Saturday Stuffs: Goodbye Shanghai City? And updates on Baihe (Lily Bulb) and Guai Wei Can Dou (strange flavor broad beans 怪味蚕豆)

Goodbye Shanghai City?

On a recent visit to Nijiya, I noticed that the lettering had been taken off of Shanghai City. This grabbed my attention so I walked on over to find this sign.

 
 It says they are closed for "renovation"....... so maybe it's just a freshening up, which Shanghai City has needed for a while. Of course they'll be opening on 8/8....

Then I saw the Application for Ownership Change.

 

It seems that the place will be under new ownership. It made me a bit sad, at the least I should have gotten one last bowl of Niu Rou Mein.  

3860 Convoy St
San Diego,CA 92111

An update on Guai Wei Can Dou (strange flavor broad beans 怪味蚕豆):

I first wrote about Guai Wei Can Dou in this post. The Missus and I love the stuff, and had been allowing ourselves a ration of two to three pieces a day from the stash we brought back from China. Of course it was just a matter of time before we'd munch on our last Guai Wei Can Dou, which happened all too soon. I soon set out looking for these broad beans around San Diego. I found one brand in Thuan Phat Market, but it looked plain wrong. There was one place that I thought we'd find this snack, and we made sure to drop by on a recent trip to our old neighborhood of Rowland Heights....... T S Emporium.

Emporium is a good name for this large shop which sells just about every kind of bottled and canned food item, snacks, and what they are really well known for, the herbs. It used to be that the smell of Chinese Herbal Medicine would hit you smack in the face when you entered. Nowadays the smells are bit more muted, and the apothecary is gone.

There are still endless aisles of goods, though.

And wouldn't you know they had two different brands of Guai Wei Can Dou.

Including one of the brands we brought back from China.

The strange thing about these "strange flavor" broad beans was they weren't nearly as "Ma" (numbing) as what we brought back from China. We noticed that Sichuan Peppercorn items aren't nearly as numbing as they are in China. I'm wondering if the irradiating of Sichuan Peppercorn affects the numbing aspect. And perhaps they irradiate this as well.... or perhaps it's just a bit of a different formula??? That's ok.... I'll take what I can get until we return to China.

T S Emporium
1457 Nogales St
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

An update on Baihe (Lily Bulb):

The gentleman at Beijing Restaurant in San Gabriel had told the Missus where to get Baihe. He laso gave us some specific instructions for rinsing and soaking to get rid of the sulphides, how to select lily bulb, and to only purchase ones that are labeled to come from Lanzhou. We purchased some from 168 Market in San Gabriel. We also saw the Xiang Chung Ya (salted shoots of the Chinese Toon Tree) that I believe the restaurant uses. It looked terrible, no wonder we weren't impressed......

 The funny thing was, the very next morning "Tenjo" mentioned that we could find Baihe at 99 Ranch Market here in San Diego! I thought that I pretty much knew where everything was at 99 Ranch Market........ but I was wrong. We found the Baihe stacked above the bean sprouts in the produce section.

I trim a little off the top....mostly the brown and discolored stuff, and just enough off the bottom so I can peel the petals of the bulb. I rinse three times, then soak in water for about 5-6 minutes, followed by another good rinse to remove the sulphides used to prevent discoloration. Many of the brown spots are just superficial, and can be rinsed or rubbed off.

If you've noticed a dearth of cooking posts recently; it's because I've been making this five or six times a week.

 

Don't forget some ginko nuts while you're at it...... 

Thanks again Tenjo!

Comments

[Dennis]

The stir-fry looks delicious! I think it's about time I invest in a high BTU burner this summer.... :)

[Jeff C]

Kirk, looks awesome. Your wok skills look great. I never new what those bulbs were and what the gingko nuts were for. I always assumed they were more for Vietnamese dishes. Would love to know what recipe you used to incorporate it. Please?

[kat]

looks like a great stir-fry :)

[Jason]

Oh no! Shanghai City was sold?!?! I would have liked a couple more orders of XLB, the Niu Ro Mein, and the Chow Neen Go. I guess the next question is where's the next best place to get my XLB fix satiated?

[Lynnea]

we noticed something was up when we were at Nijiya last week. it's really too bad.

[Didi]

Wow, that stir fry looks great, Kirk.

Yeah, sad day that Shanghai City was closed. We happened to go the last night they opened, and got to say goodbye and good luck to the waiters. :( Didn't get to have their Niu Ro Mein but did ordered Xiao Lung Bao. Supposedly, the new owners are the same as Spicy City.

[Kirk]

Hi Dennis - Omce you've used a high BTU burner, it's hard to do without.

Hi Jeffrey - Lily Bulb is really great in a light stir-fry.... we had it with celery, cucumber, bittermelon in China.

Thanks Kat!

Hi Jason - Yes, it's sad, they've been around so long. As for XLB, sadly we go to the SGV for it. Nothing in San Diego even measures up.....

Hi Lynnea - Yes, really sad.

Hi Didi - That's interesting. I'm wondering what style of Chinese they're planning to do??

[SK]

I tried out a stirfry with bai he and gingko nuts this evening and found the result rather unsatisfying. I'm wondering if I didn't use a good cooking method or if I just don't particularly like either ingredient.

Are you doing anything to prepare the gingko nuts before cooking them? I sauteed them in oil for several minutes and found they had a faintly unpleasant bitter taste.

I used the bai he in a simple stirfry with greens and egg, flavored with a little soy sauce and wine. Nothing wrong with them, but they just didn't seem to have much of a flavor.

[Kirk]

Hi SK - It could be a little of both. Ginko Nuts are a pretty strong "herb" so you don't want to only use a few of them in a dish. I rinse them well, because.... well if you've ever smelled ginko biloba.... they are good as a ingrdient in certain stir-fries and soup, but never the main focus of a dish. As for the Baihe, it is very mild in flavor, and you'll usually see them simply stir-fried with a bit of salt, alongside something with a bit more heft. I think the eggs and soy sauce basically killed it. Bai he is another item that supposedly has great health benefits.

[Yet another Pam]

Oh, that's right. I bought some baihe a couple weeks ago. The same brand, even. (dashes off to cook dinner. With baihe in the stirfry.)

[Kirk]

Time to get cooking Pam!