Recently, the Missus and I had brunch at a restaurant located adjacent to the Holiday Inn Select in Miramar Road.
Though it's not quite what you may have in mind. The Restaurant is names Chin's Seafood and Grill.
And yet, that still may not have you very interested, since there are 10 other locations of Chin's Szechuan in the greater San Diego area, and most of the Chinese dishes served are very Westernized. As you enter the generic 'B' list hotel lounge-restaurant area, you'd still feel as if you haven't come to the right place for Chinese Food. Though if you take a quick glance around the room you'll notice that more than ninety percent of the customers are Chinese, and anyone who is not are accompanied by Chinese customers.
One quick look at the menu, will tell you why.
For brunch on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 am to 230 pm, Chin's has a special Chinese menu. Unfortunately, there is no English version of this menu. Some of the items are available on the regular menu, and I'll try to indicate what those items are when possible. The prices reflect the special menu prices, not regular menu prices.
The Missus looked over the menu with a smile on Her face. She told me, that there are dishes on the menu that She has only heard off, and never tried, as well as some of Her favorites. The Missus started checking off items on the menu card, and the really nice Server came by to verify. As She and the Missus spoke in Mandarin, I thought She reminded me of someone.....I mentioned this, and the Missus says, "I think she reminds of my Mom." And yes, she indeed had that friendly, sincere element about her. I had the Missus inquire about the style of food served here, and the Lady said a combination of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, basically Eastern Chinese(aka Shanghainese).
Soon enough the food started arriving.
As is almost routine, we started off with the Suzhou-style Smoked Fish($4.95):
The Missus said that this version, with the rather intense 5 spice and sweet flavor was fairly close to what She grew up eating, though maybe a bit mildly flavored. When we got home and looked over the map of Jiangsu, we were both surprised at how "close" Suzhou was to Shandong province(it's all relative), which explained why Her Grandmother made this often while growing up. As usual this isn't a "smoked" fish, it just appears to be so. This fish is first marinated; usually in a soy sauce, wine, and salt mixture. The fish slices are than deep fried in oil; and finally marinated again in a 5 spice and sugar mixture to "cure". You could eat all the small bones on these slices.
Jiaxing Braised Duck(Chin's Roasted Cold Duck - $4.95)
Almost like a duck version of the above. Quite tasty, nice duck flavor, but not nearly as flavorful as the fish. But still a pretty good cold duck dish.
Zhenjiang Style Pork(Chin's Cured Pork - $4.95)
This was probably the "hit" of the meal. Neither the Missus, nor I had ever seen this before. The dish was a sum of tasty parts. The pork was cooked and shredded, and had a nice mild flavor. It was topped with a thick layer of aspic, much like what creates the broth for Xiao Long Bao. A really nice and mild, but not weak flavor. Here's a better photo of a piece, and no, it's not pork fat.....
Here's a little secret......we took most of this home, and made a pot of rice. We scooped the rice steaming hot into a bowl a placed a few pieces of pork on top of the rice and let the aspic melt all over the rice....delici-yoso!!!
Shao Bing with Braised Beef($2.95)
I really enjoyed this version of Niu Rou Shao Bing; really crisp bread, flavorful thin slices of 5 spice beef, scallions, and a bit of Hoisin made for a a very well flavored and texturally interesting treat. The Missus though the Shao-Bing was too thin, and the amount of beef was on the skimpy side. And yet, I thought; "who cares about Banh Mi; give me this...."
Taiwanese Style Glutinous Rice($3.95)
This scoop of glutinous rice was mixed with chunks of pork and shredded dried shrimp(yum). A nice bit of "spicy ketchup" was added. Though the rice was a bit on the dry side, this was certainly not lacking in flavor. Not bad, but I think we'll go in a different direction next time.
The Flakey Turnip Strip "Cake"(Shanghai Pastry - $3.95)
The Missus said that she has had better. I thought these were very moist, and the texture was very nice, but we've had better elsewhere. The taste was almost "buttery".
Taiwanese Style Won Ton Soup($4.95)
Okay, our Server came by and told us we were ordering too "many dry items" and needed some soup. So we asked for a recommendation, and this was it. Really bland and uninspired.
No need for this......
Nanxiang Style Xiao Long Bao($5.95). Now if you know me; you can imagine how excited I was over these......
But these were not very good, at least for what I look for in XLB. I don't know how they make the Xiao Long Bao in the city of Nanxiang, but if I were to make a guess based on this, I'd say it was with very thick wrappers and barely a scant amount of "soup". We'll take a pass on these.....
So, with full bellies, and being very satisfied, we left Chin's, only to return. And in fact, the Missus noticed that I was tasting the food based on "SGV" standards, which is a good sign.....
