Chinese Restaurants – Page 71

Is It Soup Yet? Guess the Restaurant – It’s Fortune Cookie Express

November 16, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

I haven’t done one of these in a while. I recently had a pretty good bowl of soup, and thought "hmmmm, maybe it’s time to give away some coffee".

So here we go, I’ll post a few photos. Email me the name of the restaurant, and I’ll Email the first 7 correct answers a free cup of Peet’s. Now that it’s getting a bit cooler, doesn’t a cup of Peet’s sound good?

Okay…..the name of this Chinese Fast Food Restaurant is:

As much as I hate the name…it’s Fortune Cookie Express, hidden behind other businesses on Balboa avenue. And most of the usual Fast-Food suspects are in view from Chop Suey to Beef Broccoli.

It’s one of the last places on Earth that I’d be eating….but the Chow Ma Mein was recommended by the Twins at Sandwich Emporium. Turns out that you won’t find it on the regular menu….but if you check out the photos on the side wall you’ll see the a photos of "Chowmamein".

Looks pretty spicy, huh?

The Chow Ma Mein, seems to use all those Chinese Fast-food components…the thin cut stir fry refugee veggies, fast food chow mein noodles, the sliced beef, etc….

Though I enjoy the fried garlic, and the 5 pieces of shrimp, the Chow Ma Mein is a bit on the oily side, but for $3.99, who’s going to really complain. The Chow Ma Mein is nice and spicy, though lacking in much other flavor, and will fill you up…….

BTW, there was one correct guess! Kudos to Kimmie!

Fortune Cookie Express
5931 Balboa Ave.
San Diego, CA 92111

China Chef

November 2, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

*** An updated post on China Chef has closed

I recently received an Email from BruceT who mentioned a new Sichuan style restaurant located on Mira Mesa Boulevard. In the Email Bruce mentions cold Sichuan dishes….which meant a visit post haste.

As you approach the restaurant you arrive at the proverbial "fork in the road". Go toward the left, and you'll arrive at a rather generic Chinese Fast Food style restaurant, to the right you'll arrive at "Heavenly Kitchen Sichuan Dishes…." Hard choice, huh?

As we entered we saw the cold appetizers…this indeed looked like our destination. All the usual suspects from the thinly sliced Pig Ear to Fu Qi Fei Pien were in view.

The restaurant itself is fairly small with just a few tables.

As we looked over then menu, we noticed a few strangely familiar dishes like Spicy Fish Slices with Golden Mushroom, and Cumin Flavored Lamb. So while I selected a few appetizers, the Missus had a conversation with our Server. It seems that one of the new Owners is one of the former Chefs from Dede's on Convoy, thus the familiar dishes. According to the waitress he is originally from Chonqing, and this version of China Chef has been open since the end of August.

Here's our 3 appetizer plate(3 appetizers – $5.45):

The pickled greens and soybeans had a strange overly bitter flavor, and left an oily film on in my mouth, the marinated bamboo shoots looked really good, but were bland except for the flavor of sesame oil. The Fu Qi Fei Pien was not bad, but was lacking in Sichuan peppercorns, and the pieces were not cut into uniform slices, still it wasn't too bad.

Since we've eaten at Dede's we decided to try some different dishes, and started with the Chinese Bacon(Howie – it's your La Rou Chao La dish) with Spicy Green Pepper($7.95):

Slices of cured Pork Belly is stir fried with Leeks and dried red chilies. As expected the dish was on the salty side, though not as greasy as I thought it would be. The dish was surprisingly spicy, a very much "in your face" spicy.

Rice Crust with Chicken($8.95):

Not a good rendition of this classic dish, the sauce was on the watery side, and the usual deep chicken flavor was lacking.

Shrimp with Dry Red Pepper($9.45):

First off, we were impressed with all the good sized shrimp, which were not shelled, just lightly battered and fried, than stir-fried with scorched dried red chilies – think salt and pepper prawns(without the pepper) stir-fried with dried chilies. I've had several versions of this classic Chongqing Chili dish, and found this one to be a very one dimensional spicy, lacking the "buzz" of Sichuan Pepper, and the back of throat slow burn. The usual slight sweetness of these type of dishes was also missing. It was very spicy, though. Not a bad dish.

