福方園 F.F.Y. Noodle House

Finally! New restaurant review is in!

I can't even remember when was the last time I wrote about a restaurant review,
Been eating at the same places over and over again,
That's why no new reviews are in,
And believe me or not,
Sometimes it takes more time composing a review compared to writing about my own recipe.

*Maybe partly due to my simplified recipes these days,
Am I getting lazIER? Hope not.

*Oh oh, I wanted to write a review about this seafood place,
Boiling Crab - heard of it?
But it's so hard to take pictures when battling with crabs and shrimps,
Especially when grabbing a little wooden hammer in one hand, and a giant craw in the other.
Plus all my fingers were dipped in Cajun flavored spicy sauce...
Hmm....I'll figure out a way one day...(that restaurant is good!)

So today I went to this newly opened Chinese dumpling/noodle place called F.F.Y.
That's their English name,
If you pronounce that in Chinese, it'll be something like "Fu Fon Yuen."

Little Chinese lesson here,
Fu means good fortune, Fon means square, Yuen means garden,
So the combined meaning? You figure.

Got there before lunch rush hour so still kind of empty,
But it was packed after I finished my food.

The restaurant got a letter "A" grade, meaning that this place passed series of inspections from the government,
What it means is that this place is super clean!
Well, sorry if I got too excited back there,
But you know how rare is it for a traditional Chinese eatery to get an A?!?
(No offense to anyone by the way)

Inside the menu-

F.F.Y. sells a wide variety of dumplings and noodles,
They also have an open kitchen in the front where you can see chefs making these cute little dumplings.

酸辣湯和熗黃瓜Sour and spicy soup and lightly seasoned cucumber-

The soup was good!
Usually I have to add a lot of vinegar and chili paste in order to make it more of my taste,
But this one was spicy enough with a pretty strong peppery flavor,
I was happy with it!
Still added some more vinegar though, I'm a vinegar hugger!

As for the cucumber, it's kind of on the lighter side, maybe too light,
But it did help balance out the spiciness from other dishes.

麻辣筋肉Simmered beef with beef tendon in chili sauce-

At first you won't feel the spiciness,
However, after a few bites, you'll start getting that tingling sensation from the peppercorns,
Cilantro on the top adds a bit of freshness to the dish. 

牛肉捲 Beef rolls? (I didn't remember the English name from the menu)-

The filling was made with stewed beef slices brushed with some sweet flour sauce (甜麵醬),
A lot of chopped scallions were also used, all wrapped in tortilla-like flour skin.

豬肉韭菜水餃 Pork with leek dumpling (or chives)-

The menu says leek dumplings, but it's more like chives,
Or "Chinese" leek.

The dumplings are larger than the regular kind you get from the grocery store,
In addition to that, it was full of juicy fillings, pretty good.

There's also a small sign on each table saying that they don't use any MSG for both the sauces and the food, how good is that?!

牛肉洋蔥水餃 Beef and onion dumplings-

Kinda sweet because of the onion,
On top of that, this is even juicier than the leek one!

Usually I stock up some frozen dumplings at home,
You know, when nature calls, stomach grumbling, frozen dumplings always come in handy,
Instead of store-bought ones, next time I'll to-go some of F.F.Y's fresh dumplings,
Plus no MSG! I won't get thirsty by eating too much of these goodies!

Cindy's Rating: 6 (might be higher after I explore more dishes later on)

福方園 F.F.Y. Noodle House
18219 East Gale Avenue. #1
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
(626) 839-8806