Home-Style Filipino Cooking at Magic Wok

When it comes to Filipino Food, I always enjoy championing it and in the process, I hope it encourages people to give it at try. On that note, I thought I'd do another post about Magic Wok, a Filipino restaurant in Artesia. This is actually my second time blogging about Magic Wok. Click here to read about my very first experience dining there. At Magic Wok, I went with a group of friends and we shared 12 dishes and compared to previous restaurants I've been to, I feel that Magic Wok is the closest to restaurant home-style Filipino Cooking that I've experienced.

Simply, it's because there's no fuss or muss about the food. There are no fusion flavors in play or interpretations of Filipino cooking. The dishes aren't made to look pretty or served in fancy dishes. That's not to say that the way the dishes are prepared here represent all of Filipino cooking. Like any other country, dishes can differ on a regional basis, but basically, what you see is what you get at Magic Wok.

Our meal started with Sisig. In the Philippines, traditional sisig is usually cooked with the pig head and may include parts of the face, ears, brains as well as other left over parts of the pig. My experience with sisig here has been varied. I've had it as a sizzling dish with crispy pork meat and chock-full of chicharon (pork rind) bits and also as a sauteed dish of marinated pork cheeks. The version at Magic Wok utilized fried pork with skin cooked with carrots and scallions, seasoned with garlic, black pepper and citrus. It was actually one of the favorite dishes of the night.

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Following the sisig came the Fried Bangus. Bangus is a milkfish that is a popular fish in Filipino Cuisine and is known for its many tiny little bones, so always proceed with caution when eating it. Fried bangus is first marinated in vinegar, pepper, garlic, lemon or calamansi juice and sometimes soy sauce before being pan-fried to a golden goodness. The lovely thing about this bangus is that the fried fish skin also absorbs the tangy flavors of the marinade, so it's tasty from the inside-out.

Soon, the Sinigang hit the table. Sinigang is a tamarind-based sour soup that usually includes vegetables like white radishes, napa cabbage and green beans and can be with or without a protein. We ordered two versions, one with shrimp and one with salmon. Other than Jeepney Asian Grill, Magic Wok is the only other place that I've had this soup that included green chile as an ingredient. The kick of heat went well with the sour notes from the tamarind.

Next was the Beef Tapa. Like the Fried Bangus, the beef for this dish is marinated in vinegar, pepper, garlic, black pepper and salt. The differences between the two is that the soy sauce may be an option for the Fried Bangus, but not for the Beef Tapa. Also, sugar is added to the Beef Tapa recipe, but not to the Fried Bangus recipe. Once marinated, the beef is then fried and is usually more chewy than tender. That's how it's usually meant to be and that's we got that night.

Of course, it's hard not to have a Filipino meal without lumpia and the ones at Magic Wok were wonderfully crispy and by the way, are great dipped in vinegar before biting into it.

Our one noodle dish was their Pansit Palabok (sometimes referred to as Pansit Malabon). Although I liked that the noodles were al dente, this Pansit Palabok version wasn't one of my favorites. It just didn't have a lot of flavor. The sauce that usually comes with this dish is made up of shrimp juice and atchuete oil, which is then thickened by flour. That shrimpy flavor of that sauce was MIA plus there's usually more toppings to mix into your noodles. The sliced boiled eggs and green onions were an after thought and crunchy pork skin was just plain missing. The only saving grace was the squeeze of lemon which added a nice zest of tartness to the noodles.

Following the disappointing Pansit Palabok came the Pinakbet, which seemingly could be a vegetarian dish, if it wasn't for the fact that it's cooked with a pungent shrimp paste aka bagoong. The vegetables included in this dish were eggplant, green beans, squash, okra and bitter melon. Pinakbet is definitely not for everyone just because of that shrimp paste. It has a strong smell and an equally strong taste that is salty and even a bit briny. While the vegetables were cooked well, there just wasn't enough shrimp paste in this dish to my liking. So next time, they need to pour it on.

Next was Chicken Adobo. Chicken Adobo is interesting in that it's one of the more well-known dishes in Filipino Cuisine, but even with such few ingredients, everyone has their own opinion on what the proper way is to cook it. Simply, the basic recipe for chicken adobo is chicken that is simmered in a mixture of vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, black pepper corns and a bay leaf. There are of course variations where the chicken is fried and then added back to the liquid and served. That's how my Mom does it. Some people prefer more vinegar and others more soy sauce. To one cook, one bay leaf is enough. To another, two is necessary.

