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NC Peking Duck – Double Duck part 2

Apr01

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

Date: February 16, 2020

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.

Cold plater with Pig Ears, Cloud Ear Mushroom, Peanuts, and Seaweed. Mostly nice and spicy with good crunch, mala, and heat.

Smashed Garlic Cucumber. 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.

Szechuan Glass Noodles. 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/spicey sauce.

Cold Spicy Chicken. Awesome tender chicken in this fabulous hot, spicy, and a touch sweet sauce. Tons of flavor.

Big Pot Cauliflower. With a bit of pork. Nice and crunchy.

Chili Fish with Glass Noodles. Now these were actual glass noodles. Nice tender fish too and lots of flavor.

Peking Duck with pancakes. 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.

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.

Pancake all done up.

Duck Bones. Pretty juicy.

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.

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.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: beijing Cuisine, BYOG, Chinese cuisine, dumplings, Gelato, hedonists, Peking Duck, SGV, spicy, Wine

Happy Duck – Double Duck part 1

Mar30

Restaurant: Happy Duck House 金鼎轩

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

Date: February 16, 2020

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.

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.”

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.

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.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: City of Industry, Far East, Happy Duck, hedonists, Lobster, Peking Duck, SGV, Wine

Tong Tak – Epic Cantonese

Mar27

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.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Arcadia, BYOG, Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, hedonists, Peking Duck, Seafood, SGV, suckling pig, Tong Tak, Tony Lau, Wine

China Red by Day

Mar04

Restaurant: China Red [1, 2]

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

Date: January 23, 2020

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: A- dim sum

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

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 outside.

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.

Zoom.

Sauces.

Har Gow (shrimp dumplings) – large, but hot and good.

Chicken feet in XO sauce.

Pork ribs — ugly but tasty.

Shu Mai (pork and shrimp dumplings) — large but tasty version of the classic.

Shrimp and Leek Dumplings — quite nice. One of the better dumplings.

Sticky rice in lotus leaf — good.

Crunchy baked BBQ pork bun — slightly mushy interior.

Pork Rib Chow Fun — I didn’t realize that this was just the ribs on top of some chow fun. I would have ordered a different one had I known.

Dumplings with an interesting peanut and meat paste inside. I didn’t adore.

XLB (Xao Lao Bao) – juicy pork dumplings. Very nice version.

Shrimp paste with almonds – Basically a shrimp spring roll covered in almonds. Interesting texture.

Another dumpling type with a brown spinach mush inside — not my favorite at all.

Beef balls — ok.

Crispy fried squab — very dense and meaty. Not my favorite squab.

Spicy cabbage — I love this dish as always.

Double Shot Gelato — Hot brewed espresso gelato with house-made dark chocolate hazelnut ganache — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — this will keep you up! — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #chocolate #valrhona #espresso #coffee #hazelnut #ganache

Peppered Lemongrass Ginger Creme Brûlée Gelato — A blended milk and Thai coconut cream base steeped with lemongrass and ginger and then juiced up with yuzu and black pepper. For sugar, I used coconut palm sugar and even torched the top! — created by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #lemongrass #ginger #CremeBrûlée #BlackPepper #coconut #yuzu

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

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

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Cantonese cuisine, Chinese Food, Dim sum, dimsum, Gelato, Har Gow, Lunch Quest, SGV, Yarom

Last Supper – Ho Kee

Feb21

Restaurant: Ho Kee Cafe

Location: 558 Las Tunas Dr, Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 822-3399

Date: December 29, 2019

Cuisine: Hong Kong Chinese

Rating: Quite good

The last Sunday of 2019, the last trip to the SGV, the last (restaurant) Chinese meal of the year…

Skylar arranged this banquet at Ho Kee Cafe in Arcadia, ordering a bunch of off menu dishes.

The decor is fairly modern.

Our menu was all in Chinese.

And we had this cute private room all to ourselves.

Salty peanuts on the table.

Pork belly with tangy jellyfish — first rate jellyfish, snappy with a great marinated flavor.

Hoisin and sugar to use on the pork.

Causeway style crab — salty and garlicky. Had to crunch thru shells but they were soft enough.

The house collected the garlic afterward so we could snack on it.

House special lobster — excellent — on tasty garlic noodles.

Succulent shrimp with celery — very delicate and nice with good textural contrast.

Vegetables featuring lily roots, mushrooms, greens, and oyster mushrooms — very nice actually.

Lily Snails — but I think was actually conch — crunchy. Attractive plating.

Ginger steamed turbot — very delicate.

Sesame 100 flower chicken — layered with shrimp paste — nice.

Sliced Peking duck — served with buns.

Duck meat and sweet sauce — nice meat, not as boney as some and very moist.

French Style Beef — one of the most succulent and tender I’ve had.

A-choy with garlic — good.

Typhoon Fried rice — a touch dry. Used the same seasonings as the lobster (in theory).

I was winding down gelato production for the year and so the freezers were already off but I did have this large bowl of fresh Sweet Milk Gelato Chocolate Mousse that Jerome and I made a day or so before. This is serious chocolate mousse made with classic French technique and Valrhona chocolate.

The gang.

Overall, Ho Kee Cafe was very good. Pretty similar to Cantonese. Plating was very attractive, service great, and kitchen execution excellent. A fitting way to finish out a year filled with lots of great Chinese food!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Chocolate Mousse, duck, hedonists, Ho kee, Ho Kee Cafe, Hong Kong Cuisine, Lobster, SGV

888 Not So Late

Feb14

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

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

Date: December 19, 2019

Cuisine: Cantonese Dimsum

Rating: good cart dimsum

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

Har Gow. Shrimp dumplings. nice.

Shrimp and Scallop Dumplings.

Vegetable Dumplings.

XLB (Xao Lao Bao). Pork soup dumplings. These were tasty, but a bit sticky and pasty.

Shrimp and Vegetable Dumplings.
Shu Mai. Not a bad version of the classic.

Pork ribs. Ugly but delicious.

Beef balls. Also ugly but tasty.

Shrimp Chow Fun. Good for this dish.

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

Greens with Sauce. Comes on the dedicated greens cart.

Crunchy top pork buns. A bit sweet and really nice texture.

Baked pork buns.

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

Chewy Pork Dumpling. I always like this texture.
Tofu. Very light and delicate. Nice soft texture.
Bean Curd wrapped veggies.

Cantonese Luke Warm Roast Duck. Pretty juicy, but very luke-warm, almost cool.

Pork Hock with Bok Choy. Delicious! Several people popped their pig’s feet cherry on these.

Fatty Beef Ribs. Rich sauce and thick slabs of beef that didn’t seem so Chinese.

Chicken Feet in XO sauce.

Seafood on crispy Chow Mein. Yum!

Pineapple Buns with custard and real pineapple chunks — great. Had several even though I was very full.

Macao Tart — ok, a bit mild.

Dimsum at 888 was solid, but not particularly interesting or super fresh. Definitely a notch or two down from the made to order places. Shells were a bit “sticky” which indicates they have been sitting in the steamers for a bit while they wheel around. Non dimsum dishes were more interesting. This is more like the way SGV dimsum was 10-15 years ago.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Brunch, Cantonese Chinese, Dim sum, dimsum, dumplings, hedonists, lunch, Lunch Quest, SGV

Lunch Quest — Xiang La Hui

Feb05

Restaurant: 香辣汇Xiang La Hui

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

Date: December 21, 2019

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Some great dishes

Continuing the Lunch Quest series in which Yarom and I explore more casual Asian lunch spots.

Some friend reviews and an eater article brought us to this new Szechuan entry on Main St.

Food photos as decor — something I can get behind.

But the inside is of that newer style appealing to the under 30 set with a touch of decor and smaller rectangular tables (as opposed to the older “palace” style places).

The menu has most of the Szechuan classics.

Cucumber in garlic. Excellent. nice crunch. lots of garlic. only missing the spice.

Chicken w/ chili sauce and pepper. Whole cleaver-ed chicken. Lots of bone but tons of flavor. Green and numbing and gorgeous.

Toothpick lamb. One of the most flavorful and most tender versions of this dish I’ve had.

Shredded Pork with Garlic Sauce. Classic, not bad. A bit sweet for Yarom.

Dan Dan Mein. Fairly typical Chengdu Style. Not that nutty or spicy though. Ok.

Stirred up.

