Hey everyone hope you're having an amazing day. It's mark wiens, i'm in the san gabriel valley, adjacent to los angeles, and this is one of the greatest asian, especially chinese food destinations in the united states. Today, we're gon na take you on a noodle and dumpling tour. That's the dumplings.

I've never been so excited to use a straw in my life. Oh, that was the most satisfying thing. I've ever poked. Oh, i didn't expect some meat to come out of that.

We're gon na eat some hand-pulled noodles and then we're gon na eat. A bunch of fried dumplings, i'm gon na share everything with you right now in this video. Are we still reading thanks for eating with us today? Mike no way see you next time, hey buddy in the next country? Oh and one more thing: i'm not going to be eating these dumplings alone. Today, i'm hanging out with probably the world's greatest dumpling eater.

Where is he look? Who it is? Mr mike buddy? Last time we met thailand about four. Four years ago you were still carrying micah on your chat. You were giving me a noodle tour. Everybody mike chen, strictly dumpling mikey chen cook with mikey.

How many channels do you have no man, no stuff a lot of random stuff? A lot of random stuff? I mean i don't know i i i can't decide what i'm really interested in, but it has to do with food. But if there's one thing that okay, if there's one person in this world that you want to be your friend when it comes to noodles and dumplings you it's you well yeah for sure it's you depends on where we are yeah and we're about to step into Our first place, where we're gon na have these massive soup dumplings that we need to slurp up with there's so much soup in them. You need to slurp them up with a straw yeah it's right around the corner, thanks to mike's awesome, navigating skills. We found it.

How do you exactly do you pronounce the the name mike um? It says woo see so long ball, so this place. What does the sign say, long, sinji, so long sing means uh, something that's that's very big and good and vibrant, so vibrant soup down. Please think and just read the english, the only thing that you'll see here juicy dumplings and that's enough to sell you right there. All i want that's my nickname in high school juicy dumpling hello! Thank you, uh! Four.

Yes, please, all right! Man dude! I love this place already, it's kind of like an open, carpeted floor. I love how the it's an entire glass cabinet, so you can see them as they're, making the dumplings right in front of you, which was we chose a table with uh front row, seats yeah. You know what you do. This is kind of necessary because a lot of dumpling plates you go to now.

They they have frozen dumplings, oh yeah, so you want to go to a place where they're like we're, making it fresh: okay, okay, oh so that top one is the giant one yeah! Okay! He just says: let's do just the right. It's definitely a shanghainese place for shanghainese. Okay, super classic, shanghainese dishes. I don't know what a sweet soup dumpling is: it's not a dessert strip dump.

It says pork, chute, dumpling, sweet yeah. I'm super curious, we'll find out. I guess we're gon na order it. Yes, strictly dumpling juicy dumpling himself.

I like this. When i'm around dumplings, i can't help it the dumpling, dance milk. You want to try chinese yogurt uncle michael, get your chinese yogurt chinese, yogurt dude, that's the big one right there look at it! Oh dude! I think that's the big one. Look at that weight.

There's a lot of meat in there dude. That's enough! You can do four, oh yeah, oh for sure, i believe in you, i believe in you, man does it get its own bend yep. It takes up an entire tray for these, like literally fist sized bowser sized dumplings. She weighs out just like a massive amount of it's pork and crab mixed together.

You see all that row the tamale coming out of that crab so that it's uh, yellow in color. It's just like so skillfully pleats them together, then steams them and man. Those are gon na, come out hot and fresh and juicy. I love how they use juicy on almost everything they they do here mike dude.

Did you see the size of that? I'm like mesmerized? I'm like keeping my eyes on it right now, it's going into the steamer it's going in it's! Oh! It's way back over there. I got this beijing yogurt and it's not homemade, but you got to try the braising yogurt and we we eat that before the dumplings. Oh, you eat this before. After doing whatever you want coat your stomach, my friend with a yogurt goat's, your stomach yeah.

This is the only reason most chinese people can tolerate. Anything. Milky is because we grew up drinking this cheers. You really got ta suck.

