Driving East on the 60 Freeway, car smelling of my bounty of Indonesian Food, I had a few more stops to make. First……
Yes Plaza:
As I previously posted, what is now Yes Plaza, was a pretty dark and seedy strip mall back when we lived a few blocks away. Because of the terribly scary, and always malfunctioning laundry room in our apartment complex, we'd end up at the better lit, but very beat, "Launder Land"…..with the terminal fermented geriatric diapers smells, and god knows what oozing from under the bathroom door (which cost you a quarter...how's that for a double whammy). But boy have things changed.
I'm not sure if I really like the pastel, antacid blue that they've painted the place…..just like the pastel t-shirt and jacket an acquaintance of mine from back in the 80's ……who wanted to be Don Johnson used to wear all the time. The only problem was; that one, he was Japanese, and two, he was maybe five-foot two on a good day. (we nicknamed him, "Miami Mice") It just looks wrong….
I will say that there's a really good array of eateries in Yes Plaza.
And the walkways are no longer coated with gum and various stains of dubious origin. And it seems like the liqour store, Thai Restaurant, and ironies of ironies, the Laundromat (though really cleaned up) are the only businesses remaining from that time.
And since there's no way you can go through one of these malls without some interesting bit of "Engrish", I was on the look-out. But the only sign I could find was in the window of the Indonesian Restaurant:
"Fish Tilapia"…..kinda redundant isn't it? But maybe they were just trying to differentiate it from the "Moose Tilapia" or "Frog Tilapia", or the even more heinous "Kangaroo Tilapia?"
Now why the heck was I aimlessly wandering the walkways of Yes Plaza?
Kyochon Chicken….
Is why. After reading posts from Wandering Chopsticks and Elmomonster, I'd been dying to try the twice fried chicken wings. But the Missus, having tried and not cared for BBQ Chicken, did not want to waste precious eating time on our road trips. Having to make a solo trip to LA gave me the opening I needed.
Now the standard line is "to ensure the best quality, and freshness, the wings are made to order." Which is why I was just kinda hovering around Yes Plaza, with one of those coaster-buzzer thingamajiggy's in hand.
One more thing, how hard is it for a bright, new, and shiny chicken wing restaurant, to get an 'A' health inspection grade? Maybe Kyochon purposely flunked to get some street cred? You know the saying…… in the SGV, 'A'=American Food, 'B'=Better Food, and 'C'=(real) Chinese Food. As I was contemplating that, the coaster went "off", which was a good thing…the next thing I might have started contemplating would have probably been my navel.
I had ordered seven wings with the standard garlic soy, and four wings spicy. Each came in wonderful looking boxes, along with a kleenex dispenser(must be some free gift), in a good quality bag. Talk about some overhead.
The garlic soy wings were nice, light, crisp. As all posts on Kyochon note, the double-frying technique renders off all the subcutaneous fat off. Leaving you with thin crisp skin, and moist meat.
The chicken is "glazed" in a sweet, soy-garlic sauce. That is mostly sweet. Folks from "back home" know this style as "dipped chicken"…fried chicken that dipped into a sauce right after frying. Much like my garlic chicken……with much more finesse of course. I thought these were rather good.
I had two wings and moved on to the sweet-spicy wings:
These were glazed in a slow burning, slighly sour, lip stinging sauce. It had a nice slow burn to it. I ate two and saved the rest for the Missus.
Her verdict? She thought the spicy wings were nice, not too spicy, but good. She enjoyed the texture of the wings, and had thoughts of getting some on our next trip to the area….until I showed Her the receipt:
She quickly changed Her mind. They were good, but not THAT good…..
Kyochon Chicken
18180 E Colima Rd
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
I had one last stop, Hong Kong Plaza, to pick up some Chinese Beef Jerky for the Missus. Curious about what was going on in the space of the now defunct Hong Kong Market. There was this sign posted:
It always amazes me, how quickly businesses close around here:
And how quickly they are replaced:
The market was gone, but some enterprising vegetable vendor had set up shop on the sidewalk this day, and was doing bang-up business.
In spite of the bad economy, there's quite a bit of new construction going on. Our old "dry cleaners" is now a flattened dirt lot, waiting for a new mall or building to spring up.
One thing hasn't changed. On a good day, you can still see the San Gabriel Mountains….I had forgotten how much I loved looking at them. Even from a strip mall parking lot…..
