Update on this awesome place can be found here.
Ultimate Condiment Box. Tons of interesting things to put in the duck pancake, including sweet and spicy sauces, sugar, candied fruits, melon, etc.
Archive for Peking Duck
Restaurant: Duck House [1, 2, 3]
Location: 501 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 284-3227
Date: April 3, 2022
Cuisine: Chinese
Rating: Good duck
Duck House is a staple SGV restaurant for my gang. The food is good, it’s on the closer side, and the owner is incredibly nice. I’ve even housed a birthday dinner here. But this is my personal first return after the pandemic.
The logistics of this dinner were a bit odd as we had two tables and about 14-15 people so there were like 7 at each. Yarom had organized and preset the menu but his plane returning to LA was severely delayed/canceled and so Yarom wasn’t at his own dinner! This has never happened before, not in the approximately 400-500 dinners I’ve eaten with him! He never cancels or misses for anything. He’d show up with a freshly amputated leg if he had to. Also there was a full copy of each dish ordered for each table so there was way too much of most stuff.
Peanuts. They always have these on the table.
Bang Bang Chicken. A bit of numbing. This was one of my favorite dishes actually, all owing to the “crack” sauce.
Squirrel Fish with the super goopy super sweet sauce. Too sweet. Too heavy.
Lobster with ginger and scallions. Very succulent. Totally solid Cantonese lobster.
Eel Sticky Rice. Tastes very Japanese somehow.
Peking Duck. Duck House has very good duck. The skin is nice and crispy. They serve it in this old school manner which has the advantage of lots of skin but the disadvantage of being a bit cool (it was carved back in the kitchen) and the meat being a touch dry.
Condiments. They have proper thin spring pancakes and good hoisin.
Duck Bones. The regular version just roasted. I didn’t really like these.
Duck Bones stir fried with cumin. Much better flavor but not a whole lot of accessible meat.
Cabbage with Chinese Sausage. Delicious, although the cabbage was a bit mushier than I like. It should have some crunch.
French Style Beef. Very sweet. Tender, but still very sweet. Boring.
Salt and Pepper Pork Nuggets. Very tasty but quite salty.
Sweet Sesame Mochi Soup. These weird sweet Chinese soups are never good.
Cherry Ginger Limonade Sorbetto – Fresh squeezed Lemons, Limes, and Avignon Cherries were blended with house-made Ginger to make this delightfully tart and tingly frozen treat — 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 #lemon #lime #cherry #lemonade #ginger
This wasn’t the greatest dinner. Sure, the duck and lobster were excellent, but we had too much of each dish and a super tame boring order with too many sweet “crowd pleaser” dishes I’ve had many times before. I could totally do without squirrel fish, french beef, or salt and pepper pork chop. But they do have a very good kitchen and a big menu so there are plenty of different options for the more creative orderer. I’ve gotten some of them before.
And it was so weird being at a Yarom dinner with no Yarom. Haha.
But still, service was absolutely first rate as always. Our big private room was nice and we were spoiled. So fun as always and I’d definitely say that Duck House is a great SGV gateway drug place for those who need to baby into the more extreme and different stuff.
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Peking Duck.
Restaurant: Tasty Duck [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Location: 1039 E Valley Blvd. Ste B102. San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 572-3885
Date: November 28, 2021
Cuisine: Chinese
Rating: Great Duck — rest is a touch boring
Tasty Duck is a regular spot with my Hedonist food and wine club. We used to come here all the time. There are other duck places and it’s always the same so it’s less frequent, but as we went here post pandemic I figured I’d give them a new write up.
The interior is jammed and the turnover is high. There isn’t even a space inch to stand while waiting for a table as the serves need what little space there is to reach the tables. Although tonight being Sunday, the crowds died down by 8pm.
The current menu. Like many places right now reduced to take out format.
Cold plate with Poached Chicken, Jellyfish, Sweet Bran Cubes, and delicious Processed Meat Slabs.
Squirrel fish. This is the super fried fish in the super sweet red sauce.
Walnut shrimp. Always a favorite. I don’t dig the pineapple.
Spicy Razor Clams with Cucumbers. Delicious with a bit of mala. One of the best dishes.
The main event: Peking Duck. Not only was this delectable, with fantastic crispy skin and delicate meat, but it’s artfully arranged. We had two plates of these per table and it was a feeding frenzy!
Here are the traditional accompaniments, starting with excellent pancakes. One mystery question I must ask: why do Chinese restaurants insist on putting far too few pancakes and too little hoisin sauce on the table?
Scallions and cucumber.
Hoisin. It is good here.
A pancake in the making. 
Bean Sprouts and Duck. Good for what it is.
Cumin Duck Bones. Lots of flavor.
Cumin Lamb. Nice and spicy.
Pork hock. Some kind of crazy pig leg. Some serious fat here and the skin was a bit mushy, but the meat fell off the bone and was incredibly tender and delicious.
Pork Meat Ball Soup. Like Matza Ball Soup, but with porky meat balls. Same texture. Super delicious but seething with MSG.
Mixed Vegetables. Terrible. Weird taste.
Chocolate Butterfinger Crunch Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Dark Chocolate Peanutbutter Cream Cheese Ganache and chopped Butterfingers! — 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 #peanut #butterfinger
Overall, another fantastic meal. Tasty Duck isn’t the most adventurous SGV place, but they do an excellent job. They were super friendly and willing to serve us the dishes one at a time over a long period. Tonight was better than on some of the overcrowded Saturday’s when they don’t have as much bandwidth for us.
The duck was first rate, as good as Peking duck gets — more or less. Although I have been disappointed in the hoisin sometimes. Some other dishes, like the pork hock and razor clams are very good too. A few others just so so, like the shrimp. Tasty Duck is all about the duck. But I do think Ji Rong is quite a bit better at this current moment in time.
Restaurant: NC Peking Duck 老北方烤鸭店
Location: 17515 Colima Rd A, City of Industry, CA 91748. (626) 839-0000
Date: February 16, 2020 & May 2, 2021 and April 24 & October 27, 2022
Cuisine: Northern / Beijing Chinese
Rating: Awesome duck and great flavors
Tonight is “Double Duck” night and while we had a “Peking Duck Appetizer” at Happy Duck, afterward the main event was at:
NC Peking Duck — which is a Northern and Beijing style place that is quite new and seemed a bit closer in style to real Beijing offerings.
In case you wondered if they have duck.
The Menu 4/24/22 (reduced from how it was before the pandemic).
Cold plater with Pig Ears, Cloud Ear Mushroom, Peanuts, and Seaweed. Mostly nice and spicy with good crunch, mala, and heat.
Smashed Garlic Cucumber (older & 10/27/22). Nice version of the garlic cucumber. Extra good with the spicy sauce from the other dishes.
Tofu with Century Egg. Awesome dish. Nice firm silky tofu with the incredible umami and jelly-like texture of the Century Egg. All doused in spicy sauce. Totally to die for.
Century Egg with Chilis (4/24/22 & 10/27/22). Fabulous savory egg with very strong pickled Hunan style chilis.
Szechuan Glass Noodles (2020 and 4/24/22 and 10/27/22). Actually a kind of mung bean noodle, here with a spicy sauce, peanuts, and a super umami mushroom paste or sauce. Nice, but I prefer them in the tangy/spicy sauce.
Cold Spicy Chicken. Awesome tender chicken in this fabulous hot, spicy, and a touch sweet sauce. Tons of flavor.
Child Chili Chicken (4/24/22). Great bang bang sauce with a bit of peanut butter in it.
Fried fish with seaweed (5/2/21). Pretty much a Shanghai dish, but still good here.
Chili Fish with Glass Noodles. Now these were actual glass noodles. Nice tender fish too and lots of flavor.
Peking Duck with pancakes (everytime). This is just one duck (we ordered 2 for 8 people). This meat had the skin more integrated and was very juicy and full of flavor. It was some of the best Peking Duck I’ve had in LA.
Close up on the duck meat.
Duck presentation on 5/2/21.
Duck presentation (4/24/22).
Duck presentation (10/27/22).
The typical duck toppings, scallions, cucumber, and really really good thick hoisin.
Ultimate Condiment Box. Tons of interesting things to put in the duck pancake, including sweet and spicy sauces, sugar, candied fruits, melon, etc. They haven’t had this since the first time I went in 2020.
Pancake all done up.
The full DuQuest duck analysis (based on 10/27/22) is:
NC skin was ultra-thin and crispy, and gets an extra point for some of the pieces having some meat/fat on them = 9 for fatty pieces and 7 for regular ones.
Meat was juicy and flavorful with skin on = 8
Pancake was thin and resilient = 9
Hoisin was tasty but “goopy”, extra thick, and with a bit too much medicinal tone = 5
Accoutrements were scallion and cucumbers as usual = 7
The “burrito” together was a 6/10, dinged mostly by the hoisin.
Duck Bones. Pretty juicy.
Stir fried duck bones (5/2/21 and looked similar 4/24/22 and 10/27/22). Very nice version of “duck #2.”
Duck Soup (4/24/22). Very mild.
Crispy chicken (5/2/21). Great version.
Fragrant Spiced Lamb. Not their best dish. Sauce/soup was very watery and tasted mostly of mala. Not bad or anything, just the weakest dish out of a lot of great dishes.
Delicious “bacon” (aka preserved pork) with garlic and leeks (5/2/21 and 4/24/22).
Beijing Style Pork (5/2/21). With the fermented bean sauce, slightly sweet.
Big Pot Cauliflower (2020 and 4/24/22). With a bit of pork. Nice and crunchy.
Smashed garlic eggplant (5/2/21 and 4/24/21).
Bok choy (5/2/21). Simple but delicious.
Jiggly Pork Elbow (4/24/22). Certainly not a lean cut!
Seasoned Rack of Lamb (4/24/22). Nice lamby flavor and good “hot fat” factor. Serious fat later. Seasoned western style with cumin.
Sauces for the lamb.
XLB (5/2/21). Always a favorite.
Pork and Chive Dumplings. Tons of chive, delicious with vinegar.
House Tianjin Pork Baos. Awesome. Really nice thick skins with a huge lump of very flavorful pork.
Chinese Sweet Bean Roll with peanut dust.
My wife’s Valentine’s Day pick: Dulcey Chocolate Cloud – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Ganache and the rotating ingredient is house-made Vanilla Dulce de Leche — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #chocolate #creamcheese #ganache #icing #DulceDeLeche #caramel
Overall, I really liked NC Peking Duck. First of all, the duck was some of the best I’ve had in the states, and even beyond that, they had a really interesting menu with lots of standout dishes. Almost everything we had tonight was great, particularly the tofu with century egg, cold chicken, fish, and the pork baos.
Returning here on 5/2/21 the food was still very good but the restaurant was suffering from immediate post pandemic operational changes. They had clearly been doing takeout for the previous year (good for them and I even had it once and it was very good), but hadn’t yet switched back over to normal service. I think we were the only dine in party and the menu had been pared back substantially. Hopefully soon they’ll be back to 100%.
Returning again on 4/24/22 the food was pretty much back up to the level of 2020 although the menu was still a bit reduced and they were missing some “fancier” items like the 9 condiment container.
For more LA dining reviews click here.
For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.
Restaurant: Happy Duck House 金鼎轩
Location: 18210 Gale Ave, City of Industry, CA 91748. (626) 581-4747
Date: February 16, 2020 & May 2, 2021
Cuisine: Beijing Chinese
Rating: Great duck and lobster
On 2/16/20 we decided to try some new Peking Duck places in the “Far East” SGV (Rowland Heights, Hacienda Heights, City of Industry). We thought to put two of them together with a quick stop here at Happy Duck. After this we moved on to NC Peking Duck House. On 5/2/21 as things were opening back up we again went out there and repeated the mini crawl!
Typical strip mall for the area.
Slightly more modern than not decor. One of our fellow diners recommended strongly that we try the lobster, so we did.
Weird duck parts on the table as an “amuse.”
Cold meat platter (5/2/21).