You got a sock, oh yeah, yeah, that's good right! You got that like uh sweetness, tanginess yeah, it is good. Oh thank you. They say the traditional style of soup, dumplings in wuxi, comes with sugar inside really yeah. So that's even more traditional.

So that's without yeah dude and i never tried this sugar soup - oh cool. So it's pork for bubbling with sugar. So we got little bowls here of the gingers finely sliced julienned ginger. So this is vinegar.

Yep prepare these guys! Oh nice! Oh that's! Their version of hot oil wonton, i'm just gon na, add a little bit okay yeah in in every one, okay, just a little bit all right, just a little bit of chili, just a little splash. We don't want to. We don't want to overdo it mike mike. We don't want to overdo it, don't not too much.

Just like that's perfect, that's perfect, um! I do this and it's been frowned upon by a lot of people. I like to see how much juice is in the dumpling. Oh yeah, i just like to pour it out a little bit. People usually bite it and just drink it from the dumpling, i'm gon na that's the seed, oh wow slurp that up and then load your spoon up with some of that that has a sweet tinge to it.

It does have a sweetness. Is that that's not the sweeter one, or maybe we got it mixed up? Is this a sweet one? It could be sweet, it's a little sweet. It is a little bit sweet. It is.

It is but like in a good kind of way, like in a balancing it like balances off that porky oiliness. So mike did the spoon technique. I did the technique where i sucked out the top. Now i'm gon na re-dip it and rehydrate it in that chili oil and just whatever you do, don't don't overdo it mike on the chili oil.

Don't don't don't overdo it on the chili oil, we didn't even notice it the whoo. This is really what we oh well they're jiggling, but they, gentlemen, they are. Oh. This is really what we came to get here.

We each kill one right, we're not sharing two. We each get two are we. I don't know if we were a lady in a champion listening here here. Oh should we both stick our strawberries thinking, i don't know in the middle, that's why that that's the uh you ever heard of that dumpling jiggle, that's the dumpling! That's the dumbling jiggle! That's the dumpling jiggle, that's how i used to dance in high school too, the dumplings! That's what you do! Do the dumpling jig there we go.

I have penetrated. I've never been so excited to open a straw in my life. Oh yeah, get it between the fall. Oh there it is oh that was the most satisfying satisfying thing.

I've ever poked body cheers dude. Yours is like oozing out from that penetration. Oh, i didn't expect some meat to come out of that dimension. Yeah.

That was just juicing a piece of chunk of meatball. In my mouth no dude, i got like an even juice oil crab chunks pieces of pork. Look i'm not complaining! Isn't that, like a liquidy lip balm, that's kind of like where you're tasting his lips is so nice, like a balloon. Just deflating yeah we're gon na have to make an incision.

I think we are and we're gon na have to somehow insert dumpling and vinegar. You can pour just oh yeah dude. You need a you need a funnel dude yeah. We both need a honor, so chili's going.

I'm thinking, adding a ton of vinegar in here wait that one's vinegar or soy sauce dude this one's the vinegar. Oh the soy sauce you got ta, do the dumpling jiggle some more there. You go jiggle that vinegar. Okay, then where's that vinegar, just don't do the soy sauce like i did.

I'm gon na pour in that vinegar a lot of it. Let that swim around in there kind of move that around the dumpling jiggle. That's a ton of sweats yeah. I had a ton of vinegar just go up my nose, oh, but it's good though wow dude, it's so good, though it's better with vinegar yeah.

You got you've got like the the porkiness plus that richness of the tummy from the crab. I think i'm at the stage right now, where i want to bite this all right. Oh, don't eat the paper. Oh it's going to paper.

Man i'll gladly eat the paper. That's just some delicious paper. Yeah man, the the dough, the the wrapper is nice. It's pretty thick right, yeah, it's thin! It's like silky! Oh man, look at that! Oh it's spewed.

