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.

This Gem of a Chinese Restaurant is Hidden in Plain Sight - L.A. Weekly--June 21, 2017

With L.A. Weekly apparently having cleared out their online archives, here's a repost from an article I wrote for them in 2017.

 

This Gem of a Chinese Restaurant Is Hidden in Plain Sight

David R. Chan | June 21, 2017 | 9:00am

 

When people talk about the best Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles, the same names come up time and again: Sea Harbour in Rosemead, Chengdu Taste, Lunasia, King Hua and Szechuan Impression in Alhambra, Newport Seafood and Mian in San Gabriel, and Din Tai Fung in various mall locations. (Or if you’re Yelp, then it’s Americanized restaurants such as Sea Dragon, Yang Chow and Wah’s Golden Hen.)

But what if we throw another contender into the mix: Embassy Kitchen in San Gabriel, located directly in front of the Embassy Billiards pool hall, whence it derives its name.

Given its location, this is equivalent to bowling alley dining, in a sense. And it's been around for 20 years, making it senior to all the other top non-Yelp contenders except Newport Seafood, which opened in San Gabriel a year earlier in 1996. Embassy Kitchen started as a small adjunct restaurant to the billiard parlor around 1997, even using the Embassy Billiards moniker. It then moved to the large restaurant space in front of the pool hall around 1999.

Like other top Chinese restaurants Sea Harbour, Lunasia and King Hua, as well as most all of the other banquet-sized Chinese restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley, Embassy Kitchen serves Hong Kong–style cuisine. But Embassy Kitchen diverges from these other restaurants in many ways. There are no tanks full of live seafood, nor is the dining room huge, loud or boisterous. There is not a gaudy menu with so many choices that it could be made into a movie, and the restaurant gladly takes reservations.

But what really distinguishes Embassy Kitchen from the pack is the food selection. Yes, you will find Cantonese favorites such as rock cod in corn sauce, walnut shrimp, fish maw crab meat soup, e-fu noodles and steamed chicken with ginger and scallions. But what you also find at Embassy Kitchen are two extremes not typically seen at most Hong Kong–style restaurants in Los Angeles — complex dishes that require ordering in advance, and wonderful home-style dishes. Most of these dishes are obscured on the Embassy Kitchen menu, as they are only found on Chinese-language paper inserts on the inside cover of the permanent menu. On the other hand, that might not make much of a difference, since non-Chinese faces are rare at this restaurant. There is no nefarious intent in relegating these dishes to a Chinese-language supplement — the owners indicate that they just weren’t sure how to accurately describe these dishes in English.

Perhaps the best exemplar of the complex advance-order dishes is the boneless chicken stuffed with shrimp paste. The chicken skin is light and crispy and the shrimp paste provides a savory contrast.

Then there are the tilapia rolls with whole carcass, one of the most visually interesting dishes you will find at a Los Angeles–area Chinese restaurant, though from a taste point of view the re-stuffed fish (where the bones are removed and the fish is filled back up with fish and ground pork) might be a better choice. 

One of the special items that does not necessarily require an advance order is the "eight treasures" stuffed duck.

Other signature dishes include the chicken stuffed with sticky rice (a traditional Cantonese dish still popular in the San Francisco area but difficult to find in Los Angeles) and the fried rice with whole Dungeness crab or lobster. Note that all of these dishes are large and cost around $50, and hence are more suited to large parties. Indeed, Embassy Kitchen has a larger quotient of large-size tables compared with most other Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles.

At the other end of the spectrum are the many uncommon home-style dishes on Embassy Kitchen’s menu. However, be aware that these dishes are not inexpensive, as there are few items on the Embassy Kitchen menu that are less than $15, and many are $20 or more. But these dishes contain expensive ingredients. For example, our party was stumped by the steamed egg with tofu and seafood topping, so we had to ask what was in it. The answer: “shrimp roe.” Such ingredients also explain the higher price point.

Try the steamed eggplant with dried scallop and ground pork; the clear rice noodles with cabbage, egg and dried scallops; stir-fried beef; and French-style beef stew (which comes with noodles at lunchtime but not at dinner).

When the kitchen is in top form, this is the closest thing to artisan Chinese cooking that you will find in Los Angeles.

