Category: Road Trip

I'm not quite sure who recommended Tasty Noodle to me, I just can't find the email (was it you AndyS?). All I had was a little scribble in my notebook that says" Tasty Noodle – Dalian" and some other stuff…so it probably means that the owners are from Dalian, a city in Liaoning province, just North of Shandong where the Missus is from. The shop is tiny, tucked away in the same strip mall as several other restaurants including Golden Deli. Located in one of the corners you really can't see the place from the street.

Man was this place super clean….and super tiny, five-six tables in all. The young lady serving me was very friendly and polite as well……

The menu says "New style Chinese" which kinda raised alarms……….but I moved forward. Looking at my notes which said "noodle soup" (duh), but not which kind of noodle soup….  but I quickly made up my mind when I saw Pork Belly Noodle Soup ($5.99) on the menu.

The bowl was just humongous, filled to the brim with a thick soup. The noodles were excellent, looking closely you could tell they were hand made. The texture was wonderful, slight chew, mild pull, but nice and tender. That's where all the accolades end. The thin sliced pork belly was very tough and mealy. The broth really needed some help as it was very bland. I tried but only put a slight dent into the soup and took the rest home.

I would have usually just had some noodle soup and headed out since I was eating solo on this trip. But for some reason, I'd written Baozi in my notebook so I ordered the Tiajin Baozi ($6.99). It's written as "Pork Buns" on the menu.

It really didn't look that attractive, some were slightly open on the top…heck maybe this would even be a pseudo Guo Bu Li Baozi ("stuffed buns that even dogs would not eat" – a specialty of Tianjin). But after having eaten enough of these I could just tell by the smell, a mild yeasty-savory scent, with a touch of nutty sesame oil in the background, that I knew these were going to be pretty good. I actually reached out and grabbed one with my hands and was rewarded with a fluffy springiness…man, this was going to be good. The steamed bun was almost perfect, fluffy, light…best I've had in a while. The filling had that almost smooth texture with the perfect ratio of flavoring. This made the trip here worthwhile. I ate four and saved the rest for dinner. I also bought the Missus the vegetarian version. She loved the bun, even after heating…..She told me the filling was on the bland side, so go with the pork. But I know She's already planning to hit this place up on our next trip to the area.

Thinking that the folks here are from Liaoning, perhaps the Suan Cai Yang Rou might be worth a try……hmmm…my mind is still on that baozi, though!

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

Hours 11am – 3pm
      5pm – 930pm
      Closed Mondays

**** Omar's Xinjiang has closed

I had recently heard about an honest to goodness Xinjiang/Uyghur restaurant opening in the SGV…. not Northern style Muslim Chinese, but real Xinjiang. Last year, during our tirp to China we had eaten with friends at an Xinjiang restaurant called Jinsite in Beijing. I really enjoyed the food, all the different skewers, "rice to be eaten by hand", and other stuff. The Missus wasn't so thrilled, but She seemed rather enthusiastic about checking this little restaurant, located on the corner of New avenue and Ralph street (more on that later).

We arrived at around 11am and found the restaurant empty. The decor seemed right, though the young lady seemed annoyed that we had interrupted her television show and treated us like we were proverbial flies in the ointment….after all, how dare we walk into this restaurant and actually expect to eat?

 

The menu is small but packed with lamb, lamb, and more lamb. The Missus looked over the menu and gave me a puzzled look, but didn't say anything. We had thought about trying the rice to be eaten by hand…here called pilaf, but that would take an hour. We decided on a couple of other dishes instead.

We started with the house made yogurt ($2.50), which had a nice, sweet hint to eat, much like Suan Nai, but whereas Beijing yogurt is liquid, this was a pretty thick curd. It was much thicker than the Xinjiang yogurt I had before as well.

 

Still, I found it nice and refreshing.

I had wanted to try the Spicy Ox Tripe ($5.99).

These type of dishes are usually cold appetizers, so we were caught a bit off guard when it arrived warm. I'm not a big fan of honeycomb tripe, but this was wonderfully tender. the flavor wasn't especially spicy, and the Missus added even more black vinegar to it, but I can say I really enjoyed this dish. From here, things went pretty much downhill…….

