Chinese Restaurants – Page 49

Revists: Hong Kong BBQ & Dim Sum and Birrieria’s la Guadalajara

February 3, 2012 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Mexican Restaurants

A couple of revists on what has been a pretty busy Friday.

Hong Kong BBQ & Dim Sum:

I've been wanting to do a revisit and try some of the menu items since this is one of FOY (Friend of Yoso) "JanFrederick's" favorite restaurants. So I dropped by one evening and looking over the menu decided on a couple of dishes, however, no goat, no Oxtail, no Steamed Chicken with Mustard Greens…so I was kinda grappling with the menu, looking for plan "D". The gentleman taking my order was very patient and nice, though I was getting a bit annoyed…..

Still, it was a nice evening and the restaurant was quiet, even the young children were well behaved….so why should I start whining, right?

Eventually, I settled on the Seafood Hot Pot, though not without a bit of trepidation since my previous visit eating dim sum had not been so good.

I did need something that the Missus would have to eat when She got home and seafood is usually a good choice.

At $12.95 this wasn't a bad deal. I thought it was on the bland side and the fish fillets were a bit past prime, but everything else was not bad. The Missus thought this was decent as leftovers after the flavors had time to meld a bit.

I also ordered the Salt and Pepper Pork chops, which was neither salty, nor peppery, nor much of anything except kind of gummy.

I'd really like to try some other dishes, next time I'm hoping they'll actually have them.

Hong Kong BBQ & Dim Sum
10550 Camino Ruiz(Inside of Vinh Hung Market)
San Diego, CA 92126

*** Birrieria's la Guadalajara has closed.

Birrieria's la Guadalajara:

This place is now a favorite of ours…..we come here to get our weekend "lamb fix". Any I mentioned in my previous post that I wanted to try the Cabeza En Su Jugo, the simmered beef head…..

In a word….beef-a-licious, of course you've got to enjoy a condensed, very rich beef flavor. It ain't low fat, but man this was good. Wrapped in a fresh made tortilla, with some onions and lime to cut the fat, dipped in the broth…….

The Missus, along with the Borrego a la Plancha (She loves the leftovers), got the Spoes with Borrego (lamb).

If you are a masa lover, this one is for you….thick and filling, I actually like the smear of beans…..topped with the roasted lamb which has spent time on the griddle (like the borrego a la plancha), this is quite s filling meal. You can get it with the meat of your choice. This is major, "it's Sunday, let eat and roll back into bed" food.

The manager, Jorge, told me that they've received their beer and wine license……so you can have a nice cerveza with your birria now…then roll back into bed!

Birrieria's la Guadalajara
1310 Third Ave
Chula Vista, CA 91911

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Liang’s Kitchen

** Liang's has closed

There was a bit of a buzz when Liang's Kitchen first opened during the fall of last year. Not so much for us though, since a couple of years back we had a most horrendous meal and service at Liang's in Irvine…so bad that I wouldn't do a post on it. So even if I'd be willing to visit Liang's here in San Diego, the Missus will not.

Actually, the Chinese name of the restaurant, translated as something like "Mama Liang's home style military dependant village kitchen, is perhaps a more apt description of what Liang's serves. Now before you go off and think this will be something reminiscent of mess line slop, stop for a moment. When the KMT retreated to Taiwan, housing had to be built for those fleeing. Settlements were funded by the military and built with the intent of being temporary housing. It was believed that people would only have to live in these villages for a short time until the ROC defeated the Communists and folks would move back to their homeland. This of course, never happened. Over time these villages comprised of people from all over China developed social networks and a sense of community. A nice article on these villages can be found here, I particularly enjoyed the story of "Ho" from Shandong:

"After Ho retired from the military, he opened a breakfast store in the village selling traditional Shandong dishes like steamed buns, fried dough sticks and salty soybean milk which became quite popular among villagers and even nearby Taiwanese residents."

Liang's claims to serve the diasporic cuisine of those villages, using the sentimental value to draw folks in.

Since Liang's first opened, I've visited five times with mixed results. In the beginning, the prices seemed to change, always in the "up" direction…perhaps three times on items like the Niu Rou Mian and Niu Rou Chuan. Once I was served by a young lady wearing flip-flop like sandals and grey sweat pants. I will say that my last two visits have been the best, as the prices and service have finally evened out a bit. Not quite sure about the food yet….

The first two times I had the Niu Rou Mian (Beef Noodle Soup), I was less than pleased.

On the first visit, the broth had been flavored by what the Missus calls "the wave method", as in the soup tasted like someone had waved a beef bone over it to flavor it. The beef was fairly tender, but dry and cold in the center. I selected the regular noodles, which were prepared nicely. On the second visit, the broth was better, but too sweet, the beef was still pretty dry, and the "Lapian Handmade Noodles" tough and gummy. The broth also seemed low with regards to anise flavor as well.

However, on my last visit, I ordered the Beef Tendon version and was rewarded with a decent bowl.

