Tasty Noodle House, San Gabriel

Tasty Noodle House

827 W. Las Tunas Dr.
San Gabriel, Ca 91776
(626) 284-8898

Okay, so this little hole in the wall restaurant replaced my awesome steamed stinky tofu place that I talked about in the stinky tofu entry. SAD. Why did I go there? I was not 100% sure it had changed. I was actually hoping that they remodeled a bit, but the food was the same. Alas, it was not.

Okay, so I drive to this little place and I have to say, I was kind of excited even though I really dislike that parking lot area. Since Golden Deli and Newport Seafood are located in that same plaza, the parking can be pretty horrific on some days, but luckily it was not too bad when my friends and I got there.

The restaurant probably only seats about 20 people at a time (maybe less) and the service seemed to be pretty quick. The waitress was pretty friendly and suggesting a bunch of things on the menu. The problem was the fact that the waitress did not speak much English and none of us spoke Mandarin, so it was really hard understanding her and because of it, we accidentally agreed to order some dong gua drink.

$1.80 dong gua drink
(This drink sadly tasted like rock sugar disssolved in water.)
Dong gua is a winter melon gourd. It is a fruit that is good cooked in soups or with meat/poultry. Since it is a winter melon, the outer skin is inedible, unlike their summer counter parts, such as zucchini.

Looking at the menu was a little difficult as well because we did not really know what anything was. I stuck with the safe route and ordered the 2 things I usually order at these little places:

Dan Dan noodles
Asked for extra spicy and it was not hot at all, but that was okay becase the flavor of the ground pork sauce was really good.

Spicy wontons
Not spicy (though you can see all the chil oil that it was swimming in), but I did enjoy the texture of the wonton skins.

My friend did not know what she wanted so I suggested getting the spicy beef noodle soup since she had tried that at some other place that we went to.

Spicy Beef Noodles

This dish was good. The soup was really flavorful, but seeing all the oil at the top bothered me a bit. I thought it was funny too because my friend does not eat a lot of meat just left all her meat in the bowl and my other friend ate it so that not to waste food.

My other friend, on the other hand, went for something new and what sounded kind of interesting. It was a beef soup with vegetables and what did he get?

EGG FLOWER SOUP?! Where's the BEEF?!
It was seriously like egg flower soup XD There were pieces of minced beef and the western vegetables they put in were corn and...cucumbers? HAHA at least he got his beef from my friend wasting her meat from her noodles.

Overall, I would go back for the dan dan noodles and I would try the buns the waitress was harping about, but next time I have to remember to bring a mandarin speaker or else I will have trouble ordering again XD

Healthy/Tasty Dessert, San Gabriel

Healthy/Tasty Dessert

250 W. Valley Blvd, Suite #A
San Gabriel, Ca 91776
(626) 282-8263

This is an Asian dessert and snack place. Now, looking at the name, I bet you are thinking what makes these desserts healthy. Well, let us see.

Most of the desserts here have a lot of fruit. There are fruit puddings, fruit drinks, and other fruit desserts. Well fruit is good for you, but there are other desserts on the menu that have no fruit. Are those healthy? Well, out of all honesty, I do not think that any dessert is healthy and the fact that fruit has so much natural sugar, well that is a diabetics nightmare. No, this is probably not how they got their name. Reason number two: They have a harsmar topping for their desserts. What is that? Let us explore.

Name: Harsmar, hasma, hashima
What is it used for?: it is a Chinese dessert ingredient.
What is it made of?: The dried fallopian tubes of true frogs, usually the Asiatic grass frog. LOVELY~ reproductive organs.
How is it cooked?: re-hydrated and then boiled with rock sugar
Look/texture: gelatinous and opaque in color; chewy and light
Taste: usually no taste, but it is sweet from the sugar
Health benefits: According to wikipedia, harsmar supposedly replenishes the vital essence in the lungs, kidneys, and improving skin complexion. It is also supposed to treat respiratory symptoms like coughing and night swats caused by tuberculosis. But with all good things, there are some warnings, such as young children should not consume this for it may cause early puberty. Funny...I thought that there was a biological aspect to it as well.

Was it tasty? Let us look at the food, shall we...

Spicy crispy chicken
Nice and crispy. I liked the hot peppers that were in it. The only thing I did not like was the burnt flakes if chili and green onions. It was distracting and I could taste the char.

Coconut mango with purple sticky rice and Harsmar

My friend ordered this because she felt like eating something light.

LOOK! It looks so THICK and DENSE

My icy fruit dessert

I forgot what this was called, but it was basically watermelon, mango, kiwi, strawberry, melon balls, and shaved ice. On the bottom of the bowl, there was sago (tapioca) and it was swimming in watermelon juice. YUM. It was pricey but oh so refreshing. Definitely not that healthy, but good especially on a hot day.

YUMMY!

Overall, this place has a pretty fun atmosphere. The tables are Asian wooden tables with stools. I find them very uncomfortable, so I would not want to sit there for that long, but every once in a while, coming here and hanging out is okay.