Shanghai Cuisine :: All Things Andy Gavin

Archive for Shanghai Cuisine

Shanghai #1 2022

Nov09

Restaurant: Shanghai #1 Seafood Village [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

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

Date: April 17 & July 9, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Very authentic Shanghai style

The San Gabriel Valley is a veritable treasure trove of Asian dining, particularly regional Chinese. Shanghai #1 Seafood Village is the LA branch of a high end Shanghai chain specializing in banquet dining. Here in 2022 we returned for a pair of dinners to see how it was doing post pandemic.

The decor is Stark meets Chinatown. Interestingly, as cheesy as it is, it’s fairly authentic. It is however, some 7 years after I first went here, looking a bit “shabby.” This is typical of Chinese establishments as they don’t seem to do a lot of maintenance. We had the private dining room tonight. Mysteriously, even though it was a Sunday night and the place was EMPTY, at first they gave us a table in the main area. We had to ask for the private room. It’s much better though.

The menu is like a giant full color fashion catalog for food, but I thought I’d show a couple pages by way of example.

Smashed Cucumbers with Garlic. Good with some of the other sauces.

Jellyfish Heads. In a nice sweet and tangy sauce.

Pickled Turnips. Sweet and a tiny bit spicy. I like them a lot but some people don’t.

Black Fungus (cloud ear mushroom). I always like this.

Pork Jelly. Very clean version of this dish.

Cold Chicken. Fine, but a bit boring as always. Simple “hainan-like” chicken. Pretty good except for he bones. The sauce was good.

Oil Poached Crab. Very lovely with clean crab flavor. Not so large though (we ordered 2).

Tofu with shrimp and salty egg yolk. Very strong salty egg flavor, but quite nice.

Two Flavor Shrimp. The one with the shell is sweet.

Yellow Croaker with Green Onion. Brown savory sauce and a very nice oniony flavor.

Fried yellow croaker with tea leaves. Very fried but delicious with the sweet vinegar.

Yellow Croaker with Green Onion. Brown savory sauce and a very nice oniony flavor.

Jiggly Pork Hock. Delicious.

Tea Smoked Duck. Crispy and delicious.

Beef with Scallions. Okay but a bit bland and the beef was chewy.

Cumin lamb. They pretty much forgot the cumin and the peppers.

Peppers with pork. Good, although not that much pork.

XLB. Very good.

Vinegar for the dumplings.

Tofu with pork. Great flavor.

Shanghai Style Pan-Fried Pork Dumplings. Heavy, but yummy.

Shrimp fried rice.

Shanghai Noodles with pork and cabbage. Fabulous noodles actually.

Crispy noodles with seafood. Delicious. Great texture and nice flavor.

Caramel Double Chip Gelato — Base is Salted Caramel made by replacing the sugar with house-made Water Caramel. Laced with Valrhona Chocolate Chunks and Toffee Chunks — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #caramel #SaltedCaramel #valrhona #toffee

Overall, these were both really great meals, but the April one was spectacular and the July one just great. Shanghai #1 severs (on a good night) first rate Chinese and quite authentic and typical of high end banquet meals in China. I’ve been here many times and finally enjoyed getting some “tricked out” dishes like sea cucumber. They were great. Service was good. The place is QUIET these days. Maybe they subsist on daytime dimsum, but it’s a shame as this Shanghai banquet food is delicious.

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

They have a Karaoke setup in the private room!

By: agavin
Comments (0)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Gelato, hedonists, SGV, Shanghai #1 Seafood Village, Shanghai Cuisine

Paradise Dynasty Costa Mesa

Sep30

Restaurant: Paradise Dynasty

Location: 3333 Bristol Street, BLM, 1 Bloomingdale’s, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. (714) 617-4630

Date: February 17, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese XLB

Rating: Way better than DTF

I went twice to branches of Paradise Dynasty in Shanghai and really enjoyed it. This chain is like a much more interesting Din Tai Fung. Frankly, I don’t exactly get why DTF is so popular except perhaps that it’s a “gateway drug” to more modern Chinese food and is just “easy” for Americans.

Somewhat annoyingly Paradise Dynasty’s first US branch is in Costa Mesa. Well it could be worse, at least it’s in driving distance but I don’t go down there that often. In fact, it’s in the South Coast Plaza mall. I hate malls.

