the recession brings me to rosemead...again

when i studied abroad in hong kong, those nine months were a blur...not cuz i drank a lot, but because every single minute there was a desire to experience something great and to travel to somewhere different. boy it was fun...minus the near drowning experience in thailand...and the awkward 2 hour convo about jesus with two pilipino men during a bus ride to manila (even though i'm buddhist)...or getting lost in malaysia...ah, good times, good times.

i have a lot of memories about hong kong too, like getting shoved by grannies when i got on the train, street vendor eats, and endless shopping for cheap shit. holy smokes. and the portion size for food too...i will never forget the day i first looked down at my big mac (yes, i sometimes ate mcdonalds when i was there) and wondered why it was so small...and then i looked at my reflection in the windows and was reminded that i'm pretty obese by hong kong standards. i guess if i ate less, then i would have been able to fit into child size clothing like everybody else there. but did that thought stop my belly?! hells no!

i also remember eating at many hong style cafes. cafes are like glorified cafeterias where you can pick and choose from a really extensive menu, which normally means a variety of choices but a decrease in quality of food. when i had dinner with my family this past weekend at ledo cafe in rosemead, i was reminded of this once again.

we started off with their greasy spicy pork chops. the flavors were good, but wiping your greasy mouth with a napkin was not. i think there is a place in the food pyramid for foods like this and we checked that one off quickly.

stir fried green beans with fish cake. tasty, but must be eaten quickly because of the conjeel factor. yes, that is a bone fide factor in foods.

roasted chicken with a side of corn and rice. NNNNOOOOOOOO! ill. i took a bite and left the rest of my portion on the plate. it was cold and pink looking inside. thanks to buddha i have an iron belly or else i be running to the wc.

short ribs in burgundy sauce. this was actually pretty tasty and if i find myself at ledo cafe again wanting to reminisce about hong kong eating, i would totally order this again. the meat was extremely tender and the burgundy sauce was light. it went well with rice.

we also ordered a salmon dish which was quickly pulverized before i could take pics. i dunno, but salmon with mayo sauce does not speak to me. anyways, my family killed the meal and for roughly $60 with drinks, it was a cheap death indeed.

i think the food is decent here, that you will get a variety of items to choose from, and it is tres cheap. service is straight up sgv style, so if you get angry with bad service, then perhaps this is not the place for you. but if you don't mind because you're hardened to sgv service like a soldier wounded by war like i am, then by all means, ledo cafe is quite alright.

Ledo Cafe
8158 Garvey Ave
Rosemead, CA 91770
(626) 573-8998

price: $
verdict: it's aight

yo yoshida!

do you have friends that rarely, and i mean rarely, like a pig with wings flying over a fence while drinking a stella, want to eat outside of their neighborhood? like you meet me near my house to eat or i see you later? ah, i have a friend like that and she lived in the sgv and any time she was asked to go closer to the westside for eats, she would break out in hives. now she lives in orange county which means if i want to see her, i would have to get a passport and go there. yes friend, i'm talking about you.

when she use to live out in san gabriel, i would meet her for sushi at yoshida. yoshida was actually one of the first places i yelped that worked out great. the sushi is pretty awesome, fresh, and tasty especially out there all surrounded by chinese food.

the last time we went, we ordered a medly of things because her husband joined us as well as another good friend of ours. we started off with a pair of deep fried, panko encrusted crab cake boobies. they were yummy, but seriously, how do you ever eff up deep fried eats anyways? i really liked the chunks of crab meat in it and it was a good way to bring oil and grease to an otherwise "technically" healthy meal.

i HAD to order the spicy tuna handroll and at yoshida, you can choose the heat level. i decided to stick with 6 because i cry a little when i eat hot cheetos so anything higher than a 6 may make my butt hurt. turns out the heat wasn't too bad at all. must have been my vietnamese roots that made me tougher than i thought.

uni, maguro, and abacore with ponzu sauce. must have staples for me at any sushi joint. the fish were pretty fresh.

unagi rolls. the belly conquering one eel at a time.

japanese scallop roll. very sweet and fresh. i'd take these sweet thangs over chocolate any day.

and the yoshida roll, an overstuffed fish fatass in a nori jumpsuit. seriously, i appreciate all the different fish they stick in there but it's way too big for the average mouth, even for a big yappy mouth like mine.

my section of the yoshida roll always ends up looking like this after a bite. i don't know, sushi wasn't meant to look like this right? all broken up, depressed, like it lost its mortgage on one game of craps? each time it's ordered, i always wonder why we do it.

so now that she's moved to the oc with her husband so they can live in their dream house, i'm not sure i will even have any reason to go to yoshida anymore since i live so close to other great sushi eats. the one thing yoshida has which i have not yet tried is their fresh uni in its spiky natural cover. but is it really worth it to drive to san marino for that? do you know where i can get that fresh sushi without diving for it? my belly would like to know.

