Chinese Restaurants – Page 76

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

San Tong Palace

October 5, 2005 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Niu Rou Mian

**** San Tong Palace has closed

San Tong Palace is a little Sino-Chinese Restaurant located in Plaza Del Sol on Convoy St. This Korean-Chinese Restaurant specializes in Shandong style Chinese Food; that is, Northern Chinese cuisine. I've also seen Northern Chinese style Korean owned restaurants back home in Hawaii as well. I really don't have an explanation as to why this is, other than Korea is located right across the coast of the Shandong Province. Maybe someone will have a historical explanation.

The Missus is originally from Qingdao(Tsing Tao) a major coastal port in Shandong, so naturally when we moved to San Diego a few years back we were excited when we found this restaurant. The food, however was not very good, so we hadn't bothered to go back. Recently, I was told that San Tong Palace made a good Niu Rou Mein (Beef Noodle Soup). So one evening, when the Missus was working I decided to pay San Tong Palace another visit.

As I entered the restaurant, the employees were speaking in Korean. But they greeted me in Mandarin; unfortunately I speak neither. I was delivered a pot of tea, unfortunately it was lukewarm, so I had them get me another pot, still lukewarm, so I just decided to forget about the tea, not a good start. A plate of Kim Chee was delivered, along with the sauce for the dumplings I ordered:

Actually, it was a cross between kim chee and Shandong style pickled cabbage. Spicy like kim chee, but with a hint of the vinegary sweetness of pickles. This would turn out to be the best dish of the night!

The Niu Rou Mein was delivered ($5.95):

Looks ok doesn't it? Well, looks are deceiving. If you look a little closer, you'll notice that the beef is sliced sirlion, that along with green onions and onions, had been stir-fried and then dumped in a flavorless broth. These tough pieces of "beef" had no business in this soup, the beef also had that slightly "metallic" taste of old meat. Now I've had Niu Rou Mein with sliced brisket ala' pho', but this was no brisket, it was more like two dollar steak from the nearest market. I've had better tasting beef broth from an envelope. The noodles were ok, though. But this "soup" was nothing like the decent bowl of Niu Rou Mein from Shanghai City. Well at least it was piping hot!

I had also ordered the Fish Dumplings ($6.95):

There were 10 handmade dumplings filled with minced white fish, chives, and green onions. The fillings were ok, moist, and so mildly flavored that it could've been chicken or pork. The wrappers, though handmade, really didn't have the "home-made" texture. The wrappers didn't have the slight "resistance" and elasticity that I look for in Chinese dumplings, these broke up too easily. The sauce was pretty weak, so I just made my own with soy sauce, vinegar, and chili paste.

Well, I really don't think I'll be going back, no matter who recommends San Tong Palace. If you do visit San Tong Palace, stay away from that bogus Niu Rou Mein!

Some notes on San Tong Palace; most signs are in Chinese, including the Restroom signs, so it'll be best if you know what the Chinese symbols are if you're looking for the restroom. The dining room is well lit, and the service is efficient.

San Tong Palace
4690 Convoy St Ste 105
San Diego, CA 92111

(858) 571-6837

Shanghai City Restaurant

October 2, 2005 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Niu Rou Mian, Xiao Long Bao

*** Update: Shanghai City has closed.

*** Updated posts on Shanghai City can be found here and here.

When I mention to people that I enjoy eating at Shanghai City, I get some weird stares. I guess it's because most think of the American Chinese Food on the menu, or the $5.99 Lunch Buffet. Not necessarily great Chinese Food, though I do enjoy the Buffet once in a while.

There are some "hidden treasures" on the menu, but the days to go to Shanghai City are between 10am and 3pm on weekends, where there's a menu with Chinese "specials" available:

Today we decided to order the Wine Marinated Chicken ($3.75):

In the most basic form, this cold dish is prepared by rubbing a chicken with salt and letting stand and drain for 6 hours or so. The chicken is then steamed, and cooled, and cut into large pieces which are marinated in a combination of chicken stock and Shao-sing wine overnight. This gives the meat a dense, brined texture, with a taste reminiscent of ham. Because of the wine, the first bite of this mild looking dish can really catch you off guard, but you'll soon be munching away at piece after piece of this dish.

The main reason we visit Shanghai City is the Niu Rou Mein ($4.25):

I'm positively addicted to Chinese Beef Noodle soup, there are several versions, but my favorite is the numbing-spicy Sichuan style soup. Unlike pho' this is a dark, beef broth, flavored with star anise, soy sauce, sugar, wine, chili pepper, garlic, among other things. The meat is usually a stewing cut like beef shank with some tendon and fat. When cooked well, the meat is tender and holds it's flavor. The soup is usually garnished with cilantro, green onions, and a green vegetable, in this case bok choy, though I use spinach in my homemade version. The broth here at Shanghai City can vary wildly, but the noodles are superb. The noodles have a great "handmade" texture, doughy with elasticity. A large portion of noodles is always included at Shanghai City. Today, the soup was good, not great, but mildly rich and beefy, really spicy, but the noodles were great as always. On a great day this dish is really delici-yoso!!!

