mmm-yoso!!!

Niu Rou Mania Redux: This time it's Savory Garden, Mr Dumpling, and Chin's Convoy

It's been almost four years since I did a round up post of places to add to my Niu Rou Mian collection. Personally, I feel things have been pretty depressing for NRM in recent years, but thought I'd give it a shot anyway. We've been going through waves of warm almost late spring-like weather followed by blustery storms passing through, so it was really hard to plan things out. But I managed to squeeze in three bowls recently.

Savory Garden:

This restaurant took the place of 168 Restaurant in the 99 Ranch Market shopping plaza.

As a whole, I usually avoid the place during rush hours, and even when I dropped by during an odd lunch or dinner time, I don't recall seeing people eating here. In fact, on my visit, during a late week dinner, I was the only customer during my entire meal!

It must get pretty boring for the folks here, that's probably why they were practicing their Karaoke skills on the television....of course they weren't using a microphone, just quietly singing along.....

So at least I had a bit of entertainment during my meal. Personally, I thought this was kind of cute in a way,  though I would probably have a different opinion if they used microphones.

The House Special Beef Noodle Soup ($7.49), which is listed as this on the check-off menu:

Arrived steaming hot, a good sign, though I've got to say it was probably the darkest looking broth I've seen in a while:

I really missed the zha cai - pickled vegetable that 168 used to top off thier NRM with, and fragrance of the broth wasn't particularly beefy. The noodles were decent, not overcooked, the broth wasn't as sweet as others, but in spite of the dark color, really lacked any depth with regards to flavor.

The beef was fairly tender and had decent flavor, but there were only four real pieces and some crumbs.......

Man, that was some dark broth!

I know I still gotta meet "MrZ" here for lunch one day...... so I'll report back then with more. Though based on the lack of customers, I think I'd better get my act together because I'm not quite sure how long this place will be around.

Savory Garden
7330 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

Mr Dumpling:

On my post on Liang's someone mentioned that Mr Dumpling made a pretty good NRM. I kinda hesitated in checking the place out, since the food on  my previous visits had not been particularly stellar. Still, Niu Rou Mian? I really had to go and check the place out. The place was totally empty when I arrived....... I actually had to call out several times...Ni Hao.....

While waiting for signs of life, I noticed that they'd put pool tables in on the other side of the wall......I guess they need to bring in customers somehow. This just didn't strike me as a particularly good sign.

A couple of minutes later a live person appeared and I was seated. Of course I order the Niu Rou Mian and was surprised at what I got:

Well technically there's beef, noodle, and soup......but this ain't the Niu Rou Mian I know. It was terrible, the broth lacked nay flavor but salt and the beef was tough and dry. I keep thinking this was some horrible mistake.

While another part of me wonders, "what if it isn't a mistake and this is their version of Niu Rou Mian?" Egads!

Mr Dumpling
7250 Convoy Ct
San Diego, CA 92111

Chin's Convoy:

I'm not sure why I decided on Niu Rou Mian at Chin's on Convoy, but that's what I ordered. It was the most expensive ($8.50) of the three. To my surprise it wasn't too bad.

While the broth could have been richer, it did have a mild beef and star anise flavor, along with a slight "kick". Based on previous experiences here, I expected the soup to be on the sweet side, but it wasn't. The meat could have been more tender, but it was by no means terrible. The noodles and there was a lot of noodles, weren't anything special, but at least they were al dente and nice and slippery.

Though I don't overly focus on price, if quality is good, I'm not quite sure this is worth $8.50.

Chin's
4433 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111 

I guess I'll have drive up to Temple City again soon and deal with the service at Dai Ho to get a decent bowl......

Liang's Kitchen

There was a bit of a buzz when Liang's Kitchen first opened during the fall of last year. Not so much for us though, since a couple of years back we had a most horrendous meal and service at Liang's in Irvine...so bad that I wouldn't do a post on it. So even if I'd be willing to visit Liang's here in San Diego, the Missus will not.

Actually, the Chinese name of the restaurant,  translated as something like "Mama Liang's home style military dependant village kitchen, is perhaps a more apt description of what Liang's serves. Now before you go off and think this will be something reminiscent of mess line slop, stop for a moment. When the KMT retreated to Taiwan, housing had to be built for those fleeing. Settlements were funded by the military and built with the intent of being temporary housing. It was believed that people would only have to live in these villages for a short time until the ROC defeated the Communists and folks would move back to their homeland. This of course, never happened. Over time these villages comprised of people from all over China developed social networks and a sense of community. A nice article on these villages can be found here, I particularly enjoyed the story of "Ho" from Shandong:

"After Ho retired from the military, he opened a breakfast store in the village selling traditional Shandong dishes like steamed buns, fried dough sticks and salty soybean milk which became quite popular among villagers and even nearby Taiwanese residents."