Stir Fried Rabbit with Green Pepper. Super hot, lots of mala, and very very tasty. Little bones though.

Cumin Lamb. Super tender and full of flavor.

Cold Noodle (with chicken?) — delicious with a nice vinegary flavor and great texture. Much better than the dan dan.

Pork Belly with Rice Flour. Old school traditional.

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

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Dan Dan Mein, Lunch Quest, SGV, spicy, Szechuan Chinese, Xiang La Hui

888 Seafood – Banquet

Feb03

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.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: 888 Seafood, BYOG, Cantonese Chinese, Chinese Food, Gelato, hedonists, Peking Duck, SGV, suckling pig, Wine

Earl Grey – Nanjing Duck House

Jan29

Restaurant: Nanjing Duck House

Location: 9961 East Valley Blvd

Date: December 5, 2019

Cuisine: Nanjing Chinese

Rating: Looks funny — tastes great

Lately, Yarom and I have been doing more lunch excursions — particularly to Chinese places that aren’t really going to cut it for wine dinners. I’ve named this series Lunch Quest.

Anyway, today it carried us to Najing Duck House which specializes in Nanjing style cured duck.

And we met up with Tony Lau, Kirk, and some others.

This is one of those tiny SGV places with no decor — although they don’t have a drop ceiling — and exactly one employee. She was taking orders AND prepping the food. Tony had to help her out by busing!

Much of the food is cold and cured and on display in this takeout deli cabinet.

Oh yes, Nanjing style cured Turkey Gizzard!

The very short menu.
Boiled peanuts.

Shredded seaweed. Pretty much as described.

Pickled cabbage with soybeans and mustard greens. I loved these. I love cabbage. I love fermented. What’s not to love?

Nanjing style beancurd. What’s brown, rich, savory, slightly sweet and has a texture like a mop sponge? All true but it was actually great. Loved it.

Turkey gizzard, Nanjing style. Sounds extreme, but once you slice this dense cured muscle with the deli-slicer it’s quite delicious with a nice firm chew and a lovely cured flavor.

Turkey liver. Foie gras it ain’t. Decent enough though, if livery.

Sliced turkey leg, Nanjing style. More deli-slicer action. This was actually a very lovely cold sliced turkey leg. Salty, but tasty.

Boiled dumplings stuffed with pork and shepherd’s purse. Great. I love these home-style dumplings.

Boiled pork dumplings. More goodness.

Wonton soup with pork wontons and egg strips. Also lovely. Reminded me a bit of a better version of the classic wonton soup I’d get in my youth.

Nanjing style meatballs. Meaty good.

Half a Nanjing style duck. Much like the turkey, but duckier. A bit of a salted ham flavor.

Beef shank noodles with bok choy. The meat was great. The soup was simple.

Pork rib noodle soup. Again the meat was great. Rich. Soup was exactly the same.

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

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese Food, cured meats, duck, lunch, Lunch Quest, Nanjing Duck, Nanjing Duck House, SGV, Tony Lau, turkey, Yarom

Noodle Harmony

Dec20

Restaurant: Noodle Harmony

Location: 735 W Garvey Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 656-6562

Date: November 8, 2019

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Pretty good — I love me some Szechuan

My AFF group (Asian Food Friday) wanted to go to Korean but I steered them to the SGV to try out a new Szechuan place that’s been on my “list.”

Noodle Harmony. I always like to try new Szechuan places.

It’s in the mini mall at one of my favorite corners: Garvey and Atlantic. Right next to Capital Seafood.

Decor is that new casual style. No big tables. The place was pretty empty.

The menu.

My “notes” for ordering. I did it in waves so we could control the order and pacing.

Cucumber Salad. This was a nice garlicky (but not spicy) take on this classic opener. Always refreshing.

Jellyfish Salad. Some great jellyfish with that really nice chew/bite. Tangy spicy sauce.

Mung Bean Cold Noodle. I love this dish in general, but this version was a bit heavy and needed a more tangy sauce.

Green Onion and Chili Paste Cold Tofu. Loved this dish. Great salty/tangy flavor and really nice silken tofu texture. TONS of garlic.

Szechuan Spicy Chicken. Cold. Not a bad version. Lots of flavor. Bone sucking good.

Szechuan Style Dumplings. Very nice version. Lots of tasty pork inside, a bit of chili oil outside. Good dumpling skins.

Steamed Beef with Rice Paste. This is a Szechuan classic. Tender (I mean really tender) soft beef coated in rice paste which has this interesting carby and toasted quality. Very nice version.

Dan Dan Mein. The classic Chengdu street food. This was one of the better versions I’ve had in the US recently. It had lots of flavor and that mixed mala, meaty, a bit of nutty taste.

Traditional Tri-Delight (rice) Noodle Soup. Cuttlefish, pork stomach, pork, mushrooms. This soup showcases a fish cuttlefish. Very interesting. Quite delicious too.

I brought a bunch of gelato in honor of AFF.

Cran-Cherry Cassis Sorbetto — French Cranberries and Amareno Cherries with a bit of Crème de Cassis — tart! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Currents from Avignon, blended with Creme de Cassis –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #cranberry #cherry #current #cassis

Ruby Chocolate Gelato — base made with Callebaut Ruby Couverture Chocolate and a Stracciatella of ruby chocolate mixed with berriy puree — this isn’t a flavored chocolate but a special “ruby” cocoa bean Callebaut has bred with a natural pink color and fruity finish — 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 #Callebaut #chocolate #RubyChocolate #ruby #berry

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

A new “dessert reinterpreted” gelato — German Chocolate Cake Gelato — Valrhona Chocolate base with house-made coconut pecan praline “icing”! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — oh my! — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #chocolate #valrhona #GermanChocolateCake #Icing #coconut #praline #pecan

Overall, service was great. We were pretty much the only people there and they were extremely friendly. Food was good, but not the best Szechuan I’ve had by any means. Menu is pretty limited. Definitely a lunch place. Everything was fine. Nothing too sloppy or anything, but most dishes just fine. A few were standouts though. Dan Dan, tofu, jellyfish, maybe the steamed beef.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: AFF, lunch, Noodle Harmony, SGV, Sichuan, Szechuan Chinese

Tang Gong at Night

Nov29

Restaurant: Tang Gong [1, 2]

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

Date: October 20, 2019

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Very solid banquet Chinese

Our friend Derek has been the manager variously at Elite Seafood, World Seafood, and China Red. Tonight we return for one of those awesome Tony Lau special Cantonese feasts.

Now he’s helping open up Monterey Park newcomer, Tang Gong.

Tang Gong is upstairs in the Northwest Corner of the busy Garvey/Atlantic intersection.

In an era when the Cantonese Palaces are closing, it’s rare to have a new one opening up — including all the glitzy Hong Kong style trappings. These places cater (haha) to big Chinese weddings.

We had a nice single table private room with lots of space.

On the table to start, candied walnuts (yummy) and peanuts.

Conch with shrimp paste. Nice chew, crunch from the celery, and a bit of yummy “shrimpy” flavor from the paste.

Cantonese hot sauce and mustard.

Scallop covered in shrimp paste. One of these pan fried dishes that is related to a dimsum dish. A whole scallop covered in shrimp “macnugget” material.

Salt and pepper prawns. Super delicious huge prawns so deeply fried that you eat the whole thing shell and all.

Whole suckling pig. Awesome and porcine.

Yarom (right) and Tony Lau (left) with their bones.

Cantonese style Peking duck. Served with buns, hoisin, etc. Not as good as real Peking duck — as it’s not so crispy — but still delicious.

Roast chicken. Super moist. Some of the best chicken I’ve had in a long time.

Black pepper beef with asparagus. Always wine friendly, if a touch “boring.” Very tender.

Roast quail. Always excellent.

Garlicky Greens. Great, perfect for the colon.

Chard with egg and mushrooms. Now I’ve never had this Chinese vegetable dish before. It had a slightly sweet and sour (more sour) taste. I preferred the classic garlicky greens but this was certainly interesting.

Crispy egg noodles.

Beef topping for the noodles.

The noodles with the topping.

More noodles with beef and bean sprouts. Carby, but delicious.

Mochi-type balls with red bean (the dark ones) and custard (the light one). I LOVED the custard flavored ones. Really nice jelly consistency and rich custard inside.

