mmm-yoso!!!

Roadtrip: Take-out from Shufeng Garden and Easy Earthen, plus some other stuffs

As I mentioned in my Tasty Noodle House/Torrance Farmer's Market post, we had decided to spend the night in Hacienda Heights on the way home from Vegas. We didn't plan much at all, we had lived in the area for a good chunk of time, long enough for it to be considered to be perhaps my "third home". We just wanted to see what the neighborhood was like over a decade later. Sure, we've stopped by quite a number of times over the years, but we've never spent a good amount of time in the area since we left.

We both felt sluggish and tired, Vegas has a way of just sucking the energy right our of us. So the Missus thought it would be a nice idea to just do take-out and eat in our room. We'd take a drive and maybe even a walk after dinner.

I successfullylobbied for some of my favorite take-out in the area; from Shufeng Garden. So we drove on over, placed our order and since this was one of those "just eat as much as you want" moments, we walked less than a block over and went to Easy Earthen, Earthen Restaurant's smaller, more "fast-casual/take-out" shop. There was a funny moment at Easy Earthen....the Missus just naturally spoke mandarin to anyone in a Chinese restaurant in Rowland/Hacienda Heights. She walked up to the counter and spoke to the young lady behind the counter, who replied, "oh, sorry, I don't speak Chinese". The Missus was so thrown off She just said "oh" and walked away from the counter! We had noticed some subtle changes in the neighborhood, like more folks actually walking, but this, a Chinese who spoke no Mandarin or Cantonese, this was something totally different for us. I gave the young lady the knowing "third generation" look and proceeded to order. It was nice seeing old haunts; Nijiya was still there, though some, like the Albertson's on the corner of Colima and Azusa were gone.

We made our way back to the room and dug in. Of course, the Missus doesn't eat chicken, so I had the entire half "Shandong Chicken" to myself. This was good, but even with an entire container of sauce, it just didn't have the assertive tones that I recalled. It tasted watered down. The chicken was good though, fairly tender.

The stuff from Shufeng was as good as always and we finished everything.........

Easy Earthen
18303 Colima Rd
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

Shufeng Garden
18459 Colima Road
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

Feeling fat and happy after dinner, we took a short walk to the 99 Ranch Market on Azusa where I always used to see the most interesting "Engrish" signs, the best one being a very interesting rendition of "six pack coke", you can imagine how they spelled "coke", right? Of course they didn't let me down. I'm sure this was just for old time's sake:

I think someone should buy them a vowel. Though if you said it "Bunnuts andsedsandberries" it sounds kinda neat.

The area is constantly changing, old businesses leaving, new ones coming along, like the new 85 C Bakery. Here's one that caught our eye.

Maybe next time......

 

 

 

Roadtrip: Beijing Pie House - Monterey Park (Los Angeles)

Back in October, I had a chance to grab a bite with one of my favorite couples, Kirbie and her DH. As always, conversation always drifts toward food. One of the places that Kirbie recommended was Beijing Pie House in Monterey Park (read her post here). So on our next trip to the SGV, we made sure to check the place out.

We had stopped by China Islamic right before our visit here, so we knew it wasn't going to be a gigantic meal.

We arrived pretty early and the dining area was empty except for a guy who I'll designate as the loudest slurper and chewer I've heard. We could hear him smacking his lips all the way on the other side of the room.

We could actually see flecks of food flying from his mouth as he spoke while chewing. His dining companion left the table for a good long time.....probably to remove all the detritus from her hair.

The young man who served could not have been nicer. The Missus found him adorable.....mainly because he spoke Mandarin with a very formal "American" accent.

The Missus has an affection for the various porridges she grew up eating.......which includes the cornmeal based version here.

As for the various Xian Bing....

They were nice enough to serve us a combination vegetarian XB.

Two radish and two "combination".

First off, these "pies" had a nice crust, crisp, but not oily. The filling were also moist....

The radish version was probably my favorite......the bitterness of the radish had been tempered when cooked......

Creating a nice chew with a balance of the pungent and sweetness.

The combination featured mushroom and bean curd with a good amount of seasoning. Though on the salty side, this was still good.

Since we love lamb and mutton, we also ordered the lamb pie......

 

These didn't quite do it for us. In terms of texture and preparation, we both thought, the Xian Bing were prepared well.

With regards to flavor, we thought this on the weak side...it could have been pork or any other protein, the distinctive flavor of lamb was missing.

I understand that there are those who don't enjoy the "flavor of the pasture", but I still think lamb should taste that way. When it is too tame....well, you might as well get anything else.

Still, the Xian Bing were well prepared, the service was nice. I wouldn't hesitate in returning.

Beijing Pie House
846 E Garvey Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91755

Thanksgiving Brunch: Sea Harbour - Rosemead (Los Angeles)

This year we decided to dust off an old tradition, one we'd put away into the closet over 5-6 years back and grab some dim sum on Thanksgiving day. Over the years we've become less satisfied with the inconsistent and plain low quality of the dim sum in San Diego. Instead, we opted to drive to our favorite place for dim sum Sea Harbour. We made really great time on our trip to the SGV, having time to grab some roast duck for dinner (a later post) before arriving at the doors to the restaurant about 10 minutes before opening. Sea Harbour is one of those places with an eternal line during weekends and holidays, you either get there early, or try to time the first major turnover of tables.

