Yogurt Update!

A few months ago I did a post on my favorite yogurt places and I felt I needed to update as I found a new favorite. They opened a Red Mango right by my sister’s place and she took me there last week. I had read many posts that said they were the original from Korea on which Pinkberry was based. Being that I don’t really like Pinkberry that much, I was skeptical. I didn’t want to get my hopes too high only to have them crushed. Red Mango lived up to its reputation. I think it’s my new favorite yogurt place. My previous favorite was Tous Le Jour Bakery but they were very creamy and occasionally I wouldn’t be in the mood for something creamy at which time, I’d go to CeFiore. Red Mango is the nice middle-ground. Its not as light as CeFiore and not as creamy and heavy as Tous Le Jour, it’s just right.

Tous Le Jour Bakery

17861 Colima Rd

Rowland Heights, CA 91748

(626) 839-6120

 

Piccolo Paradiso Review

This is one of my favorite restaurants in LA. Unfortunately, I don’t get to go there as often as I’d like as it’s all the way in Beverly Hills. It is surprisingly inexpensive considering its location and the quality of its food. The appetizers are around $10, pastas around $20, and meat courses under $30. To me, the five-course tasting menu is the best deal. It is what I usually get when I go as you get to taste 5-6 different courses, which are usually all amazing. It’s great because it claims to be a five course menu but they usually give you five food courses and then they throw in the dessert as a 6th.

I went there yesterday with some visiting family members. There were a bunch of people so we ended up ordering a la carte. I noticed they had raised the price of the five-course tasting menu from $55 to $60 but it’s still a good deal regardless.

We ordered a few different antipasti to share- fried calarmari, polenta porcini and spinach & pear salad. My favorite of the three was the polenta porcini. I was expecting it to be thick polenta cake but it was thin and porridge-like and I was a bit disappointed when I saw it. It was amazingly unexpected to find it fabulous. It was topped with some kind of bachamel cheese sauce and had chunks of porcinis in it. The polenta itself was extremely flavorful, very mushroomy flavored and tasted like a mushroom porridge. After I got home last night, I kept thinking about it and craving for it.

As my entree, I ordered the ravioli vitello, which is basically a grown-up version of Chef Boyardee (in a good way). When I was a kid, I used to LOVE Chef Boyardee and I remember it being one of the most delicious things of my childhood. I had it again after I had grown up and discovered that it was not as delicious as I remembered it being. I wasn’t sure whether they had changed the recipe or my tastes had evolved but nonetheless it was disappointingly gross. Anyway, the veal ravioli at Piccolo Paradiso is exactly as wonderful as I remembered Chef Boyardee ravioli being when I was a kid. It’s really the perfect ravioli with finely ground veal and an nice homemade pasta wrapper. It’s the perfect ratio of pasta to filling tossed in a ground veal olive oil sauce that is not too heavy. Everyone else got other random pastas which they said were very good but I did not try; and my cousin got the New York strip steak, which looked delicious and came with a huge salad topped with, I kid you not, 2×3″ SHEETS of freshly shaved parmesan. They really didn’t skimp on that. I’m pretty sure it was good because he inhaled it in less than 10 minutes.

 

Charlie Palmer Review

My friend told me he had just been to the new Charlie Palmer that opened at South Coast and that it was good. I wanted to try it so we went there for lunch.

The restaurant was done in brown leather and cream fabrics. The leather booths that surrounded the edges of the dining room were made with rolled logs made of brown leather so it looked like a wooden bench. All the textiles had very lovely textures, similar to Frette sheets. The high ceilings and big modern chandeliers made for a comfortable atmosphere.

The food, however was very different than the well designed dining room. The menu was developed by making odd combinations in classic dishes in such a way that it was no longer traditional at all. I ordered the southern fried chicken sliders and my friend got the kobe beef sliders. We also shared the farro risotto with morels. None of the dishes we ordered were any good. The fried chicken sliders were probably the best and even they weren’t especially good. The cheddar gravy that topped the thick fried chicken breast was tasty but tasted more Indian than Southern. I had the new southern fried chicken sandwich from McDonald’s a few days later and I actually think the McDonald’s one was better. Surprisingly, they are approximately the same price as three sliders were $10 at Charlie Palmer compared to a little under $3 for the McDonald’s sandwiches. So I guess the sliders at Charlie Palmers is actually pretty cheap. It is sad though when you get compared to McDonald’s in a taste test and lose . The kobe beef sliders were actually very bad. The patty was pureed to mush and the meat did not taste fresh at all. My friend ended up only eating one of her sliders and she didn’t even want to take home her leftovers. The farro risotto was just off. It had a very strange taste. Even though it was made in the same style as a risotto, I felt it was a misnomer. It tasted nothing like a risotto, more like a very starchy oatmeal. We started picking out the morels and eating them alone and even thought they were my favorite mushrooms, I couldn’t even finish them. They were coated with the starch from the farro and the parmesan did not not pair with the dish at all.

My friend said the dinner menu was a lot better but I’m not sure if I’d be willing to go again. It seems very bad odds when three of the three dishes you get are bad. Though I should mention, they did have a fresh bread basket that had an awesome mini baguette. But unless you’re planning on just eating bread, I think I would pass on this new restaurant.

 

My Fat Duck “Experience”

This was definitely the most entertaining meal I’ve ever had. The chef focuses his meals not just on the taste of the food but the stimulation of all your different senses including perception. The food was delicious but the experience is what made it one of my most unforgettable meals. It is definitely in my Top 5 restaurants but not solely because of the food as other restaurants on my top 5 list but because of the overall experience.  While not every item was amazing to me in taste, I was still completely amazed by the entirety of each course that was served.  All the courses were themed and were made from some of the most unexpected ingredients and as a result, actually tasted as it look. Very weird.

