Chinese Restaurants – Page 30

Roadtrip – Revisits to Qing Dao Bread Food (Monterey Park), Kang Lac Bakery, Lien Hoa, and Song Long (Westminster)

January 13, 2018 mmm-yoso Chinese BBQ, Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Orange County, Road Trip, Vietnamese Restaurants

Whew; I need to catch up on all my posts! Since I've posted on these places a multitude of times; I'll keep it shirt and sweet.

This one is from back in August of last year. Basically, I had an all day meeting in Irvine. The Missus had the following day and night off; so we decided to stay in the area. We started things off well by having dinner at Sushi Noguchi in Yorba Linda (sorry no post on that one….next time). The next day after my meetings we headed off to dinner and was kind of unimpressed with Sichuan Impression in Alhambra. In fact we basically ate maybe half of what we ordered. Our hotel had a fridge, so I'd end up taking stuff back and then home.

Being somewhat disappointed in driving all this way, we decided to make a short stop. The Missus was really missing good jiaozi, so we decided to make a stop at….

Qing Dao Bread Food:

Man, it's been a good long time since we've been here.

The place is starting to look even more run down and the folks working a bit older. Though it's fun to get a smile out of the Missus when She hears the "Qingdao Hua"; the accent of Her hometown.

Two orders for us. The lamb versin; which doesn't have as much "soup" as before; but is still very gamey. And the vegetarian, which on this occasion was really good. The wrappers were nice; with that pillowy-pull to them.

The Missus had really been missing jiaozi it seems as She put these down in no time.

There was one rather sad moment during our meal. It was when the traditional garlic condiment came out. I've called this the Missus's "little dish of memories". Her job when She was a child in Qingdao was to pound the garlic for jiaozi in a mortar and pestle. Something She used to hate, but now loves…..in fact She did it with such relish the last time we were in Qingdao. Looks like they now put the garlic in a blender….very sad; because you really get the most flavor out of the garlic when you pound it; you release all the oils…..this really didn't have the "umph" we were used to. Perhaps the folks here have gotten old and tired of pounding garlic.

Qing Dao Bread Food
301 North Garfield Ave.
Monterey Park, CA 91754

The next morning, we got up rather early. Instead of just hanging out at the hotel until check-out and heading off to Sea Harbour, we decided to check out early and just do the usual two-fer of Lien Hoa and Song Long. We hit a snag as when we arrived at Lien Hoa; the place wasn't open yet. I had an idea. You see, years ago, "Beach" took me to the place right over in the next parking lot for a snack…..

Kang Lac Bakery:

The Missus had never had the Bot Chien here and it was right next door to Lien Hoa. So why not?

Radish and Taro cakes coated in crisp egg.

Man, that sauce is still good!

Tea for the Missus, some Vietnamese Coffee for me. The cost was like ten bucks. A very nice start to our morning.

Kang Lac Bakery
9301 Bolsa Avenue
Westminster, CA 92683

By now…..

Lien Hoa:

Was open.

And I got our roast duck; which I've posted on a number of times.

Lien Hoa BBQ
9311 Bolsa Ave
Westminster, CA 92683

And then it was time for "our real breakfast"……

Song Long:

Ever since "Kha" recommended this place to us years ago; it's become a real favorite of ours.

And I have to say; it's still a big favorite. Hmm……maybe we have some time next weekend?

Song Long Restaurant
9361 Bolsa Ave Suite 108
Westminster, CA 92683

Thanks for stopping by!

Midweek Meanderings – End of an Era? Emerald and San Tong Palace Close and Taking the “One-Chip Challenge”

January 3, 2018 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, yoso-silly

**** I know most of you know that Emerald has reopened.

Emerald Closes:

As mentioned earlier today in Eater. Emerald suddenly closed their doors on New Year's Eve. My understanding is that it was rather sudden. I've heard from two sources who tell me that Pearl in RB is also on the market.

