The past few years have been rough for Cantonese restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley with iconic restaurants closing down and Cantonese cuisine being eclipsed by all sorts of non-Cantonese regional cuisine. But a mini-sector of the Cantonese food pantheon seems to be having an upsurge in the past couple of years and seems to be accelerating now. This is what might be called the Cantonese breakfast sector, which I would describe as serving Cantonese food, highlighting rice noodle rolls (with no other items identified with dim sum being served), opening for business in the 7am to 9am portal, and quite often closing early to match their early opening times. Looking in the past, the only operation I can think of that fit this description was Delicious Food Corner in Monterey Park. But then, under new ownership they recently expanded to other locations. Then came newcomers like E & J Yummy in Monterey Park, Auntie Ping’s Kitchen in El Monte and Mr Champion in Arcadia. Ho Kee opened up two locations. The original owners of Delicious Food Kitchen reprise with Alice’s Kitchen in Monterey Park, Guangzhou based Yin Ji Cheng Fan opens in San Gabriel, EAT Bistro opens in Rosemead and H K Grand Cafe pops up in Temple City.
Latest addition to the crew is Zi Wei in San Gabriel, which follows the lead of Yin Ji as essentially a two trick pony. At Yin Ji, it’s rice noodle rolls and congee. At Zi Wei it’s rice noodle rolls and steamed rice noodles, an item that looks like and has the texture of ramen, but which is really a curly rice noodle. I’m really curious in the activity in this segment, particularly this year. Any ideas about demographics or other explanation for what’s going on?
the name of the restaurant is phonetically Mandarin, otherwise in Cantonese it would be Zhee May
in Chinese the rice noodles have the characters “stone milled” or “stone ground”
Yup, it’s the new wave of Guangzhou or Pearl River Delta region of cheung fun that was trendy in Hong Kong a year ago… aka the “stone milled” rice milk paste for steaming vs the cloth pulling technique of classic Hong Kong style. It’s a much heated debate now between the foodies…one produces that classic slippery smooth texture that some of us diehards have grown to love and the other has a very different yet distinct mouthfeel that can be an acquired taste. Then there’s the Shunde style ("Chan Village rice noodles but not in roll form) that is virtually identical to plain Vietnamese banh cuon with the ridges…but that’s another animal.
I think there now needs to be a distinction of Hong Kong Cantonese as we know it, and HK Cantonese as cooked by Toishanese (more prevalent in San Francisco), and this new wave of regional Cantonese cooked by Southern Mainlanders that’s a touch bit closer but still not the Hong Kong Cantonese we know and grew accustomed to. The downhill slide and fading away or worst case eventual extinction of the classic HK Cantonese as we know it will continue…so either this new wave is the replacement or just another entry into “regional Chinese”.
Either way I just see this Guangzhou style CF or stone milled version as cashing out on a trend. Great if you like it…and it’s nice to have variety. Gotta love the listing called “shun me hsia” (Mr Mysterious - stir fry shrimp with chili sauce).
Can’t say I ever tried this Guangzhou style cheung fun and whether it is good or not. There are maybe two or three places scattered in Northern California that do this (I think one in Pleasanton and maybe one in Livermore).
Yin Ji in Pleasanton has a version that looks more like a burrito than the historic or the braided versions of rice noodle rolls. Interesting to see that Yin Ji also opened up a branch in Manhattan Chinatown last month. I think the H K Peninsula locations serve the new cheung fun up your way. I find it fascinating that Livermore might be cutting edge as to Chinese food, since it wasn’t that long ago that it was one of the few areas in the Bay Area where you couldn’t find real Chinese food. What’s happened with the demographics up there?
Not an expert nor do I study or research, and don’t follow the patterns…but with housing prices at an all time high a lot of families have moved Eastward in the Bay if they can afford it, so Dublin, Pleasanton, and Livermore with these strip malls…ripe for anchoring 99 Ranches, shops, factory outlets, and the occasional regional Chinese shop to setup to make a bit better profits.
As far as the declining HK Cantonese, inevitable due to trends, rents, too much hard work for too little money (especially for new commers to learn) and traditional masters not properly documenting for others to pick it up and being taught old school and expecting students to learn the exact same way, as well as traditional masters retiring or passing away (speaking in general). Still quite a bit of lower to mid tier shops around, they are getting by, and a few classics that we are lucky to still have around that are a bit niche in their category whether it’s Lucky Creation, Ming Kee, Tak Kee Lee, Smile House Cafe, Zhong Shan Hakka. But you go to any bigger Cantonese seafood restaurant, lots of dishes that appeal to Mainland influences or tweak or incorporated just for that (Koi Palace has been doing this already last 10+ years and was a bit ahead of the curve for survival and business longevity).
Ripe for regional Chinese to move in and expand in pretty much any sector of the culinary market. We’re clearly outnumbered.
Its probably trending because Chinese people are doing what they do best, copy each other. If they see one person doing well and opening more locations (aka Ho Kee and Delicious Food Corner) then they will tell themselves, “It’s not that hard I can do it too.” And then they’ll keep opening up until we reach critical mass and the lower quality or less popular ones will close and the cycle repeats.
Funny that was exactly the same comment made in LA Chinatown in the mid-1970s when the first Sam Woo style bbq shop opened (but it wasn’t Sam Woo), then a year later there were like six more similar places in Chinatown.