Vancouver Eats

Vancouver is a city known for its smorgasbord of food options, all usually being quite authentic due to the diversity of its population. Coming from Los Angeles, another great smorgasbord of food culture and subculture, I was actually surprised than Vancouver not only matched the quality of tastes in Los Angeles but also almost matched the quantity of selection available.

Apologies in advance for lack of photos this time through.

Upon landing in Vancouver, we were all starving as the flight did not serve free food. After checking in, we immediately looked for some appetizing eats. Granted we were limited somewhat by the late hour, but off we went braving the young club-going crowd waiting in long entrance lines up and down Granville Street. We finally ended up in a Cafe Crepe on Granville Street. Yes, Cafe Crepe is a franchise or a common name that can even be found Stateside, but we went for safe and good eats this first night. We ordered a crepe with Nutella, Strawberry and Grand Marinier. Excellent ingredients to be shoved into a crepe together. Compared with previous crepes I have had, these definitely were pretty high on the scale of yumminess; losing out only to my favorite crepe place in Rowland Heights, Genki Living. Where does it lose? The crispness of this crepe lacked compared to Genki Living. On tap were 4 local beers, after getting a free taste of all of them, we chose to get a pitcher of the dark winter ale. This is a dark and rich tasting beer, with a hint of sweetness. Given we were still hungry after sharing one crepe, we decided to go with some chicken wings also. Either we were really hungry and completely biased or we were completely buzzed already or they were really good, but those slightly burnt, sweet wings tasted excellent, so savory in the mouth! The decor here is classic diner, with old ad propaganda on the walls. It took 15 minutes for us to get seats on a busy rainy night. Service was good. Parking is non-existent here in downtown, so don't expect to drive yourselves here! Overall I would give it a 4/5 stars.

The next morning, we set off a little late and skipped breakfast. We headed to Granville Island and its market where there was a large food court with so many options for food! Typical of these food courts, inside seating was very limited and the weather on this day precluded eating outside. After reviewing the options multiple times, I chose to eat at Kaisereck Delicatessen. Basically this is a German place, where you can get hot sausages and sandwiches. I tried the spicy bratwurst with sauerkraut and grilled onions.

Looks so tasty, but alas, it was a disappointment. The brat was dry and tasteless. Nothing special among the potato chips nor the coca-cola. Maybe I should have gone with the Reuben or Pastrami sandwiches. I did not get the sense that this tasted authentic at all. It was essentially typical fast food from a food court. Prices were not cheap either, this small meal costing about 6.50 Canadian. Overall a 2/5 starts here, at least parking is ample. Later on we give the food court another try ...

For dinner, we searched for some sushi. Yelp has never steered us wrong before, so we searched Yelp for a sushi place within walking distance and with good reviews. After some debate about the menus, we decided on Kadoya Japanese Restaurant. There were 6 of us there, 4 of us shared a "dinner for 4" ($54.95)while the other 2 got the large bento box ($16.50). Let me tell you, that is mounds and mounds of food, with waitresses coming to bring a never-ending supply of plates. The dinner for 4 started out with miso soup and typical Japanese salad. Nothing super special here. Solid. Next up was a mixed sashimi plate, the fish were very fresh. Presentation was not special, but the raw fish was good. Every piece was savory (salmon, eel, halibut, tuna and toro). Next up our rolls, we were allowed to choose two from the Chef's Recommendations. We chose the Sakura roll (tuna and scallop) and the Spider roll (imitation crab, soft shell crab, yam tempura). Both of these rolls were excellent quality with the Spider roll winning over my taste buds for the night. Next on the list, was the tempura, one piece of yam, shrimp and broccoli for the each of us. Nothing special about the tempura either. Next was the seafood fried rice, which was just fried rice in light soy sauce with seafood pieces haphazardly cooked together. The seafood here saved the dish, the rice itself was bland and tasteless, you had to hope that another piece of seafood would be in every bite. After we were all very full, the last plate came; the beef teriyaki (you can choose chicken). This was also a good dish, served sizzling on a hot plate with onions, bean sprouts, and cabbage, almost like a pad thai without the noodle. Overall, I would rate this place a 3.5/5 stars. The restaurant was a little small, the service was good, and the food mostly tasted good, just not the best I have had. Prices are mid-level, but the portions are huge on the bento boxes and large dinner combos.

The next day again we skipped breakfast, but this time in favor of eating a large and filling brunch in Chinatown. We ate at Jade Dynasty and had their dim sum.

This restaurant was situated in the heart of Chinatown. Again we partially made our decision based on Yelp, although we also stopped by the local cultural center and asked the Chinese people there which dim sum they recommended. Dim Sum here is done Honk Kong style, where you order from a menu and they go into the back and cook it and bring it out, unlike what goes on in most of southern California, where they bring carts of food out for you to choose from. Before 11 in the morning, although your choices are somewhat limited, every option is $2.09 per tapas style dish. Expensive by southern California standards, where in some places can be closer to one dollar per item, but cheap compared to their after 11 AM menu. We had a plethora of options shared amongst the 6 of us including shrimp shumai, beef hargow, BBQ pork buns, taro cakes, egg tarts, mango pudding, pork shumai, and more. All of this food was amongst the best in southern California, however the egg tarts, with the egg still steaming in the center, not quite gelled yet, was the most excellent I have tasted by far. The only real disappointment came from the bland mango pudding, isn't it usually served with condensed milk? Maybe that is what we get for going to a restaurant that advertises its vegetarian specialties. Overall a 4/5, partially getting docked for price.

