Baccali Cafe & Rotisserie: An Appetizing Appetizer-Entree.

I know I go to a lot of Cantonese cafes. I eat, sleep and breath in the aura of this part of my own culture. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that I have yet another post on another cafe. Though Baccali is for the most part a Cantonese cafe, it does emphasize itself on its rotisserie as well as bring in some non-standard Cantonese Cafe dishes to its tables.

My friend and I got a little hungry and decided to grab a bite to eat. We have already went to a bunch of the other cafes around town and Baccali was one of the few remaining that we have yet dined together at. So we decided it may be time to just drop by. The interior of the restaurant is open with a high ceiling. It was more like a little lodge cabin than a restaurant in its decor, which is rare for a cafe. It was mainly because a long time ago it was some sort of American restaurant before the Asian takeover of the valley.

(Half Rotisserie Chicken - Cajun Style)

Baccali specializes in making rotisserie chicken, and is probably one of the best cafes in the San Gabriel Valley to get rotisserie chicken. Personally it's not something I would eat all the time, but once in a while, if a friend orders it, I would nibble off a few bites off their plate. That's exactly what I did on this occasion.

The chicken was tender and flavorful, but hardly cajun. It's completely expected since cafes tend to mainstream their foods for the taste buds of the general Chinese eater. Not too strong in spices, but flavorful with a nice aroma to the food. Having had authentic cajun food from New Orleans and its surrounding areas, this Cajun style chicken barely had anything that remotely tasted cajun. It was only slightly more spiced up than their normal rotisserie chicken. Nevertheless the chicken was still well made and made for a good meal at a very good price.

(Curry Deep Fried Chicken Wings)

It almost seems like a completely opposite concept of serving something simultaneously deep fried and with a curry sauce. But I definitely enjoyed this combination very much. Something about having that nice juicy and slightly spicy curry sauce smothered over a crunchy deep fried chicken wing that just hits the spot. Of course this is hardly a healthy meal being wings have a ton of skin and fat. The curry wasn't oily which was a plus, but it was still quite heavy and stomach warming.

The steamed vegetables were lightly flavored. The zucchini slices were fresh very crunchy to my liking. Different cafes serve different vegetables as their side dishes and this is one of my preferred vegetables. It actually feels like I'm eating vegetables rather than just two slices of broccoli with some peas. Sometimes I'm stuck with baby corn which I find a bit too hard to be served steamed. But this dish was great. It did feel more like an appetizer rather than an actual meal, but since I wasn't overly hungry, combined with the rice, it was enough to fill me up.

(Lemon Iced Tea)

It wouldn't be a trip to a Cantonese cafe without my glass of iced lemon tea. There really isn't all that much special about this one here at Baccali. I think the most important thing is that it actually has tea flavor and tasted more than just water. It wasn't especially rich or bland. It was your ordinary glass of iced lemon tea that was cold and refreshing.

Baccali isn't my favorite cafe of all time, but it makes for a nice break away from my usual joints on occasion. They have some slightly unique dishes like beef stroganov that isn't commonly found in this area. I had that before and it was decent. I don't know enough about Russian foods to know the authenticity of the dish, but my guess is that it's not. The environment does make for a nicer date joint or just an outing with friends. Parking isn't a complete nightmare, though it is still small. I wouldn't make a trip out to Alhambra just for their chicken if I lived more than thirty minutes away. But to swing by once in a while if you happened to be nearby will turn up a few nice dishes of food on my table.

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Relax, Kick Back, It's China Bistro

I was snowboarding with my friend George up at Mountain High this Monday morning. Since we both had rather flexible schedules, we would always go early morning on a weekday to avoid the crowd but still get back in time in the afternoon to get some work done the rest of the day. Usually we would grab some food at a fastfood joint and be done with lunch. But that day we decided to grab a bite at a cafe instead; we ended up at China Bistro.

This place over ten years ago used to be a MacDonald's that moved down the street. Since then it had changed hands a couple of times and now it had become China Bistro, a Cantonese cafe that served only the Chinese foods but with the western influenced drinks. This day I actually opted out of my usual lemon iced tea and just had water, I had no idea what actually came over me.

(Dry Beef Chow Fun)

George ordered the dry beef chow fun, a pretty standard dish in case if you missed my many other posts on this dish. China bistro's dry beef chow fun is pretty well made. The chow fun didn't stick together and were evenly seasoned. There were ample amount of beef along with onions, sprouts and chives. It was certainly better then the ones I had over at U2 recently too, which drove me nuts if you read the other post. But no matter how good dry beef chow fun is made, I don't care for it. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that my parents love this dish and eats it all the time. But I personally preferred the wet style than the dry when it comes to chow fun. In fact I much preferred it in soup found more commonly in Chiu Chow style cuisine, though I much preferred the thin version than the thick ones.

(Beef Stew over Rice)

For me I ordered a beef stew over rice instead. I generally would order the beef stew over vermicelli wraps in a clay pot here at China bistro, which is one of my favorite things to eat. That day I really just felt like having a bit of rice instead. The dish was not very well plated, with sauce dripped on the side of the plate. The beef felt like it was just thrown on top with absolutely no consideration at all on presentation. I never really expected much in presentation at a cafe, but this felt as crude as street vendor food in Hong Kong. It was a bit crude even for my taste.

However the taste did make up for it a little and I cleaned my plate. Perhaps I was just hungry from the morning workout. The beef was very juicy and well marinated. It was spot on in terms of the thickness of the sauce. Served over rice, it was less heavy than its vermicelli wrap clay pot counterpart. The little bit of vegetables, as little as I was given, was at least a bit of fiber I desperately needed.

