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Tasty Duck Will Bring You Luck

Sep30

Restaurant: Tasty Duck [1, 2, 3]

Location: 1039 E Valley Blvd. Ste B102. San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 572-3885

Date: September 28, 2013

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Great Duck!

My Hedonist food and wine club loves the SGV. This community 20 minutes East of Downtown LA boasts a staggering array of good Chinese restaurants and Tasty Duck is one of our regular spots. Even though its intensely crowded, we shoe horned 23 people in on a busy Saturday night. Of course this meant 11-12 people at tables meant for 8-10, but what’s a little elbow in your pancake among friends?

NV Pierre Péters Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Cuvée de Réserve. Burghound 93. A stunningly elegant nose of pure floral, Granny Smith apples, spice and freshly sliced lemon complements to perfection the intense and equally pure flavors that possess excellent punch like remain delicate and ultra-refined on the balanced and persistent finish. The supporting mousse displays a very find bead and the overall impression is one of subtlety and grace. Not only is this a wonderful effort but the value it offers it beyond stunning.

Cold appetizers: Jellyfish (top left), wine chicken (top), and beef (bottom). This kind of plate is very traditional in China. The beef was my favorite, marinated, a bit salty, and smoky.

Some white Bordeaux that was beyond gone. Too bad!

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. Excellent pancakes, hoison sauce, and scallions and apple/pear. One mystery question I must ask: why do Chinese restaurants insist on putting far too few pancakes and too little hoison sauce on the table? We had to ask for refills about four times (which they happily brought).

2006 Sine Qua Non Autrement Dit. 90 points. Very nice blueberry/strawberry nose. not hot on the nose. really nice full palate and mouthfeel with a nice mix of red and blue fruits, and integrated earthiness. did not noticably detect any heat or wood on this. certainly a bigger and different type of rose, but this bottle was nicely restrained and seemed in good balance tonight.

The best American rose I’ve yet had. Rather wonderful.

Cumin lamb. A typical specimen, but with tender flavorful lamb. Some places border on mouton.

2010 Samuel Billaud Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. Burghound 92. While there is a trace of exotic fruit to the otherwise very pure aromas of white flower, citrus, wet stone and seaweed, this offers ample Chablis character. There is an attractive succulence to the fleshy middle weight flavors that exude a fine minerality on the clean, dry, linear and overtly saline-infused finish. Like the straight Chablis, this too evidences a hint of bitterness though it should pass in time.

French style Beef. Extremely tender and delicious, almost sweet, morsels of filet.

1971 Weingut Paul Ayl Ayler Kupp Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel. Unfortunately a bit over the hill.

Some amazing Shanghai style soup dumplings. Tasty little morsels stuffed with pork and broth.

1994 Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Heimbourg Vendange Tardive. Parker 99! These wines are made in frightfully tiny quantities, and are so rich that they make Chateau d’Yquem look like an under-nourished wine. Truly the stuff of legends, these possess 15%-18% residual sugar. All three will age for 40-50 years, but will anyone wait that long? They are “off the charts” in terms of flavor extraction, balance, quality, and the lavish quantity of extract and intensity they possess.

Wine of the night for sure!

Look who’s coming to dinner!

Crispy whole red cod with sweet and sour sauce. A really nice fish, similar to a couple weeks ago at the Shanghai place.

Bok chow and I think mushrooms, hard to tell. Mild but very pleasant.

1990 Comte Armand Pommard 1er Cru Clos des Epeneaux. Burghound 90. Still deeply colored. An expressive, dense, indeed huge nose of roasted, ever-so-slightly stewed fruit that is already showing a great deal of secondary and even tertiary development while the muscular, rich, extracted and solidly complex flavors are underpinned by a tough, firm and very prominent tannic backbone. This is a dramatic bruiser of a wine but it’s not clear that it’s ever going to harmonize as the finish is completely dominated by the structure and given that the fruit is presently much more advanced than the evolution of the tannins, it’s a tough call to say whether the fruit will be able to stand the test of time and this most recent bottle gave no cause for optimism in this regard, indeed it seemed to confirm that this is probably a lost cause. Optimists will continue to hold the ’90 Epeneaux in the cellar as it will certainly be around 30 years from now though whether it will be any more balanced than it is now is the essential question.

Some kind of crazy pork cut. Some serious fat here and the skin was a bit mushy, but the meat fell off the bone and was incredibly tender and delicious.

1970 Bodegas El Coto Rioja Coto de Imaz. Surprisingly good for such an old non-riserva Rioja.

The proverbial, “duck soup” that is the last part of “duck three ways.” Mild and pleasant with some tofu and cabbage. I can also vouch that it was served hot, as a ladleful was poured across my hand and I had to soak my thumb in ice water all night.

Their interesting take on “walnut shrimp.” The fried shrimp, sweet mayo sauce, and walnuts is supplemented with pineapple!

Part of “duck three ways”: sprouts with bits of duck meat.

Yarom chomps on the pig bone.

Scallion pancakes.

A very nice mixed fried rice.

Beef rolls with BBQ beef and cilantro. Really nice, tasted like rolled up Pho.

Sweet egg drop soup.

Eye ball surprise anyone? Actually a very unusual dish. Like egg drop soup but sweet with these big tapioca balls. Pleasant, although continuing the general trend in which Chinese desserts bat about 50.

Overall, another fantastic meal. The total damage, including tax and a whopping 30% tip was $35 a person! “Inflated” because of our multiple ducks. The service was great (for Chinese). They were very friendly and willing to serve us the dishes one at a time over a long period . This is actually fairly unusual as a lot of Chinese restaurants like to slam you out in 45 minutes by dropping everything on the table at once. The duck was first rate, as good as Peking duck gets — more or less. The other dishes were good too, with almost all of them being very well executed and not greasy.

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Yarom with the owner

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, duck, Hedonism, Peking Duck, San Gabriel, San Gabriel California, san Gabriel valley, Tasty Duck, Valley Boulevard

Spice Up Your Life Szechuan Style

Sep23

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

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

Date: September 20, 2013

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Awesome!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

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

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

A menu with fairly literal translations.

And the usual minimalist decor.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stewed lamb in casserole (house special #1).

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

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

Some more skewers, lamb and chicken wing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pork XO sauce fried noodle.

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

Check out that chili oil left in the bowl!