The flavor of that sauce is pretty important because it's something we pour over our rice and eat along with the chicken. I actually thought the adobo sauce had a nice balance between the vinegar and soy sauce. I was happy to pour it over my rice and eat it. However, I prefer a chicken that's fried as opposed to stewed. Also, the chicken pieces were on the bony side, so there wasn't much meat to be had.

Ampalaya aka Bitter Melon with Pork arrived next. Bitter melon literally can be a bitter pill to swallow, let alone chew. For many, this vegetable is an acquired taste. I grew up with my Mom "treating" it to remove some of the bitterness of this veggie, but even then, it could still be too much to handle for most. This particular bitter melon actually wasn't as bitter as it could have been (at least for me) and I enjoyed the dish. Overall, I did think it needed a bit more seasoning. A little more salt and/or pepper, perhaps.

Then there's the Crispy Pata, which is basically a pig knuckle that is deep fried. I can't go to any Filipino restaurant without ordering this dish. More than the meat itself, it's about the fried pig skin dipped in a vinegar mixture of garlic and black pepper that does it for me. Sometimes too much of a good thing isn't good. That night, the whole pig knuckle was fried for so long that the meat underneath the skin was too dried out and didn't have the fatty tenderness it usually has. Unfortunately, the Crispy Pata wasn't the shining star it usually is.

While the Pinakbet didn't have enough shrimp paste, the Binagoongang Baboy dish had it in spades. Considering the translation for Binagoongang Baboy is Pork with Shrimp Paste, that wasn't surprising. The shrimpy, salty, briny taste was definitely there. My disappointment was in the pork itself, which was very fatty. In fact, there were more cubes of fat than actual meat in that bowl then there should have been. Now if that fat were deep fried, that would have been okay, but that just wasn't the case.

11 dishes down and now it was time for dessert and shared 2 Halo Halos. One was topped with mango ice cream and the other with ube ice cream. Halo Halo translates to Mix Mix because it's a mix of shaved ice, milk and a variety of ingredients that can include anything from sweetened beans and fruit to kidney beans and garbanzo beans and even corn and plantains.

There's really no standard recipe for Halo Halo. It varies from restaurant to restaurant and for someone making it home, it's very customizable. The Magic Wok versions had the ice cream as well as leche plan (a Filipino version of flan), ube halaya and a variety of sweetened beans and jellies.

Overall, Magic Wok is still one of my favorite Filipino restaurants in LA. It's definitely a hole-in-the wall restaurant where the service can be a bit slow and the wait a bit long, especially during the weekend. However, for straight forward Filipino Cooking, Magic Wok should make it on your list of must try Filipino restaurants.

Magic Wok
11869 Artesia Blvd
Artesia, CA 90701
(562) 865-7340


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Gujrati-Style Dim Sum at Rajdhani

Usually one doesn't associate Dim Sum and Indian Food together; yet, at Rajdhani, there actually is a connection between these two thoughts, albeit in a round about way. Like Dim Sum, there are servers that dispense food from table to table, from patron to patron, plus it's not going to cost you an arm and a leg to eat at Rajdhani. A mere $13.99 plus tax and tip is all you have to pay.

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Instead of carts, the food is served from hand carried bowls or platters. Instead of small portions of dumplings, rice noodles and other similar dishes, you will be treated to small servings of various vegetarian Indian dishes, but what moves Rajdhani a little ahead of the pack is the set price you pay above is for an all you can eat meal. Once you're seated, you're given what's referred to as a thali plate, which is basically, a large silver plate with smaller silver bowls. Think of it as an empty canvas from whence the food will eventually paint what your meal will be like.

At each table, you will find a trio of condiments that include tamarind chutney, carrot pickles and mint chutney plus you will be served a glass of chass, which is a salty buttermilk.

As soon as you've settled in, the servers start coming around and serving the food. They basically will keep coming until you raise the white flag of surrender. The complete meal itself will consist of around 10 different courses, with the menu slightly varying each day. What may stay consistent are three different types of Indian breads like the Pappadam, Puri and Chapati.

For my particular visit there with my dining group, we were first served the Khandvi, a pasta made from chickpea flour, buttermilk and sprinkled with coriander seeds and shredded coconut.

Following the Khandvi came what almost seemed like a tomato salsa, but didn't taste like one and another dish that I can't identify. Unfortunately, I didn't take any notes during this meal and the only reason I'm able to even identify some of the dishes now is due to the postings on Food GPS, Street Gourmet LA and LA Weekly.

