Chinese Restaurants – Page 50

Recently Consumed: Visits to Sultan, Golden City, Homestyle Hawaiian, Balboa Market, Noble Chef, Pho King, Okan, and Bristol Farm

March 29, 2012 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Japanese Restaurants, Persian Restaurants, Plate Lunch, Sandwiches, Turkish Food, yoso-silly

Here’s a collection of one-off dishes and other miscellaneous stuff from the last couple of weeks.

Sometimes a dish will arrive that looks just plain delicious. This was true of the Biber Dolmasi (stuffed pepper) the Missus recently had at Sultan.

I just thought it looked so pretty. I’m no great shakes as a photographer; I just point and shoot and after all our meals at Sultan; heck we’re there about every other week. I’ve pretty much keep my camera stowed…..but this one just called for a photo.

It put my Karisik Izagara (mixed grill) to shame……

Oh and here’s a Patlican Kebab for good measure as well……

Sultan Kebab & Baklava
131 Jamacha Road
El Cajon, CA 92019

Cathy and Dennis have already done posts on Balboa International Market. I’ll usually drop by for some dates, walnuts, herbs, ayran, and citrus for the Missus. One day last week I was pretty hungry so I ordered the lamb shank on fava rice (sabzi polo). Love the price….$8.99 and it’s a load of food.

Lamb shank was decent, but the rice was bland and dry….still, the price is right.

Balboa International Market
5907 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92111

I don’t know why, but on one of my visits to Golden City I only took one shot of the Kwai Fei Chicken. After snapping the photo, I realized that I’ve probably taken too many photos of it already anyway. But just for the heck of it……

Golden City Restaurant
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123

Not too many plate lunches anymore…….on occasion there’s an exception. Here’s the Korean Chicken from Homestyle Hawaiian.

It had been a couple of months. Mo told me that they were going to renovate and clean up the place a bit…..but it was still a no-go on this visit. Hopefully soon…..

Homestyle Hawaiian Island Style Food
7524 Mesa College Drive
San Diego, CA 92111

A couple of other dishes for good measure…..

Shrimp with XO Sauce Chow Fun from Noble Chef……I was lazy and in a noodley mood.

The Noble Chef
6159 Balboa Avenue
San Diego, CA 92111

I just realize there’s an inordinate amount of styrofoam in this post……I guess I’ve been pretty tired recently……

Here’s the Hu Tieu Mi Kho, which I’ve posted on a zillion times, from Pho King.

Pho King Restaurant
4658 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115

Here are the only two photos from a recent meal at Okan, the stewed shishito peppers with ground beef.

And buta kakuni……

Which was on the dry and bland side….I’ll need to try this again……hope this isn’t the norm.

Wa Dining Okan
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Cathy’s already done a post on Bristol Farms, but recently I was shopping there, really hungry, and lazy to come home and make something. I decided to try out the Tri-Tip Sandwich ($7.99), without the BBQ sauce. The meat is hand cut and it comes with mashed potatoes and gravy which might have just send me into cardiac arrest after eating all that meat. I subbed it out with a pasta salad.

Considering that a lettuce loaded sub with 2 ounces of meat goes for $6.50 – $6.99, this is a pretty good value. The meat ain’t great shakes, it is on the chewy side…they do ask you (or at least asked me) if I wanted to trim the fat off…..guess what my response to that was. The sandwich was topped with muhrooms and caramelized onions. Bread seemed heat and eat, but it was toasted. Not bad….

Also, is it just me, or does it seem like Bristol Farms have lowered their prices a bit? Maybe I’ve been shopping at Whole Paycheck too much recently….. You know, I don’t think I’m a cheapo tightwad, who is always looking to get on the better side of the dollar, and like many do believe in the reality of scale. For example a $7.95 dish which is well made from Sab E Lee will not equal to the same dish which costs $19.95 at Lotus of Siam. Of course LOS will be….better be, better, it’s 2 1/2 times the price. Still, I do like feeling that I get my money’s worth.

**** This location of Bristol Farms has closed

Bristol Farms
8510 Genessee Ave
San Diego, CA 92122

My goodness, I just realized something as I was setting up the categories for this post……this is quite a variety of cuisines…maybe I need to stop grumbling about San Diego’s limited choice…..

Niu Rou Mania Redux: This time it’s Savory Garden, Mr Dumpling, and Chin’s Convoy

March 26, 2012 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Niu Rou Mian

It's been almost four years since I did a round up post of places to add to my Niu Rou Mian collection. Personally, I feel things have been pretty depressing for NRM in recent years, but thought I'd give it a shot anyway. We've been going through waves of warm almost late spring-like weather followed by blustery storms passing through, so it was really hard to plan things out. But I managed to squeeze in three bowls recently.