The first course- the palate cleanser was one of the most delightful experiences. The Nitro-poached green tea & lime mouse is a foam that’s squeezed out from a whipped cream canister and thrown into a bucket of liquid nitrogen. It looks like a smoking meringue and has the outer texture of one. As you pop it in your mouth, the server sprays a green tea/lime flavored room spray to enhance the flavors. Smoke starts coming out of your nose and mouth, which is amusing to everyone around you and once you bite into it, it evaporates into nothing but crunchy flavored air. It’s the weirdest sensation. For a moment, you feel as though you’ve eaten a big mouthful of something that is very substantial, only to have it disappear to only a lingering taste that leaves you feeling very refreshed. It was such a lovely experience that throughout the night, I would look around at the faces of other diners when they were served the same course.

My favorite course was the “Sound of the Sea”. This was a beach-themed course and was made to look like a oceanside scene. There was “sand” all across one side and little neck clams, razor clams, geoduck, and seaweed laid out beautifully next to it but in such a haphazard way you could almost imagine coming across it on the beach. The sand was so realistic I had to ask before I ate it. I was told it was made of tapioca, miso oil, panko & mini eel. They also brought out conch shells with ipods inside that played ocean sounds while you ate. This dish was outstanding in every way, down to the amount of thought that went into the planning of it.

The last two course were breakfast themed. The first part of our breakfast was cereal and milk. They brought out little cereal boxes with their logo on it. Inside, wrapped in little plastic bags with logo-ed stickers were parsnip flakes, which was served with parsnip milk on the side. Taste-wise, I didn’t think this course was especially good but I thought the presentation was just so adorable. Luckily, it was very small.

The bacon and eggs breakfast was the last course. This was by far the most entertaining course. They set up a copper saucepan and stand and brought out a carton of eggs with their logos stamped on them, which they claimed were special eggs that had bacon already inside. They go through the process of actually cracking the eggs with the ice cream base inside and “frying” the bacon & eggs ice cream in the copper pan. The bacon and eggs get topped on a plate with a “hash brown” made from pain perdu and a piece of sugar candy that looked and tasted just like real bacon. It even had the same crispy crunchy texture. I absolutely LOVED this dish. It was the most inventive classic dish I’ve ever eaten.

Another very interesting sensational experience was the hot and iced tea. There was a sweetened ice tea that was made into a thin jelly. A hot liquid tea was poured over it and you were supposed to drink it together as quickly as possible. The hot tea was actually piping hot but when put together with the iced tea jelly, it was one of the oddest sensations. That course was definitely more experience than taste as the taste was of nothing extradordinary. My boyfriend didn’t like it but I enjoyed it as it produced such a unique sensation.

The food was very creative. Many of the flavors and ingredients that were put together would not have been ones that you would think would taste good together but the way it was done was original and delicious, such as oyster, passion fruit jelly, and lavendar; or pommery grain mustard ice cream, red cabbage gazpacho. The flavors were so incomparable that I couldn’t comprehend how they could possibly taste good together even though I was tasting it.

Other items such as oak flavored breath strips, lime scented perfume, and moss scented mist were used for additional sensory accessories. It was some of the most imaginative courses I’ve ever had and the whole night was very entertaining. The entire evening, I kept thinking not of what was going to be served next but what was going to happen next. A lot of thought went into touching all the senses, even down to the copies of the menu, which were printed on velvety paper and matching velvety envelopes and sealed and stamped in wax with their logo. There is no other restaurant that I’ve been to that has put so much consideration into everything that is experienced by its diners. This is a purely hedonistic experience and should definitely be every hedonist’s list!

*Click on the picture at the top for an enlarged version of my menu.

 

Drinking & Driving in Scotland

Scotland was definitely my favorite part of the entire trip. Granted, we did spend most of our time of Scotland in the countryside, which I much prefer to cities; but Scotland had the most variability in terrain, the weather was beautiful, there were waterfalls EVERYWHERE, everything was so lush and green, and above all it had the perfect climate for cultivating my favorite green: MOSS. Also, there were the heeland coos (highland cows) that I spent much of my time trying to take pictures of. They are the most adorable things- like little fuzzy bears. And they stick their tongues in their noses. How could you not love something that picks its nose with its tongue. I kept making my boyfriend try to catch a pictures of them licking their noses but they would do it so quickly and randomly, it was hard to snap in time. I finally gave up and bought a postcard of it licking it’s nose. =) He did manage to get the the picture above. Isn’t she adorable?

The first place we stayed at was the Monachyle Mohr. The hotel is situated in the Trossachs National Park, next to two lochs. It’s in a very secluded place and took about 20 minutes driving on a small one lane road. The little road twisted through green forests with moss covered trees. Throughout Scotland, there were trees that had fallen over and taken huge chunks of ground with it. We would see big fallen trees that had about 7 or 8 foot circular disks of dirt clinging to the roots.

It was lovely weather when we arrived at Monachyle Mhor, it was overcast and it would sprinkle occasionally but it wasn’t cold. There was a black lab playing by itself in the yard. My boyfriend whistled to it and it ran over, super happy. She ended up taking us for a walk and making us throw sticks for her to fetch (though when she got it, she would just chew on it without giving it back). We found out later she was a resident dog, named Midnight and was sooooo sweet.

We had dinner at the restaurant that night, which was quite good. We had an amuse bouche of Cesaer Salad, Spring Rolls and Salmon Roll. They tasted very Asian-inspired and the Cesaer Salad was served in a little endive leaf.

We both chose the Kyle of Tongue Oyster with Spiced lemon and shallot topping for our first course. It was a very flavorful oyster that had the sweet sea taste and a long lingering aftertaste.

For our appetizers, my boyfriend had the Seared fillet John Dory with Braised Savoy cabbage and smoked bacon, finished with a light thyme jus and I had the Foie Gras Ballontine with White asparagus, toasted hazelnut dressing, and a truffled vinaigrette.

The Demitasse of Roasted vegetable soup topped with basil pesto followed. The soup was very nutty. The vegetables were pureed into a thick flavorful soup and the pesto gave it soup a very nice nutty flavor and extra body.