Yoshida
2026 Huntington Dr
San Marino, CA 91108
(626) 281-9292

price: $$$
verdict: tasty, try it!

on target with banh mi my tho

yesterday, $2.20 got me a waxy, plasticky cheddar cheese pretzel at target when i was slowly dying from hunger and needed to eat, lest i rip another target shopper's arm and turn the whole shopping event into a zombie movie. no really, all drama aside, hunger makes me whine like a little bitch.

as i took a bite of that nasty pretzel, i realized that an extra 5 cents would have gotten me a sammich at banh mi my tho in alhambra, but unfortunately, i had to munch in the cleaning section of target in eagle rock which was no where near banh mi my tho. how unfortunate for me.

if you haven't been here before, this shop gets mighty busy at times, and for good reason. i don't know how long the wait was for this dude, but from his anxious looks, it must have been an eternity.

check out the prices! dayam! where in the world can you get such a delicious filling sammich for 2 bucks and some change? where, god, where?!

you can also get an array of cheap but delicious things to eat there, such as egg rolls, spring rolls, rice cakes with dried shrimp, and a bunch of vietnamese sweets. let's just say, $2.20 could have gotten me a lot more yum for my buck than a rock of a pretzel at target.

they also sell maggi which is my dad's soy sauce of choice when it comes to soy sauce choices. after some quick googling, it turns out it's not even made from soy...go figure. and it's created by nestle, double go figure. but if you've never had it before, there is this fragrance that erupts on your tongue and rises up to your nose that regular ole soy sauce like kikkoman and the likes will not do. by far, it has a superior taste and is great for cooking and dipping.

i usually end up with a banh mi dac biet when i visit this little sammich shop, which has pate and slices of vietnamese style head cheese and zaw. they are generous with the meat as well as the pickled veggies that are stuffed in it so for $2.25, you get a filling meal indeed.

SOMETIMES, i get their vietnamese iced coffee, but only if i want to be wired for a few hours. the coffee here is pretty strong and costs more than the sammich!

so now, can you imagine my dismay when i had to fork over $2.20 for a nasty pretzel when i was only 5 cents short and about 10 miles away from banh mi my tho? sometimes, life can be so cruel.....

Banh Mi My Tho

304 W Valley Blvd

Alhambra, CA 91803

(626) 289-4160

price: $

verdict: tasty, try it!

food + lab + dogs + sammiches = lunch

having a dog is awesome. if he is anything like charlie, he will take his fetch toy and ram it into your legs to indicate to you that he wants to play (you may get bruises from that), he may pee on your telephone because he has yet to master the art of holding it in, and maybe, just MAYBE, if you're lucky, your dog will have a penchant for jumping up and hitting your crotch with his nose because he is so excited to see you. my little charlie does all of the above. lucky you say? you betcha.

having a dog is also restrictive. you can't leave them home too long during the work day and making plans for vaykay better include your little fur love or at least a place to house him while you're away. eating out with a doggy in tow means places with patios only...and of course dog friendly places since i can't imagine the ivy which i think has a patio would be dog friendly...other than for celebrity dawgs.

anyways, after buying baked goods at the "eat my blog" bake sale, with sook's dog cooper in tow and my charlie and hanh, marie, jessica, and our dog walking friends, we stopped by food + lab for some grubbin'. it's a teeny place chalked full of olives and pickles and things that have been marinating in salt and vinegar for a luxuriously long time. somewhere in all that was my lunch.

the back patio area was big enough for our dogs to have a field day sniffing out crumbs. it also made for a chillaxin environment to grub on for us hongry eaters. i can imagine it being pretty perfect during a summer day when summer ever comes back again...oh, how is miss you so!