According to the posted letter they have "closed their doors due to retirement"……

3709 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

San Tong Palace becoming a Sichuan Restaurant?:

Now that our office has relocated, I don't get down to Kearny Mesa quite as much as I used to. But I did notice this on New Year's eve while returning from grocery shopping.

Man, San Tong Palace had been there forever. I heard that the owners had decided to retire. The sign is interesting….doesn't say much. And Spicy City is in the same strip mall.

4690 Convoy St #105
San Diego, CA 92111

Doing the One Chip Challenge:

I brought a couple of packages to Paqui Ghost Pepper Chips to my friends one evening. I kind of enjoyed it; but it is pretty spicy. Which gave "Al" the idea that we should…..yes we….but not her, should do the one chip challenge.

So the arranged night arrived….but only three of us showed up! Talk is cheap.

Yep, this chip is no joke. One of the guys actually threw up later on.

It is really hot….as with really spicy stuff; I got the hiccups, sweated profusely, but made it through without any other ill effects. The agreement was five minutes without yogurt. Which I did.

It does feel like you've chewed up a hot iron and are gargling with battery acid. The heat starts slowly; the first 10-15 seconds are not bad. Then it gets really hot and kind of hangs around for about 15 minutes or so. I felt like I ate a couple of uni…….shells…..

There's actually a video of this….which will hopefully never see the light of day.

Sam Woo-more breakfasts

December 10, 2017 Cathy Breakfast/Brunch, Chinese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for stopping to read mmm-yoso!!! This blog is about food, sometimes with stories surrounding the consumption of the food. Not today. Kirk is still on his vacation and Cathy is writing.

I've written about Sam Woo for breakfast in 2007, 2009, and in 2011. Kirk even mentioned an item from the breakfast menu (at the bottom of this page) in a 2016 post. Not much has changed except the prices; each of the 31 items now cost a whopping $4.50.

{Other Sam Woo posts: Soo, wrote one earlier this year, cc met The Mister and I for breakfast last year and she went back a month later with a friend for his birthday breakfast, Faye was here in 2013 and Jinxie (who has since moved from San Diego, was here in 2012)}.
Hot tea (a pot is usually brought to the table) or hot coffee (served with condensed milk) is 30¢. We usually order one bowl of something to share. Porridge here is always good. I think the fish porridge (#8) is the best. (If you want to add some crunchy fried Chinese donut to your porridge, you have to walk across the hall to the steam tray section of 99 Ranch and purchase a package there).
The roast duck lo mein (#23) is a favorite order. The duck is so good, the lo mein are not mushy, the soup broth on the side is perfectly spiced and there are usually two or three pieces of bok choy, so you can also have your vegetables and a balanced meal. Wonton noodle soup (#9) and Shrimp dumpling noodle soup (#10) are interchangeable. The dumplings are tender and filled with good flavored pork (plus a half of a plump shrimp if you order #10). The broth sometimes is weak (sometimes is rich) but I tend to add the chili paste which is on the table tray of condiments, along with soy sauce and white pepper
about halfway through the meal. We usually order a third item, either #1 (seen another posts) or #2 or #3…this is #2- pan fried rice noodle with bean sprouts, onion and soy sauce. There is a good, smoky flavor/'wok hei' to these wide rice noodles which I sometimes crave.
Alternately, #3, crispy fried noodles with bean sprouts, onions and soy sauce are an indulgence and oh so very good.

An easy, filling breakfast or early lunch choice, right across the hall from 99 Ranch Market.

Sam Woo BBQ Restaurant 7330 Clairemont Mesa Blvd Ste 103 San Diego, CA 92111 Breakfast Mon-Fri 9-11, Sat-Sun 8:30-11

Sizzling Pot King Revisited

November 3, 2017 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

**** Sizzling Pot King is now Zhang Liang Malatang

Thank goodness for the recent cool weather. The Missus wanted something "a bit" spicy. She chose Sizzling Pot King. And we ended up going back two more times!

