Road Trip: Tianjin Bistro - San Gabriel (Los Angeles)

**** Tianjin Bistro has closed

*** Additional posts on Tianjin Bistro can be found here, here, and here

I'll put off my last post on Vegas. Instead, I thought I'd post on our lunch st.op on the way home from Vegas. We were ready to leave Vegas after our meal at Lotus of Siam, really. Things had started getting pretty crowded, and folks were up to the usual antics on the strip. We woke the next morning, and hit the road by 8am. We did of course, intend on stopping in the LA area for lunch. My initial intent was on stopping at Earthen Restaurant in Haci enda Heights since I'd heard so much about it. And we made pretty good time, rolling into the plaza on Azusa at 1130......but Earthen was already packed, with folks waiting in line, and a 30 minute wait. Plus, the Missus looked over the menu and wasn't particularly moved....not moved enough to wait at least 30 minutes. Better to be on the move, than to wait smelling food for a half an hour. So digging into my "black book" I came up with another choice; Tianjin Bistro in San Gabriel. If you are a long time reader off our blog, you may recognize the location, as being the former Mei Jia Deli. 

    

Mei Jia Deli was a roller coaster ride for us. The place looked like it was always in the weeds, the nice staff being run ragged, the customers down right rude and demanding.... But still, the Missus kinda liked the place. And when "Andy" who used to have a wonderful blog called "the ABC" (we miss you Andy!) told me this place became a Taiwanese Restaurant, no one was more sad than the Missus. It seems this place has a hard time holding businesses, now, a year or so later, it's a Tianjin restaurant again.

The interior looks much neater, but who decided on the pepto-bismol pink paint job? On the good side; perhaps pink will calm the nerves of the high strung and demanding clientele that once visited Mei Jia Deli! Another item of note. The tables are lined with inexpensive pink tablecloths, which is itself lined with plastic that looks like garbage bag material.

 

The atmosphere was also different; very laid back and friendly. The owner, a very nice gentleman, gave us a good amount of attention from the beginning. The menu, was itself different, and the posted specials on the wall added to the confusion. It didn't help that we weren't really well versed in Tianjin Cuisine. Though Tianjin is a scant 2 hour trip from Beijing, the Missus wasn't too familiar with the cuisine, other than knowing that Tianjin was well known for their snacks and street food. The menu itself seemed to be an interesting combination of various dishes, many of them familiar (as you'll soon read). And it could very well be Tianjin Cuisine, since Tianjin is known to be a port city, and thus perhaps the food has had many varying influences over the years. About the only thing I remember about eating at Mei Jia Deli, other than the Gua Ba Cai, were the Gou Bu Li Bao Zi (Stuffed buns that dogs are not interested in"). I did notice that the menu contained a great number of Lamb dishes which made me very happy.

There was one other thing that the Missus enjoyed. While chatting with the owner in Mandarin about the various dishes, the woman on the table behind us suddenly started chiming in, and than the woman behind the front counter! The Missus was laughing and smiling. She later explained to me that this was "just like Beijing. You could have a seat, and folks would just start talking......" She was in Her element. The woman had told Her, "don't listen to him(referring to the owner), listen to me, I'll tell you what is good here!" There's a straight forward, without being rude attitude to this place and the customers. The Missus told me this is a trait of Northern Chinese, they call "shuang liang" (sorry not sure of the piniyn), being honest, non-pretentious folk. You gotta love it......

We started with the Cumin Lamb($8.99):

 

One thing I quickly noticed was that this restaurant uses a lot less oil for cooking. As for the lamb, it was much more tender than it looked. It lacked a strong cumin flavor, and the lamb was only mildly gamey. We were both worried that the amount of cilantro used in making this dish would just overwhelm all the other flavors, but it did not. I really loved the large slices of garlic that had been caramelized during cooking. Not a bad dish.

We also ordered the Yang Rou Chuan (Lamb Skewers - $4.99):

 

Lamb skewers.....one of the ultimate examples of streetfood if you ask me. These were a bit different. Usually the meat is grilled, which helps develop the flavor of the lamb. These were deep fried, so you gained the wonderful texture of deep-fried meat, but it seemed like all the flavor had been lost. We both found this to be quite bland.

While eating, we enjoyed the view of the great pyramids of Tianjin! Beautiful, aren't they?

 

Pyramids? Tianjin? Ha......these are called "Wo-Wo Tou" , a steamed corn based "bread" (I use the term bread very loosely). The Missus ate this on occasion while growing up....but it is my Mother In Law who misses this. During the hard times of the Cultural Revolution this was a staple in Northern China. I guess there's a whole lot of memories tied up in the humble steamed corn "bread".

Lest you think this in any way resembles American Corn Bread, you're in for a big surprise! It is not sweet nor moist. These cakes while very fragrant are dense, very dry, and very hard to swallow. When the owner of Tianjin Cafe asked the Missus how these were, She said, "I like the taste, but I can't swallow...."

