Yunnan 168 (San Gabriel, CA)

TS:
*NOTE* I am having a hard time writing this post. Why? Because the characters on the keyboard are not in their usual places! Besides that dıffıculty, there are all sorts of additional characters on this keyboard like: Çç Üü Ğğ Şş Iı (ı without the dot!) and İi (capital İ wıth a dot!). Any ideas as to where we are? =)


"Spicy with spicy"

JS:
One of the restaurants we visited when we were down in LA in July was Yunnan 168. Yunnan is certainly an under-represented cuisine in Vancouver, so we made a special effort to visit this restaurant in San Gabriel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yunnan_cuisine




left: cold chrysanthemum tea; right: hot tea

TS:
When we were seated at our table, we were given not just regular tea, but also cold chrysanthemum tea (it was truly, truly hot that day). I thought this was a nice touch, especially since I later saw one can order it off the menu (for a fee, of course).

Unfortunately, I have never been a fan of chrysanthemum tea. But, I still drank some since they so kindly offered it.



TS:
We were greeted with this display as we entered the restaurant. We decided to order the 3-kinds cold appetizer plate. We were surprised as they really piled the items onto that plate!

JS:
Most Yunnan and Sichuan restaurants have a selection of cold appetizers that you can choose from. We chose the smoked chicken, some bean curd threads, and peanuts with dried anchovies.


Smoked Chicken
TS:
The pieces were very large. What large chickens they must've been! This was nice and smoky, but not too smoky, and very juıcy despite being breast meat.


Bean Curd Threads
TS:
Nicely seasoned. No complaints here.


Peanuts with Dried Anchovies
JS:
The peanuts with anchovies were so addictive! It was a tad spicy, a tad salty, and a tad spicy all at once: it's crack, I tell ya.


"Steamed" Chicken in Claypot

TS:
Apparently, this is a standard or well-known Yunnan dish. It was called "Style Steamed Chicken in Claypot" on the menu.


See number 184.



JS:
The Steamed Chicken in Clay Pot tasted "standard" to me, as in the usual flavours of chicken soup with some Chinese herbs.


Yunnan Noodles with Special Sauce


See number 20.

JS:
This dish tasted very familiar to me, but I can't quite place it. It definitely tasted of green onions and garlic, but there's also an acidic note to it. This was also quite good.


There it is tossed and mixed together.


Sautéed Kangkong/Water Spinach

JS:
I'm a lover of kangkong that really as long as they're crisp and not wilting, I'm all over it.


"Spicy with Spicy"

TS:
Actually, the English translation is quite correct. But of course, one really has no idea what to expect.


See number 125.

JS:
This dish turned out to be diced up tofu with ground pork with peppers. This was excellent, probably my favourite of the bunch.

TS:
Although, I think they toned down the heat level as it was still quite tolerable. ;)


"Shrimp with Pineapple"

JS:
One of the chef's recommendations was a Shrimp and Pineapple dish.


See number 33.

JS:
From the sparse description, I was expecting a similar type of dish that you can get at a Taiwanese restaurant, with the shrimp and pineapples coated with a mayonnaise-based sauce.



TS:
Instead, the mayonnaise was served as a dipping sauce on the side.

JS:
This dish was completely different, almost "deconstructed," with the shrimp and pineapple pieces deep-fried in a light batter with a sprinkling of sugar.



TS:
This was the first time I encountered such a preparation. It was great.

JS:
Also very good: the pineapple pieces were real pineapples, not canned ones.


Noodle Soup of unknown name

JS:
I don't know what they were thinking but in the middle of the meal, the waitress asked us if we wanted a cold dısh of bean jelly threads or noodle in soup. They said they were giving it to us FOR FREE.


Look at all the food!

TS:
There was even a container of rice! See that darkish red container? Yeah.

Why would they give us more food?!?! Not that I´m complaining. ;)



JS:
We chose the noodles with soup, which was a rice noodle soup with ground pork, chicken, and some seafood.

TS:
The noodles were round rice noodles, and there was a healthy amount of cilantro added to the bowl.

JS:
The flavour profile was very clean, very light. Quote homey and quite good, but we cannot finish it, of course.

As you can see, there were only two of us and all this food can probably feed 6.


All done!

TS:
Teehee. No, we did not really finish it all. There were leftovers.



JS:
The most astonishing part of this whole meal was that the tab for all this was 50 bucks, including tax (9.25% in CA). Compare this with the meal we had at a Sichuan restaurant in Vancouver the day before we left for Los Angeles where I had to pay 80 bucks for 3 dishes!

A funny to end the post...


TS:
Look at their typos! I thought I was typo queen but this has me beat!

Basically, they pressed all the keys next to the intended ones. Look at your keyboard and compare.

SNAKK OIT = small pot
CASSERIKE = casserole


Yunnan 168
San Gabriel, CA
Visited in July 2010

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Yunnan 168

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