That night, we were hankering for some burgers and to watch the Kings-Canucks game. We went to the Canadian chain restaurant The White Spot. Amazingly it was quite empty, all the hockey fans must have been out in force at the local pubs instead of the chain restaurants. We were immediately seated at a window table in a lounge like area with a fireplace and a large flat screen television. I had the Monty Mushroom Bigger Burger. It was your typical restaurant chain large gourmet burgers with endless fries. We also ordered a pitcher of pale ale. Everything here was good, but just your average chain restaurant tastes. Their triple "O" sauce was not all that special to me. With a name like that, I was expecting ecstasy, especially after walking all day and not having any snacks. 3.5/5 stars here. Service was friendly despite us rooting for the "wrong" team.

The next day was our conference presentation day, but that did not stop us from eating! We started out the day scouring through yelp and finally deciding on ramen (ramyun). Originally we wanted to eat at Kintaro Ramen Noodle with its 4 star rating and 100+ reviews on Yelp, but they were closed Mondays! We had to "settle" for the nearby Motomachi Shokudo, a mere 4 stars with 43 reviews. Motomachi is a very small ramen house, with one central table that could potentially seat 12 and 3-4 other 2-3 person tables. We were promptly seated New York style (with other guests) at the center table. All three of us ordered the Name-shoyu Ramen, I ordered it with extra oil in the broth. Included in the large bowl was one savory piece of pork (best I have tasted in ramen), bean sprouts, bamboo shots, a soft boiled egg, and other minor ingredients. The flavored oil served to make the broth more salty I think, and richer. This is actually one of the best Japanese ramen I have ever had. Everything was high quality. Prices are steep for ramen, but southern Californians are used to paying these prices for ramen (approximately 9 dollars). Overall a 4.5/5, getting docked only for the seating (or lack of) and price. Definitely a must visit if I am back in Vancouver. Some yelpers say Santouka or Kintaro are better, those might be worth a visit also if I am back.

That might, after our conference, we were taken out for eats by our attendings Gilbert and Jyoti. They even let us decide where to eat, and based on the recommendation of family of our friends, we decided to go to a Japanese tapas bar named Guu-izakaya. This review will be somewhat biased as I have never had Japanese tapas before, definitely not like this. The idea of tapas here is that each dish has enough food for 3-4 people to taste, while their noodle dishes are a little larger and more filling. I almost can't tell you exactly what we ate, but everything was absolutely delectable. The waitresses here yell in the orders to the sushi chef, of note the whole staff were women including the cooks. Typical Japanese was they greeted every entering guest with a friendly yell. What did we eat? Some sort of beef shashimi, beef tongue, kim-chi fried rice, shashimi salad, popeye salad, maguro ahi steak, korokke (boiled egg and pork croquette), grilled short ribs, deep fried chicken, and more from their specials menu! Everything was divine. Overall bill for 9 people plus a 3 year old was 160 dollars, even after 4 beers were ordered. Not too bad! Overall I would give this place 4.5/5 stars, leaving room for other tapas places that I may taste in the future. If you are not into the noise and this type of ambiance, you would probably get annoyed, but the food makes up for it in my personal opinion. Give it a try!

Afterward, we still had room for dessert, and decided to go to another Crepe Cafe. Again no disappointment here. I had the dark chocolate, strawberry crepe, and it was oh so good. Prices are sky high, but occasionally you just have to treat yourself to a wonderful crepe!

The next day we paid another visit to Granville Island, we ate at the same food court for lunch after skipping breakfast. Despite the hunger pangs hitting, my choice of pizza was a thorough disappointment. Sorry Pizza Pzazz, your pizza was old, crusty and bland. Even frozen pizzas cooked in my own oven tasted better than this (although more processed tasting). The saving grace came from the Terra Breads bakery where I got a blueberry focaccia. This was an excellent choice, focaccia bread topped with blueberries and powdered sugar. Both pizza and bread were pricey here, so you are probably better off eating elsewhere in Vancouver! Pizza place gets 1.5/5 stars. Terra Breads I can't give a complete review based on 1 bakery item, but if I were to score would get 3.5/5 stars.

While a couple of our friends decided to go high class for dinner at Cin Cin Italian Restaurant, the other group of us decided to save money and go for ghetto foods of Canada. First up Japadog, very famous hot dogs from a cart. Ice Cube, Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron and more celebrities have loved to eat from here. Their different sausages and hot dogs run you 5-7 dollars Canadian but the originality and taste here are definitely worth your price!

