Trust Them! - Cause I Sure As Hell Do

    This is called being in your face and Keeping it Real. Upon walking into Sasabune (located in West Los Angeles), this is what you are greeted with. A sign telling you to seriously to get the hell out of there if you are planning or even remotely thinking about ordering non-authentic Japanese food and various signs all over the restaurant that tell you to "Trust them."Awesome. That's right weed out the weak. This place is for the big boys girls. If you ever wanted to have a taste of sushi heaven, then Sasabune is the place for you. This place serves omakase, which is chef's special where basically the chef decides on what to serve you. Prices vary day to day depending on the market price of the fish. The owner was telling us how he wakes up every morning at 5AM to go buy the fish. Sasabune's omasake had a total of 10 plates of mouthwatering, melt in your mouth amazingness. And yes that's exactly how you would describe it too. I imagine the only thing able to beat this would be going to Ursawa, but since even I cannot justify spending $500 for omakase there we will have to make due for the next best thing. And it was delicious!

    Here come our appetizers! Baby tuna (Box 1) and Albacore sashimi (Box 2) with Ponzu sauce. So freaking good. I wanted to freeze time and stay in that moment forever. The chef also told us that their sauces are made fresh everyday. I'm was in love...

    Here were have toro/tuna (Box 1) and Yellowtail & mystery fish? (Box 2) I really tried hard to remember all the names of all the fish I was eating but I got so engulfed with the deliciousness in my mouth I really stopped caring. I was scrambling to take a quick pictures as the chef was telling us where the fish was coming from that day. You also want to eat the fish right away or else it might get soggy because some of the pieces of sushi were soaked in ponzu sauce. The tuna was from Spain that day. I remember that! *pat on the back for me*

    Here is salmon sushi and mystery 2 (Box 1) & Oysters that were from Canada (Box 2)! Delicious!! The chef tells you which peices you can eat with soy sauce and which not to. Whatever... anything he was saying at this point I would have just ignored. Heavenly bliss!

    Halibut from Japan/ Scallop from Boston (Box 1) and Sasabune's famous Butterfish (Box 2)!

    These were the last dishes to our omakase and at this point I really stopped listening to what I was eating. I just nodded to what the chef said and indulged in whatever goodness was put forth in front of me. I knew our meal was coming to an end when I was given the famous Blue Crab Roll. That was definitely one of the highlights of the night! At first I thought this meal would not fill me up, but once the Blue Crab Roll was ingested I was totally full. It was the perfect amount.

    Sasabune was awesome. A great first omakase experience for me, which I've been waiting to try. It's definitely pricey though so I know I can't come here everyday. They have an American version for about $70/80 or more depending on the market price of the fish and a Japanese version ($80-100) depending on how hardcore of a sushi eater you are. I got the Japanese version. I've read some reviewers on yelp that complained of the Chef as a "sushi nazi" because he was telling you how you should eat your sushi. My opinion is to seriously shut the hell up. This man was sushi god and we are obviously mere mortals. What do we know?

    Make like Sasabune's logo and trust them. (Yes, this is really a picture of their napkin.) Awesome. Happy Eatings!

The First Step in Solving Your Problem is Admitting You Have a Problem

The title says it all. I have a problem- a big problem. I love to eat. Expensive, cheap, whatever I just love to eat. I never thought it was a problem until one day during my 1st year in college I took a look at my monthly statement and say that I spent over $300 just on food for MYSELF in less than 3 weeks. Sad part was that food wasn't even expensive food. I didn't even eat out everyday since I would cook for myself at home sometimes and also eat dorm food. How I managed to rack up my bill so high with drinking boba everyday is still a mystery to me. I do, however recall drinking about 2 or 3 cups of boba every other day so I can see how the bill piled up. Well this past weekend I got to relive my first 2 years of college experience which I spent in beautiful La Jolla, San Diego since it was my friend's birthday. I technically only stayed about 1 day and 1/2 so I had to manage my time and my stomach on what I wanted to put in.

San Diego Priority 1: Tea Station. Although there are many Tea Stations all over Southern California, the one in San Diego is one of my favorites so I always try to stop by when I'm there. There are about "it" boba places to go to in SD. One is Tea Station and the other is Tapioca Express which I will mention below. So how do you decide which place to go to? Tea Station is known as the FOB (Fresh Off The Boat) Place and Tap Ex is known as the ABC (American Born Chinese) place. No joke for real. At Tea Station everyone speaks Chinese and the majority of the customers buy their drinks and go chill out playing Chinese dice games, Chinese chess, or Chinese checkers- all while bobbing their heads to Chinese music. Awesome... Tap Ex is filled with your typical college kids bringing in their laptop to take advantage of their free Internet. No Chinese music or games though which may be a good or bad thing. This is a picture of their Passionfruit Green Tea with Aloe. You can't actually see the aloe in the picture but its yummylicious self is inside there. They look like white jellies and have a great refreshing, chewy taste.