Liang's claims to serve the diasporic cuisine of those villages, using the sentimental value  to draw folks in.

Since Liang's first opened, I've visited five times with mixed results. In the beginning, the prices seemed to change, always in the "up" direction...perhaps three times on items like the Niu Rou Mian and Niu Rou Chuan. Once I was served by a young lady wearing flip-flop like sandals and grey sweat pants. I will say that my last two visits have been the best, as the prices and service have finally evened out a bit. Not quite sure about the food yet....

The first two times I had the Niu Rou Mian (Beef Noodle Soup), I was less than pleased.

 On the first visit, the broth had been flavored by what the Missus calls "the wave method", as in the soup tasted like someone had waved a beef bone over it to flavor it. The beef was fairly tender, but dry and cold in the center. I selected the regular noodles, which were prepared nicely. On the second visit, the broth was better, but too sweet, the beef was still pretty dry, and the "Lapian Handmade Noodles" tough and gummy. The broth also seemed low with regards to anise flavor as well.

However, on my last visit, I ordered the Beef  Tendon version and was rewarded with a decent bowl.

 Even though the broth still didn't have enough anise or beef flavor for me, it was hot, not too sweet, not overly salty, and most of all, not bland. The beef tendon was very nice, soft and almost buttery. The pieces of beef were still the same, too dry and stringy for me. Ditto for the handmade noodles, too gummy and over-worked.

Still, I felt pretty happy about the whole situation, until FOY (Friend of Yoso) the "Zompus" asked me, "since when is one out of three good, other than in baseball." I'm hoping that I improve on that slow start during future visits.

On one of my visits, I had the Niu Rou Chuan - the Beef Roll, which was then something like $6.50, but the last time I looked at the menu was up to $7.25.

The sesame bread was too dry as was the beef. I did enjoy the addition of what I believe is Ji Cai, pickled mustard greens, which adds a nice palate cleansing salty-sour component to this, but overall, I didn't care much for it.

When I mentioned this to another FOY "Liver", I was instructed to order the Pork version instead. Which is what I did on another visit with my good friend Candice.

The fat and the flavor of the pork added to the dish.

During our visit we tried a couple of other items.

The Special Red Pork Cutlet($5.25) had a nice light-crunchy texture.

Mild sweetness, though not much else that stood out.

The stuffed squid ($6.99) served cold.

Would have been a real winner if they removed the quills from the squid before they stuffed them. Biting into the squid, then being stabbed by the plastic like quills makes for a rather unpleasant experience.

The Stewed Pigs Feet ($6), in my opinion could have been stewed much longer and needed a flavor injection.

It was like eating hard rubber......

And that's kind of how it's gone for my meals at Liang's. I'd try something like the Salty Pork Stuffed Chili ($5 when I tried it, now $5.50).

Which was indeed salty, but in a good way. You'll also play a bit of chili-roulette with this one as some of the peppers were hot, but other not. The roasting of the peppers also adds a bit of sweetness.

Then I'd order something like the Salty Duck ($6.75). If I'd gotten something 1/10th of what I had in Nanjing or even half-way close to what I get in the SGV, I'd have been happy.

But this was very dry, tasted salty, but also a bit "refrigerator-rancid"......I tried to explain to the yong lady working, but she either didn't, or pretended not to understand. I opted to cut my losses and retreat.

If you like variety, you'll get it here. Is the NRM the best in San Diego? In a town of blind men, is the one-eyed man king? Ditto the Beef Roll..... They also say "nothing ventured, nothing gained", here's hoping that your ratio of gains to ventures is a good one. For balance please read Kirbie's posts and Gastro-bits post on Liang's.

Liang’s Kitchen
4681 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

 

Road Trip: Chef Chen - Irvine (Orange County)

I first recall hearing about Chef Chen on Elmo Monster's Blog (man, have you really been around for eight years???). After seeing a post on Chef Chen on Eileen's blog, with a pretty decent looking bowl of Niu Rou Mian, I had pretty much made up my mind. Also, we'd already tried out A&J which really didn't suit our tastes and a very, very, bad visit to Liang's in the same strip mall which was so terrible I never even posted about it. So why not make it a tri-fecta and check out Chef Chen's?

