mmm-yoso!!!

Din Tai Fung (UTC) - Soft Opening

I believe it was summer of last year; when I heard the first official announcement that the XLB mega-chain Din Tai Fung was going to open at UTC. I know folks who have been waiting with bated breath, patiently awaiting the opening...for those that I know it seemed like the place would never open. And then last week; Eater announced when DTF would be opening their doors, October 1. It would be reservations only for the soft opening period; which I thought was a prudent move.....get your systems in place, fine tune the product, and then open up the floodgates.

One of the young ladies in the office; "K" from the Beijing area will often stop and chat with me about Chinese food. Late last week; she mentioned hearing that Din Tai Fung was finally opening and if I was going. I told her "probably not, since things would probably fairly chaotic, the crowds would be insane, and I don't think the product would be up to par." She smiled and said, "maybe not....din Tai Fung has so many outlets, they have opened many shops, I think they may have systems in place for a grand opening." Hmmmm…...the seed was planted; though I hadn't really planned on making reservations. Until my dear friend Candice asked me if I'd like to join them for lunch....on the first day of business. As a plus; I'd see my good friends, who I just don't see enough of these days, so I was in.

UTC is fairly close to the office; so it was snap getting there. There wasn't much of a line, a product of the soft-opening reservations only policy. Several parties were turned away for not having reservations, some of whom, especially one rather persistent Chinese gentleman were rather unhappy.

The set-up was fairly typical of DTF; at least the shops we've been to. Front desk, window display of folks making the XLB, and dumplings.

The dining room was lengthy and could hold up to 200 I was told.

 We received a menu while our table was being readied; the four of us; Candice, Xiāngjiāo, TFD, and I had all been to DTF, both here in the states and abroad before, so we all had items we wanted to order. In the end it seemed like a lot; but we finished almost everything! TFD's little boy did a great job helping us as well!

So, enough verbiage; lets get to the food shall we?

First to arrive was the Truffle and Kurobuta Pork XLB ($23.75). Yep, twenty four bucks for 5 XLB.

The tops of the wrappers seemed a bit on the dry and hard side, there wasn't very much "soup" in the dumplings. You got the truffle flavor upon first bite, then it dissipated rather quickly. Not sure if I'd have these again.

Next up; the comfort dish, Taiwanese Cabbage with Garlic ($10.25). This was nicely done, enough salt, the cabbage was tender, nice garlic tones.

Though this is something I can easily make at home with Big Kahuna. We did enjoy the dish and needed some veggies, right?

Next up; the Kurobuta Pork XLB ($11.50). Maybe it's the Kurobuta Pork, which DTF is now using in all its dumplings, but the filling was on the drier side and there was a lack of soup.

The wrapper was rather dry and brittle. The filling had a mild pork flavor, but was more chewy than I prefer. As I mentioned above; there was a lack of soup in both orders of this. I'm so used to biting the ends of the wrapper to let out the steam before dipping into black vinegar and eating the dumpling; but that really wasn't necessary as well.

Next up; some nice and crisp, slightly spicy "Cucumber Salad" ($5.25) and rather bland, under seasoned Soy Noodle (Bean curd noodle) Salad ($5.25).

Shrimp and Kurobuta Pork Shao Mai ($8.75).

The tops of these were on the hard side; the shrimp had very nice flavor, but were overcooked. This just didn't do it for any of us.

The guotie - potstickers were another non-starter. They looked really nice, the bottoms of the wrappers were nice and crunchy; but the fillings fell out of the tops.

Kimchi and Kurobuta Pork Mandu Dumplings ($10.75)…..were really like mild kimchi mandu. These were not spicy in the least; even though we were told they were.

The wrappers were fine; if a bit stiff; the filling was too mild, not enough fermented-sour-savory-spicy kimchi flavor, which would have been fine if there was a decent porkiness to these; but there was none.

I was looking forward to the Crab and Pork XLB ($14.50).

Though there wasn't much soup in these, there was a nice sweet-crab and pork flavor. The filling was a bit on the dry side however as were the wrappers; which were again on the dry and brittle side.

I had been craving Chao Nian Gao($11) and couldn't help but order it; the version with pork.

This was perhaps the most unsatisfying dish of the meal. The nian gao, rice cakes, had been over-cooked, as you can easily see, and were very mushy. The pork was tough; too much soy sauce....just not good eats. We each had a taste and left the rest on the table.

TFD recalled a nice version of Sichuan Liang Mian at the Taipei location of DTF; so we ordered it ($9).

Hardly any spice; the noodles were too soft, the sauce lacked any depth of flavor (i.e. suan-tian-ku-la-xian)...I mean I was looking for something; Sichuan Peppercorn, black vinegar, sesame paste, garlic.....something...…

Our savory dishes ended on a high note though, as our second round of the crab and pork XLB arrived. This was much better; though the wrappers were still a bit too stiff, they were moist and had a touch of pull. The crab and pork was juicy if still without enough soup. This was quite nice....perhaps this is what we have to look forward to?

Though I'm still looking for this in the XLB - from a DTF in Asia. I'm wondering if the flour is making some difference?

We ordered the XLB with Red Bean for dessert. Think of it as a sorta, kinda, red bean manju…..

A bit too sweet for my tastes.

Overall, we really enjoyed the service, it was with a few hiccups....which was to be expected, very nice....really nice folks working here. The consensus was also pretty much unanimous; we'd had better at other DTF locations, though that was also to be expected.

Regardless; we still thought that this is the best XLB in San Diego without a doubt.