Next up was Daal, a spicy lentil stew and Kadhi, a yellow spiced yogurt.

Soon after, a trio of stews appeared. One of the stews had chickpeas and paneer cheese as ingredients while the other stew was chock full of eggplant, potatoes and peas. As for the third one, I'm not sure, but at least, you can see a picture of it below.

By now, my empty plate was actually getting quite filled up, but I managed to save some room for the Khichari, a boiled rice dish seasoned with yellow mung beans.

All the food was actually quite filling just with the first pass, although I did get seconds of a few things. When you've had your fill, part of the meal included a choice of one dessert. I went for the Gawar Halwa, which are grated carrots cooked in sugar, milk and cardamon and garnished with pistachios and almonds.

Other dessert options included Besan Halwa, roasted gram flour simmered in milk, sugar, and cardamom topped with shaved almonds and pistachios and Gulab Jamun, fried milk powder soaked in cardamom and saffron syrup.

Overall, I enjoyed my meal at Rajdhani. I wouldn't say the food is mind blowing, but everything tasted good and so reasonably priced that I'd definitely make my way there again.

Rajdhani
18525 Pioneer Blvd
Artesia, CA 90701
(562) 402-9102


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Marvelous Mumbai Vegetarian Street Food at Mumbai Ki Galliyon Se

When it comes to choosing a restaurant to bring my dining group to for a meal, there are a lot of restaurants listed in my to go list. At times, it may take several months, even a year before I cross a restaurant off that list; however, as soon as I finished reading an LA Times Review about Mumbai Ki Galliyon Se, I knew I had to go there. Who could resist a restaurant that specializes in Mumbai Street Food? Within minutes, an outing appeared on my group's dining calendar and it took only minutes for the event to fill up. Apparently, I wasn't the only one interested in Mumbai street food.

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Before, I talk about our meal, I want to briefly talk about Owner, Sailesh Shah. A few days before this outing, I got an email from him offering to put tables and chairs together for our party as well as mentioning that if there's anything we needed from him, all we had to do was ask. When I did end up calling him with a couple of requests, he was more than happy to accommodate me and when we arrived, he was very welcoming. Another to mention is that when he talked about his food, there was such passion in his voice, that it was catching.

In fact, his whole family is passionate about food. Both Sailesh and his wife, Shruti, developed the recipes and do the majority of the cooking at the restaurant. Interestingly, there's one particular dish that only Sailesh will prepare because he has such exacting standards about how he wants it to turn out. For our lunch there, two of the 12 dishes we ordered were even prepared by his teenage daughter and 10 year old son. I already see a restaurant family dynasty in the making. You can read more about Sailesh and Shruti in the India Journal.

So let's get into the food now. Currently, the all-vegetarian menu at Mumbai Ki Galliyon Se consists of nearly 100 items and encompasses everything from Punjabi classics to South Indian standbys to Indochinese fusion cuisine, but for the purposes of our visit and with two exceptions, we centered our meal around the Mumbai Street Food mentioned in that LA Times article. The beginning of our 12 course meal started with the Dahi Batata Puri which are wheat puffs filled with potatoes, sprouted mung beans and black chana. They were topped with green and red sauces, fried noodles, cilantro and sweet yogurt. A puri is meant to be eaten in one bite so as to capture all the flavors, and the crunch of the crispy shell all at one time. The Dahi Batata Puri was definitely a wonderful bite. I enjoyed the textures and both the sweet and the little bit of heat that came from the ingredients.

Next to arrive was the Sev Puri which was a mixed flour cracker with potatoes, onions, splash of lemon, fried noodles and cilantro. I really enjoyed the crunch that came from both the cracker and the fried noodles and the lemon added a nice hint of tartness that was refreshing.

Before our next dish arrived, we all received our order of the Priyush. The Priyush is a housemade lassi drink with saffron, cardamon, almonds and pistachio. It's a drink that's been a part of the Indian culture for 100 to 200 years and is made from scratch at the restaurant. In fact, it actually takes 3 days to make. This is a must have drink. Actually, as soon as Sailesh told us about the ingredients, I was already sold. I really enjoyed the use of the cardamon and two types of nuts. It's creamy and just thick enough to enjoy without a straw.

Following the Priyush came the Sabuduna Vida with an outer layer made of tapioca and crushed peanuts and a filling of potatoes and green chilis. This particular item had an interesting texture that I didn't necessarily dislike, but wasn't in love with either. I'm not even sure how to describe it, but it was a little dry, chewy and stretchy but also had a little crunch from the peanuts. I actually enjoyed the filling more the than outer part, especially after adding a little spoonful of cilantro sauce which added some lovely peppery notes.