Part 2 coming soon - some old "favorites" and some new......
Part 2 of this post can be found here.
Chin's
9355 Kearny Mesa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92126
858-536-2300
Wow... a Zhejiang style restaurant...what a find! There are so very few Zhejiang style restaurants in LA.. perhaps only 1 or 2. did you come across this by word of mouth?
Curious what their dinner menu would be... gotta check it out.
Posted by: Andy 食神 | Tuesday, 05 September 2006 at 10:10 AM
The glutinous rice and smoked fish both look delicious!
You wouldn't happen to have a clearer picture of the menu, would you? I don't read Chinese all that well so I'd want to take some time to orient myself before I tried to order off of it.
Posted by: SK | Tuesday, 05 September 2006 at 10:25 AM
Kirk,
I think I'm going to try this brunch menu sunday before I and the wife go to the San Diego Zoo when we get out to San Diego. Too many good restaurants. What a lovely problem to have.
Posted by: jeffrey chow | Tuesday, 05 September 2006 at 12:02 PM
Hi Andy - Not being overly familiar with Jiangsu or Zhejiang cuisine, it all seemed to be Shanghainese to me. ;o) Funny you should ask that question - I once sat next to a really nice Chinese Gentleman at Sammy's about an year ago, when he found out that first off, my wife was Chinese, and secondly, that I loved to eat, we started talking about restaurants. And he mentioned Chin's to me. At first I thought he was kidding(you'll find the dinner menu somewhat uninspiring, and Chin's is a local Chinese restaurant chain), but he assured me that He was serious. And as you can see, He was....
Hi SK - If you click on the photo, it will "pop-up" and enlarge. If that doesn't work, let me know, I'll be happy to email a copy of it to you so you can enlarge, etc....so let me know.
Hi Jeffrey - Funny, this place is so un-San Diego like. I felt like I was back in LA.
Posted by: Kirk | Tuesday, 05 September 2006 at 12:16 PM
Now, question is, how's their sweet and sour pork?! Just kidding.
Posted by: elmomonster | Tuesday, 05 September 2006 at 12:34 PM
Hi Elmo - I think they have it on their regular lunch and dinner menu...just for you! LOL!
Posted by: Kirk | Tuesday, 05 September 2006 at 09:32 PM
I am amazed. Such a range of dishes - most of which I hadn't heard of or seen.
Whodda thunk?
Posted by: ed (from Yuma) | Wednesday, 06 September 2006 at 07:38 AM
Wow that chunk of cured pork is like the canned stuff I buy from Hormel, no it's not spam. And very good with rice...Hmmm almost everything is go with rice. ;-)
I WISH THERE WAS A CHIN HERE! ;-)
Thanks for sharing your mouth watering experience...now I'm drooling
Posted by: nhbilly | Wednesday, 06 September 2006 at 08:50 AM
Hi Ed - Yeah whodda thunk....at the Holiday Inn Select on Miramar???
Hi nhbilly - Yeah, good observation.....
Posted by: Kirk | Wednesday, 06 September 2006 at 08:13 PM
A lot of the dishes here look delicious! I haven't tried that pork dish before.
Is this Chin's related to Chin's Szechuan?
Posted by: howie | Friday, 08 September 2006 at 11:59 AM
Hi Howie - Part 2 is coming up! And I found the address on Chin's Szechuan's website - so I believe they are....whodathunk!
Posted by: Kirk | Friday, 08 September 2006 at 03:39 PM
Hi, Nanxiang xiao long bao refers to the very traditional Shanghainese xiao long bao, it is a small "city" (suburb) of Shanghai and the most famous xiaolongbao spot in all of Shanghai is Nanxiang xiaolongbao, which is located at the Yu Gardens.
Posted by: boran | Saturday, 09 September 2006 at 08:08 AM
The truth please! Did you finish all that food except for the pork dish??? Yikes!
Posted by: gouramanda | Saturday, 09 September 2006 at 12:23 PM
Hi boran - Thanks for the info.
Hi gouramanda - We believe that leftovers are a good thing - we had enough for 2 more meals.
Posted by: Kirk | Saturday, 09 September 2006 at 11:33 PM
I had dinner here once trying to find a new authentic chinese restaurant. We ordered the Szechuan Fish (decent) and fried rice. I was so disappointed with the fried rice. I knew right off the bat isn't wasn't authentic. It was lacking flavor and dry. Maybe they were missing the msg :) Not memorable...
Posted by: Yvonne | Friday, 06 July 2007 at 09:14 AM
Hi Yvonne - I suggest that you try the weekend Chinese breakfast. It has never even entered my mind to have dinner there....
Posted by: Kirk | Friday, 06 July 2007 at 09:30 AM