I ate 2 of these sausages/hot dogs! The first one was their Okonomi pork hot dog. It features what they call this the "Kobe beef" of pork, the kurobuta, it is topped with special sauce, fried bonito flakes that are still crinkling and moving when you first get your "dog", Japanese mayo and fried cabbage. That was definitely the best pork in a hot dog I have ever had! I topped off half of it with Rooster Sauce and that made it even better! My second hot dog was the Edamame infused Bratwurst named "Ume". This featured raw onions, special plum sauce, on top of a bratwurst with edamame pieces strategically infused inside. What a unique taste, again I added Rooster Sauce! It too was excellent, although I overall preferred the Okonomi. Wow, for you hot dog lovers out there, this is a must visit! My friend had the Cheese Terimayo and said that one was the best one! I can't wait to try to Kobe Beef hot dog on a future trip! Come open one in LA! Or better yet, they should do a roving food truck! I give it a 4.5/5, only negatives are long lines and its outdoor (so no dedicated seating).

Right afterward, on the recommendation of my good friends from Texas, we set out to find Poutine, a very Canadian fries drenched in cheese and gravy. Based on yelp reviews, the closest one was Fritz European Fry House. Here you find fries and pretty much nothing else, they also sell hot dogs.
How can you resist? French fries drenched in brown gravy with large cubes of stringy mozzarella cheese. This was an effort to eat after already having 2 Japadog hot dogs, but it was so good, we finished off a Jumbo size version between the three of us! Hard to give stars to a type of food I have never tasted before, however, given lack of selection, and the specialized nature of this Fry House, would give it a 3.5/5 stars.

Overall, I would rate Vancouver pretty high up on the cities with good food list. There is ample selection and most of it is higher in quality. Of course we were disappointed by the food court at Granville Island, but what can you really expect from a food court? Hope you enjoyed the report!

5 Day Vancouver Trip

This past weekend, I headed up to Vancouver, BC, Canada, for a conference for work. While there, there was ample time to look around and do the tourist thing. Here is a quick review of the city and sights (etc), while a separate review of the food is forthcoming!

First things first, Air Canada was our supplier of flights. No complaints from me here on Air Canada, they were the cheapest price available, do not charge for first checked bag, and each passenger has their own TV and sound. The only thing that I could potentially complain about, but is something that is becoming more and more standard, is the lack of food on a dinner flight on the way to Vancouver.

Upon landing in Vancouver, the ground was wet from light rain/drizzle. The taxi service from YVR airport to downtown Vancouver was relatively cheap, and took the five of us in one van. Thirty dollars later, both my group going to the Howard Johnson, and the other group going to the Century Plaza Hotel were checking in and dry.

The Howard Johnson on Granville in the Granville area of Vancouver is a supposed award winning hotel in the heart of downtown. Typical of any downtown budget hotel, one should assume a smaller room in an older building. That is what we got. The room measured maybe 20x12 ft. with a small bathroom. The elevators were small and crowded, enough for 6-7 people, but enough for only the three of us with luggage to carry. The hallways were tight but manageable. Upon entering the room, the door hits the near bed on the right. The air conditioning/heating is provided by a window unit, the noise from below very evident. The music from the clubs booming along and the frequent sirens picking up drunk folk blaring away. We still are unsure what noise was coming from the bathroom, was that squeak a dog in the room next door locked in the bathroom whimpering away, or was it the plumbing? At least we had a TV, granted it was a 19 inch CRT. On the good side, we had free wifi in our rooms, unlike those staying at the more expensive Century Plaza, who had to go to the lobby for free wifi. Another positive is free coffee and hot chocolate in the lobby.

So what tourist spots were we able to visit? Quite a few actually...

We got to the hotel late the first night, so we went out to eat and went straight to bed afterward. The first day commenced with a long walk to Granville Island. We walked over the bridge and 20 minutes later made it to the entrance of Granville Island.

Granville Island houses the local shops. No big name retailer is here. A robust farmer's market and art market with local crafts dot the island with several local theatre productions and other cultural options. The Farmer's market was quite impressive, with locally grown fruits, vegetables abound in the aisles as well as meats, seafood, pasta and more! The food court consisted of all sorts of options from German bratwurst to Italian to Chinese to vegetarian perogie. The price was a little on the high side for all these goods. The art shops were full of local craft, from Indian artifacts to sculpture artists to silk weavers. Another interesting and colorful aspect of Granville Island are the many local courtesans of music, providing entertainment for tips.

After lunch, we began our trek, walking Eastward around the bay on the Scenic bike/walking path. We passed many a condominium considered waterfront properties. Finally we walked past the Olympic Athlete Village from the Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010. Unfortunately it was fenced off, who knows what plans are for these buildings now.

Our first real tourist destination (one you have to pay for at least), was Science World. Science World is housed in a large geodesic dome on the east side of downtown. It is mainly full of kids and their parents learning about science. I would definitely recommend this site for children, but even adults could learn from the exhibits here. For about 20 dollars per adult, we spent 2-3 hours enjoying the exhibits, solving the puzzles and learning about science. Even for adults, the puzzles that abound inside are challenging and mind stimulating. For an extra 5 dollars or so, you could watch a science documentary inside the IMAX theater. This was well worth the money and definitely something to do with kids if not just by yourselves.

