160 Jefferson St, San Francisco, CA 94133 (Neighborhood: Fisherman's Wharf)
Pricing - $/$$ | Dining - Casual, To-Go | Cuisine - Bakery, American
www.boudinbakery.com

My first real food stop on my vacation in San Francisco! Duc and I were hungry after our delayed flight, the BART travel, and the walk to where we were staying. We wanted to hit up Fisherman's Wharf so some kind of seafood-y lunch was in order. I spotted Boudin and knew it would be a great place to hit up.


Aside from the huge sourdough animals they have in a floor-to-ceiling window near the bakery, they also had fresh breads inside as well as bread baskets that were circling around above us to reach the people putting foods together to-go at the cafe. We opted to eat there so we didn't have to wait at a table since we wanted a quick food grab. While waiting for food, we browsed (and couldn't stop ourselves from buying) through the neat kitchen items they had on various themed stands.


Uh, who can resist clam chowder in a sourdough bowl? That was what caught our eyes and led us into a sated bliss. We both thoroughly enjoyed it because the bread really made it superb. Such good sourdough - I'd have to say that it was probably the best sourdough and clam chowder I had (or at least one of the best clam chowders I'd had). The bread was the right amount of fluffiness and moistness; the sour taste associated with sourdough was just perfect. As for the chowder, it had a tad less clams than I expected but the base was not overly thick and the flavoring was just delightful. What a great first meal here!

Following awesome pictures taken by Duc:

So for Chinese New Year, I decided to try and make dan ta (Chinese egg tart). These were definitely a favorite whenever my family and I went out to have dim sum; I used to order these first all the time when I was a child. Though I've grown out of the obsession with them, my younger brother is now in it so I figured I'd give it a try. I followed the recipe listed here and ended up with way too much custard for the amount of dough that was made. I also realized that these were Hong Kong style which I haven't had before. I guess it meant that the crust was not a flaky pastry type? I found the dough recipe to be quite similar to shortbread. It was still delicious; don't get me wrong. I just think that I need to find another. As for how they turned out in others' opinions - the flavor was pretty much spot-on but my crust was too thick per tart (I had to use a muffin tin anyhow so my judgment of thickness was off). I would post a recipe but I'm going to still experiment with this yummy treat until I get it right!

(Here's a quickie since it's my mom's birthday, and I'm busy.) Is your food allergy truly an allergy or are you comparing it to food intolerance? There's a difference you know. Many people don't know the difference and will often say that they are allergic to something (~25% of adults think they have food allergies while medically, doctors estimate about 1-2% of all adults actually do).

An intolerance is based on your body not having the proper enzymes to digest a certain food. You may experience abdominal pain, gas, and diarrhea as this stems from problems in the stomach. Lactose intolerance is probably one of the most common you hear about, particularly amongst Asians (I myself am just milk intolerant...how weird). On the other hand, an allergy is associated with the immune system which reacts towards the food item as if it were attacking the body; your system attempts to create antibodies to combat it. Any contact, however brief, will trigger some kind of response, and common reactions include hives, vomiting, and asthma. The intolerance makes life uncomfortable but the allergy can end life. The more you know!

My favorite holiday is tomorrow - Chinese New Year! Well technically it's the Lunar New Year but I'll lay claim to it because of my ethnicity. Whee-hee. When I realized that the day was going to fall on a Monday this year, I knew that the weekend before would be full of cooking and food-making at home. Of course, my mom does a mish-mash of both Chinese and Vietnamese foods but here is some information on things that are considered "good luck" for the Chinese during this festive time (who else has a 15-day long "holiday"?).

1. Tangerines and Oranges
Oh so true - our house is chock-full of them right now. The fruits symbolize wealth and luck and probably stem from how the Chinese words for gold and orange are very similar as well as how tangerine almost sounds like luck. Leaves are a plus atop the fruits as they symbolize longevity. It also helps that oranges are quite abundant in China. However, keep in mind that you shouldn't put four of them together as it's usually linked to death then.

2. Nian Gao 
A year cake whose name gao sounds similar to tall/high, it symbolizes reaching new heights. These are steamed, sweet, and contain glutinous rice flour, brown sugar, and oil. I don't think I've really had many of these though. Maybe next year?