Red bean and coconut jelly. Loved these too. I always like these weird smooth jiggly Chinese desserts. Some of my favorite Chinese desserts.

Nocciola Caramello Budino Gelato — Nocciola custard base made with Pure PGI Piedmont hazelnut paste, infused with house-made caramel (instead of sugar) then mixed with toffee and topped with Toffifay — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — so good it’s an instant signature flavor –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #hazelnut #nocciola #caramel #caramello #toffee #toffifay

Key Lime Pie Gelato – base is a key lime egg custard, layered with house-made frozen graham cracker and covered with house-made 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 #KeyLime #lime #custard #meringue #GrahamCracker #cookie

The manager Derek posing with Yarom.

Overall, very solid new place. Service (thanks Derek) was of course perfect. We loved the private room. Tony always does a great job of planning the menu and tonight was no exception. Lots of classics and lots of interesting new dishes. Highlights were the crispy prawn, chicken, duck (of course), pig, scallop with shrimp and more.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, duck, Gelato, hedionists, SGV, suckling pig, Tang Gong, Tony Lau

O OOToro

Nov15

Restaurant: OOToro [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: 1569 Fairway Dr, Walnut, CA 91789. (909) 598-8299

Date: October 5, 2019

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi (with slight nod to China)

Rating: Ends of the earth, but very good

Chef Kaz of Totoraku, an occasional hedonist, sent us far east to this Sushi restaurant in 2016 and it was such a fun time that we had to return again for a sixth visit — it’s now become a twice a year thing.
And by far east I mean REALLY REALLY far east — to Walnut California. 40+ miles from my house. 20 miles past Alhambra (which most people consider to far to drive for food). It took an hour and twenty minutes on a Saturday night!

The slick looking location is in the heart of the affluent Chinese American San Gabriel Valley. But yes, it’s Japan, if perhaps catering to Chinese taste. This photo was shot at about 10pm after everyone else had left.

Here is the private room — the only way to go.

Yarom brought this ancient Burg. 1953 Chanson Père & Fils Beaune 1er Cru Bressandes. It was cloudy and we all swore it had no chance, but it was actually quite nice (for about 30 minutes before dropping off).

Ron brought: NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée Edition 167eme. VM 94+. Krug’s NV Grande Cuvée 167ème Edition is positively brilliant. Chef de Caves Eric Lebel and his team have always put tremendous emphasis on the craft of blending. Never has that discipline been more critical than here, with the 167, which is based on 2011, one of the most challenging harvests in Champagne in many years. Brisk and racy in the glass, the 167 is laced with a range of lemon peel, baked apple, brioche and floral notes. Readers should plan on giving the 167 at least a few years in bottle, as it is presently tightly wound and not at all expressive. The flavors are beautifully articulated. In many releases, the Grande Cuvée is richer and more overt. The 167, on the other hand, is airy, weightless and sublime. Most importantly, it is an unqualified success. This release is based on 2011, with reserve wines back to 1995. (Drink between 2021-2036)

Cod sperm with radish and ponzu. Looks like brain and has a soft squirmy texture — but tastes great.

1995 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. VM 94. The 1995 Krug is gorgeous. I chose it because one of my guests loves Krug and I thought the 1995 would have the right amount of complexity to pair beautifully with the smokiness in Saison’s caviar. Although the 1995 Krug is not a truly epic wine, it is in a sweet spot right now. (Drink between 2018-2023)

Oyster with uni and ikura (salmon eggs).

Close up. Bright, briney, and delicious.

2002 Salon Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. VM 97. Another highlight in this vertical, the 2002 Salon is also fascinating to taste after the 2004. Rich, opulent and intense, yet also very classic in the Salon house style, the 2002 possesses superb persistence and depth. The radiant vintage has softened the contours and given the wine fabulous depth to match its decidedly powerful personality. At the same time, the 2002 remains quite youthful. Next to the brighter and more finessed 2004, the 2002 offers more of a baritone-inflected expression of Chardonnay. (Drink between 2016-2036)

Sashimi. Aji (Japanese horse mackrel). Wild snapper. Uni wrapped in halibut with shiso.

Left to right: Baby peach, Japanese pepper, Abalone, Whitefish tempura, and Japanese cucumber with miso paste.

2012 Louis Jadot Bâtard-Montrachet. BH 93. There is a hint of menthol sitting atop pretty aromas of acacia blossom, spiced pear and white peach scents. The delicious, muscular and pure broad-shouldered and powerful flavors possess fine size and weight that continues onto the concentrated and impressively persistent if presently compact finish. Those who enjoy their white burgs young should note that while this is very promising there isn’t great complexity at this early stage so I would very much be inclined to allow this to age for at least 8 to 10 years first. (Drink starting 2020)

Uni, Ikura, and house made tofu. The uni ikura pairing is a classic.

2013 Hubert Lamy Puligny-Montrachet Les Tremblots Cuvée Haute Densité. BH 90-92. An expressive yet cool nose is composed by notes of essence of pear and citrus that are nuanced with hints of apple and spiced tea. There is outstanding density and vibrancy to the relatively powerful and mouth coating flavors that possess plenty of sappy dry extract, all wrapped in a delicious, balanced and impressively lingering finish. This is a terrific Puligny villages and worth a special search to find. (Drink starting 2020)

Johnny crab — not sure how you spell that — but a lovely crab salad nonetheless.

2004 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet. VM 93+. Deep, bright aromas of pear, spring flowers and liquid stone. Penetrating and pure, with pear, citrus and stony flavors nicely framed by firm acidity. Still tight in the middle, but already conveys the precision of the vintage at its best. A real mouthful of wet stones on the very long finish.

Lobster sashimi, done 3 ways.

From my cellar: NV Krug Champagne Brut Rosé. BH 94. Medium rosé hue. A cool, restrained and highly complex nose that is not especially fruity displays a moderate yeast character along with slightly exotic aromas of mandarin orange and Asian tea, all wrapped in an enveloping array of beguiling rose petal scents. There is very good richness with a relatively firm supporting mousse that adds to the impression of richness to the superbly complex and highly textured flavors, indeed one could aptly describe this as more wine that Champagne. As such this is indeed a sumptuous Krug rosé that is difficult to resist already though it should reward extended keeping if desired. As I noted in the original 750 ml review, that while I am not always wowed by the Krug Rosé, this latest incarnation in magnum is strikingly good. (Drink starting 2020)

Roasted Blue fin tuna collar, kama-toro. This giant collar from a giant fish is one of the things that brought us back. The meat looked and felt like roasted lamb, but of course tasted more like tuna. It was very rich and solid and almost certainly the best cooked tuna I’ve ever had.

2009 Domaine Michel Niellon Chevalier-Montrachet. BH 94. Here mild reduction doesn’t materially diminish the appeal of the more elegant if ever-so-slightly less complex aromas that feature notes of stone, lemon zest, acacia blossom and spiced pear. There is superb intensity and simply gorgeous detail to the mineral-driven and impeccably well-balanced flavors and explosive finale. Still, as good as this is and it is indeed exceptional, the superior complexity of the Bâtard gives it the barest of edges in 2009. (Drink starting 2015)

Clam and the other clam.

Seared toro, uni mousse, actual uni, takuan, and gold flakes. This is incredible, partially because of the different textures: soft, mushy, smooth, crunchy.

Tempura vegetables and cold soba. First time I’ve had soba here and it was delicious.

1989 Clos Vougeot.

Chu toro sushi.

Kama toro sushi.

Seared red snapper sushi. Charred finish was amazing.

Kama toro again, slightly different way.

Some Grange from a previous night.

A5 wagyu sukiyaki.

The certificate for the beef, including cow nose print.

Here is the finished sukiyaki which was wonderfully beefy, and a touch sweet. I love sukiyaki.

Lobster miso.

Red Current Cassis Sorbetto! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Currents from Avignon, blended with Creme de Cassis –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #RedCurrent #current #cassis

I just can’t get enough of this flavor and had to use it as an excuse to practice my Italian Merignue —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

Salted Caramel Peanut Gelato — House-made salted caramel and integrated Chunky Salty Peanut base mixed with Toffee Coated Peanuts and Dark Peanut Butter Cups — 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 #caramel #chocolate #peanut #SaltedCaramel #Toffee

Dandelion Dark Sorbetto — a super intense Dandelion Small Batch 70% Chocolate plus Valrhona 100% Cocoa plus Callebaut Cocoa Mass — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — the best no milk straight chocolate I’ve yet made — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #Callebaut #chocolate #cocoa #sorbetto

Zoom!