On this day, the line dictated a major seating effort and the place was at full capacity ten minutes past ten.

Service was bit confused at first and while not exactly the most friendly, much better than Shanghai No. 1, where the asking of the most simplest question (like, "could I have a menu?), would cause them to give us a pained look like Dr Szell had been working on them for a couple of hours, "Oh, don't worry. I'm not going into that cavity. That nerve's already dying. A live, freshly-cut nerve is infinitely more sensitive. So I'll just drill into a healthy tooth until I reach the pulp." You almost thought they were trained here. 'Nuff said......

For some reason the Missus wanted some Gailan.....

They obviously brush some oil on it to give this poached vegetable some sheen. As gailan goes, this was fine, but I thought the oyster sauce was very good.

We usually go fairly light and at Sea Harbour go primarily with seafood. The hargow was good, nicely pleated, the wrappers not too think nor too sticky.

The shrimp were plump and cooked well...my only complaint were that these were perhaps too big, you couldn't eat them in a single bite. Which I guess is not much of a complaint at all.

I loved the Shrimp, dried scallops, and Chinese celery dumplings on our previous visits. These did not disappoint.

Nice wrappers, not too sticky, the savory flavor of the shrimp and dried scallops, with a nice textural counterpoint and the palate cleansing flavor of the Chinese celery. Still a favorite.

We always try something new when we visit Sea Harbour. On this visit it was the Radish Cake with XO Sauce. We usually avoid ordering these because we make it at home, but the allure of the XO sauce could not be avoided. This dish totally changed our opinion of Radish/Turnip Cake.

There were huge pieces of daikon in these, not shreds, that literally melted in your mouth! The texture was excellent. The XO sauce wasn't artificially salty and just added a touch of spice, with a nice savory touch. But those tender chunks of radish cake....I'm sure we'll be having those again.

The clunker of the day....and there always seems to be one, was the vegetarian Black Fungus and Celery Dumpling.

Nice textures, but pretty bland.

I was looking forward to trying the Egg Tofu in Abalone Sauce.

Loved the texture of the egg tofu, the sauce was pretty mild though.

At this point, we were satisfied but waiting on one item. We asked one of the gentlemen about it and he efficiently went to check the kitchen and told us "exact, three minutes"...and about three and a half minutes later our Pan Grilled Spinach Pork Bun. The Missus thinks this is too sweet, but I usually love the flavors. Today, I was less then satisfied with the dough which had the texture of dough where steam had escaped leaving it on the harder, waterlogged side.

I still enjoyed the filling, so I'll just have to wait until our next visit to see......

 Overall, our tab came to about $35. Which may be expensive if you dim sum in LA, but not so much if you've had it in San Diego recently. Plus, there's nothing here that comes remotely close to this in quality, prep, and flavor.

Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant
3939 Rosemead Blvd
Rosemead, CA 91770

We made two more stops before heading home; first to Tianjin Bistro for some "day after" suan cai yang rou, then the market for some supplies. We had smooth sailing until the 5/405 merge...after that it was pure murder until we hit Carlsbad, where traffic suddenly dissapated.....very strange!

Anyway, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year!

Roadtrip: China Islamic Restaurant - Rosemead (Los Angeles)

Both the Missus and I have a special place in our hearts for Northern style Islamic Chinese. The Missus even worked at the well known, but now closed Tung Lai Shun which was a fixture in Focus Plaza in San Gabriel for a short while. We used to eat at VIP Restaurant a couple of blocks from where we lived in Rowland Heights, several owners ago, when it was still Halal, and before they started serving "Jung Hwa Yori" (Sino-Chinese/Korean Chinese) dishes.

On a recent roadtrip, the Missus and I planned three stops, and decided to start at the very old school China Islamic on Garvey.

I was told a few years back that this place has been around for probably 20 years or so and after entering the fairly dark restaurant, I gotta say, it's starting to look it. The tables have that unique "San Gabriel sticky" feeling to them, which I actually have some fondness for......

Since the Missus doesn't eat beef, pork, or chicken nowadays, this was almost the perfect menu for us. Historically, many of these restaurants served a dual population, those that ate following certain dietary restrictions and the Chinese. So you'd have to look through the menu and bypass the chow mein, beef broccoli, and stuff like that to get to the heart of the cuisine. I'm not sure if China Islamic serves Halal, I didn't see it noted anywhere.

Of course we needed a lamb dish. Instead of the usual lamb with scallions, I went with lamb with sa cha sauce, basically a dried seafood, chili shallot, garlic, and oil sauce, often called "sa-te" sauce, but which has nothing to do with Southeast Asian sate sauce.

