Asian Drinks. No Long Lines.

Guess this review is a long time coming. Found this gem with a great friend of mine randomly since I love gambling on new places. Whenever my fiance is around, I'd have to say we drop by this place on a weekly basis. I'm sure those of you who frequent Asian eateries enjoy boba ... more specifically honey boba. When we speak on honey boba usually the first thing that comes to mind is Half & Half. What goes hand in hand with Half & Half? A wait long enough for your shit to take a shit on itself. I value my time as a living human being. I cannot stand waiting for a boba drink for 30-60 minutes. Hell, I cannot comprehend why any person would. Back to the Cat-Inspired Cafe I was talking about.

This place has pretty good drinks but I like things less sweet and usually ask for less sugar. Anyway, Half & Half has their iced milk with boba and pudding. Yes, Half & Half does have pretty good boba but not always and depends on the location. But their pudding is crap. Tastes like it came out of one of those cheap packages you can get at a market. Meow Meow Cafe does their pudding some damn justice. LOVE the pudding. It's almost like flan.

They have this brown sauce that they add to it too. It's nice. With Half & Half it just starts tasting like milk when you eat up all the goodies in the drink. With this drink it's still flavored milk. Like I said I like half sugar but my buddy loves the normal amount. But he is not afraid of sugar. My fiance and I just went there yesterday to be honest. They have another drink, I believe it's #3 on the menu, Frosty Wintermelon with boba and pudding. Same idea as this except some blended milk with wintermelon tea. Wintermelon is very sweet by itself and the milk tone down the sweetness and make it smoother. Great drink also. If you don't want to waste time at Half & Half, definitely come here.

Meow Meow Cafe
3646 Nogales Street, Suite A
West Covina, CA 91792
626-965-9789

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Dessert. Quick.

I'm craving dessert right now and stumbled on this. Just a quick upload. Some times when I want a dessert, it doesn't have to be super sweet. Even that subtle sweetness is fine. Or fruits. Fruits for dessert are great. Maybe it's because I have Asian blood. It's alright if you want to make that type of stereotype, Asians always offering stupid slices of oranges after your meal. Well, fruits are good and they got some vitamins. What's not to like? On a serious note ...

Silky tofu with tapioca and mango. Yum. Do you like silky tofu when you go to Dim Sum? It does not have the candied ginger sauce but it is sweetened a bit and has mangoes to do with it. Phoenix Food Boutique is an Asian cafe with some desserts. There's a gang load of them in Rowland Heights and in the San Gabriel Valley. Been opening up like crazy. They have some alright food but I usually just go for dessert. This, the mixed fruit tea or tapioca, and this Black Sticky rice with mango and tapioca. It's a bit similar to above except sweeter, with warm black sticky rice. Try it!

Phoenix Food Boutique
1709 Nogales St.
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
626-810-8988
http://www.phoenixfoodboutique.com

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Dim Sum. New Capital.

Who doesn't enjoy Dim Sum? (Probably many people). Anyway, thought it might be nice to take some time to munch on those little side dishes and sip up some tea. Whenever I get Dim Sum, I must order chrysanthemum tea. It's so light and refreshing. Mmm, nice whole chrysanthemum leaves:

No other way to show the goodness without taking off the top. (Har har). And what else goes well with the entrees? It's red and yellow and has nothing to do with McDonalds.

Unfortunately, the people I went with already scooped up all the mustard while I was grabbing my camera. So the usual red chili paste that you could buy at local Asian markets. Enjoy spice? Put some on your siu mai or add a bit to some pan fried noodles.

Siu mai (燒賣). I enjoy these very much at New Capital. I'm sure there's some at other places but they're plump, juicy, well flavored and salted. There's other places with some good siu mai too but these are better portioned I think. Going to get Dim Sum without ordering this is a no no for me.

