Friday Must Slurp: Beef Noodle Soup from Kingburg Kitchen, San Gabriel
Kingburg has been extremely reliable for as long as it’s been there. Previously, some of their bites were covered in Oct of ‘08.
Dollar for dollar, this was one of the finest bowls of niou rou mien in existence in Western San Gabriel Valley. The only thing amiss were the thin wheat noodles that didn’t have enough body, not enough “Q”, and simply not enough surface area to carry the stewed juices into your mouth.
Recently, the only sore point disappeared from this bowl, based on a Taiwanese grandmammy’s recipe. Last weekend, after reading, re-reading, and questioning the placard menu casually sitting on the side of the formica table, I wanted to yell “eureka! hand pulled wide noodles! At last!” As much as I love the knife shaved noodles at JTYH, inherently my carbophobic soul trembles when I see such large strands of calories swimming in a bowl of soup. Hand pulled wide noodles, not offered anywhere else in the West San Gabriel Valley as far as beef noodle soups are concerned, is the perfect match to this potent bowl of broth. Here, a small bowl of beef noodle soup, punched up with cilantro, pickled mustard greens and an unsubtle hint of spiciness, is that “perfect bowl” in terms of price, sizing, and savoriness. As the past, you may pair the soup with 5 heavyweight dumplings, freshly wrapped, freshly boiled, and served immediately. The soup noodle/noodle soup and dumpling combo remains beyond affordable at $7.
Still enjoying this place, despite the heavy carb hype elsewhere in the 5 mile radius.
Kingburg Kitchen
715 W Las Tunas Dr
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 282-2386
Nightcap at Delphine, Hollywood
$8 double espresso. In this age when an American “regular” is a double, and a double is sometimes a triple, this double-double espresso, packing in nearly 6 shots of the dark cafe, was still a monster, both in terms of caffeine and price. Just look at the size of that cup.
After stuffing our face at BoHo, a cocktail, dessert, and brew was in order. Beyond the aforementioned coffee monstrosity, the Manhattan, along with the chocolates de maison dessert, were order.
The Manhattan, made with vermouth, bitters and fancy maraschino cherries, was severely bitter. With nearly no hints of sweetness to tame the dry bitterness, I was only able to sip the drink gently and softly, prompting the affable waitress to repeated ask if the drink should be remade. The waitress’ affability index will come in play a bit later.
The house chocolate sampler dessert course was served in the form of macaroons, one big ol cookie, a bitter chocolate ganache, and couple of bite sized brownie pieces. All were decent, save for the cookie of which the waitress gushed. This was merely a personal preference though. Some folks like crunchy cookies with soft innards, others like completely chewy cookies with gooey centers. The crunchy folks would’ve enjoyed this big ol piece of baked dough.
What really takes the cake at Delphine is the decor, decor in terms of actual decor, and the people decorating the furniture. There is faux lofted ceiling covered by curved, dropped wooden sound panels (to keep the noise level down in WeHO?), yet these panels hardly cover the exposed AC ducting. The banquets have funky, warm, and tough denim covers, while the long bar is adorned eloquently with tall vases sporting fresh cut flowers. The front room & bar have great visibility both in and out, and one of the greatest joys might be to stand at the bar, all European-like, and absorb Hollywood in all it’s glory. There are patrons of the Pantages theatre, there are stragglers, panhandlers, party mongers, mass transit riders; people from all walks of life, of all ages, races, seem to congregate at the Hollywood & Vine Metro Station. The worldliness of Los Angeles is also reflected in the bar patrons at Delphine. To the left, a lovely lesbian couple quietly takes in the loud night; to the right, a lovely BFF sexagenarian couple, just finished watching Stomp, boisterously chat with the managerial staff; far down, a possible porn star holds court with the equally hot bartender.
All that, available for an entrance fee of $8. It’s better than going to the movies.