We found the dishes at China Chef to be more on the rustic side, and a bit one-dimensional. Sort of like Dede's with more heat. I may be back in the future to try out a few other dishes, the potential is there. At least you can now take care of your Sichuan craving without driving down to Convoy. You'll find the prices at China Chef to be quite reasonable (from $5.95-$12.95) as well.

China Chef Restaurant
9225 Mira Mesa Blvd #110
San Diego, CA 92126

Open Tues-Thurs 11am – 930pm
   Fri-Sat 11am – 10pm
   Sun 11am – 930pm
   Closed Mondays

Thanks for the recommendation Bruce T!

Niu Rou Main-nia: Jamillah Garden’s version

October 24, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Niu Rou Mian

*** Jamillah Garden has since closed.

I think most regular readers already know that I love a good bowl of Niu Rou Mein, the savory Chinese Beef Noodle soup. According to Wikipedia, Chinese Beef Noodle soup was created by the Hui, an Islamic Chinese people during the Tang Dynasty. According to the story, when the Koumintang fled to Taiwan they brought along Niu Rou Mein. And Taiwan has truly embraced Beef Noodle Soup, to the extent that Taipei now hosts an annual Taipei Beef Noodles Festival. Enough to make a "Noodle-Head" quiver in excitement, no?

So far, I’ve had a few bowls of Niu Rou Mein in San Diego, and my favorite by far is the version served by Shanghai City. But a few weeks ago, I decided to go to the "source", and finally have a bowl of Niu Rou Mein from the local Islamic Chinese restaurant, Jamillah Gardens. One item of interest is that as noted in my previous post on Jamillah Gardens, is the availability of Knife Cut Noodles, which are flat noodles cut from a rolled piece of dough. The noodles are of various width and length, and when done right has a mildly chewy and doughy texture.

Add a dollar to the regular price of the Niu Rou Mein($6.95 + noodles = $7.95), and you get the Niu Rou Mein with Knife Cut Noodles.

The broth had a good amount of oil, with a mild beef flavor, and was quite weak overall. Nice body….but no soul. Some of the pieces of beef were on the gristly-tough side, but had a decent amount of flavor. To me there needed to be a stronger beef and 5 spice flavor, along with a bit more sweetness.

The noodles this time around were on the gummy side, and were not as enjoyable as I’ve had on previous visits.

Which kind of shines a light on the various meals I’ve had at Jamillah Gardens; wildly fluctuating in flavor and quality.

But still, another Niu Rou Mein crossed off my list. And in order to keep track, I’ve decided to start a Niu Rou Mein category. I think there are still at least six or seven more Niu Rou Meins to try in San Diego……so I’ll keep on ca-noodling along.

Jamillah Garden Chinese Islamic Restaurant
4681 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

One last note: I’ve gotten a few Emails requesting that I add a few categories, and after going through all my old posts I can understand. So in addition to Niu Rou Mein, I’ve added these:

Hopefully, I’ve updated old posts accordingly. I aim to please…so whoever "ItsBasedonADare" is, hang in there. I’ll let you know if I find Haggis! LOL! BTW, IBAD(yoso-clever), I know what movie that came from.

Chin’s Seafood and Grill – Part 2

September 10, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Niu Rou Mian

***This location of Chin’s has closed

After a very surprising and pretty good meal at Chin’s, we returned several more times. Here’s a compendium of some items we’ve recently eaten that were not included in the first post. These items are from the Chinese Breakfast menu pictured right. During one of our meals we saw 2 Navy Officers enter the restaurant, stopping dead at the entryway, looking at each other totally flummoxed…..not your usual Holiday Inn restaurant, I guess. They were shown a table and given the Lunch/Dinner Menu which has a few items that are on the breakfast menu, but in larger “meal-sized” portions. So several meals later, and we’ve done some damage with regards to the menu.

Five Spice Beef($4.95):

Wonderful sweet-salty-five spiced flavor. The beef is thinly sliced, and neither too soft, nor too tough. Additional sauce is placed over the meat for extra flavor and moisture. One of my favorite items on the menu.

