WSGV updates

626 Hospitality Group.

Love this lychee soft serve!

@hungryhungryhippos its a long ways from us but if you are in the area this soft serve is pretty good.

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@J_L and I had a B to B+ meal at Wang Jia. That waiter is indeed a character…

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Too late to get to Dean Sin World now :frowning_face:

IIRC, ipse touted S&W China Taste as being an overlooked spot. Or was that David? :thinking: Or both?

Emperor Noodles? That was the main one, though there have been others in that space. My main memory of Emperor Noodles was the waitress being gobsmacked when I both ordered the dishes and asked a question in Mandarin.

That’s how I understand it. Reminds me that I’ve never gotten around to contacting Bill Addison that it isn’t exactly a “new” place. New location, yes. New restaurant, no. I had a New Year’s Eve dish or two at the old Wang Jia on San Gabriel.

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Very sorry to hear about your father :pensive: . Glad you are able to connect with him through your ancestry.

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Peter Fong of House of Nanking in SF told me shortly after he opened the place (which was great for its first month or three, before Patricia Unterman’s rave review drew crowds) that the only difference between Nanjing and Shanghai cuisine was the salted duck, which he didn’t speak highly of.

It wasn’t Emperor Noodles, no; I remembered I heard about it because the comedian Jimmy O. Yang was a guest on some YouTube show about Shanghainese food. The restaurant in the current Wang Jia location was called Q38.

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Bummer. I should still try!

Yes, Q38 was what it was before Wang Jia :+1: Before that, it was Emperor Noodles, which (doughy SJB aside) was a pretty solid Shanghainese place.

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Correct that Emperor Noodle was in that spot. Q38 followed them.

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Same plaza as 626 Hospitality Group (soft serve ice cream). I think they are on opposite schedules though

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That headline made me hesitant but after reading the article it seems like an interesting place. Cool that they take a day for recipe development (among other things)

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we had one of their cakes a few months ago… it was fantastic. highly recommended.

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the nanjing duck place used to be in the same mall as hui tou xiang. the duck is salted and served like so:

other dishes include (it was ten years ago so i don’t remember the details):



but we never thought of going back so it probably wasn’t that memorable

ten years ago that would have been emperor noodle. the SJB were pretty to look at, but that was about it.

Emperor Noodle DSCN2439

the XLB leaked
Emperor Noodle DSCN2440

and this noodle dish had a gritty texture i found most displeasing (enough that i remember this ten years later)
Emperor Noodle DSCN2441

though i really enjoyed the shiitake mushroom and what appeared to be puffs of gluten

Emperor Noodle DSCN2444

enough so that i took an extra pic with my lousy flip phone

Emperor Noodle DSCN2445
these last two pics were taken to show that i left leftovers - which i never do unless the food was considered really that bad.
Emperor Noodle DSCN2447
Emperor Noodle DSCN2446

heard bad things about the place so i never tried it. IIRC it also once housed a place known as “whatever” which would have appealed to slackers as in:
“where do you want to go?”
“whatever”

haven’t eaten there in a while. i recall their XLB being kinda… lumpy

i wanted to try the eel dish but was voted down rather vehemently by the rest of the group so we ended up getting


which wasn’t bad but they might have been the least… exotic dishes on the menu.

that seaweed fish looks pretty good. ahgoo’s kitchen makes the best rendition i’ve had in the SGV.

i actually had their (valley & 5th) seafood chow mein to go a couple months back. granted, it was takeout, but it was still pretty soggy.

well it is fried and someone else likened it to eating (unctuous) pork belly, so a little bit goes a long way.

I love the thorough brief, and I’m impressed that you found all of these pictures, which makes me think you have an organized archive of evidence for such reports!

I might try Wang Jia.

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The first few shots look like scenes from God Of Cookery, and I mean that in the most endearing way.
If you haven’t seen it. Highly recommend the video essays from Accented Cinema on youtube. Here’s a link to one about Kung Fu Cooking. https://youtu.be/z-tQUzZTVCw?si=0fTh1Zx8y8AeWbWy

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The place JeetKuneBao was asking about is Nanjing Salted Duck, the place you’re referring to is Nanjing Kitchen, now known as Nanjing Duck House, which moved to El Monte. Who’d have thought there’d be two Nanjing duck places?

Yep. Looked great, but doughy and dry though a good flavor to the meat inside. I don’t recall what else I had there, but it was decent. Maybe, aside from the SJB, you went on a bad day or I went on a good day.

Whatever Tea House was next door, on the corner, and has been other tea houses since. Bubble Republic being the latest. I have a sleeve from Whatever. They had frappeteanos, long before it became a thing. I always wondered why someone hadn’t tried that earlier.

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I like that place.

Prince Dumpling replaces Rice Yummy in Rosemead.


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Lucky Huang BBQ replacing Dasheng BBQ on Garvey in Monterey Park.

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Congee And Noodles House replaces Douhua Limited on Garvey in Monterey Park. Previously operated online and is take out only. Interestingly, Next Gen, rather than immigrant operated.


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