What the heck? What's the tie in with these two places? Well, read on and I think you'll see. Mostly photos in this one….I've posted on these places before. So let's C(lear) O(ut) the M(emory) C(ard) shall we?
Golden City for the billionth time:
I actually hadn't been back to Golden City in a while. But after reading Lynn's post, even though she ordered things that I would never have at Golden City. I thought it was time for a revisit and yet another post to see if they have gone severely downhill. I had thoughts of picking up on my Golden City Hot Pot project, but man, it's been so hot. Anyway, the photos kind of speak for themselves.
My favorite – the Kwai Fei Ji. Also a favorite of Dennis.
Steamed Pork Belly with Preserved Vegetable.
Macau Roast Pork……on one visit, with my buddy Candice, it was too salty. On this visit, with my coworkers YZ and Lily, it was quite good…..
YZ, from Shanghai and Lily from Shanxi ("I'm from Taiyuan, not Taiwan, ok") really know the questions to ask whenever we eat Chinese food…. where are the owners from and what is the style of food. I think of Golden City as basically a Guangdong (Cantonese to you) style restaurant that pulls ever so slightly toward Chaozhou (Eastern Guangdong), though many of the dishes that reflect that are no longer on the menu .
Like the Beef Stew (actually a braise) with Radish. I've had it when it was quite good. On this day, it wasn't quite ready for prime time; the beef was nice, tender, moist, yet not falling to pieces, but the daikon was still too hard.
The food can sometimes be uneven. The Fish in Black Bean Sauce had me asking where the fish was during a lunch with Reza.
The textures and flavors were right, but the ratio of onions to everything else was off.
The dishes we order occaisionally draw stares from the gringo ordering customers, as I've mentioned before, I really don't think ordering dishes from the Easternmost Regional Chinese Cuisine….. that would be ABCD ("American Born Chinese Dining"), is what they do best here. And I think folks like CAB, Dennis, and even Kirbie would agree. Nothing fancy, but decent grub.
Golden City Restaurant
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123
Carnitas Snack Shack:
**** This location of Carnitas' Snack Shack has closed
The Missus had been fighting a cold during the super hot week we had recently. She doesn't handle being sick very well. And the heat just made things that much worse. So, while on the road to recovery, the Missus told me She wanted to visit one of Her current favorite places, basically for this.
It didn't look quite right, but the flavor, the sweet-porkiness was still right on. And the Missus just basically inhaled the thing.
Carnitas now has a second location in Del Mar, which Kirbie, Jinxi, and Faye have posted on…man, it's Food Blogger Central! I was wondering if there was going to be a drop off at the original location, but no, things were good as ever. It's really nice that things have really been fine tuned since my first visit back in 2011.
Carnitas' Snack Shack
2632 University Avenue
San Diego, CA 92104
So how's this for a pork-a-licious COMC post?