The house dessert, Taro coconut ice cream. Not like mine!

Tonight’s wine lineup.

Overall, OOToro — while always good — showed for the third time that the private room is really the way to go. This was a great meal and much more subtle and sophisticated than some of the front room fare. Really great stuff — although we should have gotten the largest omakase for max variety, but even one down I was more than full (mostly because I ate so much roasted tuna).

As we often do, it was back to the Marriot parking lot for some valley-view drinking.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Champagne, ootoro, SGV, Sushi, walnut california, Wine

Jiang Nan Spring

Oct25

Restaurant: Jiang Nan Spring

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

Date: September 11 & November 3, 2019

Cuisine: Shanghai Chinese

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

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

After our reconnaissance lunch (9/11/19), we returned (11/3/19) for a big group dinner.

They have a newish storefront on Main in the heart of Alahambra.

Interior is clean and free of the usual wall menus, TV’s etc.

For our 11/3/19 dinner we dined in this private side room (2 tables). This made for one of those giant 2 table CF dinners — I do much prefer my Chinese dinners to keep to one table.

The menu.

Boiled peanuts on the table.

Shanghai Duck (9/11/19). This cold marinated duck is flavored a lot like pork.

Cold Drunken Chicken (11/3/19). Nice for this kind of cold bland chicken. It had some good flavor, very nice (if cold) texture, and was quite moist.

Cold Smoked Fish (11/3/19). Classic Shanghai style cold fried fish. Smokey flavor.

Pork belly slices in garlic chili oil (11/3/19). Very tasty pork as the spicy/garlic sauce was excellent.

Chili oil.

Scallion pancake (11/3/19). Fine for what it is, but I usually find this a boring dish.

XLB (11/3/19) pork soup dumplings. Decent version of the always fabulous pockets of steamed pork. Not amazing house-made versions like at Juicy Dumpling, but still good.

Beef Roll (11/3/19). Not usually my favorite dish either, but a pretty good version of it.

See the inside.

West Lake Beef Soup (9/11/19 and 11/3/19). A mild goopy soup with tofu and beef, it was actually delicious. I had several bowls. I’m not sure what was so good about it — certainly texture — but it was very addictive.

Spare Ribs in Lotus Leaf (9/11/19 and 11/3/19). I’ve only had this dish once before, at another West Lake / Shanghai style SGV place, Chang’s Garden.

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

Sautéed Shrimp (9/11/19). I asked them if they had the green tea version, and they said they did, but we got the more regular Shanghai version. The shrimp were super succulent and with the vinegar quite delicious. Still, I wanted to try the tea version again.

Shanghai Style Pork Hock (11/3/19). Classic Shanghai dish.

This was a controversial dish. Among those of us who love “real” Chinese food, we LOVED this dish. It was moist, fatty, jiggyly (yes), but had tons of fabulous porky flavor. The other table, with lots of lightweight Chinese eaters found it “too fatty.” Of course, it’s supposed to be fatty!

Peking Duck (11/3/19). Even though it’s not a Shanghai dish, they do offer peking duck. The meat itself was solid but not the best ever or anything. Good flavor, but the skin wasn’t the crispiest possible.

And with pancakes — which were good but a bit large.

Hoisin and green onions.

David L, as always, demanded the “bones” from the duck. Sometimes there is meat on the bones, not really here. But I won’t be critical, as that means it just went into other dishes.

Yarom gnaws on one anyway.

Vegetables, soy beans, and bean curd (11/3/19). Very interesting dish. Nice crunchy texture.

Salted Egg with Chinese Squash (9/11/19). Like Zucchini with salty egg. Ick. I didn’t like this dish at all. Yarom did, but I’m not a fan of this sort of vegetable.

Seaweed fried fish (11/3/19). Crispy moist “fish sticks.”

Walnut shrimp (11/3/19). The classic, tasty, but lots of mayo.

Fried Tofu & Ground Pork with hot sauce (9/11/19). Or maybe it was Hunan Tofu. Not sure. This was actually pretty hot. Not exactly MaPo or Szechuan in style, but quite good.

We special pre-ordered Beggar’s Chicken (11/3/19).

The chicken is inside this pastry and they wallop it open with the mallet!

Inside it’s very moist, with tender meat, sweet Shanghai-style sauce, chestnuts, and other fruits and vegetables. Very interesting, if a touch rich.

Shanghai Purple Rice. Starchy!

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

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

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

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

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, hedonists, lunch, Lunch Quest, SGV, Shanghai Cuisine, Yarom

SGV Adventures – Ruby BBQ

Oct21

Restaurant: Ruby BBQ Food

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

Date: September 20, 2019

Cuisine: Southern Chinese

Rating: Tasty, if a little “downscale”

Lately, because Yarom and I are diehard Chinese Food fanatics and it’s hard to find others willing to drive all the way to the SGV during the week for lunch, the two of us — with occasional extras — have been sampling some of the more casual eateries on our list of new places to try.

Enter Ruby BBQ Food — yes they actually include the word food in their name — just in case BBQ wasn’t clear enough. This is a very casual Southern Chinese place in a more Vietnamese section of the SGV.

It’s real casual, with a takeout counter and menu on the wall.

But it was crowded. We had to wait 15-20 minutes for a table.

They have roast ducks and the like to go too.

Now just to give you a bit of the flavor of the place, and these downscale SGV joints, ignoring Yarom’s protests I include this photo. This particular lady was at the counter ordering/waiting right in the middle of the lobby. This did not, however, stop her from clipping her nails and leaving them on the floor of the restaurant. Very local crowd. Still, bear in mind, I ate here right after and I’d happy eat here again. They actually have an “A” too.

The menu.

Free vegetable soup. Kinda boring.

Besides the soup, Yarom and I ordered 10 dishes for just the two of us — that’s just how we roll.

Eggplant Szechuan Style. Delicious. Soft eggplant dripping in tasty garlic sauce. Not particularly spicy.

Dry sautéed string beans. Also good. Nice crunchy beans.

Ruby BBQ Rib. Cold with great piggy flavor.

Golden pork. This and the next dish were pretty similar, both not too different than a panda express type dish. This one had less bone, I think, but the sauce was sweeter and a bit more overwhelming.

Pork chop. This one was more chew it off the bone and was very slightly better. But both were good.

Bamboo duck. Unusual heavy brown gravy with those rolled bean curds. The duck meat itself was dark and boney but the overall flavor was excellent.

Egg with shrimp. Surprisingly delicious shrimp omelet.

The owner of the restaurant just could not believe that we ordered so much so she gave us the last few dishes “to go.” She insisted. We opened them and ate them at our table anyway.

Ruby steamed chicken. My least favorite dish. Basically Hainan chicken. Fine for what it was, but it’s steamed chicken.

With a bit of garlic sauce.

Mapo tofu. Not spicy, but nice texture.

BBQ Duck. Quite good, particularly juicy and delicious dunked in the sauce below.

The duck sauce.

Apparently everything comes from “dept 01” but as you can see, it’s not an expensive department. Even the signature meaty BBQ dishes like the duck were barely $11!

Yarom with the owner and his leftovers.

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

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

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

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BBQ Pork, Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, lunch, Lunch Quest, Ruby BBQ, SGV, Yarom

Yunnan Night

Oct11

Restaurant: Yunnan Restaurant

Location: 301 N Garfield Ave. Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 571-8387

Date: August 25, 2019

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Really interesting and delicious

I’ve been looking forward to this one, as I always love unusual regional Chinese.

It’s the usual SGV sort of frontage, including the B rating.

The huge menu.

The space is divided between a more formal back half with semi-private rooms and a more casual front.

Yunnan restaurant is well known for its extensive buffet of cold authentic Chinese appetizers.

All sorts of yummy cured and spiced meats.

Including the weird parts.

Like chicken feet.

Wood ear mushrooms, pigs ears, and some kind of fried treat.

Pickled vegetables and chicken.

Spiced tofu and garlic cucumbers.

Bean curd rice noodle. This was one of my less favorite dishes, although it was still tasty. Just soft and mild with the silken tofu.

Local chicken with spicy sauce. Not a bad version of the cold spicy chicken in chilies.

