Chinese Restaurants – Page 50

Road Trip: Tasty Noodle House – San Gabriel (Los Angeles)

November 7, 2011 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip

I'm not quite sure who recommended Tasty Noodle to me, I just can't find the email (was it you AndyS?). All I had was a little scribble in my notebook that says" Tasty Noodle – Dalian" and some other stuff…so it probably means that the owners are from Dalian, a city in Liaoning province, just North of Shandong where the Missus is from. The shop is tiny, tucked away in the same strip mall as several other restaurants including Golden Deli. Located in one of the corners you really can't see the place from the street.

Man was this place super clean….and super tiny, five-six tables in all. The young lady serving me was very friendly and polite as well……

The menu says "New style Chinese" which kinda raised alarms……….but I moved forward. Looking at my notes which said "noodle soup" (duh), but not which kind of noodle soup…. but I quickly made up my mind when I saw Pork Belly Noodle Soup ($5.99) on the menu.

The bowl was just humongous, filled to the brim with a thick soup. The noodles were excellent, looking closely you could tell they were hand made. The texture was wonderful, slight chew, mild pull, but nice and tender. That's where all the accolades end. The thin sliced pork belly was very tough and mealy. The broth really needed some help as it was very bland. I tried but only put a slight dent into the soup and took the rest home.

I would have usually just had some noodle soup and headed out since I was eating solo on this trip. But for some reason, I'd written Baozi in my notebook so I ordered the Tiajin Baozi ($6.99). It's written as "Pork Buns" on the menu.

It really didn't look that attractive, some were slightly open on the top…heck maybe this would even be a pseudo Guo Bu Li Baozi ("stuffed buns that even dogs would not eat" – a specialty of Tianjin). But after having eaten enough of these I could just tell by the smell, a mild yeasty-savory scent, with a touch of nutty sesame oil in the background, that I knew these were going to be pretty good. I actually reached out and grabbed one with my hands and was rewarded with a fluffy springiness…man, this was going to be good. The steamed bun was almost perfect, fluffy, light…best I've had in a while. The filling had that almost smooth texture with the perfect ratio of flavoring. This made the trip here worthwhile. I ate four and saved the rest for dinner. I also bought the Missus the vegetarian version. She loved the bun, even after heating…..She told me the filling was on the bland side, so go with the pork. But I know She's already planning to hit this place up on our next trip to the area.

Thinking that the folks here are from Liaoning, perhaps the Suan Cai Yang Rou might be worth a try……hmmm…my mind is still on that baozi, though!

Tasty Noodle House
827 W Las Tunas Dr
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Hours 11am – 3pm
5pm – 930pm
Closed Mondays

Niu Rou Mian near the corner of Balboa and Genesee? Meet China Quick Wok

November 6, 2011 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Niu Rou Mian

**** China Quick Wok has closed

It’s funny how you sometimes find out about places. I was chatting to a coworker about Niu Rou Mian. In passing she told me, “there’s a place near where you live that has Niu Rou Mian, have you tried it yet?” Which left me somewhat puzzled. She later emailed me a copy of the menu from one of the Chinese message boards…and holy smoke, I knew exactly where this place was……geeez.

Later that evening, I had the Missus take a gander at the menu…….and She thought we should check the place out since the prices were so good. She really didn’t recognize the address, but once I pulled into the parking lot She told me “you gotta be kidding….”

Recognize the area….well maybe not since it was quite dark on this evening. It’s the strip mall that houses Nazca Grill, Thai Time, El Pollo Loco, among other businesses. I always knew there was a Chinese fast-food shop in the mall, but never really paid attention to it.

And let me put the emphasis on Chinese Fast-Food as you can tell by the look.