(Chicken With Vegetables)

George ordered an additional dish, not because he was that hungry from snowboarding, but mostly to take home as dinner. For less then $7 a dish, it's certainly a cheap and tasty dinner that could easily be heated up at home either with a microwave or reheating it on the stovetop. He wanted a little bit of vegetables in the second dish and ordered the Chicken with Vegetables. We actually didn't realize the vegetable was broccoli, which I actually liked. It just wasn't what I was thinking when I hear vegetables. But when the plate arrived, I remembered that I actually ordered it before and it was broccoli at that time. The problem was broccoli during the last time I had it was out of season and was really bitter. This batch was normal and edible.

The chicken was perfectly made in this dish. It was cooked just right giving it a nice spongy quality that was juicy and chewy; not one piece was stringy. The sauce wasn't overpowering which allowed the meat and the vegetables to speak through. The little bits of mushrooms balanced off the texture giving that added sponginess to the dish.

I do frequent China Bistro every so often, and generally order their lemon iced tea. In fact I was just there today again with another friend with a tall class of tea. The food is generally consistent in its quality, which is harder to find around here sometimes then one would imagine. Though the food has never been spectacular or well presented, it has always been reliable and decent. I wouldn't expect more than some alright food with a nice environment to sit in for an hour or two. It is a great way to just kick back on a small budget after a morning of intense exercise and long drive.

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Sheesh...It's U2 Again?

I am a Cantonese Cafe addict; that is my comfort food. I can grab a menu from any Cantonese cafes and just order down the menu from breakfast to dinner. So it's important for me to have that one go-to restaurant whenever I want this stuff. Actually I have like five go-to restaurants when it comes to Cantonese cafes, alternating depending on the deals and quality they currently have. The thing about Cantonese cafes in Los Angeles, more like in the San Gabriel Valley is that the consistency of quality is, well, inconsistent. One day I may find a certain restaurant to be my favorite because the portions are great, the quality is good and the price is cheap. The next month suddenly without warning, they would either jack up the price, or decrease the portion size, or the quality deteriorated. I am then forced to go with one of my five other main choices or even the half a dozen other second choices.

Right now, my Cantonese cafe of choice is U2 Cafe.

It's actually my entire family's Cantonese cafe of choice. Just within the first two weeks alone this year, I had already visited the cafe three times; this post is a compilation of the different visits. The other ones on my current list are JR Cafe, Face Cafe and Garden Cafe. I do have a few other ones I occasionally visit, but these are the ones I most frequent.

(U2 Cafe - Lor Sung Soup)

(U2 Cafe - Cod Cream Chowder)

In order to be a true Cantonese Cafe, the menu must be long and includes a few stable Cantonese dishes as well as some "Cantonese-ized" western dishes. It also wouldn't be a Cantonese cafe if you are not immediately served one of two soups: Lor Sung soup, a Cantonese style minestrone, and some form of cream chowder. The minestrone is the absolute essential for any Cantonese cafe, while some restaurants also serve a Chinese soup as an alternative in place of the cream chowder. U2 serve various versions of their cream chowders, sometimes it's a cod based chowder while other times it's a corn and ham based chowder. There really isn't anything fancy about this chowder. I would certainly not claim this to be anywhere near the best cream chowder I had in my life. But it certainly still hits the spot. Having cod in place of corn and ham gives the soup a bit more substance and just hits the comfort spot in my stomach. It certainly hits my mother's comfort spot. In fact for some odd reason, she chooses to come back to U2 Cafe mainly for the cream soup. I think it's most because of the fact that most other cafes have opted to replace the cream soup with a Chinese soup which she never cared for.

The Lor Sung however is my preferred soup. It is a tomato based soup with lots of vegetables and beef inside. My Dad knows how to make this really well, but we generally don't make it since it's usually made in a huge quantity. The soup served at U2 is average. Fortunately I have yet to taste it to be too salty, though sometimes it can border being too sour from the tomato sauce they use. The consistency does waiver in Cantonese cafes; it's in its nature.

(U2 Cafe - Lemon Iced Tea)

(U2 Cafe - Red Bean Ice)

Drinks came with the lunch special at U2 cafe, which is one of the big pluses. I have to get my drink fix at these cafes. U2 charges an extra 75 cents for the cold version of their free drinks, which is coffee or tea. Tea includes both lemon iced tea as well as milk tea, both of which are refillable. There's a little history behind this when all the Cantonese cafes in the area picked up this trait during the 1990's. I used to be a major milk tea drinker, but I have come to the conclusion because of the inconsistency of the quality of the tea, it is impossible to reliably get a good cup of milk tea. I like my milk tea to be very rich in tea flavor ala the Hong Kong style. There were periods of time when JR Cafe and other nearby cafes served a milk tea that's dark enough, but they fluctuate based on client feedback. That's the reason why Cantonese cafes are all average, they listen to their customers. Sometimes a restaurant just have to stick to their guns on what they believe is good instead of just constantly try to cater to the masses.

Generally speaking I order lemon iced tea with no sugar. It's been a little over two years since I started to decrease and remove sugar from most of my drinks. Most Cantonese cafe are realizing the trend for lower sugar so they usually put a different colored straw into the cup. At U2 I still had to remind them at every refill. Initially I started off with half sugar, which gradually became sugar on the side so I have control. Finally I took the plunge to no sugar for my lemon iced tea and relied purely on the juice from the lemon to sweeten the tea. On occasion we may end up ordering a red bean ice, which is pretty much the only other drink I would order from a Cantonese cafe. Generally speaking the other drinks aren't the best quality around, since their drink bars are generally staffed with waiters who were given a crash course in mixology. I basically only trust drinking their milk tea or their lemon iced tea.