There's something comforting about the simple, just spicy and numbing enough dry pot that SPK makes.

It's pretty much the same thing all the time; the Large Dry Pot ($30.99); we've found that stuff like chicken, beef, and pork just don't hold up well after a while and the portion size here makes for three meals! The tendon had gone downhill over the course of several meals last year. So, we just stick with tripe and pork intestine….oh, gotta have that frozen tofu ($2.99) to suck up all the nice spice as well.

Nice and numbing. Someone mentioned to me once, that cauliflower and potatoes had no place in Chinese cuisine. I told the young man that the Missus grew up eating stir fried potato and cauliflower with tomato….in China! We both wish there was a bit more mung bean sprouts; but I think the majority of "give me more meat" folks would disagree. Anyway, fragrant, generous portions, nice spice, decent flavor, you'll definitely need some rice.

In the course of a week we revisited Village North, Village Kitchen (posts upcoming), and SPK……. this is where the Missus wanted to return to. Go figure.

Sizzling Pot King
8058 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

So, what are you enjoying with the recent cooler weather?

Mr Holy Gao Revisited

October 29, 2017 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

So, recently I had some time for an actual sit down lunch. Though not enough time to head down to Kearny Mesa. I wanted some Chinese, of which there seems to be a rather strange shortage of in this area. There's the "one-trick-pony" shop (which I actually revisited for the first time in nearly ten years and Lai Chen, which never seems to be open. My office is close enough to the 805, so a revisit to My Holy Gao seemed to be the most realistic option.

The place was empty when I arrived and pretty much stayed that way during my whole visit. The menu has changed a bit since my first round of visits back in March. Some new dishes added including Di San Xian; a classic stir fry of potato, eggplant, and bell peppers. While I knew the specialty of the shop leaned more toward Sichuan style dishes, I decided to order it. A big mistake.

This was like every bad stereotype of Chinese food out there. The dish was gloppy, too sweet, the eggplant wasn't cooked properly, as in the skin portions were hard and inedible and the interior pieces almost crunchy; lacking the buttery texture of well cooked eggplant. There was a shortage of one of the "three treasures", the bell peppers.

At least they had the Tea Smoked Duck which is the dish I believe they do best. While a bit drier than on previous visits; this was by far the best item.

Not too salty, nice smoke flavor, good texture.

For the final item, I saw the classic Chongqing Dish, Mao Xuewang on the menu. I've usually avoided it because the blood curd used is usually of terrible quality. In this case, I decided to go for it.

I've noticed something about the hot pot and similar type Sichuan dishes here. They seem to lack skill and finesse and the flavors are very simple and lacking in the wonderful layers and complexity of really good Sichuan food. The broth was very thin and in spite of looks not very spicy. The only real "ma", numbingness was provided when I bit into the whole Sichuan peppercorns. The blood was metallic and bitter; the "ham" in this case was faux Spam; the beef was decent if a bit too chewy, the intestine was good, though somewhat lacking in the offal-funkiness that I enjoy.

And like before, the rice here was terrible; with some really hard pieces, followed by strangely gummy grains.

In spite of the tea smoked duck; I'll probably not return for a while.

Mr. Holy Gao
10066 Pacific Heights Blvd
San Diego, CA 92121
Open Daily – 11am – 930pm

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot (lunch revisit)

October 16, 2017 Cathy Chinese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for stopping by to read this food blog named mmm-yoso!!! Kirk and His Missus are still on a mini-vacation, de-stressing from some major work projects. Cathy is writing.

Kirk wrote a two part introduction to Little Sheep about ten years ago. He also wrote a primarily photo post of the food here in 2011. At some point, Kirk took The Mister and myself here for a meal, teaching us the intricacies of hot pot. In return, The Mister and I shared our knowledge (and a meal) with Ed and Tina in 2013. I wrote posts in 2015 and again in 2016 and Kirk mentioned a new San Diego location early this year.

