mmm-yoso!!!

Golden City - Visits Under New Ownership

Remember that post where I noticed the "new" sign for Golden City back in March of last year? Well, I did confirm that the place was under new ownership. I tried to get the Missus to check them out, but after our last visit, albeit under the previous owners, well it was not to be. Then, back at the end of last year, I met my good friend Candice for lunch and we decided on Golden City.

The restaurant was pretty much empty during our entire visit.

It was great seeing Candice again and between catching up on things we managed to order a couple of dishes.

Starting with the Shrimp with XO Sauce....or perhaps I should call it Shrimp with the breath of XO Sauce as it hardly had any of the rich "seafood umami" that XO sauce brings to a dish.

The onions and bell peppers were a bit overcooked as was the shrimp, which was starting to get rubbery. Because of the lack of flavor, the dish had a slight "greasiness" to it.

Of course we got the half Roast Duck.

While the fat had been decently rendered, the skin was strangely chewy, but at least the skin had flavor. Can't say much for the dry and chewy meat, which was quite bland.

Knowing we'd have leftovers, I ordered one of the Missus's favorites; the Salted Fish and Chicken with Eggplant.

Much like other recent versions we've had, it seemed like the amount of salted fish was lacking. Perhaps I need to create an "endangered species" bulletin on salted fish? The eggplant was undercooked and fibrous as well.

The one dish that the both of us were looking forward to was the Dry Scallop, Shrimp, and Chinese Broccoli Fried Rice. A dish that Candice had recommended to us before that really delivered. Well, this time, I think the dried scallop was "lost in the mail" somewhere....maybe it was swimming around with the MIA salted fish?

At least the shrimp was decently cooked; but the rice was not, as there were some hard grains. The Gailan was also a rarity in this dish that seemed so haphazardly cooked. I really felt bad for Candice as this used to be one of her favorite dishes here.

This disappointing visit had me wondering what one of favorite dishes of yesteryear, the Kwai Fei Ji was like these days. So, I put off doing a post until I could try the Kwai Fei chicken again. Which ended up taking over two months! 

But here I was, looking over the lunch specials and finding that Kwai Fei Chicken isn't on any of the lunch specials these days.

Which meant I had to order half a chicken ($17.95) and a side of rice ($1.50).

  And while the rice was on the dry side and the sauce for the chicken was a bit heavy in the oil department, this was pretty good overall. The skin while a bit on the chewy side had nice flavor and as a while the chicken had been nicely poached as the flesh was quite tender and there were hints of winey-gingery-"fowlness". One positive for having a rather oil heavy sauce was that it clung nicely to the chicken.

Well, at least the Kwai Fei Chicken was pretty good. And the woman working on this day; I don't recall seeing her before, was so nice and friendly.

Our "history" with Golden City goes all the way back to the pre-blogging days, back when the restaurant was located on Convoy. My first post on Golden City was when they reopened in this location back in 2005! Back then, we considered the place a good value, with decent food. Not sure about the bang for the buck these days, but I'm hoping the place isn't just a "one trick pony" kwai fei ji place.

Golden City Restaurant
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123
Current Hours:
Mon - Tues, Thurs - Sat 11am - 9pm
Sunday 11am - 830pm
Closed on Wednesday

Diamond Palace (Rolando)

In those days when; other than fine dining and out of town places, I did my best to do multiple visits before doing a post, I had tons of "one-and-done" photos that ended up in the recycle folder. But since around 2022, I've been doing some single visits. As to how many visits; well, it depends on price, and possibly if I'm on the fence about a place. Also, with JJ around, many of those meals will be single visit based as well. And in some cases; like Diamond Palace (and a few more), so much time elapsed between visits, that I decided to start "the clock over again".

I first noticed Diamond Palace was taking the place of Lucky Star back in May of 2022. Back at the beginning of 2023, the Missus and I paid a visit....and then just kinda forgot about things. Here are some photos from that visit.

While it was nice seeing Michael, the former manager of Golden Island, we really weren't impressed. Though I did tell myself to revisit in the couple of months; which became two years! So, those photos were headed for the junk pile.....but.....the Missus was asking about some dim sum. So, we went and (re)visited Diamond Palace and while I did delete most of the photos from that first visit, I had kept a few...which you see above.

