The SLY Foodie

AOI Restaurant is a small Japanese restaurant located in Little Tokyo near Downtown Los Angeles. It serves the traditional Japanese fare, like teriyaki, sukiyaki, tempura, sushi, ramen, etc. It's primarily well-known among people who work in the area who take advantage of their lunch specials.


Speaking of which, the most popular lunch specials is the "B Lunch." The B Lunch features teriyaki chicken, shrimp and vegetable tempura, sunomuno, rice, salad and miso soup. In my opinion, AOI has the best tempura downtown. The batter is light and crisp, and the vegetables are not overcooked. The teriyaki is also very tasty as well. The teriyaki chicken is good, some of the time. Sometimes, it tends to be overcooked and dry; other times you taste the charcoal that comes from burning the edges. There have been a few times when I've actually noticed that the chicken was cooked nicely. The teriyaki sauce is good, not too sweet nor salty. The miso soup is great; they don't add seaweed in it (I don't like seaweed), but they do add some nice pieces of tofu - yummy. The salad is comprised of iceberg lettuce, cabbage and shredded carrots served with their house dressing, which is never enough.


Also available is something called the No. 2 Plate, which includes teriyaki steak, shrimp and veggie tempura, rice, salad and miso soup. It is a generous portion of steak which is cooked well. There are also more tempura pieces to enjoy.


On one of our visits, we ordered the gyoza as an appetizer. We were served with six pieces of pan-fried dumplings. They also included a bottle of sesame oil, which we mixed with soy sauce. The gyoza were delectable, nice combination of ground pork with vegetables.


Overall, Restaurant AOI is a great place for a tempura/teriyaki lunch combo at a relatively reasonable price. Lunch specials start at $8.95.

Each year we try to make it to the annual fried food smorgasbord that is the LA County Fair. Now, everyone knows that the food makes the fair, at least it does, in my opinion. Sadly, however, I am noticing that the older I get, the less room I have for all these delectable treats that is sure to send you to the nearest hospital for a triple bypass or something. It is probably best to proceed with caution, for both you and your wallet.

So, on to my favorite foods... at the top of the list, is of course, the roasted corn by the Chuck Wagon next to Fairview Farms. There is nothing like this BBQ corn. Nothing. You have the option of having melted butter slathered over the ear of corn, but frankly, how could you not have corn without butter? Then comes the fun and creative part. They have all sorts of condiments you can put on the corn, such as garlic salt, cajun seasoning, lemon juice, pepper, hot sauce, mayonnaise, etc. To quote Rachael Ray, "Yum-O!"




The next things we usually get are the selections at Chicken Charlie's, located across from the bandstand. Like a fair worker said, "they'll fry anything." (That's true, by the way). This year, they had delicacies such as deep fried frog legs, avocadoes, artichokes, zucchini, White Castle cheeseburger, Twinkies and Pop Tarts (yes, Pop Tarts). The deep fried cheeseburger intrigued me, so after a few minutes of indecision, I caved and got it. The first bite was awesome, but the closer I got to the end, the more batter I tasted, and not the actual burger. It was served with some fries, and it was overall so-so.


By this time, we really weren't feeling the fried food love (a sign that we are not as young as we used to be), so we just settled on sharing some deep fried apple fries. Yep, apple fries. It was actually not a bad dish. It's Granny Smith apples cut up like fries, flash fried to seal in the apple juices, then rolled in cinnamon sugar and served with whipped cream. It tasted just like apple pie. Be careful, though - it's really hot! I wish I had taken a picture.

The final dish we were able to tolerate (barely) was the deep fried mushrooms from a booth with a crocodile on the picture. They are sizable white mushrooms (like the ones used to make stuffed mushrooms), deep fried in a batter with a little bit of cayenne pepper for an extra spicy kick. It's served with ranch dressing for an additional charge. This used to be my favorite dish at the fair because I love mushrooms. I'm not sure what it was, maybe it was a combination of high prices and the fact that we were through eating, but it wasn't as good as it used to be.


