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Happy at Happy Harbor

Jul08

Location: 1015 Nogales St, West Covina, CA 91792. 626-965-2020

Date: October 30, 2021

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Great cantonese

Yarom discovered this place during the day (for dim sum) not too long ago and as it was really great in that mode we decided to hit it for Sunday dinner.

Happy Harbor is a medium sized Cantonese located right next to Mandarin plaza, a “far east” (Hacienda Heights ish) area we have eaten at again and again.

The interior is classic Cantonese.

With the tanks.

And the over-decorated private room which was where we set up shop.

On table to start, cucumbers. A bit sweet.

Peanuts.

The show off the live “creatures.”

Cold plate. Roast Pork, Roast Duck or Chicken, Jellyfish, Macau style pork belly.

Tofu with preserved egg. Oddly sweet and not one of my favorite versions.

Lobster with garlic and ginger. Very tender.

“Spot prawns” in a crunchy very fried Typhoon style. Not immensely garlicky but the prawns themselves were very well cooked.

Quail. Excellent version.

Peking duck skin. Not enough, but good. Buns unfortunately instead of pancakes.

Peking duck meat/bones. Lots of meat here, more should have been cut onto the other plate.

Duck letuce cups (from same duck). Good but no hoison at the time. Radically insufficient hoison.

The actual lettuce.

Chicken “Knees.” Great flavor!

Beef ribs and egg plant. Nice.

Vermicelli pancake with beef and eggy sauce. Delicious “pizza.”

Pork chops. Very friend. Ok.

Tripe.

XLB. A little under-seasoned.

Free custard buns. Nice.

Pistachio Cardamom Gelato — Sicilian Pistachio di Bronte with Cardamom infused milk — pretty awesome new flavor! — 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 #cardamom #sicily

Happy Harbor was quite seriously good, definitely in the top tier of Cantonese kitchens (of the many) in the SGV. A bit further than most, but excellent.

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, Cantonese cuisine, Chinese Food, duck, Gelato, Happy Harbor, hedonists, SGV, squab, Wine

Embassy Kitchen Expedition

Mar29

Restaurant: Embassy Kitchen

Location: 218 S San Gabriel Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 286-8148

Date: August 28 & September 9, 2021

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Very tasty, but lots of MSG

Over the years Embassy Kitchen has been on my radar. I missed a couple dinners there due to scheduling conflicts and we even showed up once years ago and when they declined to allow us to open our wine the group rebelled and moved to Beijing Tasty House. Anyway, I managed to go twice in 2021, both for a test lunch and then for a Tony Lau dinner.

It’s adjacent to an old 50s/60s billiards hall which I think is still actually open! This is just all so SGV.

Big menu.

Peanuts on the table.

Beef and anchovy patties. A bit salty and “fishy” in a good umami way.

Deep fried chicken cartilage. Garlicky. Delicious but very salty. Here you chew right through the “chicken knees” (chunks of chewy cartilage. This isn’t always easy for those of the Caucasian persuasion.

Rice stuffed chicken wings. Stuffing slightly bland.

100 flower chicken. Great. I love this dish.

Tilapia rolled up around ginger. Delicious but very salty. This is a polarizing dish. Not only is it salty fried fish but there is this tangy and bitey bit of fresh ginger inside. I loved it, but not everyone did.

Quail. Excellent.

House Special Lobster. Delicious.

Mushrooms with a salty yolk fry.

Beef with truffle. Heavy on the truffle oil.

Simple greens.

Veggies with dried shrimp and crispy taro. Delicious but again super salty.

Almond Chocolate Cloud Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Toasted Sicilian Almond Cream and Dark Chocolate Rocas! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #chocolate #creamcheese #ganache #icing #almond

Pinoli Gelato — Siberian Pinenut Gelato — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #pinoli #pinenut

Portuguese Tarts.

Pineapple Buns.

Embassy Kitchen has a number of unique and interesting dishes and great flavors. It does however, use a lot of salt and MSG and I could really feel it both after both visits. Worth it. The ambiance is classic SGV with that unique blend of 50s/60s buildings with interesting “hybrid” Chinese American decor. Certainly our Tony Lau dinner made for a great night!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Embassy Kitchen, hedonists, Lunch Quest, SGV, Tony Lau

No. 1 Charcoal Really Is

Mar09

Restaurant: No. 1 Charcoal BBQ

Location: 112 N Chandler Ave #101, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 281-5288

Date: August 22, 2021 & March 13, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese BBQ Skewers

Rating: Fabulous food — Highly recommended for the adventurous

Yarom and I discovered this Chinese BBQ joint while exploring the area (and eating at a nearby Northern style place).

It’s around the corner from Garvey, not far from the lots of places I’ve frequented.