 

After eating one of these, and almost feeling it sitting in the bottom of my belly, I can understand its usefulness during hard times. It has bulk to it, and will fill you up and "hold you" for a good amount of time.

 

For my In-Laws, and many of the same generation of Chinese, I'm sure wo wo tou represents many of the hardships, and the good times, of their youth. There's a bit of nostalgia tied up in this and the Missus enjoyed this.

We also ordered the Suan Cai Yang Rou (Preserved vegetable with lamb hot pot - $6.99), Suan Cai Bai Rou (preserved vegetable with fatty pork hot pot) is also available. I was surprised at the portion size, which was very generous.

 

Suan Cai is a pickle made from Napa Cabbage. It is blanched in hot water, salted, and a weight is placed on it. The fermented cabbage smells just like sauerkraut, and tastes very similar, except in this case it is much more sour. The Missus, knowing of my love for pickled veggies ordered this.

This is a very simple hot pot, made with suan cai, water, frozen tofu, which managed to act like a sponge for the broth, and fatty parts of lamb.

 

More from my MIL; "this is a winter dish. During the winter, when a pig is slaughtered, nothing is wasted. The fatty parts of the pig is used along with suan cai to make a hot pot." Which is pretty much what this was. The flavor was rather mild, but just as with many soups, stews, and hot pots, it tasted much better the following day. A simple, but satisfying dish. While we were eating this, the owner came by and asked how we liked the food. And added the phrase, "now do not lie....if you lie to me, you lie to your stomach!" I was really starting to like this place.

Last, we had the Pan Fried Dumpling (Tianjin Baozi - $6.99). Which looked just like.....

 

Shengjian Bao!!! These arrived upside-down on the plate. I noticed a lack of the lovely crust of a SJB, again, much less oil was used here.

The top portion of the bao was pretty fluffy, and enjoyable.

 

The filling was more firm than other versions, and drier, but not in an unpleasant way. It did have good flavor, porkiness with a nice sesame oil flavor.

 

It reheated pretty well the next day. Now if it had a better crust.......

There was one more thing the Missus wanted me to taste:

 

Beijing style yogurt. Bluecherry Yogurt Bar is a Alhambra shop, which looks like it's trying to push fro-yo for the young clientle. But this was a little carton of Beijing style yogurt. At Tianjin Bistro, it cost $2.25. This is a drinkable style of yogurt, which is lightly sweetened, and very tart and sour.

 

I really enjoyed this.........now this would be a fad I can get in to! It reminded me of the refreshing and restorative yogurt we had in Cusco.

The owner of Tianjin Bistro told the Missus that he wanted to serve the kind of food he missed when he first came to America. As the sign says in Chinese, this is homestyle food, some of it simple, most of it hearty, some of it pretty good. I think we'll be back......

Tianjin Bistro
534 East Valley Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Open Thurs-Tues 11am - 10pm
Closed on Wednesday

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Comments

[kat]

the bao looked really good! I think I need to go hunt for some good dim sum here...

[nhbilly]

Wow what gem too bad the Wife and I won't get to experience the joy any time soon. Darn!

[Passionate Eater]

I love your stories about the Missus and her family's experiences. Thank you for sharing.

[Kirk]

Hi Kat - I'll love to read about what you find.

Hi Billy - Yes, it was an interesting meal.

Hi PE - No, thank you for reading!

[foodhoe]

sounds like a charming restaurant, those dumplings! and that yogurt! I have a mysterious clay pot marked Tianjin preserved vegetables in my pantry that I have yet to open...

[Wandering Chopsticks]

I didn't know BlueCherry made Beijing-style yogurt. I thought it only sold the fro-yo that's popular now. Will have to stop in.

Are you still looking for shen jian bao? My favorite are at Kang Kang Food Court, where the old Shau May used to be on Valley/Garfield. I'll blog about it soon so you can see.

[Kirk]

Hi FH - I think what you have Tianjin Dongcai....good stuff.

Hi WC - Great! I look forward to your post.

[Pepsi Monster]

Kirk, I'm too scare to go back to Blue Cherry again. Bad memories.

Good recommendation of Tianjian, I'll have to check it out when I'm at that plaza again.

[Lynnea]

That Yogurt looks/sounds delicious. I wonder where it's available in SD area?

[Kirk]

Hi PM - The menu at Tianjin Bistro is a bit different.

Hi Lynnea - We've been looking around for it....I don't think we'll find it here, but i'll let you know if I do.

[Jeff C]

So those corn bread are the types that were mentioned by some history books as the ones the Empress Dowager took a liking to when she had to flee the palace during a coup.

[Kirk]

Hi Jeffrey - Funny you should mention that; my MIL said it was a different type of wo-wo tou. I'll get some clarification.