And so, it was on a recent weekend morning that we headed to Diamond Palace arriving at around 1030. The place was pretty busy!

The dining room space is large, but only takes up a part of the huge building. DP serves Dim Sum all day, but we quickly noticed that there was only two carts hovering around and the offerings were limited.

We got some of the Tripe, which was undercooked, super hard, and had not absorbed any flavor.

Our favorite item by far were the Shrimp Siu Mai; while the wrapper was quite typical; the shrimp filling was tender, sweet, nicely flavored.

  These seemed a bit over-stuffed, but heck, that shrimp was so good, I ain't complaining about proportion this time around.

The Bean Curd Roll with Abalone Sauce was a disappointment. Mushy and other than being super salty, lacking in flavor.

As was the Chicken Feet, which the Missus said was too hard and lacking in flavor as well.

The Roast Duck was pretty good.

The skin was on the rubbery side; but the fat had been nicely rendered. The flavor on the milder side, the flesh nice and tender. This did well as leftovers, brushed with the duck fat-sauce and put into the air fryer.

We saw Salted Fish and Chicken with Eggplant under the "Chef's Signature" portion of the menu so we ordered it.

We took a taste and the first thing both the Missus and I said was "where's the salted fish?" The dish lacked the umami-savoriness and the eggplant was undercooked; as we enjoy versions where the eggplant holds it's shape, but then melts as it hits your tongue. This was one of the blandest versions we've had.

So, a mixed bag, but the siu mai was quite good. We returned with a slight "strategy" in mind. This time the place was empty when we arrived. And based on how things were; there was only one cart at a time patrolling the dining room.

What was our strategy? Well, we'd try to stick with mostly shrimp-seafood dim sum items.

And while it was rather lean pickins' at least the basics were available.

The Shrimp Siu Mai was just as good this time around.

We also got the Har Gow.

While the wrapper was on the thicker and rubbery side of the scale; the shrimp in this was also plump and tasty.

With seafood in mind, we decided to get the Seafood Pan Fried Noodle. The shrimp was perfectly cooked, sweet, and tender. The fish had been nicely velveted and almost melted in one's mount.

The sauce as quite mild, with just a touch of white pepper and savoriness, but that really helped to make seafood the headliner. Unfortunately, the noodles were undercooked, almost plastic like. Too bad, because this dish was "so close".

What wasn't even "close" was the House Special Roast Chicken. Looking at the photo on the menu, I got serious "Fat Fat Chicken vibes".

Sadly, the skin was on the rubbery side, the seasoning very mild, not much going on, and worst of all, the flesh was dry and stringy.

Not a great way to end the meal.

I do think we'll return to Diamond Palace for the Siu Mai, Har Gow, and related dishes. Maybe they'll have a better variety of items available. And perhaps some duck. But as a whole, stick with seafood items.

You can read Soo's post on Diamond Palace here.

Diamond Palace
3993 54th St.
San Diego, CA 92105
Current Hours:
Mon - Fri 10am - 9pm
Sat - Sun 930am - 9pm

Tasty Noodle House (Convoy) Revisited

I've been craving some interesting things lately......for some reason, I've been wanting some baozi or Sheng Jian Bao. Man could I go for some Guo Bu Li Baozi ("stuffed buns that even dogs would not eat" - a specialty of Tianjin).

It had been a while since I'd been to Tasty Noodle House on Convoy and I thought some Zui Ji - Drunken Chicken would be good as well, especially since this would be a solo lunch. The Missus is not fond of Kwai Fei Ji, Zui Ji, and similar type dishes, so this would a chance to have some. JJ was bushed after having two morning walks and it was nap time; so I thought I'd head out to see how things were at Tasty Noodle House.

I haven't been to this strip mall in ages, since the bike lanes went in. There's a somewhat confusing parking situation. The signs say two hours free when at businesses in the mall, then parking will be charged, all other need to pay. But there was nothing to indicate you were at one of the businesses, no attendant, how the heck would they know? Surveillance cameras???

Anyway, walking into the restaurant I asked, and the woman said "no worry" and walked away......ohhh-kay.....

I had arrived right at 11 and the place was empty. In fact, there were no other customers during my entire meal.

