Mala Sichuan Bistro

Mala Sichuan Bistro

9348 Bellaire Blvd.

Houston, TX 77036

Yelp

BHD doesn't really like spicy food.  What a wuss!  Just kidding.  No, not really.  Well, ok he has bad reflux so spicy foods really exacerbates that sometimes.  Alright, I'll give him a free pass for health reasons.  Maybe he'll do something else one of these days that warrants him a one way ticket to Pansyland.  In any case, he did oblige me by taking me out to the well regarded Szechuan restaurant in Houston, Mala.  It's even on the Eater's Essential 38 Houston restaurants.  This isn't the kind of place you go solo or even in pairs.  You need an army to tackle this place because the portions are family style.  We came with 2 other friends, so we did our best with 4 people.   It turns out our 2 friends don't eat pork!  I totally was anticipating this, but BHD was like "Naaahhhh."  So we had lots of left overs at the end.

Red Oil Wontons red chili oil, ground garlic, sweet and spicy soy paste, sesame, green onions
I'm not sure why this dish was so popular.  The sauce and spice were tasty, but the actual wonton itself was mediocre.  I think I could probably whip together a better wonton.  They might even have better wontons in your local frozen aisle.
 

Dan Dan Noodle mala spicy sauce, sesame paste, boiled spinach, yibin preserved vegetables, spiced ground pork, green onions
This was pretty tasty with just the right amount of salt, sweet, spice, all balanced out by the chewy noodles swathed in delicious oil.  This and 2 other dishes would be sufficient for just 2 people.

Read more »

Good Taste

Good Taste (Old Town - Chinatown location)
18 NW 4th Ave
Portland, OR 97209
Yelp

After a few miles hiking through the evergreen forests of Portland, we definitely worked up a appetite for something comforting.  The noodles at Good Taste really hit the spot.  The place is your typical fobby Chinese joint.  Their mastery of cleanliness is only slightly outshined by their mastery of the English language.  Though, one could argue the opposite depending on which server you get.  Just kidding.  There was no hair in my food or bugs in my water.  Ok, I'm really just kidding now.  Good Taste is known for their rice and egg noodle dishes.  Their portions are generous.  Their prices are right.  It's not crowded.  The MSG is not terribly obvious.  What is there to hate about this place?

Chinese Brocolli oyster sauce
I love extra side dishes to my main course.  Pretty standard fare.

Steamed Chicken, Roasted Duck over Rice

Zhu Zhu Hamster went for the rice.  I think she rather liked the ginger scallion sauce.

Read more »

Earthen

After too many days of eating the white man's food, I really was craving something Asian.  I can't go too many days without eating Asian food.  I crave chocolates and sweets, but my want for Asian food runs deeper than simple desire.  It's like it's ingrained into my genetic makeup to optimally thrive off of Asian food.  With any other foods, sure I'm living, but who wants to just live?  

It probably didn't help that I spent the whole day sweltering under the unforgiving sunshine of the desert to watch the BNP Paribas Open.  When I'm stressed mentally or physically, I turn to food for comfort.  That day was no exception, and I was happy to be out and about with Old Soul, who is definitely a food fan.  He asked what I wanted to eat after our long day.  I said "Asian" and he obliged.  Simple as that.  I don't think I could be friends with anyone who would put up a big stink about what or where we ate.  We really went to town on the ordering and the waitress laughed in disbelief when she confirmed our order of 6 dishes for 2 people.

House Chicken
I've had chicken like this before and it was called Shan Dong chicken.  Old Soul, being the unusually helpful China man that he is can read Chinese and the Chinese description of this dish, which was none other than Shan Dong chicken.  This dish is quite popular here, but I was actually disappointed. The chicken wasn't as flavorful as I've had before and the cold cucumbers nestled underneath the chicken wasn't as marinated as I would have liked.  You should have seen Old Soul turn his nose up at the site of those green cucumbers.  He's allergic to all things green apparently.

Ong Choy
Old Soul turned his nose at the cucumbers, but he had a look of horror when I pushed for an order of ong choy.  I loved how the veggies weren't sitting in a big puddle of its own juices.  They must have been cooked at very very high heat.  I could never get my vegetables this way at home.

