Great Chinese Experiences?

[JeremyEG]

Hey Guys,
I am here temporarily from NYC. I remember having amazing Chinese lobster last time I was here but I don't remember where. Do you have any recs for Chinese seafood or regional Chinese that may be different from what NYC has to offer? Even if not different, I'd still love to hear your thoughts. Thanks in advance for your help!
JeremyEG

[Jerome]

china islamic - get yangrou pao mo - don't know how they call it in english, get some lamb dishes in general - skip the rice and get the sesame bread.

china islamic restaurant on garvey. Also check out the hunan which is nothing like new york fantasyland hunan - hengyang chilliking on garvey is indicative - preserved meats, oily, spicy, dangerous. They don't have the bamboo cup chicken soup I associate with hunan. Maybe someone knows of a place to find it.
Also guo qiao fen mian,crossing bridge noodles (yunnan) have been getting a lot of play lately, esp in j gold's column. Noodle Island, yungui and other places have them.
Enjoy.

[Das Ubergeek]

How about Seafood Village? Or Regent Cafe for the very funky take on Western food so prevalent in HK? China Islamic? The handmade dumpling shop on Garfield and Garvey (name...?)?

Feng Mao Yang Rou Chuan? Elite? J&J or Mei Long Village for Shanghainese (so, SO much better than Joe's). Yungui Garden?

[Porthos]

Agree with Das. Go to Seafood Village for the House Special Crab and then go to Newport Seafood for the House special lobster. I prefer the black pepper and chile laden version in Rowland Heights over the less spicy version in the Las Tunas branch.

If you're serious, travel to Rowland Heights. However, the Las Tunas branch is still better and cheaper than what you can find in NYC Chinatown. I would argue that NYC actually doesn't do Cantonese that well. My two favorites in NYC Chinatown: Ping's Seafood and Oriental Garden are good but do not come close to Sea Harbour or even 888 in SGV.

[JeremyEG]

Thank you all. I have a great list and I'm psyched to start trying these places. Silly question: What are the hours for dim sum? All day? Mornings? Weekends? Excuse my ignorance!
JeremyEG

[Das Ubergeek]

Mornings; in some cases weekend mornings only. The selection is normally best between 11-12 on weekends and slowly dries up; all of it is gone by 2-3 in the afternoon, at which point the restaurants normally switch back to Cantonese-seafood mode.

[JeremyEG]

Thank you. My wife is coming for a Mon-Thurs visit. What do you think is our best bet for great Chinese? (I will do dimsum on the weekend in the meantime!)

[JeremyEG]

Nevermind, she's actually coming Wed-Sunday. Perfect! How about Seafood Village Saturday morning? Now, I wonder if I can get the crab/lobster dishes at dim sum time? Thanks again everyone.
JeremyEG

[Das Ubergeek]

You can get anything to order, but I don't think Seafood Village serves dim sum.

[JeremyEG]

Ok cool. Seafood village for dinner. Das, what's your favorite dim sum spot in SGV?
Jeremy

[Das Ubergeek]

For cart-style, 888 or NBC.

[Chandavkl]

I think the most striking advantage Los Angeles area Chinese food has over New York is the presence of what might be thought of as modern Hong Kong style cuisine, both with regard to dim sum as well as to dinner items. You see this kind of food in Vancouver, Toronto, San Francisco and Los Angeles, but not in New York (not even Flushing). Local practitioners include Sea Harbour in Rosemead, Elite in Monterey Park and Mission 261 in San Gabriel, to name a few. Also there are Chinese regional cuisines in the SGV you won't find in New York such as authentic Hunan (don't be fooled by all the restaurants in New York with "Hunan" in their name), Yunnan, Guilin, Tianjin, New Territories and certain types of Taiwanese restaurants (despite Flushing Chinatown's Taiwanese origins). No Fuzhou style food to speak of here, though.

[Jerome]

foo chow in chinatown is better than it need be. And they will make Fo Tiao Qiang (?) buddha jumps over teh wall with three day notice. Be sure to order just the fujian dishes, like the fried oyster doughnut htings, the chicken with red rice wine lees sauce, the soups with the fish balls and meat balls, etc.
thyey have fujian style nian gao listed as gingko - typo on translation, bai guo written differently in fuzhou is nian gao (eastern chinese "new years cakes" starchy slices of rice flour - can't really describe it. they're chewy. and i think delicious.

[broncosaurus]

In fact, we have an entire region (so to speak) of what you're looking for. Search "SGV" or San Gabriel Valley for endless posts on the subject. For starters, Newport Seafood on 835 W. Las Tunas in San Gabriel may fill two of your bills. See recent thread on it. And there's plenty more...

[JeremyEG]

Thanks so much. I ate many times in SGV and all were great experiences. I think there are restaurants serving regional Chinese cuisine different from the predominately Sichuan and Cantonese that NYC does pretty well. The problem is, I know so little about the Chinese regional food that I don't even know where to start!

I'll begin with seafood. Thanks again.
Jeremy

[Servorg]

Did you see this review by Mr. Taster? http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/577814

[Bjartmarr]

One of our more fabulous posters put together this guide to regional Chinese food. It makes a good introduction.

http://www.geocities.com/raytamsgv/ch...