Cold tofu with preserved egg. I really like this dish with the tofu tofu, pungent and salty egg with tangy sauce.

Lamb with pickled pepper. Tasty and strong, with soft meat and lots of of flavor.

Fish with Szechuan special sauce. The classic boiled spicy fish. Hot with big chunks of fish.

Yunnan cured pork with leek and green pepper. This was an amazing dish. Salty, with tons of cured ham and leeky flavor.

Frog with Pickled Pepper. Tangy and hot. Lots of bones, but delicious.

Szechuan Special Cured Crispy Duck. Really tasty, pastrami like meat.

Crispy cured beef. Another great dish. Like a salty chipped beef. Crunchy and delicious.

Omelet with shrimp. A solid omelet with succulent shrimp. Extra delicious with the chipped beef.

Eggplant in Garlic Sauce. Fairly salt, and unusual, but great flavor.

Service was very friendly at Yunnan and they recently got their liquor license and let us open our wines. But beyond that this is delicious and interesting cuisine. Quite salty, with a lot of cured meats and pickled vegetables.

Afterward off to Salju for a bit of sweet.

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

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, SGV, Yunnan Rstaurant

Ring in Tang Gong

Sep30

Restaurant: Tang Gong

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

Date: August 14, 2019

Cuisine: Cantonese Dimsum

Rating: Great new made to order Dimsum

Our friend Derek has been the manager variously at Elite Seafood, World Seafood, and China Red.

Now he’s helping open up Monterey Park newcomer, Tang Gong.

In an era when the Cantonese Palaces are closing, it’s rare to have a new one opening up — including all the glitzy Hong Kong style trappings. These places cater (haha) to big Chinese weddings.

And a huge private room (where we were located).

Derek posing with Yarom.

The dim sum menu. Like most Cantonese places, there is banquet at night. They had just opened a few days before when we arrived.

Chicken Feet with House Sauce. Sometimes this is called XO sauce. It’s not exactly the same as regular XO sauce.

Beef Tripe with Scallion and Ginger. Sounds gross. Looks gross. Tastes great. Chewy, yes. But delicious.

Steamed Pork Ribs with Garlic. These also aren’t the best looking items in the world, and there are the little knuckle-like bones in there, but the meat taste was fantastic. Very juicy and full of pork flavor.

Har Gow. Shrimp dumpling. Classic, straightforward, and enjoyable as always.

Pork and Shrimp Shui Mai. I always order the classics when checking out a new place. These were solid, much like Elite’s.

Fried Pork Dumpling. These have that chewy fried mochi shell and delicate pork inside. Really delicious.

Sea Cucumber and Dried Scallop Dumpling. I hadn’t realized this was “in a soup” (should have looked at the pictures better). This makes it hard to share but it was scrumptious. Lots of interesting umami flavor.

Pan Fried Leek Cake. There is some shrimp or something in here too. I love these for their greasy shell texture. Pretty much a “Beijing Pie.”

XLB (Juicy Pork Bun). Soup filled lovelies. Solid renditions of these. Not the great kind you get at a specialty house where they make them constantly fresh, but still very enjoyable with the vinegar.

Baked Crispy Pork Bun. 10/10. Light slightly sweet crispy shell, airy interior, and sweet BBQ pork. Awesome.

Shredded Duck and Seat Pea Rice Roll. Interesting. The peas are either an interesting or distracting textural element alongside the chewy soft chow fun.

BBQ Pork and Corn Rice Roll. More straightforward and I think I enjoyed a bit more.

Seafood Salad Roll. Fried with a creamy “seafood salad” inside. Delicious though.

Baked BBQ Pork Pastry. The buttery pastry version with the same BBQ pork.

House special lobster. Good, typical.

Peking Duck. The meat itself was good, although maybe it could have been a touch crispier. I prefer the pancakes to the buns, but the hoisin was good.

Crispy BBQ Pork. Interesting pork pretty. Quite delicious.

BBQ Chicken. Super succulent chicken.

Traditional Beef Chow Fun. Pan fried noodles with beef.

Braised E-Fu Mein. I liked these crispy noodles even better. Tons of flavor and very addictive (viva la grease!)

Canton Style Steamed Greens. Very tasty.

Beet Greens (you can see the purple color) steamed with garlic. These were more bitter and I didn’t like them as much as the straight up greens.

White Chocolate Peanut Gelato — I hadn’t made a White Chocolate base in a while so in light of my rent “experiments” in chocolate took another pass at it — came out awesome, using all Valrhona Ivoire chocolate layered with house-made Peanut Dulcey Ganache — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peanut #WhiteChocolate #valrhona #ganache

Hpnotiq Blue Hawaiian Sorbetto — like a frozen cocktail — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Thai Coconut Milk, Pineapple, Lime, and Hpnotiq liqueur –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #Hpnotiq #BlueHawaiian #pineapple #coconut #lime

Overall, very solid new place. Service (thanks Derek) was of course perfect. We loved the big private room. Dimsum was “typical good” very much like Elite or Derek’s time at World Seafood. We didn’t have too much that was really novel, but the execution on all the typical dishes was excellent. I want to see how they settle into the rhythm of things in a couple weeks and return.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Dim sum, dimsum, Gelato, hedonists, lunch, Lunch Quest, Monterey Park, SGV, Tang Gong, Tony Lau

Chun La Hao – Infernal Pot

Sep20

Restaurant: Chun La Hao Chong Qing Hot Pot

Location: 5701 Rosemead Blvd, Temple City, CA 91780. (626) 766-1230

Date: August 5, 2019

Cuisine: Chong Qing Hot Pot

Rating: Tied for best hot pot I’ve ever had

After Yarom and I met up in March at the awesome Shancheng Lameizi for some fiery hot pot (which blows the boring mild hot pot out of… something) we decided to drag some more people to a different new, higher end Szechuan Hot Pot place.

Chun La Hao is located in the same Temple City mall as Grand Harbor and right across the street from Bistro Na. It hails from Chong Qing, the largest city in Szechuan and well known for its brazen, no holds barred take on spice.

They have bar style munchies and tea in the waiting area.

And a modern Chinese decor much like the aforementioned Bistro Na or Shancheng. It’s more spacious than either of Shancheng’s branches.

Our table for size was still a bit tight — for us big westerners.

The menu is the usual check sheet and with an extensive list of favorites and freakish culinary bits one can boil up. Aka duck intestine, black tripe, pork aorta and the like.

The have the best “snack bar” I’ve yet seen at a hot pot. Extensive munchies.

The usual kind of peanuts and crisps.

A big assortment of pickled things like spicy cucumbers, kimchee like stuff, etc.

And more weird crispy stuff.

Here are some I got. The cucumbers were great. The kimchee was very hot, even by my standards.

From my cellar: NV Pierre Péters Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Cuvée de Réserve. JG 91+. As is customary with this bottling from Rodolphe Péters, the wine is a blend of fifty percent of its base year of 2014 and fifty percent from last year’s blend, which had gone into the family solera of reserve wines that dates back to 1988. The vins clairs here do not entirely go through malo as fifteen percent are non-malo wines, with the range raised in a variety of vessels, including barrels, stainless steel tanks and cement vats and the wine spend two years aging sur latte. The new release is very good indeed, offering up a youthful blend of apple, pear, hazelnut, chalky minerality, incipient pastry cream and spring flowers. On the palate the wine is crisp, focused and full-bodied, with a good core, still pretty brisk acidity, frothy mousse and very good backend mineral drive on the long and nascently complex finish. This is very good today and will be even better with a couple of years in the cellar.

We ordered the maximum spicy classic Chongqing ox fat broth and a light mushroom broth for the losers.

Here it is all fired up, at the end too when the spice has taken over some of the wuss side.

Chun La Hao also has a big sauce bar. Bigger perhaps than HDL but a bit smaller than SL.

A slightly better view. There are all the classics here and more, plenty to make a great sauce. They lack a few of the weird (and delicious) fermented options at SL, but otherwise it’s pretty complete. All the base components are here. Spices, sesame oil and paste, soy sauces, vinegars, etc.

This is my “mild” (not really) vegetable sauce with a soy vinegar garlic base.

And my fiery sesame flame garlic “meat” sauce.

The presentation is cute. A red army truck brings the Veggie Combo Platter of various greens.

