Chinese Restaurants – Page 74

The Turkey Has Landed

November 20, 2005 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Cookbooks, Cooking, yoso-silly

I woke up this morning with a smile on my face! Today was our early Thanksgiving, and I had an 11am pick-up time for our turkey from Sam Woo. This November has been alot warmer then I remember, and I snapped this photo as I was out walking the "Boyz":

That’s Fiesta Island, Mission Bay, and the Mission Bay Bridge; such a good reminder of why we live here.

I left for Sam Woo at about 1045, while the Missus started on her Dan Bing – Mandarin Pancakes; we’d decided on making this for the turkey. It is classically served with Peking Duck, minced squab, roast duck, and such. We were also aware that turkey can be a little dry, especially since this turkey would be roasted "duck-style." The recipe we used as the based on the one in Pei Mei’s Chinese Cookbook Volume1:

We have always had good results from recipes in Pei Mei’s Books. We did have to make several changes, and we’ll note those. But as complicated as it may seem; these pancakes have only 4 ingredients!

Dan Bing

3Cups White Enriched High Gluten Flour (The English translation says Wheat Flour, but the Chinese version says High Gluten White, in cases like this we always go with the original.)
1Cup Boiling Water
1/3 Cup Cold Water
1Tb Sesame Oil

1 – Add 1 Cup of boiling water to the flour and mix well. Slowly add 1/3 Cup cold water to "dough", you may not need all of the water. Today the Missus only needed a few tablespoons. Knead dough until smooth. Cover and let rest for at least 30 minutes (the recipe says 15, but this was not nearly enough).

2 – Working on a lightly floured board, divide dough into 2 parts and roll each into rolls 15 inches long and 2 inches round. Cut and pinch dough into 1 inch pieces. Flatten each piece with your hand.

3 – Lightly oil the whole top surface of one of the flattened pieces with sesame oil.

4 – Lay a second the second piece of dough on top of the oiled surface of dough. Pat down and, then roll the dough out, until both layers are very thin, to about 5 inch "pancakes".

5 – Cook pancake(s) in an unoiled pan using medium heat, until you see bubbles rise. (This will take anywhere from 10 – 30 seconds) Turn and cook until second side is slightly brown.

6 – Remove and separate the two pancakes. (Believe me, it does work!!!)

You can stack these pancakes and cover with a dry towel. Pei Mei also notes that you can make this in advance, stack, covered, and refrigerated. You then heat them in a steamer.

Oh, what about the turkey you may ask?

I arrived at Sam Woo, turned in my receipt, and the bird was brought out on a hook, just like the duck and chicken. It was then wrapped in foil, placed in a bag, and I was on my way. The entire car smelled of roast duck. And indeed the skin tasted like that of roast duck, though the texture was a little tougher.

The white meat was dry as anticipated, the dark meat had much more flavor. The white meat, with a piece of skin, green onion brushes, hoisin sauce, in a pancake:

Altogether delici-yoso!!! BTW, I received a quart of the duck "jus, sauce", or whatever it’s called; but it’s pretty heinous stuff. You’d be better off with hoisin. Altogether not bad, for a $20 Turkey. I also made some Gailan with Oyster Sauce, in addition to the other side dishes I had made earlier. We somehow managed to finish off half of the ~~duck~~ turkey, and the Boyz got a healthy share.

Tonight, I’ll have a night of blissful Tryptophan sleep!

Guess Who’s Making Dinner? And other Friday Silliness….

November 18, 2005 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, yoso-silly

First Clue – It has something to do with this Bad "Girl":

Second Clue – It’s got something to do with a "Killer Whale", for those who’ve read my earlier posts.

Yep, Sam Woo the "Killer Whale" will be in charge of preparing Ms. Turkey here. We got it for like five bucks after buying some groceries, and being good and practical folk; couldn’t resist a good bargain. So after sticking it in the Frig, the next dilemma was, what are we gonna do with it? I mean Thanksgiving is right around the corner, no? So the logical answer would be to go ahead and make it for Thanksgiving; which we usually celebrate on the weekend before Thanksgiving, because the Missus usually works on Turkey-day. This year, I really didn’t feel in the mood for doing all the brineing, prep, roasting, and most of all the constant "is it ready, yet?" And the "this is taking too damn long", "the smell is driving me nuts", and most of all "next year we’re eating out" comments. It just so happens that we happened upon a sign similar to the one over this Gal’s shoulder:

Wow, seems like Sam Woo is getting into the Turkey Roasting business. $15, to roast your turkey, not bad, $5 turkey plus $15 to prepare; we’re getting our turkey done for 20 bucks! Of course there were the questions from the Missus and Myself. Mine were questions like; how long will this take (3days), do you need the turkey defrosted(no-frozen is fine), you get the drift. The Missus in her typical Chinese fashion asked; "How do I know it’s my turkey that I get back?" All my suggestion of micro-chipping the bird got, was a "dirty look". This line of questioning ceased when I reminded the Missus in a stage whisper that the turkey only cost 5 bucks. So that’s what happened; Sam Woo is now making our turkey, which I’m picking up on Sunday. Now what am I going to do with a poultry microchip?