Peking duck. The pancakes were great, very thin. The hoisin was good, although not as thick as I like. Scallions and cucumbers added nice crunch. The meat itself was good but a touch bland. The skin though was awesome. Super fried and crispy. Overall quite good.
Duck 2nd way, with bean sprouts. Very bland and dry. Barely any duck meat.
DL really wanted the duck bones and so after a bunch of asking we got them (5/2/21).
House Special Lobster. With garlic, onions, and jalapeño. A bit of heat. Very nicely cooked and tons of flavor. Several people thought this was “the best lobster they’ve had in the SGV.” Now, I thought it was really good, but just put it in the camp of “lobsters about two standard deviations above average” — i.e. I’ve had many good lobsters.
Scary carcasses in the kitchen.
Overall, this seemed a good kitchen. Duck was excellent for America. Lobster was great. We will have to return to try more.
For more LA dining reviews click here.
For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.
Restaurant: Tong Tak House Seafood Restaurant
Location: 1265 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 638-3388
Date: February 9, 2020
Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese
Rating: Really great execution
Our friend Tony Lau organizes the best Cantonese banquets.
He always manages to find new places that surprise. Tong Tak isn’t exactly new, but it’s new to most of us.
Classic “palace” interior. It was pretty empty too. Sure it was Academy Awards night, but hard to say.
After an initial foray into a private room that was way too small they set us up downstairs at this huge table with the awesome blue thrones.
The whole gang.
Salted peanuts.
Spicy cold marinated cucumbers. Pretty good version of this typical Chinese starter. Nice crunch, garlic, and a bit of spice.
I ate a lot of these because oddly, they didn’t serve any real dishes for 45 minutes despite the place being deserted! Then the dishes came on like a storm.
Chinese Mountain Yams with Raspberry Sauce. Crunchy yam, not slimey (sometimes it is). The yam itself doesn’t have a lot of flavor. Raspberry sauce is a bit odd..
Beancurd wrapped mushroom rolls. Interesting texture.
Marinated wood ear mushrooms. I love the rubbery texture.
Beans. Not sure what kind. Very mild and I don’t love the pastey bean thing.
Hot sauce.
XO sauce.
Spicy clam with vegetables. Very interesting spongy/chewy texture on the clam and very nice crunchy vegetables.
Fried oysters typhoon style. Really delicious. Probably the best fried oyster’s I’ve ever had with the crispy fry and lots of garlic.
Cheesy lobster. Nice tender lobster with a cheesy sauce. Very interesting combo.
Condiments for the duck and pig.
Suckling pig with buns. Nice small pig, actually a suckling. Nice crunchy skin and good flavor.
The pig head returns after a discombobulating encounter with the cleaver.
Beef with asparagus. Tony always orders a straight up beef dish like this. It was fatty and pretty tender with nicely cut asparagus.
Crispy roast pigeon. Very nice hot juicy pigeon. Not too dark, not overcooked at all.
Peking Duck (Cantonese style) with buns. Very tasty as always, but is of course much better with pancakes and cut a bit differently.
Duck part 2: Lettuce cup duck. The meat from the duck mixed with water chestnuts and celery.
Lettuce cups to go with the duck.
Packed lettuce cup ready to eat. These were good.
100 Flower Chicken. 2 ways. Pressed chicken with shrimp paste. This version was mostly shrimp paste. Almost no chicken meat under the skin. Still it was delicious.
Wok cooked vegetables and oyster mushrooms. I like the double texture thing.
Yin Yang Fried Rice. Two types of sauce covering fried rice. The lighter one was asparagus stalks and shrimp in a light sauce. Very savory and delicious. The red one was with chicken and a tomato based sweet sauce. A bit too sweet for my taste.
Dessert Buns. The yellow topped ones were filled with pineapple and egg custard.
Crackerjack Gelato – Smooth Peanut Base with homemade Dulce de Leche Ribbon, Toffee Peanuts, and Caramel Popcorn! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — oh my! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peanut #caramel #DulceDeLeche #Popcorn #CaramelCorn
Raspberry Sorbetto — French Raspberries and a touch of lime juice — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Unusual for me to go so “straight” with my flavors but I wanted a complement to a complex flavor — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #raspberry
Overall, another great night. Really, these Tony Lau dinners are always great. Despite the slow start to the food, service was very good and the execution of the dishes was excellent. Very nice plating and on point flavors. The kitchen’s command of vegetables was particularly impressive. They know how to cut them into the proper shapes and to wok them quickly so they are still crunchy and tender.
It just goes to show that just because a Cantonese place has that “dated” palace look, doesn’t mean the kitchen isn’t first rate. Somehow they have 3 stars on Yelp. I wonder if we just got the royal treatment of if it’s just Yelp haters.
For more LA dining reviews click here.
For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.
Restaurant: 海珍大酒樓 888 seafood restaurant [1, 2]
Location: 8450 Valley Blvd, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 573-1888
Date: December 8, 2019
Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese
Rating: Amazing whole pig
Sunday night is always the night for full on SGV adventures and December was a banner month. Tonight’s dinner starts off a run of four back to back Sunday Asian dinners.
First up is at 888 Seafood which is one of those “grand dames” of the SGV, being an old Cantonese Banquet hall serving dimsum during the day and Cantonese Banquet at night. It’s got some serious 1980s Hong Kong style decor. Ron was here recently and wanted us to return because he said the pig was amazing (which it is, as you shall see).
Check out our ginormous private room and its Trompe-l’œil marble style — plus really grungy Vegas carpet. But the room was great. Tons of space and a HUGE round table!
Yarom, Jerome, and I dropped by a few days in advance and planned the menu personally with the manager, Lucy.
Boiled peanuts.
XO sauce.
A bevy of other sauces.
Cold appetizer plate.
Zoom on the plate with cold cuts, jellyfish, pickled seaweed, vegetables, preserved egg etc. The meats were good and interesting. This wasn’t my favorite jellyfish — it was fine — but it wasn’t as tangy or “snappy” as I like it.
Spicy beef tendon. This wasn’t super spicy, and it had a chewy gelatinous texture, but it was really really good. Nice flavor and really fun to chew.
Spicy hot and sour soup. Full of tripe. Super spicy. Actually, too spicy even for me. I could eat it, but it had this INTENSE green pepper heat that made your throat burn, your eyes water, and you want to cough. Seriously spicy even for a spice addict.
Curry lobster. We meant to order Causeway Style Lobster but they goofed — glad they did because this “Singapore-style” curry lobster was very interesting.
Here comes piggy!
Suckling pig. Maybe full grown pig. haha. This giant pig was amazing. Super crunchy skin, super hot and succulent meat.
He’s propped up on some kind of canister.
And was served with buns.
Plus hoisin and scallions.
Afterward, the face came back to haunt us. Jeffery munched on it.
Salt and pepper shrimp. Eat whole. Quite nice.
Bacon wrapped scallop. Interesting.
100 flower chicken. Pressed boneless chicken with layers of shrimp paste. I love this dish, although this particular version was a bit mild — it was hard to even taste the shrimp.
Roast pigeon. Nice and livery.
Meat balls with leeks. Very dense texture to the meat, chewy, almost rubbery. I liked the leeks though. A lot. Most people did not love this dish. I think they had a hard time with the black hole dense balls.
Peking duck, buns, and condiments. A solid peking duck. One of these Cantonese style peking ducks — not incredibly crispy.
Peking duck meat as lettuce cups. Served stir fried with water chestnuts.
Lettuce cups.
Lotus root, walnuts, snow peas and various other veggies. Plain, but nice crunch.
Seafood over crispy noodle — great! I love this dish and this was a nice one.
Mango pudding — a bit bland. I do love mango pudding, but this one didn’t have an intense mango flavor like it should.
Toasted Almond Truffle Gelato (upper left) — My new egg yolk based nut formulation with Toasted Sicilian Noto Romano Almond makes a sublime base stacked with layers of house-made Valrhona Almond Amaretti Ganache — 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 #almond #amaretti #cookie #ganache #ChocolateTruffle
Root Beer Float Gelato (lower left) — Sarsaparilla flavored gelato base with house-made vanilla cream cheese layers — 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 #RootBeer #RootBeerFlaot #Sarsaparilla #vanilla #creamcheese
True Tiramisu Gelato (upper right) — after long hiatus, one of my best flavors remerges for a holiday party — This is a genuine tiramisu in gelato form, with a Marsala Egg Yolk Zabaione, fresh Mascarpone Cheese, and real Espresso. Then it’s layered with Valrhona Cocoa and Lady Finger’s soaked in house-made Espresso Rum Syrup — 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 #Tiramisu #Espresso #coffee #chocolate #marsala #Zabaione #Eggyolk #Rum #Mascarpone
Mint Meringue Strawberry Sorbetto (lower right) — An intense dairy-free base made from Avignon Strawberries and layered with house-made Spearmint Meringue — 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 #strawberry #sorbetto #mint #Meringue
Overall, this was a great meal. Execution was a bit mixed, with dishes varying from good to great. Pig was amazing. One of the best pigs we’ve had. Service was good. Room is amazing, being huge, with a table fit for like 20. Portion sizes were great too, as was pacing.
We decided to return for dimsum too and try it out.
For more LA dining reviews click here.
Restaurant: China Red
Location: 855 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 445-3700
Date: September 30, 2018
Cuisine: Chinese
Rating: Very good Cantonese, has some DM though
Another Sunday, another Chinese. In this case we came to China Red because our friend Derek, former manager of Elite and World Seafood has moved here.
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.
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.
Here is Derek on the left with Yarom.
We were in the private room — which is eclectic to say the least.
Peanuts to start.
We started with a few classic bits of dimsum, even though it was evening.
Har Gow. Pretty solid shrimp dumplings.
Shu Mai. Pork and shrimp. I always love these meat bombs.
Roast Pigeon. Finger licking good.
Garlic fried fish. Or maybe it was frog, I can’t remember. It was crunchy, garlicky, salty, and pretty good.
Peking duck. Can never go wrong with that and this was a fairly juicy version.
Even if they only had the buns (I prefer the pancakes).
Roast pork. Nice crispy skin.
Mixed seafood chow mein. Carby goodness.
And the next noodle, because we needed a LOT of them. This was some sort of meat and black bean and black pepper wok fried noodle – it was delicious.
String beans with eggplant.
Pea tendrils or whichever type of colon sweeper with garlic.
Everything fried rice.
Lobster. A solid lobster. I’ve had better sauces but the meat was good.
Sweet and sour squirrel fish. Very fried, which makes it extra tasty.
More noodles, chicken noodles I think. Not quite as good as the beef pepper noodles.
Custard buns. Tasty.
I can’t even remember if I brought gelato this night. Lol.
Food was quite good at China Red and Derek really takes care of us. We have so many Cantonese feasts that it’s hard to remember which ones are the best, but this was quite solid, although not super “unique.” China Red was oddly quiet, and the place looks a touch shabby, but it’s certainly better than most (but not all) SGV Cantonese by a good bit.
For my catalog of Chinese restaurant reviews in China, click here.
Restaurant: Elite Restaurant [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Location: 700 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 282-9998
Date: September 17, 2018
Cuisine: Cantonese Banquet
Rating: Elite!
Elite is well known as one of great LA’s top dimsum places, but less well known is how great a Cantonese banquet place it is. On this particular night I met Paul R and a bunch of his friends out here for Burgundy night — sure it was a week night and 2 hours in traffic, but great Burgundy and Chinese is worth it!
They actually have a couple private rooms, but this time we had the small one, although it was certainly big enough for the 8 of us. The above photo is the same room, different dinner.
1996 Deutz Champagne Cuvée William Deutz Rosé. JG 91. This is a very young bottle of Rosé that offers up excellent promise on both the nose and palate, but I would be inclined to give the wine at least a couple more years to really allow it to blossom. The bouquet is deep, young and classy, as it offers up scents of tart cherries, orange peel, sourdough, a touch of new leather and a lovely base of soil. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, crisp and complex, with lovely focus and bounce, bright acids, tiny bubbles and good length and grip on the slightly muddied finish. I suspect that a bit more precision will come on the backend with further bottle age.
