la.foodblogging

This is going to be my most obscure entry, but believe me - this little take out place is worth seeking out. About 5 years ago or so, I was at a party. The hostess didn’t want to deal with the food issue much, so she ordered “train box meals” for all the guests. Basically, the idea came from the meals people who buy to eat on trains in Taiwan. The packed meals were good, but nothing special. I hadn’t really given the train box meals a second thought since the party, until… I had a craving for some Chinese snack foods - scallion pancakes, wontons, etc. Imagine my surprise when I heard that the little shop that makes the train box meals also makes a lot of Taiwanese food for you to cook or just reheat at home.

The place that makes the boxed meals is called å?¯æ¨‚美 (pronounced Ka Le May). I have no clue what the English name is, if there even is one. It does say “TAIWAN GOURMET DELI” in front of the store though. I was surprised by just how tiny the store is. There is a menu posted on the wall that lists the regular items - such as the vegetable baos, sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves (zong ze), and scallion pancakes, just to name a few. At the counter, there are a number of additional things to buy - such as the shredded daikon pastries and stir-fried sticky rice (mee gaw), though these can only be purchased on Saturdays. In addition, the train box meal varies every day.

Each day, �樂美 makes two types of boxed meals ($5 each). What varies is usually the meat dish and how the egg is prepared. This time, the box on the left is curry and scrambled egg with chives. The box on the right is BBQ pork and a half a marinated hard-boiled egg. The only things constant are the greens, glass noodles, and the rice at the bottom of the box.

So here’s a mental picture of a Saturday visit to å?¯æ¨‚美 - walk in empty handed; walk out with 2 train box meals, a Ziploc bag of 50 frozen pork and vegetable wontons, 1 container of mee gaw, 6 zong ze, 1 pack of frozen scallion pancakes (which is actually tastes better than the ones I make from scratch and requires less of my time), and 4 shredded daikon radish pastries. In addition, with the Chinese Moon Festival coming up, å?¯æ¨‚美 is currently making some green bean moon cakes. These are extremely fresh and much better than the ones you buy in cases at the Chinese supermarkets. The moon cakes at å?¯æ¨‚美 are so good that between August 27th and October 4th, they will make nothing but moon cakes. So, if you want to try any of the Taiwanese foods I’ve described, you’ve got to go soon, or else you’ll have to wait until October.

Miscellaneous Notes:

1) �樂美 is located in a plaza, and there is plenty of underground parking.

2) If you have your heart set on something in particular, I recommend calling ahead first to find out what they are carrying that day - e.g., what the two train box meals are for the day, what pastries are available, etc.

3) å?¯æ¨‚美 is really a take out place. There is no place to eat right there on the spot, so if you’re driving far to give this place a try, you might want to bring a cooler for the frozen foods while we’re in this summer heat wave.

4) If you get the baos - pass on the meat ones. Get the vegetable ones instead.

�樂美 - TAIWAN GOURMET DELI
1300 E. Main Street, #102
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 282-5436

By Pauline (see more of her posts).