I placed my order for the House Rice Wine Chicken (Zui Ji - $10.99) and the Shanghai Grilled Pork Buns (Sheng Jian Bao - $14.50), both of which seemed decently priced for these days. I was told the sheng jian bao would take 20-25 minutes, which was fine, so long they didn't tow my car!

The chicken arrived in the blink of an eye.

    Well, this was decent sized portion. The chicken was haphazardly chopped with pieces not completely sliced thru. Unlike the rather decent rendition I'd had in the past; this was pretty bad. The chicken was very bland, the liquid (I really can't call it sauce) had barely a hint of the "pungent-bracing-slightly astringent" flavor I enjoy with this dish. Heck, I'd even take the super salty version I'd had here on a previous visit over this.

Rather than the 20-25 minutes I was told my baozi would take, it was out in less than 10 minutes! Hmmmm.....

    Sadly, this was just as bad as the version I'd had here almost a decade ago. The dough was very soggy and rubbery; I like the tops of the baozi to be slightly fluffy. The bottoms were somewhat burnt and on the bitter side, hard instead of crisp. Look, I'm not expecting what we had in Suzhou or what my MIL makes. Heck, if it could be even close to the version at the Hacienda Heights location I'd be happy.

The filling was mushy and overly salty for my taste as well. It lacked a nice porky flavor....or perhaps, all that sodium just messed everything up?

Well, this was a bummer of a meal......

Kinda sad actually.

Tasty Noodle House
4646 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Mom Kitchen

Back in September, I got word that a new Cantonese Restaurant opened in the spot that formerly housed Mama Cinia Rice & Noodles. Some quick checks noted that the placed supposedly served Cha chaan teng, classic Hong Kong style Cafe Cuisine. Which includes touches of various Western and other regional style cuisines, along with (usually) serving inexpensive food. Some of the classics we've had when we lived in the SGV include variations on pork chops, off course egg tarts, lots of won ton, and even macaroni soup, jook, pineapple buns, and of course milk tea.

My friends warned me about the lines when the placed initially opened and FOY "CY" also mentioned that he and "T" were not impressed and also, believing this was a classic HK Cafe, were shocked at the prices. Though it seemed like Soo enjoyed his visits there.

Recently, the Missus and I decided to head on over for lunch arriving right when the place opened at 11am.

There were three groups ahead of us when we arrived, but things didn't get too busy other than a steady flow of food delivery folks picking stuff up.

The menu was an interesting mix of Cantonese specialties....no jook or Spam items though and the prices were not cheap. I know CY complained about spending $25 for half a duck. We looked over the menu and settled on three dishes. 

Also, unlike a typical Hong Kong Cafe, it took a while for food to arrive. The three older women next to us, ordered before us, but their dishes didn't start arriving until after we got our three dishes.

We started with the Geely Fried Pork Chop ($14). ?We had always enjoyed Hong Kong style pork chops, whether they be marinated and fried or served with spicy salt, but this was different.

Take a look; with the shredded cabbage and breading; doesn't this almost look like tonkatsu? The pork had been pounded quite thin and was chewy, the breading separating from the meat. This was on the bland side and very dry.

We also ordered the Shrimp in XO Sauce Noodle ($17), which was served with Silver Needle (aka "Mouse Tail") Noodles, something you don't commonly see in San Diego.

There were quite a few shrimp in this; which were nice and tender. The noodles; if you've never had silver needle noodles, it's sort of like noodles made with wheat and tapioca starch, much like har gow skin. This was on the mushy side, lacking in the nice, slight, "stretch" that we enjoy with this type of noodle. The XO sauce was lacking and this was rather bland overall.

And of course, we needed to try the Roast Duck (half - $25).

I'd seen several photos of the roast duck from Mom Kitchen and this looked a bit different. Especially from the version that Soo had. The fat had not been rendered enough, thus leaving a rubbery sub-layer, the skin was on the rubbery side. The meat of the duck was moist and had a pleasant "fowlness" to it. It was sorely lacking in anise based flavors and the sauce was on the sweet side instead of being the duck fat based wonderfulness we enjoy.

Well, as you can guess, the Missus was not very happy with this meal. I did want to return to try something else on the menu, but knew it would be a solo trip.

