Chinatown Thanksgiving Dinner at Plum Tree Inn

 

When it comes to Thanksgiving dinner, visions of roast turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce and maybe, even green bean casserole probably dance in your head. For a change of pace, why not try something different? That's exactly what the Chinatown Business Improvement District wanted myself and other food bloggers and writers to do by inviting us to their 2nd Annual Chinatown Thanksgiving Dinner at the Plum Tree Inn.
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Our evening started with some appetizers that included Vegetable Dumplings, Beef Skewers and my favorite of the three, Sesame Chicken.

From then, it was on to a 9 course meal with wine pairings by San Antonio Winery. Before I start talking about about the food, let me give you bullet points about the 3 factors that go into naming a Chinese dish.

• The appearance of the dish (e.g. Lion's Head Meatballs, Ants Climbing a Tree) 
• The person who supposedly invented the dish or caused the dish to be invented (e.g. Kung Pao Chicken, Pockmarked Tofu, Beggar's Chicken) 
• How the dish is made (e.g. Crossing the Bridge Noodles) 

Interesting bit of information, don't you think? Ok, now on to our first course, which was a Minced Chicken Lettuce Cup. Apparently, this dish is based on a famous Cantonese recipe for squab.  Not being a squab fan; however, I was happy to see and eat the chicken.  Don't be afraid to just pick it up and eat it taco-style. No chopsticks needed.

Our second course was all about the Beijing Duck (or also known as the Peking Duck) and is something you'd have in place of the turkey. Roast duck has been around since the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368) and was originally just a dish meant for the Imperial Court.  It took about 200 years or so for a roast duck restaurant to open and even then, it was still only a dish favored by the upper class. By mid-20th century, roast duck had become a national symbol of China and was enjoyed by everyone.

The Beijing Duck at Plum Tree Inn is served on a plate with crispy skin surrounding some of the duck meat in the middle.  It also comes with shallots, thin pancake wrappers and plum sauce, which along with the skin and the meat, a server will prepare tableside a duck burrito for you to enjoy.

Doesn't the inside of this duck burrito look delicious?

From duck, our next course was Lion's Head and I'm going to insert the word "Meatballs" after Lion's Head because basically, this was a big meatball dish. The cabbage covering the meatballs represented the lion's mane. Originally, this dish really had nothing to do with lions.  Instead, it had to do with an Emperor who loved the landscapes of Yangzhou in Southeast China and asked his cooks to interpret them through food.

Hence, the look of this dish did look like a landscape but it wasn't actually called Lion's Head until the Tang Dynasty because others felt this dish also resembled a male lion's head. A rose by any other name, etc. etc.  Regardless of the name, they were moist, had nice texture and were tasty.

Our next course was Two Flavored Shrimp with one being Sauteed Shrimp and the other being Sweet and Pungent Shrimp. I found the Sauteed Shrimp to be a bit bland and doctored it with chili and while the Sweet and Pungent Shrimp didn't lack in flavor, it was a little too sweet for my liking.

Following the shrimp dish came the Crispy Beef. I really loved the texture of the meat.  The sauce it was cooked in tasted similar to the Sweet and Pungent Shrimp, but it had a bit of heat which I really enjoyed.

Beijing Duck is usually accompanied by a Beijing Duck Soup with a broth made from the duck bones, so that nothing goes to waste. I have to say that I had Beijing Duck and Soup before in a couple of other restaurants, but this was by far the best Beijing Duck Soup I've had so far.  When a soup is good on its own without the addition of any seasoning apart from what's already in there, that's pretty darn good soup.

Our second to the last savory dish was the Kung Pao Three Delicacies with Shrimp, Scallop and Fish. The history behind Kung Pao dishes is really interesting. It is common knowledge that this dish is named after an official; however, from there it all gets rather murky. In some versions Kung Pao is a general who lived during the Ching dynasty. In others, he is a crowned prince who discovered this dish while travelling and brought it back to the Imperial Court. There's even some confusion about whether the dish originated in Shanghai or Szechuan.