It's going to be interesting to see how things evolve here. I'm hoping the service and really nice staff remains the same and am expecting the XLB to get better over time; a bit more moist and tender wrappers with a decent "pull". Of course, I'm picky like that. And, I'm going to have to wait a while before bringing the Missus or my Shanghainese coworker "YZ" here.

And, it's always great to see my good friends "hanai family".....

So, let me know how you're enjoying DTF now that they've arrived in San Diego!

Din Tai Fung
4301 La Jolla Village Dr (UTC)
San Diego, CA 92122

Fung Fung Yuen

**** Fung Fung Yuen is now Golden Island

Fung Fung Yuen opened this past summer (on the ever lucky 08/08) to quite a bit of hype and fanfare. My friends who visited soon after the initial soft opening told me the place really didn't live up to their expectations. So I waited about six weeks. We'd moved offices and was now a bit closer to the place. Three of us, Calvin, "BigD", and myself, made two visits, after which we decided to give it a rest.

The restaurant does remind me of those "Dim Sum Palaces" of my youth, a nice, rather large, space (formerly Hometown Buffet).

The place is set-up for larger "family style" parties.

During our visits, there only seemed to be 2-3 carts rotating at a time. During our first visit, we never saw the steamed dumpling cart, so no siu mai, har gow, etc. On both visits, we never saw any Cheong Fun.

I've decided to start with the best item we had; which coincidentally was actually ordered off the menu; the Roast Pork ($14.95).

The pork was moist, the skin, while a bit too thick was decent. A very nice dish overall.

A remote second was the tripe.

No off flavors, decently cooked, nice "crunch" the gooey sauce was a bit on the "sweet" side for my taste.

I think it's kind of sad that the two main reasons the Shrimp Siu Mai is number 3 was that it was hot and it wasn't overly tough.

The Soy Sauce Noodles was on the colder side, a bit greasy and overcooked.

Sticky Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf was barely past warm.

The rice was nice and tender, though the pork was really tough.

One look at the Har Gow and you can tell this wasn't going to be very good.

Dried out wrappers, hard and overcooked shrimp.

The Eggplant stuffed with shrimp was quite cold and greasy.

That sauce which was cold really didn't help matters.

The Ham Sui Gok, the fried glutinous rice dumplings stuffed with pork was also cold, thus the dumpling had become rather gummy. Check out the (lack of) filling, which was cold and tough.

The Bean Curd roll was at least served at a decent temperature. But the strips of vegetables were cut too thick and was undercooked.

Calvin just wanted the Xiao Long Bao.

Looking at the photo; you can kinda figure things out; cold, no soup, really thick, hard wrappers.

And yet, there was something even worse than the XLB; the Pearl Balls, these made with shrimp.

Cold, tough, some of the rice was just plain hard.

There's obviously some kinks to work out here.....things like keeping your product at a decent temp in the carts.....which, by the way, only made one pass, and then was gone. It was a rather unsatisfying two meals. I'm hoping they get things straightened out. I'm hoping they work things out. Folks were telling me how busy the place was, but on our first visit the place was one-third full, on our second even less.

For balance, please check out Kirbie's and Faye's posts.

Fung Fung Yuen
10660 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126

Facing East

Man, has Facing East been open almost 6 months now? They created a bit of a buzz when they first opened with Mary, Jinxi (BTW, hope all works out for you Jinxi!), Faye, and Kirbie making their way to the site that used to be Dede's for over a decade. I actually made 3 visits in the first 4 months and each time left shaking my head.....not quite sure what was going on here. Granted, these were lunch visits, but each was uniquely odd....and each was made with friends; the first two with "C" and "YZ" who both have Shanghai connections, both were really interested in the somewhat faddish version and conventional versions Xiao Long Bao, the last with "W and A", whom I ran into in the parking lot....we ended up sharing a not so good lunch together.

Each took over an hour for lunch. The first time we went we got there at 1145, the open sign was on, but he place was completely dark. We waited a bit and walked in....turns out the front of house staff hadn't shown up yet and we were shown to a table, where we cooled our heels sitting in the dark, until staff showed up at noon.

 By my second visit, word had gotten out and the place filled up really quickly. Lunch took about an hour and a half and of course the staff could feel the pressure. We saw several of our dishes head to wrong tables before making its way to us and we had one dish delivered that we hadn't ordered. The saddest thing was this dude who I could see was getting agitated waiting for his XLB. But this....well, let's be polite...guy....well two of his servers were guys and he held his tongue. Then the young lady went over to bring him his XLB and he totally unloaded on her, screaming and swearing. Of course, he wouldn't do that to any of the guys; he waited until the tiny young lady came along.

The third visit....lunch took two hours and I realized that I was done with the place for a while. In current state this means the difference between a ten hour day and a possible twelve hour day. Still, for some reason I decided not to do a post. I held my tongue until a few weeks ago; a fourth visit, which will be at the end of the post.

Facing East has an interesting "fusiony" and somewhat ambitious menu with everything from Tacos Al Pastor (on our first visit, we found that the family has a Chinese Restaurant in Ensenada), which I think is now off the menu, to Chicken Karaage, to a somewhat "Bo Luc Lac-ish" Filet Mignon with Rice, and Kimchi (and cheese!) Fried Rice.

Anyway, I'm sure you're most interested in the food. Here's a summary of what I had during my first three visits, first to worse.

Interestingly, the best dish I had...even "YZ" enjoyed it was a version of Mei Cai Kou Rou.

The pork belly was just tender enough, the soy-sugar ratio was good in the sauce; the preserved vegetable was tender and not too salty. The rice was a bit on the dry side but this wasn't bad at all.