The past few weeks have had such chilly mornings and hot afternoons (temperatures yesterday varied from 61 to 98) and I must admit the cravings for Little Sheep kicked in.

The advertising for lunch meals here is simple, ($11.95). The receipt breaks down the prices (the cooking broth $3.75 for each person, meals are $8.20). We asked for low salt, 1/2 and 1/2-regular and spicy (there is a vegetarian broth also available; it is mushroom based). The Mister chose the beef lunch. I chose the fish filet lunch. Each lunch comes with four ounces of protein (though it sure looks like a lot more, doesn't it?) noodles, two krab pieces, frozen tofu, fish and meat (lamb) balls, enoki mushrooms, chrysanthemum leaf, cabbage, two slices of potato, two slices of turnip and one shiitake mushroom.

When we ordered, there was an optional add ins part of the menu and since "mixed seafood" was only $3, we ordered it to see if maybe something interesting would be on that plate…the Hokkigai surf clam, green mussel and calamari each cooked up nicely and now we know what to order next time. The small side of oyster mushrooms ($2.75) was just enough to satisfy the mushroom cravings I have when eating here.

All in all, a nice lunch with flavors to satisfy a craving. Have a good start to your week!

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot 4718 Claremont Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92117 (858) 274-2040 Open Mon-Thurs 11:30-3, 5:30-9 Fri-Sat, 11:30-10, Sun 11:30-9:30 website

Fung Fung Yuen

October 9, 2017 mmm-yoso Chinese BBQ, Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum, Xiao Long Bao

**** Fung Fung Yuen is now Golden Island

Fung Fung Yuen opened this past summer (on the ever lucky 08/08) to quite a bit of hype and fanfare. My friends who visited soon after the initial soft opening told me the place really didn't live up to their expectations. So I waited about six weeks. We'd moved offices and was now a bit closer to the place. Three of us, Calvin, "BigD", and myself, made two visits, after which we decided to give it a rest.

The restaurant does remind me of those "Dim Sum Palaces" of my youth, a nice, rather large, space (formerly Hometown Buffet).

The place is set-up for larger "family style" parties.

During our visits, there only seemed to be 2-3 carts rotating at a time. During our first visit, we never saw the steamed dumpling cart, so no siu mai, har gow, etc. On both visits, we never saw any Cheong Fun.

I've decided to start with the best item we had; which coincidentally was actually ordered off the menu; the Roast Pork ($14.95).

The pork was moist, the skin, while a bit too thick was decent. A very nice dish overall.

A remote second was the tripe.

No off flavors, decently cooked, nice "crunch" the gooey sauce was a bit on the "sweet" side for my taste.

I think it's kind of sad that the two main reasons the Shrimp Siu Mai is number 3 was that it was hot and it wasn't overly tough.

The Soy Sauce Noodles was on the colder side, a bit greasy and overcooked.

Sticky Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf was barely past warm.

The rice was nice and tender, though the pork was really tough.

One look at the Har Gow and you can tell this wasn't going to be very good.

Dried out wrappers, hard and overcooked shrimp.

The Eggplant stuffed with shrimp was quite cold and greasy.

That sauce which was cold really didn't help matters.

The Ham Sui Gok, the fried glutinous rice dumplings stuffed with pork was also cold, thus the dumpling had become rather gummy. Check out the (lack of) filling, which was cold and tough.

The Bean Curd roll was at least served at a decent temperature. But the strips of vegetables were cut too thick and was undercooked.

Calvin just wanted the Xiao Long Bao.

Looking at the photo; you can kinda figure things out; cold, no soup, really thick, hard wrappers.

And yet, there was something even worse than the XLB; the Pearl Balls, these made with shrimp.

Cold, tough, some of the rice was just plain hard.