Har gau (蝦餃). The good thing about the har gau from New Capital is they don't put any other fillings. Some other restaurants put vegetables, chives, shallots, just little things to alter the natural shrimp taste. Another plus is the texture and lack of starch found on the wrapping. I recall some other places use different wraps and the outside of the har gau ends up being too sticky and even wet.

Char siu bao (叉燒包). My comfort dish. Reminds me of my childhood because I used to be a little prick. Literally. I avoided a lot of things, onions, pickles, ginger, mushrooms, tomatoes ... I'd have to say I appreciate my parents for not leaving me in the dust, Joe Dirt style out in a trash can while visiting the Grand Canyon. Whenever I look back I think, geez, what a crappy child. Anyway, now I enjoy and even love most of the things I just listed ... so back to the char siu, I like it. Not too much sauce in the filling, semi-sweet outside bun and a decent amount of char siu pork in it. This time around I just toss aside the excess of the outside bao just 'cause I didn't want to fill up on this.

Fung zao (鳳爪). Chicken feet. Also, something I didn't like in the past because .... it's chicken feet. Lol. Now, I just try it anyway, give it a whirl. I'll have to say, this is one thing at New Capital that's not always so great. It's very inconsistent. Today, it seemed a bit under-steamed because usually once you put this in your mouth the foot should disintegrate and fill your mouth with a skin, little bit of meat marinated in the red sauce. Last time I had it, was great. This time not, not really. If you love your fung zao, just order it, only a $2 or something for the dish.

Spare ribs with fermented black bean and a little bit of chili. I haven't eaten this in awhile and I didn't eat it this time. Sometimes you'll receive a dish with lots of meat and sometimes it's mostly bones. The flavor is there but I mostly enjoy eating the chilis from the dish nowadays.

 Some type of egg roll that we tried. I don't know the name. Only thing I know is that it was not bad, but greasy. Since the wrapping used is a little different from the traditional egg rolls, I think this wrapping absorbs a little bit more oil. The inside was like har gau, shrimpy goodness.

Chinese broccoli with some oyster sauce. Good. There aren't many vegetable dishes to eat at Dim Sum or maybe I'm not very experienced but this is one of the few I see. Green is good, but the thick stems were a little bitter today. Very light in taste, almost like it's steamed and just drizzled with a bit of oyster sauce.

Beef cheong fun (腸粉). Wasn't feeling it today and a lot of places use more rice noodle than meat. Unfortunately, New Capital doesn't fill up the inside with a lot of meat and I'm positive many other places don't give much in terms of protein. This dish is better with a lot of the sweet soy sauce that's provided.

I have no idea what this is. Was just picked from one of the carts but the taste greatly resembles the spare ribs. Imagine chunks of the spare rib meat with some veggies (green onions?) mashed together into a meatball form, steamed and pan fried for a slight outside crisp.

First try and I'm going to have to give it my thumbs up. I'd definitely get it again.

Dan tat (蛋撻). Flaky, oily, egg custard. Yum. Not excessively sweet and the filling is in between cream and custard. Get it, because your mouth deserves something on the sweet side.

Lastly, naai wong bao (奶皇包). Puff pastry with a milky sweet filling with a hint of coconut at the end. It's so good, especially right after it comes out of the over. This time it wasn't warm but that doesn't matter. I just sit back and relax with one of these and my cup of chrysanthemum. Win.

Here's the filling. It's hard to describe so next time you get Dim Sum try it.

I like Dim Sum. One of my favorite things to get but I do dislike the waits, the loud environment, the sense of no service. But that's alright, watching carts move around with food is nice. Makes ordering food a bit exciting since you get to check everything out before you eat. Is this place the best, heavens no because there's other places in the San Gabriel Valley. Even though it's farther and cheaper, I'd still rather just come here because it means less driving and less of a wait. If you're in the neighborhood, swing by, just don't expect great service.

New Capital Seafood
1330 S. Fullerton Rd., #207
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
626-581-9813

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