218 S. San Gabriel Blvd., San Gabriel; (626) 286-8148.

 

 

 

The Most Surprising Buffet in Los Angeles County - L.A. Weekly--April 13, 2017

With L.A. Weekly apparently having cleared out their online archives, here's a repost from an article I wrote for them in 2017.

Throughout Middle America, Chinese food is often synonymous with buffets. In many smaller and medium-sized cities, in particular, the Chinese buffet is an especially attractive option for restaurant owners due to lower labor costs and a perceived lack of sophistication about Chinese food, which permits serving simpler, low-cost dishes. This model is particularly effective east of the Mississippi River, where a plentiful supply of restaurant workers and owners originally from Fujian province in China has radiated out from Manhattan's Chinatown. In contrast, in the Los Angeles area, Chinese buffets appear to be a comparative rarity, perhaps due to a higher degree of sophistication about Chinese food relative to other parts of the United States.

In areas like the Westside and the San Fernando Valley, no more than a handful of Chinese buffets are to be found. There is something of a concentration of Chinese buffets in the San Gabriel Valley — and not just for the obvious reason. But probably there are not even a dozen there. 

Having said that, the number of Chinese buffet restaurants around Los Angeles is actually quite a bit higher than one might guess, because most Chinese buffets in Los Angeles have Japanese names, and are often described as Japanese buffets. (Indeed, I am aware of only one buffet restaurant in the Los Angeles area with a Japanese name that actually serves predominantly Japanese food.)  

One may wonder why most Chinese buffets use Japanese names such as Hokkaido, Sumo, Hibachi, Minato, Kyoto, Kami and Ichiban, instead of something that is obviously Chinese. The most likely explanation is that the primary draw for most of these buffets is the sushi, despite the fact that, aside from an occasional teriyaki or tempura dish, the Japanese food selection stops with the sushi. So the Japanese name really just serves as a reminder that there's sushi inside.

All of which brings us to the recently opened FuJi Buffet and Grill, located in Glendale near the intersection of the Ventura and Glendale freeways. FuJi Buffet took the place late last year of another Chinese buffet, Osaka Seafood Buffet. 

Most local "Chinese" buffets serve a combination of sushi, Americanized Chinese food, rudimentary factory-made dim sum, chicken wings, fruit and desserts. It's what one would expected from FuJi, but a surprise awaits. The dim sum section contains standard dim sum selections such as BBQ pork buns and taro buns, but there are many other items one might not expect to see. Chicken feet? Cantonese dim sum–style spare ribs in black bean sauce? Xiao long bao? Zhong zi (glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves)? Chinese beef balls? Siu mai with fish roe? Who knew?

Over in the soup section, you'll finds Fujian fish balls (filled with ground pork) in broth and fish maw soup. There is a wood ear fungus salad, grilled whole mackerel, salt-and-pepper shrimp and chopped whole yellow croaker, a San Gabriel Valley favorite. Entrees include sweet-and-sour fish fillets, steamed sole fillets, salt-and-pepper squid and clams in black bean sauce and marinated dry bean curd slices, which were all San Gabriel Valley–quality.

Obviously we're talking buffet food here, not gourmet food, but for diners who appreciate an occasional Chinese buffet, FuJi Buffet and Grill might rocket to the top of your list.

300 Harvey Drive, Glendale. (818) 553-1688.

 

 

1987 Beedle House - L.A. Weekly -- May 12, 2017

With L.A. Weekly apparently having cleared out their online archives, here's a repost from an article I wrote for them in 2017.

1987 Beedle House — The Name Is Funny But The Food Is No Joke

David R. Chan | May 12, 2017 | 8:34am

 

For a century, Chinese restaurants in America were marked by simple, slightly "exotic" names. Iconic Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles were called Golden Pagoda, Grandview Gardens, General Lee’s, New Moon, Man Fook Low. It was thought that non-threatening restaurant names were a way to make peace with the outside community. This strategy proved to be quite successful, as Chinese restaurants became quite popular in the U.S. beginning early in the 20th century, even though the Chinese-Americans running these restaurants were treated as second-class citizens in all facets of life. More recently, however, some Chinese restaurant names in the U.S. have turned 180 degrees, from simple and perhaps even a little boring, to some real head scratchers.