For my main course, I had the Fillet of Pork with roasted veal sweetbread, artichoke puree and a radish and caper dressing and morel jus. When the dish came out, the pork was raw. Not just raw like slightly pink raw but raw like beef carpaccio raw. All my life I’ve been told that pork and chicken have to be cooked well done. I asked the server whether it was meant to be raw and whether it was safe to eat and she said it was meant to be raw and if I wanted they could cook it further. She said in th UK, only chicken had to be cooked well done. I guess anything can be eaten raw. In Chinese cuisine, chicken is ok to eat medium rare. Anyway, I decided to keep it the way it was intended and was rewarded with the best pork I’ve ever had. It was soooooo soft and tender, unlike the pork we get in the U.S. that is often overcooked, dry and chewy, which as a result, makes me not care for pork. This pork was flavorful, slightly sweet and very meaty.

My boyfriend had the Roasted Breast of Gressingham duck, Roasted fig and balsamic onion tart, butternut squash puree and steamed greens in its own juices. The duck was also amazing. Usually, duck has a bit of gaminess to it, almost like organs but this one, cooked medium rare was tender and had none of the gaminess. It was one of the best ducks for both me and my boyfriend. I know you’re probably thinking, there’s been a lot of bests on this trip and how reliable can her opinion actually be if everything she has is the new best; But it’s true, there were a lot of bests on this trip and I wouldn’t say it if it weren’t true.

For dessert we ordered the Dark chocolate and tonka bean Pave with Blair Drummond strawberries in their own coulis, strawberry ice cream and the Hot d’Agen prune souffle with vanilla ice cream. And I can say, this definitely wasn’t a best. The dark chocolate pave was a little too rich and we didn’t finish it. The souffle was ok but I hold my souffle standard to that of Gary Danko‘s souffle, which in my opinion is the best souffle!

From Monachyle Mhor, we drove to the Isle of Skye, which was the most beautiful drive. In retrospect, I think Scotland is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been. We passed through so many different terrains from the green mountainous roads of the Highlands to the waterfronts of Fort William to the Loch filled ocean side of Isle of Skye. The pictures really don’t do it justice as it is so much more majestic in person. Throughout the highlands, the melted snow from the mountain tops would stream down in small waterfalls all over the mountainsides.

In Isle of Skye, we stayed in Staffin at the Glenview Hotel, which is actually a b&b and not a hotel as the name suggests. The hotel was small and clean and was a no frills type of place but the couple that owned the place were very friendly and helpful and have the most adorable baby. From the hotel, there is a trail that takes you down to the beach which is very beautiful from afar but is actually very littered once you get up close.

The lady at the hotel told us about these fairy pools. I have no idea what fairy pools are but she had pictures at the hotel so I wanted to go find them. We ended up going to the Armadale and once we got there didn’t know which way to go to find them. We had parked next to the castle ruins and decided to wander into the gardens as no one was collecting admission at the time. =) The gardens were very well kept and had so many different types of flora and fauna. What I loved was that they allow for nature to take its course in Scotland. Even in a very well manicured garden, they left fallen trees as they were, allowing the moss to grow on its sides and the castle ruins were overgrown with plants and had the look of an abandoned castle ruin. It made for a beautiful contrast.

There was a wedding happening while we were there so we sat down on a bench and watched as the wedding party, led by a bag pipe player paraded past us.

Scotland has moss galore! I was in heaven! There were big giant globs of moss all over the place. Some of them covered entire walls in green velvety carpeting. To my boyfriend irritation, I decided to start a mossery on the dash of the car. I would sneak in clumps of moss when he wasn’t looking. =)

The last night we stayed at the most beautiful hotel, the Prestonfield Hotel, a old converted manor house built in the 1600s. There were peacocks that roamed the grounds and there was a small putting green and croquet area in front. Behind the hotel was also a full golf course. The hotel was all decked out in velvets of all different colors. I normally don’t like velvet or the gaudiness of the old world style but it was done it such beautiful and luxurious way that I just wanted to stay there forever. We ended up spending our whole day there because it was so nice and relaxing and because we were tired. My boyfriend was also extremely stressed because earlier that morning we had gone to gas station and he realized hours later that he had forgotten to pay! It was a huge ordeal and he was afraid he would go to Scottish jail and such. Luckily, the hotel ended up handling everything for us. (I love nice hotels!) They found the gas station for us (based only on the information that it was outside of Pitlochry and had a green sign), contacted them, gave them our credit card information, and made sure the police were informed and we were taken off the “bad list”. They forwarded the gas station attendant to our room, who were surprisingly nice and understanding about it. They said it happened at least once a week and thanked us for calling back to pay.

 

Drinking & Driving in England

From Belfast we flew to London. Very unfortunately, I booked our flight for the wrong date and we had to buy tickets to London which cost me GBP90 each. We stayed in a microscopic room at Base2Stay. I had originally booked a bunk bed room for GBP 110 but my boyfriend decided to stay in a room with a king size bed for GBP 140, which turned out to be quite comfortable thought it was tiny. Then again, expecting a nice place, that’s huge and cheap in London is impossible.

We spent the two days wandering around the city. We went to Farringdon to eat at at Smith’s of Smithfield. Luckily, we arrived just in time to be able to order as the kitchen just closed. I had the Welsh Rarebit and my boyfriend had the Steak Salad. His steak salad was really flavorful as was my welsh rarebit. My welsh rarebit was topped with a piece of bacon. The bacon in the UK is different than our bacon. It’s in between our bacon and canadian bacon. More flavorful than canadian bacon but not as fatty as our bacon. Very good! I ate more bacon while I was there than I had in entire year.