Savory Garden:

*** Savory Garden has closed

This restaurant took the place of 168 Restaurant in the 99 Ranch Market shopping plaza.

As a whole, I usually avoid the place during rush hours, and even when I dropped by during an odd lunch or dinner time, I don't recall seeing people eating here. In fact, on my visit, during a late week dinner, I was the only customer during my entire meal!

It must get pretty boring for the folks here, that's probably why they were practicing their Karaoke skills on the television….of course they weren't using a microphone, just quietly singing along…..

So at least I had a bit of entertainment during my meal. Personally, I thought this was kind of cute in a way, though I would probably have a different opinion if they used microphones.

The House Special Beef Noodle Soup ($7.49), which is listed as this on the check-off menu:

Arrived steaming hot, a good sign, though I've got to say it was probably the darkest looking broth I've seen in a while:

I really missed the zha cai – pickled vegetable that 168 used to top off thier NRM with, and fragrance of the broth wasn't particularly beefy. The noodles were decent, not overcooked, the broth wasn't as sweet as others, but in spite of the dark color, really lacked any depth with regards to flavor.

The beef was fairly tender and had decent flavor, but there were only four real pieces and some crumbs…….

Man, that was some dark broth!

I know I still gotta meet "MrZ" here for lunch one day…… so I'll report back then with more. Though based on the lack of customers, I think I'd better get my act together because I'm not quite sure how long this place will be around.

Savory Garden
7330 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

Mr Dumpling:

*** Mr Dumpling has closed

On my post on Liang's someone mentioned that Mr Dumpling made a pretty good NRM. I kinda hesitated in checking the place out, since the food on my previous visits had not been particularly stellar. Still, Niu Rou Mian? I really had to go and check the place out. The place was totally empty when I arrived……. I actually had to call out several times…Ni Hao…..

While waiting for signs of life, I noticed that they'd put pool tables in on the other side of the wall……I guess they need to bring in customers somehow. This just didn't strike me as a particularly good sign.

A couple of minutes later a live person appeared and I was seated. Of course I order the Niu Rou Mian and was surprised at what I got:

Well technically there's beef, noodle, and soup……but this ain't the Niu Rou Mian I know. It was terrible, the broth lacked nay flavor but salt and the beef was tough and dry. I keep thinking this was some horrible mistake.

While another part of me wonders, "what if it isn't a mistake and this is their version of Niu Rou Mian?" Egads!

Mr Dumpling
7250 Convoy Ct
San Diego, CA 92111

Chin's Convoy:

*** Chin's on Convoy has closed

I'm not sure why I decided on Niu Rou Mian at Chin's on Convoy, but that's what I ordered. It was the most expensive ($8.50) of the three. To my surprise it wasn't too bad.

While the broth could have been richer, it did have a mild beef and star anise flavor, along with a slight "kick". Based on previous experiences here, I expected the soup to be on the sweet side, but it wasn't. The meat could have been more tender, but it was by no means terrible. The noodles and there was a lot of noodles, weren't anything special, but at least they were al dente and nice and slippery.

Though I don't overly focus on price, if quality is good, I'm not quite sure this is worth $8.50.

Chin's
4433 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

I guess I'll have drive up to Temple City again soon and deal with the service at Dai Ho to get a decent bowl……

Madison: What’s in a Name Redux – Ichiban and Fugu

March 6, 2012 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Madison, Wisconsin

I'm not sure if anyone remembers my last encounter with the rather oddly named Fugu Restaurant, which served Sichuan style cuisine in Madison. Of course, there must be explanation, perhaps the place just kept the former restaurant's name to keep the customer base, licensing issues, or perhaps something similar. But what are odds of having two restaurants with Japanese names serving Sichuan cuisine in Madison? Enter Ichiban…..yep good ol' "number 1" in Japanese. Strange thing indeed.

Ichiban:

I had the pleasure of having my Sichuan meals with two wonderful people, YZ who is from Shanghai and YHL originally from Beijing. Having eaten at Fugu the day before, they wanted to check out Ichiban. The restaurant's tables have a slight San Gabriel stickiness to them and would not be out of place in the SGV. The clientele was a bit older than what I saw at Fugu, but almost all conversations were taking place in Mandarin.

We started with Steamed White Meat Chicken with Chili Oil.