Read more »

Twenty Eight

So I first tried Top Chef finalist Shirley Chung's cooking at her pop up at The Playground 2.0.  I liked most of the food we had there, especially her hand cut noodles.  It was a pricey meal to say the least, but I like to support new talent and understand that sometimes you are paying, not just for the food, but the experience as well.  We all, Teety and Soprano Man included, have been patiently awaiting the opening of her very own restaurant in the strangest of locations, Irvine, California.  It's not in the hippest or happening part of Irvine either.  It's surrounded by offices and businesses.  I guess Shirley is trying to cater to the working crowd?  We convened here on a Friday night, but the restaurant was frankly dead.  BAD sign right?

Twice Cooked Pork Belly Buns steamed then fried, red braised pork belly, condensed milk
Soprano Man and I started out at the bar while we waited for Teety.  I was imagining the open faced white steamed buns with some thick yummy slabs of pork belly sandwiched in between, Momofuku style.  These were the actually buns like at dim sum, but deep fried which was a different twist.  The filling had an anise aroma which was another twist.  I also was not familiar with dipping these savory buns in condensed milk so I passed.  I think when dough is fried, the result should be something light and fluffy but these were too dense.  They weren't bad, but not good enough to order again.

Read more »

Capital Noodle Bar

The Irvine Asian food scene continues to grow with each passing year.  New eateries are popping up here and there.  A notable addition to the Chinese offerings here is Capital Noodle Bar, which is related to Capital Seafood.  The latter is Irvine's mediocre attempt at dim sum.  Sadly, I've been here many times because, frankly there ain't much else as far as dim sum is concerned.  I've never eaten the dinner food here, but I've not heard great things.  So my expectations for the noodle bar weren't that high.  However, after a couple visits, I think it's a good little addition to Irvine if you ignore the price tag.

Fried Fish Cake

Your standard fried fish cake.  Nicely served with pickled cabbage and carrots

Juicy Pork Dumplings

Not sure why Big Head Talks-A-Lot would order this here, of all places.  Not the best, but decent.

Read more »

Chuan's

My experience with Szechuan cuisine is pretty limited.  I've probably eaten it only a handful of times and I was never impressed or filled with a desire to go back for more.  I think people always mistake Szechuan food for being particularly spicy, which it's really not.  Though, my spice-O-meter may not be representative for the average person.  I can handle the heat.  Szechuan food is spicy in that numbing tingling Szechuan peppercorn spice.  It's a very specific kick to your tastebuds.  And it's hard to avoid it when your food is swimming in these peppercorns.

After Ho Bag and company (Crack, CrackBaby, Crack Baby Daddy, Bang Bang, Ever-Knee, Tall Steven, Short Steve, Always-Makes-Me-Laugh)  were sufficiently "pumpkin wasted" from pumpkin carving and noshing on awesome spiced pumpkin muffins, we chowed down like royalty at Chuan's.  We bypassed the crowd, waved to the manager like we were old friends, and ordered almost everything on the menu like we were starving Africans.  And when were still hungry after round 1, we ordered more.  It's like we owned the place, but really we were just a bunch of nobodies tagging along with a somebody, Tall Steven who had the hookups for this place.  

Snacks
I actually didn't get to try it.

Read more »

San Tung

People RAVE about San Tung.  "Best wings ever!" "Crack wings" "Hour long wait for the best meal of my life" blah blah blah.  You know this is just a set up for disappointment right?  I've had some mighty tasty wings in my life, Crisp in Chicago and Pok Pok in Portland.  The latter, being my favorite of the two places.  But Running Man and Triple F looooove San Tung and they are some heavy hitting foodies.  They catered the Twin Tornadoes one year birthday party with food from San Tung.  So the wings weren't piping fresh when I tried them, but I believe the flavor was still there and I was unimpressed.  Korean Chinese food is usually a cuisine I have difficulty appreciating.  It comes off as bad Chinese food, almost Americanized in its overly saccharine sweetness.  I'm sure its not meant to come off this way, I'm just not accustomed to its taste.