Even though the broth still didn't have enough anise or beef flavor for me, it was hot, not too sweet, not overly salty, and most of all, not bland. The beef tendon was very nice, soft and almost buttery. The pieces of beef were still the same, too dry and stringy for me. Ditto for the handmade noodles, too gummy and over-worked.

Still, I felt pretty happy about the whole situation, until FOY (Friend of Yoso) the "Zompus" asked me, "since when is one out of three good, other than in baseball." I'm hoping that I improve on that slow start during future visits.

On one of my visits, I had the Niu Rou Chuan – the Beef Roll, which was then something like $6.50, but the last time I looked at the menu was up to $7.25.

The sesame bread was too dry as was the beef. I did enjoy the addition of what I believe is Ji Cai, pickled mustard greens, which adds a nice palate cleansing salty-sour component to this, but overall, I didn't care much for it.

When I mentioned this to another FOY "Liver", I was instructed to order the Pork version instead. Which is what I did on another visit with my good friend Candice.

The fat and the flavor of the pork added to the dish.

During our visit we tried a couple of other items.

The Special Red Pork Cutlet($5.25) had a nice light-crunchy texture.

Mild sweetness, though not much else that stood out.

The stuffed squid ($6.99) served cold.

Would have been a real winner if they removed the quills from the squid before they stuffed them. Biting into the squid, then being stabbed by the plastic like quills makes for a rather unpleasant experience.

The Stewed Pigs Feet ($6), in my opinion could have been stewed much longer and needed a flavor injection.

It was like eating hard rubber……

And that's kind of how it's gone for my meals at Liang's. I'd try something like the Salty Pork Stuffed Chili ($5 when I tried it, now $5.50).

Which was indeed salty, but in a good way. You'll also play a bit of chili-roulette with this one as some of the peppers were hot, but other not. The roasting of the peppers also adds a bit of sweetness.

Then I'd order something like the Salty Duck ($6.75). If I'd gotten something 1/10th of what I had in Nanjing or even half-way close to what I get in the SGV, I'd have been happy.

But this was very dry, tasted salty, but also a bit "refrigerator-rancid"……I tried to explain to the yong lady working, but she either didn't, or pretended not to understand. I opted to cut my losses and retreat.

If you like variety, you'll get it here. Is the NRM the best in San Diego? In a town of blind men, is the one-eyed man king? Ditto the Beef Roll….. They also say "nothing ventured, nothing gained", here's hoping that your ratio of gains to ventures is a good one. For balance please read Kirbie's posts and Gastro-bits post on Liang's.

Liang’s Kitchen
4681 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Chengdu: Wenshu Temple, Tea House, Vegetarian Restaurant, and an interesting “appetizer”…

January 21, 2012 mmm-yoso Chengdu, China, Chinese Restaurants, Travel, Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurants

After our visit to the Giant Panda Breeding Base, the Missus' cousin drove us down to Wenshu Temple to spend the rest of the day.

The monastary and temple has a history of over a thousand years and is probably best know for the "Peace Pagoda of One Thousand Buddhas", the tallest iron pagoda in China.

The crowd was interesting, the tourists being a mix of typical wanna see folks and actual true believers. A cloud of incense smoke rose above the buildings and courtyards of the monastery.

For some reason it was the wooden depiction of the Hindu Avatar, Matsya that grabbed my attention.

According to the Hindu scriptures, a devotee of Vishnu named Satyavrata was at a river washing his hands when a tiny fish jumped into them. This tiny fish pleaded for his life so Satyavrata took him home and placed him in a jar which the fish eventually outgrew. Over time the fish kept growing, moving from the jar to a pond and ultimately became the "biggest of all fish". The fish instructed Satyavrata to take it down to the ocean where it revealed itself to be an incarnation of Vishnu and warned Satyavrata of an impending flood instructing him to build a ship…..yes, a Hindu version of the Great Flood. Satyavrata became known as Manu (The First Man).

After walking the grounds for a while we gathered and headed off to one of the two tea houses on the grounds of the monastery.

In contrast to the low hum of the temple area, you could hear the rather raucous laughing and yelling as we approached.

This tea house was much different from the rather sedate one we visited before, where we saw the monks bumming cigarettes from folks.

Folks bought a cup of tea and maybe some snacks, they keep refilling your cup with hot water as many times as you want. Folks were reading, napping (in spite of the racket, some people were indeed crashed out), playing cards, games……folks just seem to be plain enjoying themselves. Shells from sunflower seeds flying about….even the birds here are pretty aggressive, flying right onto your table to take "their cut" of the profits.