There are seven tables in the joint, bare walls, this is no “concept – theme restaurant”, one menu has all the standard Chinese fast-food stuff on it, the other is in Chinese. Everything from Shaobing to Niu Rou Juan (beef roll), it’s all the of what we call the “Chinese student’s favorites”. Nothing over $6.99 on the menu. The Missus placed our order and I managed to ask the nice woman working how long they’ve been here. She told me that they moved down from Rancho Bernardo in March. Rancho Bernardo? Then it hit me, the folks here have, or had some connection with Quik Wok in RB, hence the name. Funny thing is, I’ve been to Nazca Grill at least four times since March…..slap to the forehead!!!

The Missus isn’t really eating much red or even white meat nowadays and asked the woman for a vegetable noodle soup…..the noodles here are Dao Xiao Mian – knife shaved noodles. Dough is rolled out, folded then sliced with a sharp knife. Originally a Shanxi specialty, we saw more than few little shops selling these during our trip to China.

The Missus enjoyed Her soup especially the noodles which weren’t cut too thick like many places do. Part of the enjoyment of eating Dao Xiao Mian is the somewhat whimsical aspect of the noodles which are cut into irregular lengths and thicknesses. Most places however, cut it much too thick and even cut them way ahead of time (Dumpling Inn comes to mind) creating a gummy noodle.

Of course I ordered the Niu Rou Mian – the beef noodle soup $6.25.

This was actually much better than I recalled having at Quik Wok, darker with more flavor. It fell short in the richness department and is still not quite there with regards to flavor and spice. The meat was well prepared, soft, but not falling to pieces.

Like Quik Wok’s version, this bowl had a ton of noodles in it.

The texture was and nice soft, but still having a bit of pull to them. For six and change in San Diego, this wasn’t bad.

I revisited one other time, the Missus told me the Chao Dao Xiao Mian, the fried noodles had looked pretty good, so I thought I’d try them. I was also going to try the Guotie (pot stickers), but some else was eating it when I arrived and it looked terrible, so I decided to pass.

The lack of wok-hay gave this dish a grey pallor and it was missing the slightly sweet-smokey perfume of the wok. The noodles seem to do much better in soup as they had seized up a bit. I’m thinking cooking over too low a heat source might contribute to that as well. The flavor seemed quite bland, though based on my thirst after eating the dish, I’m fairly certain it’s been seasoned. The shrimp were cooked nicely, but the lack of flavor in the dish couldn’t keep me interested. In terms of portion size and priced at $6.25, it was perfect for a starving student carb load.

After a bit of a slow period, it seems that things are kind of picking up again. Which is nice to see. I know that I was quite surprised to see Dao Xiao Mian at this end of Balboa, so I’m hoping things continue…..

China Quick Wok
4310 Genesee Ave #108
San Diego, CA 92117

COMC: Oodles of Noodles……..

November 1, 2011 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Japanese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Vietnamese Restaurants

It's time again for me to C(lear) O(ut the) M(emory) C(ard)….and while doing that I just noticed something. I believe I'm actually eating more noodles than rice nowadays. Boy times have changed. Anyway, here it is, in all shapes, sizes, and nationalities…..

Guess where??

It's Pho King!

This Pho meatfest brought to you by Pho Saigon Star.

Man, I remember when this was like $12.95…..it's now $16.95, as a lunch special! We didn't even get decent service on this visit…sad, quite sad.

From our weekly lunch visit to Izakaya Sakura.

5: Now think of this one as an eye test….which is better…

Number one:

or number two…..

If you picked number one…..well, it was quite obvious, right? Granted, number one is from Lucky Noodle King in San Gabriel while number two is from the newly opened Liang's, but they might as well be galaxies apart. To add injury to insult, bowl number two is $2 more expensive, or maybe more since between my two visits two weeks apart, it seems that prices have already gone up..and they just opened. A post is upcoming.

By the way number one was just ok…….

And a couple more for good measure…otherwise these would have just been deleted.

I know, Chao Nian Gao are stir fried "rice cakes"…… but that's almost noodley, right?

I hope you had a great Tuesday!

Asia Cafe- As good as ever

October 26, 2011 Cathy Asian Fusion/Pacific Rim/Hawaii Style Fusion, Chinese Restaurants, Lao Restaurants, Thai Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for stopping in to look at mmm-yoso!!!, our food blog. Kirk is not blogging today, nor is ed(from Yuma). Cathy is sharing another meal she has enjoyed.

