Food bites: Almansor Court Sunday brunch and Lee Kam Kee

This past weekend I experienced two contradictions: a new oldie and an not-often visited standby. How so, you ask? Let's start with the new oldie first.

A new discovery: Almansor Court Sunday Brunch

The new oldie in question is the Sunday Brunch at the Almansor Court banquet center by the golf course. It's new to me, but as some fellow Alhambrans can tell you, it's been around for years and years. My family and I went there this past Sunday to celebrate my mom's birthday. Going there was like a step back in time, with mimosas and colored napkins and patrons dressed up in their Sunday best. This is what you see upon entering the foyer:


The buffet is spread out into a few different rooms, which is visually interesting but confusing for my parents, who couldn't find everything they wanted because of it. Choices range from traditional breakfast (custom omelettes, hash browns, bacon) to Mexican offerings (do-it-yourself tacos, enchiladas, and menudo) to seafood (oysters and king crab).



Extensive variation is obviously their strength here. Where else can you put a chicken crepe next to your unagi sushi that's already sitting next to a barbecue chicken wing? Evidence is here on my plate:


I do wish that the seating area wasn't quite so far from the food, and that the seafood was fresher. For the price, it's not that bad. I would say that the breakfast exceeded my expectations but that the rest of the food was just satisfactory.


Hong Kong-style Vietnamese: Lee Kam Kee

In this case, the not-often-visited standby is Lee Kam Kee, a Vietnamese restaurant located on the far west end of Valley Blvd. It's not your typical Vietnamese restaurant, with a nice interior and beautiful plateware. My mom informed me that the owner is from Hong Kong, and so the food is catered to a Hong Kong palate. A quick look around the restaurant confirmed this: almost all the patrons spoke Cantonese, and nearly all of the waiters too.


We go there for the canh chua, a sour soup filled with catfish or shrimp, pineapple, tomato, bean sprouts, and some spongy-looking green stalk. It's slightly sweeter here than at other, more heavily Vietnamese places, but is still good. This time we also had a shrimp and pork papaya salad with nuoc mam and some lemongrass pork chops.


My mom thought that the nuoc mam needed to be a bit more sour as did the soup. I find that's a theme here, to tone down the loud notes of Vietnamese cooking to appeal to the Chinese clientele. Most people who eat at Vietnamese restaurants (myself included) don't really care if the plates match or if the ambiance is any good, which are two key things here. It's not a bad thing to know its clientele, and that's probably why I don't fault it as much as I would another restaurant serving Vietnamese food.


Almansor Court Sunday Brunch
700 S. Almansor St.
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 570-4600
10am-2pm every Sunday
website

Lee Kam Kee
2505 W. Valley Blvd.
Alhambra, CA 91803
(626)282-7720
11am-9:45pm, closed Tuesdays

Current food sampling: Bollini's Pizzeria Napolitana and the Boiling Crab

Here's part two of my mental food blog clean out:

Italian in the SGV: Bollini's Pizzeria Napolitana

Blogger Lyndsay mentioned she'd heard blog rumblings about a good Italian place in Monterey Park and that it seemed legit. Me? I was skeptical. She sent me the link to this post by Wandering Chopsticks, and a looksie at the pictures there and a quick look at the menu had me convinced that I had to try it. I convinced my sister it was the perfect place for her casual birthday lunch (evil aren't I) and so we went there yesterday. Owner Chris is out, so no pasta, but we did order salad and pizza. A sign inside said no photography (boo for this blog) but I managed to shoot one of the outside and of the cal bianco pizza once we got home.


We got the arugula salad with bacon, corn, baby tomatoes, mushrooms, goat cheese, and a red wine vinaigrette. The arugula was perfectly peppery and matched well with the other elements providing salty, sweet, or creamy notes. A cal bianco pizza (parmesan sauce, smoked chicken, garlic, basil) and salsiccia 3 pizza(mozzarella, tomato sauce, three-pepper sausage, red and green peppers, italian peppers, goat cheese, basil) were shared.


The pizza was super thin! All in all delicious, and the people were super nice. Merits a return visit for the pasta when Chris returns.

Another blogger recommendation: The Boiling Crab

While looking for crab places (don't ask me why) I came across Jonathan Gold's snippet about The Boiling Crab in Alhambra, almost literally down the freaking street from my house. I heard more while perusing food blogs and decided I needed to try Cajun-style crawfish as presented by Asian people. I convinced friend Vinh (pictured with such an enthusiastic look on his face and a crawfish bib) to try it out with me.


