Sunday, January 31, 2010

California: Half and Half Tea House (San Gabriel)

Back Blogging #7:

Our last stop before the airport was for bubble tea at Half and Half Tea House in San Gabriel. The allure of honey boba was just too much for me to resist!

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We had a bit of a rough time finding the place, but I place that squarely on the gps! Ok…it was really me, I input the wrong address. =( I actually started freaking out a bit, thinking that we might not make it back to LAX in time for our flight, all because of bubble tea.

Anyways, we made it there despite some setbacks! Like most of the places we went to eat this vacation, it was a small café tucked away in a strip mall. There were a bunch of people just hanging around outside and some gamers inside playing DOTA (woot gamers!). The atmosphere was easy going and very laid back, I’d go here just to curl up with a book and a cup of bubble tea.

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Another one of those infamous pictures where if you squint really hard you can see me in the reflection! …And yes, that IS a penguin hat that I’m wearing.

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I ordered a honey boba tea and my boyfriend had an almond boba tea. (Almond Boba tea pictured below)

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The almond tea was great, it had a great flavor and wasn’t overwhelmingly sweet. The honey one was a mixed bag. The tea itself was a bit bland, but the honey boba was AMAZING! Heck, if I could just order a cup full of the honey boba itself I would have. They solve the entire problem I have with boba, the tapioca balls are usually just bland and add a chewy textural element to bubble tea. But the honey boba truly had flavor, an attitude of their own! In the end I should have ordered an almond bubble tea with honey boba. ^_^ Next time Gadget, next time!

I also ordered a piece of milk toast (no, it wasn’t called that, but it’s the best description that I can think of).

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This was also pretty yummy, like a piece of French toast, just probably slightly drier (not to say this toast was dry, it really wasn’t). I’d kill for some honey boba in the bubble teas here in Florida…


Half & Half Tea House
120 N. San Gabriel Blvd.
San Gabriel, CA 91775
(626) 309-9387
Half & Half Tea House on Urbanspoon

California: Wurstkuche, speciality sausages (Los Angeles)

Back Blog #6:

We wanted to visit Royal/T but once again we were thwarted because I didn’t pay attention to hours/days of operation and they were closed on Mondays. Instead, we then headed to Wurstkuche for lunch. Specialty sausages, for the win!

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Don’t let this brightly colored front fool you into thinking that you can’t possibly drive by this place and miss it, because you can. In fact we did and I was specifically looking for that striped door!

Parking is pretty bad here, it’s all street parking and some of it you aren’t allowed to park by. One of the patrons let us know that we were parked in a “no parking” spot, the first time we stopped the car.

We went in and I started to stare intently at the display case full of specialty sausages.

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So many choices, but eventually I decided to try the rabbit, veal, and pork sausage seasoned with white wine. My boyfriend bought an alligator, pork, and smoked andouille sausage. Our friend tried out the duck and bacon with jalapeno peppers. We also got two different sauces, the pesto and curry ketchup.

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Clearly we needed liquid refreshment, so we bought a bottle of sarsaparilla and sweet blossom soda.

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The sweet blossom wasn’t too great, just a forgettable sweet soda. The sarsaparilla tasted like root beer, but less sweet. Next time though, I would just opt for a regular soda. ^_^

Anyways, with our drinks in hand we took our number and moved down the long bricked hallway to the dining area. Someone made an analogy of walking down that hallway to walking down a dark alleyway from a horror movie. XD If only I wasn’t afraid of the dark…but never fear, the light of the dining area was not too far off!

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I thought the dining area was quite breath taking. But then again I like the clean, slightly modern and industrial look. Seating was like eating at a picnic pavilion at a park, long tables with butcher paper covering the top. There were also some smaller tables along one side of the wall on a slightly raised platform.

If I was a beer lover, I probably would have been in heaven judging my the multitude of choices offered just staring at the beer tap. Alas, I don’t drink and neither do I intend to start (which some people see as a killjoy, but I just don’t enjoy alcohol =( ).

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So we sat down, had a nice conversation and waited for our food. About 10 minutes later our sausages and fries arrived!

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They even write on the parchment paper the type of sausage that it is! Pictured in the image above are the rabbit/veal/pork and the gator/pork/andouille. We ordered the fries with truffle oil, but the oil was so subtle that we couldn’t taste enough of a difference to warrant the extra money spent (as compared to our friend’s French fries).

