Henry's Cuisine

Henry's Cuisine - 301 E Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801

If you are familiar with 626 restaurants, you can understand there is a lot going on in this area. With that being said, there are a lot of restaurants that stands out, and some that are just trying their best to survive. The more common restaurants like Tasty Garden has emerged over the past several years and has opened a few other locations. Phoenix Inn has been around for 50 YEARS (can you imagine that?) also evolved overtime and some even revamped the interior of their locations. Then, you have the typical Chinese cafes like Garden, Baccalis, JJ, JR, KT cafe, Ledo, and so much more. This is also followed by the many restaurants that serves dim sum in the morning, all the Vietnamese joints, HOT POTS, but we are definitely not going to to go into any of that today. (I'm mind blown just going through all other cuisines in my head)

I picked up my mom today to have dinner. We were trying to figure out how to set up her Bluetooth to connect to her car. I don't know if you remembered from a past post, my mom got a new car.

It took a while before I figured out that... I couldn't really figure it out. We decided to take a break from that and head to dinner. She already had her mind set on Henry's Cuisine because a few of her friends raved about the fried salted pig knuckle. I've heard about it, seen it, and always wanted to try it myself. I am a huge fan of roast pork. Being Chinese, it was really something we grew up eating in the household. We would order a few ribs, chopped it up, made some garlic sauteed veggie, a big pot of white Jasmine rice, and that was our meal. It was tough, but our parents made it easy for us to enjoy tasty meals with a low budget.

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The spread

See? Literally. Meat. Veggie. Rice. With the addition of the porridge because my mom was not feeling well. First thing first.

Deep Fried Salted Pig Knuckle:

Seriously, it was decadent. My mom went straight for the skin, took one bite, and told me "MMMMMM, it's good" in Cantonese or "MMMMM. Ho sik". I tried it for myself and almost cried. The meat was lean, but tender. The brininess of the pork was perfect. This dish was pretty extraordinary. The saltiness of the pork really makes it distinct as well as the hue of the meat. My mom called dibs on the bone, but before she did I peeled a few bits of skin off for myself. She was one happy mom.

Dried Fish with Chinese Broccoli

The vegetable was simple. Something we always order because we need to have some green with our meal. It's just the way every Chinese meal goes.

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Preserved Egg with Salted Pork congee

This is another typical staple in the Chinese cuisine. Whether you are sick, or having breakfast, this is always a go to comfort food. Preserved eggs are not for everyone. I didn't start enjoying the eggs till I was in my 20's. I would normally eat around it because I do like the flavors it brings to the congee.

All in all, thumbs up. This place was not packed whatsoever and that makes me really sad. There were these 2 mainland Chinese ladies that arrived at the same times as we did. They ordered food at the same time, but left in the middle of our meal. My mom overheard them saying the food sucks. I'm like it sucks? "MMMMM HO SIK AH!" that's what I said. The ahh puts emphasis on your statement.

How rude were these ladies? They actually went up to the waitress who was closing out their bill, and spoke in mandarin that the food was poor quality. The phrase in our language is actually a lot worse than the English "It sucks/not good/taste bad". It's a lot meaner to say it in our language. The restaurant was not full, so them saying it a few times stung me a bit. It made me slightly mad. The meal I just shared with my mom was delicious. The service we had was one of the best that we had in the area. The food was comforting and there is no reason to be hostile.

I want this place to do good. So I hope that you all can give it a try (especially the pork knuckle). I would totally save the bone, and make congee with that. Just imagine all the delicious roasty pork flavors you can extract from it?

Or you can chuck it at those 2 ladies I saw.

Chow!

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Chile rubbed chicken

Honestly I wouldn't know what you would call this. This meal was put together because I was desperate to recreate something with chicken. I have a whole rack of spices that I'm just too chicken to try. I just randomly put spices together that I thought would marry together. Let's just say I've made this ever since AND it's EASY.

Looks like this:

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"Random Chicken Dish"

Guys don't worry, the char is not bitter, its from the rub and honey.