Inside is packed with stuff on the walls, televisions, fishing nets, and Mardi Gras beads. Not exactly your usual SGV restaurant. The clientele was mostly young and R&B blasted from the speakers. The menu is simple, with a choose-your-seafood then what type of seasoning, and various add-ons like corn on the cob and fries.

We were originally going to do one pound of crawfish and one pound of dungeness crab, but the latter was too expensive for our tastes so we switched it to shrimp. We added two corn on the cobs and some cajun fries, all with the "whole sha-bang" seasoning which means all the seasoning options thrown together. About 15 minutes later a clear bag showed up on our table with everything we ordered except the fries. Opened, it looked like this:


The seasoning was good and very garlicky and paired well with both the crawfish and the shrimp. We both liked the shrimp better because the payoff was better after all that peeling. the corn on the cob managed to be spicy and buttery at the same time. The fries were nice and crispy, but were the last to get eaten. This is what my side of the table looked like afterward:


$28 for all of the above plus a refillable soda with tip for the both of us for lunch didn't seem like a bad deal at all. As Jonathan Gold says, "I can hardly wait to return."

Bollini's Pizzeria Napolitana
2315 S. Garfield Ave.
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(323)722-7600
website

The Boiling Crab
742 W Valley Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91803
website

Brief return to the SGV: old and new favorites

I'm back in the SGV for a brief vacation and I thought I'd do a sampling of what I've eaten so far. Upon perusing my blog pictures folder, I also came across some restaurants from previous trips that I had yet to add to this blog. So, I'm going to lump them into two long "here I am again" posts to save room in my brain and because I'm too lazy to think of more post titles.

Up first, an oldie but goodie: Garden Cafe

This is my standby for cafe food when I'm at home. We usually stop by for late night drinks of the non-alcoholic variety and some greasy late-night food. About a month ago I stopped by with my boyfriend to take advantage of the late night eating option that doesn't seem to exist where we live. This particular night it was totally dead in there, which makes me thing Garden has fallen out of favor with the local late night crowd in favor of newer establishments like the Sunday Bistro.


I ordered the Hainan Chicken with rice, and he ordered pork chops with mushroom sauce. My dish came out with better presentation than I expected, and it was delicious, too. The soup was flavorful and the sauces were a perfect foil to the moist chicken., right on par with Savoy's famous Hainan chicken. The pork chops were greasy but big portioned, and somehow Garden's mashed potatoes were better than I remembered.


I hope that they don't close down due to the new, flashier cafes because it's still one of my favorites after all these years.

Another restaurant memory: Chabuya Ramen

In the same visit we went to the Sawtelle neighborhood for a visit with the BF's sister. After perusing blogs per usual I settled on Chabuya ramen. I was looking forward to their "Asian Bun Sandwich" and some ramen. I ended up getting a mini pork sandwich and a mini shrimp rice bowl. The sandwich came on a peking duck-type sandwich roll alongside a small salad. The rice bowl was not so mini with its huge mound of rice. I thought the flavor was good, but that with the amount of rice the rice bowl became bland.



My boyfriend got the special dipping ramen (tsuke-men) that came with two dipping sauces. He liked, but thought it was a lot of work since the noodles kept sticking together. His sister got the classic ramen with miso and said the portion was just enough that she felt satisfied without being too stuffed to ice skate, which we were doing later on.


We all agreed it was good, but not the best ramen we'd ever had.


Garden Cafe
228 W. Valley Boulevard
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 289-1833

Chabuya

2002 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, CA

(310)473-1013

Rainbow Noodle

I never thought I would like a noodle place with a cheesy name like Rainbow Noodle, especially when my favorite, Mien Nghia, is just down the street. However, this recently opened restaurant in the crowded market center on Valley is definitely worth a visit. A huge picture menu in the window is what first drew my mom's attention, and it depicts many delectable noodle dishes waiting for your enjoyment.

This place has many, many food options, ranging from noodles with soup, chow mein and chow fun, to rice dishes, porridge, and vegetarian options. There are over 120 options! Luckily, there's also a picture menu to help you with your choice.


The interior is small and clean, and is much more visually appealing than the usual noodle place. It wasn't very busy on a Sunday for lunch, which I attribute to its newness. The dish that caught my mom's eye was their seafood deep fried egg-noodle. It features a mound of crispy noodles that is covered with seafood, bok choy, and sauce. The temperature of the sauce softens the noodles. I like to eat a mix of soft noodles and crunchy, deep fried noodles with the seafood. Deep fried here does NOT mean greasy. It's a great texture in my mouth. I mean, who doesn't love yummy sauce goodness with crispy carbohydrate noodles?