We ordered two Yang Rou Chuan -  Lamb Skewers ($3.55), which were salty, but other than that very weakly seasoned.

 

Of course we had to get the Zi Ran Yang Rou, cumin lamb ($10.99). I currently use cumin from Xinjiang, it is pungent, but almost mildly sweet so I was itching to see what would arrive…. and I couldn't believe my eyes……

 

I'm not a big fan of grey meat, and tough grey meat is even worse. This was both, it was a very cheap cut, full of gristle, and not much cumin to the whole thing. Some onion, chili, and garlic would have surely helped and this was fairly low on the cumin scale in terms of flavor. Of course it didn't help that this looked like it was cooked over a can of sterno………

If you compared that, with this, which is what I make at home, honestly, which would you rather eat?

 

We took most of it home and I tried to rescue it with more toasted cumin, some onions, wine, and dark soy…. but to no avail, it was DOA, beyond resuscitation.

The last dish was supposed to be the crowning jewel as I love the chewiness of hand pulled noodles ($12.99). what I do not love is hard, tough, almost brittle noodles, which is what this was.

 

Plus for thirteen bucks in the SGV, I expect a bit more than the three thin slices of lamb (though it was tasty lamb) and minimal vegetables in the stir fry. Man were those noodles hard, if you flogged me with this wet noodle, I'd be scarred for life……as it was the mental scars are more than sufficient.

All this combined with the server who made us feel like we were intruding…..it was a rather uncomfortable feeling. She did flash a smile though….when I asked for out check! It was so absurd, we can only laugh about it. In the end, we really didn't feel that this meal was worth forty bucks…….

As we were leaving, the Missus told me, "you know I don't care for Xinjiang food…." I asked Her why She had agreed to checking this place out. Her answer cracked me up; "I thought you said JINJIANG (Fujian) not XINJIANG! You owe me….." So we quickly rushed to Qing Dao Bread Food, then found some pretty good duck, had a visit to Domies bakery, and did take-out from a Yunnan restaurant……

Omar's Xinjiang Halal Restaurant
1718 New Ave
San Gabriel, CA 91776

I was going to do something titled a "quick road trip", but that would be inaccurate…… I had an appointment in our old neighborhood of Rowland Heights, and usually the Missus would accompany me. We'd get things done early and hit up one or two (or maybe three) places. Because of work, this was a solo drive for me…. and it was a darn good thing. I got out of my appointment at 1pm. Now I don't know how many of you notice that we like to eat early to avoid the crowds…. but by 1pm on a Saturday… well, good luck. So I did some quick shopping at Marukai in West Covina, man has this area changed since we moved to San Diego. Someday, I'll do that post. Anyway, I decided to just do some take-out and head on home. I decided on something from Shufeng Garden which I've posted on before. By the time I got home it was 430…… so I guess I had a kinda late lunch, the Missus and early dinner.

**** Shufeng Garden has closed

I wanted to check out the tea smoked duck again($12.99), and this time it was even better.

 

Though the smoked flavor is still not as pronounced as I would have enjoyed, this was one meaty, and surprisingly moist duck.

I went with a favorite from our previous visit, the Sliced Pork with Garlic Sauce ($7.95):

 

I gotta say, even though I really enjoyed it on our previous visit, it was even better today. I think sitting in the chili-garlic-vinegar-sugar mixture on the drive back to San Diego gave the thinly sliced pork belly, and the cucumber slices below it time to soak up the flavors. Mildly spicy, pungent, sweet with a mild tangy finish, this was nice. Sitting in the sauce also gave this a more "back of the throat" heat. The pork holds form without being too waxy or mushy…..  It is one lovely dish.

Wanting to try something I hadn't, I went with the Lamb with Hot Chili ($7.95). Consisting of lamb rib bones and meat… this was almost finger food, though you don't want to be touching your eyes after. Hints of cumin, Sichuan peppercorn (not quite enough), and the flavor of scalded chilies were the key players in this dish.

 

This could have been a bit more spicy, but was a nice dish overall….. I'd have it again.

The folks working here have always been nice to me….. so I'll probably go back and try some different items. Perhaps the Rabbit with hot sauce, or maybe the Steamed Toad?