Of course, after about four cups of tea, the inevitable happened….I needed a restroom, which is how I came across the worst restroom of our trip to China. No mean feat, as anyone who has been to China knows, there are contenders everywhere. But this one took the crown by a wide margin. As I walked to the toilet, I could already make out the ammonia like smell. I had thoughts of finding a bush somewhere, but banished them immediately. This was a monastery, what would my punishment be in Naraka be if I peed on a bush! I took shallow breaths as I walked into the lavatory and was amazed at the sight of the trough….it was a trough, with a trough…..a almost even pool about a half inch deep and three feet wide of liquid(take a guess) surrounded the trough. Dozens of beetles and insects performed synchronized swimming demonstrations in the pool. What the heck was I to do? In the end, I did as probably most everyone else did, I stood well clear of the pool, hoped my ab muscles worked ok and fired away…… As I stumbled out of the lavatory, a young man entered, (all these folks drinking tea, what else was going to happen?) he came to a stop a couple feet in front of me, halted by the wall of ammonia. I could feel his pain. I really felt icky and when I sat down next to the Missus I whispered to Her:

"Do I smell like pee?"
"Why, did you pee on yourself?"
"No, but I feel like I've just walked through a cloud of it. Whatever you do, don't go to the bathroom!"

After what happened the last time She didn't heed my advice….She cut down on how much tea She was drinking.

About twenty minutes later the teahouse started closing and emptied out pretty quickly. I loved the way they stacked the chairs.

Our destination for dinner was to be the at the vegetarian restaurant on the monastery grounds…..vegetarian? Monastery? Food like what the monks eat? Really????

The place was fairly clean, looking like many of the other restaurants we ate at during our trip…..

Suddenly a friendly looking, middle aged gentleman walked up to our table. The Missus proclaimed, "oh, he made it!" So who was he? Another uncle or relative joining us for dinner? So I asked the Missus:

"Who is he?"
"He's here for you?"
"For me?"
"Yeah, while you went to the restroom, I asked the ear cleaner in the tea house to come over and clean your ears, but they closed before he could get to you. So he came over here to finish the job."
"Finish the job?"
"Aaaah, don't worry, that's the good thing about ears, you have two. One gets messed up you still have another!"

I wasn't too keen on having anyone without "MD" after their name putting anything smaller than their elbow in my ear, but what the heck, the Missus was right after all, eh? eh? eeehh?

It was kind of strange at first…..having someone probing around in your (insert orafice of choice) ear.

Notice the young lady in the photo. She is the oldest daughter of the Missus cousin. Mesmerized by what was taking place and the possibility of gore and bloodshed as well I assume. After all, it's not everyday that you see a relative you've never met before get his brain punctured through his ear canal….. Actually, the amount of awe and attention made me nervous. I really don't think this is something that is a normal part of everyday life here……

But this guy really was a pro……

And when it seemed that the potential for bloodshed was diminished the young lady sat back down with her sisters. The ear cleaner told the Missus that my ears were really clean, but that my right ear canal was red and irritated, which is true. I told the Missus, "tell him I know that, it's the ear you yell into all the time….."

The only thing that felt really weird was when he put the vibrating tuning fork to the ear probe…it sent a huge buzz that I felt to my bones through me. It actually gave me "chicken skin".

In the end, this was an interesting experience…..don't know if I'd do it again, but the guy was very professional.

After that, the meal seemed somewhat anti-climatic. The standard of vegetarian dishes was fairly high, but as with most of these type of restaurants was really varied.

The plain vegetable dishes are the easiest to take as well as being the most "safe", but aren't much better than what you'd get else where.

But I really enjoyed the dish of peppers and green beans. The peppers were mildly spicy, but with a nice sweetness to them.

Of course there are the obvious bean curd dishes. This wasn't too bad.

I loved the Cherry Peppers in this dish, nice sweet-spicy. Interesting dish overall, those faux squid things are basically an after-thought.

The filling for the baozi tasted pretty much like standard issue vegetarian-mushroom filling. The dough was kind of mushy and the bottoms were too soggy for my taste.

The sizzling rice was actually quite good.

Nice flavor……

The rest of the items weren't to my taste. The faux sweet-sour fish was too mushy, too sweet, and I didn't care for the texture.

Needless to say, we didn't leave hungry!

Since our flight was early in the morning, we stayed in Chengdu. After being dropped off at our hotel we decided to take a walk around the area……I'm pretty sure there was a college or university around because on one of the side streets…..

Too bad we were too full to partake….

But this just means we'll have to return someday.

Chengdu: Giant Panda Breeding Research Base and some lunch…..

January 12, 2012 mmm-yoso Chengdu, China, Chinese Restaurants, Travel

I'm thinking I should have put "some lunch" in tiny letters here….so I wouldn't mind at all if you're not interested in Pandas, if you came back another day……but otherwise……

Even though the San Diego Zoo has had a long love affair with Pandas, the one place on my list for Chengdu was the "Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding", whew, that's a mouthful. I'm not quite sure why….but I really wanted to check the place out. And apparently, so did a host of other folks….

The base itself is a bit over 200 acres…making it quite large. There are different trails to take, a large lake, a museum, panda food processing center, etc, etc…….

