Kung Fu Express In San Jose

Update (5/3/09): I take back everything I said below.

Thanks to Chowhound, I found this great Taiwanese place in San Jose. This Chinese blog has a nice little write up along with pictures. Here's the run-down.

First, it's impossible to find. My navigation system was actually smoking, trying to give me directions to this place. It's in the same shopping center along Saratoga as Carl's Jr./Green Burrito and Walgreen's. The place actually faces Payne and is next to a Japanese place, an Ethiopian place, and a place that sells filtered water(?!).

As a side note, it is closed on weekdays between 3 to 5 p.m. My waiter said this is because it is so slow then and they want to cut down on overhead.

The food is authentic and cheap. I ordered pai gu fang (pork chop rice). The pork chop was pretty big but was not the finest quality meat. But the seasoning and preparation were excellent. It was oddly served on a fish shaped plate (with fins) with some of the best steamed rice I've had in years, half a lou dang (soy egg), pickled vegetables (pao tsai), and garnished with a couple slices of bright yellow pickled radish. Oh, and there was a sprinkling of rou song (meat floss) too.

Knowing that I won't be here again for a while, I also got an oyster omelet. I learned today that the dish was invented in the 1600s. When the Taiwanese rebeled against their Dutch colonizers, the Dutch locked down the towns and hoarded all the food. The locals only had oysters and potato meal and came up with the original oyster omelet. (The sauce and eggs came later.) Kung Fu's version was nice. The oysters were fresh. The overall consistency was a perfect balance of gooey and firm. The sauce was not too rich, which is how I like it.

I needed to wash down everything with some gong wan soup. But I was almost full. So the waiter served me the soup in a smaller bowl than normal. It had four perfect gong wans in a mild broth. All in all, a great meal.

This place is under new management. Some of the reviews on Yelp are, in my opinion, unfair. These people are slowly but surely going to make this a great place for authentic Taiwanese fare. Let's support them.

Partial wall menu

CKY