Build out is nice but it’s spoiled by that whole mall atmosphere.

The menu is epic with quite a bit of variety.

Spinach and Vermicelli tossed with Vinaigrette. A “salad” of sorts. Pleasant.

Specialty Dynasty Xiao Long Bao. These are why one comes to PD: the 8 flavored XLB.

Here is the “key” to the flavors.

White is “signature” (classic pork). Delicate and excellent. The skins on all of these are very thin and lovely.

Red is Szechuan Hot Pot and it actually tastes like hot pot broth!

Grey is Garlic pork, and it’s pretty garlicky.

Yellow is Cheese. Interesting.

Green is Luffa Gourd with Chinese Wine (and pork of course). Mellow.

Orange is Crab Roe (and pork). Lovely briney flavor.

Tan is Foie Gras (and pork). Tastes like foie.

Black is Black Truffle (and pork). Probably my least favorite actually, but not truffle oil.

Ginger for the XLB. One adds soy sauce and vinegar to the dish for dipping.

Hot and Sour Soup with Shrimp. Top notch.

Radish Pastry. Lovely flakey (probably from lard) texture.

Prawn and Kurobuta Pork Wonton in Chili Vinaigrette. Classic, light, and delicious.

Noodle with Prawn and Kurobuta Pork Wonton in Signature Pork Bone Soup.

A single portion. The broth was basically like Chinese Tonkotsu.

Stir-fried Shredded Pork in Black Bean Sauce served with Chinese Crepe.

This is the “Crepe” (Spring Pancake). This was an excellent version of this very salty/savory dish.

Ma Po Tofu with Pork. First rate version actually. Not super numbing, but very good.

Scrambled Egg White with Fish and Dried Scallop.

Breaking the egg. I really liked the soft texture and mild but very savory flavor of this dish.

Stir-fried French Bean with Minced Pork and Preserved Olive Vegetable. Nice version of this classic too.

Kung Pao Chicken.

Overall, Paradise Dynasty is very good. I wouldn’t really consider it a dinner restaurant where one would go to get hearty wok classics. Yeah, they have a few, but that’s not their strong point. However, the flavored XLB are unique and absolutely first rate and the noodles and other dimsum like dishes are really good. Only downside is having to walk in a mall. Blech. I haven’t walked inside a mall in years (probably over a decade) to actually shop.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (0)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese Food, dumplings, OC, Orange County, Paradise Dynasty, Shanghai Cuisine, XLB

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
Comments (0)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, hedonists, Rice Yummy, SGV, Shanghai Cuisine

Jiang Nan Spring Double Dinner

Dec13

After a reconnaissance lunch, the hedonists head back to Jiang Nan Spring for a giant 2 table banquet dinner that included beggar’s chicken! Click here for the details.

By: agavin
Comments (0)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Jiang Nan Spring, Shanghai Cuisine

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
Comments (0)

Posted in: Food

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

Shanghailander Arcadia

Jun14

Restaurant: Shanghailander Palace [1, 2]

Location: 1440 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 348-8866

Date: May 19, 2019 and January 18, 2020

Cuisine: Shanghai Chinese

Rating: Excellent – best Shanghai food I’ve had in the US

Hedonist trips to the SGV and its requisite Chinese adventures are among my favorite dinners. Shanghailander specializes in Shanghai style cuisine (obviously). We’ve been out many times to their Hacienda Heights location, and last time the owner invited us to try their newer spot in Arcadia — which is closer so no complaints there.

Chinese frontage built into what may have been some kind of family restaurant in the 50s or 60s.

The dining room.

But the Arcadia one has several awesome private rooms!

Cold appetizer plate (5/19/19 & 1/18/20) to start.

Greens in a mustardy sauce to the left. Sweet meat and tofu to the lower left. Hainan chicken on the bottom.

Mushrooms to the right.

Perhaps an eggplant to the right.

Crunchy marinated sweet turnip in the upper right and pork jelly at the top.

Jellyfish in the upper left.

Cold Shanghai style duck (5/19/19). Excellent and very juicy.

Sautéed shrimp (1/18/20). Simple but tasty. I’ve had this dish dozens of times at many Shanghai restaurants and this was for sure one of the best versions I’ve had in the US.

