Lu's Garden

534 E Valley Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Lu's is in a different type of restaurant...  The niche is Easy, Fresh, Healthy, and Light.  Some of the dishes can be oily.  The price of each item is a bit expensive if you look at the portion and you can kind of guess how cheap it is if you just cook it at home, but I think it's the convinience of it, and if you are like me I live by myself, you probably can appreciate Lu's Garden for what it is.  Expect to pay around $12 - $15 per person for average eaters. I never had bad food there, it's pretty clean, and you feel refreshed and light after you eat, doesn't mean you don't get full. The yam porridge is good, the yam doesn't change to brown color, so it's pretty fresh and sweet every time.

The service is always very friendly and attentive enough.  I never had a bad time there.  You leave the waitress a little tip even though you order the dishes upfront point-point style and you seat yourself.  Overall I like this place a lot.  Lu's garden is also pretty good if you are sick, that's the Asian way to eat when a person is sick, you eat light, healthy, and increase fluid intake by eating porridge.  However please remember to take it to-go if you are sick, just because its sick food doesn't mean everyone eat there is sick XD!

Mas' Islamic Restaurant

601 E Orangethorpe Ave
Anaheim, CA 92801

If you're a big fan of lamb meat. Here is where you should be going. While I'm not a big fan of it, It seems to be the special thing about this place. Not only that, their sesame bread is one of the best I've had for a while.

1 food - the food was delicious, and like most Chinese food greasy. It does carry the culture of Chinese food if that's what you're looking for. I know it's a fusion islamic/chinese, but I've never had Islamic food so I don't know. But definitely go for the sesame bread. (Thick bread, because it also comes in thin, but I think that's a matter of preference.)

2 the atmosphere was also well kept. While not as busy as I had expected, everything was clean and there is plenty of seating. The bathrooms were also well kept. This does seem like a family restaurant with cozy sights of employees rolling egg rolls as you make your way to the restroom. Parking seems ample enough too.

3. Service is probably better than usual Chinese restaurants. They're very attentive and a waitress checked back every now and then to see if we needed more tea. (put your tea pot on the aisle side of your table as it makes it easier for them). And interestingly enough, they pack our food for us, instead of giving us the take out box. REMARKABLE.

4. The price though I don't really think is very customary to Chinese food. While the servings are indeed large and hard to finish. I would much rather prefer to pay for a smaller amount of food and finish what I order, than a large amount of food and have leftovers. And to my knowledge from the people who accompanied me, they charge for rice...lame. But with large portions, it is ideal for you to come as a group rather than individually.

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China Food Culture

As a country that pays great attention to courtesy, our cuisine culture is deep rooted in China's history. As a visitor or guest in either a Chinese home or restaurant you will find that table manners are essential and the distinctive courtesies displayed will invariably add to the enjoyment of your meals and keep you in high spirits!

Respect First

It is really an admirable custom to respect others at the table, including the aged, teachers and guests while taking good care of children.

Chinese people stress filial piety all the time. The practice of presenting the best or fine food first to the senior members of the family has been observed for countless generations. In ancient times the common people led a needy life but they still tried their best to support the elder mother or father who took it for granted.

Although the hosts in China are all friendly and hospitable, you should also show them respect. Before starting to eat dinner, the host may offer some words of greeting. Guests should not start to eat until the host says, 'Please enjoy yourself' or something like that, otherwise it suggests disrespect and causes displeasure.

When hosts place dishes on the table, they will arrange the main courses at the center with the supporting dishes evenly placed around them. When the main dishes are prepared in a decorative form either by cut or other means they will be placed facing the major guests and elder people at the table. This also embodies virtue.

On Chopsticks

China is the hometown of chopsticks. The culture of chopsticks has a long history in China. The tradition of using chopsticks as tableware was introduced to many other countries in the world such as Vietnam, North Korea and South Korea.

The invention of chopsticks reflects the wisdom of Chinese ancient people. A pair of chopsticks, though they look simple, can nip, pick, rip and stir food. Nowadays, chopsticks are considered to be lucky gifts for marriage and other important ceremonies.

At Important Moments

To celebrate the birthday is important moment in one's life. When one is young, usually he will eat noodles before his birthday, because the long noodles indicate the longevity in China, and birthday cake on the actual day. After middle age, his birthday will grander. In addition to the above, peaches in many forms will be added symbolizing the longevity and immortality, as well as delightful couplets and candles.

On the wedding day, it is also customary to serve Chinese dates, peanuts, longan and chestnuts together as wish that the couple will soon have a baby in accord with the Chinese proclamation.

To most Chinese people, returning home after long absence or departure from home are both significant and there are food customs associated with this. The return home is greeted with noodles and off home while a farewell is offered with dumplings. This is especially popular in northeast China.

During the Dragon Boat Festival, though many people cannot reach the river zone to watch the boat race, almost all of them eat the unique food -zongzi, a pyramid-shaped dumpling made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. The festival on that day it is to venerate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan and the people fearing his lack of food, made the special meal for him. Now the food is made in various shapes and sorts.

