Niwattori

What is Niwatori?  Smooth Obturator called it a "chicken place," so that probably explains why I never jumped at the chance to eat here.  Chicken is definitely not something I get excited for.  I rarely order chicken when I dine at fancy restaurants, because I feel like chicken is just so ordinary.  I woudln't want to eat anything at a restaurant that I could eat at home.

DonBon was in town for some business so he called up his cousins, myself and Smooth Obturator to see if we were free for dinner.  I figured if I was going to drive an hour to get to the South Bay that we might as well eat around there too.  Finally, I relented and agreed to go to the "chicken place" since my brother said it was quite special.  They're specialty is Jidori chicken, which to this day I'm still not quite sure what that means.

Asazuke lightly pickled vegetables
After making all our selections, we noticed a dearth of greenery.  I just love pickled vegetables.  I can eat them plain, but of course they taste best eaten with rice and meat.  Yum!  These were more on the salty pickled side (as opposed to sour or sweet) but had some bite to it with thin slivers of ginger that were pickled too.

Cold Chawanmushi chilled egg custard, shrimp, crab meat
I was quite impressed with this, mostly because it was pretty chilly!  But it was very smooth with decent sized chunks of fresh sweet shrimp and crab.  I really liked the jelly stuff on top which was probably some congealed broth or sauce of sorts.  It added a bit of sweet soy taste.

Read more »

WP24

You know that saying, "It's all about who you know"?  It's not just a statement for the job seekers, business whores, and budding actors/musicians/artists of this world.  For the last few years, I have been to some nice restaurants for FREE because I roll with King Arthur and his entourage.  It's a difficult status to attain, but I have managed to maintain a firm position within this "inner circle" of eaters and intellects (my euphemisms for gluttons and nerds).  Being an outsider, I feel that one has to prove one's worth to join The King's possy.  Of course, you better like to eat, and you better be damn amusing.  The King does not employ any jesters in his court for this very reason!

This was probably my last gratis dinner with The King and his crew, Teety, Soprano Man, and Chops (previously known as Ms. Chatty Cathy).  The Pouter had more important people to dine with that evening (who could be more important than The King?), and The Attending, let's just say we've gone our separate ways.  One for good and the other for evil.  Haha...jk?

Santa Barbara Spot Prawn Toast sweet ginger chili sauce
Compliments of the chef, this was the first of 2 amuse bouche to kick start the evening.  We were all sooo hungry by this point.  Shrimp and crispy!

Curried Seafood Turnover
These were sorta like seafood empanadas.  I didn't think they were as tasty as the shrimp toasts.  

Read more »

Feng Mao Mutton Kebab

Who knew there were Chinese people in Ktown?!  I surely did not, but slowly I have come across a few native Koreans who grew up in China or vice versa.  I've had my fare share of Chinese-Korean food, mostly in the form of jja jiang myun at Dragon Restaurant.  For some reason, another popular Chinese-Korean dish is sweet and sour pork.  I can't really understand why, since it tastes like Americanized Chinese food.  Anyways, I digress, since I'm here to talk about a whole different food experience when it comes to the genre of Chinese-Korean cuisine, namely mutton!

Mutton?  No, that's not dog meat, but rather sheep.  Apparently lamb is meat of a sheep in its first year, while mutton is adult sheep.  At Feng Mao, they specialize in grilled meat skewers, varying from mutton, of course, to chicken, beef, and all sorts of offal.

Ban Chan
What Korean meal would be complete without some side dishes?  The offering wasn't very extensive here and I was really craving something to vary up the taste of grilled meats in my mouth.

Gye Gran Jjim egg custard soup
Pretty standard.

Gun Bae or Gan Bay?  Who cares?  Drink up!

Skewered Meat mutton, chicken, beef, kidney, heart
Some reviews recommended 10 skewers per person.  Sounds like a lot right?  I can't remember how many I ate, but it's like eating popcorn, you just pop 'em in your mouth and before you know they're all gone!  I don't think I ate quite as many as 10, but I'm damn sure The Bottomless Pit had his fair share.

Read more »

The Mission

For our last meal in San Diego, we decided to brunch it up at The Mission.  What's up with brunch places always having some crazy wait?  Why does everyone love brunch soooooo darn much?!  It's just breakfast, but at lunch time.  For some crazy reason, people get way too excited about eggs and pancakes at noontime.  I like brunch, but I don't love it.