The first time I went to Asia Cafe, I met up with ed (from Yuma), who drove to San Diego for a visit. It was as wonderful as Kirk had described in his three posts in 2006 and I immediately understood why ed(from Yuma) would drive in (from Yuma) and make Asia Cafe one of his first stops here. Asia Cafe became part of the 'rotation' for me and The Mister. I realized the other day that that part of our rotation had somehow fallen away, probably because the wonderment which is Lao-Thai food showed up walking distance from our home in Santee, in the form of Sab-E-Lee.

Located in the corner of a small mall anchored by a Laundromat, on Market Street and 47th, Asia Cafe is easy to miss or just overlook; There's a car repair shop in the middle of that mall. However, business has always been booming, either

with most of the six tables with 28 chairs filled, or just with people picking up phoned in orders.

The menu, written in Thai and English, is only 3 pages long, has sections including Pho, Com and Bun as well as stir fried meats and fried rice dishes right next to a section of larbs, Lao-noodles, soups and curry dishes. I must say that each item I have had here is very well prepared and tasty.

So, we started this visit with deep fried spring rolls- (6 for $3.75). These were filled with pork, vegetables and clear noodles and did not have an excess of spring roll dough and were fried perfectly. Served with lettuce leaves, mint and cilantro-which complimented the Lao sweet and spicy sauce (fish sauce with a kick), these are better than average. I don't think any place else serves cilantro with fried spring rolls and the flavors seem so right together.

The other two dishes we ordered, both of which I craved, were (top part of photo) the Crying Tiger ($5.50). Beef larb, basically with at first a heat/spice level you may not have expected…but at some point the lemongrass, lemon juice, onions and fine powdery rice coating on the meat becomes so satisfying and you realize that you can taste all the flavors. This is addicting.

The bottom dish in the photo is chicken cashew nut ($5.50) A simple version of stir fried chicken, onions, straw mushrooms, scallions and cashews. The sauce is a bit sweet, but needs to be in this dish. Steamed rice is $1.50 and sticky rice is $2. One order is enough to share.

I'm so glad that Asia Cafe is still here and that the food, prices, owners and even the interior is unchanged. I do like consistency.

Asia Cafe 4710 Market Street San Diego 92102 (619) 527-1917

Closed Tuesdays. Open 10:30-6:30 M-W-Th-F, 11:00-6:30 S-S

Playing Chicken at Noble Chef

October 14, 2011 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

My good buddy "JohnL" has been taking some good natured ribbing from me ever since he recommended the Pho at the now defunct Seafood Island. But being the great guy that he is, he still hasn't stopped giving me recommendations. His latest recommendation was from a familiar place; Noble Chef, which I must have posted on a good half dozen times. And still, I hadn't noticed Hainan Chicken Rice on the menu, which John said was really hood. Goes to show, you never know……

I'd been here numerous times and I don't even recall seeing that on the menu. In fact, the first time I went looking for it, I missed it completely and ordered the Chicken in Ginger-Scallion Sauce ($7.75), which was a pretty good sized dish.

This texture of the chicken wasn't to my liking. The Missus calls this "dead" texture, rubbery and over cooked. In fact, this was par cooked ahead of time and then instead of a gently heating, just cooked to death. The sauce was a simple sweet soy that they have in squeeze bottles on the table, somewhat like ketsap manis. Overall, not a great dish, heck not a good dish….

On my out I took a closer look at the menu and….slap to the head, there it was Com Ga Hai Nam, just a couple of lines down the menu! More than a bit angry at myself, I returned at the first possible chance, a couple of days later and ordered the Hai Nam Chicken Rice ($6.55):

I gotta say, this was a good maount of food for the price. But alas, the chicken was pretty much the same as the previous dish I had. It was just too rubbery and dry for my taste. The rice was terribly dry, I believe it to was sitting in the fridge for a bit too long. Not enough chicken flavor to keep my interest either.

