Janty Noodle

989 S Glendora Ave
West Covina, CA 91790
(626) 480-1808

General:

The place is a part of "Asia Food Court" inside the Plaza.

Janty noodle serves dry noodles, Chinese Indonesian style, in similar but in a bit different style than the tradition of Mi Nam Vang of Trieu Chau, Mien Nghia, Noodle Cafe, Kim Tar, Kim Ky, Mi La Cay, My Vi Mi Gia, Phat Ky Mi Gia, etc.  

They try other different variations of toppings for the noodles to diversify the market share. Let me give you the flavor profiles without the ratings as you will be the judge. The base noodle and the garnish toppings of choy sum and green onion are still the same, some with added bean sprout, and only the protein toppings are different:

Note that, unless noted, the default serving for the noodles are dry (kho) style. Also, as it is a food court joint, all food served on styrofoam  wares.

Details:

The basics:

Boiled Chicken Noodle (Mie Ayam Rebus): the equivalent of Mi Ga in Vietnamese.  Home made thin yellow noodle stirred with fried-garlic-infused oil.  Then, it is topped with sliced boiled chicken thigh, boiled choy sum green mustard. Boiled chicken is tender with a light salty taste.   Add a touch of white pepper and vinegar (or their pickle juice) to the noodle and you are golden. Dip the chicken in their extra hot or crazy extra house sauce (off the chart hot) for an extra kick. Side soup is chicken stock with salt, pepper, and green onion. The original and "purest" form of Janty's noodle offerings. A very subtle yet elegant way to serve dry noodle. Delicious. THE BEST MI GA in the Greater LA area, period!  4.5 stars. Tip: depending on your palate, I order mine less salty.

Mushroom Chicken Noodle (Mie Ayam Jamur): seems to be the best seller here but I personally like the boiled chicken better. Same noodle base with above. Topping is button mushroom and chunks of chicken braised in soy sauce. Soy sauce profile is Indonesian influenced with a more pronounced sweetness. 4 stars.

Medanese Chicken Noodle (Mie Ayam Medan): supposedly a tribute to the City of Medan in Indonesia whose Chinese population is of Cantonese (Guangdong) and Fukkienese (Fujian) descendents.  Sliced Char Sew BBQ pork (Cantonese) and lightly-soy-sauced minced pork (Fukkienese) plus quail eggs.  Soy sauce profile is Indonesian influenced with a more pronounced sweetness. If you frequent Vietnamese noodle houses, this is the equivolent of their House Noodle (Mi Dac Biet, Kho).  A lot of sweet notes here. Recommended for noobs. 4+ stars.

Special Mushroom Chicken Noodle (Mie Ayam Jamur Special): same as Mushroom Chicken Noodle, but add Char Sew BBQ Pork topping and home-made beef balls in the side soup. Think of it as a a mix of Mushroom and Medanese Chicken Noodle. Recommended for noobs.  4 stars.

I looked left and right.  All self-respecting patrons ordered their noodles with these 2 items the way a Viet would order their noodle with Ca Quay (Yu Tiao fried dough).  Noobs must try at least one of these as well:

Fried Meatball (Baso Goreng): should have been called fried dough.  Baking soda-puffed fried dough fortified with tiny chicken lardon and msg. Crispy on the outside, almost mushy on the inside. Dipping sauce is garlic, vinegar, sugar, and chili. a par substitute, if not better, for Ca Quay. Interesting, but I had better at Merry's House of Chicken.  3 stars.

Supreme Fried Wonton (Pansit Goreng) : skin is surely egg fortified and is thicker than the average Chinese digs' fried wonton skin.  It has an egginess quality to it with more richness.  Filling seems to be a mix of chicken, pork, a hint of shrimp, and tapioca flour for binding.  Sauce is a variation of sweet and sour with a darker color.  Delicious.   4+ stars

The followings are for those who are more adventurous:

Shanghainese Chicken Noodle (Mie Ayam Shanghai): supposedly a tribute to the city but I think a Shanghainese would disagree.  Thinly sliced chicken fillet and preserved vegetable (ham choy). Taste is dominated by the saltiness and sourness of the preserved vegetable. Untasted. 