Oddly, no cabbage in the combo, so we ordered some.

Lotus root provides a nice crunch.

Lately I’ve taken to Square Bamboo Shoot as a source of great texture and fiber.

Mushroom Combo Platter serves up even more fiber.

The tofu combo platter brings handmade tofu, black tofu (which was kinda gross), fried beancurd and others.

Fish Filet was marinated. It looked pretty, but was filled with bones.

Cuttlefish dumplings look like sticks of wax, but cook up to be delectable chewy sticks with a hint of seafood.

Luncheon Pork is one of my favorites and I got two orders. Basically spam, this stuff is soft and delicious.

Mini Sausage are fun.

Pork Meatballs were clearly house-made and the best I’ve had. Really tasty.

Fatty Beef. Delicious.

Beef Brisket. Moderately leaner.

Beef belly is also fatty and delicious.

Lamb shoulder was delicious. Too bad under all that spice one can barely tell the meats apart :-).

Beef Tendon isn’t a white boy favorite, and is very gelatinous when cooked up, but tastes amazing (if you can handle the texture).

Pork is good too and needs to be cooked a bit longer.

It’s a bit crowded at the table and the uncooked food is on shelves at the edge of our alcove, a bit hard to get at.

Sure makes a big mess.

Check out the congealing spicy ox fat after it’s had a chance to cool down!

They have a funny timing game you can play once per table to “earn” a discount too.

Overall, service was great. Decor is good. Snack bar is best in class. Sauce bar is an A-, but still great. Plating is the best I’ve seen at hot pot and the flavor was spectacular. If you can handle spicy hot pot, this is one of THE places to go. Seriously it’s as good as a similar place in Chengdu or Chongqing!

It should be noted that only 2 of the six of us (Yarom and I) were brave enough to eat from the spicy side. I ate entirely spicy, consequences be damned! It’s well worth it, but part of the experience is the catharsis and adrenaline rush. Expect coughing in reaction to the toxic fumes and insanely great heat.

Afterward, to cool down, we went across the street to Meet Fresh.

Counter order Asian Shave Ice place.

Very nice decor.

Shave ice with various beans and taro pudding and the like.

Super mango shave ice with sweetened milk and ice cream. Yum Yum! Plus some milk teas and the like.

Flan shave ice with ice cream, two kinds of flan, various jellies and jiggly bits, and all sorts of other cool stuff.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Chongqing Hot Pot, Chun La Hao, hot pot, SGV, spicy, Szechuan Chinese, Szechuan Hot Pot

Mandarin Plaza Crawl

Sep18

Earlier in the year, Yarom and I hatched and plotted this particular all afternoon mega crawl at the Rowland Heights Mandarin Plaza — partially at least while sucking down some serious hot pot in said plaza. This place is far from LA proper, way out 40+ miles to the east but is in the heart of the “new Chinatown”.

Restaurant: Leung Kee

Location: 18908 E Gale Ave, Rowland Heights, CA 91748

Date: August 3, 2019

Cuisine: Chinese BBQ

Rating: check: roast pig before noon

We start at 11am, “meating” (haha) up at the former Sam Woo BBQ, now Leung Kee Chinese BBQ.

It’s right smack in the middle of this huge mall that contains tons of Asian restaurants, including Chinese, Korean, Thai and more.

They do a lot of takeout biz, pigs and ducks and the like.

The space is typical old school SGV.

Boba must be a new thing.

The menu.

Tea comes in a mug!

And there is free eggdrop soup — which was pretty darn good.

Macau style roast pork. Must have just been reheated as it landed on our table in 2 seconds, but pretty tasty.

Crispy beef. Very fried, but very delicious.

Peking Duck. It wasn’t the best peking duck, maybe a bit soggy, but peking duck is always pretty good.

Buns instead of pancakes.

And sketchy extra duck meat — that was actually pretty good.

Overall, just fair. Pretty much what you’d expect. But I like pretty much all (real) Chinese food at a good bit.

Restaurant: Mandarin Bay Seafood

Location: 1015 S Nogales St, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 839-7738

Date: August 3, 2019

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: check: Just ok

Next up, we leave the actual mall and cross the street on foot to:

Meet up with more people at noon at:

Cantonese Mandarin Bay Seafood Restaurant.

The gang (minus yours truly).

The takeout menu.

It’s noon, by 1 minute or so, so time for wine.

From my cellar, a touch too dry — bone dry rose sparkling from France.

Nice.

Second free soup of the day, hot and sour — this was not good hot and sour. I saved the stomach space.

Marinated Jellyfish. Vinegary and chewy good.

Salt and Pepper Shrimp. Salty, crunchy, very tasty.

Salt and pepper squid — somehow we ended up with the same prep twice. These were good too.

Ginger and Green Onion frog. Kinda fried, but the sauce was great.

Overall, Mandarin was fine too, but nothing super exciting.

Restaurant: Spicy Moment

Location: 1015 S Nogales St, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 581-4966

Date: August 3, 2019

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: check: Surprisingly good, big menu

Next up we walked 2 doors down.

To a new style Szechuan place.

This is what I mean by new style. They still have the ugly drop ceiling, but they have made a tiny effort at decorating.

The menu is gargantuan.
This is a great wine on any day, and particularly great on a hot day with Chinese.

Recycled from the Vietnamese crawl.

Grilled pork jowl with Yunnan sauce. Delicious.

Fish in pickle pepper soup. This wasn’t spicy, but it was amazing. Really, really delicious. Soft tender fish and very distinct and lovely sour flavor.

Dry pot pork rib and shrimp. Also filled with potatoes to sop up the sauce. I generally like dry pot and this was particularly delicious. Lots and lots of flavor.

Black pepper lamb shoulder. Not spicy, but very tasty with a strong onion flavor.

Eggplant with garlic sauce. Fine rendition.

Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by Spicy Moment and would totally go back for a full meal. Plus they let us drink our wine on the down low. Menu is huge and execution was good — and interesting.

Restaurant: Hunan Restaurant

Location: 1015 S Nogales St, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 964-8458

Date: August 3, 2019

Cuisine: Hunan Chinese

Rating: check: Solid

Then we popped back to this spot:

Located in between the Mandarin Bay and Spicy Moment.

Hunan is more old school than Spicy Moment, but it also has a vast menu:

Vast menu.

More sweet wine.

And a rhone blend.

Peanuts.

Shredded minced pork with corn and pickled vegetable. Super tasty — pork really helps a veggie. Sure to make things really move along later.

Sautéed lamb. Tasty.

Crispy pork ribs with garlic and chilies. Lots of flavor, not so much meat.

Fish filet with fire cracker salt. Very delicious boiled fish with garlic and chilies.

Spicy pickled cucumbers. Also delicious. Generally a fan fave.

Overall, Hunan was also very good. Sort of a blend of (more old school) Szechuan AND hunan, but who cares. It was excellent.

Restaurant: Happy Tree House BBQ

Location: 18904 E Gale Ave, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 581-9886

Date: August 3, 2019

Cuisine: Chinese Skewers

Rating: check: hmmm

When I was spotting during the hot pot night, this place seemed intriguing.

Happy Tree BBQ. It’s a new style skewered meats place.

Very snazzy new interior.

Real coals.

And this warmer thing on the table where they put your skewers.

Powders.

Seaweed salad. Tastes like it looks.

Spicy octopus salad. Ok, but the sauce tasted a lot like Sriracha.

Beef skewers. Not bad.

Shrimp skewers. You eat shell and all.

Hot dogs. Well they didn’t call them that, but they basically are.

Chicken skin skewers. Crispy!

Lamb skewers. Pretty good too.

Chicken wing skewers. Just so so.

Overall, we were kinda disappointed in Happy Tree. Chinese skewers aren’t nearly as good as good Yakatori. They’re fine, but not super exciting. This place looks good, and is probably packed with young people on dates in the evening, but it just doesn’t feel as “Chinese” somehow. I’m not really sure where in China this kind of food is actually from.

Restaurant: Silk Road Garden

Location: 18904 E Gale Ave, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 581-9886

Date: August 3, 2019

Cuisine: Uyghur Chinese

Rating: check: great

So our final place is all the way west.

And merely across the parking lot next to the first spot.

It’s Uyghur Chinese like Dolans and has the decor to match. Very cute and intimate.

Being Uyghur doesn’t mean their menu is any smaller! They have skewers here too — I bet they would be better.