(U2 Cafe - Singaporean Fried Rice Noodles)

I'm a huge fan of rice noodles, and the Singaporean fried rice noodle is a must order on my list at any Cantonese cafes. Of course I can't be ordering this dish every single time since I do enjoy various other dishes. The Singaporean fried rice noodle is curry based and can be semi-spicy depending on who's making it. It is fried with shrimp, sprouts, chasu and green onions, along with the occasional bell peppers and even chilly peppers. U2's version today was on the slightly spicier side where I almost had a little difficulty eating. They added a bit too much chilly peppers in it for my taste. Still I love the dish more then I hate how they can just ruin it by changing the spiciness of it.

(U2 Cafe - Seafood Chow Fun - Burnt)

(U2 Cafe - Seafood Chow Fun with Bad Shrimps)

The other staple of my Cantonese cafe diet is the beef chow fun. There's two different ways to get chow fun; wet style, where the chow much is white and the sauce is a liquid paste, or the dry style, where the chow fun is dark brown in color from the soy sauce and the sauce is cooked into the noodles. I generally order the dry style mainly because my parents prefer eating this. We generally order the beef version, but we do occasionally try out the seafood or other versions of the chow fun.

We ordered the beef version at one of the meals, but this time my parents opted to go for the seafood version instead. Unfortunately today was just not U2's day. The first plate they served us was burnt. I could smell and taste the burnt in the chow fun and it is no good. We told the waitress who knows us pretty well since we've been coming back so often. She was very friendly and took it back for us to remake. A short while later, she brought back out a second plate of it. It wasn't burnt, but the shrimp were bad. It boggled our minds since the shrimp in the Singaporean rice noodles were not bad, and I would assume, correctly so when we asked the waitress about it, that they were from the same batch of shrimps. Our only answer is that the shrimp on the bottom of the batch went bad while the top were still good most likely because the refrigerator was not at the correct temperature. I hope for their sake no one from the health department is reading this. The waitress was kind enough to offer to take it back again, but we decided to just pick out the shrimp and eat the rest. It was too much trouble by then.

(U2 Cafe - Black Pepper Beef Udon)

A good alternative to the beef chow fun, especially for me since I don't really like chow fun, is their black pepper beef udon. Again this plate can be ordered with seafood in place of the beef, which is true for half the dishes on the menu. A lot of Chinese food is simply replace one main ingredient with another and you got yourself another dish. This was actually ordered at a different meal here at U2 a week prior to the burnt chow fun/spoiled shrimp experience. For me the flavor to the dish was good. I could use a little bit more black pepper. The main thing I miss is a sizzling plate to serve it on. Many other Cantonese cafes serve this dish on a hot sizzling plate, which I had always been infatuated with as a child. If you do bring a child, just make sure the plate is kept far out of their reach, cause it is extremely hot.

(U2 Cafe - Baked Pork Chop Rice)

Occasionally I would opt out of something Chinese and go with something more western. Most often I would order a chicken, steak or pork chop with black pepper, mushroom, garlic or onion sauce. In fact I just had that on Martin Luther King Jr. day when I went back to U2 but forgot to take a picture. The one thing I absolutely would recommend anyone to try at U2 is their pork chop and their chicken steak. That is the true gem of this restaurant. There are three dishes that I would order for the pork chop. One, the chicken and pork chop steak combination with the sauce of your choice. Two, the pork chop over rice noodle soup that is generally served at afternoon tea time between 3pm to 5pm. Three, the baked pork chop rice.

The pork chop I believe were briefly deep fried and then baked over fried rice with a rich tomato sauce with just a little bit of cheese. They do not overload the dish with cheese since cheese isn't all too popular in the Asian population. But the little bit of cheddar then use does give it that added flavor that's needed to balance the tomato sauce. The pork chops are slightly crispy but still juicy and never over cooked. I have never had an overcooked pork chop at U2 cafe, and I think they do pork chops better then any of the other cafes around. It's also nice that they use fried rice instead of steamed rice as the base. It added to the flavors of the dish tremendously. This is one of the best made dish at U2.

(U2 Cafe - Salty Fish and Chicken Fried Rice)

Speaking of fried rice, the salty fish and chicken fried rice is one of my family's favorite. It's generally the dish we order when we can't decide what we want. That's the problem with have hundreds of items on a menu. This time they did this dish correctly. I was actually able to smell the salty fish when it came out and I could definitely taste it. The salty fish adds an edge to the flavor of the dish more than salt would do. It's almost likely having that grainy little bites of salt without being overwhelmed by the saltiness of the salt. It was one of those rare times where the dish was actually semi-well made. It wasn't the best though I have ever had. The salty fish was still in very small chunks, which mostly is because they can be a little more costly than other ingredients.

(U2 Cafe - Chicken Salad)

I'm not a big fan of salads at any Cantonese cafes, and I would never deliberately order a salad from there. Yet here's a picture of an actual salad at U2. It turns out that U2 is having a nice promotion where if we spend over twenty dollars before tax, we would get a free chicken salad. If we spent over thirty dollars before tax, we would get a free soy sauce chicken. It's actually not that easy to spend over thirty dollars with a party of three people at U2. Most dishes cost between five dollars to eight dollars. Even with the added 75 cents for a cold drink, it generally would not put your bill over thirty dollars before tax. Now with a free salad, it's really a great deal.

