Los Angeles County – Page 11

Roadtrip COMC: Lunch at Shunji in photos

April 30, 2014 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip, Sushi and Sashimi

Man, it's so hot today…….I started doing this post and decided that the pictures speak for themselves. During my extended roadtrip to LA in February, I decided to get the $40 lunch from Shunji…..let me just say, it's worth every penny.

Last time I was in the area, this location was Mr Cecil's California Ribs….let me just say, this is beyond a major upgrade.

Enough chatter…….

Like I said….worth every penny…..

Update: So now that's it's getting cooler here's the listing:

1 – Madai

2 – Megina (Opal Eye)

3 – Wild Hamachi

4 – Miso Soup with Crab

5 - Blue Nose Snapper

6 – Marinated Salmon

7 – Maguro

8 – Inada

9 – Hirame

10 – Kanpachi

11 – Kinmedai (One of the best things I've eaten so far this year)

12 – Ikura

13 – Uni (Santa Barbara)

14 – Blue Crab Handroll

Shunji Japanese Cuisine
12244 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064

Hope you're keeping cool!

Roadtripping mmm-yoso style – revisits to some of our favorites: Song Long (Westminster), Tasty Noodle House and Hunan Chilli King (San Gabriel) and take out from Shufeng Garden (Rowland Heights)

April 27, 2014 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Orange County, Road Trip, Vietnamese Restaurants

I've taken folks on various roadtrips before and have even explained my strategy to folks….you need to have a basic plan of eating….what needs to be consumed right away and what you can take home, something that might even taste better later. You have to approach things with a rather balanced approach….you can't be like PeterL, who tasted a beef roll for the first time and just went after it,even when I told him we'd be getting another; possibly an even better version later…..which of course, he was too full to eat, along with the Xiao Long Bao, Shenjian Bao, etc, etc…. Just because he got greedy.

A recent, really fun roadtrip is a good example of the fun we have. We did a good deal of shopping in between meals and the Missus and I had a blast….and lots of left-overs to boot. I won't delve too much into the food since these are places I've posted on at least twice before.

Song Long – Cha Ca Thang Long for breakfast:

So this is enough for the two of us………

As I've mentioned in previous posts, this place has become a favorite of the Missus. They open early; we hit them up at just after 9am and the place was empty. For some reason the Missus really likes the Banh Trand Me here and will eat it up before the Cha Ca arrives.

We like this version of cha ca thang long…..but it really won't keep so we had this for breakfast.

The one thing being that the mam nem is the gift that keeps on giving….as in every time you burp, you'll be reminded of what you had for breakfast….until lunch of course.

Song Long Restaurant
9361 Bolsa Ave Suite 108
Westminster, CA 92683

Tasty Noodle House – for my favorite Tianjin Baozi:

So, in my mind jiaozi, xiao long bao, and to a certain extent shenjian bao will not keep. Baozi is kinda iffy; it won't be quite as good, but can be passable. For me; the version at Tasty Noodle House is my current favorite. After going about taking care of shopping and stuff we made it to this part of San Gabriel….even with all the detours and road closures by 11am. It's a tiny restaurant, so it can get filled quite quickly.

For me, the item here is the Tianjin Baozi….but the Missus felt guilty about just ordering one item for the both of us, so we started with some Fried Intestine….hey, who doesn't love fried intestine?

Somewhere between 2006 and 2009, I really developed a taste for deep fried pork rectum…to the point that the Missus says when I die, I'll be headed to the "giant chitlin in the sky". These were crisp and easy to eat; though I'm not a big fan of dipping it into hoisin sauce.

There's something wonderfully yeasty about these that just takes me back to China. The bun is light and not too sweet; there's just a bit more than a smear of meat but it is also very light…..there's a nice ginger flavor that comes through which really refreshes the palate.

Tasty Noodle House
827 W Las Tunas Dr
San Gabriel, CA 91776

When we start thinking in terms of "what's next", it's items that can either: keep real well, or have really assertive flavors. On this trip it meant…..

Hunan Chilli King – almost five years later:

It's been a while since we'd been here…….this is where I first understood what the term "big spicy" really meant. I also remember getting "maced" by the leftovers that I heated in the microwave. I'd been craving spicy food recently; the Sichuan in San Diego is quite timid and doesn't cut it, so it was time to return.

We started with the basic "three steamed meats"…..

See the chili seeds? This was kind of spicy and was what we called a two out of three…the smoked pork (la rou) was excellent; the chicken (how lamented that they don't seem to serve duck anymore) was good, but the fish was really hard and chewy…..it was actually better then next day.

The one dish we were wondering about is a favorite of the Missus. It was a dish simply called "steamed eggplant" on the menu, but was so good that I've made this a couple of times. It has not quite reached the heights of the dish as made at Hunan Chill King though. However, it had been quite a while since we had it and wondered if it had withstood the test of time.