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

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

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

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

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
Comments (6)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Cui Hua Lou, hedonists, Hot Sauce, Joh. Jos. Prüm, lamb, Ma Po Tofu, Monterey Park, san Gabriel valley, Sichuan, Szechuan, Szechuan Chinese, Szechuan Pepper

Sometimes You Want to Get Crabs

Sep18

Restaurant: Seafood Village

Location: 684 W Garvey Ave. Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 289-0088

Date: September 15, 2013

Cuisine: Chiu Chow Chinese

Rating: quite tasty!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Chinese food is incredible regional, and we are blessed in SoCal with a lot of very specific resteraunts (mostly in the San Gabriel Valley). This time, my Hedonist group has head out for some Chiu Chow (also Chaozhou) which is a Southern Chinese style originating in Eastern Guangdong province. This is a fairly ingredient driven Chinese regional cuisine that often features seafood. It has a relationship to Cantonese and is often found in Singaporean cooking (as many Teochew people settled there).

Seafood Village is regarded as one of the best Chiu Chow places in California. It has the usual glamorous SGV exterior.

And interior. But hardly the PF Chang tourist crowd!

Starting off with a little champagne.

Peanuts are traditional on the table in China. I suppose that the allergic are just put out of their misery quickly.

1998 Château Monbousquet Blanc. 91 points. Straw, lemon grass, mineral nose; earthy, lemon grass, mineral palate; medium finish. A very pleasant white Bordeaux with mineral flavors.

A typical cold appetizer platter. In the center, jellyfish. Starting with the top and heading clockwise: roast duck, cuttlefish, pork gut, fried tofu (yummy), pork stomach, and pork knuckle.

In case you want to spice it up!

2008 Cold Heaven Viognier. 90 points.

And it’s worth noting this interesting feature of authentic Chinese restaurants. After you eat a lot of some dish, they will “replate” or “consolidate” it into a smaller dish to preserve premium table space.

2005 Wittmann Westhofener Morstein Riesling Trocken. This was a more or less dry riesling, and quite nice.

This is what most people come here for, the house special Chiu Chow Style Crab (Dungeness). This is basically battered crab, fried with chilies and lots of garlic. I’ve also heard this called “Causeway Style.” Good stuff with lots of flavor. You end up sucking out the meat mostly.

2012 Recuerdo Torrontés. 88 Points. A very floral light white made by Jose, one our very own Hedonists!

One of are party wasn’t into “weird stuff” and ordered themselves some orange chicken. Go figure. It was fine, but nothing special.

From my cellar, 1970 Gros Frère et Sœur Vosne-Romanée. 92 points. It was still very much alive and drinking quite beautifully. A veritable chameleon in the glass, the aromas kept changing every time I brought the glass to my nose. First sour cherries, then papaya, then raspberries, then red clay, then lemon rind, then caramel — it was intoxicating. The palate, on the other hand, was a bit simple and one-dimensional, but I thought the nose more than made up for it. A lovely wine! My favorite of the night — being a Burghound!

Special Turtle Soup. This is a very pleasant broth with lots of umani flavor.

And in case you wondered f it was authentic enough, check out the chicken foot!

2000 Araujo Estate Syrah Eisele Vineyard. IWC 89. Full ruby-red. Rich, smoky aromas of plum, blackberry, bitter chocolate, smoked meat, minerals, tobacco and licorice. Sweet, lush, chocolatey and seamless; a distinctly warm-climate syrah with exotic notes of roasted berries. But there’s also lovely lift from the blackberry and violet notes. Finishes firmly tannic, oaky and long, with notes of spice and bitter chocolate.

Chilies with ground pork. I’ve never seen Jalepenos per se in China, but they do have lots of peppers. Regardless, this was a fabulous dish as the pork was cooked in a great black bean sauce and the combination of the mild heat and the slightly sweet meat was wonderful.

2009 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave St. Joseph. IWC 93. Opaque ruby. Expansive, seductive aromas of blackberry and blueberry preserves, cherry pit and fresh flowers, plus a sexy incense note and a touch of licorice. Stains the palate with dark berry and spicecake flavors, with smoky minerality adding cut to the back end. Blends depth and vivacity smoothly, finishing with outstanding clarity and lingering sweetness.

Sautéed jellyfish heads with asparagus. Not bad — for jellyfish.

2011 Luisi Barbera d’Asti. 82 points. I didn’t try it, as I’m not much of a Barbera fan. Works occasionally with pizza.

Rock fish steamed with ginger and garlic. This was a lovely fish and the meat was perfectly done and very succulent.

2009 Orma Toscana IGT. IWC 92. Fully saturated ruby-purple. Sexy aromas of ripe dark plum, Asian spices, licorice and cocoa powder, with a floral quality adding lift and freshness. At once suave and penetrating, with very good energy and definition to the flavors of sweet red cherry, dark plum, mocha and fresh herbs. In a distinctly ripe style, but with a vibrant, long finish thanks to harmonious acidity. The sweet, broad tannins show a distinct chocolatey ripeness.

Duck with mushrooms. It’s hard to tell them apart (the duck has bones) as the heavy gravy gives it all a brown sheen. This dish might look a bit sketchy, but it tastes great with a rich heady earthiness to the sauce and a pleasant spongey texture to the woody mushrooms.

2011 Vigilance Petite Sirah. I didn’t try this either.

Special Chiu Chow Style “lettuce”. Evidently a classic. It head a bit of a porky taste so there must have been something in there with the veggies. Not bad.

2008 chin chin syrah. Another wine by Jose.

Beans, lotus root, and oxtail. Interesting mix of flavors and textures. The meat was fatty of course, but full of flavor.

Clearly someone had too much pork gut.

2007 Lillian Winery Syrah. IWC 94. Opaque purple. A kaleidoscopic bouquet evokes black raspberry, cola, incense and olive tapenade, with a sexy floral quality that gains power with aeration. Lush, palate-staining dark berry preserve flavors are complemented by exotic spice and violet pastille qualities and are lifted by zesty minerality. Gains weight with air but retains its energy, finishing spicy, smoky and with outstanding persistence. Readers should also seek out Maggie Harrison’s excellent Antica Terra pinot noirs from Oregon.

House Special Chiu Chow Style Pan Fried Noodles. There are also shrimp, pork, mushrooms, and sprouts in here.

This might not seem like the most sophisticated dish, but the sauce was really really good with the tender noodles. I used to get a similar dish as a kid and found not not only delicious, but deeply nostalgic.

This Vin Santo was a rather wonderful sticky of the passito/Sherry PX variety. Oddly, it’s from Greece (Santorini) — doesn’t matter, as it’s very good.

Taro with Ginko dessert. God only knows what the white stuff was. There were grapes and ginko nuts, blobs of taro, and a gelatinous mass that that was supposedly snow fungus. The net effect was sweet and vaguely chewy. I think it’s a Chiu Chow speciality.

Jose brought some (apparently) 19th century Madeira in this little flask. It was good. Caramelized, complex, and well… like good Maderia.