This is a Taiwanese dish: Fried Pig's Blood. As you can see, the outside has that Rice Krispy's texture. The inside was soft and gooey though. Definitely a acquired taste like stinky tofu. Don't go trying it if you can't handle stinky tofu or vietnamese dried blood.

This is Taiwanese tea flavored dumplings. Yes, the dumplings actually taste like tea. I think the tea flavor is in the skin. The green ones tasted like green tea and the white ones just tasted like tea.

Destination 2: Nozomi's. This is their Yellow Jacket Sushi. Delicious. When I used to go here I liked to order their fire rolls, which literally came wrapped in foil and was then lit on fire right in front of you. You would have to wait for the fire to extinguish before bringing your meal of course. Definitely need to go back and order that!

Destination 3: Roberto's. This is the awesomeness known as Roberto's. They are open 24 hours-perfect for college insomniacs. This place is pretty filthy and therefore awesome. This is a picture of their famous $5 Carne Asada Fries. Look at that beast! Roberto's is also the place to go for a good laugh. Watch drunk girls stumble in coming from the clubs as you are enjoying your carne asada fries and fish tacos. Dinner and a show. Who could ask for more?

Destination 4: Tapioca Express aka Tap Ex. This is the opposite place of Tea Station that I mentioned earlier. Speak Chinese to these people or ask for Chinese dice and you may just get cursed out and told to go back to China here. This is their Crispy Chicken meal! Comes with rice, veges, fried dumplings, and a boba drink!

So like I said before, the first step in solving your problem is to admit you have a problem. Though I have yet to find a solution to my eating problem, I find a even better way of diverting the problem of spending by transferring schools and finishing up college back in LA where I was later allowed to put all my food bills on my Mother's card instead. Sneaky-but when you are an addict you will find any means to get what you want and I wanted a full stomach! I haven't decided yet what to do with the pictures I haven't posted from Hong Kong yet. I may save them for when I go back in 3 weeks so if you are feeling like some good ol' Hong Kong adventures, be sure to look back on previous posts!


Happy Eatings and may you do anything possible to get the food you rightfully deserve and desire!

Don't Forget To Eat At The Small Places

(Action shot of Mak's Noodles being made in HK)

    Greetings fellow yummylicious food lovers! Though I am currently in California, I still have quite a few more Hong Kong food pictures to post since I ate up to 4/5 meals a day while I'm there. The exciting news is that at the same time I'm eating delicious food in L.A. as well! Win-win! So today's post is on two small shabby restaurants in Hong Kong. I find it uber unfortunate that many people prefer eating at really nice restaurants instead of out at a place that can only hold 20 people at one time. Luckily I live for places that hole in the wall places- either figuratively or literally so today I'll spotlight just how awesome the following two places are. Exhibit 1: Mak's Noodles in Hong Kong.

    Mak's Noodles is "THE" place to go when visiting HK. Many food critics have stopped by. Their most famous dishes are their Zha Jiang Lo Mian and Wonton Noodles. Unfortunately, when I went, I was not in the mood for Lo Mian. Box 1 is their wontons and Box 2 is their regular dumplings. Mak's always boast that back in the day they served their famous wonton noodles to Gernal Chiang Kai-shek. Their menu says that their soup base is made of powdered dried flounder, dried shrimp row and pork bones. Though people always complain of their small, stingy servings at Mak's, it's apparently done so to keep the noodles from going soggy. For the record, I think it's also because they are stingy though!

Here is an order of pork's kidney. It's steamed with soy sauce. Sounds gross but it's delicious!

Place 2 is Koon Thai in Wan Chai. We stumbled upon this lovely Thai place after being hungry and finding out the the other place we were actually looking for had closed down. But with a light up chicken head in the store, it was clear that we could not go wrong. We later learned that Koon Thai is a chain in Thailand and also has a number of stores throughout Hong Kong. 

We were pretty entertained by some of the "specials" that were served here. Box 1 you can see Crocodile Meat in Soup. Intriguing I have to admit. I really wanted to try it but didn't do so. I'd imagine it'd taste something like the cheap versions of shark's fin soup. Box 2 shows you the special choice of Garlic Beard you can have. I would love garlic bread but garlic beard? I'm not too sure... Misspelled signs are always fun. 