I sure must have been motivated since this is one of those parking lots I detest. One single exit/entrance, folks without any regard of right of way, people just plain parking in the middle of the aisle, people stealing spaces from folks patiently waiting for folks to leave by going around them and gunning into a spot. Man, this place has it all....they should have a reality show based on parking lots..... I made it a point to arrive a bit early, then stretched my legs by taking a walk and checking out how things have changed since the last time I've been here.

I entered the restaurant a few minutes after they opened and had a seat. The menu is a mix of different dishes, everything from typical Chinese fast food (which didn't look half bad) to Dao Xian Mian and even something that really interested me(more on that later). The prices, especially for the lunch specials and items from the "Northern dishes" menu were very reasonable...as was my bowl of Niu Rou Mian at $5.99:

I liked the color of the broth, which was decent and in my opinion better than Liang's (thin with no beef flavor) or A&J (oily but without flavor). Still not beefy enough, nor without enough five spice flavor, the spice level was nice. Be warned that the meat used is a very traditional beef shank which is a bit on the chewy side, though full of flavor. The noodles are nothing special, but were cooked to a nice chewy texture. This was not bad and actually better than I thought it would be.

I also saw something on the menu that I couldn't resist getting....Dao Ko Shao Ji. When we lived in LA, one of my favorite things was Dao Ko Chicken, from of all places Hong Kong Market. I'd tried Dao Ko Shao Ji from just about every place in the area and still enjoyed the one from Hong Kong Market. Then the market did a renovation and the deli case was gone.....sigh. I really missed my chicken. To the point that my Mother In-Law got in touch with an uncle who is a chef in Henan and he sent us a recipe. Read the post....it's a hoot!

When I arrived home and opened the container, the first thing that struck me was how much this looked like Earthen's Shandong Chicken. However, it lacked the sweetness with a touch of vinegar and in fact was kinda bland other than the super strong pungency from the raw garlic topping the chicken. It was one of those dishes that looked much better than it was.

Still, the prices were reasonable, and I really thought the service was excellent. The woman who served me was quite good, no wasted motion and very aware of her tables. She arrived with extra napkins just when I needed it, as soon as I pushed my bowl back she arrived to ask if all was well, then handed me my check. She then arrived with my chicken as soon as I placed money on the plastic tray. She was also quite friendly and nice and put up with my bogus (non-existent) Mandarin quite well........

Chef Chen's
5408-B Walnut Ave
Irvine, CA 92604

One interesting thing I noticed in across the street and maybe if Elmo reads this he can answer it for me.....what's with the line outside Taiko?

Niu Rou Mian near the corner of Balboa and Genesee? Meet China Quick Wok

It's funny how you sometimes find out about places. I was chatting to a coworker about Niu Rou Mian. In passing she told me, "there's a place near where you live that has Niu Rou Mian, have you tried it yet?" Which left me somewhat puzzled. She later emailed me a copy of the menu from one of the Chinese message boards...and holy smoke, I knew exactly where this place was......geeez.

Later that evening, I had the Missus take a gander at the menu.......and She thought we should check the place out since the prices were so good. She really didn't recognize the address, but once I pulled into the parking lot She told me "you gotta be kidding...."

Recognize the area....well maybe not since it was quite dark on this evening. It's the strip mall that houses Nazca Grill, Thai Time, El Pollo Loco, among other businesses. I always knew there was a Chinese fast-food shop in the mall, but never really paid attention to it.

And let me put the emphasis on Chinese Fast-Food as you can tell by the look.

There are seven tables in the joint, bare walls, this is no "concept - theme restaurant", one menu has all the standard Chinese fast-food stuff on it, the other is in Chinese. Everything from Shaobing to Niu Rou Juan (beef roll), it's all the of what we call the "Chinese student's favorites". Nothing over $6.99 on the menu. The Missus placed our order and I managed to ask the nice woman working how long they've been here. She told me that they moved down from Rancho Bernardo in March. Rancho Bernardo? Then it hit me, the folks here have, or had some connection with Quik Wok in RB, hence the name. Funny thing is, I've been to Nazca Grill at least four times since March.....slap to the forehead!!!

The Missus isn't really eating much red or even white meat nowadays and asked the woman for a vegetable noodle soup.....the noodles here are Dao Xiao Mian - knife shaved noodles. Dough is rolled out, folded then sliced with a sharp knife. Originally a Shanxi specialty, we saw more than few little shops selling these during our trip to China.

