Tag Archives: Alhambra California

Baccali Café and Rotisserie

26 Thursday Sep 2013

Posted by in Chinese food, Food, Uncategorized

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Just within the same block on Valley Blvd, there are the three restaurants that I think are consistently excellent and probably are some of the best in the San Gabriel Valley. The other two includes my favorite Tasty Garden and Garden Café, of which I had already wrote about.

Baccali Café is just right across the street from these two restaurants. The menu is huge with over 200 items to choose from. This place, being a rotisserie, does specialize in a good selection of mouth-watering, succulent grilled meat dishes including chicken, ribs, steaks, and fishes. The portion sizes are quite huge served with either pasta or rice.

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On this visit, being not a big meat eater myself, I ordered the Braised E-Fu Noodle w/Fish Fillet, which was a gigantic plate of soft noodle with chunks of codfish and some mustard green, slices of black mushrooms, in a light brown gravy. The fish slices were tender, moist, and the long thin flat noodles were really soft and flavorful after soaking up the sauce.

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My friend ordered the Grilled Salmon Fillet, with steamed vegetables and rice. I was told that the salmon was one of the best that he had from a restaurant.

We also ordered a plate of Garlic Stir Fried Choy Sum. The vegetables were bright green, firm and fresh. It was such a huge platter that we were not able to finish the whole plate.

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I did, of course, ordered my favorite drink, Red Bean Ice, which was nicely thick and filled with sweet soft red beans and crushed ice. It went really well with all the food.

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Baccali Café and Rotisserie – 245 w. Valley Blvd. Alhambra, CA 91801  Phone: 626-293-3300

Garden Café – East and West

18 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by in American Food, Chinese food, Food

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FISH DINNER @ GEORGE HOUSE 005

No matter how many times or how often I come here, no matter what I order, I have never been disappointed. Garden Café is probably one of the very few restaurants that are consistently dependable in both the taste and the quality of food.

Though the outside of the restaurant, especially the front entrance area, looks a bit scruffy and not the most inviting, the inside is bright, cheerful and usually bustling with customers. Lunch time can be quite packed.

FISH DINNER @ GEORGE HOUSE 006

The best deal in town has got to be the Roasted Angus Beef with BBQ Sauce Baguette, which comes with a hefty amount of mouth-watering, juicy prime rib on french bread, and includes french fries, all for less than 7 dollars!

Another favorite here is the Seafood Linguine with Tomato Basil Sauce. A generous portion of noodles with a wonderful mix of scallops, fish, shrimp, mussels, squid, in a delectable tangy, savory sauce. The Braised Ox Tongue with Tomato Sauce is divine, with at least four to five pieces of the moist, luscious meat served with your choice of either rice or pasta. The excellence of this dish is hard too find elsewhere.

This type of Hong Kong style café is great because one can order the traditional Chinese dishes such as Chow Fun, Rice Porridge, Stir Fry dishes, as well as the western style offerings such as Grilled Pork Chop, Grilled Steak and Salmon, Oxtail, Ox Tongue with Wine Sauce, not to mention the varieties of Curries, Japanese Ramen, and many others. The menu is extensive with hundreds of choices.

The Red Bean Ice here is large, tasty and thick, and only $1.50 when ordering with Lunch Specials. What is a Hong Kong style café without a good HK style milk tea, a concoction made with black tea and either evaporated or condensed milk. The one here is smooth and strong, and half a cup would be enough to keep me up all night.

And if one is ever up late (or early) and hungry, the restaurant is opened from 7am to 4am, with breakfast specials.

Garden Café: 228 W. Valley Blvd. Alhambra, CA 91801  Phone: 626-289-1833

Simply Splendid, a Fitting Name

11 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Bakery, Chinese Bakery, Chinese dessert, Chinese food, Food

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I had mentioned previously that I would often go to different pastry shops for certain favorite breads and pastries that are unique to that particular shop. That is exactly what I do at Simply Splendid, a small, modest bakery surrounded by restaurants and shops inside an uninspiring strip mall in Alhambra.

One of my long time favorite is a Hong Kong style bread with the name of Cocktail Bun. Here, this elongated, unassuming looking bun is fully filled with a dense, luscious, buttery coconut mixture that is beyond good. Usually, I have somewhat decent self control when it comes to eating sweet pastries. I often can stop after one or two bites, and saving the rest for later. However, with this bun, which comes three to a package, I have not been able to consume less than two entire buns at one sitting.

Some days the chef would make these little mochi cubes that come in a plastic container with a side of grounded peanuts/sugar mixture. They are some of the softest and best mochi I have ever tried – with the texture being slightly chewy, and a taste that is ever so delicately sweet from the rice.  My son’s eyes would lit up every time I bring them home. The obstacle, however, is that they are not always available.

On a recent visit, I discovered a baked radish pastry that I find to be the best of its class. The flakiness of the crust, along with a moist filling of shredded radish and finely grounded pork, offers a precise combination of savoriness and sweetness, without the often overly salty taste that is associated with this type of  radish pastry.

There are two versions of the plain croissants here that I find I cannot get enough of. One is made with wheat flour and the other one with white. The texture, unlike the traditional french croissant, is not flaky. In fact, they are a bit chewy; but it is that chewiness, combined with the rich buttery taste that I find irresistible.

The mantou, a traditional steamed bun, is offered here in white and wheat versions as well, and comes in a package of four. The wheat version, if available, is the perfect bread for me. The taste might seem bland to most people, but it is precisely that blandness that I find appealing. The steaming process somehow seems a bit healthier to me than baking.

Simply Splendid:  1273 E. Valley Blvd. Alhambra, CA 91801  Phone: 626-308-3277