Yang Chow: Woodland Hills’ Best Bet for Chinese February 26, 2008
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Yang Chow Restaurant
Location: 6443 Topanga Canyon Blvd (Cross Street: Victory Boulevard)
Woodland Hills, CA 91303-2621
Phone Number: (818) 347-2610
To make a long story short: No gas money to go to Chinatown? This is the next best thing.
Whenever I drive around LA I sit there and completely cringe at gas prices. $3-fucking 15 for one gallon of the shitty stuff?! No wonder we haven’t been able to do a proper update! We can’t even afford to gas up our cars let alone get something to eat!
A couple of Sundays ago since I haven’t seen my bestfriend Pat in a while, we decided to have a day together of impulse shopping and since we find the food at the Topanga Plaza completely overrated, we decided to go to Yang Chow a block away from the mall.
The place is pretty big and very bright; white walls, pastel colored chairs and tablecloth, etc. But the first thing that caught my attention was the walls covered with Zagat awards and autographs of B List celebs (which is still always cool to me).
What to Order: Two words: Slippery Shrimp
Flash fried butterflied shrimp coated in flour and then covered with a sweet sauce. Garlicky, slightly crunchy, always reliable and always comes hot and fresh to the table. I can’t help but put the first piece in my mouth and then spit it out, burn my tongue and then re-put it in my mouth and eat it. They’re not skimpy with the seafood either. You really get what you pay for.
I also got their 3 Flavor Chow Mein, and unlike other Chinese restaurants, their noodles are thick and crispy instead of skinny and decorated with vegetables, crab, beef and chicken. The sauce isn’t too salty or shalacked in soy sauced, it’s perfect.
My friend Patrick got their Beef with Oyster Sauce and honestly it was your run of the mill beef with brown sauce dish-nothing really special. If anything it actually tasted bland to me but maybe it would be better if I had it the next time.
Service: 8 out of 10. Their service really is attentive. Guys always coming by and refilling your drinks and if you’re a camel like Patrick and I that’s definitely a plus
Chinatown-New York Style September 25, 2006
Posted by foodies in Cash Only, Chinese, Outisde Los Angeles.add a comment
Chanoodle Restaurant
Location: 79 Mulberry St., New York 10013 (Btwn Bayard & Canal St.)
Phone: 212-349-1495
One of the places that I’ve wanted to visit in New York was Chinatown. The last time I was in New York I was about 4 years old and honestly don’t even remember if I went there or not, but I did want to go and experience the hustle and bustle. I love the smells of the spices and the scent of vases and rugs. There’s something about that scent that takes me back to when I was 5 years old eating an egg custard pie, wearing MaryJanes and playing with toy guns chasing my brother throughout the streets of Chinatown. So therefore, I was definately psyched to be walking the streets down there.
Peter and I were real lucky to find this place. Since we did not know where to eat we pretty much relied on how American friendly, clean and if there were ANY newspaper clipping from the Times or the Voice and Chanoodle had both!
The place is a bit small for a Chinese restaurant. Only several 4-top tables. The menu however is very vast and American-friendly at the same time.
Service: 8 out of 10. The staff was very cordial. I figure if you go to big cities such as Vegas or NY, the staff should always be nice, but this staff was extremely nice. They even boxed the leftovers, which is always a plus!
What to Get: First of all, I order several dishes that I always have to get, and the first and foremost that I got was their peking duck. Since it was only Peter and I, we got the half order. To tell you the truth the half order is enough, even for 3 people. The set up was very nice; a plate of thinly sliced meat and skin and another steamed dish of buns and a bowl of hoisin sauce and scallions. The best part was that the waitress even made the duck right at our table!
Peter was loving their fried rice. The one thing that I really did love was that they used white meat. Yeah, I like white meat more than dark. Like my men! (J/K!) Anyway, Peter said that he really loved it because they didn’t have carrots.
I also got their House Special Chow mein. Their noodles were crunchy and hot, but unfortunately the sauce needed more salt. It was bland.
Things to Know:
- Cash ONLY.
- There are TONS of great little shops to visit!
Ohhh….exotic fruits in Chinatown…ah shit, I feel like Rachel Ray
- Like Chinatown, but hate the food? Little Italy is just a few blocks away!
An Italian firehydrant?
The sites and shirts of Little Italy. Yes, a little picture crazy.
More Asian food- this time it’s Dim Sum September 23, 2006
Posted by starbright31 in Chinese.add a comment
Empress Pavilion
Location: 988 N. Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 (Inside the Chinatown Bamboo Plaza)
I don’t have dim sum often. I’m usually too impatient for it because I always have courses set in my mind everytime I have Chinese food. From my past experiences with dim sum, I hated having to wait for particular carts to come over to my table just so I can have what I want.
I went to Empress Pavilion two or three years ago. I wasn’t impressed at all. My mom and I were sat all the way towards the windows, and the only cart that would constantly pass by would be the dessert cart. This strengthened my dislike of dim sum.