The rest of the day consisted of more walking, checking many of Vancouver's street art including modern art, wood carvings, and steelworks. We also happened to pass by the Edgewater Casino. True to form, it was a typical casino with slots and table games. Sweepstakes were being held to win multitudes of cars lined up front. The casino was clean and presentable. We were able to pass close by the BC Palace, where the opening and closing ceremonies were held and the GM Place which houses the ice rink where the Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks were playing their playoff hockey game.

BC Palace in foreground with GM place (The Garage) the white dome in background

Day 2 started out with a stroll to Chinatown; about a 20 minute walk from our hotels. It was initially raining quite hard on our way to Chinatown and continued that way until after Dim Sum brunch.

Chinatown here encompasses a small area approximately 2 blocks by 5 blocks, just south of the seedier areas of downtown Vancouver. The main attraction here outside of the food include Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park. This is a small park found in the heart of Chinatown, with several Chinese inspired architecture buildings and a pond.

On our way to ride the seabus to Northern Vancouver, we passed by the cobblestoned streets of Gastown. The famous attraction here the many novelty and souvenir shops as well as the first steam powered clock in the world.

For a mere $2.50 Canadian (lasts 90 minutes), we took a Seabus ferry and subsequently a bus to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. The bus could also take you up to Grouse Mountain if you wanted to visit that area. The Capilano Suspension Bridge is a 26 dollar Canadian experience (with AAA discount). It has recently (2006) been renovated since a large storm caused a humongous Douglas Fir to fall onto the bridge. You could even do a mini-scavenger hunt for a special surprise.

Upon crossing the bridge, you could choose to do a Nature Walk and a Treetop Adventure. The treetop adventure is amongst many platforms high in the trees strung together by smaller suspension bridges. The Nature Walk is a platform based walk down the hill about halfway to the river below. Both walk and adventure feature beautiful views and astounding scenery.

After scavenging stamps throughout the area, you will get this surprise!

For those of you seeking adventure, Capilano Suspension Bridge is likely not worth your money and you should just move forward and go skiing on Grouse mountain. For the nature buffs who enjoy scenery and views, the park is well worth the price of admission.

Our next stop was the salmon hatchery, a short mile walk from the suspension bridge. Due to trail closures, our mile ending up probably being 2 miles, but we made it. This used to be a bona fide stop on several bus tours, but now the souvenir shop is closed and hardly any buses come down the long hilly road. The hatchery is free! You can actually learn quite abit about salmon and how they are hatched here in the facility. Best of all, you are at ground level along the river and can enjoy the sights from below that you just saw from above at the Capilano suspension bridge.

We continued our journey with another bus ride back into town and back across to Vancouver proper by Seabus.

The next morning was the day of the conference, but before that we had lunch and took in some of the sights of Stanley Park. Stanley Park is a large green park that houses the Vancouver zoo and Aquarium. The park itself is free, but admission is charged for the latter two. There are large biking and walking paths that circumscribe the park. The views are beautiful.

The totem poles here were a very small area but impressive nonetheless.

The rest of the day was spent in conference and we had dinner together with our co-presenting attendings.

Our last full day in Vancouver featured another visit to Granville Island via the Aquabus ferry, which looks like a bathtub toy!

This was actually a little pricier than the Seabus, so we decided to do the 25 minute long mini-cruise for 7 dollars Canadian. The stops for the mini-cruise included Granville Island, Yaletown and then back to the original point on Hornsby Street. We spent more time searching the shops of Granville on this day and looking for souvenirs to bring home. Then we stopped in Yaletown, which is an old warehouse district now converted to a young "hip" area with high-end shops. We even saw places specifically for eyelash pulling and eyebrow plucking!

This is Yaletown, a view down its main street

On our way back to the hotel for a quick break, we were met with a sudden shower of hail!


The rest of the day was spent hiding out from the hail and then headed downtown for dinner and snacks. Here is a quick glimpse of downtown.

Of note, the end of April is close to Tulip Festival time for the city of Vancouver, so here are some tulips with carved wood in the background.

More Tulips

Overall, Vancouver is a fun place to visit. We ran out of things to do within our 4 day stay +1 conference day. If you would like to spend more time in Vancouver area, other things to do are visit Victoria, see some of the surrounding islands, or go skiing at Grouse or Seymour Mountains and for world class skiing at Whistler Resort. I enjoyed my time there and hopefully can take Pauline for a visit sometime in the future. The only thing I really could complain about is that on our way out, they didn't allow the 5 of us in one taxi again. They forced us to take 2 taxis, but we opted to walk four blocks and get on the subway. They had said the subway would be 10 dollars a person, what a scam! It was actually 3.75 a person, SHAME on you Vancouver Taxi Service for lying! On top of that, the trip there probably took the same amount of time as a taxi would.

Look in the near future for a report on the food of Vancouver!