In retrospect, I should have ordered the classic lamb with scallions. Though the meat was on the chewy side, we both loved the really gamey flavor. We were indeed eating lamb. The flavor of the sauce was very mild, watered-down, and almost too slimy for us. The presentation brought back memories...."what presentation" you might ask? Exactly....no presentation.....

Next up was the crispy duck.

For some reason, we've had some pretty good fried duck in Islamic Chinese joints and this was no exception. This was the best dish we had during our visit. Though everything was just dumped on a plate, the duck wasn't greasy, the skin was light and crisp. It could have used a bit more in the flavoring department, or at least have some pepper-salt or sauce. As served it was pretty plain.

I actually went ahead and made fried duck sisig with the leftovers....which tasted really good.

One of the reasons we came here was for Suan Cai Yang Rou, preserved vegetable and lamb hot pot. For some reason, this has become one of my "comfort dishes". My Chinese friends find it amusing that I really enjoy this dish, which historically used the fatty parts of the lamb and napa cabbage that had been preserved to last over the winter....in other words, it's "poor people food".

The first thing the Missus lamented was the lack of frozen tofu in the dish......tofu, when frozen then thawed becomes sponge-like and really absorbs all the flavor. But most of all, this wasn't ready for prime time. Everything had just been put together, so the broth had no flavor and the meat was really tough. We ended up taking almost all of this home. We bought some tofu at Hong Kong Market and put it into the freezer when we got home. By the next day, the sour flavors of the suancai had permeated the broth and also helped to tenderize the lamb.

Overall, we felt this was pretty pricey at over $45. We'd heard that service here was on the rude side, but I tend to think that it's more of an "all business attitude". The two guys that served us were efficient and actually quite nice. Still, I don't think we'll be back, I think the suan cai yang rou at Tianjin Bistro is much better.

China Islamic Restaurant
7727 Garvey Ave
Rosemead, CA 91770

Roadtrip: Dim Sum at Shanghai No. 1 Seafood Village - San Gabriel (Los Angeles)

After our quick meal at Happiness Restaurant, the Missus calculated that we could still make it to San Gabriel and check out Shanghai No.1 Seafood Village before it got too crowded. Shanghai No.1 had been creating some buzz around the SGV, though I think it's more for the amount spent on decor (I've heard over a million) then the food. The restaurant is located in the same strip mall as Beijing Restaurant and where Green Village was before it shut down. The restaurant really doesn't look like much from the outside.

But the interior is something to behold, looking like an old Shanghai nightclub/restaurant.

We were here during lunch, but the dinner menu is also available. We asked to look at the dinner menu....and got what was to be the typical service here....lousy, abrupt, and perfunctory at best.

The menu really looked like those we saw in China, an over-sized volume of glossy photos, with each dish described in detail. I had read several accounts saying that the dim sum was expensive, but of course those folks hadn't eaten dim sum in San Diego recently. Here the small is $1.98, medium $2.98, large $3.98, and "specials" $4.98.

Since we had already eaten, our ordering habits had to follow a strategy we have when eating multiple meals in the SGV.....folks always look at me strangely when I tell them we actually have a strategy for eating, like I'm crazy or something. Only folks like my good friends and fellow bloggers like Kirbie and "CC" understand that I'm not totally insane.....partially perhaps, but not around the bend.

We started with the Lily and Corn Porridge ($4.98):

I took one sip of this and went...whoa....the base of the porridge was dried scallop, which just brought it up several notches. Also, notice the smoothness...it basically looks like milled broken rice! Most places serve you rice porridge that looks like rice and water....heck, that's what mine looks like even though there's abalone in it! This was the best I've had in a while, not too starchy or gummy, smooth, nice savory flavor that enhanced, but didn't overwhelm the added ingredients....quite nice.

Next up was the Abalone sticky rice in Lotus Leaf ($3.98):

 Loved the way this was executed, the rice wasn't over-cooked and mushy. The rice had absorbed the maximum amount of smoky flavor from the lotus leaf. There was a slice of abalone, but it was pretty rubbery and instead of a whole egg yolk, there was a smear of yellow. Overall, this was good, but a bit on the rich side.

Next up was the Shanghai Vegetable Bun ($1.98). Now I enjoy the version at Chin's, but this was in another league.

 These weren't very big, but the flavors were. The version at Chin's tends to be too bready and sweet. This one had a mild yeastiness and the filling had that balanced salty-bitter-sweet flavor I enjoy.

So far so good.....but from here our meal kinda took a turn in the wrong direction. If you've read our little blog long enough, you know that we just couldn't have a Hu Cai (滬菜) meal without trying the Xun Yu. Here's it's called Old Shanghai Smoked Fish and this one is priced fairly high at $12.99. Supposedly this is not made in the traditional way, but cooked to order, which, if you've ever made this - marinated-deep fried-marinated, seems a bit odd. The dish, which was on the small side was presented well.

The Missus took a bite and told me I wouldn't be able to eat it. But of course I had to try.....man, this was some of the muddiest fish I've had in a while. It tasted like I stuck a handful of dirt in my mouth. The textures were interesting, the exterior light and crisp, the interior almost like silken tofu, which I found odd considering this is fish. I just couldn't bring myself to eat another bite.

