U2 Cafe: Hong Kong Style Pancake

TSGV RATINGS:
Eye Candy: 3/5 Stars
Smelloscope: 4/5 Stars
Taste Test: 4/5 Stars
Wallet Breaking: $
Recommend-ability: 3/5 - Give it a Go

It's been a little while since I've been back to U2 Cafe. This used to be one of my favorites. But since I was so disgusted by my last experience I stopped going there on a regular basis. The quality of their food just went way down. A huge part of it is simply an inconsistency, and my experience with their Hong Kong Style Pancake today was the case and point.

(Bad Batch of Hong Kong Style Pancake - $3.75)

I had dinner with my parents, my brother and my sister-in-law today. My brother got there early so he went ahead and ordered the Hong Kong Style Pancake. I arrived around five minutes after my brother ordered the dish and we discussed what else we should order. The process took another ten minutes or so. After we finished ordering, it took another five minutes or so for the pancake to arrive. It didn't look appetizing. It was a bit darker than usual and I've had U2's version before to know this is not normal for them.

I took a piece to try and it was a bit on the crunchy side and cold. My brother and my sister-in-law both took a piece to try and had the same reaction and were not pleased. So I asked the waiter to take it back and make us another batch. We've tried a few other places like Cafe Spot and we know U2 has the version we prefer the most and this was not it.

The waiter was kind enough to take it back and make us a new version. This new version didn't take long to reach our table, approximately five minutes. Which made me wonder why it took so long for the first batch to get to our table. It made perfect sense. They over-cooked it which meant it took longer than usual. Then they left it on the counter for it to chill before taking it to our table, which was why it took nearly twenty minutes after ordering for it to get to us.

(U2 Cafe Menu)

This second batch was totally worth the $3.75. This is my favorite snack as a boy, and I'm partly eating my childhood nostalgia. It's similar in texture as a waffle except it's slightly crunchier on the outside and softer and less thick on the inside when done right. The individual eggs should break off easily and the inside should be slightly warm.

As soon as the waiter placed the basket on our table, I knew instantly this was warmer and better. I could smell the fresh cooked dough drifting upwards into my nose. The color was much lighter than the first batch and looked softer as it should be. My brother and my sister-in-law wanted to just rip a piece right off, but I had to grab a picture of it before they could consume it.

(Hong Kong Style Pancake - $3.75)

This was the way it was supposed to be. It's slightly crunchy on the outside while the inside is moist, warm, soft and a bit hollow. The dough is slightly sweetened, but the whole thing is light enough to have as appetizer without having my appetite ruined.

There are no sauce to dip the pancakes in. They were originally served on the streets of Hong Kong by street vendors in small paper bags. Since the dough is slightly sweet, it can be treated as a dessert. But to me it has always been an appetizer. The Chinese name for it literally translate to "little eggs." The little sphere-like pieces are attached to each other by a very thin and crunchy paper made with the same dough. There's a little bit of flakiness like in a Chinese egg roll dessert from the thin crust. The combination between crunchiness and softness rounds out the dessert to appeal to my entire texture palette of my taste buds.

$3.75 is a lot more than what they used to go for on the streets of Hong Kong, and certainly way more than the cost of the ingredients. Even as a snack, it actually isn't a cheap snack compared to some of the other things I can get in the area. But a good version of it isn't easy to find even in the San Gabriel Valley. In fact not every cafe even serves this. Even at U2, it wasn't until we asked them to remake it when we actually got a good version of the relatively unknown snack that satisfied my cravings. If it wasn't for this, I honestly don't know if I would ever go back to U2 Cafe again after the horrible curry fish ball with pork skin I had two months back. Consistency please!

U2 Cafe
1200 E Valley Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 282-1800


Hong Kong Style Pancake - $3.75

Half & Half Tea House: Strawberry, Pudding, Honey Boba Milk

TSGV RATINGS:

Eye Candy: 4/5 Stars

Smelloscope: 2/5 Stars

Taste Test: 5/5 Stars

Wallet Breaking: $

Recommend-ability: 4/5 - Mouth Watering Goodness

I live literally two blocks away from Half & Half. Though it wasn't until recently did I go there on a semi-regular basis, mostly because my friend Kenneth is a big fan. I remember having gone there more than a year ago and thought it was totally overrated and overpriced. But I realized that was because I ordered food and the wrong drinks. That is not the reason to go to Half & Half. The one and only reason to go to this tea house is not for their tea at all, but for their milk.

It's a bit ironic for a restaurant to be named a tea house when their best and most popular item isn't even their tea. Perhaps that's why it's also named half & half for their milk products. Sure technically the place is really famous for their boba, but if it's not placed in their milk but in their tea, it's really no more impressive than what one can find at Tea Station.

(Strawberry, Pudding, Honey Boba Milk - $4.35)

Today I ordered my usual, Strawberry, Pudding, Honey Boba Milk. It was still around eighty degrees out at eight-thirty at night. I needed to get out of the house and a cool drink to chill me. The milk is blended with the ice while the strawberry syrup, pudding and honey boba sat on the bottom of the cup. Seeing a white drink always pleases me on a hot summer night, as it almost feels like I'm about to consume some snow. Although the drink really has no smell to it, I gave a smelloscope rating of 2 stars rather than a 1 because feeling the ice old drink on the top half while the bottom was still warm is a fantastically chilling yet comfortably warming experience.