Been awhile -- Prime Rib and Lobster House - Artesia

Back again with another food review! A couple weeks ago we ate at the Prime Rib and Lobster House on South St and near Pioneer in Artesia, CA. This hip restaurant used to be a Chinese place but now serves an American menu, although owned by a Pinoy guy. It resides in the corner of a strip mall next to an Asian market and other Asian restaurants, the same complex as Seafood Shack. The outside is unassuming, but the inside is well decorated. Parking is ample at least on this day, if it were a full house, parking would probably be a little difficult.

So untrue to form, we had neither the prime rib nor the lobster! I had the ribeye steak.

The steak was juicy and fatty, topped with fried onions. Sides I chose were mushrooms and garlic mashed potatoes. I enjoyed this overall. It doesn't rank with the steakhouses, but it is better than average. It was cooked to my preference of medium rare.

My wife went with the seafood soup: Bouillabaisse.

This was also pretty good. The sauce was a little heavy on tomato flavoring. There were abundant seafood though, 3-4 crab legs, 3-4 clams, a good portion of fish and 6-8 shrimp.

We both also had the soup. Mine was the lobster bisque and my wife's the vegetable beef. The lobster bisque was adequate, not as good as the one from Pappas Bros in Dallas. The vegetable beef was good but what is with everyone's fascination with putting celery into everything?

Overall would give the food 3.5 stars out of 5. The service was almost too attentive, given that only 3 tables were being served. The restaurant was clean and had a good look to it. Looks like a good spot to have a mini banquet. Probably would eat here again if there weren't so many places to try before I move away from Long Beach!

Six Flags Magic Mountain

So part of travel includes visits to amusement parks. I don't have any good pictures from this day, but I will review the day.

Background: I am a roller coaster fanatic, and yet it had been at least 5 years since my last visit to Six Flags. The last "new" roller coaster I rode was Deja-Vu. So the goal of this romp was to ride everything else that has appeared since then. That goal was mostly achieved and it was a fun day despite the crowds.

Even before the trip I knew West Coast coaster bash was going on, and that it was spring break for the school crowd. Those two factors alone would make this a day for line standing. We entered the amusement park and met some friends at the lockers. We made our trek around counter-clockwise after that.

We started at the awe inspiring Goliath. I had been on Goliath maybe twice before and can say it really hasn't changed. Still fast and that first drop is a monster! Excellent roller coaster. I always have fun on this one, and big ++ is it only has lap bars! We waited maybe 20 minutes to ride Goliath. This probably gave me the most feeling of lightness once we got up off the coaster on this day.

The next stop was Riddler's Revenge. The green stand-up coaster. We waited in line maybe 15 minutes, and then rode the beast. We literally walked straight up to the loading queues for this one. Riddler's was slightly rough and provided a little bit of head-banging, but otherwise was fun.

Our non-official guide took us past Terminator due to his disdain of wooden coasters, I guess that "new" coaster would have to wait for another time for me. We went to Deja-Vu. After waiting for 30 minutes, the coaster broke down. We decided to keep on moving rather than wait.

We finally hit some of the new coasters I was looking forward to! First up, the flying coaster, Tatsu! This coaster is supposed to mimic flying like a dragon, or maybe riding a dragon. You start in a sitting position, then in the station, they flip you down to superman position. You go up the lift hill like this, watching as the floor below slowly gets further and smaller. After a relatively quick lift hill, the coaster starts with a "freefall" type drop which was amazing given the position you were in, it felt somewhat how I would assume skydiving feels except you are strapped in. I couldn't tell you about the rest of the ride, but it was definitely smooth and felt like you were flying. My favorite coaster of the day! Too bad it was an hour plus wait time.

For our last coaster of the day we went to X2 - the 4D coaster. This line was 90 minutes or even longer. The fourth dimension in this sitting coaster is that the seats rotate also while you are on the tracks. This one, you go up the lift hill backwards and down and up the first little hump backwards before the seats rotate you facing straight downwards for the initial drop. Similar to Tatsu, this initial drop is flying straight down almost like skydiving before leveling out. After that, the coaster takes various turns and curves at over 70 MPH, and this was the only coaster that actually made me grab the restraints a couple times. It just felt out of control at times. That would normally make me give this coaster the highest of marks... but all the head-banging I experienced here knocked its score down. Great coaster, just wished it was smoother. I also missed the effects, I wonder if there are minimal fire and fog effects during the day, those things being more visible at night/dusk.

My wife and I had to go home early this day, so we stopped for a churro (wasn't very good), and they took off. 4 rides in 6 hours. Sounds like a typical summer day at Six Flags and yet it was in spring. Overall fun times, and probably satisfies my coaster fix until I have kids that are grown up enough to go.

Mugaboka - Korean BBQ in Harbor City

Mugaboka is near work, but I have never tasted this Korean BBQ place before. After Six Flags (reviewed next), my wife and I decided to have dinner at Korean BBQ. Since this place was somewhere along the route, we decided to try it and its 16.99 All You Can Eat BBQ. It is located in an unassuming place, not really close to other Korean establishments. The parking is small.

