Kong Kee Food Corp, the place on the corner of Bowery and Grand St, where they sell bags of tofu and noodles outside on the street. I’ve bought a bag of their rice noodles before and it was delicious. But I have never walked inside and try any of their food before. Everytime I walk by, I see a pretty packed house with many people with their heads down either slurping noodles or eating their rice boxes. “One day” I always tell myself.

Finally that one day has come! I walked in to a counter full of noodles and tofu and towards the left side was a steamed table. Above was the menu with Chinese and English. I asked for a beef brisket noodle and the lady said they were out of it. Then she offered me something from the steamed table. I said sure give me whatever. So she took out a huge container and started to scoop up rice noodles then topped with off with briskets and turnips. I grabbed a seat by the windows, facing Bowery St. For $3.50 this was a lot of food and super delicious. The briskets weren’t super tender but they were alright. What was delicious were the silky silver needle noodles. Like oh wow! They were a little too soft for being sitting in the soup for too long but wow so good. And mixed in with the noodles were little cubes of spam and shredded pickled cabbage.

I will definitely go back to try their other noodles and maybe hopefully go earlier than 2pm.

- Kong Kee 240 Grand St., corner of Grand St. and Bowery St.

Are you hung-ry for Hung Ry? It’s hard not to make puns of this restaurant name. My friend Hong-An and I did exchange few emails with just sad Hung Ry puns.

Hung Ry, the new hand-pulled noodle place is exactly what I hate about restaurants. Making damn simple Chinese food expensive, like $15 for a bowl of chicken noodles! I can get the same thing plus a plate of fried dumplings times 2 and still pay less than what I had to pay at Hung Ry. BUT the food at Hung Ry was pretty damn delicious.

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Continuing to satisfy my crave for dumplings and noodles, My mom and I went to one of the restaurants that was praised for their delicious dumplings. Haven’t been back for over 2 years, I was hoping the quality of the dumplings hasn’t gone down.

Hoping to have missed the lunch rush I got there close to 2pm but there were still a lot of people eating and waiting. All I could do was put my name down and wait. After about 15mins 1 of the 2 top was leaving. Once the table was cleared off we sat down. While waiting for our table we already looked through the menu. Also I knew exactly what I wanted before stepping into the restaurant.

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Ok, for the longest ass time I had no idea that there was a Thai Town. Then when I knew there was a Thai Town, I had no idea where it was. But finally I can say, I have visited and eaten in Thai Town. I feel I’m one step closer to being a local?

Though I have to give thanks to Mr.Midtownlunch, Zach Brooks, for helping me checking “eat in Thai Town” off my list. We were set to have a Thai Town lunch crawl and started off at Spicy BBQ on Santa Monica Blvd. along with his friend, who was writing an article about Thai Town. Once I got to Spicy BBQ, I found Zach and his friend, Kaite, outside checking their phones. Apparently Spicy BBQ wasn’t opened so we needed plan b. Plan b was Siam Sunset. It was mentioned on LA Weekly that it was the “Thai-est Thai restaurant in Thai Town”. I have never been to Thailand so I can’t say if this statement is true so I guess I’ll just have to take Mr.Gold’s words for it.

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Ever since I got back to LA, I’ve been craving for dumplings and noodles. Dumplings and noodles, dumplings and noodles, dumplings and noodles my mind and stomach would chant evveeerrryyyyy freeeaaaaakkkiiinnnn ddaaaaayyyyy. Yep, seriously. I’m not sure what is it about going home that makes me crave for Chinese food maybe it has something to do with the plethora of Chinese restaurants in LA? Also the obvious thing is that it is way cheaper there than here in NYC.

I’ve been to Shanghai Bamboo House few years ago at its old location. My friends took me there because they serve this crazy good dish, a giant braised pork knuckle. The meat and fat were so tender and crazily juicy. Give me just that and few bowls of rice and I’ll be set.

So after few years I was back. The new location was bigger but sadly the food didn’t really improve, some of the dishes weren’t so great actually.

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We all know that we shouldn’t judge anything by it’s cover. But once in a while it’s just hard not to. JJ Noodle House in Rowland Heights, from the outside looks like any other cheap crappy Chinese place in the area. Didn’t really help that the windows were darken. But if you do decide to take a leap of faith and walk into JJ, you will be pleasantly surprised and be rewarded with 1 of the best meal you’ll ever have.

I have said many times that good Chinese food, the place has to be dirty. Dirty floors, crappy chairs and bad lighting. JJ was the total opposite. Bright, clean and leather seatings. Yeah leather seats! Situated inside a plaza, yes a plaza(!), typical LA style yo, in Rowland Heights it didn’t really stand out compared to the other bigger louder restaurants. Actually the first time when we tried to look for it, we couldn’t find it and ended up going to another Chinese restaurant, which I’ll blog about it later.

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Like I mentioned in my previous post that my friends’ parents had moved to the Sonoma County, 40mins north of SF. That’s where I stayed for the rest of my time in NorCal.

Ana’s Cafe & Espresso

The 1st morning Matt had told me about this pretty damn good place for breakfast burrito, a short walk from the house. Being vacation and all we actually didn’t leave the house till during lunch time. Ana’s Cafe & Espresso was inside a tiny plaza, next to a pet store. When we walked a lady was sitting at 1 of the table reading the newspapers. Wasn’t sure if she was Ana or not. She quickly got up and took our orders. Lucky for us, breakfast burrito seem to be an all day thing. About the size of your forearm and weighs as much as a fat cat, the breakfast burrito came with eggs, cheese and other fillings. I got mine with chorizo and potatoes.

I was pretty excited to dig into this monster but being cautious I only ate half of it, planned to eat the rest for a late night snack. The burrito was okay, didn’t really taste the chorizo and it was mostly potatoes.

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