Inside is amusingly peculiar, the current Chinese BBQ place having clearly taken over a space that was once an 80s or 90s Japanese restaurant, complete with sushi bar and wood paneled tatami private dining rooms. In typical Chinese fashioned they didn’t redecorate. As far as I can tell most of the business in summer of 2021 is takeout.

The magic occurs here in this sloppy looking (but tasty) charcoal grill under the hood.

You can still see the sushi freezers on the bar. Everything is just cluttered with random crap.

We used this private dining room, which while a bit awkward to climb into was very cute and the atmosphere was way better than the messy front room and its constant stream of takeout customers.

The menu.

Western Chinese skewer powder.

Jellishfish — quite good, although it could have been tangier. Notice the “plates” that consist of styrofoam takeout containers ripped in half.

Tofu with century egg — delicious with awesome savory notes.

Cucumbers with slightly peanuty dressing.

House Special Beef — there was a delicious brown MSG sauce (pictured below).

Crack sauce.

Pig ears.

Cold lamb with house special sauce.

Cold sesame noodles.

Lamb “Casserole”. Not bad.

Shredded potato. Great.

Stinky Tofu. Stinky!

Spicy tofu sauce.

Dumplings with 3 ingredients. Typical boiled dumplings.

Spicy Crawfish — great sauce, hard to eat as usual.

Spicy “casserole” (aka Mala hot pot).

Extra spam.

Beef tongue

Lamb skewers. All these skewers had a lovely charcoal flavor and were sizzling hot and delicious. The awesome tablewares continue with some cheap paper plates.

Pork.

House special spare ribs — boney but incredible flavor.

Sausages — a bit sweet and awesome.

BBQ Leek — great.

Beef tendon.

Chicken Feet.

Fish Tofu — a touch sweet and spicy.

Lamb Brisket. Good enough we ordered seconds.

Cabbage with garlic — incredible. Really stunning cabbage dish.

King Oyster Mushrooms.

Enoiki Mushrooms.

Grilled BBQ Squid — a touch fishy but good.

BBQ Garlic!

Ball of Quail.

Reminds me a bit of:

Sliced potatoes.

Garlic with a side of eggplant. Also awesome.

Crispy Chicken Bones. Amazing sauce and crunch.

Mascarpone Coffee Crunch Gelato — A base infused with Mascarpone Cheese then blended with house-made Coffee Crunch — created by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #cheesecake #mascarpone #cheese #coffee #CoffeeCrunch #candy

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

Strawberry Jam Gelato — an awesome dairly Strawberry base swirled with Strawberry Jam — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — sugar time! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #strawberry #jam

Our fun little room.

Our wines for the night.

No. 1 Charcoal is one of those surprising SGV finds that make the drive east so so worth it. Despite the amusingly “casual” (or ad hoc) hole-in-the-wall style of the restaurant and the crappy disposable “serving dishes” the food here was actually incredible. It was just full of flavor. Highly recommended for the adventurous.

A second visit in March of 2022 reconfirmed that this is a darn tasty place with a fun room.

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: bbq, BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, No. 1 Charcoal BBQ, SGV, skewers, Wine

Silk Worm Road – Guan Dong Da Yuan

Nov08

Restaurant: Guan Dong Da Yuan

Location: 639 W Garvey Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 545-5555

Date: June 24 and August 1, 2021

Cuisine: North Eastern Chinese

Rating: Tasty!

On 6/24/21 Yarom and I ventured into the SGV to try out some experimental places on our vast list, the #3 spot was here. It was good enough that we came back in August with a big 2 table group to try out more dishes.

Guan Dong Da Yuan specializes in regional Chinese cuisine from the area across the bay from Korea.

The interior is fairly cute and they have a private room (not shown).

The extensive menu.

Kimchee. It is near Korea, after all.

Baloon Flower. A different kimchee-like marinated veggie. Excellent.

Hot Stone Eggs with Tofu. Very Korean and good stuff.

3 Types of Dumpling. Ron didn’t like. It thought they were workable Jaozi (boiled dumplings).

Guandong Smoked Chicken Bone.

Yanji Sweet and Sour Pork – mochi-like chewy batter that was actually pretty enjoyable.

Stir-Fried Silk Worm!

Hot Stone Beef with Vegetable.

Spicy Crunchy Chicken Cartilage. It was a boney meal!

Spicy Crispy Chicken Cartilage (different day) — pretty much Kung Pao Cartilage and tasty for it.

Eggplant with Green Pppers and Potato. Excellent as well as colorful.

Sautéed Cabbage. I love this dish.

Stone Fried Pork Slices – like a savory/salty version of Panda Express pork.

Mapo Tofu — pretty close to Sichuan style

Stone Beef with Enoki Mushroom — soft and succulent.

Korean Style Cold Noodle Dish.

Guandong Stewed Spare Ribs with Green Peppers and Rice Noodles. Interesting polenta-like cakes.