Sea cucumber with shrimp roe (1/18/20). Sea cucumber, the white stuff was roe, shrimp and fish. Weird soft textures but very pleasant. Not exactly a looker, but quite tasty.

Sea cucumber (1/18/20) — nice texture, odd mild garlic and grain sauce.

Shrimp with pineapple in mustard sauce (5/19/19). Close to walnut shrimp, but with a distinctly different flavor.

Shanghai style crab with rice cakes (5/19/19). Really nice garlic and ginger sauce (delicious with the cakes).

Seasonal special: Crab with sticky rice (1/18/20) — really nice. sticky rice has mild but good flavor with sweet Chinese sausage.

Peking/Shanghai duck (1/18/20). Sometimes peking duck isn’t so hot at non Beijing places, but this one was excellent with a rich thick hoisin sauce and pancakes (way better than buns).

The whole assembly.

Duck soup (1/18/20). This was actually a tasty duck soup! It was rich, not overwhelmingly salty, and tasted of actual duck. There were also big chunks of juicy meat. Usually I hate duck soup, but this was quite enjoyable.

Shanghai style eel in pot (5/19/19 & 1/18/20). This was delicious. Soft and rich in a savory slightly sweet sauce.

Shaking Beef or French Style beef (5/19/19). Excellent juicy beef with lots of beefy flavor.

Fried fish with herbs (5/19/19 & 1/18/20). Lovely fried fish. We always order this.

Shanghai style braised pork in brown sauce (5/19/19). A huge hock of pig that falls off the bone. This is about as good as roast pork gets.

Cut up a bit. It’s a lean meat.

Meatballs stuffed with egg (5/19/19). Very unusual dish (here, typical in Shanghai). A kind of fried meat ball with a gooey duck egg yolk INSIDE!

Soy sauce or 3 cup chicken with chestnuts (5/19/19). Not always my favorite dish but this example was really good.

Jellyfish with cucumbers (5/19/19). We loved this dish so much we ordered another (larger) one. Awesomely tangy with a textural contrast between the crunchy cucumbers and chewy jellyfish.

Braised eggplant with salty fish flavor (1/18/20) — sweet sticky sauce and distinct bonito flake flavor. Almost Japanese in style like miso eggplant.

Grandmother’s special pork (1/18/20) — super tender, fatty, delicous with that thick sticky sauce

Pea tendrils with garlic (5/19/19). At first it was a little short on the garlic and we mentioned it and they remade it with even more garlic — awesome.

Shanghailander pan fried buns (5/19/19 & 1/18/20). A fried version of same. So hot they were hard to eat, but oh so tasty.

Shanghai steamed dumplings (XLB) (5/19/19 & 1/18/20). Always one of my favorites. The dough was great, the meat needed a hair more flavor, but I still ate about 6.

Nocciola Espresso Caramello Gelato (5/19/19) — A classic nocciola base made with Pure PGI Piedmont hazelnut paste and then layered with a house-made Espresso Caramel Ganache then topped with fresh roasted hazelnuts — 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 #hazelnut #ganache #dulcy #ChocolateTruffle #nocciola #caramel #caramello

Sicilian Tiramisu Gelato (5/19/19) –attempting to reinvent Tiramisu with Sicilian flavors: Pure DOGC “Bronte” pistachio paste gelato base with lady fingers soaked in house-made orange syrup and layered with house-made “cannoli filling” (sweetened fresh ricotta with cinnamon and mini dark chocolate chips) — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — this one will be a test of concept: too much? –#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 #ricotta #chocolate #orange #ladyfingers #tiramisu

Mud Pie Gelato (1/18/20) — Hot brewed espresso gelato with house-made milk chocolate coffee ganache and crushed Oreos — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — the gluttonous classic made even more gluttonus! — #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 #oreo #MudPie

Peppered Lemongrass Ginger Creme Brûlée Gelato (1/18/20) — 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

Our 5/19/19 visit to Arcadia was insanely good. Almost every dish was on point and many were unusual. Food was really really good. Service was great too but this was certainly the best Shanghai style food I’ve had outside of China — and this is just a couple months after my most recent visit to Shanghai and incredible means like Shanghai Tang. The private rooms are better here, but we forgot to preorder some dishes, like roast duck, plus they had lots of other interesting things. So next time we will have to really up the ante for a major banquet. They are super nice and I’m sure will knock it out of the park.