3. Yuanbao (Jiaozi)
These are dumplings! Delicious and great symbols of prosperity as they look like the ancient Chinese currency with their ingot shapes and are also called jiaozi which was the name of the first Chinese bank note. These are most popular in northern China.

4. Long Noodles
This should have been a no-brainer if you are familiar with Chinese culture. The longer the noodle, the better - they represent life's longevity!

5. Pomelo
Thought to bring both prosperity and status for years to come, this fruit (similar to grapefruit) sounds like prosperity and status when the three words are said in Cantonese. I've got quite a lot of these in my garage right now from our tree - hopefully an auspicious year? 

6. Whole Fish
Fish is similar to abundance in Chinese, and the whole fish must be served to guarantee a good beginning and end to the year. However, the whole fish does not necessarily have to be eaten as any remainder eaten the second day represents spare.

7. The Tray of Togetherness
I had actually never heard of this until I looked up some things on Chinese New Year. It's a tray with eight compartments that are filled with symbolic snack foods for visitors during the holiday celebrations. Examples include preserved kumquats for prosperity, coconut for togetherness, longans to bring many sons, and red melon seeds for happiness.

In general, there is also a lot of sweets involved and eating jai (vegetarian), particularly if you are Buddhist. My mom prepares a lot of vegetarian stuff during the holiday which I love. Hope these help get you ready to celebrate the next coming weeks with lots of good luck foods and happy eating!

After buying things at the Garden Grove Farmers' Market and being determined to cook everything I purchased, I realized that the carrots I had gotten still had their greens on top. "Neato," thought I until I realized I had never really worked with them before. So what to do? As luck would have it, my mom was in the kitchen that day I was contemplating the greens, and she was about to stir-fry a bunch of vegetables with pasta because she didn't know what else to do. My mom's a great cook but anything that is out of the Asian cuisine escapes her prowess, so I said I'd handle the pasta. One look around the kitchen set my eyes on the walnuts I had gotten a little while back. Carrot top greens pesto it was! I discovered that the greens themselves have got quite a raw spiciness to them but heating/wilting them a bit will cut that taste down.


Step 1: Ingredients (yields approximately 1 cup)

• garlic salt, to taste
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1 bunch carrot top greens, no stems
• 4 cloves garlic, minced

Step 2: Preparing the ingredients
Remove the carrot top greens from the carrots. I would recommend not including the stems in your recipe because they ended up being quite stringy and hard to eat. Chop it up for easier usage in your food processor later. I had to do two batches. I would've used the traditional mortar and pestle if I weren't pressed for time. Mince the garlic and chop the walnuts (toasting the walnuts is optional)

Step 3: Finishing
I put the greens in first to make sure they were well-chopped. Then I added the garlic and walnuts with a drizzle of the olive oil. It helps lubricate the whole process as well. As I said, I did this all in two batches so it's sort of a repeating process depending on how big your processor is. The garlic salt was to taste. I then tossed it with pasta for a delicious and healthy-tasting meal (topped with carmelized red onions).

First of all, it's National Bake for Family Fun Month and second of all, I needed to use the awesome lavender vanilla bean sugar I got from the Savory Spice Shop. I committed myself to making something this past weekend by telling my co-workers I'd bring sweets to the wedding we were setting up. So what tickled my fancy? Lavender shortbread cookies. They were mother-approved/family-approved and great since there are few ingredients. If you don't have lavender sugar on hand, try using other subtly scented sugars or even making your own mix (lemon zest is a potential!).

Step 1: Ingredients (serving size: varies by shape)

• lavender sugar, to dust
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup confectioner's/powdered sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup unsalted butter, cold
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

Step 2: Preparing the dry ingredients
Combine the white sugar, powdered sugar, and all-purpose flour in a bowl. The recipe I had been using asked for 1/4 tsp of kosher salt but I found that it made certain areas too salty in the cookie.

Step 3: Adding wet ingredients
Pour the vanilla extract into the bowl. Cut in the cold butter. I got to use the pastry blender that my brother got me for Christmas while doing this - so much quicker than using two forks! Now the next step just depends on the shape you want your cookies. You can roll the dough and refrigerate until hard so you can slice round cookies (~40) or be lazy like me and just dump all onto a greased baking sheet to cut into bars later (12-16). Your choice!

