Category: Chinese Restaurants

La Rou from Taste of Hunan and Recently Consumed

Chinese Restaurants, Cooking, Online Food Suppliers

I had to smile when “FOY” Dereck just commented on my revisit to Taste of Hunan which I did almost a month ago. We have already revisited yet again! But, since I’d recently done a post, I didn’t take any photos of that visit. There was one item on the menu that we noticed for the first time. ToH actually sells La Rou, the Hunan cured and smoked pork by weight! The Missus asked the always friendly Server about that and She was told that it is shipped to ToH from Hunan Province! They don’t always have it for sale, but she went to check and said they had one piece. So, here’s where it gets interesting…..you have to purchase the entire piece, they will not portion it for you. The price is $25.95 per pound. Not cheap, but you really don’t use a lot of La Rou per dish. We really like the La Rou ToH uses, so we decided to get it. The piece came in at 2 pounds! The woman was so nice, instructing us to freeze what we don’t use.

In case you’re wondering what 2 pounds of La Rou looks like.

And that my friends is a full sized cleaver!

What I did is divide up the LA Rou into four, almost equal sized portions, let’s just say a half pound or so.

I kept one portion for current use and the other three went into the freezer. There’s a hard “rind” at the bottom of the piece. When first using the piece, I’ll remove the rind, which also had a good fat layer. This comes in handy later….. We found that one piece can make about 4 dishes…so let’s say about a quarter pound of la rou….and that’s a generous amount!

So, of course first up was what we’ve been making a lot of recently, Clay Pot Rice. Instead of using duck fat or drippings to coat the nabe, we use the pork rind and melt the fat off the piece to lube the baby up!

In addition to the La Rou, we used Lup Cheong and slices of the Garlic Sausage from Wang La Ya in this.

The Missus loves La Rou with Celtuce (i.e. Chinese Lettuce – Wōsǔn/Wōjù).

So, I cut some fairly thin slices along with the Celtuce.

Adding some dried chilies, garlic, etc….. A very simple dish. No photo of the final product, because as soon as it hit the table, the Missus set out to devour it!

I’ve made a couple of other dishes since then, the Missus loves La Rou with Chinese Celery. Here’s a photo of the La Rou stir fried with Chinese Cauliflower (which I mentioned in the post).

I used Fresno Chilies, dried chili de arbol, and fermented chilies for this. I did a low heat stir fry of the cauliflower first, removing it from the wok, then going for it with the other ingredients and adding the cauliflower back in later.

Anyway….it’s been fun, since the frozen La Rou you get at 99 Ranch Market is horrible!

Some other stuffs……

I needed to use up the last of my beans from Rancho Gordo and only had those huge Royal Corona Beans left. So, I made up a pot of it.

I took half of the beans and made a dish with Merguez, Harissa, and chard from the yard! The Missus took most of it with Cous Cous for lunch and we also had some on toast, which was quite good!

When the weather recently warmed up, I went and made marinated beans with the remainder.

The beans mainly with lemon juice/zest, EVOO, sun dried tomatoes, red onion, garlic, and Italian Parsley. Nice and refreshing!

And just for the fun of it, I recently made this as well.

You know what it is, right? Took me back to small kid time!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Hong Kong Kitchen & Dimsum Opens Part 2

Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum

So, in part 1 of my posts on the newly opened Hong Kong Kitchen & Dim Sum, I went over two visits, that were basically solo because the Missus just didn’t think the place was worth a visit. So, after some not so bad food, I thought the Missus would be all for a visit. Well, She was not! Calvin however, whom I hadn’t had lunch with in a while was up for it! So we met right at the 10am opening time. Seems that Calvin, who lives in Scripps Ranch and has roots in the SGV has been down on the d-sum North of the 8 in town for a while. So, I thought we’d have some fun….he’d pick 4 dim sum items and I’d go with two mains and we’d have some fun.

So, in terms of the dim sum, in ranking from first to worst.

Scallop Dumplings ($9.50). These were by far the best items I’ve had at HK Kitchen thus far.

The wrappers were adequately thick, with a nice mild stretch to them. The scallops were tender and sweet; this was quite good.

Second was the Siu Mai, which I covered in my previous post. This was even better as you can clearly see….

The filling much more tender, decent savory-porky tones, the wrapper tender as well.

