aloha roy's ohana tour

this past thursday, i was invited to a media tasting at roy's restaurant in downtown to kick off roy's l.a. ohana tour. if you're excited about roy's food AND like sweepstakes on top of that, then this tour might be just the thang for you:

• An inaugural trip to a participating Roy's restaurant, where guests are awarded an Ohana Tour card to present at the next Roy's location.
• On the second visit, guests will receie a complimentary Chocolate Souffle (with purchase of entree).
  
• At the third location, guests will receive a $20 gift card (with purchase of entree) and entry into the Hawaii sweepstakes.
• Restaurants participating in the tour include Roy's Anaheim, Los Angeles, Newport Beach, Pasadena and Woodland Hills locations.

since roy does not have the ability to be in a million places at once, he has "chef partners" in all of his restaurant locations. after talking to this cutie, garrett mukogawa, the chef partner at roy's downtown restaurant, i learned that being a "chef partner" meant that he has liberties to create his own items on the menu as well to go along with roy's classics.

i also enjoyed the fact that libations were flung at me and being the good guest, i did not deny them the pleasure of getting me buzzed. i started off with a very strong, highly recommended the original hawaiian martini. it is a favorite at the restaurant and i can see why. hello! fuck me up please :) coconut and pineapple flavors with a good dose of vodka. ooooh la la.

first up was the yellow fin ahi poke which had chunky tuna pieces mixed with guac and topped with tobiko (flying fish roe). i liked this a lot and though it was slightly salty, it didn't stop me from inhaling three. yes, that's right. three. they were small cups ok!

the spiced duck confit tarts were little cups of sweetened shredded duck meat. a bit sweet for my taste, but my guest ate two. oink.

what?! another drink for me? sure! here's a refreshing glass of basil cucumber collins. lovely, refreshing drink full of....vodka. i like.

by that time, the grilled albacore flatbread came out so that i can use it to soak up the alcohol.

the savory side of the tasting ended with the short ribs of beef au poivre. i enjoyed the truffle tator tot capsule. mmmm....

and the night ended sweetly with their strawberry basil panna cotta. the basil presence was strong so thank god i like me some basil. the dessert was quite refreshing.

overall, the tasting was a good introduction to roy's and i even had the pleasure of meeting susan of reservation for three. anyways people, do the tour and win a trip. it's all good. happy eating!

Roy's
800 S. Figueroa St.
Los Angeles, CA 90017
(213) 488-4994
www.roysrestaurant.com

i feel seoul full at road to seoul

i'm not one to break rules. nope. i don't inhale, i don't exhale, i don't do anything that will ever make a donut eating cop stop me other than running a stop sign or two (heavy gas pedal feet is to blame for that one). so when i'm given a rule or two, i try not to break them. yes, i'm a square peg like that... so imagine my anxiety level when i went to road to seoul for all you can eat korean bbq and saw these signs posted EVERYWHERE. another rule?! darn!

"please order what you can eat. if you leave any meat, there will be an additional charge of adult price."

and they had these cameras too. to spy on you? to see if you left any meat? oh no!

even with these warnings, my friend and i both commenced to order the all you can eat menu at $16.99 per person. ack, what happens if i can't eat all that i'm suppose to eat?

the banchan rolled out and we quickly began to test our stomachs. it was standard fare with all kinds of pickled veggies, kimchee, a small bowl of steamed eggs, and a korean style veggie pancake to accompany our meal. i thought the spread was sufficient to whet our appetites for the real bulk of the feast....

and feast we did. we tried almost everything off the bbq menu, but the stand out items were definitely the beef tongue, galbi, and their namesake "road to seoul beef." wow, i was pretty impressed by the quality of their meat. for that price point, you ate a lot better than what you would find at manna and THAT in itself is worth rejoicing over. hallelujah!

they also had whole baby octopus and intestines for the adventurous folks.

so we stuffed face and my belly went strong until it arrived at the inevitable all you can eat fork in the road when one's body decides whether it's REALLY full, or if it's going to barf. UNFORTUNATELY, my friend decided to order another round without consulting me. holy crap i can't eat anymore!

as the pile of raw meat came out and they were gently placed on the grill, i nervously looked at my friend and said, "i hope you can eat this by yourself because i am stuffed." then i looked at the aforementioned sign warning us to finish all our meat and i could have sworn i saw a drop of sweat rolling down his right temple. "your done?" he asks. oh hell yes i'm DONE. i'm so done i can barf!

so HE commenced to eat HIS pile of meat slowly.

though delicious, too much is just TOO MUCH. so the moral of story you might wonder? carry a larger purse and put a tupperware container in it for all you can eat "just in case" moments like these. i know that's breaking another rule right there, but better to break that rule than break my belly again. other than the anxiety inducing signs, road to seoul is a great little all you can eat korean bbq joint with good quality meat. i would totally come back again!

