Chinese Restaurants – Page 31

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

Cold Tan Tan Men at Menya Ultra and Shann Xi Magic Kitchen (99 Ranch Market Food Court)

August 9, 2017 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Japanese Restaurants, Ramen

Cold Tan Tan Men at Menya Ultra:

Some of the folks at work thought we'd hit up Menya Ultra before things get really crazy. And yes, because it was a foursome, I actually waited in line for thirty minutes. I'd been told that the Zaru Tan Tan Men was really good; so I decided to order that with an ajitama.

The egg was very good, nicely flavored, and in this case, having it on the cold side was a plus this time. The noodles were very nice and katame (firm)….on two of my last visits I overheard folks complaining the noodles were "undercooked"…….god help them if they go to Rokurinsha, Ippudo, or just about any street corner ramen shop worth a damn in Japan. As for the rest? Well, I find this version rather bland with not enough savory umph to be satisfying to me. Even with the onions, the seasoned ground meat…..well, I'll just stick with the Ajitama Tonkotsu. Though I'm not sure when I'll be willing to brave the crowds again.

Menya Ultra Ramen
8199 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

Shann Xi Magic Kitchen in the 99 Ranch Market Food Court:

**** This location of Shann Xi Magic Kitchen has closed.

I needed something from 99 Ranch Market and it was around 11am this past weekend. I decided to check out this location of Shanxi Magic Kitchen to see how they compared to the location on Convoy.

It's obvious that the two kids working here really don't want anything to do with their customers….they'd rather work on their laptop or socialize. I was treated like a mere nuisance.

Of course I ordered the Yang Rou Pao Mo ($8.99), which is served here without the pickled garlic or chili paste….perhaps you need to ask for them? But you shouldn't have to……it's standard for the dish.

I've mentioned that I've given up on finding the Yang Rou Pao Mo that I really enjoyed in Xi'an. So how's this facsimile?

The lamb in this was very tasty, quite muttony. The meat nice and tender. The flavor of the broth was heavy in white pepper, but decent, you could still taste "the lamb". It was a bit thin for my liking….I enjoy a thick and hearty Yang Rou Pao Mo, and while this was scalding hot, it lacked the richness and tongue (and belly) coating viscousity. Not much bean thread in this, though I saw some lily buds and a few pieces of tofu which looked just like the waxy, pasty, counterfeit leavened bread. Overall, not bad, but I'll be going to the location on Convoy if I ever want this again.

Overall, the (lack of) service and broth was subpar.

Shann Xi Magic Kitchen
5950 Balboa Ave (In the 99 Ranch Market Food Court)
San Diego, CA 92111

Steamy Piggy – A First Look(s)

August 2, 2017 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

While driving by last week, I noticed that Steamy Piggy, whose signage I saw back in January, was finally going through a "soft opening". Since that "helluva" (the one with Tajima/Liang's/Josun) parking lot was empty at 11am, I turned around and decided to give the place a try.

Even though the "open" sign was displayed, they didn't seem quite ready for prime time when I arrived…..which I'm sure they'll straighten out.

So I was seated outside. Pretty nice space, though there was water everywhere….I think they had hosed down the patio right before opening and the tables already felt a bit "sticky".

I was presented with an abbreviated menu. Since the specialty here is supposed to be dumplings, ordering that was a must. Unfortunately, they only had the Pork and Cabbage and the Pork and Shrimp versions and only pan fried. No problem, I wanted to see what the skill set of the cooks were, so simpler the better and I went with the Pork and Cabbage.

Needing another dish form the abbreviated menu; I went with the "Steamy Piggy Noodles" ($13.50), which was supposed to have Pork Ribs, Pork Belly, and Chicken.

Man, this was a load of carbs…..I mean a load….I barely finished half the bowl. The pork ribs were "MIA", the pork belly was a bit on chewy side for me, but the flavoring had nice hint of anise and soy flavor. There was a plethora of chicken. The noodles were overcooked and on the mushy side, but most of all, there was a certain greasy-blandness to this dish. Like something you'd make at home. I did like the "Steamy Piggy Sauce", a soy-chili oil concoction that was quite nice. I ended pouring almost a quarter of the bottle on the noodles to give it some flavor.

The filling for the pork and cabbage pan fried dumplings ($8)….I dare not call it guotie, were decent. Moist, not too salty, pleasant texture. I thought the wrappers were too thick and it wasn't panfried long enough or the temp was off as the bottoms weren't crisp enough and as a whole the wrapper was gummy. I'm not sure that this is worth eight bucks……

The young man who waited on me was awesome, friendly, gracious, and very nice. Sooooo…..I decided I needed to return.

This time I tried the shrimp and pork pan fried dumplings….called "Pimp Shrimp" ($9) on the menu. Sometimes I feel so old and out of touch….

In terms of cooking; these were better as the bottoms were more crisp. Other than that; the dumpling skins were the same, on the thick and gummy side. The filling on these were seasoned nicely with a definitive shrimp flavor.

And yet, I enjoyed the chili oil based sauce the best again.

Because the pork belly I had in my noodle dish seemed to have potential; I ordered the Red Cooked Braised Pork Belly ($8.50).

So, where to start? Too tough, salty, no sweet tones, and greasy to boot. Kind of sad, since I enjoy red cooked items. This was mediocre at best.

I could only manage 2 bites or so of what was in the tiny pot. I took the rest back to the office, "YZ" only had one bite; which was basically the consensus across the board.

I gotta say; while it looked like there were some service hiccups with other guests……the place filled up fast and I heard no less than three tables mention they read about the place on Eater. I had the same Server who was great….I think his name is Ivan.

Since this is still the soft opening period; I'm going to give this place a pass for now. I'll return in a few months to hopefully improved food and a more diverse menu.

Also, I'm vastly aware that the target audience for this place; much like Facing East is the younger crowd. Perhaps looking for well prepared, executed, and tasty food is not what it's about anymore. Perhaps style now matters more than substance…perhaps (I hope) I'm wrong. We'll see in a few months.

For a different look at Steamy Piggy, check out Kirbie's post.

Steamy Piggy
4681 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Open Daily 11am – 11pm