Category: Chinese Restaurants

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

Zen Modern Asian Bistro – Now at the Del Mar Highlands Sky Deck

Chinese Restaurants, Niu Rou Mian, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants

I’m not sure which “FOY” mentioned that Zen Modern Asian Bistro had moved from Sabre Springs to the Del Mar Highlands Sky Deck…perhaps it was Dereck or RD?

Anyway, after my rather unsatisfying bowl of NRM from Dao Xiang, along with the cooler weather; I thought it would be a great time to make the drive up the 5 and check out the Sky Deck, which Cathy has been to…but I’ve only visited the Jimbo’s in this mall.

It’s a large if rather dark space; very hip in that “you know it’s Del Mar” kinda way…..

Zen is just to the left of the entrance.

It’s got a bit of a sports bar look to it along with a dining area. It’s interesting to see that the doors to the kitchen area are automatic ones.

The young man brought me the menu; though I already knew what I was going to order.

And oh my, the NRM is now $22 and adding the suan cai is another $1!

And soon enough my order arrived. That bowl of NRM was quite large!

In many ways; it’s basically the same as I had at the previous location.

Not overly salty, mild beefiness, light soysauce, light richness, in need for more aggressive anise-beefiness for my taste.

In what was an improvement over what I’d had before was that the beef was nice and tender and full of savory-beefiness. And there was quite a lot of meat!

The noodles still lacked springiness and also didn’t do a great job of “picking up” the broth.

There’s a good amount of bok choy….in case you’re worried about getting some “veggies”!

As Dereck and RD both indicated; the must have item is the suan cai, the pickled greens.

There’s a bracing sour-tanginess to it. And while it may be slightly on the sweeter end of the spectrum to me, it really boosted the overall flavor of the broth when I dumped it into the bowl.

Overall not bad….better than many other versions in San Diego. And while it may be better than other versions, I’m not sure the price tag and the drive is worth it for me. Still, I’m glad to have tried the NRM here at the new location of Zen

Zen Modern Asian Bistro (In the Sky Deck at Del Mar Highlands Town Center)
12841 El Camino Real Suite 206
San Diego, CA 92130
Current Hours:
Mon – Thurs 10am – 9pm
Friday 10am – 10pm
Saturday 11am – 10pm
Sunday 11am – 9pm

Lanzhou Noodlelicious Revisited

Chinese Restaurants

On my post on revisiting Dumpling Inn; “FOY” Peter mentioned one of his favorite spots on Convoy, Lanzhou Noodlelicious….which is also a favorite of mine as well. Though strangely, I hadn’t been there in a while. So while the weather was still nice and cool….before this weird weather we’ve been having over the last couple of weeks with nights being in the 40’s and days stretching out to the mid and even high 70’s, a few days after revisiting Spicy Noodle, I decided it was time to get my “Noodlelicious fix” in.

Hard to believe that I hadn’t been here in over two years!

I visited during lunch, arriving right after the 1130 am opening time. This parking lot gets packed by noon, so the earlier the better. Man, have I really been coming here since 2016?

Anyway, over time, I have my favorite menu item, the Beef Noodle Soup with Sour Cabbage, which is now priced at $15.99. Not bad for these days.

Instead of waiting around for the “thin flat” knife cut noodles, I just went with the standard knife cut noodles, which they still make by hand.

This looked quite good! I enjoyed the abundance of sour vegetable which gave things a nice bracing counterpoint and crunchy texture. There seemed to be less beef than I recalled, but it was tender.

The broth had a bit more beefiness than what I detected on previous visit and was a bit richer as well.

The noodles were slippery and springy, doing a decent job “picking up” the broth.

All in all; this was a very nice visit! It was flavorful and comforting. The service was “all business”, but I’m used to things being that way.

Thanks for the reminder Peter!

Lanzhou Noodlelicious
4688 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Wed – Mon 1130am – 3pm, 5pm – 9pm
Closed on Tuesday

Spicy Noodle Revisited

Chinese Restaurants

Well, it’s that time of the year again I guess……mornings recently have been pretty chilly. I’ve been seeing; make that feeling the low 40’s here. And for the past couple of days, the temps soon head up into the 70’s by 10am! Crazy….. Though based on my posting habits; it’s really that “time of the year” as the last time I posted on Spicy Noodle was during last January! Man, I am so predictable, huh?

Anyway, I was feeling a bit hungry as I was driving back from Zion at around 1030am…which is when Spicy Noodle opens. So, I thought why not and headed on over. Lots of available parking at that time of the day, before the lunch rush.

