Culinary Explorations and Experiences around LA and the Foodiverse
Vegetarian Chinese Food that is NOT Happy Family
29Mar2009 Filed under: restaurants, vegetarian Author: NancifulCall me superstitious but I think the last blog theme that I had was like bad feng shui or something. Because since I’ve changed the layout, I’ve found my camera AND the laptop screen fixed itself ! Well, the laptop screen will still need to be examined further. Anyways, I think the new layout is better, no?
I mentioned a couple posts ago that I went to this awesome vegetarian Chinese restaurant that is not Happy Family. I managed to eat my way through everything without a single picture. I ahd to go back again to get the some pictures.
The Hubs and I are eating vegetarian about 3-4 days per month for religious reasons. Our vegetarianism restricts us from food with garlic, any type of onions, peppers and alcohol. So during the veggie days, we couldn’t just go to our favorite restaurants and order dishes without meat. Because chances are, those dishes will mostly likely at least one of the forbidden ingredients.
This has prompted us to venture out and find vegetarian restaurants that follow these guidelines. My mom suggested this new place in the Focus Plaza in San Gabriel called Gourmet Vegetarian. This is one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants so far because the food taste like…well real food! And we don’t have to ask the waiter/waitress the ingredient of every dish because they are Buddist vegetarian friendly. They do not season their food with garlic or onions.
In my experience, Chinese vegetarian food tend to taste the same. It’s always chewy with some sort of skewed version of kung-pao tasting sauce slathered all over the said chewiness. But Gourmet Vegetarian restaurant has a refreshing take of Chinese vegetarian foods well as a good selection of Japanese dishes such as hand rolls and California rolls. The Chinese dishes are very much Taiwanese influeced and the taste is pretty close to their meatier counterparts.
One of the must orders on the menu is their hand rolls. They used lettuce, dried bean curd and pickled daikon (turnip).
vegetarian hand rolls
close up of vegetarian hand rolls
Next up is the fried “chicken” strips or nuggets. For those of you that read Chinese, it’s their vegetarian version of 咸酥雞, translated literally, it’s saled crispy chicken with basil leaves. This dish is made with gluten and fried in a light batter, sprinkled with some MSG salt.
"fried chicken nuggets"
My mom is a fan of their sesame pancake but I’m just meh about it. It’s just fried dough with a sprinkle of white sesame seeds. I rather waste my calories on another dish.
sesame pancakes
I think the best dish on their menu is the sesame-oil-wine chicken thin rice noodle. In Chinese: 麻油鷄麪綫. It actually taste like the real thing! Gluten is used again for the chicken chunks but they got the ginger and the sesame oil essence of the dish down. Of course, there is no rice wine in it or it would not be vegetarian in Buddhist beliefs.
sesame-oil-wine-chicken noodle soup thingamageeg
close up
As I mentioned, the menu has quite a few Japanese inspired dishes. This was one of them. Stir fried vegetarian udon. It was a little over peppered and a tad on the greasy side. But overall, it’s a good dish for people who are a little apprehensive to try the before mentioned items and great for kids because it’s really just a normal dish you can get at a Hong Kong style cafe.
stir fried vegetarian udon on hot plate
he restaurant also offers many puff pastry selections. The one that caught my eye was the puff pastry almond soup which is more like dessert. However, I was stuffed that day and didn’t order it. My mom did order the puff pastry pumpkin bisque which is a savory dish.
puff pastry pumpkin bisque
Of course, what’s a vegetarian meal without vegables! Here is their take on the Taiwanese style of pairing vegetables with minced meat (meat made with mushrooms).
An Choy with minced "meat"
Gourmet Vegetarian is not your ordinary Chinese vegetarian restaurant. The restauarant is spacious, has nice decor and is clean. The price is not cheap though. A dinner for 4 will run you about $100, high in San Gabriel/Monterey Park/Alhambra vicinity. However, it’s definitely worth a trip.
Gourmet Vegetarian 140 W Valley Blvd #222 San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 280-
- Tags: chinese, gluten, san gabriel, vegetarian
7 Responses to “Vegetarian Chinese Food that is NOT Happy Family”
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About this blog
As a resident of Los Angeles and an extensive traveler, Nanciful’s tastebuds have been around the block and then some. This blog will focus on my reviews of local and international dining experiences. These will range from restaurants that break the bank to delectables that can be bought from change found in the couch. The blog will also include my musings of the world, her travels, her wishes and desires and everything else.
