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.

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!

Back to Blogging

So work had tied me up for awhile, and then got lazy (hey at least I'm truthful), but now back by somewhat popular demand. First post back is a shout out to those that support this blog and want to see it continue.

Work has sucked in a lot of ways, not to mention missing the wedding of the closest cousin to me. It has been almost one year since his marriage in Honk Kong, and we were to meet once again at Slater's 50/50 in Anaheim Hills. It would be the first time to see his wife and to top of it she is expecting! The excitement built but alas it was not to be, a work conference call took precedence and his Kitty could not make it, but at least the cousins got to hang out.

Slater's 50/50 is a typical burger joint/sports bar, with many a flat screen TV hanging on the walls and beers of all sorts on the menu. The burgers are the specialty here, all sorts of burgers, one with 1/2 beef and 1/2 bacon! A meat lover's paradise. You can even design your own burger!

So what did my wife and I have? We both designed our own burgers:

The wife had the third pounder 1/2 beef, 1/2 bacon patty, Atkins style (no bun), topped with roasted red peppers, red onions, grilled onions, and baconnaise sauce.

My masterpiece is the spicy lover's dream, a third pounder fire patty with pepper jack cheese, topped with grilled onions, dill pickle chips, jalapenos and roasted green chile finished off with a chipotle mayo sauce.

The appetizer we all shared and it was the combination of french fries, sweet potato fries, fried pickle chips, onion strings, fried artichoke hearts and their vampire dip (made of garlic, mozzarella, parmesan and artichoke). It was so good, we didn't get the opportunity to take a photo before it was all eaten!

Overall, (and this is a flashback to my peeps from Guadalajara), the burgers did not quite make the taste grade of Bernie's, but it is one of the best here in the States that I have had. I'd say it beats Fuddrucker's hands down. It was a good eating experience, and having the Laker game in the background doesn't hurt either.

P.S. Congrats John and Kitty on the pending newborn!

Eat at Joe's

Well, they other day we came across a coupon for one of Joe's Crab Shack's new steampots. This is the one they have commercials on. 6 different steampots representing different areas of the US. The coupon however only worked for the classic steampot. You can't beat FREE!

Joe's Crab Shack has always been a favorite of ours, like this type we usually go to the City of Industry, CA location. We are both crab lovers, in the past our favorite item was the bucket of dungeoness crab done BBQ style. But on this day, we decided to split a steampot and grab an appetizer.

Our appetizer was the great balls of fire.

Can't go wrong with crab, jalepeno, and shrimp balls deep fried to a golden brown

These were excellent. The shrimp/crab ration was adequate, and for Americans would not be too spicy. They were a tinge spicy for the Indonesian tongue. The french fries were cooked well, skin on, not too greasy.

The classic steampot was next and last for us on this day:

Classic Steampot - Alaskan Snow Crab, Dungeness Crab, smoked sausage, potatoes and corn

Nice presentation, a large maybe 12" diameter steaming pot, with the food placed on a large green fishing net. A side of butter which was not needed at all. The red potatoes were your standard steamed red potatoes. The corn was a bit disappointing, it stuck to your teeth when eaten off the cob and squirted all sorts of juices when cut through. The crab though, was excellent. It was not quite as good as our usual BBQ style crab, but the saltiness was still there and the ocean taste was not too strong. The crab meat was plentiful and cooked to perfection.

We had to choice but to:

The Good: Crab good but not quite as good as the BBQ style
The Bad: Corn
Overall: Pretty good experience 4 out of 5 stars in my book. A tip here: if you print out those steampot coupons, make sure you use dark ink, the marks they are looking for security include the veri logo on the far right, and the little dotted line below the expiration date. Make sure those appear!
Also, usually if you go at night, this location has a person making balloon animals and the waiting staff do dances. There is a special um ..... "non edible treat" for the persons celebrating special occasions.

Jerry's Dogs - La Habra

What a nice vacation in the Bahamas overall, this is our farewell day of the Bahamas. We flew, we swam, we ate and ate and ate. What else could you ask for? Let's give the Bahamas a farewell!

The Good: Beaches, Restaurants had good food and plentiful portions, weather (we missed any potential tropical storms despite being in the rainy season), fun sights, watersports
The Bad: Prices in general were expensive, 4 dollar a gallon gas, 6 dollar a gallon milk, 5 dollar bottles of juice, 110 dollar water park
The Nitty Gritty: If you are a fan of crystal blue waters and white sand beaches, the Bahamas is for you! Depending on what else is on your list of things to do, you would stay in different areas of the Bahamas.



The day after we arrived home from the Bahamas, my wife and I decided to go out and get some good old American hot dogs. This is one of the only places I would pay more than 5 dollars for a hot dog... a dodger dog or that celeb hang out Pink's just doesn't cut it for me! Jerry's Dogs is a twice a year trip for my wife and I, we drive way out of our way to La Habra for these hot dogs and sausages!

Simple Jerry's Dogs storefront

What makes Jerry's Dogs so good? Of course it is their hot dogs and sausages! Here they wood fire grill your meat to perfection and then after that, it is all up to you to request whatever you want from their large list of "toppings".


This is their Bavarian bratwurst topped with grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, grilled peppers, Chipotle Mayo sauce, 2 pickle spears in a lightly toasted bun. I am jonesing to go again just writing about it!



This is my wife's spicy hot link with grilled sport peppers, onions, lettuce, grilled onions, jalepenos and bacon bits on a lightly toasted bun. yummy!

What else do they have there? They do have other things on their menu, including side dishes.

Their home made potato chips - very crispy deep fried goodness with skin attached

Our lunch for 2 set us back a mere 13 dollars, granted we did not buy drinks and just had the free water. Also freely available, is peanuts! A couple large TV's and this place could be a very busy sports bar.

The Good: Wood fired hot dog and sausages, every visit is different with your own customizations to the toppings, deep fried side dishes are fresh
The Bad: none really; but could make a case for only one small co-ed bathroom, and not enough seating given the crowds that usually here
Overall: As my gushing review dictates, Jerry's Dogs is the pinnacle of hot dog goodness, everyone should stop by for a try (although I believe there is no vegetarian fare here).
Give it 5 out of 5 stars because it is the best place of its kind I have ever been to.