Like many places these days, it’s QR code ordering….except if you’re an “old timer” which I definitely qualify for….but perhaps I’m not that old. Even though my eating habits betray me, I was able to order using the QR code; unlike that party of 3 older gentlemen who came in after me that needed physical menus.

There’s basically one thing I get here. The Fat Intestine Noodle, which I was happy to note is still priced at $14.99….same as last January!

Screenshot

As with my previous visit, things happen quickly once you order. My “fat intestine” (take it any way you want to) arrived within 10 minutes of ordering.

I was happy to note that this was even better than on my previous visit.

While the “bungy”-offaly and tender fat intestine made me wonder if the poor oinker was suffering from perhaps some metabolic syndrome…that thought didn’t last too long as I quickly devoured it.

This time around, the soup was nice and spicy and had me wiping my brow by the end of the meal. The soup was also richer than before leaving me to wonder about my “fatty intestine”. All jokes aside; this was a savory-funky broth, with a decent richness.

The noodles had a nice pull to them, with a pleasant chewiness. The decent richness of the soup allowed the noodles to “pick it up” and coat them.

Can you tell that I enjoyed this? I need to revisit a bit more often. There was only that one other table occupied during my entire meal. I hope Spicy Noodle is doing ok and will continue to stay in business.

Spicy Noodle
8046 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Daily 1030am – 230pm, 5pm – 9pm

Mom Kitchen – Clairemont, A Hainan Chicken Rice Check

Chinese Restaurants

Mom Kitchen recently opened a second location on Clairemont Mesa. I decided to head on over to see if my favorite dish from the Mira Mesa location translated well to the new location.

I went during the first week of December, right at opening time. Mom Kitchen has taken over the space that used to contain an Afghan Market and Restaurant if I recall. This parking lot can be a real horror during peak times, so by going early and before word got out about Mom opening here, I could beat the crowds.

The young man working was so nice and friendly. As I mentioned earlier, there was only one dish I was interested in ordering for this visit.

I thought the Hainan Chicken and Rice was quite good during my visits to the MM location….the one weak link was actually the rice. Now priced at $19 (it was $17 at the MM location on my last visit), I was looking forward to trying this. Especially since “FOY” Jeff, who loves Hainan Chicken said it was quite good during his visit to the MM location.

Soon enough my lunch arrived. I quickly noticed something.

The rice! Instead of having hard grains of plain rice with barely a drizzle of the chicken broth and aromatics; this was well coated!

Decent savory-chicken flavor! I mentioned that the rice here was much better than what I’d had at the MM location and he smiled and said “we have more experience now and the kitchen here is large and better staffed.” Great!

I’ve always thought that the ginger-scallion sauce at Mom was perfect for my taste and this was no different. Not overly oily, great, with good, but not over powering ginger tones.

The one item, that hasn’t changed for the better is the terribly over-cooked boiled egg.

Which while decently marinated….it wasn’t enough to cover the bitter-metallic flavor of that over cooked yolk.

Well, back to the positive. Which was the chicken. Which was so moist, juicy, and tender. It was also deboned.

The skin was also very tender. Nicely cooked and seasoned, so savory, and great with that ginger sauce!

This was possibly the best Hainan Chicken Rice that I’ve had in a while! So Jeff, maybe you’d like to give this location a try and let me know? I’m sure RD will be checking things out soon as well!

You can read about Soo’s visit to this location of Mom Kitchen here.

Mom Kitchen
5440 Clairemont Mesa Blvd Suite B
San Diego, CA 92117
Current Hours:
Mon, Wed, Thurs 11am – 83pm
Fri – Sun 11am – 9pm
Closed on Tuesday

Road Trip – The Buttery, Pipeline Road Trail, and Revisiting Special Noodle (Santa Cruz)

Bakery, Chinese Restaurants, Croissants, Dog Friendly, Monterey/Carmel/Santa Cruz - Monterey Bay/Peninsula, Road Trip, Travel

Upon waking on our full day in Santa Cruz, we decided to head up Soquel Avenue to a bakery I’d heard about. It was a short 10 minute walk from our hotel. Right past the Shopper’s Corner Market, was the Buttery.

The low key location had a nice outdoor area.

And the Missus watched JJ, while I went inside to get us some croissants and coffee.

There was no one in the queue when I entered and I was pleasantly surprised at the price of the plain croissants – $2.95.

So, I was ready to be underwhelmed at this croissant, but it was surprisingly good!

