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Thai Tour – Spicy BBQ

Jun03

Location: 5101 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90029. (323) 663-4211

Date: April 29, 2019

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Great Thai

This is the third stop on our great spring Thai Tour, although only the second I’ve been able to attend (the first being Sri Siam). Yarom set this in motion a couple months ago by deciding to hit up most of the top 10 recommended authentic Thai places in LA we HADN’T been to.

Spicy BBQ comes highly recommended. It’s a tiny place.

In a mini-mall on Santa Monica Blvd at the Thai Town / Little Armenia border. Just a touch scary.

They have a taste for amusing signs.

And a definitely mom and pop shop interior!

Plus mangos ever at the ready.

The menu.

My notes. Gotta have an ordering plan!

Fried chicken wontons. Deep fried wontons stuffed with ground chicken. Surprisingly delicious insides.

Fried Tofu. Deep fried tofu with sweet and sour dipping sauce. Not bad either for something so simple.

Papaya salad with grilled shrimp. We had to order a side car of extra shrimp to get around the table. The salad was a bit spicy actually and quite delicious.

Ground pork with chili paste. A “dip” of ground pork and spices. You use the veggies to lever it up.

Spicy and Sour Curry with chicken. Interesting and different curry.

Spicy Mint Leaves Beef. Delicious, with a lot of flavor.

Northern Thai Sausage. Soft and salty.

Pad Kee Mao Shrimp. Pan fried big flat noodles with bell pepper and basil in spicy sauce with succulent shrimp.

Tom Yum Chicken. Spicy and sour soup made with lemon grass, mushroom, onion, and celery. Delicious!

Northern Thai Egg Noodle. Khao soi. With the pickles.

Close up of the curry. I just love this dish. I’m a curry junkie.

Spicy Coconut Seafood. Really nice flavor.

BBQ Beef Spareribs. Tender with good flavor.

Pork Larb. Stir fried ground pork salad with lemon grass and Northern Thai spices.

Spicy BBQ Pork. The porky version of above. Still pretty tender.

Thai Peanut Coconut Lime Chili Gelato — Try 2 — Salty peanuts, Thai coconut, lime zest, and serrano chillies — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — the last batch was too spicy so this one has no chilie in the base itself — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #IceCream #NomNom #dessert #chili #spicy #thai #peanut #coconut #lime #SavorySweet #Serrano

Lol.

Spicy BBQ was very tasty. Small place, low key, small menu, but almost all the dishes were excellent. Not as exotic as some places, but they did a nice job.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, curry, Gelato, hedonists, spicy, Spicy BBQ, Thai, Thai cuisine, Thai Tour

Szechuan Impression Tustin

May10

Restaurant: Szechuan Impression

Location: 13816 Red Hill Ave, Tustin, CA 92780. (714) 505-9070

Date: April 14, 2019

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: that dependable SI quality

I’ve long been a huge fan of Sichuan Impression having eaten regularly at the Alhambra location and about 40 times at the West LA location. At the opening of SI West Yarom and I met one of the owners, Kelly, and struck up a friendship. She’s come to a bunch of our dinners and she invited us down to a big dinner at their flagship Tustin location.

And my commitment to Chinese is even more demonstrated by the fact that this night was the Game of Thrones season 8 premier!

This Tustin minimall much be a hot spot for Szechuan because just like in West LA there is a mob outside waiting.

We, of course, have our big table and owner-planned menu.

Special salad. This is off menu, and is a cool salad of carrots, cucumbers etc.

With a tangy soy based dressing poured over.

Cold Noodles. On the westside, I found this dish a bit heavy, but this version was excellent with nice chewy noodles and tangy sauce.

Juicy Steamed Chicken in Chili Sauce. This classic cold appetizer was excellent here. Not absolutely perfect. This particular night, the chicken was good, but the sauce was a little flat.

Cumin mutton. Super tender. Awesome version of this Szechuan classic.

Off menu, fried chicken, aromatic peppers, and crispy rice.

Tea Smoked Pork Rib. Pork rib, dry chili, scallion, minced peanuts. This was a moderately contentious dish in the group, but I loved it as always. The meat is super tender, melt from the bone, with a dry and nutty heat.

Spicy Crab. This was one of the best Chinese crab dishes I’ve had. Like a Chinese version of Maryland Eastern shore spicy crab. The meat was delectable and not overcooked, and the shell soft enough you could chew right through it.

Spicy beef noodle. Very spicy with thick chewy knife cut noodles and soft beef. Like a very spicy Szechuan beef stew.

Ginger Frog. SUPER spicy with fabulous flavor and delicate but (very boney) frog. I was addicted to this. But because it was Orange County, we only had a couple serious Chinese fans augmented by some newbies — who were a bit scared by the amphibian factor.

Fish filet with green chilies. Really nice version of this dish. Thick soft fish and lots of green heat. Very delicate and flavorful.

Pig trotters. Chewy, but lots and lots of flavor.

The classic shredded potatoes. Great with sauce.

Sweet and Sour Shrimp. Super garlicky, spicy, tangy. Really like this dish too.

Fried rice.

MaPo Tofu. 10 out of 10 version of this classic dish. Salty, but not too salty, with lots of mala.

Lettuce. Also very good. Tons of good garlic flavor.

Kung Pao Chicken. Fabulous. Very much Chengdu style with the heat, sweetness, and tangy quality.

Of course a brought a bunch of my famous gelato, left to right:

Testing out a new Italian nut source — Salty Pistachio Gelato – using my new egg yolk based nut formulation with the new Sicilian Pistachio to produce a pistachio base with a slight saltiness — 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 #salty #pistachio #sicily #nuts

Testing out a new Italian nut source — Caramel Nocciola Gelato – using my new egg yolk based nut formulation with the new Piedmontese hazelnut to produce a hazelnut base, then adding in house-made caramel and chopped up 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 #hazelnut #Nocciola #caramel #nuts

Testing out a new Italian nut source — Salty Pistachio Gelato – using my new egg yolk based nut formulation with the new Almond to produce the base, then weaving in Italian apricot variegate — 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 #nuts #almond #apricot

Very Cherry Gelato – a super intense amarena cherry gelato topped with candied amarena cherries — 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 #amarena #cherry

Traditional Cassata di Siciliana Gelato — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Sicilian Christmas cake as a gelato, with a ricotta almond base mixed with candied fruit and dark Valrhona chocolate chunks — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Cassata #Valrhona #CandiedFruit #fruit #chocolate #ricotta #almond #RicottaCheese #cheese #CassataSiciliana

Like all of the SI branches, this is excellent. As this was the flagship, and the owners bringing out the dishes, everything was really on point tonight. The only (slightly) off dish was the cold chicken which was a little flat. It was fun too to try some new (off menu) dishes like the “salad” and chicken with crispy rice. The crab is on menu and I was particularly spectacular.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Gelato, GYOG, hedonists, Sichuan, Sichuan Impression, spicy, Szechuan Chinese, Szechuan Impression, Tustin, Wine

Molten Lava Goodness

Apr01

Restaurant: Shancheng Lameizi

Location: Mandarin Plaza. 18932 Gale Ave, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 581-8808

and 1530 S San Gabriel Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 766-1700

Date: March 7 and March 26 and May 7 and June 22 and December 27, 2019

Cuisine: Szechuan Hot Pot

Rating: Best Hot Pot restaurant I’ve been to

On the middle night of my 3 day class trip to the SGV Yarom made the trek out east to join me for what Erick and Skylar said is the best new Chongqing style hot pot.

They describe themselves on their website thusly:

Our secret recipes of the soup base all come from Chongqing, so that our customers can taste the authentic flavor of hot pot from that mountain city. Apart from that, more than twenty kinds of free special snacks also attract many diners and lead to our good reputation, making the company prosper in the dining industry for more than twenty years. Our tenet of providing quality and comfortable service also makes every one of our customers “come with joy and leave with satisfaction”. Our specialties are delicious, rich-flavored and good for your calcium supplement. Their functions of skin care and regulating Qi and blood are also good for your health. Our soup is daily fresh-made.

This branch (there are a couple) is located in busy Mandarin plaza. There are like 15-20 Asian places out here and we are returning in the summer for a crawl.

There is even a bit of outside decor.

Check it out, they spent some actual money.

There is even an outside hot pot patio! (the tables have the built in hot pots). I’ve never seen this before.

Inside has a cute bit of decor, and tiny Chinese girl sized booths. We were initially offered a 2 person booth like the near one on the right — Yarom and I, being neither a couple nor particularly petite waited for a four person sized table.

Then 2 weeks later I was out in the SGV by myself picking up some gelato equipment and decided to try out the Alhambra branch. Similar elaborate building — I didn’t see the patio, but friends say it’s there. I went back again 5/7/19 too because this place is just that good.

Inside has another of these “fancy” Chinese decors that would cost an American 3 million but probably only cost them $300,000.

They have the best “sauce bar” I have ever seen, although you have to pay $1.50 a person for it. It includes more than just sauce like these snacks (which I didn’t eat).

More snacks.

Dessert. Very Chinese. Bean stuff sesame balls. Kinda dry and not worth the carbs.

More snacks. Peanuts, dried lima beans, etc. These were good. Shrimp chips.

Not sure what all these were. Some red beans. Some weird mysterious sweet things. Like those sperm on the left. Kinda gelatinous and sweet.

This is the main sauce components (there were a few others, not pictured, like garlic, peanuts, etc. This stuff was awesome. So many different super Chinese fermented spice flavors.

Very detailed pan across of all the sauce components!

Various toppings to add into your sauce mixes. The soy sauces, vinegar, oils are separated out.

Never heard of this oils, which makes it cool.

You fill out the menu while waiting.

From my cellar: NV Philipponnat Champagne Royale Réserve Rosé Brut. BH 92. A moderately fruity nose reflects notes of cherry, strawberry, raspberry, yeast and a subtle citrus nuance. There is a really lovely sense of energy to the delicious, round and nicely voluminous flavors that are shaped by a moderately fine effervescence that carries over to a lingering and solidly complex finish that is drier than the 9 g/L of dosage would suggest. One of the aspects that I particularly like here is that unlike many examples of rosé that tend to be prettier than they are deep, there has very good depth. Like the Royale Réserve, this could easily be held for further aging but it is so attractive now that there is no particular reason to do so.

agavin: perfect hot hot pot pairing

I developed 3 sauce blends. This is the “light” blend with a lot of vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and various fermented flavors. Trying to be vinegar heavy.

This is the “meat” blend with a lot of peanut, sesame, and other spicy fermented flavors. Very thick and and heavy but delicious with the meat.

A different day’s sesame based blend.

This was a “fermented” flavor. Tons of peppers and every weird fermented chili thing I could find. Interesting and delicious.

And another take on fermented flavor of death. I added every type of chili oil and everything fermented.

Sauce refills.

Crispy Pork Appetizer. I really wanted to order some pork rind like things I saw on another table, but ended up with these, basically like the fried pork chunks that are in a good version of the sweet and sour pork. Pretty delicious actually. Like pork tenders.

