Gastro Monkey // 美食家

There are two Chinese restaurants in the Sacramento area that I like, Jing Jing , and Yang's. Both serve Szechuanese food, but they both have different strengths. With Jing Jing, I like their spicy fish and lamb. At Yang's Noodles, I like (surprise!) their noodles and dumplings. Both are made in house (my favorite) and are well made.  At Yang's I tend to order more things as they have things that overlap with what is considered Taiwanese cuisine. While of course, nothing is ever as good as being in Taiwan; the food is still solid and is a good price. Each time I go, I change my order up a little. The general combination is the same though - two appetizers, one noodle dish, dumplings, and one onion pancake.  The appetizers I order are always served cold. If you aren't used to that type of appetizer, be sure to ask first so you aren't surprised and think they made a mistake. With the noodle dish, I bounce between beef noodle soup and the pork with veggies. Th...

There are a few places in Seattle that are often overlooked but hold a special place in my heart. I think too many people forget that food doesn't necessarily just need to taste good to be considered "good"--it can also have a lot to do with memories. Shanghai Garden is one of those places.  I normally like places with fewer things on their menu as it means they focus just on the things they do well instead of spreading themselves thin to try and make everything, but Shanghai Garden has a decently sized menu. That said, I think it's fair to say that there are things that I wouldn't go there for (I'm talking to the yelpers who complained about their Mongolian Beef and General Tso's Chicken not being authentic, you guys just need to go to Panda Express and chill). Shanghai Garden is primarily known for their barley green hand shaven noodles (and not what the girl on yelp referred to as "hand pulled noodles"). They serve them either as stir fri...