Archive for the 'San Gabriel' Category

Ton Chan Ramen – San Gabriel

Ton Chan Ramen - San Gabriel

For the third year running, the Eat My Blog crew went out for a soul satisfying ramen dinner following our annual bake sale. After standing on our feet the entire day hawking sweets for charity, all we wanted to do was sit down, relax, and slurp our hearts out.

Ton Chan Ramen - San Gabriel

Located next door to the perpetually packed Golden Deli, Ton Chan is considered by some to be the San Gabriel Valley’s strongest ramenya. Here, the tonkotsu broth is made fresh daily with konbu seaweed and pork bones. The broth is boiled for nearly a full day to achieve the desired rich and milky consistency.

Ton Chan Ramen - San Gabriel

We shared a few appetizers before the the noodles arrived. The spicy tuna roll, which consisted of twelve impressively plump pieces, was well constructed and legitimately spicy. I often think about picking up a to-go order of these when I’m dining next door at Golden Deli.

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Chung King Restaurant – San Gabriel

Chung King - San Gabriel

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…

Chung King - San Gabriel

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.

Chung King - San Gabriel

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

Lucky Noodle King - San Gabriel

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.

Lucky Noodle King - San Gabriel

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.

Lucky Noodle King - San Gabriel

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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Nha Trang – San Gabriel

Nha Trang - San Gabriel

The Astronomer’s 27th birthday was celebrated over Vietnamese food and lots of it. There was grilled pork a plenty at home and satisfying noodle soups in San Gabriel.

Jonathan Gold’s review of Nha Trang brought us to this itty-bitty shop off of Valley Boulevard. In his write up, Mr. Gold warned that a long wait was to be expected and that the kitchen might run out of the more popular dishes. The gods of good eating must have been smiling down on us this afternoon because we were seated after a few short minutes and everything on the menu was still available. Woo hoo!

Nha Trang - San Gabriel

One of my pet peeves with Vietnamese restaurants in America is that their menus are typically overwhelming, advertising everything from broken rice to bánh mì. Nha Trang’s menu was refreshingly edited, serving only eight dishes. Granted, the offerings were still all over the place in terms of regions, but the effort to pare down the menu was noted and appreciated.

Nha Trang - San Gabriel

After placing our orders, a sizable plate of herbs, beansprouts, chilies, and limes was brought to the table.

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Wedding Banquet Redux at New Capital Seafood

New Capital Seafood - San Gabriel

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.

New Capital Seafood - San Gabriel

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.

New Capital Seafood - San Gabriel

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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