West Covina Becoming A Haven For Chinese Food

While West Covina is clearly one of the major communities of the San Gabriel Valley, it has not been a center for authentic Chinese dining because of a smaller Chinese resident population than other San Gabriel Valley cities.  This was because as the Chinese community spread out eastward from it's arrival in Monterey Park in the 1960s, spilling into cities like Alhambra, Rosemead, San Gabriel and Arcadia, it then started leapfrogging over infill areas into newly constructed residential communities such as Hacienda Heights, Rowland Heights, Walnut, Diamond Bar and Chino Hills.  However, as these new communities became more and more distant, the existing communities in the San Gabriel Valley that had been hopscotched over in favor of new construction began attracting Chinese residents not willing to travel so far.  So a little over 20 years ago, West Covina had obtained a sufficient critical mass of Chinese residents to support a large Chinese supermarket, Hong Kong Supermarket, which developed a Chinese centric shopping center, Hong Kong Plaza, that included numerous Chinese restaurants.  And as the new residential communities started to be developed in more and more distant parts of the Inland Empire, the Chinese infill accelerated, with quality Chinese restaurants like LAN Noodles and Thumbling opening up.

But now, Chinese food has taken a great leap forward with the open of a Haven City Market in the former food court area of Hong Kong Plaza, containing over two dozen Chinese and other mostly Asian eateries into the fading food court area.   I have previously written about the Haven City Market in Rancho Cucamonga and was surprised to hear about their venture into the San Gabriel Valley.

 

The interior of the food court, formerly highlighted by Indonesian restaurants, had been smartly remodeled.

 

One thing about the Rancho Cucamonga Haven City Market is that they brought in a lot of new vendors, rather than just having new branches of old restaurants.  Indeed they have gone further in West Covina in bringing in eateries from far away.  This is the first branch of Taiwan's Fat Daddy American Fried Chicken.  Except that the name is merely Fat Daddy Fried Chicken, since back in Taipei they aren't really serving American fried chicken, but a version of Taiwanese fried chicken which is marinated in milk.

 

Fat Daddy is iconic in Taiwan, but I passed on eating it because it is rather pricey, with the smallest three piece order costing about $10.  However, I was intrigued by their deep fried okra balls, which were quite good.

 

Besides bringing Fat Daddy in from the Far East, they also brought in a business from the closer east, Brooklyn, New York to be specific, boba vendor Partea NYC.  But I’m not sure what’s the point here. My drink wasn’t anything unusual. If there’s one thing that distinguishes Partea from the run of the mill boba shop, it’s a shorter list of drinks (though apparently they sometimes serve alcoholic boba but that wasn’t an available choice when I ordered. Plus the alcoholic version is not available in their original Brooklyn location.). The shorter drink menu, however, couples with a bigger selection of edibles, including chicken sandwiches and short ribs. In reality this is a Taiwanese snack shop that sells drinks on the side.

 

At Taipei OG Noodle Shop, I had the most unusual bowl of chicken noodle soup ever.  I mean when do you see chicken noodle soup in a brown broth?

 

 At Cr8zy Bao, a mild mannered looking mantou bun is something wild and crazy.

 

It's pizza bao!

 

Golden Roast has the best Chinese roast meats in the area.

 But its extremely short list of entrees contains this gem, stir fried pepper beef udon.

 

And an interesting visit to Baoshutang.

 

I first noticed their pure fruit smoothies, a little expensive at $7.75, but for fruit, rather than syrup, certainly worth it.  Was I surprised when they gave me two drinks for that price! 

More significantly, this seems to be another one of the new style Hong Kong Cafes with a Taishan/Cantonese Mainland bent.  This is defined as much as what's not on the menu, as dishes customarily found on historic Hong Kong style cafes aren't there, as much as what is on the menu, in what may be described as country or rustic dishes, particularly with innards.  But purists, or maybe just because they're old fashioned, are upset that these are described as Hong Kong Cafes.