Our 1/18/20 visit was just as good — if not better — with a great menu (picked by Bonnie W and I) and a more focused set of wines. Still the best Shanghai place I know of in the US.

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

Wines from 1/18/20:

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Arcadia, BYOG, dumplings, Gelato, hedonists, pork, SGV, Shanghai Cuisine, Shanghailander, Wine, XLB

Crawling with an Old Friend

Feb27

The SGV (or San Gabriel Valley) of Los Angeles is not only a Chinese Food mecca (best in America) but lends itself to the peculiar but extremely fun tradition of the “food crawl” or as we sometimes call it the “SGV Parlay.” This involves heading out there and visiting multiple locations in the same day. Everything is so close together and the density is very high.

My oldest friend, Brent, and I have been eating Chinese food together for about 40 years so on this particular Sunday night (January 27, 2019) when he was in town we went out at about 4pm for the crawl.

First stop the Hunan Chili King and late Lucky Noodle King mini mall. This is a classic old school SGV mall, probably from the 70s.

Here’s HCK, the best Hunan joint I’ve been to in the state.

They were decorated for Chinese New Year.

And here’s Brent.

Hunan style cold cucumber salad with marinated cucumber, Cilantro, and chilies (everything has chilies). This was really tasty, and one of the least spicy dishes. The marinate lent it a slight cool quality. Very salty though.

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

This might have been our most expensive stop too. Lol.

Next over to King Kho Bo for some dried snacks like dried seasoned mushrooms and whacky New Year’s coconut strips.

Then into this weird low rent mall. Like a cheap mall in China as there are all sorts of “stores” tucked away inside this vast drop ceiling hall. Pretty ugly! And classic SGV charm (actually is fairly charming).

Speaking of charm, this guy in the parking lot drives a manga rice rocket!

Next we moved over to another (newer) minimall on Valley. I’ve eaten here at Mian, Mei Long Village, J &J, and Tasty Dining! This is in the heart of Alahambra and very dense.

Mian, where we decided to get some Szechuan on, gets a serious line. About 30 min at 7pm on Sunday for 2!

This place is much newer (2 years) and popular with the young Chinese couples on cel phones — wait, that’s all young Chinese (and other) couples.

Weird cold tea.

Slightly fermented spicy cabbage adorn the table — like Szechuan kimchee.

The awesome cold smoked plum juice — so good (too much sugar when you guzzle it though).

Egg custard with ground pork. One of those delicate fluffy egg custards covered in savory ground pork. Yum! I really enjoy the texture (and taste) of this kind of custard and with the pork was fabulous.

Beef in chili sauce. Quite spicy, dry, and nice.

Szechuan Cold Noodles.

You mix up the above cold noodles and eat. These were superlative. Nice noodle texture, good weight, and this scrumptious tangy chili sauce. Loved them. I adore when the acid balance is right and these really had it down. A bit of nuttiness, but not nearly as nutty or heavy as a dan dan — different, but great.

Then we went across the mini mall to the Foot Soak for a 1 hour Foot Massage ($20!).

This particular FM “spa” is one of my favorites because the guys on staff are strong and do a good job. There is NO GLAMOUR here. In fact, it has the oddest (not for the SGV but to the uninitiated) ambiance. The chairs are packed together almost touching and period Chinese dramas (in Chinese, of course) play on the TV. Plus, quite a number of people just hang out or sleep. The massage is good though and the price right ($20 is for a full 60 min).

Now on to our third minimall, well actually welcome to the Maxi-Mall. The California Mini-Mall’s GIANT SGV cousin.

You could spend all day in this mall, there are so many restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, and massage places. But since we’d done two spicy spots, we figured we’d finish up with some awesome carbs. Juicy Dumpling is upstairs.

They have a glassed in dumpling workshop!

Brent pounds the hard stuff — tea!

XLB (xao lao bao) “sweet”. Also known as Juicy Pork Dumpling. Really nice version of the classic. Soft skin. Juicy. Good filling. Maybe not as good as a Din Tai Fun, but great still. They have two types here — savory and sweet. We ordered the sweet because it’s more unusual. I kinda like it, although maybe not as much as the savory.