So finally, a few weeks after our initial visit, I returned. I wasn't quite sure what to order; but decided on an item that I've not found a good version of in San Diego; Hainan Chicken. 

I ordered the Hainanese Chicken Rice Combo ($17). After ordering, I wondered if I was subconsciously setting Mom up to fail by ordering something that I've not found a good rendition of?

  Well, in terms of the chicken and sauce this was a pleasant surprise! The chicken had been nicely sliced, only two pieces with bones were on the plate; one wing and one part of a leg. The chicken was so moist and tender. But the highlight was definitely the sauce. It's usually too watered down; but this one had a good amount of ginger, but was both aromatic and not over-powering. It had a good amount of seasoning, but the star was the ginger. The chili sauce was way too sweet for me.

   As for the other parts. Well, just by looking at that boiled egg you can see the greyish tone to the yolks which means it had been boiled too long. So yes, there was a bitter-sulfuric tinge to the dry and crumbly yolk. If you look closely, you'll see a piece of white-grey matter in the yolk. I took that out and didn't eat it.

As for the rice...well, usually with this dish I'd get the rice moistened with the chicken soup stock or sauce. This one had a mere drizzling of the ginger based sauce on it, which was easy to remedy by using a couple of spoon of the dipping sauce. The rice was also over-cooked and super hard.

On the positive side, this was a decent Hainan Chicken (without the rice). I'll probably order that as takeout. I think "FOY" Red Devil might enjoy this version, which is much better than what the short lived Rooster Rice & Noodles served.

Overall, one out of four dishes isn't that great. But there are some other items I'd like to try....perhaps in the future.

Mom Kitchen
9178 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92126
Current Hours:
Tues - Thurs 11am - 230pm, 430pm - 830pm
Fri - Sun        11am - 230pm, 430pm - 9pm
Closed on Mondays

Yummy House Revisited

Recently, the Missus and were contemplating a place for lunch. The Missus wanted Chinese food, but had grown somewhat tired of all the "same old places". So, no Cantonese, no Hunan...... Yummy House came to mind; we had done a ton of takeout during the pandemic and our last takeout visit two years ago left much to be desired. But, we hadn't dined in at Yummy House since the beginning of 2020 and the Missus was wanting some of Her comfort food (i.e. Suan Cai) that I thought finally revisiting would be a good idea. So, we headed on over for lunch. We arrived at 1130 and the place was empty.

And though the place was doing some major "fantuan" and "hungry panda" delivery orders, only one more table was occupied during our lunch. Again we wondered how YH has managed to stay in business?

We looked over the menu and quickly noticed that the prices hadn't changed sine our last takeout visit in January of 2023. How could that be possible? 

Suan Cai Yang Rou is no longer on the menu; but the Missus ordered the pork version ($18.98).

There was a good amount of pork in this. Some of it was quite tender; other slices not so much. The suan cai had a decent fermented flavor; but of course we added our own super funky home made stuff to the leftovers. Love the frozen tofu which "sucks up" the sour-salty soup. This was better than versions we'd had here before.

The Braised Pork Belly Pot ($17.98) was on the smaller side.

But was quite tasty. There was some black bean in the dish, good soy sauce-savory tones, the pork decently tender. A nice dish.

The Fish Fillet with Pork Intestine ($20.98) was half of a good dish.

The fish filet, which was not of the best quality, was nonetheless perfectly velveted and melted in your mouth....the temperature of the spicy sauce was also scorching hot and would then melt your mouth. I also enjoy bean curd skin in these type of dishes and this was no exception. The pork intestine were not cooked properly and were super chewy....though you did get that nice "bunginess" from it. We would probably just get the Fish Filet Hot Pot when we return.

Yes, I said when. It had been a while since we've had this style of hearty, "Northerny" style of cuisine. This was surprisingly decent and our bill, including rice came out to $60 before tip. I'm thinking this had a big effect on us since we'd recently had breakfast (with JJ in tow) at Parkhouse Cafe and the Missus's Avocado Toast and my carnitas dish with two coffees was also sixty bucks! I'm certain the pork and the fish filet dishes were a bit smaller than I recalled, but this was still enough for 2+ meals for us.

