Green Apple chinese-Studio City (NY Style Egg Rolls)

[Hypnotic23]

O.K.

I continue my quest for good Chinese in the Valley and still no luck.

I just gave Green Apple China Bistro in Studio City a try. I went in looking forward to this, especially since they have half portion dishes, perfect for a single guy.

I tried the New York Style Egg Rolls which I know various people on here search for and they were the best part of the meal, see photo.

I also tried the chicken steamed dumplings, terrible.

My dishes were:

-1/2 portion of Mongolian Beef (wasn't impressed at all by the flavor and the meat doesn't melt in your mouth)

and

-1/2 portion of the Cashew Chicken (If I closed my eyes I would be wondering what flavors were in my mouth)

Its to bad since I live close by, still Sam Woo's is the best away from San Gabriel with backups being Chi Dynasty which is good just pricey and apart from that I cant say much about any others in Studio City/Sherman Oaks vicinity.

Hope this helped my fellow chowhounds.

Off to Germany now for some international cuisine.

Stuart

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Chi Dynasty
12229 Ventura Boulevard, Studio City, CA 91604

[pudding]

I've tried the egg rolls at Green Apple and was really dissappointed to say the least.

The filling is "NOTHING" like a real New York style chineese egg roll. There is barely any meat of any kind in the egg roll as they onlyh give you little bitty chopped bits of pork and unnoticable amounts of shrimp as I can say that since none of us could even tase or find that in the egg roll Green Apple served.

The egg roll was stuffed with mostlhy cabbage and veggies which is fine but not like a New York style egg roll.

Currently Ghengis Cohen has the best egg roll I've found in LA but I do know a couple of restaurants in the Valley that are now working on putting together an egg roll worthy of calling it a NY style egg roll. Will keep you posted when they get it together.

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Green Apple
6256 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048

[gr8pimpin]

I agree, the filling wasn't even close! There was no green onion, there were a couple of tiny shrimp but no BBQ pork. It was like eating cabbage that was soooo soggy. It was too stuffed as well.

Hate to say Jack In The Box until recently (when they went with a thinner version) was the best or closest to a real egg roll in L.A.

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Jack In
, Los Angeles, CA 90001

[Mr Taster]

Zoinks. Scary. I'm hoping it's a bad photo.

Mr Taster

[lad1818]

I have to disagree. I got the eggrolls the other day. Aside from being a little dark, they are by far the closest to NY eggrolls I have found in 22 years of searching. I still make it a point to get an eggroll every time I'm in NY, but these are the best local approximation. (If I make my own from David Rosengarten's recipe they're better, but how often do I need to make a dozen eggrolls?) I got them to go and they provided some kick-ass hot mustard, but some runny sauce that I discarded in favor of my giant jar of Dai-Day duck sauce.

I got the orange chicken at Green Apple and thought it was excellent. A little disappointed in the won ton soup, with a ton of ingredients betrayed by a very bland broth. I have to check out the lo mein before I make a real decision on the place. But so far it's my best local alternative. (I haven't been to Chi Dynasty.)

[Mr Taster]

>I< need to make a dozen eggrolls!

I'll trade you an incredible, flavorful wonton soup recipe (broth from scratch) for your David Rosengarten egg roll recipe.

Mr Taster

[lad1818]

Here's a link (hopefully) to the recipe I posted on the Home Cooking board back in 2006.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/3482...

Have fun!

[Mr Taster]

Thanks for this! I'll post reply there.

Mr Taster

[Mr Taster]

Alright, I've posted the wonton soup recipe at your link, along with a companion recipe for Chinese style BBQ pork that I've made several times with great success.

Please do try making soup. It takes just an hour and it's unbelievably good, rich, and flavorful.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/3482...

Mr Taster

[Galen]

Great won ton recipe, Mr. Taster. I have a similar recipe but add minced lop cheong (which adds a barely detectable sweet lop cheong taste).

[Mr Taster]

What is lop cheong? It sounds like a Cantonese word. Do you know the Mandarin equivalent?

