Cantonese Style Shrimp Chow Fun 乾炒蝦河

Review submitted by: Jane Ong

As lunch specials go, I consider the Cantonese style Shrimp Chow Fun to be one of the most satisfying.  At $7.95, I got a plate of aromatic flat rice noodles, freshly stir-fried with shrimps, green onion and bean sprouts.  On days when I don't feel like eating the same old rice for lunch (which I need to not feel hungry for the rest of the day), I opt for Chow Fun (fried flat rice noodles).  Among all styles of Chow Fun, I love the Cantonese style most because it's not drowned in greasy gravy.  Whenever it's available on the lunch special menu, I always order it because I don't think this is something that can be made in the average home kitchen. Making this dish requires very high heat and great skill of tossing and stir-frying on top of a very powerful stove.  Otherwise, the noodles will come out too bland and soggy, without the great aroma that's infused into the noodles from the high heat.  Even when it's not on the lunch menu, I usually just ask for it and the restaurant will make it for me.

Restaurant: Nice China Cafe
Address: 2543 Pacific Hwy, Ste B, Torrance, CA 90505
Tel:(310) 539-0323

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Spicy Miso Chicken Stir Fry Rice Bowl And Iced Thai Tea

Review submitted by: Jane Ong

A week before Christmas, I treated my friends to one of my favorite dinner joints for some rice bowls.  My treat to them was in lieu of Christmas presents. I'm not good at shopping for presents but I figured out that I could treat my friends to a nice dinner while I opened the Christmas gifts they had for me.  My friends told me they were really delighted to experience such good Chinese food.  I am not even sure if this is Chinese food because I have a feeling that this is East Asian fusion food, or it can be Taiwanese style East Asian food.  I don't know if the owners are Taiwanese or not, but this kind of rice bowl reminds me of the similar ones that I had when I visited Taiwan a couple years before.  It also reminds me of the lunches I had when I was a kid.  My mom cooks this way, which is stir fry of thinly sliced good quality meat with lots of  fresh & crispy veggies, dressed with a very light sauce.  I think most Asian home style stir fries are light (but deliciously seasoned) like this.  The Chinese food in a lot of Americanized Chinese restaurants are too heavy and too drowned in either stuffy brown gravy, or the overly sticky and sour "sweet & sour" sauce.

I don't make this kind of stir fry at home because I don't have good knife skills to slice meat this thin and I don't like to load up on numerous type of veggies that I end up trashing because I can't use them up fast enough.  Cooking  for 1 to 2 people is a challenge when I like varieties in my rice bowl, 3 ingredients just don't cut for me.  I would rather spend time in working over time than making stir fry at home because I can get a Spicy Miso Chicken Rice Bowl for only $8.25, which is much less than what would cost me if I spend the time to cook it myself.  I also like the numerous kind of teas at this place. This time I ordered Thai Milk Tea ($3.00), which is not as sweet as the ones I got at the Thai restaurant, because this is somewhat a non-Thai lighter version.  

I like both versions. This lighter version really complements my meal here because I feel really healthy after meantime. There is just this light, clean and comfortable feeling.  So it all depends on whether I am craving for rich food  or light clean food at the moment. But I find this light version of Thai tea very enjoyable.

Restaurant: Go Go Juice Café

Address: 1943 Pacific Coast Hwy, Lomita, CA 90717 

Tel:(310) 539-6486

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Delicious Chinese BBQ Combo Lunch Special

Review submitted by: Jane Ong

I love BBQ food, and Chinese BBQ never disappoints.  Today I had a $7.95 combo BBQ lunch special (BBQ Duck & Soy Sauce Chicken Over Steamed Rice With A Heap of  Bok Choi). It comes with free hot and sour soup.  I love the boned-in Soy Sauce Chicken but my experience with this famous Cantonese style chicken had been sighting of bones that were quite red.  When I visited Hong Kong, my friends there told me it was how the chicken was supposed to look because the chicken had to be extremely tender and juicy and with the bone also cooked through, the chicken had to be soaked in the boiling soy sauce for way too long, which reduced tenderness.  

I don't mind a little less tenderness and a little less juiciness.  Whenever I order this chicken dish, I always request the chefs to please make sure there is "no red" in the bones.  I love this chicken dish so much. It's really flavorful.  It pairs perfectly with Chinese BBQ Duck or Chinese BBQ Pork.  These meats make the steamed white rice taste so good.  It's a very filling meal and a very popular lunch box meal choice in the Cantonese culture. (The culture of the Quangdong province in China that includes Hong Kong & Macau. The majority of people there are quite slim which may indicate that steamed rice, and moderate amount of flavorful meats can curb the desire to over eat junk food...)

Restaurant: Nice China Cafe
Address: 2543 Pacific Hwy Ste B., Torrance, CA 90505
Tel:(310) 539-0323

Chinese Clay Pot Chicken Stew In Black Bean Sauce - 香蔥豆豉雞煲

Restaurant reviewed by: Jane Ong

I love food being cooked and served in a Chinese clay pot.  To me, clay pot cooking just  adds a great flavor to the food. Of course, the sizzling fajita pan and the grill also add very nice flavors to food. When I was visiting Hong Kong, I could spend every night having dinner at clay pot restaurants.  But where I am living now, my choice of clay pot dishes is quite limited.  Whenever I spot it on the menu in a Chinese restaurant, I always order it.  This time I spotted it on a white board ($11.99), written in Chinese.  This dish isn't on the regular bilingual menu.  I guess the owner probably thinks this dish won't appeal to the typical Americans because it's made of boned-in chicken pieces with the skin still on (sort of like how Chicken wings normally are served).  It does take some time to get rid of the bone during eating.  But I'm used to this kind of chicken, so deboning the chicken pieces while eating just comes natural to me.  I however won't recommend this dish to young children.  

