Roasted Pork Belly, Crispy Roast Duck, BBQ Pork - A Hong Kong BBQ Journey. [BONUS: Amazing Crackling Roasted Suckling Pig!] - Ruby BBQ, Ho Kee, Hop Woo, Sam Woo, New Duong Son BBQ, Lien Hoa BBQ, Noodle Boy, Monterey Palace [Thoughts + Pics]

Such fantastic work, @Chowseeker1999! Now I want roast pork!

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You should give Moon House in West LA a try. Though they don’t have a window display, they do serve BBQ Pork, Roast Duck and Peking Duck.

I, do, however, want to get your opinion on the BBQ Pork served at Paul’s Kitchen over by the Fashion District in SE DTLA. Their BBQ Pork is unique in it’s flavor and color, and I’ve enjoyed eating it ever since i was a kid back in the 70s. They used to make a good Roast Duck, but not these days. My family always say that it’s no longer as flavorful, and the duck seems to be older duck as the meat is rather tough & chewy…

Hi @bulavinaka,

Ah I see. Yah I’m not sure the Roast Duck would hold up well with transporting back to the Westside unfortunately.

Hi @Sgee,

Thanks for the tip on the chili oil and red vinegar! I’ll try that mixture next time. :wink:

I’ve never been to Fook Lam Moon (I just Googled it). Looks fancy! Besides the Mooncakes, how’s the rest of the food at the restaurant? Thanks.

Thanks @attran99. :slight_smile: I’d be curious to see what you think of Ruby BBQ and Monterey Palace’s Roast Pork Belly the next time you’re in the area. :slight_smile: I know now that when we’re in Little Saigon, we’ll be glad to stop by New Duong Son BBQ again. :grin:

@Chowseeker1999 Haha funny you should ask, esp. on this thread. FLM is my current benchmark for suckling pig! Here’s the thread of that trip a couple years ago.

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I’m going to be doing that with all dumplings! Thanks for a great idea.

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i’m actually sitting in ohio with my 95 year old dad (b-day was yesterday) who i used to watch air dry his roast ducks in the basement. tied off the legs and used a bike pump with ball inflation needle to use air to separate the skin from the meat. that prompted me to do the same when roasting chickens by stuffing onion in between the skin and the breast. while that produced mixed results, those onions slow cooked in chicken fat came out awfully sweet.

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Thanks @LAFoodiePanda. :slight_smile: I have bookmarked your recommendation. I’ll try to stop by the next time we’re in the area.

I have a recollection that someone, (back in the Chowhound-when-it-looked-like-a-mimeo days) once proposed that a multi-cityBBQ duck shoot-out be organized; and here Chowseeker1999 has shouldered this Herculean task alone! What a hero!
Gonna have to hit Ruby’s BBQ.

My own (2nd hand) duck story is of Cam the Man’s effort to make BBQ duck in his Chicago apartment, drying the skin with a hairdryer…

Wow!

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I think you and I share many opinons being that I am of the Cantonese community its a disgrace as to how our cuisine is not upheld to higher standards in America while Sichuan food gets more recognition now.

I also blame it on current immigration patterns, less Cantonese people are migrating here and its more Mandarin speaking people with more money so the demographics are shifting.

While I have respected your opinion in the past this time you are dead wrong. Cantonese cuisine is probably the greatest of all regional Chinese cuisines. Maybe the Cantonese food you have tried in America makes you think that but if you’re joking I don’t find it funny.

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Update on suckling pig. No go. We called Thursday for Saturday afternoon pick up. Monterey Palace wanted cash for the order which is fine. What didn’t work for us was the requirement for a cash deposit up front. We couldn’t make it out to SGV during the week to drop off a deposit. I asked if they would take payment and a $50 “catering” or “service” charge via credit card. The person on the phone would not bend. “Cash deposit - cash only.”

We ended up driving out to Ruby B.B.Q. for the pork belly and duck. Pork belly was well prepared as usual (but on the salty side). The duck was serviceable as usual ( skin was not crisp but the bird was flavorful through and through).

Just a heads-up. Ruby is obviously a known quantity in the SGV. We got there a little before 4PM- I usually try to hit up the BBQ places earlier. They had about 7-8 pounds of pork belly and 5 ducks left. We ordered the largest remaining piece (about 4 1/2 pounds) and two ducks. By the time we left with our order, only one duck was left. So go as early as logistically as possuble.

Now that we know about the cash issue, we will be more prepared next time.

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Hi @bulavinaka,

Thanks for the update. Bummer on the cash deposit and having to deliver it first up front. I think they might’ve been burned by cancellations one too many times? We had our friend from Hong Kong call in our table reservation and suckling pig (speaking Cantonese), and our visit was from a couple months ago, and we didn’t have to leave any deposit. Perhaps they got burned by people flaking out?

Glad you liked Ruby BBQ again. :slight_smile: Bummer about the duck (when we had it at the restaurant immediately) the skin had a very slight crispness. Were you able to sneak in a bite before your drive home? :wink:

I was hoping that my wife calling in the order at Monterey Palace would help - she’s fluent in Cantonese - nope. Padding the order with a $50 convenience charge offer didn’t move them either. You may be right about them getting burned.

