Mr. Champion is a rather anonymous Cantonese restaurant in a strip mall. But that’s like most restaurants in the SGV.
In all seriousness, it’s a small eatery in Arcadia with a small menu. It’s a fairly inexpensive place serving mainly simple rice, noodle, and congee dishes. For the most part, those are unremarkable items that you order because you need something to fill up your stomach.
However, the cheong fun/rice rolls stand out. If you look up the pictures, it’s clear that the cheong fun aren’t the usual smooth type that you find in most dim sum restaurants. Instead, they’re sort of twisty and made on the spot (it resembles the ones served at Longo). One of my Cantonese co-workers informed me that this is very common near Taishan county (台山), but I couldn’t tell you one way or another. Whatever the origin, they’re really good and inexpensive (less than $4 per order).
The cook is actually from Kaiping (開平), which is next to Taishan. From what I can, the dialects of those two counties are similar enough that native speakers can mistake them if they don’t listen carefully.
Anyhow, I will go back but only for the cheong fun.
Mr. Champion
168 Las Tunas Dr
Ste 107
Arcadia, CA 91007
Last week in Sai Kung, Hong Kong. Not pretty food or presentation, but pretty delicious. Especially while watching the “show”. Young lady working non-stop bathed in steam.
Fascinating to see them make it from scratch. I think I’ve seen it three times, once in Oakland Chinatown, another time on Allen St. in the far east part of NY Chinatown, and last year in Flushing, all in very tiny food shacks where they didn’t have room for a dedicated kitchen.