We got the hot pot split with bone broth and super spicy Szechuan hot pot (the slurry of melted ox fat, chilies, and peppercorns). I asked for max heat. They also have a 9 way split but it’s more so people can have their own area. They only have 2 broths.

Starting to heat up.

Furious boil (on the left).

Video of it boiling.

On request, you can even get a branded bib — I highly recommend you do!

Certified Angus Beef Short Rib. Very nice meat.

On top was Lamb Shoulder. Also really good.

Fatty Beef Belly — richer!

Some other meat.

Streaky Pork. Thicker and full of flavor.

Meatball Combo (beef? and a fish ball).

Tofu Combo. Lighter and heavier tofu.

Rice cakes. Carby but great texture.

Vegetable combo. Various cabbage and greens. These are really good sauce vehicles and helped wash things down.

Some root vegetables.

Yarom brought this Cab from the night before — still in awesome shape and strong enough to overcome the heat.

On top, Special Luncheon Pork (spam). So good we had three orders! Below was Mini Sausage which have a lot of flavor and open up when cooked.

Raw Pig brain! Yeah, it’s really scary. I made sure to cook it really really well.

Chicken gizzard. Very very chewy. Can’t say I would recommend.

Spongey mushroom with shrimp. Surprisingly delicious. Interesting spongey texture too.

Fish Filet. Chunks of thick deboned whole fish that you drop in — in my case into the spicy side — to get that Szechuan boiled fish effect.

Mushroom combo to add even more fiber to the mix — plus one of our extra luncheon meats.

Wood ear mushroom. I love these guys.

Special baby bamboo shoot (5/7/19). On one of my return trips they had added LOTS of specials, including all sorts of intestines. I skipped those and got this sheet of delicious fiber — along with the mushrooms and chili oil keeps one fully regular. Notice that I again ordered the baloney.

Lotus root. Always add some nice texture to a hot pot.

You can order fried or white rice if you like.

The girls next door ordered quite differently with quail eggs, bean curd, and PIG BRAIN!

The bill is 100% in Chinese!

Overall, this was probably the best Szechuan style hot pot I’ve had, up there with my friend Wendy’s epic home cooked New Years hot pot (which isn’t spicy, but had really good stuff). I think Shancheng Lameizi was actually better than the place we went in Chengdu and definitely a little better than my local favorite Hai di Lao. The atmosphere was very Chinese, the ingredient quality was excellent, service good, they allowed us to open our wine ($10 corkage, which they might not have even charged), the broth, particularly the spicy broth was insanely good, and the sauce bar was unparalleled for blending weird intense Chinese flavors. Now, do bear in mind, that given the super spicy soup base, and my thick chili laden slurry of sauces that what goes in the pot is largely about texture. lol.

Apparently there is a branch at Valley and San Gabriel, right near the Crack House, Shaanxi Garden, etc. When I went 2 weeks later it was just as good! Very crowded at lunch too (and this is a HEAVY lunch!). I’ve now been at least 5 times and it’s always great.

Oh, and do bear in mind that hot pot like this is a form of high fat “cleanse.” As they say at Killer Noodle, “mind your bottom!”

For my catalog of Chinese restaurant reviews, click here.

This minimall is hilarious. Tons of different places. Don’t know what this kind of BBQ is (appears to be a Chinese take on Yakitori), but the slogan is amusing.

This old school 50s or 60s place has become a Benihana clone — but more Chinese.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: beef, Chinese cuisine, hot pot, pig brains, pork, Sichuan, spicy, Szechuan Hot Pot, Yarom

Thai Tour – Sri Siam

Mar11

Restaurant: Sri Siam Cafe

Location: 12843 Vanowen St, North Hollywood, CA 91605. (818) 982-6262

Date: February 11, 2019

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: First rate Thai

Yarom has been scheduling a whole long series of Thai Mondays this spring — and you all know how much I love Thai food. I unfortunately couldn’t make the first one at Sapp, but I slogged out to North Hollywood for Sri Siam (which I had tried to go to before but failed).

Very casual storefront.

This is not exactly the loveliest neighborhood — check out the laundry-mat.

And the unassuming entrance.

Inside is bright and cheery though.

Crispy Rice Salad. This might be carby, but it was scrumptious. Nice texture and great flavor. There is crispy rice in there too.

Chicken Satay. Broiled marinated chicken skewer served with toast, cucumber relish & peanut sauce. This particular version came with a great little mini BBQ you could use to sear your own satay on. The cucumber salad was fabulous too, sweet and tangy.

Spicy Grilled Salad. Pork with shredded green apple, lemon grass, onion & mint leaves in spicy lime dressing. Great flavor and nice crunchy/chewy texture.

Miang Pla Too. Fried Macherel herb salad served with romaine and cilantro. Extremely polarizing dish. I loved it for the salty/fishy chew of the fish and the complex herb flavor. The Mayberry types at the table hated it.

Dried Fish Cake. Seasoned curry paste, fried ground fish and green bean patties. A bit contentious at the table for the spongy/chewy texture. I thought they were fine, but not super exciting.

Tom Yum Koong. Coconut milk chicken soup with lemongrass, galangal root & lime juice. I love this rich savory and slightly spicy soup. It has all sorts of savory/sour flavors going on. Sebastian complained that I got the one with the coconut milk because he’s watching his girlish figure — but everyone else at the table loved it.

Prawns with glass noodles. A lovely special dish with tasty tender giant prawns.

Pad See Mao. Shrimp, pan fried noodle w/ chili, garlic, and basil.

Khao Soy. Curry soup with chicken and egg noodle. Plus those interesting pickle condiments.

I love this dish and with a bit of the chili oil it can be pretty hot!

Sri Siam Spicy Ribs. Fried spicy pickled pork spareribs. A bit chewy, but tons of flavor.

Duck larb. No dish was as polarizing as this sauté of duck meat with red onion, cilantro, and chilies. The meat was very chewy and had a strong fish sauce flavor. I happened to love it because it was so intense and flavorful. Again, the wusses differed.

Spicy Basil Beef. Stir-fried basil leaves, garlic & chili with beef. Also a bit chewy. This place is small and they don’t use the highest quality meat in the universe.

Green Curry with Chicken. Green curry in coconut milk, bamboo shoots, Thai eggplant and basil. Other people had forced me to tone down the spice of most dishes but this one I got hot — which meant it was “acceptable” 🙂

By special birthday request — Gorgonzola Fig Walnut Gelato — Gorgonzola Dulce base with Fig Jam and Candied Walnuts! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — oh my! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #IceCream #NomNom #dessert #gorgonzola #fig #walnut #SavorySweet

Another new flavor, but continuing my Sicilian theme — Pistachio Almond Lemon Gelato — base made with a 50/50 blend of Pistachios from Bronte Sicily and Noto Almonds, plus Sicilian candied lemon! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — oh my! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #IceCream #NomNom #dessert #Pistachio #Almond #lemon #sicily

Overall, the food at Sri Siam was great. The place is cute and friendly and this is a somewhat different style of Thai than Jitlada. The menu is big but not quite as vast and they seem to make things for Thai taste (with fish sauce). It isn’t super hot though by my standards.

The servers were very nice and she put up with my “flighted” ordering (where I put in 3ish dishes at a time so as not to have them all arrive at once). She a couple times warned me off of several “too Thai” dishes that again I would have liked — as would Yarom and some of the more “seasoned” eaters — but the riff raff would have found “weird.” Still, I got a couple like the duck and the mackerel.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

From my cellar.

I thought both these wines were wretched over extracted messes.

Number two.

This was murky, but actually pretty tasty — one of the best of the night.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, curry, Gelato, hedonists, satay, spicy, Sri Siam, Thai, Thai cuisine, Thai Tour, Wine

8 (Million) Ways to BBQ in LA

Feb01

Restaurant: 8 BBQ

Location: 863 S Western Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90005. (213) 365-1750

Date: December 24, 2018 & March 17, 2019

Cuisine: Korean Pork BBQ

Rating: Tasty Stuff

Christmas Eve (and day) are great excuses to go eat Asian food because — l it’s just tradition — and they’re open.

I was sorta hankering for SGV Chinese but Yarom wanted to keep it “local” and head to KTown.

The debate as to which place to grace with our rambunctiousness eventually settled on 8 BBQ — which was good by me because I’d never been and it was on my list.

8 BBQ, which used to have some other name, is a KBBQ place that specializes in pork belly BBQ — specifically 8 different flavored variants!

It was packed (we had to wait a bit) and was equipped with the usual Korean ventilation.

The table was preset with banchan and these interesting looking perched grills — which struct me as a burn/spill waiting to happen.

The banchan parade included spicy pickled bamboo or radish (hard to tell).

Noodle salad.

This awesome spiced cold tofu.

These pickles.

And this incredibly addictive but simple salad — Yarom and I ate two bowls of it ourselves (there was another bowl on the other side of the table and like most banchan it was “infinite refills”).

Pineapple on the grill?

Oh, and these marinated daikon are less for munching but for wrapping meat in.

We ordered combo A to start which included 8 flavors of pork belly, seafood soybean stew, banchan, salad, and mozzarella kimchi fried rice on 12/24/19. On 3/17/19 we ordered combo A and a beef combo.

And they immediately start grilling up an infinite supply of kimchee and spicy bean sprouts.

This is the seafood soybean stew, which was pretty tasty — although it’s always hard to eat those crab claws.

I think some kimchee went in here to “spice it up.”

A different kind of kimchee soup — no seafood.

Here is the 8 ways of pork belly. From left to right: wine, original, black sesame, garlic, herb, curry, miso, and red pepper paste.

They start grilling up the first 4. Look like bacon — I wonder why?

And a bit like fish when half cooked.

Then it gets cut up. The waiter does most of the grilling. Of this set, I probably liked sesame and garlic best. Wine was kinda weird.

The second set starting off.

And done. This whole set was really yummy. Loved curry, miso, and red pepper.

Then we ordered some steak’ums — I mean Prime Beef Brisket.

Grilling. They keep replacing the kimche etc.

Finished beef. Nice, but not a TON of flavor.

Prime Korean Style Boneless Rib.

On the grill. This was meatier with a good steaky flavor.

Marinated Galbi Bulgogi.

On the grill. This was my favorite beef as the marinate gave it a ton of sweet/soy flavor.

A chunk of the beef plate.

Grilling.

The whole rib eye.

Grilling

And cut. Super juicy. Delicious. We ordered 2!

Thick cut pork belly.

Grills up nice and juicy.

Starting our mozzarella kimchi fried rice by throwing some of the already grilled kimchee in the pot.

Then here is the rice, seaweed, greens.

That goes in too.

And the mozzarella on top.

I snapped a picture of it all melted and while it’s hard to see the cheese it was insanely good. I always like kimchee fried rice but the mozzarella really takes it up a bunch of notches.

I convinced people to try this Spicy Buckwheat Noodle and it was also insanely good. The slippery noodles had great texture and there was a good bit of kick and a really nice tangy/spicy vibe to the sauce.

There was some vinegar and Korean mustard in case you wanted to have even more tang and (mustardy) spice.

Here are the noodles all mixed up.