On the eighth day of the last month in the Chinese lunar calendar, people will enjoy a nourishing porridge called 'La Ba Zhou'. In ancient times, monks would kindly share all sorts of food grains with people and made them flavorful porridge on this particular day. People still keep this convention.

In Central China, when a baby is born, the happy father will send red boiled eggs to announce the news. Eggs with a black pointed end and dots in an even number such as six or eight, indicates a boy's birth; those without a black point and in an odd number like a five or seven will say the baby is a girl.

In addition to these, fish has always been used to suggest the accumulation of prosperity and wealth with meals on New Year's Eve.

Eight Cuisines of China

Chinese cuisine has a number of different genres, but the most influential and typical known by the public are the 'Eight Cuisines'. These are as follows: Shandong Cuisine, Guangdong Cuisine, Sichuan Cuisine, Hunan Cuisine, Jiangsu Cuisine, Zhejiang Cuisine, Fujian Cuisine and Anhui Cuisine . The essential factors that establish the form of a genre are complex and include history, cooking features, geography, climate, resources and life styles. Cuisines from different regions are so distinctive that sometimes despite the fact that two areas are geographical neighbors their styles are completely alien.

Shandong Cuisine

This is the local flavor of Jinan City and Jiaodong peninsula derived from the use of shallots and garlic. Both restaurant chefs and those in families are expert in cooking seafood, soups, meat and offal. The recipes are those that once delighted the royal court and were served to the emperor. The typical menu can include many delicate dishes such as:

Braised abalone - smooth, delicate, fresh and savory

Sweet and Sour Carp - with crisp exterior and tender fish interior, a little sweet and sour

Bree with a complex - clear, mild and fresh

'Eight Immortals Crossing Sea teasing Arhats' - This is a starter before a celebration feast. It is luxurious and traditionally uses as its eight main ingredients: fin, sea pumpkin, abalone, asparagus, prawns and ham. The stock is flavored with fish's swimming bladder and fish bones. These symbolize the eight immortals and the Arhats [Buddhist saints] are symbolized by the inclusion of chicken breast.

Guangdong Cuisine

Guangdong Cuisine takes fine and rare ingredients and is cooked with polished skills and in a dainty style. It emphasizes a flavor which is clear but not light, refreshing but not common, tender but not crude. In summer and autumn it pursues clarity and in winter and spring, a little more substance. The sauteed dishes always rely upon exquisite presentat ion involving cutting and carving skills. Typical menu here can ultimately embody these characteristics:

Chrysanthemum fish - chefs with adept cutting techniques shape the fish like chrysanthemums, each individual morsel being convenient to enjoy with either chopsticks or forks.

Braised Snake porridge - choose rare meat of cobra, grimalkin, and pullet, braised elaborately, also called 'Dragon and phoenix contending' (Long Feng Dou).

Roast suckling pig - a famed dish with rather long history, golden and crisp exterior, and tender meat, with dense aroma.

Popular Guangdong Dishes: Black Pepper Beef, Steamed Perch

Sichuan Cuisine

This combines the cuisines from Chengdu and Chongqing. From as early as the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911), books had systematically recorded a total of 38 cooking methods like to scald, wrap, bake, mix, stew, and adhere, etc. it features pungent seasonings which were famed as 'Three Peppers' (Chinese prickly ash, pepper and hot pepper), 'three aroma' (shallot, ginger, and garlic), 'Seven Tastes' (sweet, sour, tingling, spicy, bitter, piquant, and salty), and 'eight flavors' (fish-flavored, sour with spice, pepper-tingling, odd flavor, tingling with spice, red spicy oily, ginger sauce, and home cooking).

Delicious dishes menu:

Stir-fried Tofu with Minced Beef in Spicy Bean Sauce - A real feast of tender bean curd, minced beef, pepper and bean sauce. It is said that it was made by a pock-marked but ingenious woman, thus the name Ma Po Tofu (pock-marked woman's bean curd).

Lamp-shadow Beef - with larruping techniques, the beef is cut in very thin sheet. When a piece is carried, it looks like translucent paper, slippery and reddish. When put under the lamp or light, a red shadow will appear.

Lung Pieces by Couple - a quite popular in Chengdu. It got the name because the dish was ever sold be a couple and today it remains the original savor, tender meat, tingling and spicy.

Gong Bao Ji Ding - in Chinese it is called Gong Bao Ji Ding. This is a tender chicken dish, tender as the meat is quickly fried. Flavored with peanuts, this is tasty and very popular.

More popular Sichuan dishes:
Fried Pork with Salted Pepper, Eggplant in Sichuan Style
Tangba Town's Stir-fried Fish, Cucumber with Mashed Garlic

Hunan Cuisine

Hunan cuisine lays a stress on the use of oil, dense color, and techniques that produce crispness, softness and tenderness as well as the savory flavors and spices. Stewed fins, fried fresh cabbage with chestnuts, Dong Anzi chicken, immortal chicken with five elements, are of the highest reputation. Chairman Mao, together with other leaders praised the Hunan cuisine in 1958.

