Category: Xiao Long Bao

You remember the scene in Back to the Future? You know which one, right? Where Marty McFly and the Starlighters cover Johnny B Goode? If you're one of perhaps three people out there who've never scene the flick, you can find a poor YouTube facsimile here (the fun starts at about 1:25). There's a point where McFly takes the guitar solo(actually played by Tim May)  a bit too far and over-the-top(starting Chuck Berry and ending Eddie Van Halen….), leaving everyone stunned, not quite knowing what the heck just happened. I had such a moment recently. I was at work when one of my coworkers asked me about "Chinese dumplings"….. and off I went, talking about wrapper thickness, the folds, the slight pull and pillowiness of well made wrappers. Then there was the thing about not over-working the dough to the point it seizes….. Heck, I didn't even make it to the filling when I noticed that the poor guy stood, mouth agape, eyes rapidly blinking…. he'd been Jiaozi-sized! The silence was deafening, how do you break such uncomfortable silence (I swear, you could hear a fish fart….)? I managed a throat clearing "uumph" and crept away…….. My friends know that I can really get on a roll and build up a good head of steam, and even though I try to reign myself in, sometimes it just comes bubbling to the surface. Oh well…….

I had first read about Dean Sin World on gastronomy, but I really didn't pay much heed. While walking from Giang Nan to Qing Dao Bread Food on Christmas Eve, the Missus and I passed a tiny shop that was full of folks. There was a woman rolling out dough in the little space by the window who cheerfully tried to wave us in. The Missus peered at the menu, and told me "man, it's really cheap here, and the food looks decent, let's check this place out on our next trip." A week later we made our way to this little strip mall. I parked and laughed when I saw the banner:

It was Dean Sin World! I couldn't make out the sign in the dark on Christmas Eve.

We arrived pretty early, and had a seat. Looking up at the menu, I could confirm that the prices were very inexpensive.

10 Shengjian Bao for $4.85? 10 Pork and vegetable Jiaozi for $4.25? Wow……

The two women working here were very friendly, and funny…. more on that later. The Jiaozi was the first to arrive:

 
These were quite good. The wrapper had a decent pull, and yet was tender and doughy. The portion size of the filling was excellent, a perfect bite. It was also moist and minced not ground, creating a very soft, but not mushy filling. As I mentioned in this post, the Missus loved the use of Savoy Cabbage in the place of the usual Napa Cabbage. Oooops, there I go again. Let me just say that perhaps I lack the vocabularial (I'm guessing there's such a word) dexterity to come up with something more colorful and enjoyable…. soooo how about… It was good, not quite in the league of Qing Dao Bread Food in our opinion, but good enough for the Missus to call Mom and needle Her  saying, "we found another one as good as yours." Yikes!! It was also good enough for us to return and buy 50 frozen, at a good price of $10.

The Xiao Long Bao was the next to arrive:

We didn't enjoy these as much. Though I'm not a big fan of over-worked thin wrappers, these were much too thick. Also there wasn't enough "soup" in the XLB for me. The flavor was also on the bland side.

Last to arrive were the Shengjian Bao, white and glistening. The woman who brought these out said something to the Missus which made Her laugh. She said, "these are the first of the day, it's going to be very good. Look how beautiful they are so white and perfect." When we were waiting for our frozen Jiaozi, the same woman brought out some SJB for a couple sitting on one of the tables and exclaimed, "look how beautiful, white, and shiny these are." So this is her usual shtick, and we were a bit charmed by it.

As for the SJB, in my opinion, these were the best I've had to date. It was mostly due to the dough, and how it was cooked.

As you can see, the bottom is nicely browned and crisp, the top has been cooked well, it is nice and fluffy. The textural contrast was excellent. The filling was a simple pork, and could have been perhaps a bit more "juicy". The Missus still prefers the filling from Food Cabin's version of SJB.

And yes, as you can see, these are "beautiful, white, and shiny." I'm looking forward to having this again, and perhaps some Niu Rou Mian on my next visit…. when I pick up my next batch of 100 frozen Jiaozi.

As we were waiting for our frozen Jiaozi to take home, one of the women asked the Missus where we were from. She told Her "San Diego". The woman told the Missus that her son"goes to College in San Diego", and pointing to several plastic sacks filled with bags of frozen Jiaozi, said, "that's all for him". The Missus mentioned how lucky he is that he is able to get good Jiaozi to eat. The woman laughed, shook her head, and said, "no, no, he takes them to San Diego and sells them to other students!" You gotta love it!