Cookbook author Helen Chen provides an interesting twist on the story. In Chinese Home Cooking, she states that Kung Pao was the title given to the person charged with protecting the heir apparent, as Kung meant castle and Pao meant to protect. During a certain period, the Kung Pao was a man whose favorite dish happened to be spiced chicken with peanuts, and thus over time it was named after him. Whatever the case, the stories demonstrate the Chinese belief that naming a dish after an important figure gives it more prestige. As for Plum Tree's Kung Pao dish, I would have liked to be just a bit hotter, but I still enjoyed it.

Our last dish before dessert was the Asparagus with Chinese Mushrooms. Apparently, asparagus appears late in the history of Chinese cuisine, but today, Taiwan has made a major industry of exporting asparagus.  It was actually nice to have an all vegetable dish. I wish it had come just a bit earlier.  The asparagus was a little too crunchy for me, but I love the juicy, meaty Chinese mushrooms.

Finally, our meal ended with a simple Sesame Rice Ball Soup with Rice Wine.  I don't like desserts that are too sweet and this was the perfect way to end our meal.

While we had our Chinatown Thanksgiving Dinner at Plum Tree Inn, there are other Chinatown restaurants that will have Bejing Duck and/or Chinese-Style Turkeys available for eat in or take out.  And yes, I did say turkey because if  having duck instead of a roasted turkey is still an issue for some of you, don't despair.

You can still have turkey, but what about a Chinese-style roasted turkey instead? Carefully steeped in a soy sauce marinade spiked with star anise, two different kinds of vinegar and sweet syrup, this turkey is then roasted, giving way to a crispy outside with a moist inside. So you really can have your turkey and eat it, too. Click here for a list of those Chinatown restaurants and a Happy Early Thanksgiving to you and your family!

A special thanks to Linh Ho of the Ideation Agency who provided all the Chinese Food History written in this post!

Plum Tree Inn
913 N. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-613-1819
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Feeling the Filipino Love for Noi - CLOSED

When I heard that one of my favorite Filipino restaurants, Asian Noodles, had closed, I was really disappointed and I had to admit to feeling a bit of an unfair grudge against whatever restaurant took its place. Then I found out that the new restaurant now called Noi, was also a Filipino restaurant and the news put a smile on my face. I could only hope that the food would be as good, if not better than its predecessor. Really happy news finally came my way when a friend of mine told me that Noi was actually still Asian Noodles. Although the restaurant name changed, apparently everything else stayed the same, including the management and cooks.

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After hearing the good news, I knew that I wanted to check out Noi as soon as I could and as luck would have it, I was able to have dinner there with a couple of friends before catching the Cirque Berzerk Yelp Elite Event happening at a near by location. With only three of us, we kept it simple with 4 dishes that we shared, but man oh man, there was really enough food there for 3 other people. Before the food arrived, we enjoyed a calamansi drink. Calamansi , which is both naturally sweet and sour, is a popular fruit in the Philippines that is used in a lot of Filipino cooking and can also be made into a "lemonade" type of drink.

One of the dishes we shared was a bola bola siopao which came with sauce that is made up of soy sauce, sugar and other ingredients. The siopao is similar to a Chinese bao and in fact, the siopao is attributed to Ma Mon Luk, a grade school teacher from Canton, who came to the Philippines to make his way. Ma Mon Luk also introduced Mami, a Filipino noodle soup inspired by a similar Chinese dish, to the Philippines. Traditionally, Filipinos will have the siopao as a side to their Mami Soup. Siopao fillings are either chicken, pork or a combination of pork, sausage, chicken and a salted egg. The last configuration is referred to as Bola Bola.

Unfortunately, this bola bola siopao was disappointing. The bread was dry as was the filling. Also, I didn't see much evidence of the salted egg and it's because of that particular ingredient that I'll order the bola bola in the first place. The thick salty/sweet sauce it came with helped a little bit, but not enough.

