How do you follow up on Peking Duck from China Max, excellent Karei Karaage from Izakaya Sakura, and some good sushi from Sushi Komasa? Well, if you're us, you go to your favorite restaurant, which left me in a bit of a quandary? You see, I've already posted on this restaurant here, and here, here, and even here. But the Missus's Birthday week celebration wouldn't be complete without a visit to our favorite restaurant. Yes, it Ba Ren, again…….
So if you're fed up with my Ba Ren posts, it's time to leave, quickly….. If you decide to stay, we've got a few "new" dishes for you. On our Huo Guo visit, we noticed a placard with new "special" dishes written in Chinese:
After being seated and a brief discussion about the dishes we placed our order. We started with a twist on a classic; "Three Cup Duck" (second item down on the placard – $12.99):
An interesting "take" on the Classic Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken dish. In this case the basil and scallions were replaced with leek, and I also think the sesame oil was replaced with sugar. To me, duck dishes 
were never a forte of Ba Ren's, but this dish was quite nice, in a "must have at least 3 bowls of rice way." The Bamboo shoots and mushrooms held up well to the soy-wine-sugar flavor, and the red chilies added a nice amount of heat. I'm still not convinced that Ba Ren does a really great duck, but this dish was nice.
Beef Tendon with Konnyaku (eighth item down – $12.99). Now I love tendon that has been cooked perfectly. That would be to the state where a slight resistance exists when you first bite into the tendon, followed with a texture that is almost a perfect gelatinous-buttery in nature. The tendon was pretty close to perfect in this dish, and I was in tendon heaven.
The sauce for the dish was very similar to the sour and spicy flavor of Sichuan "pickled pepper" type dishes. Lot's of garlic, ginger, and scallions gave the tendon some flavor. I was in tendon heaven.
The Missus was not so thrilled. She had thought that perhaps there would be some "meat" along with the tendon. She still doesn't understand why I enjoy well made tendon dishes. She did enjoy the Konnyaku and the sauce.
Between these two dishes we ordered one of my favorite "snack dishes", the Sichuan Cold Noodles (#552 – $5.99). I could probably eat this wonderful salty-sweet-sour-spicy noodle dish every day. What I think is funny for a third generation AJA(American of Japanese Ancestry) from Hawaii, is that beyond all of the Japanese dishes I love; I crave these noodles. Go figure…..
The last item we ordered were the Salt and Pepper Eel (Sixth Item on placard – $14.99). Of all the dishes we thought that this was the weakest:
It's not that this was a bad dish; but after all of the really powerful flavors of the previous dishes, this tasted really, really, mild. The thin slices of Eel were coated with almost a laquer, tempura style batter, and deep fried. We were expecting a peppery-spicy-sweet flavor like that of the wonderful Prawns with Chilies. On the positive side, the dish wasn't very oily, and wasn't especially spicy. It's almost tailor made for someone who hasn't had Eel before.
Still we left Ba Ren, with leftovers to last for at least two more meals, and full stomachs. Fully satisfied, until the next time………
It's pretty nice to know that our favorite restaurant is not staying "stagnant", and that new dishes are being developed. The only problem is that my list of "favorites" is getting longer and longer…..
Ba Ren
4957 Diane Ave
San Diego, CA 92117