The rabbit sausage though it wasn’t lacking in flavor was sadly a bit too dry for my tastes. The gator was a bit chewy, but still yummy! The best hotdog however was our friend’s duck and bacon sausage which was tender, juicy, and succulent. I guess we should have known, since the age old saying is that “bacon makes everything better.” However, I’m guessing that the duck was the key ingredient here!

Overall it was a fun visit, the ambiance was great, the food was moderately priced, and you don’t get the chance everyday to try sausages with meats like alligator, duck, rabbit, rattlesnake, etc.


Wurstkuche
800 E. 3rd St.
Los Angeles, CA, 90013
(213) 687-4444
Wurstküche on Urbanspoon

California: Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles (Long Beach)

Back Blog #5:

Our last day in California and there was still a lot of eating planned! The entire weekend was a food marathon basically. ^_^ Anyways, we wanted to check out a Roscoe’s chicken and waffles while we were in the area. Apparently there’s a ton of Roscoe’s about, but we were told to frequent the one in Long Beach. This was also convenient since it was also on our way back to the heart of Los Angeles.

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It was a quiet Monday morning when we arrived and the establishment wasn’t terribly busy. The place was really cute though, decorated with lots of chickens. XD

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I really liked the fireplace they had, but only because there were these pretty pieces of tinted glass in it, in the place of firewood.

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To me, putting chicken and waffles together seems like a strange idea. They really don’t seem to go together, especially if you intend to eat your waffles with syrup! So being the traditionalist I am (and also not a fan of breakfast), I simply ordered three chicken wings and a side of potato salad.

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My boyfriend on the other hand, absolutely LOVES breakfast, and could not pass up the opportunity to try chicken and waffles!

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The fried chicken here is superb, honestly they have the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. So by my tally, this makes California the home of the best crème puffs, udon, and fried chicken so far. The batter tastes great and more importantly the chicken isn’t dried out!

I had a bite of the chicken + waffle + syrup and let me tell you, the flavors did not clash at all like I thought they would. I was pleasantly surprised that the sweetness of the syrup didn’t overpower the taste of the fried chicken, but rather added another enjoyable facet to its flavor profile. I’ve had chicken and waffles together at Gladys Knight’s Chicken and Waffles in Georgia, but this was much better all around.

Roscoe’s taught me to embrace the combination of sweet and savory. Oh Roscoe’s how I miss your fried chicken so! Maybe move on over to the East Coast, South Florida perhaps? Please? =D

Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles
780 E. Broadway
Long Beach, CA 90802
(562) 437-8355
Roscoe's House of Chicken & Waffles on Urbanspoon

California: Shin-Sen-Gumi (Gardena)

Back Post #4:

After a day filled with pastries and fresh soba noodles, we ended the evening at Shin-Sen-Gumi Yakitori in Gardena. There’s no such thing as a restaurant that specializes in yakitori in Florida anywhere (I’ve looked!). So when I heard about this place, I knew we had to stop by.

Once again I had made reservations a month in advance so we could sit in a private room in the back. It’s an extra fee of $1 per person to use the private room, but it’s worth it in my opinion since the front room is a bit cramped for space. However, one day I’d like to go back in order to sit out front and experience the atmosphere.

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When you first enter Shin-sen-gumi you are warmly greeted by the entire staff. Everyone shouts out greetings and it’s a very welcoming atmosphere. If you want, you can buy a drink for the staff and they’ll come by and share a toast with you with an enthusiastic “Kampai!”

The service here is stellar even though it’s always incredibly busy. The wait staff is attentive and knowledgeable about the menu and the specials. ^_^

So they brought us a menu, which is analogous to your traditional dim sum menu.

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They also had a whiteboard conveniently placed in our room with the specials of the evening.

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Halfway through our meal we figured out the trick to eating at Shin-sen-gumi. If you’re new there and don’t know what you want to eat, order one of each thing you want to try right off the bat, then order seconds of the things you do like after your first round. Even better, if you’ve been there before, order what you want straight away. Why? Because stuff sells out and things even an hour into service can go missing from the menu sadly. We learned this the hard way because around 5 items we wanted to try throughout the course of the evening just went “poof.” It’s not their fault; I solely place the blame on us not ordering fast enough. =)

I ordered the nankara, which is deep fried chicken cartilage.

