I first heard of Old Mandarin Islamic through the Check, Please! Bay Area television show on KQED. You can view that episode on the KQED website or download the free episode from iTunes. Anyways, I finally made my way to San Francisco this past weekend for a taste test and ended up enjoying a feast at Old Mandarin Islamic.
First off, I’ve been to many Chinese-Islamic restaurants in the Bay Area and in Los Angeles. Usually, I opt for the noodles and sesame bread。 However, based on my recent re-discovered fondness for hot pot, we ended up with hot pot and a bunch of other dishes.
As you can see, the Old Mandarin Islamic hot pot is quite different from the Little Sheep Mongolian hot pot. Besides the different cooking vessels, the Old Mandarin Islamic broth was much clearer and lacked the distinct medicinal taste of the broth from Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot. Since the Old Mandarin Islamic meat coming out of the broth was not as strongly flavored, the restaurant provided some dipping sauces.
The lamb from Old Mandarin Islamic is as tender and paper thin as the one from Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot. However, if you compare the photos, the Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot lamb appears a bit more fatty. Besides the hot pot, we also tried the 生煎包, the cumin beef, and a vinegary napa cabbage dish. I really should have picked up the take-out menu so I could be more precise with the names of the dishes.
The real stand-out dish was the lamb stew. I cannot recall the English or Chinese name, but this stew had a rich, savory sauce with the most tender pieces of bone-on lamb I have ever tasted. I would return to the restaurant for this dish alone. It was that good.
Previously, I had purchased Little Sheep Hot Pot Soup Base from 99 Ranch for $4.99 per package. Not an unreasonably price. It worked better the second time with shabu shabu meat from a Japanese supermarket than my first attempt with 99 Ranch’s frozen stuff.
On a return visit to 99 Ranch for more soup base, Little Sheep was no more. The store had sold out. Fortunately, I had noticed that the Little Sheep Soup Base package listed myAsianStore.com as the distributor. So, with nothing to lose, I gave them a try. I ended up picking 10 packages of Little Sheep Hot Pot Soup Base for $3.99 per package. Shipping set me back another $5.92, for a total of $45.82. However, that’s still about 8% cheaper than buying for $4.99 per package at 99 Ranch. Good deal.
Last night, I used my remaining package of Little Sheep Hot Pot Soup Base. However, instead of using the pre-cut beef and lamb from 99 Ranch, I tried the shabu shabu meats from Mitsuwa Marketplace. From their shabu shabu selection, I picked up one package of each cut of beef:
- Angus Chuck Roll @ $8.99/lb
- Washugyu Chuck Roll @ $22.99/lb
- Australia Beef Chuck @ $15.99/lb
- Prime Rib Eye @ $21.99/lb.
Mitsuwa also offered a plate of imported Japanese wagyu beef for about $75 a pound. I skipped that one, but did pick up a tray of shabu shabu pork.
The Angus chuck roll was tender, but a bit thick. I liked the thinner cut prime rib eye and the washugyu chuck roll better. However, for some reason, the meats were not absorbing the flavor of the broth the same way they do at the restaurant. Maybe, one package of soup mix is not enough for a dinner and I should have refilled the hot pot with additional broth instead of diluting it with water. Next time, I will have to prepare two packages of Little Sheep Hot Pot Soup Base.
Little Sheep is too popular. I knew that we were in for trouble tonight when we were a block away and I could hear the receptionist calling out ticket numbers over the loudspeaker. If you are coming with a large party (i.e., at least 6 adults), reservations should be mandatory. Otherwise, you risk not being seated.
Usually, we opt for the House Original Soup Base 祕製原味; however, some guests preferred the House Spicy 秘製麻辣, so we opted for the Half and Half Soup Base 秘製鴛鴦 which is served in a divided bowl. All soup bases are $3.75 per person, 12 and older.
As usual, we ordered several dishes of Supreme Lamb Shoulder Slice 極品羊肩肉 for $5.95 per plate and Hand Sliced Supreme Fatty Beef 手切極品肥肉 for $8.95 per dish. The meat from both dishes were sliced thinly and absolutely delicious. I know that we should explore the rest of the meat dishes, but those two are so good that we have not tried other variations of lamb and beef available. If you’ve already tasted perfection, is there any need to try anything else?
We also tried the Luncheon Pork 午餐肉 for $4.95, which tastes a lot like spam. Not sure that I will order that one again. We also ordered Sugar Pea Sprouts 大豆苗 for $5.95 and Tong Ho 茼蒿 for $3.95. Both of these are hot pot favorites. I wasn’t sold on the Sliced Potato 馬鈴薯片 for $2.95 or the Winter Melon 冬瓜片 for $.3.95. We also ordered the Frozen Tofu 凍豆腐 for $2.95, but I don’t think it had the same texture and flavor as when I had previously tried it at home. The U-Don Noodle 烏冬麵 for $3.95 and the House Special Wide Noodle 寬粉 for $4.95 were both delicious and a wonderful way to absorb the broth and finish off a meal.