Took a bit into the Cheong Fun ($8.50) that Calvin ordered and went “what the heck”? Calvin had ordered the Char Siu version. I guess I expected the shrimp version.

So this was a bit too sweet for my taste. The rice roll was fine; perhaps a bit too brittle. The sauce was overly salty for my taste.

The Turnip Cake with XO Sauce ($14) was a fail. Both of us lamented the lack of the savory-umami tones and mild spice provided by XO sauce.

In fact, there seemed to be a total lack of the savory punch needed for this. The turnip cakes interior was mushy and this was a bit on the greasy side. Which reminds me that the Missus wants me to make my own XO sauce and it’s been a while since I’ve made turnip cake at home.

As for the two mains.

The Black Pepper Beef ($28) was fine, though not as good as what I get from Eastern Dynasty.

It was fairly tender; though the sauce was on the sweeter side. The sugar snap peas were nice and crisp.

Of only I knew about the XO Sauce when I ordered the Shrimp with XO Sauce ($25).

While the shrimp was adequately cooked, fairly tender, with a slight sweet-savoriness; there was a lack of XO in this dish. Thus not fulfilling the umami potential of the dish.

Still, this was a decent meal. Calvin mentioned that he’d definitely return for the dim sum here….looking out into the parking lot, we noticed that it had filled by 1115! So, if you’re thinking of going for dim sum; I’d suggest getting there early. You can read about Soo’s recent visit here.

Hong Kong Kitchen & Dim Sum
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123
Current Hours:
Daily 10am – 9pm

Sizzling House Has Closed, Juewei becoming L.A. Hot Duck, and Isaki Japanese Restaurant Taking the Former 85°C Spot

Bakery, Chinese Restaurants, Desserts, Japanese Restaurants, yoso-silly

Here’s some stuffs I noticed in the Clairemont Mesa/Kearny Mesa area recently.

Sizzling House Has Closed:

Noticed this during our most recent visit to Eastern Dynasty.

Whoa, Sizzling House didn’t even last a year. So, much for the sizzling plate/pepper lunch fad, huh? Looks like this is going to be an outlet of Las Vegas based Urban Matcha…so one feeds another?

4698 Convoy St. Suite 107
San Diego, CA 92111

Juewei Becoming L.A. Hot Duck:

Also during that visit we noticed a new banner covering the Juewei sign.

Funny thing, I just mentioned how dissatisfied we’d been with our most recent visits to Juewei in my post on Spicy Duck Wang La Ya. Juewei seemed to be constantly changing concepts, last I saw they were trying to do Hot Pot, before that they had initiated doing skewers. They had an inconsistent inventory of items we enjoyed and we just decided to stop and not waste our time there.

So, I’m not sure if it’s still the same owners with a new concept….I do know there’s a LA Hot Duck in Rowland Heights. What’s up with all these places from the SGV opening here? They do not appear to be open yet; so we’ll see!

4690 Convoy St. #103
San Diego, CA 92111

And finally….

Isaki Japanese Restaurant and Nothing Bundt Cakes Taking the Former 85°C  Spot:

I noticed some signage on the doors of what used to be 85°C off Balboa so I walked on over. Looks like they’ve split the spot into two businesses.

One of the signs said Isaki Japanese Restaurant.

And the other looks to be another franchise of Nothing Bundt Cakes.

I don’t have much to say about this one…..

5575 Balboa Ave.
San Diego, CA 92111

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Spicy Duck Wang La Ya Opens in 99 Ranch Market Food Court (Balboa location)

Chinese Restaurants

On a recent visit to the 99 Ranch location on Balboa, I headed to the restrooms and found that Dao Xiang Noodle was gone! Man, they had lasted what…maybe three months? The business that replaced it caught my attention.

Spicy Duck Wang La Ya……hmmmm…..it really got me because as much as we had enjoyed Juewei, things had changed over the last couple of months. That smoked chicken we enjoyed had become only served on weekends and then they stopped serving it altogether. Then, many of the liang cai; cold dishes were not consistently available….the yuba wasn’t available on a couple of visits…then they started doing skewers, and the hot pot???? We just kinda stopped and now they are changing concepts it seems (post upcoming). Now this was interesting as it featured all those duck parts and the cold dishes, and when I looked at the menu smoked chicken.