The next question; what are we going to serve as side dishes? Even though I have a few in mind; I’ll happily accept any suggestions.

Some silly links:

Jones-ing for some really original soda flavors? Maybe broccoli, or how about salmon pate soda? Jones Soda Company has all of that, and even Turkey and Gravy flavors. The reason I know about Jones Soda, is that they make custom soda labels. You send them a pic and they’ll create a 12 pack case for about $50, including shipping. I had this silly idea about ordering a 12 pack of Lemon Drop, with the picture of Sammy and Frankie on the label, titled; "From Sammy and Frankie – literally" and giving them out as gifts.

Also, don’t throw out that 30 year old oatmeal that you have sitting on the shelf somewhere. It might still be good!

To finish things off for this Friday; we recently had a pretty good late night (930pm) meal at China Max. Here’s a quick rundown of what we ate; all dishes ran between $6.75-$7.75:

Fried Rock Cod with Sweet Corn Sauce:

This was delici-yoso!!! But we ate it, a bit differently from the suggested method. Instead of pouring everything over the perfectly fried fish. We placed the fish in our bowl and poured a spoon or two of what was basically Chinese Corn Soup over it!

Steamed Bean Curd with Chicken and Shrimp:

Another very good dish. Creamy bean curd, with a gravy that contained reconstitued dry scallop.

Clams with Black Bean Sauce:

Overall, the weakest dish of the night. Though still pretty good.

China Max Lunch and Supper Menu

Have a great weekend!

Golden City Part 2 of 3 – Late Night Supper

November 17, 2005 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

**** Golden City has closed

*** As of July, 2006 Golden City is under new Ownership – posts on the “New” Golden City, can be found here, here, and here.

After my first visit to the “new” Golden City for lunch; I thought I’d give them a few weeks to get their act together. So after one evening of a few movies at San Diego Asian Film Festival this past October, the Missus and I paid a visit to Golden City to partake of the “Supper Menu” served between 9pm through Midnight. We arrived at Golden City at just past 9pm:

When we entered, just a few tables were filled along with one rather large, raucous party where the Older Chinese Men were pounding a few beers. One of the great things about the “old” Golden City; were the reasonably priced late night specials, and though the prices have gone up a bit at this new location they are still reasonable. Most dishes range from $5.25 – $6.95 from 9pm til closing.

So we started ordering; first with the Roast Duck ($5.95 – 1 piece):

The “old” Golden City made pretty good roasted meats, and I understand that the Chef used to work at Emerald making the roast meats. So I was looking forward to this. The skin was nice and slightly crisp, and the meat was nice and tender. But the flavor was a bit off; it did taste like roast duck, mind you; but the flavor was strangely muted, as if it was a mere shadow of its former self.

Rock Cod with Black Bean Sauce ($6.15):

One of the Missus’s favorites, the fish fillets were cooked to a moist and tender state, and the onions were cooked through perfectly. However, the Bell Peppers were undercooked and very raw tasting. The sauce suffered from a lack of Black Bean taking away any personality from the dish.

Goat with Dry Bean Curd ($5.95):

Per the Missus’s instructions, I’m not allowed to eat this. Between bites, she did say it was just as good as she remembers.

Lastly out came “My” dish; Kwai Fei Chicken ($5.95):

One of my favorite dishes back home in Hawaii is what is called Cold Ginger Chicken; basically cold, Poached Chicken served with a ginger-scallion oil. I’ve never really found a version of this dish that I’ve enjoyed on the Mainland. What I did find was Kwai Fei Chicken. Basically, chicken is rubbed with seasoning, and steamed. This dish is also served at room temperature or cold with the heavenly ginger scallion oil. Golden City used to be a regular stop for this at their old location. Tonight, the chicken was over cooked making it tough and dry. And not even the scallion oil could cure it. So in the end; I ate most of the oil on rice (it is really delici-yoso), and took the chicken home for Frankie and Sammy.