Almost mochi filled with red bean, mung bean, egg custard, and taro. Not as good as true ice cream mochi, but enjoyable the same.

Overall, an incredibly fun evening as usual. We even went next door afterward to overwhelm the minimall’s $15 an hour foot massage place, which is always great except that Yarom got screwed since we had one person more than they had masseuses. These Chinese outings are great fun with really interesting, tasty, and reasonable food.

The Seafood Village staff treated us great, bringing the dishes one at a time, and being extremely friendly and helpful — if occasionally confounded by our lack of Mandarin (or perhaps they spoke the Chiu Chow dialect, I wouldn’t know). Great fun.

We were also joined (see below) by Chef Kaz Oyama of the amazing Totoraku, who is now an honorary Hedonist, and he took it seriously by consuming his fair share of libations.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

This dinner included Chef Kaz from the the amazing beef joint, Totoraku! (right)

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chaozhou, China, Chui Chow, crab, hedonists, san Gabriel valley, Seafood, Shellfish, Singapore

Dim Sum is Shanghai #1

Aug14

Restaurant: Shanghai #1 Seafood Village [1, 2, 3]

Location: 250 W Valley Blvd. San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 282-1777

Date: August 10, September 3, & November 10 2013 and June 19, 2022 (and more)

Cuisine: Chinese Dim Sum

Rating: Very authentic Shanghai style

The San Gabriel Valley is a veritable treasure trove of Asian dining, particularly regional Chinese. Shanghai #1 Seafood Village is the LA branch of a high end Shanghai chain. But today it’s time for dim sum!

The decor is Stark meets Chinatown. Interestingly, as cheesy as it is, it’s fairly authentic.

This time around we have come for dim sum. Yum!

2011 Domaine Collotte Bourgogne Rosé Marsannay. This is one of my go-to roses, as it’s all Pinot Noir from Burgundy. A wonderful sunny weather wine, it paired very nicely with the sweet and sour tones of the Chinese. There were a few rose-haters as usual, but this really is a great wine, bright and full of strawberry flavors.

Delicious pickled radish (probably Daikon). Crunchy, sweet, extremely enjoyable complex flavors.

2010 Servo Suo Prosecco. Very nice.

Special pickled fresh cucumber. Crunchy, with a bit of heat.

Old Shanghai stewed duck in Soy Sauce. Sweet and very smokey/ducky.

Old Shanghai baked spareribs. Amazing Chinese-style ribs.

A different kind of pork rib, almost certainly the same cut as the above BBQ, but steamed. Tasty, but not AS tasty as the BBQ version.

Old Shanghai Smoked fish. Nice smokey tea flavor with a bit of sweet.

Chicken feet with Black Bean Sauce. Eeew!

1974 Beaulieu Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve Georges de Latour. Parker 88. The wine’s color revealed amber at the edge, a roasted, herbal, sweet, spicy nose, loosely-knit, jammy fruit, and some hot alcohol in the finish. Lots of coffee and tobacco. Actually, although nearly gone, it was kinda delicious.

Peanut Pork & Chicken Celery Dumpling. Nice and fresh.

Beef ball with Orange Peel Sauce. Like a giant Chinese meatball, but almost tartar (on purpose). Very tasty and interesting.

2011 Prager Riesling Wachstum Bodenstein. A lovely dry riesling with a strong mineral component.

Cold chicken in sweet sauce. Not bad, but def tastes like chicken.

Deep Fried Turnip Pastry.

This is a kind of fried mochi stuffed with meat. Interesting chewy texture and a fairly tasty meat.

Baked chicken bun. The pasty has a light fluffy quality.

Here you can see the chicken, which was tasty, but pork probably would have been even better.

A sort of kung pao tofu (tofu and peanuts with a slightly spicy sauce). It was okay, with an unusual firm texture. I’ll still take a genuine Ma Po Tofu any day.

Shanghai rice cakes. These are pan fried rice cake with scallions and sweet soy. Odd soft texture, but delicious.

2001 Weingut Robert Weil Kiedricher Gräfenberg Riesling Spätlese. 93 points. Apple, peach and apricot, zest of citrus, ginger, gunmetal and hint of straw. Very ripe and deep. Sweet, but balanced.

House No. 1 Baked BBQ Pork Bun. Wow! They are right about the House No. 1 bit, as these are the best pork buns I’ve ever had.

Shrimp dumpling with chives. Nice.

Squid with shrimp dumpling.

Broccolini. Very nice and not over cooked at all.

2009 Meyer-Fonné Pinot Gris. 90 points. Unfortunately, this bottle was corked.

Stone Hot Pan Fried Rice with Pork. Stunningly good fried rice.

Classic lotus leaf wrapped steamed sticky rice.

But this one has abalone (fresh from Santa Barbara) in it. As usual with this place, a top example of the type.

Special Taro Cake. This was the unanimous “winner” of the “worst dish” vote. I suspect it’s excellent for what it is, but taro is so bland and pasty.

Har gow (6/19/22). Classic shrimp dumplings.

Spicy shrimp dumplings (6/19/22). Nice bit of mala inside and squid ink dough.

Some other seafood and green dumpling.

And yet another seafood dumpling!

Steamed veggie bun.

Vegetarian dumpling.

Bean curd with sticky rice. The rice is inside. Very mild and pleasant.

Bean curd with vegetables. Very tasty.

Special Soup Dumpling. Quite the dumpling! Full of shrimp and other goodness in a very pleasant broth.

1974 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Napa.

Steamed Shanghai Juicy Pork bun. Full of juice and oh so yummy!

Pork and shrimp shu mai.

Shrimp and squid. Sort of a Chinese gefilte fish (plus shrimp).

Pan Fried Shanghai Style Bun. Wow again! These are tremendous.

Shanghai Style Pan Friend Noodles. Not my favorite, as they are sweet and a bit too soy-ish.

Simple pan fried noodles. The kid version.

More chicken feet! Double eeew!

Steamed rice noodle with Beef. Yum. The beef was again sort of medium rare — and very tasty.

Steamed rice noodle with Shrimp and snow pea. Good examples of this type.

Steamed rice noodle with tofu and scallop. Interestingly soft. Kind of soft on soft on soft.

Rice crepe with crab. Wrapped around imitation crab. Pretty good though.

Sweet baked bun filled with taro.

Shanghai sweet cake? Another fried rice ball with a bit of some sweet mild fruit in the center. All about the texture, with a pleasant mild flavor.

Macau Style Baked Egg Custard. Triple wow. Best custard buns I’ve yet had, like creme brûlée.

Mango Pudding. Pleasant, mild, sweet mango flavor.

Pineapple buns (6/19/22). Pretty yummy.
Sweet cake. This pound cake is striped with sweet bean paste, which was pretty mild.

