5 Days of Feasting Day 4 - Well, you know this place.....It's Ba Ren (again)

How do you follow up on Peking Duck from China Max, excellent Karei Karaage from Izakaya Sakura, and some good sushi from Sushi Komasa? Well, if you're us, you go to your favorite restaurant, which left me in a bit of a quandary? You see, I've already posted on this restaurant here, and here, here, and even here. But the Missus's Birthday week celebration wouldn't be complete without a visit to our favorite restaurant. Yes, it Ba Ren, again.......

So if you're fed up with my Ba Ren posts, it's time to leave, quickly..... If you decide to stay, we've got a few "new" dishes for you. On our Huo Guo visit, we noticed a placard with new "special" dishes written in Chinese:

After being seated and a brief discussion about the dishes we placed our order. We started with a twist on a classic; "Three Cup Duck" (second item down on the placard - $12.99):

An interesting "take" on the Classic Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken dish. In this case the basil and scallions were replaced with leek, and I also think the sesame oil was replaced with sugar. To me, duck dishes were never a forte of Ba Ren's, but this dish was quite nice, in a "must have at least 3 bowls of rice way." The Bamboo shoots and mushrooms held up well to the soy-wine-sugar flavor, and the red chilies added a nice amount of heat. I'm still not convinced that Ba Ren does a really great duck, but this dish was nice.

Beef Tendon with Konnyaku (eighth item down - $12.99). Now I love tendon that has been cooked perfectly. That would be to the state where a slight resistance exists when you first bite into the tendon, followed with a texture that is almost a perfect gelatinous-buttery in nature. The tendon was pretty close to perfect in this dish, and I was in tendon heaven.

The sauce for the dish was very similar to the sour and spicy flavor of Sichuan "pickled pepper" type dishes. Lot's of garlic, ginger, and scallions gave the tendon some flavor. I was in tendon heaven.

The Missus was not so thrilled. She had thought that perhaps there would be some "meat" along with the tendon. She still doesn't understand why I enjoy well made tendon dishes. She did enjoy the Konnyaku and the sauce.

Between these two dishes we ordered one of my favorite "snack dishes", the Sichuan Cold Noodles (#552 - $5.99). I could probably eat this wonderful salty-sweet-sour-spicy noodle dish every day. What I think is funny for a third generation AJA(American of Japanese Ancestry) from Hawaii, is that beyond all of the Japanese dishes I love; I crave these noodles. Go figure.....

The last item we ordered were the Salt and Pepper Eel (Sixth Item on placard - $14.99). Of all the dishes we thought that this was the weakest:

It's not that this was a bad dish; but after all of the really powerful flavors of the previous dishes, this tasted really, really, mild. The thin slices of Eel were coated with almost a laquer, tempura style batter, and deep fried. We were expecting a peppery-spicy-sweet flavor like that of the wonderful Prawns with Chilies. On the positive side, the dish wasn't very oily, and wasn't especially spicy. It's almost tailor made for someone who hasn't had Eel before.

Still we left Ba Ren, with leftovers to last for at least two more meals, and full stomachs. Fully satisfied, until the next time.........

It's pretty nice to know that our favorite restaurant is not staying "stagnant", and that new dishes are being developed. The only problem is that my list of "favorites" is getting longer and longer.....

Ba Ren
4957 Diane Ave
San Diego, CA 92117

Comments

[Rachel]

Yaaay! First to post! :D Those dishes look really yummy. I agree that the eel looked pretty grey and unappetizing too. But the duck photo and your description really made my tastebuds do an anticipatory dance... except they had to be let down with a quick sip of mugicha :D

I have never seen konnyaku fried or even made that way. I recently was able to buy two tubes of shirataki ( one white, one speckled) from Sydney. Any tasty suggestions? I thought that that sort of jelly might melt in the heat of cooking and I was pondering some salad type dishes but I know you're the man for some yummy suggestions.

[Rachel]

P/S I looove stewed tendon too. Esepcially when it is all melt in the mouth and gooey with a bit of sticky pull, covered with sweet, spicy tasty sauce :P~

[Kirk]

Hi Rachel - You'll be surprised at how shirataki will stand up to heat and slow cooking - after all it's a main ingredient in my Nishime. If you decide to use it for salads, or even ever use it at all - the liquid that the shiratiki comes in has a very strong, sometime sulphur like smell. What I usually do is to drain the shiratki, then pour boiling water over it. For a salad, I'd probably go with something along the lines of a rice vinegar, maybe ponzu type dressing.

[howie]

That tendon dish looks great. I often avoid tendon because a lot of places make it tough, but what you described sounds delicious!

I love that Cold Noodle Dish too. I almost didn't try it because we ordered way too many dishes last time I went, but my mom insisted on getting it. It's fantstic. You wouldn't think that a little noodle dish would have such a complex mix of flavors.

[nhbilly]

D@MN You!;-) You make me hungry everytime I read your post, not the way I want to start off my morning. And freaken 'A' why can't it be somewhere in OC. Nice pictures the tendons looks like Marbo Tofu.

[Steve]

Many thanks Kirk, Ba Ren is now one of my favorites. Last time I went, I went armed with info from a previous post so we ordered 8 from the placard (along with many others), which I think was supposed to be a dry beef dish, but we received the tendon dish. It was fantastic, love tendon when done properly. Thanks for the latest placard update.

Also recently went to Sammy Sushi, and it was fantastic. Sam was very nice, went omakase with sashimi and had to try the Poke (best in SD). Heading back on Friday for live shrimp and Uni.

Keep up the good work and thanks again,

Steve

[eatdrinknbmerry]

The Sichuan noodle dish looks supertasty. I'm really getting into cold noodles, especially with this heat.

[Kirk]

Hi Howie - Oh man, those Sichuan Cold noodles along with the cold spicy chicken!!!!

Hi nhbilly - Sorry. But if you're ever in the area, give Ba Ren a try.

Hi Steve - My apologies - what used to be on the old placard, at least the ones that made the cut, are now on the regular menu - the Beef dish is something like #324. I'm glad you enjoyed Sammy, he's very reasonable, and a nice Guy as well.

Hey EDBM - ChungKing on Garfield makes a great version of this dish!

[Didi]

Wow, Kirk.
I never know the chinese characters so never got to order these. Now those look yummy.

The noodle dish just waiting to get tasted. Thanks, Kirk.

Next time you have a foodie gathering, I'd like to join.

[Keri]

Hey Kirk,
You know...I've never really been fond of cold noodle dishes, except for somen during the summer. But, those Sichuan noodles look so good. I'ma have to try some the next time I see it!

[Kady]

So is it right for me to assume that one menu is in Chinese and one in English but that there are different dishes for the Chinese menu?

[Kirk]

Hi Didi - I'll keep this in mind a let you know!

Hi Keri - Those cold noodles are really very good.

Hi Kady - No that is incorrect. This is how it works; there's a menu of about 200 or so items, if you read my earlier posts, I even include the menu #'s, all the items in the menu are in both English and Chinese. Every so often there are 8-10 "newer" dishes on the placard, if they "make the cut", they have those dishes translated to English and placed on the regular menu. I don't think that they want spend the time, and money to have those dishes translated and menus reprinted, especially since those dishes may not be put on the permanent menu. I'm just checking out the newer dishes in case anyone would care to try. So when there is a placard of dishes(and it's not often), it's only a few....and the dishes are the same if you order in English or Mandarin, Ba Ren is one of the few places that won't dumb down your dishes.

[Hannah]

hi rachel, you said you bought some shirataki in sydney? which shop did you get it from? i've been looking for it for ages