Attention all OC peeps, LBC dwellers, and residents of South Bay LA!  There’s no need to use up your precious gas for heading to Class 302’s original Rowland Heights base.  Two or so weeks (as of this day’s post) have now passed since the grand opening of their 3rd location in Cerritos, and schoolgirl-dressed servers are waiting for you to attend.  Funny thing is, if only I could find a more polite way to scold these working classmates that their papered “Soft Opening” signs were still exposed to the entrance.

Hidden at one of the myriad plazas on the South Street strip, they fortuitously marked their territory after the ephemeral establishment of what was called JP Bakery.  Parking here could cause some serious competition in snagging one, particularly due to a construction site–postulating that another mini-plaza would emerge.  In case you haven’t gone to the original, it is a cash-only Taiwanese eat and drink, where you can either choose to dine-in and be traditionally served, or order at the counter for picking up, say, boba drinks.  It gives reminiscence—possibly nostalgia—of an elementary classroom that my Taiwanese-born boyfriend could easily relive (which he did when we were at Rowland Heights).  Even their menu setups were shielded with the clear protectors latched on their folders with a transparent cover page.

However, as opposed to the years-long site, this Class 302 is drastically spacious inside.  Enhanced with newer desks as the eating tables, newer stools, and walls filled with a giant pre-dry erase board, giant stickers of science lab glassware, and other kid-friendly knick knacks, if you did happen to eat at either the SGV town or Irvine, I can imagine the inner kid becoming envious of enrolling to this class instead.

Speaking of enrollment, the “materials and tools” offered copiously are traditional Taiwanese lunchboxes such as Minced Pork over Rice, soup, noodles, dim sum (as what they call it) like Sweet Potato Fries, Fish Cakes, and Taiwanese Sausages.  As a precaution, though, willpower and courage from your olfactory system are required to enter in any of the 3 little institutions, since there is a likelihood of commonly served Stinky Tofu wafting through the “classroom.”  That would be a shame if this may be bothersome, unless another commonly concocted mound called Shaved Snow will change your mind.

This, my friends, is a customized Green Tea Shaved Snow, a ribbon-looking pile nicely drizzled with Condensed Milk.  Honey Boba was actually brought in a distinctly small, separate bowl, where I ecstatically hailed them over.  With the infamous paparazzi shot over I finally dug through this mountainous treat with its serving spoon in order to uncover the other “toppings” laid below:  Sweet (Real) Mango, Azuki Red Beans, and Fresh Taro.  All this priced at about $8.25, or opt for one of the 6 pre-designed shaved snows for $7.50.

My gal friend and I were hours prepared to demolish this snowy hill—yes, only us 2 in this roster—and had plenty of minutes to cover before our fitness class.  The moment I did shovel through, I could already sense the softness with just that simple touch, even before scooping this to both my own rice bowl and my friend’s.  Then chunks of it met my mouth, and the taste and texture of mesmerizing green tea and pillowy soft ice, melted with the creamily condensed milk, heightened further through my epicurean dreams.  My friend, meanwhile, seemed to be soporific against the real world while savoring it.  Moreover, the likewise baby softness and chewiness of the abovementioned accessory ingredients gave more nurturing into the sweet souls of us.  And yes: we made the A grade by finishing 99 percent of it.

If you thought that this was our only order, you certainly need to know us more.  I let my friend, who had Taiwanese food for the first time, pick the savory side of our lunch, which turned out to be Pork and Shrimp Dumplings (about $7).  From having almost half of these bites, if you happen to try the Korean version of these called Mandu, that’s what it reminded me of.  The dough was slick-textured but easy to hold onto with chopsticks, and the soy sauce went fine with the pretty darn good, grounded meats.

(Updated 4/24/2013) A week later another friend and I visited, then chatted away and solely indulged in one of those pre-designed offers called Summer Farm.  Though warm weather did not occur during our hours, that did not stop us from ravaging through the mellifluous pieces of strawberry, honeydew, and mango to bolster a creamier texture of Milk Snow and condensed milk, instead of the lighter and fluffier Green Tea Snow.  In the end it was the surely yet unexpectedly the more lavish cousin of my previous encounter, though my personal preference was inclined to last week’s visit.