2000 Deutz Champagne Cuvée William Deutz. JG 93. The 2000 Cuvée William Deutz is a deep, young and powerfully-built wine with superb depth and structure for long-term aging. The bouquet is really quite fine, offering up a deep and classy nose of apple, wheat toast, tangerine, some gentle leesy tones, a lovely base of soil, a touch of fresh nutmeg and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and rock solid at the core, with excellent focus and balance, elegant mousse and excellent length and grip on the crisp and complex finish. This is a very classy bottle of bubbly that is already drinking very well and which will continue to age gracefully for a couple of decades.
Peanuts on the table.
From my cellar: 1983 Domaine Clair-Daü Bonnes Mares. JK 94. Insanely pretty- aromas of cherry, sweet tea, violet, rose and potpourri. On the palate this shows cherry, tea and lavender. Picks up mineral elements as it sits in the glass. Flavors of cherry liqueur, mineral, rose water and mineral. Balanced, with a long finish. Just awesome.
Cold BBQ Plate with Macau style BBQ pork belly, Char Sui, roast chicken, and jellyfish. Good stuff all around, particularly both porks.
2001 Domaine Denis Mortet Chambertin. VM 92+. Full, bright red. Brooding, very ripe aromas of black fruits, licorice, graphite and gunflint, all lifted by a subtle oaky perfume. Big, broad, rich and okay, with powerful, dense black fruit flavors and excellent length and thrust. Five or six years in bottle should bring greater refinement as the wine loses some of its baby fat.
Peking duck. Despite the fact that I’ve been to Elite 20+ times, I’ve never had their peking duck — didn’t even know they offered it. It wasn’t bad at all. Sure they offer only the buns, not the pancakes, but it was still darn good.
2007 Domaine Ponsot Griotte-Chambertin. BH 93. A moderately complex but quite densely fruited nose of earthy red berries, underbrush and warm earth tones leads to silky, rich and round broad-shouldered flavors that possess taut muscle but no hard edges or tannins, in fact the mouth feel here is quite sophisticated, all wrapped in an impressively intense, mouth coating and harmonious finish. The structure is dense but fine and this should benefit from at least a decade of cellar time. A Griotte of class, grace and distinction.
Duck part deux, which is mixed with water chestnuts etc and served with…
Lettuce cups.
Here it is as you eat it.
2001 Gunderloch Nackenheim Rothenberg Riesling Auslese. VM 94. Tangerine and sassafras aromas put one in mind of Erden. On the palate, honey and rich marzipan sweetness are leavened by tangerine citricity and the whole suffused with pungently smoky minerality. A hundred grams of residual sugar are brought to heel by 10.5 acidity and heaps of extract. The braid of fresh fruit, botrytized, faintly caramelized fruit and minerals here is uncanny. Juicy and refreshing in the finish even as it is profoundly botrytized and rooted in its classic red soil terroir. Smoke and almonds linger longest of all.
Santa Barbara prawns with garlic. Very simple prep, but good. Way, way better than the steamed bugs at Newport Seafood.
1989 Domaine Bruno Clavelier Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru La Combe d’Orveau Vieilles Vignes. a rare wine, you don’t see Combe d’Orveau that often.
Steamed pork with salty fish. Yeah, it looks like the cat barfed up on a plate, but it’s really delicious with a mild porky flavor.
Sautéed scallops. Simple, to go with the wine, but nice.
2001 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques. BH 93. Knockout aromas of wonderfully intense black and red cherry fruit loaded with cassis and a touch of new oak introduce medium-bodied, sweet, harmonious, very expressive and long flavors all underpinned by racy minerality and firm structure. The tannins are prominent but ripe and the density of extract is impressive and this both coats and stains the palate. As it always does, this delivers finesse with real mid-palate punch with near perfect grace. For my taste, I would hold this for another 1 to 3 years but it would be no vinous crime to be drinking this now. Note to be sure to serve this cool as the alcohol becomes noticeable if it becomes a bit too warm.
House special lobster. Super delicious with lots of juicy lobster meat.
2001 Louis Jadot Chapelle-Chambertin. BH 93. A still very fresh nose is just now beginning to display the initial hints of secondary development that leads to rich, intense and beautifully well-detailed medium-bodied flavors that ooze a fine minerality on the vibrant and impeccably well-balanced finish. There is a touch of austerity present on the finale that serves as a balancing element to the naturally sweet mid-palate. This has reached that point in its evolution where it’s still on the way up but still far enough along where it can be drunk with pleasure. In sum, this is really lovely juice and a classic Chapelle.
Mushrooms and other vegetables in brown sauce.
2001 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese. 95 points. Prum calls this wine “typically somewhat reserved vis-a-vis the Graacher Auslese” but I apprehend a level of sheer flavor intensity that goes beyond the other wines here today, with apple, honey and spice supported by a volatile esterous note of botrytis and even a prickly Eiswein-like whiff of chili pepper. Impressive custardy richness in the mouth, yet ripe, refreshing citricity keeps the wine dynamic and salty minerality helps extend the finish. (In the interest of full disclosure I pass on Prum explanation that this is one of “three or four comparable lots” of Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese which will be bottled separately.
Seafood chow mein. I always love this dish, particularly when the sauce soaks into them and softens them up. Oh so good.
2006 Domaine Ponsot Clos de la Roche Vieilles Vignes. VM 93-96. Good full ruby-red. Incredible nose melds wild cherry, mocha, brown spices, iron, orange peel and underbrush. Like liquid silk on entry, then hugely concentrated in the middle, with an extraordinarily fine-grained texture and no easy sweetness. Impeccably balanced, soil-driven wine that finishes with noble tannins and great persistence. This is Clos de la Roche, not pinot. As of November, one of the most promising wines of this stealth vintage.
I wish I knew what they called this fried rice as it’s super awesome with that chopped pork and whatnot on top!
2008 Bouchard Père et Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. BH 93. The intense stoniness of this wine is immediately evident as it suffuses every aspect from nose to finish. An ultra elegant aromatic profile features notes of acacia, pear and dried rose petal before sliding gracefully into detailed, driving and explosive medium-bodied flavors that display cuts-like-a-knife precision on the almost aggressively mineral-driven finish that seems to go on and on. A study in purity and a classic Perrières.
Gotta love the Mango Pudding.
A lot of these dishes were stunning, like the pig and all the crab dishes. The private room was great and we had a stunning lineup of (mostly) Burgundy. A wine or two had serious issues, but that’s par for the course. I feel that Burgundy shows off by far at dinners where it dominates (although it can mix fine with Champy). You can’t easily go back and forth between the big extracted wines and the more subtle Burgundy.
Restaurant: Xinrongji
Location: Location near the Bund
Date: August 9, 2018
Cuisine: Shanghai Chinese
Rating: Excellent High end Chinese
Our Shanghai friend really spoiled us today, first with a lunch at Shanghai Tang and then heading (after lots of stops) to…
The Shanghai Bund with its classic older European buildings.
And it’s new hypermodern skyline across the river in Pudong.
Then upstairs to Xingrongji for a second epic meal of the day.
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The space is extensive and beautiful.
With all sorts of cooking stations including a roast duck oven.
Fish station.
Open kitchen, etc.
Our table had a gorgeous view of Pudong and the Shanghai Tower (second tallest building in the world).
I ordered the only “real” bottle of wine we had on the trip. Price wasn’t bad either considering the setting.
NV Pierre Péters Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Cuvée de Réserve. VM 92. The Cuvée de Réserve (2013 base) is rich to the point of being almost tropical in profile. Then again, that is 2013, a vintage that produced wines with both elevated ripeness and acidity, especially in the Côte des Blancs. Sweet floral notes add to an impression of exoticism. The 2013 finishes with notable depth and definition.
Honey pumpkin. Again, for the second time today. This version was more pumpkin focused.
Foie gras with fruit sauce. Second time for this too today. Not quite as good as the Shanghai Tang version as the foie itself was drier.
Roast Pigeon. Excellent rendition of this classic Cantonese dish. Rich gamey bird and perfectly crispy skin.
Roast Pork. Amazing super fatty succulent pork. Like pig candy. Just awesome.
Fish and charcoal tofu boiled in chili oil. This Szechuan dish was not nearly as spicy as in Chengdu, although it did have some Szechuan peppercorns piled in. Fish and “tofu pudding” is very common in this dish, but the charcoal tofu was unique and had a very smoky quality.
Braised beef. Another meaty rich meat dish but extremely tender and delicious.
Kung Pao Chicken. The classic.
Mapo Tofu. I always love this dish, although again it wasn’t as spicy or numbing as in Szechuan.
Peking Roast Duck. Our last duck of the trip. Cry.
The slice it table-side as they should.
Served with pancakes.
Here is the meat itself. This was a very good roast duck. Not quite as good as in Beijing, but better than we get here in California by a touch.
The condiments were extensive.
Duck soup, which I never love.
Glass noodles.
Meat pies. Pork and scallion quesadilla sans cheese.
Rolled rice and red bean rolls for dessert.
Our table.
Overall, Xinrongji was another amazing high-end Shanghai restaurant. The kitchen didn’t feel quite as perfect at execution as Shanghai Tang, but the menu was larger, offering dishes from a broad area of China, and everything we had was very good. Service was top notch and the atmosphere was fabulous.
For my catalog of Chinese restaurant reviews in China, click here.
Restaurant: Dadong Roast Duck (Nanxincang)
Location: 1-2 Nanxincang Guoji Dasha, 22A Dongsishitiao, Dongcheng district, Beijing 100007, China. +86 10 5169 0329
Date: July 29, 2018
Cuisine: Beijing Chinese, specializing in roast duck
Rating: Superior (and lean) duck
Our 15 day trip to China begins auspiciously (in Beijing) with a trip to a branch of the granddaddy of serious Beijing Roast Duck places, Dadong.
This is the Nanxicang branch. I was at Dadong in 2008, but it was definitely a different (less modern) branch. Or they redid considerably.
The decor is very contemporary and everything is “fancy.”
Down to the duck chopstick holders!
Salad. Not sure I’ve ever had a salad in China before, and this one was some kind of dandelion leaf and radishes. No dressing really too. Sort of bracing.
Asparagus. Pretty much what it looks like.
Then comes the duck, along with the professional duck carver. He even had an assistant in tow.
Close up on the lovely bird which was puffed with air, lovingly basted, and fire roasted.
The guy knows how to carve.
Beijing duck. We got 2 platter of meat and skin.
And heads and legs (not pictured).
At Dadong, everyone gets their own condiment tray.
Plus there are pancakes.
And sesame buns. They showed us how to dip the skin in sugar and which condiments to put in which carbohydrate. Although the bun is good, I prefer the pancake, as it distracts less from the duck/hoison awesomeness. Dadong’s duck is crispy and ultra lean. Really perfectly cooked and delicious, but not fatty.
Duck soup. Not the biggest thrill. It never is. Just a bone broth.
Bean sprouts. Looks boring, but these were actually excellent. Must have been the perfect amount of oil.
This trip included A LOT of dumplings, so we had to get started right away with some steamed vegetable dumplings.
And cabbage and egg fried rice.
Plus a fresh whole fish in brown sauce with garlic and mushrooms. I’ve never had this exact sauce before and it was a little like a tangy gravy. Quite good actually but unexpected.
Mysterious bland sweet Chinese dessert soup. No thanks.
Dry ice fruit plate looked cool.
Beijing embraces the 21st century
Now-a-days in Beijing and Shanghai there are a lot of restaurants that have modernized their look and feel while staying fundamentally Chinese. This is certainly the case with Dadong and its lavish plating and epic sized picture menu. But the execution was also very good — particularly on the standout item, the Beijing Duck. This and Country Kitchen set my new standard for Peking/Beijing duck. If these are now a 10, the best places in the SGV are mere 7s. I wish I’d had a few more days in Beijing just so I could try 1949, Duck de Chine and a few other top duck places. We managed 2 in 3 days.
