Chicken Wings – Page 17

Yakitori K-1

September 21, 2006 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Japanese Restaurants

*** K-1 has been replaced by Wa Dining Okan. You can find posts here and here.

I approached Yakitori K-1 with a bit of apprehension, because I really can't remember the last time I had good Yakitori. Still, seeing the sign for Yakitori K-1, every time I shopped at Nijiya finally wore me down.

We arrived at 6pm, and found the tiny, spartanly decorated shop, empty.

The menu was simple, and short, but all the usual suspects were present.

So we placed our orders…and off we went. It is normal to order several different items, and eat slowly, usually with "liquid refreshment", but Yakitori K-1 is still in the process of obtaining a liqour license. I started with one skewer of Momo (Thigh – Momoniku – $1.29), and Negima, Chicken pieces(In this case chicken breast) and Green Onions($1.79).

The Momo is a good test of the Tare(basting sauce), and cooking technique. The Missus thought the Tare was really salty, I thought it was pretty one dimensional, with shoyu overpowering everything else. The chicken pieces were fairly moist, but I'd have enjoyed my chicken a bit more caramelized. In a case like this, I'd rather just have "Shio", or salt on the chicken. The chicken breast was kind of dry, it would have been really nice if the some of the skin was left on the chicken. And just two pieces of Negi(green onions) meant that you were not going to get the flavor of the green onions in every bite, unless you did the sword swallowing thing…..

The ShisoMaki (Shiso wrapped thigh – $1.49), and 2 orders of Teba (Tebasaki – Grilled Chicken Wings – $1.99):

The Shiso Maki, was simple lightly basted thigh, though I really thought it was breast. In this case the minty-basil flavored shiso went well with the lightly basted chicken, which was very moist. It had me wishing for Momo no-Ume Shiso, where minced ume (Japanese Pickled Plum) is mixed with shoyu, mirin, and sake, and slathered onto one side of the chicken. Thinly julienned Shiso is sprinkled on the ume concoction. This is really good stuff! The Teba was by far the best item we had all night. Simply seasoned and grilled, skin crisp, with a small squeeze of lemon, these almost had the addictive "crack like" quality like really good Tebasaki.

Because I needed a bit of starch in the midst of this protein-fest, I also ordered the K-1 Stick(skewered rice balls with tare – $1.49).

These are like mini Yaki Onigiri(grilled rice balls). Excellent texture, crunchy on the exterior, moist and starchy interior. The Tare fell seriously short here as well, just a strong shoyu flavor.

The Missus ordered the Tsukune Bowl($4.99).

Tsukune refer to the Chicken Meatballs. The Missus thought they were very rubbery, and lacked flavor. In fact She traded 3 meatballs for 1 Teba. The tamago(egg), was well, tamago. The ground chicken was sauced with the tare, though here it tasted a bit sweeter. One thing for sure, there sure was enough rice.

To be perfectly fair, Yakitori K-1 was out of two of our favorites; the Sunagimo(gizzards), and Kawa (skin….mmm…skin…). So we weren't able to sample those. As we left, several customers walked in the door.

The prices at Yakitori K-1 are very reasonable, though I'd steer away from the combinations, which have mostly Momoniku and Mune(Sasami – skinless breast). I'm far from an expert on Yakitori, you may enjoy the Tare at Yakitori K-1, it's just not to our taste.

Yakitori K-1
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Panda Palace – Another ABCDE in National City

April 4, 2006 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Chinese Restaurants

**** Panda Palace has Closed

Can you dig the generic Chinese Restaurant name? If it has Pearl, Royal, Golden, Garden, Phoenix, and Eastern or something similar(dragon, ruby, panda?) in the name, it's likely a circa '70's style Chinese Restaurant, something like "Eastern Pearl Royal Golden Phoenix Garden Restaurant", you'll automatically know it's a Chinese Restaurant. Much like Royal Mandarin across the street Panda Palace Restaurant serves a combination of ABCDE ("American Born Chinese Dining Establishment") and Chinoy Food. However, unlike Royal Mandarin, whose Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings are almost legendary in the Filipino Community, nary a word has been said about it. So the Missus and I decided to see why…..