I decided to order the needle rice noodle. I don't know why it's called the needle rice noodle, because it's misleading. This thicker noodle came swimming in a very flavorful broth, accompanied by fish cake, shrimp, chicken, and a duck wing! The chewiness of the noodle was great with the saltiness of the broth. It was very much like the Vietnamese dish banh canh, which I love, but without the thick soup. This bowl of noodles alone persuaded me to come back to try more on my next trip home.

One the next visit, I was accompanied by my mom and my boyfriend. The place was packed, with almost every table occupied. My mom decided to order the Special rice noodle, which came with the default flavorful broth and was chock full of delicious things, like shrimp, chicken, fish balls, and duck.


My boyfriend decided to order his favorite noodle dish, which is a soup noodle with duck. Here it's called "Soy sauce Duck egg-noodle" and he asked for the big egg noodle, which had the right amount of bite to it. The duck leg makes the broth deliciously salty and fatty, which he loves, but is also notoriously hard to eat. My only complaint was that there wasn't any bok choy in the soup for a change of texture.


Although I was tempted to order the needle rice noodle soup again, I decided against it for the sake of this blog. It's not exciting if I order it twice. I ended up ordering the "Fish ball soup with seaweed" before I realized it didn't come with noodles. The waiter was obliging, however, and told me he would ask them to include noodles. Now, would I rather have egg noodles or wide rice noodles? This was such a nice gesture and wholly unexpected. When my bowl came out, it was steaming and full of noodles. The broth had a hint of seaweed flavor which I liked, and they had included two types of fish cake. See those brown, oval bits? That was deep-fried garlic, one of the best things about this dish. However, I think I still prefer the needle rice noodle soup.


With my second visit out of the way, I can now officially endorse Rainbow Noodle as a place to get some noodles that hit the spot, whether you want soup noodles or fried noodles. The service is fast, the restaurant is clean, and the location is close. A win-win situation for all...especially this blog, as noodles are its namesake.

Rainbow Noodle
1281 E. Valley Blvd.
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 282-8878

Open 7 days: 8:30am-8:00pm

U2 Cafe

This tiny restaurant, called U2 Cafe, confused me when it first opened. I mean, what does the band U2 have to do with food? And isn't that copyright infringement? The answers are nothing, and yes. However, asian food places have never shied away from naming themselves or having similar logos to pop culture entities, so you or I shouldn't be surprised.

The name comes from the fact that it's a hybrid of two popular Chinese eating establishments: the BBQ place, and the cafe. The former is known for its roast duck, cha siu pork, and other favorites, like wonton soup and beef chow fun. Flagship: Sam Woo. The latter is known for its coffee drinks, baked dishes, pseudo-American dishes, and penchant for being open into the early morning hours. Flagship: Garden Cafe.

U2 has both in its small building, appealing to many of its customers, I'm sure. I have to confess I have yet to try anything from the BBQ side, so I haven't yet taken advantage of this duality. However, the cafe I've been to many times. The main draws here are breakfast and lunch. The breakfast menu is unique, offering a "Chinese breakfast" and an "American breakfast." The Chinese breakfast consists of your choice of congee, fried chow fun or macaroni soup, and a breakfast drink like coffee or tea. The American breakfast consists of your choice of pancakes or eggs and bacon or sausage, oatmeal or macaroni soup, and the breakfast drink. All this for the bargain price range of $4.50-5.50!!

I had eggs and bacon, the macaroni soup, and milk tea. It was way too much food for breakfast, but since it was so cheap I couldn't help but try to eat it all so that I would feel I got my money's worth and more. My boyfriend ordered the pancakes and eggs, and chose the oatmeal. He was satisfied, but thought the oatmeal was a weird soupy consistency. Plus, they only provided white sugar, not the brown sugar he was used to. My reply was that it was his fault for ordering oatmeal at a Chinese place! My aunt says when she doesn't have anything to bring for lunch, she'll order the congee and the fried chow fun. She eats the congee for breakfast and has the fried chow fun for lunch...two meals for under $6!

The lunch here is like most other cafes, including a cup of soup and a drink that's coffee or tea (there's an extra charge for cold drinks). The soup I had there for lunch was a cream soup with corn and chicken. It was flavorful and creamy, and fell right in line with other cream soups I've had (though I usually get the "vegetable" soup at Garden). I ordered my usual, which is the pork chop with whatever sauce I feel like that day (mushroom, garlic, or black pepper) and that day I felt like garlic. I order this dish at the cafe regardless of what meal it is (lunch or dinner) and whether I'm hungry enough.

