In March, Tea Garden closed temporarily to move to a new location. S was quite distraught since it was his favorite place and most-frequently-visited place before I moved to San Diego. (Actually, even after moving to SD, it’s probably been our most-frequently-visited place.) Even though the food isn’t amazing, we like the homestyle and simple [...]
S and I are usually skeptical of Chinese restaurants – we have had quite a few experiences with overly salty and greasy dishes. However, one day after a full day of badminton, we were looking for a place to eat a quick and satisfying meal, and one of our friends suggested Imperial Mandarin. It is [...]
When S and I are looking a quick Asian meal, our usual stop is Tea Garden on Convoy St. They have decent Taiwanese dishes – I’m particularly fond of the crispy chicken, Taiwanese sausage, and fried rice, in addition to the milk teas and brick toast. However, Tea Garden is temporarily closing for a few [...]
My father came to visit San Diego recently, and while I would usually never take visitors coming from Asia to eat Chinese food, my dad can’t live without it. So S and I decided to revisit one of our favorites, Spicy City. We haven’t gone in a while because we’ve been trying to eat less [...]
S and I both had to work on Thanksgiving Day this year, so we decided to keep everything simple and didn’t plan for big dinners or parties. One of our good friends, who also had no holiday plans, came to hang out with us, and we decided to go to Tea Station for dinner. Why? [...]
![[Irvine] Snowflake ice at Class 302](http://www.jinxieats.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/P1010719-1-150x150.jpg)
I recently visited Boiling Point in Irvine with some friends for Taiwanese hot pot. And since we were already there… of course we had to go to Class 302 for snowflake ice! I didn’t get the snowflake ice last time I visited Class 302, and I was determined to make up for it this time. [...]
![[Irvine] Boiling Point](http://www.jinxieats.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/P1010711-1-150x150.jpg)
I’ve heard about Boiling Point, an LA-based Taiwanese hot pot chain, for quite a while now – my friends rave about it. Hot pot is what I fondly call “Chinese fondue”: you have a big pot of simmering broth in the center of the table, and you add various ingredients such as sliced meats, seafood, [...]
I’ve mentioned before that I am from Hunan, the “spiciest” province in China. We take our chili peppers and hot sauce seriously, and it’s difficult to find good Hunan cuisine in the U.S. My family tells me it’s because the peppers that make Hunanese food so distinctly spicy isn’t actually grown anywhere else. But I [...]
![[Alhambra/Monterey Park] Cafe Spot and ABC Cafe](http://www.jinxieats.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/P1010459-1-150x150.jpg)
S and I love Hong Kong cafes. In Chinese, it’s called 港式西餐 (literally, HK-style Western cuisine). In the Bay Area, our favorite was Shooting Star in Oakland Chinatown. Here in San Diego, the only option we have is A Cafe, which pretty much pales in comparison. So when we were in LA last weekend for [...]
Every once in a while, S and I crave Liang’s Kitchen. I learned something interesting about the cuisine style recently: it is called “juan cun” (眷村), which refers to the villages that housed Chinese Nationalist soldiers during the Chinese Civil War. So “juan cun” cuisine started with the food served in these villages, with all [...]