While spicy, I think it’s generally chili hot, not Sichuan numb, unless you go to Daybird or get a specified Sichuan dish.
1 Like
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.
3 Likes
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.
2 Likes
Look what I found. Another branch of Macho Burger, this time in Arcadia, replacing Hui Lai Shan. Chicken burgers for everyone.
4 Likes
Is fried chicken huge in China nowadays? Is that what’s driving this?
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.
4 Likes
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.
3 Likes
We had CHICKII last week. While crispy, the chicken itself was fairly under seasoned. They were also out of many of the non-chicken items (on a Sunday at 6PM). While not terrible, there are better fried chicken offerings in the area.
You make it sound like the Chinese didn’t like fried chicken until the chains started it?
Chicken as a protein has always been king in China and the Chinese are not afraid of bones. Beef hamburgers weren’t popular at first when McDonalds expanded but KFC was a hit because of the Chinese taste for chicken that had already been popular, it just took time for the fast food franchises to realize and take advantage of it, hence why every fast food chain has fried chicken on their menu but here in America McDonalds can’t get even convince people to order “Mighty Wings” probably because lazy Americans want everything boneless.
2 Likes
imagine what would happen to the supply chain of Chicken wings if they became popular at McD’s!
LOL. You mean like the ribless McRib sandwiches?
1 Like
1 Like
Just realized that the restaurant that replaced Zi Wei in San Gabriel a while back was not Mr. Sushi, but Mr. Shushi. And they sell duck, pig and chicken parts, not sushi.
2 Likes
went there recently with some friends. everyone chose a dish.
i went with the braised cod. it reminded me of the braised cod dish offered by jun won in koreatown before they downsized, except there wasn’t a lot of cheap radish underneath to make the dish look larger, though the middle piece was the fish head - with eyeballs and cheek meat. this was the consensus best dish of the meal.
second was the pork pump, which a server separated from the bones after we took our pics.
this was third for me: tofu & shrimp, but what made it fascinating was how the egg coating was reminiscent of carbonara. i really liked the resulting texture - but probably as much for the execution. which didn’t congeal as much as i expected it to when the dish cooled off a bit.
drunken chicken. eh. it was chicken; but if you don’t have quality chicken, then letting the chicken shine through doesn’t get you as much.
someone went with the mock duck tofu dish. for trying to imitate duck taste and texture, it was a fair rendition.
we were all mainly toisan/cantonese, so there was an obligatory soup, though this was made with crab.
also an obligatory veggie dish which i neglected to photograph.
finally, i got a kick out of the men’s room sign.
i’m excited to go back and try the lunch specials, two at a time.
10 Likes
New phone! Pics look great!
1 Like
snort i dropped my flip phone into a cup of coffee and i can’t send my pics anywhere until i get a new phone. a friend sent me his pics.
5 Likes
I await the day when you convert!!!
Ice cream at 626 Hospitality who has tried it?
3 Likes