Step 4: Finishing
Preheat the oven to 325°F. If using logs of dough, roll them into lavender sugar. If making bars, dust on top heavily enough that you can see the flecks of lavender on top. These will make them nice and presentable! OPTIONAL: I found that using the spring wildflower honey I got from the GG Farmers' Market made the cookies immensely tastier. Try adding honey!

887 S Anaheim Blvd, Anaheim, CA 92805
Pricing - $$$/$$$$ | Dining - Dressy | Cuisine - Italian, American
www.anaheimwhitehouse.com

I remembered hearing about this place a long time ago as a restaurant of high caliber. It was pricey to go here, and the food was said to be superb. I had put it on my list of places to go but never made the commitment until recently when there was a Groupon for it. Duc snagged one, and we finally made time to get a little fancied up to eat. On a Thursday night, it was quite empty at 6pm but toward the end of the night, it got much busier. If it got any busier, we would've had a lot of trouble with other guests since the tables were so close to each other. The decor, as others on Yelp mentioned, was a tad tacky but I wouldn't say it was gag-inducing. It just wasn't as classy as hoped.


We started with the portobello mushroom ravioli. Two pieces for over $10 is quite expensive, particularly for ravioli that wasn't anything special. It was served with glace and green peppercorns over sautéed locally grown spinach but really, the peppercorn was the most flavorful part. We both felt that it was okay but nothing to rave about.


My entree was the 7 oz. Romeo & Juliet filet mignon served on polenta with mashed potatoes on the side and some sort of crisp, cracker structure. I think it was supposed to be a swan? Anyhow, the presentation was a bit over-the-top considering the food. There were also diced green and red bell peppers scattered on the plate for, in my opinion, no reason whatsoever. So the mashed potatoes tasted instant, and the polenta basic. The steak was actually cooked well; I had asked for medium rare and except for the very center of it (slightly raw), it was prepared as asked. I didn't really taste the cheesy sauce on top but the surface of the steak itself had a nice flavor. Was it worth the $34 though? Hardly.


Duc got the Brasato Piemontese (he made me order it so I could pronounce it in Italian, hah) which is their signature dish - boneless beef short ribs braised three hours in an Italian Barolo reduction topped with a touch of a horseradish. It was pretty good, and I actually liked the reduction on it. Worth the money? Again, sorry to the chef but it can't really be all that costly can it?


Per suggestions from Yelpers, we had the chocolate soufflé complete with Crème Anglaise, chocolate ganache, and Chantilly whipped cream which were added on by our waiter. Delicious. Really. I think it was a great finish to a meal that was good but not great. Afterward, Duc shared with me one of his favorites wines at home which I thoroughly enjoyed; one of my favorite now too! I mean, you know what they say, "Once you have Gewürztraminer, other wines seem obscener."

So my dear ol' (in)significant other and I have a list of things that we want to do together which is constantly being added onto. One of the activities was to visit a farmers' market and then cook the remaining meals of the day with what we purchased there. Funny how something that is the everyday life activity of some areas now and for years in the past has become a leisurely activity. "Oh hey, let's go to the farmers' market to buy locally!" Anyhow, let's skip the negativity and get onto the fun!


The first place we hit up was the honey stand, mainly because it was the closest. I got to try four different types of honey, all of which had their own subtle differences that made my mind whir with possibilities of desserts/sauces/glazes/etc. We couldn't resist and ended up snagging a 16 oz. jar (overkill much?) of their spring wildflower honey. So simply sweet and light - I wanted to use them on cookies right away!


Next actually was not a food booth but a neat craft booth of miniature flowers which the woman made from clay. They were so beautiful, and she let me take pictures after I asked her if I could. I felt like Duc wanted one more than I did but had no manly way of justifying it so he said it was for me. Hah. I mean, he insisted so I chose a pretty little blue one in a wooden crate-like stand to keep at my desk at work; I bought another one for my mom. They're so neat and definitely a mark of some meticulous skill.