Garlic pickles. Nice crunchy garlicky cucumbers.

Yellow noodle with cumin lamb. Delicious tender cumin lamb on top of spaghetti-like noodles.

Meat and Vegetables in Homemade pastry. A giant golden meat pie. Extremely hot on the mouth, but tasty.

Special homemade noodle with minced beef. A western Chinese bolognese — tons of flavor. Nice thick al dente noodles.

Manti, meat and onion filled dumplings. These were superb, with really delicate skins. They could have used a dipping sauce though.

They had a little freezer of ice cream macarons.

Overall, I was also very pleasantly surprised by Silk Road. First rate execution. Small, intimate, and clearly cooked with precision. The dishes are typical of the region — half way between Shaanxi and Afghan — focused on lamb, and delicious.

In Summary, we only hit 6 of the perhaps 20+ restaurants in Mandarin plaza, and we “only” had 8 people, but we dined like Emperors on a cross China trek! Seriously, so much variety of style. The far SGV (aka Rowland and Hacienda Heights, Dimond Bar, etc) is where a lot of exciting culinary growth is.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Chevy and Mary may have skipped the first place (the BBQ) but they made up for it by getting shave ice and boba tea!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, crawl, food crawl, hedonists, Hunan Cuisine, Mandarin Plaza, Rowland Heights, SGV, Szechuan cuisine, Uyghur Cuisine, Wine

Bistro Na Birthday

Jul22

Restaurant: Bistro Na’s [1, 2]

Location: 9055 E Las Tunas Dr #105, Temple City, CA 91780. (626) 286-1999

Date: June 15, 2019

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Upscale Chinese, solid kitchen

Chinese Restaurants in the SGV are slowly going more upscale in a way that’s different than the Cantonese palaces of Monterey Park of yesterday. In any case, I wanted an interesting place for my now 3rd annual SGV birthday dinner and so I’d thought I’d return (for a third time) to Na’s.

And one of the latest is Bistro Na’s located on Las Tunas near this cool:

Teapot fountain!

The interior is very elegant Chinese, almost traditional but in a new way typical in China today. Ornate wood carvings, lanterns and antique music instruments abound. Technically it bills itself as “Imperial Cuisine”. Maybe there is some of that, but it’s also a bit of Chinese greatest hits. Still, it’s a different cuisine than nearly every other place in the SGV with more ornate plating.

The menu is a hardcover thick paged photo tome!

Tonight, finally, after have been “denied” twice I got one of the 5 private rooms. They seat about 12, but we squeezed in 13. There is one larger one that seats 14-16.

Tonight I tried out ordering this preset banquet menu. It’s a “package” and I ordered it for 10 as we had a couple kids. We added a couple dishes to it. I’m not sure the menu is actually not more expensive than getting all this from the menu manually. I’m way too lazy to add it up. But more than half the cost is in the king crab. This isn’t a discount king crab place.

From my cellar: NV Drappier Champagne Rosé Brut Nature Dosage Zero. VM 90. Pale orange. Mineral-accented red berries and citrus fruits on the nose, complemented by hints of candied rose and white pepper. Stony and precise, offering lively strawberry and orange zest flavors that expand slowly with air. Closes spicy, stony and tight, with very good clarity and floral persistence.

Okra in Seasoned Dressing. These are cold appetizers. I like okra, weird hairy texture and all. This had a nice vinegar tang.

Chef Su’s Pork Feet Jelly. Yes, a vinegary jelly of pig’s feet. Actually very tasty. Nice firm jelly texture and vinegar tang. Like a pig feet jello!

Na’s Drunken Chicken. Pretty much Hainan chicken as far as I could tell, but somehow different. Most people loved this dish. It was fine, but to my taste not a ton of flavor.

Plain noodles for the boy.

Sebastian brought: NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée Edition 167eme. 93 points. Bright clean and wound up. Nice minerality and cut with good volume. Serious breed in a lighter package for this edition.

Fingus mixed with Bitter gourd. Interesting textures and VERY bitter “gourd” (the green stuff). Back at MIT in the early 90s, taking new students out to Chinese and making them try “bitter melon” was a hazing ritual!

Truffle Mushrooms. Mushrooms with truffle oil and salt basically. I think I might have preferred them without the truffle oil.

We asked for mustard, instead of Chinese mustard, somehow they had deli mustard!

Smoked Pork Rib. Really yummy pork nibblets!

From my cellar: 2011 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Saint-Aubin 1er Cru En Remilly Cuvée Nicholas et Mathis. 92 points. Pale gold with citrine highlights. Pungent nose of extremely overripe stonefruit with an underlying citrus/mineral aroma. Tart citrus zest, dark wildflower honey, wax & crushed shell. Well rounded and versatile.

Stands for the about to arrive Emperor and Empress jars!

Emperor’s Jar soup. We ordered this off the menu. Inside is Beef Tendon, Mushroom, Fish Maw, Quail Egg, Sea Cucumber. The broth is a very thick chicken stock. Very very smooth. Lots of collagen.

This is empress jar soup. It includes Beef Tendon, Mushroom, Fish Maw, Quail Egg, Sea Cucumber, Forest Frog. Better for Yin than Yang! Women are supposed to eat this one and men the one above. I actually really enjoyed the silky texture and subtle flavors.

They also gave you a bit of these (Pickled Chili Peppers, Cilantro, Fermented Tofu). The pickle is kinda like a pickled pepper one might find in a good hoagie!

Ginseng Chicken Stew. Ginseng, Beef Tendon, Chicken. Very pleasant. Simultaneously, mild and intense, if that’s possible.

Scallion pancakes ordered off the menu for the kids.

Yarom brought: 2009 Domaine Huet Vouvray Franc de Pied Le Haut-Lieu. JG 94. The 2009 Vouvray “Le Haut Lieu” Franc de Pied bottling from Domaine Huët is the current release from this small plot of ungrafted vines. The wine does not have a sweetness designation on the label, but it shows just a touch of sweetness and probably would be classified as a light Demi-Sec if there were one on the label. The nose is still fairly youthful, with a sense of reserve that nine year-old Vouvray will often show, offering up a refined bouquet of quince, lemon, chalky soil tones, beeswax, lanolin and lovely, delicate white floral tones in the upper register. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and light on its feet, with lovely intensity of flavor, excellent focus and grip, bright, seamless acids and simply superb length and grip on the adolescently complex finish. There is certainly a difference between the French roots here and the Le Haut Lieu made with vines grafted onto American rootstocks, as this wine delivers a more elegant profile on both the nose and palate. This is a stunning young bottle of Le Haut Lieu, which is approachable at age nine, but still really in its infancy and will not reach its plateau for another seven to ten years and should drink magically for the next fifty years. A beautiful wine.

The giant king crab for our special menu.

Yarom and my brother posing with the crab.

King Crab Legs, steamed with Chinese (rice) wine. Very tender and sweet.

King Crab Fried with golden egg yolk and baked pumpkin. The salty rich coating. Not my favorite shellfish prep, but one the Chinese love for its richness.

King Crab steamed egg in crab shell. A very light fluffy savory custard I term “Crab Brulee.” Not much actual crab meat in this part.

Go crab!

Scallop with fried corn. Similar sticky salty egg yolk. Both were delicious. Cohesive grainy texture.

Dry Braised Black Cod with Chili Sauce. I loved the crunchy ginger bits in the sauce.

From my cellar: 2008 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Monthélie 1er Cru Les Duresses. VM 88. The 2008 Monthélie Les Duresses is a beguiling, inviting wine laced with dark red fruit. This beautifully balanced, vibrant red carries through nicely to the finish.

Diced Black Pepper Honey Angus Beef. Super tender and soft. Great Chinese beef.

Ordered off the menu: Spinach with Sesame. Coated in a miso like sauce, very interesting. Not typical at all to have greens “coated” like this. Lent a sweet taste and a distinct texture with the sesame seed coating.

Na’s Secret Tofu. Very interesting texture. I liked it. Sort of soft in the center with that semi-dry fry aspect as well, a stretchy give to the coating. Mild salty flavor.

Squid and Shrimp Fried Rice. Delicious Umami salty fried rice. Amazing with the sauce from the fish (above).

Ordered off the menu: Pea Tendrils with garlic. Nice colon sweeper.