Then we ordered the secret “9th pork belly” the Bulgogi style marinate.

On the grill. This was a great pork too as it had that signature Korean sweet/soy thing going on.

And to finish a steamed egg which was soft and pleasant.

On 12/24/19 I wasn’t drinking this evening and there were only 5 of us be here were the wines:

Piggy!

Overall, I was really impressed with 8 BBQ. The menu isn’t gigantic but it has just enough variety to make a really interesting meal and the food quality and taste was really good. You wouldn’t go every week because there isn’t a ton of variance here, but I’ll certainly be back as it was really delicious. Pretty “low carb” friendly too (except for the fried rice and noodles).

Afterward we wandered out into the cool misty Christmas Eve night in sear of Boba Tea — brining us to the Kung Fu Tea House!

Amusing snacks.

And the usual assortment of bobas and slushies.

A constant stream of old kung fu movies were playing on the TV!

Weird shrimp and squid chips.

And our quintet of teas. I got a passionfruit slush (40% sugar) with a bunch of bobas and jellies. They have a lot of jelly options here. Awesome night!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: 8 BBQ, bbq, boba, Christmas Eve, hedonists, Korean BBQ, Korean cuisine, Korean food, Ktown, Pork Belly, spicy, Tea

Chong Qing Special Noodles

Dec10

Restaurant: Chong Qing Special Noodles

Location: 708 E Las Tunas Dr, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 374-1849

Date: October 20, 2018

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Good Chong Qing style casual place

I’ll take any excuse to head out to the SGV — and next to no excuse to head out to the SGV for Szechuan.

Most of the Szechuan places I go to have their culinary roots in Chengdu, but a few, like this one, in Szechuan’s larger, less iconic city: Chongqing.

Clearly this used to be a KBBQ or something because it has hoods over all the tables.

The classic Chinese joint Menu.

Watermelon juice. Pretty much just blended watermelon.

Smoked plum juice. Love this stuff!

They have the cold bar. We ordered pretty much all of it.

Salty/sweet garlic cucumbers.

Shredded potato. These I like with some spicy sauce.

Peanuts.

Wood ear mushrooms with celery. Aka “black fungus”. Love ’em.

Pastrami like cured beef? Or maybe pork. Either way a bit spicy and really good.

Pork intestine with bean curd. Not my fav.

Pig ear with chili oil!

Cold steamed chicken with spicy sauce. Chicken itself was good, but didn’t like this version of the sauce (more BBQ like).

Spicy wonton with “soup.” Delicious little spicy pockets of yum.

Spicy fried chicken with aromatic peppers. Love this salty dish.

Ma Po Tofu. Just a so-so version of this dish. Not much mala and not that spicy.

Chongqing noodle. Noodles with pork, fried egg, and spicy goodness.

Dan dan mein. The nuttier other classic Szechuan noodle dish.

Mixed up this was fairly accurate to what I was getting in Chengdu. Quite good.

Noodle pull!

Shredded pork with green chilis. Quite hot and very tasty soft pork.

Cumin lamb. Good too.

Repulsive liver soup. This stuff was gross. The broth was that tasteless pork bone broth and the liver… ick.

Greens. Colon sweeper again. Maybe mustard greens.

Matcha White Gelato – ceremonial matcha green tea gelato base with white chocolate stracciatella layered in — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #Matcha #GreenTea #WhiteChocolate #Stracciatella

Overall, we ordered a LOT for 4 people and enjoyed most of it. This is an older style SGV place, VERY casual, friendly but slightly indifferent service, excellent value, tasty food, average ingredient quality, authentic. They have a lot of dishes. And some are excellent and some are just okay. As someone who has eaten a lot of Szechuan food I tend to prefer places with a slightly tuned up kitchen, better ingredients, etc — but still, no serious complaints.

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

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chong Qing Special Noodles, noodles, Sichuan, spicy, Szechuan Chinese, Szechuan cuisine

Szechuan Impression West

Dec01

Restaurant: Sichuan Impression

Location: 11057 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 444-7171

Date: October 10 and November 6 & 30th and December 17 & 19, 2018 and Jan 9 & 30 and April 21, 2019 and July 16, 2019

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: SGV on the Westside

I’ve been waiting all summer for Sichuan Impression — one of my favorite SGV haunts — westside branch to open up and so it was that Yarom, Keong, and I descended on them at 11am opening day! Plus returned twice a month later for more updates.

They took up residence in the old Jin Jiang which I used to eat at all the time in the old Flektor days. Right above Hamasaku. Only problem with this location is the lousy parking (the lot’s always full).

The interior is newly redone — except the icky bathrooms.

Crowded on a Friday night.

There is some patio space too. Never see that at Chinese!

The menu is posh.

Yarom with the chef from Chengdu and the owner Kelly (on the right).

For my 11/6/18 lunch Liz brought this perfect light (low alcohol) Riesling. 2016 Peter Lauer Ayler Kupp Riesling Spätlese Faß 23. VM 93. This “two-star” auction lot is more northerly in fruit personality than the corresponding Fass 7, prominently featuring grapefruit and white peach laced with fresh lime and garlanded in apple blossom and honeysuckle. The lusciously fruited palate is buoyant, glossy and subtly creamy, but at the same time almost electrocharged in its expression of brightly juicy citrus. The vibrantly sustained finish gains mouthwatering appeal from a suffusion of mineral salts and invigorates with an impingement of grapefruit zest, peach fuzz and stone.

Juicy Steamed Chicken in Chili Sauce (10/10/18). This classic cold appetizer was excellent here. Not absolutely perfect. The sauce was great, but the chicken maybe could have been slightly better. But still very strong.

Impressive Bean Jelly (10/10/18). Green bean jelly, crushed peanuts, scallion. This actually was impressive. First of all, it’s cut in Chengdu street style instead of the longer noodles (which I also like). It’s cold, with the jello-like texture and the awesome tangy/spicy chili sauce. 10 out of 10 for this fabulous dish.

On our second and third visit (11/6/18 & 11/30/18) the dish was cut more like noodles. I actually preferred the slab version slightly although it was still great.

Bamboo shoots in chili sauce (1/30/19). This is a simple dish, possibly just steamed bamboo shoots with chili oil on top, but I liked it a lot. Nice crunch. Some real heat — and kinda healthy!

On 2/10/19 a version of the bamboo shoots with sauce on the side.

Cold Noodles (11/30/18). This is the worst dish I’ve had here. Cold, chewy, an not much flavor.

Szechuan French Fries (11/30/18). A little soggy but great flavor.

Eggs and tomatoes (2/10/19). A Chinese home classic.

Wonton’s in chili oil (11/6/18). Could have used a bit more chili oil, but the wontons were delicious. I just dipped it in the noodle sauce.

Impressive Sausages (4/21/19). Very good cold Chinese Sausages. Spicy and Sweet and Salty at the same time.

Shredded Pork with Garlic (11/6/18). Cold bacon-like pork with garlic and cilantro. I was actually expecting the pork in fish sauce but this was a great dish too. Not as hot as at Gu Yi.

Twice Cooked Pork (7/16/19). An excellent example of the classic Szechuan Dish. Tender meat, lots of salty/pork flavor, offset by the big strips of green onion.

Steamed Pork with Rice Flour (10/10/18). Marbled pork, pumpkin, scallion. I’ve never had this dish before. The meat was very fatty and very soft and had a moist texture from the rice flour — not to mention an interesting almost almond-like taste. Quite comforting and nice, if a touch “weird” to American standards.

MaPo Tofu (10/10/18). 10 out of 10 version of this classic dish. Salty, but not too salty, with lots of mala.

Everything hot pot (11/30/18). This had tripe, spam, shrimp, veggies, and some kind of scary dark organ meat. It was delicious though, particularly the spam.

Fish filet with green chilies (11/30/18). Really nice version of this dish. Thick soft fish and lots of green heat. Very delicate and flavorful.

Fish filet in golden sour soup (11/30/18). Photo is after it was mostly eaten. Awesome fish dish. The soft fish complemented perfectly with the mild tangy soup/sauce.

Tea Smoked Pork Rib (10/10/18 & 11/30/18). Pork rib, dry chili, scallion, minced peanuts. This was a moderately contentious dish in the group, but I loved it as always. The meat is super tender, melt from the bone, with a dry and nutty heat.

Sweet and Sour Shrimp (10/10/18). Super garlicky, spicy, tangy. Really like this dish too.

Sizzling chicken with chilies (11/6/18). Nice version of this dish. Not as heavy on the peppers and aromatics but I liked the celery (coated in chili bits).

Pig trotters (11/30/18). Chewy, but lots and lots of flavor.

Kung Pao Chicken (11/30/18). Fabulous. Very much Chengdu style with the heat, sweetness, and tangy quality.

Kung Pao Shrimp (12/19/18). Not only did it have the same goodness (and lots of ginger) but there were tons of succulent shrimp!

Griddle Style Shrimp (11/30/18). Really nice flavor.

Frog hot pot (11/30/18). Not our favorite. The frog meat was good, if boney but it was a bit overcooked and the sauce more flat.

Ginger Rabbit (4/21/19). Rabbit was meaty and had minimal bone for rabbit. The sauce had a nice ginger flavor and was HOT — very hot for mortals.

Spicy Hot Free Range Chicken (1/9/19). This dish was one of the hottest dishes I’ve had here, with a searing green/red almost Hunan style heat. Nice flavor and a lot of good garlicky burn.

Griddle Cooked Squid (4/21/19). Great griddle cooked flavor. Hot but not too hot. Nice chewy squid. Crunchy vegetables. Excellent dish.

Cumin mutton (11/6/18). Super tender. Awesome version of this Szechuan classic.

Mustard Greens (11/30/18). Really delicious. Crunchy with lots of garlic.

Lettuce (11/30/18). Also very good.

Crunchy veggies and egg with tomato (11/30/18). Boring stuff for vegetarians.

Rice cake with syrup and peanut dust (11/30/18). Interesting gooey/chewy texture and pleasant flavor. Mild though like most Chinese desserts.

Natural Bubblegum Gelato made by me for @sweetmilkgelato (11/30/18) — turns out you can simulate bubblegum with a bunch of fruits and vanilla! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #bubblegum #weirdflavors #natural

Pina Colada Sorbetto — just like the cocktail with Thai coconut milk, pineapple, a touch of lime and dark rum — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato (11/30/18) — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #PinaColada #CocktailIceCream #pineapple #coconut #lime #rum

Service was nice but very slightly confused as this was the opening hour for the entire restaurant. The owner Kelly was super nice. They have one of their chefs in from Chengdu for the opening, and the food was extremely tight, extremely authentic, and as good as the SGV branch. He will head home at some point, and so it will be interesting to see where it goes. The menu is big and interesting with all sorts of non-American favorites like intestines and kidneys and rabbit. Yum!

Super excited to have this on the westside — and they have a liquor license too so we will be coming back for a wine dinner in November.

I have heard that the lines are quite bad at dinner time and the staff hasn’t totally figured out how to service the demand yet — but they seem committed to figuring it out. I’m happy it’s busy too because that means it will do better and last longer! Because this is real Szechuan food (or as close as we come in America).

