ILikeToEatAndDrink » food

I Made This – Sashimi at home!

Canela — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:40:02 +0000

Do you hear that? It’s the theme to Disney’s Aladdin playing in my head…. A Whole New World!!! Truly the dawning of a new era. No longer will we need to suffer the sushi bar wait and high ticket price for a fresh fish buzz. All thanks to my neighborhood fishmonger Fish King. Fish King oh Fish King how do I love thee let me count the ways. I’m so lucky to live 2 minutes away from this food palace. I’ve been patronizing Fish King for years and had heard that you could order fresh sashimi grade fish cut to order but had never done so. Earlier on this fateful day I had been to Marukai Market and picked up some sweet looking Uni and Shiso Leaf and thought hmmm what about a whole sashimi dinner at home? Fish King to the rescue! I ordered 1/3 lb. Hamachi 1/3 lb. Salmon and 1/3 lb. Ahi (Maguro) sliced and served it with some ponzu sauce. We paired this with a lovely dry Spanish Rosé and it really worked well. Let me add here that I would consider us sushi snobs and I tell you the quality was right up there with the best of the best sushi joints we’ve been to. I have since refined this by adding some of their delicious Poke, succulent Albacore and radish sprouts. Heaven!

Hamachi, Salmon, Ahi and Uni Sashimi with Rosé

Good with Sashimi and very reasonably priced

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Dump Day! – Dumpling House Restaurant (Temple City)

Canela — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:43:21 +0000

Next on the Sister’s tour of San Gabriel Valley is… Dumpling House Restaurant (Temple City) (nice website). Dumpling House Restaurant serves authentic northern style Corten Chinese food. Northern style Chinese cuisine is known for its noodles and dumplings. This is because the cold climate of the north is much more suitable for wheat while rice flourishes in the warm southern climate.

Wow, we loved the big comfortable room and the large menu selection. We were excited to find a place we could bring the dumpling-phobic members of our family; there’s something for everyone here. But the big bonus was… BEER AND WINE! (Next girls night out, yeah)

The food? Great. I can comfortably recommend this spot. We’ll definitely be back and try some more of the non-dumpling options. UPDATE – On our second visit with the kids we must say we were a bit disappointed overall the food seemed a bit greasy so I must amend this by say it can be spotty.

Garlic Vinegar Cucumber Salad- fresh, light, good starter

Kim Chi- solid

Fried Pork Dumpling- OMG! Excellent.

Boiled Fish Dumpling- very good but no one holds a candle to our beloved Kingburgs.

Green Onion Pancake- Soo good I forgot to snap it before we dove in. I think this is my favorite GOP; crispy, flakey, chewy!

Mandarin Style Beef Chow Mein- Lovely; not oily or over sauced, great balance of light and hearty. This made me want to try some of their other options. Can’t wait to bring my noodle obsessed daughter.

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Adventures in Exotic Groceries – Square Market

Canela — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:14:31 +0000

After our visit to the food court Sis and I went for a stroll through Square Market (formerly 99 Ranch ) in Rosemead. I hear this is smaller and less glorious than 99 Ranch in San Gabriel but it was still quite exciting to me. Check it out…

Oooh Shrimp balls!

Fresh Sashimi!

Large Live Maine Lobster $6.99 a pound! I’m so tempted to get a lobster pot but still squeamish about having to actually kill it. I may have to get over that.

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I Made This – Steamed Black Cod

Canela — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:12:45 +0000

After an untamed year of wining and dining mischief, I realized that I needed to do something about my new buffet sized booty. Gotta streamline the junk. I’ll never fully give up my epicurean ways but there must be some balance and at times a bit of damage control is in order. So I stumbled upon the Ultrasimple Diet, sounds good I can hang with simple (and often do). I won’t go into all the specifics, you can look it up but it’s basically a dairy free, gluten free, sugar free, alcohol free, preservative/additive free, clean food kind of diet that lasts a week (I’m stretching it out a bit longer with cheat weekends). So far it’s worked out nicely for me and I am incorporating elements of this into my daily life. Lucky for me I live with a fisheterian who likes to eat healthy. Here’s a sample of one of my diet dinners…. Asian style steamed black cod with baby bok choy and mixed mushrooms.

Bottom tray of bamboo steamer- Black Cod, garlic and ginger slivers, green onion, pinch of sea salt, pepper and Braggs liquid amino’s

Upper Bamboo- Baby Bok Choy

On the side- Shimeji, baby king oyster and shitake mushrooms sauteed in garlic olive oil and Braggs liquid aminos

Steamed for 12 minutes and topped off with a touch of sesame oil. Mmm Mmm Good

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Dump Day! – East Dumpling King

Canela — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:46:36 +0000

Oh how I look forward to Wednesday’s, our beloved Dump(-pling) Day …. and now that I’m on a serious health kick this little cheat gets me through those lean days…..