Shufeng Garden
18459 Colima Road
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

An update on some MIA San Diego Food Bloggers (aka I've been looking for you on milk cartons):

I guess I've been doing this for a while. And over the years, I've met and traded emails with many of the food bloggers in San Diego….. to paraphrase fellow food blogger Marie, "it's almost like I've known you for ages." Like the tides, there seems to be an ebb and flow…. food blogs come and go, and it's always nice to come across a new one. But there's always a sense of loss when a food blog seems to fall by the wayside and I do tend to wonder what happened. So I will often email folks after seeing no posts for a while…. or even call them if I have their number. Such as the one and only Captain Jack of San Diego Restaurant Reviews Blog. I spoke to Jack recently and he's doing well, still taking photos of food, but has been occupied with work and other hobbies (is World of Warcraft a hobby?). Having a nice stash of food photos, I'm thinking it's just a matter of time before Jack is posting again. I also received an email from Masa Assassin who told me he is doing well, perhaps a bit too well having gotten a promotion at work, leaving him little time for the blog. I'm just glad that he and the Missus are doing well. So there you go, a couple of updates on some MIA fellow San Diego food bloggers.

Hope to see some new posts from you fella's soon!

**** Shufeng Garden has closed

Aaaah Colima Road, how we miss thee…. not for the traffic, or the noise, nor the drivers who wouldn't pass the DMV driver's exam in my hometown for the matter. What we do miss, is the wall to wall….."stuff". While on the short end for Japanese and Thai, there's an abundance of Chinese and Korean restaurants. Man, did we love those 24 hour Korean Restaurants…. but I guess that's a bit too much to ask for. Though, even in Honolulu there's at least one 24 hour Korean Restaurant! Having lived two blocks from Colima Road, food was always at our fingertips…. though I probably could have done without the fragrance of Chou Doufu floating through the air…..

On Christmas Eve we had taken a drive through Rowland Heights on our way back to San Diego. We peeked in Shufeng Garden and liked what we saw, and ordered the Tea Smoked Duck, which we thought was pretty good. So recently, we returned for a meal.

 

There's a strange tropical-jungle like mural that runs the entire wall of the restaurant. The staff here was really nice, if a bit harried and over-worked. We've noticed that staffing in Rowland/Hacienda Heights seems to be much better than restaurants in San Gabriel-Alhambra-Monterey Park…perhaps it's my imagination; but things seem that way.

 

We were given some soup to start things off. When I caught a whiff, I told the Missus that She wouldn't like it, it smelled really medicinal….. and it was.

I started with a couple of dishes I had read about on Pam's Blog. I was fascinated by the Intestines with Chili ($9.95), prepared in the fashion of Chongqing Chicken, first deep fried, then cooked a second time with lightly scalded chilies.

 

The texture of these were top-notch, light crunch, followed by the mild chew of intestines. I enjoyed the spice, good heat, but not overwhelming. The Missus hit it right on the nose when She said, "blah, these don't have that intestine flavor. You don't know you're eating intestine!" Still great texture, nice heat, could have used a bit more "ma" numbing from Sichuan Peppercorns……. I would suggest this dish if you love chilies, but have never had intestine before. I'm actually going to print out this photo, and see if they'd make something like this for me at Ba Ren!

The Sliced Pork with Garlic Sauce ($7.95) was phenomenal.

 

This cold dish featured fatty pork, with a mildly sweet, chili based sauce that reminds one of the sauce used for the classic "Saliva Chicken". The pork is muy tender without a touch of waxy greasiness.

The cucumber under the pork refreshed my palate, making ready for more…….

The Missus saw the next dish on another table and ordered it. She shouldn't have…….

 

At first I thought it was something like Shui Zhu Yu (water boiled fish). And though it did look like that dish with bean curd added, it was pretty bad. It was spicy, but that's it…. nothing else was brought to the table, no savory Doubian Jian flavor, nothing….. it could have used some salt as well. Also, the fish was overcooked and too flaky for this type of dish.

Much like Earthen Restaurant, if we still lived in the area, we'd be eating here every so often. The Missus doesn't think this place is worth an extra stop on our road trips to the area. I'm going to have to talk Her into stopping for the pork dish…….