I was told that there were some people that were there at the fair from the time it opened to the time it closed. Professional fair goers, I guess they're called. To which I say, bleh. The food is really the only reason to visit the fair. But a word to the wise: if you plan on sampling all the fair has to offer, it is best to pace yourself, for the sake of your belly and your wallet.

After an afternoon at the beach, it seemed that the most logical thing to have for dinner was seafood. Then I thought of Pacific Fish Grill, a new restaurant that opened at The Shoppes in Chino Hills. It seemed like we could go, enjoy a cocktail and have a nice sit-down dinner. Boy, was I wrong. It turned out to be a semi-fastfood restaurant. You would not have been able to tell from the outside of the restaurant. Since we were already there, we decided to go ahead and try it out.

As soon as you walk in, you see the register and a huge menu board above it. The decor seemed to be a little too nice for a fastfood establishment. Price points were comparable to other places that serve this type of food. They serve seafood, both grilled and fried. Grilled fish items come with rice pilaf, salad and pita bread. Once you place your order, it's up to you to find seating, get your drink and condiments at the bar located against the back wall. Restaurant staff will bring your food to you.

We ordered the Fried Scallops meal, which are bay scallops that are battered and deep fried, served with fries and coleslaw. It was actually pretty good. The scallops seemed pretty fresh, didn't have too much batter, it was seasoned perfectly and had just the right crunch. The fries were so-so, they sprinkled some parsley on it, which made no difference whatsoever. If you know me, you'd know that I think parsley is the most overrated herb out there. I didn't try the coleslaw, since I generally don't like it, and this one particularly didn't seem appetizing to me at all.




We also ordered the crunchy combination plate, which consisted of 3-4 pieces of fried shrimp, 2 pieces of fried fish and calamari. I was slightly disappointed to find that they were calamari strips and not the rings. To me, calamari rings are fresher and taste better. But the strips weren't bad. The fish wasn't really fresh, but it was to be expected from previously frozen fish. The shrimp was the best thing on that plate.

Overall, this place was only so-so, not a bad place to go to if you're craving seafood. But I wouldn't give it stellar reviews.

Yard House, a popular restaurant chain, recently opened in our neck of the woods. Naturally, we decided to go and check it out, especially since we haven’t been to one in quite a while, a couple of years, actually. I was looking forward to finally trying out a Chilean Sea Bass dish they once offered but, to my dismay, it was no longer on the menu. So after a quick glance at the menu, I decided on a burger.

It was the Béarnaise Burger – a half pound natural Angus beef burger with béarnaise sauce and fried onions served on a potato bun with extra sauce, fries and a pickle. I must admit that it was one of the better burgers I’ve enjoyed in quite some time. The combination of the juicy beef (cooked medium, so it was pink throughout), the tangy béarnaise and the crunchy sweet onions made for an oh-so-satisfying burger experience. The fries were thin cut, almost like shoestring potatoes, and were crunchy good. I can’t tell you much about the pickle, other than it was there (I don’t like pickles). The picture below is the burger; please excuse me for forgetting to take the picture before I took several bites. I just couldn't wait.



I also tried the Brazilian Lemonade, a concoction of Ketel One Citroen, Cointreau, mojito mix, lemonade and fresh mint leaves. It tasted good, not too strong. My only complaint was the fact that there were no mint leaves in my drink. I’m not sure if it’s served with mint leaves in the actual glass, or if the leaves were in the shaker while the drink was prepared. I think the distinct mint flavor would be more prominent if the drink was served with it. Nevertheless, it was a tasty alcoholic treat.

Due to intense pressure from a certain blog groupie, I am writing this post on the food that I enjoyed during my stay at the Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center two months ago when Daniel was born. Contrary to popular belief, hospital food can be quite tasty, and they'll give you everything you check off on the menu, which is nice.