ShaoBing Youtiao($2.95):

Shall we say a double-carb special? The Youtiao was quite good, if not a bit on the over-fried and oily side. Still some of the best we’ve had in San Diego, the Missus was yearning for some Jook(rice porridge) which is not served. Most people were having the Youtiao with Dou Jiang(Soy Milk).

ShaoBing($1.50):

The Shaobing was a bit too dry for the Missus, but a few slices of 5 Spice Beef fixed things up.

Pickled Mustard Greens and Shredded Pork Noodle Soup($6.95):

This soup was quite good, the light broth had some excellent flavor, the slightly bitter greens(made inhouse) added character, and the pork strings were soft and tender with decent pork flavor. we really don’t care for the hard spaghetti-like noodles at Chin’s, but this soup is on my “list”.

Pickled Mustard Greens Steamed Bun($2.95):

A steamed bun with the pickled mustard greens. Here is a view of the filling.

I enjoyed the sweet-bitter flavor of these, the Missus wasn’t quite as impressed.

Fried Bread($2.95):

No big deal, and a bit on the oily side. Too light in the middle, and not as flavorful as the version at Kingswood.

Sorry about the following photos, we don’t always get seats with optimal lighting.

Wined Chicken($4.95):

Not bad, the chicken doesn’t have quite enough of the cured texture I enjoy, though the marinade did have a decent salty-wine flavor. Doesn’t hold a candle to the Beef or Smoked Fish.

Of course we had to try the Niu Rou Mein(Beef Noodle Soup – $6.95):

Again we don’t really care for the noodles. The Beef was nicely flavored and soft. The broth left something to be desired, nice and beefy, but lacking the depth of flavor from various herbs and spices. We enjoy the version at Shanghai City more – better noodles, better broth, and if you have it on weekend mornings 2 bucks cheaper.

Steamed Hua Juan(Flower Roll – $2.95):

Best eaten with some beef, or soup. Very routine.

The classic Ci Fan Tuan($2.95) with Rousong(Pork Sung/Meat Floss):

Now this was an interesting dish. I’m not a fan of Pork Sung(Rousong) anyway. Rousong, and Zhacai(Spicy Pickled Vegetable) was rolled in glutinous rice, and steamed. A very traditional Shanghainese breakfast item. This was on the dry side, with not enough Zhacai to make a difference in flavor. Perhaps someone who enjoys Rousong will enjoy this more than we do.

After some contemplation, I think what I’ll do in a brief post in the future is to go over the menu, and list which item is which. Then, you can do the Captain Jack trick. On a recent visit to Ba Ren, Jack looked over my post, and associated the various dishes with items on the Chinese Placard by location and counting characters. When the Server arrived for His order, he grabbed the placard and pointed to the dish He wanted, totally freaking Her out! So I guess if we list various dishes and associate them with items on the menu, you can grab the Chinese menu, and have some fun…….

Chinese Breakfast served from 11am to 230pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

Chin’s
9355 Kearny Mesa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92126

858-536-2300

Chin’s Seafood and Grill – Part 1

September 4, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Xiao Long Bao

***This location of Chin’s has closed

Recently, the Missus and I had brunch at a restaurant located adjacent to the Holiday Inn Select in Miramar Road.

Though it’s not quite what you may have in mind. The Restaurant is names Chin’s Seafood and Grill.

And yet, that still may not have you very interested, since there are 10 other locations of Chin’s Szechuan in the greater San Diego area, and most of the Chinese dishes served are very Westernized. As you enter the generic ‘B’ list hotel lounge-restaurant area, you’d still feel as if you haven’t come to the right place for Chinese Food. Though if you take a quick glance around the room you’ll notice that more than ninety percent of the customers are Chinese, and anyone who is not are accompanied by Chinese customers.

One quick look at the menu, will tell you why.

For brunch on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 am to 230 pm, Chin’s has a special Chinese menu. Unfortunately, there is no English version of this menu. Some of the items are available on the regular menu, and I’ll try to indicate what those items are when possible. The prices reflect the special menu prices, not regular menu prices.