 

Chinese Street Food Comes To The San Gabriel Valley

When traveling abroad, many destinations are well known for their street food, including China, Taiwan and other parts of Asia.  Many types of Chinese street food are found in the San Gabriel Valley but typically are found in sit down Chinese restaurants.  Unlike the Chinatowns of New York, food carts just aren't seen on the street corners of the San Gabriel Valley, though occasionally one might find a small snack cart operating in front of a Chinese supermarket.

So it was surprising for me to find a Chinese food cart operating on a side street in Rowland Heights, within view of busy Colima Road, Yu Ji Stone Mill Chinese Crepes.

 

But Yu Ji Stone Mill Chinese Crepes is not a haphazard or fly by night operation.  In some ways it has the trappings of a formal restaurant.  It is listed in Yelp, showing a fixed location and fixed business hours, with bags with their name and location.

  

Yu Ji Stone Mill Chinese Crepes is a one trick pony in that they serve only one dish, their jian bing.  Yes, they do have a menu, but all it really does is list the ingredients of their crepe.  You can adjust the spice level or delete a listed ingredient.

 

There's just one person with one grill, taking about 5 minutes to cook, so you'll have to wait if there's a line.

 

On the other hand, watching the gal (or her husband) make each crepe one at a time from scratch is an interesting show.

 

And in the end it's worth the wait.

 

The cart is parked at 1648 Jellick Ave. in Rowland Heights. 

One Music Video Screen Shot Tells A Thousand Tales

While this blog primarily deals with Chinese American food topics, I do occasionally go off topic with sports related topics.  Another interest of mine is pop music, starting from the mid-1950s when I was a little tyke, lasting all the way until about 10 years ago, when I finally lost connection with the music of the day.  But I do have nearly 4,000 music videos on my computers, dating from the mid-1950s until about 2010.

My first, and perhaps only posting on music videos was triggered by this screen capture I took of a song called Beach Baby by the singing group First Class from 1974.  And while there may not actually be a thousand interesting tales derived from this picture, there are what I consider to be a number of different intriguing storylines.

 

The premise of the song Beach Baby is a look back at the Los Angeles surf culture of the 1960s, with an infectious song talking about the days in "old LA" at the beach, in musical harmony reminiscent of the Beach Boys or Jan and Dean.  Of course, since MTV didn't popularize music videos until 1980, and it took a while for clips of pre-manufactured music videos songs to get into circulation, I didn't see the video performance of Beach Baby until the mid-1990s, and the singers certainly could have passed for surfer dudes a decade later.  So, it was to my shock to find out that First Class was a British vocal group, and it's possible that none of them had ever been to California in their lives.

All of which explains the T-shirt worn by the lead singer.  Upon first glance it appears to say University of California, but looking closer it only says "University California," which makes no sense.  Plus the school colors of the University of California are blue and gold, not black and white.  Note that while these days, school and team paraphernalia may come in other than official colors, something like that would never had existed in 1974.  Needless to say, shirts of this design have probably never been seen anywhere in California.

And speaking of the lead singer, it turns out he actually didn't sing the song Beach Baby in the recording itself.  Rather the song was recorded by a studio group, and when the song became a hit, a live version of the group was needed to do tours and television show appearances.  So a bunch of guys were hired to lip sync the song.  The real lead singer on the record was a guy named Tony Burrows.

And speaking of Tony Burrows, he has the distinction of being the only recording artist to be a one hit wonder five different times.  That's because he was lead singer for five different alleged recording groups, singing also "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes," for Edison Lighthouse; "United We Stand" for Brotherhood of Man; "Gimme Dat Ding" for the Pipkins; and "My Baby Loves Lovin" for White Plains.  I remember all those songs in the 1970s, and had now idea at the time that they were studio groups and all had the same lead singer.

So indeed a music video screen shot is at least worth a thousand words.

 

 

In Memory of Mrs. Chandavkl

Given June 24, 2025 at St. Bridget's Chinese Catholic Church in Los Angeles.