Well, it has….though it wasn't quite as salty as we recalled. It was also really spicy when we had the leftovers the next day…..still a great dish though.

As a bonus; we got our fun "San Gabriel sign" fix here as well.

Hunan Chilli King
524 East Valley Boulevard
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Shufeng Garden – my take-out go to joint:

**** Shufeng Garden has closed

We had to stop by Rowland Heights on the way back to San Diego….so it made sense to stop by a take-out favorite of mine; Shufeng Garden. For some reason, it was really quite on this day.

There are basically two dishes I get from here….and perhaps some Liang Cai (cold dishes), we really need to stop by for a sit down meal again someday, but it's always the situation of "so many places to try….so little time".

Anyway, for us it's the Tea Smoked Duck:

And the Sliced Pork with Garlic Sauce.

This makes for some really good take-out….though I think Sammy may disagree…….

I guess he doesn't have quite the same taste in spicy foods as we do!

Shufeng Garden
18459 Colima Road
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

Thanks for reading!

Roadtrip: Yai Restaurant (Los Angeles) 7 years later

April 7, 2014 mmm-yoso Los Angeles County, Road Trip, Thai Restaurants

We left San Bruno at a bit after 5am the night after having a wonderful meal at Wakuriya. We decided on grabbing lunch in LA, then doing a couple of errands, then heading straight home.

We stopped at "fragrant" Harris Ranch for gas and bought some stuff for Da' Boyz. What was really funny was that the Missus had never been back to LA this way…..so when I turned off at Gilroy, She asked me "why the hell are we taking side streets!!!"

Now if you recall, this was during the first weekend of December, which was the coldest of the year. The Missus told me to take a break and She'd drive until we reached Castaic. I dozed off, but awoke when the Missus told me, "hey, check this out!" We were on the Grapevine at the Tejon Pass and my god, it was snowing……..like sideways snow. Now you have to remember, I'm a kid from Hawaii, the Missus didn't learn how to drive until She moved to the US……in LA. We don't drive in snow…..

I looked ahead……I told the Missus, "you see those vehicles in front of us? Those are snowplows!" Yep, at the Northern tip of LA County……snowplows….

This was something very different for us…..and yes, the Missus was actually fascinated by the experience.

We were very lucky, they had closed the Tejon Pass about 15 minutes later. A few minutes more and we'd had been caught in a traffic jam. Here's what it looked like in Castaic…..

We made it to our lunch destination right on time; a shade after 11am. We'd been wanting to return to Yai Restaurant for a while. Alot of water had passed under the bridge since that visit in 2006; we'd been to Thailand, Laos, had our favorites in San Diego, and were wondering if our impression of Yai would be the same.

Yai resides on the outskirts of "Thai Town". It's a no frills, no pretense, simply furnished joint. I kind of believe that what Yai does best is are Chinese influenced Thai dishes.

We ordered the two dishes that really made an impression years ago and went with one I was interested in trying.

One of the dishes that we really enjoyed was the BBQ Duck with Chili and Garlic ($10.95).

This was definitely not visually appealing. It did have that wonderful sweet-garlic flavor, though it was a bit on the greasy side. The duck was also on the chewy side, but had a really nice flavor.

The Black Egg Pow ($8.95)

So good, just the way we recalled. I don't ever recall seeing this dish anywhere else. Preserved duck egg is deep fried, then combined with a wonderfully sweet and savory sauce that captures classic Thai flavors.

The fried basil leaves add a crunchiness and a mildly sweet-herbaceous flavor to the dish. The preserved eggs have a wonderful texture, the exterior crunch, yields to the firm egg, then gives way to a creamy center. There's a slight sulphuric – musty finish that I find pleasant in a strange sort of way. This is one of my "desert island dishes".

This is simply called Roast Pork with Chinese Broccoli ($8.95) on the menu and is actually crisp roast pork with gailan. But this dish is more than just a description. I'm not sure where they get that roast pork, but it is simply wonderful. It almost melts in your mouth.

This was a nice way to end our roadtrip….it's always gratifying to visit places you really enjoyed years ago and find they're still putting out good grub.

Yai Restaurant
5757 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Rose Garden Tea Room at the Huntington: Road Trip

January 15, 2014 ed fromyuma Los Angeles County, Road Trip, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Today, you can read about Tina and Ed (from Yuma) touristing and eating in the LA area. Tomorrow, it’ll probably be Kirk or Cathy writing. Things change at mmm-yoso.