In the end it seemed as if Golden City was literally a “shadow of it’s former self”, as all the flavors seemed strangely muted. Though as we left groups of people started streaming in; searching for reasonable Chinese Food at 10pm.

In the last installment we have a “regular” dinner; and I’ll have the same dish for lunch that I had on opening day.

Golden City Restaurant
5375 Kearney Villa Rd
San Diego, CA 92123

Pearl

November 13, 2005 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum

**** Pearl has closed

Having already visited the "Convoy Dim Sum" trinity of Emerald, China Max, and Jasmine, with mixed results, not to mention a horrible experience at Lucky Star. We decided to finally retry Pearl in Rancho Bernardo:

We'd first set foot here back in '04 when they first opened. At that time I thought they took a back seat to their sister restaurant Emerald; but based on recent comments here, I was made to believe that Pearl has overtaken Emerald.

We arrived and were immediately seated:

And in a flash we had tea, ice water, and the first carts arrived! Needless to say, I was impressed. We got some shrimp and chive dumplings:

These were very tasty with a nice shrimp and chive flavor, though the wrappers were a bit dry, but not a bad start.

Vegetarian Bean Curd Roll:

These rolls were filled with bamboo shoots and cloud ears fungus, the soy based broth was so very rich, and the chilies added a mild heat. These were excellent, both in taste and texture.

Fried Chive and Shrimp Dumplings, one of my favorites:

These were cold, which made them taste somewhat greasy, and the shrimp rubbery. I also noticed that these dumplings were somewhat smaller then I'm used to seeing, although there were 4 of them instead of the usual 3.

Shrimp Cheong Fun:

We really noticed the size difference with this dish. Though the noodle was cooked perfectly, slightly chewy, with a nice "pull" to it. These were quite small, and only had 2 small shrimp in each. About this time I noticed something; all these hard working servers were smiling; our water was being refilled on a regular basis. I really only needed to make eye-contact with a Dim Sum Lady, and she would make her way to our table. I was in total shock, was there some mind-altering hallucinogenic substance in my tea?

I was snapped out of my trance by the next cart with the Beef Tripe:

Now this was the tripe I remembered from Emerald, nice and crunchy, with a slight amount of heat from the chilies, in a slightly chicken flavored broth. Very nice!

Chao Zhou Dumplings:

These dumplings are a real challenge. In many cases the wrapper is not cooked correctly, and ends up being a sticky mess, with all the filling(chopped bamboo shoot, etc) falling all over the place. Not in this case, though. These were cooked well, and there were nice whole dried shrimp in each dumpling. Very well done.

At about this time, one of the Waiters came up to use and asked if everything was alright. What!!! In a move that I thought was tempting fate; the Missus mentioned that she hasn't seen any Fried Taro (Taro Gok). The Waiter quickly asked one of the "Ladies" something; turned to us, and said "We don't have any right now, but we can make some for you, how many would you like…." As soon as I was able to pick my jaw up off the floor, I choked out "Just one will be fine…".

As the Waiter left we were immediately scanning the room; this service made us really want to get more Dim Sum. Wait A Minute! That's what it was; Pearl was using "reverse psychology" to try and get us to order more Dim Sum!

Tofu in Chili Sauce:

Beautiful aren't they? But these are best admired from a distance. This had to be the sweetest chili sauce I've ever had. In fact, I couldn't taste anything for a while after eating this. Ick!

The Missus flagged down the dessert cart and got some desserts:

You'll have to ask the Missus how they were.

She said they were "just okay", before inhaling them……

Our blessed Fried Taro Ball:

These were brought to our table piping hot! Though on the smallish side each one of these were topped with Masago (Flying Fish Eggs), which added a nice saltiness, and hid a scallop inside! The pork and taro filling was mixed to the perfect ratio. These were among the best I've eaten – delici-yoso!!!

We also got Sticky Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf:

These were also on the small side, though like most everything else; was done very well. About this time the Waiter walked up to our table, and apologized for taking so long with the taro. Welcome to the Twilight Zone! Are we really eating Dim Sum? The Waiter also asked us if he could get us anything else….why? Because if you buy ten dishes you get two free!!! Amazing…. We ended up getting another order of sticky rice to go. The damage? $36.91, not bad really.

The last most surprising thing happened while I was waiting for the Missus, who needed to visit the Restroom before we left.