Dean Sin World
306 N Garfield Ave #2
Monterey Park, CA 91754

Open Daily – 930am – 9pm

Read Gastronomy's post on Dean Sin World here.

The Missus and I were still hungry after having the Shengjiang Bao at Kang Kang Food Court on Christmas Eve. The Missus wanted some Xiao Long Bao, and I was craving some Lamb Jiaozi. Driving down Garfield, I thought why not get both…… and so we did.

**** Giang Nian has closed

Our first stop was Giang Nan, tucked away in the back of one of the seemingly hundreds of strip malls in the area.

It had been a while since we were last here, but we still considered the XLB here to be among the Missus's favorites. Still being early on on Christmas Eve, the place was fairly empty, though it had filled up by the time we left.

I had recalled the Duck in Supreme Sauce from our previous visit, so we ordered it. It was as before, sticky sweet-soy in flavor, standard for Shanghainese cuisine.

We also got an order of Pork Xiao Long Bao, which we enjoyed more than the pork and crab version.

This was as good as we had recalled. Wrappers of good thickness, not too thin, good soup to meat ratio, the soup not being too sweet. The meat was not overly processed, and was just soft enough to enjoy. Still under five bucks, this was a pretty good deal….. I had two, the Missus the rest, since She was the one who really wanted some XLB.

While we were eating, and enjoying our tea, a family of six arrived; an older gentleman, along with his wife, a younger couple, and two kids in their early teens. The family dynamic was pretty interesting…. you could tell some things right away. The younger couple, and their kids were obviously from out of town, you could tell by the way they dressed and acted. It was quite apparent that the woman was the daughter of the older couple. You could tell by the way the guy pretty much didn't say a word, and just tried to fade into the background. The older man turned to his wife and said, "I wanted intestine, and spicy Sichuan food, they don't have anything I like on the menu". The older woman made a little "chin nod" in the direction of their daughter and told the older man, "but we're eating Shanghai style, so let's find something." Aaah, they had come here for their daughter. The older woman started making suggestions to her daughter; "remember how much you used to like this?" "This was one of your favorites….." "You always enjoyed this dish…." All of which the young lady replied to in a indifferent manner. "Whatever you think…" "It's ok, order what you want…." The older gentleman entered "protest mode", by closing the menu, placing it on the table, dramatically crossing his arms, and looking off into the distance. Meanwhile, "Mom" kept trying her best….. Meanwhile the son in law stared stoically straight down at his plate, and the two kids kept on playing their handheld games oblivious to the drama unfolding around them……

The Missus suddenly felt bad, and called Her Mom. There were many times that She's been that "ungrateful daughter". Sometimes, we forget that there are people in our lives that are pleased by making us happy. In this dance, it's our responsibility to enjoy…. because just as we are receiving, we are giving…….

Giang Nan
306 N Garfield Avenue
Monterey Park, CA 91755

We had considered having another order of XLB, but instead crossed the street, and headed on over to Qing Dao Bread Food. The Missus knows that I love the Lamb Jiaozi here. For the Missus, this is a little taste of Her hometown; Qing Dao. It also gives Her a chance to needle Her Mom, documented in my previous post on Qing Dao Bread Food. So of course, She was soon calling Her Mom on the phone again. While I enjoyed my lamb dumplings:

Of course the standard condiment is what I call the Missus's "little dish of memories", the pounded garlic in black vinegar. When the Missus was a child, it was always Her job to pound the garlic, a job She hated with a passion….. which now prompts a bit of nostalgia.

As I noted before, I love the lamb flavor, and there's a small amount of "soup" in these Jiaozi. The wrappers have what I call a "pillowy – pull" to them. Perhaps I'm just a little bit nuts when it comes to Jiaozi, but how can you blame me?

While we were eating, a very pregnant young lady entered carrying a toddler. It was obvious she was the daughter of the husband and wife team that runs this little shop. The Missus, overhearing their conversation had to laugh. When I inquired, the Missus told me, "the daughter told her parents that they should close up." The daughter had told the parents, "you should close up, nobody wants to eat in places like this on Christmas Eve, they all go to the big restaurants!" Well, I for one was glad that they were open on Christmas Eve.