But of course, we were here to see pandas….. so we headed off, past the ponds….

We thought we saw something as we turned a corner……

But no, these were Red Pandas…cute in their own sense, but nothing like the giant pandas we wanted a glimpse of.

In my reading I found that red pandas belong to the family musteloidea, more closely related to weasels and skunks than the giant panda.

As we meandered along the trails, past the empty nursery (it was not quite the season for little ones), I was prepared for not really seeing a giant panda….which wouldn't have been such a bad thing as I could always go to the San Diego Zoo to see them. Then as we walked down one of the trails we saw this…..(feel free to click on the photos to enlarge)

Laying down, lazily munching on some bamboo……

Suddenly the Panda decided to sit up…….possibly recalling that mom always said never to eat lying down…"you might choke on something!"

All the while having a firm grip on bamboo….never missing a beat, all done in a leisurely fashion.

Only to decide that supine was only way to eat………I'm sure this one approved of breakfast in bed.

As we walked pass the pandas, the Missus was totally gaga over them, it made me wonder…..

What made pandas so cute….was it the head to body proportion? Or perhaps the white and black color and the black around the eyes that made them look larger? Or perhaps the somewhat ambling movement that made the panda seem to be eternally dawdling?

For some reason, I really enjoyed watching them grasp their food, in an almost human way……I guess I could really relate to that. I recall seeing something on one of those channels once, about how the pleasure center of the brain got going after just a brief glimpse of something "cute"…..

Heck maybe fellow blogger Lynnea can tell me why………..

Because in the end……

I decided that knowing the why's would take all the fun out of it…….it was better just to forget about it and enjoy……

Which is what we did at the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base.

It was a bit past normal lunchtime when we left the Panda Center and the Missus' cousin here was really not food-centric…so we could really understand the effort he had put in during the past two days…heck, we'd be bushed too. So we didn't blame him at all for choosing one of the tourist type restaurants right across the street from the Panda Breeding Center for lunch.

And the food, unlike many tourist centric restaurants in other countries (including our own) wasn't too bad.

Here's another item that folks living in the Western world sometimes find strange…remember, cucumber is a gourd and it is treated as such….

Remember my $1 cucumber recipe or Zi Su Jian Huang Gua?

Some of the dishes seemed to be part of the parade of Sichuan's greatest hits……

Though that Mapo Doufu wasn't bad at all…….

Needless to say we didn't leave hungry. It was onward to our next stop Wenshu Temple.

Thanks for reading!

Scenes from Jianyang, Sichuan

January 11, 2012 mmm-yoso China, Chinese Restaurants, Jianyang, Markets & Grocers, Travel

This is pretty much a COMC (Clearing Out the Memory Card) post. During our time in China we stayed in Jianyang for one evening, here are some photos we took during that time.

The hotel provided a buffet style breakfast, that looked quite typical, but had quite a few breakfast items that were interesting.

Sure there was rice porridge and the like…..but there were a number of spicy Sichuan dishes as well. I had really never given thought to what the typical Sichuan breakfast would be…..the thought of having some "ma-la" (numbing hot) dishes first thing in the morning seemed very different to me.

Just as tomatoes are often treated like fruits in China, potatoes are treated like true vegetables. It's not uncommon to see them stir-fried.

I wasn't sure how my body would react to having this stuff early in the morning….but it turns out that I enjoyed it to some extent.

Even though the population of Jianyang is pegged at 1.2 million and I'm assuming growing as the local textile industry does, the streets in the area where we stayed were wide and pretty much empty. Perhaps everyone had already gone to work……

This seems really great, but as anyone who has tried to cross the street in China knows……other than driving on the correct side of the street (something which is rather flexible in its own right), the "rules" here are different. Because there was no traffic, cars and trucks were driving as fast as they could on these streets….shades of Phnom Penh!

Many of the smaller businesses were located on the side streets…..

I heard a familiar buzz as we passed the Baozi stand…..I immediately knew what it was, as we turned the corner I found that my hunch was correct.

It was the local morning market……

For me, the most entertaining set-up were all the meat hanging for display, it was a literal "meat curtain".

The meat did look quite fresh……

The market itself wasn't too crowded, so after a cursory walk-through we headed back down the street to a bit more exploring. Daily life in Jianyang seemed a bit more laidback, though the speed of things in Chengdu seemed quite relaxed as well.

You never know what you'll see wandering down the street in a city that you don't reside in.

You see things that are unfamiliar, greeting them with almost a child like wonder…..

I loved the makeshift "ramp" built from rebar. You relaly couldn't make out the rebar from a distance. You'd suddenly see a jug zipping across the sidewalk!

We saw this hanging in front of a Jianyang Mutton Soup shop(luckily no carcasses of wild dog in sight), we saw a typical display of how the Chinese stretch the law a bit….