The exterior looked a bit overbaked, but the laminate was crisp, but not flaking to pieces. The ridges didn’t fall off either.

The interior was nicely honeycombed and fluffy. But most importantly, there was a decent amount of butteriness to this! Not bad at all! Better than what we’d had at Bouchon Bakery a few days previous!

I even gave JJ a taste and he went bonkers! Oh man, did I open up a can of worms here!

The Buttery
702 Soquel Ave.
Santa Cruz, CA 95062

Of course we’d return the following morning….

And of course the Missus needed me to “burn off” those croissant calories, so we headed back to the hotel, then set out to Henry Crowell Redwoods State Park. Marissa, the lovely young lady at BPC had recommended the Pipeline Road Trail, though she told me that it was kind of long – 6 miles or so. The big plus being that it starts at the Park Office and that it is well paved and maintained. It is the only dog friendly trail in the park as well.

There a 900 foot elevation gain, but we really didn’t feel it.

There were some nice views.

And of course those lovely Redwoods……

And JJ handled it like a champ. Actually, you can tell by his expression that I’m the “weak link” here…..

It was on the “easy side” for the Missus and JJ, who did really well.

After heading back and freshening up, it was time for lunch. Well, since we had enjoyed our dinner the previous evening at Special Noodle and the Missus was still missing Chinese food we walked on back to the restaurant.

The gentleman from the previous evening remembered us and we were seated in the same area. He even made sure got chopsticks without asking this time!

We decided on some different dishes this time around; starting with the La Rou with Smoked Bamboo.

This usual Hunan style dish was a bit short on chilies and spiciness, but the bamboo was nice and crisp; though the pork was definitely like the stuff I can get at 99 Ranch Market. It was far from bland though with a good amount of soy and smokey tones.

The rice had obviously just been finished as it was steaming hot; but also a bit on the mushy side.

We also got the Braised Pork Belly – Hong Shao Rou, which turned out to be quite good!

Just tender enough, without being mushy, the porkiness came through nicely. Ginger – Soy tones came thru nicely, and more importantly for the Missus, this was much more savory than sweet.

After finishing this; we really needed a nap!

Special Noodle
415 Ocean St.
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

I guess this will be a regular stop when we’re in Santa Cruz!

Now it was nap time!

Ju Feng Yuan Revisited

Chinese Restaurants

I had fully intended on returning to Ju Feng Yuan after my not so great visits to Super Dumpling in Carmel Valley. It had been a while since I last visited and though I think Lucious Dumpling’s Outpost in Eastlake is now my favorite, I needed to revisit JFY, which was my previous fave for jiaozi in San Diego. So, I set out with a visit to JFY in mind…but got sidetracked to Dumpling Inn…..a big mistake on my part.

I know “FOY” RD mentioned the Popcorn Chicken and Julie is a big fan, so I had my agenda set! I would not get sidetracked this time!

I arrived on a weekend at opening time and was the first in.

I did the iPad ordering thing from my table. The Pork and Chinese Cabbage Dumplings ($11.95) and Popcorn Chicken ($9.99).

The Popcorn Chicken was actually the first to arrive.

Fairly crunchy, a bit on the chewy – drier side, but not bad. Decent mild five spice tones. Good salt and pepper. I’m fairly certain they use potato starch, based on the texture.

Proper popcorn chicken; though a step below my favorite, which is from Soup du Jour….strange; I thought I did a post on the place which I’ve visited like 8-9 times since getting back from Taiwan…but I guess not??? I need to do one more visit to catch up then get me post done.

I mentioned previously, that I’m not a big fan of the sauce that accompanies the jiaozi, but of course they do have Black Vinegar.

I did enjoy the Pork and Chinese Cabbage Jiaozi – 8 decent size dumplings.

The wrappers were adequately tender, with a decent stretch to them. I do like mine a bit more “fluffy”, but this was fine; better than most anything you’ll find in SD.

The filling was textbook pork jiaozi, nice savory tones, seasoned well, not overly minced and tender. Good porkiness. Would not be amazing in the SGV…..but in SD……

I wish JFY was closer to me; though it is a faster drive than Lucious Dumplings…which I need to return to! Thanks for always thinking of us RD and Julie!