CMac Attack kicked off the meal by ordering a caramel machiatto or latte.  The nice waiter brought her a freshly made hot drink, with a smiley face made in the foam.  CMac Attack kindly conveyed her disappointment in the error since she wanted a cold drink.  The waiter surprisingly brought her another drink, cold, but with a sad face this time.  Haha!

House Quesadilla Grilled chicken, cheese, tomatoes, cilantro, salsa cruda, green onions and sour cream served with Mission black beans 
CMac Attack did what she did best, attack!!!!  Haha, jk.  I think she enjoyed this dish.

Read more »

Extraordinary Desserts

No trip to San Diego is complete without a visit to Extraordinary Desserts, especially if you've never been before.  It is the "go-to" spot for some of the prettiest cakes and desserts.  After many years since opening this 2nd location near Downtown San Diego, the place still has a busy line out the door with a long wait on the weekends.  I will admit that I'm not a huge fan of cakes in general, but this is a fun place to take friends here for their first time experience.  You can't deny the awe-inspiring effect a large display of cakes and desserts has on people as they walk through the door.

Read more »

Bencotto

Since we were staying in the Gaslamp district of Downtown San Diego, we decided to check out Little Italy, which was fairly close by.  Who doesn't like pasta?!

Fiori di Zucca Ripieni lightly fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with ricotta and smoked mozarella
I've never actually tried zucchini blossoms before, but who knew a flower could be so tasty?  I guess anything that's fried and breaded will be delicious, but the creamy mixture of cheeses used to stuff this little guys made for a winning combination.  The side servings of sun dried tomatoes added great contrast of flavor.

Burrata burrata cheese, shaved fennel and celery salad in lemon vinaigrette
The other members of the party didn't seem too enthusiastic with this choice of appetizer (no chimes of agreement or "ooo that looks goood"), but since our first choice (fried saffron risotto balls) were out, I quickly threw this one in as the replacement.  After everyone had their first tastes, the praises came raining down.  I suspect some did not know what burrata was or that fennel could be so crunchy and refreshing? 

Read more »

Lucha Libre

A few weeks ago, the high school crew (+ The Toothbrush Sharer) and I celebrated Dubabo's birthday in sunny San Diego.  Much to my surprise, after too many years post-graduation, were all still good friends.  Most of them still hang out regularly (DJ SuCha, HemaSh, CMac Attack, etc) but I'm just too far and too busy to hike it down to the OC to hang out most of the time.  But when I do get to meet up, it's like time never really passed.  It's just good times through and through which makes me really happy.

HemaSh lived in San Diego for 3 years so she pretty much served as our trusty guide.  She suggested Lucha Libre for lunch.  It's a pretty funny little joint with pictures of lucha libre fighters all over the walls that serves fancied up tacos, burritos, etc.

They even have a special golden booth that get's table side service and a special fight bell to ring to call the waiter.  We were sad we couldn't sit here since it was already reserved.  We just ordered at the counter and found some regular seats.

Read more »

Sen Nari Sushi

I had always been meaning to check out the foodie scene in South Bay (ie Torrance, Gardena, etc).  Perhaps "foodie" is an overstatement, but there are a fare number of highly rated Japanese restaurants in the area that both Smooth Obturator and Nancy Rheeeee have recommended at one time or another.  So I took it upon myself to brave the traffic and meet up with Me So Hairy! in his neck of the woods.  I've been told time and time again that the best way to experience sushi is omakase, which leaves the selection to the chef.  That way, you are getting the freshest and best selection of sushi.  Most times, I've been asked what I do not like to eat.  Here, they just started serving us, so I ended up getting things I don't normally eat.

Very very special 
That was the response when we asked our sushi chef what it was he was serving us.  It looked and tasted like monkfish liver, foie gras of the sea, as some may describe it.  Sometimes I like it, and sometimes I don't.  It really depends on how fishy it tastes and smells.  This one was on the fishier side, but I am no expert and maybe monkfish liver will always be fishy.  It tasted like it was drizzled with some ponzu which helped to mask the fishiness.

Seared Bonito
The fish was just lightly seared on the exterior and retained its rare meaty texture within.  There was only a light drizzle of ponzu.  The added finely chopped ginger and scallions on top brought out some nice flavor to the fish and cut the fishiness of the bonito which apparently is in the mackerel family.

