Category: Chinese Restaurants

*** Updates on Noble Chef can be found here and here.  

When we last visited Noble Chef, the place had just under-gone a change of Ownership. And though we thought the food to be not quite up to par, well that could be excused due to the natural chaos that ensues whenever places change hands. The "original" Noble Chef was an interesting place; at first glance the menu was full of Chinese Fast food dishes, many of them pretty bad. But after examining the menu, and frankly, just lucking out, we found a few items that were very good, and well worth the price. After that less than stellar visit, I made a mental note to revisit Noble Chef, and fully intended to do so. That was back in November of 2006! My bad. I don't know how many times I drove up Balboa, and muttered to myself(yes, I'm getting old, I'm entering the muttering phase – look out if I start scratching myself all the time), "oh, yes, Noble Chef, that's right, I gotta check them out again." So now after 18 months, I made my way back.

From the outside, not much has changed. There were newer versions of the food photos, but everything looked the same.

And inside there was still the major wok action going on. The jet-like sound of a high-BTU burner is music to my ears. And there are few things better than the fragrance of aromatics sizzling over high heat.

At first glance I thought the interior looked the same; but I was wrong. The interior had been freshened up with a coat of paint, and new tile work. The place looks a lot less cluttered and tired.

One of the nice things about Noble Chef is that they open at 9am on weekend mornings. I noticed that the menu hadn't changed much. I know many people like the turnip cake and eggs, but I can do just as well at home. I decided to get one of my old favorites, the Shrimp and Egg on Rice ($6.55):

This arrived steaming hot. The eggs were "wok'd" just right, with a nice crust. Once past the crisp crust the eggs were nice and moist if not "fluffy" enough. And lest you think there's not much shrimp in this, I counted 10 well cooked shrimp, most of which were hidden from view.

The dish could have used a bit more salt, I ended up adding a good amount of soy sauce to the dish.  Overall, a pretty darn good dish. I remember thinking, "those folks eating at IHOP a few doors down sure have it all wrong." Well worth the price.

I dropped by for lunch a few days later, and got the Shrimp Tomato Rice($6.55).

Again, this was a generous amount of shrimp. I thought the tomatoes weren't cooked enough, the skin was too tough, and a few were still cool. The tomato sauce was much too sour, and lacked the tanginess that I love when this dish is done right. Still, more than enough food to fill me up.

Which led up to us getting our old take favorites one evening. The Chiu Chow Fried Rice($7.55)

The fried rice looked pretty good, you could see that the chef now has better control over the wok. I did notice that there was a bit less pork than before, and most of all, no wok hay(Guo Chi). It lacked that serious smoky-savory flavor of the wok. The gai lan was rubbery, like it was just blanched and mixed in with the rice.

Our old favorite, the Shrimp with XO Sauce Fried Rice($7.55):

The rice had a nice color to it, and the spicy-savory fragrance was nice. But again, no wok-hay, and not enough spice, garlic, or XO sauce. The amount of shrimp was (again) generous, but we were a bit disappointed.

After the meal, I figured out what the problem was…it was us. You see, we had eaten at Noble Chef under the old Ownership, and had taken the Chef's skill for granted. Even though he seemed to move at a pretty slow pace, he was deceptively efficient. He also knew his wok. If we were brand new customers, this would be pretty good. As things stand, it is still a decent value. I'm hoping things keep improving.

The service is passable, if a bit on the "reserved/suspicious" side. The prices are good, and the portions generous. Stay away from the Chinese Fast-food dishes. The noodle soups are not nearly as good as other Chiu Chow/Mi Gia places in San Diego.

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

Our initial visit to the "New Spicy City", was fairly good, so we decided to have dinner there a few nights later. This time, the menu said very clearly; "Si Chuan Garden Spicy City", and the Server told us, that the Owners are indeed the Owners of Yun Gui Garden(or whatever it may be called now…they seem to reinvent themselves more often than Madonna!).

Again we started with a plate of cold dishes(3 items $5.50):

Again with the Chicken Feet, which the Missus said was "even better than the last time". The thinly sliced Pig Ear, was gummy and tasteless, and the Seaweed, was not bad, if on the salty end.