Ah! The house speciality finally arrived. Thai style Hainan Chicken Rice. At first I was skeptical since Hainan Chicken is not a Thai dish, but once we sat down at this place they had a flat screen TV with a famous food critic saying this was the dish to try! And judging from the Chicken logo, we concluded that it was our best bet and boy was it delicious. What was even more mouthwatering was the red sauce you can see in the picture above. It's this restaurant own special sauce that they sell. We were so impressed that we bought 4 bottles of it to go! 

Our other dish to come out was our order of Spicy Tom Yum Gong Soup. How can you go to a Thai restaurant and not order their signature dish? Honestly we were disappointed that it didn't taste authentic but I guess the rice and sauce was already enough to surprise us since we were not planning on eating good Thai food at all in Hong Kong. The apple soda drink I got was amazing though. Crushed dried apples with soda! Yum!

Make sure not to forget small restaurants when you are eating! Happy Eatings!

Vegetarians Know How to Eat Too!

(Looks like just a regular meal of dim sum but it's all vegetarian!)

    Greetings from L.A.! I will be back in the States for about 3 weeks before heading back to Hong Kong again for Chinese New Year so have no fear tons of food posts to come from both sides of the world! Today's post is on vegetarianism and the awesomeness which it entails. There was a recent episode of Top Chef where celebrity guest judge Natalie Portman surprised the compettiors last minute at a steak house by telling them she was a vegetarian. She was complaining how as a vegetarian, it was difficult to find places that served good food. Yeah, um okay. It's obvious that she didn't put much time or effort to look for food if she can make a statement like that... or maybe she just needs to read my blog. 
    Buddhist cuisine and culture is followed by many East Asians. Some Buddhist eat nothing but vegetarian food all the time, and others eat strictly vegetarian on certain days of the month as well as major Buddhist holidays in adherence to the 5 basic Buddhist precepts. My family does the latter. We are vegetarian on the 1st and 15th of every month in the lunar calendar. My mom's friends are always surprised that someone as young as me wouldn't mind going a full day without any juicy meat. What they and Natalie Portman don't know is that there are so many delicious vegetarian choices out there! In fact you can't even tell you aren't eating meat because it tastes so real and so delicious! There are so many delicious places in HK. Our favorite is the place in Wan Chai, which my sister and I call "The Crazy Lady Yummy Vegetarian Place." We actually don't know the real name of it because we really refer to it as such since there is this awesome, overly stylish, crazy, hyper woman who is the chef of that restaurant. She makes the BEST vege fish ball curry! I'll be sure to visit that place and blog when I do!

    Today's vege restarurant is called 心齋 ( Sum Jai) in Hong Kong. It had a cutesy decor. Even though it was Chinese style vegetarian food, you had the option to sit in regular tables or to sit Japanese style on the floor. Cool!

    This is our order of cha siu and various other "meats" and our order order of pineapple bun with coconut filling inside.

 

    Next we had an order of "Pork" Chang Fen (猪肠粉) that had a special pink skin and then Hong Yao Chao Shou which is a Chinese spicy wonton basically (Box 1). In Box 2 we had salt and peppered flavored tofu. Yum!

    Next was a vege dim sum (Box 1), a steamed vege dumpling (Box 2), and egg tarts (Box 3). 

    We ended our meal with a panfried "pork patty" (Box 1),  cold Osmanthus jello (Box 2), hot steamed Hawthorne Jello (Box 3). The same Hawthorne that was used in my previous dessert post with this Hawthorne Soup. 

    Now let's take it across the world to San Gabriel, California to Gourmet Vegetarian Restaurant. They have amazing lunch specials where they give you the same portion size as dinner but charge you half off! Lunch runs til 2:30 PM and even includes weekends. Plus you get to choose between yummy 5 grain brown rice or porridge with bread. 

Box 1 is Minced "Pigeon" that is eaten in a lettuce leaf and Box 2 is Sliced "Cuttlefish" with vegetables.

    Here is their super delicious sushi hand roll! Soo good. It's my favorite. I think it's supposed to be a fake salmon skin roll because when you order this they make sure to tell you to eat it right away or else the beets and seaweed will get soft. There's no rice inside basically just lettuce, shredded beets, and a little mayo sauce. Sounds like a weird combo but it's so good! On the left is a picture of their awesome 5 grain brown rice. It's really good. You can choose if you want your meal to come with brown rice or porridge with bread. Also worth nothing, their tea is soooo good! This place could have easily given you some crappy, cheap tea but they went all out with delicious Taiwanese Jasmine Tea! The boss is a very devout Buddhist who only wants to best ingredients in her restaurant. 