On behalf of myself, Eric, Christina and the rest of our family I want to thank you for taking the time to be with us.  Mary Anne Chan was born in Gim Gong village in Toishan, China. As you can see, the program indicates she was born on November 22, 1949.  But that’s incorrect.  Mary actually has three birth dates and November 22, 1949 is not the correct one, though it is the one we observed.  What happened is that she was born on the 22nd day of the 11th month of the Chinese calendar  for the Chinese year of the ox which began in the western calendar year 1949.  But as you know the Chinese new year starts a few weeks after January 1.  So about 10 years ago when applying Mary for Medicare I figured out that she was actually born on January 10, 1950.   But those few weeks made a big difference as it made Mary a child of the 1950s instead of the 1940s.  Oh, and the third birth date?  Well for some reason when Mary’s family came to the United States her dad registered her birth date as November 22, 1950.  We know where November 22 came from, while 1950 was the calendar year in which she was born.  And that was a big deal, as Mary started school a year late and we had some splainin to do when Mary applied for Medicare.

Not only did Mary have three birth dates, but she also had three different names.  In addition to Mary, she was known to many by her Chinese name Chelmoon.  And the third one?  Father Pong, you’ll like this. Before she was born her parents chose an English name for their upcoming baby.  Given that they already had two daughters, they decided on the name Peter, hoping to increase their chances of getting a boy.  Well that didn’t work out.  Fortunately baby James came along a couple of years later and Mary could be Mary. 

Mary moved to Hong Kong for a short while before coming to the United States.  She didn’t remember much of her stay there, but she did have one distinct memory.  She remembers being in a classroom and being reprimanded by her teacher in school.  She responded by giving the teacher a swift kick.  Like who do you think you are to scold me?

In 1955 the Chan family moved to the United States. At that time very few Chinese were able to migrate to the United States without already having family here because of the restrictive immigration laws but they were granted entry as refugees.  Their destination was Chicago where fellow villagers had established themselves.  But first they landed in San Francisco, which was cold and damp.  Mary’s mother decided that if San Francisco was this unpleasant, she sure didn’t want to go to Chicago.  So they detoured down Highway 101 and headed to Los Angeles.   

They soon settled in Los Angeles in East Hollywood on Burns Ave. which became the family homestead for over 60 years.  Mary attended Immaculate Heart of Mary elementary school for 8 years, then transferring to public school at King Junior High School for 9th grade, meaning she had graduations in back to back years.  She then attended Marshall High School, UCLA and Cal State Los Angeles, becoming an elementary school teacher for 38 years.  A strict teacher, she consistently turned rowdy little kids into obedient little soldiers, though her methods probably not be approved today.  Mary was such an outstanding teacher that parents asked that their children be placed in her class.  Mary was a certified bilingual teacher—in Spanish--and taught in Spanish for many years. She also stunned innumerable Spanish speaking gardeners and workers with her fluency in the language.  Her students also loved her for being such a good teacher.  I can’t tell you how many times we went out shopping and former students and parents would recognize her and warmly greet her, even in West Los Angeles.

Mary and I were married in 1980 technically making her Mary Chan Chan and saving her the trouble of getting a new driver’s license.  This past Saturday would have been our 45th anniversary.  We have two wonderful children, Eric and Christina and three lovable grandchildren, both chronologically and alphabetically, Eli, Jemma and Jordan. 

Mary was an accomplished world traveler, having been to almost 60 countries, more than I’ve been to because sometimes she went without me.  Mary visited New York City 25 times and indeed her favorite department store, Century 21 was located there.  Mary was an excellent cook, but hated cooking because it was too time consuming because she had to get it just right.  She was very knowledgeable about Chinese food and found it laughable that people would ask me about Chinese food.  She also enjoyed dancing, sewing, watching movies, and in her retirement years, learning Mandarin Chinese. 

Mary loved coming to St. Bridget Church because she always felt it was so welcoming.  That being the case you might be wondering  why you didn’t see her here more often over the years.   Truthfully, she actually planned to come here most every Sunday.  But quite often she didn’t get up in time and ended up down the hill from our house.   And Mary was a champion slowpoke, so even when she got up in time, by the time she was ready it was already 11:15am.  And when she did come that’s why you often saw her sitting in the back row. 