There was one problem though……even though the sign said “open” it didn’t seem so as all the dishes were covered and no one was manning the booth.

So, I just kinda stood around for a few minutes….until a really nice older gentleman came out. Now here’s where things get interesting…..he only spoke Mandarin! And I just wanted to try a Smoked Chicken…so, much like what I did at Juewei….I used my phone!

And even though I didn’t get any of those liang cai….which wasn’t on the menu board, I got the smoked chicken ($15).

And man, this was pretty good. You have to understand, this ain’t American BBQ ok? The meat is quite firm, there’s a nice savory-soy-winey thing going on. The Missus said it reminded Her of what She had in China…going to middle school-high school-college in Beijing. In other words, She was hooked!

And so we headed back ASAP!

This time they seemed fully opened and the Missus had a nice chat with the gentleman and came to find out that the “main” business is in Monterey Park.

And along with the smoked chicken, we ordered a bunch of other stuffs.

While he walked away, the Missus could not help but smile….I asked Her why and She told me “his accent…..I think it’s so Northern!” Turns out he’s from Shenyang. Since then, we’ve made multiple visits and here’s a summary.

The Pig’s Ears…..are nicely flavored, but in need of completion. The gentleman said add cilantro and cucumber and some chilies……and then he made the motion of drinking some beer! Lol! Anyway, I separate and trim the slices into more manageable pieces and then add Sichuan Peppercorn Oil and some Chili Crisp….and “viola”, we have a nice side dish.

One of my favorite items is the boneless chicken feet…..which always seems to be “givin’ me da’ finga la dat!”

Mild spice-sour acidity, collagenic crunch, some spice….good stuff…

The marinated bamboo shoots are by the book as well. Earthy-vinegar-not over spicy, soy sauce and crunchy.

They have two types of housemade sausages available. The sweet is a bit too sweet and not savory enough; but the garlic version is quite nice.

And the Missus has even used it in some clay pot rice! It’s precooked, so you can just eat it when you buy it.

Well, in case you’re wondering if I like everything here….well no. The Yuba, tofu skin one of my favorite liang cai items, is way too sweet and not spicy enough.

Which is a bummer; but there’s quite a bit of variety.

In an interesting public service announcement….if you speak Mandarin; they may ask you if you want something “extra spicy”….which we did with the Lotus Root. They pour on ground chili and chili oil to what’s already mildly spicy and it’s quite “hot”.

The lotus root was nice and crunchy; though I think we’ll just get it “as is” next time.

Anyway, the Missus is hooked on this place….we’ve visited four times! Though they haven’t seemed to have attracted much customers yet. In something that’s very “Asian”…..whenever we visit, people wandering the area see us waiting and then suddenly they’re interested! Lol! So very Chinese/Taiwanese, huh?

We’re hoping they do well; this location has been four businesses over the last couple of years; from Saigon 5, to Mama Lin’s, to Dao Xiang……

After all, the Missus does need Her “smoked chicken fix”….

Spicy Duck Wang La Ya
5950 Balboa Ave (Inside 99 Ranch Market)
San Diego, CA 92111

Hong Kong Kitchen & Dimsum Opens Part 1

Chinese BBQ, Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum

Back at the end of December, I noticed the signage for the restaurant taking the place of the long standing Golden City. It was going to be Hong Kong Kitchen & Dim Sum. A few weeks back, I noticed the Grand Opening sign was up and I drove over to check the hours. The place opens at 10am!

So, I tried to talk the Missus into visiting; but She wanted me to check the place out first. Sigh…so of course, I headed on over.

The place was empty when I arrived and was seated. Soon after a couple of larger parties drifted in.

The interior looks basically the same; though they’ve tried to spiff it up a bit. Still, the tell-tale signs of Golden City were quite obvious to me….

The woman running the place was very nice and told me they had just been open for a couple of days. She gave me two menus. Since I was here during “lunch”, I also got the dim sum menu. Dim Sum is served between 10am and 3pm daily.

So, I decided to try a couple of dim sum dishes; which run from $7.50 to $11….such are prices these days as well as two regular menu items.

I started with some Har Gow and Siu Mai, both priced at $9.50.

Some tea arrived soon after.

Of the two sets of dim sum; the Har Gow was the weaker one.