[Galen]

Chinese hot dog.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_...

[Das Ubergeek]

The Mandarin for it is là cháng - 臘腸.

[Galen]

Make sure you steam the lop cheong before you mince it.

[Mr Taster]

ooooh of course. For some reason I thought we were discussing cantonese names for vegetables.

[lad1818]

Real decision made. I tried the combo lo mein (combo wasn't on the menu but they readily made it). It's the lo mein I been looking for for 20 years. After all of the hideous approximations I've encountered, what a find. This may not be the NY Chinese food you are looking for, but I, raised on Chinese takeout in Queens, have found mine.

[carter]

What is it about lo mein that you like - tastes like a boring veggie plate at best?

[lad1818]

Well for one thing I get the combo lo mein - so there's chicken, beef, shrimp and pork (no pork in this place's version for some reason though) along with a few vegetables.

The noodles have a little bite and a lot of flavor - I've had some extremely bland, limp, too-fat-or-thin noodles here. And then it's just the SLIGHTEST bit greasy - in a good way. I can't help but dress it up with hot mustard (theirs is good) and duck sauce which I usually buy in NY and bring back. But it's pretty decent without it - better by far than any other lo mein I've had here.

I'm not going to say it's San Gabriel Valley or Flushing rate purist food. I will say that, based on what I've tried there, it's the closest I've found to the Queens takeout I grew up on. So far only the won ton soup let me down - if I get ambitious someday I'll make Mr. Taster's version.

[mucho gordo]

Just curious; what did you find wrong with Kung Pao China Bistro? I am assuming that "local alternative" includes KPCB since it's just down the street .

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Kung Pao Bistro
11402 Ventura Blvd, Studio City, CA 91604

[lad1818]

I actually used to get their won ton soup a lot to go (it was pretty good and CHEAP) - I don't remember if I've gotten the lo mein there or not, if I did it was many years ago.

I recall that meals I've eaten there were fine, but their food didn't strike me one way or another enough to make me go out of my way to eat there.

[caseykay68]

I just have to chime in and say that Green Apple is our favorite chinese in the area. We love the dumplings and their bbq pork. I guess its a "to each his own" type of thing, but we count on it at least once a week and it has always been high quality and fresh.

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Green Apple
6256 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048

[Galen]

Those egg rolls look horrible! You may be better off eating Vietnamese egg rolls at Pho So 1 on Sepulveda. Chinese egg rolls are more miss than hit.

[ipsedixit]

What's so terrible looking about those egg rolls?

The OP is talking about NY-style egg rolls, which just might be the antithesis of Cha Gio.

[Galen]

The egg rolls look burnt. It is an antithesis, but a good Cha Gio is easier to find in L.A. than a decent NY egg roll.

[Professor Salt]

Yup. Burnt and with eggroll skin disease. Doesn't look appealing at all.

[Das Ubergeek]

The bumps are supposed to be there, but I don't know what the hell happened to those eggrolls. They look like they were dipped in egg (!) before being fried. Why else would they be so glossy? Even oil sheen and camera flash (you don't use flash, right?) wouldn't produce that effect.

And they're burnt...oy.

What was the filling, Stuart?

[bergerqueen]

Best New York style egg rolls are at Genghis Cohen on Fairfax near Melrose.

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Genghis Cohen
740 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046

[outshined]

I was nervous the other night when we had them at Genghis. We have had maybe 100 orders in our lifetime; these tasted different (more celery, less pork), looked smaller. I'm hoping they were having an off night because we basically can't live without those egg rolls.

[Mr Taster]

It's not an off night. However, of all the eggrolls I've tried in LA, these are the least inauthentic representation of what every Chinese joint in the NY metro area offers.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/349884

Mr Taster

[outshined]

Oh I've eaten Chinese food in NY many, many times. I'm just saying that they weren't up to par for Genghis. Egg rolls are actually one of the first things I get when I set foot in Manhattan.