101 Noodle Express and Yunchuan Garden

[greengelato]

Based on the recommendations on this board, I trekked over to the far east (san gabriel) this past Saturday for some good Chinese food. I've spent a year in China, in Shandong Province, and was eager to try some Shandong dumplings and the infamous beef roll at 101 Noodle Express. We ordered the shrimp, pumpkin, and PORK dumplings. I'm capitalizing pork because we had totally missed it on the menu- and my friend doesn't eat pork. :( Since these dumplings were mostly described as shrimp and pumpkin dumplings on this board, our minds had somehow unintentionally blocked the pork part and prevented us from even detecting it on the menu.

In any case, I loved the dumplings- they were juicy and the wrapper was thick and excellent. I never had that filling in China, but I think they were pretty true to Shandong form. We also loved the beef roll, though it wasn't what I was expecting and I had never seen anything like that in China. Five hours and a microwave later, my husband adored them.

By the way, anybody know where I can find jianping guotze? It has a similar wrapper and includes green onions, a brownish sauce, and other ingredients that I don't remember. They were often sold in the morning on a transportable stand. I asked for it (with my horrible Chinese) and the Chinese-only speaking waitresses recommended the beef roll.

We also went to Yunchuan Garden for some over the bridge noodles (from Yunnan Province). It was tasty and interesting, but much saltier and MSG-y from what I remember in Yunnan. Granted my only comparison is the top noodle restaurant in Kunming, so take my review with a grain of salt. ;)

Thanks hounds for your advice!

[modernist]

i have never seen jian bing outside of northern china. i was kind of addicted to them when i lived in china. then i hit a point where they started to gross me out. crepe, i crispy crueller thing. green onions, an egg, brown sauce. all folded together and eaten with one hand as the other clutched the handlebar as i rode off somewhere..

i find the guo qiao mi xian "crossing bridge noodles" pretty not tasty at yungui also. soup has little merit and over the top with msg, which was similar to many of the dishes i've tried there..

[oro3030]

Where's Yunchuan garden and is there anything else worth getting there? I love that beef roll from 101 Noodle Cafe.

[sel]

I think that it's the place with several 'name only' changes, last few times that I went it was Yun Gui Garden, Inc. I've only had good versions of Sichuanese food here, haven't tried the Yunnan specialties.

Yunchuan Garden
301 N. Garfield Ave. #D
Monterey Park, CA 91754
626 571 8387

[SauceSupreme]

I went to 101 Noodle Express for lunch today with my brother and also ordered the beef roll, the shrimp/pumpkin/pork dumplings and also the dezhou chicken. As expected, the beef roll was great, and while I didn't care too much for the dezhou chicken, I thought the dumplings were fun.