The Huntington in San Marino (not far from San Gabriel) contains a wonderful Library, rooms full of Art collections, and botanical Gardens:

The estate of approximately 120 acres contains huge lawns decorated with statuary:

Asian Gardens:

Bridges:

Flowers blooming even in late December:

The major art collection in the Huntington mansion includes the largest selection of English portraits outside of London, including Gainsborough’s “Blue Boy” and Lawrence's “Pinkie:

When we were there in December, 2013, the gallery in this building below contained an extensive exhibit, called "Face to Face," that focused on how Flemish painting influenced and contributed to the great art of 15th-century Florence and presented over 30 works by Memling, van der Weyden, van Eyck, and other greats:

Of course, Tina and I were also interested in the traditional tea buffet in the Rose Garden Tea Room ($29.50). Classical chamber music played in the background perfectly accenting the understated elegance of the room itself:

Each table had basic tea condiments – lumps of brown or white sugar and a small pitcher of milk:

When seated, we were given a large basket of buttery and flaky scones, each about the diameter of an old silver dollar, all rich and flavorful:

As you can see, some had raisins and some orange peel. There was also a small tray of complements for the scones – blueberry preserves, orange marmalade (made from Seville oranges grown on the estate), fresh butter, and sweet Devonshire cream:

A large range of teas including many flower or herbal teas without caffeine were available. Since we were having tea as a Saturday brunch, we chose good, old-fashioned English breakfast, which was flavorful but not astringent or bitter:

I have to admit to being slightly disappointed in the utilitarian teapot, which was refilled when needed. For some reason, I had expected something more ornate in sterling silver.

After gorging ourselves on scones – certainly the best either of us had ever had – we filled plates with treats from the buffet in the middle of the room. Here is Tina's first plate:

My first plate:

My 2nd plate:

From a different angle emphasizing the fruit:

This was all generally good. Tina's favorite sandwich was the cucumber. I liked the chicken and tarragon, the ginger and carrot and especially the smoked salmon with dilled cream cheese. The caviar was abundant, crunchy, and not too salty or fishy. The hummus, which looked pretty ordinary, was actually extraordinarily complex and flavorful. We both thought the lightly smoked Gouda was the best of the cheeses that we tried. Some of the fruit – I remember the giant strawberry in particular – was truly excellent. Of course the salads were fresh and tasty. It took great restraint to only have 2 plates of food along with the wonderful scones. Had we scheduled The Rose Garden Tea Room in the middle of our visit to the Huntington (instead of 10:45 am), we might well have sat there for a couple of hours sipping and savoring the various treats.

If I’d spent more time, I could have even sampled the numerous brownies, cookies, and cupcakes that I forgot to photograph. But I did take some snaps of the roses outside:

In any case, we had a wonderful time at the Huntington, and we both want to thank Kirk who reminded us about the traditional English tea room on the estate.

The Rose Garden Tea Room, at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Rd San Marino, CA 91108; Tea Room hours Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 12 noon to 4:30 p.m. (last seating at 3:30 p.m.); Sat. – Sun.: 10:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (last seating at 3:30 p.m.); Closed Tuesdays; (626) 683-8131. Link to The Huntington http://www.huntington.org/

A Dinner at Giang Nan in Monterey Park: Road Trip

January 3, 2014 ed fromyuma Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Xiao Long Bao

This post isn't about a Kirk Road Trip or one by Cathy. This post is about a meal Ed (from Yuma) and Tina had on a road trip exploring a little of the culture and cuisines in the LA area.

Tina and I were staying in Montebello, just south of Monterey Park. Saturday night was going to be our last dinner in the area. Of course, we would eat Chinese food, but Tina insisted “no seafood.” We were looking for something reasonable, no frills, no stress. Thanks to some posts by Kirk, we decided to try a Shanghai style dinner at Giang Nan – if we could find the small restaurant at the backend of a small anonymous strip mall at 306 N. Garfield. Luckily for us, it was all lit up for the holidays:

We were fairly early, so there were few other customers in the small restaurant when we arrived, and the place was not full even later when we left:

The restaurant seemed clean and nicely if sparingly decorated. The service was also friendly and knowledgeable – our young female waitperson was very helpful and pleasant. The menu was extensive and offered us a lot of choices, so we found some dishes we knew we wanted, but we just guessed about others.

We began with chicken in wine sauce ($4.95):

This cold chicken appetizer tasted fresh and clean with a light background flavor of the wine sauce. Very enjoyable.

The duck in supreme sauce ($5.95) was also pleasant. The thick sauce had a pronounced 5 spice flavor and complemented the chilled leg and thigh of roast duck. Sweet spice and savory flavors matching the cool rich duck flesh:

We felt we got lucky with our order of shredded pork and bamboo shoots ($5.95). Really enjoyed the textures of the pork, bamboo shoots, and green onions. The dish was lightly sauced so that each ingredient was present and accounted for. Of course, I am a huge fan of bamboo shoots since I just love their earthy woodsy flavor and unique texture, but it is hard to imagine anyone not relishing this dish:

We wanted a purely vegetable dish and braised green beans and shredded potato sounded different and interesting:

The dish arrived at our table still steaming hot. The green beans were perfectly cooked and the sauce, dark as it looked, was not too salty or overwhelming. Only the potato strips, which tasted too soft, like they came from a package of frozen french fries, were somewhat disappointing. Still they provided a bland and soft contrast to the crispier green flavored beans.