The salad really is nothing special as far as salad goes. But for a salad at a Cantonese cafe, it's better than your normal cut. Most salads at a Cantonese cafe uses iceberg lettuce. I always wonder if they actually ever visited a supermarket sometimes and saw that there are other vegetables aside from this dreadful one. But nonetheless it is what makes it Cantonese. They added a little bit of cucumbers and tomatoes to enhance the flavor, which is more rare than you would think for a Cantonese restaurant. I had once ordered a salad which I had to pay for with purely iceberg lettuce at a Cantonese cafe. The chicken however was very well made. I believe they make it the same way they make the chicken steak, briefly deep fried and well seasoned. That made the salad actually worthwhile, and one of the better salads I had at a Cantonese cafe. But if you are looking for good salads to eat, I suggest you go elsewhere. You won't find it in most Chinese restaurants.

(U2 Cafe - Soy Sauce Chicken)

We got the soy sauce chicken at a different meal where we had four people. That would take us over thirty dollars. U2 has a decent Siu Lap (roasted poutry and pork) department. In fact they have a section of their restaurant devoted to that, which increases their quality. In fact most other Cantonese cafes tends to be weak on this. Generally I would go to Sam Woo for good Siu Lap. The soy sauce chicken at U2 was juicy enough, though a few of their thicker pieces were bordering dry. It was free so I'm not complaining. The ginger oil sauce however could use a little work. It was not strong enough and could use a bit more ginger.

(U2 Cafe - Duck and Wonton Noodle Soup)

Their duck from their Siu Lap section is generally well made. In the soup, the duck then really becomes juicy and wet and easily palatable. The wonton however wasn't my favorite, but then most restaurant's wonton is missing the one key ingredient Dai Dei Ju. So far I believe only Sam Woo makes their wonton with that fish, without which it just taste like a ball of pork meat with very little flavor. The shrimp helps with giving it a little contrast in texture, but Dai Dei Ju is want gives it a kick. The egg noodles today was decent. It had a little spring to it, but not enough for me to be wowed. Beside, I'm not a big fan of egg noodle to begin with.

(U2 Cafe - Chinese Condiments)

Despite having a lot of issues with the consistency of the food, I still return. It's just because I'm an addict for Cantonese Cafe. I'm actually addicted to the environment. It's easy to visit with a friend, order some food and a bottomless cup of ice tea, and spend a good two or three hours chatting without any pressure or discomfort. Sitting at a Starbucks for hours going through two or three cups of coffee would easily cost ten dollars. With that same amount of money, I could get decent drinks for the afternoon and some good chow to go with it.

I'm sure I will fluctuate again in the future between which Cantonese cafe I would go to as my primary hub. One thing for sure I would never quit Cantonese cafe as my comfort food cafe.

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Legendary Hainan Chicken: Not So Legendary at Savoy Kitchen

I had heard about Savoy Kitchen for a very long time. I had passed by Savoy Kitchen many times. My hairstylist place was only two stores over. But I had yet to step foot inside this tiny little corner cafe in the middle of busy Alhambra until two Sundays ago with my friend Kenneth. Yes I'm still catching up with my blog, the San Francisco and Napa trip took a while to finish writing. Kenneth had actually been there before and he enjoyed it the last few times he was there. The place was known for its Hainan Chicken, so I already knew what I was going to order before even stepping foot inside the door.

(Savoy Kitchen - Hainan Chicken)

There was a little sign-in sheet at the door. Their indoor seating accommodated only fifteen or so people. They also had a few tables and chairs on the outside next to the cafe that sat an additional fifteen to twenty people. It was a small but cozy joint bustling with a hipper and younger crowd. We waited for about ten minutes before a table was ready for us.

We sat at the counter of the restaurant ready to order some food. I took a quick glance over the menu in case if I wanted to change my mind. I didn't; I still ended up ordering their Hainan Chicken. I was generally a fan of this dish if it's done well, but sadly only a few places did this well. Fortunately Savoy Kitchen did it pretty well; unfortunately it wasn't as good as the hype around it made it seemed. I honestly preferred the chicken at Cafe Spot down the street over Savoy's, but I did like Savoy's rice over any other place I had before.

Hainan Chicken is basically a steamed chicken that's chopped up and served. The juices from the chicken is then added to the rice during the steaming process so that the rice is chicken flavored, and not with MSG either. It also comes with a ginger and chive oil dipping sauce on the side for the chicken. Savoy took this one step further and served the dish with an additional spicy version of the ginger sauce as well as a dark soy sauce. It's always nice to have a choice; I tried all three. The soy sauce was too strong and distracted me from the actual taste of the chicken, which really shouldn't need a distraction; more on this later. Both of the ginger sauces were well made and were true to what they were supposed to be. The taste of the ginger and chives were not masked with an overt amount of salt which some restaurants end up doing.

The rice to the Hainan Chicken at Savoy was extremely well made. They were one of the few restaurants around that actually used the fresh juices from the Chicken and steamed the rice with them. The rice were extremely flavorful unlike other places that simply either poured on the juices afterwards or didn't even bother doing that, but serve you an MSG based chicken soup instead; that always drove me nuts. What I sort of missed and was looking for were a little bit of preserved vegetables somewhere on the plate. It was a pretty meaty, carby and oily dish. It would be nice to even have a hint of fiber somewhere just to make me feel a little better. I suppose it was not always absolutely necessary to add that to a Hainan Chicken dish.

If I judged this dish by everything surrounding the chicken, it was definitely hands down one of the best Hainan Chicken around LA, minus my Dad making it at home. But I can't possibly judge the Hainan Chicken without putting a lot of weight on the Chicken itself. The Chicken was only good, no where near as good as how everyone else made it sound like. With steamed chicken, most restaurants overcook them and they become dry. The few descent restaurants manage to get the dark meat to stay juicy while the white meat is generally dry. The good restaurants get the dark meat right and it's a hit or miss with the white meat. The greatest ones get it all perfect. The one I had from Savoy landed in the good restaurant zone. Most of the slices were juicy and tender, but the thicker white meats from certain parts of the chicken were a bit on the drier side. In fact, even the upper wing of the chicken was ever so slightly overcooked for a Hainan chicken.