On our way to finding Smith’s, we had passed comptoir gascon, which had a Michelin star. The menu looked good and reasonably priced and we thought we’d go there the next day as it wasn’t open when we passed by. When we got there the next day, we realized that it wasn’t open on Mondays. =( At this point, we were both extremely hungry and grumpy so my boyfriend ended up picking Hix Oyster and Chop House. The decor was modernly crude. All the furniture was very simple and modern but with discreet touches of lewdness. Discreet enough that a person wouldn’t be offended. I’m totally lewd so I personally found it hilarious. There was a white neon sign hanging on the wall that initially appeared to be just a design but when you looked more closely at it, you see that it could be words but you can’t make out what it says. That is until you look in the mirror and it says, “Fucking beautiful”. When I went downstairs to use the bathroom, I saw two blurry pictures on two doors but I can’t figure out what it is or which one I belong to. A server directed me into a door and when my boyfriend returned from his bathroom trip, he said, they’re blurry pictures of buttholes! AHHAHAHAHAH… That would never fly in the states

We boyfriend had the House Smoked Salmon for the starter that was good but nothing special. I had the Shaved Asparagus and Wild Sorrel Salad with Welsh Cheese- Up until this point, we had subsisting on a diet of Fried foods and Meat. I tried to count the times I had had any greens and couldn’t think of one! The salad was very nice and green and soothing. The vegetables were shaved on the bias which made everything clean and tender. The cheese gave the dish just a touch of creaminess and saltiness.

For my main course, I had the Hanger Steak with Baked Bone Marrow- This was probably the most flavorful and tender hanger steak I’ve ever had. It was as tender as a filet but with so much more beef flavor. The baked bone marrow was also good. It had been scooped out of the bone and mixed with bread crumbs, stuffed back into the bone and baked. I could only have a few bites because it was sooooo oily, I could feel myself getting sick.

My boyfriend picked the Lamb with Kidney for his main dish. I thought the kidney was a little overcooked and as a result tasted extremely gamey.

We also had a side of Chips (french fries) that were very good. I don’t normally eat very many fries but the fries throughout the UK were soooo good and fresh, I couldn’t stop eating them. I had them for almost every meal.

In London, we rented a Alfa Romeo, which my boyfriend cleverly named Alfie. Unfortunately, to add a second driver, it would’ve been an additional GBP9 a day so we decided that my boyfriend would drive and I would navigate, which worked out as he’s able to drive a manual car better than just in theory and I’m a much better navigator as he falls asleep when he’s the passenger.

From London, we drove to Salisbury, where we stayed at the Rokeby House, which was actually much nicer than it’s portrayed on the website. The couple who I assumed owned it, though the names they introduced me with were different than those on the website, were very friendly and the breakfast was very good. I don’t know why but the house just seemed a little creepy to me. Perhaps because it was old? Anyway, that night we walked into the city and had dinner at Strata a little Italian restaurant on the edge of Market Square. I had a green salad and my boyfriend had a mixed salad. For our main courses, we had Seafood Risotto and Seafood linguini. We also shared a tiramisu for dessert. Everything was tasty and a far better deal considering price and taste, comparative to what you would find in the states. The quality of the restaurant was far superior to what can be found in the states for those prices.

The next day we drove to see Stonehenge (yay, giant rocks) and then to Bray on the Thames. We stayed at a beautifully gaudy hotel, Red Roofs of Oldfield, which was right next to the river. They left all the doors of the unoccupied rooms opens so we wandered around and took pictures of the house. I was a bit embarrassed when we got caught in a room taking pictures.

That night we dined at the Fat Duck, which was our whole reason for going to Bray. That was an amazing experience which I’ll have to do a completely separate post for.

From Bray, we drove to the Yorkshire Dales and stayed at the Cross Keys. My friend Don had recommended the place as he stayed there on his honeymoon. The inn was soooo warm and friendly. It took forever to get there on a tiny road. It was situated on a beautiful green field that were surrounded by sheep grazing on the hillsides. The food was very delicious and rustic and my boyfriend said their chowder was the best chowder he’d ever had. I had the rabbit pie made from local rabbits. I think I freaked out the owner when I told him that we had seen the bunnies while driving in and they looked so delicious. =)

From the inn, we were able to walk up the hills to get to the Cautley Spout waterfall, which was a very windy but relaxing hike.

On to drinking and driving in Scotland…

 

My Goodness, My Guinness!

Basically, our whole reasoning to vacation in the UK was because my boyfriend’s need to go to the Guinness brewery. I decided We decided that we couldn’t base a whole trip around one city so I planned a tour of the UK and dubbed it the Drinking and Driving Tour 2008.

We started our trip in Dublin where we stayed at Number 31 located on a very small street. It was a nice choice as it was very quiet and relaxing and the owner of the hotel was extremely caring. Our room was on the first floor and was slightly noisy as we could hear the front door whenever opened and closed. Luckily, none of the guests came home late so we were never awoken at night. We had a standard double room and so the room was a little small but still very comfortable. They gave vouchers for 50 minutes worth of Internet use, which was nice as it was free but I like not to be limited in my online use. I’m sure they would’ve given me more had I asked but I didn’t.

On our last night in Dublin, we had dinner at Gruel, which was the best meal we had while we were in Dublin.

Tomato-based Vegetable Soup- Tasty vegetable soup. It was pretty good for being vegetarian.

Meatballs with Tagliatelle and Tomato Sauce- Straightforward. Exactly what you would expect.

Bangers & Mash with Red Onion Gravy- The bangers (sausages) were AMAZING. It had so many different flavors all stuffed together in a super crispy skin. The skin looked like fresh-baked bread, crackly and crispy. I don’t know how they did it but it was really good. I almost wanted to order an additional one to take home. The red onion gravy wasn’t so much a gravy as much as sliced onions that had been cooked down in a red wine reduction. It paired really well with the bangers.

Lemon Tart with Vanilla Ice Cream- This was probably the best vanilla ice cream I’ve ever had. It was so light but rich and creamy at the same time. It tasted like whipped cream in ice cream form. The lemon tart was also good but it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

From Dublin, we took a two hour train ride to Belfast and stayed at Ten Square, which was centrally located being directly across from Donelley Square. The rooms were Asian-themed and surprisingly big, especially for European standards. The price of the room start at GPB 165 but I got a great deal at only GBP 119! Soooo worth it! The Internet was also free so I was able to surf to my heart’s content. =

We went to Deane’s as soon as we got into Belfast. We got there during lunch and so it was a super good deal. We were able to get a 3-course meal for only GBP 21.50.