There was an older man with a large cutting board squatting on the sidewalk chopping and hacking at the mutton. Imagine if you will, someone doing this on a major four lane road in your city! He was dressed in the typical stained white teeshirt, white paper hat (after all there are hygenic standards, right?), cigarette dangling from his mouth, hacking away. Suddenly, a police vehicle drives to the curb and one of the guys starts yelling …..I'm assuming telling him not to portion his mutton the the sidewalk. The "chef" ignores the officer. So what does the guy in the car do? He grabs a megaphone and starts using the darn thing, loud enough to shake the leaves off the trees (which are falling on the chopped mutton meat). He screams for about five minutes, but is just ignored. So what does the officer do next? Does he and his partner get out of his vehicle to enforce the law? Heck no, they just swear at the guy (so the Missus says – through the megaphone) and drive off. Jianyang's finest on the job!

Later that morning, the Missus' cousin took us on the short tour of one of the lakes in the area. There are islands in these lakes that house hotels and resorts. You can get to them by boat.

We ended up having lunch at one of the hotel restaurants. Nothing particularly memorable.

Like I said earlier; potatoes are treated as a vegetable…..

Actually, the "saliva chicken" (so good you can't stop drooling) was decent. Not very spicy (La), but it numbed half your face (Ma).

As a whole, like we were told, the food in this part of Sichuan isn't as spicy-hot.

For dinner we were taken to a Hot Pot place.

Which was more of a "hip" hot pot shop, where the young folks seem to going for hot pot and socializing.

Actually, the broth was pretty good, though again, more numbing than spicy.

It was a nice side trip for the Missus as She got to meet relatives…….

Honolulu: Royal Kitchen and Nam Fong

December 13, 2011 mmm-yoso Chinese BBQ, Chinese Restaurants, Honolulu, Oahu, Travel

My Father In-Law thought it would be a great idea to have the Missus' visiting cousins a taste of an "American Thanksgiving" so he ordered the basic heat and eat Thanksgiving meal from Zippy's. My job was to provide "back-up" if you know what I mean. No offense against Zippy's or any other of the heat and catered Thanksgiving meals, but they really aren't known for great flavor and quality if you know what I mean. We weren't arriving until the wednesday afternoon before T-Day so making anything was pretty much out of the question. So I dug into my "black book" looking for something that might suffice. Several folks had recommended Nam Fong in Chinatown to me, so I called from San Diego and reserved a duck and some pork for Thanksgiving Day. Nam Fong opens pretty early which worked out well as I made a nice 530 am drive from Ewa Beach to the Chinese Cultural Plaza at the edge of Chinatown in downtown. Arriving at about 6am on Thanksgiving morning I was surprised at how busy things were. There was a large group doing Tai Chi on the plaza alongside the River Street Canal. Now those that know where Nam Fong is located may ask what the heck am I doing at the CCP? Well, I drove up extra early to hit up this place:

Man, it has been at least a dozen years since I'd been to Royal Kitchen. I remember first having a baked manapua from Royal Kitchen waaay back in the early 1980's! What is manapua? It's Hawaii's riff on the Char Siu Bao which I mentioned in my post about Char Hung Sut. Why is it called manapua? Depending on what source you get your info from it could come from Hawaiian phrase "mauna pua'a", which means "mountain of pork"……now what non-vegetarian could resist a mountain of pork, eh? Or perhaps it's from the phrase "mea ono pua'a" which means something along the lines of "delicious pork thing", "mea ono" could also be translated to mean "cake" and "pork cake" would be a apt description, right? Whatever the origin, it's all good. Royal Kitchen changes things around when they started making baked manapua, they then put it sidewards by replacing the pork mixture with a whole lup cheong (Chinese sausage – my favorite) and Chicken Curry. Stuff like Portuguese sausage and kalua pork came later.

The shop is tiny and sells noodles and Chinese Barbecue as well.

But of course, I was all about the manapua, still priced pretty well at $1.15 each. Three trips ago (circa 1999), I bought a couple of these to eat on the trip home from Honolulu. Unfortunately, we forgot the package in the rental car….man was I bummed. So to set things right, I bought a box of eight. I even called from San Diego to make sure they'd be open on Thanksgiving.

This time eating was top priority so no views of the fillings. I seem to recall the exterior to be a bit more baked. I've never considered the char siu version to be stellar and it's still not my favorite. This time around the kalua pork overtook the lup cheong and Portuguese Sausage. Who knows what will win out next time? I'm looking forward to that……

Royal Kitchen
100 N Beretania St, Ste 175
Honolulu, HI 96817

Mon-Fri 5:30 am – 4:30 pm
Sat 6:30 am – 4:30 pm
Sun 6:30 am – 2:30 pm

I packed my box in the car, walked along the canal, crossed the street, then down Maunakea Street, the heart of Chinatown. The area has been cleaned up over the years, but there are still homeless folks sleeping in the doorways and it's easy to imagine how the area must have been when the area was the entertainment district or during the post World War II era (remember all those stories about Club Hubba Hubba?) or even as I grew up in Honolulu.