Stewed fins - had been famous during the Qing Dynasty. Choice fins, chickens, pork are stewed in chicken soup and sauce, tasting really fresh and mellow.

Immortal chicken with five elements - means to put five elements, litchi, longan, red dates, lotus seeds, and medlar, into the body of a chicken, then to braise. The taste is rather peculiar but it is said to have the effect of strengthening the constitution.

Jiangsu Cuisine

Jiangsu Cuisine developed from the local recipes of Yangzhou, Suzhou and Nanjing. Its main cooking techniques are braising and stewing, thereby enhancing the original flavor and sauce. The elegant color, novel sculpts, with salt and sweet taste will soothe your stomach. The Jiangsu cuisine has several branches, including Shanghai cuisine, Nanjing cuisine is known for its duck recipes, Suxi cuisine with flowery hue, etc. the most highly recommended courses are:

Three sets of ducks - an interlinking dish, that is to put pigeon into wild duck, then put the wild duck into a fowl duck. When stewed, the fowl duck is tender, the wild one crisp, and the little pigeon delicate!

Boiled dry thread of Tofu - thanks to the exquisite skill of the chefs, the Tofu can be cut into very thin threads which have chances to absorb the savor of soup. When chicken pieces added to the soup, the dish is called 'chicken dry thread'; likewise, when shrimp added, it makes 'shrimp dry thread'.

Lion's head braised with crab-powder - there is a metaphor in the dish name. In actual fact the Lion's head is a conglomeration of meat that is shaped like a sunflower and resembles a lion's head. It can be braised in a clear soup, or be red-cooked in a dense soup. A seasoning of crab powder enhances the flavor.

Popular Jiangsu Dish: Stewed Chicken with Mushroom

Zhejiang Cuisine

As Zhejiang cuisine consists of hundreds of small delicacies from its main cities, it takes in Hangzhou's fineness and diversification, Ningbo's softness and originality, and Shaoxing's pastoral interests. Hangzhou, once the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 - 1279), it is customary to endow cuisine with dainty place-names. The chief techniques of cooking lie in the methods used such as frying, quick-fry, stir-fry, braising, and steaming thus rendering the dishes both salubrious and savory.

West-lake braised fish in vinegar - is a traditional delicacy in Hangzhou. It is said that there was once a boy who made his living by fishing. When he fell ill, his sister-in-law fished for him and braised the fish she caught with a marinade of vinegar and sugar. He was said to have made an immediate recovery after eating it. The boy's story aroused the attention of the emperor and the recipe has been used ever since.

Fujian Cuisine

Fujian cuisine has four distinctive features, that is, fine cutting techniques, alternative soups, unique seasonings, and exquisite cooking. Chefs can always cut the thin jellyfish into three pieces and into very thin thread. And thanks to the abundant resources of marine products, the soup of this cuisine genre has its freshness and keeps its own savor with ease. The seasonings add sweet and sour flavors to the dishes. To add to its appeal the food is served in or on elegant bowls or plates.

Appealing dishes are countless, so we can only exemplify some of them:

Fried golden bamboo shoot with chicken mince - every 100g of winter bamboo shoots will be cut into 500 - 600 strips with the same length and breadth. Then they can blend with the very small pieces of chicken.

Buddha jumping over the wall - the most famous and classical dish, which has a long history since the Qing Dynasty.

Dongbi dragon pearl - it chooses materials from the rare longan trees of thousand year's history in Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou, the delicate scent is rather catching.

'Fried Xi Shi's tongue'is made from the locally produced Fujian mussel. According to legend the concubine Xi Shi of the king of Wu state was thrown in the sea tied to a huge stone by the wife of Gou Jian, the king of Yue who destroyed Wu, to prevent her husband being seduced by her beauty. In the area of the sea where she sank, a special breed of mussel appeared and this was said to be Xi Shi's tongue.

Popular Fujian Dish: Green Vegetable with Black Mushroom

Anhui Cuisine

It is mainly composed of local flavors of Huizhou and other areas along the Yangtze River and the Huai River. Among the dishes on the Ahhui cuisine menu, you will find less fried or quick-fried dishes than those that are braised. People here are inclined to add ham as seasoning and sugar candy to enrich the freshness and are quite accomplished in the art of cooking.

Among these delicacies, some of the traditional ones are outstanding:

'Braised turtle with ham' - the oldest dish using the special 'Mati turtle'. The delightful taste of this dish has inspired poets.

'Fuliji Grilled chicken' - the cooking technique was derived from Dezhou braised chicken of Shandong Province, with improvement of the technique by the Fuliji chef. The grilled chicken is golden and tempting, and the meat is so well cooked that it falls easily from the bone.

Other Cuisines

In other places there are also great tastes such as Beijing cuisine, Dongbei cuisine , Uygur cuisine and Huibei cuisine. As the capital of China, Beijing has always enjoyed a selection of delectable cuisines and offers a vast variety of dishes from all over the country. Consequently, no matter where you visit, there will be fascinating food that you can enjoy.