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

A pretty long while back, uber Foodblogger Wandering Chopsticks mentioned that she thought that Kang Kang Food Court in Alhrambra made the best Shengjian Bao in LA. Kang Kang Food Court…… So I made a note, and on one of our road trips we decided to drop by, and check out the SJB.

 
 Though the storefront is right on Valley Boulevard, you drive to the rear and find parking in the parking lot. Once down the hallway, you enter the world of Kang Kang….

Bare bones and very cafeteria like, Kang Kang offers both steam table and cold items, in addition to various menu items. The word "menu" kinda understates "THE MENU" which takes up the top of an entire side of the place. It's one thing to have a book-sized menu delivered to your table….. and another to have to look at what seems like an unending number of items lining a wall…….

And it seems like that entire side was just not enough room to contain this "menu on steroids" as various banners around the place display other "specials".

But we were here for only one thing:

Which became a non-starter, since we found out the SJB cook comes in at 11, and it was 10.  So we decided to check out the Xiao Long Bao, and return at a later time for the SJB.

As far as XLB are concerned these weren't very good. First off, a couple had leaked….. so "no soup for you". Second the folds of the Bao were hard as rock, and the wrapper too thick. Not enough soup, which was flavored pretty neutrally, not too sweet. The meatball was too hard and "squeaky".

Usually, food like this would pretty much ward me off. But in this case, there were a couple of things I kinda enjoyed. First, when you place your order, you give the cashier your table number. And in a few minutes, you get a pot of tea delivered to your table, along with the standard black vinegar based dipping sauce. I admit that this place goes a bit overboard with the styrofoam, and the tea is basically tea colored water, but it's a nice touch. Second, the cashier is very nice, a step up from the perfunctory, sometimes rude service you get at the other Shao Mei's and Sam Woo's. And in fact, some of the steam table stuff looked pretty good. I'll say this much, the stuff at Sam Woo's take-out here in San Diego looks pretty bad in comparison.

So on Christmas eve, the Missus and I decided, to drive up, and kinda do a semi-crawl, very leisurely going back to a few places we enjoyed, maybe try a new place, and do some take-out for calm Christmas Day. So why not stop at Kang Kang and try the Shengjiang Bao? Which is what we did.

We followed the drill, and after about 15 minutes, our Shengjiang Bao arrived, glistening under the fluorescent lighting.

So how did we enjoy it? Well first off, these were blasting hot, and full of juice. They'll literally explode when you bite into them. The "soup" has a strong pork flavor, which the Missus thought was too "porky", for me, the porkier the better. I love the crust on the bottom, but thought the rest of the Bao had not risen enough, and we were left with gummy dough. I want the tops of my SJB or Lu Bao to be somewhat fluffy. Again, I had a problem with the filling, which was a hard and squeaky meatball.

I guess if we could get the crust and soup from this SJB, and cross it with the filling and semi-leavened breadiness of the SJB at Food Cabin we'd be happy. As it was, this was not bad, and soon enough it was time to move on to our next stop.

Kang Kang Food Court
27 E Valley Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91801 

**** JZ Restaurant has closed

On a recent drive up to the San Gabriel Valley, we arrived earlier than expected, and found that our choices for that day weren't open yet.  The Missus suggested checking out JZ Restaurant, a place that has seemed to be here forever. The Missus is always pointing out this place, and I guess it's has a bit of an odd attraction for Her.

We had wanted to try this place out on previous visit, but the parking lot very small for a stripmall containing a couple of restaurants, including a Popeyes. On this morning there were a couple of open spaces, though folks were still double parking in front of the bakery.

The interior of the restaurant is clean and screams "I'm a Chinese restaurant"……

The menu was a study in Shanghainese standards. Since this was "breakfast" for us, we ordered two cold dishes, and some Xiao Long Bao.

We started with one of the Missus's favorite dishes, the Smoked Fish ($4.95):

We both thought the flavor was "spot on", the deep sweet-soy flavor was excellent. The texture was not so great as the fish was terribly hard and almost stringy. Good flavor, unpleasant texture.