The pork chop came smothered in sauce, with some rice and buttered vegetable medley that I suspect is from the freezer aisle (all cafes include this). It was fatty and delicious, but I couldn't finish it all. It wasn't the best that I'd had, but it wasn't the worst either. The cafe serves a wide range of items, like curry, sandwiches, pasta, and Chinese favorites. No cafe would be without its baked dishes. These usually come baked with lots of cream sauce and cheese...definitely not for the ones watching their weight!

I wouldn't say this is my favorite cafe, but they are my old standby when I don't want to wait at Garden, or want a cheaper breakfast that's not vomit-inducing like the neighborhood Denny's. It's a novel idea to combine the two kinds of establishments, and I wholeheartedly support it.

U2 Cafe
1200 E Valley Blvd.
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626)282-1800

Lunch special 11am-3pm

Wonton Time!

I went to a little place called Wonton Time with my mom for lunch last October, but have only found the time to publish now. This place is so memorable that I can taste the wonton soup in my mouth right now. True to their name there are only three options on the menu: noodle soup, lo mein, and plain wonton with soup. With each option there are three topping options: shrimp wonton, sliced beef, and fish balls. You can also get any two combos of the three toppings, or, if you're feeling really hungry, all three at once.

I walked in and we were ushered to a small table next to the wall. On the walls the menus are reprinted (only in Chinese) and also pictures of Wonton Time in Hong Kong. My mom informed me this was "Hong Kong Style" which I took to mean simple menus specializing in one thing. We each got a bowl of noodle soup with wontons, and I also ordered a side of vegetables with oyster sauce.

The soup was fragrant and clear, and the noodles were also good. The wontons were pretty big. My mom told me my granduncle refused to eat there because they only used shrimp in their wontons, with no meat at all. This was pretty extravagant, I thought. The shrimp filling made the texture of the wontons different than what I was used to. It was good, but eventually became monotonous without the variation of the meat filling.

I'd definitely eat there again when I have the craving for wonton soup, and I recommend getting the vegetables with oyster sauce, which only cost $2 and taste so good with my wonton soup. I prefer this place over industry standard Sam Woo, which can be noisy, and not as flavorful.

I liked the way the restaurant decided to specialize in wonton soup. That way you knew what to get there, and there was no fuss about it. It's also a cheap option for lunch in the SG valley, running about $4 for a nice-sized bowl of noodles.


Wonton Time
19 E. Valley Blvd.
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 293-3366

Mon - Sun 11:00AM to 9:00PM

Top Island Seafood

I recently had the opportunity to eat two meals at Top Island: dinner and dim sum. For those familiar to the area, Top Island inhabits the space that used to be the Wherehouse music store for many years (where I cultivated my own particular collection of rap, pop, and rock). In between, it was a buffet and another seafood restaurant whose name I can't recall. I had been looking forward to eating there, after hearing tales of $50 fish alongside $2.99/pound of peel and eat shrimp from my family, and seeing pictures of the food on Biggest Menu.

We went early for dinner, and it was pleasantly uncrowded. Most Chinese seafood restaurants are so noisy you can't hear yourself think. I think that the only downside of this place is that you pretty much have to speak Cantonese to really get good service here. However, they aren't totally exclusionary of non-Chinese speakers... you just don't get to read the good specials they have advertised in Chinese.

We ended up ordering the watercress with dried duck kidneys soup, deep fried crispy chicken, clams with black bean sauce, BBQ squab, three pounds of the peel and eat shrimp, and the sliced beef with vegetable. The soup started out with a pleasant taste, but ended with a slightly bitter aftertaste because of the watercress. My mom says that watercress is bitter when it's harvested while the weather is hot, and I suppose this is what must have happened with the watercress in the soup. The chicken was good, but since I didn't dip it in the salt and pepper lemon juice sauce, it didn't have enough flavor for me. I didn't try the clams or the squab, but my family thought that they were both delicious. The shrimp were huge, and came with the heads on (how it should be, in my opinion). They were good with the soy dipping sauce, but most didn't have the right, fresh texture I was looking for.

The best part of the meal was the sliced beef with vegetables. The beef was flavorful and tender and coated with this delicious sauce. The beef was sitting on a plateful of perfectly cooked broccoli. The thing that struck me as weird was that it was literally broccoli, and not the Chinese broccoli (gai lan) that it usually is. It's pretty clear that this was one of the best dishes there if my family didn't really care that it wasn't the right broccoli. Dessert was the hot red bean soup, and that wasn't bad, but it wasn't a standout.