Read more »

Nanbankan

I meet up with Big Willie for the first time in a long time.  It's amazing how you can live just minutes away from someone and still never see them.  We go way back, back to the days when were wild and free.  Now were just a pair of old tame retired senior citizens, retreating to our respective niches in life.  Me? Obviously it's with food.  For him, its anything that involves a paddle and water. 

Big Willie suggested Nanbankan, which used to be a very frequent haunt of his.  It was nice to not have to think about or look up places to eat.  Sometimes it's just a more relaxing experience when you're just told when and where to be.  It's even better when the place is supposed to be good, so you don't expect disappointment from wasted stomach real estate.

Nanbankan serves up your standard yakitori fare.  I'm slowly expanding my horizons when it comes to this genre of Japanese food and find that Nanbankan is far superior to Honda-Ya in Downtown.  The vibe is certainly different, being a little more posh, modern, and quiet.  Honda-Ya is better for big groups of friends and late night eating and drinking.

Veggies
These were great to munch on before the real food came.  It was also nice as a palate cleanser in between dishes.

Miso sauce
Of course I was dipping the veggies in this wonderful miso sauce.  It was sharply salty, but soothingly sweet at the same time.

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
The asparagus had the right amount of crunch and tenderness.  The bacon added some good smokey salt.
Beef Tongue
It was tender and juicy and charred well.

Read more »

4th of July

Obviously this is a month delayed, but I took the pictures so I might as well blog about them =)

I think it is now an established H.o.P. tradition to celebrate the 4th of July at Smooth Obturator and Triple T's pad by the beach since you can see multiple fireworks shows from the neighboring cities.  I think last year we did steak, but this year my brother wanted to do ribs and bbq chicken.

The rubs were prepped with a dry rub and then smoked for a couple hours on the grill.

They came out quite tender, smokey, and delicious.
 

The chicken was very well prepared since they soaked in brine for a full night before being rubbed in two different dry rubs, one home made and one store bought.  I actually preferred the store bought one, but I can't remember why.  Either way, it was the brining that made all the difference.  The meat was just sooooo darn juicy!  You think just throwing some dark meat on the grill is the key to good bbq chicken, but now I know the secret!  BRINE BRINE BRINE!

Read more »

Random Chiang Mai Eats

Chiang Mai was really where I got my street food on, and maybe that's how I got typhoid, but that's another topic for another day.  Our hotel was right next to the Night Bazaar where they had stall after stall of cheap goods, t-shirts, knick knacks, and in short, JUNK.  After many years of traveling I have finally learned to resist the lure of shiny pretty junk.  I will admit there were some cute things I lingered upon and contemplated buying, but the better part of me said "NO, no to junk!"  Anyways, Dumpling Man and I tried to zoom past all the junk to find the food.  We found this amazing and very clean food court.  Average price for anything was $1!

Read more »

Random Bangkok Eats

If you ever go to Bangkok, you HAVE to go to the Siam Paragon Mall.  You may say to yourself, why would I want to fly thousands of miles to go shopping?  This is true, some of you world travelers look down your nose at people who "waste" time and money to do all the things they could easily do in their home countries.  However, the Siam Paragon is more than just a mall with expensive high end stores and a movie theater no less.  It houses the LARGEST, and that is probably the biggest understatement of the century, foodcourt I have ever seen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The following pictures really do the place no justice, but the foodcourt literally occupies an entire floor of this mall.  It's endless stalls of food as far as the eye can see in ALL directions.  I'm sad I did not know about the foodcourt here or I would have penciled in a culinary tour of this place and skipped the hotel breakfast.  Alas, I could only look, wonder, and regret.  I managed to squeeze in some boba and sausage.

Read more »

Huen Phen

Now to resume my culinary tales through Thailand...


After Bangkok, we headed north to Chiang Mail.  Chiang Mai differs from Bangkok on many levels.  First of all, the weather is considerable cooler and drier, dry in that the humidity is less, but it rained a whole lot more.  Secondly, the hustle and bustle is toned down quite a bit.  Chiang Mai seemed like a more controlled chaos.  And lastly, food in the north is much more different than anything I've had on the rest of my Thailand trip.

