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.

SinBala Taiwanese Restaurant

SinBala Taiwanese Restaurant


651 W. Duarte Rd, Suite #F
Arcadia, Ca 91007
(626) 446-0886

So, Sunday, May 31, 2009, my sister was craving food from SinBala in Arcadia, so my mom and I agreed to go after walking about in the mall. (I was feeling hungry, so I would have agreed to almost anything).

Parking: This shopping center has a lot of happening eateries, shops, and an Asian market, so with that, you can assume, depending on the time that you go, that parking is horrendous and horrible. When we went, it was about 5:00 PM, so parking was really easy and simple.

Restaurant: If you have never been here, the place is pretty small, but the turnover is pretty fast. there are a few seats outside (I will say about 8) and they probably can seat about 20 people inside?

Though it was 5:00 PM, SinBala was still really busy. Why? I am not sure, but a lot of people were chilling out and eating Taiwanese shaved ice, so it was probably not the dinner crowd. We put our name on the list and waited to be seated.

Service: Fast and when they are not too busy, they are pretty nice, but at other times I have gone, the service was not so great. This time, it was good.

Food:

Spicy Beef Noodle Soup
Stewed beef chunks (tendon included) with noodles in soup. Topped with green onions, veggies, and pickled veggies.

The taste: The beef is moist and usually falls apart, but there are the few days when it is soft, but not as soft as it could be. This was one of those times. The flavor was really delicious though and despite the fact that it was a spicy soup, that chili flavor did not mask the flavor of the beef soup, which I like. I always think it is funny though when you get to the bottom of the bowl and all you see are the chili seeds. The noodles look kind of home made, but not the really long flat ones, and were not mushy. Nothing worse than mushy noodles.

Chicken Cold Noodles

Noodles, cucumbers, dark meat chicken, 7 strands of carrots, sesame sauce, chili oil, and garlic and vinegar mix.

Taste: This was just okay. Nothing fantastic. First of all, it is packaged in a to go take out box, so I questioned how long it was sitting there. The flavor of the sauce was definitely not really strong even though it completely covered all of the ingredients and you could not tell what each thing was. I do not think I would order this again, but if I forget, then maybe I will.

Chicken Cold Noodles - mixed

Spicy Wontons

Taste: Literally translated to "red oil stir fried hands," these little wontons are tasty morsels of meat and shrimp. It is the sauce that usually makes of breaks it. I usually like the sauce, but others disagree. My sister did not care of the sauce for this because (1) it was not that spicy and (2) there was a lot of garlic in it. I like garlic, so I was okay with it and the sauce was good mixed into the cold noodles as well. I like the celery pieces they put in to add a little crunch to it.

Spicy Wontons - It looks like there is a lot of sauce on it, but here you can see the little minced garlic.

Small Steamed Pork Buns

Taste: Juicy meat dumplings. Personally, I think these are better than the ones at Din Tai Fung and they are a lot cheaper. Thin skin, juicy pork, but I wish there was a little more of the soupy goodness inside the package XD

Pork chop Rice Plate
Crispy Pork chops with veggies, egg, and rice.

Taste: I think that Taiwanese food has a bit of a sweet taste to everything even though it should be salty (not that it is not, but sweet is not what you would think of for a rice dish). The pork chops were lightly battered and fried to a crisp. The batter has a sweet and salty taste to it and it just really works with the rice. The eggs are scrambled. The corn mix has carrots and peas and is probably a frozen vegetable mix, also with a sweet taste. The broccoli was nice and green and crisp and again...sweet. If this sounds strange to you, you have to try it. It just really works. I don't really know how to explain it, but this is a very delicious dish, minus the peas. XD

Overall, this place is really good if you are craving Taiwanese food with quick service, but keep in mind, if you go at prime times, prepare for a wait.

Stinky Tofu

Stinky tofu is a popular snack food in Taiwan, Indonesia, and China and one of my favorite foods.

What is it? Fermented tofu, and as the name suggests, it can possibly clear a room.

How is it made? According to Wikipedia, the tofu is marinated in a brine of fermented milk, vegetables, and meat (which could also include dried shrimp, mustard green, bamboo shoots, and Chinese herbs) for as long as several months.

How can it be eaten? Cold, steamed, stewed, or fried, which is the most common. Served with chili sauce and pickled vegetables.

Stinky Tofu in HotPot

Interesting fact: The color varies from the golden fried Zhejiang-style (YUM) to the black typical of Hunan-style (possibly the one seen in Bizarre Foods - Taiwan. That brine was awfully black).

Fried Stinky Tofu

The smell: Okay, so this is totally my own opinion, but I don't think that the stinky tofu that is found in the United States is THAT stinky, though I have friends that would disagree.

Incident 1: Once, my friend and I ordered a plate and my other 2 friends thought about trying it. So, the plate gets to the table and my one friend says, "OMG it smells so bad. Eat it fast so it will leave the table." Needless to say, she did not try it. This was the fried tofu mind you.

Incident 2: I went to this little Taiwanese restaurant in the San Gabriel Valley area and my dad and I discovered that they had steamed stinky tofu. Every time we went, we would order it and usually there were a lot of older Asian people there that didn't say anything about the smell. This one time, a 20 something Asian guy and his 3 Hispanic friends came in to enjoy some dumplings and noodle soup. We had already ordered the stinky tofu and I swear, those 4 guys reactions totally amused me. They first began whispering, then one got up and casually opened the door, but that plan failed because the waitress saw it opened and closed it right away, but they kept trying. They talked about the smell and hoped that my dad and I would leave, but we just sat there, taking our time...eating and laughing at them. I know it was mean, but it was just too funny.

The taste: I personally think that the fried tofu has a surprisingly mild flavor as compared to the smell, but then again, I have a friend that would disagree. So, my other friend from "incident 1" was willing to try it, and I give him props for trying. He put it in his mouth, chewed and spat it out. He said that stink permeated to his brain and it tasted like he was eating sewer. I personally don't think it tastes like that at all, but everyone is entitled to their opinions.

Places to eat Stinky Tofu in California (that I know of):

1. Shinbala, Cupertino, CA - so good that my family ordered 4 plates the last time! The sauce is really good (some garlic in it) and it is lightly fried. It feels really light when you eat it.

20956 Homestead Rd

Cupertino, Ca 95014

(408) 257-6868

Hours: Mon., Wed-Sun. 11:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Really good pork chop rice too!

2. A&J, San Jose, CA - service was pretty crummy, but the steamed stinky tofu was good. Only my dad and I could stomach this.

1698 Hostetter Rd, Ste D

San Jose, CA 95131

(408) 441-8168

3. Yung Ho, San Gabriel, CA - the tofu is more dense than Shinbala, but if you are craving it, it is a quick fix.

1045 E Valley Blvd
#A105
San Gabriel, CA 91776

(626) 280-9317

Hours: Mon-Sun. 7:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

4. Boiling Point, Monterey Park, CA - Stinky tofu in hot pot. Good on really cold nights.

153 Garvey Ave

Monterey Park, Ca 91755

(626) 288 - 9876

I want to try:

Taiwanese stinky tofu on a stick from street vendors!