**** Kangxi is coming has closed
First off; we here at mmm-yoso would like to wish everyone a wonderful Lunar New Year! Welcome to the "Year of the Pig"!
It was finally getting cool enough to start making Suan Cai again. It had been so hot for so long this past year. Once our first batch completed; the Missus wanted me to pick up some Suan Cai with Pork from Village North to mix up with our really cheesy fermented stuff. I dropped by and noticed that Village North was gone. It had been replaced by something called Kangxi is Coming?
A few weeks later I had an conversation with "YZ" about the new Chinese restaurant opening; she was referring to Taste of Hunan (which we ended up going to and enjoying) and I Kangxi is Coming…… She had been wondering why I kept referring to some Taiwanese talk show as a Chinese restaurant until I presented her with the photo above. At which time she just cracked up.
Anyway, I waited a couple of weeks before finally visiting. Upon entering there were two things I quickly noticed…..
The first being that the interior looked unchanged. The second, well, the nice lady who worked at Village North was also working here. She was really happy to see me. And chided me for not dropping by sooner. She then told me that even though the owners were new and the menu was now more Sichuan and Hunan focused, the kitchen staff was the same, from Dongbei, trained in Sichuan kitchens.
The menu was an interesting "change" from the now ubiquitous book with slickly photographed dishes. And it there was an interesting variety of items….the really friendly woman quickly pointed out that several dishes I used to order were still on the menu.
Over time, I've made two visits, with a couple of repeat dishes; so here goes.
Fu Qi Fei Pian, something I always try to order when checking out Sichuan restaurants….and since it was on the menu….
This was an odd dish; the beef was nicely flavored on its own and there was actually tendon served up. It had a weird chili based sauce which was on the sour side and it totally lacked Sichuan peppercorn. Sort like they pulled some meat from the fridge; sliced it up, and dumped some sauce on it….which is what they probably did. It was obviously not marinating in anything.
I ordered the stir fried tripe; thinking it was going to be beef tripe; but it turned out to be pork tripe.
Chewy-crunchy; standard stir-fry, decent wok skills, but nothing special.
The other two dishes I ordered twice on different visits. It was an interesting in that both dishes were different during each visit.
First off; the Mapo Tofu on the first visit was really good.
Wow, it had a nice Sichuan Peppercorn "ma" thing going on along with a pretty spicy kick. It was spicy, the flavors sharp, the flavor of a decent chili bean paste came thru nicely.
On the next visit, the Ma Po Tofu looked totally different (photo to the right); it lacked Sichuan Peppercorn, was strangely sour, but was still quite spicy, with the thicker, more "gravy" looking sauce, and more pork. I preferred version 1.
Of course the item I usually ordered (mostly for the Missus) was the Suan Cai with Pork. On that first visit it looked like this.
It was amateur hour with the wok; no color, too much liquid…like it couldn't decide if it wanted to be a hot pot or stir fry. It lacked the nice cheesy-savory flavor of fermented cabbage and was quite bland.
I decided to give it another try and this time it was better; while it still had more liquid than I care for in this dish; it popped with sour-salty flavor and there was a decent smokiness from "wok hay". It also had much more suan cai this time around. In this case, I'd take version 2.
I also ordered the Spicy Bean Curd Skin.
This was good. A nice crunchy texture, light spice, slight sweetness, good soy sauce, with just enough sesame oil to add a pleasant nuttiness to the dish. I could have gone with more cilantro, but this was a decent dish.
I used to enjoy the pork intestine dishes at Village North, so I ordered the Spicy Pork Intestine, which turned out to be pretty good.
This had a nice spiciness to it; the intestine was decently crisp as well. Good offal funkiness, without being off-putting. It also had a decent amount of Sichuan Peppercorn, something that is often in short supply in Sichuan restaurants these days.
Since Kangxi pushes their Hunan dishes and I'm a fan of La Rou with dried/preserved vegetables; I ordered the Preserved Pork with Pickled Radish.
Strangely; I found the Sichuan dishes here to be more spicy than the Hunan items. The la rou had a very nice texture; not overly rubbery, with a decent smokiness, but was really salty. I really enjoyed the pickled radish; nice crunch, good sour counter-point to the pungent and salty ingredients. I just wish there was more of it used in the dish. 
So, overall a kind of mixed bag, and there seems to be; at least on my multiple visits (which is why I try to do several visits before doing posts) some variation in flavoring and cooking of dishes here. I did enjoy several items and the dishes that were spicy; we legitimately so. I did think the dishes here were more spicy that other Sichuan restaurant in San Diego and they seem to use more peppercorn as well. So, I'll probably be back….to try more items on that rather vast menu.
Kangxi Is Coming
4428 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Mon – Thurs 11am – 230pm, 5pm – 10pm
Fri – Sun 11am – 10pm