Mama's Lu Dumplings (That's NOT a Typo!)

We are always in search of new dumpling places. I stumbled across this place on yelp a while ago, but there weren't that many ratings at that time so I was not willing to take a risk on a potentially crappy restaurant. Since then, this place has amassed a good following for being good and cheap. I think when the place first opened up they had some crazy deal for the XLB, maybe buy one get one free or something? Triple T and RCM went and they weren't that impressed, but Dumpling Man and I decided to give it a try.

The place is pretty typical of a fobby restaurant, shoddy service and dingy conditions, but tastey and cheap food. All the portions were pretty great! Plenty of leftovers to take home. We coulda gone with 3 dishes instead of 4 and been completely satisfied, but we over did it.

The shanghai rice cakes were my kinda rice cakes. They were disappointingly pale, but had great flavor mostly because of the fabulous "wok hei" taste. Dumpling Man very much dislikes anything that has that "wok hei" taste. Sometimes I wonder if Dumpling Man really is Chinese at all. Aside from the taste, it had a nice plentitude of veggies, mmmmmm!


I dunno why we ordered this. I like this dish at Dumpling 10053, but I agree it is quite heavy and too much for only 2 people to eat. This dish was certainly subpar, and a waste of space. First you gotta start out with a great onion pancake which this certainly was not. It was just greasy and soft. We had a lot leftover of this one.


I love snow pea leaves stir fried with garlic. I mean LOVE LOVE LOVE. Once upon a time I tried buying and making it myself. I learned that the quality of snow pea leaves sold in the market is not the same sold in the restaurants, which makes sense since whenever you order this in the restaurant its freaking in the double digit range! Who charges double digits for a mound of greens??? Sometimes it can be more expensive than the protein! Anyways, its usually worth it because the vegetables are so tender and really pick up flavoring nicely without becoming mush piles. Anyways, when I tried making it at home I realized that you end up throwing a lot of it away because part of the snow pea leaf is very tough and should not be cooked. It was a tiring effort that I decided not to undertake ever again. This dish at Mama's Lu was maybe about $6-$7? I was shocked, but I could tell there was a difference in the quality. It wasn't as tender as the kind sold for like $14-$16, but I really enjoyed it anyways. You just can't get snow pea leaves outside of a Chinese restaurant.



I forget what was in these dumplings. They weren't that special. I'll give anything to know what Luscious Dumplings puts in their dumplings cuz no other place compares. Most places serve dumplings that you probably coule make at home. Dumpling Man is not impressed with home made tasting dumplings. Unlike most people, he does not want to feel like his grandma made the dumplings.



Lastly, the XLB! These were pretty tastey in a homey way. Nothing like the DTF xiao long bao, but flavorful without tasting like there's MSG in them like the XLB @ Mei Long Village. They had a good amount of soup in them and decent crabbiness. Skin was a bit thick, but I sorta prefer my dumplings that way. Not the most impressive XLB, but certainly meets my minimal standards and certainly worth eating since its so darn cheap.


All in all, I would certainly come back here. I dunno if I can convince Dumpling Man to come back though! I think the total bill came out to $25 including tip ?? Pretty good if you ask me!


Mama's Lu Dumplings
153 E Garvey Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91755
(626) 307-5700




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Eating My Way Through Memorial Day Weekend

The H.o.P. strikes again! We did what we do best, EAT! Here's the quick rundown:

Holiday weekend plans in my house always seem to revolve around food, especially when my sister is running the show =)

On the way to running some errands, we stopped by a papuseria, or maybe it was just an El Salvadorian restaurant in Costa Mesa or Newport Beach that served papusas. First time I've eaten a papusa, but according to wikipedia:

"A papusa is a traditional Salvadoran dish made of thick, hand-made corn tortilla (made using masa de maíz, a maize flour dough used in Latin American cuisine) that is filled with a blend of the following: cheese (queso) (usually a soft cheese called Quesillo found in all Central America), cooked pork meat ground to a paste consistency (called chicharrón, not to be confused with fried pork rind which is also known as chicharrón in some other countries), squash (ayote), or (pataste), refried beans (frijoles refritos), or queso con loroco (loroco is a vine flower bud from Central America)."