Overall, this was another great meal. It’s probably the best dim sum I’ve had in LA, really first rate. Stuff was extremely fresh, cooked to order and not on the carts. Service was good. They did their best to slow down for us (Chinese food is usually a breakneck frenzy). [ NOTE: the above was written in 2013, but by late 2014 I’ve found 2-3 better places (Elite, King Hua, etc), still SH#1 is very good ]

Thoughts in 2022. The dim sum here is solid, but not amazing (there are much better places in the SGV). Dumplings are a bit thick and oversized. But you can also order the Shanghai dishes and it’s a nice room(s), so nothing too wrong with it.

Plus, there is a $15 an hour foot massage place right downstairs (NOTE: closed by 2022).

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more crazy Hedonist meals, click here.

By: agavin
Comments (6)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Dim sum, dimsum, dumplings, hedonists, Pinot noir, san Gabriel valley, Shanghai, Shanghai #1 Seafood Village

Hedonists Hunan Style

Aug05

Restaurant: Hunan Style Restaurant

Location: 529 E Valley Blvd. Ste 108A. San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 288-0758

Date: August 4, 2013

Cuisine: Hunan Chinese

Rating: Great Authentic Hunan

The San Gabriel Valley is packed with hundreds of examples of regional Chinese restaurants. Would that I could try them all.

Hunan Style offers up the hearty spicy cuisine of the Chinese heartland in the typical unassuming format of this vast array of strip malls.

This is clearly a place that does NOT cater to the tourist crowd as it doesn’t even bother to advertise its name in English, or the menu for the most part!

But fortunately, one of our vast (18ish) party speaks not only fluent Chinese, but the Hunan dialect.

It’s traditional in China to offer up cold appetizers before the meal proper and Hunan Style has a big case of them. Check out these poultry parts!

And mood interesting delicacies.

2010 Cantina Terlan Pinot Bianco Terlano Riserva Vorberg.

As usual, we bring wines (and to this kind of place, stems). There is no corkage!

We start with a bean curd with peppers (everything in Hunan has peppers). This was very pleasant, with only a mild heat.

2001 Cottonwood Canyon Chardonnay. In great shape, this older (for Ca Chard) wine tasted a tad like a Montrachet.

Same with this seaweed.

2011 Domaine Daniel Dampt et Fils Chablis 1er Cru Les Lys. Burghound 92. This offers even more classic Chablis character with its expressive and airy nose of oyster shell, sea breeze and mineral reduction. There is fine detail to the solidly precise, intense and racy flavors that exude a fine minerality on the tension-filled, saline and balanced finish. This understated effort is textbook Les Lys.

These duck necks were cured, tasty, and spicier. Like Chinese slim jims!

From my cellar, 2009 Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Brücke Riesling Spätlese. 94 points. Enticing aromas of apricot pit, guava and mint leaf. Creamy, almost sweet tropical fruits tantalize the palate. Spicy, refined and mineral-driven on the finish. A beautiful wine for a summer afternoon on the patio.

And this jellyfish and “beef” (think pastrami) was awesome.

1983 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese. 94-96 points. This is just spectacular right now. There’s a prominent forestal herbal/pine needle element here that brings Grünhaus to mind, along with layers of mature Mosel fruit and florality, smokiness and mineral elements that all come together seamlessly on the nose and palate. So complex, fragrant, impeccably balanced with a gentle creaminess and faint sweetness on the palate matched by bright acids, and just a fantastic bottle of Riesling.

Sadly, our bottle was corked.

I was not so enamored of the trotters, although many people liked them. The whole idea kind of bothers me.

This chicken soup was surprisingly good. It’s really just a classic Chinese… chicken soup, with a salty rich broth made by cooking down the chicken parts like forever. It’s mild.

2011 Grasshopper Rock Pinot Noir Earnscleugh Vineyard. Not bad for fake (not Burgundy) Pinot Noir. Too young of course.

This chicken hot pot was not. But it was very tasty. Similar in style to the Wuhan hot pot place we tried, this included ALL the chicken in true Chinese style. I mean, all the chicken: bones, beak, feet, etc.

Spicy shredded potato. Tasty, with a vinegar tang. Like a twisted hunan potato salad!

2010 Hirsch Vineyards Pinot Noir San Andreas Fault. 91 points. Very austere upon opening and needed about 30 minutes to relax. Nose is tart cherry, strawberry, reses, violets with some vanilla. Palate is tight, austere, med to light palate weight, earthy and vegetal. Definitely some whole cluster fermentation here (was described as cinnamon-hots candy). This is a cool and lean wine with good alcohol balance, good acidity although I thought was a little green, lead pencil and tasted somewhat under ripe for my taste.

Corn porridge. This is supposed to “cool” you off. We all hated it, as it’s so bland as to be gross.

2011 Matanzas Creek Winery Sauvignon Blanc. 87 points. It offers a nice combination of crisp citrus fruit, kiwi and field grasses, all adorned by a dollop of oak. Medium-bodied, it carries its freshness and well-integrated alcohol (13.5%) throughout a solid middle palate and lengthy finish. While not necessarily a favorite of those who prefer light-styled, un-oaked Sauvignon or those who favor heavily-oaked white wine offerings.

This is the hunan classic, Yu Tou? Anyway, it’s giant fish head in chilis. The sauce is awesome (spicy of course). There was really nice soft tofu in there too. He fish itself is very good, but there is relatively little meat an a lot of bones and cartilage. That’s the way the Chinese like it (more flavor).

1978 Clos du Bois Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. Not in bad shape for a wine that was never intended to make this kind of age. Bitter and thick on the finish. The problem is, that with such spicy food all one could taste is the bitterness. I personally think sweet wines like the Rieslings are the only way to go with spicy.

Spicy green beans with ground pork? Tasty for sure.

This cabbage was arguably the best cabbage I’ve every had. There had to be some kind of meat fat in the sauce.

2010 Anakena Carménère. 83 points. Colour: cloudy purple, almost magenta at edges. Nose, strangely enough, bolgnase sauce and damp cardboard. Palate well oversweet but sharp at the back of the throat. in-descriptively fruity. weird, even for a really cheap wine.

Cumin lamb. Very nice with understated cumin and plenty of chilies.

2010 Malibu Rocky Oaks Syrah. What little I could taste through the heat wasn’t bad, for a young Cal Syrah (I prefer Hermitage).

Cold marinated duck. Smoky and really tasty.

This dish, apparently, is NEVER done anywhere else in america. It’s some kind of incredibly bitter vegetable with a sweet “bacon.” The mean was awesome, just awesome, like blueberry candied bacon. The vegetable was, as advertised, extremely bitter. Together they made an interesting combo.