The chicken was moist and tender, but the sauce lacked depth. It was indeed fairly spicy as the chili oil and chili flakes added heat. I'm not quite sure if this was supposed to be Ma La Ji Pian, if so, it was missing the mild sweetness or perhaps this was Guai Wei Ji Si, but then it was missing the nice sesame paste and black vinegar flavor. There was also just about no Sichuan Peppercorns at all in this.

Next up was the Zi Ran Yang Rou – Cumin Lamb:

The meat was fairly tender and the dish had some mild heat. It was better than the version I previously had at Fugu, but was still lacking in cumin. Overall, the best dish of the evening.

Next up was the Spicy and Crispy Pork Intestine:

The intestines could have been fried a bit better and the flavors were really lacking.

YHL needed a break from all the spicy food and ordered the Chicken with Corn Soup:

Coming in the middle of the meal meant the soup tasted pretty bland……

We finished up with the Shui Zhu Niu Rou, called Poached Sliced Beef in Hot Sauce on the menu. More familiar to us as Water Boiled Beef.

I really missed the Sichuan Peppercorns in this one. The Chili Paste was either quite inferior or (my guess) they really didn't use enough of it as the color looked a bit off. The beef was adequately prepared. But this wasn't very spicy.

Overall, the food was ok, not a bad try, some "La" (hot), but no "Ma" (numbing). Every dish seemed to be lacking in complexity and layering of flavors. Prices were about 15-20% higher than San Diego.

Ichiban
610 S Park St
Madison, WI 53715

Fugu:

The next day we corrected and headed to Fugu. Funny story, before her last trip to Madison, I mentioned Fugu to YZ. she ended up eating here 3 times! Since there were the three of us we were able to sample a couple of dishes.

We started with the Liang Fen, which I think is on the menu as Sichuan Mung Bean Noodle. Liang Fen is basically a starch jelly which I like, but for many people it's more of an acquired texture than taste of which it doesn't have much.

Hooray, Sichuan Peppercorns! The sauce was a bit too watery, but this wasn't too bad.

Next up was my favorite dish from my previous visit, the "Hot Crispy Pork Intestine".

This didn't disappoint, the intestines were fried to a crisp. Like before, there was only the slightest offal flavor. As mentioned before, I could probably pass this as slightly gamey, weird looking, fried chicken skin. My preference would be for a bit more "ma la" (numbing heat), but I think this is still my favorite dish here. Both YZ and YHL agreed this was much better than the version at Ichiban.

Yu Xiang Qie Zi – Fish Fragrant Eggplant. I believe it's on the menu as Eggplant in Garlic Sauce. A classic dish. You've probably eaten this under the guise of Garlic Eggplant or perhaps Szechuan Eggplant…….

YZ really liked this, probably because it hit some Shanghainese flavor points as I found it a bit too sweet for me. Eggplant was cooked nicely though as it melted in your mouth. Nice vinegar touches, not a bad dish overall.

We also ordered the Pao Jiao Yu - Fish with Pickled Chilies.

My initial reaction was, "where's the Pao Jiao?" Not much pickled pepper action going on and not spicy at all. The fish had a nice, neutral flavor, but was on the mealy side. The sauce was a decent balance of spicy – sour – sweet….but where's the pickled chilies????

We ended the meal with Hui Guo Rou – Twice Cooked Pork.

This wasn't as greasy as previous versions I've had. And though I would have been happier with a bit more savory flavors, the vegetables tasted quite nice.

It was great fun sharing two meals with YZ and YHL….they found my interest in Chinese food somewhat amusing and were great company. YHL did tell me that Fugu was better than the best Sichuan Restaurant in Houston, so I guess that's saying something. If I get back to Madison, I hope to see more of these types of places. Though I hope they go with a proper Chinese name……though the thought of a restaurant named Benihana serving Hunan style food does make me chuckle.

Fugu
411 West Gilman St
Madison, WI 53703

Ba Ren is closing at the end of the month

February 18, 2012 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

**** Ba Ren has closed

I first heard about this yesterday and dropped by the place for lunch to today.

It looked like business as usual, no signs, nothing…….until one of the Chef's sons Roy came over to chat while I waited for my take-out. Yes, Ba Ren is indeed closing at the end of February. The Chef and his family is going to take a break and decided what they want to do next.

I gotta say, I'm still kind of shocked….so I'll do a longer post later on. As I sent out texts to my friends and on Twitter, the usual first reaction was…."where am I gonna get my xxxxx, after Ba Ren closes?"

I'd say, make the most of the next eleven days or so…….