It was definitely not a light eat, but it was served with slightly pickled cabbage slaw that really took the edge off the heaviness. We got 3 varieties, queso, chicharron, and shrimp. The shrimps were so punny, you could barely taste them. Really, they all sorta tasted similar. Not something I'd seek out but interesting to try for the first time.




We headed over to Mitsuwa for their 2010 Umaimono Gourment Food Fair. Apparently Ippudo Ramen were one of the many vendors in attendance. New Yorkers stand in line for hours to have a bowl of this famous ramen. Why it is so famous? I don't really know. What was so special about it? I don't really know. Was it really as good as the hype? Certainly not! It was tasty I suppose, but I like my Santouka ramen easily over this bowl. Especially since I don't have to stand in a huge line, not just waiting to get a bit to eat, but also to find a place to sit! Man was Mitsuwa teaming with foodies. People were stalking near empty tables in hopes of snagging some food court real estate. I think my brother actually got in a little confrontation with some lady who came out of nowhere and took the table he'd been waiting for.




Anyways, on to the food. The ramen was definitely flavorful having that richness from stewing pork bones for hours, but nothing out of this world. Maybe New Yorkers have lower standards when it comes to ramen? I don't think they have Shinsengumi or Santouka out there. Maybe if they did, Ippudo wouldn't be all that.




The fair also had various sorts of fish and squid cakes, as patties and on sticks. I don't know why, but I love all sorts of mystery meat concoctions. Fish balls, shrimp balls, sausage, hot dogs, meatballs. You make it, I'll eat it! I won't say that all the fish and/or squid cakes were that good, but I happily devoured them.





My brother and Triple T had already tried the takoyaki balls at another Mitsuwa and said they weren't that good. Despite that, the H.o.P. had to try it.


These guys were so cute, posing in the picture, when really all I wanted was pics of them making the takoyaki. Poor guy got his head cut off =(


I guess a major complaint was that the balls are just mush pills slathered in sauce. I would agree. The chunk of octopus in the middle was mostly flavorless, but at least it wasn't chewy. This was my first time having takoyaki that I could remember so I guess I don't have a basis for comparison. I would still be up to trying takoyaki in the future.

So after we were stuffed silly we proceeded to do some light shopping in the Mitsuwa market and found some interesting creations.

Who would eat that?!?! A croquette is already fried, and now you go wrap it in bread and slather it in mayo?? Not as bad as a deep fried Twinkie but I think it belongs in that food category of totally unhealthy and unnecessary!


To continue our Japanese food festival, we went to this place in Costa Mesa called Kappo Sui. My brother heard of it from his very Japanese friend. This place is so Japanese that they have an English menu and a Japanese menu with entirely different items. We tried to order a bit of everything from both menus. I apologize at my poor descriptions because I don't even know what I was eating half the time. The waitress would try to translate items off the Japanese menu and as long as the main ingredient didn't sound like something awful or weird we were willing to try it.

We started off with a refreshing octopus salad. It was probably one of my favorite dishes of the night being citrusy with tasty pieces of octopus.



Of course we had to get aegdashi tofu. I guess there was something different with this one cuz there was all this extra junk on top. I'm not quite sure what all that white mush was but it was sorta slimey like maybe they took a grated daikon and added something to it to make it so slippery. It was a good aegadashi tofu but not the best. The best aegedashi has this gelatinous batter on the outside. So strange but soo good.


The sushi was pretty standard. Good quality. Can't remember much more than that. I don't think the place is necessarily special for sushi as it is for all the small dishes.




A delicious croquette!


Miso cod.


Amberjack. Fishier than I would have preferred, but with a nice grilled smokey taste.