Road to Seoul
1230 S. Western Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90006
(323) 731-9292

price: $$
verdict: tasty, try it!

eat my blog!

eat my blog. eat my lychee peach cobbler at eat my blog. go. just do it.

come on you know you want to....



please?

the belly family expands

i need another dog like i need another hole in my head...but i couldn't help myself and i think charlie needs a sibling so he won't always feel alone. when the opportunity arose to give this little pup a home, i cautiously volunteered my own wee house even though i was rather nervous about the whole thing. come on now, having another dog means 2x the food and 2x the doo. ack. i just hope she grows up to love charlie as much as we do and that in itself will make this cute responsibility worth it.

her name is lucy. she is a labrador retriever mix...a gorgeous little mutt if you will.

she is extremely adorable and smells rather good after a sudsy bath...though her breath smells like hell regardless of what you do to her mouth.

she also likes to snack like her momma. i think she will have a happy life with us. man, dogs x 2...what am i in for?!

by the way, doesn't the marking on her face look like an outstretched bird in flight? cute!

o bar and kitchen for happy hora

o bar and kitchen is nestled in the o hotel and resembles a high school hallway but swankier. yes, it's literally that small and tight. you may not see locker doors banging off the walls or teenagers necking in the corner, but you will definitely conjure up images of some kind of HALLWAY.

they have happy hora from 4-7 p.m. daily and serve $4 bites and $4 beer and wine amongst other things. the hh menu was rather limited so don't expect to have a feast for your tongue. DO, however, expect a fair amount of greasy eats and carb filled snackies that will match these rather affordable price points. but if you're not here just for the food, then it's a good place to chillax with a wine glass in hand as you commence your work related bitchings.

my friend and i started off with the ghetto fabulous fried dill pickles with buttermilk ranch. i'm not sure why i expected it to taste good and consequently persuaded her to order them because when i saw it on the menu, i felt we NEEDED them. even though i stand by the "everything-tastes-better-when-fried' rule of thumb, alas, they tasted like regular ole pickles...but er, fried. nothing special here folks.

we also ordered the mozzarella roasted tomato and basil pesto mini flatbread. tasty, but nothing special here either. the toppings were a bit sparse and the mini flatbread was rather mini so order more if you want this carb load to soak up the alcohol in your belly.

we also ordered the chili lime wings which i thought were a bit too tangy and limey. though a great way to pucker up your face, it wasn't the best item to eat unless you want to pucker up your tongue as well. it was also uber salty.

and sweet potato fries off the regular menu. crispy, sweet, thin...just the way i like them. i could have eaten this all night long. yum!

overall, the o bar was a nice place to chillax for happy hora, but the lack of variety on the hh menu limits its appeal to me.

O Bar and Kitchen
819 S Flower St
Los Angeles, CA 90017
(213) 623-9904
www.ohotelgroup.com

price: $$
verdict: it's aight

deliciously lost at green island restaurant

generally once a week, i head out to the sgv to nosh with my other family...which explains why my belly has grown exponentially over the year. sometimes the places are just aight, and other times, i'm quite smitten by what i eat. last night, they brought us to another fab place, one that filled my belly to the limit and i still feel full and am burping as a result of eating TOO MUCH. ugh, i need to look up the word self control in the dictionary....it starts with the letter "s" right?

helllllllloooo green island restaurant! it's located on las tunas drive, the infamous "bride street" in which you find oodles and oodles of bridal shops and all things related to THAT day in which you will be handcuffed to one person forever. after shopping there, perhaps you can pop into green island restaurant to give it a taste? make sure you try on your dress BEFORE you eat.

the decor inside this restaurant is totally vegas. i dug the strands of glass balls hanging from the ceiling and though the concept was a stones throw away from being gaudy, overall, the ambiance was different from the typical hole in the wall sgv places which i appreciated.

they also have an open kitchen in the back of their dining area. you can press your face against the glass walls to watch your food getting prepared if you so desired. unlike krispy kremes, i'm not sure if the cook staff will appreciate that.

we commenced to order an adequate amount of food to stuff five faces. first up was the sizzling prime rib eye fried rice ($9.99) which comes in an extremely hot flat stone dish. the ingredients are layered with raw meat at the very bottom for quickest cooking and then a layer of rice, corn kernels, and green onion.