This is because many Chinese restaurants have started targeting primarily, if not exclusively Chinese-speaking clientele, in which case the English language names of some of these restaurants have become an afterthought. Consequently we see the San Gabriel Valley peppered with Chinese restaurants with off-the-wall monikers such as Why Thirsty?, Smelly Pot, Garage Restaurant, Suit Ur Buds, Whatever and Chongqing Dezhuan Morals Village.

 

The latest addition to the list of oddly named Chinese restaurants is the newly opened 1987 Beedle House in Walnut. And in some respects, the quirkiness continues once you get into the restaurant. 1987 Beedle House adopts the fast casual approach where you order and pay for your food at the counter, then have the food delivered to your table. Except that you can’t see the counter when you walk into the restaurant, since it’s in the back and to the side. And then there’s the menu from which you order, which runs just two items deep — stewed beef noodle soup, made with their “secrect” beef broth, and the "mo," a flatbread pork belly sandwich. Indeed, if you know the system, you don’t even have to say anything to place your order, since there are baskets full of markers the size of a large, thick credit card. Put the noodle and/or bread marker on your tray, and they’ll know what you want. 

 

 

There are actually more than two items available to eat, as there is also a small adjacent self-serve area full of Tianjin-leaning cold items (or as the menu says, “clod dish”), like pickled vegetables, which you pile on a small plate for $3.95. Also there is fried chicken for 95 cents per piece.

Of course, quirkiness aside, the only thing that matters is the food, and in this regard, 1987 Beedle House delivers. The stewed beef noodle soup is a superior product, which the owners attribute to extreme care in crafting both the broth and the beef. The recipe for the broth is said to have been handed down from generation to generation, with hundreds of ingredients tested and winnowed down to 30 seasonings. While many Asian noodle soup broths are flavorful thanks to an unhealthy combination of salt and fat, this beef bone broth is light. The beef itself is stewed for more than 20 hours to be flavorful, but not greasy, and is very tender. The handmade egg noodles have just the right amount of "Q." 

 

 

The pork belly mo was also excellent, not being the typical slab of pork belly meat and fat that you may be used to, but rather a hash including other ingredients, highlighted by a flavorful Chinese flatbread bun. And the fried chicken turned out to be boneless cutlets, crispy and tasty.

And what exactly does “Beedle” mean? An internet search of “beedle” and “noodle” does pull up a large number of hits, but they all go back both in English and Chinese to 1987 Beedle House. It's a portmanteau of “beef” and “noodle.” Mystery solved.

358 N. Lemon Ave., Walnut.(909) 468-1666, facebook.com/1987beedlehouse. 

Enter The New Dim Sum Contender - L.A. Weekly -- August 15, 2017

 

With L.A. Weekly apparently having cleared out their online archives, here's a repost from an article I wrote for them in 2017.

 

Enter the New Dim Sum Contender

David R. Chan | August 15, 2017 | 7:18am

 

The past decade or so has produced a sea change in Chinese dining in Los Angeles, as well as the rest of the United States. Decades of Cantonese dining dominance have nearly evaporated as regional cuisines representing the entire breadth of Chinese cooking have come to the United States in great numbers, reflecting the migration of mainland Chinese residents and money to our shores. Indeed, in recent years, new Cantonese restaurant openings in the San Gabriel Valley have dwindled to roughly 10 percent of total new Chinese restaurants opening in the SGV.

However, while Cantonese food may be down, it is not out in our local Chinese community. The toughest Chinese restaurant ticket continues to be the most popular dim sum palaces on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, and the greatest wish among Chinese diners is that, despite the high quality of our local dim sum purveyors, some new dim sum player, equal to or better than the existing dim sum leaders, will open its doors. In this regard, it's disappointing that we have had the same leaders of the dim sum pack for several years. As it has for the past 15 years, Sea Harbour in Rosemead is on the top of most people’s dim sum list, followed variously by Lunasia and King Hua in Alhambra, Happy Harbor in Rowland Heights and Elite in Monterey Park, all of which date back to 2008 or earlier. The only newcomer in the top tier of local dim sum is Arcadia’s China Red, which opened in 2013, and it sits at the bottom of this top tier.

