Ever since Shelter-in-Place and the sad impact on the restaurant industry, Vince and I told ourselves we would like to eat out once a week to support a local restaurant that we both love to eat at! To start off the new year, we picked a Sichuan noodle restaurant that features dishes from Chengdu region called MIAN on Valley in San Gabriel. I remember introducing Vince to this place over a year ago and he LOVED it!
Their restaurant was very structured, clean and organized. You walk in and the front desk was covered by their hard plastic screen. They set along some long tables with plastic screens on top. They have organized brown bags with take-out containers per order. Each dish was clearly marked with printed label stickers, indicating which dish it was and the spicy level (I appreciated that).
I’ve been to this place multiple times and there are 3 specific dishes that I will always order again and again and again every time I come back.
The 3 dishes I love to order over and over are the steamed egg with minced pork, Chengdu Ziajiang noodles & chili oil chaoshou.
Vince and I squealed when we saw that they included two plastic cups of their mung bean drinks as part of the take-out! We were wondering if that would be included on the drive over and that was the number one refreshing thing to have after eating so much spicy and numbing!
Chengdu Ziajiang noodles (Spicy 3/5) for me includes homemade noodle, minced pork, fried egg and bok choy. The spicy levels are out of 5 for both spicy & numbing together. You get to pour the spicy sauce over your noodles and mix it up yourself! Lid is secure & tight for you to shake your noodles for easier mixing.
I LOVE these noodles! The noodles and soft and chewy, which is perfect for absorbing the sauce flavor. Fried egg was… fried egg (Can’t really mess that up). The minced pork is flavorful. The only one thing I would change about this dish is that I wish they would give more bok choy!!! It’s so little and I feel I would appreciate more greens in such a heavy noodle dish!
Chili oil chaoshou are spicy wontons with pork. To compare, I like DTF’s spicy pork wontons, but I loveee Mian’s spicy pork wontons even more! The pork filling is just so juicy and flavorful! Each bite gushes out some of the pork flavor and mixes well with the sweet & spicy sauce. These are just bomb. You have gots to try!
Steamed egg with minced pork is an underrated appetizer dish that should be ordered more! It sounds too simple and maybe even boring, but it tastes like a thousand bucks! I love the smooth and soft texture of the steamed egg and the densely flavor packed minced pork on top is just the perfect contrast to the steamed egg. Not salty at all! I think I could eat like 3 of these in one sitting!
Overall, I love Mian and am sad to see all of their tables & chairs tucked away in such a cute restaurant. I am sad to see their outdoor tent set up all empty, but I hope that take-out only will help them survive through this surge & Covid crisis! I would be sad if I can’t eat more Mian in the future!