Our helpful waitperson had suggested that we have some rice with the meal, and when I asked her to recommend a particular rice dish, she eagerly pointed to the salted pork and vegetable rice ($5.95):

Her recommendation was spot on. In some ways, this was the most impressive thing we tasted all evening. The greens, the slightly salty pork belly chunks, and the hot, almost creamy rice were well balanced and the layered flavors of the dish all worked together. We thanked her a couple of different times for the recommendation.

The last item to arrive was an order of pork xiao long bao ($4.95):

These were really good. Although a couple of them had lost some soup, every one was wonderfully juicy:

The pork flavors of the dumplings were excellent, and the wrappers neither too thick nor too tough. We also appreciated their somewhat small size. Once they cooled just a little bit, they were perfect one-bite treats. It seemed odd to receive them at the end of the meal, but we had no trouble gobbling them all up. Just like a desert, I guess.

Not only was this a very reasonably priced dinner,:

but we received so much food that it was also our Sunday brunch as well, and we still felt bad throwing some leftovers away. Giang Nan is certainly not a fancy restaurant, but we will happily return for rustic Shanghai cuisine the next time we are in the area.

Giang Nan, 306 N Garfield Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91754, (626) 573-3421; Open 11 am – 3pm, and 5pm – 10 pm daily

2014 Tournament of Roses Parade float decorating (and meals in Pasadena)

December 26, 2013 Cathy Bakery, Festivals & Events, Los Angeles County, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! the food blog is written by a few people who do more than just eat. We (Kirk, Ed(from Yuma), Cathy and others) have professions, jobs, hobbies and various interests. The end purpose of each post is to share some sort of food and/or eating experience. Today's post, written by Cathy, is a compilation of food and interest…

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day! The year has really flown by and in less than a week- it's 2014. The year will begin in Southern California, as it has begun for the previous 124 years, with the Tournament of Roses parade and football game.

If you follow the blog, you know I've been sharings 2014 Rose Parade float road tests with you all year and finally the time arrived for decorating the floats. The Mister and I volunteer with the Petal Pushers, who assist in decorating floats which are parked in the Rose Palace Barn belonging to Phoenix Decorating Company and sign up for the days we want to volunteer months in advance.

The Saturdays before Christmas Day in December are "Detail Days" (and used to be called 'dry decorating days'). "Detail Days" are for cutting, shredding and gluing. Lots of gluing. It's when The Mister and I volunteer and perform repetitive, tedious, necessary tasks for eight hours. Needless to say starting today, "Decorating Days" begin- from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m.(or later) every day until the floats are finished and ready to be judged on the morning of December 31. Decorating days are when fresh vegetables, fruits and flowers are being placed. Many of the flowers (iris and roses) need to be cut then placed into water filled vials (which are all filled as one of the many tasks) then onto the floats. Thousands of fresh flowers are being delivered on the day after Christmas as well as on the 27th, 28th and 29th. This Banner Float will be the first float you see in the 2014 parade, announcing the theme. The floats are 'colored in' both as a guide and in case some sort of disaster befalls the float and flowers or dry materials wash off; you'll still see color.Here are some views inside the Rose Palace. There are eleven floats being decorated. Another perspective. You can see the scaffolding is set up for the gluing that was to be performed this day.

Some of the many dry materials being prepared for gluing. The statice are delivered in three main colors (pink, light blue and dark purple) and only the flower petals are cut off and used. The bags filled in the third photo are the results of about ten of the five gallon buckets being cut, or seven hours of cutting performed by ten people.

Yellow straw flowers are in abundance here, petals are cut off, then pulverized in Blendtec Blenders (a Christmas gift this year, by the way) and the resultant powder as well as centers are glued onto the floats for both color and texture. The shredded ends(palm fiber) from palm bark are also peeled off and ground up in the whirring blenders.

The seed chart shows all of the dry materials which are used (and excess stored) during Detail Days.

Here's the City of Glendale float (with Meatball the Bear), which I first showed you during the August road test (last two photos on the post) and in it's coccoon stage during the September road test (the eighth photo).

The City of Los Angeles float (which will need a *lot* of the purple statice for the LA Lakers portion of the float)

Here's some detail of flower pots being covered with braided dry materials, called Pac-Pac.

Only three people are allowed on a scaffold at a time (this is the Western Life Assurance float). Scaffolding is moved and lowered a bit each week.

The Shriners Hospital for Children float, is a superhero bear bounching off a giant heart with detail on the back of the cape.

This is the back side of the heart that the bear is bouncing from-covered meticulously with cut red straw flower petals…

The Lions Club International had many volunteers show up from Lions Clubs all over Southern California.

Farmers Insurance is one of the last floats built and road tested and wasn't quite ready for decorating on the day we were here. It's theme of "Thank a Million Teachers" is based on a three year program the insurance company has been promoting.

The Centenniel of the City of Beverly Hills is a magnificent float.