My second lunch on 11/6/18 was medium crowded. They took a bit of time to take our order but it came fast and everything was still delicious. It maybe was 5% less on point than the first time, probably because the Chengdu chef returned home, but it was still really really solid and about the same as the SGV version.

Third dinner on 11/30/18 was very good. A few dishes were off like the cold noodles but most were great. They had a bit of a tough time (although they tried) with the complex two table ordering and were bringing things out a bit fast. But they also had the best bus boy ever!

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

Papa Limor 83rd bday!

High acid, fruit hiding a bit, but very nice.

Tasted like a pinot. VERY fruit forward.

Great with the spice.
Nice and dry.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, chili, Chinese Food, Gelato, hedonists, mala, mapo tofu, opening day, Sichuan, Sichuan Impression, Skylar, spicy, Szechuan Impression, West LA

Eating Chengdu – Szechuan

Sep26

Restaurant: ? in Chengdu

Location: ? in Chengdu

Date: August 5, 2018

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Solid Szechuan, but not the best we had

After our day baking in the 100deg heat at Leshan it was late enough that we didn’t have time to go back to the hotel before dinner — Chinese restaurants all closing quite early.

So instead we headed to another of Chengdu’s many lovely restored alley streets for more crowds and dinner.

Again, if any of my Chinese reading friends can translate this name so I know where we ate, I’d be grateful.

Cute interior.

More beer to sooth the heat.

Plain noodles for my son.

Plain noodle soup for another kid wary of the red.

A Szechuan pupu platter of sorts — or a selection of (mostly) cold plates.

Spicy vegetable.

Smoked beef or ham, again like pastrami.

Spicy beef. I get this cold dish all the time in LA and love it.

Another (delicious) kind of spicy vegetable.

Mysterious sauce.

Mung bean noodle with spicy sauce. One of two variants. I think this one was hot.

Cold Mung bean noodle with tangy/spicy sauce. I love this one.

Sweet rice cake. One of those weird chewy-sweet Chinese desserts.

A single hot wonton.

Two slightly less lonely non-spicy wontons.

Baby dan dan mein.

A few random dim sum.

Mapo tofu. How could we not order it again? This one was saltier, not as spicy, and with less depth than the one we had our first night in Chengdu. It was fine, but not nearly as good.

Rice for the mapo.

Pork belly with preserved vegetables. I really enjoyed this dish. Rich fatty meat offset by the salty/funky vegetables underneath.

Weird spongy mushrooms and bock choy. Not bad for a vegetable.

Cabbage and lotus seeds in egg yolk sauce. Pretty good actually. This is a combo I’ve only had once, at Duck House in the form of a crab, egg yolk, and cabbage dish.

Crispy beef with crispy rice and a whole lotta-chilies. I loved this dish. The beef was nice and chewy with a delightful hot aromatic quality. Not actually that spicy.

Fresh flounder in chili oil. Lots of oil. Lots of chilies. Lots of bones. But tasty.

Pan fried rice cakes with Szechuan peppercorns. The peppercorns were a surprise to the kids who otherwise wanted the rice cakes. Gave it a bit of a tingle!

Sesame eyeballs. Gooey rice with sesame inside. Actually one of the best Chinese desserts.

Overall, this place was solid. Flavors weren’t as complex as at Chen Mapo Tofu but we had some interesting dishes and they were quite good.

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

Afterward we took a walk done the large and deserted alley — not, it was the usual Chinese mob scene.

There was all sorts of street snacks, and pretty much only traditional Chinese snacks like these mooncakes and jellies.

Fruit with dry ice.

More ear cleaning.

And even panda dumplings!

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chengdu, China Cuisine, Eating Chengdu, Eating China, mapo tofu, Sichuan, spicy, Szechuan cuisine

Eating Chengdu – Fiery Hot Pot

Sep22

Restaurant: ? Hot Pot

Location: ? read the Chinese card below

Date: August 4, 2018

Cuisine: Szechuan Hot Pot

Rating: Stomach of Ox in Chili Oil says it all

A visit to Chengdu wouldn’t be right without some fiery Chengdu Hot Pot to cleanse the GI.

Nearby was another of those restored streets that looks like the China you wish was still around.

Replete with pole toting vendors.

And giant gates.

This is our hot pot. It was recommended to us because they have individual pots and actual vegetarian broth — something we needed with our diverse party.

Now the actual name remains a mystery to me. Maybe one of my Chinese reading friends will translate and tell me.

Inside.

And our private room equipped with individual inductive pots.

Some actual alcoholic beverage — almost a week into the trip!

Steamed buns with condensed milk — guilty pleasure.

Scallion pancake.

Meanwhile we have the hot pot sauces. I think there might have been a sauce bar downstairs which I would have liked, but I made due with the fixed sauces.

And some condiments to jazz them up like chilies, garlic (my favorite), and green onion.

Then the spicy hot pot. I forgot to photo the kid’s tomato broth, the non-spicy chicken broth, and the vegan mushroom broth.

The spicy one is an ass busting mix of rendered ox fat, chili oil, chilies, and Szechuan peppercorns!

All of the following stuff is intended to go into the pots, cook to your personal taste, then be sauced and eaten.

Homemade meat balls, not frozen like you usually find in the states.

Tomatoes.

Wontons.

Mixed mushrooms.

Sliced potatoes.

Fish (mackerel?).

Glass noodles.

Green colored wheat noodles.

Greens.

Beef slices.

Lamb slices.

Stomach of ox. Yep, ox tripe. Only for those with strong stomachs! This stuff was so chewy — with a texture exactly like a really thick water balloon — that I was chewing it for 3-4 minutes straight before I thought it was safe to swallow.

Fresh bamboo.

Fish balls stuffed with pork. Yummy!

Lotus root. I love this stuff for the nice crunch.

Tofu.

For those of you who dream of making this kind of Szechuan hot pot at home, I saw the above home starter kit in many Chengdu stores. You take this brick of chillies and ox fat and plop it into the chicken or pork broth of your choice and melt, therefore rendering it all into a fiery pit of stomach hell.

This was a fine hot pot place, and we had to do it — and definitely I prefer the spicy Chengdu style to any other. It’s just that hot pot isn’t my favorite Chinese meal as it’s sort of monotone. You only really have one “sauce” / style of prep for the night. Just lots of ingredients. We do have pretty good hot pot in LA — and it’s very popular.

All I can say is that it’s a good thing that the Chengdu Ritz Carlton bathrooms come equipped with state of the art Toto “auto washing” toilets!

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

Szechuan face changing at the Chengdu Opera

Acres of Lotus at a nearby public park

By: agavin
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Tagged as: beer, Chengdu, China, Eating Chengdu, Eating China, hot pot, Sichuan, spicy, Szechuan cuisine

Eating Chengdu – Alley Noodles

Sep19

Restaurant: Somewhere near the Kuanxiangzi Alley

Location: ? Central Chengdu

Date: August 4, 2018

Cuisine: Szechuan Noodle House

Rating: OG dan dan

Chengdu has a couple areas now of older style buildings that have been restored and turned into pedestrian streets filled with different mixes of stores, restaurants, and vendors.

This one, apparently Kuanxiangzi Alley (someone who reads Chinese can confirm), is very popular and upscale.

And crowded!

Among other Szechuan delicacies they offer spicy fried rabbit heads!

And ear cleaning!

We asked our guide to bring us to the most authentic dan dan mein possible and he took us here. I have no idea what it’s called.

They double as a vendor out front. Or maybe there just is a vendor out front.

The food appears to be made right in the lobby.

And the decor is definitely not aimed at the western crowd.

We split into two tables and ordered everything on the menu.

Like non-spicy pork (spam?) and mushroom and bamboo noodles (thin).

Or the same thing with thick noodles.

And the main event, dan dan mein, one of the world’s greatest noodle dishes — which I even make at home.

This is Chengdu-style where it’s not very soupy, has less sesame/peanut and is spicer. You mix it up to experience the really complex savory/spicy/numbing flavor. There was a good bit of preserved mustard greens in here for that unusual umami crunch. Excellent!

And the spicy (beef?) and bamboo noodle.

Plus two kinds of dumplings. This numb taste dumpling which was awesome — not that you can really taste what’s inside under that chili sauce.

And the same non-spicy pork dumpling in the non-spicy broth (same as above with the non-spicy noodles).

Chopsticks you help yourself to.

Good place. Not a big menu, but I could certainly lunch off top notch Chengdu style dan dan mein and numb taste dumplings often enough!

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

New and old – east and west!

By: agavin
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Tagged as: China, Chinese Food, Dan Dan Mein, Dan Dan Noodles, Eating Chengdu, Eating China, Sichuan, spicy, Szechuan cuisine

Eating Xi’an – Jia San Soup Pau

Sep03

Restaurant: Jia San Soup Pau

Location: 93 Bei Yuan Men, Xi’an, China. +86 29 8725 7507

Date: August 1, 2018

Cuisine: Halal Chinese

Rating: Tasty!

After Beijing we move on to Xi’an, the oldest of China’s great capitals and the eastern terminus of the silk road. Xi’an, now a city of roughly 15 million, has been an important city for perhaps 5000 years! It’s the capital of Shaanxi province and of course home to Shaanxi cuisine.

In it’s western position in China it’s home to many Chinese muslims and a vibrant “muslim street” filled with restaurants and snacks.

Like random kabobs!

Or what the Chinese call “naan breads” (puffier muslim breads).

Somewhat afraid of the street meats we decided to have dinner here at this recommended, popular, and very colorful spot.

As far as I can tell, it’s name is Jia San Soup Pau.

It was so popular we had to go up to the 3rd floor to get a table.

Lazy susan etc.

They specialize in these western XLB, which are somewhat more akin to Afghan Muntoo. These were vegetable filled muntoo.

And mutton muntoo — no pork at this place, it’s halal. The lamb ones were delicious with a very delicate pasta, a nice pronounced lamb-quality, and tons of juice.

Sesame noodles. Had a bit of mustardy punch too.

Spicy Tripe. I’m not sure which animal’s stomach we ate here. Lamb? Maybe ox? It had that tripe texture and was a bit firm and not crazy chewy. The sauce was STRONG. An intense smack in the face of chili and sesame. Really good sauce. I could only eat so much tripe but I would love this sauce on noodles.

Ox tail soup muntoo. Amazingly good juice meat dumplings.

Steamed greens with a bit of soy and ginger flavor. Quite nice.

Fried chicken. With a bit of spicy powder.

Lamb, garlic, celery, poatoes, and pepper hand pulled noodles. Underneath this very homestyle dish was a pile of excellent hand pulled noodles. This is a very Shaanxi style dish.

Jia San Soup Pau was an excellent place. Good rustic food and hearty flavors.

Back out on the street time for snacks and dessert like this “spicy lamb burger” which in Chinese might be 肉夹馍, a name that sounds like “Rodger Moore” (maybe Rho jaa mo or something like that). This one was lamby, very salty, and liberally greased with chili oil.

My eye was drawn to this very interesting looking dry ice dessert steaming in the cauldron. I called them dragon balls.