A couple of weeks ago, my family decided to have lunch at Chinatown. We were supposed to go to one of our favorites, Full House, which happens to be right across the street from Empress Pavillion. This last-minute decision to switch to Empress Pavillion turned out to be great in the end because it was definitely one of the best dim sum meals I’ve ever had.
Everything was a lot better than I expected, with the exception of the mango pudding dessert (as shown on the last picture). All the pork dishes were juicy, but not too fatty. I had chicken feet for the first time (first picture) and it wasn’t as gross as I thought it would’ve been. You’re basically eating the skin, but what feels weird is when you’re eating and the bones are falling apart inside, and the bones clearly feel like fingers.
Service: 6.5 out of 10. Since we were seated in the middle of the restaurant, we had all the good carts pass by. But when we wanted to order from the menu so I could get some chow mein, it wasn’t easy to get a hold of our server. And the refills for water weren’t as often as I would’ve liked them to be.
The bill came around to a little bit over $100 which was very reasonable considering there was five of us and my brother already has the appetite of two people sometimes anyway.
Tip
- There’s a lot of great shopping inside this structure the restaurant’s in. Sure there’s some generic Chinese trinkets around there, but I found a really cool store on the third floor that sells cute Paul Frank items.
Going Chinese and Doing Denny’s April 27, 2006
Posted by foodies in Cash Only, Cheap, Chinese, Food Memories, Late Night Eats, Places to go when you're drunk.3 comments
Restaurant:
Sam Woo
Location:
6450 Sepulveda Blvd # G, Van Nuys, Ca
Type of Food:
Chinese
Price:
Varies. And this is important: CASH ONLY. You could be cheap, but you could be spending a lot depending on how many is in your party. My mom and I only spent $20 in all, which included tip.
I love the day after tests–Especially when you pass them. And especially when you don't have work, school or jack-shit for that matter. So imagine my chagrin when I was frying a piece of bologna and my Mom comes in and asks if I want to go to lunch with her.
Pictured: Having tea with my mom and writing a letter to my bestfriend/new NY penpal Peter
…Ah yes. Sam Woo. Everyone in the Valley knows this is the place to go when you don't want to make that trek to Chinatown. Located next to the ginormous 99 Asian Ranch Market on Sepulveda and Victory this is a safe bet whenever someone always suggest Chinese.
Pictured from top to bottom: Beef with Ginger and Onions. Squid with Spicy Salt
It was nice. I haven't been home much with school, work, Capoeira and hanging out with my friends so it was a nice change of pace. Lots of neutral non-invasive conversation, (but honestly, why would there be?) and the best part about going to eat with the 'rents? They always pick up the tab! Since it was just my mom and me, we only we up for ordering 2 dishes: Beef with Ginger and Onions & Squid with Spicy Salt. It's pretty packed during lunch time. The food still came out fast and hot. I think I even burned my lip on the beef. Tons of different soup that's served then too, but the only wonton soup that I'll ever eat will be my mom's.
And usually, after, we walked only 5 ft. to 99 Asian Ranch Market where my Mom had to buy party supplies for my cousin's kid's birthday.
Yes, I know, this isn't a food picture, but I can't help it. She's cute. I challenge anyone who has cuter. But back to everything else. Usually whenever I come along and my Mom is waiting at the Meat Section to be helped I can usually be seen wandering around.
What the hell is this?
Century Old Eggs, anyone?
After that I pretty much went home and continued with the Asian-ness and watched "Memoir of a Geisha" which is not that bad. What can I say? I guess I'm a sucker for stylized film. My only concern was the fact that they were all speaking English. If you were in whatever-the-hell-century it is Japan wouldn't you speak, oh I don't know…Japanese?! But so anyway, after that and after I came back from Capoeira and got out of the shower, my friends Liz and Hannah come pick me up and we have late-late dinner.
Restaurant:
Denny's
Type of Food:
Late-night American
Location:
17018 Devonshire St., Northridge, CA
*shudder* Denny's. Open forever. This place other than rats and cockroaches will be the only thing standing after Nuclear War. I keep wondering why I never come here sober and once I'm done with my meal this is the reason: It's sucks. It's one of the Top 10 of fucking love-hate realtionships I have next to Jack Black and the I-405 Freeway. I never know what the hell I want, and don't get me wrong. The place doesn't SUCK that much, but when I'm coherent sometimes I'm also not that rational.
I've told people about how I've felt about Taco Bell and the same analogy (And quite possibly one of the best and wittiest analogies I've ever thought of) applies to Denny's:
It's like an ex-significant other.
When you're pressed for time, or there aren't that many options that you can think, or if you're lazy you go there and once you're there you're like, "Yeah!" and when you get it, you can't wait to get in there and be all up in that.
But once it's over, you just have the sickest feeling and ask yourself,
"What the fuck was I thinking? I could have had SO much better. I thought I had standards"
or
"I wish I had what my friend over there was having"
-Jamie