I ordered the Salt Cured Duck ($4.95):

The Missus couldn't eat this….I think the grey pallor of the salt preserved duck really killed Her appetite. As for the flavor, it tasted a bit "off", with almost a stale refrigerator flavor. It wasn't very salty, and didn't have that wonderful cured flavor that the version at Wok and Noodle had. Come to think of it, the Missus couldn't bring Herself to eat that either……

And of course, to top off our breakfast, we had to try some Xiao Long Bao ($4.95):

The wrappers on these were okay, not too thick, and not too thin, but on the brittle side. There wasn't enough "soup" in the bao, and the overall flavor was less sweet than what I'm used to. Just medciocre overall, but another XLB to add to my collection. BTW, one of these days I'll return to Din Tai Fung to do a post….. I was just a bit underwhelmed by the XLB there.

The women working here were very nice, and came to check on us a couple of times. The place is very clean, and as you can tell, the prices are quite inexpensive! That parking lot can be a horror though.

J.Z. Restaurant
727 E Valley Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776

**** Wok and Noodle has closed

The reason I'm saying "I think", is that for the life of me, I couldn't find an English sign for the place. Googling the address 828 West Valley Blvd brought up a huge listing for a place named "Wok and Noodle", so that's the English name until someone tells me otherwise. We had finished our, not so great lunch at Kingburg Kitchen, and feeling unsatisfied, decided on a drive down the "old side" of Valley Boulevard. We hadn't been down here in a while. Right past the Boiling Crab, we noticed a large group of folks exiting what looked to be a restaurant. The Missus read the signage and told me, "this is a Shanghainese restaurant." Which sounded good to me….I swung around, and parked the car.

Upon entering, we noticed 2 things, many large families, and lots of older Chinese. This was a sure sign of "value pricing" and sure enough, looking over the menu, we found the prices to be very, very, reasonable. The 2 waiters here cracked us up….they were very nice, but just kinda did things at their own pace(S-L-O-W). One guy constantly hummed and sung while cracking what I thought were sunflower seeds. Every so often he'd spit the shells out into the tray holding the dirty dishes. The other guy just loved to whistle. You gotta love places like this.

Realizing that we had just eaten an hour earlier, the Missus and I decided on just a few cold dishes and some "bao".

So of course we ordered the Shanghai Smoked Fish ($4.25), one of the Missus's favorites.

This was a decent version, not too bony, not overly sweet, but maybe a bit too "wet" and mushy. But the Missus wasn't complaining, especially after having the really lousy version at Mr Dumpling recently, that was allwrong taste and texture-wise, over twice the price ($9.95!), and less than half the portion size.

I wanted the Salt Cured Duck($4.75):

Can you say "duck ham"? I really enjoyed this salty, duck-y(is there such a word), mildly salty cold dish. The meat had a semi-dense and ham like texture from the curing, though the Missus said the look of it kinda turned Her off.

Just seeing Xiao Long Bao on the menu means we have to order it($4.95):

This was not a particularly stellar version of XLB, the pork filling was decent, nice pork flavor and not overly sweet. The soup to meat ratio was a bit off, in my opinion, not enough soup. The wrappers were the weakest part, too thick and gummy. I probably won't be coming ordering Xiao Long Bao here next time.

And then of course, we had to have the Missus's latest obsession; Shengjian Bao (6 for $4.95):

The Missus said these rather rustic looking SJB, most closely resembled what She recalls eating in High School. Though the bottoms of these Bao were nice and crisp, the bun was more gummy than fluffy. The filling was a simple pork meatball that was on the bland side.

I think we'll be back for the cold dishes, and a few other items we saw being served at the other tables. After all, you can't beat the prices.

The service is pretty slow, though the staff is nice, it just seems like they're eternally day-dreaming. We saw one rather impatient older lady walk up to the service window and grab what I'm hoping was her dish and take it to the table herself! The restaurant is smaller than it looks, and full of large parties. Two can stuff themselves silly for under $20.

Wok and Noodle
828 W Valley Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91803

**** Food Cabin has closed

What's in a name? Alot really, but in this case? What kind of cuisine would a restaurant called "Food Cabin" serve? When I first mentioned this place to the Missus, She guffawed out loud, obviously picturing a combination "Northwoods Inn" (home of the dirty snow) meets Denny's kind of place. She gave me a look that said, "you're running out of new places to eat, aren't you?" Honestly, the name Food Cabin just doesn't really inspire you to run out to the car and visit, does it?

