The Familiarity of Wan Heng Taiwanese Restaurant

This is my last stop of Taiwanese restaurants that I have recently visited & revisited. I think, lately, I had a huge craving for Taiwanese food, for whatever reason. Of the three, Wang Heng, Jurassic, and Old Country Cafe, Wan Heng might be the oldest and have the longest history.

Wan Heng has been at the same San Gabriel location for a long time. I remember being dragged here by my parents when I was a kid. Years ago, one of their ex-employees left and started SinBala Restaurant, in Arcadia. This guy, practically, stole the recipes and ideas from them. You can see that they almost specialize in the same menu items, including their home-made Taiwanese sausage.

I hadn't been here in years, so I let my friend order. We ordered a chicken soup, fried pork chop, shredded pork with tofu, and a bah-zhang. The chicken soup, similar to the soup from Ding Tai Fung, is a flavorful clear broth or consume. I had a vegetable soup, which was ordinary, that came with the pork chop. Most of the time, I would order the chicken soup, which is served really hot and will most definitely burn your tongue, but today, I wanted to focus my taste buds on the pork chop.

The flatted and fried pork chop is a mainstay in Taiwanese cuisine. This comfort dish, which is also a lunchtime favorite with rice - like I had at Old Country Cafe, is savory and needs its rice counterpart. The fried and crisp breading is a lot different from the one I had previously at Old Country Cafe. Wan Heng's is more traditional, with a thicker and heavier breading, as I had it in Taiwan, from what I remember. Old Country's is lighter and my preference. But both are good when you are hungry - like I was.

The shredded pork with tofu, is another good dish that needs rice. Rice provides the balance with salty dishes, as well as a stomach filler of starch and carbs. I didn't think much of the shredded pork.

Then we had the Bbh-zhang, which is a Taiwanese steamed rice burrito. I love bah-zhang, also known as zhong-zi. It is made with soy sauced sticky rice, pork, peanuts, other little seasonings. This meal in itself, is then wrapped with banana leaves and steamed. Each bah-zhang has a slight twist on flavor, some use pork or beef, some with walnut type nuts, some with an egg yolk, etc. It is something I know white people might have issues in eating. It has a strange and sticky consistency with bits and pieces of dried flavored shrimp and mushrooms. The best places and times to buy and eat this is during festivals, when people sell them by the bunches. I would not recommend buying them at super markets. I would buy them at restaurants like Wan Heng, as well. Today's bah-zhang was as I remember how my aunt's used to make them. This is something I should I purchased more to go, to take home.

At some of these restaurants, you can also purchase frozen water dumplings and bah-zhang, and Wan Heng's specialty - Taiwanese Sausage. My friend tempted me to purchase some sausage to go, but I realized, I can't exactly cook it well. Anyways . . .I should learn.

Of all the different Taiwanese restaurants in the San Gabriel valley, Wan Heng is one of the better ones. This hole-in-wall has been here for years and will continue, hopefully, for years to come. It is located right next to one of the better Vietnamese Pho restaurants - Golden Deli.

Right next to Golden Deli is Wan Heng Restaurant.

Too bad this place is not very white-friendly with its menus and specials.

If white people go to a Chinese restaurant, sometimes they will be served with a menu that often caters toward their palate and tastes. They won't see the real delicacies on the Chinese menu. Sometimes its because they won't eat it or it is just too hard to describe on the menus.

Here's a picture of the bah-zhang.

The fried pork chop.

The uneventful shredded pork with tofu.

Here are the two soups, the vegetable and chicken soup.

Rating
2 pigs, $

Wan Heng Taiwanese Food
819 W Las Tunas Dr
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 284-6031