It’s handed to you steaming too. Turns out they are just puffed rice balls, with no flavor, frozen in liquid nitrogen. You crunch on the ball, trying vainly not to freezer burn your mouth and exhale like this:

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

By: agavin
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Tagged as: dumplings, Eating China, Eating Xi'an, Halal, Jia San Soup Pau, lamb, Shaanxi, spicy, tripe, Xi'an

KTown Spicy Challenge

Jul19

Restaurant: Yup Dduk LA

Location: 3603 W 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90020. (213) 263-2355

Date: June 6, 2018

Cuisine: Korean Ddukbokki

Rating: Spicy!

I had just spent 2 hours at the China Consulate waiting in line when I saw this sign:

How could I resist? What kind of lover of spice would I be?

This little KTown hole-in-the-wall had a line of about 30 “kids” (18-25 maybe) waiting for a seat.

The interior is new but minimal and judging from my 1 hour visit the cliental consists 95% of young Korean American women on their cel phones (later it was packed with more of same and hordes of them outside).

The menu is very simple. Basically one dish (see below) with a variety of add-ins and a couple of carby sides.

And here it is: Original Ddukbokki with Ramen Noodles and Yup Dduk Fries. This dish is basically a giant bowl of carbs (with a bit of sausage) drowned in gochujang sauce — that’s the red stuff in case you were wondering. And it’s topped with gooey mozzarella.

Eating down a bit you can see the main contents: the fried carbs, noodles, chewy bean curd, chewy fish cakes, and really chewy cylindrical rice cakes. It’s carbs and spice. I got “original” level in the middle of the spice scale and I’m glad I did because despite my “skillz” at Szechuan, super hot Indian, and mega-hot Thai this sauce was oppressively hot. Both spice level and temperature. Even pulling the contents out and attempting to cool them down, I was left with a badly seared mouth. The volume and the very insulated bowl kept it near boiling for 45 minutes!

I should also point out that these dishes are big enough for 2-4 people and there is no small size. I couldn’t even finish half of it. I didn’t order sides either because it was so large, but sharing and having a few (non-spicy) sides would definitely be better.

I drank at least two entire jugs of water!

This was a tasty dish — but I needed more people so I could share it, and I wish it wasn’t so temperate or cooled off faster because I really burned my mouth. Koreans and Japanese have asbestos tongues! It is a one dish restaurant, however, and VERY spicy — so don’t go if you don’t want a giant bowl of spicy carbs!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Ddukbokki, Korea-town, Korean cuisine, Korean food, Ktown, spicy, Yup Dduk LA

Hop Woo is Hop New

Jul11

Restaurant: Hop Woo

Location: 11110 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064. (310) 575-3668

Date: May 30, June 3 & July 25, 2018 and January 6, 2022

Cuisine: American and Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Surprisingly excellent Szechuan!

Incredible as it sounds, just a few days after hitting up new Brentwood Szechuan GuYi Erick and I explore another new westside Szechuan. Plus, this is a composite posts with returns on my own and a Hedonist visit.

This time disguised as venerable American Chinese Hop Woo, which has been serving a big menu of Cantonese inspired classics for years — but it turns out they have a new Szechuan chef and a secret Szechuan menu!

The space is vintage LA Chinese.

At night, it’s packed with us Hedonists taking up 3 tables!

Here is the special Szechuan menu. You have to ask for it. Some of the more challenging items they didn’t even bother to translate!

The big regular menu has a few gems too, but everything here from my first two visits is from the Szechuan menu.

Cold Szechuan Noodles (June 2018). Not even on the Szechuan menu, but they can make them. Basically nice wheat noodles with a tangy/spicy Szechuan chili oil sauce.

You mix them up and they are quite addictive. But the third time I had them (7/25/18) they were different, heavier, not as much chili, and not nearly as good.

Toothpick lamb (June & July 2018). The classic cumin rubbed lamb nibblettes. Quite nice.

Griddle cooked Bullfrog (June 2018). Very nice sauce and flavor. Mind the little kermit bones.

Griddle cooked lamb (June 2018). Somewhere between a griddle and a cumin lamb.

Garlic Shredded Pork (June 2018). Big dish, full of flavor, and nice texture.

MaPo Tofu (June & July 2018). Really a 9 or 10 out of 10 version of this favorite of mine. Tons of mala (numbing Szechuan peppercorn), you can see it dusted on top. Eaten over rice this is just so good. I have had this every-time I have been.

Hop Woo Signature Fresh Rock Fish with Hot and Spicy Flavor (June & July 2018). A very nice white fish smothered in delicious chilies (and chili oil). Some good vegetables like lotus leaf are hiding in there too. Could use more veggies though.

Slightly spicy fried calamari (7/25/18). Not bad. Very fried.

Cold chicken in chili oil (7/25/18). Delicious dish of boneless white meat (and skin) with a tangy spicy Szechuan chili oil.

We liked the sauce so much we ordered some Hainan chicken (boiled chicken, ordered 7/25/18) to dump into the extra sauce. Tasted the same but had bones.

It came with this bagna caulda (aka garlic oil).

Spicy lobster (7/25/18). Salty and full of flavor. Excellent lobster actually, if perhaps very slightly over done.

Garlic greens (7/25/18). Typical greens and garlic.

Shrimp with chilies (7/25/18). This is normally chicken with chilies, but we got it with shrimp. Basically salt and pepper shrimp (you eat them whole) with dry aromatic chiles. Pretty good.

Cauliflower with bacon (7/25/18). Awesome dish. Nice crunch to the vegetables and made 10x better with the soft pancetta like ham/bacon.

Panda Express Fried Sesame Pork Balls (7/25/18). Someone wanted a “white guy dish” and this fit the bill perfectly. Tasty enough, but REALLY fried.

Fish filets with green peppers (7/25/18). A savory mix of regular green chilies (Jalepenos or Serranos) and Szechuan peppercorns. Nice flavor and burn and numb.

Braised eggplant (7/25/18). This might be their take on “fish flavor eggplant.” Hard to tell, but it was tender and had lots of garlic. Not that spicy.

Below is a return post pandemic 1/6/22 meal:

BBQ Pork (1/6/22). A bit chewy and overly sweet.

Cold chicken with chili sauce (1/6/22). Great sauce. Chciken itself was a little big on the tendon factor.

Garlic cucumbers (1/6/22). Pretty good.

Jellyfish (1/6/22). A bit chewy.

Honey Walnut Shrimp (1/6/22). Very tasty. Not the best ever version of this dish, but quite good.

Sichuan Garlic Scallops (1/6/22). A bit sweet and cloying.

Clams with garlic and scallions (1/6/22). Not bad, but not amazing either. Not so much clam meat.

Whole fish with Rattan Pepper (1/6/22). Awesome broth. Fish was very tender. Lots of numbing. Bones, yes, but delicious. DOTN.

“Peking Duck” (1/6/22). Not bad, but huge chunks of Southern Chinese style roast duck.

Thin sweet hoisin.

Buns.
Salt and Pepper Pork Chops (1/6/22). Very salty, but quite tasty.

Mooshu Pork (1/6/22). Extremely mushy and not very good.

Mexican Tortillas instead of real spring pancakes. Not kidding, just el patio.

Orange Beef (1/6/22). Super sweet and fried. Kinda delicious in a dessert sort of wait.

Cumin lamb (1/6/22). Pretty decent.

Fried Rice Cake with Brown Sugar (June 2018). The owner gave these to us on the house. Very interesting Chinese dessert, all about the texture as usual. Chewy inside and dusty sweet on the outside.

Mandorla Tostata Stroopwafel Gelato (Toasted Almond) made by me for Sweet Milk Gelato (7/25/18) — toasted Sicilian almonds and Dutch Stroopwafel, because, why not?

Classic oranges and Fortune Cookies.

Overall, I was very impressed with the Szechuan items. It’s not a huge menu of them, and they aren’t quite Szechuan Impression or anything, but a few of these dishes, like the MaPo Tofu and the fish were absolutely first rate. Nice balance of tangy, hot, and numbing. It’s great to have a few real Szechuan choices on the westside!

Given my repeat and must larger visit with a lot of dishes I actually think the Szechuan here is on par with a second tier SGV Szechuan like Lucky Noodle King or maybe Spicy City. Some dishes better, some worse. It’s not the BEST Szechuan in the city by any means, but it’s the real deal and surprisingly very good for Westside. The even have really legit dishes like MaPo tofu with pig brains!

On our 1/6/22 visit a certain spice hater forced us to order about 3/4 from the regular menu. It was pretty consistent that almost everything from the regular (Chinese American) menu was very mediocre while stuff from the Szechuan menu was pretty good.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Random wines, only a few of the ones we brought:

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Gelato, Hop Woo, mapo tofu, Sichuan, spicy, Szechuan, Szechuan Chinese

GuYi — Szechuan in Brentwood?

Jun29

Restaurant: GuYi Restaurant

Location:11677 San Vicente Blvd suite 315, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (424) 293-0988

Date: May 24, 27 & June 18 & December 10, 2018 and May 2, 2019

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Amazing for the neighborhood

I was stunned when I learned from a friend (Sklar) that they had opened a Szechuan place in Brentwood!

Yeah, Brentwood.

And not just Brentwood on Wilshire or something, but in Brentwood Gardens, least ethnic mini-mall in Los Angeles! I mean this place is gentrified to the hilt. It still features CPK.

In fact, GuYi is right on top of CPK and looks like… well a newish SGV place with a view.

I ignored these boring white bread lunch specials. Forget about ’em!

The usual large menu, featuring Szechuan and Northern dishes — but oddly very few noodles.

They have some bottled smoked plum juice. It tastes like it always does. Maybe it’s always bottled. I don’t think they have a liquor license.

Boiled dumplings with pork and cabbage. They were light and delicate, tasted mostly like cabbage, but were actually rather excellent.

Clear noodle with sauce (spicy). I didn’t expect this dish, although I’ve had it before and this was a decent version. More vegetable (cucumber?) than noodle. And it’s the pappardelle-like rice noodles. Strong mustard flavor as it should have, but I was alone and it’s hard to eat a whole bowl of these oneself.

Bean Jelly in Szechuan Chili Sauce. Got these twice. I love them in general, and I loved them here. Nice jelly texture and great tangy/spicy sauce.

Cold Beef with chili oil. Really excellent (and spicy / tangy) version of this dish. Lots of cilantro to balance it out. There was quite a bit of tendon in here too — which I find rather excellent due to its nice mouth feel (but I’m “adopted” Chinese).

Griddle cooked chicken (w/ bone) and mixed vegetables. What I often call dry hot pot. Very nice flavor. The celery and potatoes soaked up the chili. Chicken tasted really good, but did have all those bones (authentic style).

Popcorn chicken (sometimes known as Szechuan fried chicken with chilies). A nice rendition of this dish, a touch sweet with a fairly thick fry, but no bones and very tasty.

Fried Sweet and Sour “Squirrel” Fish. The squirrel refers to how it looks, all fried and fluffed up like that. Nice fish.

