Galley Girl – She's in Your Kitchen

In today’s economic climate, change seems to be the only constant, especially in the cutthroat restaurant industry. Not so for that handful of quirky joints who exist happily on another plane. La Palma Chicken Pie Shop comes to mind. A certain venerable Mandarin restaurant is another.

House-made pickles.

 I could just as easily be in Wan Chai as Westminster as I duck in off the street into the austere L-shaped twelve-table Peking Restaurant in a dilapidated strip mall. It remains exactly as it was when I reviewed it for OC Weekly in 2002, and likely for the two decades it was open before that. No gaudy gilded dragon décor here, their money is in stress-bearing lazy susans that can support off-axis eccentric loads at maximum weight limits.

Roasted beef with green onion pancake.

 It’s essential to start with the house-made pickle, a  crisp slightly sweet Mandarin amuse-bouche awash in chili and sesame oil. Thin, multi-feuille pancake flecked with green onions and layered with roast beef is next.  The bread is chewy and delicate, the beef tender and fragrant with star anise. 

Mancake.

Next, the requisite Kuo-Tieh dumplings, golden brown pan-fried sampans with a moist savory filling of  leek, pork and cabbage complimented by a dab of chili sauce.

Have you had your Kuo-Tieh quota?

From here its your call. I prefer to put myself in the capable hands of Julie Chen. Partial to embroidered vests, this sprite of a woman turns tables as fast as her nephew, Jerry Chen can deliver the dumplings.

House-made Singapore noodles.

 As blistered straight beans with black bean sauce, sliced mild white fish with a topping of crispy yellow beans, tender, lightly-fried salt and pepper shrimp and pan fried house-made Singapore noodles arrived, we heard the unmistakable clicking crackle of Hungry Hungry Hippos in the background.

It indeed was the Hasbro board game making a perfect low-tech activity at an adjacent table that was nearly drowned out by all the other lively cacaphony. Note to self: never cancel a Peking restaurant date due to babyysitter failure.

Last night, while nursing a couple of Tsingtaos,  we watched the dozen tables fill up in 20 minutes creating a small wait outside. One guy with a newspaper was willing to make his base at the table filled with stand-by chopsticks and soup spoons next to the the cash register. Chef Jerry Chen makes a yearly pilgrimage to Bejing to  learn traditional tricks of the trade. Here’s hoping the lazy susans can withstand the punishment.

8566 Westminster Blvd. Westminster, CA 92683 (714) 893-3020. Closed Monday.

If you’ve spent any time in Tustin’s box retailer orgy The District at Tustin Legacy, you may have felt that the days of stumbling upon a restaurant find are over.  It’s as if your next meal has already been master planned for you. You may forage for lunch on the vast asphalt tundra while you’re waiting for Costco Tire Center to  lower your grocery getter off the blocks, but it’s a challenge to find much other than heavily branded mass produced sustenance.

Green apple salad with beef: fuse it or lose it!

If you’re going to eat in the District, there’s The Winery, William Lewis and J.C. Clow’s singular, lovely refuge that gives the illusion you’ve escaped the  ’one million square-foot lifestyle center’,  but it requires more of an occasion than waiting out your pro-rated Michelin LTX installment. If you need something a little quicker, cheaper and less bacchanalian before heading back to the office or school pick-up, try Asian Mint.  

Gleaming gunmetal and orange tile accents appear to have been appropriated from an  Ann Sacks on Ebay spree.  John Tesh-type  instrumentals play mercilessly on the sound system. The boîte across from Borders  only looks like the octo-spawn of P.F. Chang’s and Panda Express.  Surprise: there’s just one.  The menu is Vietnamese and Chinese with some Malay and Singaporean dishes and what might be termed fusion.

Dumplings are best left for your next dim sum run. Vietnamese salad rolls are great snack food, but can be weighed down by rice paper as clumsy and rubbery as 70′s ten speed handlebar tape. The amazing avocado shrimp roll is wrapped in rice paper as gossamer and tight as Lady Gaga’s galactic Armani Grammies gown, a nearly weightless vehicle for the succulent rosy shrimp, creamy avocado, crunchy won ton skin and fresh herbs within.   

The phσ is only decent with much fresher herbs and full flavored broths to be found down the street in Little Saigon. For lunch, the tangy tamarind fish is buoyant, its tender texture and mild flavor belie its piscine origins altogether.

  Like a Tarantino flick, fusion cuisine, and terms like ’Califoriental’ that it conjurs up, scare me with their T & I tactics on unsuspecting dishes.  Asian Mint does a very traditional Vietnamese green papaya salad with beef, but also a version that substitutes green apples for the papaya. Savory beef, all at once glossy, juicy and aromatic is tossed with sautéed onions on a bed of crisp, tart Granny Smith match sticks dotted with chopped peanuts. Not a common combination and not a freak show on a plate, just really good.   

2487 Park Ave. Tustin.714.259.7738. Dinner for two, $25.00, food only.