Road Trip: Dezhou Pa Ji from 101 Noodle Express - Alhambra(LA)

Two days ago, JosephE wrote a comment on our post on Mei Jia Deli with the idea of letting the Missus do Her own post. What a great idea! And I think we found the perfect subject - Dezhou Chicken from 101 Noodle Express. Fasten your seatbelts, here it comes.........Heeeere's the Missus!

Driving West on Valley Boulevard after lunch at Mei Jia, shaved ice in hand, I suddenly spotted the sign "Shan Dong Dezhou Pa Ji", which instantly brought back memories of growing up in QingDao, Shan Dong, China.

Back when I was a little kid, we were all pretty poor, according to America standards at least. But we didn't know any better since everybody had the same things, which were not much. We were just little kids running around naive and happy. Head over heels about Andy Lau, The Shaolin Temple starring Jet Li, and stuff like that.

The refrigerator didn't become a household item until about the mid 1990's. Before that, we all needed to stop by the open-air market daily.  Streets were blocked up for vendors to set up their stands, one next to another, running over several blocks. Most of what was sold was homegrown or homemade, and each vendor specialized in only one thing, either one type of vegetable, or fresh made tofu, or some kind of fruit. Bargaining is not only to be expected, it is required, beyond just a game, it is an art of its own. It is common for people to spend 5 minutes to bargain down an item saving just 5 cents and walk away with a bunch of green onions worth about 12 cents. Such a victory always brought great joy.

There are also livestock, mostly live chickens, cooped up in a pen, ready to be picked up.  For a young man trying to "wow" a perspective girl's family, nothing is better than arriving with a big, live rooster in hand, upside down bound up around the feet. It always brings a smile from the future in-law's face.  No wonder avian flu often started in Asia! Then again, I never got any food borne disease when I was growing up, no E-coli, no listeria, no hepatitis. I was as healthy as a country bumpkin should be, right along the "growth curve" which we didn't have in China back then.

On the other hand, everything is always fresh. Fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, fresh killed pork hanging upside down with a seal of approval of blue ink promptly displayed. The Butcher's greasy apron, the vegetable sellers muddy hand identified the preferred vendors.  Meals are prepared daily, my Grandmother would get up before everyone else to prepare breakfast, then lunch and dinner while working full time as a School Principle.

There were Government grocery stores, selling mostly soy sauce, vinegar, or oil, and other rationed items. One of my Aunt's worked in one of those 7-11 sized stores. She always smelled like a marinade mixture of soy sauce and vinegar. When in season, there would be piles of tomatoes, napa cabbage, or blue crab running sideways along sidewalk all directions at the same time, in that situation, my Aunt would spend most of her time running after those crabs than really selling them. And nothing is more entertaining to a kid with not much toys ( I was not deprived as a child though, I have everything everyone else did if not more, we were considered pretty well to do in the neighborhood).

Well back to this Dezhou Chicken thing. I really don't know where Dezhou is or why this chicken is so famous. The only thing I know is that it tasted so good, and I remember exactly where the little shop was that we usually got the chicken from. It was always a special treat, a once or twice a year type of thing. Chicken was rare and expensive back then.

OK, the little shop that sold this chicken was located at the beginning of the market which was right down the hill from where my Grandmother's house was. Tucked behind the vegetable vendor, in a dark little room, the chicken was sold by this dark little man, after you ordered, he would bring out one of the dark little chickens soaked forever in the dark broth in a big iron pot behind him, and hand it to you. The chicken was small, not like the enhanced double D in the States, more like A and a half. The most delicious part are the legs. The bone will slide right off the meat. The meat is dark and full of 5 spice, soy sauce, sugar and wine flavors.  The meat is not mushy and tasting like dead meat. It is firm and has a slight chew to it. A family of 10 usually will share one chicken and I often dreamt of having one all to myself. My own neck to knaw on.

Since I moved to States and I haven't seen nor thought about this chicken for more than 15 years. Now you see how excited I was when I saw this sign.

My chance at last. A good husband as Kirk is, he made an immediate U-turn in the middle of the busy Valley Blvd ( not all that unusual in Alhambra). We had to buy a chicken and they'd better not run out of it, as it was all I was thinking about when I walked into the restaurant. It was a typical, actually a much cleaner eatery, than the norm in the San Gabriel Valley. I was so excited I started ordering in English and the Girl gave me a baffled look. I had to slow down and order in Chinese.  It was $8.70 for half a chicken ( still not cheap), for a contorted, dead yogi style half chicken in a Styrofoam container. By the way, the contortion is part of the style. We Chinese know how to maximize space, like twisting the chicken into little balls or squeezing 1 billion people along the east side of a Country.

