Some Revisits: Noble Chef, Yum Cha Cafe, and Hong Kong BBQ

Here are a couple of revisits.

Noble Chef:

It's pretty much inevitable when I get to know someone, that one of the first items for discussion would be, "have anything good to eat lately". And such is the case with my Dry-Cleaner Lady, with whom I've shared recommendations and opinions over the years. One recent discussion was over Noble Chef. We both are of the opinion that many of the dishes were executed better before the previous owners retired. Although we both thought that as time passed the food there is getting better. The Dry Cleaner Lady told me that although the broth was pretty weak, the Hu Tieu with Shrimp Balls were pretty good. So during the recent rain and cold I decided to drop by and grab a bowl of Hu Tieu with Beef and Shrimp Balls:

 
And yes, the broth was decidedly bland, in need of help from the sweet-soy and other condiments. I'm used to a mild pork flavor broth for my Hu tieu soups.... this had almost no flavor.  The Beef Meatballs were fairly "squeaky", and were also pretty weak. Those shrimp balls did have a nice shrimp flavor and were quite tender.

 
The rice noodles were prepared well, slippery with a mild chew to them.

Overall an ok bowl, but I don't think I'll be having this again due to the really watery broth.

The Noble Chef
6159 Balboa Avenue
San Diego, CA 92111
(858)278-8688

More posts on Noble Chef can be found  here, here, and here.

Yum Cha Cafe's cheapo 3 item BBQ Combo:

**** Yum Cha Cafe has closed

On a recent jaunt to Thuan Phat Market to pick up some vegetables the Missus wanted for dinner, I decided to check out what was going on at Yum Cha Cafe. I think things have slowed down a bit, so now there's all manner of specials going on. One caught my attention right away.

 

Granted, as I've mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of Yum Cha's Roast Duck. But 3 meats and rice for under five bucks? You know I just had to try it out. As the various meat was pulled and chopped I was surprised that it seemed like a good amount of protein. And the box seemed to weight at least two pounds. Not along the lines of Tita's in terms of insurmountable food, but the styrofoam box seemed quite hefty.

Opening the box up, it looked like there was a head on collision of Chinese BBQ that fell on a mattress of rice. After playing a bit of Chinese BBQ CSI, I could make out what was what.

The best item was the roast chicken which was very moist and tender., even the white meat sections:

 

It had a nice mild lemon grass flavor.

The Roast Duck was also moist, fairly meaty, but lacking in flavor.

 

The skin was on the rubbery side. Overall, this was better than what I had before, but still not even close to top-notch.

The worst item overall was the BBQ Pork, tough and bland are not good when it comes to Char Siu.

 

The best item overall were the pickled vegetables, which were good, if on the sweet side. So could I recommend this? Well, if you were really hungry and had only five bucks.........this could be two meals.

Yum Cha Cafe
6933 Linda Vista Road
San Diego, CA 92111

Roast Duck from Hong Kong BBQ and Dim Sum:

If you've read my previous post on this place you'll know that I've been less than pleased with what I've had here. But after a recent less than satisfying meal from Song Huong, I wandered through Vinh Hung Market and walked pass the Chinese BBQ, and the Roast Duck looked pretty good, so I decided to buy me half a duck.

Which ended up being pretty good, much better than what I've had before.

 

So perhaps I'll return to try some other items in the future.

Hong Kong BBQ & Dim Sum
10550 Camino Ruiz(Inside of Vinh Hung Market)
San Diego, CA 92126

Postscript: With the left-over duck, I decided to make something. You see, I was still fuming from spending fifty bucks for a mediocre Peking Duck meal at Duck House in Monterey Park. I was especially disappointed in the stir-fried duck meat with bean sprouts which had no flavor at all. When I mentioned this to the Missus, She called me out and asked, "could you do better".......

Which is why I made this with the leftovers.

 

I used my 55,000 BTU Big Kahuna to revive and crisp up the duck meat. Added the bean sprouts, which if you've just bought a high BTU wok stove, is a great way to learn to use it. Flavored at the end with duck drippings and premium soy sauce......

Compared to this:

 

 

Comments

[kat]

yummy revisits!

[Lynnea]

your bean sprouts really do look yummy! =) it's tough when home cooks can do better than professionals. makes me want to eat in more often.

[Jason]

I'm glad you mentioned the HK BBQ restaurant, next time you go give the wonton soup a try. While the soup is pretty mediocre, the wontons are nice and shrimpy as HK style wontons should be. Compared to the mediocre-ness that Luong Hai Ky is, it's a decent option in that area.

On a side note, we go there moderately often and always get a kick out of the one waiter running around like crazy. You can tell the folks who never have gone there before, because they'll sit there waiting for him, sometimes for a very long time. You really have to be proactive to flag him down, to the point of walking up to the register area grabbing him as he walks to the floor.

[Dennis]

Hi Kirk, I was randomly at The Noble Chef again last week. I've avoided any soup noodle dishes there after a couple extremely bland experiences but thought it was just me since I see it ordered often.
Anyhow I'm curious about Yum Cha Cafe's $3.39 roasted chicken bowl now! ;)

[bill]

Geesh, the Missus suckered you or is it an excuse to be bring out the big guns? I need a burner like that for my wok. Watery soup sucks...

[ed (from Yuma)]

A fun post. Good work with the Big Kahuna!

[Faye]

I love meatball soup - I've never been to Noble chef thou. What do you mean by the meatballs were "squeaky"?

Your bean sprouts look AMAZING. I wonder if you can replicate that using just a regular wok over standard gas stove top?

Also, i saw your article on Pho in last weeks Reader! Congrats!

[janfrederick]

Cool. I've been thinking about getting duck from there and doing something with it lately. And with the recent warm weather, I might just pull out the propane on Wednesday.

[Michael]

55k?!..now that's some heat!!
Congrats on the reader review gig!! so well deserved and a great article too.

[tofugirl]

Your duck and sprouts stir fry looks awesome! (We go to a really good duck place in NYC but don't even bother with the additional dishes--we just take the duck home and make soup, heh.) I am envious of your 55,000 BTUs...of course, if I had one, I'd probably set my apartment building on fire :)

[Carol]

Kirk, your stir fried duck dish looks awesome, way better than what you bought, which looks like what was at the bottom of the condiment dish from my pho lunch.

[Kirk]

Thanks Kat!

Hi Lynnea - You know, I was so disappointed in that dish.... it really felt like the restaurant wasn't even trying.

Hi Jason - Thanks for the rec. LHK makes their won tons and dumplings like most "Mi" places.... really packed hard. After the duck, I'm willing to try them out again.

Hi Bill - I try to use the Big Kahuna every chance I get!

Thanks Ed!

Hi Faye - Most beef balls have that hard texture that when you rub them it literally squeaks!

Hi Jan - It's great weather for cooknig outdoors now..... I did just that last night!

Hi Michael - Thanks!

Hi TofuGirl - LOL! Burning down the building for the sake of some bean sprouts is probably not a good trade off! ;o)

LOL Carol! It does kinda look like that.

[Hannah J]

All that duck... looks so good... mouth... WATERING!! YUMMO!

[Kirk]

Hi Hannah - Happy Nerw Year! I hope you're doing well. On this visit the duck was pretty good.

[Laura]

Great post. Thanks for sharing.