So, the Missus's new favorite restaurant is Mountain House. And since that meal we've been back three more times, I'll combine that into one post later! And we've stayed overnight on each visit. On the first revisit, we dined at places I'd posted on before, so I'll do that in a COMC post. The third time we did a bit of a longer road trip, that'll be coming up. This was the second revisit. We were looking for a place for lunch. On our previous trip, I'd read about a new dumpling shop opening in Yes Plaza. Aaaah, Yes Plaza, I'd posted on our "history" with Yes Plaza before and my has the place changed. Anyway, after having dinner at Mountain House on the previous trip, we took a drive to the strip mall. It was 730pm and at that time Jiou Chu Dumplings was only open from 5pm to 830 pm and there was still a line of folks waiting outside! The Missus looked at Her Instagram and wouldn't you know it, so many influencers showing off! Of course, often times it's all about the "content" and attention than the actual food.
The week before we left for Rowland Heights, Jiou Chou started opening at 11am. We decided to go for lunch and arrived at around 1040. The place was empty, there was no line, so we headed off to Hong Kong Market to buy some snacks and returned. It was just after 11am when we parked and noticed that there was a line!
Notice the 85° logo on the signage? Well Jiou Chu is owned by 85C and has two restaurants in Taichung, where we had just been a couple of months prior! This is the first location of the dumpling restaurant in the U.S.!
There was a sign posted saying that the place wasn't doing takeout orders on this day. I guess they were anticipating a major lunch rush? By the way, this was a weekday. One thing we noticed, that is usually a positive sign were that most of the customers were older folk, which to us is usually a pretty good sign.
We were led to a table and seated. The restaurant was pretty sizeable.
Folks just kept on coming in and within fifteen minutes of being seated we noticed that the place was full!
Listening in, the Missus noticed that folks were placing orders to dine in and additional orders to go! I guess that's how they got around "no to go orders" for the day? Several of the parties around us had apparently been here before. Ordering was done, at least by us, using the QR code. We noticed that many of the older folks struggled a bit and had their orders taken by the very accommodating staff.
Of course we started with the Pork Xiao Long Bao ($11.99). We quickly noticed that the prices were pretty good, perhaps that's why all the folks were coming out?
These were not very good. The wrapper was chewy and brittle, there was some "soup" in the XLB but it was very bland. The filling was tough and chewy and also pretty much tasteless.
Kinda sad overall.
Next up were the two versions of Pork Chops. When we were in Taiwan the Missus said several times that I "didn't meet a pork chop that I didn't enjoy".
The Fried Pork Cutlet ($8.49) had a nice black pepper flavor, decently salty, but was over fried, tough, and dry.
The best item of the meal was the Fried Pork Strips ($8.49).
Think of this as a pork version of the typical Taiwanese "popcorn chicken". It was crisp-crunchy, moist, with a good amount of five-spice, white pepper, and salt.
We had wanted to order some Guotie since the photos looked quite good. They were out of several versions so we ended up getting the Kimchi-Pork version ($11.49). Good lord, this was a mistake.
The wrappers were gummy, the filling was weird, the "kimchi" lacked flavor as did the pork which was chewy. The menu warned that these dumplings contained hot soup, but that was a false alarm as there was none. This was our least favorite item of the meal.
Well, this meal was a fail. Unlike Taiwan where "lines don't lie", here in the states things can get over run by hype it seems. That's too bad as we were kind of excited about eating here. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?
At least we tried it……and we'd be headed to Mountain House for dinner.
Jiou Chu Dumplings
18156 Colima Rd.
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
I tucked in quickly when the bowl arrived and was quite pleased with this! The soup, while still on the lighter side of things, had a nice amount of white pepper, there was a decent amount of beefiness, and the MSG level was a lot lower than I recalled. I could have used more xue cai which adds a nice, pleasant sour-acidity to things and textural contrast, but this was fine.
Of course we're talking about good pork XLB. This was basically, meh…. The wrappers were too thick, there wasn't enough "soup" in the dumplings, and the pork filling was tough.
It was good. I liked the wrapper, which was tender, with a bit of heft, and a nice al dente pull to it. The filling was also nicely seasoned, more of a course chop with large pieces of tender, briny-sweet shrimp. There were perhaps a bit too much Chinese chives in this, but overall no complaints. I did not care for the dipping sauce that came with the jiaozi, it had sweet tones I didn't care for. I just ended up using the black vinegar provided on the table.
Here’s another fairly quick name change! The place just opened in January. Based on my 
The Laundry" hangs over a bowl with a smoky-mildly spicy chili oil, with a large dollop of garlic paste in the middle. We quickly noticed that fat was dripping off the slices of pork belly enhancing the concoction.
This was an interesting Liang Cai (cold dishes) trio; the Duck Tongue in a chili oil was interesting. Usually, when we've had duck tongue, there's a hard inedible piece of bone in the center making eating it somewhat ponderous. The center of the tongue in this dish was cartilaginous, reminding us of 
This was not bad, the dumplings were on the smaller side, but it came with 14 in my order. The skins were a bit on the more chewy-doughy side, decent. The filling was pretty finely minced, light and tender, very moist, though the flavor was quite mild. The black vinegar came in handy in upping the flavor.
So, how did the dumplings handle the drive back home? Well, even though the wrappers looked a bit "stiff", these were more tender then those on my previous visit. A good amount of chives provided an almost garlicky "zip" to the dumplings. Even though I really couldn't make out shrimp in the finely chopped filling, I could taste them. Again, the fillings were fairly light, and this went rather well with the 6 year aged Zhenjiang Black Vinegar we keep at home.
Neat and clean interior seating. There is also outside seating and a small menu, which is nice. Many items can be ordered vegetarian. Our waiter said that most everything here is made from scratch.
We both wanted the cucumber salad ($6) on this rather warm day. It was *excellent*- cool, refreshing, with just enough salt and sesame oil to compliment the smashed cucumbers.
The Ma Po Tofu with pork and rice ($12.50) (you can also order vegetarian for $2 less) was a shareable portion. The sauce had the brightness of Sichuan peppercorns and the silky tofu was plentiful while the bits of pork complimented the flavors and added texture. A very balanced dish. 
Under "Signature" dishes on the menu were Chilli Wontons (12) ($10.50). We had to try these. Not much chili on top, but there is a great house made chili crisp on the table which enhanced the porky goodness of these large, two-bite wontons in a stretchy, thin wrap. The broth at the bottom of the bowl was wonderful with a rich porkiness and subtle chili heat.
The pig tongue was as expected, fairly chewy and very porky. Quite typical.
We quickly noticed that on this visit, the dumpling wrappers were very soft, lacking in the slight "pull" that we enjoy in jiaozi wrappers. The filling of the shrimp, pork, and leek was very moist and actually had a good amount of "soup" in them…very nicely flavored, though a bit short in the shrimp department.
But man, that filling was so gamy, moist, juice just poured out of it when I took a bite.
We did notice that the dish has changed since our last visit. The shrimp shells and the shrimp seems to have some coating; like the tofu skin, the portion size is smaller. The shrimp is not quite as delicate as it used to be. But the flavor is still there and the shells and tail are a pleasure to eat.
Soon enough the large plate of bun, herbs, and veggies. And of course the Missus enjoys the Banh Trang Me dipping it into the mam nem. As for the Mam Nem, we noticed that it's not quite as potent as it used to be.