The bright and generic interior screams last century Chinese.

The menu was filled with San Diego Chinoy favorites, and we proceeded to order a few.

Upside Down Pan Fried Noodles($6.75):

Noodles fried to a crisp, topped with shrimp, chicken, beef, and vegetables. First the good, the noodles were excellent, not over fried to a brittle consistency, the noodles got nicely chewy as the sauce soaked through them. The Beef and Shrimp were well cooked, soft, and moist. The bad? This dish had virtually no flavor, even the beef and chicken had no flavor. Combine these noodles and the cooking technique with the brown sauce from the Upside Down Pan Fried Noodles at Mandarin Canton and you'd have a pretty decent dish.

The Missus has a Shrimp with Lobster Sauce($8.25) fixation:

I have an aversion to gloppy, pale dishes studded with frozen peas and carrots. So I asked the Missus how this tasted. Her verdict? B-L-A-N-D. While waiting for our order we watched in amazement, as a Young Boy poured almost a half bottle of soy sauce on his fried rice. I now understood why. In fact, at this point we were pretty close to needing a refill of our soy sauce.

Finally, we had to try the Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings($6.75):

So how did these measure up to Royal Mandarin or Golden Chopstick? Not even close. First of all, not enough salt, pepper, or green onions and garlic topping. Secondly, not crispy enough. One interesting thing; I could distinctly taste a sweet component, either sugar or honey, that made these wings a bit different.

One thing I will say about Panda Palace, our Waitress was super efficient, there was absolutely no wasted motion, from taking our orders, to bringing take-out containers along with our check. As for the food? If we crave some ABCDE grub, I think we'll stick with one of the "Big Three".

Panda Palace Chinese Restaurant
1105 E Plaza Blvd Ste D
National City, CA 91950

One final item – one day soon I'd like to set-up a "taste-test", purely subjective of course, of several (4-5) versions of Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings. So Calvin, Howie, and Jack; you Guys game?

Royal Mandarin – An “Ab-cee-dee” Fry-O-Rama

November 9, 2005 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Chinese Restaurants

We've developed a term for restaurants like Royal Mandarin. We call them "ABCDE", that's pronounced "Ab-cee-dee", otherwise known as "American Born Chinese Dining Establishment". You know those places, no chopsticks to be found; when you ask for them and old drawer will be opened and wooden chopsticks delivered. Royal Mandarin is such a place:

Located on busy Plaza Boulevard, Royal Mandarin serves a mix of ABCDE and Chinoy type of Chinese Food. As is typical with many of these restaurants when you enter, it's as if you've stepped into a time warp; the decor screams 60's Chinese Food. This quite non-descript storefront is deceptive. Many times the restaurant is packed to the gills.

The menu here is similar to other ABCDE restaurants; namely Mandarin Canton and Golden Chopsticks. So today instead of heading over to Golden Chopsticks, we drove one block East to Royal Mandarin. We started with an order of Upside Down Crispy Noodles($7.50):

I've explained my quest for "Cake Noodles" in previous posts, and really didn't expect anything close. And was proven right again. These were just deep fried noodle cakes, with stir fried veggies, shrimp, and beef in a brown sauce, which in this case was pretty tasteless. The broccoli was cooked to perfection, cooked completely through, and still crunchy.

Salted Pepper Shrimp without Shell ($9.95), probably the most expensive dish on the menu:

These shelled and deveined shrimp were dusted with flour and deep fried, instead of being heavily battered like we're used to. So we approached this with some doubt. But the shrimp were very tasty, not overly salty, slightly sweet, and the shrimp were cooked to perfection. A good rule of thumb for restaurants like these; "when in doubt, go for the fried." If they can't do fried well, they can't do anything.

After this visit, I found out that Royal Mandarin is one of the "players" in the Best Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings sweepstakes. In fact we saw trays, and in one case a whole cart of wings leaving the premises while we ate. There is a general consensus(maybe urban legend) that the "original" Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings were first served here. So armed with this info we paid Royal Mandarin another visit.