Pork and Shrimp Dumpling. Great version of the pork and shrimp, with delicate but pronounced flavors. Like the savory pork only version but with a shrimp inside!

Giant Crabmeat Juicy Dumpling. You eat this with a straw! People said this was a gimmick, but the slurry of crab and pork inside this thing was to die for. And after you burn your tongue slurping it out you can cut it up and eat the shell like pasta.

Here with the straw — so good, just watch you don’t burn your tongue.

As our final (7th!) stop we wanted some boba tea. There were options to choose from, like Boba Ave but we went instead to:

Whacky name.

Typical young clientele.

Slick modern (industrial) decor.

They double as internet cafe and offer unusual savory treats. Brent joked that “real men” would polish off the evening with an egg and prosciutto waffle — couldn’t manage it.

Instead just got a milk boba tea (small for me).

Overall, a total blast of a night. It’s really hard to convey how fun these crawls are — which is the purpose of this post. It feels kinda like teleporting to a section of a some slightly (American) Chinese city for an evening. Everything is so close together and if you like Chinese food the density of places is off the chart. We walked by a good 15-20 other places that looked delicious, some of which I have been to, many not.

This whole adventure was probably about $120 for the both of us too, including the Foot Massage and tip. Food was probably $80. With 4 people it would be even cheaper (each) and one could try more dishes. Hard to crawl with more than about 4-6.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, crawl, dumplings, Hunan, parlay, SGV, Shanghai Cuisine, Sichuan, Szechuan, XLB

Chang’s Garden

Jan19

Restaurant: Chang’s Garden

Location: 627 W Duarte Rd. Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 445-0707

Date: December 8, 2017

Cuisine: Shanghai Chinese

Rating: Solid place

Friday lunch is the perfect excuse to head out to the SGV for Chinese — actually being alive is a perfect excuse for Chinese food!

My friend George has a list of top regional restaurants in the SGV and this one came up, so we decided to try.

Typical SGV interior from years ago.

Takeout counter. And look, they even have wine!

The usual large menu.

Lunch comes with free hot and sour soup. The typical (yummy) kind.

Lotus wrapped pork spareribs.

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

Long Jing shrimp. Delicate shrimp with famous green tea. They had a nice green tea flavor.

Three ingredient lo-mein. The server pushed this on us. It was fine, but nothing special.

XLB (pork soup dumplings). Delicious!
West Lake Style Fish. A whole fish in a goopy sweet and sour sauce. Delicious, although tons of bones.

This was a nice place and all the dishes except for the lomein were great (noodles were just fine). I think this place is actually Zhejiang Cuisine (i.e. the Hangzhou lake district south of Shanghai).

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chang's Garden, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, SGV, Shanghai Cuisine

J&J – Crab XLB

Sep25

Restaurant: J&J Restaurant

Location: 301 W Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776

Date: August 9, 2017

Cuisine: Shanghai Chinese

Rating: Great crab XLB, but rest was just so-so

As part 3 of our mini lunch SGV parley we move onto mini-mall classic J&J.

It’s tucked at the back of the same minimal as Mian, Mei Long Village and Tasty Dining.

The typical pictorial menu.

SGV haunts fall into a couple categories. This is of the 10+ year old “ugly white drop ceiling older clientele variety.”

Crab XLB. This is why you come here. These were the best crab XLB I’ve had. Nice delicate wrappers and lots of solid crab flavor. This should not be confused with a categorical statement that they were better than the best PORK XLB I’ve had — just different beasts. I should have ordered the regular pork ones as the shells were great and so those might also be excellent — but we didn’t.

Crab Rice Cake. Crab in a sort of lightly curried sauce with the chewy Shanghai rice cakes. I liked the cakes and the sauce, but there was almost no accessible crab meat — unless you are a seal or some other animal natural equipped with shell crushing teeth.

Sweet and Sour Pork Chop. Not a bad version of this dish. Sticky soy-sugar sauce, little bits of bone, but very soft accessible meat.

Since this was just a couple dishes as part of a multi-restaurant crawl we only had a few things. The Crab XLB were great, the other two dishes just fine. They used MSG (I could feel it after). The atmosphere wasn’t exactly lively or updated. Service was pleasant.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.