Zheng Dou Kee Wonton King opens at 518 W. Garvey in Monterey Park serving, well, Hong Kong style noodles and stuff.
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Drove by Zheng Dou Kee Wonton King today and saw the lights on. Will try soon.
Not restaurant related but I bought SGV’s own Clarissa Wei’s Made In Taiwan book. Hope to make a trip to Taiwan in the near future. I guess California will have to do for Taiwanese.
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I’ve tried to recall the other Shaanxi place, and finally came up with it, the wonderfully named Wen Hui Noodle Hours on Garvey in Monterey Park. Has anyone been? I hate to see places get overlooked, particularly when there are only few of that style*
*Obviously, there are times where a place or two do emerge as “(b)est” for a reason, as well as reasons why some do not get mentioned and are rightfully overlooked 
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Just tried this place. Great wok hei on the chow fun, generously-wrapped wontons and in a rich clear abalone broth. They were out of pineapple buns today. Busy with locals (I was the only non-Cantonese speaker there). A strong opening.
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That’s cool deco. Always New Years. But another skewer place?
Deep fried skewer?
Array 36 opens in Temple City at the site of many past restaurants including Fresh QBake and Zen Buffet. Another in the string of way upscale Chinese restaurants. It’s so dark you can’t see your hands and you can’t dine without a reservation.
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After I posted about Wen Hui Noodle Hours, I realized there is also Noodle Palace in Rosemead, which also serves some Shaanxi dishes. So, it went from the normal 2-3 Shaanxi-style places, to what?, five! That may be an all-time SGV high.
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It’s so interesting to me in SGV that some of these spots are serving different regions on one menu. Not counting things like XLB’s and American Chinese but Sichuan and Shaanxi. Noodle Palace has both Shānxī and Shaanxi.
Kinda interested in these 2 noodle dishes. Dalu Mian and beef knife cut.
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Not only did Nine Dining replace New Haojing on Valley Blvd. in Alhambra in the onetime Cafe Spot location, but they took over the entire strip center.
Offering XLB during dim sum is a prime example.
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Crazy how XLB’s is on so many menus now.
XLB is now considered to be “dim sum” by many. Every dumpling place is expected to have them.
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its easy when you can just buy them in secret from certain dumpling makers in SGV
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Zheng Dou Kee: It’s very good overall. Great value, especially breakfast. Looking forward to try a few more dishes in the future.
Wonton only. The flavor is generally there, don’t know anyone else makes it better locally. I need to try Tam’s again though. Manger mentioned one missing spice is en routed from HK so the flavor be should leveling up later. Beef Chow Fun is good except for inconsistent beef chewiness; it’s due to how the meat was carved. Hopeful that will change.
Beef Offal. We ordered this because the menu say “most famous beef offal”, written in Chinese. Still caught us by surprise how rich and deep the flavor was. Asked the manager what else is good:
“Authentic Chao Chou hand crafted” beef ball, #49, so popular it’s currently out of stock; waiting for another shipment. (Imported meatballs? Pique my curiosity.) Fish Paste Noodle, #37, will try soon. Good HK milk tea is rare, they have it here. Ask for hand pull if they are not busy.
Min Min: Excellent SJB. Perfect. Be mindful it’s piping hot.
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Yeah I want that beef offal and daikon!
You like Min Min more than Kang Kang?
Never tried Kang Kang. Judging from the photos, Min Min has better bao, and is less oily. Will stop by when I have a chance.
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Yes IMHO Min Min > Kang Kang
But then again, You Kitchen also > Kang Kang
As does Kingburg Kitchen > Kang Kang
As does Tasty Noodle House > Kang Kang
A pattern emerges…
SAT SGV analogy: Kang Kang is to SJB as Savoy is to Hainan Chicken Rice
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i tried replying using the email function, but it keeps bouncing. sigh
that noodle palace has a direct lineage to laoxi noodle house. their first menu:
is pretty much the same as the menu from laoxi from the same time period. moreover, i actually saw the wife show up and go into the kitchen while i was eating at noodle palace. i got the impression that the owners were her in-laws. don’t know if they’re still in charge, but they’ve clearly got someone else cooking back there as they’ve expanded to include shanxi regional oat noodles, which previously had only been offered by the now defunct shanxi noodle house in the ESGV.
they do offer the shaanxi roujiamo, as well as liang pi - the latter seems to have emigrated to most of china, so i can’t call it exclusively shaanxi anymore. but i’d hesitate to categorize them as shaanxi given the lineage and predominantly shanxi cuisine on the menu.
there are some places that describe themselves as northern, like northern cafe in MP which IIRC also serves the belt-sized noodles and also offers the big plate of chicken first associated with uighur omar way back in the day, which i now just associate with northern cuisines and not uighur exclusvely. i would have put the late liangs’ in that category after they abandoned the taiwanese franchise menu. god i miss that place. i would have categorized them as one of the first authentic pan-chinese places in the SGV. as far as i know, no one else does the fried/steamed noodles that used to be on everybody’s table when you walked in there. but liang’s also offer mao er duo, which is shanxi.
or the beef roll to 101 noodle express
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