Yao's Restaurant (Alhambra)

Americas - USA West Los Angeles
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Our very own @JThur01 provides a nice write up of Yao’s Restaurant in Alhambra, including the fact that they have corn noodles!

Ten second blurb for those too lazy to read the thing:

The most unique dishes here are the porridges (congee), the fried pancakes and the corn noodles — items that bridge the Korean-Chinese divide.

If you get the corn noodles, made from corn meal in Chinese fashion, you’ll be asked how spicy you’d like them. A dollop of pepper paste that seems to be gojuchang tops your bowl and provides a kick uncommon in Dongbei-style cooking. Those fried pancakes, which include sweet, mochi-like versions filled with pumpkin or purple yam as well as thin, crispy, Korean-style pancakes made with potato or zucchini (translated into English on the menu as “horned melon”) are ideal for sharing. And there are eight different porridges available, with sea cucumber, shrimp, vegetables, Chinese yam (nagaimo) or the classic combo of pork with preserved egg among your options.

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i ate there last march. i would have tried more of the stuff jim mentioned but i was there with a lao wai who fixated on the sweet and sour pork, to be fair if this version of sweet/sour pork had been introduced to middle america instead of the gloppy american-canto version, the perception of chinese food may have been much less maligned. yao’s version is on a par to the variant common to NE chinese cuisine. .

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the corn noodles are a great alternative for the celiac afflicted but i found the texture unremarkable,

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equally unremarkable were the dumplings.

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i imagine this was an appetizer with what looks like fries being pickled daikon.

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Thanks ipse! Yao’s is an interesting place. I was tipped that it was Dongbei-style, but couldn’t help but notice how few of the classic Dongbei dishes are on their menu. On my first visit, I asked the waitress what part of Dongbei and she said: “In the middle.” I’m hardly geographically ignorant, but that stumped me. Then, I wandered up by the cold appetizer counter and she said: “Oh, those are Korean.” barry, you’re absolutely right about the guo bao rou. I used to recommend HK-style places like Tasty Garden as an introduction to those unfamiliar with Chinese cuisines, but an order of guo bao rou for those only exposed to Americanized Chinese food is a great idea.

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sadly, yao’s has shuttered, to be replaced by:

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Sweet and Sour Pork is a legit Canto dish.
It is as much comfort food as steamed pork patty, rice porridge, steamed eggs, and ___ over rice plate.

Like whole steamed fish, ha gow, and chow fun it is a test of a Canto cook’s ability.

Sweet and Sour Pork using Hawthorne/Haw Flakes is said to be a lost recipe/rarity.

Even the ketchup/vinegar/sugar version can be made well and non-gloppy.

If anyone knows of any place in LA or SF area with Sweet and Sour Pork made with hawthorne let me know please.

A little off topic I know. But this misunderstood dish needs its due.

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What an utter waste of a Type 41. Never knew Yao sold beer. No one mentioned it on Y either. :angry:

But you know, Pittsburg apparently isn’t Paris, so we have bigger problems than a piss-poorly operated Chinese restaurant in SGV.

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for those wondering, sharp-eyed tony recognized the document from which i clipped the name of the new restaurant

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and @JThur01, feel free to include this in your june update for la eater. (if you didn’t already know, of course)

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I had no idea this was a thing

?

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I believe I saw that at the Sam Woo location in Rosemead on Valley near Walnut Grove.

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i remember eating those haw flakes as a kid. i occasionally buy some when i see them at 168 market.

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I can’t wait to hit the farmers market later.