The Chicken Karaage was interesting. As the batter was more of a lacquer - crunchy, "toriten" style and the chicken was served in a sweet-vinegar style sauce which went well with the fried chicken.

The chicken was moist, the flavors, while teetering on salty, was balanced out by that dressing.

The best XLB I've had here.....I've had it twice, is the (almost) Foie Gras, basically a goose liver version of the bao. Another thing of note; I've had 6 orders of the XLB here......in each order there was at least one XLB that had leaked.

Also of note; several times, the top knot of the XLB was hard. Also, and I find the XLB here lacking in soup and the pork versions are rather tough. I think the foie gras adds enough of that slightly livery-rich flavor to offset some of the shortcomings.

The chicken wings could have been a winner; it was crunchy and moist.

But on both occasions I've had this; they were way too salty. You basically couldn't taste anything else in spite of the five spice sprinkled on the wings.

Taking a totally different road from the fried chicken; the Cured Meat Rice Kettle was really bland, the gailan under cooked, there was not enough sauce, and the rice at the bottom of the kettle was rock hard.

There is of course, the Squid Ink - Black Truffle XLB.

Which does make quite an impression visually. The skins on these had a bit of a strange texture to both "C" and I. There was also not enough "soup" in these. Yes, truffle oil flavor, but not much else...oh, and I tried eating these in the traditional style with ginger and black vinegar...man, that was a mistake. 2 of the 10 XLB had also leaked out.

Of the two more conventional XLB.....the Pork and Crab is better.

The straight pork filling is on the tough side....and this'll be strange coming from me if you know me...the broth wasn't sweet enough and was in short supply. The wrappers, while not terrible, doesn't allow for what I call the "XLB Hang".

When visiting with "W and A" we ordered two rice plates; the first (both W and A are ethnically Vietnamese, so I knew they'd go for this) was the Filet Mignon Rice.

Slightly toothsome, but weak in flavor, with a tinge of that rather unpleasant metallic flavor.

The Oxtail Rice had a decent sauce that edged on being too salty.

The oxtail were really tough, which made eating this messy and rather unpleasant.

So yep, that was it......I realized that I just wasn't hip or perhaps not sequacious enough to enjoy and appreciate the food. Or perhaps, it's my lack of a sweet tooth that has me not order any of the desserts. I will say this though....none of my eating partners ever went back to Facing East.

Still, I decided to wait things out a bit and returned a few weeks ago. Strangely, the place was empty for the entire hour I was there, not a single other customer.

Could it be that lunch is just not the time to eat here? Or perhaps folks have learned that lunch might just too long.....

Deciding not to push my luck with ordering the XLB or anything that might extend my lunch; I went with the Niu Rou Mian; Beef Noodle Soup. After all, I was told they make their own noodles and this, at heart is a Taiwanese Restaurant, right?

The soup was very hot; I enjoyed the preserved vegetable, which really helped the flavor of the broth which seemed to have a whole bunch of white pepper in it, but wasn't overly salty. The beef - soy sauce - anise tones were really in the background; though there was a bit of spice to things. Just two small pieces of tasteless beef in this. The noodles were decent, a bit overcooked, but had a nice doughy-pull to them...except for that giant clump of noodles in the center of the bowl.

Still, an hour for a bowl of noodle soup? With my schedule at work these days, I just can't do that. I mentioned having to wait over 40 minutes for some noodle soup to the young man working. His response? A shrug of the shoulders....it's not his fault things took so long, but perhaps he could have said something like, "I'll mention this to the kitchen....." Or something like that.

 So perhaps....if...a BIG IF....I return it'll be for dinner. The service is quite hit and miss.....the folks are as a whole nice; but I saw a lot of mistakes/mix ups....though hopefully things are better now.

Facing East
4647 Convoy St Suite 101C
San Diego, CA 92111
Open Daily:
1130am - 1030pm

Kyoto - Arashiyama, Ippudo, and Din Tai Fung

We'd always had a visit to Arashiyama on the books and on our last full day in Kyoto, we decided to head out early in the day. We ended up taking the rather fun Keifuku Tram Line to Arashiyama Station.

It was a slightly hazy, but beautiful day....the air so clean. We walked out of the station and headed down what looked like Arashiyama's main street. And walked over to the Togetsu-kyo Bridge.

We headed north alongside the picturesque Oi River and took a right along a rather random street.

And just wandered around a bit.

And somehow ended up at the side entrance to Tenryu-ji temple.

It wasn't very crowded, so we just took in the sights a bit.

We headed out front, looking for the Bamboo Forest. I walked up to a traffic officer and asked for directions to the Bamboo Grove. In the typical Japanese way....he insisted on walking us most of the way there.

It was very pretty....but for some reason, I expected it to be a bit more grand.

I guess having grown up around various bamboo forests......

The place does take some really nice photos though.

Heading back down to the street, we found another entrance to Tenryū-ji. This is the garden area and is quite beautiful.

The Sōgen Pond, which was designed by Zen Master Musō Soseki over 700 years ago, is very beautiful.

By now, we'd had enough for the morning and headed back to downtown Kyoto. We walked around a bit and decided to have lunch at a place I had specifically marked down. We'd really enjoyed Ippudo in Osaka and there just happened to be a location in downtown Kyoto.

Call us boring, but we'd enjoyed ourselves so much on our previous visit to the Osaka location that we basically got the same thing. The Shormaru Special, what I call a classic tonkotsu with chashu and egg. And of course, the Missus got Hakata Chikara Meshi, chashu rice and an onsen tamago.

