Pioneer Chicken – Los Angeles, CA (I love chicken)

by admin on October 26, 2011

I love fried chicken. I wish fried chicken skin clears your skin and helps you lose weight. That would be an ideal world to live in.

Pioneer Chicken is a chain establishment that use to have much more prominence. Nowadays, it’s more of a novelty, and alas, I discovered this delicious place after its prime. Better late than never, right? They still know how to fry a good bird.

This was the stop after I flew back into town. My brother picked me up from the airport and wanted to get food as he tired of always eating Chinese food at home. I use to think that, until I moved to San Jose, where there is a great lack of quality Chinese when compared to the 626.

But this post is about fried chicken, amazing comfort food.

Mashed potatoes, cole slaw, and biscuits!

Look at that skin? That figure slimming skin!

I’m not sure what they add to it, if anything at all, but the chicken here is crispy on the outside, yet retains all the moist meats and flavors inside. Biscuits were great too, not too hard, fluffy – and I usually don’t like the biscuits that come with the chicken anyways.

Pioneer Chicken
904 S Soto St
Los Angeles, CA 90023

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Mama’s Lu – Monterey Park, CA (Los Angeles)

by admin on September 24, 2011

I’ve been getting a little homesick being in San Jose now,  and one of the things I miss the most is the food. I’v been meaning to post this piece on Mama’s Lu for a while, and better late than never, I believe.

My parents always order a lot of food. Partly it is because they always take it back – food is never wasted in my house, but also due to how they grew up. They were less affluent then, and food was harder to come by. In a sense, this splurge on food is to show that they’ve made it in America. The aspect of never wasting food also stems from that beginning, but I digress.

These things are the best way to start a meal – sweet and sour soup, roasted peanuts, and cucumbers. Oolong tea, of course.

Sautead leafy seasonal vegetables. I believe the direct translation is “common vegetable” though I’m not quite sure what vegetable this is. It’s like spinach, but with a heartier stalk. This is actually one of my favorite dishes, though my mom tends to not order vegetables at restaurants, as she wonders what the point is since she could make it at home. I persist, and it makes me feel less guilty with the following dishes to come.

Stir fried thick noodles with beef, bean sprouts, and green onions. I don’t usually like fried noodles unless it’s the wider variety. I remember eating this dish constantly as a kid. I was also a fat kid.

I don’t even know the name of this thing, but it’s kind of like a burrito and an egg roll put together. The wrap is fluffy, the insides stuffed with beef and cilantro, all fried and delicious. Two words that always work together.

Xiao long bao  - the king of dumplings. I would eat these steamed pork buns until I get sick or explode. Since it’s impossible to get sick on these, explosion is the only option. Burst of glory, juicy steamy, dipped in ginger and vinegar glory.

Even more dumplings (yes, we got two orders of the steamed pork buns, along with other dumplings. We order a lot of food.

When this came out, we were kind of surprised we got it. Another dish with beef and green onions. Delicious? Yes. Would go great with rice, but I was bursting at this point, riding the bliss.

Mama’s Lu
153 E Garvey Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91755

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Falafel’s Drive In – San Jose, CA

by admin on September 19, 2011

I didn’t hear about this place through word of mouth on online. How did I find out about this place? While I was driving by it in my process of discovering San Jose, I saw people run to this humble restaurant with long lines. I repeat. RUN.

Who runs for falafels?

Because of the high expectations of this place, I ordered too much food.

I ordered 3 additional falafel balls, because, you know, the sandwich is not enough.

Pita crisps – peppery, very very crispy, and overflowing.

The banana shake is hands-down the best thing ever. This is saying a lot because I don’t usually prefer sweet things, and I hardly drink shakes. This banana milk shake is amazing.

Bites taken of the falafel sandwich. I know, this looks more savage than anything. The falafel give it a nice crunch and this pita is holding a lot of falafel goodness. This is my attempt to take a few bites so you can see what it is inside, aka, fresh kill.

Stuffed meal.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure what to make of the meal, delicious as it was. I realized through this meal that my palate is not as well-versed in Middle Eastern cuisine, though the majority of those who patron this institution were not of Middle Eastern descent. I actually found it on the oily and salty side, however, it’s also coming from someone who just found out that falafels are vegetarian. Would I come back? Definitely. I want to try the falafel ball again and order one of their gyros. I may have been riding the excitement of the craze. Must re-observe the food.

Falafel’s Drive In
2301 Stevens Creek Blvd
San Jose, CA 95128

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