Oh, and the Missus enjoyed listening to the accents of the group of Chinese folks who occupied the other table giggling and telling me their accent is "so Shandong country"!

So I guess we'll return.....

Yummy House
4633 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Tues - Sun 11am - 9pm
Closed on Monday

So now it's time for my question to you. Has there been anyplace you've dined at recently that you'd written off before, but surprised you? 

Niu Rou Mian from Zen Modern Asian Bistro (Sabre Springs)

In the comments section of my post on the Banh Mi Bo Kho from Pho Lucky, "FOY" Dereck mentioned the Beef Noodle Soup from Zen Modern. I found this interesting since Calvin had also mentioned enjoying the Niu Rou Mian from Zen Modern. So, I guess it was time to make my way to Sabre Springs to check things out. 

I found the location of the restaurant to be interesting, right next to the MTS parking lot, in a small strip mall with a tight parking lot, squeezed between a 7-11 and a location of March and Ash which was doing some major business.

As for the restaurant, well it was empty at a few minutes past eleven.

Once seated, I was handed a menu that had everything from Egg Rolls to Salt & Pepper Wings to Udon to Kimchi Fried Rice to Nigiri to a huge collection of "Rolls"....you kinda see why I hesitated in visiting. Both Dereck and Calvin advised me to only get the Beef Noodle Soup. Which I finally found on the menu below the Crispy Chicken Spring Roll and above the Chinese Chop Salad.

So, I placed my order for the Beef Noodle Soup ($19) and the default dining utensil was delivered to the table.....

Hmmm.....luckily there were packs of wooden disposable chopsticks in the container on the table. 

This is what the niu rou mian looked like.

    This was actually not bad. The soup could have used more anise and beef flavor for my taste, but it had a mild peppery spice, a balanced sodium content, good soy sauce tones, and was not bad at all. In fact, I've definitely had worse in the Convoy District and at a popular chain from Taiwan in Mira Mesa...this was definitely better in my opinion. The richness and texture of the soup was on par with what I've had in San Diego.

The noodles were slightly over cooked, thus they lacked a good "QQ" springiness but were fine.

The beef were a mixed bag, some really under cooked and tough pieces, while some bits were very tender and tasty.

Overall, I was rather pleasantly surprise considering the almost Americanized Asian Fast-Foodish looking shop and menu with dishes from all of East Asia. The price at nineteen bucks wasn't a bargain, but like I said, I've had worse in the "Asian districts" of San Diego. If Zen was in my 'hood, I'd probably have the NRM every once in a while.

Who knew; NRM in Sabre Springs!

Zen Modern Asian Bistro
13510 Sabre Springs Pkwy Suite 103
San Diego, CA 92128
Current Hours:
Mon - Thurs 10am - 9pm
Friday            10am - 10pm
Saturday       11am - 10pm
Sunday          11am - 9pm

Thanks for the recommendation Dereck!

Revisits - Spicy Noodle and 777 Noodle House

I don't know if it's old age or what, but for some reason it just seems colder this year? Well, at least it's good weather to get  some noodles and noodle soup. Here are a couple of revisits for ya'.

777 Noodle House:

I was actually trying to head to Ly Heng, since it had been a while since my last visit. However, there's some crazy road work happening on University between 44th and 46th. They seem to be putting in roundabouts in the street. Anyway, there was just no parking to be had, so I headed further down University for my next choice, Tu Thanh, but again no parking near the restaurant, even on side street 3-4 blocks away. Which left me with one choice....

Well, I wasn't too sure about this since my previous visit was not very good. Still, I've been coming here since 2010 and the same folks are still working the front of house and all, so why not give it another shot, right?

There was only one table occupied when I arrived. I was waved to a two top and handed a menu, though I knew what I was going to order.

The Hu Tieu Nam Vang Kho of course, which is now $11.97, kind of cheap for these days, but I still remember it was $4.77 when I first visited back in 2010!

It looked like the same ol', same ol'.

    But, any doubts were soon dispelled when I started mixing things and eating. The shrimp was decently plump with no off flavors. There was more ground pork than on my previous visit. Of course the sliced pork is chewy and quite rustic, but it flavor. There was still only a single lonely fishball in the bowl.

The hu tieu was decently al dente and well coated with the savory-sweet-salty sauce.