Of course we had breaks before and after this day of gluing and cutting. Above is outside the Rose Palace decorating barn when we all took a lunch break. {See that large doorway? That's the maximum height and width a float needs to contract, so it can fit under the street and signal lights along the parade route.} The Pizza Hut a block away provides a personal pizza and beverage for $3.50 (you order when you sign in to work) and donates $1 from each order to the Petal Pushers. The Mister and I had brought our own lunch…

We had stopped at Mr. Goods Donuts on Colorado Boulevard before our long day.

The shelves were full, but we only (of course) bought the wonderful ham and cheese filled croissants sold here, to be part of our lunch.

Mr. Goods Donuts 1840 East Colorado Boulevard Pasadena 91107

After a long day, we left and parked around the corner from this old design McDonald's on Colorado Boulevard, next to Pasadena City College.

Walking past it, and the Comics Factory (really, it's on Colorado Boulevard and the Parade route-look closely at all the Rose Parade signs on every light post), we were back at Zankou Chicken (where we ate after decorating last year), which we figured would be a 'healthy' meal with enough leftover for the next day…

And it was. Enough for another meal, sides and snacks for two more days actually.

Zankou Chicken 1296 East Colorado Boulevard Pasadena 91106 (626)405-1502 website

Since we did not have to be ready to start until 9 a.m., we didn't leave home at our usual 5 a.m., so got to Cream Pan far past our 'usual' time of about 6:15. There were a few more people inside, however the shelves had more choices, including this $2 cup of karaage…which was nice to eat in the car as a supplemental breakfast item. Of course, the usual suspects, ham and cheese croissant and catsup covered pastry wrapped hot dog were also consumed that day.

Cream Pan 602 El Camino Real Tustin, CA 92780 (714)665-8239

I hope everyone is having a good day after Christmas!

Roadtrip: Alpine Village Market – Torrance

December 23, 2013 mmm-yoso German Restaurants and Food, Los Angeles County, Markets & Grocers, Road Trip

**** Sadly Alpine Village Market closed in 2023

Please pardon all the roadtrip posts. I wanted to do this one, because this place just put us in the holiday mood. We decided to head up to LA to do some shopping this past weekend, mostly food stuff. On our previous roadtrip (more posts coming up), instead of visting sites and such, we just ended up hitting various markets along the way. On this roadtrip, we hit up old favorites like the Torrance Farmer's Market, which seems to get larger everytime we visit and of course, Marukai Gardena, the motherlode with regards to Marukai's. But I had my sights set on another place that I'd only recently heard about; the Alpine Village Market, located close by in Torrance.

The Market is located in a large complex, called…duh…. Alpine Village. Along with the market, a deli, and restaurant and ummm "bierhall" (of course), there's a travel agency, driving school, clock and watch repair, along with the mother of all swap meets, which made the parking lot into an insane swarm of vehicles trying to find a parking spot. We lucked out and found a tiny spot to the left of the rather kitschy looking exterior of the market.

I was totally set on being underwhelmed, but this place exceeded my expectations. The market isn't very large but they sure pack a lot into the place.

From the bakery, with stacks of wonderful smelling bread.

And all the old school type pastries. It's a good thing I don't have a sweet tooth, otherwise I'd have gone a bit crazy here. The couple in front of me at the register bought three loaves of bread and spent almost $300 bucks on groceries. Kind of tough, since the prices seem very reasonable.

There are all sorts of candies and confections, canned and jarred products.

This is a German market, so of course a third of it would be the wine and beer section.

This was all nice, but the one section that was just packed to the gills busy was the butcher shop. The line was four to five deep. Man the place was hopping.

The collection of sausages and charcuterie was impressive……

I was told that all of this was made in house. There were sausages and cuts, I'd never heard of. There was a cold case full of various "wursts", but no one was taking stuff from there….it was all happening in front of the meat counter.

One look at the selection of head cheese and we were sold; the Missus took and number and headed into the fray.

Honestly, if this were say 99 Ranch Market and a survival of the strongest type situation, we'd truly have walked away. But this crowd, though busy and intense, also had a bit of jovial, friendly nature to it. Perhaps it was the holiday season, but as nice as the crew behind the counter were (and they were very nice), the other customers were really friendly, at least to us. I guess we kind of stood out…..

Back in the line, the Missus was having a conversation with an African-American gentleman originally from Louisiana, who seemed to know everyone….he told the Missus he came here every two weeks. He had a basket full of smoked beef bones for his dogs. The Missus decided to send me off looking for these….which is how I came across this:

Grieben Schmalz, which I had heard off but never seen in a market. When you hear the term schmalz, you tend to think of the Yiddish "schmaltz" which refers to rendered fat from fowl……grieben schmalz on the other hand is rendered pork fat….think lard, that has been flavored with onion and in many cases, though not this one, with apple. How could I resist? I grabbed five beef bones and a container of schmalz and a older woman looked at what I had in my basket, smiled, and asked me, "you like schmalz?" I tols her that I'd never tried it, but seeing it, I just couldn't resist. I was told it is fantastic on toast. I mentioned that my wife is standing in line to buy head cheese. She asked me which one we chose….I told her all of them. She laughed and said we would have a fine buffet. Apparently, her daughter brings her here every two weeks to shop; "even though I live in Orange County and there are shops there, everything is twice the price and half as good as here….."

