San Diego Chinese Food - Ba Ren

Disclaimer: I am not chinese. All opinions regarding asian cuisine must be taken as they are made, by a middle-eastern westerner.

I visited a wonderful chinese resturant Friday night. Cindy entised our group of graduate students and post-doc into the short outing to Clairemont Mesa Boulevard. It is key to collect a minimum of 4 people whenever going to try out any new resturant since chinese is almost always family-style eating 9 of us was perfect.

Ba Ren - kinda like texan but from Sichuan. I assumes the resturant's name describes its owners. Located in a strip-mall several miles from asian food central, i.e. Convoy St. you would end up here by accident. We had an inside tip from Qi, the tallest asian woman I know.

Qi and Cindy discussed the menu extensively. Several hundred items on the menu means that there alot to discuss. Such discussions start with a framework: we need 1 vegtable dish, 2 fish dishes, 3 meat dishes and then comes the bargaining session - but the bargaining is between Qi and Cindy & Cindy and Qi. They are both on both sides and keep proprosing combinations of dishes, switching dishes for dishes. Periodically more outside input would be needed so they'd break from Mandarin with "Hey is chicken kosher?" or ask the maitre'd if dried shrimp on crisp rice is good here. Finally an optimal/arbitary solution is achieved:

Dry-Cooked Lamb Gan Guo Yag Ro - Dry wok lamb flesh
Dried spicy beef strips Gan Bien Niu Ro - Dry shrivelled cattle meat
Husband and Wife Lung Fu Qi Fei Pien - Husband Wife Lung Slices
Shrimp over crispy rice Xia Ren Guo Ba - Shrimp young wok scar
Garlic String Beans Gan Bien Si Ji Do - Dry shrivelled Four Seasoned Beans
Homestyle Tofu Bai You Do Fu - Plain Oiled Tofu
Eel Cassorole Shan Yu Sha Guo - Eel Sand Wok

Tsing-Tao was the beer of avaliability if not of choice.

Until now, the dogma had been that Spicy City was the best Sichuan option in San Diego. Spicy City does offer some tasty options, however, Ba Ren immediately surpassed it on swiftness of service. No sooner has we ordered did food start arriving. Husband and Wife Lung first. This is a well spiced dish of cold meat. The beef crimson colored brisket contrasting with creamy white tendon both slices into 2-3mm thick snackable morsels.

Before half the couple was eaten, the beans arrived. There is nothing really special about these garlic beans, unless you have never had chinese stirfried beans before. First of all the beans are only distantly related to what are called beans in the west. These viny legumes often called the asparagus or yardlong bean grow 1-2 feet in length, have a slightly darker hue then a green bean and have wrinkles running down their length. When cooked just right they are still fresh and snappy on the inside. The brief fry in a hot wok bestows a speckled black crispy crust on the outside and almost smoky flavor. These were perfect not too greasy and wells seasoned with fresh garlic.

Ba Ren 4957 Diane Ave San Diego, CA 92117