I was told that Nam Fong would be opening earlier than usual and I found the place doing a steady business when I arrived at about 615am.

Though there are a couple of places doing Chinese BBQ along this stretch of road, the ducks in the window sure looked good.

NamFong02

The roast pork hanging inside the shop didn't look too shabby either! There was a makshift set-up with what looked like a dozen Chinese style roasted turkeys that looked really delicious. The woman working the counter was really friendly and my order was ready when I arrived.

Anyway here's the rundown, first off the Roast Pork wasn't bad, it was moist with good flavor, but too chewy and the skin hard.

I ended up chopping up most of it and doing a saute with vinegar, chilies, soy sauce, onions, and scallions a la sisig which turned out rather good.

The Char Siu was pretty good, most places here in San Diego make it really salty and overly sweet, pouring sauce over it to keep it moist. This was mildly sweet, but not salty and I could make out the flavor of the pork for once.

A whole roast duck here costs a very reasonable $16,and while the skin is not quite up there in terms of texture, this duck was very good, much better than anything we have in San Diego. You can just tell by the look of the meat in this photo……

The meat was very tender and moist, the flavor of the duck came through. Initially, even though I could make out a mild five spice-bean paste flavor, I thought the duck too mild. Until I poured some of the jus on the duck, which immediately brought all the flavors out. It was delici-yoso!!! Thanks to everyone who recommended this place to me!

I'd like to revisit on my next trip home to see if the duck is just as good….then I'll be able to make recommendations of my own.

**** Sadly Nam Fong has closed

Nam Fong Restaurant
1029 Maunakea St
Honolulu, HI 96817

Mon-Sat 7 am – 4:30 pm
Sun 7 am – 1 pm

One thing I realized as I drove back to Ewa Beach…..I really enjoyed these morning drives….on days when there was no morning traffic.

"Round and round up and down
Through the streets of your town
Everyday I make my way
Through the streets of your town"

Streets of Your Town – Go-Betweens

Jianyang: Jianyang Mutton Soup (sort of)

December 10, 2011 mmm-yoso China, Chinese Restaurants, Jianyang, Travel

As I mentioned in a previous post, the Missus' cousin lived in Jianyang, about 80 kilometers outside of Chengdu. And while he and his family really weren't "foodies" he went out of his way asking friends and acquaintances for recommendations. We really appreciated his efforts. On our first evening, he took us to have what is Jianyang's signature dish, Jianyang Mutton Soup. Located down a dusty side street, this little shop was doing some major business….though the customers seemed overwhelmingly male.

This restaurant was supposed to be the "original" Jianyang mutton soup shop…………

There were a few side dishes ordered and it seemed like there were two standard condiments for the dish that came out. The first was simply salt and ground chilies. The second was lamb consomme with chilies.

The broth of the mutton soup seems to made from rapidly boiled bones, creating a milky white appearance, a process that leaches all of the nutrients from the bones. When the Missus used to get sick as a child, Her parents used to make bone soup to nurse Her back to health, so it is something appreciates.

The actual broth was very mild, thus the condiments. The meat was slightly gamey, some of it rather chewy, but not as "wild" tasting some mutton/lamb I've had, and some of it had a slight sweetness to it as well. It was milder than much of the mutton/lamb/venison that I've had.

Do you notice something about the soup? If you've read our little blog long enough, you'd know that one of the items that I'm not a big fan of is jellied blood and this soup is teeming with cubes of blood. Being the guest, the Missus cousin made me the first bowl and I was honored, but it was full of cubes of blood. I looked at the Missus and shrugged, what could I do? I had to eat it…….

And it was delicious….sweet, without that livery-iodine flavor that I don't enjoy. In fact, it was the best thing about the soup. After returning to San Diego, I immediately went to a couple of my favorite Vetinamese restaurants and decided to have the cubed blood again…gaaack, sorry to say, it ain't the same.

The side dishes were very tasty. The minced meat with celery was well executed. The meat in this was rather rich so the celery and tomato helped to cut the flavor.

The second dish, consisting of some pretty fatty and greasy looking meat was amazingly mild as well.

It was a very hearty meal which made both the Missus and I quite sleepy.

The Missus cousin had put us up in a very nice looking hotel…….

Which overlooked the main city park.

There's not much happening here during the day….it's very quiet and tranquil.

But much like the rest of China, after the work days ends, the park is full of people getting their exercise, watching a movie on the big screen over the park, dancing, or just plain socializing.

As for the "sort of"……the Missus hadn't read or even noticed the sign of the restaurant when we ate there. After we returned I asked the Missus to translate the sign and all She could say was "oh my"……

Oh my indeed…….

The day after Thanksgiving. Breakfast at Sam Woo BBQ.