1999 Château Guiraud. IWC 90. Pale yellow-gold. Lower-toned aromas of orange zest, herbs, spices, earth and vanillin oak. Textured, rich and sweetly oaky, with notes of vanilla and creme caramel Showing plenty of personality today. Ripe and rich for young Guiraud. Big but essentially gentle, with an impressive, slow-building finish.

Went great with the spice. Along with the Rieslings, was most of what I drank during the later 3/4 of the meal.

I think this was beef, as usual, with chilies.

Duff Gordon Inida Sherry.

And for dessert, sweet sticky pumpkin cakes. These had a gooey texture like mochi and a mild pumpkin flavor. There were incredibly hot (temperature) too. Very nice.

Overall, one must compare this to Hunan Chili King across the street. It’s hard to tell which is better, but they’re different. Hunan Style isn’t nearly as hot, but perhaps the dishes are a little more varied. At Chili King everything is DROWNED in chilies, but here there are a lot of distinct flavors. I think we ordered well (thanks to our Hunan friend) this time, so that is a big factor too. Both are pretty great.

After, we went down the street and availed ourself of that awesome San Gabriel tradition, the $15 (an hour) foot massage and then over to a nearby “tea house” for some awesome second dessert.

In this case, this amazing mango shaved ice which mixes ice cream, shave ice, mango, and sweetened condensed milk.

There was also an almond jelly (not pictured) and this passionfruit “slush’ with lychee jelly! Good stuff.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or click here for more crazy Hedonist adventures.

By: agavin
Comments (7)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese, hedonists, Hunan, Hunan Style, Hunan Style Restaurant, san Gabriel valley

Phong Dinh – Hedonists go Vietnamese

May28

Restaurant: Phong Dinh [1, 2]

Location: 2643 San Gabriel Blvd Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 307-8868

Date: May 19, 2013

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Excellent!

The parade of culinary adventures with my Hedonist club continues as we hit the San Gabriel Valley again, this time for some authentic Vietnamese.

The interior is nothing to write home about.

From my cellar: 2011 Domaine Collotte Bourgogne Rosé Marsannay. This is one of my go-to roses, as it’s all Pinot Noir from Burgundy. A wonderful sunny weather wine, it paired very nicely with the sweet and sour tones of the food. There were a few rose-haters as usual, but this really is a great wine, bright and full of strawberry flavors.

Shrimp and pork papaya salad.

1990 Poniatowski Vouvray Moelleux Aigle Blanc. Medium golden color. Rich with glyceral palate feel, pear-like fruit, not too sweet, adequate acidity, and just a touch of sherry on the finish. Holding up very well and a real bargain although it lacks the complexity and zingy acidity that the best wines of this vintage possess. Far from dull though.

Baked catfish.

There are various condiments. Mint and basil.

Veggies.

And these rice paper “pancakes” that are softened in hot water. Not pictured are two kinds of fish sauce and thin rice noodles (you can see them below).

You put this together as you like and do your best to roll into a pancake. It’s scrumptious, absolutely delicious, but messy.

Don’t eat me!

2009 Domaine de la Denante St. Véran.

Crispy squab. Very tasty, almost sweet.

From my cellar: 2005 Domaine de Montille Pommard 1er Cru Les Pèzerolles. Burghound 91-93. This is an extremely stylish wine that combines both elegance and purity with precise, supple and rich flavors underpinned by obvious minerality, all wrapped in penetrating and transparent finish. I very much like this and while it’s not overly dense, the purity and transparency are impressive.

Our leader, Yarom, shot up some pheasant the day before and brought it in for cooking.

Here they are plucked. Yuck!

But tasty enough cooked up in wine sauce almost like a coq au vin! So pheasant au vin!

Someone even found a bit of leftover buckshot!

2006 Flowers Pinot Noir Frances Thompson Vineyard. Burghound 86. An interesting nose of fresh red berry fruit with nuances of cinnamon and clove introduces rich, round, supple and attractively intense flavors that display an unusually sharp acid tang on the short finish. Perhaps this will round out but I have my doubts.

Chicken salad.

2008 Flowers Pinot Noir Andreen-Gale Cuvée Sonoma Coast. Better than the older bottle, with a bit of a bacony vibe.

Sweet and sour crab. Really first class crab. The sauce was fabulous and it was very tender.

Cabbage Chinese style. Pretty tasty too, even for a vegetable.

2003 Clouds Rest Pinot Noir. 92 points. Extremely smooth, with resolved tannins on the palate. Tart, but not too tart cherry flavors. Certainly characteristics of the Sonoma Coast, but not with a ton of minerality. That smoothness sets it apart from some of the stonier Sonoma Coast wines that I’m used to (and like). Very hearty. I also picked up brighter, lighter fruits as I drank more: strawberries and raspberries.

Snails in curry. This spicy coconut curry cream sauce was amazing. You had to suck the meat out of the snails, which was cool, and there was plenty of sauce to drip over rice.

2008 Monte Ducay Cariñena Reserva. 85 points. Ruby, medium body, balanced much better than typical Spanish red in that price range. Medium dry without a trace of the catchy sweetness which is so appealing to less sophisticated wine drinkers. Reminiscent of Cotes-du-Rhone. Goes well with any food except for very delicate fish and sea food. Will never overwhelm, but rather complement most meats.

Crispy deep fried quail. Really tasty.

Chinese broccoli.

2005 Domaine du Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf du Pape. Parker 95+. The 2005 Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf du Pape, this estate’s strongest vintage since 1998, has put on serious weight since last year. Dense ruby/purple-colored with an exquisite perfume of black raspberries, kirsch, ground pepper, and incense, this full-bodied, powerful, concentrated wine reveals fabulous purity as well as a finish that lasts over 45 seconds. Purchasers of this beauty will need patience.

French style beef. Tender and oh so good.

2006 Glaetzer Amon Ra. Parker 94. Deep garnet, the 2006 Amon-Ra opens with a really earthy, meaty and gamey nose scented of slightly burnt toast, tar, licorice and after a few minutes a little menthol. Full and rich, the palate has dried mulberries and spice flavors alongside very crisp acid, medium levels of chewy tannins before finishing long.

Pork curry. This had a cumin and turmeric thing going on and was delicious.

Coconut gelatin dessert. Cool and refreshing.

There was also a dessert Gewürztraminer that I forgot to photo. Bummer, it was very nice.

Overall, Phong Dinh was really great. Nearly every dish was excellent and some of them (like the fish, quail, and snails) were through the roof delicious.

Afterward, some of us sobered up nearby over a cheap (but good) foot massage and this amazing “Mango Snow Drift.” It’s mango, mango ice cream, and shaved ice drenched in sweetened condensed milk! Such is the Hedonist life!

