Chin's Seafood and Grill - Part 2

After a very surprising and pretty good meal at Chin's, we returned several more times. Here's a compendium of some items we've recently eaten that were not included in the first post. These items are from the Chinese Breakfast menu pictured right. During one of our meals we saw 2 Navy Officers enter the restaurant, stopping dead at the entryway, looking at each other totally flummoxed.....not your usual Holiday Inn restaurant, I guess. They were shown a table and given the Lunch/Dinner Menu which has a few items that are on the breakfast menu, but in larger "meal-sized" portions. So several meals later, and we've done some damage with regards to the menu.

Five Spice Beef($4.95):

Wonderful sweet-salty-five spiced flavor. The beef is thinly sliced, and neither too soft, nor too tough. Additional sauce is placed over the meat for extra flavor and moisture.  One of my favorite items on the menu.

ShaoBing Youtiao($2.95):

Shall we say a double-carb special? The Youtiao was quite good, if not a bit on the over-fried and oily side. Still some of the best we've had in San Diego, the Missus was yearning for some Jook(rice porridge) which is not served. Most people were having the Youtiao with Dou Jiang(Soy Milk).

ShaoBing($1.50):

The Shaobing was a bit too dry for the Missus, but a few slices of 5 Spice Beef fixed things up.

Pickled Mustard Greens and Shredded Pork Noodle Soup($6.95):

This soup was quite good, the light broth had some excellent flavor, the slightly bitter greens(made inhouse) added character, and the pork strings were soft and tender with decent pork flavor. we really don't care for the hard spaghetti-like noodles at Chin's, but this soup is on my "list".

Pickled Mustard Greens Steamed Bun($2.95):

A steamed bun with the pickled mustard greens. Here is a view of the filling.

I enjoyed the sweet-bitter flavor of these, the Missus wasn't quite as impressed.

Fried Bread($2.95):

No big deal, and a bit on the oily side. Too light in the middle, and not as flavorful as the version at Kingswood.

Sorry about the following photos, we don't always get seats with optimal lighting.

Wined Chicken($4.95):

Not bad, the chicken doesn't have quite enough of the cured texture I enjoy, though the marinade did have a decent salty-wine flavor. Doesn't hold a candle to the Beef or Smoked Fish.

Of course we had to try the Niu Rou Mein(Beef Noodle Soup - $6.95):

Again we don't really care for the noodles. The Beef was nicely flavored and soft. The broth left something to be desired, nice and beefy, but lacking the depth of flavor from various herbs and spices. We enjoy the version at Shanghai City more - better noodles, better broth, and if you have it on weekend mornings 2 bucks cheaper.

Steamed Hua Juan(Flower Roll - $2.95):

Best eaten with some beef, or soup. Very routine.

The classic Ci Fan Tuan($2.95) with Rousong(Pork Sung/Meat Floss):

Now this was an interesting dish. I'm not a fan of Pork Sung(Rousong) anyway. Rousong, and Zhacai(Spicy Pickled Vegetable) was rolled in glutinous rice, and steamed. A very traditional Shanghainese breakfast item. This was on the dry side, with not enough Zhacai to make a difference in flavor. Perhaps someone who enjoys Rousong will enjoy this more than we do.

After some contemplation, I think what I'll do in a brief post in the future is to go over the menu, and list which item is which. Then, you can do the Captain Jack trick. On a recent visit to Ba Ren, Jack looked over my post, and associated the various dishes with items on the Chinese Placard by location and counting characters. When the Server arrived for His order, he grabbed the placard and pointed to the dish He wanted, totally freaking Her out! So I guess if we list various dishes and associate them with items on the menu, you can grab the Chinese menu, and have some fun.......

Chinese Breakfast served from 11am to 230pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

Chin's
9355 Kearny Mesa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92126

858-536-2300

Comments

[Chubbypanda]

Dammit Kirk,

You always come through with those gorgeous food photos. Those are some choice dishes there.

- CP

[liverbomb88]

your picture of the fan tuan has dessimated any sense of diet-control I have left. i'm going to drag my dudette to go to chin's!

[Fred]

Are all the items shown above available on the regular menu, or are they all weekend brunch items?

I haven't had good fried bread in a while. Although one can buy the very same bread at 99 Ranch and fry it oneself, if one was inclined to.

