Dumpling Noodle House, the Korean joint next to Thai Spice at The Irvine Marketplace, has closed. Class 302 is poised to take over the space in what will be its second location in Irvine.
The shaved snow and Taiwanese comfort food specialist which themes its dining room, tables, and serving vessels to something out of a grade school classroom began in Rowland Heights. It has subsequently expanded to a store in Irvine and then Cerritos. Menu items are scribbled with chalk on wall-length blackboards. The tables are repurposed school desks. And the food, such as pork chop rice, is packed into metal lunch tins.
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Shaved snow, for those unfamiliar, isn't shaved ice; it's long, ribbon-like sheets shaved from a block of flavored frozen milk. The texture is fluffy, airy and absent ice's granular crunch. This becomes the base for toppings of sugary beans, peanuts, fudge or fruit. There are numerous purveyors of the frozen treat in Irvine, not to mention Taiwanese food in general, even before the first Class 302 opened.
To read my earlier review of Class 302, CLICK HERE.
More news on this as it comes.
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.