I stopped in for a quick meal tonight. Signs for dishes like toothpick lamb and big plate chicken are vestiges of the short-lived former restaurant, Nan Cafe, but are not served.
I had a chat with the chef, Jimmy, a Chengdu native who has been a chef for decades in Las Vegas. He said that the owner, who is from Shanxi, has restaurants in the South Bay. It appears that this is a Sichuan-focussed extension of the local Xiang Xiang chain (Cupertino, Sunnyvale, El Sobrante), which all specialize in knife shaved noodles , but seem to focus the menus based on the chef’s expertise.
Pao cai, often described as Sichuan kimchi, is self-serve at the counter and was brightened with pickled chilies.
The knife shaved noodles were nice and chewy and the pork and green pepper sauce/gravy I got had a mild kick. The 1 cm wide long noodles, flat on one side with a convex channel on the other, had fluted edges which are the signature of the cutting device and helped wick up sauces.
Also good was the charred cabbage, which got lots of flavor from all those BTUs in the kitchen, and was seasoned with black vinegar. This version emphasizes savory and acidity and does not use charred chilies. I liked the chili oil sauce on a gizzard appetizer, but found some pieces to be too dried out.
The chef said his favorite dishes are the Cold chicken with chili sauce (a name he prefers to “mouth watering chicken”) and the boiled sliced fish in hot sauce (AKA water boiled fish). If you’re on a Chongqing Xiao Mian kick, try his version and let us know what you think—- his is the only version I know of that uses knife shaved noodles.
Incidentally, Freezing Point Ice cream is pretty close by and has interesting flavors like wasabi; or chrysanthemum, which deserves a place in the canon of Asian ice cream. Unfortunately very icy stuff, but the upshot for me was that a scoop stayed cool enough to survive the trip home to SF for some TV watching.