Since Daniel was born at 6 a.m., breakfast was the first meal I had. That morning, the nurses took the liberty of getting me a biscuit, some bacon, eggs, cereal, juice, a banana, milk and a couple of other things I don't remember. The bacon was good – crunchy and not salty. Granted, the eggs were a little bland, but they exceeded expectations. After all, the food's coming from a hospital kitchen, not a four-star Michelin restaurant. For lunch, I had beef stew served with a corn muffin, chicken noodle soup, fruit jello and an oatmeal raisin cookie (pictured below on the left). Everything tasted great, I would probably just add more seasoning to the beef stew though.
For dinner, we were treated to the hospital’s celebration dinner. After all, a new baby is a very good reason to celebrate. We were given a choice of shrimp or sirloin steak, so naturally one of us chose steak and the other chose shrimp. Both were served with rice pilaf, steamed vegetables, a garden salad, a dinner roll, dessert (which I don’t remember what it was) and sparkling cider. Again, the food was well prepared. I think the vegetables may have been slightly overcooked and could have used a little seasoning. Other than that, I think we were just hungry, tired and emotional to notice anything else. Unfortunately, that also meant that we forgot to take a picture of the food.

Breakfast the next day brought a pancake, a blueberry muffin, eggs, bacon, toast, cereal, a banana, juice and milk. No complaints there. No pictures, either. For lunch, I chose halibut because it was my second favorite fish (after Chilean sea bass, of course). That was served with squash and peas. My tray also included peaches, vanilla custard, fruit jello, toast and a salad. The fish was good, it didn’t taste fishy at all. Once again, however, I thought the vegetables were overcooked and needed salt. But I figure that most people in hospitals can’t necessarily have too much salt in their diet, thus blander tasting food.

For Father's Day, the boy and I decided (ok, it was really just me) to take my husband out to Daisy Mint in Pasadena. It serves Oriental cuisine, although it primarily offers Thai dishes. This is my second time going, as we had gone there for a friend's birthday dinner a few months prior. I was pleasantly surprised the first time, since the food was very good. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the food that night, especially since most, if not everything we ordered was a Daisy special.

So this time, determined to take as many pictures as possible, we ordered soup, appetizer, and several dishes. The first course was the appetizer, which were eggrolls that contained vermicelli noodles, cabbage and a little egg, deep-fried and served with a sweet and spicy dipping sauce. (Aside: The restaurant charges $2.50 for these eggrolls, which I thought were a bargain until our server brought it out. There were only two eggrolls! Here I was, thinking there'd be at least 4. Oh well. So much for that.) See what I mean?

The next course was the soup, which was a Tom Kha Chicken soup, which can be considered the Thai version of a hot and sour soup. It's cooked with tender pieces of chicken, shrimp, button mushrooms, scallions, cilantro, lemongrass, kaffir lime, broth and coconut milk. You can order it with more shrimp or scallop for an additional charge. I am a huge fan of hot and sour soups, so I was really looking forward to tasting this one. I was not disappointed, it was so good that I was secretly glad it was spicier than my husband would have liked it. He did mention later, however, that he liked it as well because he could really taste the sweetness of the coconut milk in this soup. My only critique, if any, is it was served in a small bowl. I could have had that for dinner alone and be satisfied. Doesn't that just look so good?!

The next dishes were entree dishes, which are served with a side of brown or white rice. My husband ordered the Daisy back ribs, which are pork ribs marinated with a salty shellfish type of rub and then either deep-fried or oven baked. We had ordered this dish the first time, and I really enjoyed the saltiness of the rub contrasted with the sweetness of the tender pork. I have to say this time, though, I was slightly disappointed because I think the pork was overcooked and so the outsides were too crispy. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of this dish to share.

I ordered the Red Devil curry, which is chicken (or beef, if you prefer), red and green peppers, tender bamboo shoots, basil and a wonderful curry sauce. You can customize the dish by adding shrimp or scallops, again for an additional charge, and you can also make it as spicy or mild as you like. This was also another dish that we ordered the first time I went to Daisy Mint, and I really enjoyed it. This time was no different. I can't say enough about how good it was, other than I had to order another bowl of rice for all that tasty sauce.