Delphine
W Hollywood
http://www.restaurantdelphine.com/delphine/index.htm
How to Survive Pizzas from Mozza2Go
Mozza usually comes to us via serendipity. In the nabe? Want to see the demure giant of LA chefs plate your burrata course? O.Mozza it is. Want a sophisticated but unstuffy dessert course? O. Mozza’s bar it is. Fight in line for a pie? Or order take out pizza? Ehn…
As a former pizza delivery agent, in a gas-guzzling, too-fast-for-me turbocharged Wankel-Rotary RX7, natch, the fact that delivered pizza ranks barely above sushi take-out in terms of the food desirability scale escapes me not. Don’t have a precious toddler whom you must babysit? Go to the pizza parlor, or don’t bother eating the pie at all.
Try as it may, Mozza2go can’t break that kind of scientific curse. It’s a take-out pizza parlor that serves pizza in a conventional cardboard box. Unless you live on Citrus Ave, chances are, your freshly baked pizza will be nearly flummuxed by the time you get home. If you’re so unfortunate (in Mozza2Go terms) to actually live in NoHo or DTLA, forget driving the pizza to the final destination. Nancy gently warns, via a pizza box sticker, to not nuke her pies baby, and instead to reheat the pizza in 350deg hot oven. How about I top Chef Silverton and advise this: “don’t jack up her pies by ever reheating it”. Eat it on the mf’ing sidewalk. Don’t make me sit on the curb by myself.
Also, ordering the olive oil cake to go is such a traumatic emotional roller coaster. You open the bag up, with images of grandiose plating & soft gelato paired to seemingly warm & moist olive oil cake floating in your mind, only to be greeted with a wax paper covered nondescript piece of cornbread. It’s total blue balls by cake.
Finally, for those who still have the Blackboardeats coupons: if you’re really desperate, or stoic, enough to drive your pie all the way home, do NOT, I repeat, do NOT attempt to reheat the pies on top of an induction oven, nor reheat it on an aluminum pan fired by a portable propane stove. I’m not “just sayin’” this, it’s been tested.
This was a PSA, hence no trashing Mozza2go.
A Gastrophotoblogging workshop: February 6, Checkers Downtown
Phototasting
Do you like food? Do you like taking photos? Do you like taking photos of food? Phototasting is a unique opportunity to do all of the above with the guidance of several seasoned Los Angeles restaurant bloggers and the gorgeous new Winter Seasonal Menu of Chef Todd Allison. Not only will you practice capturing the splendor of Chef Allison’s culinary masterpieces, but you will get to savor them as well.
This workshop offers simple tips for both point-and-shoot and DSLR cameras and is geared toward photography of dishes in restaurants. Through hands-on demonstrations, you will learn elementary elements of exposure, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and white balance. The interactive presentation will also introduce core composition and digital post-production techniques.
LA restaurant/food blogger extraordinaire Daily Gluttony, and a contributor to The Knot, will guide attendees through this fun “gastrophotoblogging experience”. To register with payment, please visit http://phototasting.eventbrite.com/
A newly renovated boutique hotel, the Hilton Checkers Downtown serves as the perfect backdrop for Phototasting. Come to Phototasting to learn elementary restaurant food photography, sample Chef Allison’s delicious and innovative dishes, and experience the cool elegance of the Hilton Checkers Downtown.
Date: Saturday, February 6th, 2010
Time: 12:30pm – 3:00pm
Location: Checkers Downtown, 535 South Grand Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90071
(213) 624-0000
Brain to Penis: Raso Minang & People’s Choice Jamaican
Mid last summer, I requested some brain curry from Gourmet Pigs.
And this is one of the few reasons to read all the food blogs. Cuz they knowz. I wasn’t gonna find gulai otak on my own in LA. I’ve had it once, on the side of the street in Indonesia, just like how GP described: the yellow curry topped with red oil was barely luke warm, pestered constantly by flies as it sat in an uncovered steamer pan, slowly flavored by the soot from the street next to which it sat all day long.