[Denver]

Damn you!!! I'm hungry now. Thanks alot :)

The 5 Spice Beef looks awesome.

Surprised that they don't have an English menu.

Did I mention that I'm hungry now?

[Ed]

Bread stuffed with fried bread, who would've thunk it!

And to think, my non-SEAsian Asian friends thought it was interesting that I (and other Filipinos) would eat rice with our pansit noodles...

[dave]

if only i could read the menu!

[mizducky]

Dang! I seriously need to make an expedition to this place ... with someone who knows the language. (hint, hint :-) )

[Jim]

Any chance they will have an English menu in the near future?

[Kirk]

Hi CP - Chin's(at least this Chin's) has a pretty nice selection of items, it was fun working our way through the menu.

Hi Liverbomb - I think it's time you try it out, and let me know what you think.

Hi Fred - Some of the items are available on the regular menu, but the portion sizes(and prices) are much higher - and the English translation is a bit strange. Yes, I guess you could buy the frozen stuff, and it ain't bad - but it would only be a small part of a meal......"man does not live on fried bread alone" or something like that! ;o)

Hi Denver - They do have an English menu, but it's the regular Chin's Lunch and dinner menu, and they do have some interesting items on it as well.

Hi Ed - My friends back home like Spaghetti on rice, with macaroni salad of course...like I've said before, it ain't lunch unless you have 3 carbs!

Hi Dave - If you want, you can let me know which dishes you want and I'll tell you where thay are located on the menu...than you can order it, and freak out the people at Chin's!

Hi mizducky - Tell you what, let's wait to see when Ed from Yuma will be in town, and we'll head down to Chin's, and all have a nice Chinese breakfast/brunch!

Hi Jim - First off, let me apologize for treading into brunch territory....but somehow I didn't think you'd mind. ;o) There is an English menu, but not of the Chinese breakfast...same with Shanghai City - if you know what you want, I'm sure you can get it! Otherwise, you'll just get the regular lunch menu.

[Kathy]

Man, do you know how lucky you are to have all these menu items under one roof?!
Ahhh...can't even remember the last time I had fried bread (not counting that donut I had yesterday...I mean real, Chinese kine fried bread!) lol :)

[Rachel]

Hey Kirk! I think that five spice beef looks so delicious! I can just about imagine it with noodles, or some of that fried bread or rice .. mmmm I must say that wine chicken looks better than the two times I tried it in Shanghai. Much more succulent looking.

[Passionate Eater]

Kirk, remember how that Vietnamese restaurant owner thought you were Vietnamese because of how you ordered? Your descriptions of the food and your pingyin translations also fooled me into thinking that you are Chinese. Great post!

[Captain Jack]

Thanks for the love Kirk. I definately want to use "the trick" at Chin's. I have to have that 5 spice beef

[Kirk]

Hi Kathy - Yes, this was a very nice find....

Hi Rachel - That 5 spice beef is really good.....

Hi PE - You got to remember the Missus is from China! We both had to sit down and work through the pinyin...and we gave up on stuff that was too hard. ;o)

Hi Capt Jack - Can't wait too see what happens.

[Andy 食神]

Here's a question for you Chinese foodies... that shao bing you tiao is quite interesting.

Is the 燒餅油條 (P:shao bing you tiao) a northern take on Cantonese 炸兩 (P:zha liang). Zha liang being a youtiao that is wrapped in a steamed rice noodle.

or could this be an invention of tis particular restaurant?

that fan tuan 飯糰 look spectacular!

[ed (from Yuma)]

Yeh, I'd love to come over sometime and eat at Chin's. In fact, almost everytime I read this blog, I wish I could send my taste buds over to San Diego since the rest of me has to be over here in the desert grading papers.

[Kirk]

Hi Andy - Hope someone has an answer for you, we haven't a clue!

Hi Ed - Hope all is well. We'll try to head down here next time you're in town!

[Jack]

Great post and great pics Kirk. You might have to go through the whole menu for all of us and steer us to the right dishes :) .....no seriously!

[Kirk]

Hey Jack - Well, I don't know how welcome 20 posts on Chin's would go over..... ;o)

[Ed]

That rousong - it looks like Indonesian abon-abon. I remember having this with a vegetable side dish and a mound of rice on several occasions in Bali and Java. I'm not really a big fan of it either - it's like eating dry, stringy meat-flavored sawdust ;)