GuYi Sautéed sliced pork. Almost bacon with green and red peppers. This was REALLY good. Very spicy too with a longer burning heat from the green peppers. Like super spicy tasty bacon!

Boiled fish slices in hot sauce. A solid rendition of the classic Szechuan dish. Not enough mala (numbing Szechuan peppercorn) for my taste though.

Boiled beef with tofu pudding. You can get the fish this way too. Similar sauce, with beef and lots of tofu. Sometimes at Szechuan places you get it with beef, tofu, AND fish. I liked this one slightly better than the fish, but both were very good. Nice strong flavor. Maybe a touch salty.

Kung Pao Shrimp (12/101/18). Very nice Kung Pao sauce with that tangy/sweet/spicy blend. Not enough shrimp, but the ones that were there were great.

MaPo tofu (pocked marked old lady face tofu). An ok version of this dish, but not great. Some heat, but no numbing, not too much pork. Needed more depth of flavor.

Overall, I’m blown away that this is in a mainstream Brentwood mall. Hard to imagine most white Brentwoodians eating here, and if they did they’d just have the boring lunch special or American stuff. But service was very nice (if sometimes a touch slow) and it is very tasty. It needs more mala (numbing) and a slightly more tuned up Szechuan flavor balance, but great to have so close!

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Brentwood, Chinese cuisine, Gu Yi, Sichuan, spicy, Szechuan Chinese

Hunan Mao

Jun04

Restaurant: Hunan Mao

Location: 8728 Valley Blvd, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 280-0588

Date: April 29, 2018

Cuisine: Hunan Chinese

Rating: Good, but not super super spicy

My wife and son were out of town this Sunday in a school trip so of course I had to organize a bunch of dads (and others) to head out to the SGV for some “real Chinese (food).”

Hunan Mao is probably the second best known SGV Hunan restaurant and somehow I’d never been, so we decided to rectify that.

Crunchy pickled radish with chili on the table.

The giant Menu

I needed a crib sheet to organize the ordering!

Giant Steamed Fish Head Casserole w/ Special Hot Pepper and Tofu.This is a Hunan classic, with the pickled chili peppers, and the tofu takes it to the next level (I like this kind of soft tofu).

Beef served cold with special spicy sauce. Everything seems to be “special” but this is the relatively usual beef/beef tendon with chili oil. Like spicy corned beef!

Cold noodles. With special chili sauce, of course. Very nice tangy/spicy noodles.

XLB. These aren’t Hunan, but I had to order them anyway. They were pretty decent XLB too.

Smoked Hunan ham with bamboo and hot pepper. Really good, really aromatic dish. The bacon-like ham, the crunchy bamboo, the pickled chilies. Yum! All bound together by a deep heat.

House Special Chicken with hot sauce. This is the Hunan Mao version of the “most typical” Hunan Chili dish. Not as crazy red/green chili as at Hunan Chili King.

Eggplant with preserved egg. This unusual dish (which I’ve had once before at China Tasty) has spectacular umami. Everyone loved it.

Mao’s Special Braised Pork Belly. So good we ordered another round of it!

Cumin Lamb. More peppers — plus cumin and lamb.

These black plates make for nice photography.

Hunan style bullfrog with chilies. Same chilies as the chicken — different “white meat.” The frog actually had a better flavor. More little bones.

MaPo Tofu (pocked marked old lady face tofu). One of my favorites, and technically Szechuan, but this was a very good version with lots of salty/numbing/spicy goodness.And a MaPo zoom.

A trio of gelato flavors made by me (in my alto ego as the Sweet Milk Gelato chef). Lavender Blueberry Gelato, Pineapple Rosemary Sorbetto, and Brillat-Savarin Gelato with Sicilian Candied Orange.

Overall, Hunan Mao is very good and they really treated us well. We had a nice big table, great service, and no corkage. The price was ludicrously low considering how much food we had. Food is very good. Certainly quite Hunan, and medium spicy (very spicy for the neophyte). They aren’t as “serious” about their chilies as Hunan Chili King, which is still the SGV Hunan gold standard. HCK is hotter, and the chilies have both brighter red/green/orange color and a more serious pickled quality. But Hunan Mao (the former chairman came from Hunan province) has a lot of good variety and some really tasty dishes.

It wasn’t a serious wine night, but I photoed most of them the same:

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Gelato, Hunan Cuisine, Hunan Mao, SGV, spicy, Wine

Night + Market + Sahm

May28

Restaurant: NIGHT + MARKET Sahm

Location: 2533 Lincoln Blvd, Venice, CA 90291. (310) 301-0333

Date: April 21 & November 8, 2018

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Good food, long lines, hipster clientelle

I’ve been meaning to try Night + Market for years — since they opened — but I never made it out to the Hollywood location.

So it’s great they opened one here in Venice, just a block from my friend Avi’s awesome Indian restaurant, Akbar.

The interior is like the fantasy of a kitchy beach Thai restaurant in Thailand. And in fact it is a beach Thai restaurant, just not in Thailand. But they certainly didn’t pull out the big bucks for all the plastic beads and Christmas lights. We waited about 45-50 minutes and we were fairly lucky, it looked like some people would be waiting easily over an hour.

The seating is very casual as well.

The menu is also formatted like a real Thai place, although the specific dishes are definitely California interesting.

There is only one beer on the menu, and they seem to be pushing wine — unusual for Thai.

Papaya salad. A bit spicy. Light and delicious.

World famous fried chicken sandwich. Chiengrai-style fried chicken thigh, papaya slaw, home-made ranch dressing, jalapeno, cilantro, tomato. Like a high(er) end Thai McDonald’s fried chicken sandwich! Haha.

Larb gai. Minced chicken, lime, fish sauce, rice powder, chili, cilantro, onion, spicy!

Classic spicy, salty, tangy, larb.

Coconut sticky rice. I love this

P.D.P. Peking Duck Pizza. Roast duck, garlic ginger hoisin, marinated shitake mushrooms, and mozzarella on grilled roti bread topped with green onion, sambal, and wonton chips.

Pork toro. Grilled fatty pig neck, salty like bacon, served with spicy ‘jaew’ northeastern chili dip. Chewy pork meat with that fat and tendon thing. Very tasty though.

Pastrami pad kee mao. Spicy drunken noodles with decadent Langer’s pastrami. Spicy! This was a fabulous combo of the pan fried rice noodles and the pastrami. Those green round things are pepper corns and VERY spicy. Great dish.

Khao soi rib. Mae sai curried noodles with pork spare ribs. I love Khao soi as it combines two of my favorite things: noodles and curry. This one was late (I think the server forgot it) but worth it. Nicely spicy, with lots of flavor. More a yellow curry than a red one.

Overall, I very much enjoyed Night + Market. Maybe not the wait out front, which was, for what it was, handled excellently, but certainly the food. It was pretty loud in there with lots of young Venice hipsters. Food was really tasty. Quite spicy. Certainly the best Thai I’ve had on the westside. I wish they were open at lunch. Might not be too bad on a weekday night though, hard to tell. But they don’t take reservations and it’s so loud, so would be hard to do a wine dinner there.

They are now open for lunch — which is great. I’ll have to go more often. Could even do at the end of one of my bike rides.

Also as a side note, testing out the iPhone X using Lightroom Mobile and raw to try to get better photos out of it — of course not nearly as good as my big Canon. Some of the daytime photos (from November) were on the iPhone XS (considerably better camera).

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: beer, curry, Night + Market + Sahm, spicy, Thai cuisine

Jazz Jitlada

Dec15

Restaurant: Jitlada [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Location: 5233 W Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027. (323) 663-3104

Date: November 9, 2017

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Gut burning great

Tonight’s outing is a Hedonist return to Jitlada, an outrageously authentic Southern Thai place deep in Thai-town. The joint gets 27 in Zagat! It’s run by Jazz Singsanong, and just last month her brother, partner, and chef tragically passed away. We came to pay our respects (and enjoy some excellent Thai cooking).

You know it’s real because they don’t skimp on either the chilies OR the fish sauce. The menu can be found here.

2010 Domaine Louis Michel Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. BH 93. Here the components of the nose are similar to those of the Fourchaume yet here it is notably more floral. There is impressive complexity to the dense, rich and concentrated flavors that offer plenty of oyster shell and iodine hints on the balanced and stunningly persistent bone dry finish. This is really lovely juice and well worth your attention.

Papaya salad. Solid, but not as yummy as the fried one below.

2013 Domaine Michelot Meursault Sous La Velle. VM 90. Ripe yellow peach aroma shows an almost syrupy aspect. Suave and silky in texture, with fruit-driven flavors of peach and orange. The crop level here was “almost normal” in 2013, noted Mestre. This is very good. (Incidentally, the Bourgogne here, which is entirely from vines in Meursault, is dry, savory and classic, even if it’s more Chardonnay than Meursault.)

Crispy Morning Glory Salad. This salad of shrimp and fried morning glory is just plain glorious. Sorry, couldn’t resist. Basically tempura flowers and it’s really the tangy, slightly sweet sauce/dressing that really makes it. Very similar to many of the salads I had in Vietnam.

2006 Dönnhoff Schloßböckelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Felsentürmchen Spätlese. JG 94. To my knowledge the first time that Helmut Dönnhoff bottled this section of the Felsenberg on its own was in 2001, when this upper section of the vineyard supplied the auction Spätlese from the vintage. The 2006 will again be a magical bottle, as the wine offers up very primary nose of lavender, a huge base of stony soil tones, white cherries, oranges, petrol, iris blooms and an exotic spice note redolent of turmeric. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, pure, minerally and very racy, with more solid than liquid at the core, great cut and structure, and a blazingly long, palate-staining finish. A brilliant Spätlese! (Drink between 2012-2035)

Pepper pork belly. Really tasty chewy pork belly bits with super yummy spicy sauce.

2007 Dönnhoff Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Riesling Spätlese. VM 93+. Tantalizing aromas of papaya, sweet herbs and incense. Discreet but intense black cherry fruit rises from the mid-palate, accompanied by brilliant acidity. Animated and finely spiced, with a deep, long finish. I may be underrating this.

Coco lotus soup. This was a mild red coconut curry soup with chicken. It was amazing! Really fabulous curry flavor. Tons of tamarind giving it a really balanced sour tone.

2006 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese. JG 93. To my palate the auction Auslese from the Sonnenuhr was a significant step up from the Spätlese, and this was indeed a delightful wine in the making. The classy nose demonstrated a sophisticated glazing of botrytis, as it jumped from the glass in a blend of apple, pear, bee pollen, slate, incipient notes of petrol and spring flowers. On the palate the wine is medium-full, complex and beautifully glazed with botrytis, with a lovely, glossy attack, a fine core of fruit, and a very long, crisp and ethereal finish.

Flambe Prawns. Grilled giant prawns topped with our house curry sauce. These are amazing. The sweet curry sauce is just full of curry flavor goodness.

2011 Ovid Syrah.

2015 Robert Mondavi Winery Pinot Noir Pommard Clone. Yuck! Didn’t taste like pinot.

Jazz burger. A big beef patty covered in onions, peppers, and dressing. The flavors were fabulous.

