Road Trip: Giang Nan - Monterey Park(LA)

*** A short update can be found here.

Since we had managed to make it to Monterey Park during the eve of Chinese New Year, we decided to forgo the food stands at the Floral Street Fair, and take our chances at Giang Nan.

I say take our chances, mainly because we've never been able to get a table at Giang Nan, on every attempted visit there has been a wait list. Giang Nan resides in one of the hundreds of strip malls in the area, this time on Garfield Avenue. The restaurant is tucked away from the road at the rear of the parking lot perpendicular to the street. The restaurant itself is clean and well lit, though not very large. You've got to watch your step...not only are the tables close together, there are several inconspicuous steps that can cause you to stumble if you're not aware.

Looking over the menu, we started with the Roast Duck in Supreme Sauce($4.95):

The photo makes the dish look larger than it was. This was a single, chopped duck leg, roasted with a marinade that tasted much like a "red-cooked" Roast Duck, with that ubiquitous sweet-soy sauce flavor. I did enjoy the sticky salty sweetness.

Because we wanted a very light lunch we ordered the House Special Pork Knuckle(Pork Pump - $12.95) he-he-he:

In this case, the football sized pork shank that arrived was much, much larger than the photo suggests. From what I understand this pork shank(it is called "House Special De-Greased and Braised Pork Knuckle"  on the menu) is first fried, than braised in a sauce of rock sugar and soy sauce. This shank was enough to feed six people! The meat was a bit on the tough side, though the fat was a heavenly melt in your mouth creamy, and the skin tasted great as well. We only had three slices before cholesterol remorse got the better of us.

While eating this, the Missus and I got into a interesting conversation:

"You know, you don't have an identity when it comes to New Year....."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you really don't celebrate the Western New Year, and even though you're Japanese, you mainly cook for me to celebrate the Japanese New Year, you go to the Tet Festival, and you have more fun celebrating Chinese New Year...you're obviously confused."
"Well....maybe I'm a man of all countries! Yeah, that's right, I'm a worldly person!"
"Yeah right....if you keep eating all that pork fat, you'll be worldly alright. Waaaay bigger at the equator than at the poles......"

You realize that we couldn't leave without some Xiao Long Bao, right? Here's the Pork and Crab Xiao Long Bao($4.95):

The wrappers were a bit thicker than those at Mei Long Village, and were very delicate in flavor. Unfortunately, a few of the XLB had lost their soup. I liked the ratio of soup to meat, though.

The Pork Xiao Long Bao($4.25):

These had an excellent ratio meat to soup, though I like the wrappers at Meilong Village better. Both the meat and the soup were perfect, and wonderful slightly sweet, rich, umami flavor. My favorite XLB so far. Well..... maybe now I'm not quite sure....perhaps I can talk Ed from Yuma into a XLB "crawl" this summer? Anyone game????

The prices at Giang Nan are very reasonable, the Pork XLB were only $4.25. We'll be back to try some other dishes like the Winded Chicken, The Lion's Head, Smoked Fish, and others.......

Giang Nan
306 N Garfield Avenue
Monterey Park, CA 91755

Comments

[Kirk]

Hi Scout55 - Just like American BBQ, Pho, Pizza, etc.... it seems that everyone has their favorite XLB. I thought the ratio of soup to meat at J&J was off, I enjoy the XLB wrappers from those I've had at Meilong Village, along with the filling and soup from Giang Nan. And I couldn't agree with you more....you only go around once!

[sawyer]

hey kirk. i had the pleasure to go to that one place in the same plaza (i forget the name but it has dumplings and it says bakery or something on the outside) but you and gastronomy and others have written about it. but thi place loks awesome..i could def. go for that pork right now.

please add me to the list of xlb crawl. if i am in la, i will most definitey definitely go.

[Kirk]

Hi Sawyer - You must mean Dean Sin World. Let me know when you're scheduled to be back home and we'll do something!