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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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

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 

Young Chow Fried Rice From Nice China Cafe

We are often told that Chinese food are better the next day. Sorry, we can't agree with that.  We think that fresh Chinese food is so much better than the leftover that had spent one night in the fridge.  But if we have no choice but to live on leftover Chinese food due to certain logistical reasons, like when we have to pack our lunch to work; then Young Chow Fried Rice is the kind of Chinese food that we don't mind so much as leftovers.  We actually often stock up on Young Chow fried rice during our dinner runs just so we can have extra to bring to work for lunch the next day. Young Chow fried rice stores very well in the fridge and it can be heated up easily in the microwave.  For those of you who are talented cooks, we believe that you can easily make it yourself. After all, it's just rice stir-fried with green peas, tiny diced carrots, shrimps, leftover Cantonese style BBQ pork, diced green onions and scrambled eggs.  It's very much like the combination fried rice but it's called Young Chow Fried Rice because it's named after the Chinese city where the inventor of this dish was a magistrate back in the 18th century. The name of the dish is spelled differently in different parts of the world, but it is simply the name of the city in China, which is Yangzhou in the Jiangsu Province.

Since we aren't quite there yet in terms of cooking skills, and we are having this sucky jobs that have long commute and long working hours, we always just go get the fried rice from the Chinese restaurants.  We feel that different Chinese restaurants cook different tasting Young Chow Fried Rice.  Essentially, we only like the ones in which the rice isn't  soggy, or sticky, and that isn't too salty with too much soy sauce.  In fact, there shouldn't be soy sauce in Young Chow Fried Rice.  We also prefer the kind that is well balanced with the BBQ pork, shrimps and the veggies. We don't like our Young Chow Fried rice to have too much of any of the ingredients. We can't say we have already found the restaurant that makes the best Young Chow Fried Rice, but we think Nice China Cafe (2543 Pacific Hwy Ste B., Torrance, CA 90505) makes decent Young Chow Fried Rice for $8.25.  We only go there for take-out because this is a tiny restaurant that is under staff. It is just  too crowded during peak meal hours for dine-in.   We usually split one order of the Fried Rice into two servings to save money.  But the half portion is still very filling to us.  We often order multiple orders and store them in single serving glass containers in the freezer for our last minute lunch packing.  We've been trying to keep our lunch at under $5.00 per person....