For a quarter-century, China Islamic has delivered the rarely seen cuisine of China’s Muslim population, which is concentrated in the western provinces.

I don’t normally support a restaurant that expressly forbids pig meat, but I allowed my stomach a one-night exemption. Considering I’m such a swine lover, it hurt to find this photo from a 1992 LA Weekly review.

Our waiter considered the lamb stew “warm pot” the showcase dish, and wanting to make sure we had room to enjoy it, asked whether we wanted to wait 15 minutes for it to cook, or if we preferred to eat other dishes first. We quickly selected the second option. Within minutes, the waiter began filling our dolly with a parade of dishes. To keep pace with our intake, he transferred our fast-diminishing dishes to increasingly smaller plates.

To start, we split the 3 Delicacy Combination Platter ($10.95), a cold plate. Home Style Roast Chicken featured a nice bronzed skin and juicy meat. Spiced Beef came in crimson sheets. The color was disconcerting, but I enjoyed the texture and flavor. The final selection was Spicy Ox-Tripe, pleasantly firm strips of chile-tossed ox intestine. I’m not sure where China Islamic finds ox organ, but I’m glad they did. The mélange was topped with a central pile of shaved scallions, to supply crunch.

For Poultry, Alon selected Chicken with Spicy Salt ($8.95), boneless nubs of dark meat chicken lightly battered in salt and fried, served with diced scallions, green onions, and little red chilies for spice. The chicken was really tender, with the salt-crust locking in the bird’s juices.

For our noodle dish, we ordered a heaping plate of irregularly shaped house-made noodles known as “dough slices.” We opted for the version called Three Flavor Chow Mein ($5.95), stir-fried with chicken, beef and shrimp. Crisp bean sprouts provided crunch, and there was also cabbage, scrambled egg and a brown sauce that no doubt included soy. It was very good, though the noodles were too far past al dente.

At China Islamic, sesame bread is a staple, available either flat or fat, both studded with sesame seeds. There’s the option to stud the bread with green onions. Take it. We split an order of large Sesame Bread with Green Onion ($6.10), which was sensational, over an inch thick, crispy outside, with layers of fluffy dough inside, folded with treasure troves of cooked scallions. There wasn’t huge flavor, but the bread was mysteriously addictive.

To balance out all the meat and dough, we wanted a vegetable. Our first choice - sautéed pea pod leaves – was sold out, so we settled for Sautéed Chinese Watercress ($7.50). The simply simmered greens were excellent, featuring little more than chopped garlic.

There were four Cold Hors D’oeuvres. For some strange reason, one of the options was Szechwan Kim Chi ($1.50). In Korea, the chile-slathered preserved cabbage is ubiquitous. This version was all about the vinegar, very pungent, tossed with jalapenos. The peppers hadn’t been cleaned of seeds or veins, so plenty of spice remained.

After a fifteen minute feeding frenzy, our waiter finally arrived with a steaming “warm pot” filled with Lamb Stew (L $15.50). The bubbling brown liquid was filled with tender bone-on chunks of lamb, supple rectangles of creamy tofu, bok choy and flat glass noodles and topped with cilantro. Very flavorful.

I had my doubts, but apparently a meal without hog can actually succeed.

Hours:
Daily: 11 AM – 3 PM, 5 PM – 9:30 PM

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This entry is filed under California, Chinese, Los Angeles, San Gabriel Valley, Southern California.