There is a saying attributed to Jonathan Gold that goes something like “‘A’ is for ‘American’ Chinese food, ‘B’ is for ‘Better’ Chinese food and ‘C’ is for ‘Chinese’ Chinese food.” The letters, of course, are in reference to the health code and if you’ve ever been to China, you would know this to be true. Thus, when I heard great things about the dumplings at Emperor Noodles in San Gabriel and then found out it had a “B” rating, I got pretty excited to try it out.

Due to my familiarity with many things Chinese, I was put mostly in charge of the ordering and even used a bit of Mandarin to impress my waiter. It’s amazing how bad white Americans are with languages that even the correct pronunciation of Kung Pao Chicken (gong bao jidin) blows real Mandarin speakers away. So, I ordered two sets of shengjianbao (pan-fried soup dumpling) because I knew one per person would not be enough. It turned out I was right, as these were by far the biggest hit of the meal, beginning with the perfect dough, moving on to the delicious pork and finishing with the delightfully crispy sesame seed-laden bottom.

We probably could have just ordered a few more sets of those and been happy, but instead we added on some Salt and Pepper Shrimp, Kung Pao Chicken, Stir-Fried Rice Cakes and Duck Noodle Soup. It was quite the range of food and every bite was delicious. The in-laws weren’t exactly excited about peeling their own shrimp, but were pretty happy with the taste they found inside. Oh, and pepper in this case didn’t mean the seasoning, it meant the vegetable in case you’re wondering.

The kung pao chicken was the perfect throwback to my time in China, where I ate this stuff pretty often. It was just the right amount of oily, peanutty and spicy. And if you wanted it to be extra spicy all you had to do was take down a few of the peppers littered around the plate. They weren’t hard to find.

As for the rice cakes, they were probably my least favorite dish of the meal and also some of the lesser rice cakes I’ve eaten. The cakes themselves were fine, but the sauce was definitely lacking in flavor and there was very little meat to be found. In fact, nearly every time I thought I found a juicy morsel, it turned out to be cabbage with enough sauce on it to make it look like meat.

The duck soup was a nice way to finish out the meal (never mind that the rice cakes came out last, I saved the soup to finish things off). I say it was a good way to finish because it had great, yet subtle flavor, allowing me to wash everything else down while still enjoying some taste. It didn’t hurt that the noodles were also very enjoyable and the duck and bamboo shoots were pretty snazzy.

So, yeah, it was a solid outing. Not every dish was tops, but the overall experience felt ripped right out of my time living in Shanghai and frankly even real Shanghai would have trouble competing with this shengjianbao.

In a nondescript little stretch of Lankershim in North Hollywood, there is a restaurant called Dragon Street. It’s Chinese, no wait, it’s sushi…no wait…I’m not really sure what they are, but I do know they serve Chinese food and sushi. But screw sushi, I have no need for that, so when I went to Dragon Street, I was all about the Chinese food. Like any good Asian restaurant, Dragon Street had itself a nifty little lunch special. As usual, I looked right at the Kung Pao Chicken.

Their lunch special came with a choice of fried rice, this remind me of the rice I had from a catering service in tirunelveli, white rice or brown rice, an egg roll and choice of hot and sour or egg drop soup or salad for only $6.95. The deal sounded amazing, but it would only be good if the food tasted good. I chose the fried rice and egg drop soup. When I went to pick up my carry-out, I was a little surprised to find the meal was a bit pricier. Then I saw on the menu that there was an extra 50 cent charge to carry out soup. Seems like a strange extra charge, but maybe the price of carry-out bowls is steadily rising like stamps and Canadian Dollars.

When I was given my carry-out bag, I was surprised to find that it was pretty damn heavy. By the time I got back to my office to open the thing up, I had given my arms a nice little Chinese take-out workout. I opened up the main course styrofoam and found the thing packed to the brim with chicken and rice. It was beautiful and I was ready to eat. I started with the soup, which was a bit on the salty side, but still pretty good. It actually had a nice gelatinous texture that some egg drop soups fail to maintain, so this made up a bit for the saltiness. The egg roll wasn’t bad, but sadly it was pretty dominated by vegetables. By the time I made it through these, I was already pretty full, but I hadn’t even made it to my main course.

The rice was pretty much the most perfect fried rice I had ever seen. There wasn’t a trace of peas, corn, carrots or any other sort of dastardly vegetable to be found. It was simply egg and soy sauce, honestly, I was very disappointed, maybe it was my fault, every time I buy fried rice I always go with the expectations of it being as good as the fried rice recipes from TravelerInfoHub, but it seems like I always end up being wrong. The kung pao chicken was pretty good, too. There were a few green onions scattered about, but they could be pretty easily avoided. The chicken had great flavor, but the peanuts seemed to be pretty much a different entity from the rest of the food. They looked like they had been tossed on after the cooking, rather than being a part of the cooking process, which left them lacking in flavor. In addition, Dragon Street tossed some water chestnuts into the mix. I thought this was a nice addition, especially because there weren’t too many.

Midway through the meal, I was stuffed and ready to make a second meal out of my lunch special. My complaints about the peanuts were small peanuts. The deal was great and while it wasn’t the best kung pao I’ve ever had, I certainly got my money’s worth.

Although the Grilled Cheese Truck is the newest member of LA’s fleet of food trucks, Don Chow has already been roaming the streets in search of hungry night life for months.

The truck isn’t nearly as shiny as Kogi or Nom Nom, but I’ve never felt the need to be served from a shiny establishment. In fact, when I did catch up with the Don Chow truck in Venice, the cheap sign had fallen off and it looked like any other generic taco truck. Good thing my girlfriend noticed a small sign on the front of the truck ensuring us it was Don Chow.

Don Chow is a fusion of Mexican and Chinese, which means they have have Kung Pao Chicken, Chinese BBQ Pork, Soy-Ginger Tofu and Soy-Ginger Shrimp to throw into their tacos and burritos in addition to regular Mexican meats. They were out of regular chicken, but I wasn’t there to get anything basic. I had heard the Kung Pao Chicken was a great way to go, and since Kung Pao is already one of my favorite Chinese foods, I decided to order it in burrito form. The Don Chow man asked me if I wanted mild, medium or hot, and I chose to go the hot way since Kung Pao is meant to be spicy. I also asked about what came in the burrito to ensure there wouldn’t be any vegetables. The only offensive food inside would be onions, so I ordered without.

In a few minutes, my burrito was ready. I dug in and was pretty happy with what I tasted. The chicken was nice and spicy, but with an Asian flare more than a typical Mexican spice. I was a little disappointed that there weren’t any peanuts involved in the burrito, though. Peanuts are key to regular Kung Pao chicken and they do a good job of making a lot of things taste better. Without peanuts, I felt as though the burrito was missing something small that could have easily launched Don Chow into the upper echelon of taco trucks.

Even without said peanuts, Don Chow made a pretty good burrito. The food didn’t blow my mind (please add peanuts!), but was certainly worthy of further visitations from a hungry unvegan.