The broth was nice and rich, but not oily nor too fatty. The flavor is rather delicate. The chashu was tender and nicely flavored, the noodles just perfectly al dente for my taste.

I gave the Missus my tamago....now that's love. And when She cut into it....well, we had a perfect "egg porn shot".

Our meal was the perfect foil for the cool autumn chill.

Ippudo Nishikikouji
653-1 Bantoya-cho, Higashinotoin
Nishikikoji higashi iru, Nakagyo-ku

Feeling nice and warm, we headed on out to do some shopping. We found an underground passageway to Takashimaya Department Store.

Of course this lead right to B1 and the food floor.

We were wandering around the third floor of Takashimaya Department Store and I noticed this.....

Oh my....it was Din Tai Fung!

And there was no line.....

The Missus and I looked at each other......why not, right? We still had a bit of room in our bellies, so we went for a second, rather light lunch.

I was wondering just how good this was going to be. We got the pork and crab version of the Xiao Long Bao. When it arrived, it looked like the XLB on the left had leaked, but it had not. As for the wrappers....well just look at the classic "XLB hang". The wrapper were very nice, for some reason they seemed a bit thicker than the wrapper at DTF here in the states. I really couldn't complain about the amount of soup, nor the flavor (a bit too sweet for me), or the texture. This was pretty good. Much better than anything we have here in San Diego.

The Missus has got to have Her veggies, so we got some greens. Nice and simple, very mildly seasoned.

Din Tai Fung (Third Floor of Takashimaya Department Store)
52 Shincho, Shijo Kawaramachi-dori Nishi-iru
Simogyo-ku, Kyoto 600-8001

I guess that's fun part of trips...you make basic plans, but leave time to wander and explore. You never know what you'll run into.

XLB at DTF in Kyoto....who'd have thunk.

Revisits: Tasty Noodle House and Dede's

Some Chinese food for you. One place new, the other has been around for a while.

Tasty Noodle House:

So, since the place first opened up at the beginning of September, fellow esteemed food bloggers like Jinxi, Faye, and Kirbie have all rotated through TNH.....and the results have been a bit mixed; especially with regards to the SJB. My good buddy Candice has gone a few times as well. So I thought it time that I rotate through and see what's going on.

So with coworker Calvin in tow, we went for an early lunch. Funny thing, our Server wasn't Chinese and couldn't pronounce any of the dishes, but was really very nice and tried real hard.

I thought the Chao Nian Gao on Kirbie's and Jinxi's post looked pretty good. So I ordered it.

I like this prep because there are subtle indications of the chef's skill in terms of handling the wok and seasoning. The flavor is usually nice and mild so there a nice balance between the slightly bitter vegetable - Jì Cài (薺菜 - Shepherd's Purse) comes through, usually with a touch of sesame oil. The rice cakes were a bit under done and on the hard side, but this wasn't bad at all. I think the version at Chef Zhu is better.

My favorite from previous visits, the Zui Ji - Drunken Chicken.

I like the version here because it's not timid, the wine flavor is upfront and strong. Most folks I know don't care for this cold chicken dish. Personally, I enjoy the bracing flavor.

This time around I decided to go with the crab and pork Xiao Long Bao.....

I'm pretty much done with the XLB here. This wasn't very good. The filling was too hard; there was a leakage problem, and the XLB that hadn't leaked had too little soup.

Calvin is a growing boy, so I needed to order something filling and went with the Mei Cai Kou Rou (steamed pork belly with preserved vegetable)....I know; it's a Hakka dish and the menu here leans toward the Hu Cai (Shanghai Cuisine) - Su Cai (Jiangsu Cuisine) style dishes. I thought the Hong Shao Rou I had on my previous visit wasn't cooked properly and was a bit under flavored so I thought we'd give this a try.

This wasn't very good. The pork was fairly hard and strangely dry, the preserved vegetable had no flavor, and the dish was spoiled by too much sesame oil which was basically the only thing you could taste.

Service, as on my previous visits was very nice. I was told that they do a decent chou doufu (stinky tofu) dish and that the Xun Yu ("cold smoked fish") is worth a try as well, so I'll probably return in the near future.

Tasty Noodle House
4646 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Dede's:

*** Dedes' has closed

It has been a while since I'd really had a meal at Dede's. I had dropped by about a year and a half ago and had a terrible version of Liang Mian (Cold Noodles). But it had been a good long while since I've really had a meal here. Lunch was with two of my favorite people; Reza and Lily, so we got to try a bunch of different dishes.

The Liang Cai (cold dishes) was nothing short of terrible.

The cucumber really lacked flavor and the fu qi fei pian was tough and dry, the flavor bitter from chilies that seemed to have been burnt, not scalded. It had no "ma", numbing effect, as in there was a lack of Sichuan Peppercorns, nor was there any depth of flavor from say, a dash of black vinegar....

The Fish with Pickled Peppers was ok.

It wasn't particularly spicy and the broth seemed to have a rather strong poultry flavor. The fish was tender, but also a bit gummy; perhaps from using too much cornstarch during the marinade process.

The dish I'd long been coming to Dede's for is the Cumin Lamb, Zi Ran Yang Rou.

So how was this years later? There are a lot more onions and the meat is lower grade and a bit tougher now. The flavor of the cumin was good, but I think this needed a bit more salt and I like a bit of garlic in mine as well. Not quite as good as I recalled.

We also got the Fried Intestine with Chilies.

This was actually a decent dish; the intestines were nicely prepped and fried; very crisp. The dish was not oily at all. Sadly, there wasn't enough Sichuan Peppercorn in this as well, making it seem quite incomplete in terms of flavor.

