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!