Cured Monkfish with Monkfish cheek, piedmontese peppers, tomato foam

Beef topped with marrow and bernaise sauce. Chips and buttered green beans. The chips or steak-cut french fries were sooooo good. They tasted like very super thick cut fries from McDonald’s. The buttered green beans were slightly overcooked but I think it’s only because I like mine almost raw. The beef was also slightly overcooked. I had asked for rare but it came out almost medium. The taste of the beef was very different from the kind we have at home. While it wasn’t as tender, it was much more flavorful. It had a slightly gamey taste to it but left the most wonderful aftertaste in your mouth.

For dessert, I had the Sticky Toffee Pudding with Banana Ice Cream- The banana ice cream was not as good as I hoped. It tasted just like a banana flavored banana laffy taffy and a little fake, not like real bananas. The sticky toffee pudding was ok. Maybe it’s because I’m not crazy about sticky toffee pudding but I figured since I was in the UK, I should try it. It was extremely moist though and covered in gooey toffee/caramel sauce.

My boyfriend had the rabbit terrine and smoked chicken as the starter.

As the main course, Pork belly with black pudding. The pork was tender and fell apart like pulled pork. It was served with the crackling on top. He said it was possibly the best pork he’s ever had.

For the dessert, he chose the cheese plate.

We also ordered tea and received a small plate of petit-fours at the end of the meal.

This was a very good deal and an extremely good lunch. It’s supposed to be the only restaurant in Northern Ireland that has a Michelin star and I can totally see why. The rest of the meals we had in Belfast were unfortunately not worth writing about. We also ate at the restaurant bar inside our hotel, which is apparently a very popular place for locals. The food was pretty good but nothing special so I’m not going to write about it. We went there as we couldn’t get used to the daylight until 10PM and didn’t go out looking for food until almost 9. By that time, all the restaurants were already closed and we had to resort to the hotel restaurant.

 

New Mexico Review

My boyfriend and I went to New Mexico last weekend. I’ve always wanted to go to New Mexico though I’m not sure why exactly, I’ve just always wanted to go. What is in New Mexico you ask? New Mexicans of course.

I’ve always wanted to try hot air ballooning and when I found out that Albuquerque was the hot air balloon capital of the world, I was all over it. It was so much fun, especially the landing. =)

We stayed at the Mauger Estate Bed & Breakfast, which is in the historical registry. I wish we would have spent more time there but we didn’t have very many days and there were just way too many places to eat.

So on to the food…

The first night we arrived around 8PM so we headed to Zinc Wine Bar and Bistro for dinner. I had read a lot of good reviews on the restaurant and it was between that and the Artichoke Cafe.

My boyfriend’s menu

Steamed Black Mussel in a Basil-chardonnay broth, julienne vegetables, grilled bread- The mussels were well cooked but the basil-chardonnay broth wasn’t cooked long enough so it was still very alcohol-y. The vegetables were very bland and since they were sitting in the broth, they too were alcohol-y.

Grilled Lamb Strip Loin Mignon Paired with aspargus & potato strudel, cherry tomato-spiced aubergine compote with micro greens and mint jelly gastrique- My boyfriend had ordered the lamb rare and it came out about medium well but was still tasty. The asparagus & potato strudel was really good. At first we thought it was deep fried but upon examining it, realized it was actually phyllo.

The server was very insistent on the Red Chile Flan served with biscochito cookies and I’m all about weird flavor combinations so I told my boyfriend he should get it. The flan was actually really spicy. It was interesting but we weren’t sure if we actually liked it. We kept eating it so that we could come to a conclusion but in the end, we were so full, we never even decided. The flavor was interesting but the texture of the flan was a bit overcooked and was not very creamy and light like a flan should be. Instead, it was a bit thick, curdled and almost doughy.

I got the 3-course prix fixe menu for $29. Great deal!

Crispy Duck Confit Eggroll served with peanut curry and chile-lime dipping sauces- This was not very good. The eggroll had a very thick skin and the peanut curry was flavorless. I was very thick and so I didn’t realize it was a dipping sauce. I was eating it by itself with a fork and thought it was some type of hummus. It wasn’t very good as a hummus and definitely not as a dipping sauce. The thick consistency masked the taste of the eggrolls, which were somewhat bland to begin with.

Sliced Tenderloin of Beef- Slowly roasted on the exhibition rotisserie served with Maytag blue mashed potatoes, sautéed green beans, napped with a ruby port wine sauce- My beef was cooked perfectly and was so tender, I didn’t even need a steak knife. I think it could’ve done without the port sauce though as it made the beef too sweet. The blue cheese mashed potatoes had waaay too much blue cheese and tasted as though I was eating a wedge of blue in mashed potato consistency.

Strawberry Blackberry Shortcake: Pistachio muffin, Grand Marnier syrup and whipped cream- This was a nice flavorful dessert. The whipped cream was some of the best whipped cream I’ve ever had. When I was first eating it, I thought it was some kind of sweetened creme fraiche because it was so thick.

I would most likely not go back to the restaurant. It had some nice elements but not everything went together well. And while it wasn’t terribly expensive, I think there are other restaurants that are much better.

The next day we drove to Santa Fe and had lunch at the legendary Cafe Pasqual. We sat at the communal table and started chatting with two different couples. One couple was from Dallas and another couple was from Napa. They advised us to take a drive to Taos and drive on the road that the film, Easy Rider was filmed.

The couple from Dallas told us that the cafe had the best Hot Chocolate ever. So of course, we had to get it. And indeed it was amazing. It wasn’t too sweet and had all kinds of spices in it. Plus it was HUGE! Best hot chocolate, even without a marshmallow.

My boyfriend and I decided to share two dishes.

