King Hua in Alhambra: My New Go-To Dimsum Joint

I finally found a decent dimsum place, King Hua in Alhambra, although that doesn't mean I don't crave the razor thin-skinned dimsum had back in Hong Kong. I liked that the skin in these dimsum was thin enough and also liked the shrimp variations it offered. I like the standard har gow (shrimp only dumpling) as much as the next person, but I love when combined with all sorts of greens, at times nuts and cilantro. The additions give the dumpling a whole new dimension.

My favorite was the shrimp with greens beautifully topped with a goji berry, corn and pea. It was one that I hadn't seen in other dimsum joints, and the combination of sweet and tart was wonderful. I liked that this place isn't a cart-type of place. I always like to hail down the ladies with the carts trying to use all sorts of hand gestures to figure out what's in a particular dumpling, but made to order dimsum is the way to go, I say. No hassle, made fresh rather than sitting on a cart for a while and no futile attempts at pantomine involved.

I liked the har gow well enough but it didn't blow me away. I preferred the shrimp dumpling that came with nuts -- which gave it a crunch and a nice nuttiness.

Then I had my usual suspects, including sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf, which was nothing special but ok, barbecued pork buns, which were soft and fluffy but whose pork was a tad smelly and some steamed greens, which were a bit over-steamed but fine.






We also got a few unusual suspects like croquette-like taro dumplings stuffed with pork, mushroom and veggies, which were crunchy and tasted very comforting. Guess croquettes will do that to you.

Then we also had those flat rice noodles filled with, you guessed it, shrimp again. Hey, just trying to be sensitive to the pescatarians on our table. They were good and the rice noodles had just the right amount of chewiness.

Still, the pork-lovers at the table couldn't resist getting Shanghai soup dumplings, which of course, were no Din Tai Fung xiao long baos but they were decent. Then again, we hadn't come here for the xlbs...

The all vegetarian dumplings with mushrooms, bamboo shoots and other veggies were bleh. For some reason, the skin on vegetarian dumplings always seem to be on the thicker side. Not sure why that is but it makes me like them even less. Ok, I already had some contempt for them for being vegetarian dumplings.

The best way to end a dimsum meal is with those ethereal lovelies -- warm and crispy custard cakes. Oh yes. I had one and then another. They went fairly quickly.

I like to have Chrysanthemum tea instead of Jasmine because it's not caffeinated and I think is a better complement to the greasy dumplings I keep popping in my mouth. Well, the dumplings themselves aren't as bad but it's the chili oil and all the stuff I dip it in that may contribute to the heaviness.

Or it was just a simple case of overeating. We also had seafood congee, aka juk, or porridge. It was fine but I'm not a big fan of juk in general so it didn't leave an impression.

The only thing I noticed was that the congee was very much smooth rather than grainy. It was like mieum in Korean food that you're supposed to have when you're sick and can't digest solids.

Also, the place fills up quickly so arriving before 11:30 is probably best if you want to avoid a wait.

Overall, thumbs up!

101 Noodle Express in Alhambra: Noodles, Beef Rolls and Dumplings, What's Not to Like?

It's always a treat to venture out to San Gabriel Valley to have some seriously good Chinese food. So it was with much anticipation that we nabbed a shared table, dimsum parlor-style, at 101 Noodle Express in Alhambra (it opened a location in Culver City but as this review of Yamadaya shows, it may not be the same as its original location).


We got the dan dan mian, which was very similar to jjanjangmyun, the black bean noodles that is the classic Korean Chinese dish, except its sauce is a lighter brown color rather than jet black. It was topped with cucumber strips, just like the Korean Chinese version.

The noodles that are handmade were thick and chewy. But the kicker was the sauce. Yes, it was greasy, as you can see in the picture. But so much flavor. It had ground pork in a sesame-like, nutty flavored sauce that was so comforting. It's probably too greasy to consume by itself. The fresh cucumber slices on top helped to balance out the heaviness from the fat.

That's the beauty of the menu here -- we also got the famous beef rolls, greens, dumplings and some spicy greens mixed with peanuts, edamame and tofu cubes, but more on that later.