So we arrived there, hungry after not really eating any lunch, actually even in a slight stupor with lack of sugar in our systems. They sat us right away in the front area where the BBQ takes place. In back, they have a more traditional Korean restaurant with stews, soups and tofus. We ordered and there started our grill!

There is our grill with some included sides ... pickled radish, pickled cucumber, kim chi, rice flour cakes, and fish cakes. Yum! They also had a potato salad and seaweed sides.

For a table for 2, they allowed us to pick 4 items as a start, we started with Pork chops, beef tripe, marinated squid and marinated spicy pork. The pork chop and tripe shown here were the star of the 4. The marinated meats were on the sour side, and the squid was not as fresh as I would like.

Black pork belly, YUM! This was good! Also decent here was the boiling egg soup that was included.

This is where things turned wrong.... on our second order, we ordered the black pork belly and then the other three we ordered were I think ... large intestine (pictured), small intestine and stomach. We usually like the fried intestines at restaurants, but eating these were just wrong. They were chewy tubes that couldn't be broken down with slimy interiors. Just thinking about what the inside of an intestine usually holds makes me lose my appetite when trying to eat these. The small intestine is a smaller version of the above, same taste, same aftertaste, same result, yech! The stomach had less of the stench and odor, but still had a horrid aftertaste. We trucked on and on, piece after piece, trying to avoid the 18.99 surcharge for leaving food on the table. We couldn't finish, we failed.

Dinner was finished off with a tea that had rice in it and maybe ginger. Despite having the horrid aftertaste of intestine in our mouths, and our stomachs unable to fit anymore, the tea filtered through rather well, calming the insides and leaving us happy going out the door. Plus on top off that they did not charge the extra fee for food leftover..... (maybe because intestines aren't considered food!)

Overall a good experience, and relatively cheap for all you can eat in the South Bay. Lots of sides and the meat is fresh. One thing, stay away from the intestine! Well, my culinary palette sure doesn't support eating these, or maybe we need to go with someone who knows how to make these things correctly. Maybe small crisp pieces is the way to go? 3 stars out of 5 for this restaurant, would probably make 3.5 out of 5 if we hadn't ordered those darned innards.

Orochan - the famous

Well, finally we had time to get to J Town and hit up Orochan, the quasi famous ramen place. Why famous? It was featured in Man vs. Food on the Travel Channel, specifically for its spicy ramen challenge! In fact on their website, its the #5 top episode!

Alas, all the hoopla, but yet we were quite disappointed. So the backstory, if you can finish the spicy ramen special #2 which is 2 levels higher than their original spiciest ramen, within 30 minutes, than your picture goes up on the wall of fame. Being Indonesian, and seeking spicy food, we decided to go there and try this.

Place: This is J Town, so obviously parking, although easy to find, was expensive. The restaurant itself is a small place in a 3 story complex, above another ramen place. Even from the floor below, you could smell the chili powder. It is a relatively small restaurant, with enough seating for 35-40 in tight quarters and decor is modern lines but not materials and simple. It was a full restaurant on this weekday lunch, but we were seated at the last available table almost immediately. Seated beside us, 2 men had just finished the special #2 ramen challenge.One immediately took off for the bathroom, the other turned multiple shades of red then pale in his seat. Both got their pictures and their spots on the wall of fame.

Food: Well, its ramen, but I will show you our table's 3 orders and you can see the difference between the spiciness levels.

This was #5 on the scale up to ten of the original spicy ramens. Look at the lack of jalapenos and miso colored soup broth.

I wimped out, I decided to make sure my food was edible and had the #1, it is the original spiciest of the ramens, but now they have 2 special ramen above this one. Notice, the jalapenos.

Ah, my wife ordered the famed special #2. The contest special. Note the blood red broth and the excessive amount of jalapenos. Oh and don't forget to note the toxic looking bubbles.

Impression: I try not to be biased, but here we go... All 3 ramen were slightly on the bland side, losing the miso flavor of the broth. The noodles were undercooked and stuck together. What made it worse, was that the jalapenos tasted funny .... So anyway, all 3 ramens we ordered a side of corn in them (ala Brittany Murphy's "The Ramen Girl"), the #5 and #1, were finished pretty much, the portions were huge. I will have to say that the #1 was underwhelmingly spicy. It tickled the taste buds although if the powder got stuck in your throat or in your nose, an immediate cough/sneeze attack would ensue. The special #2, tasted like pure chili powder topped off with jalapenos. The miso flavor was totally lost. My wife could not finish it, she did not make the wall of fame. Indonesians are more used to spicy from fresh chili peppers and not the powders.

The afterthought: Something that day was not very fresh, and I could only narrow it down to

jalapenos. The person who had the #5 did not have an problems with keeping her food in.
Warning: may be too descriptive or too much info for some people.
I ate the #1 and ended up with "the runs" later that afternoon, it wasn't even the spicy kind after eating spicy foods. My wife, 5 minutes after leaving the restaurant, threw up her lunch into a nearby planter.