The Missus enjoyed Her soup especially the noodles which weren't cut too thick like many places do. Part of the enjoyment of eating Dao Xiao Mian is the somewhat whimsical aspect of the noodles which are cut into irregular lengths and thicknesses. Most places however, cut it much too thick and even cut them way ahead of time (Dumpling Inn comes to mind) creating a gummy noodle.

Of course I ordered the Niu Rou Mian - the beef noodle soup $6.25.

This was actually much better than I recalled having at Quik Wok, darker with more flavor. It fell short in the richness department and is still not quite there with regards to flavor and spice. The meat was well prepared, soft, but not falling to pieces.

Like Quik Wok's version, this bowl had a ton of noodles in it.

The texture was and nice soft, but still having a bit of pull to them. For six and change in San Diego, this wasn't bad.

I revisited one other time, the Missus told me the Chao Dao Xiao Mian, the fried noodles had looked pretty good, so I thought I'd try them. I was also going to try the Guotie (pot stickers), but some else was eating it when I arrived and it looked terrible, so I decided to pass.

The lack of wok-hay gave this dish a grey pallor and it was missing the slightly sweet-smokey perfume of the wok. The noodles seem to do much better in soup as they had seized up a bit. I'm thinking cooking over too low a heat source might contribute to that as well. The flavor seemed quite bland, though based on my thirst after eating the dish, I'm fairly certain it's been seasoned. The shrimp were cooked nicely, but the lack of flavor in the dish couldn't keep me interested. In terms of portion size and priced at $6.25, it was perfect for a starving student carb load.

After a bit of a slow period, it seems that things are kind of picking up again. Which is nice to see. I know that I was quite surprised to see Dao Xiao Mian at this end of Balboa, so I'm hoping things continue.....

China Quick Wok
4310 Genesee Ave #108
San Diego, CA 92117

Chinese Breakfast at Quik Wok in Rancho Bernardo

In my post on Manila Fast Food, "Roland" inquires about a place in Rancho Bernardo serving "Chinese Breakfast". Having seized my attention, I immediately tried to find out where this Quik Wok place was. Once I had the address firmly in hand, all I had to do was wait for the weekend......

And we made our way up the I-15, taking the Bernardo Center Drive exit and driving past Pearl  and Hunan we found ourselves at one of those jumbo sized spread out strip malls. After driving around a bit, I found a sign with "Chinese Cuisine" written on it....I guess we were here.

 

The interior looked just like one of those pseudo fast food wok fresh kinda places that have popped up everywhere, except the crew here spoke Mandarin. You sure won't find that in Hillcrest! Still, there was no "secret menu" in sight. I guess that's why they call it a secret menu????

 

Actually, what most places call a secret menu, is not really a secret menu... it's not hidden, you don't need a decoder ring, or a special handshake..... you just gotta read the language. And Quik Wok is no different, I finally located a paper menu written in Chinese.

 

And we were off.... just like your favorite Fast Food Chinese joint, you order at the counter, pay at the register, if you're eating in you take a number and amble over to your table. Eventually food will make its way over to you......

First to arrive was the Spicy Tendon ($4.25):

 

This was a good amount of sliced tendon for the price, and turned out to be the best dish of the day. A good amount of beef flavor, along with a passable (could have used more) amount of Sichuan Peppercorn made this a decent dish. On the negative side, the tendon was cut very haphazardly, and some pieces weren't prepared well and was very hard. The tendon was topped with scallions, which added some pungency, but it would have been better served with Chinese Celery.

Next up was the "Beef Roll" (Niu Rou Chuan):

 

The Beef had a decent five spice-soy flavor, but the bread felt, and even worse tasted unpleasantly greasy.

Next up, a huge bowl of "stuff" arrived. The Missus had ordered the Knife Shaved Noodles (Dao Xiao Mian) with Pork and Egg ($4.95).

 

The photo doesn't do the portion size justice. Overall the dish was bland and oily, and the Knife Shaved Noodles were too hard, not doughy, but hard..... Too bad, good, fresh, knife shaved noodles, where dough is formed into a sort of an oblong-log shape and strip of dough is sheared off by a sharp knife or other cutting implement is a fairly rare thing, even in the San Gabriel Valley. Slightly doughy, with a nice chew, it seems the uneven edges of Dao Xiao Mian tends to pick up sauce and broth a lot better than other types of noodles. To bad this wasn't it. It was a humongous amount of food for five bucks though.

