Go Big or Go Home! Brick Toast Edition!

My dessert last night. Go big or go home! A teddy bear brick toast with layers of ice cream, fruits, chocolate, and cookies scattered throughout the monstrosity! Can you hang?



534 E Valley Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Happy Eatings! 

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Hot Pot for Chilly Nights!

My good friend visiting from San Diego insisted on going to Boiling Point. She loves that place! Unfortunately, by the time she got to my house it was already 7:30 pm and we knew that the line for BP would be going out the door.

It’s getting chilly these nights so what better way to stay warm than with some hotpot?

I took her to Lu Gi in San Gabriel instead and we ended up quite happy with that decision. Yes it was more expensive thanBP or Jazz Cat, but it was nice having a more traditional hot pot versus the individual pots since those are preset with ingredients.

 The sauces

 The garlic scallion was my fave!

 ribeye

 pig's blood

 rice cakes

veggies

quail eggs and fish dumplings 

We got the ying yang broth with half spicy and half non-spicy. We chose ribeye, rice cakes, quail egg, pork blood, fish dumplings, veggies, and some other small appetizers here and there. The total came out to $38 for the two of us, which also included 3 drinks.

There are an abundance of different sauces at Lu Gi. By the end of the night, our table was filled with more sauces than actual food! I absolutely loved the garlic and scallion sauce! Yum! I drenched all my food in that. 

Happy Eatings!

539 W Valley Blvd

San Gabriel, CA 91776

No Meat? No Problem!

My family eats vegetarian food fairly often since there's 2 days a month that Buddhists go vegetarian for the entire day so I'm always looking out for good vegetarian places. The best vegetarian restaurants are the ones that I wouldn't mind visiting even when I don't need to be eating vegetarian. Vegelink in North Point is one of those 'private kitchens' in Hong Kong. They make you sign a "membership" card when you eat there. It's free, they just give you a little club card. I presume it's because they registered their restaurant with the government as a private kitchen and not a restaurant so by having membership cards it justifies their cheaper rent. 

 Appetizers are egg rolls and fake pork jerky. 

 So hot that the picture came out blurry! Just the way I like it! 

Here's the mushroom dumpling we ordered. It was very good. The best part was that they had some great spicy sauces and pre-mixed vinegar to dip it in. 

 Tofu skin roll. Inside was an array of mushrooms and carrots that were steamed. 

 Veggie flour roll. 

Emperor's dumpling. This was another tasty veggie dumpling that was really good.

The total came out to $180 HK for the vegetarian dimsum. Vegetarian Taiwanese fusion food. The address is: Shop 108, 1/F, Foo Yet Kall Building, 56 Java Road, North Point

北角渣華道56號胡日皆大廈1樓108室

Happy Eatings! 

Pa Pa Walk

Would you go into a restaurant that looks like a foot massage parlor? Yes, really. The restaurant is filled with pictures of feet. They sure decided to go with a peculiar theme, but hey they sure stick to it throughout the entire restaurant. If you can get over the interesting decor, Pa Pa Walk has a few excellent dishes! 

 My absolute favorite is this beef with spinach noodles! The broth is done really well and I love the the noodles. It really gives it an extra tang! 

 Stinky tofu! I love ordering stinky tofu, but it's not amazing at Pa Pa Walk. It's not horrible either. 

A definite must order at Pa Pa Walk, is the mango shaved snow. Topped off with condensed milk, this concoction is mouth watering delicious and a lot closer than Class 302 in Rowland Heights. It's not as good, but a very close second, indeed.


Another must order is their 'coffin' brick toast, which is filled with soup. It's like an Asian version of soup in a bread bowl! Not everything at Pa Pa Walk is tasty though, their Har Lam Chicken rice fails to impress. But no worries, those dishes mentioned above take the cake. Just try not to concentrate on the feet pictures hanging around!




Happy Eatings!


227 W Valley Blvd
Ste 148-B
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Shaved Snow!

Bàobīng or shaved ice is a staple in Chinese culture.  At Class 302, shaved snow is the norm. Shaved show looks like thin ribbon shavings of condense milk infused ice, with various Asian toppings like moochi, grass jelly, red bean, tapioca, and more.The snow is then topped off with your favorite fruits or syrups and drizzled with more condense milk to finish off. The consistency is silky and smooth with a creamy, but not too sweet, finish …unlike that of shaved ice. 

So whether you’re a Mango, strawberry, green tea, or chocolate lover, there’s a shaved snow combination for you. The theme of an Old fashion classroom runs throughout the restaurant. The inside has school desks and chalk board menus. And for about $7 a bowl, one order of shaved snow can feed more than 3 to 4 people. Unless you’re like the foodettes, that is, then you have to sacrifice for your work. Here’s the damage after ordering all 7 shaved snow combinations.

 (Images courtesy of 626foodettes.com)

1015 Nogales St # 125  Rowland Heights, CA 91748

Food Showdown

The San Gabriel Valley can be quite the daunting and intimidating place to visit. Sometimes clad with only all Chinese signs and sometimes far worse, all Chinglish signs, outsiders to the area can find this microcosm of Asia a scary place to venture to alone.