The shrimp filling was decent; a bit on the chewy side; but the shrimpiness came thru quite nicely. These were quite large.

I didn’t care for the wrappers which were too thick, chewy, and rubbery.

I did enjoy the Siu Mai.

While the filling was still on the chewier side; both the flavor of the pork and the shrimp came thru nicely…a good savory-mildly sweet flavor and also quite fragrant.

The wrapper was fine; at least it wasn’t as bad as what I’d last had at the reopened China Max…..this actually had the taste and texture of dim sum!

Both the Har Gow and Siu Mai were quite large and I only had two of each and took the rest home. I reheated using the Microwave “steam” technique which works fairly well. The Missus ate both of the siu mai and had half of a har gow….’nuff said!

As for the menu dishes….well, I wanted to see how the Sauteed Intestines with Chinese Pickles ($22) here fared against my current favorite.

Well, not bad at all; though a bit on the sweeter side in terms of flavor. The pork intestine was definitely not as good as it was really chewy. Good amount of suan cai, adding a nice sour tone to things. Still, I probably won’t be getting this again.

And I just needed to get a half roast duck; which priced at $20, is even cheaper than Eastern Dynasty!

The subcutaneous fat had been nicely rendered and the skin decently caramelized and crisp. However, the meat was on the drier side and the flavor was lacking in anise-five spice tones and was pretty bland. The jus was good in a dry pot that the Missus made the next day.

But this was definitely not as good as Noble Chef or Eastern Dynasty to us.

Still, it was a promising visit. So, I tried to talk the Missus into visiting, but She told me to check things out one more time first. And then gave me some items She wanted me to order???? Say what????

Anyway, I arrived at a quarter after 10 and on this weekend morning the place was already packed!

I guess word had gotten out?

I decided not to order dim sum this time around and tried to order several items from the menu. Unfortunately, they were out of two of them.

So, instead of the West Lake Beed Soup, I got the Crab and Fish Maw Soup (small – $24). Man, even the small portion of this was quite sizeable.

There was some real crab in the soup, which was nice and thick. There was quite bit of fish maw (the air sac) which was fairly spongy in texture as well as egg white.

There’s a bit of oceany-savory “funk”. I thought it was fine; but the Missus really didn’t care for the slight fishiness in flavor.

They did have the Mei Cai Ko Rou ($26).

Some of the slices of pork belly were so melt-in-your-mouth tender. This version was a bit more salty than other versions, which the Missus enjoyed. She also strangely enjoyed the chunks of sauteed lettuce…..which was quite crunchy. A bit less preserved vegetable than other versions. Overall, not a bad dish. If you prefer your MCKR more on the savory side, with less sour-sweet tones, this one is for you. I do think we’ll have this again.

They didn’t have the Minced Pork with Salted Fish on this day either. So I got the Salted Fish, Chicken, and Eggplant Claypot ($21).

And while the Eggplant was a bit more mushy than we prefer, the chicken was pleasantly tender. I know you can’t really see it in the photo, but there was an abundance of small diced pieces off salted fish, which was a nice surprise as most versions of this dish in SD lacks the strong, savory-salty flavor in this dish. The Missus now really wants to try the Minced Pork with Salted Fish.

So, overall not too bad. Perhaps a level down from Eastern Dynasty and Noble Chef, though Hong Kong Kitchen does have dim sum during lunch service. It was also much better than what we’d had during our last visits to Golden City.

I was looking forward to returning and actually trying some of my favorites on my next visit….

So stay tuned for part 2!

Hong Kong Kitchen & Dim Sum
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123

Taste of Hunan Revisited

Chinese Restaurants

Recently, “FOY” Dereck sent me an email about his visit to Taste of Hunan. It used to be a favorite of the Missus, but I couldn’t believe it’s been over six months since we last visited! I think the Missus has been fixated on Cantonese fare from Eastern Dynasty! Though once I mentioned ToH to Her….well guess where we were off to? It was a weekend visit, right as they opened at 11 and the place was empty.

But within 20 minutes the restaurant was almost full, with several large parties.

We decided on one favorite, one standard Hunan dish, and two newer dishes that we hadn’t seen before.

Of course, if you’ve read my previous posts on Taste of Hunan, you know that my favorite dish is the Xiangxi Style Beef Entrails. And yes, this dish is still my favorite.

