Yi Mei Chinese Pastries

736 S Atlantic Blvd
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 284-9306

Sometimes I’ll wake up with a craving for some good old fashioned Northern Chinese style breakfast—a steaming bowl of sweet soy milk (dou jian), freshly pressed onion chive pancake (tsong yo bing), and a crisply fried Chinese doughnut (yo tiao). In Shanghai, street vendors often sell fresh soy milk and onion pancakes to the rush hour crowd as they wearily trek to their nine to five’s each morning. As a student studying Mandarin in Shanghai, I became immediately addicted to the oily morsels of fried dough and sweet cups of soy milk, sold for a mere 10 cents each outside the subway station. For my roommate and I, these simple street snacks became our on-the-go breakfast; a quick morning fix, which allowed us to temporarily “blend in” with the other Chinese commuters during the 45 minute subway ride across town to our school.

With my fond memories of dou jian and tsong yo bing, I took it upon myself to find a place in the Los Angeles area which served these deliciously nostalgic breakfast items. After some quick preliminary research on Yelp, it became clear that I needed to try Yi Mei Chinese Pastries, located in Monterey Park (aka Asian foodie’s paradise). I had high hopes for this place, and became enamored with the idea that the moment I tasted the perfectly fried pancake and sweet soy milk, I would be overtaken with flashbacks of Shanghai’s busy streets, with its seemingly steroid induced skyscraper communities and bucolic peasant street vendors hawking everything from the latest American movie releases to exotic fruits and vegetables. Yes, I had high hopes.

Upon entering Yi Mei, I gave my order to Chinese woman who nonchalantly barked the request into a microphone, just like a fast food restaurant. The menu in Yi Mei was written completely in Chinese, but luckily I knew how to pronounce the items that I wanted to order (sadly, the extent of my Mandarin these days). I sat down at one of the scattered tables and in about 10 minutes a lovely Mexican lady brought out my breakfast. “Dou jian,” “fan tuan,,” “tsong yo bing,” she mutters. Absolutely fabulous! I love Los Angeles! Even my traditional Chinese breakfast is prepared by Mexican chefs.

The dou jian was just as I had hoped. Subtly sweet, with a hint of the bean texture so reminiscent of the milk sold outside the subway station in Shanghai. The tsong yo bing was lightly fried, but a little less doughy than my typical Shanghai pancake. The last dish was a Taiwanese item, called “fan tuan” and consisted of a layer of rice, packed with Chinese pickles, dried pork, and a crisp Chinese doughnut (yo tiao). This dish in particular ended up being the most surprisingly delicious, and conveyed the right balance of salty and oily flavors. The Chinese doughnut was fried to perfection and when bitten into, cracked with a savory crunch.

Much of my experience at Yi Mei reminded me of Shanghai--cleanliness included. Despite the hygiene issue, this hole-in-the wall produces one of the best and most authentic versions of a Northern Chinese breakfast I've yet encountered…well, at least this far East of Shanghai.

*Last two photos borrowed from Yelp