Khao Soi
Khao soi is a "Burmese-influenced...soup-like dish made with deep-fried crispy egg noodles, pickled cabbage, shallots, lime, ground chillies fried in oil, and meat in a curry-like sauce containing coconut milk."   I've had khao soi before not really knowing what it is and I thought it was weird and so I didn't really appreciate the rich spicy flavors.  This time around, I grew quite fond of all the differing textures from the fried noodles, soft egg noodles, bits of shallots and pickled mustard greens and the varying levels of intense flavor, the heat, the creaminess, the spice.   The portion at Huen Phen was pretty paltry, but it was enough to judge quality.  This was certainly better than the street food version I had.

Kanom Jeen Naam Ngeow
I never had this dish until I came to Chiang Mai, but it seems to be almost as popular and representative of Northen Thai cuisin as khao soi.  It consists of hand made rice noodles served in a pork-tomato based curry soup.  This version had plenty of blood cubes, which I did not enjoy, and ended up pushing to the side.  While khao soi was dominated by a coconutty curry taste, this was marked by a deep tomato flavor which I liked a lot.

Read more »

Seongbukdong

The Pouter knows whats up when it comes to food.  She was the one who recommended Seoul Garden to me and I have loved that place ever since.  So when she raved about Seongbukdong, I knew it had to be good.  What is this strange sounding place, you may ask?  Well Seongbukdong specializes in galbijim or Korean braised short ribs.  I am happy to say I was NOT disappointed, and neither were my friends, Nancy Rheeeeeee, LoMa Linda, and Big Head Talks A Lot.


Brown Rice
I just had to include this picture of what they call brown rice.  Anybody would tell you that this rice is purple!

Banchan 
Pretty standard fare.

Read more »

Hiko Sushi

So I actually came to Hiko for a birthday treat from Smooth Obturator and Triple T.  Hiko had been on my radar for some time after some really rave reviews from Ghetto Booty Talks A Lot.  This was many years ago, when he said Hiko was some of the BEST sushi he has ever eaten.  So finally I had an opportunity to try this place, which oddly enough is closed on the weekends.  To me, it seems strange to close on the weekends (the busiest dining time), but maybe that means the sushi is super fresh since fisherman aren't working on the weekends supposedly.

Tuna
I've never been a huge fan of tuna since its pretty tasteless.  To help offset the bland nature of this fish, it is often bathed in a sea of ponzu, topped with finely chopped scallions and toasted sesame seeds.  I thought this preparation was pretty standard, but I still think Sugarfish edges this one out.  There is just something so tasty about their ponzu sauce.


Yellowtail
Luscious and delicious.

Read more »

J&J

For all of those tired of the updates about Thailand, this one's for you...

The San Gabriel Valley has no shortage of dumplings.  In my experience, most of the dumplings are just OK, never really achieving that yum-inspiring lip-smacking deliciousness of Luscious Dumpling, which I am convinced has to use MSG.  Most taste like something you could have whipped up at home.  As for soup dumplings, Din Tai Fung simply reigns supreme.  J&J makes a good attempt at putting out regular and soup dumplings that taste better than something home made.


Snow Pea Leaves sauteed in garlic
I would love it if I were able to buy these vegetables in any market, Asian or non-Asian, at the same quality as the restaurants.  I've purchased these once in NYC Chinatown and while I did not prep them properly, they still did not have that same freshness or tenderness.  Here the veggies were plentiful, and although not top quality like at the pricey Chinese seafood restaurants, still pretty delicious.

Niu Rou Mian beef noodle soup
I thought the concoction at this particular place was a tad on the bland side but Dumpling Man likes his food to be tame and simple, while I tend to lean toward food with kick and punch.   The portion was certainly more than generous for the price, not an uncommon finding in the SGV.

Read more »

Nara

So from Phuket, we headed toward Bangkok.  Here we would partake in the wedding festivities of my dear friend Bruin Bear.  Bruin Bear is NOT Thai, but she got married in Thailand.  Awesome, I know.  Awesome for us guests, since we got to eat and party for a couple days straight.  Because the wedding took up most of our time in Bangkok, we didn't eat out much.  On our one night when we were on our own for dinner, I managed to find a pretty good restaurant that was just walking distance from our hotel.  Nara was reviewed on Trip Advisor as being liked by tourists and locals alike.  It was a pretty hip trendy looking restaurant with pretty good prices.  My only complaint is that the portions were on the smaller side but we just ordered more food.