Dede's doesn't seem to have held up very well over the years. Kind of sad in a way as I can't seem to find a favorite in terms of Sichuan food. Though I recall Jinxi mentioning that Spicy House has relatively new owners yet again. So perhaps hope springs eternal, right?

Dede's
4647 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Dumpling Hut

** Dumpling Hut has closed

I had been looking forward to the opening of Dumpling Hut since I first saw the sign for this place back in early May. It was a bit of a mystery at first, with Eater filling most of the blanks in the end.

So there I was, Dumpling Hut had just opened and I walked in.

A few things became quickly apparent. First, these folks were very nice, unlike another recently opened shop who just seemed to want to do as little as possible for you, the folks here were just plain nice. Second, there's not much English here, something I kind of appreciate. Third, I don't think these folks have any restaurant experience at all. There were four tables of customers when I arrived and two parties came after me. I saw forgotten place settings, bowls, people seated with no menus for like 10 minutes, food sitting around....well when food did come out. My order actually took 40 minutes to arrive. Everyone, including the folks who came after me got served first.....I'm pretty sure the folks who came after me got my Guo Bu Li Baozi, you know, the stuffed buns that "even dogs would not eat". Something that was on that sign I saw back in May. I love all the styles of Tianjin Baozi....except this one particular model.

On the menu as Steamed Pork Buns ($4.99), these, like much of the menu is pretty well priced. I'm pretty sure there was something going on with the steam process on this day as the parts of the bun were hard, as was the filling; two of which had pieces of bone in them. The flavor was pretty bland as well.

I also ordered the Pork and Celery Dumplings ($6.99).

I could tell that this place has potential; the wrappers were nicely made, though on the thick side had that tender, yet mildly toothsome texture, that I love in jiaozi. However, were some problems; the filling was on the bland side, I know, jiaozi is fairly mild in flavor, but these are bland. The filling is too hard. I'm not expecting them to stir the filling with chopsticks for two hours like the Missus's Fifth Aunt did in Qingdao, but I expected better. Also, notice the scum on top of the jiaozi; one of the dumplings had a leak and the scum had coated some of the jiaozi. Poor quality control, as was the pool of water on the plate, these weren't drained well enough. Still, these were better than MyungIn which made them significantly better than Dumpling Inn. 

As for the service glitches? Well, I gave them a pass. It was only their second day of business.

Still, some of my friends were excited; especially those who had gone to high school and college in China...there was Jianbing Guozi on the menu. And yet, those that I saw coming out didn't look inspiring. Which is why I discouraged Xiāngjiāo from ordering it when she, Candice, and myself had lunch here two days later. On my first visit; I had run into a good friend's dad. On this visit, I ran into Faye! You can read her post about Dumpling Hut here. Nice seeing you Faye, though I didn't recognize you at first!

Again with the glitches, not enough chopsticks, no napkins, where's our bowls, one menu for the whole table.

We started with the Northern version of Sheng Jian Bao (Pan Fried Bun - $5.99)

This does look like the Northern version of SJB, much like what my MIL makes. It does have a bit of "soup" in it, if a bit too tough, but the steaming wasn't up to par as the unfried part of the bao was not springy and soft as it should be.

The Liang Cai we ordered; PigEar (Seasoned Pork Ear - $6.99), was fine if nothing remarkable.

Even though I know the owners are from Northern China and not the Shanghai area, we still needed to order the Xiao Long Bao ($6.99).

Dough too thick and without enough pull. The filling had some soup, but was much too sweet. No shredded ginger.

Like before, the best part of the meal was the jiaozi, this time the Pork, Egg, and Shrimp ($7.99) version.

This was better than the last time in terms of being drained and such. I still think the flavoring is a bit too mild. I know, I'm kinda psycho about this, but I think regular readers understand why.

Meanwhile, things were falling apart. The place had filled up and it was chaos. Folks ended grabbing their own menus, plates, chopsticks.....a table kept looking for soy sauce and was so desperate that I gave them ours. And we were waiting for our Guotie (potstickers)....there were tables who came in after us getting guotie, so were those ours? The place was totally in the weeds; Xiāngjiāo wanted to go ahead and help them....there was a serious disconnect between the kitchen and the dining area, food was coming out and just sitting....no one seemed to have assignments. They guy who took our order suddenly disappeared. I later saw him helping in the kitchen, which didn't do us any good. Candice had to leave, so we sent her a photo of the guotie when it finally arrived.

Wrappers too thick, gummy, not crisp enough, filling too bland. Honestly, I'm not expecting Qingdao Guotie, but these weren't very good.

And this would usually be enough. But I mentioned Jianbing Guozi to YZ. Now, coming from the same generation as the Missus, though in a different city (Shanghai versus Beijing), like my wife, she has a special place in her heart from Jianbing. She just had to try it. So there I was, back at Dumpling Hut. Sadly, they were out of the Jianbing that YZ recalls, the version with youtiao, instead we settled for the more modern version we saw in Beijing (I call it Xiāngjiāo's version since this is what she was used to when she spent 6 months in Beijing). The one with the cracker in it.

It was as the Missus would call it; "dead", limp, lacking in flavor, and obviously made ahead of time as it amazingly arrived in less than 5 minutes. Even the smear of bean paste seemed tasteless. So sorry YZ; all those memories down the tube.

They were also out of other items we wanted to try GuoBa Soup, Chicken Gizzards, Spicy Pork Stomach, Pig Ear, Braised Beef Shank, so we settled on Braised Pork Knuckle ($4.99), which lacked any significant connective tissue.