Like all boba drinks, this one came with a boba sized straw to allow for the boba and the pudding to be sucked up with the milk. The first time I had this drink, I made the mistake of mixing everything together before consumption, turning the drink into more of a strawberry flavored iced milk drink. Later I realized that they syrup was meant to be drank in its dense form, and the flavors and the textures of each of the components of the drink are to be experienced separately but still in conjunction with one another. This is NOT a drink to be mixed.

In some sense this is a dessert all on its own accord eaten through a straw rather than with spoons or forks. The alternation between the sugarless iced milk, the ultra sweet syrup, the honey sweetened boba and the mild flavored pudding creates a freakish cluster of taste inside the mouth, all balancing one another. It is never too sweet as a whole to feel heavy, but the tongue was indulged in some super dense sweet sensation in the process. The pudding kept my tongue working to dissolve them, while the boba gave my teeth something to do in the process. There was something for every part of my oral senses in this drink.

Certainly for those who still cannot get over the idea of having things in your drinks will never find this treat enjoyable. But if you are open to such an experience, this is certainly a drink you mustn't pass up and try at least once. I personally prefer the San Gabriel store because I like the tall cups rather than the bowl-like cups in the Monterey Park store. The San Gabriel store also has a dine-in option where you could enjoy your drink and even some food. I however wouldn't give the same review for the food at Half & Half than this drink.

The drink is on the high end in pricing for a boba drink. But if you treat it more as a dessert, it's rather reasonable. Just be certain you work off the enormous amount of energy you would consume with this drink. Also be weary that Half & Half has the notorious reputation to be the new king of slow service in the San Gabriel Valley. That is not an easy "accomplishment" as service at drink places has always been horrifically slow to begin with. My suggestion is to get here earlier in the night before their peak hours of 9pm to 12am every night.

Half & Half Tea House

120 N San Gabriel Blvd, Ste H
San Gabriel, CA 91778

(626) 309-9387
Strawberry, Pudding, Honey Boba Milk - $4.35

Banh Mi Che Cali: Chicken Rice With Steamed Eggs

TSGV RATINGS:
Eye Candy: 3/5 Stars
Smelloscope: 2/5 Stars
Taste Test: 2/5 Stars
Wallet Breaking: $
Recommend-ability: 2/5 - You Got Anything Better?

This summer, I've been teaching everyday at a Glee Summer Camp. I don't really work that often on an everyday basis where I have to bring my own lunch. This has been a crazy couple of weeks for me so I have been going to Banh mi Che Cali to get my lunch in the morning before I headed to camp.

I've been alternating getting different dishes each morning and I'm sure I'll be blogging about the other ones soon enough. Today I had the Chicken Rice with Steamed Eggs. Everyday when I bring my food to the camp, the director of the camp Cass would comment on the fact that the food looks very delicious, the proportion looks huge. When I tell her the price of the dish, her jaw drops at how cheap it is.

(Chicken Rice With Steamed Eggs - $3.25)

Today I ended up getting the Chicken Rice with Steamed Eggs. The chicken drumstick was glazed over with a semi-sweet BBQ marinate before it was grilled. The skin retained most of the flavor while the meat also absorbed a portion of it. It was a bit on the dry side, but that also had to do with the fact that it sat in my room for four hours before I ate it. Nonetheless the meat almost came off feeling like jerky at times.

The vegetables were freshly prepared and lightly seasoned, a welcomed compliment to a giant piece of meat. I did have to remove the peppers from the top of the dish since I'm not a fan of spicy food. Sorry, I won't be posting too many spicy dishes on this blog.

So you may be wondering why I would even bother writing about a dish that doesn't seem to be all that interesting and good. Aside from the fact that this lunch was only $3.25 and filled my stomach, the steamed egg was actually very well made. For the value, the egg was a great bonus. In fact it was the sole reason why I picked this plate over the other plates on the counter this morning.

(Chicken Rice With Steamed Eggs - $3.25)

The steamed egg had vermicelli noodles, meat and mushrooms mixed inside. It almost tasted like a quiche, Chinese, Vietnamese, Asian style. Though the restaurant is Vietnamese, this dish wasn't quite a Vietnamese dish. It almost is a generic Asian dish that I may even make sometimes minus the egg. Certainly I could make an even better drum stick if I had more time. But I'm uncertain if I could make the same dish for the same price mainly because I wouldn't be able to get ingredients in that small of a portion.

I wouldn't stop by Banh Mi Che Cali just to eat this dish, or most of what they serve if I didn't live a few blocks from it. But if you happened to be in San Gabriel and needed a quick bite to eat and didn't want to spend a fortune, this is certainly way better, way faster and way cheaper than even McDonald's or most other fast food joints out there. You got anything else better to eat for this price? By all means go for it.

Banh Mi Che Cali
135 San Gabriel Blvd, Ste A
San Gabriel, CA 91776
Chicken Rice With Steamed Eggs - $3.25