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Yes, I wanted to know what chicken cartilage tasted like. =P I like crunchy textures, so this was right up my alley. Honestly, I was the only person in my party to enjoy this dish. It wasn’t anything special and tasted entirely how it was advertised (lols?). It was even better when dipped in a little bit of salt mixed with lemon juice, Mmmm!

The boys ordered some roast duck, which I didn’t really touch so I can’t comment on.

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However, I can tell you that dish of roast duck multiplied into four by the end of the meal. The boys really liked their duck!

I ordered a piece of mackerel off the special’s menu. I’m such a sucker for mackerel!

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Mackerel is an oily fish and always has this subtle smoky flavor which I love. <3 Then came an order of takoyaki!



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I’ve tried so hard to actually like takoyaki and I have come to the conclusion that’s it just not for me. It’s not that it isn’t made well; I just don’t really enjoy the taste of it. =(

My boyfriend also ordered this dish and it was delicious!

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I’m not sure what it was called exactly, but it was an omelet with meat inside, garnished with bonito flakes. ^_^

Next came the parade of never ending yakitori! We ordered SOOOO much and I took SOOO many pictures, so I’m a bit lost as to which picture goes with which description, but I’ll try my best.

Eel livers:

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I like liver and I love eel, so I thought that eel liver might appeal to me. Apparently, it really doesn’t and has a very fishy aftertaste which I didn’t enjoy at all.

Tofu:

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We didn’t really enjoy this one either, the tofu was just sort of bland…

Onigiri (rice ball):

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Sadly, once again, the rice ball suffered the same fate as the tofu and though I enjoyed the crispy texture, the flavor was just lacking.

Meataballs:

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These were delicious! Absolutely delicious! So savory, tender, and extremely addictive. I can’t count how many rounds of these that we had.

Simply Grilled Shrimp:

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Delicious, just lightly salted, and grilled.

Chicken Wing and Skin:

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The chicken wing was good, but we were hoping for a bit more in terms of a serving. The skin was awesome, but then again, when is grilled chicken skin not awesome?

Chicken thigh with special sauce, Chicken thigh lightly salted:

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The chicken with the special sauce was superb, definitely a must try if you go here. ^_^

Chicken Liver:

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I love chicken livers, so I was happy with their rendition of chicken livers. Mmmm! Not really for those who don’t like the taste of liver already though…

Pork Sausage:

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Honestly, once again, forgot what this tasted like. However, it was good enough that we got a second order of it. =)

I know I also ordered some chicken heart, onion, potato, chicken cartilage, and flap meat…but I’m not sure where those pictures went. C’est la vie! I can definitely say that the meat selection beat the pants off the grilled veggies.

I was honestly hoping to try some more daring pieces, such as the special heart, tail, special skin, gizzard, intestine, and feet…but sadly they sold out. *sniffles*

At the end of it all, this was our damage…

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Look at all those sticks! Think of our bill! ^_^() It was soooo worth it though! Dinner took about 2 hours in total, as food came in small waves. But since our drinks were never empty, the awesome service, great good, and wonderful company we were blissfully happy the entire time.

If you’re looking for a casual night out with friends, good food, and don’t mind a bit of noise, I’d suggest trekking out for some yakitori. Food on sticks, never tasted so good before! ^_^ Oishii!

Shin-Sen-Gumi Yakitori
18517 S. Western Ave.
Gardena, CA 90248
(310) 715-1588
Shin-Sen-Gumi Yakitori Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Saturday, January 30, 2010

California: Ichimiann Bamboo Garden (Torrance)

Back Blogging Post #3:

After having dessert at Patisserie Chantilly, we needed to find somewhere to have a proper lunch since Gaja Moc was closed until the evening. I suggested that we go to Ichimiann Bamboo Garden in Torrance since it was semi-close by, about a 15 minute drive away.

If it wasn’t for reading about this place from other food bloggers and seeing pictures of the front of the restaurant, we would have passed right by without noticing it was there. There was only a few spaces to parallel park on the street, thankfully we found a spot relatively close by.

