Bill Lee vs. Great Castle

After 3 months in Drilling Fluid School in Houston, I came to Bakersfield as a Mud Engineer in 1981. It was the first Monday in January, cold and foggy.  I was assigned to a deep well being drilled just north of Taft Highway in the North Coles Levee field for ARCO.  I remember trying to find the rig in the dark fog, not being able to see the lights of the rig and I had to stop my car, rool down the windows and listen for the diesel engines roaring, the draw works whining and the pipe and tongs clanging, so I could figure out which dirt road to turn on.  Bakersfield was a lonely town to a single young man of 25 in a strange town back then.  Since my life is about finding comfort in food, I found a few restaurants where I felt comfortable, friendly people and good food.  La Cabana had a restaurant on Oak Street and Truxton.  They had great menudo on weekends and chorizo con juevos like at home.  And Mossmans had a comfortable restaurant on Brundage that was kind of homey.  I also found Bill Lee’s for a hot Chinese meal.   I recall the waitress, Helen.  She was middle-age in 1981 and I used to ask for her table.  Maybe she reminded me of my Mom.  Bakersfield was not so lonely after Betty joined me in Bakersfield in April. 

My favorite meal at Bill Lee’s was the Wo Won Ton Soup.  A beautiful clear broth loaded with shrimp, chicken, pork, vegetables and won tons; it is great on a cold winter night in Bakersfield.  Eventually, I discovered the Hong Shew oysters and it became my new destination dish.  I ordered it every time we visited on New Year’s Eve when we took the girls out on our anniversary.  The dish is an exotic mix of fried oysters, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, green onions and ginger root in tasty oyster sauce.  The dining room has been remodeled over the years and they have kept the hand carved wood panels.  The carpeting in the dining room makes for a nice quiet dining room and the staff is always friendly and inviting.

 

Overall Bill Lee’s is a Bakersfield classic and a nice dining experience.  Most of the dishes I have tried are like old school Americian/Chinese food made for a mid-west palette that is kind of plain and bland with lots of noodles and rice.   For more authentic Chinese food in Bakersfield, if there is such a thing, I now prefer the Great Castle on Union Avenue.  The dishes are more robust in flavor with some really spicy dishes that I love, like the crispy garlic beef and hot and spicy eggplant.  And the walnut shrimp is as good as advertized.  Everyone should have a favorite Chinese Restaurant.  And in Bakersfield, the options are limited, especially now that Grand China on Ming and Real has been closed for a few years.  The family reopened in Hong Kong in Chester Ave, but it’s not quit the same since the owner/chef that passed away is not there.

Try the Hong Shew oysters at Bill Lee’s and try the walnut shrimp at Great Castle and find your favorite.

The Ultimate $7.00 steak dinner – a good summer for tomatoes.

To my blog fans, I apologize for not providing my usual standard of entertainment recently.  However, I have not been inspired enough to share any dining experiences until tonight. 

I have obtained the status of “Maintenance” at weight Watchers.  And I have to maintain my “goal weight” for 4 more weeks so I can become a life time member.  To me this means that I will not have to continue paying $42 per month to weigh in.  This losing weight is a piece of cake.  I’m down 30+ Lbs and continue to reduce.  I am thinking that I will try to hit 199 Lbs.  I obtained a note from my Dr. that says 210 Lbs. is a healthy weight for my frame.  From 240 Lbs, it’s been a great journey.  I have lots of tips and recipes that have helped me to get to this point.  Maybe I’ll share my experience and recipes in a separate edition.  Basically, it’s classic, eat less and exercise more. 

BJ’s Brew House revisited:  I was inspired by a horrible luncheon experience at BJ’s Brew house on Stockdale Highway to start my Food and Wine Blog over a year ago.  (See my first blog post in the archives)   I tried BJ’s again for lunch and had a very pleasant experience and I got my salad and it was good and everything was fine.  I have to comment that BJ’s is a bit more pricy than my favorite luncheon spots.  My favorite lunch spots are the Salads at Tahoe Joe’s, Steak and Grape, Champs Bar-b-que and the Elephant bar.  I was at the Elephant Bar with customers recently and I wanted a salad with salmon.  I was treated to a side salad with an entree size portion of glazed salmon.  It cost $15.00.  It was a great low cal. meal that the waitress was gracious enough to put together for me.  The luncheon salads at Tahoe Joe’s are fantastic for $9.95.  And the seared salmon salad at Steak and Grape is a great meal for $13.95.  The salads at Champs are beautiful with your choice of bar-b-q meat on top.  Champ’s has a light and flavorful vinaigrette dressing.  I like to squirt their bar-b-q sauce over the top also.

The picture below is my Ultimate $7 steak dinner.  On my way from dropping Betty off at the airport this morning, I stopped at Albertsons to load up on fruits and vegetables.  I picked up a Manager’s Special rib-eye for about $6 (this means it’s old and ready for quick sale.  To me, it’s been aging in the meat case).  The portabella mushroom was $1. The tomato and basil are out of my garden.  The wine is out of my wine cellar.

I trimmed the steak of excess fat.  And I stuffed some small garlic cloves into the fat that is found in the middle of all rib-eyes.  I make my own seasoning blend and applied it generously to provide sweet, salty and spicy flavor to both sides of the steak. 

On the side I sautéed the portabella in garlic-olive oil, soy sauce, wine and spices.  This cooked down and the liquid reduced to offer amazing flavor to the steak.  I have started keeping garlic-olive oil available for everyday dishes.  I dice 4-5 cloves of garlic and add a cup of olive oil to marinate with the garlic.  The oil has great flavor that is awesome on meats, popcorn and salad dressings. 

Pop-Corn?  For a great after dinner treat, I make pop corn in the microwave.  Add ½ cup of popping corn in a plain brown paper bag.  Pop it in the microwave.  Dump it into a bowl and add a tablespoon of garlic oil and sprinkle parmesan cheese over it.  Garlic-Parmesan-Popcorn, it’s great with a movie on TV with a small side of chocolate.

Tonight I mixed this same garlic oil with some blue cheese and topped my rib-eye steak after turning it on the grill.  Be careful that the steak doesn’t burn with the oil melting on the grill. 

The tomatoes and basil are from my garden and vine ripened.  I sliced parmesan cheese and layered it with tomatoes, garlic oil and fresh basil from the garden and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.  It makes a great low-cal side dish to the ultimate $7 steak. 

Now for the wine.  My favorite winery is Le Cuvier.  Last night we opened a bottle of 2002 Le Cuvier Zinfandel.  It was barrel aged for 3 years and cellar aged in my cellar for 7 years.  It is 16.82% alcohol and very fruity and velvety.  But it has a kick, so be careful.  I had a little left from last night.  My favorite new wine club is Paoletti Winery.  Paoletti is in Calistoga at the north end of Napa Valley.  They grow and produce Estate Cabernet Sauvignon.  They just started a wine club and I joined without reservation.  You can get more information on Paoletti and other Napa wines in my blog on Napa from last summer.  The 2007 Paoletti Bella Novello Napa Cab is great.   And with a little Le Cuvier 2002 Zinfandel to finish off, I tried some blending.  A few wineries will blend Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese and zinfandel in various proportions. I added < 10% of Le Cuvier 2002 Zinfandel to the Paoletti Cab.  The small addition of Zinfandel added additional ripe red fruit to the Cab. As well as softening the finish.  It was great with the medium-rare spicy rib-eye with garlic blue cheese on top.  And as the basil and balsamic vinegar from the tomatoes mixed with the steak and sautéed portabella mushrooms, magical.   I ate every bite.  This is a great meal for a deprived body.  I’ll have to go for a brutal bike ride tomorrow night to work it off.