Yes, Food Cabin just doesn't seem to get much respect; even the Restaurant's signage plays second fiddle to "The Best Car Wash" (now that's a name!!!):

As with many restaurants in the SGV, the Chinese name, has nothing to do with the English name. In this case the literal translation of the Chinese characters is something along the lines of "Dragon, Dragon, Good Food" or something like that; not a cabin reference to be found.

Food Cabin, the Restaurant, is located on the quiet end of Valley Boulevard, in, well, something that looks a lot like the manager's office of one of those cookie-cutter apartment complexes, converted into a restaurant. Having said that, I don't think the name Food Cookie-Cutter-Apartment-Manager's-Office is particularly inspiring at all either.

The interior is kind of apartment like; the Missus and I were trying to determine which "room" we were being seated in. The place was empty except for one table when we arrived at noon on a Saturday!

The menu is large, and quite varied, with mostly Northern Chinese style favorites. There are a number of specials, posted on the ubiquitous colored paper on the walls. One of the specials is a "buy 1 beer, get one free" deal.

The woman who seated us, looked very smart in her glasses, was very nice, and friendly. Not your typical SGV server. She started us off with some pickles, good, but on the salty side, and asked us twice if we wanted more.

We started off with the "Thousand Layer Meat Flat Bread" – aka "Pork Pancake" on the menu ($5).

This was nice, not greasy, as many versions of this dish is. The texture was good, crisp crust, a bit chewy in the interior. Not much meat to be had, but that is pretty much how the home made versions of this is. With a bit of the salty-pickly spicy broadbean paste, this was quite good.

But what I'd really come for were the Shengjian Bao(10 for $6.45), a "Bao" that is fried-steamed.

  The Missus told me of a stand right across the street from Her High-School in Qingdao, that made Shengjian Bao. Which would inevitably end up being Her "snack" on most days. Shengjian Bao, is a semi-leavened bun, stuffed with meat, that is of a Shanghainese origin. Being both fired and steamed means that when done right, you'll get the best of both worlds.

The Missus and I were both surprised when 10 rather large Bao arrived at the table. Glistening with oil, I expected these to be heavy and greasy. Boy was I wrong, these were very light, and I enjoyed the contrast in textures. A crisp bottom, the rest of the Bao was nice and bready. To be sure, the bottom could have been a bit more crisp, but I really enjoyed the texture.

The filling was pork, with coarsely chopped squash for added texture. Moist and light, it could have perhaps been a bit more savory, but the provided soy-vinegar-cilantro dipping sauce was the perfect match. The nice Server even provided a small container of sauce for the left over Bao we took home!

The Missus, suffering from XLB withdrawals, ordered the Xiao Long Bao (Steamed Juicy Pork Dumplings – $6):

I wasn't too impressed with this version, I thought the wrappers on the hard side, and the bottoms of the XLB were hard. There wasn't very much soup, and the filling was much too sweet, and left me with an odd, almost camphor like aftertaste. The Missus, on the other hand, ate 7 of the 10 XLB. Even though I wanted no part of it after eating the first one, She made me eat the last 2 since XLB doesn't keep and reheat real well.

We requested a few containers for our leftovers, and our check. ($18.88 – a bargain!) And the Server told the Missus in Mandarin to wait because She shouldn't miss the free dessert. Which turned out to be a sweet rice porridge….no big deal, but very nice service:

As you can tell, we enjoyed this meal. It wasn't perfect, but it sure hit the spot. We found the service to be very nice, and the pace much more laid-back than other restaurants in the area. This place started to fill up as we left, with several groups of older folks.

So next time someone asks you if you'd like to grab a bite at a "Food Cabin" don't hesitate. It might be worth your while!

Food Cabin
9510 Valley Blvd
Rosemead, CA 91770

Why the leftovers you may ask? Well, you know why…… another meal was in store during this roadtrip!

With gas prices at new highs, just wanting to take a road trip would probably be grounds to have us committed. But we were getting a bit stale just stewing in our juices at home. So, we went ahead with our little road trip and made the best of it. After doing our morning shopping, instead of heading toward San Gabriel, we decided on what in the good old days(at least for us) was the center of our eating universe. The intersection of Garfield and Garvey in Monterey Park. We were amazed at how light traffic was and even snagged convenient parking on Garvey. I'm guessing gas prices are affecting everyone.