Ju Feng Yuan Dumpling Cafe
12265 Scripps Poway Pkwy Suite B109
Poway, CA 92064
Current Hours:
Mon – Thurs 1130am – 3pm, 5pm – 830pm
Friday 1130am – 3pm, 5pm – 9pm
Sat – Sun 1130am – 330pm, 430pm – 9pm

Road Trip – Sweetie Pies Bakery (Napa) and Special Noodle (Santa Cruz)

Bakery, Caffeine Fix, Chinese Restaurants, Dog Friendly, Marin, Napa, and Sonoma Counties, Monterey/Carmel/Santa Cruz - Monterey Bay/Peninsula, Road Trip, Sandwiches, Travel

We had a great night of sleep at the Napa River Inn…and no, we didn’t have any “spooky” visitors as I had heard about earlier in the evening at The Fink. Before we left for our next destination, I decided to grab a quick Breakfast Sandwich from Sweetie Pies Bakery which is right next door to the hotel.

This place has quite a selection of treats for your sweet tooth. We had gotten a sample delivered to our room for breakfast the previous morning.

I ordered a Fried Egg Sandwich to take back to our room.

A basic toasted Ciabatta, with creamy avocado, and pesto.

The bacon was basically a single slice lining the middle of the sandwich, on the burnt side, and a single fried egg. Again only enough to cover two-thirds of the sandwich.

My guess is that “Sweetie” is mostly about the pies as the name indicates?

Sweetie Pies
520 Main St.
Napa, CA 94559

After devouring the sandwich, we checked out and headed to our next destination; Santa Cruz. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to arrive at our accommodation, the Hotel Paradox. We were early for check-in so the hotel let us park and we went to explore Santa Cruz for a bit. The hotel was on the other side of the San Lorenzo River from downtown Santa Cruz and we were next to San Lorenzo Park. On the map, it looked like a nice “green space”. Unfortunately, it was taken over by the homeless population while we were in town. So, instead of having a nice green space for JJ to explore, well…..

We did think the Dragon Archway, which faces the last Chinatown in Santa Cruz across the river. And you can see the two folks hanging out under the archway as well. This made the Missus somewhat uncomfortable crossing the bridge at night. We ended up using the busier Laurel Street Bridge when it was dark.

Regardless, the Missus and I really enjoyed downtown Santa Cruz. It had a kind of Hipster-Artsy-Hippy-Surfer vibe to us. Very mellow and laid back; at least when we were there.

We dropped by Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting for our caffeine fix. It was recommended by one of JJ’s Bay Park Coffee “Aunties”, Marissa who used to work there and went to UCSC.

Cold Brew and Latte fortified we headed on to do some shopping.

Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting
1330 Pacific Ave.
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

The Missus loved wandering thru the “eclectic” shops.

And bought quite a few items during our stay.

It seems that tarot card reading, and various psychic readings are big business here.

My goodness, check out the name of this shop! I wonder….

Yes, it was quite entertaining here!

We decided to grab an early dinner….by this time, the Missus was sorely missing Asian food…well, Chinese to be specific. I did some research before the trip and found a place that was dog friendly and basically two blocks from where we were staying. Now, I did have my doubts because the place served everything from Orange Chicken to XLB to Chow Fun to Sichuan/Hunan and has multiple locations, named Special Noodle. But I thought we’d give it a shot. Now if I had my doubts…imagine the Missus!

We arrived and I expected us to be seated on the patio; but the very nice gentleman escorted us to one of the back dining rooms!

He also spoke Mandarin….which eased some of the doubts the Missus had. The menu was huge….talk about “Vietnamese Menu overload” times 2!

Yep, this place tries to cover all bases.

It was a huge portion of rice for a single order.

We decided on some typical Hunan style dishes. Starting with the Pickled Beans with Minced Pork.

While kind of mild in the spiciness department, this was a pretty legit dish. Nice soy flavor, the long beans had a nice crunch adding that mild salty-sourness to the dish. The pork wasn’t overly chewy. Nice savory dish!

And of course I had to try the Intestines with Chilies.

Made with a combination of sliced jalapenos and dried chilies, this had a nice smoky kick. Nicely seasoned with soy sauce-garlic-white pepper and a touch of numbing Sichuan Peppercorns. The pork intestine was fairly tender, with a pleasant initial toothsomeness. Nice funky tones and a really good dish.

And of course……

What we did notice as the place filled up was that the Chinese customers were seated in the same area as us. While the “other” customers were seated in the front dining area, which we named “Eggroll Land” ! Kind of funny….

The Missus was pleasantly surprised at the food and even though She got Her “fix”, we’d end up returning the next day for lunch!

Special Noodle
415 Ocean St.
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

We were enjoying Santa Cruz. In addition to the “vibe” we had gotten decent Chinese dishes as well!