Anyway, as I’ve said before, shopping in Asian markets and dumplings are two of my favorite things in the whole world. So imagine my glee when I stumbled upon Square Market (formerly 99 Ranch) in Rosemead; a two for one-derland. You see, Square Market has an attached food court and this ain’t your typical pizzahut/taco hell kind of joint. This food court is populated with an assortment of Asian “mom and pop” stands. A veritable cornucopia of culinary wonders, although I admit there’s really no ambiance to speak of- this is a down an dirty experience.

Last time I went to the market I was lucky enough to grab a quick snack at East Dumpling King which kept calling me back so, I knew I had bring Sis. East Dumpling King is run by one lady who does it all, takes your order and cooks it from scratch. They also sell frozen bags of dumplings. YUM!

The unassuming yet delicious East Dumpling King

Beef Roll- This is by far our favorite Beef Roll of all that we’ve tried, crunchy, chewy, succulent…we still dream about it.

Pan Fried Pork Dumplings- Another winner right up there with Luscious Dumplings.

Juicy Pork XLB’s- nice respectable but compared to the rest of the meal just aiight.

The secret black vinegar, soy and chili sauce given to you premixed

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Celebrity Chef – City Sip

Canela — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:54:36 +0000

My friend and I decided to go check out new Silverlake wine bar City Sip. The added bonus being that our friend Reggie Sutherland of Next Food Network Star season 2 fame is the chef there. Reggie treated us to some very beautiful and delicious wine nosh. Overall a very good experience; comfortable room great wine selection, nice $15 tasting flights and a knowledgeable staff. (That reminds me I’ve been neglecting the drink side of this blog- coming soon!) We had a lot of catching up to do so my camera remained in my purse for most of our visit but I did manage to snap a couple of shots.

Pear, Arugula and Stilton Panini- nicely executed with a lovely balance of flavors.

Fig, Brie and Hazelnut Crostini- super fresh figs and the nuts were a nice surprise.

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Dump Day! – Mama’s Lu

Canela — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:33:36 +0000

Next on our weekly Wednesday tour of luscious San Gabriel Valley’s dumpling joints (aka Dump Day) is Mama’s Lu. Sis and I immediately appreciated the clean and relatively spacious room. Also, the clear easy to read menu was a plus; no translator needed. Overall comfortable and inviting.

We enjoyed the appropriately named Mama’s Lu; it’s like a homier version of Din Tai Fung. Everything was very good, solid but not knock your socks off. To be fair the competition is fierce in these parts and we have now become quite jaded. Highlights were the String Beans and Green Onion Pancakes. Here’s what we had..

Hot and Sour Soup- Good flavor a bit on the starchy side

String Beans- our favorite, garlicky, salty, dried shrimpy goodness

Green Onion Pancake- Excellent, crispy, chewy, not too oily

Fish Dumplings-very good but we prefer Kingburgs Sole Dumplings

Juicy Pork Dumplings- very good, thicker skin we prefer Din Tai Fungs

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Dumplingholics – Luscious Dumplings

Canela — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:27:45 +0000

I have recently been enjoying an unabashed love affair with the San Gabriel Valley, an area rich in all thing Asian and yummy. My current fixation DUMPLINGS! My enthusiasm luckily is now shared equally by my sister and we have instituted a weekly lunch exploration we call Dumpling Wednesdays (aka Dump Day)! The beauty of the SG Valley is that we could literally do this for years and never repeat ourselves. So with that, expect to see a weekly update on our survey. Dumpling Joint DuJour…. Luscious Dumplings

Pork Fried Dumplings- My Favorite! Crispy Goodness with a sweet caramelized crust

XLB’s thicker skin, less soupy than Din Tai Fungs

Small Bok Choy with Oyster Sauce

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Hungry Cat Santa Barbara

Canela — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 01:35:38 +0000

Me and the Mr. have been interested in checking out the raw bar at Hungry Cat in Hollywood but being that we rarely go west of Vermont Ave., we haven’t had the chance yet. Well, this weekend we had planned a nice SB wine country sojourn and decided to stop for a light lunch at HC Santa Barbara. Overall we enjoyed it but there were a few hiccups…one being NO UNI! Our whole reason d’etre! Bummer. The other hiccup… the sauces for our raw platter didn’t come out until we were half way done with it. I’ll let the photo’s speak for the rest of the meal…

Smoky Sweet Homemade Salsa with fresh lime Margarita

Small Platter of Oysters, Clams, Shrimp, Rock Crab, Snow Crab & Caviar

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Newport Tan Cang

admin — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:57:40 +0000

House Special Lobster-Full Monty!

Garlic Pea Shoots-Tasty Grass

Clams with Basil-Succulence

Salt and Pepper Shrimp-Crunchy Goodness

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