November 26, 2011 Cathy Breakfast/Brunch, Chinese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

This is mmm-yoso!!!, a blog about food. This short week and long weekend may be overrun with food and visiting with family, friends, Black Friday shopping (and perhaps preparation for a football Saturday) for you. It has been for the mmm-yoso gang. If you are checking the blog, here's a short post -with a glimpse of food- written by Cathy. [Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are recovering from Black Friday.]

Hi. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving Day. The Mister and I shared a meal with our neighbors. Here are some photos of some of the food.

The top photo only shows the fried turkey and the ham. The second photo shows the 24 pound turkey…There also were brussels sprouts, candied yams, mashed cauliflower, ten pounds of mashed potatoes, about as much macaroni and cheese, dinner rolls, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauces, a salad and a whole table of appetizers in addition to that partially filled table of desserts. There were few leftovers.

Needless to say, we did go home and experienced that 'food coma' which happens after spending a day cooking and consuming copious amounts of carbohydrates as well as the tryptophan from turkey. When we woke on Friday, neither of us wanted to cook and our list of "Black Friday" shopping deals was short -waiting in line to get into any store was not going to be necessary, so we went to Sam Woo BBQ for breakfast.

We always order the coffee (30¢). It is strong and served with sweetened condensed milk. (Hot tea is also 30¢ at breakfast; it is free with the other meals of the day)

It was a chilly morning and we decided to share a bowl of fish porridge ($3.25). (I did not even run across the hall to 99Ranch to buy a cruller donut bread to put into the soup- it would be a walk, it would be chilly and …I was saving on carbs). The porridge was excellent.

We also shared the #1 from the 33 item breakfast menu ($3.25). Stir fried rice noodles with vegetables (sprouts and onions) egg and lunchmeat (fake SPAM). This was also satisfying and was more than enough food to get us going.

I know you have all been busy and enjoying this unusual week of the year, preparing for the rest of the upcoming holidays while doing everything else. Thanks for stopping to visit mmm-yoso!!! in your spare time.

Sam Woo BBQ 7330 Clairmont Mesa Boulevard 92111 (inside the 99Ranch building)

Hail

Chengdu: Long Chao Shou (龙抄手) and what seems to be the favorite pastime in Chengdu

November 19, 2011 mmm-yoso Chengdu, China, Chinese Restaurants, Travel

Our next stop after Xi'an was Chengdu….and boy, when I first planned this stage out, I was excited! Apparently, one of the Missus' cousins lived in Chengdu so we'd be visiting….then I found out that we wouldn't exactly be staying in Chengdu, but Jianyang a smaller city (of course "smaller" is a relative term as the population of Jianyang is about 1.5 million!) about 80 kilometers from Chengdu. Oh well, I'd have to wait until next time to try all the places listed in Food and Drink Chengdu. We got off our flight and crossed the street to wait for the Missus's cousin to pick us up. While waiting the Missus and I noticed this woman just stop and squat, derriere hanging over the road to take a text message…..I mean really, was that message so important that you had to stop right where you were to take it?

Eventually, our ride arrived and introductions were made. I quickly surmised that this cousin was deeply involved in the "new" China……business and commerce was king. And even though he wasn't familiar with the restaurants in both Chengdu and Jianyang, nor very interested in eating out, he'd made quite an effort for us during our stay. Maybe too much of an effort as the Missus and I would have managed fine ourselves, but we really appreciated the effort.

He had asked around and found a place for us to have lunch. The car was parked near Tianfu Square which is considered the center of the city.

This was once the location of the Imperial Palace which was destroyed after the Cultural Revolution. A huge status of Chairman Mao now overlooks the square.

A couple of things we noticed right away. The pace here was pretty leisurely, at least in comparison with Beijing, Qingdao, Xi'an, and Hangzhou. The sky seemed quite overcast and the temperature mild. We were told that this is pretty common weather for Chengdu, and the mild weather, overcast skies in combination with the hot and spicy food was why the complexions of the women from the area were so beautiful!

We walked through the shopping district and to the Chengdu institution called Long Chau Shou (龙抄手):

The restaurant is huge and cafeteria like.

The restaurant specializes in "snack" type dishes, of which there is quite a variety….and of course Long Chao Shou, which we know as wonton soup. I could clearly see the trays of wontons stacked up in the kitchen area.

I'm still not wuite sure of the system, but it seemed like you walk up to one of the counters and order, pay, then hunt down a table. You aren't given a number, placard, or anything. I truly had doubts that our food would find its way to our table in this mass of humanity. But I would be proved wrong as the blue clad workers had no problems finding us.

There were only two items that I really concentrated on during the meal. The first was the Long Chao Shou. I had chosen the spicy version.

This was quite good. Long Chau Shou's wontons are famous for their "kou gan" – mouth sensation, a combination of textures and a slippery, noodley-ness (is there such a word), and these were really nice. For me, it was all about the thin wrappers. The "soup" was interesting, I had been told and have also found that there was definite difference between Chengdu and ChongQing style food. And the meals we had in Chengdu and Jianyang pretty much confirmed it for me. The food in Chengdu is lighter and less spicy. In fact, I really didn't think this was very hot at all. What did surprise me was the intensity of the "ma", the Sichuan peppercorns were very floral and numbed me from the tip of my nose down my neck. This made getting Sichuan Peppercorns from Chengdu a must have for our return. (Which of course, I did)

I also had to try the Sichuan Liang Mian – the spicy cold noodles…….