Even the ginger-scallion sauce was off, being way too salty. This isn't a very difficult sauce to make, but in this case it seemed like the person making this didn't even taste it.

Overall, these two meals were a bit of a bummer. And my thought that you'd pretty much have to go to a place that specializes in Hainan Chicken Rice in order to get the turnover and quality control right still holds true. A couple of days later I saw JohnL and gave him a bit of a hard time. "Ahem, Johnny….man, i can't believe you actually recommended that to me!"

"Oh-uh….. I guess that's strike two!"

The Noble Chef
6159 Balboa Avenue
San Diego, CA 92111
(858)278-8688

Xi’an: Our last evening

October 4, 2011 mmm-yoso China, Chinese Restaurants, Travel, Xi'an

It hit me as I was finishing up my Rou Jia Mo. This was our last evening in Xi'an. Our three days here had been packed with activity and it's easy to get into that "ok, what's next, let's get going" mode, but everything must come to an end and we were ready to move on…almost.

The Missus really wanted another (our third) shot at the Guan Tang Baozi from Jia San and knowing we'd probably not be back this way again, who was I to deny Her the pleasure of those wonderful, steaming, soup filled, baozi?

As we headed back to our hotel it started raining pretty hard, like cats and dogs hard. We looked for a place to take a break and noticed this little shop.

So we paused and had a snack….a really cheap snack….a well, not so great version Rou Jia Mo, which was only 1.5 RMB, think 20 cents.

And it tasted every bit like a 20 cent sandwich……..

We managed to make it back to the hotel, dodging raindrops, had a nice shower followed by a short nap. It was still raining pretty hard when we awoke, so we decided to head across the street to this restaurant for a light dinner.

This was a typical hotel restaurant, huge, with few customers. The sign said this place served Hunan food, but we really couldn't find anything that looked promising. The couple of folks in the place were all drinking, so we decided that perhaps a couple of beers would make for a nice getaway night treat. So we ordered some peanuts…..out came a humongous bowl of peanuts, enough to feed five or six people!

Since we needed some beer to go with our peanuts we tried the Hans Red Wolf lager…..I found out it's made by Tsingtao. Just your usual Chinese lager, no big deal.

To go with our mega peanuts we ordered a couple of vegetable dishes, starting with Baihe (lily bulb) and Black Fungus.

This was probably the worst Baihe dish we had on the entire trip, there were a lot of brown spots on the lily bulb and the flavor was a bit off.

The Missus also ordered a mushroom dish…which was also unremarkable…..

So we didn't quite go out with a bang…..

That's ok. There are memories of Xi'an that remain firmly embedded in our minds from the vibrant Muslim Quarter…..

To the amazing Army of Terracotta Warriors.

Which is good for any number of lifetimes in my book…..

Thanks for reading!

Xi’an: The City Walls, Rou Jia Mo, and some other stuff

September 27, 2011 mmm-yoso China, Chinese Restaurants, Travel, Xi'an

Each city that we visited in China had its own personality of sorts, and Xi'an was no different. For instance, being dog lovers, we can't help but notice dogs during our travels. I've even included photos of the various dogs we see in various posts, and China was no different. The Missus had already noticed how many people had dogs for pets in Her hometown of QingDao, a sign of growing wealth and prosperity. Most of the pooches we ran into were small, poodles, schnauzers, terriers, and mixes of all of the above. In Xi'an however, folks seemed to enjoy larger dogs, we even walked past a couple of rottweilers during our stay.

One thing Xi'an had in common with all the other cities we visited in China was that folks didn't pick up after their dogs. Thus, the Missus's Fifth Uncle's advice of usually needing "to look six ways, and listen eight….. but nowadays, you need to look seven! Make sure to look straight down to make sure you don't step in dog poop!" Though i'll say that it's easier to spot poop from a German Shepherd than a Chihuahua!