Served over a live flame heating element; they key is to let the dish sit for a few minutes to let the onions at the bottom of the dish cook and soak up the spicy-savory sauce. It becomes nice and sweet as well. I enjoy the combinations of flavors and textures; the soft beef tripe, the more toothsome and flavorful beef.

La Rou with Bamboo is a classic Hunan dish. And I must say, this was the best we’ve had in a while.

The house made smoked pork is somewhat chewy, but so porky-savory and smoky, with the perfect amount of saltiness. Add to that the earthy and still somewhat crunchy bamboo shoots this was quite good. We did think it could have used more chilies; but the garlic tones made up for that.

While we the previous dish could have possibly used more chilies; let me tell you that the dish named “Beef Loved by My Wife” had more than enough spice going on!

It also had a heck of a lot of cumin….think of it as being a version of cumin lamb, but made with beef and much more spicy! The beef was slightly chewy, but man, this was umami overload!

The Missus was interested in trying the Steamed Egg with Minced Pork, so we ordered it.

Man, this was so porky; the Missus loved the broth/sauce. The eggs, which were actually poached were overcooked and the yolks dry. We’d actually get it right with the leftovers at home. The pork was very tender and savory…..though both the Missus and I agreed that it could have used some textural contrast….maybe some water chestnut or something?

Overall, it was a good meal. I’m sure the Missus will be wanting to return soon to try other items as it seems that new ones are added every few months!

Thanks to Dereck for reminding us of Taste of Hunan!

Taste of Hunan
9880 Hibert St.
San Diego, CA 92131
Current Hours:
Mon, Tues 11am – 9pm
Thurs 1130am – 230pm, 5pm – 9pm
Friday 1130am – 230pm, 5pm – 930pm
Sat, Sun 11am – 930pm

Cha Cha Tea Spot – Salt & Pepper Pork Chops, Reader Recs

Chinese Restaurants

In the comment section of my post on Potato Powder Love Noodle (I do need to revisit), “FOY” Franklin mentioned wanting to try the place out, but it was strangely closed, so he got the salt and pepper pork chops from Cha Cha Tea Spot next door and thought it was pretty good and wanted my opinion of the place. Ok…..so today, guess where I was headed?

Now, this stand opens fairly early, at 10 am I think. I had passed by so many times, but never really looked at the menu….which is crazy!

Not only boba…but dim sum..Sichuan style dishes, Nian Gao, Cumin Lamb? The little sign says Cantonese specialties….but they’ll also slice meat for hot pot and clean seafood for you????

Anyway, the Salt & Pepper Pork Chops are $19.99! Seemed kinda pricy, but I placed my order with thhe really nice woman working. I went and did some shopping, then swooped in to pick up my order.

Which came with a large order of fragrant, nicely cooked Jasmine rice.

As for the pork chops…which were chopped….a rather thick lacquer type batter was used. Yes, it was crunchy, but very rich and eggy, also greasy. I felt like I needed to be hosed down after a couple of pieces.

It was by no means bland, but I thought it didn’t have enough pepper, garlic, or even chilies……though I did get the MS-heebie-geebies…

You can see how thick the batter is above.

The Missus took a bite and said, where’s the flavor, it seems too thickly battered?

Thanks for the recommendation Franklin, but it was just too much for me. Also of note is the 50 cent takeout container charge. No biggie, but I didn’t see it indicated anywhere.

I know that “FOY” ChrisR had some really mediocre Salt & Pepper Pork Chops recently and had hoped that this might be a nice option for him, but I don’t think so. It’s better than Panda Express, but that really doesn’t say much, right?

If anyone has gotten some “keeper” dishes here, please let me know!

Cha Cha Tea Spot
5950 Balboa Ave (In the 99 Ranch Market Food Court)
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Daily 10am – 9pm

Eastern Dynasty – More Dishes

Chinese BBQ, Chinese Restaurants

I know, I just did a revisit post back in December. But seeing that ED is now the Missus’s go-to Cantonese spot these days and we’ve been going just about every week since that December visit, I thought I’d go over the dishes we’ve tried that I haven’t posted on before. Plus, I know “FOY” Kenneth is interested in visiting ED, so this might help.

Other than one item at the end that was surprisingly good, I’m not going to go over any dishes that I’ve posted on before.