Restaurant: Longo Seafood Restaurant
Location: 7540 Garvey Ave, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 280-8188
Date: February 11 & June 10, 2018
Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese
Rating: Great Meal, Good Deal
The first week of February my SGV radar was buzzing about a new Cantonese place in the SGV. I think because Jonathan Gold wrote it up and then several friends went. Mostly they were talking about the dim sum but most Cantonese places are really 2 in 1 with nighttime banquet service.
Longo is on Garvey right next to the Longo Toyota. Lol.
It’s one of these big formal Cantonese places.
Peanuts.
Peking Duck (2/11/18). The meat was very good. This was a bun place. People have their preferences as to buns vs pancakes. I like both, but pancakes allow you to eat more!
NOTE: On my second visit, for my birthday, June 2018, I had called ahead (twice) and reserved Peking Duck — but when I got there they told me “no duck, sold out” — clearly they had sold away my duck to the highest bidder as I saw some on tables! I was fairly irritated.
Suckling pig (half, 2/11/18 & 6/10/18). Perfect pig. Really, really crispy with nice pork flavor.
What happened to piggy?
Lamb stew (2/11/18 & 6/10/18). Interesting.
Fish with garlic on bok choy (2/11/18). The garlic made it really delicious actually.
Here comes the giant King Crab!
Brian shows off the scale.
El Crab returns wokked with vegetables. Stir fried crab (2/11/18).
Crab Legs with garlic (2/11/18 & 6/10/18) which was awesome.
Close up of that tender goodness.
And as egg custard (2/11/18) in the body.
Crab parts fried with salty yolk (6/10/18). As I’ve several times found, this isn’t my favorite prep. A bit too salty and with that grainy yolky texture.
Crab fried rice (6/10/18). Great stuff!
Fried tofu with mushrooms and broccoli (2/11/18 & 6/10/18). Very nice actually. Love the delicate sauce.
Kung pao chicken (6/10/18). A nice tasty version. I got some tame dishes on this day because we had a bunch of SGV noobs in the crowd.
Walnut shrimp (6/10/18). Fairly light, mayo forward version.
Sole with black bean sauce (6/10/18). Turned out to be moderately spicy!
Pea tendrils with garlic (2/11/18).
Ung choy (6/10/18).
Preserved fish eggs fried rice (2/11/18). Nice and salty.
Vegetable fried rice (6/10/18).
Simple lo mein (6/10/18). A lot of the Chinese food amateurs enjoyed this.
Seafood chow mein (6/10/18). I always love this dish.
Weird sweet bean soup (2/11/18).
Walnut soup (6/10/18). MUCH much better than the bean soup — actually kind of pleasant.
Custard buns (6/10/18) on the house. I enjoy these mild sweet things.
And a bit of cake (someone brought on 2/11/18).
For my birthday dinner (6/10/18) I brought some Sweet Milk Gelato I made:
On the left, a new flavor: Limoncello Zabaione Gelato, an eggy frozen zabaione made with Sorento Limoncello.
On the right, Gluten Free Triple Chocolate Cloud, Valrhona chocolate base, Valrhona cream cheese fudge, and gluten free oreo substitutes.
Got crabs?
The service was absolutely first rate the first time we came (2/11/18). The manager above really took care of us. The food was great too. Not the best Cantonese banquet I’ve ever had but really very nice with a lot of first rate dishes. The pig and crab were as good as it gets and the crab was a total deal at only $19-25/lb. The duck was very good too as were a number of the other dishes.
The second time for dinner (6/10/18, I had been there another time for lunch), the service was a bit different. They were mobbed. I had called ahead (twice) and reserved Peking Duck — but when I got there they told me “no duck, sold out” — clearly they had sold away my duck to the highest bidder as I saw some on tables! I was fairly irritated. They also took a LONG time to come over and take our order. Once it got rolling they were reasonably attentive. Food was still good, but they could have done a way better job with us.
For more LA dining reviews click here.
For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.
I’ll post but not bother elaborate on the wines:
6/10/18 dinner wines:
Restaurant: Duck House [1, 2]
Location: 501 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 284-3227
Date: June 11, 2017
Cuisine: Chinese
Rating: Interesting stuff
Big surprise that for my birthday dinner I chose — you guessed it — Chinese food! And because it was my birthday I managed to drag the rest of my family all the way out to the SGV. I went for a return to Duck House (previous recent visit here), as they have Peking Duck (no duh), it’s on the west side of Alhambra, and because it isn’t spicy or too weird. But I did pre-order a bunch of interesting dishes.
From my cellar: NV Demière-Ansiot Champagne Grand Cru Brut Blanc de Blancs. VM 91. Vivid yellow. Bright, mineral-accented aromas of orange, pear, anise and white flowers are lifted by a gingery topnote. Lively and precise, offering intense orchard and citrus fruit flavors and a hint of buttered toast. Shows impressive clarity and mineral cut on the finish, with the pear and floral notes echoing. This elegant Champagne should age well on its balance.
Slightly sweet soy marinated chicken wings. Always on the table here to start. Boney and cold, but nice taste.
My 8 year-old tried these fried buns. Basically the soft bao dough fried with sweetened condensed milk on the side.
2005 Seigneurie de Posanges Savigny-lès-Beaune. Not a bad young village.
Peking Duck. Served here with the meat and skin. We had it only 1 way, but two ducks. This is solid, but Tasty Duck and a few others have slightly better duck. Mostly I think they just need better Hoisin.
Egg with tofu. My wife liked this. Steamed egg with tofu and a vegetarian brown sauce.
Eggplant with garlic. A little mushy, and not as spicy/garlicky as the best Szechuan versions, but certainly nice.
Sweet and Pungent shrimp. Basically fried shrimp in sweet and sour sauce. Love it!
Vegetable crispy lo mein. With the sauce on the side.
Here is the sauce. Lots of ginger.
From my cellar: 2008 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Bougros Cote de Bouguerots. BH 96. An exceptionally elegant high-toned and strikingly layered nose of oyster shell, mineral reduction and perfumed cool green fruit is extremely seductive and serves as a fascinating introduction to the concentrated, serious and powerful yet refined flavors that ooze a fine minerality on the mouth coating and hugely long finish. This is blessed with buckets of sap that completely buffer the firm acid spine. This is a flat out great effort that is indisputably a “wow” wine.
Treasure Island, which somehow I keep mis-remembering as “buried treasure.” This was a special pre-order dish and I’ve never had its like before. Napa cabbage smothered (it’s huge) in egg yolk and crab meat sauce. Topped with goji berries. Unusual. Very mild and pleasant, but certainly a LOT of cabbage.
Steamed black cod. For the healthy folk.
2004 Domaine de la Janasse Châteauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes. VM 95. Opaque ruby. Incredibly powerful bouquet encompasses cherry, blackberry, cassis, candied plum, dark chocolate, licorice and garrigue Positively mouthfilling, with potent, liqueur-like dark fruit, licorice and mocha flavors, but also with surprising freshness and cut. As weighty as this is, there’s a sense of elegance, too. Finishes juicy, sweet and impressively long, with persistent cassis and blackberry flavors. Wow!
Jan, your ass is big!
Buddah’s chicken. Another special order dish. Whole roast chicken stuffed with seafood, taro, and I don’t know what and smothered in brown sauce.
Inside it’s like Chinese Thanksgiving! Cool texture.
2014 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon. Can we say vanilla?
Sticky rice with BBQ eel. I don’t know why they always have this dish at duck houses, but they do.
Truffle Lobster. Can’t go wrong with a giant fried lobster in truffle sauce!
I was far too stuffed for cake, so had to have my candle in some eel rice!
Overall, a fun night and great to share it with the family and friends. Not sure I need to order the Treasure Island again, but it was very interesting. The sauce was actually great over rice, but there was so much of it!
Restaurant: Sham Tseng BBQ
Location:634 Garvey Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 289-4858
Date: February 12 & October 22, 2017 & July 21, 2019
Cuisine: Chinese BBQ
Rating: Best BBQ fowl and pig!
One of the first Hedonist Chinese diners I ever went to — 5 or more years ago! — was at Sham Tseng, but back when they had a different location.
Now that is closed and they have only (I think) their original location — which we have been to a whole mess of times.
It’s not much to look at, a sort of BBQ shack.
Check out the glamour!
But we had the “private room” — I’m chuckling even now. Back in the parking lot, in this sort of strip mall hooker motel like apartment building, up the shady stairs…
Down the creepy hall…
And even mysteriously for lease is…
The glorious interior two room “palace.”
Oh yeah!
Various sauces.
Beef tendon and pig ear. Not my favorites. I actually love beef tendon, but in spicy sauce where it’s chew is complemented by some flavor.
Corn Soup (7/21/19). A corn egg drop soup. Light and delicious.
Suckling pig. Now this some seriously amazing pig. Super little, incredibly crispy skin, super tender meat. Sham Tseng knows how to BBQ!
Oink!
Lobster in black pepper sauce. Fine, although not their speciality.
Lobster with garlic ginger sauce and noodles (7/21/19). This was a better lobster prep for them, although a bit of a tough beast, the sauce on the noodles was excellent.
Roast goose (2 pictures). This was an incredible dish too. Super moist and great crunchy skin. Eaten with the sweet orange sauce.
Fried bits (7/21/19), including tofu, chewy chicken bits, and maybe squid.
Egg yolk salt shrimp. A little too heavy for my taste.
Fried fish bits with garlic. Not bad.
Different fish bits with green onion (7/21/19). Really delicious.
This chili oil isn’t nearly as good as mine.
Spiced lamb chops. Super tasty.
Roast chicken. Some of the best straight up chicken I’ve had! Again cooked perfectly.
Hyper fried pork or such. Actually pretty darn tasty.
The party spread even to the staff.
Green beans. Fine.
Chinese broccoli (10/22/17). Fairly typical Chinese green.
Pea tendrils with garlic (10/22/17). I like this kind of colon sweeper better.
Chinese broccoli (and regular broccoli?) with mushrooms in velvet sauce (7/21/19).
Rice noodles with chicken (10/22/17). Vaguely sweet.
Singapore noodles. Nice version of this curry flavored dish.
Fried rice with everything.
Shrimp fried rice.
Fried rice with salty fish and chicken.
Ma Po tofu. Not very spicy sort of goopy version.
Buns and sauce for the peking duck!
Peking duck. Some more stunning poultry! Fabulous and as good as Tasty Duck.
Different presentation on 10/22/17.
Duck meat.
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Steam fish. A bit dull, but perfectly cooked.
Beef stew (7/21/19). Don’t know what else to call this, but pretty much… beef stew.
Chewy fried rice balls with red bean inside (10/22/17). What historically passed for dessert in China.
Lemon meringue pie. Yep. Not sure why, but it was fine.
Confetti cake. Even odder.
Radical new flavor: Gianduja Extra Virgin Olive Oil — a tricky high fat EVOO base made with 2014 Giuseppe Quintarelli Olive Oil and layered with house-made Piedmontese Hazelnut and Valrhona Chocolate Ganache — 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 #evoo #OiliveOil #Quintarelli #SavorySweet #ganache #valrhona #chocolate #hazelnut
Italian Lemon Cookie Meringue Pie — Limoncello Zabaione base with lemon cookie flavor mixed with Italian Lemon Creme Cookies and Sicilian Candied Lemon and topped with house-made toasted Meringue — 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 #lemon #LemonCookie #cookie #Sicily #Sorento #Limoncello #Meringue #LemonMeringuePie
Overall the private room is a fun time at Sham Tseng. Downstairs is a crowded mess. And while most of their non-BBQ dishes are just fine (solid, but nothing amazing), their BBQ poultry and pig is off the charts great — really really good.
For more crazy Hedonist dinners here!
For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.
Remnants from a table of old folks too senior to finish their food hedonist style.