The next morning, we went back for dim sum at around 11, and man, was this place packed. We waited for about 30 minutes to be seated. I was surprised, but it was definitely worth the wait. Almost immediately after we sat down, we had our tea and about 5 dishes in front of us. This included: BBQ pork buns (Cha siu bao), shrimp har gow, pork shiu mai, beef tripe, and steamed rice with chicken wrapped in banana leaves (lo mai gai). Everything was delicious, especially my favorite, the beef tripe. I usually judge my dim sum by the cha siu bao, and here the meat was flavorful and the steamed bun was great, with no soggy bottoms. This is what our table looked like:



The weird thing was that the women pushing the carts did not call out what they were plying. You basically had to keep an eye out and recognize which carts were offering what you wanted, or ask the women what they had in their carts. A part of me liked not being bothered, but the other part didn't like having to put so much effort to find what I liked. We ended up ordering more food which included: Turnip cake (lo bak go), ham siu gok (little football-shaped rice sheets wrapping a meaty filling and then deep fried), and steamed chicken feet (fung jeo). More deliciousness, except for the chicken feet which I did not touch, but which my mom insists were delicious.

Also, when you go for dim sum, you'll be looking around for napkins. Where are they? They are in this cute little pouch that looks like a travel size tissue with the restaurant's logo, address, and telephone number. I kept it for myself at the end of the meal.



I think that I would definitely go there again for dim sum, and I think the flavor was on par with some of the bigger dim sum places like 888 and Ocean Star, minus the 2 hour wait. For dinner, I'd stick with tried and true favorites, and the fresh fish. I was pleasantly surprised by this place, and am thankful for its proximity to my house!



Top Island Seafood Restaurant
740 E. Valley Blvd.
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 300-9898

Yazmin Malaysian Restaurant

After having a taste of Malaysian food in Northern California at the restaurant Banana Island, I came home craving pan-fried noodles and roti canai with spicy curry sauce to dip in. The only Malaysian restaurant I could think of in Alhambra is Yazmin, a place I have never been in but was familiar with since its location is in the busy heart of Main Street, next to the Edwards Renaissance. With its courteous staff, affordable prices, and relaxing, spacious ambiance, Yazmin is worth a look.

Upon entering, I noticed the walls were adorned with colorful paper artwork and fans. There are booths parallel to opposite sides of the wall; this creates an illusion of a large environment that made me keep scoping out the diners on the far other side.

The expansive menu includes noodle soup, fried noodles, seafood, and vegetarian; they have lunch special prices (~$4.75) on Monday-Thursday (excluding holidays). Although I went on a Sunday, the prices were still within a reasonable range (~$6.75).

For the appetizer, the roti canai, which is a flaky, thin fried pancake, came in a pair with a bowl of curry dipping sauce. My grubby hands rushed to tear off a piece, but retreated as the roti canai was piping hot and burned! Once it cooled down, I was able to savor the chewy, fried bread. Instead of crispy and light, Yazmin's version of the pancake was more soggy and greasy. However, the curry sauce was good enough, being spicy opposed to creamy.

The main dish I ordered was Char Kuei Teow, which was fried flat rice noodles with bean sprouts, shrimp, chicken, egg and leeks. When asked if I wanted to order it spicy or non-spicy, I opted for spicy but once it was delivered, my taste buds did not detect anything so their chili sauce must not be very hot. I ordered mine sans chicken, and overall, this oily stir-fry dish went down the palate easy enough. At many Chinese restaurants such as Sam Woo, this fried flat noodle dish is quite popular but with beef instead of chicken and shrimp.

As for dessert, we ordered a ice blended taro drink with bananas and tapioca and many other things I could not identified called Mo Mo Cha Cha. It was possible the best dish of the meal, and the waiter informed us that it could be served both hot and cold. Try the latter and it makes for a satisfying summer cooler. Here a tip: instead of sharing it like I did, order one for each individual because it will disappear fast!

Throughout the meal, the waitresses and waiters were attentive and brought an extra bowl and napkins for the dessert without us having to ask. This made the meal even better as I felt the staff prided themselves in what Yazmin served.

Despite my limited knowledge of Malaysian food, Yazmin delivers a passing grade in my book, which means it is miles better than say the bland and tasteless Noodle Planet/World. But Yazmin adds to that with their wonderful service, bright and clean atmosphere, and great prices, which makes this lone Malaysian Restaurant stand out on Main Street.

Yazmin Malaysian Restaurant
27 East Main Street
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 308-2036

Sun - Thu 11:00AM to 9:30PM
Fri - Sat 11:00AM to 10:00PM