This was way too bland in flavor.

Regrettably, so was the Niu Rou Mian (Beef Noodle Soup $6.99).

While I appreciated the noodles, which I was told is made inhouse and had a nice al dente texture; the beef was cold and very salty, so it had obviously been made separately from the broth since the soup, to quote the Missus, "tasted like someone had waved a beef bone above it". Sad.

Like before, the jiaozi, this time Pork and Napa was the best item.

Though like my first visit, though not as water logged, it wasn't drained well. This time I took a photo. Boiled dumplings, or specifically shuǐjiǎo...literally "water dumplings" really depend on basic steps being carried out and simple flavoring and texture carry the day.......of ocurse I do like the Qingdao Black vinegar with pounded garlic.

I really like the folks here. I hope they make the adjustments necessary in terms of service and procedures to get things running efficiently. I'm not totally sold on the food, though I'll probably return in a few months to try the lamb jiaozi....hopefully they won't be out of them.

Dumpling Hut
8046 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

Shanghai Dumpling House and Xiang Wei Lou: Two Dinners in the Hilton Plaza, San Gabriel

Again Ed (from Yuma) is blogging about his road trip in June 2014. Who knows what Kirk and Cathy will be blogging about next.

On our trip to Paso Robles in June, 2014, Tina and I could see old friends, go wine tasting, and eat in some of the fine restaurants in Paso – but we also could stop in the San Gabriel Valley on the way up to Paso and on the way back.

On our return trip, Tina found a good deal on a room in the Hilton Hotel on W. Valley Blvd. in San Gabriel:

The hotel could not have been more convenient, smack dab in the center of the San Gabriel Valley and across street from San Gabriel Square, better known as the "Great Mall of China."  The room was well furnished, the basement parking garage easily accessible, and the staff friendly and helpful. When checking in, we told the clerk, Adolfo, that we were staying there to be close to all the Chinese restaurants. "Yes," he said, "very authentic. The first time I went into one, I ordered orange chicken, and they all laughed at me."

That Thursday afternoon, we were tired from driving and needed to stretch our legs and what better way than walk around and look at restaurants and menus. It didn't take long for us to be overwhelmed by the choices and overheated by the bright sunshine. On our way back to the hotel, however, we decided to explore the little restaurants in Hilton Plaza, the small two-story stripmall just to the west of the hotel itself. Some things looked interesting, so we decided to dine close to the room that evening.

Shanghai Dumpling House:

We were early and only one other table was occupied in the small, clean restaurant:

Tina ordered honey lemon iced tea ($2.75), which she liked very much:

Having just driven in from Paso Robles where we had been feasting on wine country cuisine, we wanted basic simple foods. Cucumber in Sauce ($4.35) sounded cool and refreshing:

Amazingly simple, but simply amazing. Irregular chunks of freshly cut cucumber lightly sprinkled with salt and mixed with garlic bits and a touch of sesame oil. Not much sauce, really, but fresh and delicious, clean and refreshing – a perfect antidote for our four hour car ride.

The Beef Rolls Pie ($5.95) was next. A large and flaky green onion pancake wrapped around numerous beef slices, fresh cilantro, and a spicy/tangy hoisin sauce:

I suppose the pancake could have been a little browner and crunchier, but the flavors were excellent, and Tina and I were both impressed by the tender and flavorful beef:

Also served at the same time were the xiao long bao, Juicy Pork Dumplings ($6.95). We have had enough experience with boiling hot XLB exploding in our mouths that we ate half of the Beef Rolls Pie before we attempted even a single dumpling. But when we did, we were completely blown away.

If you look at this picture, you will see no spilled soup in the steamer; each dumpling is intact:.

One at a time, we would take our chopsticks, grab the little morsels by their topknots, carefully lift them off the paper, add a drop of black vinegar, lay them on the tongue, close the mouth, and chew. The juicy soup flooded the palate and the mildly seasoned pork ball was tender and tasty. Worthy of the mmm-yoso dance.

We were amazed by the dumpling wrappers. They were thin and elastic without being tough or chewy. When we raised the dumplings out of the steamer their bottoms sagged downward but never tore and never leaked. Just perfect Shanghai dumplings.

The last item to arrive at the table was the Stir-fried Vegetables ($5.95), in this case perfectly cooked baby bok choy:

For most of you, I'm sure this dish looks plain and pretty boring. However, the freshness of the tendercrisp young vegetables and the wok skills of the chef made this very inviting. In fact, we ate every piece of baby bok choy as well as everything else we were served at Shanghai Dumpling House – with no leftovers. That almost never happens anywhere.

Shanghai Dumpling House, 227 W Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776, (626) 282-1348

Xiang Wei Lou

Thursday night's dinner had been so easy and delicious that we decided to try another place in the same stripmall – Xiang Wei Lou, a small Hunan restaurant that Kirk wrote about several years ago:

The place was small, but well lit and inviting – though now I wonder about all those specials posted along the wall (what did we miss?):

Both Tina and I had been intrigued with Kirk's description of the pork intestine at this restaurant, so we discussed chitlins choices with the very helpful young server. "You know that's the, the, the intestines of a pig," she said, rubbing her lower abdomen, as if perhaps we were such clueless Anglos that we didn't understand what intestines were. We found that sweet and amusing. Kirk had not liked the pickled vegetables he had chosen with the intestines, so with the assistance of our server, we settled on spicy pork intestines ($9.99), which she assured us came with some vegetables:

It was good to see that the restaurant has not lost its touch with intestines. These were truly excellent. As Kirk said, they were split lengthwise and well cleaned, and Tina and I especially appreciated their richness and tender chewy texture. The promised vegetables included extensive celery, scallions, garlic slices, and both red and green sliced chilies. The veggies added flavor, spice, and crunch. Being over cautious, we had ordered the dish medium spicy, which was okay because there was a lot of noticeable heat, but the dish could have been even hotter.