Shufeng Garden
18459 Colima Road
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

Over the last couple of years, we've tried to grab a meal at Earthen Restaurant in Hacienda Heights, but never seemed to have much luck, and had usually ended up somewhere else. The Missus just didn't think that much of the menu, and was sure we could get better Dan Bing and Jiaozi elsewhere, so why wait in line? Still, having read posts on Earthen by Elmo and Pam, I knew I just had to make it there someday. And on this weekend before Chinese New Year, we were in luck.

 

We're very familiar with the strip mall where Earthen is located. We used to shop at the Long's Drug store that used occupy a large part of the mall.

Half of the problem was that Earthen opens at 1115, not 1100, or 1130……. so we had to adjust our schedule. We arrived at 11am, and were the second set of customers in the door.

 

There were just two items I was really interested in. One of them is the Shandong Chicken. A room temperature roasted chicken topped with a nice sauce…..slightly sweet, assertive but refreshing vinegar tones highlight this chicken.

 

While not quite in the class of Dazhou Pa Ji or Dao Ko Shao Ji, the famous roasted chickens of Shandong province, this was quite good. And since we saw a plate of this on every table (we actually checked), this is obviously the restaurant's signature dish. I'd gladly have this again.

We also ordered Dan Bing…… here they are thin and slightly crisp.

 

These are good piping hot; but get really greasy as they get cold.

The Missus decided to order some Jiaozi. We started with the Shrimp and Chive, one of my favorites.

 

The filling had nice pieces of flavorful shrimp in them, if a bit on the mild side. The wrappers were decent…. they looked pillowy, but were a nit too tough for my tastes.

When the Jiaozi arrived, something interesting happened. The Missus noticed that there was only white vinegar on the table. And worse, we weren't provided with bowls for our dumplings. Very un-Shandong-like.  We noticed that the service here was a bit better than many of these types of restaurants….. and when the Missus asked for bowls, the woman smiled and asked Her if She wanted black vinegar as well. Both arrived post haste.

We also ordered some Pork Jiaozi.

 

The wrappers on these were better than the shrimp Jiaozi; pillowy with a bit of pull. The filling wasn't that great. Some folks may enjoy fillings heavy on the meat, like these. However, there wasn't anything to cut the rich pork, which was also on the hard side. Some celery, cabbage, or something similar would have been a welcome addition.

In the end, we thought the service here was good. Unlike many of the restaurants in the SGV this place is well staffed. The chicken is quite good and the Dan Bing was good, As for the Jiaozi, I guess if we were still living here, we'd have them every so often. But when you drive a hundred miles, you really don't mind driving a bit farther for something better.

Earthen Restaurant
1639 S. Asuza Ave.
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745

Postscript: We're always curious to see how businesses that we remember are doing. Back in the mid-nineties, before the Missus met me, this was a regular stop for Her.

 

And while I hold no nostalgic memories of this place; I was happy to know that one of the Missus's very old favorites was still around…….

Just as we did the previous year, the Missus and I decided to have Christmas Eve dumplings in the SGV. In an attempt to show some restraint, the Missus picked one restaurant, and I another for Jiaozi. We'd then do some take-out for our Christmas day meal. This year the Missus selected Lucious Dumplings in San Gabriel.

Luscious Dumplings:

The Missus ordered the Pork and Celery Dumplings that we had enjoyed so much on our previous visit. This time around they were disappointing, the wrappers weren't made quite as well, a bit too tough, and though the texture of the filling was spot on, it was devoid of celery flavor.

Having been told that the Guotie here is really good, I decided to go with the pork version.

 

And though they really didn't look like the style of Guotie I'm used to, but I liked the color. Picking up the guotie gave me pause…… first the potstickers were strangely stuck together. Pulling them apart yielded thin strands….. When I took a bite I realized that the strand were sugar based as these were rather sweet. I'm guessing that instead of the water-cornstarch slurry used to create a crust attaching the guotie together, this one had something akin to simple syrup.

 

The filling for these were well flavored, and for me the sweetness detracted from our enjoyment of these.