While I was standing "holding up the wall". One of the Waiters walked up to me. The little voice in my head went "oh-oh, here's where we come back to reality…" But he just wanted to make sure we got our free Dim Sum, and struck up a conversation, telling me to come back for dinner, and started showing me the "specials". He surely thought that I was a bit strange, looking back and forth. I was searching for the "hidden cameras".

Needless to say; this is the best service I've ever had in a Dim Sum establishment. It's as if the Dim Sum God was trying to make amends for all the lousy and mediocre Dim Sum experiences we've had recently. I'm going to have to return, to see if history will repeat itself!

In a nutshell Pearl on this visit provided excellent service, good Dim Sum with a contemporary flair.

Pearl Chinese Cuisine
11666 Avena Place
San Diego, CA 92128

Royal Mandarin – An “Ab-cee-dee” Fry-O-Rama

November 9, 2005 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Chinese Restaurants

We've developed a term for restaurants like Royal Mandarin. We call them "ABCDE", that's pronounced "Ab-cee-dee", otherwise known as "American Born Chinese Dining Establishment". You know those places, no chopsticks to be found; when you ask for them and old drawer will be opened and wooden chopsticks delivered. Royal Mandarin is such a place:

Located on busy Plaza Boulevard, Royal Mandarin serves a mix of ABCDE and Chinoy type of Chinese Food. As is typical with many of these restaurants when you enter, it's as if you've stepped into a time warp; the decor screams 60's Chinese Food. This quite non-descript storefront is deceptive. Many times the restaurant is packed to the gills.

The menu here is similar to other ABCDE restaurants; namely Mandarin Canton and Golden Chopsticks. So today instead of heading over to Golden Chopsticks, we drove one block East to Royal Mandarin. We started with an order of Upside Down Crispy Noodles($7.50):

I've explained my quest for "Cake Noodles" in previous posts, and really didn't expect anything close. And was proven right again. These were just deep fried noodle cakes, with stir fried veggies, shrimp, and beef in a brown sauce, which in this case was pretty tasteless. The broccoli was cooked to perfection, cooked completely through, and still crunchy.

Salted Pepper Shrimp without Shell ($9.95), probably the most expensive dish on the menu:

These shelled and deveined shrimp were dusted with flour and deep fried, instead of being heavily battered like we're used to. So we approached this with some doubt. But the shrimp were very tasty, not overly salty, slightly sweet, and the shrimp were cooked to perfection. A good rule of thumb for restaurants like these; "when in doubt, go for the fried." If they can't do fried well, they can't do anything.

After this visit, I found out that Royal Mandarin is one of the "players" in the Best Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings sweepstakes. In fact we saw trays, and in one case a whole cart of wings leaving the premises while we ate. There is a general consensus(maybe urban legend) that the "original" Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings were first served here. So armed with this info we paid Royal Mandarin another visit.

We started with the Classic ABCDE dish, a favorite of the Missus, Wor Wonton Soup for Two($4.50):

This soup was not half bad, the broth was much better then the usual tasteless watery broth. There was nice plump shrimp and several wonton, bamboo shoots, button mushrooms, and spinach.

And of course those Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings ($6.25):

These have the same "crack-like" addictiveness as the version at Golden Chopstick. This version has less of the garlic-green onion mixture and the chicken is placed on the top of the mixture instead of visa-versa. If I were to do a comparison, I'd say, the RM's wings are more crunchy, obviously from more cornstarch, there are more drumettes instead of wing pieces, and have a more balanced flavor. GS's version has much more "punch", and alot more of the delici-yoso garlic-green onion "topping".

The real hit of the meal was the Salt and Pepper Fish Fillet($7.95):

The batter on the slices of fish had a texture between a beer and tempura batter; crunchy, light, very tasty; and the fish was so moist. Three fried salt and pepper dishes, three different batters. This was by far the best.

Now the guilt kicked in. And in our weakness we went against our normal strategy and ordered Buddha's Delight($5.50):

Blech! This vegetable dish was very bland, though the veggies were cooked well, this was a waste.

Here are a few other fried from other visits.

Salt and Pepper White Meat Chicken($5.95):

Can you say Salt and Pepper McNuggets? Too dry, same batter as fish fillet, but doesn't work here. Very bland. The price – it's cheaper then the Chicken Wings should have been a clue!

