Umi Buffet In Industry Restores My Faith in Chinese Buffets

Barely six months after bemoaning the disappearance of all the good Chinese buffets in Los Angeles in my recent retrospective, we once again have a local Chinese buffet worth talking about, Umi Hotpot and Seafood Buffet (yes, another Chinese buffet with a Japanese sounding name).  Not surprisingly it's located in the space once occupied by one of my all time favorite buffets, Kome Buffet, which closed down several years ago.  However, the space has been totally remodeled with sleek new lines and compartmentalization.  There is the obligatory sushi section, justifying the Japanese sounding name.

 

What I like about Umi is it introduces so many new elements.  For example it offers hotpot via portable table hotpot units, and a dedicated hotpot ingredient section.  Yes, a few all you can eat hotpot restaurants may have a table of prepared food, but those are clearly incidentals.  In contrast, at Umi you can make the hotpot a major portion of your meal.

 

Umi also includes drinks in the price of admission.  A few buffets do include soda fountain drinks, but here the fridge is full of things like milk tea, grapefruit tea, and mango coolers, as well as cold desserts.  Plus a separate ice cream freezer.

Not to mention a ramen station.  Yeah, I've seen this in buffets before, but not on top of all the other extras.

Plus lots of seafood and goodies on ice.

 But what I liked best was the items that I had never seen before at a Chinese buffet.  How about fish with pickled mustard green soup or perhaps spicy pig feet?

Sichuan style saliva chicken.  No, not made with the saliva from a chicken.  Rather an unfortunate, but common translation of chicken-that-makes-you-salivate.

Lamb chops???

Pineapple fried rice.

 

The dim sum section is small, with only four varieties.  But three of which I've never seen in a buffet.  First the semi-mochi bun with a mystery green cream filling.  I say semi-mochi because only the top of the bun has mochi.

This wonderful mango cream filled bun.

And these date topped cornbread.  I've seen these in Dongbei restaurants and I never would have classified them as dim sum.

And best of all, there's no mistaking where the restrooms are.

About $25 for weekday lunch, $35 for dinner and $50 for weekends with senior discounts.  My faith in Chinese buffets has been restored.

Macanese Cafe Embraces Its Casino Heritage

At San Gabriel's HK Macau Bistro, the restaurant creates an ambiance of Macau's casino culture, as well as some reminders of Hong Kong.

When you walk in, your table is like a mah johng table, with mah johng tiles under glass.

 

And your eating dish wishes you good fortune and riches.

The placemat does not have a picture of James Wang Law staring back at you, but rather invites you to visit the casino.

The menu highlights favorites from Macau, like this Macau Beef Stew.  Naturally the serving dish is adorned with mah johng tile images.

Macau style fishballs, made with mashed potatoes and shredded fish meat, on a serving plate encouraging winning times.

On the Hong Kong side, some great Hong Kong style seafood chow mein, again with a mah johng tile plate.

And awesome pineapple bun sandwiches.

As the crowds attest, while the premises are gimmicky, the food is excellent.

The Most Intriguing Chinese Restaurant In The United States

Back a dozen years ago, Clarissa Wei first wrote about me and the thousands of Chinese restaurants I had eaten at and launched me on my journey to telling the tale of Chinese food in America in the context of the history, demographics and culture of Chinese Americans, and somehow ending up getting my own Wikipedia entry.  In the interview, she asked me the innocuous question, which of all the Chinese restaurants I had yet to eat at would I most want to eat at.  I'm sure the expected response would be some iconic Chinese restaurant in a distant Chinese community.  However, I gave the unexpected response of a unique version of cashew chicken served only in Springfield, Missouri, albeit found in dozens of restaurants in that city.  I recounted how Springfield cashew chicken had been on my radar for at least a couple of decades, but really had no opportunity to go there.  But thanks to that article, just a few weeks later I was in Springfield, sampling various renditions of their cashew chicken.

So it's a dozen years later, and if you asked me the same question, what would be the answer now?  Well, it most certainly would be the newly opened Black Dragon Takeout in Philadelphia.  Why?  Because it has the most intriguing lineup of dishes I've ever seen in a Chinese restaurant.  General Roscoe's Chicken.  Collard green fried rice.  Egg Wu Young.  Oxtail Rangoon.  Gumbo fried rice.  Pecan shrimp.  And the list goes on.