Fried Noodles (Chow Mien):  using the home-made noodle, they also cook chow mien for you.  The basic is a standard fare of choy sum and some mixed protein.  The kick here is that they use the ubiquitous-for-Indonesians sweet soy sauce.  So the taste profile is skewed on the strong sweet side. Unique. 4 stars  

Fried Bihun (Chow Mee Fun/Bihon): same as chow mein but using thin rice noodle. Noodle is not home made. Untasted. 

On Choy Noodle Soup (Mie Kangkung):  for me this is the most puzzling noodle offering here. Home made noodle and on choy in a thick almost-slimy soy-sauce-fortified brown soup.  Taste profile is strong sweetness and a supporting saltiness with a hint sourness from Indonesian lime. Protein selections include minced pork, button mushroom, quail egg, and dried squid(?).  A very, hmmm ... unique, flavor profile. Quite hardcore and hard to understand.  Untasted. Recommended for the most adventurous foodies only.   

There are other permutations of their noodles and topping that go completely beyond me.  Might be worth it to ask them if you are interested. 

However, another notably interesting dish is Batagor.

Fried Tofu and Fish Paste (Batagor): for hardcore fried food lovers.  Indonesian version of Singaporean-favorite Yong Tofu? Tofu and varieties of fish paste dumplings deep fried, then topped with peanut sauce and the ubiquitous sweet sauce (the Indonesian version of culinary monkey wrench: the fix-it-all taste), finished with a twist of Indonesian lime specifically grown by the owners. As good as it goes for fried stuffs. 4 stars.

Supreme Fried Wonton, look at the size!

Boiled Chicken Noodle

Mushroom Chicken Noodle

Fried Meatballs

Ye Dang

2512 Walnut Ave
Tustin, CA 92780
(714) 734-7789

General:

I got a couple of recommendations that Ye Dang would be good.  That's for the La Habra location, though.  However, I thought I gave this location a try as I was in the area.  Except for the Galbi Tang, the stews were very good.  I could tell that they came from good recipes.  However, I felt that the finish was a bit sloppy: they needed more love and attention to be great although I think this is the best place for Korean stews in the area.  I couldn't help but thinking if the La Habra location would be better.  This is actually the first Korean stews restaurant that interests me to come back (though to the La Habra location). I noticed that a lot of patrons here ordered the seafood pancake and cod stew.

Ban chan was quite simple.  Notable ones were the pasta salad and napa kimchi.

Service was really lacking, even for Asian establishment standard.  Ban chan came 20 minutes after seating and we had to flag staff couple times to get our ban chan and drink refilled.  

Details:

Al Jigae: fish roes stew.  A gochujang based stew. Two different types of fish roes.  Zucchini, tofu, daikon, inoki mushroom, and raw Tang-O.  Very fresh fish roes with no fishiness at all.  Soup was on the light side yet had a nice depth to it.  Flavor profile was medium saltiness with mild sweetness and spiciness.  Very good but need some more attention to be great. I couldn't pinpoint it but finish tasted sloppy and broad.  4+ stars.

Agwi Tang: monk fish stew. A gochujag based stew.  Everything was identical to Al Jigae except this stew used monk fish instead of fish roes. Hence, it suffered from the same issue: it needed a bit more attention on the spicing to be great.  Yet, I had to commend anybody who managed to cook monk fish without any hint of fishiness whatsoever.  The monk fish tasted very fresh with a great chewy texture.  4+ stars.

Doenjang Jigae: fermented soybean and anchovy stew.  This stew was delicious yet quite hardcore.  The aroma of anchovy and fermented soybean is an acquired taste or else it would smell like and old sock.  Taste profile was medium saltiness and fermentation depth, quite similar to miso but coarser, richer, and deeper.  Inside the stew was tofu, zucchini, daikon, inoki mushroom.  Lovey but again needed a bit attention on adjusting spicing to have a better finish.  4+ to 4.5 stars.