Interesting tidbit about buying deli meats…..the counter folks ask you for quantities in "slices"……though they were ok with the Missus ordering a quarter pound….of all the head cheeses.

Thus we ended up with a basket of smoked dog bones, head cheese, some candy, flavored lard, and three containers of sauekraut, purely for comparison of course……

All our stuff came out to $35, pretty cheap I think. I'm sure we'll be back again, this time for sausages, and perhaps more Grieben Schmalz.

Alpine Village Market
833 Torrance Blvd
Torrance, CA 90502
Hours:
Mon – Thurs 10am – 7pm
Fri – Sun 9am – 7pm

So we did end up having our "Kaltes Buffet" of sorts. So remember the variety of head cheese? Well here's sampling along with what seems to be cured pork belly stuffed with forcemeat….simply called "pork belly", along with a few cheeses.

My favorites are the top two; the "Norweigan" seemed to be made of shank and shoulder, with a nice pork flavor, no vinegar, with minimal aspic to hold it together. The second one down is the "Hungarian" version, which was full of various vegetables and some pickles, with a distinctive flavor that I found pleasant. The fourth item down, the "French" version had a good amount of paprika and reminded me of capacolla with a bit of pleasant sourness to it.

As for the schmalz….well, I started by tasting some of it straight from the container on a spoon, which tasted nice, but the Missus just wasn't able to eat it that way.

So what I did was toast some baguette, smear a bit of the schamlz on it and put back into the warm toaster oven to melt.

It is "betta' den butta'"…..

While this won't make me forget about duck fat; it sure will taste good with eggs or used to make brussel sprouts…or heck, even if we do cook some coleslaw……

Roadtrip: Xi’an Kitchen (City of Industry) and other stuff

December 16, 2013 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip

After lunch at Shanghailander Palace we made the short drive to Gale and the City of industry for our appointment. We had thoughts of getting our appointment done and having an early dinner and possibly a later snack. Unfortunately, what is usually an hour appointment became a 2 1/2 hour one. Kind of bushed we decided to just stay in the area. We hadn't been to the area on Gale west of Fullerton Road in ages and I had a choice of two places; Remy's or Xi'an Kitchen.

The choice became rather easy as I've been looking for good Shaanxi food since we returned from Xi'an a couple of years ago. The places we've tried just didn't measure up. We didn't set our hopes too high….I just really wanted a good Yang Rou Pao Mo, unleavened bread in mutton soup.

The place was totally different in terms of service from lunch; the young lady here just wanted to do the bare minimum. She was more interested in talking to her friends on one of the tables than serving customers. In fact, when the older couple on the back table, returned the Yang rou chuan; the lamb skewers, because they thought it was too fatty, she loudly and blatantly mocked them when taking it back to the kitchen.

I was fascinated to see Rou Jia Mo on the menu as "Chinese Hamburger". This is basically a flat bread filled with fatty pork. What's not to like. In my mind, I thought if this was half as good as what we had at Fan Ji La Zhi Rou Jia Mo (樊记腊汁肉店), I should be happy. With that as the benchmark, I guess I should be satisfied.

The filling was rich and greasy, with a good porkiness, just about right. It was however, ice cold, which made it somewhat unpleasant. The bread was over-worked and too dense , repelling the wonderful porky goodness of something like this version from Xi'an:

The Yang Rou Pao Mo tasted almost exactly like the version at Shaanxi Gourmet, so perhaps these two places are somehow related?

In places such as Tong Sheng Xiang (同盛祥) in Xi'an, the dense unleavened bread is brought to your table whereupon you break the pieces up and the hot mutton broth is poured over everything. I didn't expect that here, could you imagine the young lady having her social time interrupted for those annoying customers? Anyway, like Shaanxi Gourmet, the bread was wrong, very waxy and slippery, seemingly over-worked, developing too much gluten. Thus the bread never absorbed the flavor of the broth, which was decent, and the nice and flavorful lamb.

Of course I was wishing for something along the lines of this.

No cilantro, chili paste, or pickled garlic either…perhaps I needed to ask for those standard accompaniments? So, I recall saying that Shaanxi Gourmet didn't quite take me to Xi'an….perhaps to New Guinea; this one took me to Catalina Island…….. Still, the portion size was quite large, and would fill one up quite adequately.

We ordered one other item; called "Braised Meat in Fermented Sauce", basically preserved meat.

We both loved the texture of this cold dish, though it was pretty salty. Still, this was the best dish of the evening.

