When I Crave Childhood Comfort Food.

In my case, childhood cuisine means Taiwanese or Chinese style food. Even though I've only lived in Taiwan for about a year and have never been to China, I've visited Taiwan several times, and mom cooks Chinese food, so I consider Chinese style food my comfort food.

 When I have a craving for cuisine I grew up with, I head out to the San Gabriel Valley, a hotbed of all kinds of Asian cuisine.  Yesterday, I had a craving for Chinese dumplings, so we went to the Mandarin Noodle House on 701 W Garvey Ave, an establishment that has been around for decades. The food there may not be up to the standards of the new expensive foodie craze sweeping over California, but it is basic northern Chinese food that hits a spot.

We ordered boiled pork dumplings with leek, fish dumplings, and pot stickers with pork and cabbage.
For sides dishes, we had marinated cubumbers, julienned seaweed, beancurd strips, and tofu with preserved eggs - all comfort food that we haven't had for quite a while.

After lunch, we had shave ice at Shau May Restaurant at 104 N Garfield Ave. in Monterey Park. We ordered one to share because even the 3 items combo shave ice is quite large. We had the combination of red beans, mochi balls and grass jelly topped with shave ice and condensed milk. Fantastic way to cool off on a hot summer day.