Look at all that grape spewed down gray meat and crab in there. You can never overdo it. You want a vinegar yourself. Yes, please please vinegar me thanks mike no worries i feel like this is what we did exactly in thailand, like chili meat, vinegar, meat, yeah with different chilies and different kind of vinegar, with every bite we would just like chili each other.

That's actually pretty good. What's up with that, ginger man awesomely awesomely good, not to mention delicious, but it's just fun to eat. Yeah i mean what other food. Can you stick with a straw and suck it up? Slurp it down.

Our waiter said that these are actually supposed to be the sweetener okay, so we'll find out. Let's do it and i think by now, like the they've cooled off enough, so we can just dip dip and go. Do you want one bite? Wait that other one was the other one was a sweet one, yeah yeah this one, this one's regular. It's really good! It's really good! If you are at a shanghainese restaurant, you got to order honyo, which means hot oil.

Literally, translation is hot oil stir-fried hands, but it's really just just wontons and chili oil, nice vinegar. Yes, oh, but that's delicious man medium hearty. The silky wrapper with the vinegar we're going to sit here, we're going to finish the rest of these dumplings yeah and then we'll be moving on to the next place, but then food here like what do you think awesome, really good yeah, really really good. It was fun handmade, always always all right mike that was about a 20 30 minute drive we're on the well we're still.

This is still the san gabriel valley, but we're now in arcadia at the base of the mountain another strip, mall. Now we're going to go to a place that specializes in lanzhou, yes, beef, noodle and lemon especially the hand stretched noodles, huge ball of dough, so is very famous for noodles, very famous. You know it's actually one of the top 10 chinese noodles in china. It's lenzo lamian, basically lanjo ramen, it's known by this characteristic uh eating are by seongkong, which means uh.

I don't know how to translate that you don't speak, you don't speak so once in it has to be clear. The soup base has to be clear, our bodies, it has to have something white in there. So the radish, that's in there that's white um, which means red has to have something red. So that's the chili's means the the cilantro and the the onions and then which means yellow, which is the shade.

So this is. This is like the formula of what's a good bowl of noodles yeah. This is the characteristic of a longer noodle philosophy right there right. So every one of those is one bowl of noodles right there that ball of dough wow boom wow it floats so fast.

That's all one one noodle yes huge, what's amazing to me, is how how fast they boil 20 seconds, or so it's cooked it's ready. It floats up to the surface. He takes that up and then the noodles are going to be topped with all the different toppings in the soup and the chili oil dude. That one looks amazing.

Oh okay! Thank you! Oh my god. Amazing! It's a big plate! Chicken right there that's a big plate of chicken. Did we actually order this much food or did they like? You know what happened? Give us some, i'm pretty sure our noodles met, fell in love with each other and had other noodles. That's what happened here.

They multiplied. It yeah try that have you ever had this. This is a famous chinese drink called some major sour, plum juice. Oh cool! Now, a lot of people think it tastes like barbecue sauce.

Let me know what you think barbecue sauce it does taste like barbecue sauce dude. That's amazing: does it taste like good barbecue sauce that you can drink? Oh yeah there you go, that's what it matters delicious! It's smoky and tart yeah yeah! Oh man, that's wonderful! This is a clear broth that learns. Noodles is known for here. We'll put some of this into our bowl, some of that beef, some of it it looks so clean, and so pure, is what i love about this and so fresh, and this is the this - is just the classic like medium thin, medium thin noodles.

I think it's one noodle one noodle we're gon na have to bite and meet in the middle mike, hey man. I think i think we know each other long enough for that to be okay, dude, i'm i'm totally comfortable with that men. I got mine. I got mine, i can't break can't break.

Oh, oh dude. I need a longer arm. There you go there, you go. I got you.

Oh yeah, look at this one, one noodle drink the soup first and then chase with noodles. Let's do it another dish, oh yeah. Oh, thank you. Oh okay.

Okay, i think we're good. Thank you. Okay, all right man drink that soup. Oh that's, nice! Oh it's! So beefy and salty wow! That's so cute! Yeah! It's so nice! You taste the clear qualities of this broth right man.

