The Thirsty Pig: February 2010

Sunday, February 28, 2010

LA Weekly 2nd Annual Gold Standard Food & Wine Event

I attended the LA Weekly 2nd Annual Gold Standard Food & Wine Event at the Petersen Automotive Museum with my friend Miss J. I just wanted to show this car, since it is my favorite car of all time.

There were a few things I didn't include, because my pictures were bad or I forgot to take. Like seeing Evan Kleinman from Good Food and Angeli Cafe with her vegan lasagna - which was really good. Or seeing J. Gold and his son enjoying the museum. And having bourbon whiskey from Bulleit Bourbon. It was a good time since the lines weren't long.

Lynda Kay was performing with her Guitar sponsors - Gretsch. She was pretty entertaining with her great golden outfit and her big hair. She sung some country songs, that kept me and the crowds mesmerized.

Bulgarini Gelato from Altadena. For whatever reason, this line was the longest one that we stood in. The line spaned across two other tables. The gelato was really good. This one was a combination of raspberry and pistachio. The raspberry was quite creamy and the pistachio had a savory component that was surprisingly good. bulgarinigelato.com

Rabbit slider from Bistro LQ. Tasted a bit gamey . . . more than I would have liked. But I commend them on serving such a daring meat. Mr. J Gold considers this place to be the center of odd French foods in LA. I might try this place. bistrolq.com

Dainty chocolate cupcakes from Tiara Cafe 123 East 9th Street Los Angeles, CA 90015. Bite sized goodness. Not much more say.

Mo-Chica's Albacore Ceviche. Nothing special . . . but not intended to be. It had good mouth feel, with no overpowering citric acid. I like albacore, so I thought it was pretty good. Notice the large Peruvian Roasted Corn Nuts. 3655 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90007 mo-chica.com

Hungry Cat's smoked salmon. I could be wrong. Thank goodness the bread was tender. If you go to Hungry Cat. 1535 North Vine, Hollywood, CA thehungrycat.com, make sure you try the Pug Burger.

Border Grill's vegan taco. The avocado's are drenched with the black peppers. It was an expected favorite of mine. I liked it more than I thought I would. Look for their Border Grill food truck roaming around. marysueandsusan.com

Wurstkuche's sausages. I had the Mango & Jalapeno chicken and turkey sausage. Not all that spicy. Jalapenos aren't all that spicy to begin with. The Rattlesnake & Rabbit sausage wasn't all that popular. They are located near little Tokyo wurstkucherestaurant.com

Jar's sliced roast beef. Nice hefty helping. But I had to consume it with a spoon. That's one thing I must say - utensils are a big pain at these events. Finger Foods are the best. Jar's known for their steaks, which I have had before - quite good. thejar.com

Glendale's Palate offered a Pig Ears sandwich. Not usually my first choice in a pig, but this was the exception. It was juicy and tasty. Miss J liked it a lot. Palate is on my short list of places to visit. palatefoodwine.com

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Pork Sour Casserole at Happy Kitchen 柳棕園美食坊 in San Gabriel

Pork Sour Napa Casserole

I've been an amateur journalist that eats for some time now. And occasionally, my friends will insist upon me trying a place. They will drag me to some corner place and lay claim as if they were preaching "the next coming" of some sort of beef. I might be given their used-car sales pitch about the chicken dish at their under appreciated hang out. Most of the time, it's just their giddy excitement oozing out and everything being over-hyped. I'll most often agree to some point, with me inside smiling politely, since the food is somewhat acceptable, than being stupendously awesome. Though I know I'll hear their ire, if I don't amiably agree a bit.

Yet in this case . . . Happy Kitchen did not fail to deliver. At Mr. B's insistence, I was in a little San Gabriel Valley Chinese hole-in-the-wall crawl with him this week, I had to try Happy Kitchen. He said I'll love this place and will want to come back. His family and especially his mom is even a regular.

Happy Kitchen features Chinese food from Harbin 哈爾濱. The cold winters are warmed with hearty stews, like their casseroles - the Pork Sour Napa Casserole. Almost a soup, this dish is only served in a large family style bowl. The sliced pork with the cabbage in the sour mixture instantly warms you up without being too spicy. Though it isn't savory, or heck even sweet, and lacks some bold flavors, you can't stop eating/drinking it. It doesn't even look that appetising. But I couldn't stop. The sourness goes down smooth with the cabbage melting in your mouth. The pork, with a little flavorful fat, gives a slight salt taste but good mouth feel texture. I guess the pork is the token protein in this dish. Then after awhile, you find glass noodles swimming at the bottom as a nice surprise to fill your stomach.