The Missus decided that the morning would be a great time to visit the Xi'an City Walls. Xi'an is one of the few cities in China where the entire city wall still stands and you can circle the inner portion of Xi'an in a good four hours or so. Four hours! We'd be needing some sustenance. But of course this is China so during the "breakfast rush" doorways and windows that are shuttered are oen for business.

And a doorway becomes another business opportunity……

This guy was frying up Xiar Bing….stuffed flatbread.

Which seemed like just the the thing…….

These were huge, but very greasy and not very pleasant to eat. They were cheap though, if I recall 2 or 3 RMB.

We'd had an early start and the gates to the city wall weren't open yet, so walked over to the park area outside the wall where we'd enjoyed walking the previous evening. The place was buzzing with folks getting there morning exercise, be it jogging, dance, or Tai Chi:

Then it happened….we came across all the exercise equipment…and the Missus just couldn't help it.

Some of it seemed odd, like this thingamajig….I'm guessing it loosens your shoulder?

I was a little slow on the trigger on this one…right before I took a photo of the Missus running on these stumps a line of middle aged women ran over the stumps like a little centipede…giggling like school girls.

The city walls of Xi'an cover a perimeter of 14 kilometers and is 12 meters (about 39 feet or so) high. If you think that's impressive, the original city walls of Chang'an which was what Xi'an was named before the Ming Dynasty covered 83 square kilometers, basically seven times the amount of this wall which was built in 1370. Instead of going into too much detail, I'll just post this photo which you can click on and enlarge.

The morning was overcast and the pollution was bothering me a bit, but walking on the nearly empty city wall in crowded Xi'an (population 8.5 million) seemed very strange…..

The missus still had the adrenaline going and suddenly told me "I'm going for a run!" And took off…..

Since my foot was still screwed up I just waddled along.

In some ways, the views from the gate was more interesting than the gate itself…..

Eventually the Missus had turned around and headed back toward me. As She stopped I could heard a huge amount of noise and chatter coming from below us. I peered over the wall and noticed a large market! I snapped the photo to my right which for some reason is one of my favorites of the trip.

As we hit the halfway point we had gotten hungry, at which all attempts at walking the entire wall were aborted…with no complaints by either of us.

We took a stroll through the Muslim Quarter and headed back to the area around the Bell Tower. The Missus was looking for one of the places recommended to us….I was really looking forward to another Rou Jia Mo and Fan Ji La Zhi Rou Jia Mo (樊记腊汁肉店) came highly recommended. Rou Jia Mo is often called "Chinese Hamburger" in signs around Xi'an. It is a Shaanxi speciality that is often credited to Muslims, but I've read that this style of eating, in a "Mo" (basically a flat bread like a pita) was started by the Han Chinese with pork as the main meat. All the versions I've had so far had lamb and though I adore lamb, some fatty pork sounded quite good.

We found the shop on one of the side streets and though the place really didn't look busy from the outside, there was quite a line inside.

While the Missus waited in line, I managed to snag us a table.

There are several grades of pork used in the sandwich and the Missus selected two, the cheaper version came in at 4 RMB (about 60 cents), the superior version at 5 RMB (70 cents or so). With such prices the customers ranged from guys in suits to students to working stiffs……

The bread wasn't as dense as I expected and was a bit crackly on the exterior. The cheaper one was quite greasy with a good amount of gristle. I was amazed how much grease those simple looking brown paper wraps can absorb! Still it had a very nice pork flavor. The more expensive version was very good….I can only describe the flavor and texture as being between pulled pork and pork confit. It was like the essence of oink cooked in its own fat. But also quite rich and one of these was more than enough to keep me until dinner. Which reminds me, I gotta make pork confit again one of these days when the Missus allows it…..

We really enjoyed our time in Xi'an, but were itching to move on…….

Thanks for reading!