The Xiao Long Bao was also terrible ($4.98) - if anything was over-priced on the dim sum menu it was this.

First the folds were hard and gummy, not made well. The flavor of the soup was on the mild side and the filling was hard....much too hard for Xiao Long Bao. This would probably do in San Diego, but not in a Shanghai style restaurant in the SGV.

 The one item I really wanted to try were the Shenjian Bao ($2.98):

Not to incur the wrath of my friend YZ from Shanghai, who will automatically tell me how wrong it is for SJB to have folds on the top. This was fluffy, the dough on the sweet side, but had a nice amount of salty-sweet "soup".....much too sweet for the Missus, but I liked it. The meat wasn't anything special and this was fairly good overall....it looked better than it was.

The service really didn't live up to the standard of the design and decor.....this was basically lipstick on a pig. When we asked for boxes they were basically thrown at us...the whole objective seemed to be around turning over tables....I guess someone has to pay for the furniture, right?

I thought the execution of the dishes were better than the actual flavors, the SJB is a good case in point. The Missus and I had an interesting conversation about the food on the drive back home. The Missus came to the conclusion that I'm pretty unbiased when it comes to Chinese regional cuisine....I wasn't raised on the stuff, but became immersed during our years in the SGV, so I was basically a blank slate. She was raised on a combination of Lu Cai - Shandong cuisine, of the Jiaodong style and spicy Hunan/Sichuan cuisine. So the flavors of  "South of the Yangtze" really don't appeal to Her.....interesting theory.

As for the dim sum at Shanghai No.1...well let's just say it won't make me forget about Sea Harbour or Elite.

Shanghai No. 1 Seafood Restaurant
250 West Valley Blvd Suite M
San Gabriel, CA 91776

 

 

Roadtrip: Happiness Restaurant - Rowland Heights

Yes, another road trip so soon. We had an appointment in our old neighborhood....man, we've lived in San Diego for over a decade now, time sure does fly. Anyway, after our appointment, the Missus was hungry and I was still kind of hurting after our last visit to Chung King in Monterey Park. So we thought we'd get something close by...plus I wanted some Liang Ci Ba to take back with me.

And while I've stopped here for Liang Ci Ba, I really hadn't had anything else since this place was called Manie's Restaurant back in 2006. Strangely, though the menu looks the same and the lady who runs the place looks the same, the name has changed. So I was wondering what was going on....until I met "Manie"......and things got even more confusing...

You may recognize the turtle from a previous post....it has gotten a bit bigger. We were told the turtle is now 6 1/2 years old, so maybe the turtle was named after the restaurant and then???? Oh, so many possible scenarios go through my head....some NSFW, so I'll just stop.

Man, the two young ladies working here looked really beat and it was only 11 in the morning!

We decided to order a couple of items we saw on photos posted on the wall....well because the menu here is soooooo huge, with over 270+ items, not including lunch specials, scattered about like leaves on the ground...there are "Happiness Special Dishes" in one section, with "Happiness Special" in another.....not sure what meaning the addition/deletion of a single word would have, but the menu can induce total paralysis.

The Missus really liked one of the photos, but balked at the price, $16.95, for the House Special Fish.....but I told Her "sometimes you just gotta go for it", so we did. What arrived, well, looked like, but didn't look like the photo on the wall if you know what I mean. It arrived in one of those metal mixing bowls......

It looked like fish filets were cooking in a pot of bubbling oil, but not frying! Once things settled down, I had a taste and it seemed like it was all oil(it didn't separate overnight). The fish however, did not brown, and I'm guessing was either poached in another fluid and finished in the oil...or perhaps oil poached, which seemed like a more reasonable assumption since the fish had a wonderful buttery texture that almost melted in your mouth...."fei ur bu ni" (rich without greasy). The dish as a whole was not very spicy and the seaweed and other items in the oil didn't really add much....until we slowly, very slowly, heated up the leftovers the next day, but which time the chilies and seaweed had imparted a wonderful flavor to the remaining fish.

We'll ask the next time we have this...the Missus enjoyed this, so I'm sure we'll have it again.

The House Special Hot and Spicy Lamb Chops ($10.95) did look like lamb chops in the photo, but were just lamb ribs.

The batter was o the mushy side and the flavor not particularly appealing....decent beer food overall. The best part of the dish were the scalded scallions and garlic, which had also absorbed what the Sichuan Peppercorns in the dish had to offer.

The Missus asked me if I wanted the Kou Shui Ji - saliva chicken - written as Happiness Spicy Chicken ($7.95) on the menu. I thought why not.....

I felt kind of weird when it arrived....this usually a cold dish and it hit the table warm, almost hot. Catching a bit of the fragrance, I could make out sesame paste, which was a good start. In the bowl, this looked like soup....I fished out the chicken, much of which had been cubed, almost like it was being prepared for la zi ji, chicken with chilies. The flavor was actually not bad...there was a hint of vinegar, it was salty enough, sesame paste, but not sweet, nor spicy enough. If I had eaten this a year ago, I'd have rated it pretty low....but after having two renditions even worse then this in the last couple months, what can I say......still can't really recommend it, but it's passable.