If you bring some young children that have not developed an appreciation for hot pot, try the Egg Noodle 香港蛋麵 for $5.95, the Mongolian Pot Stickers 蒙古鍋貼 for $4.50, or the Mongolian Beef Meat Pie 蒙古牛肉餅 for $6.95. The Egg Noodle is just stir-fried egg noodle. Nothing too exotic, but has universal appeal. The Mongolian Pot Stickers are savory and delicious with a heavenly thick skin. But, you can find egg noodles and pot stickers pretty much anywhere. The Mongolian Beef Meat Pie is truly exceptional. But, it’s a flat “pie” that is filled with meat and crispy on both sides. It’s also a really large pie, so make sure you save enough room.
Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot is one of my favorite restaurants. Today, I was shopping at 99 Ranch when I spotted a package of Little Sheep Hot Pot Soup Base – Plain selling for $4.99 per package. Of course, I had to try it. However, I carefully scrutinized the package to make sure that the lamb wasn’t pointing in the wrong direction. With the soup base taken care of, I proceeded to collect the rest of my ingredients.
Being naturally inquisitive, I carefully read the list of ingredients.
The ingredients came in separate packages: 1 package of sunflower oil, 1 package of goji berry, 1 package of fermented soy beans, and 1 package of powder.
There’s a lot of dry powder, and I can’t believe that it’s all salt, MSG, disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate. In the restaurant version, I always see something that looks like a small root. Maybe I should have tasted the powder. Oh well.
In addition to the package ingredients, I also had to add the holy trinity of Chinese cooking: green onions, garlic, and ginger. A lot of garlic. 20 gloves of garlic. Yum.
I also had to purchase a hot pot for use on the dinner table. Although a stand-alone gas burner would probably have been sufficient, I opted for the Tatung TICT-1500W induction cooktop. So, what worked well?
The Little Sheep Hot Pot Soup Base tasted pretty much like the soup at the restaurant. I don’t know if it was identical, but it was close enough. The firm tofu that I stuck in the freezer for about 30 minutes was outstanding. I loved both the texture and the taste, though next time I will drain the tofu before putting it in the freezer so that it will not emerge encrusted in ice. The tong ho 茼蒿and large pea sprouts 大豆苗 also came out well, and I will use these again in the future. I also added enoki mushroom and fresh udon noodles. Really loved the udon noodles as well. So, basically the soup and all the side dishes came out well. That leaves the meat. I had purchased the pre-sliced beef and lamb from 99 Ranch. The thickness of the meats were uneven. The beef was not paper thin like the one at Little Sheep. While the lamb was cut more uniformly, the texture of both meats left much to be desired. At Little Sheep, the lamb and beef slices just melt in your mouth. The 99 Ranch meats were way too chewy. Like chew, chew, chew and then spit it out. So, the lesson learned is that while hot pot seems simple in theory, executing it to perfection is quite a bit more complex. So, I either have to find a different vendor for hot pot meat or buy a slicer and attempt to slice my own. Still, overall a good first attempt.
I love Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot. So, during a visit to Southern California, I was quite excited to try the Los Angeles Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot. Sometimes, Chinese businesses confuse me. I’m wary of bootleg CDs, DVDs and handbags. But, bootleg restaurants?
So, as I approach the restaurant, I see 小肥羊, the cute little lamb, and 中国内蒙火锅; however, in 繁体 instead of 简体. However, when we were presented the menu, the restaurant suddenly became 喜羊羊.
Basically, Happy Sheep worked the same way as Little Sheep. Order a broth and a selection of meat, seafood and vegetables for your hot pot. The Happy Sheep broth was very close in flavor to the Little Sheep broth with that distinct Chinese herbal aroma. I could taste the difference between the meats though. The lamb and beef from Little Sheep were much more tender. Also, because the meat slices from Little Sheep curled into rolls, they didn’t clump together like the Happy Sheep ones. Also, I would give points to Little Sheep for presentation. The way they served their raw vegetables, meats and noodles looked more appetizing. Little Sheep is also a LOT cleaner.
Happy Sheep did offer some complimentary appetizers, including sweet rolls that were delicious. They also had an outrageously tasty 鸡肉炒面, which was very popular at my table.