More crazy Hedonist adventures or
LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Burgundy, Fish sauce, hedonists, Phong Dinh, Pinot noir, san Gabriel valley, Vietnam, Vietnamese cuisine, Wine

Tasty Dining – Wuhan Dry Hot Pot

Feb13

Restaurant: Tasty Dining

Location: 301 W Valley Blvd, Ste 101. San Gabriel, CA 91776

Date: February 10, 2013

Cuisine: Wuhan Chinese

Rating: One Note

We Hedonists venture out again into the San Gabriel Valley for some more regional Chinese, this time to the heartland province of Wuhan. Like nearby Szechuan and Hunan this area of China is known for its chile-dominated heat. This particular place specializes in “dry pot” which is like a stir fry / hot pot hybrid that is sizzled table-side.

The usual unassuming San Gabriel storefront.

This page shows the dry pots.

And the things here aren’t really sides, but are options you can add to the dry pots. There is very little on the menu that isn’t a dry pot.

This last page are the few non dry pot options.

A dry white went well with the sesame noodles below. This was the only dish before the heat set in.

Dry noodles in sesame sauce. These tasted as they look, like noodles in sesame sauce. They aren’t spicy, and are VERY sesame.

A very old (1962) Spatlese riesling that had actually been open for 3-4 days. Considering, it was impressive that it was still drinkable, if considerably oxidized.

Wuhan sui mai, stuffed with rice, meat, and with a bit of a vinegar tang.

1969 Coteaux du Layon illustrates the striking combination of mineral and nobly sweet characteristics that were possible, though its notoriously high acidity is scarcely noticeable thanks to the balance lent by high sugar and the harmony conveyed by time in bottle. Alkaline and wet stone aromas here approach the effect of sticking one’s head down a moss- and algae-covered cistern, accompanied by scents of lily, narcissus, quince preserves, stale bread, musk, and sweat. The rich quince character is carried and complimented by a juicy and not at all heavy palate impression, and this finishes with remarkable refreshment and pronouncedly alkaline and stony minerality, as well as snuffed candle wick smokiness and bitterness of quinine. Mature nobly sweet Chenin, although it had also been open for a couple days and was beginning to oxidize.

Our first Wuhan dry pot (this will soon look familiar). This one was chicken wings, yep, the central Chinese equivalent of hot wings. They’re in there with mountain potatoes (french fries), celery, hot peppers of several type, cauliflower, garlic, and lots of chili oil.

Displaying an expressive, candied green apple-scented nose, the profound 1992 Quarts de Chaume is intense and massively ripe. Citrus fruit and apricot-flavored, this wine is powerful, thick, and yet focused and delineated.

Dry pot number two, shrimp and we threw in some “lobster balls” (those vaguely round things).

Parker 94, “Quince preserves, baked apple, lily, gardenia, and hints of caramel and vanilla mark the nose of the Prum 2007 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese. With richness yet delicacy and lift it saturates the palate with rich fruit, liquid flowers, vanilla cream, and savory, saline, shrimp shell reduction-like mineral essences. This intense, pure, subtly and truly nobly botrytized Auslese has umami with a capital “U.””

And number three, with squid. You’re starting to get the picture! The sauce/flavor is basically identical on all of these.

Schonleber’s 2002 Monzinger Fruhlingsplatzchen Riesling Kabinett smells alluringly of ripe red raspberries and strawberries. Quite honeyed and creamy for a Kabinett, yet both juicy and delicate, this is a bit superficially sweet in the finish, even though undeniably delicious.

Number four was duck, bone in. Lots of bone in. Meat was fairly tasty, if you didn’t break a tooth on it.

The Schonleber 2001 Monzinger Halenberg Riesling Spatlese features honey-glazed nectarine and red berries in a seductively creamy, subtly caramelized and bitter-sweet melange. Rich nut oil and saline and wet stone mineral notes emerge in the long, refined finish. There is no significant sacrifice of clarity or purity to the wine’s evident botrytis.

And number five was mutton, also very bone (and gristle) in. The meat was fairly tasty, but there was very little of it. But this time were were pretty sick of potatoes and cauliflower.

Soft buns, like the white fluffy stuff surrounding bork buns, but without the pork. The sauce in the center is sweetened condensed milk. Nicely cooling after all that Wuhan heat.

And the exact same buns straight out of the deep frier!

For “dessert” we have some unique (but somehow typically Chinese) mild flavors like these pumpkin buns covered in sesame and pan fried.

And these fried bean paste buns.

Tasty Dining was interesting because I’ve never had Wuhan dry pot before (actually I think I have once, but I didn’t know it). And presumably, it’s well executed. However, this is very much a one trick pony restaurant. There isn’t much but dry pot and every dry pot essentially tastes the same, dominated as it is by pepper, garlic, and oil! The noodles were interesting too, but I’ve had better of this type. The Szechuan meal I had in November in Philly was about 100x better with much more variety.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, hedonists, san Gabriel valley, Szechuan Chinese, Tasty Dining, Wuhan, Wuhan Chinese

Hunan Chili Madness

Dec26

Restaurant: Hunan Chili King

Location: 534 E Valley Blvd. San Gabriel, CA 91776

Date: December 23, 2012 & August 9, 2015 & September 1, 2017 & August 19, 2018 & June 13, 2021 & February 26, 2023

Cuisine: Hunan Chinese

Rating: Great, spicy, cheap

Way back in the day, Hunan Chili King was only the SECOND time I went to the SGV for Chinese food with the Hedonists! And twice in one week, I was invited to head back east into the San Gabriel Valley for some more Chinese (my earlier adventure can be found here).

This time we tackled the hot and spicy cuisine of the Chinese heartland, the Hunan province.

Here is just a sampling of the pickled chillies and vegetables they make here for use in this smokey, earthy, inferno hot style of Chinese cooking.

The menu on June 13, 2021.

Cold Cucumber Salad. Really great cucumber salad variant enchanced with garlic, chili and cilantro. This was cool and crunchy with quite a bit of heat and a ton of flavor.

Hunan style cold cucumber salad with marinated cucumber, Wood Ear/Black Fungus, shredded Broccoli stems, Cilantro, and chilies (everything has chilies). This was really tasty, and one of the least spicy dishes. The marinate lent it a slight cool quality.

Preserved Eggs, Eggplant, Pepper. This is mashed up before being eaten. Quite nice with excellent garlicky flavor eggplant. I would have liked a little more preserved egg to add even more of that umami flavor.

Hunan spicy chicken. This roast then chopped chicken was served cold. Super tasty and enjoyable, except, perhaps, for that oh so Chinese need to chew around all the bone bits.