I know I'm going to………

Beijing: Quan Ju De and the Missus’ old neighborhood

February 16, 2012 mmm-yoso Beijing, China, Chinese BBQ, Chinese Restaurants, Travel

During the homestretch of our trip to China, we returned to Beijing. Of course we had to have Bei Jing Kao Ya (北京烤鸭), aka Peking Duck. In doing my research, I'd come up with a short list which included the old favorite Quan Ju De and the very popular Da Dong. So what we did was poll the Missus' and my Mother In-Laws friends and acquaintances. It seemed an interesting divide, the older generation, more steeped in tradition told us to go to Quan Ju De established during the Qing Dynasty(1864) and long the gold standard for Peking Duck. The younger generation preferred Da Dong, lighter, less fatty, using more modern techniques. To make matters more difficult, there was the possibility of Bian Yi Fang, home of the other Beijing Kao Ya, also established(1855 or 1885) during the Qing Dynasty. The differences in the duck are vast, Quan Ju De makes what they call "hung-roast duck" where the duck is roasted in a wood burning oven fueled by, if I'm to be believed what I was told date wood. Bian Yi Fang makes "closed oven" or "braised" duck. In the end, after being told that, "If you intend to return to Beijing, I'd suggest Quan Ju De, it is considered the original and most famous. Next time, try whatever is most popular, be it Da Dong or whomever might take its place." Which made sense, plus the Missus had Her first Beijing Kao Ya at Quan Ju De and I thought this would be a nice touch to a day where we'd explore what was left of "Her" Beijing.

We took the bus over to the Tiananmen area and walked over to Quan Ju De. We arrived and were escorted up the elevator to the dining area, which was quite busy.

Our Server went over the whole, long-winded spiel about the age and heritage of the ducks served here….maybe even the family tree for all I know. At the end, the Missus ordered.

When our duck arrived we were handed a card with our duck's serial number and some information. I made sure to tell the Missus, "it's ok, only a number….if our duck had a name, we wouldn't be able to eat it."

Our duck arrived and was carved for serving……

I recall being amazed at the waves of rendered fat rolling off the duck as it was being carved. This was going to be one rich meal…..

We both loved the Tian Mian Jiang, also known as sweet bean paste, sweet noodle sauce, or plain sweet duck sauce. It's not hoisin, Tian Mian Jiang is more savory and much more salty than hoisin.

The pancakes for the duck were very thin, you could almost see through them and had a fine mild stretch.

You are of course, waiting for the duck photos, so here goes:

As is customary with this type of duck service, the meat was carved and placed on a plate. Slices of meat covered by skin. I gotta say, this wasn't the neatest presentation I've ever seen.

The really crisp skin was placed on another plate….this was really great stuff.

Crisp, yet light, after the first "crunch" it almost melts in your mouth. The rest of the duck was rather oily and a bit on the rich side, but the meat had a nice flavor to it.

We also each got a small bowl of bone soup, something the Missus usually really enjoys, but this one was too funky for Her, having a strong almost offal flavor.

I kinda liked it…..very thick, with a real "wild" flavor.

We also needed something with a nice crunch and a bit of bitterness to offset the rich duck so we went with some simple gai lan.

No big deal…..
Overall, this was a mixed bag…not quite as good as expected, except for the crisp skin. The Dan Bing and Tian Mian Jiang were excellent.

As we finished our meal, the Server told us to go upstairs where we could see the ducks being prepped to roast. For me, this was actually the highlite of the meal.

The ducks were hung getting ready for the ovens which still burn fruit wood. A couple of years back there was a big uproar when Quan Ju De made the decision to go with electric burning ovens. The backlash was so bad that the decision was reversed and the chain still uses the wood burning ovens for roasting the ducks.

After lunch we got on another bus as the Missus tried to find our way to Her "roots" in Beijing. I've done earlier posts on the Missus and QingDao, where She spent Her childhood. The Missus ended going to high school in Beijing, so we set-off in search of the school, heading down streets turning into various hutongs. We first managed to find where my Father In-Law first taught in Beijing. Originally Furen University, formed by the Order of Saint Benedict, Furen eventually merged with Beijing Normal University. The Missus made sure to stop and take a couple of photos for Her father, telling me that this is one of the few places that looks almost the same as She recalled.

The Missus was able to gain Her bearings from the front of the university, leading me down the narrow alleyways of the hutong, along a path She walked everyday about 20 years ago. Her "compass memory" took over as we walked pass doorways and little shops, winding our way through the hutong, the Missus telling me that this was among the last bit of the Beijing of Her memory that still exists.

After one of the turns, She stopped in front of these gates…….

These were the dormitories, where the Missus lasted a whole week before moving back in with Her parents. Having room-mates just isn't Her thing. I sometimes marvel at still being in one piece after all these years……

After a couple of more streets, alleys, and turns we stopped in front of these gates.