Not that new operators haven’t tried to crack the top group. In 2014, Shi Hai opened in Alhambra with the express purpose of becoming the top dog, dim sum–wise, in the San Gabriel Valley. However that endeavor ended unsuccessfully last year when Shi Hai rebranded as World Seafood, with a new, lower-priced menu. Other dim sum palaces have opened in the same period, such as Shanghai #1 Seafood Village in San Gabriel, Grand Harbor in Temple City and Pleasure Ocean in Hacienda Heights, but while they certainly purvey good dim sum, they do not match up to our historic leaders.

However, a newly opened restaurant in Temple City, though a bit on the small side, may prove to be the new contender that everyone has been hoping for. Xiang Yuan Gourmet opened last month and is already showing great promise. 

First of all, it serves its dim sum from a menu, as does every other restaurant listed in this report. While romantics may gush about dim sum carts representing the true dim sum experience (although there was no such thing as a dim sum cart in Los Angeles until introduced by Miriwa Restaurant in Chinatown in 1976), the best dim sum comes from a menu since it arrives fresh and cooked to order. Secondly, Xiang Yuan Gourmet shows a creativity and imagination in some of its dim sum creations that is consistent with that found at the top tier dim sum restaurants. While it is important that a dim sum restaurant gets its har gow, BBQ pork buns, beef cheung fun rice noodle rolls, siu mai and other favorites right, it is the unusual dish that sets the top-tier dim sum restaurants apart — think bamboo shoot dumplings shaped like carrots, mushroom buns and egg and seaweed rolls.

Other interesting dim sum items include sauteed chicken feet with chili and ginger, crispy seafood cheung fun, spare rib cheung fun, pork blood jelly with chives, and baked almond cream bun.

One unique thing about Xiang Yuan Gourmet is the dinner menu. Every other dim sum restaurant mentioned here serves Hong Kong–style seafood at dinnertime, with the except of Shanghai #1 Seafood Village. However, Xiang Yuan Gourmet’s dinner fare is a mixture of Hong Kong–style seafood and “traditional Hunan cuisine"; this mix represents the direction of Chinese food in the San Gabriel Valley these days.

9556 Las Tunas, Temple City; (626) 286-6788.

 

 

 

 

The Most Unlikely Restaurant in Chinatown - L.A. Weekly -- October 19, 2017

 With L.A. Weekly apparently having cleared out their online archives, here's a repost from an article I wrote for them in 2017.

 

The Most Unlikely Restaurant in Chinatown — but for How Long?

David R. Chan | October 19, 2017 | 7:44am

 

 

Depending on whether you’re looking at the menu, the signage over the door or the sandwich board in front of the building, a restaurant called Noodle Time, Noodles Time or Noodle Times opened in Alpine Plaza about a year ago. The complex is a compact shopping center (sometimes described as an indoor bazaar) located on Alpine Street between Broadway and Spring. For more than 30 years, Alpine Plaza was home to the venerable Chiu Heng Restaurant, until its closing last year, and it's still home to Salathai Restaurant. Over the years there has been a parade of Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai restaurants occupying the plaza’s three restaurant spaces.

Clearly, Alpine Plaza is in a part of Chinatown that has not yet benefited from the restaurant boom triggered further south in Chinatown by eateries such as Howlin Ray’s, Chego, Baohaus, Little Jewel of New Orleans, LASA and all the other new restaurants opening up in Far East Plaza and the Jia Apartments. With the completion of Blossom Plaza around the corner from Alpine Plaza on Broadway, there have been proposals for a number of new developments at this end of Chinatown, but nothing has been finalized, and this stretch still looks as it did 40 years ago. At the moment, Alpine Plaza is really suffering. Bustling for 40 years, the grocery store space is vacant and subdivided but unrented, and only two operating business, Salathai and Noodle(s) Time(s), are apparently open.

But the mere presence of Noodle(s) Time(s) and the fact that it has already lasted a year may be an indication that things are changing on Alpine Street, because it doesn't resemble anything seen before, either in this shopping center nor anywhere else in Los Angeles Chinatown. First of all, the menu. At first glance, Noodle(s) Time(s) would seem to be best described as a Thai-Chinese noodle restaurant, with a menu of standard favorites such as Thai boat noodle soup, beef stew with tendon noodle soup, pad Thai and chicken chow mein. But the menu also goes off on a Japanese tangent, with varieties of sushi, pork chop ramen soup, bento boxes and teriyaki bowls. And for Malaysian influence there are satay skewers, pork jerky and roti. Nothing unusual so far, as pan-Asian restaurants are gaining a respectability they never had before, but certainly something new for Chinatown — though Chinatown is clearly ready for something like this, given its recent culinary evolution.