The Missus was kinda bummed since we enjoyed our previous visit so much. Hopefully we'll have better luck next time.

Luscious Dumplings Inc
704 W. Las Tunas Dr.
San Gabriel, CA 91776

My choice was an easy one……..

Qing Dao Bread Food:

Of course. The Missus called me predictable and boring because I selected Qing Dao Bread Food last Christmas Eve. And as always I ordered my Lamb Jiaozi.

 

The wrappers were dead on perfect for me, soft with a bit of al dente "stretch" . These had a bit less "soup" than what we're used to here. The Missus also thought the filling was on the tough side this time. I thought they were fine.

The Missus, unsatisfied with what we had at Luscious Dumplings, decided to order the Vegetable Jiaozi. I had my doubts since this type of Jiaozi tends towards blandness…… I was wrong.

 

I managed to try two of these, and the flavor was quite good…… too good. The Missus and I agreed that veggie dumplings would never taste this good without a little "flavor enhancement" if you know what I mean. Whether or not our suspicions are justified or not, this was enjoyable.

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

Our next stop was…..

Tianjin Bistro:

For my Christmas Yang Rou Suan Cai Guo, which of course I got last year as well.

I prefer getting this to go as it actually tastes better to me the next day. The flavors have time to meld, and the sour-gaminess is even more pronounced the next day.

Tianjin Bistro
534 East Valley Blvd. #8
San Gabriel, CA 91776

At this point the realization (with the Missus's help of course) that I was becoming pretty predictable, and that we needed to change things up a bit…..

So we drove East on the 60 freeway, past the rain scrubbed sky, with a wonderful view of the San Gabriel Mountains on the background……

 

To our old neighborhood of Rowland Heights. This stop was:

Shufeng Garden:

A Sichuan Restaurant across from Hong Kong Plaza that I first read about on Pam's Blog.

 

I had planned out what we were going to order until…… I saw an older woman sitting on the table near the door going to town on what looked like Tea Smoked Duck. She was gnawing and sucking away on the bones like this was her last meal before the electric chair. So we just had to order the Tea Smoke Duck. We paid, and took a short walk around the shops…. when we returned, the woman was still sucking away…..perhaps at the same bone? While it seemed kinda gross at first, her enthusiasm for that bone started making me hungry!

 

I've grown used to duck in Sichuan and Hunan restaurants being a bit on the bony side. In those cuisines flavor is king. This was the most meaty Tea Smoke Duck I can remember ever having. That entire container is just half a duck. The duck was moist, and while I think the smokiness and tea flavor was on the muted side, it was pretty good overall.

We also got a few cold dishes:

 

All of which were on the bland side (for Sichuan food) and forgettable.

Still, we'll be returning in the future to try some of the other stuff here.

Shufeng Garden
18459 Colima Road
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

So we had the beginnings of a pretty good meal for Christmas going…. but there was something missing. As you can probably tell, I'm not real big on sweets. There is however, a snack dish I just love. Right across the street in Hong Kong Plaza was a restaurant called Manie's which is long gone. It has been replaced with another Sichuan Restaurant called:

Happiness Restaurant:

 

And while the name has changed, much of the menu (other than the seemingly hundreds of "new dishes") looked the same.

 There was one item that we decided to order…. we just had to see if they prepared the same way. Liang Ci Ba (Sticky Rice Cake – $4.95).

 

This is basically six large globs of sticky rice cake, topped with a peanut-sesame paste…. and it was… and still is delicious. Not too sweet, but just right for my tastes, this stuff literally sticks to your ribs as it is quite "heavy". This was dessert for the Missus and I for three meals.

 
Shufeng Garden also has this on the menu, but we just wanted to see how it would be here.

While we waited for our Liang Ci Ba, we watched the turtle occupying a tank at the front of the restaurant.

 

While the little guy was munching on a slice of cucumber, I turned to the Missus, and we both ended up blurting out, "I wonder when he'll be on the menu" at the same time! What is it that they say about couples who have been married a while thinking alike???

Happiness Restaurant
18438 Colima Road #106
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

After grabbing some jerky, and with Liang Ci Ba in hand we headed home…. ready for a nice Christmas meal.