Chinese Breakfast Showdown II
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 21:43It’s time for Chinese Breakfast Showdown Part 2. Part 2? Where and what is Part 1? It’s Yi Mei vs. Yung Ho. This time, I will compare Yi Mei Monterey Park (review) to Four Sea in Hacienda Heights.
First and foremost is the savory dou jiang (soy milk). There was a bit of misunderstanding at Four Sea after I ordered a vegan version (sans meat floss) because they brought out the normal version, but after informing them of their mistake, they brought out the vegan version. Even though they left out the green onion, the dou jiang at Four Sea is creamier and has a richer taste than the one at Yi Mei. There was also more you tiao (oil crueller) in this one, which I like.
Next was the fan tuan (rice roll). As usual, I ordered the vegan version of this as well. It had the oil crueller inside, crushed peanuts, veggie meat floss, and dried nori. I thought this was comparable to that of Yi Mei even though Yi Mei’s version doesn’t have the nori. While Yi Mei’s fan tuan is delicious when it comes with a freshly fried you tiao, I have to say that the addition of nori in this one at Four Sea taste better.
The BF ordered cold sesame noodles (len ban mien) at Four Sea and they tasted about the same as they would at Yi Mei. It was impressive that the noodles were still firm after sitting in the plastic to-go box for so long, but the sauce wasn’t anything special.
Last but not least was the egg crepe. It’s basically a crepe with scrambled eggs inside. I prefer the one at Yi Mei to the one at Four Sea because there’s usually more green onion in Yi Mei’s. The one at Four Sea tasted a bit bland and the crepe was a little too oily.
The ambiance at Four Sea is nicer and there are a lot more tables — I might take a bigger group (or a hot date!) there, but if it were just me and the BF, I would rather save the gas and stick with Yi Mei in Monterey Park. It’s closer and a bit cheaper.
View Larger Map
Four Sea
2020 S Hacienda Blvd
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745
(626) 330-3088
Louise absolutely LOVES filthy, cheap places! (See more of her posts). You can also find more of Louise's writing at her own website NakedSushi.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Eileen says:
May 27th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
You ordered all my favorite Chinese breakfast items!
A note about egg crepe….
When I had egg crepes in Taiwan, they always served them with some kind of thick soy sauce with a hint of garlic flavor. But I have never been to a Chinese breakfast restaurant that serve egg crepe with that sauce in LA. The crepe tastes so much better with the sauce.
Louise says:
May 27th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
At both Yi Mei and Four Sea, they have a soy sauce + garlic thing by the other condiments. It’s thicker than soy sauce, but still a little watery. Is that what you’re talking about?
TonyC says:
May 28th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
nice comparo! it’s about awash between 2 of my fave joints for Taiwanese Deli. These aren’t just “Chinese” breakfast joints, they’re clearly Taiwanese. fan tuan isn’t found at mainland restaurants.
the coolest thing about 4 Seas is they do the mi-jiang/soy juice combo drink. various Taiwanese baos are Yi Mei are also unrivaled elsewhere.
Will says:
May 28th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Both of those places are Taiwanese, and have a Taiwanese take on the food, but I’ve generally heard this style of breakfast food described as “Northern Chinese” or Taiwanese (though most of these dishes are from what would maybe be more accurately described as central Chinese). And Yi-Mei’s sign says “Yi-Mei Chinese Pastries”.
Ci Fan Tuan most certainly are found on the mainland (according to Wikipedia, it originated in Shanghai), and at restaurants there. I had Fan Tuan several times when I was in China in October. I don’t know if it’s found at many mainland Chinese restaurants in LA, but I can think of at least one or two which serve it (I’m pretty sure that Noodle House in Arcadia, which serves it, is Chinese owned).
Candace says:
October 4th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
I went with my friend to Four Sea this morning to try their breakfast after reading the blog. We were both extremely dissappointed. We order a beef noodle soup. The soup was tasteless, I had to add a lot of salt and the garlic oil in the soup to flavor it; and then my friend complaint that the texture of the noodle is not as al-dante as the noodle that we had at one of the restaurant that we tried a week ago at a different restaurant. We also ordered the salty soymilk. I didn’t think anything about it, nothing bad nothing good, but my friend thinks that it is too greasy. She said she thought it was not bad for the first few bites, but after that, she couldn’t eat it anymore because the oil in it started to gross her out. We also ordered 4 Gao Bao. We had it somewhere else before and it was really good and we both loved it, so when we saw it at Four Sea, we didn’t even think that it might not be good here and went ahead to ordered 2 each…now we are stuck with 1.5 each that we might have to just throw it away. Again, the meat inside the Bao is flavorless, the dough is too stiff, and there are some “stuff” in it that might be some ground peanut sauce which totally takes us by surprise in a bad way !! Imagine while you are chewing on something salty and savory, all of a sudden you are bitting into some peanut butter “stuff”… I have eaten at that area ( Nogalas, Rowland Heights etc) and the experiences were always really good, good food and cheap price, but I never remember how to get back to the same restaurants, so when I read this blog, I was really excited to go try it thinking that I can’t be bad since it is in the same area, but I am sure dissappointed….oh well, at least I tried.
Louise says:
October 4th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
@Candice:
>We were both extremely disappointed. We order a beef noodle soup.
It’s strange that you got the idea to order beef noodle soup at this place after reading my write-up of it because it wasn’t something I wrote about. I haven’t had any of the noodles at Four Seas because it’s mainly a place I go to for northern Chinese style breakfasts — not noodles. If you want good beef noodle soup, go to a place like JTYH or Kam Hong.
> We also ordered the salty soymilk. I didn’t think anything about it, nothing bad nothing good, but my friend thinks that it is too greasy.
This is also strange. Are you sure it was grease and not just the water left over from the coagulation of the soy milk? There’s some oil in it from the you tiao sometimes, but it’s been minimal. The only time I remember this dish being anywhere close to greasy is when I add in hot chili oil myself
>Again, the meat inside the Bao is flavorless, the dough is too stiff, and there are some “stuff” in it that might be some ground peanut sauce which totally takes us by surprise in a bad way !!
I think that sweet, gritty peanut sauce is standard in gua bao. It’s one of my favorite things and complements the sour pickled vegetables nicely. I’m sorry to hear you weren’t a fan of it.
The type of breakfast Four Seas serves is different than what many people think of as Chinese breakfast (dim sum). Maybe this is why you were disappointed in the place. Four Seas serves a different style of breakfast than what you might be used to.
Candace says:
October 13th, 2009 at 6:28 am
Louise, yeah, I think I will just keep searching for that one restaurant that my friend took me to in the area year ago. He is a Taiwanese and I had some food in that restaurant which also included a soybean drink with some savory stuff inside, which I absolutely adore. I absolutely love this restaurant that my friend took me to but couldn’t remember where it was and don’t know how to get back there, and Four Seas seems to sell the similar food; but I might be wrong thinking that they sell similar food which probably they are not. I will keep searching and exploring then ….