Below is a slew of wines. I’m feeling too lazy to catalog them:
I brought the Rav.
And I brought this too. Not enough fruit.
Restaurant: Top Island Seafood
Location: The Marketplace, 740 Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 300-9898
Date: December 29, 2016 & July 17, 2017 and March 10 & September 15 and December 22, 2019
Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese
Rating: Great — and great value — Cantonese
The San Gabriel Valley is just oozing with new Chinese Restaurants to try.
And no category is more crowded than the Cantonese Banquet House. Top Island fits right in the middle of this pack, offering up all the luxury ingredients in a big format at reasonable prices. Look at that sign on the left, lobster for $8.99!
And check out “party like it’s 1989” cove lighting in the giant banquet hall!
And a big pano of it.
2002 Gardet Champagne Cuvée Charles Gardet.
Boiled peanuts.
Sweet and sour goose webs (3/10/19). Goose webs are goose feet. These had the weird texture, but a really nice interesting sour flavor.
BBQ pork and jellyfish (3/10/19). Awesome sweet BBQ pork and first class jellyfish. Not all jellyfish is that great but this one was.
The super deluxe BBQ plate (earlier and 12/22/19) with pork, chicken, jellyfish, pork hock/foot and more (9/15/19)!
Westlake Beef Soup (9/15/19 and 12/22/19). Really addictive soft textured mix of ground beef (or maybe pork), tofu, egg white etc. Very mild but delicious.
NV Jean-Noel Haton Champagne Grande Réserve.
Walnut shrimp. Sure it’s a white guy dish, but this was delicious.
Salt and Pepper squid (9/15/19). Tasty calamari.
Salt and pepper shrimp (9/15/19 and 12/22/19). Someone doesn’t know how to mix up the preps. Very salty, but delicious.
Fish filets with black bean sauce (3/10/19). Really nice light fish.
2006 Paul Hobbs Pinot Noir Hyde Vineyard. VM 89. Dark red. Subdued, brooding aromas of dark cherry and chocolate. Fresher red and dark berry flavors are brightened by zesty minerals and given grip by dusty tannins. Finishes with very good persistence but limited definition. A serious, deeply concentrated style of pinot that needs some cellar time to loosen up.
Peking Duck (earlier and 3/10/19 and 9/15/19 and 12/22/19). This particular duck came with buns instead of pancakes. These were really nice buns, smaller than some. The meat was great, as good as any LA peking duck.
The skin was in the first picture, most of the meat was here. Needed more hoisin sauce as usual.
The “meat” section of this duck is actually pretty edible. Some places it’s just a carcass.
Duck second way (3/10/19 and 12/22/19).
Zoom on the second way (12/22/19).
You put this in the lettuce cups and add hoisin. Nice crunch.
2013 Boundary Breaks Vineyard Riesling No. 198 Reserve. VM 90. Quite reduced on the nose, with slightly shy aromas of Asian pear, white pepper, champagne mango and chamomile. The palate is quite honeyed and coats the cheeks and tongue in a soft layer of sweet fruit. A strong acidity keeps the palate in motion and prevents the wine from feeling fat. 58 grams per liter of residual sugar.
2012 Domaine de l’Ecu (Guy Bossard) Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Taurus. The top broke off (the glass!) and so few of us dared try it for fear of broken glass.
From my cellar: 2006 Henri Boillot Meursault 1er Cru Charmes. VM 93. Ripe peach, orange and hazelnut on the nose; a real essence of Charmes. Then opulent, sweet and rich but with very good inner-mouth tension to the ripe peach flavor. A seamless, highly concentrated wine with a wonderfully silky texture and a very long, fruit-driven finish. This fruit was harvested early, noted Boillot.
Seb brought: 2005 Didier Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Silex. 92+. There is no doubting this is Sauvignon blanc – it has that straight out green grass, a bit of lime, definitely very crisp although not tart. When NZ makes SB, this is what they are going for I think. Very well done version of that style.
Lobster noodles. A solid lobster dish. Maybe a touch “fishy” and while the noodles looked gross, they tasted great with the drippings.
2012 Giesen Pinot Noir The Brothers. VM 90. Bright medium red. Perfumed aromas of strawberry, rose petal and spices. Juicy and intense, offering very good concentration to its brambly red berry and cherry flavors. Finishes with firm but smooth tannins and very good tactile persistence.
Lobster Causeway style. Covered in crunchy garlic bits. Awesome! We ate the salty garlic by itself too afterward.
Dungeness Crab with garlic sauce (3/10/19). Very light fry. Delicious sauce and shell was soft enough you could crunch through it.
We didn’t have the King Crab the first couple of times I went but we should have. So we got one on 3/10/19. Only $17 a pound or something!
King crab causeway style (3/10/19 and 9/15/19 and 12/22/19). Might have been fried but those garlic bits were so good!
King crab with garlic (3/10/19 and 9/15/19 and 12/22/19). Tender and delicious.
Conch. Chewy and interesting.
Curried Meat. Can’t remember which meat, maybe beef or mutton. Pretty delicious though.
Fried pork chop. I didn’t love the oily taste.
Sweet and sour pork chops (3/10/19 and 9/15/19). MUCH better than the oily ones.
Roast pork with crispy skin (12/22/19). Really great meat flavor and nice crispy skin.
Seb brought: 2010 Marcassin Pinot Noir Blue-Slide Ridge Vineyard. 95 points. In a great place. A showy wine highlighting ripe red fragrant fruits with a sweet edgy appeal. Quite pretty for a large scale pinot as slightly faded sour cherry fruits are well integrated with bright acidity and baking spice. Finishes really lasts. Quality stuff.
Pigeon (earlier and 3/10/19 and 9/15/19 and 12/22/19). Straight from the Promenade — but actually quite nice.
100 Flower Chicken (12/22/19). This is pressed chicken with crispy skin and shrimp paste. This particular version was excellent, quite awesome.
Chopped pork and string beans. Classic dish. Excellent verison with crunchy beans and lots of pork.
Chinese greens. tasty (surprisingly).
A different tasty green (3/10/19 and 9/15/19).
Stalks with Chinese sausage (3/10/19 and 12/22/19). Love that salty/sweet sausage. Offsets the fibrous stalks nicely.
A different type of stalky vegetable (12/22/19).
Fried tofu (3/10/19). Similar garlic crunch to the causeway style.
2015 Château Doisy-Daëne Grand Vin Sec. 93 points. Tasted like Durian! Very dry and very interesting.
Fried sweet and sour fish. Not bad. Typical orange sauce.
Fried rice.
Yin yang fried rice (earlier and 9/15/19 and 12/22/19). Fried rice is underneath and covered with pork and shrimp sauces. Delicious!
2002 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate. VM 93. Good deep ruby-red. Highly aromatic nose combines musky redcurrant and tobacco. Plush, broad and fine-grained; atypically sexy and showy for this wine, in much the same way that Montelena’s basic 2002 Napa cabernet is unusually pliant and rich. Finishes with big, dusty, but rather suave tannins. This offers early accessibility but has the material and structure for extended aging. The alcohol here is 14.3%, the highest since the 1978, which was 14.4%.
Chicken chow mein. I love these crispy noodle dishes. Great and very addictive once the sauce softens the noodles.
Adam brought: 2004 Harlan Estate Proprietary Red Wine. Parker 98. Another rating identical to that which was given in 2007 (when first tasted from bottle), the 2004 Harlan Estate is performing essentially the way I suggested in 2007 as it is one of the more precocious and accessible of the Harlan Estate wines to date. A great showing at this retrospective, this wine, which seems like a hypothetical blend of a Pauillac, St.-Estephe and Graves, represents around 1,500 cases from 40 acres of beautifully manicured hillside vineyards overlooking Oakville. Still dense purple to the rim, with notes of creme de cassis, charcoal, blackberry and sweet toast, the wine is full-bodied and voluptuously textured with the tannins largely resolved. But the density and richness suggest this wine can go a long, long way, even though the window for drinking it seems open and inviting already. A world-class, first-growth wine if there ever was one from Napa, this is simply an exquisite Harlan Estate that has atypically reached mid to late adolescence at the age of ten. That is great given the fact that these are 30- to 40-year wines – possibly even half-century wines. Drink it over the next 30 years.
Black pepper beef (earlier and 9/15/19). Vietnamese style dish, quite good.
French style beef with mushrooms (3/10/19). Very tender flavorful beef.
Steamed fish with ginger and soy. Too plain for my taste.
Coconut buns (earlier and 3/10/19).
Buns with pepper or something (12/22/19). Very plain buns with the dusted seasoning. Hmm.
I brought some pistachio gelato from home (which I made).
Red bean soup for dessert. Looked like the output of a bad case of food poisoning.
Close up 9/15/19.
After my advanced gelato class, trying a slightly new pistachio formulation — Pistachio Madeline Gelato — base uses my same awesome Pistachios from Bronte Sicily but also a small amount of egg yolk for extra body. I baked the Madelines from scratch and soaked them in hand made Grand Mariner syrup — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — oh my! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #IceCream #NomNom #dessert #Pistachio #lemon #orange #Sicily #GrandMariner #Madeline #cookie #baking
Getting whacky — Thai Peanut Coconut Lime Chili Gelato — Salty peanuts, Thai coconut cream, lime zest, and serrano chillies — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — almost too spicy! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #IceCream #NomNom #dessert #chili #spicy #thai #peanut #coconut #lime #SavorySweet #Serrano
9/15/19 two more gelati:
Cherry Cioccolato Fondente Gelato — working to squeeze the most chocolate humanly possible into a dairy gelato. This is 70% cocoa Valrhona and 100% Callebaut Chocolate base is my best yet — only 17% milk it has an INTENSE chocolate taste, plus house-made White Chocolate Amareno Cherry Ganache rounds it out — 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 #chocolate #valrhona #Callebaut #cherry #amareno
Matcha Almond Latte Gelato – Ceremonial Matcha Green Tea and Sicilian Noto Romano Almond gelato base — 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 #almond #matcha #GreenTea #Sicily
I like how they tagged Yarom’s chair with the bills.
Great wine lineup tonight (for Chinese).
The big boy with the manager.
Overall, a great time and really solid meal. Orignally, I thought Top Island isn’t in the league with Elite or such for high end Cantonese, but this whole feast was $35 a person with tax and tip! So considering with had Peking Duck, Lobster etc and it was all very tasty this was a steal. All the dishes were enjoyable and they have a huge menu. Plus, as Yarom says, “they treated us like Pharaohs.” I.e. we had great service as they were very warm and brought out all the dishes “slowly” (by Chinese standards). Too bad they don’t have this sort of quality on the Westside!
I also must chime in that in light of our 3/10/19 dinner I have to upgrade Top Island to one of the best SGV Cantonese places. The service is really great. They brought us our dishes in a carefully selected (wine friendly) order, one at a time. The prices on sometimes expensive things like lobster and king crab are really fabulous, and overall dish quality is extremely high. Almost every dish was excellent that night (and on a previous trip a couple weeks before I missed). Great place!
For the 9/15/19 and 12/22/19 dinner I continue my thinking that Top Island has a really top notch Cantonese kitchen. Food is really really good. Service is great too, although the place is a bit of a zoo given how big and popular it is. Our 12/22/19 was a hilarious CF of a dinner though — not in any way the restaurant’s fault. We had a table they said seated 12-14, which really seated about 10-12 (and 12 was pushing it) and then ended up with 15 people (because it’s hard to manage the numbers at these things). We were so packed in at this table, sitting an extra foot away so the chairs made it around. But most problematically, with 15 people the dishes only got around to about 12ish — and so it turned into a “lord of the flies” style frenzy. Total chaos — if a touch amusing.
For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.
or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!
And a bunch of wines from the second night:
12/22/19 wines:
Restaurant: Tasty Duck [1, 2, 3, 4]
Location: 1039 E Valley Blvd. Ste B102. San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 572-3885
Date: February 28, 2015
Cuisine: Chinese
Rating: Great Duck!
Tasty Duck is a regular spot with my Hedonist food and wine club.