I'm excited to bite into this beef, though beef and noodles next yeah, all right, the beef melts in your mouth. Oh, we got the thick. We got the thick wide belt noodles on this, the same beef, oh man. I can't wait for this one.

Let's dish out giant noodles again, it's one noodle. Are we ladying? I think we're good. I think we're linked here. Oh my gosh, all right, i'm gon na take this noodle.

I'm gon na. Take that fight all right, so you just have to kind of like clip off the noodle when you want it to end. I love brothing myself, that rich broth beefy and just loaded with that chili oil and the radish too yeah. Let's do it all that broth! Oh man, punch of beefiness but clean.

At the same time also, you do taste the peppercorn now mm-hmm the peppercorn and the chili sauce a little bit of tingliness. Also that meat is so citrusy. The meat falls apart melts in your mouth melts in your mouth. Oh, that's good.

We got ta chase it with some peanuts and some cold dishes. Okay, that's the great thing about these. Noodles is so cold dishes were small dishes, and so that kind of, like a palette cleanser, oh a little bit, yeah they're, usually really vinegary with garlicky. I love the cucumber, no cute worm.

Have you had? The seaweed is delicious yeah, and so this is sort of cold very, like chilled cold, not just room temperature but cold. It's like a little break from the uh from the beefiness of the noodles yeah and that oil yeah that richness, mm-hmm yeah saltiness. Let's move into the giant, you want to do the giant flavor, the giant plate of chicken wow; okay, so we've got massive chunks of braised chicken. Yes, we've got this thick gravy sauce and we have all that the belt noodles just below here, some jalapenos too man, onions, extremely chewy.

All the sauce has this like rich beefiness to it, and super retro like a little sprinkle of cumin in there, not again, not overpowering, but just like them. It's there. It's really smooth as well. It really smells kind of covers your tongue, man, that's good again.

There's potatoes and there's potatoes in here they're chicken yeah. Let's try that chicken, oh yeah! Oh, let's try this tripe! It's completely loaded in chili oil. That's so neutral tasting yeah! You don't taste any of the funk. You just taste something good mm-hmm, a little wishy-washy action with my pork belly in there diving.

I want to go down down to the bottom. Oh there must be some vinegar in there too, and then sprinkled with raw garlic yep. Oh, that looks incredible. Look at that.

You got to see this drip to drip. Oh wow that vinegar, the oil, the garlic you've got the fat there, but you don't even feel fatty. It's like a bit of like a chewy texture yeah, the fat is chewy. Pressures are making it's amazing, okay, and i think we have one more noodle dish to try, which is the stir fried medium with belt noodles you're right with beef and vegetables: oh yeah, a totally different flavor from anything else we have on the table mark.

Let me ask you something: do we dare stuff that noodle in the depths of the hot chili pool, let's let's go swimming swimming in hot oil and and buddy take a piece of the pork along for the ride again, they're human, not overpowering, but but there also, The fatty part of that belly, i think, that's transformative - that just makes anything better when you chew anything with it, really absolutely tasty everything we have on the table. My question is: can you do one more? Yes, let's do one more place to go? Oh, let's do it all right, let's keep eating yes and then we'll continue we're going to continue on with one more place for the san gabriel, noodle and dumpling tour. Today that beef melts in your mouth blend of cumin sichuan, pepper, chili oil, we had juicy luscious. All the great descriptive adjectives i mean those are the most important food vocabulary; words juicy and luscious.

Isn't that what you want your dumplings to be hi good, thank you, nice to meet you very much big fan. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Very much best seller yeah. Let's get that for sure we got ta, have the pan fried pork dumplings traditional dumplings, about the chai, pork and shrimp. That's my favorite! Oh yeah, like that cabbage pretty much the beef dumpling we're going to be in the kitchen a little bit we're going to see how they cook they've already made the dumplings in the morning, but we're going to see how they they cook and how they pan fry.