   The pork hock has gotten smaller over the years, but the meat on this one was more tender than on my previous visit and the soup, while still heavy on the msg, had a bit more flavor and a dose of white pepper.

The bean sprouts were nicely blanched and still had a bit of a crunch to them.

While I did mention to my friend "CY" that I never thought I'd see the day when I'd consider a $12 bowl of noodle soup to be inexpensive, that's how things are these days. I'm just glad that my Hu Tieu Nam Vang Kho was satisfying on this chilly day. I'd been here so many times and would you believe this is my 29th post on the place?

777 Noodle House
4686 University Avenue
San Diego, CA 92105 

Spicy Noodle: 

From a place that I've done nearly 30 posts on to one that I've only done one previous post on in March of last year, Spicy Noodle. I was looking for a fairly early lunch and I recalled that Spicy Noodle opens at 1030, so I headed on over.

And yes, they were open.

I had a seat and placed my order via the QR code. The nice woman brought me a pitcher of water. 

There was one item I enjoyed during my previous visits, the Fat Intestine Noodle which is still priced at $15. I was shocked that my bowl arrived in less than 10 minutes after I placed my order.     But a quick bite of the "fatty" intestine assuaged my doubts. It was tender and full of "bungy" goodness. Don't stare at the intestines too long; you might start seeing things.... Nice mild funky-savory tones.

The broth doesn't strike me a being too spicy; there's a bit of ma-la going, on this visit it was decently rich, if a bit on the salty side of the tracks.

The noodles were nice and stretchy-chewy, it was a good vehicle for picking up the soup.

Overall a decent visit; I do wish the soup had a bit more "kick", but did fine on a cold morning. The folks working were very nice. While there seemed to be several takeout orders, I was the only person dining in during my entire visit. I'm hoping they do ok.

Spicy Noodle
8046 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111

Takeout Revisits - Golden Island and Noble Chef

Just a couple of recent revisits for you.

Roast Duck from Golden Island:

We were taking JJ for one of his favorite things; a car ride. And for reason headed up to Mira Mesa. The Missus was wanting to have some roast duck, so we decided on just getting a half roast duck from Golden Island, which I last visited in January of 2022. Things have changed since then; the Manager, Michael now runs Diamond Palace in City Heights which I need to post on one of these days. So,  while the Missus and JJ did some window shopping, I went in a placed a takeout order for a half roast duck ($19.99).

And then we went off for a nice stroll with JJ returning to pick up our order about 20 minutes later.

The roast duck looked pretty good, good color, but I quickly noticed a couple of things, the usual nice fat layer on the bottom of the container was missing.

As was the "fowl-ly" - five spice fragrance. The fat had nicely been rendered, the skin adequately textured, but this was mighty bland. The flesh was moist, not overly dry like recent versions, but again this was sorely lacking in flavor. I tried mixing up a concoction of duck fat, five spice, and the duck sauce, then basting in the air fryer, but all was for naught. 

Golden Island
10660 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126

A few nights later, the Missus was wanting to do takeout from Noble Chef again, so we placed a takeout order for dinner. Yes, still following the instructions I got from "FOY" Candice years ago who said that dinner was when the owner cooks. And her advice has been pretty on point.

Noble Chef:

We took JJ, placed an order and like Golden Island, went for a walk returning to pick up our order. Man, Noble Chef was already packed at 530pm! We ordered three dishes.

Of course we had the Roast Duck. This was going to be interesting. On our last visit, which was for takeout the duck was not up to par. So, how would it fare this time?

Well, this was much better; the flesh more moist and while the fat had been nicely rendered, there was still a trace of it left making things nice and rich. Much better flavoring. I used the sauce and fat on the bottom of the container to baste and crisp up the skin in the air fryer which worked nicely.

The Missus was craving the Steamed Pork with Salted Fish, something She hadn't had in a while.

This was a huge portion. Hardly any salted fish, which left the dish somewhat lacking. It was really tough and chewy, a mere shadow of it's former self.

And of course, since we've gotten our air fryer we can now do the Salt and Pepper Pork Chops for takeout. Something I would never have considered before.

The pork chops were a bit thinner than last time, which made the "crisp to meat" ration better. The meat even stayed moist after doing the air fryer thing the next day with leftovers. Good salty (msg) - garlic - pepper flavors, with a touch of spiciness. A definite "keeper".