Na’s Beef Prime Rib. Bone-in. Very tasty, soft, cooked all the way through and tons of beefy flavor. Extremely soft from the long cooking and fairly high fat content.

From my cellar: 2014 Domaine Dujac Morey St. Denis 1er Cru Les Chaffots. 92 points. Delicious berry juice.

Sweet and Sour Cabbage. Ordered off the menu. Sebastian was jonesing for more veggies and ordered not one but two of these. They were good but his eyes were bigger than his stomach and we didn’t even finish one.

Stir Fried Bok Choy with Mushroom. Light but pleasant.

Crispy Shrimp. This was our favorite dish so far. The shrimp were bursting out of their shells a bit like molting cicadas! Shells are cooked at a high enough temperature that much of the chiton denatures into sugars and they can be eaten.

It should be noted that this was substituted in on the menu for the Na’s Braised Pork Belly because somehow, despite the fact that we had a set banquet menu, they ran out!

Na’s Assorted Eight. Assorted traditional Chinese desserts. Weird, gooey, slightly sweet, and mostly filled with bean paste. They looked fabulous, but aren’t actually that tasty. Textures are nice though.

I brought some gelato as usual.

Salted Caramel Chocolate — House-made salted caramel forms the core of this base which then is layered with house-made Valrhona dark chocolate ganache and Valrhona milk chocolate chips — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — my best salted caramel yet — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #caramel #chocolate #Valrhona #ganache

Crema Fiorentina Zabaione — Marsala Orange Vanilla Zabaione base with Blackberry Mango Coulis — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Very close to the oldest gelato flavor!! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #orange #Zabaione #CremaFiorentina

Fruit Plate.

Sebastian brought: 2006 Château Léoville Poyferré. VM 91. Full ruby-red. Ripe aromas of currant, milk chocolate and smoky oak. Lush, sweet and full, with superripe yet backward flavors of dark berries, dark chocolate and minerals. Wonderfully layered, structured wine whose excellent vinosity and firm tannins call for several years of patience.

Overall, a nice place. The allowed corkage and service was very pleasant — we had a dedicated server in the private room but he must have been handling a couple of them because he was pretty harried. He tried really hard though. They have some weird policies. There was a $100 deposit for the room, which is fine, but they put it on a gift card and you are supposed to use it at the time. Our server forgot (and so did I) so he paypaled me back the $100. Weird but nice.

They brought us wine glasses (not great ones, but they have them). We handled the wine service. There was a good amount of plate changing. Took a while to get going even though we had the pre-ordered menu. They seat all the private rooms in two seatings at 5pm and 7:30pm so all 5 of them were sitting at once. That doesn’t make it easy on the server. All in all it’s excellent service for SGV Chinese, SO much better than we had the week before at Happy Table. But still a bit confused.

Food is interesting. Beautiful plating. Not the most flavor forward of the Chinese cuisines. Pretty good, but also expensive in a relative fashion. Ended up $145 a person all in with a good tip. Now we had Emperor’s jar and King Crab, but if you go to a Top Island or the like you can get that much cheaper too. Still a novel and fun experience. Gorgeous room.

While a bit pricey for the SGV, the atmosphere is lovely and the plating much more elegant. Some dishes were excellent and some just pretty good. I’m not really sure what regionality of Chinese it is. Sort of Beijing/Shanghai maybe? They say “Imperial.” It does feel very contemporary Chinese and is certainly not aimed at white folk.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (0)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: birthday, Bistro Na's, BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Emperor's Jar, Gelato, Imperial Cuisine, pork, SGV, Wine

Happy Table 2X

Jul15

Restaurant: Happy Table [1, 2]

Location: 203 West Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA. (626) 872-6677

Date: June 8, 2019

Cuisine: Northern Chinese

Rating: Solid

Four years ago I last went to Happy Table, where it had replaced New Bay and before it Sham Tsem. Usually I would merge the meals but this was significantly different, and a peculiar service experience, so I’m writing it up as its own meal.

Front looks the same, minus the new sign.

We had half the big private room, which was fine given our 13 — which somehow managed to fit at the table!

From my cellar: NV Drappier Champagne Rosé Brut Nature Dosage Zero. VM 90. Pale orange. Mineral-accented red berries and citrus fruits on the nose, complemented by hints of candied rose and white pepper. Stony and precise, offering lively strawberry and orange zest flavors that expand slowly with air. Closes spicy, stony and tight, with very good clarity and floral persistence.

Jellyfish heads and cucumber (marinated). Delicious. Nice bit to the jellyfish, great crunch to the cucumber, good vinegar flavor.

Peppers stuffed with pork. Pretty nice too.

Bean curd salad with cucumber. Refreshing.

From my cellar: 2011 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Saint-Aubin 1er Cru En Remilly Cuvée Nicholas et Mathis. 93 points. Pale gold with citrine highlights. Pungent nose of extremely overripe stonefruit with an underlying citrus/mineral aroma. Tart citrus zest, dark wildflower honey, wax & crushed shell. Well rounded and versatile.

Live crab.

Live crab (now dead) with garlic. A slightly dry prep.

Shrimp with garlic and glass noodles. Nice.

Tea smoked goose. A touch dry, but meaty. A cold cut.

Pork with sea cucumber. Great dish. Both pork and sea cucumber was very good, but not as good as the sea cucumber the other night at Shanghai #1 Seafood.

Crispy beef. I’ve always liked this dish. We ordered 2.

BBQ lamb chops. This was their signature dish and it was fabulous. Juicy, tons of cumin flavor. Sizzling. 4 sauces. We ordered a second. Really great.

Roast duck. Kinda like the goose, but duck and less dry.

Cumin lamb. Given how great the BBQ lamb was, this dish sucked. Off flavors and salty.

Fish boiled in chili sauce. Classic Szechuan dish. Not much mala. Fish itself was good. And it was decently hot. But it didn’t have that hot numbing flavor that it should.

Spicy Chicken (or was it rabbit?). Pretty good.

Pork belly with preserved vegetables. Hunan dish. Actually quite delicious, if a touch salty.

Mapo tofu. Not bad, but not really Szechuan at all. No mala.

Pork meat balls. Polarizing, but I loved them.

Chicken cartilage skewers. Pretty good, but some complained of no meat. lol noobs.

Lamb skewers. Great. Much like the BBQ lamb.

Beef skewers. Tougher. Fine, but not awesome like the lamb.

Maybe this was the rabbit. Can’t remember.

3 flavor dumplings. Very nice boiled dumplings.

Eggs with pork and preserved vegetables. There is a first time for everything. I took a bite and it was so distgusting, so salty, that I spit it out. Foul. Nasty. Never had a dish this bad in the SGV.

Blackberry Mango Amaro Sorbetto! — like a frozen aperitivo — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — although I do need to improve at decorating in the Pozzetti –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #mango #blackberry #amaro

Chess Chocolate Oreo Gelato — Valrhona medium chocolate base with layers of Valrhona Ivoire white chocolate ganache and crumbled Oreos — 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 #cheesecake #chocolate #valrhona #WhiteChocolate #oreo #chess

Peanut Chocolate Caramel Ganache Reese’s Gelato -Sweet Peanut Base with house-made Valrhona Chocolate Caramel Ganache and mini Reese’s Peanutbutter Cups! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — the ganache is delicious but the 80% Valrhona I used swamps out the caramel — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peanut #reeses #peanutbuttercup #ganache #Valrhona

Overall Happy Table’s food was a touch weird. I’m not even sure what region it really is, but the Northern and Szechuan dishes were pretty good (although I’ve had better). The Seafood and more Cantonese dishes were so-so. I guess it’s a north west (Chinese) restaurant. Some dishes were great, like the lamb chops and some loathsome like the egg with salty vegetables. Many in the middle.

Service was just laughable. I’ve been to the SGV hundreds of times and China several times and am very used to Chinese service standards. This was among the worst I’ve ever had. There was only one guy who spoke English, and all the others left us to him. He was nice, but so over worked we had to keep hunting him down. He pretty much avoided taking our order for 30 minutes straight. They brought the food to the table fast enough (on ordering) but there was basically no bussing. We kept moving empty plates ourselves out onto another table. I was raiding the main floor of the resteraunt for napkins, chopsticks, glasses, whatever. It was hilarious.

But the whole meal, with a big tip was $36 a person. Get a load of that!

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!