We started with the Classic ABCDE dish, a favorite of the Missus, Wor Wonton Soup for Two($4.50):

This soup was not half bad, the broth was much better then the usual tasteless watery broth. There was nice plump shrimp and several wonton, bamboo shoots, button mushrooms, and spinach.

And of course those Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings ($6.25):

These have the same "crack-like" addictiveness as the version at Golden Chopstick. This version has less of the garlic-green onion mixture and the chicken is placed on the top of the mixture instead of visa-versa. If I were to do a comparison, I'd say, the RM's wings are more crunchy, obviously from more cornstarch, there are more drumettes instead of wing pieces, and have a more balanced flavor. GS's version has much more "punch", and alot more of the delici-yoso garlic-green onion "topping".

The real hit of the meal was the Salt and Pepper Fish Fillet($7.95):

The batter on the slices of fish had a texture between a beer and tempura batter; crunchy, light, very tasty; and the fish was so moist. Three fried salt and pepper dishes, three different batters. This was by far the best.

Now the guilt kicked in. And in our weakness we went against our normal strategy and ordered Buddha's Delight($5.50):

Blech! This vegetable dish was very bland, though the veggies were cooked well, this was a waste.

Here are a few other fried from other visits.

Salt and Pepper White Meat Chicken($5.95):

Can you say Salt and Pepper McNuggets? Too dry, same batter as fish fillet, but doesn't work here. Very bland. The price – it's cheaper then the Chicken Wings should have been a clue!

Salt and Pepper Tofu($5.25):

Though a textural delight – cubes of tofu are deep fried were nice and crunchy outside, creamy inside; this dish would be better served with a sauce. Served in this manner it tasted rather bland. Can you say Tsoh(stinky) Tofu without the smell! Funny thing, on this visit our waitress thought the Missus was Filipino, but thought I'd want chopsticks because I was "Korean", after she found out the Missus was Chinese, they had some very nice conversations in Mandarin. The Missus noticed that a combination of Cantonese and Mandarin was spoken by the Employees. As we were leaving, we noticed a whole aluminum tray of Wings(60 pieces – just $17) sitting on a Lazy Susan on one of the tables with other dishes. There were 8 people just totally "grinding" on the wings, my kind of people! Why bother with plates – just give me a tray; I can deal with that! Also, as we were driving home, we noticed, no thirst, no swelling, it seemed that the amount of MSG in the food is pretty low, which I found to be strange considering the type of dishes we selected.

So the next time you're at a Filipino party in San Diego and the Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings are brought out, you can be pretty sure they've come from either Mandarin Canton, Golden Chopsticks, or Royal Mandarin. And when faced with an ABCDE, go first with the fried. If they can't do fried, I'm pretty sure they can't do anything!

If I can get some volunteers, I'll be willing to do a Salt and Pepper Chicken Wing tasting. Any takers?

Royal Mandarin Restaurant
1132 E. Plaza Blvd
National City, CA 91950

Chicken, Like Alice used to make? The Great Chicken Alice Recipe

October 18, 2005 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Cooking, Recipes

*** I've revised my recipe a bit. You can find that post here.

Looking back, life was pretty simple and easy for me during the Mid-Late Eighties through the Mid Nineties. Four times a week, I'd get off work and work-out with my Buddies, first at World Gym on the Ala Wai, later at The Gym in Kakaako. And at least once (and as many as four) times a week we'd grab dinner at Chicken Alice on Kapiolani Blvd, right outside of Ala Moana Center. Many a good "pau hana" started at "Alice", over her crunchy, slightly spicy wings, and ended up in my Buddies drive way, with jokes and conversations, after more than a few cold ones.

Then rather suddenly, Alice closed her Restaurants, and seemed to have disappeared. And a piece of me evaporated along with those wings….