The Noble Chef
6159 Balboa Avenue
San Diego, CA 92111

So, tell me my "FOYs"...any good takeout recently?

Milan - Dinner at Hekfan

After our nice Aperitvo, we walked basically 50 meters to our dinner destination. Another recommendation from "FOY" Candice. A Hong Kong style restaurant named Hekfan, which also served Dim Sum for dinner.

It was a tiny, cute little restaurant.

But the menu belied the rather quaint surroundings, with items like Foie Gras Siu Mai and Crystal Dumplings of Mushroom and Truffle! The Missus also appreciated the tea selection as well. Ordering was a breeze and the folks actually spoke Mandarin and English as well!

We placed our order, not a huge amount of food; but some pretty rich stuff.

First to arrive were the Crystal Dumpling, basically Har Gow with a trio of mushroom and truffle.

We really didn't care for the har gow wrappers which were very glutinous; but the earthy-savory-sweet mushroom and the very fragrant truffle was very good. The addition of a tobiko garnish gave the dumpling a nice salty-briney touch.

A trio of Dim Sum followed.

 The weakest item were the Xiao Long Bao. The wrapper was decent if a bit too doughy; but there was barely any "soup" in the dumpling which was quite bland.

While we were still not big fans of the Har Gow wrapper; the Roasted Duck Har Gow was quite good. Great flavors, not overly sweet.

Mild anise-sweetness-savory tones. I had reservations about the skin being included but it actually added a nice texture.

In what seemed to be a recurring theme; the wrapper of the siu mai wasn't very good, kind of mushy; but man, the flavors of the Foie Gras, Shrimp, and Mushroom Siu Mai were really good.

Never thought the earthy flavor of foie gras would work here; but it added a nice earthy-creamy touch to the very sweet-oceany shrimp. The filling was so tender and moist, yet it held firm.

The Missus really loved the smokey-savoriness of the Pork on Smoked Boiled Eggs.

This arrived on a wooden plate covered by glass fed by one of those smoker-infuser guns. I might have to get one of those. The pork added porcine flavors and the five-spice based seasoning really made the dish.

Soon enough, the final item we ordered appeared. Arriving on a covered plate, which was soon set ablaze.

Quite a show for the Dong Po Rou.

Which was super rich and fatty, decently sweet, good sweet-soy flavors. Quite fragrant, served in tandem with some fancy "buns".

All in all, an enjoyable meal. While the wrappers weren't the best; I'm thinking that sourcing the right ingredients might be a challenge, the flavors were quite good. 

Who knew; decent Hong Kong style Chinese in Brera...Milan!

Hekfan
Via Marco Formentini 2
20121 Milan, Italy

Please note that my sources have informed me that Hekfan is moving to a larger space.

And guess what? We'd have even better Dim Sum in Milan later on the trip.

Thanks as always for the recommendations Candice!

Happy Thanksgiving - We're enjoying the Smoked Chicken from Juewei!

Just wanted to wish everyone a wonderful and delici-yoso Thanksgiving!

We are so thankful for your visits and wonderful comments! 

And of course since this is a food blog....

I'm sure you know by now; our 19th Thanksgiving doing the blog, that we aren't big turkey kinda folks. So, what are we having this year?

Well, it's kinda interesting, we were getting our weekly Yomie's fix and decided to pop by Juwei and get some duck intestines, yuba, and quail eggs, when we saw this on the counter.

The Missus asked the woman working what it was. Turns out it's "smoked chicken". She informed us that this is something new and this batch had just come out of the kitchen. It smelled really good. So we bought 2 at $18.99 each.

Turns out that we have a new favorite item. The chicken was moist, good savory-smoky-saltiness. I do like to crisp up the skin a bit in the Air Fryer. It had been nicely marinated and seasoned.

While we still enjoy the chewy duck intestines; we have a new favorite from Juewei.

I hope they keep making that chicken!

Juewei Food
4690 Convoy St. #103
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Sun - Thurs 11am - 11pm
Fri - Sat        11am - Midnight

Wishing you all a warm and wonderful holiday, filled with delicious food!

Happy Thanksgiving!