I am also trying my hand at cooking. So stay tuned for adventures and experiments from the kitchen.
Some of my interests include spending time with the Hubs, yoga, running, Sweaty Sunday, traveling, eating, reading food blogs while eating, and perusing a menu or cookbook before bedtime.
Azat
March 30th, 2009 at 7:24 am
This place looks really great Nancy.
Im glad you found the camera too
Edward
April 10th, 2009 at 10:22 am
“But overall, it’s a good dish for people who are a little apprehensive to try the before mentioned items and great for kids because it’s really just a normal dish you can get at a Hong Kong style cafe.”
I guess I’m still a kid at heart!
Love the noodles…
Nanciful
April 20th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
@Azat: Let us take you here sometimes!
joanh
July 11th, 2009 at 5:02 am
wow.. vegetarian sesame oil rice wine noodles!!
my mom is vegetarian so we used to go to happy family ALL the time. i’ll have to surprise her and see if she’s heard of this one
Will
July 13th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Just wrote another version of this response and accidentally closed it… d’oh. Nice to meet you guys at Jitlada the other night.
Anyway, I have been here a couple times, and I think it’s Ok, but I don’t think the food is better than the other veggie places in the LA area (though the atmosphere of the place is definitely nicer / fancier, and the staff is quite friendly). Also, the menu is really heavy on the fake meat, which I don’t like, not only because I eat vegan-ish and a lot of that stuff contains some amount of egg or dairy, but also because I try not to eat too much processed food, not to mention the recent allegations of a lot of fake meat containing real meat:
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2009/06/15/212209/Half-of.htm). There are a few vegetable / tofu / seitan dishes on the menu, but not many.
Also, I think the menu at that place is a little too big… trying to do sushi, etc. in addition to Chinese food seems a bit overly ambitious. And their default soup usually has egg in it, which is problematic for me. I do like the kabocha porridge, though. I miss the place that used to be in that plaza maybe 8 years back (Veggie Delight, on the second floor, couple doors down from the plastic surgery place), as well as Ten In – somehow the places I like end up being the ones that close.
Have you been to Bean Sprouts in Arcadia? It’s a Taiwanese place that’s a little more contemporary in style than a lot of the other places around (though also pretty heavy on the fake meat). Some of the food is good IMO, and some is just so-so, but it’s relatively easy to get to from my work, so it’s one of those places I tend to go to multiple times a week. Some of the dishes (mapo tofu, curries) are awful, some are a little boring, but decent (dan dan mian, minced pork with pickled greens), and some are pretty good (house special noodle soup, veggie beef soup). I have always complained that for a place that advertises itself as a noodle place should have better noodles, but the good news is that the noodles they’re using now are at least a little better than the ones they were using before.
BTW, if you specify 全素 at most non-veg SGV Chinese restaurants, I think they will understand what you mean (no onions / garlic / cilantro / 韭菜 etc), though of course mistakes do happen sometimes. I know, because I frequently *want* to get those things in my food, and restaurants are typically very confused.
Stay in touch… maybe we can get vegetarian food on one of your veg nights!
Will
July 13th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
ps – Some of the “chicken” may be gluten, but these days it’s more frequently a processed fake meat made with soy, and often whey protein and other flavorings.
For the record, I have nothing against the concept of fake meat… however, I’ve heard some good arguments that there’s a big difference between stuff that people have been eating and making in traditional ways and eating safely for years (tofu, tempeh, seitan / wheat gluten) and food made from processed soy, which as I understand it is often made from the byproducts of (chemical) extraction of soybean oil. Also, the ingredients aren’t always complete (especially the English language ingredients).
Nanciful
July 21st, 2009 at 9:06 am
@Will Thank you for this great comment! I will definitely try Bean Sprouts in Arcadia, thanks for the rec. I don’t mind eating vegan but the 全素 is difficult sometimes because there’s garlic in everything. Then there’s the no drinking while we are on 全素 and that just plain sucks!
Agree that Gourmet Vegetarian is too ambitious but maybe the next foodie get together should be there. I think it will be an experience for ppl who haven’t tried Chinese vegan.