Back to this chicken, the color is much lighter, the chicken is bigger than a whole chicken was in China, and the taste, while pretty good was much lighter than I remembered. The flavor was not as condensed or as hearty. Still, it was very good. Kirk, on the other hand, didn't think much of it and I don't blame him. If I never had this kind of chicken, I probably come to the same conclusion.

In conclusion, I was disappointed in the chicken, but that didn't dampen my spirit at all. I became wordy and giddy, called my Mom and I could tell she was brought back to those days in China as well. Maybe it is not the chicken I was looking for. Maybe it is something else, like the feeling of having nothing, but still desiring nothing, extremely content, always feeling like the richest kid on the block since I had everything I needed or knew to desire. No desire, therefore no disappointment.

Now go and find your Dezhou Chicken!

101 Noodle Express
1408 E. Valley Blvd
Alhambra, CA

Comments

[mizducky]

What a beautiful story!

[Jim]

I think that your story once again proves that food is more than nutrition. Food represents our history, our memories and our families. How many people have stories just like yours about a variety of foods? All in all, this was a wonderful story, and just in time for the holidays (the best time for nostalgia).

[Professor Salt]

"No desire, therefore no disappointment." Lovely, buddhist, and existential all at once.

Mmm-MissusYoso should guest star more often!

[Pepper]

Agreed, this is a great post!

[Puma]

Thanks for letting us have a glimpse into your past!

[wandering chopsticks]

Missus Mmm-Yoso, your description of growing up in China was wonderful. I could just picture everything. So sorry the chicken was disappointing. But the best part of food hunts sometimes is simply the memories it brings.

[Lynnea]

Thank you for that sweet and wonderful post! Maybe the Missus could do more posts in the future?

[lance]

Great story, great description, great post. Looking forward to more............

[Naiomi]

I was wondering if you are a professional writer because I could read a whole novel of your wonderful prose.

[nhbilly]

Awesome remind of my childhood with my parents...thanks for sharing! Recently my addiction has been soy sauce chicken and I am not a big fan of boiled chicken either. But Dang! ;-)

[ed (from Yuma)]

Thanks so much for sharing bits of your childhood and recreating that world that you lived in for the rest of us. Thoroughly enjoyable post. And here I thought Kirk was the good writer in the family.

[Didi]

Oy, more guest post from Mrs. Kirk, please.

Very nice paintings of a life growing up. Thanks for sharing.

[Joanna]

Kirk you're not the only game in town anymore. Missus is such a good writer!

[Kris]

I have been reading this blog for months and always enjoyed Kirk's writing, as a Hawaii ex-pat in Switzerland it reminded me of home. Now we have heard from the Missus and received an insight into another way of life. Hopefully, there will be more of her beautiful insights on her culture and life in China, as well as her culinary explainations!

[Pam]

Missus mmm-yoso,

What a lovely memoir you wrote--i felt like I was there growing up with you. I hope to see more of your writing in the future!

[RONW]

Happy Aloha Friday to both Mr. and Mrs.

[Chubbypanda]

mmm-yoso tai tai,

Ning de wen zhang xie de tai hao le. Wo yi mian du, yi mian xiang qi wo xiao shi hou zhu zai Taiwan de shi. Zhen de hen mian shou.

- Chubbypanda

[Passionate Eater]

Wow, Mmm-Yoso!! is one lucky man! You have such a beautiful writing style and have communicated a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing, and I agree with the other commenters, that if you are willing, I'd love to read them. Take care Mmm-Yoso!! and family!

[The Missus]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the kind words, I had a lot of fun writing it as well. To all the food bloggers and eaters out there, have a good holiday and happy eats. Food is life, enjoy food, in turn, enjoy life.

[Jerome]

Just wanted to say that I've often posted about 101 noodle express on teh LA chowhound board. The beef roll (niu rou juan) is made with their homemade jianbing and the crepe is wonderful - not as full as the tianjin dish you mention at the meijia deli.
Still the dishes like the pumpkin shrimp nangua xiarer jiaozi, the cold dishes, are qutie good. Some days the Dezhou PaJi is better than others - (dezhou is an old garrison town on the hebei shandong border - it's on the trainline from beijing to shanghai [jing-hu tielu]). but the wild vegetable jiaozi and some other dishes are great including the beef roll made with some kind of homemade tianmianjiang.
On garvey just east of garfield is shenyang homestyle restaurant with dongbei dishes - and there are a few other shandong places. For easy beijing snacks, next time, try Deerfield garden at atlantic and garvey in monterey park. also decent shuanyangrou.
loved reading your review. was looking at it from a post at chowhound by kirk's friend.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/348261
post by captain jack.

and next time, try eight cafe for guilin mifen or heavy noodling for mao erduo or decent daoxiaomian, shanxi style.