Some of these dumplings uh, my mom, started this on one, so we've been okay exactly 20 years, all right, but this location gives my wife open, uh just her night, nine years on the 12th, okay, okay, cool and man. Congratulations in the michelin guide recently right! Thank you. Thank you, that's awesome, and so these are going to be the pan-fried, dumplings, okay, correct kind of fried, and then we have the pan fried beef and cheese and onions right here, nice. Yes, i steamed uh half like crab soup and pork and then cool original pork dumplings in there awesome, and then these are vegan vegan dumplings, oh cool nice yup for those pan fried dumplings they're actually put in the pan.

She ladles in some like maybe some broth or some water into the pan and then a little bit of oil and those are gon na like boil first and steam. At the same time, i believe until all the liquid disappears and then after that you'll get that beautiful crust on the bottom of the dumplings like as soon as all the liquid um dehydrates evaporates. Then it's left with that oil, which then like caramelizes on the bottom. So you got that perfectly golden crispy bottom, oh man, it smells so good.

You smell that dough cooked crispy on the bottom, just perfectly oily juicy. The meat on the inside is going to be cooked and juicy, and that's just like sizzling golden crispiness. Thank you very much. What did you do? What did you do mark? I didn't order anything.

You said he has taken what happened? Oh man, what an amazing spread, i'm not dumplings! Oh crab and pork. Oh man, you feel, can you feel the oh? We got ta eat this fast that went down smooth something about that. Dough is very smooth a little bit gummy um, smooth and chunky, and then what i like about that dumpling. Is you really taste the crab yeah like it's like you, almost taste the like that hint of sweet bitterness from the crab that just like is so complimenting to the noodles to the to the to that uh wrapper, i mean make sure you add a little bit Again, don't just don't don't don't overdo it, overdo it on the chili oil.

Do you not over, do a mic? No! No! No! I never overdo it. Never overdo it! Okay! Couple more, but don't overdo it doing a lot of dipping the half moon, oh yeah, baby! Oh they're, beautiful little presents little gifts and i'm just gon na. Do the submerge move the submerge and fill on the top move, wiggle that around a little bit it's getting too late in a day to be to be ginger about this, get it ginger um, i'm just going to start stuffing these in my mouth! There's a lot of juice in there. That's delicious yeah, i'm not so much juicing them you're right, like they just go down so easily yeah, so delicate, so flavorful that crust on the bottom is just calling our names right now.

Let's do it pick one? Oh they're, just like look at that they're just caramelized together dip and apply mm-hmm. Oh wow, that's the thing like number ones tell of whatever dumpling is good enough. Can you taste more of the dough than the filling? If you can it becomes too doughy? This is good. This is perfect.

That's great yeah. The ratio is just like amazing. Look at these ones are cheese, cheese and beef. Oh wow, i don't think i've had a cheese dumpling, so this one is more of like a modern creation.

I think that's my favorite. No, that's cool! Oh it's juicy! Oh! That is really good. Yeah. I like how the cheese is not overpowered, provides like a melted cheese sauce on the inside.

That's absolute perfection that i mean i'm a traditional man. I love my traditional dumplings bro. You got a little bit of something: that's some water falling out some juices spilling out. On my chin.

I mean i don't blame you, hey man. I mean don't waste that my friend don't waste, that with a napkin. No, don't worry. I don't use napkins, i'm i'm against napkins figures, right figures.

You can see that cartilagey bits in there. Oh wow yeah good - that texture that snap that cartilagey crunch, so we got these - are the vegan dumplings totally different shape. These are actually quite large. A full rotation plus some on top for good measure, that's pillowy and soft, a variety very shredded vegetables, maybe cabbage and vermicelli noodles, i'm not one for vegan food.

Maybe what are your mushrooms in there too? Not that not bad all right! Next up we have the boiled chive dumplings. This is a classic tell-tale sound of a good dumpling again, can you see through oh yeah, the dough you see, yeah, you want to. You want your dumpling to be like a ghost. You want to see right through it.

