四川 – Noshing with the Panda

Sichuanese and Cantonese Food at Hop Woo Restaurant 合和 in West LA

I can remember when Hop Woo first opened on the Westside. It was around 2000, and I was working for a solo practitioner/attorney in Bel Air at the time. I discovered them when I was running errands in the area. At that time, much like their sister restaurant in Chinatown, they were serving solid Hong Kong style Cantonese food, as well as offering a deli section with roast pork, BBQ pork, roast duck and soy sauce chicken to name a few. However, when the interest plateaued over the years, so has the quality of the food. And with that, the crowds became smaller at nights and weekends.

Recently, noticing the Los Angelinos’ craze for authentic Sichuanese cuisine, a new manager brought in a chef who specialized in preparing popular Sichuan dishes, and the result, from word of mouth, was packed dining rooms full of Chinese expats who work in the area or work/study at UCLA.

When ordering the Sichuanese dishes, ask specifically for the Sichuan 四川 menu, a paper menu, separate from the regular menu. When ordering dishes such as Mapo Tofu or Kung Pao Chicken, which appear on both menus, indicate you want the Sichuan menu preparation, so that you don’t end up with the Americanized version.

The highlight of the menu is the Spicy Chicken (口水雞, cold chicken in spicy chile oil), where the meat is moist and silky, the type of chicken meat you expect in Hainan Chicken, but only now, it’s drenched in a bath of red chile pepper oil with sesame seeds. Add Sichuan peppercorns, and you have an amazing dish that tingles you mouth nicely.

Their other dishes are quite good as well, especially when you ask them to reduce the amount of salt used in the preparation of the Sichuan dishes. Sichuanese and Hunanese restaurants in the US, for some reason, use a lot of salt in their dishes. Sometimes it enhances the Ma-La 麻辣 flavor (balance of the numbing sensation from the Sichuan peppercorns (or Ma 麻) and the spiciness from the dried red chile peppers (or La 辣). Sometimes, after the spicy burn settles, it’s just salty. Asking them to cook with reduced salt seemed to have solved that issue for us, though I wonder with the reduce salt, if it might have altered the flavors somewhat at all…

One disappointment has been the lack of Spicy Cold Jelly (Noodles). It’s never been available every time I’ve eaten there in the last 3 months. Oh, and parking here is a bitch. Arrive early to find parking in the streets in the area.

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Spicy Chicken

Appetizer Platter of BBQ Pork, Roast Pork, and Hainan Chicken

Cold Peanut Sauced Noodles

Toothpick Lamb

Braised Eggplant

Mapo Tofu

Dry Griddle Cauliflower Pot with Chinese Bacon

Kung Pao Chicken

Water Boiled Fish

Stir Fried Pea Shoot Leaves

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Dinner at Sichuan Impression 镍城里 in Alhambra

Though their sign still reads Szechuan Impression, somehow, over the years, they’ve decided to stop using the American romanization of 四川 and started using the Pinyin spelling instead. And you can see that on their claimed Yelp page and Facebook pages.

The food here was solid but not as good as when they first opened, and Los Angeles Times food critic Jonathan Gold was patiently waiting outside for a table with his son.

While the highlights of the dinner were the Bobo Chicken of Leshan (bowl of skewers of chicken innards, seafood and vegetables), Fish Filet with Rattan Peppers (spicy and mouth numbing – so good, my dinner mates kept fishing through the broth for any last bits of fish meat), and, especially the Tea Smoked Pork Ribs (which was wonderfully seasoned with a nice smoky flavor – heavy on the garlic but not the spiciness), there were some dishes that disappointed me.

Their cold jelly noodles had a nice touch of heat, but there was a bit too much vinegar in the sauce. In my first bite, I got this huge hit of tartness from it. Only when it subsided did the spiciness rolled in a little.

Another disappointment was their Wontons in Chili Oil. Though it was a little spicy, but that was overshadowed by overly sweetness of the sauce. Similar issue with the Kong Pao Chicken. It was just a tad too sweet. Ironically, what wasn’t sweet enough was the Cinderella’s Pumpkin Rides. Pumpkin cakes filled with red beans, and not a lot of red beans, nor sugar. Had they used sweet red bean paste instead, that might have made the difference.

Lastly, the Sauteed Shredded Potatoes were bland. It was the only dish that hardly anyone at our table opted for a second serving. Upon leaving the restaurant, I notice the same dish at the next table. Only theirs had red and green chilis pieces stir fried with the potatoes, whereas our order only had scallions. I found it odd that they would make such error preparing our order. No wonder it was plain bland.

For the number of really good dish, there were equally the number of disappointing ones for me. Even so, there’s so much more of the menu to explore. So, another visit will be warranted. However, there are newer hole-in-the-wall Sichuanese places that have popped up around the San Gabriel Valley over the last year that are making much more flavor forward dishes than this place now…

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