Collard green fried rice

 

  

Of course there's a backstory to all this.  Black Dragon Takeout is a Black American take on Chinese food.  Not to say that there hasn't been an intersection of the communities in the past.   For many years the black owned Howard's Cafe operated near downtown Los Angeles serving food to a mixed (actually largely Hispanic) clientele.  It would not be surprising to find other examples like this.

 

Then there's the story of Yakamein which a century ago could be found in Chinese restaurants all over the United States.  The Chinese name of the dish was yat gaw mein, which really meant one order of boiled noodles.  Strangely, the dish was not uniform throughout the United States, but rather mutated into regional variations, sometimes stir fried, sometimes in soup, and under different names depending how "yat gaw mein" was Romanized.  In New Orleans, not only did yat gaw mein evolve into its own unique style under the Yakamein moniker, but it has also become primarily associated with the African American community.  Indeed so much so that currently the label "Yak-A-Mein Lady" refers to Linda Green, a soul food caterer who has specialized in advancing the popularity of Yakamein.

 

Meanwhile many Chinese restaurants were operating in neighborhoods throughout the United States, even where there was no existing Chinese population.  In Washington D.C.'s African American neighborhoods, many Chinese restaurants extended the Chinese menu to include subs, chicken and seafood, filling the void created by national chains declining to operate in those neighborhoods.  And also in Washington DC, where mumbo sauce is associated with the city's African American community, it is also closely identified with the city's Chinese-subs-seafood restaurants.

 

More recently there has been a growing succession issue for the 40,000 or 50,000 Chinese restaurants in the United States.  For neighborhood Chinese restaurants, often operated by uneducated immigrants from China, succession of the business to their educated, American born children is not an option.  To some extent, the succession issue has been ameliorated by the arrival of new immigrants, but in other situations, neighborhood Chinese restaurants have been closing down.  And this is where Black Dragon Takeout comes in to fill the void in West Philadelphia, thanks to award winning Black American restauranteur-chef Kurt Evans.   Going down the menu, reading every item I think to myself "I gotta try this."  Before my retirement when I was regularly flying to the East Coast, I would have already figured out a way to get to Philadelphia to eat at Black Dragon Takeout.  These days I'll just have to dream about it.

Mama Lu's - From Rags To Riches (With A Side Trip to Prison)

While dining earlier this month at Capital Seafood Restaurant on Beverly Hills' famed restaurant row on La Cienega Blvd., adjacent to the world famous Lawry's Prime Rib restaurant, I was surprised to see a special section on the menu devoted to "Mama Lu's Famous Dumplings."   It was truly stunning to see one Chinese restaurant highlight a dish from another Chinese restaurant.  But if any Chinese restaurant were to be featured on another Chinese restaurant's menu, it would be Mama Lu's Dumpling House, which is in the past five years has exploded into a major player that has grown far beyond its San Gabriel Valley roots with branches in a number of Chinese American communities in the Los Angeles area.

 

What makes this transformation all the more incredible is that it was just over 15 years ago, where we would stop by a house on Avondale St. in Monterey Park, ring the doorbell, and buy frozen wontons and dumplings from the living room freezer from the lady there.  That lady turned out to be Mama Lu, and in 2008 the first Mama's Lu Dumpling House (sic) opened on east Garvey Avenue in Monterey Park, followed by Mama Lu's Dumpling House on west Garvey Avenue in Monterey Park (notice the slight difference in name to avoid having two identically named stores in the same city), Lu Dumpling House on Garfield Ave. in Monterey Park (subsequently obliterated by an errant Alhambra Fire Department truck and never to reopen), Mama's Dumpling House in San Gabriel (a joint venture later sold off), and Mama Lu's Dumpling House in Industry.

However, things seemed to fall apart in 2021, when Mama Lu and her brother were caught red handed for avoiding over $2 million in taxes, primarily California sales taxes.  By repaying the avoided taxes, the owners were able to reduce their jail sentences.  You can read the government press release here.   However, unlike the similar tax evasion woes of the Sam Woo chain which resulted in the sale of several branches in order to repay the evaded taxes, the Mama Lu chain has prospered after their owners were caught and sent to jail. (Presumably they served their time and have been released.) 