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Ichimiann has such a cute store front, it’s so quaint, simple, and welcoming. Nothing pretentious at all about this eatery about it’s exterior or its food. The noodles are made fresh every day (the real selling point for me)! I was shutter bug happy at the time, so I took a picture of the mini-menu at the seating area against the wall.

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There’s not a whole lot of room to sit here. You can sit at the few tables outside or along the wall on one of these stools. There’s one or two more tables inside the restaurant, but when we went they were already taken. =)

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There was one waiter manning the register and one cook in the kitchen. We were pointed to a menu and picked out our meal. To be honest, I had a bit of a rough time explaining what I wanted since I didn’t speak Japanese and the waiter didn’t speak much English. I felt like such a gaijin (foreigner) to have to resort to pointing at the picture menu.

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Maybe this sign written as an informative flow chart was meant to help…but since it’s in Japanese hiragana/katakana, it didn’t help me at all. My boyfriend could make out some of the words though. This just served to remind me that I really need to start learning Japanese in my spare time…

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My boyfriend ordered a bowl of curry udon and I ordered udon in a hot broth (I forgot what it’s called… *le sigh*) along with a bowl of rice with some mentaiko on top.

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So once you’ve ordered and paid, you can take a seat wherever you find room. After about 5 minutes our food was ready and the waiter kindly brought it to us. My mentaiko bowl came out with my boyfriend’s curry udon. XD

The food was so simple, yet so full of flavor. Sometimes the best things are simply served, no fancy frills or anything; just good simple food. The servings were pretty generous too! We were pleasantly full after we left, I even had some of my rice bowl packed to go.

There’s not a lot of small “mom and pop” type of restaurants in Boynton Beach, Florida so I really enjoyed the experience. I wish that there were more of these types of places in Florida, but as my boyfriend so aptly put it, they wouldn’t survive out in Florida. It’s true, most of the time if you aren’t a franchise then you aren’t making it out here. *sigh* It’s sad too, because I had some of the best food I’ve ever tasted in my life in these small out of the way restaurants in California.

Ichimiann Bamboo Garden
1618 Cravens Ave
Torrance, California
(310) 328-1323
Ichimiann Bamboo Garden on Urbanspoon

California: Patisserie Chantilly (Lomita)

Our second day of free time in California, we spent our time in and about Lomita. There were several stops on our list that day: Patisserie Chantilly, Ichimiann Bamboo Garden, Gaja Moc, Mitsuwa Marketplace, and Shin-sen-gumi. I’m only going to post about one eatery at a time though. =)

Our first stop was Gaja Moc, since it was right next to Patisserie Chantilly. I thought we could get okomomiyaki for lunch and then have some dessert right next door. Sadly Gaja Moc wasn’t open when we arrived, so we went straight to dessert (next time I’m noting hours/days of operation).

Patisserie Chantilly, just like Jin Patisserie, is touted as a fusion of Japanese and French desserts. True, it seems like an odd combination, but the outcome is truly oishii! We were greeted as we walked in the front door by this sight:

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I was truly awestruck by the beautiful presentation of each and every dessert in the display case. If I had my druthers, I would have bought one of each dessert; however we had a pretty full eating schedule ahead of us (we had more places we wanted to eat, than actual meals per day) so we only indulged in two pieces each.

Wilson chose to order a Mont Blanc. It had swirls of chestnut paste which gently wrapped their signature Chantilly cream with chestnuts imported from Japan inside.

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I’m a sucker for strawberries, so I ordered a Mont Fraise. It’s a strawberry mousse on a crispy tart with milk jelly, strawberries and cream. We also picked up a mini cheese bar, which is basically a piece of creamy cheesecake in bite sized stick form (it’s next to my Mont Fraise). ^_^

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Patisserie Chantilly’s cream puffs are delicious! The cream is light and delicate and since they are filled to order, the pate a chou stays light and flaky. We passed on purchasing a chocolate cream puff, but we bought one black sesame cream puff and one filled with their Chantilly crème, which is more of a vanilla crème.

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I especially loved the black sesame cream puff as the black sesame added a delicate nutty flavor to the cream! Now if only I can figure out a way to have them ship the cream puffs to Florida… *schemes*

Patisserie Chantilly
2383 Lomita Blvd.
Lomita, CA
(310) 257-9454
Pâtisserie Chantilly on Urbanspoon

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