She Bangs! - Boiling Crab!

Ah, have missed this place. First time eating at The Boiling Crab since my blog came into existence. The Boiling Crab has been a favorite of ours since our first visit there. This is the place where the wait is actually worth the food! On a drizzling Sunday afternoon, we headed to the Boiling Crab in Garden Grove on Brookhurst. To our surprise, at 4 in the afternoon, there was an hour wait already! We placed our names on the wait list and went to the local Chinese market to pass the time. We finished at the market, and only had to wait 10 minutes more, before we were seated and ordered away!

What did we have? 1 pound of shrimp, 1 pound of crawfish, 1 small (2.5 pound) dungeness crab, 12 pieces of sausage, 2 pieces of corn all drenched in their oh so yummy the whole sha-bang sauce, XXX spicy of course. We topped it all off with XXX spicy cajun fries. Here are some pictures:

Crawfish! - Awww, how cute it looks .... going into my mouth! Most people probably eat this de-shelled, I am too lazy, it twas eaten whole!


Da Shrimp! - Yum, yum, yum!


Crawfish in the Sha-bang sexy sauce!

So for those who have not tried Boiling Crab, they have a very simple menu. The most popular items are steamed and come in one of their 4 special sauces, or their most popular option, a combo of all 4 sauces! Each sauce comes in 4 spice levels! The sauce is a spicy BBQ sauce with lots and lots of garlic, so if you want to attract Edward Cullen's kind, better to stay away from here! So how was it?

Once again, it was well wroth the 1 hour wait. Although I couldn't feel my mouth and my intestinal tract will be feeling this for days, the palette was definitely satisfied. Everything but the crab was brought in first. The crawfish was good but with the amount of meat you get, probably not worth the amount we paid for them. The shrimp were were fresh and excellent tasting. At 8.99 a pound, well worth the wait and the price. Even before eating the crab, we were satisfied! The corn and sausage were good but nothing too special if it weren't drenched in that oh so yummy sauce. The cajun fries were very spicy, and probably covered in too much of the powder version of their sauce, causing a cough. The taste was delectable though. The star arrived last, and the star was the crab. A 2.5 pound dungeness crab steamed and then drenched in their sha-bang sauce arrived at our table and the remainder of the food literally became side dishes.

Overall, the 61 dollars after tax and tip that we spent was well worth it. We had leftovers to eat for another meal. Parking is ample here at this location and restaurant space is large especially compared to what we have seen in Alhambra on Valley Blvd. I highly recommend Boiling Crab if you are a seafood lover, garlic lover or spicy lover. This is one of the few places where when we ask for it spicy as it gets, we are actually challenged by the spice level. (quick warning: if you order it that way, you pay for it, whether you are able to eat it or not). As they say, "make a cow happy, EAT SEAFOOD!" and "You sucked what where?"

Java Spice!

Off we went, to the namesake of my wife's birthplace, the large island of Java. Hopefully to find Indonesian food that can curb the cravings of my wife's palette. This review is for Java Spice, in Yes! Plaza in Rowland Heights. Overall it did its job, and the "need" to go to Indonesia just for the food has subsided somewhat. This little restaurant is a clean family owned restaurant, filled on a Saturday night with a mixed crowd of traditional Indonesians, Caucasians and Dutch diners. During our stay there, there even was a line waiting outside. Here is what we had:

Weekend Special: Nasi Bungkus (Wrapped Rice)

Kankung on Sizzling Platter

Ikan Pecel Lele

Pretty much everything we ate was a weekend special. Pricier than we thought it would be, but for an authentic taste of Java, it was pretty good. The Nasi Bungkus essentially is rice, chicken, beef, tofu, an egg, and some semi-spicy sauce wrapped in a banana leaf. Personally, I thought this dish compares to every other similar dish from other places that I have had. It was good, but not anything you can't find at other Indonesian restaurants.

The veggie dish, kankung is ong-choy served in a sauce of garlic and trasi (dried shrimp paste). Also served on this plate were 3 quail eggs and 5-6 medium sized shrimp. Usually one of favorite veggie dishes, this dish was sub-par today, I favor the one at Indo Kitchen in San Gabriel. Maybe not enough shrimp paste in this one? 13.00 for a veggie dish is kind of steep too.

The ikan pecel lele is the dish that brought back my wife to the streets of Java. It is catfish, fried, with ample sweet and spicy chile sauce. A couple of cucumber slices dotted the large mortar. The fish was tasty and not overdone, while the spicy chile sauce made the dish what is is.

Overall, eating at Java Spice was a good experience and one I am sure we will repeat sometime. The service was scattered at times due to the hustle and bustle. The 10 tables or so were waited by two waiters, although only one was technically a waiter. Food was brought our from the kitchen by one of the cooks. The food was tasty and had a bit too much MSG or salt. Since it saved us a trip to Indonesia (at least for the time being), I'd say good value! (despite the 40 dollar price tag for 2).

Tasty Garden, Alhambra

Wanted to take the in-laws to "The Boiling Crab", but the 1 hour wait just wouldn't do, so we drove down the street to find a little place called Tasty Garden. Weird as it was, it was in the same complex as Garden Cafe, although the food for the most part was totally different. Tasty garden is a more authentic type restaurant whereas Garden Cafe is an Asian Fusion type restaurant.

The food was good. Parking adequate on this night at least. First things first, there is a strange stench when walking into the restaurant, I am still not sure what that stench is from. Granted I am not a great connoisseur of smell, however, I expect the odors of a restaurant to be from its food.

Here is some of the things we had:

Honk Kong Style waffles

Crab Balls

Fried Frog Legs

Clams in Wine and Spicy Broth

For me, the waffles were great, as were the frog legs and crab balls. The clams were not up to par compared to the rest of the dishes and the tofu (not pictured) with shrimp was way too salty. All in all, the food tended toward the salty, but otherwise tasted good. I am thinking maybe alot of MSG? Myself (probably because I am so Americanized), I prefer Garden Cafe over Tasty Garden, but Yelpers out there seem to prefer this place. Check it out and decide for yourself!