Galbi Tang: beef ribs soup.  Milky/cloudy soup with minimum salting.   Inside the soup it was mainly vermicelli and beef ribs.  Beef was high quality but it was also the soup's downfall. For its own good, the ribs were too fatty.  So beef fat dominated the nose and palate making the soup very gamy and losing the balance.  Would be a great cut for BBQ but not for soup. Not the best galbi tang I have ever tasted.  3 stars.
 

Assorted Ban Chan

Monk Fish Stew

Galbi Tang

Ono Ono Hawaiian BBQ

17582 17th St
Ste 104
Tustin, CA 92780

(714) 505-0750

General:

Not to be confused with Ono Hawaiian BBQ chain.

It is am independent Korean-initiated Hawaiian BBQ place as evident by some of their offerings (The current owner doesn't look like Korean, maybe the business changed hands). However, this place has more island inspirations than such joints as also evident by their more specific island-flavored offerings such as Kalua Pork, Beef Palai, Meat Jun, and Ahi Poke.  

Unlike other places, Ono Ono doesn't force you to get rice.  You pick 2 sides from the list: white rice, brown rice, noodle, potato mac, salad, grilled veggies, or Asian slaw.  

Having said that, if quality over quantity is your mantra, then this place has the competition across the town beat. Ono Ono is a 4- stars in my book, better than their average competitions and quite a high score I'd give to a Hawaiian BBQ joint.  It is now my favorite Hawaiian BBQ place on this side of OC.


Details:

Ono Platter, with Noodle and Potato Mac sides: the plate comes with Chicken Katsu, Galbi, and Spicy Pork.  Overall, it was a very solid offering.  The proteins were of good quality, lean, and got a lot of attention in cooking as shown by nice and even temperature, char, and sauce caramelization. However, the sides were less impressive and could use more re-conceptualization. 

Chicken Katsu: quite impressive for what it was as it was white meat.  It had the right amount of crunchy breading and mild saltiness.  The sauce had an extra vinegary kick a bit more than usual.  4- stars.

Spicy Pork: leaner cut. Sweet and spicy gochujang-based sauce.  Nice and even char and caramelization.  Quite good coming from a fast food place.  4 stars.

Galbi: medium sweet and salty teriyaki and soy sauce with a hint of ginger. Again nice and even char and caramelization.  4- stars.



Luau Platter, with Rice and Potato Mac sides: Kaukau Pork, Kalua Pork, Poke Tuna. In the interest of breadth and depth, I also ordered this more exotic offering.  My praises as this was also good, even better than the Ono Plate.

Kaukau Pork: menu says roasted but it was more like a stewed pork with blended spinach and coconut milk.  Medium salty with coconut milk body undertone and spinach overtone.  Texture was tender and juicy. Delicious 4+ stars.

Kalua Pork: shredded pork.  Roasted and very smoky.  A bit on the salty side for my palate.  Herbaceous undertone.  4 stars.

Poke Tuna: sushi-grade fresh cubed tuna.  Julienned cucumber.  Green onion and sesame seed garnishes.  Soy sauce, sesame, and salt marinade.  Mild saltiness.  No spiciness.  3.5 stars as it was.  However, my package came with a soy sauce, vinegar, ginger sauce.  With this sauce the tuna got the acidity that I think it needed (although poke stylistically doesn't need acidity).  4 stars with sauce.



The sides:

Noodle: turned out to be Chap Jae.  So, they are not shy of their Korean heritage, either.  Good.  However, it was a lesser impressive Chap Jae I have ever tasted.  Dark in color.  Intense soy sauce and pepper gave to a rather salty with a strong peppery palate and nose. Sugar was added in attempt to counter-balance the saltiness although it was less successful.  Again, I have got better as this needed to be "fixed" with their complementary gochujang-based sauce. It also came with some steam veggies. 2.5 stars

Potato Mac: al dente elbow pasta dominated by very creamy sweet mayonnaise. In fact, it overpowered everything else such that the mashed potato was barely tasted and was more like starch paste. Chopped carrot was added for extra texture. 3 stars.

Ono Platter

Luau Platter