The conclusion: Yes this place is famous, yes this place has a challenge, yes this place is relatively cheap for the large portions you get. On the down side, the ramen is much better at Santouka, and even slightly better at Ajisen Ramen, Aji man in San Gabriel, Gaja kitchen in Harbor City and even at Teri Bamboo in Long Beach. The further down side is something was not fresh and caused sickness in us that day, and wasn't the chili powder of the spicy level. I would not go here again, next time in J town, maybe we should try the curry, or the BBQ, or even the Ramen place downstairs from here. 2 stars out of 5 today, 2.5 starts if the food didn't cause the sickness.

East 180 in Diamond Bar

Back to blogging once again! Its been a couple weeks since my last post. Today we review East 180, a converted Sizzler into modern Chinese restaurant, the interior conversion was absolutely unbelievable. You would not believe this used to be a Sizzler. Plenty of free parking was available. Service was average at best. We were able to arrive somewhat before the dinner crowd on the night we went. Plus it was a weekday night.

So here is what we had:

It looked like Lemon chicken, tasted like Orange peel chicken but was actually grapefruit chicken!

This chicken was dry, and kind of bland. They called it an award winning recipe, it that is the case, maybe it was someone else's recipe that they tried to produce.

Fried Calamari

You can never go wrong with salted fried calamari; and it did not disappoint here. Crispy and salty calamari, even with the tentacles (those who get squeamish beware!)

Pan Fried Green beans and ground pork

This was cooked pretty well also. Green beans and pork both were fresh. The taste could have been a little spicier but otherwise it was good.

I think this was filet mignon beef cubes. I don't remember exactly what this dish was nor how it tasted, so it must have been nothing special. Apologize for the blurry picture on this one, my point and shoot requires the photographer to be completely still when the surroundings are dark.

Overall, this would be a good place to eat if you lived somewhere where Asian food is rare. However, with nearby Rowland Heights, I would say this place pales far in comparison, and on top of that, charges 1.5x-2x the price! Yes, you don't have to deal with the traffic nor the crowds, but all in all, I am not coming back to eat here. 2 stars out of 5 for me. The food is more Asian Fusion that authentic and not very good at that.

Dallas Trip Food

Coming to Dallas Texas, we wondered what we were gonna do. Obvious answer to the question is eat! Where did we go? Well here it all is, in one simple post...

Day one lunch, went to the Galleria food court and found 'la Madeleine' a little French cafe with cute decor. Wife and our friend had the fish and I had the chicken crepe riviera, check out their website for details. Overall, the dishes were satisfactory but not mind blowing. I am no expert in Fench cuisine however, so I'll defer the real review to those that are.

No pictures from the next place either, but we stopped for snacks at a cute little bakery in Highland Park Village called Celebrity Cafe and Bakery. The place was like the "Serendipity" of Dallas. Order your cookies, pastries and coffee/tea downstairs and go on upstairs to enjoy them. The cookies were excellent, not overly sweet.

Day one dinner, we went to a steakhouse that was on the list of best steakhouses in America in our Spirit in-flight magazine. I had the New York steak and wifey had the Ribeye, ordered both to our preference cooked medium-rare. Here are those steaks!:

The Ribeye

The New York

As you can see, the meat was cooked to perfection. As you can read on their website, they prepare their steaks with butter, salt and pepper. Simple, yet so tasty. The Ribeye was a bit over-salted, but the New York was excellent. We also had a lobster bisque that didn't turn out so good in photographs, but that tasted awesome. It had plenty of real lobster bits in it, with a slight spice to the bisque. If I were to take people to Dallas, I would definitely recommend coming here if your budget allows. It will cost you 35 dollars per steak (14-16 oz), extra for family style sides, soup and drinks. For some reason 14-16 oz here is much larger than 14-16 oz that we usually get in other restaurants in California ..... The decor inside the restaurant was simple and the lighting was left somewhat dark, typical of steakhouses. The restaurant itself is huge and there is plenty of room in-between tables and booths. Overall a good experience! 4.5/5.0 stars.

Day two was a "rest" day in terms of eating out, but I give two thumbs up to the cooking of Novita for lunch (lontong cap gomeh) and our hosts (empal + sambal terasi). Excellent dishes from the group, these Texans can cook Indo food!

Day three hung out with the Tins, lunch was had at Pappas Brothers sister establishment Pappadeaux, a seafood version of their steakhouse. We went to the one near Richardson, Texas I think. Decor was typical seafood establishment, with pictures and props resembling what might be found in the sea. Food, well the food, we will let some pictures show you:

What is this? Chicken? Pork? Nope, its Alligator! This appetizer was an absolute delight. The lightly fried and salted alligator was tender with a texture like chicken, but with a slightly seafood type taste very unlike chicken. The fries on the side were cut thin and all were crisp and fresh.

Oysters! 12 large gulf oysters for 4 dollars! The sauces it came with included simple cocktail sauce, some Asian type sweet and sour sauce and horseradish. Tasted good, just remember they are raw!

My wife's wood baked tilapia was excellent; fresh and tasty with good sized portions. The beans were crisp and fresh also. Dish topped off shrimp!