The Missus looked over the menu with a smile on Her face. She told me, that there are dishes on the menu that She has only heard off, and never tried, as well as some of Her favorites. The Missus started checking off items on the menu card, and the really nice Server came by to verify. As She and the Missus spoke in Mandarin, I thought She reminded me of someone…..I mentioned this, and the Missus says, “I think she reminds of my Mom.” And yes, she indeed had that friendly, sincere element about her. I had the Missus inquire about the style of food served here, and the Lady said a combination of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, basically Eastern Chinese(aka Shanghainese).

Soon enough the food started arriving.

As is almost routine, we started off with the Suzhou-style Smoked Fish($4.95):

The Missus said that this version, with the rather intense 5 spice and sweet flavor was fairly close to what She grew up eating, though maybe a bit mildly flavored. When we got home and looked over the map of Jiangsu, we were both surprised at how “close” Suzhou was to Shandong province(it’s all relative), which explained why Her Grandmother made this often while growing up. As usual this isn’t a “smoked” fish, it just appears to be so. This fish is first marinated; usually in a soy sauce, wine, and salt mixture. The fish slices are than deep fried in oil; and finally marinated again in a 5 spice and sugar mixture to “cure”. You could eat all the small bones on these slices.

Jiaxing Braised Duck(Chin’s Roasted Cold Duck – $4.95)

Almost like a duck version of the above. Quite tasty, nice duck flavor, but not nearly as flavorful as the fish. But still a pretty good cold duck dish.

Zhenjiang Style Pork(Chin’s Cured Pork – $4.95)

This was probably the “hit” of the meal. Neither the Missus, nor I had ever seen this before. The dish was a sum of tasty parts. The pork was cooked and shredded, and had a nice mild flavor. It was topped with a thick layer of aspic, much like what creates the broth for Xiao Long Bao. A really nice and mild, but not weak flavor. Here’s a better photo of a piece, and no, it’s not pork fat…..

Here’s a little secret……we took most of this home, and made a pot of rice. We scooped the rice steaming hot into a bowl a placed a few pieces of pork on top of the rice and let the aspic melt all over the rice….delici-yoso!!!

Shao Bing with Braised Beef($2.95)

I really enjoyed this version of Niu Rou Shao Bing; really crisp bread, flavorful thin slices of 5 spice beef, scallions, and a bit of Hoisin made for a a very well flavored and texturally interesting treat. The Missus though the Shao-Bing was too thin, and the amount of beef was on the skimpy side. And yet, I thought; “who cares about Banh Mi; give me this….”

Taiwanese Style Glutinous Rice($3.95)

This scoop of glutinous rice was mixed with chunks of pork and shredded dried shrimp(yum). A nice bit of “spicy ketchup” was added. Though the rice was a bit on the dry side, this was certainly not lacking in flavor. Not bad, but I think we’ll go in a different direction next time.

The Flakey Turnip Strip “Cake”(Shanghai Pastry – $3.95)

The Missus said that she has had better. I thought these were very moist, and the texture was very nice, but we’ve had better elsewhere. The taste was almost “buttery”.

Taiwanese Style Won Ton Soup($4.95)

Okay, our Server came by and told us we were ordering too “many dry items” and needed some soup. So we asked for a recommendation, and this was it. Really bland and uninspired.

No need for this……

Nanxiang Style Xiao Long Bao($5.95). Now if you know me; you can imagine how excited I was over these……

But these were not very good, at least for what I look for in XLB. I don’t know how they make the Xiao Long Bao in the city of Nanxiang, but if I were to make a guess based on this, I’d say it was with very thick wrappers and barely a scant amount of “soup”. We’ll take a pass on these…..

So, with full bellies, and being very satisfied, we left Chin’s, only to return. And in fact, the Missus noticed that I was tasting the food based on “SGV” standards, which is a good sign…..

Part 2 coming soon – some old “favorites” and some new……

Part 2 of this post can be found here.

Chin’s
9355 Kearny Mesa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92126

858-536-2300

Golden City: A New Beginning Part 2

August 28, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

**** Golden City has closed

After a satisfying meal at the “new” Golden City(and quite a bit of leftovers as well), we decided that one good turn deserved another. This time we decided on 2 items that were “kept” from the old menu, and 1 new item that caught our fancy.

We started with an old favorite the Peking Duck, 2 courses, at eighteen bucks, pretty much a bargain. To our surprise, instead of the slices of duck skin lying on shrimp chips, surrounded by “buns”, Golden City now does their Peking Duck “cart style”.