The next two places were snack-oriented for us. I grabbed kettle corn and cheddar kettle corn bags for my younger brother. We tried all the different flavors but alas, nothing beats the original. Then there was the dip & salsa booth. No need to tell me to keep eating because dips & chips are addictive. After trying everything there was, we settled on the smoked cheddar & bacon dip, chipotle black bean dip, and chipotle mayonnaise. I think the black bean was the best of the three; I'll have to try remaking it sometime.



So then we decided it was time to get serious and buy some "real" food (squash, spinach, lettuce, & carrots). Vegetables later, we went to his place to cook. No butchers at this quaint, humbled farmers' market so we resorted to some pork loins in his freezer. We cooked that up with some garlic spice rub I had brought back from Texas and had garlicky spinach & honey-glazed squash on the side, using the spinach, honey, and squash from earlier. Hoorah! Next one to hit up will be the San Francisco farmers' market on Market St!

1621 W Sunflower Ave, Santa Ana, CA 92704
Pricing - $$$/$$$$ | Dining -  Dressy | Cuisine - Indian
www.royalkhyber.com

I had remembered seeing this as one of the restaurants during OC Restaurant Week but never got a chance to make it over here. However, a recent acquiring of a $25 for $50 deal led to an expedition here for a nice dinner out. When I was looking at the menu online, I realized just how pricey the entrees were, especially from the typically priced Indian food I see. After getting lost for a long time leading to being almost half an hour late for the reservation, we finally got there and walked in feeling a little underdressed (a nice top + jeans weren't exactly the norm). Oh well.


The very, very low lighting made it difficult to take quality pictures but I managed to snag a few. We were started with this starter I've seen before in another sit-down Indian restaurant but still don't know the name of (researching time!). It was nice and not as salty as the one I had had prior. It had some dipping sauces too. As for drinks, we ordered the mango lassi but man was it salty here! Weird! We only drank it to quell the heat from the spices in our entrees later - otherwise, it was pretty bad.


I ordered the Khyber's Nectar since I have a penchant for ordering items w/the restaurant's name in the title; I mean why would they slap a name on there unless they were proud of it? It was a lamb shank in their special Khyber sauce (14 hour-long process) served with naan and rice pilaf. It was crazy how soft the meat was as it fell off the bone at a touch. To be honest, loved the sauce but could hardly taste it in the shank. It was good but not memorable. He ordered the Methi Chicken Punjabi, our favored of the two; it was chicken breast in a sauce of green chili, yogurt, and fenugreek gravy served with naan and rice pilaf. So delicious! The chicken had a nice taste of the oven to it too.

We also ordered their onion basil naan which is probably the best naan I've ever had. We also got a side of the saag paneer which isn't a dish he has liked in the past but he liked this one. I enjoyed it too but after a while, began to question whether it had begun to curdle or not as it got sourer as I kept eating. It was a generally good meal but for the price? I wouldn't come back.

9252 Garden Grove Blvd, Ste 10, Garden Grove, CA 92842
Pricing - $$/$$$ | Dining - Casual | Cuisine -  Korean, Barbecue

This restaurant has more to offer than their all-you-can-eat barbecue but who wants to go to Cham Sut Gol to have anything other than the brisket? For $16.99 (as of this post), you can get as much as you want of the beef brisket, pork belly, spicy pork bbq, beef, bbq, and chicken bbq with unlimited side dishes and a choice of three different starters. Awesome. My friends and I came here after craving some Korean bbq since it had been quite a while. We were seated immediately to our pleasure.


The choice of starters is egg pot, tofu soup, or bean paste soup, the tastes of which are respectively ordered from best to worst. There is also a nice big bowl of salad for the whole table. 


So the first to come out is the brisket which is nicely thinly sliced. There's a central grill plate to cook all the meats and tons of awesome side dishes. I particularly like the rice paper and almost cannot eat the meat without it! I also tremendously enjoy the seasoned glass noodles, sesame oil soybean sprouts, and the radish kimchi. 


Of all the meats, we ate the most of the brisket. The chicken generally takes too long to cook and ravenous eaters don't like waiting! The beef bbq is really good too though but I didn't know if others at the table wanted me to order more. The spicy pork bbq is okay and so is the pork belly. The brisket was definitely the star and mmm was it delicious!

