The Formerly Overlooked, But Never Again Ignored Happy Kitchen

 

When it comes to the Chinese restaurants in San Gabriel Valley, there's a good thing and a bad thing about them.  The good thing is that there are a lot of Chinese restaurants in San Gabriel Valley. The bad thing is that there are a lot of Chinese restaurants in San Gabriel Valley.  Bad in the sense, that with so many to choose from, it's very easy to overlook a really wonderful restaurant amidst some that are just so-so.  That was the case for me when it came to Happy Kitchen.

Funnily enough, in the strip mall where Happy Kitchen is located, I had previously eaten at restaurants on either side of Happy Kitchen, but didn't even know of its existence until I took the Six Taste New Chinatown Tour. On that tour, the three items we had were delicious enough that I knew I wanted to return for a full meal, which is exactly what I did.

So off I went with my dining group for an early lunch at Happy Kitchen where we got to enjoy 12 different dishes, starting with their Lamb Rice Noodle Soup which is cooked in a sea snail broth. Sea snails were also in the soup and this is one bowl that I could have easily just eaten on my own as an entree soup. It was delicious. The broth had a wonderful combination of ocean flavors from the sea snails and a little bit of richness from the lamb.  I also liked that there was some heat to this soup, but not so much that it was overwhelming.
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Having enjoyed the Beef Roll from the tour, I ordered it again and it was still as good as before. The wrapper had a light crunch to it and the cilantro added a nice peppery kick to the tender beef.

 

I'm a bit ambivalent about the a couple of the dumplings we ordered.  Although I thought the fillings of both the Beef Steamed Dumplings and the Shrimp and Pork Dumplings were nicely seasoned, the dumpling wrapper was too thick for my taste.

When it came to the Steamed Pork Bao, I had no ambivalence at all.  They were supposed to be like Xiao Long Bao aka Soup Dumplings, but there wasn't any soup to be found inside this bao at all.  So that was disappointing.

Another dish to hit the table was the Ginger Arctic Clams. The cool crunch of the celery went well with the tender chew of the clam.  This is one plate of food that would be perfect on a very hot day.

For this particular meal, we had Cumin Lamb in two different dishes. The first was Cumin Lamb Pan Fried Noodles and the other was Pan-Fried Cumin Lamb. Both tasted good and I liked how the chili flakes added a zing of spice to both dishes.

Also on the agenda for the meal was the Tea Smoked Chicken Leg. The smoking of this chicken leg is a 6 hour process. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait 6 hours, but it would have been worth it. I love the fact that the chicken is tender and moist and of course, had a wonderful smoky flavor.

 

Of everything we had up to that point, the absolute best was saved for last and that was the Double Cooked Pork. O M G!  I rarely say OMG, but wow, this dish was that and more.  I have no idea how it was prepared. I'm thinking it was battered and double-fried, but it didn't really matter. It was just so good.  We were all feeling pretty full, but we all made room to eat some of this pork. In fact, a couple of my fellow diners even ordered it to go.

For dessert, we had Fried Sesame Balls, which were served to us warm. What a perfect ending to the meal. They weren't too sweet and they had a glutinous texture to them. When you took a bite, it had a soft-chewy mouth feel to it.

Overall, this was a wonderful meal. I got to re-try a couple of items plus I was introduced to some delicious new dishes. All I can say is that Happy Kitchen is now in my radar and it's certainly a restaurant that I would be happy to dine at again and recommend.

Happy Kitchen
301 W Valley Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 284-2619
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Korean BBQ Duck at Sun Ha Jang

 

When it comes to Korean BBQ, the usual suspects include beef, pork and occasionally seafood, but after I read about Sun Ha Jang's duck offerings on the Food GPS blog, I knew I had to pay this restaurant a visit. For those of you who wish to dine at Sun Ha Jang after reading my post, keep in my mind that the restaurant signage is strictly in Korean, which you can see at the picture above.

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After we sat down and placed our order, individual dipping sauces and chili paste were placed before us. We also took a look at the pan where our duck was going to be cooking in during the latter part of the meal. Notice how the pan isn't flat. There's a reason for that. Simply, what makes this restaurant unique is not just about the duck, but that the duck cooks in its own fat. I bet you duck lovers out there really want to book it to Sun Ha Jang about now.

However, I'm getting ahead of myself. The duck is the main headliner, but first, we ate our way through the opening acts, starting with the Black Pork Belly which were grilled with garlic. The duck pan which I mentioned earlier was temporarily on hiatus.

While the Black Pork Belly was cooking up, a variety of panchan hit our table.

As the Black Pork dwindled down, it was eventually joined by the Short Rib and a couple of other dishes.

So that the meal wasn't going to be a complete meat fest, an order was placed for the Fish Egg Stew. It came before us bubbling and brewing. I really enjoyed the spice level which was just spicy enough without being overwhelming and yet, it was able to cut into the ocean-y and briny flavors coming from the fish eggs.

 

The yin to the yang of the Fish Egg Stew was the Spicy Cold Noodle dish. I liked the slight chew and pull of the buckwheat noodles and how the cucumbers added a nice juicy bite of freshness to this dish.  The Cold Noodles were a refreshing counterpoint to the hot fish egg stew.

Finally, it was duck time, which means that the duck pan made its way back to our table. At Sun Ha Jang, there are 3 different types of duck on the menu: roasted duck, fresh duck and spicy seasoned duck. We went for the roasted duck and spicy seasoned duck, but I will also show you a picture of the fresh duck that was cooking at a neighboring table.

The Roasted Duck was interesting in the sense that they were formed into flat, cylindrical shapes. Our server had mentioned that there was a special process for the formation of the roasted duck pieces, but I can't remember what it was. When it came to the cooking, our server frowned on us doing it on our own, so first she started with browning it with garlic in that special pan.

