I’ve mentioned my friend Sharon once or twice on the site, but she deserves more than a brief sentence in passing. You see, she’s my SGV guru. Sharon grew up in Alhambra, one block north of Valley Boulevard to be exact, and has had a lifetime of meals in the area under her belt. Try as I might to learn the lay of the land, I’ve barely made a dent in the scene during my two years of delectable explorations.
Lucky for me, Sharon happily takes me to her favorite haunts whenever she flies in from North Carolina, where she currently resides. On our most recent outing, we headed to Old Country Cafe to satisfy her serious hankering for Taiwanese-style fried chicken.
Old Country Cafe, one of the oldest Taiwanese restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley, is a charming hole-in-the-wall tucked inside a not-so-charming office-plex. The tiny space is heavy on the Formica and looks like it hasn’t been updated since its first day of business—I love places like these! We grabbed two stools along the counter and settled in with sweet drinks: salty plum for me and passion fruit for her.
We started off with a dish of snappy and chilled “flavored cucumber” ($2.25) at Sharon’s urging. She adored the vegetable’s garlicky undertones and salty kick. I admired its jagged edges and irregular shapes; it was as if the cucumber was hacked by a clawed animal.
We may or may not have ordered the bean curd ($2.50) that followed, but we were very happy to eat them nevertheless. Lightly marinated in sesame oil and soy sauce, the bean curd was savory and characteristically toothsome.