We also usually order the Xiao Long Bao ($5.95), those ever popular "soup-dumplings".

Shanghai City is one of the few places where you can get XLB in San Diego. These dumplings are filled with a pork based filling, along with alot of "juice", thus the name soup dumplings. The way to eat them are to place some sauce in the spoon, then place the dumpling in the spoon (do not break the dumpling) and eat in one perfect bite. Today the wrappers on these were a bit on the "dry" side, though filled with delish slightly sweet, salty, "soup".

Shanghai City does a decent rendition of many dishes, like Smoked Fish (Su Shih Hsun Yuu – $4.75), not really smoked, but actually a fried than marinated dish, that gives the fish a smoked look, The Tea Smoked Duck here has also been good on occaision ($7.95). Most dishes are are between $4.75 to $8.95, so the prices here are not too bad.

Shanghai City
3860 Convoy St
San Diego,CA 92111
619-278-5883

Closed Tuesdays

We've done a revisit post on Shanghai City on 12/17/06, it can be found here.

Mandarin Canton – Is this Cake Noodle?

September 26, 2005 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Chinese Restaurants

*** 04/03/2011 You can find an update here.

Tucked in a strip mall on Telegraph Canyon Road in Chula Vista is Mandarin Canton, like Golden Chopstick, a Chinese-American-Filipino restaurant.

One night about a year ago, the Missus called from work and told me she thinks she found that "noodle dish" I'd been looking for. What I'd been looking for is called "Cake Noodle" in Hawaii, and I've never seen it anywhere on the Mainland. I've had some dishes that used pan fried noodles, but they were not even close.

Cake Noodles are usually thin egg noodles that are fried until crispy in a pan (thus the cake), cut into squares, and topped with a thick stir fried "gravy" and various meats and veggies. I knew this was a Filipino-American Chinese restaurant when I noticed that no chopsticks are provided and we are served what we jokingly call Chinese Tortilla Chips! Actually these won ton pi chips are very sneaky, served with sweet and sour sauce, you end up eating one after the other….

On this visit I was really surprised that lunch specials were being served on a Sunday! The specials come with soup and either Fried Rice or Steamed Rice and range between $3.75-$4.75. One quick tip – stay with the steamed rice! We ordered one item off the lunch menu, and two off of the regular menu:

We received the Shrimp with Lobster Sauce ($4.75) that the Missus ordered off the specials menu:

I was pretty surprised to find that we got a whole order of Shrimp with Lobster Sauce. Shrimp with Lobster sauce is not my favorite dish, I call it "egg drop soup with shrimp", but the Missus enjoys it. This version was very mild, though the shrimp were large and tasty, ditto with the water chestnuts. It also started congealing as soon as it hit the table.

The Salted and Deep Fried Shrimp with No Shell ($11.00) came up next:

So fried, salty, garlicky, slightly spicy, and crunchy…..I don't think you need to say anything else about this dish. It's probably the most expensive dish on the menu, but it's alot of really large shrimp. I once saw a Young Lady order this with a side of the garlic/green onion/chili pepper topping, and eat a spoonful of the garlic with each shrimp, and loving it! Make sure you order them without shell.

Than came the dish I came here for – the Upside Down Pan Fried Noodles ($6.50). Yes, it's actually called that on the menu:

The noodles are fried to a crisp than topped with veggies and meats in a brown sauce. The sauce is nice and salty, sweet, and gooey, and slowly softens the noodles. My only complaint is that there is not enough brown sauce. The Missus ended up spooning her rice into the empty plate to sop up the remaining sauce. There are large shrimp, beef, and chicken, along with broccoli and snow peas.

So is it Cake Noodle? Well not really, but it's close enough for me.

Some notes on Mandarin Canton: Like many of these places Your Mileage May Vary, there are some really terrible dishes here, so pick and choose based on what you see others eating. There are only ten tables, and a constant flow of people in and out, but the turnaround is pretty quick. Mandarin Canton is a "Player" in the "Best Salt and Pepper Wings" battle going on, but is not as good as Golden Chopstick, though Golden Chopstick's Upside Down Pan Fried Noodles (yes, they have them there as well), is not as good as Mandarin Canton's. I've actually swung by both restaurants on a single take-out trip. Don't eat here if you are afraid of salt and MSG, though I've never had any problems or reactions from the food, I'm pretty sure it's there.

Mandarin Canton Chinese Restaurant
543 Telegraph Canyon Rd
Chula Vista, CA 91910
Open Daily 11am – 10pm

Sam Woo BBQ – And a “Fish” Story

September 22, 2005 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

I’m pretty sure that most San Diego Readers of this blog know of this location of Sam Woo Ba-Bee-Que! Over the years I’ve eaten at in at least 7 different locations of Sam Woo BBQ’s, located everywhere from San Gabriel to Las Vegas, often times next to or very close to an outlet of 99 Ranch Market, as is this location on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard. Since our favorite inexpensive Guangdong style restaurant Golden City closed about 2 years ago, about the only replacement we could find was Sam Woo.