But then there's the "Vegetarian (or Vegan)" section of the menu. It includes Thai and Chinese dishes such as Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce, green beans with garlic, and pumpkin with yellow curry. At the bottom of the section there are truly odd dishes that are neither Thai, Chinese, or of any Asian ilk, such as the lentil burger (quite tasty) with French fries, the vegan fried soy chicken burger, or the "cowboy" burger wrap. With these items on top of its Asian offerings, Noodle(s) Town(s) clearly has the most eclectic menu ever seen in Chinatown, which by itself distinguishes it from the competition.

It's also decorated differently from other restaurants on this end of the neighborhood: American pop culture icons smile from the walls; the seating is wood benches. Of course, given the recent changes that have come to Chinatown dining, Noodle(s) Town's menu and decor wouldn't appear terribly out of place if it were located in the booming southern part of Chinatown, and if it were operated by a millennial chef or hipster owner. But Noodle(s) Town(s) is run by an older immigrant couple on a block in Chinatown that has escaped recent gentrification, which makes the entire operation totally unexpected and noteworthy.

So far, based on Yelp reviews, Noodle(s) Town(s) seems to be best known for the fact that it delivers almost anywhere. But those who get their food delivered are missing out on something unique that can only be appreciated in person. You might want go on down there sooner rather than later, because Alpine Plaza is the proposed site of a massive, seven-story mixed-use residential and retail real estate complex. Of course, not every proposed real estate project makes it to fruition — downtown Las Vegas would have a hundred condominium towers if all the projects planned a decade ago were built. But still, as Howlin’ Ray’s, Little Jewel, Chego and all the others have proven in just a few years, anything is possible in Chinatown.

Westfield Santa Anita's Chinese Restaurants - L.A. Weekly -- September 17, 2017

With L.A. Weekly apparently having cleared out their online archives, here's a repost from an article I wrote for them in 2017.

 

Westfield Santa Anita's Restaurants Are Getting Even More Impressive — Here's the Latest Addition

David R.Chan | September 7, 2017 | 8:08am

 

For those who remember pre–civil rights–era Los Angeles, it's ironic that communities that once did not allow Chinese people to reside within their borders now sport a significant Chinese-American population: San Marino, South Pasadena and Rancho Palos Verdes, for example. But the greatest irony is that of Arcadia, which once vehemently excluded Chinese-American residents but now has become the face of the globally known San Gabriel Valley Chinese-American community. A city whose entire character has changed as its single-story homes have been replaced by mega-mansions built to the lot lines, thanks almost exclusively to the influx of Chinese homebuyers. A city whose famed Santa Anita racetrack is probably now better known these days for hosting the summertime 626 Night Market and its panoply of Asian food offerings than for horseracing. And a city whose signature shopping mall, Westfield Santa Anita, is beginning to resemble an Asian community center.

While the Santa Anita mall has a long history of Chinese food options (albeit originally just your typical food-court Chinese), it is now becoming a conspicuous powerhouse for Asian food in general, and Chinese food in particular. The seeds of this food transformation began in 2013, when the famed mainland Chinese Sichuan hot pot specialist, Hai Di Lao, opened its first U.S. branch here. Even with a $50 or more per-person tab at lunch or dinner, Hai Di Lao was booked for months, and the precedent was set. While more authentic Chinese eateries opened up in the interim, 2016 was the year when the mall’s Chinese food scene exploded. In the spring, Beijing-based Sichuan-style restaurant Meizhou Dongpo opened up Dongpo Restaurant, its second American branch following up its surprisingly successful initial opening in the Century City mall, supposedly bringing much of its kitchen staff from Century City to Arcadia. A few weeks later, the big dog, the legendary Taiwan-based Din Tai Fung, opened up its massive 300-plus-seat flagship restaurant to replace its two modestly sized locations a half-mile away — but there are long waits here, too. And at the end of 2016, Johnny Lee opened his acclaimed Hainan chicken specialty eatery, Side Chick, as part of Westfield Santa Anita’s Asian food court alley around the corner from Din Tai Fung.