The prices here are very reasonable, but you get what you pay for. I'll pass next time….should have gotten Niu Rou Mian next door at Remy's.

Xi'an Kitchen
18213 E Gale Ave
City of Industry, CA 91748

After dinner, we decided to drive up Fullerton Road into La Habra, then to Imperial to check out one of the Missus's old favorite haunts; Brea Mall. For some reason, the place just looked dull and uninspiring to the Missus….ah, how times have changed. After walking off dinner we crossed over the 57 and checked out Mother's where the Missus bought some apples….which seemed to be the theme of this roadtrip; the Missus bought apples everywhere; Braeburn, Black Arkansas, Crimson Gold; we got back home with a bag full of apples….go figure!

We ended the evening at Daiso….the Missus bought some trinkets for some friends. If I recall, this used to be a dance studio, which I think has moved further down the strip mall.

In what seemed oddly humorous to me; they kept announcing how many minutes to closing from the time we entered….830 pm, every five minutes! By the demeanor of the staff you could see that they just wanted us the heck out of the store; it was easy to read between the lines here. "Attention Daiso customers, don't go away mad….just go away!!!" After escaping from Daiso, we walked over to 85C bakery, where we soon noticed all the other folks who had gotten kicked out left Daiso had gathered. Daiso refugees one and all!

What was really sad is that the Albertson's, which used to anchor this strip mall is now gone. We hated the Von's in Rowland Heights, which became SF Supermarket, so we used to shop here every so often. I'm not the biggest fan of these mega-chains, but we had nice memories of the place.

So Von's in Rowland Heights is gone, Albertson's in Hacienda Heights, along with Ralph's off of Colima Road in Hacienda Heights, and Ralph's in Diamond Bar. Wow……..

We crashed early, deciding to leave for the next leg of our roadtrip early; like 530 am early. The Missus wanted to stop by Donut King in the same strip mall for a cup of coffee, for old times sake.

When we lived here, Donut King used to be open 24 hours….now they open at 3am. I'm still amazed that the place survives with Krispy Creme literally a block away and all the Asian Bakeries, but there were a couple of folks in the place at 530, so I guess they're hanging on.

It's been over a decade since we left this neighborhood…..we mulled over all the changes as we headed off into the early morning darkness……

Roadtrip: Shanghailander Palace (Hacienda Heights)

December 10, 2013 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip, Xiao Long Bao

I took some time off at the end of last week. We had an appointment in LA and since I'd been working pretty hard over the last couple of months, I thought it would be good to take an extended roadtrip. Our first day would be in our old neighborhood of Rowland/Hacienda Heights and then we'd move further "North" for a few days.

Since this was a multi-day trip, we stopped at HK Plaza to stock up on some snacks and tea for our trip.

We also took the time to see what was going on here…..

We weren't too hungry, but of course we also didn't want to squander a lunch, so we headed to a place that caught the Missus' attention the last time we stayed in the area. According to what I've read, Shanghailander Palace was aiming to be the area's equivalent of Shanghai No. 1 Seafood Restaurant. So we stopped by to have a light lunch.

Arriving at almost 2 pm on a Wednesday, we were shocked to see how busy the place was! The crowd was composed of mostly older folks and larger groups. I really could have done without the middle aged woman dressed almost "cosplay" style in a short plaid skirt, blouse, and schoolgirl like sweater….yikes, it gave me the heebies!

The service was rather slow, but it could be understood since the place was slammed.

We started with the Xun Yu – "Shanghai Style Smoked fish", which as I've often explained, isn't really smoked. In what seems like the "new style" of Hu Cai (滬菜), this is served warm (deep fried after marinating) rather than as a cold dish.

I enjoyed this version as it was light, mildly "winey", not too sweet (though still too sweet for the Missus), with a nice soy flavor. Even though this was obviously fresh water fish; it lacked the muddy flavor I find unpleasant. This was much better than the version at Shanghai Number 1. I also thought the portion size was nice for an appetizer.

I will say that the tea we ordered – Ti Guanyin, a favorite of mine was just plain insipid.

I didn't see one of my favoite dishes; jellied pork on the menu, so we went with the mutton version instead.

I loved the texture, but the sauce provided was just wrong. I ended up opting for black vinegar instead.

Of course we had to get Xiao Long Bao. We went for the Pork and Crab version.

These were average at best. The tuft at the top was too hard, the wrappers ok….no leakage here, if perhaps a bit too thick and gummy. I thought the filling had decent flavor; not too sweet, but you could definitely make out the crab. Not enough soup though…..hardly any soup.

Some of the other dishes….stuff we could order if we could handle left-overs like the Braised Pork looked really good. So I think we'll probably be back.

Overall, this was a nice start to our roadtrip, which would be taking us North, culminating with dinner in San Mateo at Michelin Starred Wakuriya. Man was I going to enjoy this roadtrip!