Our first lunch stop was a newer restaurant called Mama's Lu….no not Mama Lu's, or even ahem, Mama's Loo(God help us all). It really is called Mama's Lu:

See what I mean? I asked the Missus what the deal was with the name. Her response? "Hey, you're the food guy, right? You figure it out." Which translated, probably meant, "I'm tired of your questions, you figure it out…." This little shop occupies the area that used to be Heavy Noodling, which I was kind of sad to see go.

The interior of "Da' House of Lu", is very clean. Not a sign of "San Gabriel sticky" to be found here.

The menu is short and concise, mostly dumplings, Shanghainese, with some Sichuan thrown in on the Chinese menu board:

I dunno if we've gotten used to prices in San Diego or what, but we had reverse sticker shock when we checked out the menu.

10 Xiao Long Bao for $4.50? You can barely get a Carne Asada Burrito for that in San Diego! Maybe this drive was worth it.

As we looked over the menu, the Missus and I hatched our plan. 2 Xiao Long Bao, and one dish we'll sample, and load into the ice chest. We started with an old favorite of the Missus, Shanghai style "Smoked Fish"($4.50), a classic dish. The Missus grew up eating the stuff.

The photo is a bit deceptive, this was a pretty large portion. This version was drier(but not dry), than versions I've had. It also didn't have a very pronounced sweet and five spice flavor. I really enjoyed it, because unlike other versions, this was not "fishy" in the least. The Missus(and my MIL) still favor the version at Chin's. But I'll take this any day of the week.

The Pork and Crab Xiao Long Bao($8.50), probably the most expensive item on the menu.

These came with each XLB(8) packed into an individual foil container. What I thought; "wow, they pack them individually, in these little dishes so they don't leak." What the Missus thought; "no wonder they're so expensive, they waste money on those dishes. If they make them right, they won't leak. And they sure better know the difference between the crab and the pork Xiao Long Bao. What a waste."

For us, a good Crab and Pork Xiao Long Bao, will be rich and mildly sweet. This was bland and kind of greasy. The meat to soup ratio was not to our liking. Too much meat, not enough soup. The wrappers had a major defect; the fold was hard and chewy, and the bottom was gummy.

The Pork Xiao Long Bao(10 – $4.50):

These Xiao Long Bao suffered from the same problems as the Crab and Pork with regards to the wrapper and meat to soup ratio. Flavor wise, these were better with regards to a mild sweetness, and the meatball was melt in your mouth tender. I still think it was under flavored.

Still, I think it's better than any XLB we have here in San Diego, but when compared to all the other XLB in the area….. On the positive side, we had excellent service, our tea was refilled, and our water twice! The very nice Server, came back to check on us, something that almost never happens in the SGV! There is a booth behind the cash register that displays the XLB makers at work, a la Din Tai Fung. One more thing that I found somewhat humorous. The 'A' Health Rating is posted by the hallway door, away from the street…almost as if they're ashamed that they actually got an 'A'.

Mama's Lu Dumpling House
153 E Garvey Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91755

So why did the Missus and I exercise such restraint at Mama's Lu? Right across the street from Mama's Lu is this place.

**** Northern Dumpling House has closed

The English sign only says "Restaurant". I had read about this place on Chowhound, called Northern Dumpling House. We saved some "room" for a meal here. We planned on one order of Jiaozi and "something else". Like Mama's Lu the place is very clean, and almost too cold and sterile. The prices here are very reasonable as well.

I really wanted to try he Pork and Opo Squash Dumplings(I thought they'd be interesting), but they did not have any.

So we had the Beef and Chinese Celery Dumplings($5.50):

These Jiaozi were interesting, the wrapper was very soft and pillowy. I enjoy a bit of chew, but the Missus enjoyed these as a change of pace. She went into a lecture about making the dough of Jiaozi, and water temperature, etc, etc, etc…. The filling was undoubtedly beefy, but lacked a decent Chinese celery crunch and the only way we knew there was celery in the filling was a slight aftertaste. I'm not quite sure about these, but the Missus enjoyed them. I want to bring my Mother In Law to see what She thinks.

Looking for something that we could have a few bites of, than take home; I went for the Cumin Lamb. We thought it strange that all the stir fry dishes had prices that had been covered by blank white stickers. So at the risk of being charged some exorbitant amount, we went ahead and ordered it anyway.