Again being cautious, we had ordered the house fried rice ($5.99) not spicy:

This was excellent fried rice, the Hunan smoked pork giving it a unique touch.

That same smoked pork provided the flavor for the smoked pork with string bean ($8.95):

The beans were perfectly cooked in a very hot wok and tasted fresh and green beany. The pork – though it looks like bacon – has a different smoky flavor profile. This dish was probably our least favorite, though still pretty good, like someone's least favorite child.

The last item to arrive on the table was the house special, Steamed Spicy Whole Fish ($9.99):
The fish was extraordinarily tender and melted in the mouth. While it had that fresh water fish flavor, it was not muddy or fishy. The profusion of chopped dried chili pods and crushed garlics provided flavor certainly, but this dish was not excessively spicy, and the flavor of the fish came through very well. We liked it:

Xiang Wei Lou, 227 W Valley Blvd # 118A, San Gabriel, CA 91776, (626) 289-2276

Overall, we had two excellent interesting dinners, and appreciated the convenience of eating next to our hotel. I also just want to thank Kirk for making me a more adventuresome eater and helping guide Tina and I to some of the good places in San Diego and elsewhere. Thanks Kirk! 

Circling back to Dumpling Inn

There are a handful of restaurants that I've been kind of down on for the last couple of years and Dumpling Inn is one of them. My last couple of visits a couple of years ago just weren't satisfying and the the restaurant's namesake....namely Jiaozi went severely downhill after the owner opened, then sold the Dragon's Den. Even before then, the only dumpling worth my while at Dumpling Inn was the shrimp and chive version.....of course, the Missus, with Her QingDao heritage won't touch any of the jiaozi here with a ten foot pole(though She tells me I'm more picky than She is)....my coworker "YZ" once even told me, "you know, that's really NOT Chinese food....." And yet, the place is beloved by many....though I will say, I did not see a single Chinese customer during any of my three visits. I'm sure they come here, but I never saw a single one. Still, I thought I really needed to circle back here and give the place an honest try......

And I thought the Shrimp and Chive Jiaozi was the way to go, which is over eight bucks now ($8.25).

So where to start.....I usually begin with the wrapper, but why not go to the miniscule amount of filling in these....very bland, even with chives, it's literally the size of a dime. I'm going to start calling this place "Dime-pling Inn". The wrappers were too gummy for my tastes are really not very good.

Then there's the Xiao Long Bao ($7.75), which folks rave about.....which is actually better than any of the jiaozi.

Dough has that uneven, sometime's hard texture of something that's been frozen for a bit. The top of the folds are hard, not enough soup, quite bland, if this is the best that San Diego has to offer........ 

I'd rather hold out for one of my trips to the SGV......

Black vinegar is not the standard here, you need to ask for it. They treat it like elixir of the gods. As soon as you pour some into the dish, they immediately whisk it away....kind of funny actually.

Still, I know someone who loves this place and during a discussion he convinced me to really give it a try here, putting aside all manner of dumplings and actually try some of cooked dishes. Fair enough, so I went with the dish he considers the best here on my next visit, the Sea Bass with Black Bean Sauce, now this is "lunch size", but not really what I consider "lunch priced" at $9.75.

First the fish, the batter was kind of greasy, like it was fried in oil at too low a temp. The fish was moist and tender though. My big question is "where's the black bean sauce"? There was so little of it, you can easily see that whomever made this didn't coat the fish very well. Vegetables almost raw. However, as a consolation prize, the rice was perfect. In total, on the bland side......

Still, I decided to give it one more go....this time ordering one dish I'd really enjoyed on previous visits and another I'd never had here.

First something on the menu I'd never had Satay Lamb with Chinese Greens ($12.75).

The Sa Cha sauce was really mild, lacking in a deep savory flavor that I like. Nice good portion of Gailan, done well. The lamb was "wok'd" quite well, very tender, but this was really too mild for my taste. Still, this was the best dish I had overall......

Mostly because the Jellyfish Salad ($8.25), an old favorite of mine surprisingly came out near the end of my meal; I thought they'd forgotten, but here it was.....

I kind of wish they had forgotten about this as the sauce tasted watered down and there was still an astringent flavor, mildly reminiscent of acetone, telling me that this was hastily prepared. A ig disappointment.

It would be easy enough for me to close the book on Dumpling Inn, but I saw something that would at least bring me back eventually. As I was eating, a gentleman in a wheelchair came in, apparently he was a regular as all the ladies here knew him. They sat him at a table, went to the back and returned with a ziploc with what looked like custom eating utensils that he could use.....I guess he really is a regular! This brought a smile to my face...maybe I'm not the biggest fan of the food here, but I'll surely support a place that takes care of their regulars. So I guess I'll be back......someday.

Dumpling Inn
4619 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

 

A Dinner at Giang Nan in Monterey Park: Road Trip

This post isn't about a Kirk Road Trip or one by Cathy. This post is about a meal Ed (from Yuma) and Tina had on a road trip exploring a little of the culture and cuisines in the LA area.