We also ordered the Pad Thai, which is a traditional Thai noodle dish with chicken (or your choice of beef, pork or shrimp), peanuts, onion, garlic, egg, a little fish sauce and tossed with fresh bean sprouts and scallions. It was a good, rounded dish, but quite frankly, I was devouring too much of the curry to really have room for Pad Thai. It seemed like we ordered it more as an afterthought.

It was a pleasant overall experience. The ambiance of the restaurant can cater to larger groups, but it will definitely accomodate quiet, romantic dinners as well. Parking is available in front along the street as well as in the back. Try to make it to an early dinner, as it will fill up quickly since it's a small restaurant.

One of our favorite places to walk to for lunch (that is, when laziness doesn't get the best of us) is Liliya's China Bistro, located on 2nd Street between Main and Spring. It serves "Americanized" Chinese food... well, something you would expect from a Chinese bistro. Personally, I've never really been into Chinese food not being authentic, but this restaurant serves flavorful dishes at decent prices for lunch. We haven't tried their dinner menu, which is probably something we should do one night if we stay late at work. Here are a few pictures of the restaurant's first floor:



For their lunch specials, they offer a large selection of typical Chinese-American dishes such as Sweet and Sour Pork, Orange Chicken, Chow Mein, Shrimp with Lobster Sauce, etc. It comes with rice, a salad dressed with sweet and sour dressing, and their soup of the day. Now being a creature of habit, I (almost) always get the Szechuan Pork with Garlic Sauce, a spicy, delectable dish of pork strips, green and red peppers, onions, bamboo shoots and "rat ears" (it's a type of fungus). My husband usually gets the Orange Chicken, which is one of the best orange chicken dishes I've had. Sometimes he'll liven things up by ordering the Cashew Chicken, which is, as you can guess, chicken cooked with peppers, onions and well, cashews. The last time, however, I decided to be a little more spontaneous and ordered the Bulgogi, which is thinly-cut marinated rib eye cooked with onions and scallions. It was full of flavor because of the marinade, and let's face it, you can't go wrong with rib eye. You just can't. For kicks, we also ordered potstickers, which had ground pork and vegetables inside wonton wrappers and deep-fried. It was served with a too salty dipping sauce, but otherwise was just so-so.

The soup and salad starter, shown above. As you can see, the salad just seems pedestrian, in fact, the wonton strips are the most exciting ingredient, despite the sweet and sour Asian-flavored dressing.

The potsticker appetizer... looks appetizing, doesn't it? It's so-so. The dipping sauce (not shown)is very salty.

The teriyaki beef bowl my husband ordered. Broccoli was cooked to crisp tender, the way I like it. Teriyaki sauce wasn't too sweet, which was the way I like it as well. Good-sized portion for the price, so overall, not too shabby. Pictured below, we finally come to the Bulgogi, which is one of my new favorite dishes at Liliya. It comes with pickled ginger on top, which if you're not a fan of (I'm not), you can just take off. The onions are cooked until they're sweet, and there's enough sauce in the dish for your rice, plus, you can always ask for more rice when you run out... yum!

to Stephanie Izard, the first female winner of Top Chef! She beat out 14 other cheftestants, including Richard Blais, the favorite to win the season. The season finale was one of the episodes where I thought that the judges actually did the right thing (I refuse to further discuss the other person even finishing so close to the top. She is an ugly person, inside and out.).

Overall, I thought Stephanie's food looked like the most rounded set of dishes and would be the one that I would like to try. They just seemed to flow much better and had much more focus, which is reminiscent of Harold's finale dishes. Richard, on the other hand, I thought was unfocused. Like Colicchio said, his strength became his Achilles heel. I think that he wanted to come out and really impress the judges with his skills, but had way too many ideas bouncing in his head. That's why I think some of his dishes missed, although I would try the bacon ice cream, just to say that I've had it.