The interior is jammed and the turnover is high. There isn’t even a space inch to stand while waiting for a table as the serves need what little space there is to reach the tables. Although tonight being Sunday, the crowds died down by 8pm.
NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 92. Pale orange. High-pitched red berry, orange zest and jasmine aromas, with suave mineral and smoky lees notes adding complexity. Spicy and precise on the palate, showing very good punch to its strawberry and bitter cherry flavors. Opens up smoothly with air and picks up a bitter rhubarb quality that lingers onto the long, tightly focused finish. This bottling showed more brawny character than many past renditions of this cuvée, but with no lack of vivacity.
The main event: Peking Duck. Not only was this delectable, with fantastic crispy skin and delicate meat, but it’s artfully arranged. We had two plates of these per table and it was a feeding frenzy!
Here are the traditional accompaniments, starting with excellent pancakes. One mystery question I must ask: why do Chinese restaurants insist on putting far too few pancakes and too little hoisin sauce on the table?
A pancake in the making. For some reason tonight the hoisin seemed saltier and less sweet than usual, so wasn’t quite as good. The meat was awesome as always.
From my cellar: 2011 Coche-Dury Bourgogne Blanc. VM 88. The 2011 Bourgogne is an excellent introduction to the domaine. Tension, energy and focus are the signatures in a wine that announces the Coche-Dury house style beautifully. Citrus and white flowers abound on the finish.
agavin: I brought this way overkill pedigree, which had a long citrus finish. Very nice.
Cold appetizers. Spicy beef, seaweed salad, cold chicken.
2006 Sine Qua Non The Hoodoo Man. VM 94. Sine Qua Non’s 2006 White Wine The Hoodoo Man is insanely beautiful. Remarkably fresh for a nine year old white, the 2006 The Hoodoo Man will change readers’ perceptions about what California white wines are and can be. A rich mélange of apricot, peach, honey and exotic white flowers graces the palate as this voluptuous, intense, yet remarkably vibrant wine shows off its utterly compelling personality. Slightly reductive, the 2006 needs a good bit of air. Today, the 2006 shows no signs whatsoever of fading. It should continue to drink well for another 5-10 years. The Hoodoo Man can only be called an absolute triumph in viticulture and winemaking. Time and again, I thought I had mixed up my glasses and that this was 2013 White Wine Résisté. The Hoodoo Man is 39% Roussanne, 31% Viognier and 30% Chardonnay; 75% from John Alban’s vineyard and 25% from Eleven Confessions. The wine was aged in 58% new oak, the rest 1-2 year-old barrels and a dollop of stainless steel.
French style Beef. Extremely tender and delicious, almost sweet, morsels of filet.
2012 Maurice Schoech Riesling Kaefferkopf. Middle dry.
Their interesting take on “walnut shrimp.” The fried shrimp, sweet mayo sauce, and walnuts is supplemented with pineapple! Not my favorite rendition of this dish. Still good, but I can live without the pineapple. We’ve gotten spoiled.
2012 Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Leistenberg Riesling Kabinett. Vinous 87. Nectarine, pine nuts and lemon oil on the nose. Delicate tropical fruit flavors are brightened by a salty twang. Refreshing acidity gives a feminine character to the finish. Nicely balanced.
Duck part 2 (with bean sprouts).
2010 Cherry Pie (Hundred Acre) Pinot Noir Stanly Ranch Vineyard. VM 90. The appropriately named 2010 Cherry Pie offers up juicy red cherries, mint, cinnamon and cloves. In this vintage, the Cherry Pie has tons of energy and minerality to support the racy, sleek fruit. Sweet floral notes add lift on the finish. The 2010 is a gorgeous, exuberant Cherry Pie with great balance and overall harmony.
agavin: a very contentious wine at the table. Ron and I thought it tasted like cherry cough syrup. Way too high alcohol for pinot noir to my Burgundy pallet. Those who like more of a sledgehammer to the face loved it.
Some amazing Shanghai style soup dumplings (XLB). Tasty little morsels stuffed with pork and broth. We got 2 orders of these.
2012 Louis Jadot Gevrey-Chambertin. Burghound 89-91. A ripe yet markedly cool and restrained nose offers up notes of cassis, spice, earth, underbrush and menthol. There is a lovely mineral streak to the rich and relatively large-scaled flavors that possess excellent mid-palate concentration and plenty of verve on the complex and impressively persistent finish. This is a fine Gevrey villages and worth your attention plus it is sufficiently pliant to enjoy young but should reward longer term cellaring as well.
agavin: just super young one note village Burg. Not bad, but way too primary for my taste.
Simple vegetables. These barely had sauce, but yet were surprisingly yummy. They did have an “oil” flavor (in a good way) and were very light and crunchy.
2009 Château Branaire-Ducru. VM 92+. Red with a pale rim. The fruity nose hints at macerated red cherries, bitter chocolate and dried herbs. Then big, fat and soft on the palate, with fresh, harmonious acidity providing adequate lift to the black cherry, chocolate and sweet spice flavors. The long, plush finish offers a concentrated coffee and red fruit cocktail quality. Still very young and likely to develop more complexity. As good as this is, Branaire-Ducru is one estate where the 2010 will likely turn out to better than the 2009.
A very nice mixed fried rice.
2013 Sine Qua Non Grenache ♀. Super massive and extracted grape juice.
Pork hock. Some kind of crazy pig leg. Some serious fat here and the skin was a bit mushy, but the meat fell off the bone and was incredibly tender and delicious.
See the meat.
Giving her the bone!
2009 E. Guigal Châteauneuf-du-Pape. VM 92. Deep red. Potent cherry, redcurrant and floral scents are given a musky, earthy touch by a hint of rhubarb. Sappy, sweet and broad on entry, then tighter in the mid-palate, offering bitter cherry and raspberry preserve flavors and a touch of licorice. The clinging finish is shaped by silky, even tannins and given bite by a hint of cracked pepper.
Corn soup. Meat, peas, corn, carrots, egg. Super simple. Incredibly delicious. I don’t know what it was about this soup, both flavor and texture, but I had 3 bowls!
1994 Bodegas Muga Rioja Torre Muga. VM 94+. Bright, deep red. Expressive aromas of red- and blackcurrant, plum, tar, tobacco, and nutty, spicy oak. Sweet entry, then very concentrated and silky; really expands in the mouth. Strong acidity gives the flavors a penetrating, lively quality. Very long, subtle finishing flavors supported by firm but not harsh tannins. As suave as this extremely impressive wine is right now, it will be better for several years of additional bottle aging.
agavin: certainly my red wine of the night, as it had age and complexity. Really nice.
Lamb with green onions. A nice tender lamb.
2006 Inniskillin Vidal Icewine Niagara Peninsula VQA. GV94+. #1; COLOR-medium to dark golden; NOSE-pineapple jam exploding; apricot; mango; exotic; this is seductive; gorgeous nose; canned peaches; PALATE-huge viscosity; almost like cream; completely coats your palate; gorgeous pineapple; peach and apricot; the delicious factor is simply off the charts; virtually almost impossible not to like this; the fruit is fantastic; I would like a little more acidity, but this is delicious
Crispy whole red cod with sweet and sour sauce. A really nice fish, but VERY sweet and VERY fried.
2013 Larkin Cabernet Franc.
Beef rolls with BBQ beef and cilantro. Really nice, tasted like rolled up Pho. The shell was a bit chewy and tough, which detracted.
Overall, another fantastic meal. Tasty Duck isn’t the most adventurous SGV place, but they do an excellent job. They were super friendly and willing to serve us the dishes one at a time over a long period. Tonight was better than on some of the overcrowded Saturday’s when they don’t have as much bandwidth for us.
The duck was first rate, as good as Peking duck gets — more or less. Although I was disappointed in the hoisin tonight. Some other dishes, like the pork hock, and the XLB were amazing too. A few others just so so, like the shrimp. Tasty Duck is all about the duck.
Also, as usual for Chinese, the order of the food is so crazy from a wine perspective nothing really matches up right.
Restaurant: Tasty Duck [1, 2, 3]
Location: 1039 E Valley Blvd. Ste B102. San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 572-3885
Date: February 28, 2015
Cuisine: Chinese
Rating: Great Duck!
Tasty Duck is a regular spot with my Hedonist food and wine club. Tonight is not only duck night, but “high” (or at least higher) end wine night.
The interior is jammed and the turnover is high. There isn’t even a space inch to stand while waiting for a table as the serves need what little space there is to reach the tables.
NV Charles Mignon Champagne Cuvée Comte de Marne Millésime Grand Cru. 90 points. Medium(-) lemon, fine sub-mm bubbles enamanating from numerous point sources. Medium(-) aromas of lemon, cooked green apple and biscuit. Dry, medium(+) tart acidity, medium(-) body and alcohol (@12.5% abv). Medium flavors of green apple, lemon, mineral, and touch honey/biscuit. Focused finish, medium length with cutting finish. Soft delicate mousse. Great as aperitif.
The main event: Peking Duck. Not only was this delectable, with fantastic crispy skin and delicate meat, but it’s artfully arranged. We had two plates of these per table and it was a feeding frenzy!
Here are the traditional accompaniments, starting with excellent pancakes. One mystery question I must ask: why do Chinese restaurants insist on putting far too few pancakes and too little hoisin sauce on the table?
Hoisin sauce and green onions.
From my cellar: 2000 Domaine Ramonet Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 93. Surprisingly open and expressive with wonderfully complex and nuanced aromas that reveal a dazzling array of floral and fruit elements followed by rich, ripe and somewhat more full-bodied flavors than usual but the additional weight is more than buffered by the racy finishing acidity and almost painfully intense back end. This is presently a good deal more forward than the ’00 Bâtard though there is clearly enough material to suggest that this will benefit from another 3 to perhaps 5 years in the cellar.
agavin: our bottle was round, open, with caramel notes. Mature and delicious.
Cumin lamb. Strong, but not spicy. A typical specimen, but with tender flavorful lamb. Some places border on mouton.
A 1971 Riesling Kabinett. I can’t even find this on Cellar Tracker. I think this was more than a bit past by my standards.
Their interesting take on “walnut shrimp.” The fried shrimp, sweet mayo sauce, and walnuts is supplemented with pineapple! Not my favorite rendition of this dish. We’ve gotten spoiled.
1976 Hugel et Fils Gewurztraminer Vendange Tardive SGN Sélectionneé par Jean Hugel. 92 points. Metallic nose like wet pennies with some candied nuts. Earthy funk initially this really started gaining weight in the glass coming up with some ripe red apple notes later on. Still good and interesting to drink.
agavin: this one was pretty good, if fully mature.
Sauteed A Chop. We had no idea what “a chop” was but it’s apparently some kind of boc choy? Anywhichway it was a pretty good garlicky green.
From my cellar: 1990 Georges Noellat Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Boudots. agavin 89. At first this was lean with a bit of a funky/cork vibe. After about 30 minutes this blew off and I found it rather nice and enjoyable, if fully mature.
Crispy whole red cod with sweet and sour sauce. A really nice fish, similar to a couple weeks ago at the Shanghai place.
2007 Forey Père et Fils Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Perrières. Burghound 90. Here the aromas run more toward cassis flowers along with pretty and wild red berry fruits that are followed by rich, full and quite minerally middle weight flavors that are beautifully detailed, textured and solidly persistent, all wrapped in a subtle oak influenced finish. I like the intensity here and the balance is impeccable and if not a wine of great depth, there is enough here to be more than just interesting.
Some amazing Shanghai style soup dumplings (XLB). Tasty little morsels stuffed with pork and broth. We got about 4 orders of these.
2006 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Russian River Valley. Burghound 87. A high-toned raspberry and cranberry fruit nose that also displays subtle spice and menthol hints introduces round, supple and easy to like flavors up until the finish that is overtly warm if attractively sappy. Be sure to keep this cool because the warmth really comes up if the temperature rises even slightly.