Shockingly they bought one of the best known Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles Chinatown, CBS Seafood, eventually converting it into a Mama Lu branch, and being the first San Gabriel Valley Chinese restaurant to establish a presence in Los Angeles Chinatown.  Next, they took over the space in Old Town Pasadena previously occupied by Vancouver's legendary Chef Tony Dim Sum, and have also established itself in Irvine's wealthy Chinese community with their branch in Tustin. Another branch is headed for Arcadia in the space abandoned by the fine Chinese dining restaurant Monarch.. And now, through Capital Seafood, they are also playing in Beverly Hills.

Ji Rong Peking Duck--Not Just A One Trick Pony

While there might not be a consensus, the most highly regarded Peking duck specialist in the Los Angeles area is most likely Ji Rong Peking Duck in San Gabriel.  For sure nobody can quarrel with the premise that they serve a high quality product.

Now once upon a time some 30 years ago, the legendary Quanjude Beijing Duck restaurant opened up a branch in the San Gabriel Valley.  The problem is that they served duck and not a lot of other types of dishes.  So yes, you could have a banquet there, but it would include eight different duck dishes.  No such problem at Ji Rong Peking Duck.  Look at some of their other fabulous dishes, like their sweet and sour whole garoupa.

No complaining about the lobster.

Pork belly anyone?

 

Snow pea leaves in broth.

Cumin lamb.

No joke.  Sometimes I like to use orange chicken as a litmus test as to how broad the culinary skills are at a Chinese restaurant.  Ji Rong passes with flying colors.

And a news flash!  The operators of Ji Rong have opened another restaurant next door called Good Alley Artisinal Dumplings, serving, well, high quality dumplings, noodles and other things, like this large premium beef roll.

 

 

Authentic Chinese Food In San Clemente

 

The last time I ate Chinese food in San Clemente was in the last century, and I don’t think at that time I would have believed that San Clemente would ever have edible Chinese food. However the world has changed, particularly in the past ten years and the improbable has now become commonplace.  And San Clemente is one of these places.   Long's Noodle in San Clemente serves a host of previously unthinkable dishes.  How about pigs ears?  

 

Beef bing? (Can't get either of these dishes anywhere near my house in Los Angeles.)

 

Beef rolls? 

 

Spicy shrimp wonton?   

 

Of course anytime you find authentic Chinese food you have to ask about the demographics, for few authentic Chinese restaurants can survive without geographically close Chinese diners, and San Clemente doesn't seem to fill the bill.  However this question was eventually answered by looking at the restaurant ownership itself.   As I have mentioned before, a significant (and wealthy) Chinese community has developed in Irvine, which has developed as a magnet for more new Chinese residents.  In the past year, Irvine has had the greatest housing price appreciation of any city in the United States.  As a result, many potential residents have been priced out of Irvine, and have spilled into neighboring communities.  In view of this, the owners of Long's Noodles in San Clemente have started their own little regional empire.  For about 10 years they have operated Long's Kitchen, a nondescript Hunan leaning restaurant located in the heart of Irvine.  Then a couple of years ago they opened up Long's Noodles in the nearby city of Foothill Ranch, and now just a few months ago in San Clemente.  Noteworthy is that this San Clemente location is in the northern part of San Clemente, proximate to some of the Irvine overflow areas, as opposed to the coastal downtown area of San Clemente (who remembers President Nixon's Western White House?  Not around there.)

A Visit To Shanghailander Palace in Arcadia

When the top Shanghai restaurants in the Los Angeles area are mentioned, the name of Shanghailander Palace seldom comes up.  But really Shanghailander Palace is at or near the top of the category.  Just ask Mr. Chow (yes, that Mr. Chow), who likes the food at the Arcadia branch of Shanghailander Palace so much that he has his own private dining room on premises.  With locations in Arcadia and Hacienda Heights, perhaps it's just enough out of the way to not get the same publicity as restaurants such as Jiang Nan Spring and Luyixian.  Also the price point trends a little bit higher, with quite a few premium items that we passed on for this meal.  (I do highly recommend the crispy whole sweet and sour fish.)    Our excellent meal there included the following dishes.

 

Opening with cold vegetables in sesame sauce.

  

Shanghai Spare Ribs.

Stir fried shrimp.

Pork, tofu and vegetable soup.

 

 

 Signature seaweed fish.

Xiaolongbao

Shanghai chow mein

Fried buns.

Pork belly.

Sesame ball dessert.