Dry Black Bean Sauce Noodles

This is actually one of the few dishes at Korean Chinese restaurants that I really like...when its done well.  Here it was just ok.  You'd imagine that a sauce so black and thick would be loaded with flavor, buuuut its really not, at least not this one.  The noodles could have been chewier, more al dente.  I really like the version at Dragon in LA.

Dry Sauteed String Beans

The beans were not good that night.  Save for that, it would have been your standard fare.

Read more »

Top Chef Shirley Chung Pop Up @ The Playground 2.0

I love Top Chef.  I love watching the food, the drama, the judges and contestants talking smack.  Unlike many of the other reality shows that churn out winners that don't amount to much after the ephemeral hoopla of the win passes through the minds of fans and viewers, many Top Chef winners have gone on to establish a strong presence in the culinary world, opening their own restaurants and garnering many awards. Shirley Chung did not win this last season of Top Chef, though many, including myself, thought she was a very strong contender and maybe should have won.  She herself even admitted that she "messed up" in the finale, but overall she was very thankful for the experience on the show because it really helped her "find herself."

In any case, it set her down a path to opening her own restaurant in little ole Irvine, California called "Twenty Eight" (the age she started cooking).  Why Irvine? I wouldn't really call this city an up and coming foodie town, so I'm just as confused as you.  It would have been a good question to ask Shirley, but between showing up late (like 5-10 minutes, apparently the rest of the diners who were white and had at least 20-30 years+ on me, didn't get the memo about Asian time) and Shirley's effusive excitement, it was just a flurry of eating, snapping pictures, and trying to catch every word of her explanations and background stories for each dish.

For the whopping price of $200, we were offered a 9 course tasting menu paired with drinks and inclusive of tip.  The hefty price tag might explain why the crowd was a bit more geriatric than one would expect for such a foodie event.  Really, who could throw down that kinda change?  Apparently Teety, myself, and 15 other old people!  Soprano Man had to work, *tear face*

So we didn't get the prime seats in the middle of the counter, but we still got plenty of love and attention from Shirley and and Jason Quinn (far right, chef/owner of The Playground).

Crispy Chicken Skin + Knee devil egg aioli

I'm not a huge fan of eggs, usually in breakfast format, and I'm gonna have to throw deviled eggs in that bag too.  Cooked egg yolks has such an unpalatable flavor to me since childhood.  I'll eat deviled eggs but I'll never fully love them.  Surprisingly this wasn't too yolky and was a nice complement to the crispy skin and cartilaginous knee.  A solid way to start, even for the anti-eggies.

Read more »

King Hua

Dim sum has to fall into the same category as sushi, for it's lack of varying descriptors.  Also, while all sushi looks the same, all dim sum looks the same as well.  As a result, dim sum isn't all that exciting to blog about, but I still do it because good dim sum deserves some attention.  King Hua isn't the best, but it's pretty good.  Maybe I don't know what the best is anymore, since my favorite place Sea Harbour Seafood has faltered in quality just a tad.  LoMa-Linda recommended some new places for me to try since the prices and wait times are high at Sea Harbour.  I agreed to try King Hua mostly because they serve milk buns, and I refuse to eat dim sum unless I can have my milk buns!  This meal was a special occasion since The Gunner (who needs a new name) and Perpetually Underwhelmed were visiting me from Portland.  I wanted to show them what was good about SoCal, and ain't nothing better here than the Asian food.

Siu Mai
Porky, juicy, plump.

Pan Fried Turnip Cake

Crispy exterior with bits of Chinese sausage smattered between chunks of moist cakey turnip.

Read more »

Kirin

Shanghai River was delicious, but I was really looking forward to the dim sum since that's all people talk about when it comes to Vancouver.  I recently had an argument with Weeners about how disappointing the dim sum was compared to my very favorite dim sum restaurant in Rosemead, Seafood Harbor.  She has almost certainly lost ALL credibility with me by dissing my favorite dim sum restaurant and actually saying the stuff in Vancouver is worth the trip.  The dim sum was solid for sure, but I guess I was expecting fireworks in my mouth.