Anyway, here goes:

Must Order:

This is called Sauteed Intestines with Chinese Pickles ($19.95) on the menu. Since the first time we tried this, we’ve had it on every single visit – five times! Each time it was prepped nicely.

When eaten at the restaurant the intestine texture is amazing. Chewy at first bite; giving way to almost creamy tenderness.

The black bean comes thru cleanly. Love the tangy-sour preserved vegetable. As you eat the leftovers; that flavor get magnified. It’s a must order for us!

The Missus loves the Steamed Minced Pork with Salted Fish ($19.95).

Welcome to Funky Town…well sort of. The secret to getting the salty-savory-funky fish salted fish flavor is to include one piece of the salted fish; which you see sprinkled on the top of the pork, in each bite. Don’t do too much; it’ll be so salty and overwhelming.

Westlake Minced Beef Soup ($17.95).

We’ve had this three times. Be careful; it’s really rich and thick and will melt your lips (and tongue) off. Give it time to cool a bit before consuming.

The secret to this dish for us is the cilantro, scallions, and sliced Thai chilies. It just enhances the savory tones so much. In fact, the second time we had this, there wasn’t any in the soup and we actually asked for some.

The Missus and I decided to try the Pepper Beef ($22.95) on our last visit. Not something we order often; but we’ve had some pretty good dishes so far and the price seemed very reasonable. And this ended up being another good dish.

The beef was so tender! The pepper sauce had a nice balance of savory and sweet, with a touch of ginger notes. It was so good with rice. The peas were crunchy and sweet, also adding a nice textural contrast. Another “keeper” dish.

Inconsistent:

The most expensive dishes on the menu are of course the seafood items. The Missus was wondering about the Steamed Blue Diamond Shrimp with Garlic Sauce ($26.95). In case you were wondering what Blue Diamond Shrimp are. I’m not totally sure these are Blue Diamond Shrimp, but they are pretty tiny and comes served split in shell.

The shrimp were quite sweet; the meat fairly firm. The sauce the first time was so savory and garlicky; the Missus especially loved the bean thread under the shrimp, which soaked up all that flavor!

Though, on the second time….which was the same visit where the Westlake Soup was missing our favorite ingredients, there was a shortage of garlic and sauce. You can easily see that here.

The shrimp was also a lot tougher…so perhaps the back-up cook was on this day?

Fish Filet with Black Bean Sauce ($20.95). Again, the first time we had this, the dish was pretty good.

Generous amount of savory black bean. The fish nicely velveted, almost creamy, very mild in flavor. The onions and red bell peppers enhanced the dish nicely.

And then there was the version on that “second visit”…..

Was there a fermented black bean shortage? At least there was in this dish! Like one slice of red bell pepper. The fish was not as wonderfully velveted and there was a muddy taste to it.

Luckily, on our third try with this dish, things were back to how it was the first time we tried this dish.

Other Dishes:

There’s a “Hot Pot Rice” ($19.95) that you can get for dine-in only and only from Mondays to Thursdays. The Missus was intrigued, so we ordered the version with Chinese Sausage.

This was pretty good; there’s pork belly in addition to the lup cheong. Decent rice crust forms and enough sauce to coat. Funny thing is. We won’t be ordering this again because we make even a better version at home!

But in case you want to try it out.

The Shrimp with XO Sauce ($22.95) was fine.

Shrimp was decently cooked; perhaps a bit firmer than I enjoy. The sugar snaps peas were crisp and sweet. I’d like a bit more XO sauce in this dish.

Speaking of XO Sauce. The Seafood Fried Rice with XO Sauce ($19.95) was not good. The rice super hard and not coated evenly. A true lack of Wok Hay!

Not enough XO sauce for us either. One and done.

Another one and done is the Pork Belly with Tofu Clay Pot ($19.95). This was really salty, but other than that lacking in other flavors.

The tofu was dry and the pork belly strangely tough. It was even worse as leftovers.

And one surprise:

So, the one menu item that surprised us was ordered on our most recent visit. We had thought the roast duck here was ok. And that other versions were better. But, on our last visit, we just decided to get a half roast duck ($21). And man was this pretty good!