Guandong Stewed Pork Belly with Rice Noodles. Great textures.

Guandong Pork Bone. More bones (delicious).

Fried Rice.

Caramelized Sugar on Sweet Potato.

Mascarpone Coffee Crunch Gelato — A base infused with Mascarpone Cheese then blended with house-made Coffee Crunch — created by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #cheesecake #mascarpone #cheese #coffee #CoffeeCrunch #candy

Blood Orange Campari Sorbetto — Blood Oranges from Avignon with a bit of Campari — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #BloodOrange #Campari

I really liked this place as it was interesting and regional. A few of our crew who like their Chinese more boring (aka Southern Chinese only) didn’t like it at all, but they were offended by all the bones and silk worms and whatnot — for me that was part of the charm (and flavor).

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Right across the street is Sham Tsem and the famous “Hooker Motel Ballroom.”

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, Guan Dong Da Yuan, hedonists, Lunch Quest, SGV, Wine

SGV Adventures – ACC Chinese Fast Food

Nov05

Restaurant: ACC Chinese Fast Food

Location: 38 S Palm Ave, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 281-8577

Date: June 24, 2021

Cuisine: Cantonese BBQ

Rating: Tasty!

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

Stop #2 was this old school Chinese BBQ joint, which has been going strong since the 80s with the same owner/managers.

Small interior, but cute in its own way.

Menu of BBQ specials. They will even do goose with some notice.

The big takeout menu.

BBQ Pork w/ Honey Sauce — excellent.

Roast Duck with Plum Sauce — very succulent and tasty.

The aforementioned Plum Sauce.

Stir Fried Chinese Broccoli with Garlic — very solid classic veg. The extremely nice “boss lady” (aka the owner) insisted that we get some greens to help with our digestion — I think she was taking us under her wing.

ACC was surprisingly excellent. I suspect that their regular Cantonese dishes are decent but very Chinese American style, but their BBQ was first rate. We are thinking to go back with a big group, take over the whole place, and get a whole bunch of roast meats.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, duck, Lunch Quest, SGV

SGV Adventures – Nature Pagoda

Oct29

Restaurant: Nature Pagoda

Location: 312 W Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 570-8333

Date: June 24, 2021

Cuisine: Herbal Chinese

Rating: Hmmm

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

First up was Nature Pagoda which specializes in a sort of “herbal” Chinese medicine focused “healthy” food.

The interior is, shall we say, minimalst.

There are a few pictures behind the counter.

And the menu.

Flamed Quails — pretty good, if slightly dry.

Stick Combo — okay satay. Nothing great.

Claypot Ribs with Preserved Sausage — interesting. Kinda mild, but tasty.

The jus.

Brown sauce is dumped over it. Not as sweet as I would expect.

Not exactly expensive, but overall I thought that Nature Pagoda was bland. Maybe Chinese health food is just like American!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Lunch Quest, Nature Pagoda, SGV

GV (is) Yummy

Sep12

Restaurant: GV Yummy

Location: 203 W Valley Blvd Alhambra, CA 91801. 626-872-6677

Date: May 26 & July 3, 2021

Cuisine: Qing Dao Chinese

Rating: Really good kitchen, albeit sketchy service

I’ve eaten at this location as at least 4 restaurants. Because of this Yarom and I went out on one of our reconnaissance missions nad tried it ourselves and determined that it was worthy of a real dinner later.

It’s the familiar spot that once housed Sham Tsem (Alahambra), New Bay, and Happy Table.

Then after that it was “New Qing Dao” and the sign still lingers, but now it’s “GV Yummy.” It’s still Qing Dao style though.

The interior looks the same.

Big menu, poorly printed.

For our real dinner we grouped in the private room.

Jellyfish heads with cucumbers and aged vinegar. These were some of the best jellyfish I’ve had. The heads were most definitely heads, not tentacles, and the sauce was sweet and tangy.

Special Qing Dao “tossed clear noodles” made out of some kind of starch. These had a jelly-like texture that was pleasing, but basically no flavor. The sauce was a bit sweet and savory at the same time. Not my favorite. Not bad in any way, just bland.

Pigs feet in brown sauce.

Special scallops with glass noodles. These were superb. Very garlicky too. Unusual with great texture and flavor.

Stir-fried shrimp with Chinese cabbage. Amazing dish. The shells and head juice are cooked down into the sauce and both the shrimp and the cabbage had tons of flavor.

Walnut shrimp. Yeah, a guilty pleasure, but very enjoyable.

Golden lobster. This was the heavy egg yolk fry which isn’t my favorite. I prefer more garlic.

Seafood with tofu. This is a Qing Dao dish and while very interesting, it was fairly bland. Cottage cheese like texture.

Spicy fried chicken. Superb version of this dish.

