**** Golden City has closed
It had been a really long day and there was no way I’d be making dinner. So what to pick up on the way home? Village Kitchen and Thai Papaya come to mind, but since by the time I’d be getting home, the Missus would be off to work this one was for me….and I was craving Kwai Fei Chicken. It’s been over ten years since I mentioned getting this dish from Golden City and I still crave it a couple of times a year. And I usually get it from Golden City….even when they were located on Convoy way back when. Over the years, I’ve posted on the place 15-16 times, you can find all those posts on the Big List.
I ended up doing take-out and ordering more than I should have.
Over the years, the chicken’s gotten to be a bit drier and tougher. Still, topped with that ginger-scallion-sesame oil sauce, what I call my “cold ginger chicken sauce”, because that’s what we call the version of Kwai Fei Chicken we eat back home in Hawaii….this is comfort food to me. Especially when the weather gets warmer……savory – herbaceous flavors, with a slight pungency….I can just eat the sauce over rice!
I decided to get some Roast Duck.
Which, on this visit wasn’t very good. It wasn’t overly salty like many versions in San Diego and it was fairly tender…..it was truly lacking the beany paste and mild five spice flavors I enjoy. Overall, quite bland.
What was really delicious; I’d say even better than the Kwai Fei Chicken on this day was the Pork Intestines with Preserved Vegetable….for some reason, this isn’t on the dinner menu, but they were nice enough to make it for me.
The intestines were prepped quite well……I guess it would be even better if it were fried and crisp, but the earthy-musty flavors were nice without being too much. The salty-sour preserved vegetables, which also had just a touch of sweetness kept things in check as did the onions, which added a nice pungency to the dish. Man this was good.
With all the new places opening left and right, it’s easy to over-look the rather worn Golden City. I’m glad I didn’t on this evening.
Golden City Restaurant
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123