All right, you can see the nice plum filling right there very good, so juicy it's like vibrating up in there, yeah man, that's just giving it that bounce, the chives are very fragrant and again that dough that wrappers so silky smooth a little bit chewy. I like to think of myself as one who's familiar with the classics. You know dumplings noodles, not real classics. I don't read um.

That is a good classic dumpling all right. So we got the beef noodles here, topped with braised beef, some like bok choy and maybe some pickle, veggies veggies all right. Let's scoop out: oh yeah, nice, it's a nice noodle pole, my friend man. You can see how rich that broth is aromatics like chinese aromatic herbs and spices yeah, i'm squeezing the beef a little bit and it is falling apart.

Yeah. Let's do this wow, that's a flavorful piece of meat, the more you keep on chewing the more flavors released. You taste all of those braising herbs and spices and just like wow yo that that sixth chew is put in that first chew it is it just gets it just gets better progressively better. The flavor magnifies broth is good, solid bowl beef noodle soup be better better.

If we uh hot oil and vinegar - yes, definitely let me add on some more that beef broth soup leveled up, never tasted so good again that balance the acidity the chili oil. Okay, i think we just have one more dumpling to try, which is these? Oh, what is that chai pocket chocolate, chive pocket, yeah yeah, it's almost like empanada looks like yeah. This is a classic chinese dish. Oh really doughy, yeah um! The dough is super commendable.

All like everest uh-huh. I mean chewy yeah melts in your mouth. It's something! That's hard to accomplish into whatever everything it's just slightly crispy from that pan fry edge, but you've got so many like yeah gummy, slightly like chewy textures. To that dough mike said you don't typically you don't typically do it, but we're not we're not typical we're more than average.

Should we all chase it with a pig knuckle so cold. So it's refreshing, the texture of that skin and fat kind of like mingled together as one like. I think we should have one more of these cheese dumplings one of our toasts to to sum up this incredible day: well: buddy, dumplings and noodles yeah. I want the full rotation: don't leave any skin untouched, don't leave any surface area.

Unoiled cheers my friend cheers standout winner of a dumpling. That's my favorite thing here. Wow, that's like this and this unbelievably good, the traditional one and the beef and chicken are we. Are we still breathing and eating? I don't even know anymore soon, then the dumpling euphoria starts to kick in yeah.

I feel like i'm just watching aziz from floating above us right now, like dreaming of dumplings, you know yeah, it feels like dumplings are like flying through the air. I think it's that time. For my friend good thing, they have a wall right behind us for us to lean our heads up. I mean dumplings like to just fill into every part of your stomach and just like put happiness on your face yeah and then, if you eat too much, you turn into a dumpling.

So the cycle goes on full 360.. That's the goal circle! Turning into a jiggly exactly just the aftermath of a noodle and tumbling tour, this is behind the scenes you see dumplings flying in the air. I see something i think i'm dumped like i'm just in a in a dumpling. What's a dumpling coma, a doma, a dome! This is what you don't see in the mikey chen strictly dumpling videos, the nap the nap afterwards.

The meal thanks for eating with us today, mike no way see you next time, hey buddy in the next country. Let me know when i wake up i'll message. You back and we'll make this happen all right mike i. Finally, i had to wake mike and say like man, we got to go back to the hotel mike wake up from your slumber, your dumpling summer.

I thought this whole thing was a dream, but man fun day yeah the lusciousness will not let you down definitely was not a misprint, but it actually tastes. Luscious yeah. That's not an exaggeration. It's good to see them mike chen, always good to hang out strictly dumpling.

Again, he has mike has like four or five channels at any given time, but just look up mike chen and you'll find him somewhere uh, but yeah man. I always enjoy hanging out with mike no matter what country we're at you too, my brother, hopefully next time, we'll take another four or five years to you together, we'll see you again uh and thank you for watching this video, please remember to give it a thumbs Up and make sure you subscribe for lots more food and travel videos. Goodbye from the san gabriel valley, 66, 66, see you on the next video.