This particular dinner was sort of 25% hedonist in that it had some members of my hedonist wine club. There were a lot less bottles than at a full fledged event, and because of the spicy food we went mostly with sweet whites like:

From my cellar: Incorporating fruit principally from Wehlener Nonnenberg, Graacher Himmelreich, and Bernkasteler Johannisbrunnchen, the generic Prum 2011 Riesling Kabinett displays an archetypal Mosel Riesling nose of fresh apple, lemon, and clover allied to faintly cheesy, leesy youthful “stink”; and comes to the palate bright and zippy, with hints of wet stone, and prominent cyanic piquancy of apple pit invigoratingly extending its mouthwateringly juicy, if tart and relatively simple finish.

Lobster head, tofu, meat, and noodle soup. Really yummy, with noodles underneath the broth. After the chillies and the heat of the soup my head was really sweating.

Fried lobster with chilies. A superb lobster preparation, like a spicy version of Lobster Causeway Style.

From my cellar: A fine combination of textural creaminess with refreshment and lift characterizes the Weins-Prum 2009 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese, which combines lusciously ripe, fresh pear and apple with vanilla and marzipan and finishes with both soothing and stimulating length. This impeccably-balanced, textbook example of its site and style ought to retain its allure for at least two decades.

Flavor intestine. Not my favorite conceptually.

Hunan steamed fish head. This is a Hunan classic. The fish is very soft and full of all sorts of weird cartilage texture.

Fish Filet with Hot Sauce. Easier (and maybe tastier) to eat than the head. Note that this 6/13/21 version was served in that annoying post pandemic era when many restaurants seem to be using take out containers instead of actual plates.

Braised Whole Fish. I wanted the classic fish head but was convinced to go for a whole fish instead. I’m not sure what kind of fish they used. It was very tender with a sort of earthy tone and maybe a flavor that just hinted of “old bay.” Quite unusual and delicious.

Sautéed frog. Tasty, lots of bone bits. The Christmas theme to all the food isn’t seasonal, it’s just all the chillies!

A chardonnay someone else brought.

Shredded squid with bamboo shoot. Tasty.

Sautéed whole “crystal prawns,” Hunan style. These were great and an expensive specialty shrimp.

Sauteed Spicy Shrimp. Wonderful juicy whole shrimp with chilis, crunchy green beans, and a lovely “softer” flavored Hunan sauce. Despite having that same Hunan “Christmas” (green and red) look, it did taste different than the other dishes.

Hunan chicken (8/19/18). Chicken in a similar mix of red and green peppers. Very tasty.

To go with the meat we step up the intensity a bit.

Parker 91-93, “The extraordinary 2007 Cotes du Rhone-Villages Rasteau offers up aromas of chocolate, black cherries, dusty, loamy soil, scorched earth, garrigue, and spice. This full-bodied, powerfully concentrated, meaty, expansive, substantial wine should age well for a decade.”

Chiliking Crispy Egg. Many people had never had this dish. I’ve actually made it. These eggs, sometimes called “dragon eggs” are deep fried (without a breading) and then wokked. It was very spicy with the classic hunan garlic, ginger, and pickled chili combo. Absolutely delicious.

Chicken with potato. Also very good with a nice soft texture and mercifully no bones.

Sauteed Chicken Feet with Peppers. Yarom wanted this of course, subbing out a more “regular” chicken dish. It had the totally typical HCK flavor profile but given that chicken feet are sort of a useless “protein” was kinda neither here nor there.

House Special Stew Duck. Braised duck really, long cooked in a complex broth that whose spices included star anise and black cardamon. Very moist and soft with a nice complex flavor. I really enjoyed because of the “brown spice” vibe.

Cumin beef with snow peas. Some though the beef itself was too tough, but it did have a lot of flavor.

Cumin lamb. A nice version of this classic dish.

Braised fatty pork with mountain yam and preserved vegetables (9/1/17). Super tender and really interesting complex pickled flavor.

Steamed Pork with Taro (2023 version). This is the super fatty pork belly and it’s usually served this way (with thinly sliced chunks of taro) or with salty preserved vegetables. This was a nice version, very soft and the taro added a bit of firmness and of course some starchy counter to the fat.

Sauteed Pig Kidney with Pepper. I don’t normally order kidney but newcommer Erin wanted this dish. It turned out to be one of the best kidney’s I’ve had — not that I have it that often. They did a fabulous job removing the “offtaste pissy” that is the kidney halmark and instead it was a nicely chewy and deeply flavored meat with a slight variation on the HCK classic blend. Delicious actually.

Preserved Pork with Radish (2023). This turned out to be one of my favorites. The pork is incredidibly smoky (and fatty) and leant a smoky pork fat taste to the entire dish. But the crunchy “radish” (was it really a radish) was some kind of preserved vegetable and I absolutely loved it. I ate all of it out of the dish. It felt very fiberous and satisfying. Loved both the texture and the smoke flavor.

Snails with preserved vegetables (8/19/18). This dish was amazing! Sure it’s an “advanced” dish, and incredibly spicy. Hottest dish we had that night by far. Super deep potent heap. The combo of the chewy snails and the unusual pickled green beans (with their crunch) was stunning.

Sauteed Snails with Preserved Vegetable (2023 edition). I’ve long loved this dish at HCK and some previous incarnations have been painfully hot. This was hotter than most of the dishes but not crazy hot. Besides the usual pickled chilies, garlic, and ginger, it had nice crunchy radish and a lot of these preserved green beans. The snail itself was just snail meat and has a clam-like chew. Very different texture and flavor than most people are used to and very enjoyable.

Sautéed long beans with Pork. Note that this 6/13/21 version was served in that annoying post pandemic era when many restaurants seem to be using take out containers instead of actual plates.

Sautéed cauliflower. Had a very nice crunch. Note that this 6/13/21 version was served in that annoying post pandemic era when many restaurants seem to be using take out containers instead of actual plates.

Sautéed Cauliflower (when back in a real vessel in 2023). Really nice crunchy and slightly spicy cauliflower.

Sautéed Bean Curd with Leek. Note that this 6/13/21 version was served in that annoying post pandemic era when many restaurants seem to be using take out containers instead of actual plates.

Special fish in brown chili sauce. Looks almost like a sweet and sour but it was salty and spicy.

Extra chilies, just in case. Fire in the hole!

Chicken fried rice. Really yummy and served nicely to cool stuff off at the end.

Fried banana and fried pumpkin. Really hot (temperature and yummy). Sometimes called “toffee banana” or similar.

But wait, you thought we were done? Let’s start all over with an entirely different array of pepper dishes 2.5 years later (August 2015):

Pickled turnip or potato and peanuts.