Eggs Barbacoa with Chile d’Arbol- Marinated and Slow Cooked Beef Cheeks on White Corn Tortillas with Two Sunny-side Eggs and Refried Pintos- This was wonderful, probably one of my favorite dishes of the entire trip. The beef cheeks were so tender and flavorful and once popped, the egg yolks binded everything together in a gooey gelatinous mess. I had egg yolk all over my face and could not have been happier.

Chorizo Burrito: housemade pork chorizo, scrambled eggs, hash browns, jack cheese and scallions wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla with red chile, green chile, and tomatillo d’arbol salsa- This too was very good. The burrito was gigantic and the chorizo was delicious without being too greasy.

After lunch we tried to go to Taos but did not make it very far. We made it to Tesuque and went to the flea market. We drove through the Santa Fe Opera but it wasn’t open. The flea market was awesome. Precious stones EVERYWHERE and they were sooo cheap. I ended up buying a bunch of loose stones for my sister and my boyfriend bought me a necklace made of wooden beads in all different shapes and colors. I also bought some HUGE turquoise stones that were the size and shape of eggs.

That night we went to Geronimo. They had recently switched chefs and so there wasn’t a tasting menu. They also only kept one dish from the original menu, which luckily for me was the one thing I had already decided I wanted upon seeing it on the online menu, which was the Peppery Elk Tenderloin and Apple wood Smoked bacon. It came with Roasted garlic fork-mashed Yukon gold potatoes, snap peas and creamy brandied mushroom sauce. We both ended up getting that as our main course. The mushrooms were morels which are my favorite. I was saving them for the end and my boyfriend kept stealing mine when I wasn’t looking. =( He’s so abusive!

For appetizers, my boyfriend got the deconstructed corn soup. It came in a giant bowl with a spoon full of chopped lobster. The server then came with the actual soup in a silver teapot and poured in all over everything. It was not anything special and the soup itself was a gray color, which isn’t the most appetizing color.

I got the veal sweet breads, that were tasty. The batter was a lot thicker than I would preferred but otherwise was good.

Perhaps I should have heeded the advice of the Napa couple at Cafe Pasqual and waited until the chef had time to get used to his kitchen. It wasn’t exactly the fine dining experience that I was expecting and I think there was a bit of prejudice as my boyfriend went in a t-shirt.

The next day, we went to Mary & Tito’s. I had the Carne Adovada Stuffed Sopapilla, which was amazingly good. The thing was gigantic- a foot across, deep fried and smothered in red and green sauces.

My boyfriend got the Blue Corn Enchilada and compared to my sopapilla was quite bland.

After lunch we went to J&R Vintage Auto Museum and I must say if you like vintage cars, you definitely want to take a visit. It was $6 admission and had a big basketball court-sized warehouse full of vintage cars, trucks and motorcycles. There was the most beautiful burgundy Cadillac that we both fell in love with

After the museum, we went down to Old Town and wandered around. We got some ice cream and ice tea at Crave. I’m not sure if it was because it was hot and I was dying of thirst but that was some damn good ice tea. We also went to Church St. Cafe to buy some food for our plane ride. I ordered the Chile con Queso and the Pollo de Ruiz- a chicken sandwich with green chiles wrapped in a flour tortilla. I don’t know what I was thinking but when I ordered I had thought Chile con Queso was beef chili with cheese on top. I was very disappointed when I realized it was actually nacho cheese. =(

I had seen frito pie everywhere and wanted to try one so when we got to the airport and found that nobody had beef chili or chili con carne, I bought the frito pie. It wasn’t like the ones that I had growing up in Oklahoma but it was still really good. I’m sure it was horribly bad for me though as the orange oil started seeping out of the food and formed a puddle on the edges of pie. The kind I had when I was a kid had beef chili on top of a bed of frito chips and topped with sour cream and cheese. This one had frito chips, topped with beef and beans, red chile sauce and cheese. Very tasty nonetheless and a perfect way to end our New Mexico trip.

 

San Francisco Review

Over the weekend, we drove up to San Francisco to visit with some family friends and eat. We got in on Saturday late afternoon and went to Koi Palace in Daly City. My family had been there before and they had said it was pretty good and since I hadn’t been planning on us getting in so early, I didn’t have a planned meal in mind. Funny enough, my friend Vanessa had asked me to buy her some dragon beard candy from Koi Palace, except I didn’t know that was the place she was referring to until we got there. There was a chef making fresh dragon beard candy that you could buy. I ended up buying a box for myself and one for Vanessa. Unfortunately, the candy was quite expensive at $8 for eight pieces and really not that good. Oh well, lesson learned. I had very high expectations for the restaurant as there was about a 30 minute wait and the last time my family had been up there, my mom had made them go to the restaurant for pretty much every single meal (I was very fortunate to have been spared from that repetitive experience). While the dim sum arrived relatively quickly, it was overall very oily. My favorite item of the day was probably the roasted pork belly that they said was only available on the weekends. It was very tasty, fully flavored with a crunchy crispy skin. They also had a red bean pancake that my sister loved but I thought was mediocre. Overall, the dim sum was overrated, expensive and oily, which was very surprising to me considering most of the people there were Chinese

We stayed at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel and the room was beautiful. It was very modern and my sister became totally in love with it and has decided she wants to redecorate her room to look just like it.

That night, we met our family friends for dinner in Oakland. This was probably the best meal of our trip. Everything was wonderfully fresh and delicious and best of all, it was very cheap at only $130 for 5 people! We had boiled live shrimp, steamed live fish, fried live crab, egg white and dried scallop fried rice, and sauteed pea shoots, It was all so delicious. The pea shoots were perfectly cooked with big chunks of garlic and still had a nice crunch to it. The fried rice was slightly creamy with a wonderful seafoody meatiness to it. While it was perfectly fine by itself, it made an even better base for the rest of the food. The shrimp was so sweet and the heads filled with so much delicious goo. I probably ate a pound by myself. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the name of the restaurant but it was in the Chinatown area of Oakland and had an elevator. (I know, what kind of foodie am I? But I do have a good excuse.. I was starving when I went in & was in a food coma when I came out. That’s my excuse & I’m sticking to it.)