Nicely roasted with a fairly crisp skin; fat nicely rendered. Decent five spice flavor and those drippings! Now we both think the meat could have been a bit more tender and flavorful, perhaps Noble Chef still tops ED in that department….but a half duck there was $28 on my last visit! This was definitely better than what we had at Taste of Hong Kong on our last visit. Did we hit the lottery on this one? Who knows…… I think we’ll order this again to find out!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this collection of dishes form Eastern Dynasty. Kenneth, I not sure you enjoy the same type of Cantonese dishes as we do, but I hope you find this post helpful!

Eastern Dynasty
4690 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Daily 11am – 3pm, 5pm – 830pm

Pelicana Chicken and Sieu Sieu BBQ Revisited

Chains, Chicken Wings, Chinese BBQ, Chinese Restaurants, Korean Restaurants

Just a couple of recent revisits.

Pelicana Chicken:

Way back when I did my post on Pelicana…like over three years ago now! I did 2 takeout visits and really wasn’t impressed. Though fellow blogger Soo commented that the chicken there is much better dining in. Which I can understand. So now several years later; in the mood for some KFC, I dropped by.

There was basically one very sweet young lady working. She greeted me and led me to a table. These days, ordering is done via a tablet……I’m sure it saves labor costs.

Anyway, I preferred the Original Fried Wings to the Crunchy for takeout, so that’s what I ordered.

Some water was brought to the table and interestingly, no mul kimchi…I guess they’ve changed it up for shredded cabbage with sesame dressing?

The wings arrived, nice and hot.

The lacquered wings were over battered for my taste, crunchy, but got soggy quickly and a bit on the greasy side. Other than salt, still very mild in flavor. I just wanted to taste the chicken without it obscured by sauces. At least the flesh though chewy, was moist, but there was still a good amount of darkened meat.

Good sized, but I think I’ll pass on Pelicana in the future.

Pelicana Chicken
7767 Balboa Ave.
San Diego, CA 92111

Sieu Sieu BBQ:

So, on New Year’s Day, the Missus suddenly wanted Roast Duck??? Sending me out on a mission. I dropped by several places, some of which were out of duck, others had massive lines. I took a peek at Sieu Sieu and there were only three people in line, so I decided this was where we’d get our last minute NYDuck.

There were several of these folks hanging around….

In fact a woman and a young man; who I believe is her son picked up two of them! Came to over $600! Now that better be a “porky pig”!

When I got to order my duck; the woman told me “today, only whole duck, no half…..” So, that’s what happened. Got a whole duck, $34.99. Really not a bad price for these days…..

A bit better than what we’d had on our previous visit. Very meaty and on the drier side. The skin wasn’t quite as rubbery as before, but like the meat, in need of more flavor.

Good thing we had a lot of jus…..

And the air fryer….it was still on the bland side….

Sieu Sieu BBQ
7420 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111

Soup du Jour – What’s in a name?

Asian Fusion/Pacific Rim/Hawaii Style Fusion, Chicken Wings, Chinese Restaurants, Dog Friendly, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants

In my revisit post for Ju Feng Yuan, I mentioned my current favorite popcorn chicken was from Soup du Jour. Now, I honestly thought I had posted on the place. But as I looked to create a link for the post, I discovered I had not! WTH??? So, I set out to correct that mistake. And went searching for photos and than did a couple of revisits.

I came across the place after returning from Taiwan in 2023. I was looking for some Taiwanese food and along with the usual, not-so-good suspects, Soup du Jour appeared. So, I decided to head on over. Soup du Jour was a very odd name and the location is in the Corsair Apartment complex on Aero Drive.

Looks familiar? Well, this was the former location of Carve Modern Deli & Beer on Aero Drive. Way back when, my office was located on Aero Drive, this place would have been in walking distance!

Parking is fairly limited and the restaurant’s interior looks basically the same, if a bit more packed with “stuffs”.

Anyway, when I first started visiting, I tried a whole of items from the very “diverse” menu. This is what it looked like back then.

Everything from Rotiserie Chicken to Congee to Ribeye Steak to Youtiao to ????

And I tried a whole bunch of stuff that, well…to put it honestly I didn’t care for. Like the Lu Rou Fan….the photo of which I couldn’t find! But here’s a few other one and dones….

The Daikon Soup….

The Asian “Meatball” Soup.

I was going to basically give up, but decided to do one more visit….because the owner, whose name was Claire was so nice!

