群兴桂林米粉 Traditional Guilin Noodles

CHINA 🇨🇳
(GUANGXI)

COVID-19 UPDATE: The restaurant has a large comfortable covered patio space with heat lamps and fans ready for any weather. The interior is also open.

📍122 W. Garvey Avenue, Monterey Park, San Gabriel Valley

For most outsiders coming to China, the first you see of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is on the back of the 20 Yuan note, the gorgeous karst and river landscapes that also make it a favorite of travelers. It is home to 90% of the country's Zhuang people, China's largest ethnic minority, but also a wide range of other peoples, making the cuisine of the region also a reflection of this diversity and hard to pin down.

It has influences from many nearby provincial cuisines, but revolves around the rice noodles that make their way into so many of the region's dishes. The most recognizable dish for people outside the region might be Guilin's famous rice noodles, served with some sour notes that remind you of Hunan, streaks of spice from Sichuan, and the lightness of Cantonese cuisine. But through all of these hints, the cuisine is all its own and unlike any other.

In the city of Guilin and surrounding towns, you will find vendors and restaurants setting out different types of thinly cut meats and all the other standard ingredients of the dish that are combined after ordering. The meats depend on which vendor you choose and run the gamut, but here in Monterey Park the house special Guilin rice noodles ($9.99, above) have beef and pork belly. Mix it all up with the pickled vegetables, peanuts, and sauce and you have an excellent economical meal.

The sauce here is enough to keep things moist, so you are not served a side of broth like many other versions. You can request it made from light to "Mad Max" spicy, or take a sour & spicy or numbing spicy route when ordering. Guilin rice noodles are definitely not al dente, but retain a springy and enjoyable chew until the very last bite. The first 21 offerings are different ways and meats to enjoy your rice noodles with, some in soup form and some dry stirred like the house special.

The rest of the large laminated menu's front and back has quite a bit you may find on the menus of many Chinese restaurants, but there are a few other Guilin specialties like Guilin zha jiang mian ($8.99, above). While zhajiang dishes are often served with wide wheat-based noodles when eaten in the north, here they use egg noodles as a base for the stir-fried pork and soybean sauce.

Side dishes are a tempting option, especially since they can be mixed like the three below for $7.99. From bottom to top there are hot and spicy shredded bean curd, pigs ears, and beef. All of these are ready in a steam table format and use the same "hot and spicy" sauce so they can be joined easily and served almost immediately.

Other options in this category that can all be joined are pork belly and chicken. If you prefer pickled vegetables, those can all be combined as well. A separate order of pickled shredded potato ($4.99, below) was ordered to accompany this meal, and did not disappoint.

To find the restaurant, enter the parking lot behind T.S. Emporium and enter from that side, as you will not see it if you are looking from Garvey. The market itself is good for a post-meal wander if you are the type of person that enjoys grocery stores. Herbal remedies are readily available and there is even a Chinese medicine doctor on duty.

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