And of course we got the Liang Ci Ba - Sticky Rice Cake ($6.95), which is under Happiness Appetizers, to go. Taking a peek at the table, I realized it's not quite what it used to be.

The rice cakes looked like they've been worked pretty pretty hard and they've gotten pretty stingy with the peanut-sesame paste topping, which was really dense. The Missus got to the topping before I did and left me all the carbs. In case you have any doubts about this.....here's what it looked like in 2006:

In case you're thinking it's because I ordered it to go....here's what it looked like around Xmas of 2010:

Well, I didn't have much time to dwell on that for very long as we headed off to our "second lunch"....stay tuned!

Happiness Restaurant
18438 Colima Road #106
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

Post #2046 - Roadtrip: Chung King Restaurant - Monterey Park (Los Angeles)

Why post 2046...well, because it is our 2046th post, really..... I always want to do an anniversary thing, but I seem to always be away during May. I thought about doing post 2000, but then totally forgot. Perhaps waiting until 2500 might be a good idea, but who knows if I'll still be around? So, I went with post 2050, which just got me here....2046 whoooo-peeee!!??!!

And it's quite appropriate to do Chung King. This little Sichuan restaurant in Monterey Park, along with El Rocoto and Tung Lai Shun really fueled my interest in food way back in '98.....yep, almost fifteen years ago. I recall the first whiff of the floral, yet pungent whiff of Sichuan Peppercorn fueled air...the first "buzz" I got after eating a peppercorn dish then drinking water. To this day, I recommend folks do this after the first time they've had a dish with Sichuan Peppercorn. We used to visit sometimes several times a week, and at least once or twice a month even after moving to San Diego. Until we found, (not "discovered", who discovers a restaurant, the new world maybe, but a restaurant?) Ba Ren. Isn't it kind of appropriate that the Chef at Ba Ren, was one of the original chef's at Chung King and a certified master chef at that. Since Ba Ren closed down, something nagged at me....no it's not gas. I kept wondering how Chung King, now a little empire of several restaurants and god knows how many chefs later was doing. Which is what found us back at the what once was our favorite little restaurant in the world.

The interior looks a lot nicer since the last time we visited in 2003......

The place was totally desolate for our entire meal...at lunch time, on a Saturday. The young man who served us was a far cry from the borderline surly women who used to wait on us, being very friendly.

The menu had changed over the years, but what we wanted to start out with hadn't. Some liang cai 凉菜- cold dishes. With one of my all time favorites, Fu Qi Fei Pian - the Husband and Wife meat slices...I was really looking forward to this......

Which was a big let down....the flavor was truly lacking, no mild black vinegar flavor, no buzz form Sichuan Peppercorns, and worst of all, the tendon wasn't prepared nor cut correctly, being very thick, it was like eating plastic. The peanuts were on the dry and stale side, like they had been sitting around for a while. The long beans were decent. I'm used to a very briney flavor, though this edged toward the "very very" salty end of things.

Of course I had to order another of my favorite dishes, Kou Shui Ji 重庆口水鸡 - the mouthwatering (saliva) chicken.

This was the first place I'd ever had this.......and though this looked right, it was literally just a mere shadow of what I recalled, falling short on spice, Sichuan Peppercorn, black vinegar, sesame paste, and sweetness. Kind of sad actually.....

But not as sad as the Rice Crust with Three Delicacies ($9.99). You can just tell by looking at the dish what's wrong.

The sauce was very thin, I remember it being full of "chicken-ny" flavor, this was bland and insipid. The rice crust was strange to being soft and pliable it wasn't firm enough and we ended up with porridge.

Things turned around when the Pig's Intestines with Hot Pepper ($9.99) arrived.

The texture was excellent, crisp at first, giving away to a slightly chewy interior, the intestines were swiney and lovely to eat. This was the first dish to really make me think, "this is ChongQing style Sichuan", with bold and unapologetic flavors. Still short on Sichuan Peppercorns, it was still well seasoned.

The crowning jewel of the meal was something we'd never had before, Sliced Fish Filet with Cumin ($10.99). Man this was good.

I usually don't care for dishes where cumin is used with restraint, but in this case it worked in balance with the floral-pungent flavor of the Sichuan Peppercorns. The heat level was nice as it got the endorphins flowing and I started to get that euphoric feeling and there was a mild sweet flavor as well. The batter was egg based, but not too thick and eggy, making this a nice crisp dish. We even finished up the leeks and all the vegetables. Finally, in the end, this dish came through.

The Missus felt really bad as we drove home since I'd been looking forward to this for a while. I explained to Her that I just had to find out if it was still the same, it wasn't, but what is?