We decided to start out with one of the few Yunnan dishes I’d ever heard of Yunan style Steamed Chicken in Clay Pot($8.99):

This should actually be called chicken bones in medicinal, overly sweet soup. The broth looked rich, but was because the flavor of rock sugar was so strong, it ruined the soup. There was a bunch of wing tips, and some rib pieces, but only about a scant 2-3Tb of actual chicken meat in the dish. Washed out lychee and wolf berries finished up the soup, which the Missus said reminded Her of "Chinese punishment medicine!" Whatever that means.

Fried Lamb with Cumin($9.99):

Cumin Lamb is a favorite of mine…unfortunately, this version of that dish is not. The lamb was cooked over too low a temperature, making the meat mushy. There was not enough cumin, and even though it looks spicy it was strangely not. On the good side, this was not very oily…..

Sheesh, what a difference from our previous visit…….. However, we just needed to give it another go, and recently went for lunch. When we arrived the place was only half full, but there were 2 large parties having lunch, by the time we left, the place was totally slammed, and people waiting for tables. It was an interesting crowd…all of the non-Chinese seemed a bit puzzled by the menu, and there were some interesting things we observed, which we’ll go into later. Right now, let’s get on with the food.

We started with Fried Cured Pork w/Dried String Beans actually, not….we ordered that dish($8.99), but was brought this:

La Rou Chao La – Preserved/Cured pork (think Chinese bacon), stir fried (Chao) with leeks and red bell peppers. When we asked about this, we were told that they were out of Dried String Beans so they made us this instead….how about a sarcastic "how thoughtful" for this one? We’d have appreciated being told they were out of something, instead of just going ahead and serving us whatever they felt like making. As with most La Rou dishes, this was salty…in fact that’s about all it was….salty.

Yunnan Style Dried Beef($8.99):

Thinly sliced, seasoned dried beef (think beef jerky) is  fried to crisp up the edges, tossed with some chilies, and served. Like the La Rou you can see that this was another style of serving meat that had been preserved, before the days of refrigeration. The flavor is like that of a mild spiced, salty, soy flavored beef jerky, there was a mildly "fishy" quality to the beef that the Missus didn’t like, but I enjoyed it. This would be great beer food.

Chungking style fish w/Pickled Chili Pepper($9.99):

Supposedly, one of the "specialties" of the house, there was a nice amount of preserved vegetable,  but not a single Pao Jiao(pickled chili) in sight! Much to our surprise, this wasn’t spicy in the least bit…..not even a sheen of sweat developed on my forehead! The fish was cooked adequately, soft, but not melt in the mouth soft, the preserved vegetable had a decent vinegary-salty punch, but was obviously dumped into the dish and not given a chance to impart any flavor to the broth.

Finally, the dish simply known as Spicy & Spicy(La Chao La – $7.99) on the menu. Since the Restaurant was so busy, a very nice older Gentleman who looked like one of the Owners, or a Manager, took our order….but when the Missus asked him in Mandarin what was in the dish, he didn’t know…he had to ask one of the Servers!

At last, we have a winner! Chopped preserved Pork, preserved vegetable, and smoked bean curd, stir fried, with chilies, this hit on all cylinders….spicy(at last a bit of sweat), sour(kick of the preserved vegetable), and maybe a bit too salty….a little seemed to go with a large amount of rice. This I’d have again, though I don’t know if I’ll be back to Si Chuan Garden anytime soon.

