Chin’s Weekend Breakfast revisit

A couple weeks ago, one of the readers of my blog, Faye, recommended that I try the Da Ru Mian at Chin's.  I've been to Chin's several times, but have never tried the Da Ru Mian.  You can read my previous post on Chin's here.  So after her recommendation, I really, really wanted to try it.  She was even sweet enough to find me a coupon for a b1g1 free lunch entree.

Boyfriend and I went for a late breakfast a few weeks ago.  Surprisingly, there was still a wait when we got there.  Normally, when we come near the end of weekend breakfast hours, there is no wait at all.  It appears that they were having some difficulties that day because the food ended taking a long time to arrive, and all the customers were experiencing similar problems, and that also led to backlog of guests.

We ordered the Da Ru Mian, Niu Rou Mian (beef noodle soup), green onion pancake, eight treasure rice, and wine brew soup with sesame glutinous rice balls.

Our Da Ru Mian arrived first. 

I have to confess, I've never heard of Da Ru Mian, and had no idea what it was supposed to look like or taste like.  What was presented to me appeared to be a noodle soup with a mix of everything: vegetables, egg, shrimp, meat.  I think I would have enjoyed this combination, but I didn't like the way Chin's made the soup base.  It might be that it was just the day I went, since it does seem they were having kitchen issues.  There was a lot of corn starch so it was barely a soup.  Also the soup base tasted a lot like the Americanized chinese version of egg drop soup.  I think if they had used just a simple chicken broth, I would have liked this a lot more.

Next came our beef noodle soup (NRM)

After eating the NRM a few weeks ago at A&J in Irvine, the NRM at Chin's no longer seemed as good as I remembered.  It was still alright, but the broth wasn't as rich in beef flavor.  However, it appears they changed the noodles in their NRM.  Before, the one thing I didn't like about Chin's NRM was the noodles, which were like spaghetti.  This time, the noodles used were flatter and chewier.

Next came our onion pancake.

This was a bit disappointing.  While it didn't taste bad, it didn't taste homemade either.  It tasted like the frozen ones I buy from Ranch 99.  Too thin and not doughy enough.

Next came our eight treasure rice.

I've always enjoyed the eight treasure rice at Chin's.  Eight treasure rice is made with a sweet, glutinous rice and contains different "treasures" like red bean paste, candied cherries, canned pineapples, and some other sweet stuff.  I was surprised by how small this one was.  In the past, this dish was large enough for a group of 5-6 to each have a few bites.  This one was tiny though.  Boyfriend and I easily polished it off.

Finally, our rice wine soup with sesame balls arrived.

I love the use of small sesame glutinous rice balls in this soup.  It seems this dessert has shrunk in size as well.  While the bowl was still big, there were not nearly as many sesame balls.  Normally, I have a hard time finishing the sesame balls because there are so many and no one is helping me.  But I easily finished all the sesame balls in the bowl.

The service was still pretty good.  Hopefully the kitchen difficulties was a one time thing.

Bay Area- Fatima Restaurant and Hong Fu Restaurant

I've been craving knife shaved noodles for a while now.  There are only a few places I've been to that serve knife shaved noodles, and one of them is near my parents' house.  So when I went home last time, I told my parents that is where I wanted to go.

Fatima is a muslim chinese restaurant.  In general, most of their dishes are just okay.  But they are famous for their knife shaved noodles and there sesame onion pancake.  We ended up getting takeout from Fatima for lunch, and also got a tea smoked duck from Hong Fu Restaurant, my favorite place for tea smoked duck.

The sesame onion pancake, is thick, doughy, full of fresh onions and topped with toasted sesames.  I really love their pancake.

Little Brother says he likes the fried rice at Fatima, so my parents ordered him a fried rice.

I didn't like the fried rice.  I thought it was salty and tasted like soy sauce.

Here's the knife shaved noodles.  They have a variety of pan fried noodles and soup noodles.  I chose to get lamb soup noodles.

Here's the noodles with the broth and lamb meat. 

I prefer to eat this dish at the restaurant.  When you get it to go, it's hard to get the broth hot enough and the noodles tend to clump together.  If you can eat it at the restaurant, I would recommend you do that.  It still tasted pretty good though.  Flavorful tender lamb.  Fairly rich broth.  And the noodles!  Thick and chewy.

Here is the beef and beef tendon noodle soup. Lots of tendons!

My parents also got the beef tendon appetizer.

Fatima Restaurant
10125 Bandley Dr
Cupertino, CA 95014
(408) 257-3893

My parents also picked up an order of tea smoked duck from Hong Fu Restaurant.  Hong Fu makes the best tea smoked duck I've ever eaten.

First off, the duck is so plump and full of meat! Usually duck does not have much meat.  It is usually has a thick layer of fatty skin.  But the duck at Hong Fu is big and plump.  I'm not sure where they get their duck from.  It's almost like a small turkey.

I also love the red color.  And the duck has a deep smoked flavor.  It's not too salty, but the smokiness definitely permeates through all of the meat.  The meat is also juicy and not at all dry.  Hong Fu's tea smoked duck has pretty much ruined me for other restaurant's tea smoked ducks. 

Hong Fu Gourmet Chinese Restaurant
20588 Stevens Creek Blvd
Cupertino, CA 95014
(408) 252-2200
www.hongfurestaurant.com/

Hong Fu also makes a really good spicy beef noodle soup with hand made noodles.  But it's super spicy.  A bit too spicy for me.

Taiwan snacks- mochi

As I recently blogged here, my grandmother came to visit and brought a lot of delicious Taiwanese snacks with her.  One of the snacks she brought with little mochis.  When I first saw these, I wasn't very interested.  They looked like the prepackaged mochi that you can find at Ranch 99 and other local asian markets.  It's usually sold in bags, with individual wrapped mochi inside in different flavors.

I'm not a big fan of prepackaged mochi.  They don't taste the same as fresh ones.  Some of the chewiness is gone.  And there is something else about them, I don't know exactly what it is, that I don't like.  But my mom assured me that these did not taste like the ones we usually get here in California. 

Sure enough, she was right!  These mochi are super chewy, and taste almost like fresh mochi.  The package comes with four different flavors: coffee, red bean, taro and green tea.  The mochi balls are almost all flavor, with only a tiny bit of filling in the middle.  These mochi are so addicting, I wish I had more.  If only they could learn to make it like that here.