Happy Holidays!
I went with a group of 10 to try Hunan food at San Gabriel Valley. Hunan is a regional Chinese cuisine that’s signature for the dry hot kind of spicy flavor (as opposed to Szechuan’s numbing hot). And as the pictures show, the food has bold, vibrant colors. Everyone was gulping down bottles of beers to neutralize the flame. Two guys were sweating like a fountain (amazing sight)!
House Special Lamb Rib. This is stunning! Hot and crispy and very flavorful. It’s simply on fire. This plate was gone within seconds. We were temped to wrap the remaining chili pepper sauce home for cooking use.
Hunan Smoked Ham with Bamboo Shoot You have the choices to choose what to stir fried the smoked ham with: Leeks, Bitter Melon, turnip, etc. The smoked ham are very delicious with dense smoky flavor. The fat in ham are cured to the point of chewy and melty.
Another lamb dish. Toss-Fried Mutton with Cilantro, a perfect combination of the mutton and fresh herb .
An intimidating Beef Hot Pot with peanuts and bean sprout. The red chili peppers are daunting, and the bean sprout underneath were thoroughly soaked with the chili oil and sauce. It’s irresistibly good.
Here’s one of their most famous dishes: Steamed Fish Head Casserole with Chopped Hot Pepper sauce. The fish head is humongous. The sauce is the best of the dinner: it’s a complicated multi-flavors chop of chili peppers, ginger, garlic, shallots and pickled vegetables.
Crab with Stir-fried Hot Sauce. It looks good but sadly I was too late to get a piece.
We did ordered a few more mellow dishes to balance out the palette: Mapo Tofu and Crystal Shrimp with Cucumber.
Every plate is very spicy and strong flavors. But we simply couldn’t stop eating. This restaurant was burnt down awhile ago. It’s re-opened in the current new location. It’s a good place to bring in a huge dining group so you get to try a bit of everything. The price is mostly above $10 a plate.
Hunan Seafood Restaurant
8772 E. Valley Blvd.
Those dishes look delicious. Will try this place soon. Thanks for the info.
Happy New Year~~~~
Did your tongue feel numb after eating all these spicy food?? They all look so good though. One day I am going to start exploring regional Chinese cuisine!
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Woo-hoo, I’m going there next Wednesday, so I appreciate some of your recs. I’m especially looking forward to that Hunan Smoked Lamb. 🙂
hey, i remember that meal! thanks for blogging this and keeping track of what we ate. my faves were the bamboo shoot with smoked ham and fish head. delicious! i need to go back soon…
great blog by the way!