The last item was the Niu Rou Mian - Beef Noodle Soup, with Dao Xiao Mian ($4.95):

 

I don't know if it was the broth, but the Dao Xiao Mian did better in the soup. To be honest, this NRM was way better than the version at Hunan in everything but the meat, which really isn't saying much. Like the previous dish had a ton of noodles in it, almost as if there was a fire sale on noodles on this day. On the bad side,the broth was barely mediocre, weak and lacking in beef flavor, with just a hint of heat, and needing an injection of richness.  

We polished off the tendon, but ended up with a ton of leftovers, for just over twenty bucks.

Quantity just won't make it over quality in this case. And though the Americanized stuff coming out of the kitchen for the non-Chinese customers like the fried rice looked pretty good, nothing really compels me to return.

On the positive side, it's good to see places such as Quik Wok opening and making a go of it. And just the existence of such restaurants will have us up in North County a bit more often as well.

Chinese menu is only available on weekends.

Quik Wok
11967 Bernardo Plaza Dr
San Diego, CA 92128

Niu Rou Mania - Hunan Chinese Restaurant

Unfortunately, this is one of those PWTSDS (sounds like putdz) posts....... "Posts Where the Sun Don't Shine". I had thought about just deleting the photos, but I don't get up to North County very much, and I'm not sure I'd want to have the NRM here again. So my apologies in advance......

Somewhere, in the comments section of one of my posts, someone mentioned that Hunan Restaurant in Rancho Bernardo made Niu Rou Mein. Being a big fan of NRM, I made sure to drop by when I was in the area.

  

To be perfectly clear, there ain't anything "Hunan" about Hunan Restaurant except for the name. I had a meal here years ago, and it was totally "ABCDE" (American Born Chinese Dining Establishment). But looking at the menu board, I noticed a section that had various noodle and rice dishes which looked promising.

So I entered the restaurant, and stepped into an alien green world!

 

I just found the greenish hue somewhat unappetizing, but I've never let stuff like that stop me before. Since I like to keep a low profile, and never use a flash, the lighting made taking photos somewhat difficult. For a while I tried timing my photos to the opening of the front door which would let light into the place. But of course, the wait between photos would have been pretty long!

The women here are pretty nice, and I simply ordered the Niu Rou Mian, which got the lady speaking to me in Mandarin, during my entire meal....... I don't think she ever figured out that I really didn't understand what she was saying!

Soon enough the NRM ($6.95) arrived.

 

When my bowl arrived, all I could think was "what the Pho?" That's what the broth looked like, Pho..... Though scalding hot, it was insipid, there was just a trace of five spice flavor, and it lacked any of the richness or the beefiness of Niu Rou Mein. What the heck? The noodles were the packaged stuff I buy from 99 Ranch Market, and was cooked well. What was impressive about this bowl was the amount of meat in this bowl. There was just as much meat under the noodles as was on the top!

 

The meat was tender, but lacking in flavor. I think I just found a NRM for those folks who think Bun Bo Hue is all about the meat, and should taste like "spicy Pho".

 An acquaintance of mine loves the ABCDE food from Hunan, so those dishes might be good. I thought the service was very nice and friendly. But I cna get Americanized Chinese in dozens of places less than 25 miles from home.

Hunan Chinese Restaurant
16719 Bernardo Center Dr
San Diego, CA 92128

Open Daily: 11am - 9pm

Road Trip: Kingburg Kitchen - San Gabriel (LA)

Yes, I have a "little black book"......no, not that kind of little black book! This Moleskin that I carry around is full of little handy dandy notes...things like addresses, how to change the time on my wristwatch, and sometimes, when I anticipate that all to often occurrence nowadays, where the heck I parked my car. And of course, it contains names of restaurants, many restaurants, an unmanageable list of places to eat in several cities, some which I'll probably never set foot in....but like making sure you wear clean underwear, you know, "just in case", I'll jot down a restaurant, the address if I have it, what to order, and other stuff, in my own little undecipherable scribbling....just in case. And recently it dawned on me, this list of restaurants, having no rhyme or reason, has become untenable. Luckily for me, I can, most of the time, locate my restaurant scribblings when necessary. A good example is Kingburg Kitchen. Several months back, I scribbled "Kingburg - Shengjian Bao". And after reading first, Eileen's post on Kingburg Kitchen, which led me to Pepsi Monster's post on said dining establishment, we just had on head on over during a recent trip to the SGV. Please check out their wonderful posts.

