Gastronomy Blog by Cathy Chaplin

Restaurant Review

20 Feb 2009

Yun Chuan Garden – Monterey Park

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The last time my mom and I met up for dinner, we ended up at Steven’s Steakhouse—my vote for the worst restaurant of 2008. After that traumatic meal, we vowed to never again dine in the city of Commerce. These days when my mom rolls into town, The Astronomer and I meet her in Monterey Park, halfway between her hotel and our home in Pasadena.

Monterey Park has the largest population of Chinese descendants in the U.S., which means that Cantonese seafood restaurants and mainland Chinese noodles and dumplings can be found at every turn. Mmm!

Our initial plan was to check out Dim Sum Express on Garfield Avenue, but by the time we arrived the shack had already closed for the day. On a whim and a recommendation from Tony C. of SinoSoul, we jammed across the street to dine at Yun Chuan Garden.

Without any prior research on what to order at Yun Chuan Garden, we skimmed the menu and each picked out a dish that sounded good. However, due to the fact that the English translations on the restaurant’s menu were overly simplified, it was difficult to differentiate one dish from the next—every item sounded great. We considered ordering some “Spicy with Spicy” out of curiosity, but the image of chili peppers stir fried with additional chili flakes didn’t really move us.

We started off with an appetizer platter that my mom ordered from the front counter. On the left is pig stomach and on the right are glistening pig’s ears. Both were marinated in spicy chili oil and served cold. My mom and I love our offal, so we dug right in. The ears were too chewy for The Astronomer, but he enjoyed the stomach as much as my mom and I did.

My contribution to our family-style meal were “Yunnan noodles with special sauce” ($5.28). These noodles tasted just like the ones The Astronomer and I ate this past summer while traveling through Kunming, China.

This is what the noodles look like after they’ve been properly mixed in with the toppings. The bulk of the dish’s flavors comes from the beef, which is marinated in a deliciously spicy, oily, and salty sauce. The egg noodles have a distinct bite to them and absorb the beef’s bold flavors well. A bowl of hot broth is served on the side for those desiring a more traditional noodle soup.

My mom chose the “spare ribs with garlic sauce” ($7.95). We were all a little surprised when the spare ribs arrived deep-fried because we were expecting them to be braised. Even though our expectations were dashed, each of us gnawed happily on the garlicky little ribs sprinkled with fresh chilies. It’s hard for me to dislike a pork dish, especially one that’s served atop a doily.

For our final dish, The Astronomer chose the “shredded pork with baked bean curd” ($6.95). The bean curd had a hearty texture that was more meat-like than other soy products I have tasted. The pork and bean curd were seasoned in a similar fashion to fast-food Chinese dishes—salty and not very spicy.

After such a horrendous dining experience at Steven’s Steakhouse the last time we got together, we were all pleased as pie with our dinner at Yun Chuan Garden. Even though Plan A didn’t quite work out, the quantity and quality of dining options in Monterey Park makes it nearly impossible to make a poor choice (even in a pinch).

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Yun Chuan Garden
301 N. Garfield Avenue, Ste. D102
Monterey Park, CA 91754
Phone: 626-571-8387

Recipe

18 Feb 2009

Bake-Sale Brownies

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Remembering how much I loved receiving sweet and edible packages during my college years, I surprised my lovely cousin Jackie (a college frosh) with homemade brownies for her 19th birthday. These way-better-than-Betty-Crocker treats come from the America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. With their high sugar content, brownies have a stubborn way of sticking to baking pans even after they’ve cooled. The Test Kitchen’s ingenious aluminum foil sling makes for super-easy removal and serving.

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup all-purpose flour

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 Degrees. Line an 8-inch square pan with foil then coat lightily with vegetable oil spray. Melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave, stirring often, 1 to 3 minutes. Let the mixture cool slightly.

Whisk the sugar, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl until combined. Whisk in the melted chocolate mixture until smooth. Stir in the flour until no streaks remain.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached, 22 to 27 minutes.

Let cool completely on a wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours, before removing the brownies from the pan using the foil and cutting into squares.