In her retirement years, she also enjoyed what I referred to as her periodic gang meetings.  Mary was a member of three gangs, a St. Bridget’s gang, a Lockwood Elementary School retired teachers gang, and her cousins gang, where they would go out periodically  on weekdays for lunch, usually in the San Gabriel Valley.   She was enjoying these get-togethers until just recently.

I met Mary in 1970 at UCLA.   She was a freshman and I was finishing up my masters degree in accounting.   That probably doesn’t make much sense to you since I’m only a year and a half older than Mary.  But between Mary’s redshirt year before starting school and my skipping a year and a half of elementary school, I ended up four grades ahead of her.  

Mary and I met at a meeting of the UCLA Chinese club.  Again that might sound funny.  I mean isn’t UCLA just one big Chinese club?  Well maybe now, but not 55 years ago when there were relatively few Chinese students at UCLA.  Back then there were only 20,000 Chinese in Los Angeles.  Now it seems like there are 20,000 Chinese on the UCLA campus. 

Mary went to the meeting because her mom told her to, as she wanted Mary to have Chinese friends.  For me it was quite a different story.  I had spent four undergraduate years at UCLA without having Chinese friends and not even noticing it.  But in my very last quarter I took the first Asian American studies class ever offered.  That was so long ago the name of the class was Orientals in America.  Mary’s cousin Barbara was in the same class.   Anyway I was so fascinated by the fact that Chinese Americans had their own history my entire outlook changed.  So when I got a flyer inviting me to a meeting of the Chinese club I showed up.  And there was Mary.    

We really didn’t become good friends at UCLA because she transferred out of UCLA at the end of the school year.  The highlight was probably our scheduled first date to go bowling at the UCLA bowling alley, which was cancelled when at 6am the 6.6 magnitude Sylmar earthquake hit and closed the campus.   We did keep in contact for a little while after she left UCLA.   But her mom severely restricted her telephone access.  So for a while we corresponded with each other, exchanging cards, letters and the like.  Once I made up a small book of recipes typing, stapling and sending it to her. Now mind you back then my idea of a recipe was to cook my noodles in a pot of Campbell soup.  Of course it’s hard to keep up with someone via mail and we lost contact.   

Fast forward to early 1978.  What I subsequently learned being married to her was that a few years of radio silence never stopped Mary from looking up former friends and acquaintances.  So one evening Mary’s going through some junk and sees the David Chan Campbell soup cookbook.  Whatever happened to that crazy guy?  She finds my old number and decides to dial—but if a woman answers she would hang up.  Meanwhile I had just bought a house but hadn’t moved out.  At home whenever the phone rang my mom always answered the phone.  But when Mary calls and the phone rings, my dad is walking by the phone.  So he picks it up and says it’s for me.  Mary and I have a great conversation catching up and decide it’d be nice to get together again.  But then I tell her it’s tax season and I’m working 7 days a week and I couldn’t see her for two months until April 16.  Now if I were her I would have slammed the phone down.  But she didn’t and the rest is history.  

I think you can see what an improbable chain of events brought us together.  But to me it shows that some things are just meant to be.   

 

 

 

Who Reported Me To Wikipedia?

Having gotten over the shock of finding I was listed in Wikipedia, I set out to try to find our how my page got there.  Since anyone can add a page on Wikipedia, the entire world would be suspect.  Someone who interviewed me in the past?  A social media fopllower?  A friend or relative?  Who knows?   

I figured the place to start was to see what qualified as a valid Wikipedia listing that would be acceptable.  In fact, there's an objective criteria to warrant a Wikipedia listing.  Three, actually.  Being notable, being enduring, and sufficient third party documentation of the subject's accomplishments.  I also found there was a trail showing the history of a Wikipedia listing.  From this, it seemed that the article was generated by someone who had been involved in thousands of Wikipedia articles.  So it wasn't an interviewer, follower, friend or relative, but a total stranger, perhaps someone who worked for Wikipedia, or a volunteer who spent a lot of time adding to Wikipedia.

