Jonathan Gold Reviews Tasty Dining in The SGV

This week Jonathan Gold vistis Wuhan restaurant Tasty Dining in San Gabriel Valley. No overt raves, though he seems content enough with the restaurant's unique offerings:

This time you get the bullfrog dry pot, supplemented with chewy rice noodles and lozenges of freeze-dried tofu that are brilliant at soaking up the spicy oil. The bouncy nuggets of bone-in frog taste more or less like the chicken.

And there is re gan mian: noodles boiled, dried, slicked with sesame oil and boiled again, then served with a smear of sesame paste, diced pickles and a handful of fried, minced pork. They are not the sesame noodles that come free with takeout orders at suburban Sichuan restaurants, and they are not the saucy sesame noodles that New Yorkers pine for but an austere, rather dry bowl of pasta — the Chinese equivalent of a Roman cacio e pepe with sesame paste and scallions instead of cheese and pepper.

B-Rod is entertained by Messhall's whimsy, and while food is good enough, plates are not especially noteworthy: "... All that said, the food here is rarely mind-blowing. It's American food that's elevated just enough to make it seem special. And it's occasionally way off base." [LAW]

The Elsewhere: Caroline on Crack drinks at Craft, Eat: LA tries Moore's Delicatessen, Gastronomy talks about Hoàn Ki?m, kevinEats at Eveleigh, Kitchen Mixtape hits Taco Asylum, and Midtown Lunch picks Bread Lounge.