If you enjoy a milder cumin taste, you'd like these. What made this dish really good was how the lamb was prepared and cooked. There were slices that were melt in the mouth soft! If not for the mild gamey flavor(not wild enough for us), you'd think that you were eating very well prepared beef. Mildly spicy from the chilies, this was even better the next day. Did you guess how much this cost? It was $5.40……on our check the Server initially wrote $4.95, but crossed it out and wrote in $5.40….I'll take that any day.

Even more than the food, there was something really interesting about this meal. The restaurant was empty except for another couple. Apparently, the Guy is a "Chef" at another restaurant, the Missus said he had a strong Beijing accent, She could barely understand his girlfriend/wife("man, her accent is really hard to make out"). After making our food the cook came out, pulled up a seat, and they started talking about business in the area. And also started dissing other regional Chinese cuisines. They were especially hard on Tianjin Cuisine("no way a Tianjin restaurant will make it, they don't make any good food, only snacks"). Stuff like prices and competition were discussed, too much to write in this post. But if you've ever wanted to be a "fly on the wall."

Northern Dumpling House
138 East Garvey Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91755

**** Dragon Mark has closed

Only in the San Gabriel Valley…..could 3 restaurants selling Xiao Long Bao co-exist in the same strip mall, nearly side by side! Dragon Mark, is the "middle child" of the three restaurants, with Mei Long Village to the West, and J & J right next door to the East. You can see just how close J&J is…..

Like J & J, Dragon Mark is quite tiny, though very brightly lit…..the Missus twice remarked how bright  the lighting was at Dragon Mark. Unlike J & J, Dragon Mark actually serves tea in a real tea cup, not cheapo Styrofoam cups.

You are handed a menu that is both in English and Chinese, but need to order on a check-off sheet, that is written in Chinese! Go figure…..I'm pretty sure that the ladies would do the check off sheet for you.

We only had time for a "snack" during this visit, so of course we had to order the Xiao Long Bao ($4.75):

Soon enough our steaming hot Xiao Long Bao arrived…first thing we noticed was all of the broth on the parchment paper…several of the XLB had burst! Second thing was that these were served with the julienned ginger on top the Xiao Long Bao…so where was the Black Vinegar???? After rummaging through the bottles on the table, we spotted the vinegar, in a Soy Sauce bottle, with a teensy-tiny label!

Here's what the XLB filling and soup looked like:

We found the dumpling to have too much meat, and not enough soup. The pork filling was very salty, and didn't have the unique savory-sweet flavor of XLBs. The wrapper was on the thick side, and the folds on the top of the XLB were hard. Bummer……better than Dim Sum Restaurant XLB, but not very good by San Gabriel Valley standards….still this XLB was better than anything in San Diego.

The Missus noticed a dish I enjoy on the table top placard, and ordered it.

The placard said "Pork and Basil Dumplings", but these are actually Pork and Dill Dumplings($5.25). I've seen these as Fennel and Pork Dumplings, and now Pork and Basil Dumplings……

We really enjoyed these, the dill was soft, without being mushy, and the ratio of pork to dill was perfect.

In most cases the dill overwhelms everything, but this was a good example of great balance. This got the Missus and I talking about how the flavor and texture of the filling was put together….perhaps the dill was blanched? Leave it to the dumpling heads to spend most of lunch talking about Jiaozhi! The wrapper was okay, on the brittle side without enough "pull". The Missus thought that the dough had not been kneaded enough…..too much kneading and you get tough wrappers, to little and the wrapper will be soft, but will break easily without any "pull".

As with most of these tiny restaurants, service is fast, but don't expect much in the way of friendliness…..instead expect efficiency. The restaurant is about the same size as J&J, but we thought it was brighter(much brighter) and cleaner. Though I think I enjoy the XLB at J&J more(and Mei Long Village even more…). Other than versions of dumplings, we saw most everyone else eating Niu Rou Mien.

Dragon Mark
301 W Valley Blvd Ste 110
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Another silly observation……

I kinda take it for granted that almost all signs in the area are in Chinese, or Chinese and English. So we both cracked up when the sign to the right, taped onto the stairway wall to the parking lot was written only in English. Why only in English?

BTW, I did NOT write the LOL on that sign…….