It was the funkiest bowl of offal I had while in my twenties. I nearly hurled but for the need to “save face” in front of an overseas colleague. He was showing me the OG Jakarta, because I told him I wanted to eat “street”. Fuck my stomach, I didn’t literally mean eat the dirt off the street, but hey, whatevs, streets of Jakarta didn’t do me in like the back alleys of Shanghai.
Forward nearly a decade, GP calls my bluff: “I’ve got cow brains for you”. “O shit, no she didn’t”, I thought. Last time I (triple) checked, this dish isn’t served in LA. Verdict: like everyone else, I prefer the naksi bungkus. Raso Minang’s version of brain curry was warmer, and smelled of coconut milk, much like a typical Indonesian curry. The entire dish, served in a pint cup, was enough to split between 4 people. Everyone pussed out after a couple of bites. Any essence of the brain, if there exists such a thing, was neutralized by the curry powder, tamarind, etc., used in the curry. Thank god. I’m never going back for this again. Hope Deep End Dining reads this post ASAP because I just emailed Grubstreet LA the address
.
Raso Minang
989 S Glendora Ave #15
West Covina, CA 91790
(626) 939-3333
http://rasominang.com/default.aspx
================
(Yes, I ate a dick, hope all the detractors are happy now)
Then, a few weeks months later, I accepted my own challenge. After being ridiculed by the good natured chef at People’s Choice Jamaican restaurant, I had to throw down big. After all, Gourmet Pigs went huge last year, I had to start the new year right with some homo-erotic bites. Nothing says I’m down with the natives like eating cow penis. Well, nothing unless they served up some whale penis. As far as farm stock is concerned, I think cows are right up there versus horses. Personally, I’d love to know if Southern French folks eat horsey schlong. Someone fact check for me please?
I did not go forth to South Los Angeles searching for cow shlong. What I hoped for were some pungent, burning morsels of jerk chicken and beef pattie. It’s one of the things I miss most from the frozen tundras of Chicago. Having read the black white board for the daily menu, I posed the question to the order taker: “what is cow cod?” Having visited dozens of Jamaican/Carribean restaurants over the last few years clued me with no hints. The nice lady called the chef over: “chef, tell this young man what cow cod iiiis”. The only other Islander couple (gorgeous wife, super cute kid) in the minuscule dining space giggled. Thank god the mobile browser loaded with a Wiki page — Cow Cod Soup demystified. After all that effort, I had to order the small bowl of this aphrodisiac. $5 it set me back, and another $5 for a side order of jerk chicken.
All the straight boys are probably wondering: what does penis taste like? Welp, if you’ve had well done beef tendon in pho, you know the texture of cow cod. The soup was a light beefy broth with hints of Scotch Bonnet peppers, and other bell peppers; a bit spicy, a bit garliky and peppery. In addition, to keep it OG, there were wee-wee-esque pieces of flour dumplings. Overall, the bull penis and dumplings were an assemblage of phallic love that was darn tasty, and perhaps spicy to some.
The real star of People’s Choice was the jerk chicken. I heard through the grapevine that Princess Kitchen has shuttered. Since the last fews visits to Princess Kitchen, I’ve had some pretty lousy jerk chicken in LA. People’s Choice brings this dish back in a huge way. Grilled smokey chicken, straight from the kettle smoker, reeking of charcoal briskets, is cooked quickly in jerk sauce. Besides being oversalted, this is some of the best jerk chicken in Los Angeles. It puts TiGeorge’s rotisserie chicken to shame. [edit: apparently the fact TiGeorge's the only Haitian restaurants makes its food irreproachable so the following is added] A Taste of Jamaica, the most recent jerk chicken I’ve come across, should come to People’s Choice for a grilling lesson. Eaten with rice and beans, the chicken’s salt level should become properly balanced. Also, at $5 for a small side of chicken, this is the best jerk value in town as nearly a pound of chopped chicken is served in the container.