Kingburg Kitchen is located on Las Tunas Drive, quite close to Lucious Dumplings, a place that we'd been to a few times. And yet we had never noticed it, in spite of the very bright and yellow banner.

 

The interior is San Gabriel Schizoid......everything from a faux cloud ceiling, to the fake fish tank. And man does this place love fliers....sheets of paper posted everywhere. Many of them saying, "We have the best buns in town".

The tables were only mildly "San Gabriel sticky", and the usual suspects were in display with regards the soy and vinegar.

 

The menu is a simple two sided laminated page full of soups, dumplings, buns ("the best in town!!!"), and cold appetizers.

The woman working was very efficient, and quickly brought out some pickled napa cabbage, which was pretty bland, but kept the starving Missus satiated.

We started with the Niu Rou Mein (spicy beef noodles soup - $6.50):

 

  My first thought was, "this looks nothing like what I saw in Eileen's post." And to put it bluntly, we didn't care for it very much. Nice mild spice, but no beef flavor to speak of, the meat was very tough, and tasted a bit off. The noodles started out with a decent chew and pull, but went mushy real quick.

The broth needed a more richness, it just reminded us of soy sauce water. Perhaps this was the first bowl of the day, and it needed more simmer time?

 

We couldn't finish half of it.

Of course we ordered the Shengjian Bao, starting with the pork and cabbage version ($6.50). After the requisite 20 minute wait, it arrived nicely browned on both sides.

 

The Missus and I both bit into our buns simultaneously, chewed and stopped, well, I swallowed. There was something wrong with these, the taste was decent, full of pork flavor, and well seasoned. But the texture of the buns was on the "gooey" side. This is when we took a look at the buns.....

 

Good God, the pork was still raw, and the dough on the interior of the bun was uncooked! I watched the Missus turn several shades of yellow, or was it green. The Missus managed to flag down the Server, who was already working on several tables, and explained to Her quietly in Mandarin what was going on, and of course we displayed the uneaten portions of the Shengjian Bao. Now, when something like this occurs, there are a whole range of responses we've gotten from restaurants. Everything from very defensive attitudes, to actions that try to place the guilt on us ("well, it's your fault you ordered this"), to where everything would just be reheated and dumped on our table. This lady responded in the best way possible to make things right. She was very, very, apologetic, and told us that they would like a chance to make us a fresh batch (this is a Chinese Restaurant, ain't no way you're getting comped, and we're not into making a scene). Of course this would take 20 minutes. So we decided to go ahead, but take the Pork Buns to go. In all honesty, I still get the heebies just looking at that photo.......

By this time our Vegetarian Buns($6.50) had arrived, and to be perfectly frank, I was ready to turn into a vegetarian about now anyhow.

   

Of course, we didn't just dig in this time, but daintily cut the Bao in half to check out what was going on first. Overall, we both weren't too pleased with the bun, in spite of the decent browning on both sides, we found the overall texture to be a bit too gummy, and the browned areas hard instead of crisp.

Personally, I love bitter greens, so I enjoyed the filling.

 

The smoked tofu and cloud ear fungus really just adds texture, but there was enough seasoning and flavor of my tastes. I think the Missus was still mentally consuming raw pork.........

We did have an entire order of Bao which we took home....but we really had a hard time eating them. I tried to have a few, but for once, we wasted food......which I feel real bad about.

 

We thought the service to be efficient, and the Server was very nice and professional. We really wanted to like this place, but I'm just not all that sure we'll be back.

 

Kingburg Kitchen
715 W Las Tunas Dr
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Niu Rou Mania, A Niu Rou Mian comparison: Shanghai City, 168 Restaurant, and Dumpling Inn

*** Shanghai City is no more. It is now Spicy House.

We had been pretty happy with the Niu Rou Mein at Shanghai City. The Beef Noodle Soup always had a nice rich and deep flavor, good oil content, some spice, and the noodles had a pleasant mouth feel for us. In fact, on a good day, I'd say that it would have measured up pretty well with anything we've had elsewhere. But recently, before the weather turned warm and humid, we decided to drop by Shanghai City. And of course, I had the Niu Rou Mein. I think you can often measure how long you've been doing something by comparing prices. The price of the NRM in my first post, in October of 2005, the weekend breakfast special price for NRM was a major bargain at $4.25. During my next post in December of 2006, the NRM was $4.95, and still a bargain. In March of 2007, it had gone up another dollar and was $5.95. And now it's $6.45, it really makes me feel like I've been doing this for a very long time.