Turnip Cakes
Standard far.  Not as hot as I would have liked.

Chinese Brocolli
Fresh, snappy, but pretty standard.

Read more »

Shanghai River

Our next dining destination in Vancouver was going to be West.  We thought one fancy dinner would be a nice highlight for the weekend.  When it came down to it, we felt a bit foolish not eating more Chinese food while in Vancouver.  I mean, it's called "Hong-Couver" right???  So at the last minute we cancelled our reservations at West and opted for Shanghai River.  Yelp directed me here during my search for "dumplings."  It's outside of Vancouver in the nearby suburb of Richmond.  Apparently, the suburbs of Vancouver are just teaming with the Ching Chong Chang-ers.

We were quite impressed at how new, modern, and clean the restaurant was.  You have to give it to Asians and their love for all things new and shiny.  I approve of such superficiality!

Like Din Tai Fung, they show you the dumplings being made.  The big difference is that slanty eyed people are making your dumplings here and not some Hispanics.  Not that I feel there is any difference, but maybe its harder to come by Hispanics this far north.

Read more »

Michelle's Pancakes

Michelle's Pancakes is a restaurant that's been around for a few years I think, but the reviews on Yelp were never that impressive.  It's located in the same plaza as Luscious Dumpling, so maybe it gets some overflow from them.  When I attempt Luscious Dumpling, I just make the commitment to wait and wait and wait and wait.  It was only after being smacked in the face by the hour long wait for dinner at Din Tai Fung on a Sunday night when Luscious Dumpling is closed that we decided to go for Michelle's Pancakes.  Lo Ma-Linda and Big Head Talks ALot, being "anything Asian-philes" graciously joined us for our first meal of the new year.

Pickled Cabbage
Spicy and sweet.

Pickled Cucumbers
I'm not sure if you can tell, but these were some sad limp cucumbers.  Flavor was ok.

Read more »

PPQ Dungeness Island

I apologize for my long break from the blogger world.  The holidays left me with little time to blog.  I was flying back and forth from Portland to LA during my time off, and when I get to LA all I do is eat and hang out without much time for blogging.  Plus, a lot of my free time has been spent trying to plan The Big Day.  Although it's quite a ways away, I like to peruse the internet seeing all the wonderful possibilities.  It's amazing to think what life would be like without the internet.

I still have to finish up blogging about my SF trip so many moons ago.  After Bottega and Gary Denko, were done with the White Man's food, and really need to color things up a shade of yellow.  Dim sum at Hong Kong Lounge really hit the spot and we wanted to keep the momentum going.  Weeners recommended PPQ which turned out to be disappointingly mediocre so I'm going to have to reconsider her recommendations from here on out.   PPQ is really know for their crab and garlic noodles.  I'm not sure if the restaurant is Vietnamese or Chinese since the food is sorta Chinese, but there is Vietnamese on the menu.  We decided to go off the set menu stuff and order a la carte.  Maybe thats where we went wrong because none of the things were ordered were very good.

Papaya Salad with Shrimp
I love papaya salad, but I didn't like this.  It was just sorta bland.  It lacked an adequate amount of acid or even salt. It was just a sweet bland taste.  The shrimp were flavorless.  The papaya had a good crunch I suppose, but the flavoring left much to be desired.

Fish Mau and Crabmeat Soup
Nothing spectacular going on here.  Not large pieces of anything that I could identify as being seafood.

Read more »

Hainanese Chicken & Rice

Dumpling Man really likes Hainan Chicken & Rice.  It's a pretty simple dish that I usually cheat to make since I never wanted to attempt poaching my own chicken and making my own rice.  So I've used various versions of this pre-made seasoning in a jar over the years, and Dumpling Man has always been pleased.  All you do is add a couple scoops to your rice and then pop it in the rice cooker.  As for the chicken, I usually season it and slather it with some ginger and steam it. 