Now in 2017, the beat goes on. Once again it’s a famous Chinese mainland-based chain, Sichuan Kungfu Fish, opening its first U.S. location (and its second North American location — there's one in suburban Toronto) in Westfield Santa Anita. The opening of Sichuan Kungfu Fish in mid-August shows just how far Sichuan-style food (as well as other regional Chinese cuisines) has evolved in the United States in the 21st century.

When "authentic" Sichuan food first came to the United States in the late 20th century, it was all about the chilies and fiery spiciness, as typified by the water-boiled fish at Chungking Restaurant in Monterey Park. At the time, the ma la numbness of Sichuan peppercorns was virtually unheard of in local restaurants, since those peppercorns were banned from the United States as a carrier of citrus disease. It wasn’t until a dozen years ago, when properly treated Sichuan peppercorns were allowed into the country, that ma la came to our local Sichuan restaurants (though bootleg peppercorns did previously manage to slip through for personal use).

While San Gabriel Valley Sichuan cuisine is now synonymous with those numbing Sichuan peppercorns, and the establishment of destination purveyors of ma la such as Chengdu Taste and Szechuan Impression is making the biggest splash, Sichuan cuisine continues to evolve in the San Gabriel Valley. Chengdu Taste has opened Mian, its noodle spinoff, Chengdu Impression has a broad Sichuan menu that goes beyond numbing and spicy, and a number of small restaurants have opened up featuring Sichuan grilled whole fish and fillets — most impressively, Sichuan Kungfu Fish, just a few doors down from Dongpo and Hai De Lao.

It’s not clear what the relationship is between kung fu and either Sichuan or fish, but the restaurant plays it up to the hilt. As you open your relatively slim menu, you are urged to “choose your opponent” from Top Secret Sea Cod, Professor Swai, Killer Catfish and Commander Tilapia. You are given your choice of several spicy and nonspicy base sauces, along with a number of sides and appetizers. There are also set dinners for two based on the same opponents. Those still in a fighting mood can select from a listing of “Fighting Skewers.” Fish dishes are served hot pot–style in fish-shaped vessels. 

 

All in all, the presentation and the ambiance at Sichuan Kungfu Fish are in line with the new wave of more upscale Chinese restaurants opening up in the San Gabriel Valley in the past two years. The entrees at Sichuan Kungfu Fish run generally in the $20 to $35 range. One interesting section of the menu is marked “Reservations Required,” which is apparently Chinese for “order in advance.” Included in this section is the "Ultimate Seafood Boss," containing lobster, crab, shrimp, scallops, clams, sea cucumbers and mussels for $199. (It does serve five to six people, so pricing is comparable to the individual and set dinner items.)

A lot has happened in Arcadia in the past few decades. And in traversing Westfield Santa Anita these days, perhaps the ultimate irony is catching yourself wondering “What are those non-Asians doing here?”

400 S. Baldwin Ave., #2360, Arcadia; (626) 898-5733, kungfu-fish.com.

The Puzzle Of The Pandemic Expansion of the Boba Parlor Industry

When the pandemic hit in 2020, it appeared that it would be an all out disaster for Chinese food eateries of all stripes, from the fanciest large restaurants to the smallest mom and pop restaurants and boba parlors.  As I wrote in Menuism, the hit was expected to be disproportionately hard on Chinese restaurants due to the large concentration of family owned businesses.  Indeed celebrity chef Ming Tsai sadly predicted that nearly half of family owned Chinese restaurants would end up shuttering.  And indeed, this seemed to be a fair assessment as probably a majority of all Chinese eateries closed down for at least a period of time during 2020, and certainly all Chinese restaurants that were operating at any point of time did so on a much smaller scale.  

Things looked particularly bleak for the boba parlors. Many observers felt that the boba market seemed oversaturated, and was ready for a shakeout anyway.  People not so jokingly were stating that there was seemingly a boba parlor on every block in the San Gabriel Valley.  And when the pandemic hit, boba shops were viewed as particularly at risk because part of the business plan of many boba parlors was to allow customers to linger for periods of time to use the shop's Wi-Fi resources and reorder their drinks.  With in person dining prohibited, it appeared to be the death knell for much of the boba segment of the industry.

