met up with Tony Lau, Kirk, and some others.
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!
Much of the food is cold and cured and on display in this takeout deli cabinet.
Oh yes, Nanjing style cured Turkey Gizzard!
The very short menu.
Boiled peanuts.
Shredded seaweed. Pretty much as described.
Pickled cabbage with soybeans and mustard greens. I loved these. I love cabbage. I love fermented. What’s not to love?
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.
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.
Turkey liver. Foie gras it ain’t. Decent enough though, if livery.
Sliced turkey leg, Nanjing style. More deli-slicer action. This was actually a very lovely cold sliced turkey leg. Salty, but tasty.
Boiled dumplings stuffed with pork and shepherd’s purse. Great. I love these home-style dumplings.
Boiled pork dumplings. More goodness.
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.
Nanjing style meatballs. Meaty good.
Half a Nanjing style duck. Much like the turkey, but duckier. A bit of a salted ham flavor.
Beef shank noodles with bok choy. The meat was great. The soup was simple.
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).