I suppose without the hype, I would have thought this to be a pretty good Hainan chicken, but I was definitely expecting more. I wanted perfection or near that and Savoy didn't come close enough. It was only good. Perhaps the one I got was below their usual quality, but that's their problem. I had high demands for my chicken and I hated dry chicken. If I wanted a dry piece of chicken, I would go to El Pollo Loco. This is Savoy, and they were supposed to have the best Hainan Chicken around. I think they understood how to make good Hainan Chicken, I just didn't think they have it down cold to the point that every chicken would turn out perfect. To their defense, cooking chicken perfectly is way harder to do than cooking beef or pork. In the end, I much prefer the chicken at Cafe Spot only because I have yet to eat an overcooked chicken there. But I did enjoy tremendously the rice at Savoy, and would enjoy their chicken more because it's slightly lighter in flavor than Cafe Spot if it wasn't overcooked. I just can't have it all.

(Savoy Kitchen - Lemon Iced Tea)

I also ordered my usual drink, lemon iced tea sans sugar. Savoy served them in medium sized plastic cups. The environmental side of me was screaming "waste," while the consumer side of me was screaming "I can take it to go afterwards." They do free refills which is standard now for both lemon iced tea and milk tea in the San Gabriel Valley for most Cantonese style cafes. There's a history behind this and how this came about mostly during the 1990's which I actually lived through here in the valley. Basically because of the highly competitive nature of the Cantonese cafes of that time, in order to draw more customers, a few of the more established Cantonese cafes began serving free refills on lemon iced tea and milk tea, which were and still are the two most popular drinks at all the cafes. It made sense since even if a customer drank three or four refills, it would only have amounted to a few pennies to a dime or so in extra cost. But the customers were happier and more willing to return as a result. When this first started, we the customers had to ask every time we ordered whether they had free refills. But eventually every restaurant picked it up or at least noted it in their menu which drinks had free refills and which didn't. For American restaurants this may seem trivial, but if you visit Cantonese cafes in Hong Kong or even in New York, they may not necessarily have free refills.

The tea brew at Savoy was good and had some descent tea flavors. I was annoyed that I didn't get a spoon to crunch up the lemon. I had to use my straw to draw out the lemon flavors. It was your average drinkable lemon iced tea. Not too shabby but not memorable either. It's hard to make a cup of lemon iced tea memorable. However when it comes to milk tea, that's a different story and warrants a different post.

(Savoy Kitchen - Curry Chicken With Rice)

My friend Kenneth decided to order the curry chicken with rice. I took the liberty to take a picture and had a little taste of the dish. The curry was mildly spicy which was pretty standard at Cantonese Cafes. Once in a while I would run across a really spicy plate of curry rice, but most restaurants knew not to scare off their customers like that. The curry was also very flavorful and the chicken was just shy of being overcooked. They were mostly cut in long shreds rather than in chunks. It's much easier to overcook shreds than chunks when it comes to curry, but Savoy did a good job with this.

It's nice to finally say I know what Savoy's Hainan chicken tasted like and to know that it wasn't as good as everyone said. But I will probably give it a second try in the future before completely writing it off, but it will be way down the line in the future when some other friend of mine insist that we go again. Personally I don't care for the restaurant mainly because I didn't like the ambience. I wasn't comfortable; I felt like I had absolutely no personal space and all I was doing was being jammed inside a tiny room to pick at some food. At least it only took a few minutes for my food to come out; I suppose that is to be expected for Hainan Chicken. I can't expect them to steam the chicken on the order. I would starve before I get any food in me.

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Old Country Cafe Isn't So Old

I have been church hopping on Sundays for a few months, but the last couple of weeks, I have been returning to a couple of churches some of my family attends just to be in familiar settings during this Christmas season. Last Sunday I went to my brother's church Chinese Mission Bible Church in Alhambra. Generally after church I would eat out with my brother and his wife, but this past Sunday his wife was busy and so it was just my brother. He suggested that we go to Old Country Cafe in Alhambra.

After so many years here in the San Gabriel Valley I am always surprised to discover some new hole in the wall places. There are just so many and some of them can be quite good. Where we ended up eating at was quite delicious. The draw back was that since it was a little chilly on Sunday, the place wasn't heated and a tad bit cold for my liking.

(Old Country Cafe)

(Japanese Comic Books For Patrons)

The place was actually split into two rooms. The main room had two large tables and a bar while the small room had a few other tables with huge shelves of Japanese comic books free to check out while inside the restaurant. The place really isn't very nice despite their attempt to be hip. The furnitures were a bit run down and in desperate need for an upgrade. The positive was that the place was clean, especially for a hole in the wall type restaurant. I didn't feel completely disgusted touching the furnitures and that's all I can ask for.

(Boba Milk Green Tea)

(Papaya Milk)

My brother ordered the boba milk green tea. I personally don't like milk green tea. It just taste too watery for me. If I add milk to tea, it has to be black tea. But some people like that so I'm not going to judge. I decided to order a papaya milk instead. It's been a while since I've had one, and it's actually a childhood favorite of mine. Papaya milk is an exclusively Taiwanese drink. It's actually quite simple in concept, blend papaya with milk and you have papaya milk. This was just that and it was a great and healthy drink.