Shanghailander Palace
1695 South Azusa Ave
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745

Comfort Food Roadtrip: Qing Dao Bread Food (Monterey Park) and Shen Yang Restaurant (San Gabriel)

December 8, 2013 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip

We hadn't been down to the SGV since before our vacation in May. I've been pretty busy with work and had been craving some jiaozi (dumplings) for a while. Unfortunately, there isn't a place in San Diego that makes anything remotely close to a decent jiaozi, xiao long bao, or even dim sum. It's a shame. I was missing jiaozi so much that I actually went to Dump(ling) Inn, which was a big mistake. The Missus also wanted some hearty comfort food as well. So a couple of weeks ago, we headed on up to the SGV.

Qing Dao Bread Food:

Folks that read the blog long enough know that while I love a good jiaozi, I'm partial to the Shandong style; specifically QingDao style dumpling. The wrappers have to be rolled by hand, those edges have to be thin enough so that the texture of the wrapper will be even after folding. The texture of the wrapper has to have a bit of stretch, almost like a good al dente noodle. It should glisten when cooked. I know, blah, blah, blah……

What it basically comes down to is that I enjoy the mutton jiaozi from Qing Dao Bread Food. It's the style I enjoy the best and also the city the Missus is from. The Missus always laughs after talking to the guy here….according to Her; his accent is "totally, one hundred-percent Qing Dao" which has its own unique accent ( "Qingdao Hua" (青岛话)).

Since we were folding two meals into one, this was going to be something light….all the Missus wanted was millet porridge, which is something like 50 cents here.

I'm not a big fan of this, but for the Missus, it's comfort food.

Over the years, we've noticed that there are new specials offered; many of them examples of typical, traditional, Qing Dao style "soul food". On this visit; the Missus and I were amazed to see housemade Chinese Sausage. Not just any Chinese sausage, but stuff that really looked like the style made in Qing Dao. So we just had to try it.

According to the sign, it's a "special, secret recipe". I can say this though, the flavors are pretty much spot on. While I'm not certain if the attributes of this sausage is unique to Qing Dao, or if it is more of a regional style, I will say that the strong flavor of wine in which the pork is marinated in, and the five spice was there. In fact, the five spice had the potent fragrance and flavor of the stuff from Qing Dao; which is what I use at home. Interesting tidbit; in QingDao, you don't go to the market to buy five spice. Rather, you go to the pharmacy to get it! In terms of texture; it wasn't quite as "air dried" as I'm used to, making it more moist. Also, the meat was cut in larger chunks. It was also a bit more salty as well. Still, this was a taste of home for the Missus and comfort food for me. It's obviously hand made and not cheap at $20 a pound ($4 each), but totally worth it.

Of course I had to have the Lamb Jiaozi:

I won't go too much into detail, since I've written about this, several times before. I will say, that on this visit, while still good, it wasn't quite up there with what I'd had previously. That sheen was missing; the wrapper was a bit more brittle, lacking the slight pull I'm used too. It's still among my favorites though.

Qing Dao Bread Food is an interesting shop; they were quite busy on this morning, I think they've found their niche, the soul food of Qing Dao. Lots of guys coming in and buying mantou (which is the classic starch for the sausage) on this morning. I'm sure we'll be dropping by to pick up some sausage on future trips to the area.

Qing Dao Bread Food
301 North Garfield Ave.
Monterey Park, CA 91754

Shen Yang Restaurant (San Gabriel location):

**** Shen Yang Restaurant has closed

I'd been wanting to check out Shen Yang for a while. Since we were in the mood for the hearty type of Northern Chinese, we headed up to Shen Yang Restaurant.

There's something very "old school" SGV about this place. The service is pretty much all business, the customers older Chinese….not a single word of English heard from anyone other than us the whole visit.

We started up with the Stewed Pork Bones (Jiang Gutou).

There something so wonderful about picking through tasty pieces of meat, tendon, and other connective tissue around bones. The flavor of the bones have been passed to the meat; the stickiness of the tendon and other connective tissues, along with the varying texture of the "good bits" make this a great dish with a couple of beers. The flavor was straight ahead and I could probably pull this off at home, but this wasn't bad at all.

Since we're talking about Shenyang style food here, I had to try the Suan Cai. So we got the Shredded Pork with Pickled Sour Napa.

Not the prettiest looking dish, but this was very good. The suan cai was prepped well; neither salty, nor too sour. The texture was spot on. The Missus was told that they make their own suan cai, which takes about a month. This was very warming and hearty. The portion size was typical of Northern Chinese, very generous. The pork was tender and the flavors for this type of dish well balanced. Think of it as a sauerkraut stir-fry if you will.

We'll be back to try the suan cai yang rou soon. The prices are reasonable, though I'm not certain that unless you've been exposed to this type of cuisine, you'll really enjoy it. For me; it's hearty, comfort food.

Shen Yang Restaurant
137 S San Gabriel Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776