LA to-do's and the hungry cat

labor day weekend was the perfect excuse to escape the houston heat and hurricane season and i took the opportunity to flee to the west coast for a week. my ambitious agenda in addition to spending quality time with my L.A. friends included a lot of ambitious chowhounding.

my L.A. to do list:

splurge - providence
izakaya - musha*
dim sum - sea harbour
lobster roll - the hungry cat
fish tacos - tacos baja ensenada
ramen - santouka* and daikokuya
sichuan - chung king
burger - father's office
pastrami - langer's
sunday supper @ lucques
trader joe's

maybes:
italian - mozza
soup dumplings - J&J, mei long
omakase - sushi zo
hatfield's, the foundry, anisette

* return visit

some of these to do's were leftover from my last trip to L.A. over memorial day weekend. others were recs from the houston chowhound discussion board.

my first day in LA, i made great headway checking off two restaurants from my to do list: the hungry cat and providence.

my first meal of the day was lunch at the hungry cat. the objective was to try the lobster roll that receives so many praises. the lobster roll, which is simply a mayo-based lobster salad sandwich, is one of my favorite things to eat in the world (and it's tragic that they are no where to be found in houston). whenever i make it to NYC, i always try to make it to mary's fish camp for the lobster roll and ambiance which i like better than pearl's oyster bar. mermaid inn will also do in a pinch too if i'm on the east side b/c although the lobster roll isn't as good, the old bay shoestring fries are really yummy.

back to my lunch plans. i learned the hard way the last time i was in L.A. that the lobster roll is only served on the lunch menu at the hungry cat.


the raw bar greeted us when we walked in. fresh sea urchin from santa barbara was displayed on ice. i was tempted to order a sea urchin, but i wasn't sure if my friend would like it. besides, i had an amazing dinner planned at providence that night, so i skipped it.

when the lobster roll arrived at the table, i was shocked how small it was.

not only that, the lobster meat to bread ratio was totally off. the bread was delicious and practically soaking in butter, but i was craving mouthfuls of lobster in my mouth and this dish didn't deliver.

the lobster salad itself was tasty and i noticed that it contained lobster claw meat which i love. seasoned with generous amounts of paprika, the mayo had a reddish tinge and lots of tiny diced red onion and celery which gave the cold salad some great flavors. i could only bring myself to eat about 1/3 of those fries and i left the hungry cat still hungry. for a $23 dish, i'll be saving my lobster roll fixes for manhattan from now on. the price is about the same, but at least the east coast sandwich is almost twice as large and reasonably satiates my yen for lobster temporarily.

D. had the watermelon and tomato salad with feta which was a lovely, light summer dish topped with baby arugula.

stay tuned for my next post about dinner in L.A. at providence!

beijing olympics closing ceremonies - part 2

continued from part 1

peking cuisine
8332 southwest fwy @ gessner

the second meal of the day to commemorate the end of the beijing summer olympics last weekend was appropriately centered around peking duck. peking cuisine is well known for serving the best peking duck in town. i remember having the peking duck there on thanksgiving with my family many many years ago, but couldn't really remember thinking it was as good as people say it is. i was anxious to get back there and investigate with the houston chowhounds.

dinner this evening was for 12 and we secured the private room for the event and also ordered our ducks one day in advance. my chinese mother was in tow for dinner so we could order off the chinese language menu.


chinese language menu. we ordered 2 ducks and the family dinner for 6 which included your choice of 6 cold appetizers, 6 hot dishes, and 1 starch.

this is what our table looked like once all the dishes were brought out. (the duck soup came much later)

la pi in garlic sauce. it had a strange sour taste, i was not fond of it.

honey smoked fish. the consensus at the table was that the dish was not that great. it was overly fishy, dry, and had only a slightly sweet taste.

fried stuffed bun. i didn't try it.

preserved egg with tofu. i only like preserved eggs (aka thousand year old eggs) in congee. it is definitely an acquired taste. i noticed that most of this dish went untouched on the table.

soy sauce pork feet. truthfully, i don't remember trying this. if i did, it was not memorable. perhaps some attendees can comment about this dish.

jellyfish with garlic. excellent. i could have eaten the whole plate myself.

spicy beef tendon. i love tendon and this was no exception. i would have prefered cilantro on top instead of scallions to complement the heat.

fish with hot red pepper. i expected the fish to be crispy which it wasn't. perhaps, i waited too long to dig into the dish. it also looks a lot spicier than it was. next time i'd rather order the sichuan fish.

eggplant with garlic sauce. i love japanese eggplant and this dish didn't disappoint.

fantail shrimp (not on english menu). nothing exciting. the dish tasted exactly the way it looked. i would have liked to eat more of the veggies in the dish, but i was sharing with 11 other people.

stirfried green beans. very good.

sichuan beef. good ma la from the dish, however not nearly as tasty as sichuan cuisine.

ma po tofu. again, passable but not as good as sichuan cuisine.