Eggplant with pork (and potatoes). Another fabulous dish. Succulent pork and a really great flavor. We ordered 2-3 times.

Hot Chili Oil Beef. The classic Sichuan boiled chili beef. Good version with some mala.

Stewed Beef Brisket with Tomato. Another great homestyle dish.

Cumin Lamb. Excellent version.

Grilled chili lamb chop. Very succulent with a strong lamb flavor.

Fruit.

Overall, the food was very good here. Most of the dishes were very on point with a lot of flavor and great texture. I really think the kitchen is quite excellent and the Qing Dao style is relatively new to me and tasty. There are some Sichuan dishes as well.

Service was mixed. At our lunch we had a really nice young English speaking server who was very friendly and helpful. But for our larger dinner we experienced a pretty steep language barrier and very confused and sluggish service. There was definitely some “self serve” with regard to napkins, plates etc (where I go up and loot their supplies from the main room). Still, I only really care about the food.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese Food, GV Yummy, Qing Dao, SGV

Rice Yummy

Jul13

Restaurant: Rice Yummy

Location: 8801 Valley Blvd, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 872-0491

Date: April 25, 2021

Cuisine: Shanghai Chinese

Rating: Solid Shanghai Cuisine

Shanghai #1 Seafood Village opened roughly 10 years ago to great fanfare and was for years a solid SGV Shanghai style place. It closed recently with the pandemic but the owners have this smaller more casual Shanghai place.

The facade isn’t too fancy. The menu has most of the Shanghai classics, although at the time we went even the limited menu wasn’t all “in stock.” They didn’t even have the classic pan seared dumplings.

Spicy cold chicken. This is generally a Sichuan style dish, and generally has more sauce, but it was tasty here.

Sweet and sour jellyfish — very crunchy, sweet tangy sauce. This was a bit polarizing. I liked it, but not everyone loves jellyfish.

Smashed cucumbers. Always a favorite.

Shrimp two ways. Left hand ones were very nice. Very delicate and paired nicely with the vinegar sauce.

Sweet and sour cabbage with pork. Excellent with lots of porky flavor.

Tea Smoked Duck.

XLB. Since they didn’t have the pan fried Shanghai dumplings we had to make due with the steamed version.

Pork Hock. Super juicy and tender. Not a lean cut.

Pork Belly with Tofu – very soft and flavorful. This was even “leaner” than the previous pork, but packed with porcine flavor. The different soft textures of the meat and tofu were wonderful together.

Ginger chicken. Very succulent.

Grandmother’s Pork with egg. All bound together in that classic Shanghai sweet soy sauce. Notice the fatty pork theme going on.

French Style Beef — very tender. I’m not even sure where in China this dish is from. Certainly down south near Vietnam. Or maybe it’s just Vietnamese Chinese.

Steamed rice (yummy). Very light steamed rice with nice vegetal and porky notes.

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

Rice Yummy didn’t have a massive menu, and the interior was a bit small and not much to look at, but the Shanghai cuisine was well made and delicious. As this was my first trip back to the SGV since before the pandemic it was a very enjoyable and delicious dinner.

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, Gelato, hedonists, Rice Yummy, SGV, Shanghai Cuisine

Far SGV – Hunan Restaurant

Apr20

Restaurant: Hunan Restaurant [1, 2]

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

Date: August 3, 2019 & March 1, 2020

Cuisine: Hunan Chinese

Rating: check: Solid

We visited this Hunan place both during or Mandarin Plaza Crawl and as part of a 2 part dinner (after Spicy Moment V2.0).

Located in between the Mandarin Bay and Spicy Moment.

Hunan has a vast menu with pictures and funny translations:

Vast menu.

Peanuts.

Shredded minced pork with corn and pickled vegetable (8/3/19). Super tasty — pork really helps a veggie. Sure to make things really move along later.

Sautéed lamb (8/3/19). Tasty.

Crispy pork ribs with garlic and chilies (8/3/19). Lots of flavor, not so much meat.

Fish filet with fire cracker salt (8/3/19). Very delicious boiled fish with garlic and chilies.

Spicy pickled cucumbers (8/3/19). Also delicious. Generally a fan fave.

The gang on our 3/1/20 dinner visit.

Bacon with garlic (3/1/20). Basically smoked Hunan pork with leeks and garlic. Nice smokey flavor.

Doughy buns (3/1/20) with white chili-garlic sauce. Dipped in the sauce these were pretty awesome (if carby).

White garlic chili oil.

Ginger chicken (3/1/20). Lots of little bone bits in the cleavered chicken. Nice ginger and garlic flavor.

Spicy steamed fish (3/1/20). Whole fish with Hunan chilis. Nice and light. Hunan classic.

Mountain mushrooms and bacon. Great fibrous texture and nice flavor.