Chawanmushi. Did I spell that right? An egg tofu custard. Freaking HOT as hell, kept burning my lips and mouth trying to get some. It had this wonderfully silky smooth quality about it. Also a flavorful dashi broth surrounding it.



This was a surprising favorite. Amberjack cheek, which I had never had before. I'm not sure what the pickled thing on top was, but it had a refreshing citrusy taste, that complemented the taste of the raw fish very well.


We weren't sure what sort of noodles were. It sounded something like Inanie? Inaninani? It was served ice cold with a dipping sauce on the side. Sorta like how soba is served, but the side sauce was different and the texture of these noodles was much more on the al dente side. We also ordered these noodle hot like udon. It was also very enjoyable and so clean tasting.



This was probably one of the more expensive dishes of the night. Grilled prawns. Oddly enough the tastiest part was the head, which I usually avoid. Sucking brains out of poor sea animals is not so enjoyable to me. In fact most of the time its the nastiest tasting part, but for some reason, these suckers had good brains, hahaha. The body of the shrimp was overcooked and mushy, what a shame! I wanna say 2 shrimps costs $18? I could only guess at what the japanese menu was advertising.



All in all, I felt like I was a real Japanese person after eating here! It also helped being surrounded by buncha Japanese Japanese people, haha. Oddly though the crowd was either Japanese Japanese or totally American, ordering chicken teriyaki and sushi. It would be nicer if the restaurant made the place more welcoming to foreigners instead of having a totally non English menu that hides away all the good more authentic things. I'd definitely come back again, maybe with a Japanese speaking person in tow to avoid the whole awkwardness.


Kappo Sui
20070 Santa Ana Ave.
Costa Mesa, CA 92707
(714) 429-0141






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JiRaffe

So to celebrate my birthday which was well-forgotten by the majority of my family, especially my mom who didn't even remember to call me the day after like my brother and sister-in-law, but like a whopping 2 or 3 weeks later! Safe to say I was annoyed and unreceptive to her apologies. Anyways, my brother wanted to take me out, but I had to share my celebration with Mother's Day. Boohoo I said, but I did want to try out a restaurant off my "to-try list" which includes Osteria Mozza, Hatfields, The Bazaar, Melisse, and Jiraffe. My brother had already tried Melisse and was not that impressed and Osteria and Bazaar were booked, so Jiraffe it was.



The restaurant is located in Santa Monica, very close to 3rd street. It's two stories which is interesting with a very relaxed decor. It doesn't have that poshy weho or BH air, but still feels clean and nice. The menu was pretty straight forward, no tasting menus which disappointed me. I love tasting menus so I can get a variety of dishes to try from. They did have a pre-fixe menu which didn't appear all that exciting.

Amuse bouche - some chilled bell pepper soup
It tasted like bell peppers but not in an enhancing way. It did not excite my mouth.


For my starter...
Sautéed Wild Pacific Shrimp - baby arugula, white beans, shaved fennel, and lemon vinaigrette


I apologize for the blurry pic, but I was still trying to fiddle with the camera...unsuccessfully obviously =( Anyways, this was probably the most delicious dish of the night. I am a HUGE fan of shrimp and these shrimp were PERFECTLY cooked, sweet, and tender. The little salad of arugula, white beans, and shaved fennel was a great accompaniment. The sweet savoriness of the shrimp was well complimented by the tang and crunch of the salad.


Unfortunately I cannot remember what this dish was =( It was given to us by mistake tho, and the waiter kindly let us have the dish on the house while we waited for the dish we actually ordered. I remember that white blob in the middle was burrata and it had such a smooth delicious creaminess which I've come to enjoy in this cheese now.




Purple Peruvian Gnocchi with rock shrimp, pearl onions, Mandarin tomato concassé, and herb-infused tomato nage

This what we actually ordered and it was soo good! The gnocchi were pillowy and soft and the cream sauce was not super heavy and the shrimp, well you know me and shrimp! All in all, light, creamy, flavorful!




