Way back in March, the Missus had requested a specific road trip. We'd be taking our time to our destination. We first stayed in Carlsbad and had a fine dinner at Jeune et Jolie, after our morning coffee and some breakfast we headed to the SGV. As usual, we stayed the night at the Courtyard at Monterey Park and had made reservations for a restaurant in Temple City. I know what you're thinking, "sigh, is Kirk going to do yet another post on Bistro Na's?" Well FOYs, I'll give you a break from that for now, ok? I had read about a restaurant that opened in Temple City in October of last year. The place had Shanghainese influenced dishes along with an $98 Roast Duck dish carved tableside, which had to be ordered ahead of time. I'd read that the renovation of the restaurant, named Array 36 cost over 3 million dollars, with the goal of setting a new level of fine dining for Chinese cuisine in Los Angeles. So, of course we had to try things out.
I made reservations for 5pm, right when the place opened.
As we entered, the haunting moodiness of the restaurant engulfed us.
There's a huge hologram of a whale projected on the wall. It's quite a trippy scene.
We looked over the menu and placed our order. Soon enough, a serving of Kai Wei Cai, those little before meal snacks that are supposed to "open up the stomach" arrived.
The beans were quite nice; but it was the pungent-sour-mildly spicy laba garlic that we enjoyed. This was a great start to the meal.
Of course we needed to try the duck. There as no way we'd be able to finish a whole duck, so no "flaming fowl", the tableside torched and carved duck. No we went with the half roast duck ($68).
Which came with all the standard accessories. The fat had been rendered nicely, but the skin was not as crisp and delicate as we like. The flavor was quite mild and the meat tough and dry.
The dan bing, those "pancakes" one enrobes the duck and accoutrements with were large, thicker then we like and on the chewy side for our taste.
There's a version of Dragon Well Shrimp on the menu, something we really love. We still talk about the wonderful version we had all those years ago at Jiangnan Restaurant in Beijing. It's called Stir Fried River Shrimp on the English menu. We got a small order which was $58.
Man, this was bad. The shrimp was overcooked and tough, was too salty, and lacked depth of flavor.
We also ordered the House Special Smoked Plank Pork ($28).
The pork was on the chewier side of the scale, a bit too sweet for our taste, but heck, this was Shangainese influenced so that makes sense. Mild smokiness, decent pork tones. Not bad.
The last dish would prove to be a winnah! The Beef Fried Rice with Black Truffle ($22).
This was quite possibly the best fried rice I'd had in a while. While there was just a wisp of black truffle flavor; the rice was perfectly cooked and coated, the seasoning a nice balance of salt and savory.
At least the meal ended on a high note. The service as excellent, the interior a world of it's own. But in the end, it's about the food, and sorry to say, in spite of watching that hologram whale swimming on the wall across us, I don't think the dinner was worth the $200 price tag.
Array 36
5449 Rosemead Blvd.
San Gabriel, CA 91776
The dan bing, the pancakes to wrap the duck in was really good, great texture, nice and warm.
We ended up getting a couple of gifts for folks. Downtown Los Alamos is basically a four block stretch, so we left our car parked on the street and walked on over to Bell's a block away.
The fried oysters were an interesting touch, I guess it was there to replace the usual egg yolk, and of course BLC is a seafood based restaurant. but we didn't care for the fishiness it added to the beef which was almost mushy. The horseradish cream was excellent; adding the palate and nasal cleansing pungency to things. It seems like everything was minced too finely. The fries were crisp and lightly dusted with what seemed to be the "BLC Spice". In this instance it seemed to work fairly well.
These seem a little smaller than I recall, but the sausage was nicely grilled and the proportion of ingredients seemed right, so one could enjoy the salty-sweet-savory flavors of the "bouncy" nem nuong and the crunch of the crisp egg roll wrapper. The wrapping was done perfectly, neither too loose nor too tight which would make the rolls tougher, creating what I'd call "bad botox spring rolls". The sauce was as before slightly sweet-sour, with garlic and umami tones. I does seem a bit more watered down than I recalled.
I did notice that one of the shrimp was "MIA". Still, the Missus enjoys the crisp rice flour cup/shell, which has a hint of coconut. The shrimp were plump and tender, nicely cooked. These are quite a treat with the mung beans, pickled veggies, the anise-citrusy tiet to (perilla), and the slightly sweet-chili-fish sauce concoction.
We were sent a text when our room was ready; which was in one of the buildings in back of the Inn, it was comfortable and quieter than the rooms up front.
The Missus really enjoyed the Gruet Brut and also the Gruet Chardonnay with dinner. Gruet is a winery based in New Mexico. We'd end up getting a bottle for the Missus from one of the shops in Taos the next day.
The pork was nicely charred. In terms of flavor; it had some sweetness and a bit of spice…..the nice crispy bits were pretty good. The tortillas were almost crisp and brittle without much flavor. The sofrito rice and beans I covered above.