White rice in the tin of mysterious lightness.

Red Duck Curry. Not spicy but incredibly delicious.

2004 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese. 92 points. Selbach is such an elegant house, consistently producing kabinetten and spatlesen that are light, airy and elegant. This spatlese showed some of the reserve of the 2004 vintage, with less expressive fruit. The wine was nonetheless balanced, with a significant honey/honeydew/orange zest and general citrus overlay. While the wine has some development left, I did not find enough expression of more complex flavors at this stage to rate it higher.

Yellow pork curry. Saffron or turmeric taste. Again mild and delicious.

From my cellar: 2008 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Heimbourg Sélection de Grains Nobles. VM 98. Medium gold. Utterly captivating nose melds bitter orange peel, apricot, wildflower honey and minerals. Thick, tactile and extremely young, with powerful acidity giving it a slightly disjointed character initially. For all its huge density, there’s great cut to the flavors of apricot, honey and flowers, with the wine’s powerful sweetness leavened by a savory element. Finishes with palate-staining fruit, outstanding energy and uncanny persistence. This came together brilliantly with aeration, maintaining great refinement and a sensation of weightlessness. Will go on for decades.

Jungle curry with lamb. Exotic thai curry with god knows what in it. This stuff was HOT and pretty fabulous. The heat was insane. Slow burn, such that you started in on it and thought it would be fine, but then building to a head-sweating mind-altering gut-burning sear. Took me 6-8 hours to recover from a relatively small portion!

1988 Marcel Deiss Gewurztraminer Altenberg de Bergheim Sélection de Grains Nobles. 92 points. Popped and poured, with cork crumbling and the wine poured in to a decanter. I think the air this ended up getting was most helpful. Beautiful sweet (but not overly so) stone fruits and spice on the nose. And an initial sweetness in the mouth that morphs in to a somewhat surprisingly much drier mid-palate. Complex with a good, but not as lingering finish as the very best Deiss SGNs can show.

Larb. Ground pork with spices, fish sauce, etc. Pretty hot too and salty/vinegary. Not my absolute favorite Jitlada dish.

Turmeric fried rice with chicken wings. Interesting!

Pad See Yew with chicken. Rich noodles, sweet and mild. I could barely taste anything after the jungle curry.

I love Jitlada, and it’s hands down the best Thai I’ve had in LA. The menu is enormous and full of goodies. Tonight’s meal was one of the best we had, despite the absence of the chef in the kitchen 🙁 We had only 7-8 people, which is about the max you can have here. Once we had way too many people and and some late comers that botched the whole progression.

Tonight we ordered very well. Every dish was very good, most great. We had a pretty nice progression. Sure, there are favorites we missed, the menu is vast, but it was a great meal. Jazz hung out with us for a chunk of it and helped us order. The kitchen was really on point too with some dishes that have a little variability all coming down on the awesome side tonight.

Not super spicy either, only the jungle curry busting the 5 or 6 line (it was an 11, even on the weighted Jitlada scale of blistering heat).

All in all, if you like Thai food and live (or visit) in LA you must try Jitlada.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for more crazy Hedonist meals.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: curry, hedonists, Jitlada, spicy, Thai cuisine, Wine

Opening Day at Killer Noodle

Oct16

Restaurant: Killer Noodle

Location: 2030 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025

Date: October 16, 23, 26 & 29, 2017 + about 15 other times!

Cuisine: Japanese Dan Dan Noodles

Rating: Tasty but highly specific

Tsujita is the king of Sawtelle ramen with three existing store fronts on the street, the original, annex, and their high end sushi joint.

Yesterday/today they just opened their newest venture in the old Bachi Burger space. Killer Noodle specializes in Tantanmen which is the sort of milder more approachable Japanese “adaption” of Chinese Dan Dan Mien. I love the original Chinese version and even make it myself.

All the Japanese vendors leave these flower arrangements to celebrate your opening.

They are quite lovely but a few of them are rotting in the former Ramen Roll space as I type — I’m not bitter, no no.

The outside menu. Yesterday Killer Noodle was giving away free bowls but today is the first (normal?) day and it was mostly full at 12:30-1ish but not quite. People probably don’t totally know it’s open yet but no crushing mob.

The interior is spacious and much more upscale from the other two noodle shops.

Attractive for sure and lots of space between tables. Small bar too.

Tasty looking spices make up the decoration behind the bar.

You can pick your spice level. I tried #3 normal. It wasn’t really spicy at all by my standards.

The simple focused menu. Don’t bring anyone here that doesn’t want spicy pork noodles — nothing else on the menu!

Because of the threat of spice I ordered this Japanese Yogu drink. Went well with the tan tan actually. Very Japanese. They have Asahi draft and that’s about it too. Tsujita is VERY minimalist.

Long after opening (second half of 2018) they added some buns like this spicy pork bun to the menu as cheap appetizers. I detested the slice of tomato and the slightly sweet, slightly spicy bun just didn’t do it for me. Stick to the noodles.
Side of Char sui pork. Same as at Tsujita LA, and just as good. They make a nice fatty pork. You stuff this in the noodles (below).

Shabu Shabu Pork. Boiled pork with green onions and a bit of soy and chili sauce. Nowhere near as good as the char sui — go for that instead.

Poached egg. What the Japanese call an Onsen style egg (boiled at low temp) rather than a proper marinated ramen egg (with gooey center). This is a very soft half cooked egg. Still good though. You crack it in your dish.

Now for the main events:

Tokyo style Tantanmen, wet. Here is the “signature” version, wet. The wet version uses thinner ramen noodles.

With pork and egg added. The Tokyo also has some sesame in it, but as far as I can tell no Szechuan broad beans, five spice, or pickled mustard greens like a real Dan Dan. The broth base is a mix of chicken stock and tonkotsu stock. Presumably the same or similar as a regular Tsujita ramen. It’s mildly spicy with the chili oil, very garlicky, and has a mild sesame taste. It was very tasty, and again much closer to a “spicy ramen” than a real dan dan. But that’s what tan tan is.

Tokyo style dry. This is a 10/26/17 level 5 with extra egg and pork. Tokyo is a touch nuttier, a touch less mala by default, but certainly not very different. So far, this is my favorite variant (and I’ve tried all the dry versions).

Mixed up. This is what you actually eat.

Downtown Style Tantamen, dry. The dry variant they claim is closer to the Chinese original, although I’m not sure I agree. This downtown one has cayenne and Szechuan peppercorn. It wasn’t very hot or particularly numbing at level 3. It was very tasty though. Tons of garlic. Ground pork. Definitely a more Japanese blend than a real Chinese one. This version doesn’t have the sesame (or at least not nearly as much). At a level 5 this packs a very potent chili wallop.

Fully dressed and ready to mix (photo from 10/23/17). This is actually a killer level 4 and you can see the increased Szechuan peppercorn dust on it.

The stirred up (but messy) dry style. Not totally dry obviously as the flavor is in the sauce. They use the same (as far as I can tell) thick Tsukemen noodles for the dry version.

The final flavor is “original style“, here shown “dry” level 3. “Original” here apparently means “novel” not the most “typical” tantanmen.

With the requisite $1.50 egg.

And all mixed up. This is BY FAR the most different of the 3. It’s got a sort of green/black pepper flavor and while it has plenty of heat is much more subtle and much less flavorful. Nice texture with the bean sprouts and tofu too. They give you lemon to add acid. Tasty and interesting, and almost “cooling” between bites of my level 5 “downtown”. But I wouldn’t crave it nearly as much.
Pork over rice bowl. This is tiny. It’s not a meal but an “extra”. You mix it up, but it has sour cream in there too along with chili sauce and ground pork. Makes for a weird mix.

Mapo ball. Why it’s called a ball, I have no idea. But the mapo is actually an excellent take on the Chinese classic. Not exactly totally Chinese, but super delicious with some real mala heat.

Overall, I’ll be back (many times) as this was a very tasty spicy ramen. I had the wet version the first time (Tokyo) and the dry version (Downtown) the second and a dry (Tokyo) the third and a dry (Downtown) and dry (Original) the fourth. To break down the styles: Tokyo is my favorite and has far more sesame nut flavor. Downtown is more straight chili, mala, and vinegar. Original has it’s unique bright green/black pepper flavors but is much more subdued flavor-wise and feels far less rich.

The thicker noodles are better and because of that I like the “dry.” But I found out you can order the thick noodles in a wet so I have to try that too.

I think Killer Noodle does an excellent job with Tantanmen — being the derived milder Japanese version of Dan Dan. That’s pretty much all they offer, even if there are a couple versions. It would be a weird place to bring a group because not EVERYONE wants a spicy ramen variant. But when you do, totally worth coming.

The first time I got a 3 heat level and that was relatively mild. The second a 4 and that was a big step up heat wise and had me sweating although it wasn’t tough to eat. I tried a 5 (on two different days) also and that was very hot. Certainly I could eat it, but I was really sweating. I’ve had the 6 twice too and it’s fabulous, but has “consequences.” 4 is probably the sweet spot going forward for most people although occasionally I feel like a 5 or 6. Definitely on my regular rotation for now – I go most weeks!

This isn’t for everyone, but if you like a LOT of flavor and spice, Killer Noodle is fabulous.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Because of the heat we were bad and wet across the street to B-Sweet.

Glazed donut stuffed with taro (Ume) ice cream. Sweet and delicious.Glazed donut bread pudding with cream-cheese sauce and ice cream. Oh yeah, sweet!

By: agavin
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Tagged as: B-Sweet, Dan Dan Mein, Dessert, Killer Noodle, noodles, spicy, Tantanmen, Tsujita LA

Jitlada – Fire in the Hole

Mar18

Restaurant: Jitlada [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 5233 W Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027. (323) 663-3104

Date: March 12, 2015

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Gut burning great

Tonight’s outing is a hastily organized trip to Jitlada, an outrageously authentic Southern Thai place deep in Thai-town. The joint gets 27 in Zagat! It’s run by Jazz Singsanong with Chef Tui in the kitchen. The menu can be found here.

You know it’s real because they don’t skimp on either the chilies OR the fish sauce.

2009 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Kabinett. 90 points. Yellow honeysuckle, wet stone, lemon zest nose, with medium light body delivering pleasing soft lemon sorbet, nectarine, tangerine and wet stones.

Crying Tiger Pork. A Chinese influenced dish of spicy pork with a blend of coriander, pepper, salt, and garlic. Really flavorful, tender and just plain fabulous.

Honey Duck. You can’t believe how tender this duck is. Crispy skin and just melt in your mouth meat. The hoisin was good too.

2007 Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Brücke Riesling Spätlese. Vinous 93. Subtle aromas of lichee, lemon oil and smoked pine nuts. Rich tropical fruits with a hint of smoke and an intriguing piquancy on the palate. A subtle acidity gives the sweet, spicy finish a rather feminine aspect. Very nicely balanced.

Giant prawns in red curry. This dish is an 11. The prawns are succulent and filled with roe and kani miso (crab guts). Then the sauce is a luxurious panang-style red curry with coconut milk and maybe some peanuts. It all meld together, particularly with the crab guts into a scrumptious savory blend.