i ordered their prosciutto sammich with ricotta and fig, hugged between two sweet slices of raisin walnut bread ($10.50). though pretty to look at, it wasn't tasty to me at all. i thought the sweetness of the raisins and figs overpowered the prosciutto which made the sammich more of a dessert sammich than a savory one. i did not expect that, and theref0re, it did not agree with me belly. i did not finish my 1/2 of the sammich.

the side of greek salad ($2.50) was tasty though and pretty to look at. ok, maybe i looked at it for 2 seconds before i devoured it. chomp!

my friend got the grilled chicken with avocado, sun dried tomatoes, and queso blanco on ciabatta bread ($9.50). that was a far superior sammich to mine. a good, satisfying sammich with just the right amount of tang from the sun dried tomatoes. i'm glad we made the exchange before either one tasted our own respective choices because i'm not sure i would have gotten a 1/2 of this baby.

the whole lunch ended on a silly note of having an under $20, 99 cent store challenge (ahem). the meters were also calling us back to our cars. anyways, weho is so close, yet so far for me. although i may not make a special trip out here just to eat these sammiches at food + lab, it is a good choice for an easy chillaxin lunch with your dog. i believe charlie was able to find some cat poo to nibble on as we munched our lunch.

Food + Lab Cafe and Marketplace
7253 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323) 851-7120
www.foodlabcatering.com/cafe.html

price: $$
verdict: it's aight

good service in the sgv? stfu!

like indiana jones in search of the holy grail, searching for good service in the sgv may be just as elusive, minus the car chases and flying bullets. but it DOES exist, and some of this "mythical good service" can be found here. stfu! yes. here, at big 3 seafood bbq.

when i go visit my relatives on that side of town, they always insist on going to big 3 for lunch. i always comply because it's difficult to stray when you're held hostage by senior citizens (dude, walking canes hurt when you get beaten by them). in general, the food here is quite alright, nothing to blog about per se, but the service is impeccable so THAT in and of itself is bloggable :) i do warn you that there are some horror stories about the food that i've read on yelp...but like fergie in the face of her husband's infedelity allegations, i will deal with it when it happens. the food is decent and cheap and with good service to boot, it is always busy when we go.

the last time we went, we ordered abalone because of a promotion they had. i don't understand the fascination chinese people have with abalone (i'm sure it has something to do with health benefits), but the three of us of the younger, non-cane bearing generation thought it tasted fishy. on other occasions when my parents prepared it, i still didn't think the taste warranted the price. it is outrageous. anyways, here it is all cut up. i didn't pull my camera out in time before the old people got to it.

squab (domestic pigeon). my dad makes the best squab dish and every version i've tasted outside of my parent's home has paled in comparison. the squab at big 3 is not bad and the price point is very reasonable...code word for CHEAP. crispy skin with a hint of sweetness. i suggest that you give squab a chance, whether here or elsewhere. it is an understated bird with flavors that packs a punch.

dang, look at the beak on that sucker! this is what you get for pooping on my car...KIDDING.

crab meat and egg white scramble. this dish is very silky and rather tasty. spoon it over your rice and you have a savory dish that reminds you of a custard. i liked this a lot and was glad it was placed right in front of me.

bitter melon with black beans. i use to HATE bitter melon as a child, but as an adult, i've developed a liking to it. i think my palate has broadened a lot. come on now, i use to put SALT on my PICKLES as a kid. talk about yuck right?! this dish was so bitter that it's refreshing if that makes any sense.

battered deep fried (sole?) fish with soy sauce. YUM. the crispy fins and crispy bones makes my mouth water. some places really screw this dish up by using oil that has been used and resused since the early 80's. big 3 did not. it was tasty.

stir fried yam leaves. this dish is not widely available so it was a suprise to see it here. i thought it was a tad stringy.

fried tofu squares with meat stuffing. you spoon a bit of soy sauce on it for flavor. the big 3 fried tofu squares weren't greasy which was a plus.

the whole meal was under $10 per person, with tip included. throughout the meal, our waters were filled without asking and the server came by on multiple occasions to check on us to make sure we were happy with our food. she even took the time to explain how a dish was made when we asked, NOTHING like the brush off you usually get at chinese restaurants in the sgv. although the quality of food and ambience may not warrant a special trip to big 3, if you happen to be around the area and would like to try some of the things you've seen here, you will be most certainly happy with the price point and service.

