Qin West - Westwood

Really? I don’t know anything about river snails, but I assume it’d be like aromatics… Perfectly edible, but you wouldn’t want to…

I eat here a few times a week and have seen them carrying out empty boxes that were marked “snails” so I assume they are making the broth on-site.

i know for sure that some of their other sauces are made in a different location.
possibly the snail boxes are used to transport the containers of prepared sauce/broth from the cooking location to the restaurant?
or maybe not.

wsg – I like your thinking. Do you work as some kind of investigator? Or maybe a writer of TV crime shows?!

i was a big fan of columbo.
that’s as far as it goes.

BUT
i understand that YOU may have some inside info about investigations!

Got the liang pi this time. Wow. We were halfway through the dish before I realized it might be vegan. (Not sure what’s in the sauce.) An Italian place could be proud of those noodles.

Tried the roujiamo. Nice little meaty sandwich. Did a rerun on the cold plate, awesome as before.

Great food, insane value.

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agree

+2 Love that place, need to go back more often!

@robert, you’re in town? I didn’t care for the roujiamo that much, and I think they retooled their luo si fen a little last time I was there (flavor profile and toppings slightly different) but still delicious!

Back home already. I would have liked the sandwich better if the bun had been toasted and the pork could have been spicy.

What’s the difference between roujiamo and mantuo, anyway?

Voila!

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Roujiamo is the sandwich. Mantou is a steamed bread, generally not split. The Taiwanese gua bao popularized by David Chang and Eddie Huang is made with a split steamed version of mantou (“bao bun”).

Traditionally (I believe, not an expert), roujiamo is made with a grilled or fried bread, and the last time I had the “Chinese Mo” at Qin West, it was definitely toasted–probably the best part of the sandwich. Surprised it wasn’t toasted (at all?) when you had it. (The reason I didn’t care for it, not that I hated it, was because the filling wasn’t very flavorful.)

https://www.instagram.com/p/wZxjdkA-r1/

Reminds me of Italian tigelle bread, as seen here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/6_cA5XA-uK/

(From Scarpetta for LA Food & Wine 2015.)

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Mantou is mantou. The bao in gua bao is completely different shape and texture.

Mantuo is plain steam bun. Check out the frozen section at Chinese markets for them

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Waiting as we text to try the Gulin soup

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Popped in after trying Baohaus.

I agree, I love the texture of the noodles in liang pi.

The flavor to me is pretty much the Lao Gan Ma sauce. Available at any 99 Ranch, look for the pic of a short haired woman who looks sad and bitter

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That’s a brand with a bunch of different sauces.

how were the baos?

Solid. Not great and not bad, but kinda missed the mark for me.

(The Chairman)
Missing the richness.
Kinda dry, can barely taste the braise.
A piece of pork?? Should be chopped up sitting happily in it’s juices.
Barely any pickled mustard greens and it’s on the bottom.

(Chicken)
Tasty, but not a fan of it in a gua bao.

That sandwich, sadly, is not so hot.
Try the noodles next time. Liang Pi or one of the soups.
I have also enjoyed cold plate pictured above and the twice cooked pork (ordered extra spicy).

Just realized @JeetKuneBao is not referring to the sandwich at Qin West but to Baohaus.
Please carry on and forgive the interruption.