Salt and Pepper Tofu($5.25):

Though a textural delight – cubes of tofu are deep fried were nice and crunchy outside, creamy inside; this dish would be better served with a sauce. Served in this manner it tasted rather bland. Can you say Tsoh(stinky) Tofu without the smell! Funny thing, on this visit our waitress thought the Missus was Filipino, but thought I'd want chopsticks because I was "Korean", after she found out the Missus was Chinese, they had some very nice conversations in Mandarin. The Missus noticed that a combination of Cantonese and Mandarin was spoken by the Employees. As we were leaving, we noticed a whole aluminum tray of Wings(60 pieces – just $17) sitting on a Lazy Susan on one of the tables with other dishes. There were 8 people just totally "grinding" on the wings, my kind of people! Why bother with plates – just give me a tray; I can deal with that! Also, as we were driving home, we noticed, no thirst, no swelling, it seemed that the amount of MSG in the food is pretty low, which I found to be strange considering the type of dishes we selected.

So the next time you're at a Filipino party in San Diego and the Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings are brought out, you can be pretty sure they've come from either Mandarin Canton, Golden Chopsticks, or Royal Mandarin. And when faced with an ABCDE, go first with the fried. If they can't do fried, I'm pretty sure they can't do anything!

If I can get some volunteers, I'll be willing to do a Salt and Pepper Chicken Wing tasting. Any takers?

Royal Mandarin Restaurant
1132 E. Plaza Blvd
National City, CA 91950

Jasmine – Never Get Dim Sum When You’re Angry

November 3, 2005 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum

Totally ticked off (ok, we were PO’d), having just endured our experience at Lucky Star. We were determined to get some Dim Sum, even if someone died (not us) in the process. Having dealt with that terrible experience we were now totally drawn into the web of total obsession. We decided to take a chance on Jasmine. We had not been to Jasmine in nearly 4 years; the main reason being the terrible service we had experienced there on two previous visits. In retrospect; "what the heck were we thinking?" I guess we were spoiling for a fight. We rolled into Jasmine at about 1145, I expected a wait, but apparently our timing was perfect. We were seated immediately, but the place was pretty much full.

We were served almost immediately, and in a minute, tea and ice water were on our table. And the roasted meat cart rolled by; so we got some roast duck:

The Missus ate a piece and told me how tasteless this was. So I ate a piece, and man, it was soooo salty! The Missus didn’t believe, and grabbed another piece; bit into it, and made the ultimate "lemon face". Apparently, sauce is poured over the duck. So the top portion is bland, but the bottom pieces were like a salt lick.

The Cheong Fun was up next:

Man the shrimp were huge in this. But the noodles were really too thick and gummy.

We also got some Chau Zhou Dumplings:

The fillings were pretty tasty with bamboo shoots, water chestnut and peanuts. Though I’m used to having these with dried shrimp in them. The wrappers were not made real well, they stuck to everything, so the dumpling just tore apart, with the fillings going everywhere except it’s designated destination.

The next cart up had Har Gow and other shrimp dumplings:

Both of these had huge shrimp in them.

But as you can see, the wrappers were a problem, the first one was rather dry, and the second was overly sticky, cracking, and the dumpling fell apart. Either they were not prepared well, or not cooked well.

But also on this cart was the seafood wrapped in cabbage. This was probably the best dish of the day. Tender and moist fish, a piece of "Krab", and Pork wrapped in a piece of Napa Cabbage, topped with Egg, and steamed in chicken broth. All items were cooked to perfection. In addition, you could distinctly taste every ingredient. Delici-yoso! About this time the "Jook" cart came by and we got some Congee with Pork and Preserved Egg, this was excellent as well! (Sorry no photo) Even though it looked too thick, it was fairly loose, with a nice rich and balanced flavor.

I was still a bit hungry, and so when the Oysters passed by we quickly got them:

These oyster were topped with Black Bean sauce, green onions, red chili, and steamed. Nice and beany, and a bit salty, not over-cooked as is the tendency with these. I was in "brine" heaven, though I enjoyed them more then the Missus. The saltiness almost reminded me of a mild caviar in it’s briny saltiness. I enjoyed the oysters.

At this point we hadn’t gotten any of our "usual suspects" except for the Cheong Fun. So, based on previous experience, would I push my luck? Well I did, and asked one of the Waiters if he could get us the Glutinous Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf. This was met with a stoic, unemotional nod. But within a minute it was delivered to our table:

I thought this tasted pretty darn good and balanced. The Missus believed it was just average. That kind of summed up our experience, a real "mixed bag".

But best of all, I thought the service was good. The Gals pushing the carts were very friendly and helpful, and they even smiled! So did the Gal who served us the tea, and made sure that our water was always filled. The Guys are a bit Stoic, though very professional. Oh, and we finished everything, except the god awful duck. Yes, the two of us polished off almost everything with ease. The total bill came out to $43.91, if I remember, small plates are prices at $2.20, Medium – $3.20, Large – $3.60, X-Large $4.20, and of course specials are priced at 6 bucks and up.

