Most Eclectic Chinese Restaurant Menu Ever at Zheng Shang Xian in Rosemead

[chandavkl]

The menu at the newly opened Zheng Shang Xian in Rosemead, replacing 4 Seasons Tea House is totally wild and maybe somebody can explain it for me. For starters this dish is something new under the sun which I have never encountered before. This may look just like regular salted fish fried rice. But rather it’s steamed bamboo tube rice with salted fish pie.

But wait, there’s more. The menu here is all over the place. It’s heavy on herbal soups, including crocodile soup. It also has onion pancakes, Taiwanese pork, sweet and sour ribs, Shanghainese dishes and most interestingly at least three Fujianese dishes. All this on a menu of under 50 items. Maybe a Taiwanese owner?

[J_L]

I haven’t encountered bamboo tube rice outside Taiwan, so that’s already interesting.

Herbal / medicinal soups are the rage right in the SGV Chinese community these days. Orange Bistro (on Main in Alhambra, as I’m sure you know), which is I suppose modern Taiwanese in its inflection, offers lots of herbal soups options on its menu also.

Fujianese is close to Taiwanese in flavors, to the best of my knowledge. I admit I need a lot more education on the differences, of which I am sure there are lots…

What Shanghiaese dishes are on that menu?

[chandavkl]

There’s fried yellow croaker, shepherd purse wonton and preserved pork with plum. Might be others that I don’t recognize.

[robert]

Shanghai-style dim sum

There used to be a Shanghainese place in San Francisco called Fountain Court that served Shanghai xiaochi dim-sum style at lunch. They had dishes I’ve never seen elsewhere, such as fresh shepherd’s purse with steamed bamboo shoots. Which places in LA are good for that stuff? Are any of them accessible by public transit from downtown?

[Ns1]

@chandavkl

But rather it’s steamed bamboo tube rice with salted fish pie.

does the bamboo tube impart any flavor or what is the purpose of this

[chandavkl]

I think Long Xing Ji is still there, though with the rotating renovation to Focus Plaza that could change at anytime. There was a thread either on Chowhound or FTC dealing with the public transport issue and there is a bus that goes from DTLA to that part of Valley Blvd.

[chandavkl]

I can’t say I noticed any unique flavor. I think from my visit to aboriginal Taiwan that this was just an efficient cooking method in ancient times.

[chandavkl]

A return visit with a Taiwanese friend unraveled what this restaurant is all about. The mystery darkened first, though, as the sentiment that it was a Taiwanese restaurant ran into the fact that the menu used simplified characters which you’d never catch a Taiwanese restaurant utilizing. Also the one thing apparent as soon as we got to the restaurant today was that the bamboo tube rice, the most Taiwanese item on the menu, was replaced by similar rice dishes sans bamboo tube. So the answer is that it’s sort of a Fujianese restaurant. However my friend and another commenter somewhere else said there were some Cantonese overtones. Which probably makes this a West Fujianese restaurant.