Out of curiosity, I looked up Little Sheep at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website. Both Little Sheep and 小肥羊 are registered trademarks of Inner Mongolia Little Sheep Catering Chain Co., Ltd. Corporation. Was this the reason why the Los Angeles Little Sheep became a Happy Sheep instead?
I returned to Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot last weekend. I still need a copy of their menu, but at least I took photos this time. Sunday night is hot pot night for no particular reason other than parking is free that night. This time, we ordered far less food than last time now that we had a better gauge on portion size and all. Like the first time, we stuck with the non-spicy broth and started with the lamb and beef slices. I really liked the tong ho this time. After its been cooking in the broth for some time, I totally loved the texture of the tong ho. We skipped the vermicelli and wide rice noodles, and opted for the udon instead. I think I liked the wide rice noodles the best so far. For variety, we also ordered the corn pancakes, which were sweet, and the meat pie, which was savory. I really wish I had the menu so I can post the actual names. When we left, the lobby was packed and I overheard that the wait time was about an hour. Glad we arrived early.
A stuffing recipe that I am attempting calls for 8 ounces of cremini mushrooms. I don’t have a kitchen scale. However, I have three packages of mushrooms. One package lists the weight in pounds and the other two weight in pounds. Instead of grabbing pencil and paper, I grabbed the iPhone:
.8 lb + 8 oz + 7 oz in oz
Google says:
(.8 pound) + (8 oz) + (7 oz) = 27.8 ounces
Thanks!
In general, I am a skeptic of boiled food. I have tried hot pot at many different places, both at restaurants and in the homes of friends and family, but never quite found it to my liking. So, I was in for an unexpected treat when I visited 小肥羊 Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot in San Mateo, CA for dinner recently. I really wished I had blogged about this sooner while I still had a copy of the menu. So, much of my recollection is based on my fading memory.
First off, you have a selection of soup bases to choose from. We opted for the non-spicy soup which runs for (I think) $3.95 a person. Then, you can pick from a list of various meats, seafoods, vegetables, tofus or noodles. For meats, we ordered the premium lamb shoulder slices and the supreme fatty beef slices. Both were absolutely delicious. Is it even possible for thinly sliced meat to absorb so much flavor from a quick swirl in the broth? I wasn’t curious enough to eat a slice of raw meat to see if it’s been pre-seasoned for obvious reasons. No satay sauce. No peanut sauce. I ate the meat as it came out of the broth and I was sold. We skipped the seafood. Is it even authentic to pass seafood as Mongolian cuisine? It is a land-locked country after all. For vegetables, we had tong ho and 大豆苗 pea sprouts. I’m not a fan of tong ho. Pea sprouts are more my type of vegetable. We also ordered enoki mushroom, which didn’t add or detract from the hot pot. For pasta, we had both the 粉絲 vermicelli and the wide rice noodles. I liked the wide noodles better. For desserts, we had the red bean paste yam cake. I wasn’t too fond of that because the yam cake had too strong a pumpkin taste to it.
However, the star of the night was the broth and the broth-infused lamb and beef. Outrageously delicious and a bit pricey, but entirely worth the experience.
After having some success with Wei-Chuan’s Chinese Cuisine
(中国菜), I decided to pick some some of the other Wei-Chuan cookbooks to diversify, namely Chinese Snacks (點心專輯)
, Chinese Cuisine: Beijing Style (北京菜)
and Chinese Cuisine: Shanghai Style (上海菜)
. I really like the bilingual cookbooks produced by Wei-Chuan. While I prefer to read through recipes in English, I like the title of the dishes to be in Chinese because I am more familiar with the Chinese names. I also like that I can consult with the Chinese recipe if the English directions are unclear.
Last weekend, I made the 糖醋瓦塊魚, which was inartfully translated to Sweet and Sour Fish Tiles. Another reason why I like the Wei-Chuan cookbooks is because the recipes all include a color photo of the final dish. If I had to rely on the awkward English translation, I probably would not have attempted the dish. Anyways, the recipe called for 1 T. of brown vinegar. Since I was unsure what was brown vinegar, I looked at the Chinese recipe which listed 鎮江醋. The bottles I see at 99 Ranch are labeled Chinkiang Vinegar, not Brown Vinegar. So, having the Chinese recipe with the English translation really helped in this instance.
I did notice that in some instances the Chinese and English recipes differed. Specifically, the Chinese recipe for 槽溜魚片called for 味精, but its English translation did not. I guess the translator was aware that Americans are not exactly fond of MSG. However, this cultural sensitivity theory fails if you look at all the dishes in the Chinese Snacks book that requires lard or shortening. I guess that’s the only way to make pastry dough light and flakey, but it’s definitely not a product I stock in the kitchen.