Xi’an: A visit to the Big Goose Pagoda, Hunan food from Friend Restaurant, and a typical evening……

September 22, 2011 mmm-yoso China, Chinese Restaurants, Xi'an

After our visit to the Army of Terracotta Warriors and the requisite nap, we awoke refreshed and ready to go again. Well, the Missus was ready to go….my foot was still not in great shape, but I was easily "coaxed" into getting out and about. Also, just as quickly as the rain had arrived, it has melted away during the afternoon and it looked like it had never rained at all! The Missus decided that since we were right at the South gate, we should catch the bus to the Big Goose Pagoda area. It wasn't a very long bus ride……..

The area North of the Pagoda and Da Ci'en temple is very popular, with a huge pool (someone told me 20,000 square meters). I believe this is where the musical fountain show takes place at night….sorry, it's not really our kind of thing. There were a good amount of people milling about, but the square and surrounding gardens is so large it really doesn't seem that bad.

We ended up just walking around the gardens and shopping area. If you take a look at this photo you'll notice a couple of things. First, there's a walkway across the pool. If you're on the North end, it looks like folks are walking through or on the water.

Of course we just had to this, right????? Which we ended up doing with about ten thousand other tourists. Second, if you look at the photo above, you'll notice the air pollution that was creeping in. The somewhat uncomfortable smog made its way back pretty quickly in spite of the rain earlier that day.

During our travels, we'd often come across statues or locations that the Missus instantly knew. Such was the case with this statue. I had no clue, but the Missus instantly told me, "it's Lu Yu….the Sage of Tea." The sage of tea? Yep, that's what She said…… Lu Yu is famous for authoring the first writing solely dedicated to tea, called "The Classic of Tea". He is considered the grand master of the tea ceremony.

My favorite statue was this one…..

It is called "Gongsun Flying sword", and for some reason I was fascinated by it. During the Tang there was a sword dancer in Emporer Xuanzong's court who was the greatest of them all named Gongsun Da Niang. Not much is known about Gongsun Da Niang, other than a mention in a poem by Du Fu of a sword dance by a pupil of Gongsun's, which hinted at her greatness. You gotta love stories like these……

By this time dusk was starting to settle in and we decided to grab something to eat and walk back to our hotel. This was an interesting walk back….the sights, smells, and sounds came at you from everywhere.

We had thoughts of heading back to Jia Shan for even more Guan Tang Baozi (which we did later anyway), but we decided on something a bit different. And how decided was a bit odd…..in what was a somewhat alarming site, we saw a girl of about ten or eleven drop her drawers with the help of her mother and urinate right on the sidewalk….right on the main street in public. Actually it was right in front of this restaurant.

The Missus and I walked along for a bit….but we really felt bad for that restaurant(that really didn't deserve someone walking by and just urinating in front of it) and the Missus said it was a Hunan restaurant…..which grabbed my attention. I mean really, there are very few restaurants that serve "real" Hunan food…and a couple of them are among my favorites. I recall feeling quite proud back in the late '90's taking my Father In Law(who is from Hunan) to Henry's Hunan in San Francisco, only to have the Missus tell me…"this isn't real Hunan food." Boy have I learned a bit since then.

This little Mom and Pop joint that seemed to sell a good amount of beer to wash the spicy food down had all the Hunan standards on the menu.

The stir fried pickled green beans, one of our favorites, stir fried with chilies was quite good.

The green beans were quite good, briney and sour……though this wasn't very spicy at all.

We also ordered the La Rou (waxy meat) Chao, the smoked pork that is a staple in Hunan cuisine in a stir fry.

We both thought the pork was good, smokey, with the right sort of decadent waxiness we enjoy. The dish had the right amount of saltiness, but was again a bit short in heat. We both came to the conclusion that even though the ingredients were right, the spiciness was probably toned down for the Shaanxi palate.

The last dish was something the Missus wanted, a simple soup with greens.

The Missus enjoys the somewhat chlorophyll – medicinal flavors in these type of soups. I've just never developed a taste for them. She finished the whole bowl! Not in the photo was the rice we had with this meal…….we hadn't had rice in about a week.

