Xiang Wei Lou

General Information

Description

The menu at Xiang Wei Lou, a plain but spiffy cafe fitted into the mini-mall next to the Hilton Hotel in San Gabriel, urges: "Please let the server know the spicy level of your taste." The request isn't necessarily addressed to non-Chinese. Restaurateurs are aiming to please customers from Hong Kong to Xinjiang.

Still, there's no shortage of capsicum at this place. Its dishes showcase a typical multiplicity of chile types and styles: dried to an almost black-red or sun-bleached; whole or crushed into flakes; ground to an incendiary powder; fresh and zingy with spurts of chile juice; soft and almost sweet, yet blazing; and, of course, pickled whole or in slices.

There's considerable talent behind the stoves here. Almost every dish achieves that aforementioned well-calibrated balance: Hot plays against tart with undertones of umami. Boiled sliced fish may sound pedestrian, but the fillets come bobbing in a viscous scarlet broth singing of herbal garlicky-ness.

Like the harmony in a jazz quartet, you get heat in several octaves in a dish of cumin beef laced with dry and fresh red peppers, and fresh jalapeños. Lamb riblets, which the menu describes as chops, are imbued with a musky herbal heat that dares you to stop eating them.

A broth with several varieties of fresh mushrooms bubbles away on a tiny burner, a token of the abundant forest mushrooms for which the region is known. For cooling the palate, there are dishes of cucumber cubes.

--Linda Burum, Special to Times, 4/15/09