On to the main courses!
Prime Caramelized Pork Chop served with long grain wild rice, smoked bacon, spiced apple chutney, and aged cider sauce





This This was definitely a reinvention of a classic american dish...i think. What do I know of classic american fare? Not like I ate that growing up! But I here about pork chops and apple sauce or apple something and I imagine this was supposed to be a take on that. The pork chops were so tender and juicy. I was not a fan of the wild rice as it usually is all hard and "full of texture." I like my rice white and texturely homongenous. Overall, a solid entree.


New Zealand Lamb Rack served with yellowfin potato samosas, vegetable moussaka, and thyme-scented lamb jus

Some people don't like lamb because of its gamey-ness, that particular "lamb" smell. I like that lamb taste. Lamb is also something special since I don't cook it at all because of its priceyness over beef, chicken, and pork and because I'm not too familiar on how to prepare it. So when I get the opportunity to go out, I'll usually order lamb over the more mundane beef and certainly over chicken. As you can see, the lamb was cooked perfectly medium rare and didn't have too much fat on it. The side dishes had much to be desired. The vegetable moussaka was made of eggplants and squashes I think. It wasn't that good. And the potato samosa was like mashed potatoes rolled like egg rolls. They were a better accompaniment, but not all that impressive.

Some halibut dish? Part of the special pre fixe menu for that evening. It was very moist, maybe too moist. I think it was undercooked in the center and my mom requested it be sent back to finish cooking. They graciously took it back, no questions ask. I forget if they gave us something on the house for such an egregious error.


We definitely went overboard with the dessert. Triple T (Terror from Toronto & Taiwan) and my mom ordered the pre fixe menu which came with a pretty simple but solid rasberry tart. I wanted something more decadent of course.


So I ordered Brioche Bread Pudding with chocolate chips, cranberries and homemade white chocolate ice cream. It wasn't that impressive and frankly not that memorable.


Dumpling Man did not want bread pudding, so being the Dumpling Man he had to order some version of a molten lava cake. Behold! Chocolate Truffle Cake with tahitian vanilla bean ice cream and chocolate, raspberry sauce. Tasted pretty standard, and not that memorable.



Triple T and RCM (Root Canal Man) had to have the Duo of Crème Brulee tahitian vanilla and manjari chocolate served with fresh baked cookies of the day. It wasn't the best creme brulee in my opinion. Not smooth enough, but it did have the perfect brulee, crispy and caramelized.



So although my reviews on the dessert seemed lackluster, I found the desserts pretty standard, neither bad nor out of this world but definitely a good way to end dinner.


As you can see the portions at JiRaffe are sizable, the quality is seasonable and fresh, and the taste is solid. I highly recommend this place for a nice occasion, especially if you hate small portions and feeling like you need to hit up the Kogi Taco Truck after dinner to fill up your still empty stomaches.

JiRaffe

502 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401
http://www.jirafferestaurant.com/





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Messob

Long ago, someone amongst my foodie friends decided "Let's eat Ethiopian food!" The excitement soon simmered into a hot mess of complaints and excuses ranging from "That lemony bread is kinda weird" to "I don't feel like having GERD tonight" to "I don't like eating with my hands" to "I want something soupy instead" to "Let's wait until [insert any friends name who happens to be busy or out of town] comes back." But FINALLY we went! At the recommendation of an Ethiopian friend, we traveled a whole 5 minutes over to Fairfax where Little Ethiopia makes its home to try a place called Messob. Now, I find myself quite conversant in the cultural diversity of food, but when it came to ordering off Messob's menu I was like "jigga wat?!" Luckily the waiter recommended The Super Messob Exclusive which included:
-Doro Wot
-Siga Wot
-Yebeg Siga Alitcha
-Yater Alitcha
-Kitffo
-Tibs
-Yatakilt Alitcha
-Alitcha
-Yemisir Wot
-Collard Greens

Don't ask me what any of that means. I cut and pasted it from the website menu! We also ordered another meat dish on top of all that for fear our tummies would revolt in dissatisfactory hunger.

