It's all in the rice soup. (Golden Bird)

UPDATE

This restaurant is CLOSED. Post will remain for nostalgic purposes.

Restaurant: Golden Bird

Cuisine: Chinese

I think the first time I ever had a sizzling rice soup was at the Panda Inn in Pasadena, CA. Just the name itself arouses some type of curiosity. A soup made of sizzling rice? Not quite, but not far off the mark either.

This type of soup is hard to find in Albuquerque. I only came across it at one other location, but that place closed down before I had a chance to get over there and try it out. Oh well.

Golden Bird's rice soup is spot on and very similar to what I've had in the past, which is a good thing. Savory chicken stock loaded with vegetables and tender white meat chicken. There is also a seafood version of this soup available. The best part (other than the broth) is the sizzling rice itself. The rice is deep fried until golden crisp, and then dropped as soon as possible into the boiling hot soup, creating a sizzling affect. This is all done table side, so you get to see the action with your own eyes. 

This soup is perfect if you're feeling under the weather, or when it's cold out. Heck, it's even wonderful on a hot summer day. The bowl itself is big enough to split between two people, with each person able to have seconds.

Golden Bird also carries another one of my favorite hard to find dishes, which is chicken with black bean sauce. Black bean sauce is very salty by itself, but in the hands of a capable chef, it is balanced out quite well. The chef at Golden Bird serves it the way I always remember having it, with plenty of bell peppers and onions and not too salty. Absolutely delicious!

The picture below was a special order of a black bean chicken lunch special, which is not on the regular lunch menu. 

Another item on the lunch menu I like is lemon grass chicken. This dish is not over powered by the lemon grass, so it is not "lemony" or "sour" the way a lemon grass dish at a Thai restaurant usually is. It's actually a little on the sweet side, and light.

I should probably mention that the lunch specials are available all day long, but after 3 pm, each lunch dish is $1.00 extra.