Oh, by the way, the Missus wasn’t done. She needed "something sweet to finish up the meal." So while I waited for the bill she exited Jasmine and walked next door to the take-out Jasmine Express, and she bought a good variety of goodies:

Don’t ask me how these tasted. They made my teeth hurt just looking at them. But she seemed to enjoy them.

Jasmine Seafood Restaurant
4609 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Golden City Restaurant Part 1 of 3 – Lunch

October 23, 2005 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

**** Golden City has closed

*** As of July, 2006 Golden City is under new Ownership – posts on the “New” Golden City, can be found here and here.

When we initially moved to San Diego, one of our favorite “budget” Chinese Restaurants was Golden City. They had pretty decent food and a great lunch and late “supper” menu, with great prices. We were a bit sad when they closed down, though we were told that they would probably re-open in the future. So back in July I was very happy to see that Golden City was set to re-open in a new location. On Sept 26th, Golden City re-opened, at it just so happened that I was on vacation that Monday, so it was pretty much a no-brainer!

As I entered the Restaurant at 1110am, I noticed how large and bright the restaurant was, a big change from it’s former incarnation, which was kind of “divey”. I also noticed that I was probably the first customer! I was handed two menus, a “regular” menu, and a “lunch specials” menu. Going through the lunch menu, I noticed that many of the items we used to enjoy like Kwai Fei Chicken and Roast Duck were no longer offered as lunch specials, and that the Beef Chow Fun was now a whopping 7 bucks on the lunch special menu. The one item that was still on the lunch menu was the Pork Chop with Spicy Salt ($5.95); so this is what I ordered.

The lunch came with a choice of Hot & Sour or Egg Drop Soup. I chose the Hot & Sour soup:

This was a good start. I’d always enjoyed the Hot & Sour Soup at Golden City, this version is a nicely balanced salty, sour, and “pepper” hot.

My Pork Chop arrived soon after. I had a slight laugh as it was put in front of me. I guess Golden City is now using the “large plate illusion.” That is, food is delivered on a very large platter, with the food spread out making it look like a huge amount. The lunch came with an Egg Roll(lousy), and a small salad with an Asian Dressing (forgettable).

As for the Pork Chop:

I guess you pay the price for bring the “first” customer. Though the pork chop looked a nice brown, and there was some garlic and scallions on the pork chop. The meat was not cooked at a hot enough temperature, causing the coating to be soggy and the meat tough. The batter was also falling off the pork chop and the garlic was burnt, not exactly an auspicious start. It also took me about 15 minutes to get my check, no one could figure out what my table number was, but it’s not like there were tons of customers in the place, go figure!

At this point in time Golden City really needed to get it’s act together, so I decided to visit again in a few weeks to see how they progressed, though not at lunch. The lunch menu is targeted at the “local” businesses with items like Orange Chicken, Egg Foo Young, and such. Which is probably for the best, in it’s former life Golden City seemed to have no real identity, first serving Dim Sum, then doing Chinese BBQ and Special Menus, finally ending up with a terrible lunch buffet.

Some notes on Golden City; I’ve always had good service here, and many of the same Employees have been retained. There is a “supper” menu that is served from 9pm to midnight, and has many of our “familiar” dishes.

So can Golden City put it together? Find out in Parts 2 and 3, coming soon!

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

Open Daily 11am – Midnight

Dumpling Inn

October 20, 2005 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Xiao Long Bao

In the comments section of my post on Shanghai City, Mabel was kind enough to remind me of Dumpling Inn. I really don't know why, but we hadn't been to Dumpling Inn in a couple of years:

Mabel had also reminded me that Dumpling Inn also served Xiao Long Bao; but it had been so long that I'd forgotten about them. So I decided to drop by on a nice sunny weekend morning.

Dumpling Inn is a little hole in the wall, that has very loyal following. The restaurant has but 10 tables, so it's best to come early if you plan on getting a table during the week:

I placed my order and checked out the sauces and found the basic ones to be present; that would be chili oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, and vinegar; though I wished that it was Chinkiang Black Vinegar, but this would do in a pinch.