For 4 adults with large appetites, this was plenty.



I don't know which mush pile was which dish, but they all sorta blended together with no dish really standing apart as far as flavor profiles were concerned. I was glad there was some salad on that plate as it served as a good palate cleanser for all the spicier foods.



BEHOLD! Sour bread!!!!


It wasn't as sour as I had anticipated. It went well with the food, and I think it served as a main ingredient in some of the dishes in the combo plate. The downside was the gritty sandy texture left on our hands after touching the bread. I was working really hard to avoid touching any of the food so my hands would stay as clean as possible, but alas, the bread won me a trip to el bano to wash my hands.

I enjoyed my first Ethiopian food experience. I think the other members of my party were also satisfied but we all agreed that Ethiopian would not be a food we would likely crave anytime soon. None of us can really explain why, as the food was delicious!


Messob
1041 S Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90019
(323) 938-8827
http://www.messob.com/




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Best Homemade Sandwich

I'm pretty hard on myself when it comes to my own cooking. I think I compare too much to how food tastes in restaurants, and thats probably an unfair comparison since I ain't no formerly trained chef and I haven't spent years training and focusing on to merry wonderful ingredients with wonderful tastes. Anyways, for this entry I'm going to toot my own horn like no other. This is probably one of my more solid creations. NO recipes, nothing. Just straight from my good ole noggin. BEHOLD! I shall call it "Honey Mustard Maple Turkey Sandwich." Boring name, but really quite a party in your mouth =).

Here are the ingredients. I highly discourage substitutions, for it is these very ingredients that make the sandwich a solid eat. So most of these things you will get from Trader Joes.

-Par Baked Panini Rustic Rolls
-Columbus Maple Turkey Breast
-Deli Thin Sliced Jarlsberg cheese
-Honey Dijon Mustard
-Romaine lettuce leaves
-Tomatoes
-Sauteed crimini mushrooms with caramelized onions



The key ingredient is the honey dijon mustard and the sauteed mushrooms with caramelized onions. A high onion to mushroom ratio works well, so that you can really get tastiness of the the caramelized onions into the sandwich. I'll admit its not truly caramelized since I don't have the patience to sit there and cook the onions over low heat for forever. I just get some nice color into the onions. Below is a higher mushroom to onion ratio then I would like, but still comes out tasty. Season with some salt and pepper and let the mushrooms and onions do the rest of the talking.





Assembly:
Panini roll cut in half, lightly toasted with melted Jarlsberg cheese
Generous squeeze of honey dijon mustard
2-2.5 slices of maple turkey
Sauteed onions/mushrooms
Tomatoes and then chopped lettuce

Served with a side of pasta salad!




I'll have to admit that the sandwich gets very messy. Half the stuff falls out and I've never been able to or motivated to figure out a different assembly order to prevent this. Melting the cheese into the mushrooms would work but require too much effort. Maybe I just overfill the darn things. In any case, you do get something delicious that will surely get all over the place. Dumpling Man gives his seal of approval for this one!

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Vietnamese Cucumber & Carrot Salad (Gio Dua Leo Ca Rot)

5 medium cucumbers

1 large carrot

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

3/4 lemon juice

1/2 shallot

1/2 lb pork loin (any lean cut)

10 medium shrimp (peeled, deveined)

1.  Prepare cucumbers by slicing off ends and halving

2.  Using a potato peeler, at the edge of the cucumber, shred into fine thin slices.  Do not use a cheese grater as it will result in mushy vegetables.

