Dr. LT's Food Adventure: Mimi's House

333 S Diamond Bar Blvd
Diamond Bar, CA 91765
(909) 860-7989

General:

Alrighty. So, Sue's Kitchen still has the best beef noodle soup in the greater LA area. However, Mimi's House is so far the best Taiwanese food I have got in the greater LA area. Thanks Jennifer, for recommending this place (although I went against her recommendation and ordered Hakka Pork in our second visit :p)! Yet, if any of you Taiwanese food shifus beg to differ, please drop me a note and point me to the better restaurants.

However, some of the dishes are quite delicious here while some aren't that convincing. A lot of protein dishes can be ordered as a la carte or rice plate or noodle bowl. Rice plate comes with stewed minced pork and egg and 2 kinds of vegetables stir fries of the day (today it was a cabbage carrot and minced pork winter melon stir fries).

Service is friendly but could be slow when get busy.

Details, updated with more dishes:

Stinky Tofu: one of, if not the, best stinky tofu I have ever tasted in the Greater LA area. Deep fermented bean nose and flavor (much deeper than their competitions), heavenly for those who like it but hellish for those who don't due to the STRONG sulfuric quality. Fried unsalted and saltiness comes from the garlic fortified diluted, ehhmm, Kim Lan soy sauce paste ubiquitous to Taiwanese food. Not over-fried with just enough outside texture retaining the softness and moist inside. Sweet and sour cabbage pickle with a chili kick on the side completes the multi-flavored experience. Such a rustic dish but executed perfectly. Order only if you know what it is, NOT NOOB FRIENDLY. 4.5 stars

Hakka Pork: a strange dish. I am Hakka and I was expecting Moy Choy Keu Nyuk pork bacon stew. Moy Choy is literally translated as "plum vegetable." It is actually dark-colored preserved large mustard green. Well, the veggie is absent from this dish. Instead, they use powdered Ham Moy salted preserved plum (xi mui for you esteemed Viets). Lost in translation or a house take on the dish? I had to ask my mom to check if such dish existed: nope. All flavors were familiar but I I never saw it before in my life. Talking about flavors, it has a pronounced saltiness with nose and palate dominance from Ham Moy. Some unidentified spices fortify the dish creating herbaceousness. From the pink hue of the meat, I am guessing they use salt-baked technique common to Hakka dishes in which meat is covered with rock salt and heated slowly. Cut is not 3-layer bacon but still has some fat: it is fatty pork chop. Dipping sauce is vinegar. So, flavor profile is salty and sour with tons of herbaceousness. Again, a strange dish and is not easy to understand but I dig it, maybe due to my background bias. 4+ stars.

Beef Noodle Soup, all tendon, hand-cut noodle: medium salty with some MSG undertone (they boldly claim no MSG added. My palate begs to differ. It could come from different sources and sauces, though). Medium chewiness on tendon. Broth is lacking of depth. So, I am not a fan of the soup. However, home-made noodle is delicious and chewy. A three stars soup, a four stars noodle. 3.5 stars

Dry Noodle with Stewed Minced Pork: small flat egg noodle. Soy-sauce-stewed fatty pork. Bean sprout garnish. Mildly salty with a soft five spice overtone. Okay but quite monotonous. 3 to 3+ stars.

Fuchow Fish Ball Soup: chicken broth with strong sesame oil overtone. The soup completely tastes like a home-made broth. Fish ball with soy braised minced pork filling. Mainly sweet . Garnished with fried shallot and Chinese lettuce. Normally, I love this Fuchow fish ball but it is completely average here and isn't better than a frozen one from 99 Ranch. 3 stars.

Pork in Red Grain Sauce: lightly breaded char sew. Quite sweet inside from char sew marinade, medium salty outside on the breading with a strong garlic overtone. Dipping sauce is based on soy sauce paste but is completely unnecessary and the dish is better without. For me, char sew should NOT be fried, period: ancestors disapprove. However, this is the first place that I actually enjoy this abomination as it is the most refined here compared to their competitions. Eat it, Monja Taike. 4 to 4+ stars.

Mimi's Fried Pork Chop (they have a "regular" pork chop as well): wet style with minimum breading. Mainly deliciously sweet with saltiness peeking from behind and five spice undertone. 4+ stars

Taiwanese Meat Ball: braised minced pork filling with smokiness overtone. Thick mochi-like chewy sticky rice flour skin with a STRONG raw garlic under and overtone. Quite popular here and was sold out for our second visit. 4+ stars.

Steamed Garlic Chicken: the dish of the night. If anything I will come back here just for this. Slowly cooked with ham-like pinkish hue and texture. No fowl undesirable aroma whatsoever. Minimally spiced and salted to showcase the purity of the chicken flavor. Cilantro garnish. Garlic vinegar dipping sauce. 4.5 stars.

An average of 3.9ish.