The beef rolls: an amazing array of deli-like beef slices, fresh cilantro smothered with some sweet and salty sauce, all rolled into a thin, flaky scallion pancake-like wrap. It's like nothing I've tasted before -- salty, sweet and crunchy from the cilantro and the warm, toasted skin.





It was very good and interesting but got a bit salty after a few bites. I couldn't wait to pair it with other things in the wrap, like, yes, you guessed it, a fried egg to balance out the saltiness, or some (gasp) shredded cheese mix. The re-purposed roll was a bit better for me as they weren't as salty.

The restaurant specializes in cuisine from the Shandong region. Other things we had included steamed pork and leek dumplings, which were excellent. No weird porky smell or overly doughy skins.


To round off all the meat and fat, we balanced it out with some greens stir-fried with garlic, which were the perfect accompaniment to the greasy fare we had.

The chopped steamed greens with peanuts, tofu cubes and soy beans seasoned with a bit of spice was another healthy side with some kick. I could have that solo for lunch and some brown rice for lunch for a high protein, low-fat alternative.

The green chili sauce that the lady we shared the table with warned me was spicy wasn't too bad. It went well with the beef roll initially but then it got too salty and spicy.

Dong Ting Chun: I Don't Think So

I'm not a Hunan food expert by any stretch but I can say with confidence that Dong Ting Chun doesn't serve good Hunan food. Ok, at least the four dishes we ordered. There's a chance we could have ordered the wrong things after communicating with our waitress using hand gestures galore and asking for her recommendations, but still, the ingredients spoke for themselves.



The pork soup with mushroom didn't have much flavor although it came in a cute little clay pot.
The very thinly sliced lamb stir-fried with Chinese celery (left) was interesting and extremely spicy with tons of chilies, but the quality of the lamb wasn't good, so it tasted very gamey or lamby and not in a good way. The lamb was also very fatty. One thing I liked, though, was the discovery of the Chinese celery. I'm sure I've had it before but I feel like I developed a newfound appreciation for it. It's thinner and I think more complementary to heavy meats than regular celery.

The shrimp chowmien was different in that the noodles were extra thin and the stir-fry hadn't been smothered in too much sodium. I also found the addition of bean sprouts unusual. It's something I see more in Korean food so it was educational to see that Hunan cuisine seems to feature this healthy item too. Only thing was that the addition of the bean sprouts didn't do a whole lot for the flavor of the noodles. They were ok but nothing great.

The dish I was most excited about was a chicken dish that our waitress explained as dusted with cumin and then stir-fried with dry chili, garlic and some cilantro. That's definitely different, we told ourselves. Alas, different it was, but not in a good way. First of all, the chicken pieces that were diced were all bone in! I like bone-in chicken as much as the next chix-lover, but this was ridiculous. I couldn't bite into each chicken morsel without running into yet another piece of bone. Not good...
The cumin flavor was interesting but the kicker was that the whole pieces of garlic it was stir-fried in didn't go with the flavors of the cumin at all. The flavors just didn't meld in for me. It was such a promising dish but we left sorely disappointed.

I know what you're thinking. So why didn't you do your homework and find out what you should have ordered based on message boards? Well, one was time. But the little I did manage to read of Yelpers was all over the map. Some raved about the frog legs, something I'm not keen on. Others recommended "Chairman Mao's Braised Pork with Garlic," which to me sounded like "Gimmicky Pork Dish Watered Down for Non-Chinese Peeps." So we avoided this one too.

One thing we did gain from this visit was the discovery of a massive mall this restaurant is situated in. We had to pay a visit to my candystore in the same mall, 99 Ranch Market. Wow. What a treat. I picked up some lychee wine (not sure if you're supposed to cook with it or drink it but I love lychee so just swiped one) and had a ball perusing the meat and amazing seafood section (think giant live lobsters and fish). And how could we forget the prepared food section? OMG. We splurged on green onion turnovers, taro pastries and barbecued pork baked buns, to name a few. Yum. Glad we at least got to take away something out of this otherwise downer eating experience.