And she was from Chiayi, one of our favorite little cities in Taiwan. We chatted about Taiwan while waiting for my food to go, so I finally asked her for some recommendations and she told me to try the Street Chicken, which she said was Taiwan style Popcorn Chicken and the Honey Glazed Spareribs, both of which were winnahs!

These are photos from several takeout meals I ordered that were supposed to be part of that non-existent post.

Loved the legit fried basil…which seemed to be missing in this box; but was actually underneath the chicken.

And the spareibs, were nice, looked tough, but quite moist with a touch of sweetness, smokiness, and Asian touches in flavor.

Though I’ve never been able to resign myself to those roasted veggies……

And so, I thought I did my post???? I did do some additional visits; the Missus also enjoys the chicken and ribs.

And then we got JJ. I recalled that Soup du Jour had a nice patio area, so I took JJ over for lunch!

By this time, I noticed that the menu had changed and also instead of Claire, a young guy and lady were running the place. The menu had also expanded.

And I saw Jiaozi on the menu, plus I’d always wanted to try the Salt & Pepper Wings ($14) to go with my Pork and Cabbage Dumplings ($13.99).

The jiaozi was a non-starter; the wrapper was really think and very chewy. The sauce had a weird sweetness to it.

The filling was a coarse cut; something I prefer to overly minced fillings, but this was also a bit on the chewy side; though the flavor, porky-sesame wasn’t too bad if a bit mild.

As for the chicken wings; the were seven in an order. I had them put it into a take out box for me in case I couldn’t finish.

Like the jiaozi; this didn’t quite hit the spot. I like a nice garlic topping, but this was burnt and bitter. The batter was uneven and soggy. Decent saltiness with a hint of pepper and spice, but nothing special.

The flesh was fine, a bit overcooked. All in all, this could have come from Panda Express…..

And then I did the JFY post and realized I missed the boat on doing a SdJ one! Unless maybe I did actually do a post…..which took place in another dimension? Anyway, the Missus was wanting the Street Chicken, which was now $15. So I did a takeout order.

This travels well. The batter is more on the crunchy side. The Missus is especially fond of the white pepper tones, five spice, saltiness, and that fried basil. It heats up well in the air fryer too.

Pretty moist, decent toothsomeness, also hints of other pungent spices, with a very mild hint of sweetness. It is by far our favorite version in San Diego. You hear that Bopomofo? Though I still need to check some other places. Let me know if you have a recommendation!

Deciding that I needed to at least try those Honey Glazed Spareribs again, I drove over for lunch with JJ.

Now priced at $17.50, you also add brown rice for 50 cents more; which is what I did. Good nuttiness from the brown rice which wasn’t overly chewy.

I’m still not the biggest fan of the roasted veggies that come with this as it just seems out of place.

Still, I was here for the ribs, which were moist, falling off the bone, and had a nice sweet-savory flavor, with a hint of smokiness.

The Missus actually enjoys these as leftovers. She enjoys the flavor and prefers it much firmer. It was good to know that it was still a dish we enjoyed.

Though I did not see Claire on this visit either; so I asked the young lady working and was told that Claire had sold the business to them a while back! Bummer; I hope she’s doing well! I always enjoyed chatting with her. I was happy to note that the dishes we enjoyed were still good.

And so, I was finally ready for a post, right? Well, I was until I saw this sign posted.

Well, I guess I needed to make one more visit…..

I’m guessing the new ownership are adding items to the menu. It’s good to see that.

The Hainan Chicken Rice was just $13.99.

I ignored the sweet-soy dressing and stayed with what I’m used to with this dish.

First off; I did not like the rice which was super dry and hard.

In spite of the color; it lacked that rich chicken flavor I expect in the rice with this dish.

The chicken itself was not bad. Quite moist, but very mild in poultry-ness.

The typical sauce, lacked scallions, had a bit too much garlic for my taste, and was starting to discolor.

I also think it needed a bit more oil for texture.

Not a terrible Hainan Chicken Rice, especially for the price, but I know I can get much better here.

Still, I know I’ll be returning when the Missus wants Her fix…..

So here you go…..finally got this done. Soup du Jour….what’s in a name???

Soup du Jour
8583 Aero Dr.
San Diego, CA 92123
Current Hours:
Mon – Sat 11am – 8pm
Closed on Sunday