• DINING • The New Normal
dining & nitelife
THE HOT POT HEAT WAVE IS ON WEST GREEN STREET
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Average price per entree $ up to $10 $$$ $16-25 $$ $11–15 $$$$ $25+
EL PORTAL 695 E. Green St., Pasadena (626)795-8553 Elportalrestaurant.com $$ Pasadena Weekly readers have been rewarding El Portal with the title of Best Mexican Food in the city for years. This charming little hacienda with brick walls, festive colors, fine art and a California elegant courtyard brings the authentic cuisine of Mexico and the Yucatan region to your table.
HILL STREET CAFÉ 1004 Foothill Blvd., La Canada Flintridge 818-952-1019 hillstreetcafelacanada.com $$ Hill Street Café is celebrating over 25 years of serving the community quality meals made of quality ingridients. We want to thank all of you who stuck with us during the remodeling process and we want to welcome back everyone else. in our recent remodel, we have added an outdoor patio, a bar and more dining area, we have created a relaxed ambience with a touch of modern but still retaining our extensive menu, our friendly service and most important a family atmosphere.
MARGARITA’S 155 S. Rosemead Blvd., Pasadena (626) 449-4193 margaritaspasadena.com $$ At Margaritas Mexican Restaurant, our family has been sharing our authentic Mexican dishes with the wonderful people of Pasadena since 1977. Guests enter our warm, inviting space and leave as family -- with plenty of burritos, tortas, tostadas, fajitas, and more to be had in between! Our dishes incorporate and pay homage to the rich flavors of bustling mercados, corner taquerias, and seaside palapas. So visit us, eat to your heart's content at our mouthwatering lunch buffet, sip on a refreshing margarita, and feel at home.
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6 PASADENA WEEKLY | 09.10.20
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BY FRIER MCCOLLISTER
oes anything really make sense anymore? Why would a Sichuan hot pot shop open in the dead of summer when the world is recovering from a pandemic lockdown? A banner proclaiming “grand opening!” with a translation in Mandarin is strung across the façade of Chong Qing Yao Mei on a shady patch of West Green Street in the first week of August. What is going on here? In the breezy open courtyard of Chong Qing Yao Mei, where distanced tables have been arranged for outdoor dining, a single-page carry-out menu is procured. The host confirms that, indeed, the restaurant “opened” just two weeks prior. More research is required! Hot pot? I am no aficionado by any means, and it’s been years since I’ve had it. At Chong Qing Yao Mei—as at most hot pot purveyors—there are propane burners set in the center of each table, where a large bowl of flavored broth is heated. Then, depending on your order, a variety of raw ingredients, meat, seafood, tofu and vegetables are brought to the table to be cooked in the boiling broth before being CHONG QING YAO MEI 55 W. Green Street, Pasadena ladled into a bowl to eat. Korean Bean Paste 626-639-3391 It tends to be a communal experience with dining companions sharing the broth of spiciness. These start at $8.95 for miso and bowl and trading ingredients. Perhaps range to $11.95 for a combo or $19.95 for beef oil not an ideal format for pandemic dining, that includes quail egg, dry bean curd, duck blood, but hot pot enthusiasts also tend to be very scallion, ginger and garlic. enthusiastic. Next, guests order their ingredients from the lists that By contrast and temperament, I can be one of those continue on the back of the double-sided menu, each at insufferable codgers who might suggest that when I go their own price and specified cooking time. I counted 75 to a restaurant, I’m not there to do the cooking. Still, I’m ingredient choices available that day. These ranged from curious to know more and the menu I retrieved seemed squid balls ($4.95) to fresh frog ($8.95) to Wagyu beef simple enough. There were five choices of hot pot—spicy ($29.95). beef, pork bone, house tomato, vegetarian and spicy pot. I’m already sweating, but now it’s a cold sweat. The accompanying raw ingredients were more or less Astrologically, I’m a double-Libra. That means, in the best the same, except the protein of choice: napa cabbage; of circumstances, I have difficulty deciding what to order wood ear mushrooms; tomato; glass noodle; lettuce; Enoki from any menu. Everything always looks good. This is the mushrooms; corn; tofu and egg. type of menu that makes it all but impossible. I just wanted Sausage, Spam and beef tendon balls appeared in the spicy pot at $15.99 from the old menu, not this whirling the meat pots with shrimp and pork in the “spicy pot.” kaleidoscope of choices. And what happened to the pig Pictures of the neatly arranged platters accompanied the ears? descriptions. Each of the hot pots was priced at $15.99. I ask Henry for help. I realize, looking at the prices, In addition to rice and noodle dishes, there was a section that I will be ordering too much food and the tab will climb titled “marinated” that had five items: spicy pig ears, spicy to over $30 if I attempt to replicate the spicy pot or so it duck neck, spicy pork trotter, spicy chicken feet and crispy seems. What to do? Heatstroke? pork trotter, all of which range from $10.99 to $13.99. Numbly desperate, I order the miso base ($8.95) with Fine. I’ll get the spicy pot and, if I’m really going for it, shrimp ($5.95) and tofu ($2.95). Even before Henry fires maybe the spicy pig ears? I also figure that it’s now the end up the propane burner and presents the enormous bowl of August and 98 degrees in the shade. Alone, I’ll try the of miso broth, I realize this is an epic misfire. Let’s face food and get the story from the staff, all at the same time. it, miso soup with shrimp and tofu is not hot pot let alone Indeed, on a random Wednesday during the August regional hot pot from Chong Qing. No one’s fault but mine. heatwave, I am the only patron at Chong Qing Yao Mei. That said, the eight shrimp were large and fresh. The genial and patient Harry Hao is the only one minding After paying $22.68 with tip, I stumble back out with the store. That’s as far as I got with my plan. two quart tubs of miso soup. Huh? Henry presents me with an unfamiliar menu that is laid To make it all worse, I did manage to glean from Henry out like a sushi bar with a broad checklist of categorized that Chong Qing Yao Mei did not just open. Apparently, ingredients at individual prices. Order a special soup they’ve been at this location for three years. They closed base, of which there are eight choices with three levels CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