Love this place. Will be back for goat curry and ackee/salt fish.
3750 W Slauson Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90043
NB: I’m in no way, shape, or form, endorsing deep end dining. It’s a myopic and discriminatory form of grubbing which I wish not to partake on a regular basis. Some people, somewhere, of some ethnic origin, consider these foods their daily sustenance. Dick jokes were funny in the seventh grade.
Top 5 overrated meals of 2009
Somewhere out in the blogsphere exists a prediction, written by a Chicago woman who owns a restaurant PR firm, of what’s to come for “food bloggers” in 2010. One of the items she discusses is that food bloggers will become less “snarky”, instead being more serious, writing lengthier editorials.
I don’t want to be that guy. Since the previous post was about what’s AWESOME in 2009, now let’s have what really blew goats (since that’s all the rage of late ‘09):
Gjelina
Manager came over to ask check on the prided margherita pizza. I replied with something to the effect of: “you should stop serving pizza”. He might have been a wee bit put-off, and asked if I’ve had pizza in Italy. “Yes sir”, followed by silent. This was a limp pie, no matter how great the brick fired oven might be, with over sweetened tomato puree (not so much sauce). We split half a dozen dishes, which represented nearly one-third of the menu. Nothing stood out, from the absolutely mundane eggplant, to the equally tasteless octopus (see O.Mozza/Cube, Lazy Ox for superior versions), to the self-proclaimed “cassoulet” featuring wayward ingredients and a thin broth. However piercing Fresser’s coverage might have been, it was deserving.
Bullshit Westside hype.
Park’s BBQ.
I know Infinite Fress, along with many others, including Mr. J Gold, loves this place. I do not. Having been only a couple times, perhaps I’ve been missing the essence of this joint. But I doubt it. Chung Dam owns Park’s for the complete beef experience. Tokyo Pork X? Them famed chunks of sam gyup ssal? Better served at Park’s new sister restaurant, Dong Dae Gam. Surely this might still be the panchan queen of Los Angeles, but Chung Dam’s beef game is right up there, without the grease fire, without the wait, without the crowd. Try it out folks.
Vintage hype that deserved a try.
Oinkster.
ZOMG. WTFBBQ. See previous post from last month. Just thinking about this pisses me off.
We should all feel bad for Eagle Rock.
I take full responsibility for the mishap. A sausage I did not stuff into my mouth while at DBGB, instead I did have the burger, and some shit-tastic “Thai” moule frites in curry broth. Geezus chefs, please put away the coconut milk and curry powder. The Frenchie burger was fine. About as fine as HKeller’s Burger Bar, which is to say, not worth the pricey paper on which the burger list was printed. This burger confirms the dogma: 2 primary proteins stuffed in between buns is schizo (as first demonstrated by the overwhelming shortrib stuffed burger at Blue Dahlia Cafe, Little Tokyo). The bar space is just amazingly New York, with perfect view of First Ave, but the main room smelled of a bad diner. Despite all that, I did manage to have the quintessential “I <3 NY" experience when I ran into a Blue Hill Stone Barn dining neighbor from the night previous at DBGB’s bar. Cool space, but not a fan of pricey wieners served in this environ. Save you $30 for the lunch prix fixe at Bar Boulud.
Famous chef new restaurant hype.
Flour & Water, San Francisco
Loved the apps, thought naught of the pizza. Thin woody-smelling crust, but straight soggy in center – especially since we had a cracked egg in the middle – short on bubbling, with oversalted dough. Yes, it’s a totally “proper” Neapolitan styled pie, but just lacked overall cohesion. This would’ve been an excellent meal if the restaurant name wasn’t so overtly indicative. After all, some of the finest raviolis & seasonal salads in town can be had here. The braised lamb tongue with poached egg, though minuscule, is fantastic, better than even The Fig’s brilliant lengua. David Chang can hate on figs all he wants, F+W churned out a seared duck with fresh figs + arugula/microgreens that was most glorious. Fig and San Franciso are so in touch with each other’s feelings!