Tina and I were staying in Montebello, just south of Monterey Park. Saturday night was going to be our last dinner in the area. Of course, we would eat Chinese food, but Tina insisted “no seafood.” We were looking for something reasonable, no frills, no stress. Thanks to some posts by Kirk, we decided to try a Shanghai style dinner at Giang Nan – if we could find the small restaurant at the backend of a small anonymous strip mall at 306 N. Garfield. Luckily for us, it was all lit up for the holidays:

We were fairly early, so there were few other customers in the small restaurant when we arrived, and the place was not full even later when we left:

The restaurant seemed clean and nicely if sparingly decorated. The service was also friendly and knowledgeable – our young female waitperson was very helpful and pleasant. The menu was extensive and offered us a lot of choices, so we found some dishes we knew we wanted, but we just guessed about others.

We began with chicken in wine sauce ($4.95):

This cold chicken appetizer tasted fresh and clean with a light background flavor of the wine sauce. Very enjoyable.

The duck in supreme sauce ($5.95) was also pleasant. The thick sauce had a pronounced 5 spice flavor and complemented the chilled leg and thigh of roast duck. Sweet spice and savory flavors matching the cool rich duck flesh:

We felt we got lucky with our order of shredded pork and bamboo shoots ($5.95). Really enjoyed the textures of the pork, bamboo shoots, and green onions. The dish was lightly sauced so that each ingredient was present and accounted for. Of course, I am a huge fan of bamboo shoots since I just love their earthy woodsy flavor and unique texture, but it is hard to imagine anyone not relishing this dish:

We wanted a purely vegetable dish and braised green beans and shredded potato sounded different and interesting:

The dish arrived at our table still steaming hot. The green beans were perfectly cooked and the sauce, dark as it looked, was not too salty or overwhelming. Only the potato strips, which tasted too soft, like they came from a package of frozen french fries, were somewhat disappointing. Still they provided a bland and soft contrast to the crispier green flavored beans.

Our helpful waitperson had suggested that we have some rice with the meal, and when I asked her to recommend a particular rice dish, she eagerly pointed to the salted pork and vegetable rice ($5.95):

Her recommendation was spot on. In some ways, this was the most impressive thing we tasted all evening. The greens, the slightly salty pork belly chunks, and the hot, almost creamy rice were well balanced and the layered flavors of the dish all worked together. We thanked her a couple of different times for the recommendation.

The last item to arrive was an order of pork xiao long bao ($4.95):

These were really good. Although a couple of them had lost some soup, every one was wonderfully juicy:

The pork flavors of the dumplings were excellent, and the wrappers neither too thick nor too tough. We also appreciated their somewhat small size. Once they cooled just a little bit, they were perfect one-bite treats. It seemed odd to receive them at the end of the meal, but we had no trouble gobbling them all up. Just like a desert, I guess.

Not only was this a very reasonably priced dinner,:

but we received so much food that it was also our Sunday brunch as well, and we still felt bad throwing some leftovers away. Giang Nan is certainly not a fancy restaurant, but we will happily return for rustic Shanghai cuisine the next time we are in the area.

Giang Nan, 306 N Garfield Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91754, (626) 573-3421; Open 11 am - 3pm, and 5pm - 10 pm daily

Roadtrip: Shanghailander Palace (Hacienda Heights)

I took some time off at the end of last week. We had an appointment in LA and since I'd been working pretty hard over the last couple of months, I thought it would be good to take an extended roadtrip. Our first day would be in our old neighborhood of Rowland/Hacienda Heights and then we'd move further "North" for a few days.

Since this was a multi-day trip, we stopped at HK Plaza to stock up on some snacks and tea for our trip.

We also took the time to see what was going on here.....

We weren't too hungry, but of course we also didn't want to squander a lunch, so we headed to a place that caught the Missus' attention the last time we stayed in the area. According to what I've read, Shanghailander Palace was aiming to be the area's equivalent of Shanghai No. 1 Seafood Restaurant. So we stopped by to have a light lunch.

Arriving at almost 2 pm on a Wednesday, we were shocked to see how busy the place was! The crowd was composed of mostly older folks and larger groups. I really could have done without the middle aged woman dressed almost "cosplay" style in a short plaid skirt, blouse, and schoolgirl like sweater....yikes, it gave me the heebies!

The service was rather slow, but it could be understood since the place was slammed.

We started with the Xun Yu - "Shanghai Style Smoked fish", which as I've often explained, isn't really smoked. In what seems like the "new style" of Hu Cai (滬菜), this is served warm (deep fried after marinating) rather than as a cold dish.

I enjoyed this version as it was light, mildly "winey", not too sweet (though still too sweet for the Missus), with a nice soy flavor. Even though this was obviously fresh water fish; it lacked the muddy flavor I find unpleasant. This was much better than the version at Shanghai Number 1. I also thought the portion size was nice for an appetizer.

I will say that the tea we ordered - Ti Guanyin, a favorite of mine was just plain insipid.

I didn't see one of my favoite dishes; jellied pork on the menu, so we went with the mutton version instead.

I loved the texture, but the sauce provided was just wrong. I ended up opting for black vinegar instead.

Of course we had to get Xiao Long Bao. We went for the Pork and Crab version.

These were average at best. The tuft at the top was too hard, the wrappers ok....no leakage here, if perhaps a bit too thick and gummy. I thought the filling had decent flavor; not too sweet, but you could definitely make out the crab. Not enough soup though.....hardly any soup.

Some of the other dishes....stuff we could order if we could handle left-overs like the Braised Pork looked really good. So I think we'll probably be back.

Overall, this was a nice start to our roadtrip, which would be taking us North, culminating with dinner in San Mateo at Michelin Starred Wakuriya. Man was I going to enjoy this roadtrip!

Shanghailander Palace
1695 South Azusa Ave
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745