Flash forward a decade later, and I've been periodically checking the Internet to see if anybody has a reasonable facsimile of Alice's chicken recipe. Well there it was, in black and white; written up in the Honolulu Star Bulletin. And along with the story of Chicken Alice, was the recipe for those awesome wings! I was so thrilled, but then something brought me crashing to Earth:

You see, according to the article "The key ingredient is Parks brand kim chee sauce — made locally and used primarily as the base for kim chee." This is something that you pretty much won't find on the Mainland; I was crushed; so close, yet still thousands of miles away! Enter Reid, of 'Ono Kine Grindz. I had made a passing comment to him about the sauce, and before you knew it, he had sent me two bottles of Parks brand Kim Chee sauce in a styrofoam cooler, and kept it cold using freezer gel packs! Talk about resourceful!

So what's in the Kim Chee sauce? According to the bottle, it's Chili Pepper, Garlic, Fish Sauce, Salt, Sugar, MSG, Paprika, and Ginger. What a combo! I got down to cooking right away, using the recipe from the article; right here.

So how did it turn out? Well I found it to be a bit on the mild side, and not salty enough, though the crispy stickiness was still there; and the color looked right. Also, the flavoring was just a bit "off".

So, armed with that experience, I made my adjustments, and came up with this recipe:

5 pounds chicken wings
Vegetable oil for deep frying

Batter:
1/2 cup Parks brand kim chee sauce
3 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons salt
2-1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups water

Combine kim chee sauce, garlic, salt and flour. Add water gradually, enough to make a thick batter, about the consistency of pancake batter.

Add chicken pieces to batter, mix well and marinate in refrigerator overnight.

Heat oil to 350 degrees.Deep-fry chicken pieces until chicken rises to surface and coating is deep brown.It's important to keep the oil at this temperature in order to assure the perfect crisp coating.

So you're wondering what it looks like, right?

I was amazed at how the color turned out; just a tad "lighter" than I remember, but close enough. The crunchy, slight stickiness was there. And the taste was nice and a mild-medium spicy. The changes I made; more garlic; more salt; a bit more water; and especially marinating overnight, instead of the 2-3 hours in the recipe did the trick. The chicken was still tasty and a bit crunchy 4 hours later, just like it used to be. Though it seemed the batter was thicker than I remembered, even though I added a bit more H2O.

My tastes had changed over the last decade; I'm now used to really spicy Sichuan Food, among other things, and though Alice's Chicken doesn't thrill me like it used to, it's still darn good. But the memories are what this was really all about. Sitting down, munching on wonderful memories, my mind was a thousand miles away to a place and time when things were alot simpler, and time seemed to pass at a less frenetic pace, even if just for a few moments, made the decade long quest worth while.

Mahalo Reid, I'm forever in your debt!

Do Re Mi House

October 6, 2005 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Korean Restaurants

*** Do Re Mi House has closed

***An update on De Re Mi House can be found here.

Yes, I know it's a strange name. Can you guess what kind of food Do Re Mi House serves? Let me give you some help:

Do Re Mi House serves Korean BBQ and basic Korean dishes in a small dining area, that almost feels "homey", or even like a little countryside Inn perhaps. I've never seen this place reviewed or mentioned anywhere, and the only reason I really know about it, is that a Gal at one of those "mailbox" places once told me that she takes Her Family there because it's affordable, and the food is good. So I've been dropping by off and on for the last few years.

The best bargains are the lunch specials, ranging from $5.99 – $7.99(Kalbi). For lunch this past week I had the Daeji Bulgogi ($5.99):

This "box/bento" style lunch consists of a small portion of BBQ spicy pork, rice, a green salad, 2 pieces of mandoo, and some panchan. The pork was flavored well, it's simply pork bulgogi with gochujang, and was moist, tender, slightly sweet, mildly spicy, and well flavored. The panchan is routine,except for the marinated potatoes, which I love. And the mandoo is terrible, a wrapper like thin cardboard, and not worth my time, neither was the green salad.

What sets Do Re Mi House apart was the service. Alot of places have a low-margin lunches going, basically inexpensive lunches in hopes of attracting volume. Many of these places do what I call the "dump and duck". That is once your order is placed, everything is "dumped" at your table, and the server "ducks" out, never to be seen until your check comes. During this lunch, for instance, the Young Lady saw that I plowed through the panchan, so she came by with two more bowls, saying, "you like kim chee, here's some more". Noticing my rice was running low she asked if I needed more, and brought me a bowl, as well as filling my water 3 times. So by the time I left, what started as a small lunch ended up being a little larger.