The next morning, we had lunch reservations at the Slanted Door. I’d heard so much about this place and had never tried it. The restaurant had a modern industrial decor and was located on the waterfront in the Marketplace on the Embacadero. Luckily, we had reservations as there were a few walk-ins who were refused. At the waiter’s suggestion, we got:

grilled 5-spiced chicken breast over rice noodles with imperial rolls, cucumber and mint

caramelized tiger prawns with garlic, onions and chili sauce

mesquite grilled Arctic char with spicy soy-ginger dipping sauce

local delta asparagus with black trumpet mushrooms

The imperial rolls (egg rolls) were by far the best vietnamese egg rolls I’ve ever had. They were hot and crispy without being oily and were made thicker than ones I’d had before; probably twice the size of normal eggrolls. They were stuffed full of meat and noodles and were just delicious. They were cut into exactly three small pieces that came with the chicken breast and rice noodles and I would’ve ordered more had I not been so full after the meal. The sauce that the tiger prawns were marinated in was so very tasty. It was sweet, slightly sour and spicy at the same time. Unfortunately, the shrimp was a bit overcooked. I think because it was a caramelized shrimp, it required more time on the grill and since it came without the shell, the fire was too much for the quick-cooking time of the shrimp. The Artic char was perfectly cooked with the middle rare but as a dish, it was nothing extraordinary. At $22, I probably would not order it again. I love asparagus so I thoroughly enjoyed that dish. They also didn’t skimp on the trumpet mushrooms, which were very meaty and well seasoned. My whole family fell in love with the trumpet mushrooms. We also got jasmine rice to accompany our meal and my sister kept raving about the rice. She absolutely LOVES rice. In Chinese, we call her a “rice bucket”, which is what we refer to people who eat a lot of rice. The rice had a scallion oil poured over it that gave it a nice glossy finish and a light oniony flavor. Overall, I really enjoyed this meal. The decor was modern and comfortable plus we had a great view of the water and one of the bridges (I’m not sure which one).

After lunch, we headed down to Healdsburg. I had read about whale watching somewhere close by and I thought we could go wine tasting since my dad had never been before. I had made plans to go to Gary Danko’s that night but my dad didn’t want to get dressed up and so we were forced to go find dinner with no reservations. I didn’t have any time to do much research or make reservations so I ended up narrowing it down to the Farmhouse Inn in Forestville, Cyrus or Madrona Manor in Healdsburg. I actually really wanted to go to Madrona Manor but they didn’t have any reservations available so we ended up settling on Cyrus. The restaurant was very lovely and had all the amenities of a 5-star fine dining restaurant. They started us with a champagne and caviar menu and even had a Champagne cart. They did have my favorite Krug but I was planning on driving back to SF so I didn’t want to drink. Before we began our meal, we were presented with a 3-tiered silver plate stand filled with tiny hors d’oeuvres. They said it represented the five tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. While they were very aesthetically pleasing, the taste were just ok. The concept was extremely clever as each item represented one of the tastes. There was a grapefruit jelly, shrimp siu mai, shredded kimchi on a wonton shell, tuna cube with yuzu, olive tapenade on puff pastry. There were a few other things but they were very forgettable and so I can’t remember them now. The shrimp siu mai was the first thing we tasted and was by far the best. It was very tiny but was very full of flavor and once in your mouth, it was actually a perfect-sized bite. We each chose a 3-course menu and were presented with a amuse bouche of seared hamachi and with a ginger sauce, which was pretty much flavorless.

At the end, we agreed that my dad had the best menu and my sister had the worst. The restaurant had all the makings of a very fine restaurant but the food just wasn’t up to par. I felt they were trying very hard to be innovative and different but things just weren’t working together well. The flavors didn’t blend together and while they put thought into the aesthetics of the dishes, sometimes the compilations just weren’t very utilitarian and didn’t make much sense.

My sister’s menu:

A Tasting of asparagus- This consisted of three small dishes. One of which was this asparagus flan was pretty tasty but you could only have a little bit as it became too much very quickly.

Soft Shell Crab and Smoked Soba Noodles, Oolong Broth– We had a consensus that this was the worst dish of the evening. The crab was crusted with what looked like corn flakes. The crust was thick and bland and my dad just flat out refused to try the broth as he thought that was just not something good Oolong tea should be used for.

Sea Bass with Sweet Corn & Spring Onions, Mussel-Saffron Sauce- Unforgettable and completely flavorless.

My dad’s menu

Thai Marinated Lobster with Avocado, Mango and Hearts of Palm– Nice piece of lobster with a hint of thai seasoning, which didn’t overpower the lobster.

Seared Foie Gras with Ginger-Pineapple Pain Perdu, Rum Flambé- This was the best dish of the evening. Perfectly cooked foie gras & the flambe made for a nice show. The pineapple paired really well with the foie gras.

Lamb Loin with Black Rice, Haricot Verts, Capers and Raisins

My menu:

Papardelle with Braised Rabbit and Red Cabbage, Mustard Froth– The noodles were fresh made but were all twirled into a spiral that it made it messy to eat. The rabbit was very good. Tender and meaty. The cabbage and mustard froth on the other hand were completely clashing though. I didn’t understand how that was supposed to even go with everything else. It was just too mismatched, like peanut butter & jelly sushi. The cabbage too sour and the mustard froth didn’t even taste like mustard.

Crispy Poussin with Fava Beans, Morels, and Thyme Ju– My favorite dish of my menu. The poussin was moist and tender. And the morels! Oh how I love morels!

Cheese Plate

At the end of the meal, we were gifted with a small box of brownies each and menus of the evening’s meal.

The boxes for the brownies were really beautifully designed and the brownies were sealed with a golden sticker that said, “tomorrow?”. Adorable! They also brought around a petit fours cart filled with small treats. We ended up getting some chocolate truffles, caramels, marshmallows, fruit jellies, and pineapple lollies, which were all decently good but again, nothing special.

