We had a rather eclectic weekend that took us all over LA. In light of this past weekend being The Mid-Autumn Festival for a couple East-Asian cultures, we wrangled up some pretty authentic shanghainese cuisine in the lovely (ehh... read ridiculously warm) San Gabriel Valley.
Stumbling upon DRAGON MARK Restaurant, my face lit up at the menu, and then quickly fell upon learning there were absolutely no restroom facilities in the restaurant. You have to go outside to the end of the strip mall and use the public bathrooms.....where the hell do you wash your hands? you have to leave the restaurant?! ewww... Oh yeah, Dragon Mark is located in an innocuous looking strip mall on the ground floor, surrounded by other little hole in the wall, mom and pop eateries and gift shops.
Easy to overlook in the hundreds if not thousands of restaurants on Valley Blvd. So what makes Dragon Mark special you ask? Their laurels rest on a wonderful little breakfast/snack dish called "Sheng Jian Bao" aka: Pan fried bread dumpling. Think of them as a love child between a typical "Bao Zi" ( a meat ball wrapped in bread dough and then steamed) and a "Xiao long bao" (a small steamed traditional dumpling with some soup in the middle). So it's roughly smaller than your fist ;) with the skin being bread dough, and the filling traditionally being pork and green onion. So...they steam the Sheng Jian Bao in a big wok with water, and then after the water evaporates, they add oil and fry the shit outta the bottoms until they turn golden brown and crispy. Ideally, they're chewy and soft as you bite into them, then you get a burst of soup and filling, and then a satisfying crunch of the bottoms.
Dragon Marks Sheng Jian Bao are pretty much perfect, a little bit of fat girl food heaven in every greasy bite. It's worth the calorie splurge.....
Dragon Mark
301 W Valley Blvd San Gabriel, CA 91776
part 2 to come shortly....
