Eat. Travel. Eat!

Opened at the start of 2020, Pearl River Deli (PRD) is a burgeoning Cantonese food concept operated by chef Johnny Lee , located next to Howlin Rays in Los Angeles' Chinatown's Far East Plaza. Extensive forum posts on Food Talk Central ( 1 , 2 ) and articles published by  Eater , Los Angeles Times , amongst other outlets, have highlighted the innovative cooking going on: a focused menu of Cantonese classics with the volume turned up alongside weekly specials featuring cuisines not limited to Thai, Vietnamese, Yunnan, and more. Hence, on a recent outing in Los Angeles, I had to make a stop here to experience PRD for myself. I phoned my order in via phone, and got an expected wait time of 20 minutes. The estimate was correct, with my order just about to be boxed up when I arrived. Notably, pickup was rather safe, with payment done at the doorway entrance (hand sanitizer available),  a vinyl shield protecting the employees from the outside, and all employees wearing masks. Outdoor

Lessons learned while making a loaf of tangzhong milk bread: 1. Patience: Let the dough come together for a while before deciding whether you need to adjust the recipe. 2. Gratitude: Putting a number of ingredients together and after some proofing and you get a shiny, soft, and elastic dough. Note that the dough is really soft and might be a tad sticky. Don’t be too tempted to add additional flour or else you may not get as tender/soft bread. [story of my 2nd attempt] 3. Amazement: After baking your kitchen might just smell like a bakery! The bread is also soft, fluffy, and fragrant (thank the combination of milk, eggs, butter and sugar). Gasping and being happy like @scottloitsch did in a recent @nytcooking video on making bread for the first time ? Not unexpected. Thanks @kirbiecravings for the recipe ! Finally (almost 10 years later) came around to trying it.  View this post on Instagram Lessons learned while maki