One evening I stopped by and ordered the Dak Bulgogi ($10.99):

There was a good variety of panchan, all totally routine, except the potatoes which I enjoyed. The portion size of the chicken seemed deceptively small, I say deceptively because I couldn't finish. The chicken had a bit of a sweeter taste then I'm used to, but was perfectly fine. I enjoyed the carmelization and the onions on the bottom. The chicken was also well marinated, I've had many instances where the chicken is quickly marinated than cooked, with sauce added at the end, leaving the chicken somewhat bland. As I was eating the Waitress came by and said, you liked the potatoes, right? And brought me another little bowl of the potatoes:

Do Re Mi House fills a niche right below Boo Cho and Buga, in price and quality. I've seen groups of students and families coming in for dinner. The BBQ is not done at the table. Lunch is much more inexpensive, though the portions may be a little on the small side, I've always left satisfied, if not stuffed. Service has always been good.

One short funny story. One night I was just having the Chicken Wings ($6.99), which were fine, but they had changed the recipe since I last had them. They used to be battered and spicy, and now they were just deep fried:

I was having this with some rice and panchan, when an older Lady sitting and eating at the front table, watching Korean Soap Opera, would get up every so often. She would grab a fly swatter and start killing flies in the front area with extreme accuracy. She would eat a few bites while watching the television, get up, and "whap-whap" get a few flies, clean up, and go back to eating and watching her show. I'm assuming she worked there, but am not quite sure…… So I guess there's free entertainment on certain nights? BTW, the flies never really made it into the restaurant with her around; she was deadly accurate!

DO Re Mi House
8199 Clairemont Mesa Blvd Ste M
San Diego, CA 92111
(858) 565-2085

Mandarin Canton – Is this Cake Noodle?

September 26, 2005 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Chinese Restaurants

*** 04/03/2011 You can find an update here.

Tucked in a strip mall on Telegraph Canyon Road in Chula Vista is Mandarin Canton, like Golden Chopstick, a Chinese-American-Filipino restaurant.

One night about a year ago, the Missus called from work and told me she thinks she found that "noodle dish" I'd been looking for. What I'd been looking for is called "Cake Noodle" in Hawaii, and I've never seen it anywhere on the Mainland. I've had some dishes that used pan fried noodles, but they were not even close.

Cake Noodles are usually thin egg noodles that are fried until crispy in a pan (thus the cake), cut into squares, and topped with a thick stir fried "gravy" and various meats and veggies. I knew this was a Filipino-American Chinese restaurant when I noticed that no chopsticks are provided and we are served what we jokingly call Chinese Tortilla Chips! Actually these won ton pi chips are very sneaky, served with sweet and sour sauce, you end up eating one after the other….

On this visit I was really surprised that lunch specials were being served on a Sunday! The specials come with soup and either Fried Rice or Steamed Rice and range between $3.75-$4.75. One quick tip – stay with the steamed rice! We ordered one item off the lunch menu, and two off of the regular menu:

We received the Shrimp with Lobster Sauce ($4.75) that the Missus ordered off the specials menu:

I was pretty surprised to find that we got a whole order of Shrimp with Lobster Sauce. Shrimp with Lobster sauce is not my favorite dish, I call it "egg drop soup with shrimp", but the Missus enjoys it. This version was very mild, though the shrimp were large and tasty, ditto with the water chestnuts. It also started congealing as soon as it hit the table.

The Salted and Deep Fried Shrimp with No Shell ($11.00) came up next:

So fried, salty, garlicky, slightly spicy, and crunchy…..I don't think you need to say anything else about this dish. It's probably the most expensive dish on the menu, but it's alot of really large shrimp. I once saw a Young Lady order this with a side of the garlic/green onion/chili pepper topping, and eat a spoonful of the garlic with each shrimp, and loving it! Make sure you order them without shell.