Blackened fish po'boy was a little bit of a disappointment coming off the rest of the food here, but it was well cooked, the ingredients were fresh. It came with some gumbo which was the bigger disappointment, it was more sour than spicy. Overall, Pappadeaux impressed us, and if we are ever back around Texas, it will have to be a stop on our trip. 4.5/5 stars on this one.

In the stockyards we stopped for a snack, good old Texas fries and some fried pickles; Stuff we Californians usually taste once a year at the county fair.

That night, we were invited out to the Magic Time Machine, an interesting concept in food.... or at least in serving food. This is a large establishment that had an hour wait time on a Saturday night. We spent that hour upstairs in the lounge, inside a neon lit jail cell, chatting it up. Once we were called in, we noticed the strange decor and the outfits of the servers.

The cast of Sesame Street joined us for dinner, watching from above; Bert, Ernie, Cookie Monster were all there. Our waiter was dressed as Woody from Toy Story. The salad bar was placed on top of an old style car, not quite sure what media forum that car was from. Around the restaurant you could see a people eating in a large school bus, a crayola box, little mushroom houses. Servers were dressed as Snow White, Cinderella, Bat girl, the phantom from phantom of the opera, etc. What a fun place, would be even better with kids (as long as they weren't too young and were scared). The food?

My wife and I shared this plate of pork ribs and prime rib. Prime Rib was sub-par and the pork ribs tasted pretty good, on par with was you get at the big chain restaurants like Lucille's. If you want prime rib, stick to Lawry's, granted you would pay much more. Magic Time Machine will put you down 15-20 dollars per person before drinks, but the decor and atmosphere are well worth the "show" for that price. I would recommend going at least once here. Score this 4/5 stars for the ambiance and 3/5 stars for the food.

Last day in Texas, we had a quick stop at First Chinese BBQ Carrolton. They had roast pork/duck, and BBQ pork (char siu). The roast pork tasted good but not as crisp as the ones you would find in LA. The char siu was well cooked and tender. Wonton soup was a tad bit on the salty side. The Seafood crispy noodle was excellent as was the seafood hotpot. I'd give this place 4/5 stars for their food and quick service. Sorry no pictures of these foods, but typical Chinese food looks by all means.

Last but definitely not least, we stopped by a certain bakery 3 times over our quick trip to Dallas and it deserves to be mentioned. This bakery, called Mozart's bakery and cafe, is a bakery with internet cafe where you can get boba iced teas (tapioca balls), and delicate Korean pastries. All of their pastries that we tried were really good, the only disappointment coming from the mochi with red bean paste inside. 4.5/5 stars for this establishment. A definite must go for you dessert lovers!

Well, that was our foodie trip to Dallas, hope you all have enjoyed reading and looking at the pictures. Maybe this will help some of you choose where to go to eat in Dallas!

Travel Time - Dallas, Texas!

Last weekend was an opportune time for a vacation, off to Dallas my wife and I went, to visit old friends. Our pre-trip questions were, what is there to do in Dallas? When we told our colleagues and friends about our trip to Dallas, they wondered the same thing ... we would just say 'short trip to visit friends'. So what did we do? Our 4 days there can mostly be compiled into one post, the foodstuffs will deserve a separate post. So here is what we did:

Dallas a week before we left had 1 foot of snow fall upon them, but on our visit there, there was no more snow to play in. Here is an outdoor view of the AA arena, the Mavs play here ... I think.

The Reunion Tower from afar:

Our first stop was Dealey Plaza, the famous plaza where JFK was assassinated. Along those lines, we went to the JFK museum, the Sixth Floor Museum. A little pricey for what we saw, but overall a good experience, and for you conspiracy theorists, a good visit to fuel your fire.

Later that night, we went out with our friends' to one of the best steakhouses in America, per some magazine, Pappas Brothers. That review will be on the separate Dallas foodies page upcoming.

The next day, we visited the Beverly Hills of Dallas, Highland Park. The high-end shops were there along with mansions galore.

That night, lunch was a get together with my wife's old high school friends .... I will call it the Joy Luck Club! It was a bunch of wives taking care of their young kids getting together for lunch. Boy was I out of place! For dinner, the friends we were staying with cooked empal (very spicy style). Yummy! Afterwards we shot hoops with the Indo Boys at Prestonwood church. If you thought California megachurches were large, this was something else. A gym with fitness area, multiple ellipticals, weights, and a gymnasium with three full courts for basketball.

Day 3 in Dallas, went to Pappadeaux with one of my old friends and hung out with him the rest of the day. We went to the Fort Worth Stockyards:

I am sure plenty of comments and jokes can come from this sign ....

I tried to take one of these:

and I ended up here:

Here is the famous maze from Amazing Race 5:

Dinner was at Magic Time Machine.

The next day, before taking off back to LA, we went to First Chinese BBQ Restaurant, a taste of home (Los Angeles), kind of. Then back to LA we traveled.

Tune in tomorrow for the Dallas Foodie Review!

Thanks to our gracious hosts, you are a beautiful couple and soon to be +1! Good luck and best wishes. Thanks to my old friends for showing us a wonderful time, we'll miss you all and hopefully can do this again sometime.