This was ok, we've had versions here in the states that are every bit as good, if not better. But again, that wonderful numbing feeling was great…..I'm sure that shipping and irradiation does something to what we get here in the US.

Some of the other dishes:

Not much into sweets…so I passed.

After lunch we were driven to an area known as Jinli Old Street, an area that dates back to the Qin Dynasty and was once known as the "First Street of the Shu Kingdom".

Chengdu was the capital of the Shu Kingdom (221-263).

The street is full of cafes, shops, and little stands plying all types of crafts, knick-knacks, snacks, do-hickeys, and thingamijiggies.

It was a nice area to stretch our legs, browse, and wander around for a bit.

We were headed for a specific spot. This was where I first learned what one of the favorite pastimes in Chengdu was…… socializing in a tea house.

A coworker told me that her dad tried to discourage her from going to college in Chengdu, telling her "you are going to spend all your time in tea houses and not learn anything."

Folks ante up an purchase a cup of tea, hot water is refilled upon request, snacks are purchased…the young folks play cards, older folks read books, socialize, or like this guy, have a major nap.

This guy was sleeping when we arrived and was still napping when we left over two hours later!

The funniest site was watching the monks bum off cigarettes from folks in the tea house…they would sit down, have good smoke and chat with folks……I've seen a monk smoking a cigarette in a tea house in Chengdu…now I've seen it all!

Road Trip: Chef Chen – Irvine (Orange County)

November 13, 2011 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Niu Rou Mian, Orange County, Road Trip

**** Chef Chen has closed

I first recall hearing about Chef Chen on Elmo Monster's Blog (man, have you really been around for eight years???). After seeing a post on Chef Chen on Eileen's blog, with a pretty decent looking bowl of Niu Rou Mian, I had pretty much made up my mind. Also, we'd already tried out A&J which really didn't suit our tastes and a very, very, bad visit to Liang's in the same strip mall which was so terrible I never even posted about it. So why not make it a tri-fecta and check out Chef Chen's?

I sure must have been motivated since this is one of those parking lots I detest. One single exit/entrance, folks without any regard of right of way, people just plain parking in the middle of the aisle, people stealing spaces from folks patiently waiting for folks to leave by going around them and gunning into a spot. Man, this place has it all….they should have a reality show based on parking lots….. I made it a point to arrive a bit early, then stretched my legs by taking a walk and checking out how things have changed since the last time I've been here.

I entered the restaurant a few minutes after they opened and had a seat. The menu is a mix of different dishes, everything from typical Chinese fast food (which didn't look half bad) to Dao Xian Mian and even something that really interested me(more on that later). The prices, especially for the lunch specials and items from the "Northern dishes" menu were very reasonable…as was my bowl of Niu Rou Mian at $5.99:

I liked the color of the broth, which was decent and in my opinion better than Liang's (thin with no beef flavor) or A&J (oily but without flavor). Still not beefy enough, nor without enough five spice flavor, the spice level was nice. Be warned that the meat used is a very traditional beef shank which is a bit on the chewy side, though full of flavor. The noodles are nothing special, but were cooked to a nice chewy texture. This was not bad and actually better than I thought it would be.

I also saw something on the menu that I couldn't resist getting….Dao Ko Shao Ji. When we lived in LA, one of my favorite things was Dao Ko Chicken, from of all places Hong Kong Market. I'd tried Dao Ko Shao Ji from just about every place in the area and still enjoyed the one from Hong Kong Market. Then the market did a renovation and the deli case was gone…..sigh. I really missed my chicken. To the point that my Mother In-Law got in touch with an uncle who is a chef in Henan and he sent us a recipe. Read the post….it's a hoot!

When I arrived home and opened the container, the first thing that struck me was how much this looked like Earthen's Shandong Chicken. However, it lacked the sweetness with a touch of vinegar and in fact was kinda bland other than the super strong pungency from the raw garlic topping the chicken. It was one of those dishes that looked much better than it was.

Still, the prices were reasonable, and I really thought the service was excellent. The woman who served me was quite good, no wasted motion and very aware of her tables. She arrived with extra napkins just when I needed it, as soon as I pushed my bowl back she arrived to ask if all was well, then handed me my check. She then arrived with my chicken as soon as I placed money on the plastic tray. She was also quite friendly and nice and put up with my bogus (non-existent) Mandarin quite well……..

Chef Chen's
5408-B Walnut Ave
Irvine, CA 92604

One interesting thing I noticed in across the street and maybe if Elmo reads this he can answer it for me…..what's with the line outside Taiko?