Jiajia

Episode 1 – hunting regional rice noodles in South bay, California. I talk about my honest take, my food cravings, and why I’ve been MIA for over a year. None of this was written with AI.

The elusive rice noodle appears!

I came to Chang Sha Mi Fen three and a half days after I got fired. This day was also almost one year and a half since I created this site and posted my first blog post. As you can see, I have not posted for a very long time. Back then, the intentions were very simple. I wanted a creative outlet to write and share about my interests. I was also very set on long-format writing and video making because I felt like that was the only way to fight against the loss of attention by the masses for which we all owe our privilege to social media companies and short format videos.

As with anything, it was much easier to aspire about my aspirations than to consistently pursue my aspirations through effort and action. Buying shit doesn’t count, okay.

So why did it take so long fro me to come back? I’ll admit, I got distracted. I oscillated between taking a break with full time traveling, to full time job searching as I was traveling, to working part time, then to full time digging myself into nowhere and anywhere by working a full time job. Hey, life is full of surprises and I’m full of mixed desires and emotions. Neither does life go the way I always want. So, here we are, at Chang Sha Mi Fen almost 2 years later after I went on a much anticipated sabbatical. In this moment, I’ve got my Go Pro, my Rode microphone, my Iphone 16 Pro Max that I’ve dropped 20 times with a permanent but growing black hole on its screen, and again the sense of “Yes, rice noodles,” and “Fuck, my life is a shitshow!”

Now, behold! The real star of the show.

Chang Sha, is actually a capital city in the province of Hunan, China. And the city’s name is also part of the restaurant’s name, but you’d only know this if you could read Chinese. Well, that’s because the english name is “Jade Garden,” and that’s nowhere close in translation to the name of the restaurant name in Chinese which is, “Chang Sha Rice Noodle.” If you’re a restaurant called “Jade Garden” I expect to see wontons on the menu, roast duck, dim sum, etc. Or, a plethora of random americanized chinese food, maybe you even have a sichuan flair and have some sad sad looking mapo tofu. I’m highlighting stereotypes so take what I say with a grain of salt. This is just my honest take.

Ironically, this restaurant actually has some very delicious tasting roast duck, which for the record, Hunan is not famous for but is instead famous for a flattened braised spicy duck.

You’re probably more familiar seeing the words “Hunan Restaurant” or “Hunan food” in America. And honestly, you’ve probably not really ever had authentic Hunan cuisine. Same here. Hunan and Chang Sha is famous for having a very spicy pallette. The province is known for using fermented chillis to bring out the flavour of their dishes, including an iconic 剁椒鱼头, Duo Jiao Yu Tou. Direct translation goes something like “diced spicy pepper fish head.” Chang Sha, the city, is famous for a type of spicy braised duck, a stinky tofu varietal in the shade of black which is a result of fermentation from herbs and mushrooms, and small stir fried dishes known as Xiang Cai where the fermented chillies are paired with fresh green and red chillies.

Last December, my husband and I actually traveled to Chang Sha to meet up with my cousin and neice where we had the opportunity to try a bunch of the foods I listed above. I can tell you that people in Hunan liberally use chillis. It’s similar to digging for food morsels underneath a mound of chillis – similar to finding a good job in the current job market.

For reasons that were obvious to me at the time, I did not priorize eating rice noodles in Chang Sha because I believed Chang Sha to be more famous for other foods which were even harder to find in the Bay area. Another factor only obvious to me and if you’re Chinese is that I’m originally from Guizhou, China, and the rice nooldes in our province are possibly even more famous to Hunan. This is a long winded way of saying chowing down a bowl of rice noodles wasn’t even on my mind when I was Hunan.

So, how was the bowl of rice noodles I had at Chang Sha Rice Noodle? I would say it was fair, but not memorable. Would I go back, 100% yes, but not for the rice noodles. I’d go for the stir fried cauliflower which did for a moment transport me back to Chang Sha, the black stinky tofu which hit the spot, and dare I admit, the roast duck (!!).

Why did I only rate it fair? Because I don’t think it’s good and it’s not bad either. Think of rice noodles like pasta. Theres the meat sauce, the herbs, and the rice. Different rice noodles have different textures depending on the region and its method of creation. The noodle is really meant to be a vehicle for things like vegetables, meat, oil, and sauce. Hunan has bold and strong flavours and I really felt this bowl of noodles needed something to tie it all together. I respected the nod.

Let me know if you know a good spot in the Bay Area for authentic regional rice noodles or if you’ve been to Hunan and would love to share your experiences.