The duck tasted fine. I didn’t get a bite but did get a peak and a quick feel (that doesn’t sound right). The skin felt a little soft. Again, it was already 4PM - about the same time as the last couple of times we went - so maybe getting the duck earlier might have helped? Don’t know. Still, everyone was happy with the food. Son loves duck all different ways, so he his most common utterances were, “Oooh!,” “Ahhh!,” and “Yum!”

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it would be OK to say wuhan regional cooking sucks, though; its appeal escapes me entirely.

less tongue in cheek: without clarifying the criterion for greatness, i’d hesitate to identify one regional cuisine as being superior to another in any way. i’d be interested to have you clarify your criterion.

Since @beefnoguy was asking, we decided to squeeze in a return trip to Noodle Boy to try out this Hong Kong style Zha Jiang Mian, which is different from the usual Noodles with Soybean Paste versions from Taiwan and Northern China.

Noodle Boy

noodle_001

Zha Jiang Mian (Shredded Pork with Special Sauce) - HK Style:

@beefnoguy you’ll have to guide us through the authenticity of this, please. :wink: It had a very sweet and slightly tangy flavor, with a little bit of heat. We brought along a friend from Taipei and she asked the waitress who confirmed that this version had Ketchup(!) :open_mouth: :sweat_smile: but with some “additional sauces.”

It definitely has a bit of that Hong Kong Egg & Tomato Over Rice, with a touch of “Sweet & Sour” vibe to it. The Marinated Pork Strips tasted fresh and meaty, and generally it was this sweet-tart-tangy flavor with Egg Noodles.

I’m not sure if we liked it or not. It wasn’t bad, but it was totally different from what we’d expect to eat with Egg Noodles (we’re so used to Wonton Noodles, or those Egg Noodles deep fried in an HK Chow Mein, both very savory). :sweat_smile:

They also gave us a bowl of the Wonton Soup with this order:

@beefnoguy are we supposed to drink this on the side? Is it to be enjoyed like a Wonton Lo Mein?

We couldn’t leave without trying their most famous dish of course:

Wonton Noodle Soup:

This was light, not overly salty, a nice savory broth with meaty, massive Shrimp bursts of flavor from their Housemade Shrimp Wontons. :blush: Delicious!

And I remembered to try @Sgee’s recommended method! :grin:

A dollop of their Chili Sauce with a few drops of their Red Vinegar. This was so good! Thanks @Sgee. :heart: It lent a tart, spicy kick to the lightly briny, meaty, savory Housemade Wontons, and the Egg Noodles.

I can’t imagine measuring exactly 2 - 3 drops of Red Vinegar every time, but the flavors were great and our friend from Taipei was laughing at how serious I was in trying @Sgee’s method (being super careful). :slight_smile:

Overall, Noodle Boy still delivered some wonderful Wonton Noodle Soup with great Housemade Shrimp Wontons. The new Hong Kong-style Zha Jiang Mian was fun to try once. I think if we grew up this, we might have more of an affinity for it, but maybe it’ll improve over time if we try it some more. :wink:

Noodle Boy
8518 E Valley Blvd, Suite #B108
Rosemead, CA 91770
Tel: (626) 280-8963

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:grin::grin::grin: @Chowseeker1999 glad you enjoyed it!!

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Noodle Boy has got to be one of the best restaurant names going.

Well done, you are now the honorary LA FTC Hong Konger in your Canto noodle and roasties pursuits!! Thanks for reporting back too! Much appreciated.

What you described in the “ja jeung lo meen” profile is correct in terms of the three essential flavors: sweetness, savory, and some heat. There is really no set or exacting ratios, much like macaroni cheese and is subject to different interpretations as I had described earlier in this thread. The end result is subject to interpretation based on personal preferences, and whether you feel the balance came naturally or forced. Some like it more sour, some want a touch more heat. Some ketchup is fine but if the profile was more ketchup and just a little spicy/chili sauce then maybe it was more two dimensional. The look at feel are there though, and I always appreciate the addition of shitake and using julienne pork over minced ground pork. Then you decide whether you want to nitpick based on the stir frying technique (and whether the flavors are properly sealed in), the way the meat is cut and the texture of the chew etc and how it interacts with the noodles (and the texture of the noodles).

Or if you want to use a distant parallel example to compare how multi dimensional something could be, it can be sweet and sour pork. One could toss ketchup in cornstarch, deep fry the pork, and call it a day, but if you want it more complex and layered (and using examples of some super old school top places do it in Hong Kong): sugar, ketchup, hawthorne berries, hawthorn dry flakes and/or sticks, pickled ginger or pineapples (some places try to do some fusion and use strawberries instead of pineapples), a little sour plum (the equivalent of ume or Japanese apricot), and rice vinegar just for the base of the sauce alone, then the rest is the frying techniques employed to bring everything else together. In the end it’s the finer details and the sum of its parts.

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Hi @beefnoguy,

Thank you. :slight_smile: That clarifies things, and it’s good to know. It was definitely something pretty nicely executed (i.e., it didn’t taste like they just threw some pork and ketchup in and called it a day). :wink: I’ll have to let you give it a try to see how it compares to your favorites in Hong Kong.