The first dish I ordered was the Jellyfish ($5.95):

I had remembered how much I enjoyed this dish on a previous visit. Though the portion seemed smaller than I recall, the taste was still "right on". Julienned daikon radish, cucumber, and carrot, along with slices of Jellyfish, were combined with a vinegarette of sorts. The Jellyfish was prepared perfectly, not a hint of the astringent taste that is sometimes present, and the crunchy texture along with the taste of the vegetables was good. If anything, the sauce may have been a tad too sweet, but overall this was very refreshing.

Just as I was finishing up, my Xiao Long Bao arrived ($5.75):

In direct contrast to the Jellyfish, these Xiao Long Bao were larger than I remembered! They were brought via Spider-Thongs on a hot plate to the table. Slices of Julienned Ginger acoompanied the dish. But to my disappointment no Shangai Dumpling Dipping sauce was provided. So I had to improvise, and mixed up vinegar and soy…. I know that a comparison to the Xiao Long Bao at Shanghai City is in order. So I thought I'd just list my own subjective thoughts. The wrappers on these XLB were much better, doughy with some "pull", and a nice wheaty-doughy taste. The filling was quite large, much larger than Shanghai City, and there was less "soup", also the meat filling had a taste closer to that of regular Northern Chinese Baozi(round dumplings) than XLB, almost like regular Pork Dumplings. It was very tasty, and delici-yoso, but I don't know if these qualify as XLB. But hey, I'm not an expert, it still tasted good anyway.

On a recent afternoon the Missus and I decided to have lunch at Dumpling Inn, so we stopped by, and after a short (15 minute) wait, we were seated and placed our order. The Missus, for some reason decided to order the Kung Pao Seabass ($9.75):

Not really Northern Chinese, but she had a slight cold, so wanted something with a bit of taste and heat. First the good, the quality of fish was excellent, soft, tender, and moist. It was also cooked to a seared perfection. The peanuts added a nice contrast to the buttery texture of the fish, and the onions were delici-yoso! Now the not so good, the heat was very weak, the dish was more sweet then spicy. The portion size was also very small, I think you can tell by the picture. This dish would be an excellent one in an American Chinese restaurant.

I ordered the Spicy Niu Rou Mien ($7.50):

Yes, I'm a Niu Rou Mein addict. This was probably the most expensive NRM (thanks Dylan) I've ever seen, but I couldn't wait to order it. The broth was very light, though the seasoning and heat(spice) were perfect, the beef flavor was obviously lacking. To put it in the words of the Missus, "it's as if a piece of beef was waved over a pot of boiling water". The noodles were not so great, I could get better at 99 Ranch Market, you could have "Home Made Noodles" though you'd add another $1 to the dish making it a $8.50 bowl of NRM. The beef had a good flavor (thankfully it was beef shank), but was not cooked to a desired tenderness. Kind of disappointing as a whole, and much too expensive.

If you're wondering why we didn't order any Jiaozhi, please look here. The dumplings at Dumpling Inn are very good, but I get as good, or even better at home. But please do try the Shrimp & Chive Dumplings($7.25), or "Potstickers" at Dumpling Inn, they are excellent. The prices seem a bit high, though the quality is good. Many of the dishes look Americanized, and it looks like the formula is working well! Oh, and I was amazed to watch a Gentleman order Jiaozhi and ask for Colman's Mustard and proceed to cover each dumpling with a teaspoon of mustard and cover with soy sauce, and tell his dining partner how tasty the dumplings were! Please don't eat your dumplings that way…..

Dumpling Inn
4619 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Odds And Ends

October 14, 2005 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Korean Restaurants, yoso-silly

Hope everyone has a great weekend; just thought I’d throw in some Odds n’ Ends. That is, places that I’ve already posted on and some of the different dishes, as well as maybe a few "silly" links.

Dropped by Buga; yet again. This time I had Yookhwe, that wonderful beef tartare like dish:

This refreshing little dish – sorry about the photo, I starting mixing and almost eating before I remembered to snap a picture. But it’s thin slices of beef with sesame seed oil, served along with thin slices of Asian Pear, with an egg yolk on top. Nicely nutty, sweet, and a bit "metallic" or cucumberish in taste. Because the meat is partially frozen before slicing, you can get a "ice cream headache" when you eat this.

Dropped by Noble Chef for a quick dinner. I still get looks of complete amazement when I recommend this place. You just have to know what to order. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT order the Chinese Fast Food style dishes. Instead go for something like the Shrimp Chow Fun (Hong Kong style) with XO Sauce($6.55):

If you think there’s some "wok hey" going on, you’d be right. Nice and spicy, with good sized shrimp, this is my favorite. We also got the Shrimp with Tomato Sauce Rice($6.55):

Nice size shrimp, with a tangy, slightly spicy tomato sauce, this is delici-yoso!!! Stick with the Fried Rice, Turnip Cake with Scrambled Egg, and Shrimp with Scrambled Egg, and you’ll do fine.