I'm not sure what the regular (non-weekend breakfast special) price is for the NRM. We got our NRM in pretty quick fashion.

And were a bit disappointed. The broth was much lighter, and the flavor was on the watery side. The meat was very tender, but bland, lacking any beefy punch. The noodles were the biggest let-down, they were over-cooked and mushy, not the doughy chewiness we usually enjoyed.

Which led me to.......think about retrying other restaurants. So here's 2 more to make a NRM tri-fecta.

*** 168 Restaurant has closed.

168 Restaurant:

The place looked much cleaner than I remembered, and the tables lacked the signature "San Gabriel stickiness", but Beef Noodle Soup was still on the menu. I went with the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup($6.50):

The bowl was smaller than what I recall, but it looked and tasted the same. Second rate noodles, the broth was quite weak, lacking richness. I've always enjoyed the pickled greens, and on this occasion the beef was very tender, and had a decent 5 spice flavor, but the broth had a unpleasant bitter-burnt aftertaste.

Dumpling Inn:

This time I went for the gusto Beef Noodle Soup with home made noodles ($7.95 + $1 = $8.95!), the most expensive NRM I've ever had.

I enjoyed that the large bowl arrived steaming hot. The broth was much darker than what I've had  on previous visits, and this time it had a nice beefy punch, but lacked any richness (oil), and was very salty. It did look so good that 2 people who walked in while I was eating this asked the Server what I was having, and ended up ordering this. The beef was tender, but lacked flavor, as if all the beefiness was sucked out of it. There was a ton of the medium-wide "home made" noodles provided, but it really did nothing for me. No chewiness, or the nice slightly doughy texture, in the end I would have just been fine with the regular noodles. In addition, there was a giant messy clump of noodles all stuck together in the bottom of the bowl. Which led me to wonder how these were being stored.

Just as a reminder, home-made doesn't mean fresh......

So I'm left in a quandary......I'm hoping that Shanghai City's NRM will be back in form next time. But now, I'll be back to trying other versions in San Diego again. Looks like it's back to square one.

Road Trip - No.1 Noodle House - Rowland Heights(LA)

Well, I'm back, (almost)fully recovered from the "roast beef sandwich" from hell. Funny thing, I ate and drank all kinds of street food and other "interesting stuff" in Peru, with nary a problem. Now I'm back at work, and a sandwich from a (formerly) trusted source ambushes me..... Since starting this food blogging thing, I've spent much more time really "tasting" my food. EXCEPT, when busy at work, where I'll wolf stuff down at my desk. So about half way through my sandwich, my tastebuds finally sent a message, via slow boat, to my brain, that the sandwich tastes really "off".....and the rest, as they say, is history. I'll just say, that right now, I can't look at a piece of roast beef without the word "emesis" in shocking white letters flashing in my head. Well on to better things......

Waaaay back in August we made our way back to the old neighborhood....that would be Rowland Heights. Even though we've lived in San Diego since 2001, we still see our Ophthalmologist in the area. I'm not quite sure what it is, laziness, trust, or maybe just for an excuse to eat. I'm sure the latter plays a large part in our decision. On this visit, I had No. 1 Noodle House directly in my line of fire.

No 1 Noodle House is located in the super refurbished Yes Plaza, on the corner of Colima and Fullerton Road, which used to be a pretty beat and seedy looking strip mall when we lived several blocks away. Now, after a major face lift, we can barely recognize the place! We cracked up when we saw the laundromat we used to use is still there, looking pretty new, I bet it doesn't smell like fermenting geriatric diapers any more......

The menu at No 1, is comprised of various Sichuan (Chengdu-style) snack foods....that would be various noodle dishes, and the like. And yes(or in this case "YES"), this shop is sporting a 'C', facility food rating....

After spying such a rating, there are those that are going to flee in the opposite direction as fast as possible, and those that will say, when it comes to Chinese Restaurants in the SGV, "A=American, B=Better, C=Chinese....."

I had heard some pretty good things about the Niu Rou Mian, so I was excited to try it out.

This bowl set us back $5.50, and frankly, was pretty lousy. The broth had the consistency of dish water, and was served at a tepid temperature. The broth had a diluted beef flavor and lacked spice, with just a hint of anise/five spice in the background. The noodles were simple store bought, and over cooked. The beef was tender, but like the broth lacked flavor, other than a slight refrigerator staleness. Needless to say, the bowl sat pretty much untouched.