Blinded by out of town pizza hype. Damn you San Francisco. Delfina was just doing fine.
It’s been around for ever, it’s soooo high end and weekend reservations are still quite difficult — I had to wait just to be seated at the bar, 10 min after the doors opened. But, it seems, purely due to location (much too close to fisherman’s wharf), the flavors and creativity have dropped significantly over the last few years [it won James Beard's best new restaurant back in 2000]. SF is known for old timers ala Chez Panisse (Cafe) & Zuni, but Danko falls far outside that tasty circle. Again, I was told I ordered “wrong”, but at $66++ per person for the 3 course prix fixe, nothing has the right to be wrong. Yes, I just called quail stuffed with foie boring. The foie was mixed into a mushroom mush and due to stuffing, transformed itself into blended offal with composition akin to pureed innards. The quail was underseasoned & underspiced, needing unfulfilled support from the foie.
Old school staid Hype
Taste of Brazil
The maracuja juice is imported? In a can? Really? And I want this WHY? Just because it’s imported? Hey, melamine-tainted milk is imported. Overall bland & boring prep. Pao de Queijo is how much? $7$8 for 8 6 little cheese balls the size of ping pongs? Wow. Straight rip. Stroganoff tasted straight from University of Michigan’s North Campus dining hall, so that was probably the best item for the night. Brazilian sausages, again, IMPORTED, tasted of Farmer John’s. Skirt steak, completely mundane, the one dimensional peixe a baiana makes one appreciate the complexity of a good Thai green curry. The loud musician on weekends brings tunes that pierce your ear drums while your palate is bored by the food. Good times? Hell no.
Yelp, you fail me so. Sampled nearly a dozen dishes with the large party, need not return.
Marisco Chente
Once again, I was told I ordered incorrectly. Except this time, I studied the menu and read the massive threads on Chowhound. I got some shrimp in booze sauce, and a ceviche mixto. This the best of Nayarit AND Sinaloa? The ceviche came out with surimi. Game over. Apparently if you go with a Spanish speaking person you won’t get whited. While not having traveled extensively in Mexico, I’m pretty darn sure every piece of jaiba flesh I’ve had in Mexico, even down to the $1.50 marisco stands, was real. The medium large shrimps looked pretty, but were overcooked. No matter how stupendously diablo their sauce might be, if the shrimp has to die the second time on the cooktop, I don’t want to eat it. But no worries Claire, I will go visit one more time.
Definition of Chowhound hype.
Ok, so there are 8. In fact, there really MUCH more, but these are what really popped out.
DineLA Presents The LA Chefs’ Family Tree.
This is, undoubtedly, way cooler than the actual restaurant week itself:
Hovering over each chef brings a pop-up of where they’ve previously cooked. Hovering over the restaurant list at the bottom shows which chefs have been in that particular kitchen. According to this graphic, the most fertile chef-breeding restaurant in LA is Spago, with Patina trailing by only 1.
The cool display shows that chef Matsusaka of Beacon, whom, by the way, makes a KILLER burger, has worked at the most restaurants on the list. However, in reality, we all know (and as verified by the bio blurb) Chef Padermo takes the cake with at least 10 LA restaurants under his belt.
As far DineLA, after last session’s weak performance by Spago itself, I’m hesitant to hand restaurants my moola. Great concept, great results for the restaurants, but ultimately, I have no desire to eat another plate of braised short ribs or slow roasted chicken (Jidori or otherwise).
Sign up for Groupon!