As for links, here’s a few fun ones:

Howie Email’d me his Foodieview ‘s Most Disturbing Recipe Searches. It’s fun and reminds me of Pam’s great "Asparagus" ummmm, "residual" post!

I don’t know if you read the News story on the 4,000 year old noodles found in China. I get another laugh at the expense of my Italian Food loving friends. I can still call Italian Food "Nouveau Chinese"….. Angie covers it well on her Blog.

Annie has revamped and changed the URL for Green Beans in San Diego, so check it out.

I enjoyed this really short article from The Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego about the History of Japanese Restaurants in San Diego.

And finally this sign, which always makes me chuckle it’s on the corner of Palomar and 3rd Ave in Chula Vista:

Emerald – Part 1, The Dim Sum of Everlasting Regret?

October 13, 2005 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum

*** An updated post on Emerald can be found here.

Have you ever gone to one of your dependable, favorite restaurants, and have a very mediocre, maybe even lousy meal? There are few feelings of regret and disappointment that match the trauma of finding that "your" restaurant is possibly going downhill.

About a month ago I posted on a Dim Sum meal at China Max. In that post I mentioned a lousy meal at our favorite San Diego Dim Sum restaurant; Emerald. Emerald had just been re-opened for about a month, since being closed for several weeks following a vent fire. We figured a month would be enough time to straighten out any service and food issues, and made our way to Emerald on a Friday. We knew something was a bit "strange" when we entered at 1130 and found the place empty except for two tables!

After seated, we had to ask for tea! Talk about a bad start; things looked so very disorganized, I really couldn’t understand. Finally after about 10 minutes a cart was finally pushed in our direction from where they were parked by the kitchen.

BTW, our tea still hadn’t arrived…… But how was the Dim Sum? Well the Shrimp Ball stuffed Bean Curd was pretty lame, bland, and the frozen peas and carrots really didn’t do much for the dish. The Curry Chicken Siu Mai was well, too salty and dry. And the Shrimp Dumplings were bland, and the shrimp tough. Not a good start, but luckily the Pei-Dan Jook (Congee) cart made it’s way to our table:

Ok, but obviously over-thickened with corn starch. Only 2 pieces of preserved egg as well.

Next up, one of my personal favorites, tripe:

This was an average, mediocre, dish. The tripe had a nice crunchy texture, but the dish was lacking the former rich "brothy" taste, and if I remember, each little dish had a chili pepper in it that added a nice bit of "zingy" heat to the dish. At this point, I started doubting my own taste memory. Had it been so long since I’ve eaten here that my tastes had changed?

At that point we got finally got our Deep Fried Taro Ball:

We actually had to ask and wait for these. They came out piping hot, but were terrible! There was so much taro, that was slightly undercooked, and so very "gummy" and bitter! There was also very little pork in this.

We also got some Shrimp Cheong Fun, and favorite of mine:

I enjoyed the sauce, but the noodle was not cooked well and there was a slightly powdery texture to the noodle. Yuck…..

We also got the Sticky Rice in Lotus leaf:

Unfortunately, by this time we were both pretty disappointed and asked for a take-out container, and took this home. Ironically, this was probably the best dish of the day!

What a terrible visit to our favorite Dim Sum Restaurant in San Diego. At the time we called it quits, the tab came out to $29. I was so disgusted that I forgot to take a picture of the storefront; so this past weekend I drove by for my photo:

During this time I gave this meal some thought, and rationalized; perhaps Emerald had lost some of it’s Chef’s during this period? But the front of house staff were recognizable. The best "excuse" I got, was the "well you need to go on the weekend…", which I answered with, so if I did a lousy job for two-thirds of the time I work, and a good job for one-third, I should be considered a success? That’s weak and a load of you-know-what. I’m paying the same price as someone who eats on Saturday or Sunday.

In the end it came to this; we’re not every week type of customers, I don’t want to eat Dim Sum that often. It’s about 6-7 times a year. We’ve had many excellent meals at Emerald, and have been coming here since ’99, when I was doing consulting work in San Diego, and before we moved here. I don’t think we’ll give up on Emerald just yet, thus the Part 1, we’ll give it another shot in a few weeks and see what happens. Stay tuned………

Emerald Seafood Restaurant
3709 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111