The next day, we wanted to get an early start and had been planning on going to Ton Kiang but they didn’t open till 10AM so went across the street to Sear’s Fine Foods. We had a seen a crazy line the morning before and they had postings outside advertising the best tiny pancakes so my sister & I were insistent on trying these tiny pancakes. We also ordered Eggs Benedict, Corned Beef Hash, and Eggs and Sausages. The pancakes were tasty but again, how good can pancakes be. They were light, fluffy, and tiny and I guess how much more could I really ask for.

Overall, I would say this San Francisco trip of eating was very unremarkable. I think the best meal was the Chinese restaurant in Oakland, which I can’t even remember the name of. Next time, I would like to try Masa’s as my friend said they have a 9-course menu & every person gets a different menu so if you go with two people, you actually get 18 courses!

 

My Addiction with Yogurt and Snow, the New Yogurt

I’ve been addicted to yogurt for some time now and the thing with my addictions is that it’s not just an addiction like anyone else’s addictions. My addictions become obsessions. I want it ALL the time, like every day. I become obsessive and feel this need to know everything about it, to dissect it and travel all over looking for the perfect one. As a result, I tried every possible yogurt location that I knew about. It got to the point, I was eating yogurt not just every day but several times a day. My boyfriend and I would drive from city to city having yogurt taste offs.

My addiction with yogurt began almost two years ago. I remember the first time I had it. I had dinner with my friend, Tiffany in downtown and she suggested we get CeFiore (then called Fiore) in Little Tokyo. I really couldn’t understand her insistence of getting frozen yogurt at that time. This yogurt I’m referring to isn’t the kind that I’d grown up to know. What I knew as frozen yogurt was TCBY, which I love and Golden Spoon. This was more like plain unflavored yogurt from the grocery store dairy section. It was lightly sweet and tart and refreshing. It was at that time that I was changed. While I thought it was tasty at the time, I didn’t think it would be something that I would crave for.

It wasn’t for another few weeks before I experienced it again. I happened to work a few blocks down from Pinkberry and my coworker, HL who was is completely and unabashedly addicted to Pinkberry. He would go every single day. No, seriously, EVERY single day. So for several weeks, I would eat Pinkberry every single day. My favorite combo at Pinkberry is medium plain with 3 toppings: granola, strawberries, and mango.

HL is an avid Pinkberry groupie. He claims he’s tried all the other ones and likes Pinkberry the best. (I’m not sure if I believe he’s tried the other ones. I think he’s just to partial Pinkberry. So began my quest. I just had to know who had the best yogurt. I would try yogurt everywhere I could. Any place that sold yogurt, I’d buy some or at the very least, ask for a sample. I tasted yogurts all over LA from San Fernando valley, downtown to San Gabriel Valley and Westside; yogurt specialty stores, bakeries, boba shops, any place that had yogurt. To be honest, I still can’t explain my addiction. I really have no idea why I was addicted to it. All I know is I would crave it, all the time. There is a theory, not by me, that claims they put crack in it. I don’t know but A LOT of people I know have been addicted to yogurt.

So here is my rundown of yogurts

My favorite is Tous Le Jours in Rowland Heights. This is actually a bakery that began selling yogurt when the yogurt boom hit LA last year. Their yogurt is creamy yet tart. It’s much creamier than any other yogurt I’ve tasted. It’s also much thicker and not as icy. The caveat with this place is their topping selection sucks. While other yogurt specialty stores have fresh fruit that they cut throughout the day, most of their toppings are canned or not very fresh. But it makes no difference to me because I really don’t feel like this yogurt needs it. I actually prefer it naked.

Runner up in the yogurt taste off is CeFiore. HL claims I am partial to CeFiore because it was the first place I tried. I don’t really think that’s true. I think I like them because they taste better. =) CeFiore does have an ever so slight after taste. It’s not a bad after taste, it’s just an after taste. It’s less creamy than Tous Le Jour but has more substance than Pinkberry.

Lastly, I feel Pinkberry is overpriced and to me is the one I prefer least of my yogurt choices. It melts quickly and is very icy. This is not a yogurt you would want by itself. It needs the toppings for it’s substance. On the other hand, it is nice and light and instead of feeling full and bloated, you feel refreshed and kinda healthy.

I guess the trend here is that I tend to like creamier yogurts. Pinkberry is less creamy and needs more toppings while Tous Les Jour is good plain. I have also tried many other yogurt places that aren’t really worth mentioning. Though there is one last one that deserves mention which is YogurtLand. This place is great because it has like 30 different flavors and everything is self serve, including the toppings. They charge you per ounce. I’ve never had their sour flavored yogurt which I would guess would be the most similar to the other yogurt, which is why I didn’t include them in the review

So I think I may be completely cured of my yogurt addiction. A few weeks ago, my friend Christina told me she was going to take me to get “snow”. I said, shaved ice. And she said, no, snow. You’ll see. This is a conversation I’ll have many times with many people.

Snow is fabulous! Nothing that I could have ever imagine it being. When I first saw it, I thought it was layers of shaved white chocolate but in fact it’s super thin sheets of creamy goodiness. Just layers and layers all soft and pillowy, yet creamy and slightly sweet. It’s actually a block of frozen milk that’s shaven.

The good thing is this new addiction only has one source so it’s less likely to get out of hand but on the other it’ll be more difficult to satiate my cravings.

The restaurant is called Class 302 in Rowland Heights and is a small grade-school-themed taiwanese cafe. The tables look like little desks and the chopsticks and napkins hang in backpacks on the side of the desks. The chalkboard has “Today’s Activities” with the menu written in colored chalk and even the waiters dress like school children.

The food was decently priced and tasty and served in little lunch boxes. It’s simple and traditional Taiwanese food. But back to the snow… So far I’ve tried the snow with red beans & rice cakes, green tea snow with red beans and rice cakes, and snow with mangoes. My favorite combination is the rice cakes and red bean. The rice cakes are basically mochi. mmm… so chewy and sweet. It goes really well with the snow. The red beans are sweetened and there’s condensed milk poured all over everything. Drool…