the star of the show peking duck. the duck skin was arranged on top of the plate of duck meat carved off the whole duck. scallions and plum sauce were served on the side. pancakes were served in plastic tortilla holders (pancakes are in the above photo of the whole table). the duck had cooled down too much by the time it was served and i expected the skin to be crispier. however, the pancakes were warm and delicious. definitely the best i've had. soup made from the duck carcasses, napa cabbage, and tofu was also served at the end of the meal.

it's hard to believe that this is the best peking duck houston has to offer. does any place in houston actually carve peking duck at the table?

the meal was fun and enjoyable of course b/c the chowhounds were there. it was also a great value as the meal came out to $13 per person. for sichuan food, i'd definitely head to sichuan cuisine, but i guess for my peking duck fix - this is as good as it gets?

special thanks to reed, my mom, for many of the photos posted here. the good ones are hers ;-)

thien an

thien an sandwiches
2905 travis nr. tuam

thien an is my midtown lunch destination for pho. and apparently everyone else's. the place was PACKED when i walked in around 1 pm on random week day. the room was filled with half asians and half caucasians. we had to stand around waiting for a table to be cleaned off.

everyone orders the banh xeo here for some reason. it's a crepe made out of rice flower, coconut milk, and tumeric for color that is usually filled with pork, shrimp, bean sprouts, and onions. it's wrapped in lettuce leaves and herbs like cilantro and mint and then dipped in fish sauce. yes, thien an's is HUGE - surface area wise - but it's so flat. it's all crepe and no filling which i think it pretty lame. i noticed that 1/3 of the tables had one on their table. big half moon yellow crepes kept flying out of the kitchen. why are they all ordering it? am i missing something?

i love the pho here. this was my pho tai. pho actually refers to the thin rice noodles at the bottom of the bowl. pho is pronounced like you are asking a question 'fuh?' (not like you're saying fo realz). tai refers to the thin slices of rare beef (usually eye of round) that are placed into piping hot bowls of pho broth. the hot soup cooks the beef.

a plate of bean sprouts, lime, sliced jalapeno, and herbs such as cilantro, basil, and culantro accompanies each bowl. thien an garnishes each bowl with cilantro before it leaves the kitchen so none is on the plate, but you can request more by asking (or more efficiently, just point to what's already in your bowl). there are only 1 or 2 employees at most that speak fluent english.

good pho is all in the broth. pho broth is made by boiling down beef bones, oxtails, and spices such as vietnamese cinnamon, star of anise, ginger, and cloves. thien an's is especially flavorful b/c i think they use a little extra cinnamon in their recipe. anyway, there is nothing adventurous in my bowl today. i'm not a fan of tripe in my pho but i do like tendon, fatty brisket, and sometimes meat balls. today, i was attempting to be healthy and i already ordered the banh xeo too, but J. did a good job helping me eat it. he was a banh xeo virgin until today. boy, it's fun eating out with me!

this was J's vermicelli bowl with thit nuong (grilled pork chop) and cha gio (fried egg rolls). i wasn't offered a bite and i prefer my thit nuong over crushed rice with a fried egg on top anyways.

thien an is cash only, they are closed on saturdays, and they close at 6 pm on other nights. you can find me here almost once every week eating a cheap lunch.

beijing olympics closing ceremonies - part 1

fung's kitchen
7320 southwest fwy # 115 nr. bellaire

to commemorate the end of the beijing summer olympics, the houston chowhounds and i hit the streets of chinatown twice on sunday. the events were even scheduled so we could take a nap in between AND be home to watch the broadcast of the real closing ceremonies in beijing. first, dim sum at fung's kitchen. it was already packed by 11 am.

we started with pretty standard dim sum fare...

siu mai (listed as "fung's steamed shrimp & pork dumpling"

har gau (list as "steamed shrimp dumpling")

chinese "broccoli w/ oyster sauce"

"steamed beef ball"- was okay

"steam bbq pork bun"

congee (listed as "rice soup/pork egg")

"deep fried taro puff" - really good, but greasy

inside the deep fried taro puff is ground pork

shrimp cheong fun (listed as "steam shrimp rice noodle") - i love the sweet soy sauce this is served in

"steam pork spare ribs w/ black bean sauce"- my favorite dim sum dish

"steam shrimp balls with sticky rice"

"sticky rice w/ meat wrap lotus leaf"

view of inside the lotus leaf (chicken, chinese sausage, black mushroom, ground pork) - yum

"chicken feet with black bean sauce"

then the interesting stuff came by. we passed on pig ears but we did order...

chicken feet with sweet & spicy sauce (cold)- firm and gelatinous, not my favorite preparation

bean curd skin with cilantro (cold) - love it!

conch & cucumber salad - delish

duck chins - big tease. the little bit of meat on there was so difficult to get at.

this is what our table looked like and...

this is what our bill looked like so far...

but we still had to check out the hot food stall where we ordered...

duck feet with black mushrooms

spicy fried chicken wings

pig's feet in ginger vinegar sauce

then the dessert cart came by... (or one of them anyway)

these little "pears" were filled with lotus seed paste

"french egg pudding"

these birdies were filled with yellow bean paste

mango pudding

next up, part 2 is peking duck dinner at peking cuisine...