(Minced Beef Over Taiwanese Lettuce "A" Choy)

To my surprise, my brother ordered a minced beef over Taiwanese lettuce, which is also known as "A" choy. It's similar to romain lettuce but has a slightly hint of bitter quality to it. The dish was well made with a small amount of oil. The lettuce still had a little crunch to it while the minced beef was marinated on the lighter side. I actually prefer them lighter. I find too many Taiwanese restaurants smothering their minced beef with so much sauce that it drowns out every last bit of beef flavor. This was a balanced little appetizer dish for the upcoming main dish.

(Deep Fried Chicken Rice)

On the recommendation of my brother, I ordered the deep fried chicken rice. My brother actually ordered the same. It's the dish he always gets when he dines at this little joint. I've had a few other Taiwanese style deep fried chicken and pork. This one beats them all. The crust was almost flaky. Too often the crust of these fried chicken or pork are so hard it's a little too crunchy. But this was just right. It almost melted into the chicken when I bit into them. Of course there was still enough of a crunch to it to remind you that it's still a deep fried dish. Fortunately it didn't retain too much oil making the dish much easier on the stomach.

The dish had some mixed Taiwanese style veggies and half of a marinated egg. They were all done pretty well, but they weren't the best I've had. The sour veggie was slightly too sour and the other one could use just a little more flavor. The egg though was well marinated and flavorful.

This joint is definitely worth revisiting just for their deep fried chicken rice. My brother is actually right, for a change. Alright, he has been right on many occasions and this is definitely one of them. I highly recommend if you are in Alhambra and in the mood of something deep fried without feeling like you just drank a gallon of oil, Old Country Cafe is definitely a place worth checking out.

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Cold House; Hot Pot - Easy Meal For A Lazy Day

It's cold outside and it's cold inside. It's just plain cold right now. When it's cold, it's time to bring out the hot pot, also known at a lot of places as Shabu Shabu. Not only is it a convenient way to cook with very little prep time, it also serves as a heater for my chilly dinning room.

It's very simple to prepare. We have a half and half pot. A lot of people do a spicy and a non-spicy soup. We instead did a tomato and non-tomato soup instead. Unlike a lot of fancy restaurants, we don't do anything fancy to the soup base, just water and salt. On one side we threw in a bunch of tomatoes right away so they would be boiled to smithereens to flavor the soup. The other side we just left it natural and let the food we add eventually flavor the soup. We just prefer it this way. By the end of the meal the soup would be way pretty rich with just a plain water base so it's not absolutely necessary to make the soup so fancy to begin with. It could add to the taste if you prefer a specific flavoring.

(Half and Half Hot Pot)

With hot pot, we can add all the things we want or just a very few items. It's almost like a left over casserole except with using a bunch of random raw meats and veggies. It's pretty inexpensive and makes the dinning experience just a bit more fun. It also forces you to actually sit at the table a little longer and get some conversations going since you have to be there to cook your own foods.

(Raw Beef and Chicken)

We always have a plate of raw beef to add to the soup. Beef cooks extremely fast and is just perfect with hot pot. Chicken is good too, but it's much harder to control in the cooking cause it can get overcooked rather easily. We don't get the expensive Shabu Shabu meat that's thinly cut by machines. Yeah those do cook easier but they do also cost a lot more. Instead we thinly cut the beef by hand, marinate it with some soy sauce and some cornstarch. The chicken was also thinly sliced by hand and marinated with salt and a tad bit of cornstarch.

(Seafood and Tofu)

We also got some other items to add to the pot. We got shrimp, one of my family's favorite, squids, sea cucumbers, fried tofu and normal tofu plus a few different veggies. Shrimp is a common thing to add to a hot pot, but I'm just not a fan of boiled shrimp. It just doesn't do it for me. Yes, it taste still pretty good when you dip them in a chilly peppered soy sauce, but I'm just not a fan. This is totally a personal preference though. Squids are good for hot pots, the small ones at least. They were very fresh and had a crunch in them. Dip them in a bit of satay sauce with soy sauce and it's just perfect.

With the sea cucumber, we had a bunch of them soaked in water to get them soft before actually putting them in the hot pot. It takes a long time to prep sea cucumbers and this was actually our first time giving this a try. It really shouldn't be used in a hot pot. Sea cucumbers really have no taste of their own, just a jelly texture. It absorbs the flavors of whatever else it's cooked in. Because of this, especially towards the beginning of the hot pot meal when the soup is still very light in taste, the sea cucumber pretty much had no taste to them. Even in the end, the soup is just not thick enough as a way to add real flavor to the sea cucumbers.

I love tofu. I love the deep fried tofu and the normal tofu. No hot pot would be complete without it. I normally prefer having both the fried tofu as well as silky tofu. With the fried tofu, the soup is absorbed into the tofu because it's pretty hollow on the inside. So you'd have to be very careful when eating them as to void burning your tongue. I prefer the really silky tofu for the texture. I like it sliding like silk in my mouth. But that also can lead to burning of your throat if you're not careful. Some people like firmer tofu.  We had both tonight. Firm tofu is nice when it's cooked long enough to really absorb the flavor of the soup. We ended up with some cheap tofu so it wasn't as silky as it could be. But it was still good.

We had a bit of veggies on the side and udon for carbs. We switch it up between udon, rice noodles and various cuts of vermicelli noodles at hot pot. As with veggies, just grab your favorite kinds of veggies from the market and cook them. You really can't go too wrong with most vegetables. The only thing to consider is if you get veggies that are more fragrant than others that some of your diners may not like. I say eat what you like and avoid what you don't. For the most part it really doesn't matter.

