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Latest Adventures

Ajisen Ramen, Rowland Heights

Comments (1) | Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Since I've been craving ramen for a while, the whole fam trekked over to Ajisen Ramen, located in a small strip mall in the heart of Rowland Heights. The restaurant is small and unassuming, and also pretty clean. We were seated immediately and proceeded to look over the menu.

After a few minutes of deep contemplation, I chose the Premium Pork Ramen with no scallions and an extra egg. I was served with a piping hot bowl of good, chewy noodles, and thin slices of yummy marinated pork swimming in a rich broth. Although it was no Daikokuya, I was pretty impressed with this bowl of ramen. In fact, I prefer it over other ramen bowls I've had.

The hubbs ordered the Ajisen Ramen, which included two slices of pork, a handful of fresh cabbage, seaweed and the same noodles in the broth. He really liked it too, and also prefers it over most ramen bowls.

We also ordered the gyoza dumplings, which contained a little too much vegetable and not enough pork for me, but it was still made well. Taste is comparable to all the other gyozas; there wasn't anything truly outstanding about it.

We ordered the Japanese Style Fried Rice for the boys, who devoured pretty much the entire thing. We took no leftovers home. Again, too much veggies in it for me. I was also surprised by the addition of the cucumber in the fried rice, it was something I have never had before, and probably something I wouldn't really try again.

Overall, Ajisen is a good place to go to for ramen. I'd definitely go back there, I'd also even risk driving through all that crazy traffic to get there.

Ajisen Ramen, 18253 E. Colima Road, Rowland Heights
(626) 839-2188


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SLYFoodie Longsilog

Comments (0) | Tuesday, April 6, 2010

A joint effort between the hubbs and myself, although I must admit that he did most of the work, we made Longilog for dinner the other night. Longsilog is a Filipino dish comprised of longanisa (Filipino sausage), eggs and sinangag, also known as garlic fried rice. It's typically served for breakfast, so essentially, we had breakfast for dinner. This is easily one of my favorite Filipino dishes.

The longanisa was purchased at our local 99 Ranch Market, although it is also readily available at your local Filipino grocery. Hubbs cooked the white rice, then fried it with butter and lots of finely minced garlic. He also cooked the longanisa. My only contribution to this task was to fry the eggs, sunny side up, and simply seasoned with kosher salt and pepper. The result is shown below.


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Taste on Melrose, West Hollywood

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While browsing through OpenTable's list of restaurants, I came across Taste on Melrose, a quaint restaurant that serves updated Californian cuisine. They were offering a 3-course prix fixe menu for only $26, so I knew that it was worth a try. We asked our foodie friends to join us on this adventure, and the following photos are glimpses of what we consumed that night.

Please allow me to preface this by mentioning that the restaurant, although quaint, was dimly lit. So the pictures you will see are the best pictures I could take because I had to use my flash. I think that the photos look terrible and don't do much justice to the food, but at least you'll have an idea of what it looked like. Sort of.

Since we got there first, I took the liberty of ordering a cocktail to sip while we waited. Introducing the Tell Me You Love Me drink comprise of Smirnoff Pear Vodka, St. Germain liquer, orange juice, cranberry juice, pomegranate purée and a splash of soda. It was refreshing, fruity goodness, but unfortunately, I pretty much had to nurse this drink all night on account of me turning into a lightweight post-offspring. We also ordered the Calamari Fritti, which was served with a chipotle aioli. Crunchy batter, good dipping sauce, we practically devoured it before our friennds showed up.

We also got the Crispy Rock Shrimp to share. These are lightly battered fried rock shrimp that's served with three different dipping sauces: wasabi aioli, spicy aioli and a sweet & sour Thai sauce. I really liked this dish, and thought that the wasabi aioli was the best complement - the pungent, spicy wasabi with the delicate flavor of the shrimp was the perfect match.

For the first course, we all pretty much agreed to try the White Truffle Oil & Mushroom Mac n' Cheese. Ingredients included, you guessed it, white truffle oil, shiitake mushrooms (if I remember correctly), macaroni and globs of cheese. I really liked it, I thought that the truffle flavor was really strong, it was a good dish. Side note: the girls were served lukewarm, almost cold ramekins of the first course, so to compensate for the mistake, we ended up with a full serving and a half of mac n' cheese to enjoy at the table and to take home.

The girls chose the Kobe Meatballs for the main course. Two gianormous meatballs with pine nuts, golden raisins and caramelized onions on top of linguine swimming in a white truffle cheese fondue. I personally like all the different flavors and textures, the meatballs were super moist, but had crunch because of the pine nuts and sweetness because of the raisins and the onions. The linguine was cooked al dente, and was so good with the cheesy sauce that had white truffle flavor in the background. My friend thought that the meatballs were too soggy for her tastes, though. Maybe adding some (more) bread crumbs would have helped.

The boys chose the Crispy Chicken Paillard, thin piece of breaded chicken cutlet that is fried and served with a potato purée, white gravy, a baby arugula salad and red onion jam. The chicken was golden brown perfection - crunchy on the outside, but tender white chicken meat just one layer below. The potatoes and gravy were really great, the arugula helped cut the richness of the dish. I actually preferred this over my entreé.