The Young Man wheeled our friend out on His own little cart and made short work of Him. After trimming off most of the skin, Mr Duck was taken to the back room and worked over.

Though I found the duck to be better flavored than the version from the Old Golden City, most of the rich subcutaneous fat had rendered off, and thereby losing some of the richness I enjoy. The Missus, not a fan of duck fat, thought these were very good. The duck was served with shredded Scallions and Hoisin Sauce. Only one small complaint; the scallions apparently had been lying around; they were tough, dry, and tasteless.

A steamer insert of buns was brought to the table, steaming hot. I thought these were much too thick and large for the petite slices of duck. Overall, not the highest quality duck, but a bargain at eighteen bucks. And let’s not forget the chopped duck in lettuce cups, the second course.

I daresay the Missus enjoys this more than the duck skin. Duck is stir fried with Scallions and Jicama, creating a great contrast in textures. The taste is a rich sweetness, to go along with hints of 5 spice.

One of my favorite dishes is Kwai Fei Chicken, a cold chicken dish(half chicken $8.95):

This version was much different than what I’m used too; first off, instead of the usual pale white color, the skin of the chicken was a light brown. The chicken also had a very nice 5 spice, wine, and soy flavor. I really didn’t need the minced ginger-scallion oil for flavoring at all. The chicken was cooked perfectly, no hint of blood dripping from the bones, and the meat was moist and tender.

The most satisfying dish of the evening was the Chaozhou Beef Stew ($12.95):

A Chiuchow version of the standard Beef Brisket with Turnip Hot Pot. The soup was brought to our table in a stainless steel hot pot, with flammable gel in the chamber below. Unfortunately, the Server forgot to light the gel, no big deal. The light broth was full of flavor, and much more complex than its color would indicate. The meat was a very flavorful brisket, the cut of meat also included the fat cap and the connective tissue, which could be somewhat off-putting to some, but not for us. Buried under then meat were matchstick sized slices of radish(daikon), along with preserved vegetable, which added to the flavor of the broth. All of this topped off with basil, cilantro, and scallions.

Man that was good!

It seems that the new version of Golden City serves up some pretty good food. I’m hoping that they can keep it up, and give us another option for Chinese Food in the Clairemont area.

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

Open Daily 11am – Midnight

We recently did a revisit post on 12/17/06, it can be found here.

Golden City: A New Beginning Part 1

August 23, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

**** Golden City has closed

Since the “New” Golden City opened back in September, I made the restaurant a little “side project” of mine. The intent was to see how the “New and improved” compared to the original restaurant, where we were pretty regular customers. I must admit; my excitement took control, and I was the first customer when the doors opened on Sept 26th, 2005. At that time, I thought that doing a series of posts on a particular restaurant and watching how the food developed would be interesting, sort of a “life cycle” of a restaurant thing. Little did I know how true to life this life cycle thing would become. My second post covered the late night specials. And it seemed like the food was not as good as the original. The third post covered a dinner and a lunch where I had the exact same dish as I ate on opening day.

Unfortunately, Golden City could never carve out it’s niche on the Chinese restaurant front in San Diego, and in July of this year, the restaurant changed hands. And so awhile back, the Missus and I decided to pay a visit to the “new” Golden City.

Well, the signs looked the same, and the interior was basically the same; maybe a bit more “freshened up”, and posters of various Chinese dishes lined the walls. In what was another change, the tanks in the rear of the restaurant were full of crab and lobster, quite an ambitious sign.

We found that the menu was very similar to the previous Golden City, except for some strategically placed dishes. We also recognized our server; he used to work at China Max, we thought that a good sign. After all, who would leave China Max for a new restaurant, unless the prospect seemed positive.

The Missus seemed smitten with a few of the items on the posters, so we placed our order.

Since I was recovering from a cold, we started with a soup; Shredded Duck w/Chinese Chive soup (large $12.95):

The soup arrived piping hot, much to the approval of the Missus; She has a thing about soup being really hot. The broth had a wonderful color, and the texture was a perfect velvety texture. Unfortunately, everything else about the soup came up short; the flavor was terribly unbalanced, you could taste nothing but chives, unless you bit into a piece of duck. The chive flavor overwhelmed everything in the soup, even white pepper couldn’t damper the tastes of chives…and I love chives…except when there’s duck involved!