This was Beijing High School number 13, Her high school. As the Missus looked past the gates, I read the sign that said this was the former residence of Prince Tao….

"You went to high school in a Prince's palace?"

"Yeah, I totally forgot….."

"Man, that's pretty neat, kind of cool….."

"Not really, I mean it wasn't important enough for me to remember…."

Just then we were jarred out of our reverie by the ringing of bicycle bells. A hoard of pedicabs came to a stop. Turns out that Prince Tao's Mansion, aka Beijing numer 13 High School is a stop on the "Hutong Tour".

For some reason, this tripped a wire and set off my somewhat weird sense of humor. I just found it funny in a odd way. Like your high school being a stop on a Hollywood Map tour kind of way…… I still chuckle when I think of it…..my wife went to high school in a former Prince's Palace that is a stop on the Hutong Tour….I know, you had to be there……..

Road Trip: Shaanxi Gourmet – Rosemead (Los Angeles)

February 6, 2012 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip

**** Shaanxi Gourmet has closed

One of the dishes I really enjoyed during our trip to China was the Yang Rou Pao Mo from Tong Sheng Xiang in Xi'an. Dense, heavy, bread, which folks call "pita" but is not like any pita I'm familiar with is broken into edible pieces by hand. Once you've filled your bowl with enough of it, they whisk it away and fill the bowl with a gamey and flavorful mutton broth. It is heavy enough to keep you all day long and I really was looking for it when we returned from our trip. We tried the version at Beijing Restaurant in San Gabriel which was disappointing. So when I read about Shaanxi Gourmet on Dylan's Blog I got quite excited and a couple of days later we were driving up the I-5, headed to Rosemead.

The restaurant is of course, located in a strip mall off of Valley Boulevard, but is hiddn from the street. Though once you enter the parking lot, you can't miss the Terracotta Soldiers guarding the front door. The dining area is clean, the walls lined with photos of various dishes, and the restaurant is a bit smaller than it looks from the outside. You probably would only need two Terracotta Warriors to guard the place.

The service was kinda, well, slow and a bit disorganized, impatient, and let's just say, suited for the SGV. The menu, at least when we visited is interesting, it seemed that the vast majority of it was not translated into English.

Looking through the menu again I found a page of rather vague translations of some of the dishes. But we pretty much knew what we were looking for and the Missus started scanning the menu…..

Before making any big decisions, She had already gotten us some cold dishes to ward away our rising hunger.

These were adequate, but you can get better elsewhere……

Meanwhile, the Missus had already placed our order and in a matter of minutes our first dish arrived. The weather at that time had been pretty cold so we started with the spicy and sour soup with hand pulled noodles, the meatless version.

I loved the broth, which was light in viscosity, but full of flavor. There was definitely some Sichuan Peppercorn in this as we got some of that wonderful numbing sensation along with a bit of heat. The sour, was just enough to keep you wanting the next sip. The noodles were lovely, with a decent pull to them……I really enjoyed the noodles.

Still, I was waiting for my Yang Rou Pao Mo…..a part of me was hoping that the bread would be provided first for me to tear into bite sized pieces, but I guess practicality ruled here and the soup arrived with the bread diced into small pieces.

The broth was right on, a soulful, hearty, mutton soup. The bread was kind of strange as it was slimy and didn't really absorb the flavor of the broth. The pieces of mutton were pretty tender and had that wonderful flavor of the pasture.

It didn't quite take me back to Xi'an, perhaps as far west as New Guinea, but not quite there. Still this was pretty good and quite filling.

For our final dish, the missus looked over the menu and found something interesting……

I don't recall seeing Fen Zheng Yang Rou, lamb steamed with rice powder. But since we usually enjoy the various versions we've had of the dish, why not give it a try?

What we got this time around was some really tough lamb covered with gritty, grey colored powder. It was super bland and just not to our taste. For some reason, this reminded me of once when a bunch of us went camping at the beach and the guy assigned to cook ended up spilling the lunch into the sand and still tried serving it to us.

Overall, not a bad meal. I'd come back for those noodles and everyone seemed to be getting the Biang Biang Mian, which I think is Ku Dai Mian, super wide noodles the size of a sash/girdle. The service was spotty, one of the young women was really on top of things, but everyone else seemed to be walking in sand. Typical "A-B" (all business) SGV for us.

Shaanxi Gourmet
8518 Valley Blvd
Rosemead, CA 91770

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

January 22, 2012 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Niu Rou Mian, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants

** 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.