It was a buffet reception, and here's a list of the dishes included in the buffet menu, followed by a picture of my plate, which I know looks very messy. But hey, it's a buffet, you have to stack up your food, especially if you know you may not get another chance to go back.

* Fresh Berries and Baby Spinach with a Raspberry Feta Vinaigrette
* Traditional Caesar Salad with Parmesan Croutons
* Carving Station with Tender Prime Roast Rib of Beef
* Chicken Portobello with Sweet Madeira Wine Glaze
* Broccoli Penne Pasta with Smoked Gouda Cream Sauce
* Mashed Red Baby Potatoes
* Grilled Asparagus
* Crudite of Assorted Seasonal Vegetables and Fruits
* Assorted Tray of Domestic and Imported Cheese and Crackers

I know that most people don't necessarily associate wedding reception food to be exceptionally great, but I am frankly still thinking about that prime rib to this day. The meat was cooked to perfection, and these days, I have to eat red meat completely cooked. It was tender and flavorful and it was exactly the way a prime rib of beef should taste. I didn't get to try the spinach salad because of the feta cheese that I'm not allowed to have, but I thought that the Caesar salad was very good. The chicken tasted okay, it was not my favorite dish, because it seemed like it was typical wedding reception food. The penne was also a good dish, the broccoli was fork tender, although I thought it could've used just another smidge of salt, maybe more gouda. The sides were also good, nothing negative to say about them. Overall, the entire dinner was great and completely exceeded my expectations.

So it's on to Puerto Rico for the Top Chef finals with Richard, Stephanie, Antonia and Lisa. Spike got the boot on Wednesday for not choosing the freshest ingredients available. But before I get ahead of myself, let's recap from the very beginning...

The Quickfire round consisted of the cheftestants going to Allen Brothers to learn how to properly butcher a piece of tomahawk steak, then going back to the Top Chef kitchen to cook and serve it. It is a piece of long bone ribeye that weighs approximately 30-35 oz. Spike won the challenge, providing him a "significant" advantage in the Elimination challenge. The guest judge for this episode was Rick Tramonto, owner of Tramonto's Steak and Seafood in Chicago.

The Elimination round is where things became more interesting, because after all, we're dying to know who gets booted. The cheftestants were required to prepare a 2-course meal to serve at Tramonto's for that one night. Spike was able to choose his ingredients first (he chose frozen scallops of all things), prohibiting his fellow competitors from choosing the same things. I have to say that everyone's dishes looked good, of course, some looked better than others. But the highlight for me was to see Top Chef winners of seasons past play a part in judging. Ok, I was most excited to see Harold, but that's besides the point. I have to say though, that I think I would have liked to try all of the steak dishes (Stephanie's in particular). I'm not daring enough to try sweetbreads, so I can't really have the appetizers.

On to the judging... why won't they boot Lisa already?! She really should have gone four or five episodes ago, and she definitely needed to go after that fiasco of a dish she made for the Chicago PD recruits (How do you not cook shrimp properly?). She doesn't take criticism well at all, in fact, a lot of the cheftestants don't this season. But somehow, the judges were more irked at the fact that frozen scallops were used, and Spike's steak dish was not strong enough to save him from the boot. All in all though, Lisa needs to go. She just does.

When the weather turns cold (as it did just recently), it always puts me in the mood for a bowl of steaming hot noodles. It just so happened that I was craving ramen. Not the packaged ramen that sells 10 for $1, but real homemade ramen in real broth. So we went to Daikokuya, which is located on 1st Street in Little Tokyo in Downtown Los Angeles. They are known for making great ramen, and if you feel like going there, let me just share a piece of advice: go early. It is a small restaurant, and there is always a lunch crowd that goes out the door.