As for the other three dishes, two of them were seafood based. First, there's the Bicol Express, which is seafood cooked in a spicy coconut sauce. While not that spicy, there was definitely some kind of seasoning that cut into the sweetness of the coconut milk and also added a lot of flavor to this dish. Another bonus is the generosity when it came to the seafood ingredients. Clams, mussels, squid and shrimp all came to the party.

The other seafood item was Pansit Palabok, which had rice noodles, shrimp, squid, hard boiled eggs and was topped with crushed chicarrones. As for the sauce, it is generally made of shrimp juice, flour and atchuete oil. Most Filipinos eat these noodles with a squeeze of lemon or calamansi. I really liked how the squid was battered and deep fried, tentacles and all. Even with the shrimp juice sauce, the flavors weren't erring too much on the seafood side and in fact, the chicarrones added a nice hit of salt while the lemon juice gave this dish a nice tartness in flavor.

Last, but not least, was the Filipino Fried Chicken. When it comes to Filipino Fried Chicken, it's never coated with any type of batter. Generally, it's simmered in a mixture of soy sauce, black peppercorns, vinegar and a bay leaf or two and than it's deep fried to a dark golden brown. Usually, the chicken is deep fried for so long that the chicken itself may seem a little dry, but what you get out of it is the deliciously crispy chicken skin. Besides, the chicken is usually served with banana ketchup. Dip your chicken in that sweet sauce and I guarantee you'll be a happy camper.

Whether Asian Noodles or Noi, I'm glad this restaurant never actually left and I'm already looking forward to my return visit and re-acquainting myself with their wonderful food.

Noi
643 N Spring St
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 617-1083




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Small Plates at Chop Suey Cafe

I really wanted to like Chop Suey Cafe in Little Tokyo.

With beautiful neon signage outside and cherry wood enclosures with 1930s-vintage wooden chairs inside, you're brought back to days gone by.

With its detailed restoration, Chop Suey Cafe is truly a gift back to the community - a community that once made the former Far East Cafe the main cultural center pre-World War II.

With rumors of Chop Suey Cafe being a favorite haunt of author, Raymond Chandler, one wonders what ideas he may have come up with for his novels while dining there.

There's a lot to like about Chop Suey Cafe. Unfortunately, I can't say that about their food.

Dining with two friends on a Monday night, only the small plates menu was available so we ordered 6 different dishes. We started off with the shitake potstickers which consisted of a wrapper that was too chewy and a filling that was really dry.

Unfortunately, what came next was worse - curry beef wontons that were over-fried with beef filling that had no flavor, let alone the curry flavor we were expecting.

The "Thai" Scotch eggs which were deep fried eggs with tamarind sauce was an improvement. There was a nice tang to the tamarind sauce, but the egg yolks were a little too dry.

Next came the grilled black cod with miso. One bite was enough for me. It was just too fishy.

The Jakarta hot wings had a nice spike of spicy flavor to the chicken skin but the crisp factor was missing plus the same running theme existed in that the dark meat which should be moist was again dry.

Finally, the light at the end of the tunnel was the "Green Lotus Cake" which is basically a round stack of crab, salmon, tomatoes and avocado. The presentation was very pretty plus the dish offered some much needed moisture to the meal.

It's been awhile since I've been so disappointed in a restaurant and even though I really am thankful that the current owners put so much time, money and effort in bringing this restaurant back to life, the food has to count for something, too. Unfortunately, I won't be making a return visit anytime soon.

To see pics, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addict/sets/72157594441192385/

Chop Suey Cafe
347 East 1st
Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 617-9990
http://www.chopsueycafe.com/

Maru & Mayflower Seafood Restaurant

Maru (Koreatown)

Just a couple quickie reviews. I checked out Maru Korean Cuisine for the second last August and wasn't wowed by the food. It wasn't bad, but just not spectacular plus language was a bit of a barrier to the point that the two ladies there pulled in another business owner to help with taking our orders. Also, there were some items we wanted to order but they had run of them already, so that was another pain.