But as I reported in a  subsequent Menuism article the Chinese eateries battled back from the precipice.  And while a lot of restaurants did have to close for many months, so many eventually reopened that the eventual failure rate was probably no greater than had there not been a pandemic.  Amazingly, while there were casualties, many boba parlors successfully pivoted to a takeout model during the time period that in-person dining was not permitted.  And more amazingly, new boba parlors began to open.  Indeed, instead of marking a period of contraction for boba parlors, the pandemic marked the beginning of a period of exponential growth.  Not only was there a major expansion in the number of boba purveyors, but there was actually a shortage of locations, as one Chinese shopping center leasing agent revealed that a particular center in Irvine actually had a waiting list of wannabe boba shop operators.

So for the past three years or so I have been befuddled by the proliferation of boba shops.  But a lucky happenstance seems to have pointed me to the answer.  I was looking for information on a Pasadena boba shop I had recently visited, but could not readily remember the name, so I did a Google search for "Pasadena boba."  Well, besides leading me to the business I was searching for, there was another hit for something called the Pasadena Boba Trail.  The Pasadena Boba Trail is a self guided two day tour developed by the city of Pasadena designed to take you to all parts of Pasadena to visit 30 different boba shops.  Now while it is true that Pasadena is geographically part of the San Gabriel Valley, the fact is that when the term San Gabriel Valley is bandied around you think about cities like Monterey Park, San Gabriel, Rosemead, Arcadia, Rowland Heights and Hacienda Heights, though Pasadena does have a modest Chinese influence which is on the upswing.   So if a city like Pasadena  is so densely packed with boba shops, boba has gone more widely mainstream than many of us have realized.  And in so doing boba shops have found room to expand by pushing aside mainstream cold refreshment businesses like Pinkberry, Yogurtland and Jamba Juice, whose profiles have greatly diminished (and for that matter, possibly neighborhood bars, too). 

 

Of course this is not the only factor that has propelled boba parlors into a higher gear instead of crashing and burning.  In hindsight, today’s boba parlors aren't the same animals that we started to see in the Chinese American community roughly 25 years ago.  At one time we were thrilled to be able to order a passionfruit green tea with chewy boba balls in them.  But look where we're at now.  While there are still some shops that still offer drinks only, the majority of them offer snacks, if not outright meals, along with their drinks, though that was a trend that started well before the pandemic.  But what the pandemic did seem to do was permit inventive minds stuck at home during the lockdown to put on their thinking caps and come up with an endless variety of flavors, fanciful designs, mediums and add ons, like this taro swirl cheese foam slushie from Bengong Tea in Arcadia, that makes each separate boba parlor a unique adventure.   

And now there’s room for two or three boba shops on every block.

They Don't Make Chinese Buffets Like They Used To

Driving up to my favorite existing Chinese buffet (emphasis on “existing” as all my longtime favorites are long gone), Gold Hibachi in Alhambra, something was wrong. There were no cars parked in the spaces by the entrance to the restaurant. While it wasn’t 11:30am yet, still I was stunned since I was always relegated to parking in the back of the lot. Were they out of business? No, the front door was open. But then I saw the two signs. UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT and Lunch Buffet $20.99, where Gold Hibachi had historically been on the low end price wise for lunch buffet.  Stepping inside only four tables were occupied. 

 

For me, this was just the latest 21st century disappointment for me as all my favorite Chinese buffets have gone by the wayside.  While Chinese buffets are probably at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to the hierarchy of Chinese restaurants, I'm quite proud that the late, great Los Angeles Times restaurant critic Jonathan Gold described me as a "connoisseur of the genre" and referred inquiries about Chinese buffets to me.

 

 

Chinese buffets were not on my radar for quite a period of time.  First of all, there weren't that many around the Los Angeles area, especially compared to other parts of the country.  More importantly the food wasn't that good, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, when so many outstanding new Chinese restaurants were opening up.  In that environment, why would one want to waste a meal at a buffet that was sure to be lesser in quality?