There's obviously some kinks to work out here…..things like keeping your product at a decent temp in the carts…..which, by the way, only made one pass, and then was gone. It was a rather unsatisfying two meals. I'm hoping they get things straightened out. I'm hoping they work things out. Folks were telling me how busy the place was, but on our first visit the place was one-third full, on our second even less.

For balance, please check out Kirbie's and Faye's posts.

Fung Fung Yuen
10660 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126

Revisits – Mignon Pho + Grill and Red Moon Noodle House

September 27, 2017 mmm-yoso Chinese BBQ, Chinese Restaurants, Pho, Vietnamese Restaurants

So, our office was set to move after years in the Serra/Kearny Mesa area. We'd be heading a bit North. Thus, I decided to revisit a couple of places before we left.

Mignon Pho + Grill:

Or as Calvin's wife calls it; "pho for folks who don't like pho". I dunno, it had been a couple of years, so I decided to check them out again.

I went with the "Trolley Bowl" ($10).

The noodles were decent, though in clump, and the herbs and such were sparse though fresh. Still not sure why they serve ngo om (aka rice paddy herb), with its distinct flavor with the pho here.

The soup always seems to have kind of a bitter – tinny flavor to me. It's also quite weak and overly defatted. The proteins were tough and lacked flavor.

But, this place still seems to do good business. Perhaps it's the service which has always been friendly. Or perhaps it's the Lemongrass Fries, which is the best (only decent) thing I've had here.

Mignon Pho + Grill
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Red Moon Noodle House:

**** Red Moon has closed

Another place that I haven't been to in a while and haven't had great luck with. Though one of the folks that I used to work with really enjoyed the Singapore Noodle at Red Moon. So why not?

The really nice guy working brought me a fork to start? I had to ask for chopsticks? The dish, when it arrived, piping hot, looked quite impressive as it was topped with fried eggs.

Once you got past that though, it was a disappointment. The pork in this was really tough, almost hard.

There was way too much curry powder….it was definitely powder because it left a grainy, bitter residue on my tough. This was actually rather unpleasant to eat.

The noodles were too hard as well.

I took most of this home and had the Missus taste this……big mistake.

Folks have mentioned a "secret menu" (I've had the XLB, it's definitely bought frozen from somewhere else), but I've never received recommendations. So guess what? Singapore noodles….maybe that fork should have been a clue?

Really nice folks here too though….

Red Moon Noodle House
4646 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

I really liked the folks working at both places; but man, the food really didn't and hasn't been my thing here.

Szechuan Impression (Alhambra)

September 4, 2017 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip

So, work has me going up to Irvine occasionally these days. It makes for a long drive, so recently, I had sessions all day and the Missus was off, we decided to head up and spend the night. I had wanted to stay in our old 'hood, Hacienda Heights, but the Missus wanted to be fairly close to my location so She wouldn't have to drive far to drop me off and then could do whatever She wanted. turns out She'd been working so hard and slept thru my texts when all my meetings were over. So I ended up having a nice 2 1/2 mile walk to the hotel. Which wasn't too bad; though it was pretty hot on Chapman.

And things seemed a bit seedy as well….I kind of stood out walking up the street and two different guys asked me if I was interested in "stuff". Strange.

Anyway, I got back to the hotel and we headed off for dinner. The Missus was really missing good Chinese food, specifically Sichuan. My first thought was a visit to Chengdu Taste, but since I'd recently checked out the Rowland Heights location, I thought we should visit Szechuan Impression, which has been creating quite buzz since opening a few years back. Yes, it's been that long since both the Missus and I have been able to take our time visiting our old stomping grounds. And yes, we've really missed the food in the SGV….but really haven't missed the traffic. A whopping 75 minutes from Garden Grove to Alhambra, without an accident to be seen.

I had actually planned well for this as we arrived right before Sichuan Impression opened.

This restaurant is on the small side; though there seems to be outdoor seating. Like the nice clean and well lit interior. We also enjoyed the rather professional service….we watched a couple come in with a young boy and the Server actually brought a little child's bowl for him.