The Sizzling Lamb Chops($15.96) was my choice:

The one thing that stood out about this dish, was how tender the lamb chops were. The chops were melt in your mouth tender, and I do mean melt in your mouth tender. I could have done with a more rich lamb flavor, but the Missus enjoyed the sweet-soy flavor. We’ve had the Lamb Chops with Black Pepper Sauce several times at China Max, and they have never been as tender as these. The presentation, and flavoring at China Max may be a bit more sophisticated, but the flavors(overdone peppercorn, with no sweet overtones) are not as pleasing to us as these Lamb Chops.

In a surprise pick, the Missus went with the Steamed Crab over Rice. By surprise, I mean that the Missus is pretty picky about crab; having grown up in QingDao, She is used to fresh and flavorful seafood; be it crab or crawfish(yes, crawfish). She still doesn’t understand the purpose of drawn butter with seafood, other than to disguise a lack of flavor. I think that when we were told that the new Owners were originally from Hong Kong, and that the cooking “Crew”(that was the choice of words) were from LA, She felt emboldened. Soon enough our dish arrived (Crab at Market price $12/lb – 2lb crab, plus $6 prep and rice = total $30):

We had seen our Server (His name is Alan, for those who knew the Servers at China Max) wrestle out the crab from the tank. It was delivered in a Lotus Leaf lined steamer insert; the crab had been steamed on a bed of rice that had been mixed with various Chinese Herbs, Egg, and fish eggs, so that the flavor of the crab had permeated the rice. We both thought the crab had been slightly over steamed, but the Missus still thought it was quite good, though very messy. Golden City needs to invest in some crackers and other implements. I had a few pieces of crab(in deference to the Missus who really does enjoy it more than I), and destroyed the crab flavored rice, which was so rich, so flavorful, and so filling. For us, on this evening, well worth the price. Little did we know, we’d be back within a week.

Some notes: Golden City has maintained the Lunch and Late Night menu, though it sounded as if it may be changed in the future.

Part 2 coming up…….

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

Open Daily 11am – Midnight

Updates can be found here and here.

Silver Ark – Revisited

August 20, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum

*** Silver Ark has closed and is now Siam Nara Restauant

We first visited Silver Ark several weeks past, and arrived at the end of Dim Sum service, since I thought the service was quite good, and the food showed some promise; I used the photos from that visit as the "Guess the Dim Sum" post. So in order to see if the promise was fulfilled we arrived at 11am on a recent weekend morning.

The smaller than it looks dining area was about two-thirds full.

Because of space and staff limitations, there are only two carts circulating through the dining area at any given moment, though the Servers will take orders for specific dishes.

We started with the dish we found so promising on our previous visit. The porridge with pork and preserved egg:

And what we had thought about the really great bowl of Jook we had on our last visit was true. Though there was a very generous amount of preserved egg, and strips of pork, rather than ground pork, the porridge was not as rich and full of flavor. I guess having it simmer for several hours really made the difference. It was still pretty good.

The Wu Gok(Deep Fried Taro Balls):

These had way too much taro, and not enough pork, which threw the flavor off. Just okay.

Shrimp and Scallop Dumpling:

By far the best Dim Sum dish of the day. Lot's of shrimp flavor. The only downside was that the wrappers were too thick making the skin tough and dry.

The Stuffed Bean Curd Skin:

These were overcooked, the bean curd skin were tough, and almost crunchy in places. Terrible.

Shrimp and Chive Har Gow:

We both enjoyed the good chive flavor, and the shrimp was pretty good. These dumplings suffered from the same ailment as the Shrimp and Scallop dumpling, the wrappers were too thick and dry.

We had also ordered Cheong Fun with Dried Shrimp, and as our meal was ending it arrived.

This was a very strange dish. I don't know what the reason was for pan-frying the Cheong Fun was. Perhaps it was sitting around? But pan frying the Cheong Fun ruined the dish, the noodle had a crust, and the interior had melted and were molten. Pan frying had also changed the flavor, and not for the good. In addition a little dish of Hoisin was provided instead of the usual sweet soy. I dunno, but this ain't what I ordered.