the server mixed the ingredients in a flurry of ninja like gestures. the end result was a stone bowl of aldente fried rice with thin slices of rib eye in a fatty, medium rare state. i REALLY enjoyed this dish a lot and would order it again. yum! certainly a signature dish of theirs and totally worth a taste if you've never had this before.

roti canai ($2.99) was a love child conceived during a tryst between a chinese green onion pancake, naan, and a tortilla. a buttery menage a trois if you will. though morally conservative individuals would not approve, i thought it was good.

pan fried large noodle with black pepper beef ($7.99). ooooh, i really liked this one even though it started getting a bit salty for me at the end. the flecks of black pepper flakes were generous and reminded me of pippi longstocking and her freckles. the chewy udon noodles were slippery and paired with tender beef made it a hearty entree. i would order this dish again as well. yum.....

pan fried whole tilapia porridge in pot ($14.99). i love how the fish carcass gets brought out along with your porridge (jook). feel free to spoon some of the soy sauce onto your jook because i found the flavors to be rather mild, bordering on underseasoned. though naked without it's meaty parts, the plate of steamed fish can be picked through for bits of leftover flesh as well as the head. oooh, the mighty, mighty fish head with the tender fish cheeks and hard, beady eyeballs.

the tiger prawn & scallop with curry sauce ($11.99) was my least favorite dish of the night. after eating superb homemade curry dishes, this one tasted a tad too sweet and coconutty for me.

sauteed broccoli with dried fish ($8.50) which is really chinese broccoli (gailan) stems with salty dried fish (haam yu). i order this dish whenever is see it on the menu. dried fish when done right gives a burst of complex saltiness to your typical sauteed gailan dish. this salty dried fish had a tinge of sweetness to it which didn't sit well with my tastebuds. it's like seeing a shirt with stripes and polka dots. odd. i like my dried fish salty and that's about it.

the service was quick and attentive which is great when you're hongry. the drinks had unlimited refills and since their restrooms were super clean, you can go pee all you want peoples without fear. booths on the side have their own t.v., methinks a perfect place for watching nba finals and they are normally opened till 12 a.m. i like green island and will come back again. yummy.

Green Island Restaurant
9556 Las Tunas Dr.
Temple City, CA 91780
(626) 286-6788

price: $$
verdict: tasty, try it!

spot coffee not the right spot for tranquility

you know you're old when:

5) you sleep before 10 p.m.

4) you go out only once or twice a week because you need to "rest" in between

3) you prefer happy hours for socializing rather than bars

2) you get excited when you're asked for your photo i.d. to prove that you can legally drink

1) you fart dust...and lots of it....

i KNOW i'm old because when i went to spot coffee in koreatown to do some work with my coworkers, all the inner and outer complaints that i made about this place made me sound like a granny.

me: omg, i can't hear you! what?! the music is too loud!
(loud music playing in the background)

me: i hate smoke...i can't breathe *covers nose then stares at young korean girls with my slitty old woman eyes*

spot coffee is not a typical coffee shop at all! it's more like a mini club/vegas trip/bar without a liquor license kind of coffee place. and smoking...ugh smoking. i thought smoking was out? what up G? any thoughts of a tranquil space in which you can sip some freshly brewed coffee while studying or discussing work matters will be immediately shattered when a snoop dogg song comes on...and quite loudly too i might add...enough decibels to blow out your hearing aid. it sure blew mine out.

not only will spot coffee offend your nose and your ears if you're an old fogey like me, as far as ambiance was concern, this little drink shop tried pretty darn hard to be modern and hip. astroturf walls, white couches to sink thy booty in, twinkly white christmas lights, and wood panel accents created a smorgasbord of "i-think-it-might-be-cool" elements that didn't quite work. perhaps one or two less items and some nice mood music would have transformed this coffee shop into a cool little haven for some tranquil coffee drinking and studying. perhaps.

and the drinks were on the pricier side, averaging $6.50-$8. i got myself their lychee slush with boba. it tasted a-ok, nothing special but refreshing nevertheless as my body dried out from the presence of smoke.

we finally left spot coffee with the smell of cigarette smoke clinging to our hair. but even with all the noise and distractions, we were 100% productive with our work...take that snoop dogg! since i'm not a young whippersnapper anymore, this kind of coffee shop will not call me back, but for all you young 'uns out there, perhaps you likey?

Spot Coffee
3324 W. 6th
Ste C
Los Angeles, CA 90020
(213) 380-7200

price: $
verdict: it's aight