I then ran across the term WikiProjects.  WikiProjects are subject matter headings apparently populated by volunteers who are charged with keeping things complete and accurate within their subject expertise, such as food.   Then digging further, I found that there was an entire set of running notes which indicates who was involved in the creation of the article and when various comments were made.   I found that the original author was a user named mikeblas who had authored hundreds of articles, indicating that he was at least semi-officially associated with Wikipedia.  There were also a handful of comments made by other users over a two week period making comments on the article.  And it was obvious from the comments that the Wikipedia listing was based on the numerous and various articles about me from major sources over an extended period of time, like the Los Angeles Times, BBC, South China Morning Post, Eater, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and NPR.  

I've subsequently found two cross references within Wikipedia to my listing.  One is in the Wikipedia article on American Chinese food, which strikes me as being rather random.  And the other is in their listing of American food writers, which makes me feel funny for being listed while so many people who do that professionally are not.

 

Hong Kong Cafe Food Finally Comes to LA’s Westside

Ever so gradually the Westside of Los Angeles has turned from a wasteland for Chinese food into one with a decent number of Chinese food options. Where San Gabriel Valley quality food on the Westside was a pipe dream over 30 years ago, actual San Gabriel Valley operations like Din Tai Fung, Haidilao, Northern Cafe and Sichuan Impression among others are now in the neighborhood.

Of course there are lots of gaps. I don’t ever recall a Hong Kong style cafe serving western dishes. I do remember Little Hong Kong Cafe on Sawtelle but I believe it was straight up Cantonese. But this void has just been filled by JM 9 Kitchen in the Colony Kitchen Food Court on Santa Monica Bl. near by Sawtelle Japantown.

 

This tomato pork chop on fried rice is as good as you would find in the San Gabriel Valley.

 

 

Likewise the chicken cutlet with pepper sauce.

 

 

And the fried sole with tartar sauce.

And there are many other similar choices on the menu.

 

Meanwhile there are more traditional Hong Kong cafe dishes for the locals which are excellent too.

 

Salt and pepper chicken wings.

 

Wonton noodles as good as anything in the SGV.

Frankly given the community kitchen venue I’m shocked by how good the quality is here.

Array 36 In San Gabriel; Will Michelin Stars Return to the San Gabriel Valley?

The only Chinese restaurant in the San Gabriel Valley to garner a Michelin star was Bistro Na's in Temple City, which had one star starting in 2019 but lost it in 2022.  Not that Bistro Na's food went downhill, but rather purists had questioned whether their star was really warranted, and perhaps may been a stretch for sake of diversity.  However, just a couple blocks away on the San Gabriel/Temple City border, a new Michelin star contender has emerged with the opening last year of Array 36.  Clearly Array 36 is the only San Gabriel Valley restaurant in the same league as Bistro Na's, in terms of price and quality, so the question is whether Array 36 surpasses Bistro Na's.  

Interestingly, the signature dish at Bistro Na's is their slightly sweet crispy shrimp dish, which is probably ordered at every meal ever served over there, is also on the menu at Array 36.  On that count, the version at Bistro Na's is clearly better.

 

However, there are a lot of great dishes at Array 36.  Their own signature dish is the roast duck.  Regular price is $108, but occasionally involved in some kind of special.  Certainly no better version of this anywhere in the San Gabriel Valley.

 

The beef ribs were a favorite of all of us.

 

As was the porky belly with quail eggs.

 

 

My personal favorite was the crab meat, crab roe tofu dish, one of many inventive dishes on the menu.

 

Truffle fried rice was so flavorful.

 

Live seafood, like this steamed fish, is one way to run up a large bill.

 

Jellyfish head with yuzu was a surprising treat.

 

Not your ordinary vegetable dish of mountain yams, pumpkin, wood ear and snow peas.

 

And how about blueberries infused with yam paste?

 

I don't know particularly what qualifies a restaurant for a Michelin star, but I do think that the inventiveness of the menu is something that might give Array 36 a leg up.