Sam Woo BBQ’s have a reputation of decent quality dishes at a good price. In other words, you get your money’s worth here! Sam Woo BBQ’s also have another reputation, that of very abrupt, impatient, and sometimes downright rude service. Also, no matter how slow or busy, there’s always a "divey" feel to Sam Woo’s, dishes left to clean up, food stains on the table, etc. To their defense the Servers bust their butt here.

This location of Sam Woo features a Take-out section with the requisite hanging Roast Pork, Roast Duck, and Hot Table items on one side, and a small, pedestrian sit down restaurant on the other.

On this evening, the Missus was not feeling too well, and she wanted some of her comfort food – Jook. She ordered the Rice Porridge with Preserved Egg and Pork($3.75):

She got a large steaming bowl of fairly "loose" jook; just the way she likes it. She doesn’t care much for the thick, corn-starchy versions that many Cantonese Restaurants serve. There were large chunks of preserved egg and a good amount of tasty shredded pork; I know because I tasted some. This was actually more than enough for her, she couldn’t even finish this.

I ordered the Noodle Soup with 3 Roasted Meats ($5.75):

Otherwise known as my "Oink-Quack-Puck" noodle. This is a large bowl of flavorful broth, won tons, napa cabbage, and my favorite thin egg noodles. The broth had started to absorb the flavor of the roasted duck, chicken, and BBQ Pork. Can you say…Delici-yoso???? Good to the last drop!

A few days later before shopping at 99 Ranch Market we stopped by and decided to have a bite. We found out that Sam Woo’s has a Breakfast menu from 9am-11am during the week, and 8am-11am weekends. Most items are $2.95, including the same sized bowl of porridge pictured above.

I had the Stewed Beef on Noodle($2.95):

This was kind of a strange dish, and not quite what I expected. It was basically a de-constructed Beef Egg Noodle Soup. The beef was ok, Niu Rou Mein – spicy beef noodle soup is one of my favorite dishes, and these pieces of beef were similiar to those used in that dish; tender though seasoned with a bit too much anise, and also on the sweeter side. I really struggled trying to eat this, pulling up the noodles trying to dip in the broth and so on. Also, a strange thing happened after eating this; my hands and feet started to swell – not a good sign.

Fast forward a week, and for some strange reason I was craving gloppy-gooey Clams in Black Bean sauce. So we headed back up to Sam Woo’s again. This time we ordered off of the lunch menu; about 3 pages long, with an additional sheet of "specials", there was alot to choose from, and most dishes were between $4.50-$5.50 and lncluded a soup(terrible) and rice (starch mmmm….).

We started with Szechuan Shrimp ($4.50):

More like a sweet sour shrimp dish, it wasn’t very spicy, though the shrimp were plump, tasty and cooked well, nothing worse than over-cooked rubbery shrimp. We actually loved the onions in this dish; mixed with the sauce they were pungent and sweet.

Rock Cod Filet with Black Bean Sauce($4.50):

The fish filets were soft and tender, the green and red bell peppers were cooked through, but still tender, all put together in a gloppy, gooey, simple black bean based sauce, which tasted good on our rice.

The Clams with Black Bean Sauce ($5.50):

There was a generous portion of plump, juicy, slightly briney clams in the same black bean sauce as the rock cod. I was really surprised at the quality of the clams in this 5 dollar dish!

We basically "blew through" everything, including two pots of tea. Not bad for $15, huh?

Sam Woo BBQ Restaurant
7330 Clairemont Mesa Blvd Ste 103
San Diego, CA 92111

And how does a "fish" story tie into this? Well……

A few years ago I was watching a Chargers football game and the Missus happened to walk by…..

“Oh, it’s Jack Murphy Stadium”

“Well yeah, except now it’s called Qualcomm Stadium”

“How’s that?”

“I think nowadays the stadium sells naming rights, and some company purchases them”

She pauses, then adds, “Oh, like Sea World?”

Ok, now I’m totally confused, and scratching my head. “What do you mean, Sea World?”

As she turns to walk away and out of the living room, “Yeah, the whale….”

Now I’m hooked, I have to find out what Sea World has to do with all of this, so I follow her down the hall….

“Can you tell me what you mean by the the whale?”

“Yeah, Sam Woo, the Killer whale….”

I just totally lose it, and I’m laughing so hard my sides hurt…

“No, it’s Sha-mu the Killer Whale”

“Yeah, that’s what I said Sam-Woo the Killer Whale!”

“No it’s spelled S-H-A-M-U”

“Oh, I thought that maybe Sea World had sold naming rights to the Whale and Sam Woo purchased it…..”

“How long have you thought this?”

“Ever since I first heard of the Whale” Seems that the Missus had thought Shamu was named Sam Woo for years……….

To this day, every time we see a Sea World commercial with Shamu, we both look at each other and go, “Hey look, it’s Sam Woo the Killer Whale!!!”

And that’s why I love Her so……

Hope everyone is having a great week!