Back in 1979, one of my favorite artists, Paul McCartney and his band Wings came out with an album called Back to the Egg. Trying to get back to his roots with a more edgy rock and roll sound, what McCartney created, at least to me was an unfocused mess;

 "When will you see me, my salamander?
Now don't try to tell me,
Oh no, don't answer, oh no....."

Really...... my salamander? No wonder Wings folded up its wings soon after....yes, I actually owned the album.... on vinyl Just goes to show, you can try to go back and get what you had, but sometimes the magic is gone.

It was nice to see that Chung King was still in business after all these years. The meal ended up well, but we feel that the restaurant really hasn't aged well.

Chung King Restaurant
206 South Garvey Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91754

Postscipt: I actually think Goodnight Tonight should have been on this album, it was quite catchy:

And not nearly as cheesy as Coming Up.

 

Not Duckin' the Subject - Roadtrip Edition: Lien Hoa BBQ (Westminster - Orange County) and Monterey Palace BBQ (San Gabriel - Los Angeles)

I've often lamented the quality and consistency of take out Roast Duck in San Diego. It is after all, one of my favorite food groups. But for a change, instead of me whining about the whole thing, here are two winners. Unfortunately, both are not in San Diego County.

Lien Hoa BBQ - Westminster:

A while back FOY "DavidD" mentioned that this shop made the best roast duck. So I made sure to mention the place to  Beach during my last visit. Beach told me he's being going to Lien Hoa for thirty or so years (looking at the sign, they opened in 1981) , knew the owners, and that this was indeed the best place for Chinese BBQ in all of Little Saigon, or even in Orange County.

The place is actually right next to Kang Lac Bakery, so we went in before having Bot Chien.

The shop is tiny with a small and cramped walking space. It's a no frills place, just up my alley...the other thing up my alley? A whole roast duck here costs just $15.50......bargain city.

After arriving home I opened the very heavy foil container took take a peak and a taste or two of the duck.

If you want a meaty duck, this would be the one for you. Personally, for me it;s all about a combination of factors; the skin, the flavor, fat content, and so on. The flavor of this duck will be a surprise for many raised on roast duck in San Diego. It is mild, with anise hints, and not salted to death to cover up the lack of expert preparation. The skin on the top layer was, perhaps a bit too "rubbery", but good overall. Sadly, they poured a ton of "jus" over the duck. There was about two cups of it in the tray (I measured). This meant the skin of the duck on the bottom layer was taut and the meat had started to be mushy. Gladly, even the juice wasn't too salty. I think I'll have them go easy on that stuff next time.

So, if you're passing through, or if roast duck matters enough to you to be worth a drive (like me), this place is worth a shot. And the prices are very reasonable.

Lien Hoa BBQ Deli
9299 Bolsa Ave
Westminster, CA 92683

Monterey Palace BBQ Fast Food:

A little over a year ago, we were driving east on Valley Boulevard. right past Focus Plaza, I noticed that a new shop had opened in a location I believe was some kind of bar or nightclub before.

The name of the place was Monterey Palace BBQ, which got me thinking that this place is affiliated with Monterey Palace on Garvey?

The place was bright, spanking new and turned out to be an interesting shop.

As you enter you basically meet the BBQ, followed by a section which is set-up for steam table foods, a la Sam Woo, nothing surprising there. The interesting thing is a bit past the hot foods section is a poultry and meat set-up, with several different types of chicken, duck, even rabbit.

The first time we stopped by and bought the roast duck, I really enjoyed it.

 It isn't as meaty as the duck from Lien Hoa, but the skin was nicely lacquered and the flavor of bean paste was forward without overwhelming everything.

We have been back two more times since. On the second visit, the skin of the duck was wrinkled and it was too fatty...signs that temperature control was poor. One the third visit, things were back ot how they were on our first visit.

For now, Monterey Palace has replaced Sam Woo in Alhambra as our "duck stop". I'm hoping that we've found our place for take-out roast duck for now.

One downside to the location is that as far as I can tell, there's only street parking. There are only three spaces on the street in front of the place....so in case you're being tailgated by some aggressive retard like I was and have to stop and park, you may have to deal with the half peace sign salute and screaming from an idiot who was trying to get around the other cars and probably didn't know or didn't care (probably the latter) that you could indeed park on the street in front of the place. I'd forgotten how wonderful drivers were in the SGV...thanks for the reminder, moron. I've found that the best defense in such a situation is to look at the person and give them a big smile...A BIG SMILE.....

Anyway, he had to wait until all the cars drove past to merge into traffic and I got my roast duck. Seems like I got the better of the whole deal, right?

Monterey Palace BBQ Fast Food
118 W Valley Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Road Trip: Shaanxi Gourmet - Rosemead (Los Angeles)

One of the dishes I really enjoyed during our trip to China was the Yang Rou Pao Mo from Tong Sheng Xiang in Xi'an. Dense, heavy, bread, which folks call "pita" but is not like any pita I'm familiar with is broken into edible pieces by hand. Once you've filled your bowl with enough of it, they whisk it away and fill the bowl with a gamey and flavorful mutton broth. It is heavy enough to keep you all day long and I really was looking for it when we returned from our trip. We tried the version at Beijing Restaurant in San Gabriel which was disappointing. So when I read about Shaanxi Gourmet on Dylan's Blog I got quite excited and a couple of days later we were driving up the I-5, headed to Rosemead.