Still the price was right. All this came out to $20. Not bad.

Here's a little postscipt. We were in the area again recently and dropped by for a recent late afternoon "snack".

We started with the Thousand Year Egg and Fish Fillet w/Cilantro soup($9.99):

The broth was was quite good and rich, though the soup was short on preserved egg, and the fish fillet were on the tough side. It felt like the fish was a bit on the older side.

With some apprehension I ordered a Half Roast Duck($9.99). I say some apprehension, because I had seen the ducks hanging in the take out area, and they looked a bit on the dry-scrawny side.

What we got was a quite generous serving of roast duck. And the first thing the Missus did was check under the duck. Restaurants sometimes use beans to "prop-up" the slices of duck, to make the serving look larger. Well no beans here. The duck was meaty and tender, and the skin a perfect crunchy lacquer. The meat was a bit short on flavor. But a dip into the "duck juice" on the plate(not the horrible sweet-sour duck sauce provided) corrected the flavor short coming. By no means the best roast duck I've ever had, but pretty good. I'd have it again.

In the end, our initial impression stands. Silver Ark, is a notch below the better Hong Kong style restaurants in San Diego. Still not a bad choice.

Silver Ark
8993 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92126

168 Restaurant

August 7, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants, Xiao Long Bao

*** 168 Restaurant has closed

168 Restaurant, located in the shadow of the 99 Ranch Market sign, is a popular and inexpensive Taiwanese restaurant in the area.

The bare bones atmosphere, and "sticky" tables, along with the faint smell of vinegar in the air take me back to many of the Chinese "coffee shops" in the San Gabriel Valley. 168 specializes in homestyle Chinese and Taiwanese "grub" at very reasonable prices. Forget about atmosphere though, it doesn't exist at 168. We also ate with our "elbows up" and off of the sticky-tacky tables.

Many of the people during our visits were eating Fried Rice, Noodle Soup, or some other noodle dish.

We decided to try some menu items that we hadn't ordered before. Starting with the Smoked Chicken($3.75):

I really enjoyed this cold chicken dish, it had a mild smokey flavor, the meat had a slightly "cured" texture, and though it teetered on the edge of being too salty it was very satisfying on this very hot day.

Pan Fried Egg with Dried Radish($4.25):

This homestyle omelet had strips of dried radish in it. It is really nothing different from what I make at home. The eggs were very salty, though the radish added a nice crunch to the dish

Glutinous Rice in Bowl($3.25):

I enjoyed the gooey glutinous rice that surrounded a "filling" of chunks of pork and dried radish. Here's a look:

Slightly sweet, slightly salty, with a sauce with hints of……well, as the Missus put's it, "It's Five-Spice, okay, F-I-V-E Spice. None of this hints of anise stuff, it tastes like five spice". Okay??? This was not bad, I'd have it again.

I really don't know why I ordered the Xiao Long Bao($5.75), big mistake:

Really big mistake, the wrappers were a bit freezer burnt, and only two or three of the dumplings actually had "soup" in them.

A few weeks later, we found ourselves at 168 again. And in keeping with our previous meal, we decided to try items we'd never had here before.

Since we enjoyed the cold Smoked Chicken on our previous visit, we ordered the Wined Chicken($3.75):

The chicken tasted much better than it looked. The flavor of the chicken was neither too strong, nor totally bland like the version at Mei Long Village. The texture of the chicken was slightly dense and cured, with a slight salty-winey flavor. Not as strong in flavor as the version at Shanghai City, but still quite good.

Of course some Stinky Tofu(Cho Dofu – $5.25):

The Missus has a basic "rule" when it comes to Cho Dofu. If I can smell it, than eat it, it's probably not good. The usual foul, what I call a dark-deep-damp-acrid odor of decomposition was very tame and mild. In addition, the sauce was very mild and weak. I had 3 pieces of the Cho Dofu, which really tasted like fried tofu, with a slight acrid odor. So this brined than fermented tofu dish was not very good.