2011 Tamarack Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon. 89 points. Plum notes, pepper spell on opening, strong tannins. Decanted for 4 hours and opened up. Probably should not decant more than an hour.
French style Beef. Extremely tender and delicious, almost sweet, morsels of filet.
2011 Charles Krug Winery (Peter Mondavi Family) Cabernet Sauvignon Yountville. 86 points. The heavy tastes were present: some cocoa, some tobacco, some rose hip. But none of the lighter stuff needed to even it out. The nose was quite nice and lighter than the palate. Mouthfeel was a bit too sharp.
Sticky rice with BBQ eel. A new dish. The eel was great. The rice had a nice texture, but the flavor was a bit earthy?
2005 Canon la Gaffeliere. Parker 94. For opulence, decadence, and sexiness, this 2005 is hard to resist. One of the vintage’s most flamboyant efforts, it is a gorgeous blend of 55% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. With a stunningly exotic nose of espresso roast, a juicy meat and herb concoction, spice box, chocolate, incense, and copious quantities of sweet, ripe black cherry and blackberry fruit, this full-throttle St.-Emilion exhibits good structure (because of the vintage’s sound acid levels) and high, but velvety tannin. It is a brilliant effort from proprietor Stephan von Neipperg. I would not discount its aging potential as the 1990, which I thought would have a short aging curve, is still going strong at age 18. The 2005 should easily last 20-25 years. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2030.
Oyster mushrooms. These looks and felt a bit like Shanghai rice cakes. They were pretty delicious though.
2008 Alban Vineyards Grenache. Parker 93-95. The 2008 Grenache is just plain beautiful at this stage. A striking bouquet redolent of dark red fruit, flowers and spices melds into a core of textured fruit. This is all purity and finesse. I can hardly wait to taste the finished wine. This is very fresh for a wine that has been in barrel for nearly three years. The 2008 Grenache is 98% Grenache and 2% Syrah. Anticipated maturity: 2016-2018.
Beef rolls with BBQ beef and cilantro. Really nice, tasted like rolled up Pho. The shell was a bit chewy and tough, which detracted.
2004 Dal Forno Romano Valpolicella Superiore. Parker 93. Sweet, open aromatics lead to hints of dark blueberries, blackberries, spices and minerals as the 2004 Valpolicella Superiore gradually opens in the glass. Today the wine comes across as shut down, but the imposing tannins are also rather fine, suggesting that with time the wine’s inner sweetness will gradually emerge. Readers who want to try their luck with this wine earlier should open the bottle a good eight hours or so prior to drinking it. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2019.
agavin: even having been open and decanted for hours, it was still massive.
Pork hock. Some kind of crazy pig leg. Some serious fat here and the skin was a bit mushy, but the meat fell off the bone and was incredibly tender and delicious.
A very nice mixed fried rice.
This ancient 1959 Beerenaulese came out like motor oil. Ridiculously dark. It wasn’t perfectly balanced, but it was surprisingly likable if you have a taste for the sweet and thick like I do.
Pan fried noodles. A bit greasy, but okay.
1989 Raymond-Lafon. Parker 91-92. The 1989 exhibits aromas of honeyed pineapple/tropical fruit and toasty new oak, as well as an exotic, flashy perfume that is not as pronounced in either the 1990 or 1988. The 1989 exhibits less botrytis than the other two vintages. The wine possesses an opulent, full-bodied, exotic, lavishly rich personality, moderate sweetness, and huge quantity of extract, glycerin, and alcohol in its finish. The wine is also extremely young and unevolved. Anticipated maturity: 2000-2025.
agavin: Nice, although a little unbalanced.
Overall, another fantastic meal. The total damage, including tax and a whopping 30% tip was $42 a person! “Inflated” because of our multiple ducks. They were very friendly and willing to serve us the dishes one at a time over a long period, but the restaurant was a bit over busy and the duck came the microsecond we sat down. It was frustrating to be dealing with opening the wine, pictures, and the like and to be launched into the feeding frenzy. In previous trips we’ve had the cold appetizers. Then they got going a little too fast with the food. We had to tell them to slow down (which they did). Plus as we were jammed into the back corner and there was only one narrow entrance point the overworked servers had trouble handling the “basics” like water, plate changes and the like. As the place emptied out they caught up a bit. They certainly try hard and are extremely nice. It was just too crowded and too little space.
The duck was first rate, as good as Peking duck gets — more or less. Some other dishes, like the pork hock, and the XLB were amazing too. A few others just so so, like the shrimp. The eel was interesting, and a nice addition. Tasty Duck is all about the duck.
For more Hedonist adventures or
For more LA Chinese reviews click here.
Instead of the mild Chinese desserts we headed over to Salju for some shave ice:
Pineapple snow with passion fruit, almond jelly, blackberries, and boba.
Mango snow with strawberries, blueberries, passion fruit syrup and almond jelly.
Coffee snow with coffee jelly, syrup, and almond jelly.
Coconut snow with peanut butter cups, egg custard, and condensed milk.
Green tea snow with chocolate chips.
Restaurant: Elite Restaurant [1, 2, 3]
Location: 700 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 282-9998
Date: February 22, 2015
Cuisine: Cantonese Banquet
Rating: Elite!
Elite is well known as one of great LA’s top dimsum places, but less well known is how great a Cantonese banquet place it is. For Chinese New Year, my Hedonist group decided to put this to the test.
We took over one of the private rooms with two tables and a big set menu.
2004 Domaine Carneros Brut. 88 points. Outstanding! Crisp and refreshing, not sweet – right amount of ‘dry’. Very well balanced!
NV Laurent-Perrier Champagne Grand Siècle. 93 points. Rich, deep complex nose; apples, caramel, lite dough/yeast nose; a real bouquet, no pure flavors; Intense mth!, foamy bubbles, grt. long fin.–balanced, elegant, and classic.
2005 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut. AG 92-94. Bright yellow-gold. Heady floral-accented citrus and orchard fruits on the nose, with smoky mineral and floral overtones adding complexity. Velvety and chewy in texture, offering deep, juicy orange and poached pear flavors and suave honey and chamomile nuances. Blends precision with power, finishing with a distinct mineral quality and excellent persistence.
Peanuts on the table start off many a real Chinese meal.
2009 Château Le Puy Côtes de Francs Marie Cecile. 95 points. Acidity and sweetness comes together at once and balance, young but seductive, a little bit dense after 60 mins. It’s not delicious but very very good indeed, I love it…actually. Aftertaste is spicy finished but elegant, perfume, layers, dimensions, warm and beautifully dry and long….very long finished.
Suckling pig. We preordered this little fellow. He’s kinda sad, but he sure tasted great. Really just a fabulous bit of pork and cracklings. As good as any suckling pig I’ve had.
Salt and slightly sweet brown sauce for the pig.
From my cellar: 1999 Louis Jadot Corton-Charlemagne Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. Tanzer 94+. Subtly complex, precise aromas of apple, pear, minerals, mace and nutmeg. Gripping, vibrant and dense, with compelling vinosity and strong acidity. Offers captivating inner-mouth perfume of white flowers. Almost tannic on the back end, but has the sheer buffering material to stand up to the powerful structure and acids. A brilliant wine, finishing with a wonderfully tactile quality and superb length and grip.
2011 Rhys Chardonnay Horseshoe Vineyard. AG 93+. A model of precision, finesse and delineation, the 2011 Chardonnay Horseshoe Vineyard bristles with the essence of honey, white truffle, orange peel and nectarine. The 2011 needs a few years to drop some of its baby fat, but the direction it is likely to take becomes apparent with time in the glass. Watching the wine literally become crystalline and pure with air is quite an amazing experience.
Walnut shrimp. A white guy dish, but very tasty nonetheless. This one was fairly heavily fried, with light mayo. Served very hot.
2001 Sine Qua Non Albino. Tanzer 89. Perfumed aromas of tropical fruits, honey, oatmeal and nutty oak. Sweet and silky in the mouth, with apricot, peach and nutty oak flavors along with more exotic hints of mango and pineapple. Quite oaky on the back end, with a slightly dry, cyanic edge and a flavor of toasted almond. More dominated by its wood than most recent vintages of the Sine Qua Non white blend.
agavin: unfortunately, our bottle was totally oxidized and gone 🙁
2011 DuMOL Chardonnay Chloe. Tanzer 93+. Bright yellow, a bit less lucid than the Estate, which had already been racked off its lees. Captivating, sharply delineated aromas of citrus peel, orange marmalade and iodine. Large-scaled, sweet and thick with extract; wonderfully full, plush and seamless. Ripe lemon-candy acidity frames and intensifies the wine’s citrus and stone fruit flavors. These Ritchie Vineyard vines were planted to an old Wente clone in 1972.
2010 Kongsgaard Chardonnay. Tanzer 95. Very bright yellow-gold, a bit less deep than the 2011. Expressive aromas of tangerine, hazelnutty lees and sexy oak. The palate boasts great richness and sweetness, with a wonderfully sappy character to its explosive soft citrus and stone fruit flavors. Comes across as sweeter than the 2011, but harmonious acidity gives it beautiful balance. The 2010s finished their alcohol fermentations up to 16 months after the vintage, later than the malos, noted Kongsgaard, adding that this has given them a lot of weight. But this wine finishes bright and very long, with a firm spine of acidity.
Fried fish. Like super fish and chips (minus the chips).
2011 Marcassin Pinot Noir Marcassin Vineyard. 92 points. A lot of people loved this. To me, while there was a strong ripe fruit undercurrent, the heavy heavy oaking dominated.
2004 Kistler Pinot Noir Cuvée Catherine. Josh Raynolds 93. Dark violet. Intensely aromatic nose offers powerful blackberry and plum compote aromas. Very fresh in the mouth (the pH is 3.4, Kistler says), with vibrant red and dark berry flavors and taut minerality. Dry, focused and pure on the finish, with outstanding persistence and lingering dark berry flavors. Serious pinot: a great marriage of sweet fruit and soil tones.
2009 Rex Hill Pinot Noir Willamette Valley. Josh Raynolds 88. Bright red. Spicy raspberry and red cherry aromas are complicated by lively floral and herbal qualities. Sappy and round, with sweet red fruit and candied rose flavors, supple tannins and subtle spiciness. This open-knit pinot finishes with a touch of heat.
Roast pigeon. Succulent little birds, heads and all.
From my cellar: 1995 Louis Jadot Echezeaux. Tanzer 88. Impressive deep ruby-red. Perfumed, slightly candied aromas of red berries and smoky, charred oak. Supple and sweet, but a wine of only moderate intensity. Finishes with slightly dry tannins.
2005 Dupont-Tisserandot Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Les Cazetiers. Burghound 92. A very ripe extract of black pinot fruit nose liberally laced with cassis and warm earth nuances introduces rich, full and mouth coating flavors that are equally ripe, powerful, textured and explosive on the hugely long finish. This is impressive with a real sense of volume in the mouth and clearly built to age.
Lobster! Some awesome tender lobster in garlic pepper sauce. A milder sauce than at some places, which allowed the lobster meat flavor to come through.
2003 Rosenblum Cellars Zinfandel Reserve St. Peter’s Church Vineyard.
Peking duck. Well at least the skin of the peking duck, with little folding buns, crispy shrimp chips, and green onions.
The duck was okay. Not as good as some Beijing places.
2007 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Josh Raynolds 93-96. Glass-staining ruby. Highly expressive, exotically perfumed bouquet of black raspberry, potpourri, smoky minerals and anise. A smooth, silky midweight with flavors of sweet red and dark berries complicated by notes of candied flowers and zesty minerals. Really clings on the finish, with the red fruit flavors refusing to let up.
2005 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Josh Raynolds 94. Deep ruby. Seductively aromatic bouquet of red and dark berries, fresh flowers and minerals, with subtle garrigue and baking spice character. A round, creamy midweight with deep, sweet raspberry and blackcurrant flavors and a finish featuring gently gripping tannins and excellent smoky persistence. More civilized and fruity than the 2006 and 2004 releases from this top producer.