We rolled on out of the restaurant and headed back to the hotel. As we arrived at the South gate we could hear music playing, with the chatter of voices rising above the music. There was giggling coming from a portion right outside the gate that was cordoned off and covered in tarps. A series of parks line the perimeter right outside the city walls of Xi'an….and there was a whole lotta' socializing going on. In the part that was covered for "privacy" there were folks dancing, some ballroom style, others…well, I'd best call it pseudo-free form I guess.

The Missus really enjoyed this……it's part of the normal routine for folks to go for a walk, socialize, and other activities during the evening. And we were seeing part of the social fabric that holds China together. Though we did notice that it was the young, as in children under twelve and folks before the tail end of Generation X taking part in these activities.

I really enjoyed strolling along….there seemed to be a vibrancy and sense of community that I really didn't feel during the day going on here. Plus, I thought the city walls looked quite pretty during the evening.

Thanks for reading!

Roadtrip: Omar’s Xinjiang Halal Restaurant – Alhambra (LA)

September 7, 2011 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip

**** Omar's Xinjiang has closed

I had recently heard about an honest to goodness Xinjiang/Uyghur restaurant opening in the SGV…. not Northern style Muslim Chinese, but real Xinjiang. Last year, during our tirp to China we had eaten with friends at an Xinjiang restaurant called Jinsite in Beijing. I really enjoyed the food, all the different skewers, "rice to be eaten by hand", and other stuff. The Missus wasn't so thrilled, but She seemed rather enthusiastic about checking this little restaurant, located on the corner of New avenue and Ralph street (more on that later).

We arrived at around 11am and found the restaurant empty. The decor seemed right, though the young lady seemed annoyed that we had interrupted her television show and treated us like we were proverbial flies in the ointment….after all, how dare we walk into this restaurant and actually expect to eat?

The menu is small but packed with lamb, lamb, and more lamb. The Missus looked over the menu and gave me a puzzled look, but didn't say anything. We had thought about trying the rice to be eaten by hand…here called pilaf, but that would take an hour. We decided on a couple of other dishes instead.

We started with the house made yogurt ($2.50), which had a nice, sweet hint to eat, much like Suan Nai, but whereas Beijing yogurt is liquid, this was a pretty thick curd. It was much thicker than the Xinjiang yogurt I had before as well.

Still, I found it nice and refreshing.

I had wanted to try the Spicy Ox Tripe ($5.99).

These type of dishes are usually cold appetizers, so we were caught a bit off guard when it arrived warm. I'm not a big fan of honeycomb tripe, but this was wonderfully tender. the flavor wasn't especially spicy, and the Missus added even more black vinegar to it, but I can say I really enjoyed this dish. From here, things went pretty much downhill…….

We ordered two Yang Rou Chuan - Lamb Skewers ($3.55), which were salty, but other than that very weakly seasoned.

Of course we had to get the Zi Ran Yang Rou, cumin lamb ($10.99). I currently use cumin from Xinjiang, it is pungent, but almost mildly sweet so I was itching to see what would arrive…. and I couldn't believe my eyes……

I'm not a big fan of grey meat, and tough grey meat is even worse. This was both, it was a very cheap cut, full of gristle, and not much cumin to the whole thing. Some onion, chili, and garlic would have surely helped and this was fairly low on the cumin scale in terms of flavor. Of course it didn't help that this looked like it was cooked over a can of sterno………

If you compared that, with this, which is what I make at home, honestly, which would you rather eat?

We took most of it home and I tried to rescue it with more toasted cumin, some onions, wine, and dark soy…. but to no avail, it was DOA, beyond resuscitation.

The last dish was supposed to be the crowning jewel as I love the chewiness of hand pulled noodles ($12.99). what I do not love is hard, tough, almost brittle noodles, which is what this was.

Plus for thirteen bucks in the SGV, I expect a bit more than the three thin slices of lamb (though it was tasty lamb) and minimal vegetables in the stir fry. Man were those noodles hard, if you flogged me with this wet noodle, I'd be scarred for life……as it was the mental scars are more than sufficient.