Daikokuya offers traditional, quality Japanese fare at somewhat reasonable prices. One can expect to order the usual teriyaki or tempura combinations, as well as some sushi-type selections. Most people order the Daikoku Ramen, noodles in steaming hot broth served with a hard boiled egg, pieces of karabuto pork, fresh bean sprouts, seasoned bamboo shoots, and lots of scallions. According to the restaurant, it is unique for three reasons: 1) because the broth is made from boiling pork bones for a full day to achieve maximum flavor; 2) they use karabuto pork, which is known for its unique flavor and tenderness; and 3) the eggs are soaked overnight in special seasonings to enhance the soup. For a little variety, try the Ramen Tsukemen, which is the same thing, except the noodles and ingredients are served cold in a separate dish with the bowl of hot broth.


Now I'm not typically a ramen fan, but I will admit that this is good comfort food. It leaves you feeling full, satisfied and warm. What I liked best about it was how the noodles were cooked. There's just something about a perfectly-cooked noodle soup dish that brings the feeling of satisfaction. I always order it without scallions because I don't like them, and they happen to put A LOT of scallions for garnish... well, for flavor too, I suppose. Below are pictures of the Daikoku Ramen, one with the scallions, and one without. See what I mean about lots of scallions?





We also ordered the gyoza, which are essentially fried potstickers served with some type of dipping sauce. They were good, except for the heaping mound of scallions on top. I personally prefer the Chinese potstickers. So with that said, here is a photo of the gyoza:

For the last several months, I've been making it a point to visit Weiland's Brewery, aka the Brewery at least once every pay period (two weeks). I just really like the place, and I'm willing to walk a little farther just to go there. It's located at the corner of 1st Street and Central Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles.

I usually ask for the lunch specials, which are almost always some types of pasta dishes with chicken, veggies and a marinara sauce. Once in a while, they change it up and use an alfredo sauce, which to me is far better than any marinara. But most of the time, I order my usual: Philly cheese steak with garlic fries, plus an order of chicken wings (dry) to share. I love the grilled peppers and onions on the cheese steak sandwich, and the garlic fries are the best garlic fries I've ever had. In fact, they are famous for their garlic fries. It's just good food at reasonable prices.

The first picture is of the chicken wings. It is a pound of chicken wings served with some carrot and celery sticks and bleu cheese dressing. They can come in three different sauces, but we prefer them plain, or as they call it, "dry."

Below is a picture of the Philly Cheese Steak sandwich with the garlic fries. It is pieces of flank steak with grilled red and green peppers and onions with provolone cheese served in a french roll. You might be able to see the little pieces of garlic on the fries. That is lots of fresh garlic, so I suggest bringing a lot of mints or gum when you go. I forgot to take the picture before I had some, I guess I was really hungry. =D

Other dishes that are good include the crab cake sandwich, which is a big piece of crab cake served with a red pepper aioli on a french roll. The Penne Florentine is good too, if you're in the mood for pasta. It's penne with chicken, tomato, spinach and mozzarella.

The Brewery also has a great happy hour line-up of appetizers, which include the chicken wings and a basket of the garlic fries. I highly recommend going to happy hour for the food as well as the drinks. They make the best canteloupe martinis in town (well, as of a couple of years ago they did).

So here I am with my first post. I finally overcame my laziness and decided to start up a blog to share my opinions about what we eat. Actually, I was surfing the net and came across someone else's blog about the restaurants they have visited. It showed pictures of the dishes that were ordered, and it also included brief critiques of those dishes. One of the places they visited was Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea, at the Sunset Junction located in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles. They complained that the coffee they ordered was too bitter, and to make a long story short, they felt that it was overrated. I was somewhat surprised to read this, especially since I just came off an Intelligentsia high (I'm actually on one now), and I haven't tasted bitter coffee from that place.

For me, writing doesn't come easy, especially since I don't like to write. Consider this my whole-hearted attempt to do so. Although come to think of it, it may not be so hard now since I'll be writing about food. So off we go...