One of the few repeats: Hunan style cold cucumber salad with marinated cucumber, Wood Ear/Black Fungus, shredded Broccoli stems, Cilantro, and chilies (everything has chilies). A welcome relief to the heat.

Skewered frog legs with chilis (15 and 9/1/17). Delicious. Really delicious, but lots of little bones. The “sauce” is crunchy chili garlic.

Hunan chicken. The “classic” combo of red, green, and orange with boney bits of chicken. Flavor was fabulous though.

Hunan bacon. Slices of cured pork belly — delicious smoky bacon — with peppers!

Chili-King Crispy Pork Fat. Like little mini chicharrónes. Great texture. Note that this 6/13/21 version was served in that annoying post pandemic era when many restaurants seem to be using take out containers instead of actual plates.

Giant Hunan fish head. Again.

Hunan frog. More frog, which brings up one of the better quotes of the night, “How many frogs had to die for this dinner?”

Glass noodles with garlic and gizzards. Sounds scary, but this was a delicious dish with a good bit of Szechuan peppercorn heat.

Hunan hotwings. Not much meat, but a lot of taste.

House Special Duck. Came a bit cold so we had to send it back for some more heating. Tasty, but a touch off-putting. Note that this 6/13/21 version was served in that annoying post pandemic era when many restaurants seem to be using take out containers instead of actual plates.

House special lamb (12? 15, and 9/1/17). A repeat, but a good one. This is one of the better cumin lambs I’ve had. I like how the cilantro is used as a green, almost like a salad.

Braised Lamb (2023). This had more cilantro than the other red and green dishes. Soft lamb meat with some cumin flavor.

Beef with celery. Note that this 6/13/21 version was served in that annoying post pandemic era when many restaurants seem to be using take out containers instead of actual plates.

Sautéed Beef with Celery (2023 real plate version). The beef itself wasn’t the star of this very nice dish but the amazing crunchy celery. I just kept eating all the celery out of here after everyone else was done.

Cabbage. I loved this, particularly with the sauce from some of the other dishes. Really nice crunchy texture.

Braised eggplant with garlic (15 and 9/1/17 and 8/19/18). A delicious eggplant with the texture I like, soft but not slimly. Great flavor to the sauce with lots of garlic. Very nice version of this spicy dish. The Hunan version of eggplant. A bit less chili oil than the Szechuan version (which I guess is usually fish flavored eggplant). There was a version with 1000 year-old eggs that would have been even better.

Pork belly and tofu. Thick fatty pork belly and bag like tofu. Not everyone liked the soft mushy type of bean curd — but I loved it.

Mapo Tofu. A bit of numbing, no obvious meat. Note that this 6/13/21 version was served in that annoying post pandemic era when many restaurants seem to be using take out containers instead of actual plates.

Crab. A little hard to get into, but the body meat on the end could be eaten like a lolipop and had a delightful flavor.

Egg fried rice. Straightforward but cut the heat.

Shredded potato. Nice crunch. I loved this covered in the eggplant sauce.

Lobster. More peppers! Actually we didn’t have this dish, but I saw it and had to photo it.

Glass noodles with ground pork (8/19/18). Tasty dish with nice textural contrast between the crumbly meat and silky noodles.

Beef in chili sauce. Sort of a Szechuan dish, but the Hunan variant.

Noodle soup with fish balls, mushrooms, and meats of an indeterminate nature.

Spicy pickled eggs (8/19/18). Interesting. Event eggs can get the Hunan treatment! Quite good actually.

Scrambled eggs with peppers (8/19/18). Usually in China this dish is with tomatoes. Hunan people can’t resist the pepper.

Cauliflower (8/19/18). Very nice. Not really spicy.

Vegetable buns. Interesting source green flavor, but nice.

Sweet egg drop soup. A sweet soup with goji berries and balls of tapioca. Not bad, for a weird sweet soup.

Sweet bean buns. Chinese desserts. Know them. Don’t love them.

A variant on a house favorite: Triple Milk Chocolate Cloud (8/19/18) – the base made with Valrhona 40% Jivara Chocolate (usually I use 63%) and then layered with Dark Chocolate Creamcheese Ganache and Belgian Chocolate Thins (3 flavors, for triple on triple action) — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato.

And some house made butterscotch in case the above wasn’t rich enough.

Together it’s amazing.

Grapefruit Aperol Tarragon Sorbetto (6/13/21) — Cold pressed Fresh Grapefruit juice from my garden, Aperol and fresh Tarragon! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Unique and bracing — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #grapefruit #aperol #tarragon

My son’s bday favorite — Quad Chocolate Cloud Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Ganache, chopped Oreos, and Nestle’s Buncha Crunch! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #chocolate #oreos #ganache #icing #Nestle #crunch

Citron au Courant Sorbetto – Fresh squeezed Lemons blended with French Currants (Cassis) — 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 #cassis #currents #lemonade #citron

Here is the smoked pork “at the ready.”

This was an awesome pair of meals and very different than your typical Cantonese American. Traffic isn’t bad on Sunday night, but during the week it took me almost two hours to get to this area. Hunan Chili King isn’t where I’d take Chinese food novices. EVERYTHING is spicy. In fact, a few people obviously didn’t read the warnings on the meetup because they couldn’t handle the heat. Someone said of the heat, “I feel like I’m going into menopause.”

The flavors and proteins are a bit weird by American standards. But this is my favorite SGV Hunan so far, and I really like it for the variety compared to some other regional cuisines. At the restaurant itself you have to take some care to end up with different flavors, as there are a lot of dishes with the “usual” tri-color pepper melange (tasty as it is). But great stuff.

And as usual, we even went next door afterward and got a Chinese massage for $15 an hour! Just the perfect thing to work out the hedonistic over-indulgence!

Adding in a note based on 6/13/21, Hunan Chili King was (as of then) still operating in a half “take out” mode with very few people in the restaurant, and using only takeout containers and styrofoam plates with plastic silverware. The kitchen seemed about 90% back up to snuff, but the disposable plating really reduces the enjoyment (and appeal).

Speaking in 2023: The owners can be seen here behind the counter. We’ve been coming to HCK for over a decade, in fact it was the SECOND SGV Chinese place I ever went with Yarom back in December of 2012. They suffered a bit during the pandemic with a period of serving only on plastic take out containers with styrofoam and plastic wares — something that always ruins the food, but they’ve come back to be as good as ever. I don’t know of any other currently operating full Hunan Restaurants as I think both Hunan Mao and Hunan Restaurant are out of business. So HCK is both unique and delicious. You gotta love it spicy though as everything has those pickled chilis.

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