Makes 9 large brownies.

Restaurant Review

17 Feb 2009

Osteria Mozza – Los Angeles (Hollywood)

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After a heartbreaking missed reservation back in December, The Astronomer and I finally sat down for a meal at Bastianich, Batali and Silverton’s gem Osteria Mozza. This time around we made doubly sure to take the proper route and even showed up fifteen minutes early (just in case).

We were seated promptly at a two-top on the left side of the packed, dimly lit dining room. The vibe here isn’t very different from the pizzeria next door—both are laid back with a strong emphasis on good service and great food.

As we perused the menu, which is frustratingly written mostly in Italian, we were offered a selection of breads with butter. I went for a slice each of multi-grain and white. With a baking expert like Silverton at the helm, it was no surprise that both breads were excellent, with hearty crusts and moist, complex innards.

In between placing our order and the arrival of course number one, amuse bouches landed at the table—two slices of thinly toasted crostini generously smeared with fresh ricotta and topped with olive tapenade, basil and Tuscan olive oil. The crisp bread made for a clean and crunchy bite, while the mild and creamy ricotta shined brightly paired with the salty tapenade and fruity oil.

The best dish of the evening was our first starter—burricotti with braised artichokes, pine nuts, currants and mint pesto ($15). Osteria Mozza’s most unique feature is the in-house mozzarella bar, which is manned by Silverton herself on most nights, including the Saturday that we dined. According to S. Irene Virbila of the Los Angeles Times, “the mozzarella bar is Silverton’s novel take on antipasti: Everything is based on Italian fresh cheeses.”

It’s a good thing that I have a larger-than-average mouth, because this starter was a messy mouthful. The perfect bite included a bit of everything—delightfully gooey cheese, refreshing pesto, tart and tender artichokes, sweet currants and grainy pine nuts. On our next trip to Osteria Mozza, I’d like to have a meal solely comprised of items from the mozzarella bar.

For our second starter, I chose the tripe alla Parmigiana with ceci ($10). The tripe was delicately stewed with tomatoes, chickpeas and star anise, and topped with Parmigiana and two sturdy pieces of toasted bread. The texture of the tripe was fantastic, but the star anise overpowered all of the other flavors. Overall, the dish was strong, but had too many anise notes and not enough tomato.

We followed up our two starters with a series of three pasta dishes. First up was a fresh ricotta and egg raviolo with browned butter ($18). We encountered a little difficulty polishing off the lone raviolo due to the triple punch of richness brought about by the cheese, runny egg yolk and browned butter. Although The Astronomer liked this dish very much, I found it overwhelming and just too, too much.

The ricotta gnudi with cotechino and carrots ($19) was much more my style. The rustic carrot stew was perfectly seasonal fare and worked nicely with the plump, melt-in-your-mouth gnudi. This dish was simple, yet very pleasurable.

Midway through our pastas, we decided to cancel our upcoming meat course due to limited stomach space and imminent palate fatigue. These small portions are deceiving because they really do pack in a lot of punch.

Our final pasta course, gnocchi with wild boar ragu ($19), was very similar in composition and flavor to the gnudi that preceded it. What really impressed us about this dish were the gnocchi—The Astronomer and I couldn’t get over how awesomely pillowy the the texture was. The wild boar ragu was tasty, but not as memorable as the little balls of joy it was served with.

After such a carbohydrate- and cheese-intensive meal, we finished off with the wonderfully refreshing Tre Agrumi Ghiacciati, which was comprised of a key lime cannoli, meyer lemon gelato and grapefruit sorbetto (left to right – $13). Each of the citrus specimens was topped with bits of candied zest, which added an element of sweetness to the mostly tart desserts. My favorite (by a hair) was the meyer lemon gelato, which was scooped onto a graham cracker crust (if my memory serves me right) with a spurt of lemon curd underneath. The cannoli and sorbet were excellent as well.

We enjoyed our feast at Osteria Mozza so much that we’re already planning to return for The Astronomer’s birthday.

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Osteria Mozza
6602 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
Phone: 323-297-0100