Jeremiah was a Spicy bullfrog hot pot (3/1/20). Very tender frog and nice Hunan frog.

Pork with preserved green beans (3/1/20). Nice crunchy “pickled” beans with chopped pork.

Spicy lamb (3/1/20). Soft and fairly tasty.

Grandmother’s pork (3/1/20). With its own buns. Very soft, salty, Hunan pork belly. Melts in your mouth.

Gizzard with celery (3/1/20). Gizzard is a bit chewy and surprisingly delicious.

Sliced beef boiled with chilies (3/1/20). Very mild and very soft beef. Not everyone’s favorite dish.

Overall, Hunan was also very good. Sort of a blend of (more old school) Szechuan AND Hunan, but who cares when it’s tasty. This place isn’t nearly as spicy as Hunan Chili King (or as good) — and there is a bit of a uniformity to the dishes. But it’s certainly pretty good and distinctly Hunan.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

More sweet wine.

And a rhone blend.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, crawl, Hunan, Hunan Cuisine, Mandarin Plaza, SGV, spicy, Wine

Spicy Moment V2.0

Apr17

Restaurant: Spicy Moment V2.0

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

Date: March 1, 2020

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: check: Terrible menu, surprisingly good home-style food

Back in August we did a 6 restaurant crawl in and around the Mandarin Plaza. One of the places we visited was Spicy Moment and we agreed to come back for a full dinner, or maybe a 2-fer combined with Hunan next door.

In the meantime Spicy Moment “rebooted” with a new owner, new menu, new concept — but they kept the name, build out and sign. However, despite what the sign says, it’s no longer “modern Chinese cuisine” and is a much much smaller menu Chongqing place.

The decor is pretty much unchanged. They still have the ugly drop ceiling, but they have made a tiny effort at decorating.

My wine.

This menu set me up with low expectations. It’s basically cold apps and noodle soups. Noodle soups don’t share well and I’m not that into them anyway. There is nothing here. But Yarom never likes to give up on a plan so we went anyway — and were in for a super pleasant surprise.

They have Chongqing crispy duck — we’ll come back to that later.

And an array of “attractive” cold apps. But we love cold apps. Serious, they maybe a touch scary but we love them.

Smashed garlic cucumbers. Nice and crunchy, but could have used a stronger garlic flavor.

Cold marinated pig ear and sliced pork or beef parts.

Savory sweet peanuts with little fish (delicious), pulled spicy pork, and crunchy celery with tofu.

Chongqing special tofu pudding. Soft homestyle tofu.

Spicy sauce for the tofu.

You take a scoop of tofu and add sauce — we also added peanuts. The tofu had a fascinating smokey wood-fire flavor. The chili sauce was salty and had a ton of flavor. Really interesting and great combination.

Chongqing crispy smoked duck. Very crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Tons of flavor.

I have a feeling this duck is made more or less in this manner. Check out this video — and the cook’s adorable dog!

Noodles with beans and pork and egg and veggies.

You mix it all up with the sauce and it was quite delicious.

Chicken cold dry noodles.

These had a thinner noodle. You mix it all up and it had a great texture and a wonderful slightly tangy texture.

Overall, we were blown away considering the expectations from the limited menu. Just a terrible menu that looks like all of one thing. But this was some delicious stuff and really different. Hadn’t had this exact sort of duck before and everything we tried was pretty delicious. Plus that tofu pudding was totally unique and I could just imagine eating it in some dirt floor ancient Chinese farm hut! That dish has to be like 1,000 years old!

This place was like teleporting to China. Super interesting and a whole lot of fun. Very nice people too with great hospitality.

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: Chongqing, duck, Mandarin Plaza, Rowland Heights, SGV, Sichuan, spicy, Spicy Moment, Szechuan cuisine, Tofu, Wine

Malubianbian Spicy Stick Pot

Apr08

Restaurant: MaLu Bian Bian Hot Pot

Location: 18194 Colima Rd Ste A, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 820-9206

Date: February 23, 2020

Cuisine: Chengdu Szechuan Chinese Hot Pot

Rating: 12/10 for experience

I’ve been on a bit of a Szechuan style hot pot kick for the last year. For those of you know don’t know, “hot pot” is the classic Chinese homestyle food which is super popular as a restaurant type in recent years. The most “classic” form is “Mongolian” like Hot Pot Hot Pot or Little Sheep. Then there are hybrid more modern joints like Hai Di Lao. And even the cheap student pre-prepped version like Boiling Point or Flaming Pot. But my favorite is the ultra spicy Chengdu or Chongqing style. I’ve had this in Chengdu and last year several opened in the SGV including Chun La Hao and Shancheng Lameizi.

So bringing us to tonight, Malubianbian represents a new style of skewer oriented Chengdu street hot pot. This is one crazy experience so I’ll detail it.