Large whole fish with ginger. Ateamed whole seabass with ginger and mushrooms. A delicate simple, but delicious fish.

Dungeness crab with curry. It’s a little hard to get into the meat, but the sauce was an amazing (and not so spicy) blend with a ton of turmeric. Brace yourself, this is where the weak hearted get left behind, as this is the last “easy” dish.

From my cellar: 1990 Zind-Humbrecht Tokay Pinot Gris Clos Jebsal Vendange Tardive. 94 points. Rich, powerful nose of apricots and lots of baking spices, paraffin and wax. Really plush, but not a bit cloying or heavy. Again, not heavy on the palate – lots of apricot – very rich. Just great. The ZH TPGs are delicious wines, but tend to be heavy. This wine has all the good, with none of the bad – light on its feet, but wonderfully rich and perfumed. A real treat. Nose – 6/6, Palate – 6/6, Finish – 5/6, Je Ne Sais Quoi – 2/2 = 19/20.

agavin: It’s a rare savory meal where a wine of this sticky magnitude works, but this is the case here. The massive and effortless apricot sweetness of this wine is great both on its own and with the tastebud obliterating assault to come.

Spicy Crispy Pork Noodles spicy stir fried glass noodles with crispy pork and vegetables. We ended up with two spicy crispy pork dishes. This one had some heat, but it wasn’t yet full inferno. Nice noodles too.

Kua Kling Crispy Pork. Dry curry stir fried with asparagus and crispy pork. This curry was about a 9 or 10 on the heat scale. Oh boy. It had great flavor too, but was getting seriously hot. Sneaky too, as it didn’t seem too bad for a minute or two, and then really notched up.

Coco Curry Beef. Tender beef in a spicy southern curry and thai eggplant. This was hot too, with a delicious complex flavor and plenty of turmeric. Maybe an 8 hot.

Rack of lamb in southern curry. A spicy native curry from Jazz’s family recipe with bell peppers, turmeric, jicama, and you can’t find this anywhere else. Turn it up to 11. The flavor on this dish was insane, with a super complex layered flavor that went on and one — and the heat. I basically finished 2/3 of this bowl myself (all but 1 other couldn’t handle it) and my head was drenched in sweat. But it was worth it.

Mango sticky rice with coconut ice cream. Awesome dessert. Jazz went out to her car or apartment and got us the “special mangos” that were perfectly ripe. Just incredible. Best mango sticky rice I’ve ever had. I shoved three helpings down the gullet.

Jitlada was hands down the best Thai I’ve had in LA. The menu is enormous and full of goodies. All the flavors are great, the meats succulent, and boy is it hot. You could order sweet, or you could order hot, or both. I’ve had hotter food (I’m thinking of a certain Szechuan restaurant in China), but you certainly don’t WANT it hotter than this. And I’m a guy that puts Haberneos in my guacamole.

One of our number summed up the evening as “eating like Pharaohs,” which is about right. Just way way too much food, and no small dose of other good stuff. The kitchen was incredibly on point tonight too.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for more crazy Hedonist meals.

Dr. Dave and Jazz

By: agavin
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Tagged as: hedonists, Jazz Singsanong, Jitlada, spicy, Thai cuisine

Palace of Pepper

Dec29

Restaurant: Chuan Ren Bai Wei

Location: 6420 Rosemead Blvd. San Gabriel, CA 91775. (626) 286-5508

Date: December 28, 2014 & June 16, 2015

Cuisine: Beijing / Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Great!

Just six months ago I ate in this same space, but it was a different Chinese restaurant at the time, Beijing Duck House. Now, due to the rising popularity of Szechuan cuisine it has been rebooted. It still looks the same. It still serves Peking Duck. But there’s a lot more pepper on the menu.

2012 Gérard Boulay Sancerre La Comtesse Monts Damnés. IWC 93. Bright yellow. Spicy aromas of tangerine, lemongrass and cardamom, with a subtle floral twist. Tightly wound, offering citrus and spice flavors, with excellent clarity and finesse. The tenacious finish is long, saline and pure. This is one of the finest Sancerres of the vintage.

Boiled peanuts. On the table at most real Chinese restaurants.

Cold appetizers. Shredded potato. Cured spicy meats and cabbage. Beef tendon.

Water. The mason jar is one little tidbit of trend that has crept into this otherwise fairly old school SGV place.

2005 Gérard Raphet Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Lavaux St. Jacques. Burghound 91-93. A gorgeous and seductive mix of red pinot, raspberry, cool minerality and a touch of earth complements to perfection the full, rich, deep, serious and intense flavors that manage to pull off being powerful and concentrated yet supple and delicious without compromising in the slightest the balance, which is not easy to do. A really lovely 1er that offers grand cru quality.

They have a real duck carver.

Peking duck. This was one of the better peking duck’s we’ve had. Maybe not quite so good as Tasty Duck, but the meat was fabulous. The skin could have been a tad crispier, but the hoison sauce was top notch.

On our second visit the duck came in this cute duck plate.

Awesome hoisin sauce.

Pancakes and condiments.

Leftover skin is for some reason placed on a separate plate.

2011 Louis Jadot Meursault Les Narvaux. 90 points. Nice strong vanilla notes.

The second of the “3 ways” for Peking duck is the duck soup.

Duck soup. A mild but pleasant broth with bits of meat and tofu.

Duck lettuce cups. The third of the ways. Not really that exciting.

House pancake. A nice fluffy bit of fresh bread with a little sweetness.

2004 Newton Chardonnay Unfiltered. 90 points. Well integrated with pear and apple notes and overtones of oak and vanilla, but not cloyingly so… Great body, mouthfeel and smooth finish.

Bean noodles. This is mixed up and the mung bean noodles are coated in a peanuty/spicy/tangy sauce. The sauce was awesome, with a bit of a mustard component. The tofu had a spongy texture, but the dish was overall quite nice.

Pork fried rice.

It’s evil cousin, chicken fried rice.

Spicy and sour glass noodles. I love this dish, with it’s heat, both hot and numbing, and strange vinegar tang. Not for the mild mannered or uninitiated.

You can see the noodles here. And the pepper!

2013 Errazuriz Chardonnay Wild Ferment Aconcagua Costa. 90 points. On the nose, a bit of young Burgundy-like tar on the nose in addition to some lively tropical fruit. Rich fruit on the palate, along with the aforementioned tar in the background. Nice acidic foil that is approachable now but should contribute to aging this a bit. Very approachable and enjoyable now, but I suspect better and more integrated in 2+ years.

Sweet corn. Pretty much what it looks like.

Cumin lamb. A really nice version of this dish. A lot of good lamb flavor.

Sizzling beef. Isn’t the animal-shaped dish cute?

2007 Dönnhoff Schloßböckelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Felsentürmchen Spätlese. 91 points. Ripe apples, nectarine and slight tinned peach aromas dominating. A slight struck flint quality and also some creamy notes. In the mouth the flavours of ripe, but slightly tart, red apple is to the fore – on this tasting the acidity is a little spiky for the residual sugar but it really is very good. Fresh and lovely, I think this wine has a long life ahead of it.

Whole fish in peppers. The last part of the name is true. There wasn’t so much fish, even if the pan was huge.

But there sure were a lot of peppers, peanuts, lotus root, garlic and the like. The sauce was actually pretty darn good (and hot).

Fish with two chilies. Under that mound of tangy chili sauce (in green and red) is another fish. It was pretty darn good.

1998 Nikolaihof Riesling Federspiel Steinriesler. 93 points. Light on its feet, pure, focused with bright citrus and pear fruit, a stony mineral undercurrent, and gentle floral and high toned herbal accents. Seamless and very polished on the palate.

Kung Pao Chicken. This slightly unusual take on the classic was hot AND sweet. Very interesting, and delicious!

Spicy chicken. This classic triple fried dry woked chicken was amazing. It was hot in both ways, and full of intense fried flavor. Very salty.

Have a few peppers!

Sweet and sour spareribs. Bony, very fried, and quite tasty.

2005 Faiveley Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Chaignots. Burghound 88-91. Strong wood influence currently dominates the dark berry and black raspberry-infused nose that precedes the somewhat woody medium weight flavors that are round and sweet with fine depth and complexity but the wood is not subtle and it causes me to question whether it will cause the finish to eventually dry out?

Spicy noodles. Kind of a pepper noodle soup with bacon.

Dan dan mein. Tasty, but way way too soup to really be proper dan dan. The sauce on the mung bean noodles was closer.

2011 Faiveley Monthélie Les Champs-Fulliot. IWC 89-91. Good bright red. Vibrant aromas of cherry and pungent minerals convey a strong limestone character. Then sappy and serious on the palate, richer and deeper but less open than the Duresses. Finishes with big, rich tannins and noteworthy persistence. Very suave and structured Monthelie with good mid-term aging potential.

Shredded potato. The more or less typical Hunan / Szechuan version of this dish.

Vegetable dry hot pot. Mostly cauliflower. Nice spicy flavor. Similar to the dish (and only dish) served at Tasty Dining.

More peppers! Perhaps you sense a theme.

2007 Domaine de la Mordoree Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee de la Reine des Bois. Parker 97. Evolving beautifully, the 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee de La Reine des Bois has shed some of its crazy tannin and is showing a more layered, voluptuous profile. Possessing beautiful kirsch, blackberry, candied licorice, flowers and lavender, it offers knockout richness and decadence to go with brilliant purity of fruit, superb concentration, and a full-bodied, layered mouthfeel. While I don’t think it matches the ’01 or ’10, it’s an incredible bottle of wine that can be consumed anytime over the coming 10-15 years.

Lamb skewers. Nice cumin flavor.

MaPo tofu. One of my favorites in general. This was a fine rendition. Not the best I’ve ever had, but certainly still had that nice soft texture and gradual heat.

2010 DeRose Zinfandel Dryfarmed Old Vines Cedolini Vineyard.

Dumplings. Very nice straight up steamed potstickers. No sauce was in evidence, so we made due with Hoisin.

Kung Pao shrimp. Same sauce as the chicken above. Fabulous dish actually, even if not totally typical (with that spicy sweet vibe).

Fish filet boiled with green peppers. I couldn’t resist photoing this at a neighboring table. This is a Szechuan classic, with more of an emphasis on the numbing peppercorns (see them floating in the broth?).

Mixed Szechwan skewers. Little random bits in hot sauce.

Morning glory / Ong choy. Or some similar colon sweeper.

Overall, another highly enjoyable Chinese meal. The duck was on par with Tasty Duck and the other dishes were arguably better. This place was good before, and it’s even better now. Really, this was some very enjoyable food. A number of dishes were off the charts like the “spicy chicken.”

It should be noted that service was very good. On our second visit, our server Lulu did a fabulous job handling our “chaos.” She helped out with the ordering, managed the pacing well (not always the case at Chinese) and along with the other staff really were on point replacing plates, providing napkins, and the like. At one point when I was hunting for toothpicks she even went and brought some on a plate!

After all that heat we felt the need to cool off with a pair of massive shave ices: