Eats - Chinese - Chiu Chow

Cities covered: San Jose, Milpitas

Golden Island Chinese Cuisine
286 Barber Ct Milpitas, CA
408/383-9898
Rating: *
Chiu Chow cuisine is the big mystery of the moment when it comes to Chinese food, so I took a friend here for a late dinner. The room is basically unchanged from when it was a Taiwanese restaurant a few years back, pleasant and slightly fancy. I don't know if it's because my friend wasn't Asian, but the staff was surly. The food was interesting, but not particularly good. We had minced pork with spicy sauce, which also included dried shrimp and peanut-based sauce—easily the best dish of the night. The bacon with leeks and dried tofu turned out to be mostly tofu with chives and bacon, but was okay. The chicken steamed in lotus leaf, which sounded interesting, was just plain bad. True, the restaurant was about to close, so it may have been bad timing, but if this is the only place to get chiu chow, then forget it; I'll wait until I visit Hong Kong. 01/24/03