After a satisfying meal at the "new" Golden City(and quite a bit of leftovers as well), we decided that one good turn deserved another. This time we decided on 2 items that were "kept" from the old menu, and 1 new item that caught our fancy.
We started with an old favorite the Peking Duck, 2 courses, at eighteen bucks, pretty much a bargain. To our surprise, instead of the slices of duck skin lying on shrimp chips, surrounded by "buns", Golden City now does their Peking Duck "cart style".
The Young Man wheeled our friend out on His own little cart and made short work of Him. After trimming off most of the skin, Mr Duck was taken to the back room and worked over.
Though I found the duck to be better flavored than the version from the Old Golden City, most of the rich subcutaneous fat had rendered off, and thereby losing some of the richness I enjoy. The Missus, not a fan of duck fat, thought these were very good. The duck was served with shredded Scallions and Hoisin Sauce. Only one small complaint; the scallions apparently had been lying around; they were tough, dry, and tasteless.
A steamer insert of buns was brought to the table, steaming hot. I thought these were much too thick and large for the petite slices of duck. Overall, not the highest quality duck, but a bargain at eighteen bucks. And let’s not forget the chopped duck in lettuce cups, the second course.
I daresay the Missus enjoys this more than the duck skin. Duck is stir fried with Scallions and Jicama, creating a great contrast in textures. The taste is a rich sweetness, to go along with hints of 5 spice.
One of my favorite dishes is Kwai Fei Chicken, a cold chicken dish(half chicken $8.95):
This version was much different than what I’m used too; first off, instead of the usual pale white color, the skin of the chicken was a light brown. The chicken also had a very nice 5 spice, wine, and soy flavor. I really didn’t need the minced ginger-scallion oil for flavoring at all. The chicken was cooked perfectly, no hint of blood dripping from the bones, and the meat was moist and tender.
The most satisfying dish of the evening was the Chaozhou Beef Stew ($12.95):
A Chiuchow version of the standard Beef Brisket with Turnip Hot Pot. The soup was brought to our table in a stainless steel hot pot, with flammable gel in the chamber below. Unfortunately, the Server forgot to light the gel, no big deal. The light broth was full of flavor, and much more complex than its color would indicate. The meat was a very flavorful brisket, the cut of meat also included the fat cap and the connective tissue, which could be somewhat off-putting to some, but not for us. Buried under then meat were matchstick sized slices of radish(daikon), along with preserved vegetable, which added to the flavor of the broth. All of this topped off with basil, cilantro, and scallions.
Man that was good!
It seems that the new version of Golden City serves up some pretty good food. I’m hoping that they can keep it up, and give us another option for Chinese Food in the Clairemont area.
Golden City Restaurant
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123
Open Daily 11am – Midnight
We recently did a revisit post on 12/17/06, it can be found here.