The owner/cook, from Heilongjiang 黑龍江省 the capital, often comes out from behind and chats with the customers. Here in the melting pot of Southern California, you'll find Chinese, from difference provinces, enjoying Happy Kitchen. We were treated as long time customers, with a side their roast chicken leg.

I just found out, the week prior, that the LA Times did a nice article about Happy Kitchen. I would assume, that many outsiders (hint: white people) will discover this little gem. You won't find the kung pao chicken, general tsao's, moo goo gai pan or even orange chicken on their menu. You'll find hometown comfort food like onion pancake wrapped beef and vegetable steamed dumplings. I was told that the onion pancake wrapped beef, better known as beef rolls, is much better here with the thin onion pancake. Other places are known to use thicker and oilier ones. The vegetable steamed dumplings were filled with finely chopped greens, tofu, and mushrooms, about to burst from the seams. With such armor, you don't need soy sauce, but perhaps a little vinegar to go with the dumplings.

I remembered, with my mouth filled, I had concurred, actually nodded, with Mr. B, about his glowing sentiment about Happy Kitchen.

LA Times article on 2/18/10

What to Order: Pork Sour Napa Casserole, Beef Rolls
What not to Order: couldn't think of anything

Rating
3 pigs, $

Happy Kitchen 柳棕園美食坊
301 W Valley Blvd
Unit #111
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 284-2619

The typical menu you'll find in these hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants.

The Beef Rolls, notice the thin onion pancake.

The complimentary roast chicken leg. This was really good. I would have ordered this by itself.

Again, the beef rolls

Look for the glass noodles at the bottom of the pork sour napa casserole.

The steamed vegetable dumplings.

Very nice size. Look at all the fresh ingredients.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Steam Buns at the Noodle House 麵香園, Monterey Park

With such a name, as the Noodle House, you wouldn't know this is one of the best Tianjin 天津 cuisine restaurants.

Tianjin is in Northern China, where noodles are the main staple starch in the area, hence the name - Noodle House. But we didn't have noodles, but ordered the famous Tianjin buns (Baozhi) among other things.

The baozhi is made from a flour dough and steamed with different fillings. The type of baozhi that we had, was filled with pork and cabbage. There are other restaurants that have Tianjin Baozhi, but at the Noodle House, they've brought it as close to perfection as I am used to. The filling was just right, pipping hot and with good subtle flavors. But the steamed doughy buns, not all too thick, nor too thin, was just right. You only need to dip the buns with a little bit of vinegar to enhance the taste. Though I'm sure there are those from Tianjin who would argue that they're not as good as they are, back home. The Tianjin baozhi, with a dry buns, would probably comparable to the Shanghai style steam dumplings, with a "wet" dumpling skin.

Baozhi and dumplings are rarely going to be the same as they are, from their hometowns, as pizza crust is difficult to duplicate. The key in producing proper baozhi, dumplings, and pizza crust is the water, which is mixed with the dough. The basis of a good mouth feel and texture derives from proper dough. That's why it is difficult to have New York style pizza in Hong Kong or proper Tianjin Baozhi in Los Angeles.

Also on the menu, we had the wine hardboiled eggs - similar to that of Tea Eggs, but made with wine. Served cold, these eggs were a good change in palate from the hot baozhi's. Tianjin is also know for their water dumplings - one of my favorite things in the world. Mr. B suggested that we have the fish water dumplings. I was hesitant, but relented. I thought there were ok, nothing special. I would have preferred some sort of pork water dumplings or something. I didn't like the filling of the fish filling from almost a paste looking substance. In addition, we had probably some of the best onion pancakes around. Usually the onion pancakes are thicker and more oilier. Whereas the Noodle House's are thinner and less oily. Thought I would have preferred it to be more flaky

I've had similar Tianjin Baozhi from Shaomai, and these taste so much better.