The first Chinese buffet to grab my attention was the Universal City Hilton, which opened around 2001, serving fabulous and expensive weekend dinners.  It was too high end and impractical to eat at on a regular basis, but certainly a treat to eat at a few times a year. (For sake of completeness, I should mention the buffet at the San Gabriel Hilton which opened in 2005 and was quite comparable to the Universal City Hilton.  Once again it was only a special occasion venue, at least until they pivoted to a lunch time limited menu mini-buffet.) 

 

But the opening in 2003 of Moonstar on Market St. in downtown San Francisco was the game changer, serving high quality but affordable and approachable food at both lunch and dinner time.   But it was the 2004 opening of West Coast Seafood in Hacienda Heights which really won me over to buffets, since I could eat there any time I wanted.  Well not any time, since we lived 25 or 30 miles away, but that didn't stop us from eating there every couple of weeks.  Sadly after a few years something happened and the quality started to drop and West Coast Seafood was eventually sold in 2011 and became an ordinary Chinese buffet.  

From time to time, what I considered to be excellent Chinese buffets would come and go.  Union Buffet opened in West Los Angeles in 2010 and I managed to eat there weekly during the three years they were open.  Yummy Yummy Seafood Buffet opened in El Monte in 2011 and lasted barely more than a year, but I was able to eat there regularly for lunch, driving out from my downtown Los Angeles office.  I still think about the beef dumplings they had in their buffet line.  When Union Buffet closed, I moved on to Hokkaido Seafood in West Los Angeles, not nearly as good as Union Buffet, but good enough for weekly visits until I retired.  

Then there was Kome Buffet in Industry.  A successful operation in Daly City, they moved in the San Gabriel Valley in 2014 and opened with a bang.  By far the best, most fabulous Chinese buffet to ever grace the Los Angeles area, better than any of my other favorites.  One problem.  They didn't charge nearly enough for what they served.  (I think lunch was $12.)   Quickly they had to raise prices and lower quality.  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

In 2017 I was winding down my work career, cutting my hours and sometimes going home at mid-afternoon.  This is where I found my most improbable buffet of all, Fuji Buffet in  Glendale.  Glendale, a near black hole when it came to Chinese food was the last place I’d expect to find a Chinese buffet head and shoulders better than anything in the San Gabriel Valley, serving authentic Chinese dishes not found anywhere else in Glendale or within miles thereof.  I stopped by for a late lunch on my way home on a weekly basis and was so impressed I wrote a glowing article about Fuji Buffet for LA Weekly.  But alas once again all good things buffet had to come to an end.  I guess it was the pandemic, which at least temporarily closed down every buffet restaurant.  Fuji Buffet did reopen but it was never the same.

I did find another new San Gabriel Valley. favorite in 2019, but it wasn't a pure buffet, but rather Spring Shabu Shabu was an all you can eat hotpot restaurant with a separate short buffet table.  But it was heartbreak time again as while they did reopen again as good as ever after a partial pandemic closure, they closed in 2023.

Which leads us back to Gold Hibachi Buffet in Alhambra, which opened up in 2014, the latest in a string of Chinese buffets at this location since 2001.  Gold Hibachi Buffet was much better than its predecessors, and also had a variety of dishes that appealed to my particular tastes, though not as good as the buffets mentioned above.   On my recent visit, the food did look pretty much the same. There were even a few upgrades like unlimited fish skins (!!!)

 

 

And sashimi. 

 

 

 

A couple new dishes headed by this great new take of baak tong goh, the diagonal and flat sweet glutinous rice cake.

Salt and pepper bone in fish chunks.

 

 

 

On balance food was not quite as good as before.  Pig ears were still fine.

But my very favorite dish, the Korean glass noodles may have looked the same but were meh.  What a disappointment!  And the teppan grill, which was so crowded that you had to keep an eye on the line for a lull to jump in, was so ordinary that I'm not sure if anybody went through the line while I was there.   Even at peak lunch hour, the main dining room was less than half full and the large auxiliary dining room wasn't even in service.

 

 

 

And with the higher price, people have voted with their feet, as even at the height of lunch hour the main dining room was less than half full and the large auxiliary room not even in use.  I'm not saying I'll never come back, but certainly it will have to be in a situation like this visit, where I happen to be near the restaurant at lunch time without having eating breakfast.