Archive for the 'Chinese' Category

Chung King Restaurant – San Gabriel

Published by Gastronomer on December 10, 2011 in Chinese, Los Angeles, Restaurant Review and San Gabriel. 3 Comments

Have you ever attended a dinner where you were so wrapped up in the company and conversation that savoring the food took a back seat? I’m sure that happens all the time for the average bear, but for a food blogging bear like myself, I try my best to keep these rambunctious occasions to a minimum. Otherwise, I end up with a post full of pretty pictures accompanied by vague descriptions, kind of like this one…

The Astronomer and I met up with Remil, Lien, Daniel, Darin, Danny, and Nastassia at Chung King for a weeknight dinner. At one point in the history of great Chinese restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley, this place was considered to be the very best Sichuan act in town. I was excited to see how it compared with my current favorites, Lucky Noodle King and Yun Chuan Garden.

With The Kung Food Panda in charge of ordering, food came out of the kitchen at a rapid clip. We worked that lazy Susan like she’s never been worked before.

The first dish to land on the table turned out to be the best dish of the night. The “saliva chicken” was mouthwateringly good with its spicy sauce and supple meat. Served cold, the chicken was appealingly congealed, which played off the spice just right.

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Lucky Noodle King – San Gabriel

Published by Gastronomer on November 20, 2011 in Chinese, Los Angeles, Restaurant Review and San Gabriel. 6 Comments

Of all the regional Chinese cuisines represented in the San Gabriel Valley, The Astronomer and I are least familiar with the dishes from Sichuan. The specialties from this region are famous for their tongue numbing peppercorns and mountains of dried chilies, and while The Astronomer and I love spicy foods, sweating through an entire meal can be an intimidating affair.

Still, we can’t resist a great food adventure now and again. Feeling hungry and daring one Saturday night, we headed to Lucky Noodle King for a late dinner. The crowd was minimal at this time, just a family of four in the corner and a group of flip-flop sporting fellas in the center.

The restaurant’s walls were painted a fiery shade of red with ornamental chilies hanging here and there. Clearly, a sign of good things to come.

While we perused the menu, the restaurant’s lone and lovely waitress brought over a plate of peanuts and shredded cabbage for us to snack on. The cabbage tasted of sesame oil and Sichuan peppercorns with a kick that had a way of lingering.

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Wedding Banquet Redux at New Capital Seafood

Published by Gastronomer on April 28, 2011 in Chinese, Los Angeles, Nuptials, Restaurant Review and San Gabriel. 29 Comments

In the months leading up to our wedding, The Astronomer and I worked closely with New Capital Seafood to plan an exceptional banquet for our guests. The restaurant has a dozen set menus that most brides and grooms choose from, but we insisted on selecting each of the ten courses individually. Food might be an afterthought for some couples, but we wanted our guests to eat ridiculously well.

When the big day rolled around, The Astronomer and I were so caught up in laughing, dancing, toasting, and reveling that we ended up not eating much of the feast that we had thoughtfully planned. We stole a couple bites here and there in between making the rounds, but the party superseded the meal that evening.

We recently returned to New Capital Seafood to celebrate our first anniversary. Since we missed out on the ten-course banquet the first time around, we decided to order the whole shebang to share between the two of us. It was an over-the-top endeavor, but also incredibly festive and quite romantic.

The kitchen here has a tendency to rush things a bit, so we ordered three dishes at a time to control the pace and to avoid eating cold food. To start, we shared a luxurious platter of cold appetizers. The “house special combination” ($29) included jellyfish, pork hocks, beef brisket, roasted duck, and cuttlefish. Our favorites were the cinnamon- and anise-tinged brisket, as well as the glistening pieces of fatty duck.

The next dish to arrive was a super-sized bowl of hot and sour soup ($8.99) that our waiter messily dished out into two smaller bowls. Brimming with soft cubes of tofu, snappy woodear mushrooms, tender pieces of pork, and wispy curds of egg, the soup was soothing, well-balanced, and true to its name.

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Yun Chuan Garden – Monterey Park

Published by Gastronomer on April 3, 2011 in Chinese, Los Angeles, Monterey Park and Restaurant Review. 9 Comments

The Astronomer and I dined at Yun Chuan Garden many moons ago when my mother was in town for work. Even though no one in our party read Chinese or was familiar with Szechuan cuisine, we still enjoyed a solid meal by blindly trusting the menu’s cryptic English descriptions.

The Astronomer and I returned to the restaurant a few weekends back with our friend Danny. With a Chinese-speaking Szechuan expert at the table, we were excited to re-experience Yun Chuan Garden.

Joining the three of us for dinner were Amy, her fiance Dennis, and Laurie. Our group of six gathered around a large table toward the back of the restaurant. Danny took charge and ordered an array of beloved standbys, as well as a handful of new dishes.

To start, Danny, Amy, and I picked out a few cold appetizers from the selection at the front counter. The fried tofu, beef shank, and jellied headcheese all rocked. The spicing and seasonings were just right for my chili-loving tastes.

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Panda Express’ Wok Star Challenge

Published by Gastronomer on January 27, 2011 in Chinese, Food Event, Los Angeles and Media Event (this meal was free). 26 Comments

Not last night but the night before, I attended the first-ever Wok Star Challenge at Panda Express headquarters in Rosemead. In celebration of the upcoming Lunar New Year, a small group of bloggers was invited to the company’s test kitchen to meet and greet Executive Chef Andy Kao (a.k.a The Creator of Orange Chicken) and compete in a high-intensity cooking contest for charity.

Joining me at this totally random, but seriously fun event was Quyen of Kitchen Runway, Hong and Kim of Ravenous Couple, Vernon of Stellar Recipes (a.k.a. The Astronomer), Patti of Worth the Whisk, H.C. of L.A. and O.C. Foodventures, and Jenna of Eater LA. We were randomly paired into teams of two soon after we arrived.

The good food gods must have been smiling down on me because I was paired with Eat My Blog baker and all-around fabulous cook Quyen—I couldn’t have asked for a better teammate!

Prior to wokking and rolling our hearts out, we received a lesson on basic knife cutting techniques from Chef Kao. Next, he whipped up a batch of Firecracker Chicken Breast to show us how to manhandle a wok.

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