Now for the people watching part….it started with 2 Gentleman with German accents, first marching on in, looking over the menu, and demanding "lunch specials". When told there were no lunch specials, one of the men orders the Fish Fillet with Chopped Hot Chili Pepper….when the dish arrives, he gives the young lady who is just totally crushed with customers a dismissive wave, and tells her, "no-no-no you cannot make food like that it is too spicy, take it back!" Ok, first off, this is a Sichuan/Yunnan Restaurant, not PF Chang’s or Panda Express, secondly, he did order a dish with Chopped Hot Chili Pepper, didn’t he……what did he think this was? And we wonder how food gets dumbed down, or why people get told "you no like that"…. Meanwhile, the last open table was taken by 4 middle aged Chinese Women, who as soon as seated started making demands…."hurry and take our order, hurry up…" as soon as their order was taken, it was "where’s our food, you’re taking too long." Demanding and whining are a deadly duo! The Missus whispered to me; "these are the times when I’m embarrassed to be Chinese…" I simply replied, "remember the Chili’s and Applebees rule; if these ladies were seated in Chili’s or Applebees there’s no way they’d be acting so obnoxious and demanding. Some kind of Darwinistic switch gets turned on when they enter a Chinese restaurant." I remember learning that one of the major differences between Humans and Animals is the ability to feel empathy….guess where on that scale I thought these ladies belonged? This was just 2 of the 3 ringed circus going on as the place was totally slammed……. I think I’ll be eating at my desk for a while!

Spicy City Chinese Restaurant
4690 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Open Daily 11am – 930pm

Last week, I noticed that Spicy City had a new identity…..as per the new sign.

Yep, the sign still says Spicy City, but in Chinese it says "Across the Bridge Garden"…which made us think it’s referencing the famous Yunnan dish Across the Bridge Rice Noodles(check out the link – it has the story behind the dish). This was great news to the Missus and I, not that the old Spicy City was bad…..we used to be regulars at Spicy City when we first moved to San Diego. In fact we used to eat there 2-3 times a week. However, after a very, very, bad, insulting, and just plain nasty experience, we stopped visiting. For 6 years……

Now under new ownership, the Missus and I couldn’t wait to check things out, even though they  have only been open for less than a week. Things have been rearranged a bit from what I can recall, and though the Spicy City menu is still in use, there is a laminated sheet with mostly Sichuan, and a few Yunnan dishes on it. This menu is pretty large……menu overload quickly kicked in.

The Missus was quickly attracted to something in the cold dishes section, and quickly ordered a plate of various appetizers:

Yep, it was those chicken feet, they didn’t look like much, but were terrific, mixed with Pao Jiao(pickled peppers), seasoned with some sesame oil, five spice, et al…this was very, very good….I called it Kwai Fei Chicken Feet.

The Bean Curd Skin noodles were on the bland side, and the Fuqi Feipian was very tough, and also on the bland side.

The Across the Bridge Rice Noodle(Guo Qiao Mi Xian – $6.99):

Rare chicken, bean curd skin, and other items are put into a hot chicken based broth, followed by rice noodles. The broth had a nice layer of oil, a requirement for this dish. Overall, it is very mild……sort of like Pho Ga(Chicken Pho).

The Chicken with Chilies Airpot($8.95), was brought to the table kept hot by the lit "sterno".

 

This was a very good dish, the chicken was cooked perfectly, it was moist and tender. The heat was just mildly-spicy(by our standards), and a combination of peppers were used for heat. It was very clear that the dishes used a much "lighter hand" when it came to spices and oil in comparison to Ba Ren and Dede’s. We took the leftovers home, where it went well with rice.

Spicy Cold Noodles($5.28):

This was a very strange dish…..it was very tasty with a good amount of vinegar, Sichuan pickled vegetable, minced pork, et al….but the noodles were terrible; hard and brittle, like they hadn’t been cooked. The Missus inquired, and the very friendly Server told her, that perhaps the noodles were a bit "undercooked"…and in the very practical Chinese way, told Her, that "by the time you get home, the noodles will soak up the flavor, and be better!" Which cracked us up…..the same Lady gave us some of  her beauty tips. When the Missus commented on how nice her complexion was, she replied; "of course, because I eat chili peppers everyday…."

Now for the interesting part. We know that this is an extension of a Los Angeles Restaurant, we weren’t quite sure which restaurant is the one in question, is it Yun Gui Garden (formerly Hua’s Garden and Yunnan Garden), or Hua’s in Arcadia…this would become clear in a future visit.

Spicy City Chinese Restaurant
4690 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Part 2 can be found here.

I’d like to dedicate this one to FOY JeffreyC, whose Pao Jiao search remained fixed in my mind as I ate!