Anyways, I decided to hunker down and do it all from scratch.  Watching the episode of No Reservations, when Anthony Bourdain visits Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken and Rice Stand in Singapore, was the final push to try and do it.  They showed the process of poaching the chicken and using the poaching liquid to make an aromatic delicious rice.  I found an easy enough recipe at Steamy Kitchen.

So when my mom makes bun thanh, which is a kind of Vietnamese chicken noodle soup dish, she says it should be made with a free range chicken.  She's not very clear on why, but it's supposed to be better.  This recipe too, called for a free range chicken.


I have no idea how many pounds the chicken was, but by my guestimation it was at least 4 lbs?

Read more »

Hong Kong Lounge

So after many wonderful meals in San Francisco (Gary Denko, Ferry Building, Bottega), the H.o.P. was honestly itching for something else.  The H.o.P always gravitates back to our one true love, the complex multi faceted cuisine of Asia.  What better way to satisfy that craving than with some good ole dim sum.  Hands down, Seafood Harbour in Rosemead has got to be THE best dim sum this side of the Pacific.  I haven't had dim sum in Hong Kong, but the rest of the H.o.P. can confirm this.  So far, my experience with dim sum in the Bay Area has been just ok.  Better than anything in Orange County, but nothing that knocks your socks off.  A true dim sum experience cannot be complete without some rude, pushy, and loud Cantos.  You know what I'm talking about.  They smell like mothballs and old closets, they squawk and squabble like wild chickens, and shoving and cutting you off comes as second nature to them.  Haha, I joke, right?  These are the people of Dumpling Man.  He says my people live 10 people to 1 room and are ghetto beyond all ghetto.  Ah, to each his own...

Xiao Long Bao
Tasty and pretty juicy.

Har Gow
Pretty large pieces of shrimp.

Read more »

Du Kuh Bee

Aside from dumplings, Portland is also lacking good Korean food.  I'm sure nothing compares to LA's Koreatown except Korea itself.  It's amazing how Korean food used to be something so foreign and weird tasting to something I really love.  I guess it's cuz I have a penchant for stinky things and Korean food is full of that.  Anyways, Du Kuh Bee isn't a true Korean place, but rather a Korean-Chinese place, maybe?  I'm not sure.  They are known for these delicious fresh hand pulled noodles.  I've never seen anything like that in any Korean restaurant.  But then they serve kimchi and galbi.  And then they have mapo tofu and fried rice.  Go figure.  Du Kuh Bee is seriously like one little Korean family running a little kitchen.  Service is on the slow side because dad pulls the noodles and mom does everything else.  Don't go if you're starving.

Kimchi
Nom nom nom

Dumplings
Pretty standard.

Read more »

Din Tai Fung (Seattle)

Portland is a nice place to live.  The people are nice.  There's not much traffic.  Most everything you want is here sans tax (there's a Target and/or Trader Joe's every which way you turn!).  The very obvious thing it is lacking is great Asian food, especially good dumplings.  Lucky for us, the world famous Din Tai Fung has opened up a new outpost!........................in Seattle. 

Now we don't have to fly to get our dumpling fix!  We need only drive 2.5 hours one way, so that we can wait another 1 hour for a table, and then fight the food coma back to Portland another 2.5 hours, while maintaining a keen watch out for cops trying to stick you with a speeding ticket for going over 65mph.  No joke.  Who would attempt such a ridiculous trip?  On a whim no less?  Well, that would be Dumpling Man and his trusty sidekick, moi. 

The restaurant is located in Bellevue, which seems to be a pretty posh area of Seattle.  Din Tai Fung is in the top level of a new, modern, non-Asian, non-ethnic, All-American shopping complex with a Nordstroms, Crate & Barrel, and PF Chang's.  It's on the same floor as Lucky Strike.  Yes folks, you can bowl and get your dumpling on at the same time!

It seems like they've spared no expense at this outpost of DTF.  It's a striking contrast to the cramped quarters of DTF in Taiwan.  This one is sprawling with high ceilings and modern finishings.  It's easily double the size of the 2nd Arcadia location and even has a private room with an all glass wall and door.

The stand out feature of this location is the full stock bar where you can wait for your table or even eat.