Than came the dish I came here for – the Upside Down Pan Fried Noodles ($6.50). Yes, it's actually called that on the menu:

The noodles are fried to a crisp than topped with veggies and meats in a brown sauce. The sauce is nice and salty, sweet, and gooey, and slowly softens the noodles. My only complaint is that there is not enough brown sauce. The Missus ended up spooning her rice into the empty plate to sop up the remaining sauce. There are large shrimp, beef, and chicken, along with broccoli and snow peas.

So is it Cake Noodle? Well not really, but it's close enough for me.

Some notes on Mandarin Canton: Like many of these places Your Mileage May Vary, there are some really terrible dishes here, so pick and choose based on what you see others eating. There are only ten tables, and a constant flow of people in and out, but the turnaround is pretty quick. Mandarin Canton is a "Player" in the "Best Salt and Pepper Wings" battle going on, but is not as good as Golden Chopstick, though Golden Chopstick's Upside Down Pan Fried Noodles (yes, they have them there as well), is not as good as Mandarin Canton's. I've actually swung by both restaurants on a single take-out trip. Don't eat here if you are afraid of salt and MSG, though I've never had any problems or reactions from the food, I'm pretty sure it's there.

Mandarin Canton Chinese Restaurant
543 Telegraph Canyon Rd
Chula Vista, CA 91910
Open Daily 11am – 10pm

Golden Chopsticks – Guilty Pleasure

August 2, 2005 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Chinese Restaurants

*** To see how Golden Chopsticks did in the Salt and Pepper Chicken Wing Challenge – go here.

I’ve got a special place in my heart for well made American Chinese food; after all I was literally raised on the stuff back home in Hawaii. If you’ve been to a Filipino Pot Luck in San Diego recently, along with the lumpia and pansit, you’ve probably had these:

Those are salted pepper chicken wings ($5.75) from Golden Chopsticks. These are like crack, once you start eating them there’s no stopping! Crunchy, salty, garlicky, with a slight sweet taste, these are addicting. Luckily for us, Golden Chopsticks is located in National City a pretty good distance away, in the same mall as Ohana Family BBQ and Seafood City. I guess if I had to categorize GC, it would be Filipino-American-Chinese Food.

As with most food in the Filipino community, there’s been great debates and conversations over who makes the best salt-and-pepper wings, there are some who say that Mandarin Canton in Chula Vista makes the best, but the over-riding opinion is that GC makes the best. The first thing you’ll notice when you enter, is that most of the customers are Filipino. Also, no one’s using chopsticks, spoons and forks are the norm here, they don’t bother with chopsticks unless you ask, or if you look like us….. The other thing you’ll notice if you go on a weekend, are the endless stack of trays ($25.00/tray – 60 pieces) and styrofoam containers of wings lined up for pick-up. This weekend we decided to partake of other items on the menu, in addition to (of course) dem’ wings.

We started with the Shrimp “Chow Mein”($6.25):

I’m not a great fan of the style of noodles used, but this dish is nicely flavored, and large shrimp are used. I actually liked these.

The next dish was the Sizzling Shrimp/Beef/Chicken, one of the most expensive dishes on the menu ($9.25), but the very friendly Waitress (she’s Chinese, if you need to know) recommended it:

Flavored with garlic and black bean, and placed on a metal plate and sizzled, this dish was pretty good.

The last dish was the Tofu with Brown Sauce ($5.50):

This was the blandest dish, in need of more aggressive seasoning. This dish actually tasted much better the next day(mmm-leftovers!!!), but I think I’ll pass the next time.

With a large bowl of rice and a pot of tea – $33.00, not bad! And we’ve got lunch and tonight’s dinner with the leftovers. We did finish all the wings though, and probably could have gone through another order….Yes, I’m still the same person who loves Ba Ren and China Max, but I really think that Golden Chopsticks also has a place in there somewhere.

Some Notes on Golden Chopsticks; I’m pretty sure they use MSG, so if you’re hyper-sensitive to it, you may want to take a pass. The service is very friendly, and very quick. Don’t forget those wings….

Golden Chopsticks
1430 Plaza Blvd #E/22A-23A
National City, CA 91950
619-336-1888

I can’t believe I ate it all……