This is in the “Yes Plaza” in Rowland Heights. It’s like teleporting to China because everyone here is Chinese and at the restaurant everyone is about 23.

If you can see, there are about 20-30 people waiting outside.

Inside it’s sort of industrial new Chinese style. Small tables. Uncomfortable chairs. Ineffective hoods. As part of the “experience” a few minutes after we entered I started to cough uncontrollably. Something was just making my throat and eyes itch. I thought something was wrong with me until I noticed everyone else doing it. The server came by to apologize as the chef had just fried up a new batch of chili oil. Lol. I should have known. The place already smelled like chilis, so you couldn’t really smell it, but when you make Szechuan style chili oil (which I do myself) you have to dump 350deg oil over chilies and it releases a ton of pepper compounds into the air which are very “irritating.”

In any case, we didn’t have to wait too long (only 20 minutes) as we had a “reservation” for the “private room” which was this super cute painted closet with a two burner little table. Supposedly it sat up to 12 — but really 8 max. I mean max.

Very cute though.

Wine was a whole saga too. Only Jefferey brought some, but no one, including the restaurant had a corkscrew. He wandered the mall but no restaurant was willing to help him open his bottle (and walk out with it). Eventually we managed.

Like many new hot pot places Malu has a “sauce bar.” This isn’t as extensive as at Chun La Hao or Shancheng Lameizi but was sufficient. It was, however, pretty messy.

This was one of the main sauces I made. They didn’t have the sesame paste or all the fermented stuff I really love at Shancheng Lameizi.

They do have these traditional dry “powdered” sauces. You grab one and then add some broth from your pot to make up a sauce. It congealed very easily and didn’t really work for me, but the sauce bar version was decent.

We got all the broths. On top here is the lame tomato broth and below is the series traditional super-spicy ox fat (those big rectangles that haven’t melted yet) and blend of peppers and 18 spices.

Below is the other lame broth, the “mild” mushroom broth. Above that is the “classic” spicy Szechuan broth that doesn’t use the heavy ox fat.

I exclusively used the fully leaded traditional gut cleansing medicinal purgative spicy ox fat broth — as should anyone who isn’t a wuss.

But what, you say, does one do with these punishing broths? You cook stuff in them. But the format at Malu is interesting. Out in the dining room are about 10 refrigerators filled with skewers and boxes of food. You just wander over and grab the stuff (which seems a touch “unsanitary” but never mind). The staff count your skewers and containers at the end to calculate your bill.

Malu’s particularly unique bit is the whole skewer thing. These cost about $0.35 each and you just shove them in your pot and easily withdraw them. But for some reason I found this a bit awkward and preferred the plates of stuff.

There are a lot of skewer types including nearly all the vegetables, tons of marinated meats, the usual meat/fish etc balls and whatnot. Each bit on a skewer is pretty tiny. Often even half a meatball or the like.

They also have a bunch of plates with more meats and various other “exotic” stuff like duck blood or duck intestine (anyone want a whole bowl of raw duck intestine? we did!). I mostly ate off these because I found it easier.

Fried pork. This is a menu order item. It was just okay.

Spicy beef stomach. This was quite delicious — and chewy.

Special house spicy beef. This was amazing. Tons of flavor (and heat).

Spicy glass noodle. Really mung bean jelly. It was actually warm, which is unusual for this type of typical Szechuan street food.

Crab sticks. Imitation crab. Tasty, but they come apart in the pot.

Luncheon meat. This is always one of my hotpot favorites. Pure pork and fatty goodness. We went through at least 3 orders of this!

Beef. A Staple.

Lamb.

Weird spongy shrimp rolls. I don’t know what to call these, but they actually cooked up as delicious things.

Shrimp balls with actual shrimp and row. These also cooked up great.

Skinned frog. This was just too sad.

Noodles, lotus root, and strange veggie cake.

Pig ear on a stick.

Plus tons of things I forgot to photo.

Odd rice jelly. This was like water jelly. It had a jello texture and was totally clear and absolutely zero flavor. The brown stuff was some kind of syrup and very mildly sweet. You could barely taste it. I suppose it was meant to cool the palette after the inferno.

Fried rice cakes. Another typical Szechuan dessert.

Overall, this was a great experience and TONS OF FUN. The broth is awesome. The format is weird, but fun and flexible because you can get your own stuff. The problem is that the ingredient quality isn’t quite as good as at Hai Di Lao, Chun La Hao and Shancheng Lameizi. Also the sauce bar is only adequate.

Service was fabulous though. Usually hot pot service isn’t the greatest, but it was here. They kept checking on us and the owner came over and was super nice, the manager was super nice. Really friendly and helpful.

It’s very inexpensive too. A skewer is only $0.35!

So I highly recommend if you are adventurous and into new things. Mind your bottom.