Eggplant. This is the typical sizzling (Szechuan) eggplant. Great stuff. Soft without being mushy with a nice garlicky flavor.
2004 Pax Syrah The Terraces Alder Springs Vineyard. Tanzer 90+. Saturated medium ruby. Extremely unevolved nose features some exotic suggestions of apricot, peach and spice. Powerful, firmly built and superripe, with penetrating acidity and a distinct peppery element from the fermentation with the stems. Strong in tannic acidity, notes Mahle. As ripe as this is, there’s nothing heavy about it. Still, this very juicy, tight wine is distinctly edgy today and is dominated by its spine. Needs patience.
Duck meat. After we only got the skin, we were wondering what happened to the meat. It came back with the “duck sauce.”
2005 Vinedos de Mancuso Vino de la Tierra Valdejalón.
Egg shrimp. These shrimp were breaded with a special coating of duck yolk. A lot of people liked them but they were too pasty and rich for my taste.
2005 Cos d’Estournel. Parker 98. While I am not convinced the 2005 Cos d’Estournel will eclipse the compelling 2003 Cos, it is unquestionably another superb classic from proprietor Michel Reybier and his brilliant winemaker, Jean-Guillaume Prats. Made from an unusually high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon (78%) and the balance mostly Merlot with a tiny dollop of Cabernet Franc, this superb effort requires plenty of time in the bottle. It boasts an inky/purple color as well as a glorious perfume of licorice, Asian spices, creme de cassis, blackberries, and toasty oak. This full-bodied St.-Estephe is exceptionally powerful, pure, and dense with a layered mid-palate that builds like a skyscraper. While there are massive tannins, they are remarkably velvety and well-integrated in this big, backstrapping effort that should enjoy an unusually long life. Forget it for 8-10 years, and drink it between 2017-2040.
Pea shoots. Colon sweeper! But quite nice actually.
1987 Ritchie Creek Cabernet Sauvignon. RJ 94. Rich, ripe, fruity nose, opened great, tasty, touch of pepper on the palate, long finish.
agavin: our bottle was in great shape. very nice.
Fried rice. The meat was beef satay, which is a new one and very slightly Singaporean in style, but it was good.
2010 Miner Family The Oracle. 91 points. nose of black cherry fruit, earth and a touch of cassis, more of the same on the palate, best wine tasted today at Miner, mouth filling, delicious and sweet like cherry jam preserves, medium/big body and a long finish.
Spring chicken. As in ain’t no spring chicken. But this one was. Actually, it was one of the best chicken’s I’ve had. Really perfectly tender and moist.
Singapore style noodles. While I like the usual Elite crispy noodles better, these were enjoyable too.
2011 Mollydooker Shiraz The Velvet Glove. Parker 97. Very deep purple-black in color, the 2011 Velvet Glove is chock full of ripe and spicy blackberries, fresh blueberries and creme de cassis aromas that are accented by Chinese five spice notes and hints of chocolate, vanilla and some tar. Full-bodied, it is ripe and rich with a nice line of acid and medium-firm, fine-grained tannins. Concentrated and persistent on the finish, it shows beautiful elegance and freshness and is a nicely delineated and expressive example of the varietal and its regional home. However, it needs another year or more in bottle. Drink it from 2015 to 2025+.
Fried fish. This guy had a ton of meat on him. Relatively light too for fried.
1997 Chateau Montelena Viognier Late Harvest. 85 points. Sweet, but a bit akilter.
Mango pudding. Awesome. With that silky smooth texture and mango flavor, it almost had bubblegum undertones. I ate three.
Walnut soup. Never had this before. Hot walnut soup. Yep. Not my favorite.
Another awesome Chinese feast. A lot of these dishes were stunning, like the pig and the chicken. The private room was great and we had even better than usual (for Chinese) wines. Certainly a massive and massively enjoyable blow out.
Afterward, just two blocks away, is one of my favorite foot massage places!
For more LA Chinese reviews click here.
Restaurant: Chuan Ren Bai Wei
Location: 6420 Rosemead Blvd. San Gabriel, CA 91775. (626) 286-5508
Date: December 28, 2014 & June 16, 2015
Cuisine: Beijing / Szechuan Chinese
Rating: Great!
Just six months ago I ate in this same space, but it was a different Chinese restaurant at the time, Beijing Duck House. Now, due to the rising popularity of Szechuan cuisine it has been rebooted. It still looks the same. It still serves Peking Duck. But there’s a lot more pepper on the menu.
2012 Gérard Boulay Sancerre La Comtesse Monts Damnés. IWC 93. Bright yellow. Spicy aromas of tangerine, lemongrass and cardamom, with a subtle floral twist. Tightly wound, offering citrus and spice flavors, with excellent clarity and finesse. The tenacious finish is long, saline and pure. This is one of the finest Sancerres of the vintage.
Boiled peanuts. On the table at most real Chinese restaurants.
Cold appetizers. Shredded potato. Cured spicy meats and cabbage. Beef tendon.
Water. The mason jar is one little tidbit of trend that has crept into this otherwise fairly old school SGV place.
2005 Gérard Raphet Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Lavaux St. Jacques. Burghound 91-93. A gorgeous and seductive mix of red pinot, raspberry, cool minerality and a touch of earth complements to perfection the full, rich, deep, serious and intense flavors that manage to pull off being powerful and concentrated yet supple and delicious without compromising in the slightest the balance, which is not easy to do. A really lovely 1er that offers grand cru quality.
They have a real duck carver.
Peking duck. This was one of the better peking duck’s we’ve had. Maybe not quite so good as Tasty Duck, but the meat was fabulous. The skin could have been a tad crispier, but the hoison sauce was top notch.
On our second visit the duck came in this cute duck plate.
Awesome hoisin sauce.
Pancakes and condiments.
Leftover skin is for some reason placed on a separate plate.
2011 Louis Jadot Meursault Les Narvaux. 90 points. Nice strong vanilla notes.
The second of the “3 ways” for Peking duck is the duck soup.
Duck soup. A mild but pleasant broth with bits of meat and tofu.
Duck lettuce cups. The third of the ways. Not really that exciting.
House pancake. A nice fluffy bit of fresh bread with a little sweetness.
2004 Newton Chardonnay Unfiltered. 90 points. Well integrated with pear and apple notes and overtones of oak and vanilla, but not cloyingly so… Great body, mouthfeel and smooth finish.
Bean noodles. This is mixed up and the mung bean noodles are coated in a peanuty/spicy/tangy sauce. The sauce was awesome, with a bit of a mustard component. The tofu had a spongy texture, but the dish was overall quite nice.
Pork fried rice.
It’s evil cousin, chicken fried rice.
Spicy and sour glass noodles. I love this dish, with it’s heat, both hot and numbing, and strange vinegar tang. Not for the mild mannered or uninitiated.
You can see the noodles here. And the pepper!
2013 Errazuriz Chardonnay Wild Ferment Aconcagua Costa. 90 points. On the nose, a bit of young Burgundy-like tar on the nose in addition to some lively tropical fruit. Rich fruit on the palate, along with the aforementioned tar in the background. Nice acidic foil that is approachable now but should contribute to aging this a bit. Very approachable and enjoyable now, but I suspect better and more integrated in 2+ years.
Sweet corn. Pretty much what it looks like.
Cumin lamb. A really nice version of this dish. A lot of good lamb flavor.
Sizzling beef. Isn’t the animal-shaped dish cute?
2007 Dönnhoff Schloßböckelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Felsentürmchen Spätlese. 91 points. Ripe apples, nectarine and slight tinned peach aromas dominating. A slight struck flint quality and also some creamy notes. In the mouth the flavours of ripe, but slightly tart, red apple is to the fore – on this tasting the acidity is a little spiky for the residual sugar but it really is very good. Fresh and lovely, I think this wine has a long life ahead of it.
Whole fish in peppers. The last part of the name is true. There wasn’t so much fish, even if the pan was huge.
But there sure were a lot of peppers, peanuts, lotus root, garlic and the like. The sauce was actually pretty darn good (and hot).
Fish with two chilies. Under that mound of tangy chili sauce (in green and red) is another fish. It was pretty darn good.
1998 Nikolaihof Riesling Federspiel Steinriesler. 93 points. Light on its feet, pure, focused with bright citrus and pear fruit, a stony mineral undercurrent, and gentle floral and high toned herbal accents. Seamless and very polished on the palate.
Kung Pao Chicken. This slightly unusual take on the classic was hot AND sweet. Very interesting, and delicious!
Spicy chicken. This classic triple fried dry woked chicken was amazing. It was hot in both ways, and full of intense fried flavor. Very salty.
Have a few peppers!
Sweet and sour spareribs. Bony, very fried, and quite tasty.
2005 Faiveley Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Chaignots. Burghound 88-91. Strong wood influence currently dominates the dark berry and black raspberry-infused nose that precedes the somewhat woody medium weight flavors that are round and sweet with fine depth and complexity but the wood is not subtle and it causes me to question whether it will cause the finish to eventually dry out?
Spicy noodles. Kind of a pepper noodle soup with bacon.
Dan dan mein. Tasty, but way way too soup to really be proper dan dan. The sauce on the mung bean noodles was closer.
2011 Faiveley Monthélie Les Champs-Fulliot. IWC 89-91. Good bright red. Vibrant aromas of cherry and pungent minerals convey a strong limestone character. Then sappy and serious on the palate, richer and deeper but less open than the Duresses. Finishes with big, rich tannins and noteworthy persistence. Very suave and structured Monthelie with good mid-term aging potential.
Shredded potato. The more or less typical Hunan / Szechuan version of this dish.
Vegetable dry hot pot. Mostly cauliflower. Nice spicy flavor. Similar to the dish (and only dish) served at Tasty Dining.
More peppers! Perhaps you sense a theme.
2007 Domaine de la Mordoree Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee de la Reine des Bois. Parker 97. Evolving beautifully, the 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee de La Reine des Bois has shed some of its crazy tannin and is showing a more layered, voluptuous profile. Possessing beautiful kirsch, blackberry, candied licorice, flowers and lavender, it offers knockout richness and decadence to go with brilliant purity of fruit, superb concentration, and a full-bodied, layered mouthfeel. While I don’t think it matches the ’01 or ’10, it’s an incredible bottle of wine that can be consumed anytime over the coming 10-15 years.
Lamb skewers. Nice cumin flavor.
MaPo tofu. One of my favorites in general. This was a fine rendition. Not the best I’ve ever had, but certainly still had that nice soft texture and gradual heat.
2010 DeRose Zinfandel Dryfarmed Old Vines Cedolini Vineyard.
Dumplings. Very nice straight up steamed potstickers. No sauce was in evidence, so we made due with Hoisin.
Kung Pao shrimp. Same sauce as the chicken above. Fabulous dish actually, even if not totally typical (with that spicy sweet vibe).
Fish filet boiled with green peppers. I couldn’t resist photoing this at a neighboring table. This is a Szechuan classic, with more of an emphasis on the numbing peppercorns (see them floating in the broth?).
Mixed Szechwan skewers. Little random bits in hot sauce.
Morning glory / Ong choy. Or some similar colon sweeper.
Overall, another highly enjoyable Chinese meal. The duck was on par with Tasty Duck and the other dishes were arguably better. This place was good before, and it’s even better now. Really, this was some very enjoyable food. A number of dishes were off the charts like the “spicy chicken.”
It should be noted that service was very good. On our second visit, our server Lulu did a fabulous job handling our “chaos.” She helped out with the ordering, managed the pacing well (not always the case at Chinese) and along with the other staff really were on point replacing plates, providing napkins, and the like. At one point when I was hunting for toothpicks she even went and brought some on a plate!
After all that heat we felt the need to cool off with a pair of massive shave ices:
Mango shaved ice with almond jelly, mango jelly, strawberries, and vanilla ice cream.
Strawberry shaved ice with almond jelly, vanilla ice cream, and honey boba.
Rose tea.
Then finished off with a nice foot massage next door. Ah, the SGV.