The restaurant is of course, located in a strip mall off of Valley Boulevard, but is hiddn from the street. Though once you enter the parking lot, you can't miss the Terracotta Soldiers guarding the front door. The dining area is clean, the walls lined with photos of various dishes, and the restaurant is a bit smaller than it looks from the outside. You probably would only need two Terracotta Warriors to guard the place.

The service was kinda, well, slow and a bit disorganized, impatient, and let's just say, suited for the SGV. The menu, at least when we visited is interesting, it seemed that the vast majority of it was not translated into English.

Looking through the menu again I found a page of rather vague translations of some of the dishes. But we pretty much knew what we were looking for and the Missus started scanning the menu.....

Before making any big decisions, She had already gotten us some cold dishes to ward away our rising hunger.

These were adequate, but you can get better elsewhere......

Meanwhile, the Missus had already placed our order and in a matter of minutes our first dish arrived. The weather at that time had been pretty cold so we started with the spicy and sour soup with hand pulled noodles, the meatless version.

I loved the broth, which was light in viscosity, but full of flavor. There was definitely some Sichuan Peppercorn in this as we got some of that wonderful numbing sensation along with a bit of heat. The sour, was just enough to keep you wanting the next sip. The noodles were lovely, with a decent pull to them......I really enjoyed the noodles.

Still, I was waiting for my Yang Rou Pao Mo.....a part of me was hoping that the bread would be provided first for me to tear into bite sized pieces, but I guess practicality ruled here and the soup arrived with the bread diced into small pieces.

The broth was right on, a soulful, hearty, mutton soup. The bread was kind of strange as it was slimy and didn't really absorb the flavor of the broth. The pieces of mutton were pretty tender and had that wonderful flavor of the pasture.

It didn't quite take me back to Xi'an, perhaps as far west as New Guinea, but not quite there. Still this was pretty good and quite filling.

For our final dish, the missus looked over the menu and found something interesting......

I don't recall seeing Fen Zheng Yang Rou, lamb steamed with rice powder. But since we usually enjoy the various versions we've had of the dish, why not give it a try?

What we got this time around was some really tough lamb covered with gritty, grey colored powder. It was super bland and just not to our taste. For some reason, this reminded me of once when a bunch of us went camping at the beach and the guy assigned to cook ended up spilling the lunch into the sand and still tried serving it to us.

Overall, not a bad meal. I'd come back for those noodles and everyone seemed to be getting the Biang Biang Mian, which I think is Ku Dai Mian, super wide noodles the size of a sash/girdle. The service was spotty, one of the young women was really on top of things, but everyone else seemed to be walking in sand. Typical "A-B" (all business) SGV for us.

 Shaanxi Gourmet
8518 Valley Blvd
Rosemead, CA 91770

Rose Parade 2012 float decorating and Plate 38-Pasadena

Welcome back to mmm-yoso!!! the food blog.  It's the time if year filled with many holidays and Kirk, ed (from Yuma) and Cathy have been busy with activities other than eating. Cathy is posting about one of her busy days.

Hi. This past Saturday began with a 4 a.m. wake up and quick cooked breakfast.

Ham and cheese inside the flat omelet, sauteed spinach and mushrooms and crispy fried Bacon SPAM along with the only coffee I had that day.

It was still dark and the moon was beginning to eclipse when The Mister and I hit the road.   

Soon, the sun was coming up, the moon had disappeared and we were passing giant Manger scenes along Interstate 5, the "General Hospital" building and got to Pasadena, finding a parking spot on the street, behind a Tournament of Roses vehicle.

We were at the  Rose Palace, 30 minutes before our volunteer time was to start with our group, the Petal Pushers, which coordinates over 5,000 volunteers each year. There were many groups meeting this day to help decorate floats which were designed in February, when the theme of this 2012 Rose Parade was chosen- "Just Imagine". It was 42º outside and chillier inside.  We were told to wear warm clothing that we were not afraid to get dirty. I wore three tshirts and an XL sweatshirt. As did most everyone else. This was a "Dry Decorating Day"- the fresh flowers won't go on the floats until 3 days before the parade on January 2, 2012. In other Rose Parade float posts, I've shown you how every visible part of the floats must be covered in living or previously alive materials. These dry decorating days are just as, if not more, important for the complete float to be built.

The assignments for Petal Pushers were given.  We work on a few different floats in this barn, with various duties. Some people cut the purple petals off of these beautiful Statice flowers. All day.  At the end of the day, all the five gallon buckets were empty-after being refilled one time- and the amount of flower petals gathered was less than one five gallon container. 