Then she tilted the pan so that the duck oil would collect on one side of the pan and then the duck and garlic were moved to where the oil was cooking; hence, a duck confit-style of preparation. The little drainage hole in the pan was also blocked with kimchi to limit the loss of the duck oil.

Other than just eating the duck pieces on their own, another way is to enjoy your duck on some lettuce with the addition of pickled onions, chili paste or whatever else suits your fancy.

The Fresh Duck was basically just duck cut up into pieces, but was cooked in the same way as the Roasted Duck as you can see below.

After we had devoured the Roast Duck, it was time to take a taste of the Spicy Seasoned Duck. That spicy seasoned duck definitely had some chili lovin' because the meat was a scorching red.

It barely sat a second before it was placed into the pan where there was still left over oil from the previous duck dish we just had.

This is one dish that takes a lot of patience because the tendency was to move the duck around, but again, we were scolded by our server.  Apparently, it's difficult to determine the doneness of the duck due to the chili coating. Only the servers really have the experience, so it was hands-off.

Finally, the duck was ready to eat. Looking at it, I felt my arteries hardening and yet, that wasn't going to stop me.  By the way, our server knew what she was doing. The duck was cooked just right and I really liked the spiciness coming from the chili it was marinated in.

We ended the meal with fried rice that came with kimchi, scallions, radish and sesame seeds and yes, the fried rice was cooked in the duck oil.

However, with all that duck oil, I was worried that the fried rice was going to be too greasy. To help with that, I asked for another helping of rice to be added and they were kind enough to accommodate my request.  With the extra rice and the fact they drained the rest of the oil out of the pan, that fried rice was pretty darn tasty.

To end, I enjoyed my meal at Sun Ha Jang. I was concerned that the duck would be too oily or greasy, but that wasn't the case. The caramelization of the Roasted Duck added a subtle sweetness and the combination of duck oil and chili marinade added a slight smoky crust to the surface of Spicy Seasoned Duck as it was cooking, which made it even better.  So if duck is your thing, be sure to give Sun Ha Jang a try, but also know that some of their non-duck dishes are pretty good, too.

Sun Ha Jang
4032 W Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90019
(323) 634-9292
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Brunch at King's Row Gastropub

I hadn't dined in Pasadena in awhile so when I received a media invitation to check out brunch at King's Row, Pasadena's newest Gastropub, I jumped at the chance. At the time I went, it was only the second week that King's Row had brunch available so there were still some adjustments happening to the menu items.

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One of the first things I learned when I arrived was that the kitchen was headed by Chef Thomas Jesse, who is Filipino-Mexican. As a Filipina myself, I was looking forward to see what delicious dishes I was going to enjoy under Chef Jesse's helm.

 

Before my friend and I placed our food order, we both enjoyed sangrias, white for me and red for her.

 

Then the food started coming out with the first one being the Queso Fundido, a traditional cheese baked with chorizo,potatoes, poblano peppers and topped with a fried egg served with corn tortillas. I've had my share of queso fundido, but this was a first with a fried egg. What do I say about that? Pure genius! I loved the how yolk worked well with the richness of the cheese.

Next came the Country Fried Steak with Eggs, Sausage and Potatoes. The sausages were nicely seasoned and while I enjoyed the battered crispness of the Country Fried Steak, there was one problem with it.  Basically, half of the steak was too salty; yet, the other half was fine. What was strange is that a fellow blogger at a neighboring table said that her Country Fried Steak was the same way. Without that seasoning issue, the Country Fried Steak with the gravy would have been a more enthusiastic thumbs up.

The next dish we tried was the Duck Confit Hash with eggs, applewood bacon, onions, polenta, duck fat hash browns and maple-bourbon sauce. I definitely appreciated that the hash browns were cooked in the duck fat and generally, I was fine with this dish, but I could have easily gone without the maple-bourbon sauce.  That sauce would have been better on pancakes or waffles.  It added a sweet element to this savory dish that I didn't care for, but then my friend enjoyed it. So there you go.

With a burger on the menu, it was a must-order and it was mostly a positive vibes when it came to the Dry Aged Burger with a bacon-onion confit, tillamook white cheddar, St Agur bleu, garlic aioli and homemade roll.  One big hit was the bun which is a housemade focaccia bread.  That bun was amazing. It was light, fluffy and delicately seasoned with herbs.

I enjoyed the pungency of the blue cheese and how it paired well with the soft sharpness of the white cheddar and how the burger was cooked to a perfect medium.  The one miss had to do with the bacon-onion confit which was a little too salty. Perhaps if it was toned down, the burger would be better with it as opposed to without it.

We also had  a taste of the Fish and Chips, which were beer battered fish with house cut chips, mushy peas and house tartar sauce.  It was a solid dish and I fell in love with the mushy peas.

Our final dish was the Bananas Foster Griddle Cakes. I'm not really much of a pancake or waffle kind of gal when it comes to breakfast and these griddle cakes did nothing to change that for me.  The bananas just topped one of the griddle cakes, which left the other two on the dry side and crying for syrup.  That maple-bourbon syrup would have definitely done the job.

As I mentioned earlier, at the time of my visit which was in May, King's Row had only been serving brunch for a couple of weeks. At the time I felt that tweaks needed to be made and perhaps, they have been already taken care of or maybe, menu items have been added or removed since then. Regardless, I thought the food was pretty good thanks to Chef Jesse and I'd definitely make a return visit for brunch or even dinner at a later time.

King's Row Gastropub
20 E Colorado Blvd Ste 102
Pasadena, CA
(626) 793-3010
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