I quite like Dongbei food. Real stick to your ribs stuff, very Midwestern U.S. type fare. Along with Cantonese/Shanghainese, probably the least spicy Chinese regional style, and uniquely distinctive. Totally self-serving, but here was an overview of classic Dongbei dishes:
The caveat here being the entire restaurant listing has changed. Only two of the restaurants survive, at different locations, with slightly revised names: Shen Yang on San Gabriel moved one space up and became Shen Yang Tasty, and post-fire Thousands Tasty eventually relocated to Rosemead as Tasty Thousand.
TonyC touted the Shen Yang in San Gabriel. At one point, there were three different restaurants named Shen Yang, none of which were related! (is that peak SGV or what?) The one he liked was next to the HK Market (now Good Fortune) on San Gabriel Blvd. It closed for a bit, then re-emerged the next center to the north (in the former space of Hunan Restaurant), as Shen Yang Tasty. Its always been my go to for Dongbei, admittedly for their variety of items compared to the other places. It also seemed they did many dishes just that little bit better than the others.
The Shen Yang on Garvey is the only place I recall serving the faux dog meat dish. It became another Dongbei place, Guan Dong Da Yuan, which reportedly has closed as well.
Anybody hit Bund No. 8 yet? Went with my gf and her parents and I was really pleased.
My parents are from Shanghai and, as she is wont to explain, my mom is notoriously picky about Shanghainese food. She liked it a lot for lunch.
Sadly, I did not take any pics. We did order some classics, like the aster & spiced tofu “salad,” red braised pork, mixed rice, shengjianbao, and scallion oil noodles. We also had spicy cauliflower, which may be a hangover from the space’s life as Embassy – it was decidedly not Shanghainese.
The first was heavy on the sesame oil, and what I remember eating often in the house. Pork had that deep red and gelatinous fat, supplied with two eggs (yolks yellow and chalky, as I remember from my youth); mixed rice came in the stone bowl and mixed tableside; SJB bread was light and fluffy, fried perfectly (but unfortunately, no soup inside); and the noodles were appropriately topped with little shrimps.
The mixed rice was the standout. The Shanghainese salt pork! The lard! It was the table’s favorite, too – gf and her family are not Chinese, and haven’t eaten many regional cuisines but for hot pot here and dim sum there, so was pumped they were down with something my mom would throw together when we had only bok choy and old rice (but, curiously, home-cured salted pork?).
I remember Garfield Theater, El Rey at 335 W Main, and The Alhambra (old Edwards on Atlantic/Main). I’ll never forget sneaking into Amityville Horror at El Rey with my school friends and being scared out of my mind LOL
Been seeing signs for DaPaiDang in the smaller plaza next to Focus Plaza (is it still called that?) on the second floor. Looks like they may finally be open.
Wondering if anyone has any info.
I’m bummed about the demise of Guppy House as well. I enjoyed the Taiwanese shaved ice wave and looked forward to going when the crowds died down. Never got that chance. I heard through the grapevine that Guppy House was also done in by nefarious mismanagement.
We liked it for a casual lunch for 2. I don’t know much about Shanghainese food, but we quite liked the red braised pork belly and the Shanghai stir-fried noodles. Pork belly was layered (and the fat is so crushable with rice) and the sauce was complex and not too salty. It was pretty warm out when we went, so we ordered cold appetizers of drunken chicken and jellyfish in aged vinegar. The vinegar wasn’t so sharp but rather tasted a bit like mellow spices, though to nitpick I wish it was proportioned a little bit easier to eat since the jellyfish is thin and slippery and the cucumbers are smashed (maybe they’re not supposed to be eaten at the same time?).
Menu looks pretty interesting. Prices were quite good for what we ordered. They have stuffed 8-treasures duck and others that I haven’t seen around too often.
Lee Fu Ji replaces Wei’s Kitchen in the food court at The Square in Rosemead. Not to be confused with Liu Fu Jiu which recently closed down in the outdoor portion of the same center.
CHICKII, another Chinese chicken burger restaurant, replaces Yomie’s Purple Rice Yogurt in the San Gabriel Hilton plaza. If you stand in front of CHICKII you can see Macho Burgers, another chicken burger restaurant, the second store on the left.
Spicy chicken sandwiches made for the local Chinese market by fast food giants like McDonald’s and KFC have been the rage for a few years. These sandwiches are called chicken burgers, or burgers for short in China. Obviously those concerns aren’t going to start peddling those regional items in the US. So over here anybody can take their best shot at copying or improving on what the chains are selling in China, as the demand here is quite large. This has led to a situation where any new restaurant in the SGV with burger in the name probably sells chicken, and no beef. Incidentally Yelp rates Macho Burger as the number one burger place in San Gabriel. Their algorithms haven’t caught up with the SGV meaning of burger.
About 15 years ago I was dating a woman from China. She often spoke fondly of “Kentucky Colonel.” She showed me a business card of some KFC exec whom she had met in China.
A dozen years ago, I was in Beijing and pleasantly surprised to find pieces of fried chicken on the menu at the local McDonalds.
Fried chicken seems a thing that caught on in China and spice has been added.