We decided on a couple dishes from the menu. I love Sichuan Liang Mian, but have struggled to find anything like the version at Ba Ren, which closed in 2012. So, I had to order that here, since I'd heard good things about this version.

This was a disappointment. The sauce wasn't bad; though it was spicy enough, not enough vinegar tones, not enough sweet, not enough garlic….not enough. The noodles were a disaster; really hard and crumbly, with no "pull" at all.

Of course we had to have the Toothpick Lamb, which was better than what I had at Chengdu Taste in Rowland Heights.

The meat had been cooked at least twice, since the interior was pleasantly toothsome, which indicates some sort of braise and the exterior light and crisp. Good amount of cumin going on; with some spice, and a touch of the Sichuan Peppercorn signature numbing effect. I appreciated the cilantro, still don't enjoy the toothpicks, and the Missus wanted a bit more salt on this.

I miss the winey-porky-slightly sweet Chinese style sausages that Missus grew up eating in China. The closest facsimile we've had in the states had been at QingDao Bread. It was pretty hot out; so I ordered the "Impressive Sausage".

I enjoyed these a lot; nice cured pork flavor, decent wine, nice heat. The texture was a bit on the crumbly versus the nice waxy side and it wasn't salty enough. There was a smokey component to this that was seemed strangely reminiscent of paprika to me. The Missus wasn't going for this; as Her "Northern Sausage genes" kicked in….not enough wine, no sweetness, not salty enough, wrong texture. Still, I really liked this.

I didn't care for the Mapo Tofu.

There seemed to be a rather medicinal taste to this dish that was somewhat off-putting to me. It hit the Missus as well, but the more She ate it the more She enjoyed this. Loved the texture of the tofu; good "ma" (numbing), but not enough "la" (heat).

As we ate, we noticed that all the customers, save the couple with the young child, coming in were young. It seems that this is the new wave of Chinese regional restaurants, catering to the younger, "hipper" crowd of Chinese. The dishes aren't as salty, use less oil, and isn't quite a spicy. The Missus and I enjoyed the portion sizes as it seems that trend of "quantity over quality" is coming to an end. Cuisine isn't like the Mona Lisa, it's not a moment caught in time, it is constantly shifting. Though our meals are moments caught in time and we keep reaching for that moment…….and to be honest; for now I prefer the more traditional.

So, as it seems that another trip to China is not in the works; I'll keep searching for some good Sichuan Liang Mian.

Szechuan Impression
1900 W Valley Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91803

Szechuan Chef (again)

August 30, 2017 Cathy Chinese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is the name of this food blog, written by three friends. Today, Kirk and Ed(from Yuma) are unable to write about any meals either has consumed recently and Cathy's got a meal recorded on her camera, ready to share.

It's been *hot* the past few days! When I woke (around 2 a.m.) it was 65 and by 2 p.m., it was 101. {I fall asleep around 7 p.m., if you are concerned}. It was a day to get chores done early and then do nothing when the heat hit. Cooking inside our (non-air conditioned) house was not considered.

So, back we went down Convoy Street. Szechuan Chef is part of our 'rotation', which Kirk first wrote about in 2013 then I wrote about in 2015, posting once more as one of our 'birthday meals' in 2016 and most recently, Kirk wrote about a meal in April.

We try to order one 'new to us' dish as well as one 'familiar' item when we go out and today was no exception. Fish filet with tofu in black bean sauce ($10.99){rice is $1} was very nice, quite a large portion, had some great flavors and textures. Crispy fish, fried tofu and a not too salty black bean sauce with onion. Mild-no heat. Of course, my go to here is the deep fried cumin (not turmeric) fish ($10.99). Red pepper, onion, Chinese celery, garlic, ginger and chile peppers. We are never asked about what spice level we would like and it always is just enough.

Stay cool!

Szechuan Chef 4344 Convoy Street #F San Diego 92111 (858) 279-8881