Actually Cooking: Taiwanese Spring Roll / Popiah (春卷, 潤餅, 薄餅)
I was disgusted by a recent blog post I read on yet-another recipe of crispy baked potatoes in rosemary and olive oil in which the (female, natch) blogger proclaimed her potatoes to be crack. Granted, fancier small red potatoes were utilized, and there might have been some zesty twist but, really, it was just another one of thousands of baked crisp potato olive oil/rosemary recipe. Why write yet another snore of a recipe regurgitating the same? Really, your spaghetti and meatball? Probably not better than Barefoot Contessa’s. You know Cookin’ with Coolio
And following above rant, I personally guarantee this to be the BEST US-based English version recipe of an “authentic” style Taiwanese spring roll, (that should enough qualifiers to cover my ass) or I’ll delete this post come February.
Ingredients
* 1 lb of char siu pork. Won’t go into the recipe here, but there are plenty out there. Or buy it from your fave Chinese restaurant.
* 1/4 head of cabbage, sliced thickly
* 1 large carrot, shredded
* 1 cup of pickled turnip. Buy Taiwanese. See pix.
* 1 cup of julienned bamboo shoots (canned, bulk, or otherwise, ok)
* 1.5 cups of green bean sprouts, lightly boiled, drained.
* 1 pack of 5 spice stewed hard pressed tofu (I chose Taiwanese imported brand, even tho VP Tofu is down the street from me)
* half a cup of chopped cilantro
* 1/4 cup of roasted peanut powder
* 1/4 cup of sugar
* dried chili flakes
* 1/2 cup of Yeo’s (or AGV) Sweet Spicy Sauce (you can sub with mixed sriracha, ketchup and sugar to achieve a balanced 50/50 spicy/sugary ratio)
* 2 tablespoon of curry powder
* soy sauce, salt, minced garlic
* a bag of spring roll skin. This is SUPER importante. Get the right kind.
Do not get the WRONG kind. The Wei Chuan (Taiwanese) brand sold in squares, as 春卷皮? NOT the right kind. The overpriced stuff made by Lung Lung (at least in Los Angeles, CA, US of A), is the “right kind”. Yes, it’s 400% more than the machine pressed version sold by Wei Chuan, but the Lung Lung brand stuff is much closer to the “real thing”.
If you want to be hard core, feel free to make your very own popiah skin per Sunflower’s recipe guide.
For comparison, here’s my Kitch3n’s spring roll recipe, here’s Kong Kay’s non-Taiwanese version, and finally, a French-Chicagoan’s take.
Procedure:
First, soak pickled turnip in water. Do not soak for too long, as turnip will lose intended purpose: saltiness.
Stir fry carrots in a dash of oil & salt, when pungent, pour in a cup of water, and allow to simmer. Set aside.
Re-heat pan, toss minched garlic into hot oil, brown garlic, toss in cabbage. When slightly cooked, in goes curry powder, and a dash of salt. No need to overcook by pouring in water. Allow some texture to remain.
Stir fry bamboo, with no garlic, instead, use chili flakes. Add in dash of sugar.
Then, heat 3+ cups of oil in a deep pan, scramble eggs, and swirl eggs, over a strainer, or a collander, into heated oil. Fry until golden brown on both sides. This will create a textured fried egg which is then chopped.
To roll:
Steam the spring roll skin.
Spread sweet spicy sauce as base. Double up on skin if you’re afraid of breaking. Sprinkle peanut powder and sugar mixture over hot sauce. Begin placing non-moist items over sauce/peanut powder base. (Think fried egg & strained bean sprouts):
Follow up with char siu, cilantro, carrots, etc.:
Brush the top of the skin with sweet spicy sauce as glue, fold both sides in, then continue to roll.
And.. Voila. Kinda. Sorry. I suck at rolling, but it’s tasty enough. Really!
Another blogger’s take on the 3 confusing names of the same exact roll.
A video from Taiwanese TV talking about a tremendous spring roll shop that has been around for 60 years, using fried duck egg yolk as a main filling:
And why is there no previous discussion of this AWESOME roll? Because 潤餅 is usualliy only eaten during Chinese New Years, or “Tomb Sweeping Day: http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/culture/folkbeliefs/index.htm
