The MinMinKangKangBangBang™ - This had to be done. And I can now put it on my resume.
For me, Min Min Pie House, situated on Main Street in Alhambra, represents the spiritual successor to the now-defunct Beijing Pie House. With the exception of the scallion pancake (which was good but not outstanding), every dish I ordered at Min Min that day I craved repeating the next day. Thank goodness for leftovers!
Scallion pancake… Good, albeit a bit too thick and “fried” for my taste buds, but again, this could simply be the case ‘cuz I am biased towards the thinner, more svelte Taiwanese version with a lighter sear.
Steamed fish and chive jiaozi… Fan-frickin-tastic!!! Huge bite! Loved these. Perfect skin, and delicious filling. (The filling at Min Min is what sets this place apart, IMHO - One can feel the love put into the dumpling and pie fillings here). Even cold, as leftovers straight outta the fridge the next day, these fish and chive dumplings were tremendous.
Shenjianbao (SJB)… Beauties on a plate. Perfectly prepared. Luscious porky filling. Crunchy dough sear on the bottom, and pillowy bun chewiness on top. So wonderful! This taste instantly transported me back to the iconic Yang’s Dumplings in Shanghai. Huge bites!
Beef and cilantro pancake (jianbing)… Another winner! Min Min’s jianbing are just the right size (I don’t like it when places make monstrous sized anything just to make it seem like it’s a value play - It messes with the balance of the intended item). And they are terrific to eat. Just be careful when gleefully biting into these piping hot things when they first hit the table - HMFJS® (Hot Meat Filling Juice Squirt) is a real danger here.
Fresh off the heels of such glorious shenjianbao, I found it necessary to compare them with the OG SGV SJB at Kang Kang Food Court (pictured:HMFJS® lolol):
… and here they are, those familiar hometown favorites. The dough / skin was fine, but the oil tasted a bit less fresh, and the biggest difference between the Kang Kang and Min Min was (again) in the filling department - The Kang Kang version is certainly serviceable, but nowhere near as good as Min Min’s.
Impulse buy at Kang Kang: Mango pudding… Instant regret. Chemical mango-like taste; no joy whatsoever. I’ll skip this next time. What was I thinking?
Chong Yuen Fong (AKA CYF on this board AKA the Fake A.I. Legend AKA FAIL)… I gave it a shot, as it was next door to Kang Kang:
The menu here seems to be primarily focused on pseudo-medicinal Chinese soups and teas (but only 3 soups on offer at any given time, alternating every two days of the week). There is no sign of Hainan chicken rice anywhere. What little food (other than soups) on the menu were just Char Siu Rice, Macau Chicken Rice, and egg tarts.
I tried ordering the Char Siu Rice. Sorrowfully (see what I did there?), I found out that it wasn’t available. So plate-wise, there was nothing left but the Macau Chicken Rice. The chicken was dry, and the curry sauce saved it somewhat. Zero fireworks.
Egg tarts… Were just OK. Each one was relatively large, with an uneven crust - This made for kind of an odd experience when I bit down on it.
Medicinal soup: Old Chicken Soup with Five-Fingered Peach… Hairy fig (五指毛桃) root, or five-fingered peach, is a common ingredient in Chinese soups. Though I appreciate what they’re trying to do here, this soup was pretty bad. It was watered down, lacking any soul. The chicken was too tough, and the tasteless accompanying berries and fruits, with their innate taste long since leached out, could not salvage this bowl for me.
Due to my schedule crunch, I did not have enough time to query the young gentlemen staffing the restaurant about their origin story as purported on their website. So that concludes my experience at CYF…