Eileen Likes to Eat Blog Post

What to Order: pork and cabbage steam buns (baozhi)
What not to Order: fish water dumplings

Rating
2 pigs, $$

Noodle House 麵香園
958 E. Garvey Ave.
Monterey Park, CA 91755
(626) 280-0831

Straight foward menu. Easy to read and figure out.

The wine hardboiled eggs.

Onion pancakes. Quite good.

The fish water dumplings.

The fish fillings of the water dumpings.

The Tianjin baozhi filling. I would return again. One of my new favorite lunch places.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Cracked Dungeness Crab from Crustacean Beverly Hills

Vietnamese, Beverly Hills, and Garlic Noodles equals Crustacean

Our food adventure tonight brought us to Crustacean. Originally we had planned elsewhere, but we were too late in planning and couldn't get a decent time for the ten of us. Fortunately, one of us remembered an old favorite - Crustacean.

I don't usually crave red meat nor seafood with shells (like crustaceans), but in this case - I had to order An's Famous Roasted Crab with An's garlic sauce and secret spices as a Cracked Dungeness Crab. Two other friends ordered the same thing. Another order the Drunken Crab - Whole Dungeness Crab simmered in sake, chardonnay, garlic, and scallions, and yet another had the Dungeness Crab Out of Shell. We also had an order of the Whole Main Lobster with An's Famous Garlic Noodles. And three orders of the special fish of the day - seabass.

I had been to Crustacean before, but had ordered chicken or something stupid . . . without following one of my mantra's. One of my mantra's is to make sure you order what the Restaurant is known for, rather than think too much about something else. Once I was about to order chicken at Mastro's then almost getting laughed out of the restaurants by at Bachelor party dinner. Anyways. . . this time around, I knew I had to get some seafood with a shell.

So after mulling over the crab and lobster, I finally picked the Cracked Dungeness Crab. Yes, I was a bit lazy in getting one that was cracked, but not too lazy in not getting the Dungeness Crab out of the shell. I guess I was indecisive about it - not a good trait for guys. Anyways. . . I admit I was initially scared when I saw the beast staring at me, piled high on the plate with the big shell on top. This was a huge portion. Then I went at it. After a couple of minutes, I ignored my fork and shell cracker and went all out with my hands and teeth. I was cracking the shells, like a kid or an animal, with my jaw and almost sucking the meat out. I had the garlic sauce drenched almost to my wrists. Mr. F even got his watch band soaked with the sauce. I licked my fingers as if I was at home with nobody watching. Luckily, I wasn't the only one. The bibs did help, but not to my friends around as a shell whizzed past them from my feast. There was so much crab, that I wasn't able to finish it. . . such a shame.

But I have reason why I wasn't able to finish - two words - GARLIC NOODLES! In fact, that was the only thing I was looking forward to. I read somewhere that the matriarch of the family doesn't teach anyone how to prepare these noodles. She has a special room in which she makes the noodles herself. Crazy, but I wouldn't be surprised. These noodles have a butter taste and a perfect texture when you eat. . . not chewy or too soft. The simple meatless and vegatableless side dish is a must-order. I can't explain it anymore, but these carbs would make any Aktins practitioner rethink their diet.

I would also recommend not getting the mango lobster salad or the coconut tempura shrimp, not because it isn't good, but because you wouldn't have room to finish your entree. The salad has huge pieces of lobster, which we were arguing who should finish. The shrimp was also tasty with the fried coconut shavings, as an underrated dish.

Anyways . . . Crustacean is ideal Los Angeles style fabulous seafood restaurant.

What to Order: Crab, Lobster, Garlic Noodles
What not to Order: I wouldn't order the fish of the day from any place, including restaurants in Beverly Hills. But in this case, it seemed alright.

Rating
2 pigs, $$$

Crustacean Beverly Hills
9646 Santa Monica Blvd
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
(310) 205-8990
http://www.anfamily.com

A Beverly Hills institution.

Note "An's Famous Garlic Noodles"

This page caused me to ponder my dinner selection way too long.

The Mango Lobster Salad. There shouldn't this much lobster in a salad, ever.

Coconut Shrimp. This was really good, but I doubt most of us would have remembered it.

Say hello to my little friend. . . who I ate.

The Main Lobster. I think Mr. B made the right choice.

The seabass - fish special of the day. I rarely order fish specials. I think restaurants are trying to sell "fish specials" before they go bad . . . I still remember this note from Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential.