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2.35 Mon Land Hot Pot City

Posted on October 6, 2008
Filed Under Best of the Best, Chinese |

Not too long ago I had a chance to meet Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer award winning food writer for the LA Weekly. I know what you’re thinking, did I ask him for a recommendation? Of course I did! This is one of two places he recommended to me personally, and I’m so excited to finally come visit this place.

Mon Land is a Mongolian hotpot place with some Northern Chinese cuisine tossed in for good measure. I really can’t vouch for whether real Mongolians eat this, as far as I know they have a lot of Yak and not a lot of squid or tofu, but it’s marketed as such and I hear it’s quite popular in China. Hot pot is almost the Chinese equivalent to a roasted turkey, as it’s often served for large family parties for holidays and festivals.



When you sit down you are asked which broth you’d like. There’s a spicy and a non-spicy version and you can get the best of broth worlds (wink) by asking for both. How do you get two broths when there’s only one stove at your table? Presenting the greatest Chinese invention since paper: The Yuan Yang pot.



So here’s our broth, there’s lots of herbs tossed in, I have no idea what’s in it, but it has an incredibly woody and herbal flavor to it. I’ve always thought that the meat went very well with the spicy broth and the vegetables went well with the regular.



(Side note, Yuan Yang is Chinese for Mandarin Duck and is known among the Chinese for their “conjugal affection and fidelity” - Wikipedia. Thus, having a Yuan Yang pot means that the broths can always be together, like those lovey Mandarin Ducks.)



Here’s Jason H stirring the pot. When the pot starts to boil it’s time to toss in the ingredients!



Unlike Japanese shabu shabu, where there are generally only sliced meats and vegetables, we toss in all kinds of crazy stuff into our Chinese / Mongolian hotpot. Corn on the cob, two kinds of vegetables, lamb meat balls, fish dumplings, fish balls, fried tofu, squid, tofu skin… and we’re only getting started.



Of course there’s meats too, we ordered a couple plates of lamb and beef, which were excellent in the spicy broth.



Pork blood rice cake. The rice mellows out the flavor of the pork blood, it’s definitely not for everyone, but it’s quite good for my Chinese taste buds.



Here’s a shot of the fried tofu, pork blood cake on the right, beef in the back.



There are also a quite a few cooked items available on the menu. This is a green onion pancake. Actually, let me take that back, this is the BEST green onion pancake I’ve ever had in LA. We had to get another one of these because it went so quickly.



We also ordered pork dumplings, which were also excellent. I wish they had steamed versions of these, but I can’t complain.



Lamb meat balls, great flavor, I loved it in the spicy broth.



This is Garland Chrysanthemom, a popular vegetable in hotpots. In Chinese it’s called Tong Hao, Japanese - Shungiku, Korean - ssukgat. This vegetable carries a earthy flavor and is quite good in the regular broth. Vegetables are generally $2 a plate, while meats are about $4.



Fish balls, which were nothing spectacular but no complaints either.



Fried Taro. It’s fried to help it stay in shape while being cooked. Unfried taro will disintegrate in the hotpot and thicken the soup. I love the taste of taro and I’d definitely recommend it.

Here’s Jason W having some squid.

The food is great. The broth is magnificently flavored and if you don’t go too crazy with the meats it’ll be a fairly inexpensive meal. Service is quick and efficient but their English is obviously not the greatest, the bilingual menu is very helpful. The dumplings and pancakes were surprisingly good, and this place is especially good for you to try new and different things in a hotpot, since each plate is between $2-$4, it’s never an expensive experiment. Special thanks to Jonathan Gold for the recommendation.

Mon Land Hot Pot City
251 W. Bencamp St
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 289-4889

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