3.  Repeat the same with the carrot and mix with shredded cucumbers

4.  Add 1 tsp salt and toss thoroughly

5.  Allow salad to sit for 5 minutes and then squeeze out excess water from vegetables

6.  Add sugar and lemon juice and mix well

7.  Boil small pot of water and cook pork until well done.  Cool and slice into small pieces.

8.  Boil small pot of water and cook shrimp until well done.  Cool and slice into halves.

9.  In small sauce pan, heat up some oil and stir fry shallots until golden, then add shrimp and pork.  Season to taste.

10.  After cooled, add meat/shrimp to salad and toss well.

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Grace

so after a long hiatus, i have returned! i can't say i'll be back in full force, since foodblogging is almost like a fulltime job and i already have a full time job! i'll do my best =)

what's new in my life? a new camera! the canon s90. yes, i know you are allllllll sooooooo jealous. i'm still trying to learn how to use it. with this first attempt, i don't think i did the best job since the pics are still grainy for some reason. but no worries, i am determined to get the most out of this camera.

Dumpling Man gave me this camera on my birthday as a belated christmas present. a gift is a gift, even if it comes late, right? So we went to Grace to celebrate. I heard so many good things about this place from my friends who went during Dine LA week. I was really looking forward to the famous donuts.

The ambiance: A
The place was clean, modern, but not stuffy. It reminded me of Providence but more open and lit. The place was pretty empty for our 7:15 reservations. We eyed a young Asian couple at the upper right and guessed if they were real foodies or not. At the end, we decided they were just cuz they were Asian. I've been told lately that a lot of yelpers and food bloggers tend to be Asian. Anyone care to refute this??




Right now, they have this "7 Year Itch Menu." 3 courses for $47, 5 for $57, and 7 for $97. I made the typical piggly wiggly move and went for the 5 course tasting menu. Maybe if I didn't have to go to work the next day and round on 20 patients by myself I would opted for the 7 course menu or even a wine pairing. Anyways, I started off with the Dungeness Crab Salad with english peas, mint, and meyer lemon vinagrette.

It was certainly refreshing, but I couldn't help but feel like the crab tasted "water logged." Not mushy, just like too much water, not enough crabbiness. Still good overall.


The next appetizer was Tuna with a Spanish Touch served with olive oil, smoked paprika, lemon, crispy castelvetrano olive. I actually wasn't a fun of the "Spanish Touch" with the very strong olive oil and crispy olive. Olives aren't my favorite thing. The tuna also tasted sorta tasteless. I liked the crab dish better.




The first entree was the Bacon Wrapped Saddle of Rabbit served with anson mills polenta, asparagus, and thyme infused game stock. I probably liked this dish the least, probably because I wasn't really sure what I was eating. I was expecting rabbit but it tasted more like sausage and bacon. The polenta was creamy and delcious of course.


The Braised Short Rib and New Zealand Langostine served with parsnips, cremini mushrooms, and veal jus. This langostine would NEVER fly on Top Chef. It was totally mushy and texture less. I dunno if that means it was overcooked or just not good to start with. The short rib was nicely prepared and delicious as are most short ribs. Tender, saucey, juicey. I was liking up the sauce and the mushrooms. This dish could have used a nice glass of red wine to accompany it. Alas, no wine for this birthday girl.



Dumpling Man opted for only 3 courses. Here is his second course, Grilled Tenderloin of Wild Boar served with yukon gold potato spaetzle, brussel sprouts, and violet mustard sauce. His dish was very interesting because neither of us had boar before and it was actually quite tastey and not too gamey. Dumpling Man had never had spaetzle before and very much enjoyed it. I also like the sauce.



And for the finale! DONUTS!!! Salted Caramel Donuts with bourbon caramel pecan ice cream.








Too bad I didn't get any pictures =( I had just totally forgotten about taking pics and when I saw the delicious donuts I just dug right in. They tasted quite light and chewy in a good way. They didn't taste that much like donuts, so I really think its shape is what makes it a donut. The ice cream was truly rich and flavorful with pecans. Overall this dish was definitely a winner and topped off a good dinner.


Grace Restaurant

7360 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Neighborhoods: Mid-City West, West Hollywood

(323) 934-4400

www.gracerestaurant.com

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