Goose Meat w/Bean Thread($5.25):

A light clear poultry based broth, had a nice quantity of slightly chewy bean thread. The broth was mild, and the julienned ginger added a very nice clean flavor to what would be a fairly weak soup. The "Goose Meat" tasted strangely like Duck Leg, it just wasn't as rich and gamey as goose is. We thought this was just okay.

Oyster w/"Thin Noodles" Soup($4.75):

This thickened soup was a strange mish-mash of conflicting flavors, and the lack of decent quality ingredients didn't help it in the least. I really like the slightly gooey soup, it had a nice assertive vinegar and white pepper flavor. The Missus thought it was too sour. I really enjoyed the chewy brown wheat based thin Taiwanese style noodles. There were 2 items that ruined the dish. First, the Oysters tasted very bad, like they had been starting to "break-down" with a fishy-bitter flavor. I fished all of them out of the bowl, no sense in spending the night sleeping the bathroom, if you know what I mean. The bamboo shoots had a metallic-sour flavor to them. I'm pretty sure that the bamboo shoots were old, and that when they were removed from the can, the shoots were not drained or rinsed. Too bad, I thought this soup had potential.

The menu at 168 is quite extensive, with everything from Squid Potage and 3 Cup Chicken(posted on he wall) to Fried Rice and Kung Pao Chicken. What 168 does best are Chinese Coffee shop and snack dishes. And those are still a "mixed bag" and quite inconsistent. The service is basic Chinese restaurant in style and quality, you usually need to ask for anything you need. Of course being open till almost midnight is a big plus.

168 Restaurant
7330 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

Open 11am-1130pm Daily

Guess the Dim Sum Restaurant – It’s Silver Ark

July 27, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum

The Missus and I recently had some Dim Sum, and of course I automatically took some photos. But we arrived right at the end of Dim Sum service, and so we decided that perhaps we'd just delete these photos. Not that the Dim Sum was "tired", well some of it was……..

But then it came to me! It seems that everyone had fun with the Mid Week Mystery Market; so how about guessing the Dim Sum Restaurant? Same rules, first 7 Emails I receive that guess the correct Restaurant, I'll send you a cup of Peet's on me!

So let's get rolling, shall we?

The Jook was excellent, really rich, with lot's of preserved egg, and strips of pork instead of the usual ground pork.

But of course it could be that the porridge had been simmering away all day, gaining flavor. And all of the good stuff had sunk to the bottom. Which is what we got. But really good anyway.

The rest was average to mediocre. Except for one other dish that I'll reveal tomorrow.

I just realized that this one may be waaaay too easy, so I'll stop here.

My one clue? The restaurant is in San Diego County.

The rules are same as usual; one correct guess per IP address. First seven wins.

I'll finish the post, and have a few more photos, along with revealing the restaurant tomorrow evening!

Friday Morning Clues – You know, I've had some good guesses, along with some really excellent observations that I will add as clues. These will help those that have had Dim Sum in San Diego, and still are not quite sure which restaurant it is.

1 – Notice the Taro Gok, if you look toward the upper right you'll see some interesting clues.

2 – Same photo, notice how the fried taro balls are served. A certain Dim Sum house in San Diego serves it up differently, immediately removing that restaurant from contention.

3 – Notice how the tripe is cut; very thick. Also, some Dim Sum restaurants top the tripe with a red chili, removing that restaurant from contention.

4 – The best observation was made by Liver Bomb who noticed the mustard/chili dish. Talk about attention to detail!

So has anyone guessed correctly yet? Sorry, can't say…..

Friday Afternoon Clues – Just a photo of the Pan Fried Noodles with Seafood and some prices.

Pan Fried Noodle with Seafood($9.50):

Dim Sum Prices :

Small – $2.10

Medium – $3.20

Large – $4.20

Super – $6.50

Good Luck!

The Restaurant is…… Silver Ark, a restaurant that recently opened on Mira Mesa Boulevard.

Since we arrived at the end of Dim Sum service, we've decided to revisit when we have a chance. Our overall impression, is that the restaurant is a step below China Max, Emerald, and Jasmine. The Pan Fried noodles were pretty good, lot's of noodles, the scallops were good, though the shrimp was not of the highest quality.

But we'll definitely try Silver Ark again, and do a "real" post.

Silver Ark
8993 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92126

So how many correct answers?

One. Congrats Green Turtle!