    Box 1 is Gourmet's delicious spicy tofu bowl! It's amazing! The tofu is soft and the skin is just all goodness! Box 2 is a vege version of the typical Chinese dish of Stir-fried pork kidney. It is just as delicious or even more delicious than the real thing!

    There are many  other vegetarian options in the San Gabriel Valley. This place in definitely one of my top 2. Also there is very good Vietnamese vegetarian good available as well. Most of these places really make dishes that taste as if you were eating meat! Depending on  how strict the vegetarian restaurant is, they food they serve may be more plain and bland since some Mahayana Buddhist purposely avoid eating certain strong smelling plants like garlic, shallots, onions, etc. They refer to them as the 5 spices 五辛 because of their negative as they tend to excite senses, which is bad I guess if you are a super hardcore Buddhist. I really think the best vegetarian place so far that I've experienced is "The Crazy Lady Yummy Vegetarian Place", which I will definitely blog about in the future. 

Happy Yummy & Meat-less Eatings!

So Fresh And So (Kinda) Clean!

Picture of HK's Cable Cars, remnants of British Colonial Rule

    I visit HK 2/3 times a year. I consider myself for the most part an almost native Hong Konger. One thing that set me apart aside from the fact I look nothing like most HK people do is their germophopia issues. It's normal and cool to go out looking like you are a dentist because Hong Kongers actually feel that wearing a mask is going to prevent you from catching a cold, bird flu, or swine flu, etc. They must have some special power masks or something. After spending quite some time failing to convince my Grandmother that the masks don't work, I decided to join the club for a day. Hey, if you can't beat them, join them!

    Thankfully as germaphobic Hong Kongers are, they still are okay with eating street food. Street food is amazing! It's cheap, fast, fresh, and scrumptiously delicious, which is what today's post is about!

    So how fresh do you want your street food? This fresh? The whole goat is still in tact! My usual rule of thumb is the dirtier the better-so this would actually look appealing to me!

    If that way too fresh for you, then how about seeking out a cart like this one? These two ladies are selling freshly roasted chestnuts! YUM! They also sell freshly roasted quail eggs, and sweet potatoes in 3 colors-white, purple, and yellow! They are all delicious so buy all of it! It's super cheap too! If you look closely you can see the woman on the right in red is using a shovel like tool to roast the chestnuts and keep them burning. Right next to her is a small handle. That's actually used to pump more power to keep the chestnuts and everything else in the cart warm. Is this legal? Not exactly... That's why they have to keep on the run! But no fear just put your nose in the air. You can smell roasted chestnuts and fresh sweet potatoes glazed with juicy, sugary goodness from far away!

    After you've flagged down the chestnut cart, be sure to visit some very legal and awesome street food like this. Fresh waffles and HK favorite egg waffles are made here in many different flavors!

    Here's what it looks like while it's being made! So good! While you're at one of these street shops, pick up some curry fish balls, deep fried intestine, fried eggplant/vege combinations, or stinky tofu, etc! I can have my entire lunch at one of these places just eating everything there. It's all made fresh and each item costs about $1 U.S. or less!

    These street shops also make fresh juice when you order it. Here's some hot sugarcane juice that they made right when we ordered it! Yum! Sugarcane is also super good for you! Double Yum!

    If you don't feel like standing on the side of the street, make your way to the closest Cha Chan Tangs (茶餐廳) on the side of the street where you can have a seat and have some good street style food at the same time. Check out this plate of goodness. It's a peanut butter and condensed milk toast. So good!

    Then you can order this! Hot lemon coke with ginger, which is good for your throat or when you're sick.

    In the mood for some simple street pleasures but don't want to stand on the side of the street enjoying it? Then try buying them home! Make like us and by some Taiwanese snacks home. Here's sticky rice with floss and Da bang, a bread with sesame and green onions inside.

    And if you want to bring home a big meal to enjoy, buy some Singaporean fish curry home or some Hainan Chicken Rice! The rice is super good because it actually is made with chicken fat. It's chicken heaven especially with those awesome sauces it comes with!

Some germaphobics like my Grandmother would never dare come close to street food like we do. She says it's dirty and has been sitting with smog from cars all day long. I argue that maybe that's the special ingredient that makes street food as tasty as it is!

Happy Eatings with your So Fresh & So Clean  Street Food!

Have a SWEET New Year!