Chinese cooking often uses boned-in chicken pieces because the bone and the skin preserve the tenderness, the juice and therefore the flavor of the chicken meat. The downside of this type of cooking is, there can sometimes be tiny crumbs of bones that I have to fish out.  Just like every now and then there are crumbs of crab shells and bones I have to fish out when I crack and eat crabs.  I don't mind putting in such effort because I am always rewarded by the great flavor.

Restaurant: Nice China Cafe
Address: 2543 Pacific Hwy Ste B., Torrance, CA 90505
Tel:(310) 539-0323

Chinese Broccoli Is One Of The Popular Chinese Dim Sum Items

Restaurant reviewed by: Jane Ong

Most non-Chinese  probably will think it's odd to have Chinese broccoli during breakfast. But this dish is found on a lot of tables in the Dim Sum restaurant in the morning.  I guess it makes sense to always have veggies and fibers in every meal, particularly to balance the meaty Dim Sum.  I'm not a big salad fan, I love fresh salad made by good restaurants but I normally have to force myself to eat the raw salad at home because I haven't been able to find any bottled vinaigrette based dressing in the store that isn't so sour that I always become jittery when I smell or taste the dressing.  I don't like mayo based dressing too much either.  But I can easily eat a whole order of Chinese Broccoli at a Dim Sum restaurant all by myself.  

I guess I could have made the same dish at home for a lot cheaper, if only I'm not so lazy and so unmotivated to do anything in my small kitchen.  After all, my mom makes the same boiled Chinese broccoli a lot, sometimes for every meal.   The key is to buy really good Chinese broccoli which isn't bitter.  Then just wash it, and boil it in boiling water very quickly until the color just turns jade green.  It's important not to over boil it. It needs to be removed from the boiling water instantly when the green color shows up.  Then just drizzle oil that had been used from deep frying chicken or other food,  drizzle also the Lei Kum Kee oyster sauce (Lei Kam Kee is the best tasting oyster sauce, much better than the Kikkoman brand,  in my opinion).

The oil that had been used for frying chicken or other food really bumps up the taste of the broccoli. Then the oyster sauce of course gives the ultimate flavorful finish.    My mom always only heats a couple teaspoons of corn oil in the pan and drizzle it over the broccoli because my mom rarely  deep fries food at home. But the oil from deep frying really makes a huge difference in taste. This is the reason why boiled vegetables in Chinese restaurants always taste much better than home boiled even though we are using the same brand of oyster sauce. Chinese restaurants have a lot of oil from frying the spring rolls and other food to be used to dress boiled vegetables.  This makes the boiled veggies taste better than the American way of throwing butter on it.

Restaurant: PV Palace
Address: 2166 Pacific Coast Hwy, Lomita, CA 90717
Phone:(310) 326-3228
Hours: Friday 10:00 am – 9:30 pm

I Had Been Missing This Hong Kong Style Chicken Pan Fried Noodles So Much

Restaurant reviewed by: Jane Ong

When I was on exile in Toms River New Jersey for a business assignment, I had been looking for this kind of Pan Fried Noodles and was unable to get it in the Chinese restaurants I had been to.  The owners in the Chinese Restaurants there actually told me to go to "The City" to get it because they said they didn't cook this kind of Chinese food for Americans .  That was the first time in my life I heard that. But then I had never been to Chinese restaurants other than the ones in California, so I guess it's possible for Chinese restaurants in other states to cook differently for a specific demographic (I mean taste wise, not race wise,  since here in California, there are lots of Americans who prefer the real and better tasting Chinese food), just like the kind they can find in the famous Big Apple.

I was just shocked that when I was in Toms River New Jersey, everybody was telling me to go to "The City" to get Chinese food, and I asked them what city that was since Philadelphia is a city, Newark is a City, Atlantic City is also a city.  Then I found out they really meant "New York City".  I was surprised because it would be like if I am asking where can I get decent Chinese Pan Fried Noodles here in Los Angeles County, people are telling me to drive to Las Vegas to get it, no? 

Separation makes the heart grow fonder.  I had ordered this Chicken Pan Fried Noodles (Chicken Chow Mien $8.25) many many times before, but now I just appreciate it a lot more.  Before, I just took it for granted, and I didn't see anything special about it. It was just a convenient everyday cheap Chinese food to me that is served the same way by numerous Chinese restaurants here in California.  But now I am just looking at this dish with a whole lot of respect and admiration after I had spent 2 months without it. The noodles are just crispy on the surface, while the middle noodles are still having the regular chewy egg noodle texture and rich noodle flavor. It tastes and feels like noodles.  I was given literally a nest of fried noodle chips or fried noodle crumbles when I ordered this dish in Toms River New Jersey.  The noodles were so deep fried it could taste just like any kind of plain crackers and chips other than noodles.  Can you imagine if any restaurant does the same for lasagna and turn the noodle texture to be like bagel chips??

This dish looks oily but it's not oily. The shine is from corn starch that is mixed into the sauce.  I'm just so happy that I can easily have this dish from numerous Chinese restaurants within a very short and easy drive.

Restaurant: Nice China Cafe 

Address: 2543 Pacific Hwy Ste B., Torrance, CA 90505 

Tel:(310) 539-0323