Luckily, we ordered a few other items, which helped to balance things out a bit. "Cold Bean Noodle" (liang fen - $4.50):

For those who haven't had (or knowingly had) this type of Starch Jellied Noodle, Liang Fen is made from mung bean. This version was mixed with a sesame paste-soy-black vinegar mixture, and served with chili oil/paste, ground peanuts, and green onions. Oh yes, and MSG. The flavor was right and refreshing, and hit all the salty-sour-spicy notes for us. Liang Fen has a nice slippery-mildy chewy texture that was very pleasing. Good stuff.

We also ordered the Chili Oil Won Tons($3.50):

This was another surprisingly good dish. The Won Tons were pretty large with a good amount of filling. The generous topping of excellent chili oil, peanuts, and green onions made this a spicy and satisfying dish. Like many of these types of dishes, it sure looked like a lot of oil was used, but it was not greasy in the least. I'd have this again in a minute.

I really don't  know what the deal was with Niu Rou Mian, but the other dishes made up for it. The service is typical San Gabriel Valley, brusque and efficient. You should not eat here if you have MSG-phobia, or have adverse reactions to MSG, you'll see MSG crystals in your food.

No 1 Noodle House
18180 Colima Rd
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

You know, I just realized the irony of this post....many people I know wouldn't dare eat at a place with a 'C' rating. And yet, I suffered no ill effects, just as I've encountered no GI problems when eating at Taco Trucks, and various eateries with 'B' rating or lower....and here I was ambushed by roast beef with an 'A' rating!!!!

Road Trip: A & J Restaurant - Irvine(OC)

Don't you just hate it when you drive 80 miles to your destination, and find that the restaurant is unable to serve you because of a water pipe break? Well, it's no one's fault, just one of those things....but here we were in Irvine, trying to think of a plan B. The only place that came to mind was A & J, right off the Jeffrey Road offramp.

I thought it was going to be my lucky day when I immediately found a parking stall in the packed to the gills mall.

When we got to A & J, I knew my luck had run out...there was a wait, which lasted about 20 minutes...

When our number was called we were hustled to our table, and a paper "order sheet" was flung on the table...I guess we weren't that far from San Gabriel after all! The Missus was looking over the sheet, and the Server came by again, and impatiently asked the Missus if she understood Chinese...while the Missus was reading the Chinese order sheet. By this time we'd been waiting for a while, and really didn't feel very hungry any longer, so we just ordered a few things.

We started with the Si Xi Kaufu(aka Szu Hsien Kaw Fu - Four Happiness Wheat Gluten - $1.95)

Unlike a few people we know, we don't mind the spongy texture of wheat gluten, which has the ability to absorb flavor, well, like a sponge. The four items included lily buds, soy beans, tofu, and carrots. We both thought this was fairly good, nice sweet-soy flavor. But I don't think it was much better than this stuff:

The Jiang Niu Rou($3.75):

This wasn't quite as dry as it looked, but fell far short in flavor...except for the over-powering flavor of sesame oil that was drizzled on it.

Deciding to share a noodle soup, we got the combination Beef and Tendon Noodles Soup($5.75):

First the good, the tendon was perfect, soft, and full of flavor. The Beef was okay, soft, but with a bit less flavor. We opted for the thin noodles(you have a choice of the thin or thin noodles), which were pretty good, with a decent pull, and slight chewiness. Where this bowl fell really short was the soup, it was super oily. Now if you've read other posts of mine, you know that I like a decent amount of oil in my broth, but this layer of oil must've been a half inch deep. You can see the sheen of oil covering the noodles in this photo:

The broth lacked depth with only the bit of spiciness, and almost no beef flavor. We finished the meat, tendon, and noodles, and left all of the broth.

I dunno about this place.....check out the crowd as we left.

While writing this, I kept wondering what ChubbyPanda thought about the Beef  Noodle Soup at A & J. I didn't recall seeing a post. So I did a quick google search, and found a mention of the NRM at A & J on another post, which you can read here. To quote;  "I've eaten niu rou mian at every Chinese place in Irvine that serves it. I know whereof I speak. The only contenders that are close are A&J across the street, their's is too oily and thick...." Good ol' CP got it right....though I didn't think it was that thick. So remember to trust your inner Panda!

A & J Restaurant
14805 Jeffrey Rd Ste D
Irvine, CA 92618