No hot pot would be complete without seasoning. The easiest to make at home would be adding soy sauce to Chinese barbecue sauce, which is also known as satay sauce. But there's a lot of other variations that is commonly done. You can add sesame sauce, sesame oil, peanut butter sauce, peanut butter oil, vinegar, fish sauce, hoisin sauce and pretty much any other sauce you can find in the Chinese market. you could theoretically use anything if you like the taste. One thing that used to be done a lot is to mix all this sauce with a raw egg. Then you would dip your cooked meat and veggies into the egg sauce, pull it out and then eat it. It cools down the meat and keeps your mouth from being burnt. This actually taste very good, but a lot of people stopped doing this because of salmonella scare.

For me, hot pot can be as lavish as you want or as simple and easy as you like. I've had hot pot with crab, live shrimp still jumping around, peeing shrimp, all sorts of different kinds of fish, an assortments of fish and meat balls, a huge range of vegetables and mushrooms, goose intestines, tons of different cuts of meats, Japanese fishcake and pretty much anything you can find in a Chinese supermarket. I've enjoyed it with upwards of thirty or so people at a church function and as few as three people at home many times in the past. It's one of those meals that can't really go wrong no matter what you do. It's just putting the food in the boiling water; take them out when they look cooked; eat. If you're afraid of germs, you can use separate chopsticks to cook with and to eat with. Oh yeah, you do need to learn to use chopsticks if you want to be effective with a hot pot meal. Forks just isn't going to cut it.

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Grand Central Market Excursion

I was called to downtown LA today to serve my jury duty. I was hoping they wouldn't even call me in this week but they did, though I didn't end up actually serving on any jury. That's a relief.

Well we had one and a half hour lunch break. I wasn't sure where I was going to eat until a friend of mine who I was chatting on AIM via my iPhone suggested that I go to the Grand Central Market for lunch. It sounded very intriguing as I really have a thing for these kinds of places where you can buy produce and eat a bunch of different foods from various mom and pop food stands.

(Grand Central Market)

Being in downtown LA, the place was dominated by Mexican food stands. Unlike your normal food courts at your suburban malls, Grand Central Market is closer to the markets you would find in Latin America and Asia. There were fresh produce, raw meat and seafood stands and a good choice of Mexican and Asian foods. I really like this atmosphere, so real; so unabashed.

I didn't have enough cash on me so I was looking for stands that would take my credit card. I just don't carry a whole lot of cash on me. It's a force of habit. At first I was a bit scared that none of the places inside would take credit cards being that they are mostly small private operations. But fortunately there were enough choice inside who did. I wasn't going to starve.

I surveyed the market to see what were being served and which are the most popular places. I wasn't surprised to discover that the Mexican stands were the most popular. There were a few Chinese, Japanese and a Middle Eastern stands inside. The Asian eateries looked like the same things that I could get at the food courts at a mall and the Middle Eastern Kabobs just didn't look appetizing. So I opted to try the Mexican stands.

(Roast To Go)

Having been sitting inside a courthouse since 730am, I really wasn't all that hungry. I had a bunch of snacks that kept me going all morning so I really didn't want too much to eat. As I stood in front of a rather busy Mexican stand Roast To Go, I noticed the size of the $2.50 tacos from the women who were standing next to me. There was a very generous portion of meat, so I ordered only one thinking it should fill me up.

(Carne Asada Taco)

I had everything put on my carne asada taco: the chive, parsley, onions, lettuce, lemon and a milder hot sause. The beef was very well done. It was cooked to a nice medium well and semi-juicy. The milder hot sause was still rather spicy for my taste since I have a rather low tolerance of spice. That was the least spicy sause they had, but I realized that it was very important the sause was to the taco. Because on my next taco which I opted out of the sause at a different stand, it was a bit more dry.

(Ana Maria)

I was pretty full after the first taco and really could have just walked away. But I thought to myself that I probably won't be coming back here anytime soon. I like the place but how often am I really going to stop by here. I was contemplating to just buy a fresh apple and eat that, but then the tacos were just too tempting to pass up. So I decided to try a taco from another stand: Ana Maria. It was so cheap that there was no real reason why I shouldn't give it a shot.

(Chicken Taco)

This time I ordered a Chicken taco. They ended up giving me two sets of tortilla and a huge portion of meat. They were even more generous than the first one with the meat, but I felt I didn't get quite enough parsley and onion to balance the meat properly. I also opted out of the sause cause I really didn't want any more hot sause. That was not a smart idea. These tacos really need the sauce to give it a little wetness it desperately needed. The meat by themselves being such a big portion is a bit dry on the mouth, and chicken is generally more dry than the beef. But it was still a good taco in the end and I still enjoyed this little treat in the middle of a very boring and wet day.

If I had an office job, this is the kind of lunch I would want to give my day as a little change of pace. It's just a refreshing way to enjoy a little food that's not served inside some fancy expensive restaurant. Sometimes the greatest pleasures in life is just to get a nice bit of food off the side of the street and enjoy it in an atmosphere that's uninhibited, natural and genuine. Feel free to stop by Grand Central Market the next time you happen to be in downtown LA and craving a little bit of food. It may not really be all that grand, and probably not all too centrally located, but the market sure serves up a nice little slice of a different cultural life that you probably won't find all too common around Los Angeles.

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The Textures of Dim Sum

Can you hear the sleigh bells ring? All I can hear are the dishes clanging at Dim Sum.

It's December and the holiday spirit fills the air. Here at Dim Sum on a Wednesday afternoon, a huge crowd swarms the place making us forget that we are still in a recession. With a crowd this excited, you would almost think they are giving the food away. At $2.09 a plate, it may as well be.