RECIPE:

• 4 Chicken Leg Quarters (works with breasts too.)
• 1.5 tablespoon Ancho Chile powder - you can find this in any grocery store. I got minds there and at Marshalls!
• 1.5 tablespoon of sweet paprika
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon of cayenne
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 1 tablespoon of salt (I use Kosher)
• 2 tablespoon heap-full of honey. 
• 1/2 a lemon.
• 1/4 cup of olive oil.

In a big mixing bowl large enough to hold your chickens, mix in all the dry ingredients. Then, mix in the olive oil first, followed by the lemon juice, and then the honey. After the slurry has been made, you mix in the chicken and let it sit for at least 1 hour. Sometimes when my chicken is frozen, I would still lather the chicken with the olive oil rub even though it's still thawing. There's no reason why besides me being impatient. And my mind thinks it's marinading as it's thawing.

Set your oven to 370 for 45 minutes. I put my chicken in the oven when it's still warming up. BTW, for chicken breast, I did it the same way and it still came out super moist (SKIN ON). Plus, the chicken breast I used the first time was really thick.

Just to let you know, I never remove skin from my meats. I love the fat, the bad things about it that makes me feel good. Not promoting the nutrition, but remembering everything should be okay by consumption right? right?! I cry... and I love fried chicken..

LET YOUR CHICKEN REST FOR 5-10 minutes before eating it! You don't want the yummy juices to leave the bird. I like to eat this with some elote to balance the spices.

Stay tuned for Elote recipe, that will be SO-MUCH-FUN.

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Chinese BBQ

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Chinese BBQ

I remember in our household, we would have the items above weekly. Everything of course tasted better with an egg. What I loved most about this, and you may not believe it, but it's a penny savor. What makes this meal cost efficient is the rice, a hunka hunk of it! My favorite parts are the duck leg, the fatty sections in the char siu, and the charred parts from the BBQ Sausage. I remember eating a ton of this when I was younger, but not as much when I was on my own. It is something that I've forgotten, but I've found my way back to remembering the best foods from my childhood.

This screams comfort food to a lot of Chinese People! In LA, you can find BBQ chinese meats in San Gabriel Valley and a few in Chinatown. Remember, most places are cash only... or so they say.

If you have left overs, I recommend making fried rice with the char siu and BBQ sausage (or scrambled eggs, MMMMMmmMMMmm!) . I like using the roast duck in noodles.

I can't wait to devour this for dinner. What are you having tonight?

Cheers!

Daiisies

Good Morning BEW - Bacon, EGGS, Waffles.

On the weekends, it's been a constant struggle trying to find a restaurant that serves a simple breakfast with good coffee. We really want to stay local, or away from Los Angeles because of the heavy foot traffic and inconvenience of getting there. Then there is parking, and long lines. Don't get me wrong, I love to go dine out, but there are days where I just want to lay around in the morning and stare at my cat chasing his tail. Yes, my cat chases his tail ALL.THE.TIME. Anyways, restaurants either serve food that is either too heavy where we end up not productive for the rest of the day, too small where we feel gypped, or just lacking in flavor (especially the coffee, agree?) where you stop after a few bites because you get bored. Then, there goes $20-$40 down the drain depending on where you are. I've decided to cook a simple brunch at home and not worry/stress about finding a new place to dine (or regular) and just whip up something I know I am comfortable eating.

Simple:

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BEW - Bacon Eggs and Waffles

I just popped a few frozen thick waffles in my toaster, cooked up some bacon and eggs with a pot of coffee. No struggle and clean up is minimal. Slab on some sweet cream butter with the old fashion Aunt Jemima and we are all set and ready to go.

If you haven't been to the market lately, bacon is ridiculously expensive. So when a sale goes on, I would buy 2 packs and keep one in the freezer till I need it. For eggs, I always eat Happy Eggs. And waffles? Leggo my Eggo.

Enjoy!

Daiisies