**** Manie's has closed
Disclaimer: Those who are depressed about prices in San Diego should probably NOT read this post.
During our last trip to our old neighborhood we spent a good amount of time around Hong Kong Plaza. We used to live right up the block and would walk on over to Hong Kong Plaza almost daily. During our last trip we passed one of the restaurants that had been there for a long while but for some reason we had never taken the opportunity to eat in. What really caught our attention was the signage:
The large crowd on that evening was pretty impressive, the prices caught my eye, and when the
Missus told me it was a Sichuan Restaurant, and started naming the dishes on the poster, I was sold. So this past Friday, I took a day off, and we drove up to Rowland Heights and got to the restaurant just as they opened at 11 am.
After looking over the menu I noticed something and asked the Missus, who checked with the Server, who mentioned that the Chef was from Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan. I had never had Chengdu style Sichuan which I heard was a bit different from Chongqing style Sichuan, so needless to say I was very excited.
We placed our order and was served some clear soup with a pork bone in it. Not great, but pretty good and mild.
Smoked Duck with Chilies ($5.95 – all prices are lunch prices):
This take-off on the classic Sichuan Chili with Chicken, was probably the best rendition of any type of this dish I've ever had. The wonderful, crisp, sweet-salty-smokey duck was stir fried quickly with dried red chilies, green bell peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, and garlic, creating a very flavorful dish with great textures. As hot as this dish may seem, we found it to be more "numbing", then burning hot. There was alot of Sichuan peppercorn in the dish, creating that wonderfully addictive numbing sensation. Very delici-yoso!!!!
Pork Meatballs with Cellophane Noodles($4.95):
The Missus selected this dish off of the specials listed on the wall. I've had this type of pork meatballs with a brown sauce, where it has been silken and rich, and have felt almost decadent when eating these simple meatballs. These were not like those however. The meat was dry and grainy, and I thought the sauce was very bland. The Missus enjoyed the noodles though.
Fuqi Feipein – the famous "Husband and Wives" dish ($5.95), of course I could not go without trying one of my "baseline" Sichuan dishes:
This was another disappointment, very bland. This version was all beef brisket, no Sichuan peppercorns, no peanuts, no tendon, no tripe, no Chinese celery, nothing to help give the beef any flavor. Probably the worse version of this dish I ever had, just having chili oil alone on not very high quality beef made the dish feel greasy.
Chicken with Three Chilies($4.95):
Almost the same dish as the Smoked Duck dish, with some green onion and onion. Much milder then the duck, but very tasty. Watch out for those bones though. Again, not overly spicy, but nice and numbing.
Chung-Do (Chengdu) Cold Noodle($3.95):
I really love Sichuan Cold Noodle dishes. Chungking Restaurant in Monterey Park and Ba Ren make my favorite versions of the dish. Finding this dish on the menu also clued me in as to the origins of the Chef, as it was on the menu as "Chung-Do" style. I really didn't enjoy the noodles dish at first, I thought that it wasn't spicy enough, and used too much vinegar. But after eating a bite of the duck and chicken, then having a bite of the noodle, I discovered how refreshing and palate cleansing this dish was. When eaten in that context, this was very good.
But wait; we weren't finished yet! The Missus ordered the Sticky Rice Cake($3.95):
Called something along the lines of "Liang Chi Ba", this was very, very good! I'm not big on desserts, but this combination of peanut and sesame paste over gooey sticky rice has changed me. What a great way to end a meal.
So what's the damage for a six course lunch with tea and rice(which we never touched)? Thirty-two bucks! With leftovers for at least one or two more meals!
You can tell by the photo what we cleaned up, and what we took home!
Overall, we did find that the dishes at Manie's used more Sichuan Pepper then Chili Peppers, and was more numbing then "hot". This goes along the lines of what I've heard about Sichuan cuisine. Chongqing style is much more spicy and hotter then Chengdu style, which is milder, but more numbing. The other variable that comes into play is, that though the Chefs come from Chengdu, Marnie's (something like Luong Chau Shou in Chinese) is Taiwanese owned, which could change the food. Nevertheless, the food was a bargain, and some of the dishes were excellent.
Manie's Restaurant
18438 Colima Road #106 (In Hong Kong Plaza)
Rowland Heights, CA 91748