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Sunday, June 2, 2013

Teochew Restaurant



8508-A Gale Ave
City of Industry, CA 91748


General:

If you know Teochew or Chiu Chow food, you know that there are two major types of lunch food stalls: BBQ and noodle (just like burger and sandwich for US of A).

This is a BBQ house. For a Chiu Chow BBQ house, though, usually the better offerings are the soy marinated (lo sui) items.  This proves to be correct for this place.  In my opinion, this is the best Southern Chinese BBQ house in the Greater LA area.  However, diabolically, their Char Sew red BBQ Honey Pork here is one of their weakest offerings.

For best value come at lunch time and order lunch specials. Each item is $4.98. Meat only, rice is extra.  All pictures here are lunch special portion.

Service was very sporadic today: they need a better coordination. They were very polite, though. It was also funny that staff mainly spoke Cantonese in a Chiu Chow place. Food went out slow for a BBQ place (and they just need to slice 'em).

Details:
BBQ honey pork (char sew): medium saltiness and mild sweetness. Moist and juicy (I prefer it on the dry side). Herbaceous nose. Better than their competitions but still doesn't rock my world: I still can make a better one ;). Surprisingly one of their weakest offerings here.  3.5 stars.
 

Baby Suckling Pig: similar to Chinese bacon cut.  Crispy skin, moist meat and melting fat.  Fragrant . Light saltiness. They give you two dips: sugar powder and sweet preserved bean sauce. Better with the sugar powder. Depending on how fresh it is, 4+ to 5- stars. 

House Marinated Duck (chiu chow lo sui): fragrant nose, light lo sui soy based sauce. Very light touch of sesame oil (Cantonese influence?). Tender meat. Deep-yet-light taste profile. Dip it with the vinegar based sauce (vinegar, sugar, garlic, chili flake) to develop a delightful umami taste. The chairman of the Teochew Association of LA would give his stamp of approval on this. 5 stars. 

Marinated Pig Intestine (lo sui tai cheong): same sauce based with duck with a more pronounced salt and sesame oil taste. Naturally rich due to the cut, with a flavor profile of a combination of primary saltiness and secondary sweetness. 4.5 stars.

Roast duck: Teochew (Chiu Chow) juicier style compared to Guangzhou/Hong Kong style.  Moist meat au jus. Five spice overtone, with star anise front and center. Mild soy sauce sweetness. Semi-crispy skin. The dish comes with duck sauce, the sweet yellow one, which I don't recommend to use.  4.25 stars

Marinated Pig Tripe: same marinate with Marinated Pig Intestine but the meat has much more texture and gaminess.  Light lo sui soy based sauce, vinegar based dip. Somehow the same marinate works better with duck and intestine.  4 stars.

Jelly Fish: mild sour pickling combined with light sesame oil.  Some spicy hot kick.  What makes it outstanding here is the big chunky cut that results in a quite a crunchy texture.  I like it a lot although I wish they had cleaned it better as it got some grittiness.  5- stars.

Soy Sauce Tofu: same marinate with the marinated proteins.  Tofu is home made and has a nice buttery and silky texture.  Would have been very good if not for the weird bitter finish.  3 stars.

Beef Tripe Cold Dish: bad translation!  Not tripe, it was sliced beef shank.  More curiously, this was NOT even a Teochew dish!  It was a bad interpretation of a Sichuan dish, resulting in an ugly Korean-Sichuan marriage.  Watery sauce was EXTREMELY salty and was made of too much numbing Sichuan peppercorn added to Korean red gojuchang (I actually found a residual of the undiluted paste).  Crushed peanut and sliced cucumber added.  I thought about returning this dish but it was only $4.99. Had I done it, it would have caused the restaurant owner to call a special assembly panel of Teochew Association elders, dragging them from their Kung Fu Tea party and a discussion of the old glorious Teochew Opera, which every self-respecting Teochew knows as way more superior than the Cantonese Opera.  Not worth it.  Since this was not even a Teochew dish, I give them a pass and don't included in the average.  Would have been 1.5 stars.  AVOID this cosmic accident.
Baby Suckling Pig

Marinated Pig Intestine

House Marinated Duck, MUST ORDER!

BBQ Honey Pork
Soy Sauce Tofu
Marinated Pig Tripe
Jelly Fish
Roast Duck


Beef Tripe Cold Dish, a cosmic accident, AVOID
 

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