I like that you get to cook your own meats at your own pace here when you come. The ice cream at the end is pretty neat too; unfortunately, my green tea ice cream tasted like lime. Weird. I do know that every time I come here though, I will smell like Korean bbq for a while because the odor and the oils get into everyone's clothes (and for girls, their long hair). At least it's a pleasant smell. As always, good job to the restaurant for meaty deliciousness.

1430 Union St, San Diego, CA 92101 
Pricing - $$/$$$ | Dining - Casual, To-Go | Cuisine - Desserts, Teas 
http://www.extraordinarydesserts.com

[You can read the first review here.] It has become a San Diego tradition for me to hit up Extraordinary Desserts. I was down in SD for 5 days working the auto show at Camp Jeep so after training the first day, I dropped by this place to get some chocolate (it was National Chocolate Day!) dessert to share with Duc with wine. He was sweet enough to drive to SD to spend a day-ish with me on his day off. Anyhow, one of the things that I don't like about big cities is the whole parking situation! Though I had meant to stop in for grabbing desserts to go, I ended up staying for a drink and some bruschetta because I wanted to make full usage of the $1.25 I paid for an hour's time of parking. Thus, I sat at the bar in a forever-alone type of way by eating and drinking.


So, I went ahead and ordered their buffalo mozzarella bruschetta and funghi misti bruschetta ($6 during happy hour). I also saw that they had Oaked Arrogant Bastard for only $3 at that time so I ordered it. The waitress told me they were out but she'd give me any beer for the same price. What a nice offer. I chose the Allagash Tripel Ale instead because I was curious about the passionfruit it toted having (I like Kona's Wahlua for that tart tang). The breads were delicious! I really enjoyed the flavors atop them but I'm not sure that the price was all too good for just two pieces. As for the beer, the passionfruit was quite understated but it was still a very pleasant fruity beer that masked the 9% ABV it had. For desserts, I snagged a Viking cake and Lemon Bar on the way out - the Viking is oh so decadent and chocolately indulgent while the lemon bar really kicks you in the face with tartness. Delish!

7152 Orangethorpe Ave, Buena Park, CA 90621
Pricing - $ | Dining - Casual | Cuisine - Korean

Duc and I had planned on having a dinner date out one night before I left for San Diego for nearly a week, so he made plans to go somewhere if I got out of work at a certain time. Of course, I got held back since there was so much to do at work; my boss was leaving the country and had to get details squared away so I wouldn't be hopelessly lost while she was gone. I updated that I'd be late so he went to Plan B. I ended up being quite late so when I got to his place, we went with Plan C; unfortunately the restaurant happened to be closed JUST on that night. Fun. So Plan D was to use Yelp, and that's how we found (and sort of fell in love with) Han Yang.

It's a small place but seems very family-oriented in the homey sense. I mean that the foods seemed like ones that are part of a homecooked meal gathering. I think we were the only non-Koreans there. When ordering the food, we didn't know anything on there but went with Yelp suggestions. As we looked around and saw people get all their awesome dishes, we wondered if there was a "secret menu" because none of the English descriptions sounded like what we saw! I later figured out that the English descriptions are a bit poor since both our soups sounded similar but were definitely different. I'll have to try other plates next time!


I got the sul-long-tang which was a creamy-looking beef broth with vermicelli and a choice of meat (I chose brisket). When it was brought out, the waitress also added in heaps of green onion (yay!) and what looked like salt but I am guessing was MSG. The add-ons sit at the table so you can add more if you'd like; I did because the soup initially came off as bland. However, it was still oh-so-delicious, especially on a winter night. I loved it so much that I kept trying to have more though I was bloated. Great stuff.


Duc got the gal-bi-tang which was highly recommended by all the Yelpers. Uh, we figured out why. MIND-BLOWING! It was a beef broth with bone-in pieces of meat that just heightened the overall flavor of the soup. I mean, I could taste all the flavor absorbed into the meat and could tell that the soup definitely had been cooked for a long time (only gets better!). Great find, especially on a whim - Yelp saved the date (again!).