(Steamed Pork Ribs in Black Bean Sauce)

Top Island Seafood Restaurant serves most of the traditionally popular Dim Sum items. Truth be told, this is not my favorite Dim Sum restaurant. A lot of it really has to do with one dish, the vermicelli shrimp wraps. Vermicelli wraps are very difficult to get right. Ideally the texture should be smooth and silky. It should go down nice and smooth almost like vodka. But I can see how some people, as a friend I have once brought to Dim Sum, would think this texture disgusting. In some ways it may even feel like eating a slurp of slimy gunk. This reminds me of the episode of Futurama when Fry couldn't stop drinking Slurm, even though he found out it came out of the back end of a giant queen slug. Alright, I'm not doing my vermicelli wraps justice, but I do love this dish; just not at Top Island. New Capital Seafood Restaurant does it much better a few blocks away.

(Vermicelli Shrimp Wraps)

Dim Sum is full of textures, and another one that a lot of even my Chinese friends can't handle is the infamous Phoenix Claws, which is just a fancy name for chicken feet. It's all in the branding right? Give it a nice name and you may actually give it a try. Top Island serves Phoenix Claws three different ways. There's the steamed version that's marinated in a black bean sauce. This is the softest version of Phoenix Claws where the skin and cartilage comes right off the bones. Then there's the White Cloud version dipped in a vinegar sauce. This is the chewiest version and there's no way around not feeling like you are chewing on claws. If you've ever chewed on your own fingers out of nervousness, it taste even more rubbery than that. Then there's a version where it's served in a soup. It's in-between the two in terms of chewiness. The soup has a lot of condiments flavoring it. The chicken feet themselves really doesn't have a whole lot of flavor. It's just skin, cartilage and bones. So in the end, it's a matter of texture as you are just chewing on bones. It's definitely an acquired taste; well fine, an acquired texture. Scared? Chew at your own peril.

(Steamed Phoenix Claws)

Before I completely scare you off from Dim Sum, most of the items that are pushed around by middle aged female servers in metal carts are pretty normal stuff. I'm not being sexist or being ageist here. I have never seen a young female cart pusher nor have I seen any male cart pusher at any Dim Sum restaurants I've ever been to around the world. Occasionally I see men walking around the room with dishes of food on a serving platter, just never behind a cart. I have no idea why this is so, but it just is and no one has ever complained: I'm not complaining.

Today we also had Lor Mai Gai - Lotus leaf wrapped sweet rice and chicken. The Chinese name has the word chicken in it, but it doesn't actually always have chicken inside. I suppose we are used to buying things that doesn't really have anything to do with its name. Blackberry doesn't actually have black berries inside: Apple computer has nothing to do with apples. Even an iPhone is hardly a phone, and I can't live without mine. Top Island's version doesn't have chicken, instead it has minced pork, mushroom and salted egg yolk inside. I prefer them without chicken anyways, they tend to be too dry. I think Top Island does a good job with this and I wouldn't mind having one occasionally. Just don't eat them everyday, they are extremely fattening and pretty bad for diabetics. I don't let my mother have any of the sweet rice.

(Lotus Leaf Wrapped Sweet Rice and Chicken)

Another favorite of mine at Dim Sum are the stuffed tofus. But as with all things Dim Sum, every restaurant does it differently. Top Island stuffs, well more like tops, their tofu with a giant fish ball. I almost rather eat just the tofu as the fish balls were just too big. Bigger may look better. It looks like we are getting a better deal cause we are getting more, but it's no longer stuffed tofu. I basically have to eat the tofu and the fish ball separately. So no, bigger isn't always better.

(Steamed Stuffed Tofu)

I don't eat a lot of fried foods, and I generally avoid donuts. I don't even remember the last time I actually went to a donut shop to buy a donut, though I had one a couple days ago because my parents visited a friend who worked at a donut shop. The irony is that my family co-owns a donut shop in Thailand. But I do like the Chinese salted donut, which are basically deep fried dough stuffed with pork. It's really hard to go wrong with this dish. You just can't go wrong with deep fried anything. The only real thing one can do wrong with this dish is either over stuff or under stuff them. Top Island is pretty consistent with a fair amount of tasty stuffing. The dough is also a very good consistency; a little crunchy on the outside and a little mushy on the inside.

(Salted Water Corner - a.k.a. Chinese Deep Fried Salty Donuts)

Generally speaking, I don't order anything off the menu at Dim Sum. But I went with my family today, and my mother couldn't pass up on their deal on squabs. The king squabs were $3.99 each and the smaller squabs were $6.99 each. If you go to the supermarket to buy the small squabs raw, they would cost $10 each. We have absolutely no idea how they can serve them at such a low price. It's so cheap it's almost scary. I mean are these squabs legit? Did they go out to some town square and took down a ton of pigeons and passed it off as squabs. Alright I'm letting my imagination run wild, but I do wonder.

Cheap as it may be, the quality of the squabs were actually good. the problem though was the marinate. It needed to be marinated longer. The flavor just never penetrated enough through the skin and into the meat, so the meat was a bit bland, though it was tender. I understand the fact that every other table in the restaurant is ordering squabs, so they simply don't have the luxury to marinate them for a prolonged period of time. It's the classic increase in demand yielding a decrease in quality. Well it does give my mother her squab fix, but as for me I much prefer my Dad's recipe. If only raw squabs cost less.

(Deep Fried Squabs)

Dim Sum is loud. The food is loud and the atmosphere is even louder. The best and most popular Dim Sum places is like a symphony of sounds and tastes with people crossing non-stop in front of your eyes. The dishes banging together as waiters clean the tables: the people talking over the noise in the room: the sound being trapped in a non-dampened room; the waiters and waitresses zig-zagging across the room unendingly to keep up with the demands of the customers. All these adds together to bring the whole place to life, which really is a great way to feel alive in a time when the rest of the world can seem like all gloom and doom.

So this holiday season instead of hearing sleigh bells, maybe it's time to hear some dishes clang.

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