One friendly couple were given the assignment of breaking down redwood bark- over the 8 hours they were given about 12 six foot long pieces of just bark, 

which they shredded down into manageable thin pieces to be glued onto the HGTV float. They filled at least five of the large boxes and too many to count of the smaller one for volunteers to use to cover the trunks and branches on all the pine trees on this float, which has a replica of the HGTV Dream Home that somebody will win next year. In the background of the above photo, the young ladies are gluing bulghur wheat or some grain material onto the window frames. The spaces between the wood planks of the exterior have been filled with glued on poppy seeds.  

You can see some of the glued on bark at the base of this pine tree. The tree is lying in the position it will collapse to during the parade- when the float passes under street and signal lights.

That box in front has a few poppy seeds left over. The HGTV home was built inside this barn and lifted onto the float 'body'.  It is unusual to have such a structure on a float, since it is so heavy, but they wanted to build an accurate replica for this, their second float in the Rose Parade. HGTV will be doing a special before the Rose Parade showing how a float is built.  It should be interesting.

You'll see this elk on the HGTV float, because he is on the 'camera side' of the float. Right now he is only partially covered in dry material. The undersides of the pine trees are covered in glued on dried parsley.

These powerful blenders are used to pulverize many of the flower petals so the powder can be glued onto some of the pieces of floats...

Like the giant flowers which will surround the Lions Club International float, "A World at Peace".

The 100th Anniversary of Loyola Marymount University will be celebrated with this tall(see the steeple in the back ?) float which is using the more blue-colored flower petals of the Statice flowers. It will have real palm leaves attached to the wires on those palm trees.

The back of the Shriners Hospital float looks like it has chickens exploding in the exhaust

which is coming from the bear-driven airplane.  It's titled "Soaring for Kids".

The City of Los Angeles float has a few ancient creatures, with their textured skin made more visible with all sorts of beans. It honors the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County with the title "Dinosaurs in LA's Backyard"

There were a lot of volunteers working on the City of Glendale float, "Just Imagine the Music, Fun and Freedom"

The Lutheran Hour Float, in its 63rd appearance in the Rose Parade, is as detailed in the back as it is from the front. (Do you see two volunteers in this photo?)

 

The Farmers Insurance Group float looks like a giant game of "Mousetrap" and is called "The Unimaginable"

This is the back of the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs float "Shining Knights Still Exist".

At almost 5 p.m., we left.  You can see the Sierra Madre Mountains and sunset in the distance...and the volunteers from the schools waiting for their buses to pick them up.  There were more than 300 volunteers this eight hour day.

If you'd like to see artist's renderings of all the Phoenix Decorating floats, click on this link. There are a total of 55 floats in the 2012 Rose Parade and Phoenix is one of three companies which made them.

Anyhow, it was a LONG day and The Mister and I started driving through Pasadena looking for a place to have dinner (we brought lunch with ourselves; I did not take photos). We ended up on Colorado Boulevard

We were stopped at the signal light on Colorado at Sierra Madre and the side of this building on the Northeast corner had a sign about 'proudly serving Peets coffee'. We figured it was a Breakfast-Lunch-Dinner place and pulled into the parking lot. 

Looking in the front door, it seemed Plate 38 does take out also. There were fresh, house made pastries in that display case. 

We found a seat on the other side of the Christmas tree and admired the beautiful, solid wood table. We noticed the menu noted the food was made with local ingredients, no preservatives, organic fresh baked goods and also microbrews and Napa wines were offered.  

The below photo turned out particularly blurry; I must have somehow channeled my exhaustion through to my iPhone and both photos of this same dish were just not good. 

It is the Fritto Misto appetizer plate, which I chose to be my main dish. Quite large (it was at least 8x8 inches square) and filled with perfectly fried lightly breaded calamari rings, butterflied large shrimp and artichoke hearts and zucchini (both yellow and green), topped with a handful of mache lettuce and with a side of fresh made, wonderful lemon caper aioli, this was a perfect meal for me.  The bonus was that since it was an appetizer, and between 4:30 and 6:00 p.m., the price was $2 off.  Regularly $11, the $9 price tag was very much worth it. 

The Mister ordered garlic marinated skirt steak plate ($18).  The meat was tender and flavorful, not overpowering. The 'gravy' was a brandy peppercorn sauce. The fresh asparagus was not overcooked and had a nice crunch to it, I think it was braised in olive oil...the thin cut garlic fries were not overpowering and crispy, but not over-fried.

All in all we would like to come back to Plate 38 and try their other menu items.  You can see the menu on the link below.  For an all locally sourced, preservative free and organic baked goods, Plate 38 offers an excellent Return of Investment for your money.  If you happen to be in this part of town. We will return. Maybe on a day when we aren't working and are all sawdust covered...

Tournament of Roses website

Phoenix Decorating Company website 

Petal Pushers volunteer decorating information website (I just got an email- they still need volunteers for this Saturday (December 17) and from Dec 26-Jan 1)

Plate 38 2361 East Colorado Boulevard (at Sierra Madre) Pasadena 91107 (626) 793-7100 Sun-Th 7 am-10 pm, Fri-Sat 8 am-1am Monday 8 am-3:30 pm website