I’ve always thought that if my journalism career didn’t work out that I’d create my own type of tour guide. I love history and shopping like any other person, but I go anywhere for the food. I don’t want to see any landmarks, show me the food, then more food, then more food! Trust me, ask my friends that I’ve taken on “tours” of Hong Kong or LA. They ate from morning to night and were not given any of those boring experiences. Oh no, this was the Kristie experience.

So what did I do when my non-Asian besties came for a full day of visiting me in the SGV? Food show down. We ate for hours straight. I squeezed in some Asian shopping for them in between, but other than that we ate from lunch to dinner, layered with lots of snacks and more snacks, and shopping and snack shopping. That’s how I do.

 We started the day off with some Taiwanese style Shabu Shabu aka hot pot. Everyone get their own mini pot where you can choose whatever soup base you want. I chose the Japanese Spicy Miso. You also get to choose what type of meat you want. I chose beef. Your order also comes with some sides like veggies, noodles, etc. Try it yourself at Jazz Cat.

At this point, I knew it was time for dessert. We drove all the way to Rowland Heights for some shaved snow from the famous Class 302. Their sign is only in Chinese. They have a minimum of $3 per each person if you want to sit so we got it to go and ate in the car. This was our mango and strawberry with condenses milk snow. It was like the ice I have in Hong Kong, which is hard to find in the U.S.. I’m not wowed like all the yelp reviewers though. I’ve had better. If you do not live near the San Gabriel area, I’d recommend trying Hawaiian shaved ice from Get Shaved. They have a food truck that drives all through the Los Angeles area.

Next we went to the Atlantic Times Square for some Ten Ren. Their boba is really good, but pricy. It’s about $4 for a small. There’s also some fun shops in the area. They  enjoyed the Japanese makeup shopping available there. Make sure not to get their slushies though. Only get the teas here. You have been warned.

By this time we were stuffed like no other. But that only means we had to move on to the next stop. Bakery time! I love bakeries. I’m extremely picky when it comes to pastries and bread. This is the pineapple bread from Kee Wah bakery. There’s actually no pineapple in it. It tastes like a Hawaiian sweet bread, but better. It’s just that the crust looks like a pineapple. Anyways I Kee Wah is only good for their pineapple bread at 80 cents a piece. I would not recommend any thing else from them, no matter what their yelp pages says. You want better bakeries? Just ask! I have a list of my top 10.

Then for the true Asian experience, I took my friends to the 99 Ranch Market to check out some Asian fruits. Of course, I had to show off the horrendous smelling Durian. My sister says durian smells like rotting trash that has been stashed somewhere for a week. It’s definitely an acquired taste. Great photo opp though.

They ended up buying some lychee, dragon fruit, mangosteen, and star fruit.

And then came dinner time. My biggest secret is Boathouse. As many of you may know, Boiling Crab is a cajun place that has waits of upwards of 2 hours for their food. Boathouse is a great alternative in Alhambra that has no lines and is much cheaper.

Our raw oysters.

Our mussels, corn, potatoes, shrimp, and clams.

The battlefield…

We went to four cities: Pasadena, San Marino, San Gabriel, Alhambra. We meant business. So did you agree with my food choices?

SinBala, You Make Me Happy

SinBala. Oh how I love thee. If you want good authentic Taiwanese comfort food, then this is the place to go. Keep in mind, the place is small. The room in the back has a sign that says their maximum capacity is 25. Best part is it's open til 10 p.m.. And complimentary Chinglish menus bring Taiwan to you. 

Would you like a Chewing Drink? Why, yes. I would. Thank you. 

 And Taiwanese sausage with sliced garlic cloves. It gives it the sausage a spicy kick when you eat it together. I even bought their famous sausage rice with eggs and veggies home. It was delicious! 

 Duck grass noodles. Not my favorite, but the noodles were of good quality. 

Oyster Pancake. Yum. They do a really good job at this. I always have to get this at Taiwanese places to gauge how authentic the place is. Plus, this dish is the only dish I can order in Taiwanese so I got to practice. 

Service was lightening fast. Had all the dishes within 3/4 minutes. Loved it. Reminded me of Taiwan. Sinbala, you have my seal of approval. P.S. Their shaved ice is good as well. Not THE best I've ever had but yummy nonetheless. I can live off their oyster pancake and sausage rice all day. 


651 W Duarte Rd
Arcadia, CA 91007




Happy Eatings!

More Veggie Food!

More postings from Hong Kong. This is our favorite vegetarian joint in Hong Kong. Everything tastes like real meat and it's absolutely delicious! I have a lot of friends that are vegetarians and their everyday meals are so boring that I feel bad for them. Too bad they don't realize there are so many choices available. If I ate fusion vegetarian food like this all the time, I could do it on a daily basis!

Delicious! I've blogged about this place before so I'll spare the details but it never gets old. I also love how the food always changes and you never eat the same thing twice!

Happy Eatings!