    This is a picture of Bing Tang Hu Lu. It's basically candied fruit like strawberries, apples, etc. served on a stick. Back in the day, these were the only form of sweets children could have. My grandpa tells stories of how he used to save up all his money to pay for a stick of these. Now thankfully, our sweet tooth cravings can be satisfied a number of different ways. Unlike my earlier desserts pastry and cake post, today's post is going to be on different types of local desserts available in Hong Kong. And since my fam and I typically eat 2 or 3 desserts per day. You're in for quite a treat! 

    Stop Number 1: 石魔坊 (they didn't have an english name) located in Tin Hau. They aren't too crowded if you go during the day, but if you go at night be warned! This place is small. The good thing about this place is that they have a place for you to park your car so if you want to take your dessert home you can! This is an action shot of what my hot chocolate pudding looked like before, after, and during. Notice me licking the 2 orders I had clean. Yes it was delicious thank you for asking. This place's chocolate pudding is actually really good because they bake the chocolate into the dessert and it comes out steaming hot unlike other places who will just sprinkle on some chocolate syrup. We actually heard of this place from the daily newspaper where they recommended it as their best dish. It obviously was to me since I ordered and linked both bowls clean!

    This is the mother ordering her 2 desserts. Box 1 is her order of Hot Water Chestnut dessert and Box 2 is the same Hot Chocolate pudding dessert I had. Box 3 is the mother looking through their menu trying to figure out if she would like a 3rd dessert. Yes... my mom and I are hardcore dessert eaters. P.S. The pictures above were all taken by my sister who was appalled at how many desserts my mom and I were able to consume.

    She opted for their Mango Shaved Ice which had fresh mangoes, (A-Dap-Gee) young Coconut jelly, and black jelly inside. I took a bite out of hers and I definitely didn't find it as good as the Shaved Ice I had at Tang Bai Fu, which I documented in this earlier post. But all in all it wasn't bad! This place is pretty cheap too so also a plus!

    Stop #2 is Honey Moon Desserts, which is located in various places all over Hong Kong. This is my favorite thing to order there. It has coconut flavored shaved ice inside with basil seeds, fresh mangos, coconut jelly (white things on the right), and dried longan (brownish things on the top left). Super good!

   Stop #3 was some place we're probably not gonna go back to so I didn't bother writing down it's name but I guess I should post the pictures as well. The people here was super slow and the waitress didn't know what she was doing. This place liked to give all their desserts funny names instead of telling you what's inside of it. My sister asked what a Mango World was and the brilliant waitress answered it had mangoes and like.. you know.. stuff inside. Stay in school kids and lay off them drugs! Box 1 is a hot water chest nut dessert with basil seeds inside (Box 1). It was super yummy! Box 2 was the Mango World- a world that was lacking in mangoes. Looks like it had some white jelly and mango sauce sprayed over it. I think there was a piece of mango all the way in the bottom. 

    Stop #4 was Hang Fa Lau in Causeway Bay. This is made with 山渣, which was translated on their menu as Hawthorn Soup. You might recognize it in its cookie form like the picture below, which children love to eat. It's also usually given to people as a snack/candy to eat with Chinese Medicine to help get rid of the nasty Chinese medicine taste.

Not only is it really is the Hawthorn Soup very good, but it's also very good for your digestion. You can even choose as we did to add some sago to your dessert! Yum!

    Stop #5 was this place brilliantly or stupidly titled Come Buy. My sister and I were walking around when we saw their sign and a huge line waiting for their boba drinks. We weren't thinking about trying their drinks until we were intrigued by their crappy name. Who the hell names their store Come Buy? Sounded like some weird Chinglish. But this might have been part of their ingenious marketing plan because we really did come to their shop and buy! We tried their milk tea mini boba and their passionfruit green tea with coconut jellies and mini boba. Their milk tea and their passionfruit wasn't bad but their boba was delicious!!!!! Score!

    Stop #6 is Red Fruit Tree (紅果樹) also located in Tin Hau. I ordered a very delicious Hokkaido Milk Pudding With Chocolate Sauce (Box 1) while the Mother opted for a hot Coconut Soup (Box 2) which was also delicious. Hokkaido Milk is from Japan which is all the craze in HK these days!

Stop #7 is Yee Shun Milk Company. Box 1 is a picture of their famous hot milk pudding and Box 2 isn't a dessert but it's so good it might as well be. Box 2 is a picture of their also famous BBQ pork bun. Both of which are super good. Their milk is some of the best in HK made fresh from milk from Macau.

That's it for today. That should be enough to satisfy your sweet tooth for now. And remember stressed spelled backwards is still desserts so if you're stressed or just plain bored of the typical desserts and pastries at places like these, be sure to go try some special and yummy desserts like the ones mentioned above!

Happy Eatings and Have a SWEET New Year!