Big 3 Seafood BBQ

240 W Main St

Alhambra, CA 91804

(626) 300-3990

price: $

verdict: it's aight

yummy rummies for eat my blog

friday night was a mad rush to get all 15 of my little yummy rummies (aka rum cake) ready for the eat my blog charity bake sale the following morning. since i'm not a serious baker with a handy dandy kitchenaid mixer, i had to do it the old school way with a whisk. oh boy, calling forth my atrophied muscles buried in my arm fat was comical. charlie kept me company and would intermittently come by to coax me to play (as you can see, he brought me his yellow toy for throw and fetch). alas, his mommy had some mad baking to do and i shooed him away like a fly.

lots of chopping, mixing, and rum drinking...i mean pouring :) the whole process took me a few hours but once i got into the swing of thangs, i became a well oiled baking machine!

and the army of little rum cakes were finally done. wheeeew.

i made sure they were soaked in the rum glaze before they got their lid. my little rummies were ready for consumption :) time to send my babies away....

today, when i got there at 11am, the sale was in full swing. i quickly got in line and went from a small box of baked goods to a large one. i did not know where to start! there were sooooo many delicious looking things to choose from.

hey, these look familiar! it's my rummies :) i high-fived a few people that bought them and was actually there when the last one got scooped up. yay! thank god cuz i was worried i'd see a few in zeke's trash bins...and was ready to save them if that was to happen.

it was also great to see sook and jessica again, and to meet new fellow foodies like marie and hanh. we grabbed some lunch at food lab (to be posted soon) and of course, there's a box of sweets waiting to be destroyed when i got home. i picked up sook's cookies, jessica's popcorn mix, mattatouille's budino, food she thought's biscuit, ravenous couple's mochi truffles, and a chocolate bacon fudge bar who forgive me but i do not know who made that one :( i cannot consume everything at one sitting, but look forward to doing that soon. it was an awesome event to be a part of, and now, i'm nestled in my warm bed feeling too lazy to move even a toe. i think i will have sweet dreams tonight.....

no whining at silverlake wine

there's a great reason why it's wonderful to live in silverlake....if you guess watching hipsters donning their scarves in 90 degree weather, then you are partially in the right. other than the fact that i adore this neighborhood because i was raised here and continue to establish my roots here in my own wee house, it really is the coolest place on earth...come on now! we have silverlake wine! i love this place!

it was obvious to me that many people love slw too, whether they be residents or visitors to the hood, because when my friends and i got there for their "sunday at three" tasting, it was PACKED. thank god everybody was in a jovial mood (the anticipation of alcohol does wonders to lift people's spirits) because small, enclosed spaces usually makes me think of riots and swap meets. i'm not particularly fond of either. i do suggest that you get there early if you want to secure a spot though because when we first entered the shop and was asked if we had ressies, i sweated a little cuz we didn't. omg, they are too popular now :(. good thing we were squeezed right in.

the sunday at three tasting featured four wines and one aperitif. heirloom LA was present to pair the wines with tasty hors d’oeuvres. i appreciated the fact that they were mindful of all the vegetarians present (but i guess they should be right? we are talking about silverlake after all) since my friend is one and i was worried that she might not be able to eat. but she was able to eat everything or choose alternatives when meat was present. yay!

they are also generous with their pours too which is a CHECK, CHECK. i love tastings that offer you a "little more." it's like finding a dollar in your pocket when you least expect it!

throughout the tasting, a short presentation was made for every bottle of wine before they were tasted. i liked that. i felt like my brain cells were encouraged to be active even though we all know drinking alcohol will eventually kill them, albeit slowly....(me = debbie downer).

this whole tasting experience can you be yours for $20. before i left, i picked up a bottle of wine...oh, how they hook you in! it was a great way to enjoy a sunday with great company and i'm soooo excited that slw is in my hood. next time, i'm going to have a tasting and then stumble into the brand new library that just opened right next door. you betcha, i'm a classy lady.

Silverlake Wine

2395 Glendale Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90039

(323) 662-9024
http://www.silverlakewine.com/

price: $$

verdict: omg, i love it!