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chengdu, Chinese cuisine, hedonists, hot pot, Rowland Heights, SGV, Sichuan, spicy, Szechuan cuisine

NC Peking Duck – Double Duck part 2

Apr01

Restaurant: NC Peking Duck 老北方烤鸭店

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

Date: February 16, 2020 & May 2, 2021 and April 24 & October 27, 2022 & January 14, 2024

Cuisine: Northern / Beijing Chinese

Rating: Awesome duck and great flavors

Tonight is “Double Duck” night and while we had a “Peking Duck Appetizer” at Happy Duck, afterward the main event was at:

NC Peking Duck — which is a Northern and Beijing style place that is quite new and seemed a bit closer in style to real Beijing offerings.

In case you wondered if they have duck.

The Menu 4/24/22 (reduced from how it was before the pandemic).

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

Smashed Garlic Cucumber (older & 10/27/22). Nice version of the garlic cucumber. Extra good with the spicy sauce from the other dishes.

Tofu with Century Egg. Awesome dish. Nice firm silky tofu with the incredible umami and jelly-like texture of the Century Egg. All doused in spicy sauce. Totally to die for.

Century Egg with Chilis (4/24/22 & 10/27/22). Fabulous savory egg with very strong pickled Hunan style chilis.

Szechuan Glass Noodles (2020 and 4/24/22 and 10/27/22). Actually a kind of mung bean noodle, here with a spicy sauce, peanuts, and a super umami mushroom paste or sauce. Nice, but I prefer them in the tangy/spicy sauce.

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

Child Chili Chicken (4/24/22). Great bang bang sauce with a bit of peanut butter in it.

Garlic Pork. Fatty delicious.

Fried fish with seaweed (5/2/21). Pretty much a Shanghai dish, but still good here.

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

Turbot, simple prep. Solid. Lots of meat (and bones).

Spicy Garlic Shrimp. A bit mushy.

Peking Duck with pancakes (everytime). This is just one duck (we ordered 2 for 8 people). This meat had the skin more integrated and was very juicy and full of flavor. It was some of the best Peking Duck I’ve had in LA.

Close up on the duck meat.

Duck presentation on 5/2/21.

Duck presentation (4/24/22).

Duck presentation (10/27/22).

The typical duck toppings, scallions, cucumber, and really really good thick hoisin.

Ultimate Condiment Box. Tons of interesting things to put in the duck pancake, including sweet and spicy sauces, sugar, candied fruits, melon, etc. They haven’t had this since the first time I went in 2020.

Pancake all done up.

The full DuQuest duck analysis (based on 10/27/22) is:

NC skin was ultra-thin and crispy, and gets an extra point for some of the pieces having some meat/fat on them = 9 for fatty pieces and 7 for regular ones.
Meat was juicy and flavorful with skin on = 8
Pancake was thin and resilient = 9
Hoisin was tasty but “goopy”, extra thick, and with a bit too much medicinal tone = 5
Accoutrements were scallion and cucumbers as usual = 7
The “burrito” together was a 6/10, dinged mostly by the hoisin.

Duck Bones. Pretty juicy.

Stir fried duck bones (5/2/21 and looked similar 4/24/22 and 10/27/22). Very nice version of “duck #2.”

Cumin fried duck bones. Good, although not nearly as good as the Duck House variant.

Duck Soup (4/24/22). Very mild.

Crispy chicken (5/2/21). Great version.

Fragrant Spiced Lamb. Not their best dish. Sauce/soup was very watery and tasted mostly of mala. Not bad or anything, just the weakest dish out of a lot of great dishes.

Delicious “bacon” (aka preserved pork) with garlic and leeks (5/2/21 and 4/24/22).

Beijing Style Pork (5/2/21). With the fermented bean sauce, slightly sweet.

Big Pot Cauliflower (2020 and 4/24/22). With a bit of pork. Nice and crunchy.

Garlic Shoots and Smoked Pork — awesome!

Smashed garlic eggplant (5/2/21 and 4/24/21).

Bok choy (5/2/21). Simple but delicious.

Jiggly Pork Elbow (4/24/22). Certainly not a lean cut!

Seasoned Rack of Lamb (4/24/22). Nice lamby flavor and good “hot fat” factor. Serious fat later. Seasoned western style with cumin.

Sauces for the lamb.

Scallion Pancake. Nice and flakey.

XLB (5/2/21). Always a favorite.

Pork and Chive Dumplings. Tons of chive, delicious with vinegar.

House Tianjin Pork Baos. Awesome. Really nice thick skins with a huge lump of very flavorful pork.

Lo-mein. I didn’t order this, one of the people who weren’t expecting interesting food did. Annoying as it filled people up with empty carbs.

Chinese Sweet Bean Roll with peanut dust.