Papaya Salad with Crispy Fried Pork
This was a pretty standard, but delicious papaya salad, topped with some crispy, fatty, tender cuts of pork.  I wish there was more of this to go around.  The spoiled brat in me was upset I had to share.

Tapioca Balls with Ground Pork
Panda Bear felt a special bond for the "blue balls" so he just had to order them.  We were all very suspect of the possibility that any "blue balls" could be good "blue balls" but these were in fact very tasty.  It consisted of ground seasoned pork encased in mochi like goodness.  Again, they were so small and I wanted more!

Read more »

Savoey

So after the previous nights less than impressive seafood, I got lazy and did not take pictures of the ONE meal with what ended up being the best tom yum kum soup I've ever tasted and freshest most tender prawns in red chili sauce.  What I believed to be Aroonsom Food Park, was actually probably the Patong Seafood Park that was serving this amazing food.  In any case, what's done was done, and I only have the memories in my head to remember that meal.

For our final dinner in Phuket, we really wanted excellent seafood even if we had to pay out the nose for it.  We were tempted to walk back to the Patong Seafood Park, but instead opted for something different and went with Savoey at the recommendation of the concierge.  We had an inkling it would be pricey especially after seeing it was an indoors, air conditioned, bright, and clean dining establishment.  By the time we had braved the ladyboys and ping pong show offerings of Bangla Road, we were hot, tired, and hungry and just wanted to eat.

Prawns in Red Chili Paste
Dumpling Man, Panda Bear, and Token Bear went off to hand select our seafood that was to meet its doom at the hands of boiling water and vats of scalding hot oil.  The prawns were good, but they just weren't as amazing as the previous night's prawns.  They seemed a bit tougher, perhaps from being overcooked I suspect.  The sauce also didn't seem to penetrate the meat as well, just lacked that punch.

Steamed Mussels with Thai Herbs
These were kind of bland.  The Thai herbs like lemongrass and garlic added fragrant flavors but I think this one needed some salt.  They were great after dipping them in the crazy chili garlic fish sauce dipping sauces.

Read more »

Baan Hat Rawai

 After a long day of doing absolutely nothing at the hotel (ie: gym time, pool time, beach time, jet skiing, massages...torturous I know!) we figured it was time to get out and headed 45min south toward the tip of Phuket Island to Promthep Cape to check out the beautiful sunset.  The long hot muggy ride felt longer than it actually was, since it was NOT in the luxury of an air conditioned taxi van, but rather an oversized tuk tuk like this

Unfortunately, this time of year is rainy/monsoon season in Thailand so that day was particularly cloud and not good for trying to watch the sunset.  We made the most of it and stopped by a restaurant nearby.  Our tuk tuk driver wanted to take us some place else but we were distrustful of his intentions, however this restaurant ended up being my least favorite of the trip, so maybe we should have taken him up on his recommendation.

Shrimp with Red Chili Sauce
Not so plentiful on the shrimp, but good nonetheless.

Fried Rice
Nothing spectacular

Read more »

Sea Hag

Apologies for my absence from the blogosphere.  I've found myself at a bit of a transition in my life, ending one chapter and starting a new one.  Hopefully, this next chapter will leave me less overworked and underfed, which will allow for new and different food adventures.  To kick things off, I'll be blogging about my recent vacation to Thailand.  We (Dumpling Man, Care Bear, Token Bear aka Random Bear, Panda Bear, Little Bear, and myself) hit up Phuket, Bangkok, and Chiang Mai (just Dumpling Man and myself).  Yay! for hot as balls humidity, fun in the sun, more temples and buddhas than I could count, and elephants that paint flowers and trees.  As for the food, I tried my best to find authentic Thai eats but we could only do so well without speaking the language.    We definitely relied on pictures and English translations, so we couldn't go too far off the beaten path.

Sea Hag is probably one of those restaurants frequented by tourists since its in a pretty busy/touristy area of Patong Beach on the island of Phuket, but it was pretty solid start to our exotic vacation.

Squid Salad tomatoes, onions, lime, chili, cilantro, glass noodles
Complements of the house!  The squid was a bit chewy, but I never met a Thai salad I didn't like.  I love the combination of salty, sweet, tangy, and spicy.

Larb Gai ground chicken, lime, chili, onions, rice powder
Another Thai favorite of mine.  It was sort of a paltry serving, but I enjoyed it.

Read more »