Maru
356 S Western Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90020

To see pics, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addict/sets/72157594300836051/

Mayflower Seafood Restaurant (Chinatown)

I also checked out for Mayflower Seafood Restaurant in Chinatown for the first time a couple of weeks ago. There were only two of us so we weren't able to do a large sampling of their extensive menu, but what we did ordered we really liked a lot.

The waitress recommended the Mayflower Lobster Special and along with that we ordered the spinach with crab meat and the steam whole fish. That lobster was to die for. Lots of garlic plus the lobster meat was moist. We were very happy.

The steamed fish was also a hit. The white meat was delicate and also moist and the sauce which may have been soy sauce and ginger perhaps was excellent.

The spinach was nothing spectacular and of course, this was ordered the night that the reports came out about the E-Coli outbreak and I didn't know anything about any of this until I saw the news later on that night.

Anyway, the two seafood items we ordered really were delicious and I look forward to going back and trying out more items from their menu.

Mayflower Seafood Restaurant

679 N Spring St
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 628-0116

To see pics, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addict/sets/72157594301509180/

"Soup's On!" - Mami Soup at Asian Noodles - CLOSED

With the weather getting cooler, I was definitely looking forward to warming myself up with wintertime soups and stews, so my friend and I thought it'd be fun to organize outings to restaurants that specialize in certain kinds of entree soups, ethnic and otherwise.

With me being Filipina, I wanted to introduce people to a Chinese-inspired, Filipino soup called Mami. First, a little history that I picked up from Wikpedia.

Mami is the creation of Ma Mon Luk, a grade school teacher in Canton. Arriving penniless in Manila, Ma Mon Luk decided to peddle chicken noodle soup, utilizing egg noodles. He soon became a familiar sight in the streets of Manila, plodding down with a long bamboo pole slung on his shoulders with two metal containers on each end. Ma Mon Luk himself called his concoction "gupit", after the Tagalog word for "cut with scissors". Soon however, Filipinos took to calling the dish "mami", an amalgam of Tagalog words for chicken ("manok") and egg noodles ("miki"). Ma Mon Luk also introduced siopao, a steamed bun, which is like the Chinese bao, to Filipino culture and generally, the siopao is eaten as a side to the mami soup.

Anyway, I took the group to experience mami soup at Asian Noodles in Chinatown. While mami is still made up of chicken broth and noodles, you have meat options other than chicken. Now you can get mami soup with beef, pork or won ton. I opted for the Classic Filipino Mami, which has chicken and pork.

My mami soup was excellent. The broth was flavorful with the green onions adding just the right amount of zip. The noodles were cooked just right and not overdone and the meat was tender. What was nice is that they also put out a couple of bowls of extra broth so as you ran out, you could add more to your mami.

Along with the mami, I had the bola bola siopao, which had a filling of chicken, pork, sausage and salted egg. You can also order siopao with just chicken or pork fillings.

In regards to the siopao fillings, regardless of what type of meat is used, the filling tends to be on the sweet side. Usually, the siopao meat mixture has sugar and soy sauce as part of its ingredients. I think the combo of the two gives siopao a unique sweet-salty flavor. That sweet-salty flavor also gets carried into the sauce that the siopao is dipped in since it is also made up of sugar, soy sauce along with other ingredients. What I like about the bola bola siopao is that the sausage and the salted egg will cut down the sweetness of the filling even more, so that when I break off a piece to dip it in the siopao sauce, all the flavors are balanced well.

By the way, an interesting thing that the manager told us is that the number of red dots showing up on the siopao will tell you which kind of siopao you have. By the way, Bola Bola siopaos only have one red dot.

Whenever I eat mami, I'm reminded me of those moments growing up as a kid, when the rainy season would come and when my Mom didn't feel like cooking, she'd pile the whole family in the car and we'd head off for a steaming hot bowl of Mami soup at a local Filipino restaurant. No words were needed as we enjoyed each spoonful to the last drop. Essentially, mami soup is really just another version of chicken noodle soup, but regardless of what name it goes by, it's good comfort food that will warm you from the inside out and it certainly did its job that evening.

To see pics, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addict/sets/72157594345119848/

Asian Noodles
643 N Spring St
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-617-1083