And of course, the droves of hispanics industriously working the dumpling line.

Read more »

101 Noodle Express (Lu Wei Ju)

We all know Irvine is missing a solid dumpling and noodle house.  A&J makes a decent attempt, but it still leaves a big void.  I mean, if I knew how to make awesome dumplings, I would totally open up a joint in Irvine because I knew it would win big.  I'm talking lines out the door folks!!  Let's step outside my imagination for now, and talk about Irvine's newest dumpling and noodle house, 101 Noodle Express.

101 Noodle Express' original location in Alhambra has been on the SGV dumpling scene for a long time.  Unfortunately, Dumpling Man and I were not particularly impressed with anything there when we tried it many moons ago.  Somehow, transplanting the restaurant to Irvine has changed my opinion.  Maybe because there's just not many options in Irvine when it comes to noodles and dumplings.

Cold Mix of Cucumbers
We all know I love a good pickled vegetable, and cucumbers are no exception.  These were a tad on the sugary side but it was refreshing for a warm summer lunch. 

De Zhou Chicken
Apparently this dish is quite special at 101 Noodle Express.  De Zhou chicken is a special dish from the Shandong region of China.  The bird is first deep fried before it is braised in spices, soy sauce, and sugar.  The dish here was served cold with a soy dipping sauce.  It was pretty darn flavorful and moist.  Surely something I would order again.

Read more »

WP24

You know that saying, "It's all about who you know"?  It's not just a statement for the job seekers, business whores, and budding actors/musicians/artists of this world.  For the last few years, I have been to some nice restaurants for FREE because I roll with King Arthur and his entourage.  It's a difficult status to attain, but I have managed to maintain a firm position within this "inner circle" of eaters and intellects (my euphemisms for gluttons and nerds).  Being an outsider, I feel that one has to prove one's worth to join The King's possy.  Of course, you better like to eat, and you better be damn amusing.  The King does not employ any jesters in his court for this very reason!

This was probably my last gratis dinner with The King and his crew, Teety, Soprano Man, and Chops (previously known as Ms. Chatty Cathy).  The Pouter had more important people to dine with that evening (who could be more important than The King?), and The Attending, let's just say we've gone our separate ways.  One for good and the other for evil.  Haha...jk?

Santa Barbara Spot Prawn Toast sweet ginger chili sauce
Compliments of the chef, this was the first of 2 amuse bouche to kick start the evening.  We were all sooo hungry by this point.  Shrimp and crispy!

Curried Seafood Turnover
These were sorta like seafood empanadas.  I didn't think they were as tasty as the shrimp toasts.  

Read more »

Feng Mao Mutton Kebab

Who knew there were Chinese people in Ktown?!  I surely did not, but slowly I have come across a few native Koreans who grew up in China or vice versa.  I've had my fare share of Chinese-Korean food, mostly in the form of jja jiang myun at Dragon Restaurant.  For some reason, another popular Chinese-Korean dish is sweet and sour pork.  I can't really understand why, since it tastes like Americanized Chinese food.  Anyways, I digress, since I'm here to talk about a whole different food experience when it comes to the genre of Chinese-Korean cuisine, namely mutton!

Mutton?  No, that's not dog meat, but rather sheep.  Apparently lamb is meat of a sheep in its first year, while mutton is adult sheep.  At Feng Mao, they specialize in grilled meat skewers, varying from mutton, of course, to chicken, beef, and all sorts of offal.

Ban Chan
What Korean meal would be complete without some side dishes?  The offering wasn't very extensive here and I was really craving something to vary up the taste of grilled meats in my mouth.

Gye Gran Jjim egg custard soup
Pretty standard.

Gun Bae or Gan Bay?  Who cares?  Drink up!

Skewered Meat mutton, chicken, beef, kidney, heart
Some reviews recommended 10 skewers per person.  Sounds like a lot right?  I can't remember how many I ate, but it's like eating popcorn, you just pop 'em in your mouth and before you know they're all gone!  I don't think I ate quite as many as 10, but I'm damn sure The Bottomless Pit had his fair share.

Read more »