Chinese pounded Rice dessert.

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

Last gelato of the year! — Eggnog Gelato — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — pure traditional eggnog made as a gelato with a real rum/sugar/egg zabaglione core — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #IceCream #eggnog #rum #nutmeg #cinnamon #egg #zabaglione

Overall, I really liked NC Peking Duck. First of all, the duck was some of the best I’ve had in the states, and even beyond that, they had a really interesting menu with lots of standout dishes. Almost everything we had tonight was great, particularly the tofu with century egg, cold chicken, fish, and the pork baos.

Returning here on 5/2/21 the food was still very good but the restaurant was suffering from immediate post pandemic operational changes. They had clearly been doing takeout for the previous year (good for them and I even had it once and it was very good), but hadn’t yet switched back over to normal service. I think we were the only dine in party and the menu had been pared back substantially. Hopefully soon they’ll be back to 100%.

Returning again on 4/24/22 the food was pretty much back up to the level of 2020 although the menu was still a bit reduced and they were missing some “fancier” items like the 9 condiment container.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: beijing Cuisine, BYOG, Chinese cuisine, dumplings, Duquest, 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 & May 2, 2021

Cuisine: Beijing Chinese

Rating: Great duck and lobster

On 2/16/20 we decided to try some new Peking Duck places in the “Far East” SGV (Rowland Heights, Hacienda Heights, City of Industry). We thought to put two of them together with a quick stop here at Happy Duck. After this we moved on to NC Peking Duck House. On 5/2/21 as things were opening back up we again went out there and repeated the mini crawl!

Typical strip mall for the area.

Slightly more modern than not decor. One of our fellow diners recommended strongly that we try the lobster, so we did.

Weird duck parts on the table as an “amuse.”

Cold meat platter (5/2/21).

Peking duck. The pancakes were great, very thin. The hoisin was good, although not as thick as I like. Scallions and cucumbers added nice crunch. The meat itself was good but a touch bland. The skin though was awesome. Super fried and crispy. Overall quite good.

Duck 2nd way, with bean sprouts. Very bland and dry. Barely any duck meat.

DL really wanted the duck bones and so after a bunch of asking we got them (5/2/21).

House Special Lobster. With garlic, onions, and jalapeño. A bit of heat. Very nicely cooked and tons of flavor. Several people thought this was “the best lobster they’ve had in the SGV.” Now, I thought it was really good, but just put it in the camp of “lobsters about two standard deviations above average” — i.e. I’ve had many good lobsters.

Scary carcasses in the kitchen.

Overall, this seemed a good kitchen. Duck was excellent for America. Lobster was great. We will have to return to try more.

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By: agavin
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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 & May 28, 2021 & January 23, 2022 & February 5, 2023

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

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

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.

And by 5/28/21 they made one of those super fancy modern Chinese picture menus.

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.

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

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

Jelly Noodle with Spicy Sauce. I like these, but the cold noodle with chicken was the best here.

Kung Pao Shrimp.

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

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.

Diced Rabbit in Chili Sauce. A slightly different rabbit variant.

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

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

Frog with Chili and Serrano. Hot and boney.

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

Twice Cooked Pork. A classic.

House Special Pork Belly. Nice and fatty with a bit of preserved vegetable underneath.

Grilled Lamb Chops.

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

Dry Beef in Chili Powder. This was a bit different — and good.

Cumin Lamb. Super tender and full of flavor.

Pork Belly with Rice Flour. Old school traditional.

Live spicy roasted fish with Rattan Pepper. You get to pick your “add-ons” individually. We added all sorts of stuff here including crab sticks, spam, lotus root, etc.

Mapo tofu. Excellent version. First rate really.

Wok-Fried strong beans. Very nice version with crunchy beans.

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

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

I love this flavor — Peppermint Bark Gelato — Base is pure peppermint milk (subbed the sugar with crushed peppermint candies) and it’s laced with house-made double-sided peppermint bark, Valrhona Dark Chocolate and Ivoire White! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — The Peppermint Bark recipe was developed by a famous pastry chef and author, the mum of a Naughty Dog Alum @nancy_baggett — this year I added the two layer thing which is awesome — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #dessertgasm #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peppermint #bark #Valrhona #chocolate

Chocolate Peanut Gelato.

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

On my second visit I found everything we ordered to be excellent, particularly the toothpick lamb, mapo, and cold noodles. I’m upping my “rating” to consider this one of the best Sichuan kitchens currently operating in the SGV. The style is quite representative of Chengdu.

On our third and fourth visit we had even more. I continue to think this is one of the better straight up modern Chengdu Sichuan places. And they allow corkage no problem. Service is a little scattered though.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Dan Dan Mein, Lunch Quest, SGV, Sichuan, 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
Comments (1)

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

Programmed by Andy Gavin