If you're only going to order one thing there, you have to get the Dabeli, a potato slider with Dabeli masala spices, pomegranate seeds, peanuts, green grapes and a tamarind and garlic sauce. While I wasn't so into the texture of the Sabuduna, I was all about the textures and the flavor combinations of the Dabeli. You get tart, sweet, sour, nutty and a little pungency fom the garlic sauce. Then there's the juicy crunch of the grapes and the pomegranate seeds and the nutty crunch of the peanuts. This was was one of my favorite items of our meal.

Soon, the Kachori arrived, which is deep fried wheat batter stuffed with green peas, coconut and spices. Green peas and coconut aren't ingredients I'd think to mix together as a filling and in all honesty, the Kachori wasn't a favorite. On its own, it tasted a little dry. It only improved with the addition of the cilantro sauce and in fact, I only liked it with the cilantro sauce.

Following the Kachori was the Samosa Chat, which was a deep fried samosa stuffed with potatoes, green peas, lentils and onions in a red and green sauce topped with cilantro. I've definitely had my share of samosas, but this was the first time that I've had it doused with different sauces. I actually didn't miss having a crispy samosa to bite into because those sauces really added more nuances of flavor than a samosa could ever have on its own.

Moving right along, it was time for the Dal Vada which were made up of roasted, crushed lentil batter with onions, coriander and tamarind sauce. The Dal Vada had a texture similar to corn bread and sometimes like corn bread, was a little too dry on its own. Dipping it in the tamarind sauce added both moisture and nice hit of sourness.

The next dishes actually came from the Indochine section of the menu and were recommended by Sailesh so that we could sample the Indian-Chinese fusion food that they represented. First, there was the Chinese Fried Rice that was cooked using Indian spices. It was actually quite addicting and I could have easily eaten a big bowl of it just by itself. This dish should also be noted for the fact that it was prepared by Sailesh's young son.

Sailesh's teenaged daughter cooked the Mixed Veg Manudura which were vegetarian meat balls made with cabbage, green bell peppers, carrots and daikon in a Chinese brown sauce. A few of us found it a tad salty when eaten on its own while the rest of the group didn't; however, when eaten with the rice, it was just right.

I mentioned earlier that there was one particular dish that only Sailesh would prepare from the menu and it's the Pav Bhaji, a tomato based sauce made with mixed vegetables, garam masala, topped with cilantro and served with garlic bread. Along with the Dabeli, the Pav Bhaji is a must order. It's eaten simply with bread dipped into it, but I could easily see myself pouring this on pasta. I can't even begin to describe what it tastes like, but there's a complexity to the flavors that is clearly evident with every bite. All I know is that you can not leave Mumbai Ki Galliyon Se without having tried it.

Two more dishes to go and one of them is Puneri Missal. Ingredients included sprouted mung beans, black chana and cilantro with a sauce made from red onions, tomatoes and garlic Sauce with deep fried toppings. This would be the perfect dish for a cold night. It reminded me of a lentil or bean stew but very much prepared using Indian spices.

Last, but not least was the Masala Bhath which was a rice dish with garam masala spices, cauliflower and bell pepper. Sailesh had mentioned that the Masala Bhath was pretty spicy and initially, I didn't think so. However, as you ate into it, there was a little bit of a slow burn at the back of your throat. It wasn't incendiary hot, but the heat made its presence known.

The perfect drink to have at the end of the meal, according to Sailesh, was the Kashimiri Soda, a housemade drink made with club soda, cumin, black pepper, lemon and salt. Apparently, its sole purpose is to help with the digestion of one's food, especially if you've just eaten a meal that was heavily spiced. I decided to try it just because I was curious as to how it would taste and I loved it. It was actually a great palate cleanser and although I only took small bites of everything we ordered, 12 dishes is still a lot and I found that the drink actually had a settling effect on my system.

Overall, our meal at Mumbai Ki Galliyon Se was fantastic and made even better because of how welcoming Sailesh was to our group as well the passion his whole family put into the preparation/cooking of our food. Regardless of where you are coming from, Mumbai Ki Galliyon Se in the city of Artesia is definitely worth the drive and your taste buds will love you for it, too.

Mumbai Ki Galliyon Se
17705 Pioneer Blvd
Artesia, CA 90701
(562) 860-6699




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