All this combined with the server who made us feel like we were intruding…..it was a rather uncomfortable feeling. She did flash a smile though….when I asked for out check! It was so absurd, we can only laugh about it. In the end, we really didn't feel that this meal was worth forty bucks…….

As we were leaving, the Missus told me, "you know I don't care for Xinjiang food…." I asked Her why She had agreed to checking this place out. Her answer cracked me up; "I thought you said JINJIANG (Fujian) not XINJIANG! You owe me….." So we quickly rushed to Qing Dao Bread Food, then found some pretty good duck, had a visit to Domies bakery, and did take-out from a Yunnan restaurant……

Omar's Xinjiang Halal Restaurant
1718 New Ave
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Madison: What’s in a name? Dinner at Fugu Restaurant then I get totally naked…..

September 2, 2011 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Madison, Wisconsin

What is in a name? I'd heard about Fugu restaurant from a person I ran into in Madison during a previous visit. After being told what type of cuisine the place specialized in I was really, really, puzzled….more on that later. I promised myself that I'd check the place out if I ever returned to Madison…..and a bit over a month ago I had that chance.

Now what kind of food do you think a place called Fugu serves? I think most people know that Fugu is the Japanese name for puffer fish, so this is Japanese restaurant, right? Here's a photo of the dining area……

Looks like a pretty generic, low-middle range, perhaps Asian restaurant, right? Open up the menu and you'll see dishes like Masaman Curry, Basil Eggplant, and Pad See Ew….. Fugu, a Thai restaurant? Look at the website and check out the most popular dishes….hmmmm, Spring Rolls, Crab Rangoon, Sesame Chicken? Sounds like perhaps a Thai – ABCDE (American born Chinese dining establishment). When I arrived, I was given two menus…the first had those Thai and ABCDE dishes. The second looked something like this:

Even though the area around State Street has it's share of Indian, Nepalese, and Afghan restaurants, a few of which I've eaten at, for some reason I'd never been motivated to eat at the Japanese and Chinese restaurants in the area. Until I heard about Fugu's Sichuan menu.

Since it was a solo eating trip, I ordered just two dishes. The first was the Zi Ran Yang Rou (Cumin Lamb ($14.95).

One of my favorite dishes, I often make it at home with cumin from Xinjiang. This however, was not a good rendition. The lamb was very mildly flavored, the meat cut really thick was tough, and I think the cumin was added to late as there was a real powdery texture to the dish.

Not a real good start. The other dish I ordered was the "Hot Crispy Pork Intestine" ($13.95), basically deep fried intestine with dried chilies.

Ordering this was a bit of an adventure of sorts….you see, I ordered the lamb in Mandarin….really bad Mandarin. I had no idea of how to order this so I just ordered it in English. The young man taking my order took a step back. He asked me, "you sure???" Of course I was sure. He walked away and placed the order….then came back to verify the order….twice!

As you can tell by the photos, this was pretty good. Not too spicy and the flavors of Sichuan Peppercorns were present, though not quite enough for my tastes. Still, the pork intestine was well prepared….and fried to a crisp. If I told you this was chicken skin, albeit a slightly funky chicken skin, you'd love it. This was a nice dish overall…….and in Madison, who'd have thunk it?

Being used to West Coast Sichuan prices, I found the cost a bit high and the portions a bit small. But those pork intestines were quite good. As I left, the place had filled up….with Chinese students, many of which were hovering over steaming cauldrons of Huo Guo (Hot Pot), the familiar and temping fragrances dancing in the air as I walked out….of a restaurant called Fugu…..with a menu of American-Chinese and Thai dishes….in Madison, Wisconsin….that serves up some decent Sichuan food.

Fugu
411 West Gilman St
Madison, WI 53703

Finally…..mmm-yoso gets….Totally Naked!!!

I walked to one of those chain bar and grills for a night cap and was happy to see a couple of local brews on tap. So I got….Totally Naked!!! Well, the beer of course….. a light ale that went down real smooth and quick. A perfect end to the evening. You didn't think that I'd be….. well……you knew it was about a beer right????