For dessert, it was boys vs. girls again, with the boys choosing the Crème Bruleé. It was a good dish, but there wasn't anything memorable about it. The girls, on the other hand, picked the Chocolate Bread Pudding. Chocolatey goodness mixed with bread and custard, then topped with cream? Sign me up! One of the best bread puddings I have had, and was easily my favorite dish at Taste.

The service was great, the food was decent at reasonable prices (if you go the prix fixe route, anyway). Overall, this is definitely worth a taste.

Taste on Melrose, 8454 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood
http://www.ilovetaste.com/


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Phoenix Food Boutique, Redux

Comments (1) | Friday, April 2, 2010

BFF accompanied me on a another one of my trips to Phoenix Food Boutique, this time, in Arcadia. This branch is located in a strip mall, next to the famous Din Tai Fung Dumpling House. Parking is very hard to come by during the rush dining hours, so it's always best to come earlier.

For starters, I got the Taro Coconut Milk Tapioca because it just seemed like it would be a nice refreshing drink. It was, but it didn't really have enough of the coconut milk flavor I was looking for. I think I preferred the Rowland Heights version.

Since I loved the Crispy Shrimp Roll from the last trip, I had to get some more. These certainly made my taste buds and belly happy. The crispy wrapper fried to golden brown perfection and tender shrimp was perfect.

We also ordered Fried Squid with Spicy Salt. I liked the light batter on the squid, it was flavorful. However, I wish that the squid pieces weren't so big. They weren't bite-sized at all, and it made enjoying them just a little more difficult. The photo below shows how big each individual piece is, as well as a cameo of BFF's chopsticks (for artistic purposes - there were several napkins under the plate to show more "angle.").

Rounding out the meal was an order of Village Style Stir Fried Vermicelli, which includes shrimp, shredded BBQ pork, bean sprouts and egg. I personally thought it was tasty, especially when accompanied with a little chili oil. BFF's chopsticks make another cameo appearance, while BFF waits patiently in the background for me to snap the photo.

My biggest disappointment with the Arcadia branch that day was the fact that they did not have Milk and Egg Pudding. Curses! I had to settle for Taro Pudding for dessert, and while it has its own merits, it was no Milk and Egg Pudding. I just hope that they haven't stopped making it. Many thanks to BFF for agreeing to be a patient and accommodating guest star... that, and lunch.

Phoenix Food Boutique, 1108 S. Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia
http://www.phoenixfoodboutique.com/


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(Not-So) Vegetarian Pasta

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Rummaging through my pantry and fridge, I came across several items that had impending expiration dates, so I had to use them as soon as possible. So I figured I would make a vegetarian pasta dish, only because I forgot there was some cooked chicken strips from Costco in the freezer.

Here are the ingredients:
* Small elbow macaroni, a little over half a pound
* 1 cup of plain Greek yogurt
* 1½ cups of heavy cream
* 1 package of baby spinach
* 1 package of white button mushrooms
* 1 small block of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
* ½ stick of unsalted butter

I cooked the pasta according to directions, then set it aside. In a skillet, melt butter and add about 1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil, then sauté mushrooms. Once the mushrooms are cooked, add the spinach to wilt, then add the heavy cream and Greek yogurt. Let the sauce simmer, and add as much salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese to taste. I also added some garlic powder for an extra flavor boost. Add cooked pasta to sauce and reheat through, then serve. I topped with more Parmesan and some freshly cracked black pepper.

I liked that the yogurt cut through the sweetness of the cream, and added a tangy dimension to the sauce. The nutty flavor of the Parmesan was also delightful in this dish. Not bad for something I just made up, but I think I needed chicken. I did add some chicken, and it was great. Here's the close-up:


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All Things Top Chef

Comments (2) | Thursday, April 1, 2010

We recently hosted a Top Chef potluck challenge where the rules were simple: recreate a recipe seen on any season of Top Chef or Top Chef Masters. There were six of us, which meant that we all got to enjoy a six-course meal. Obviously, we all had to make some type of modification to each recipe due to lack of fresh ingredients and white plates, but each dish was stellar, considering that we're not restaurant chefs. Here are the results:

First Course: Cliff's Holiday Baileytini and Steak Tapas
This was a recipe from Top Chef: The Quickfire Cookbook. We all agreed that the Baileytini was on the strong side, but the meat was cooked well and the créme fraiche fondue was a pleasantly surprising complement.

This is something I'm going to have to make on my own. I loved the steak, eggs and the sauce. Instead of using scallions, we used chives, which achieved the onion requirement on a milder scale.

I believe the original recipe called for equal parts of ground beef and ground lamb. But this, my friends, was an all beef recipe, and I'm not complaining. I really liked the nutmeg and the tumeric combination, it was a nice, spicy surprise. The recipe also asks for the potatoes to be put through a ricer for a fluffier texture, but I thought that using a regular masher still achieves the desired effect.

Fourth Course: Chef Rick Bayless's Quick Fried Shrimp with Sweet Toasty Garlic
As Joey Tribbiani would say, bread, good. Shrimp, good. Garlic oil, GOOD! There is a reason why Chef Bayless was crowned the winner of Top Chef Masters, folks, and this recipe contributes to that reason. The only modification to this recipe was the omission of figs, because fresh figs are out of season.

Fifth Course: Elia's Roasted Chicken with Vegetables
So this was the dish I chose to prepare, frankly because it was the easiest. I also decided to serve it straight from the roasting pan, family style, instead of carving the chicken myself.

This recipe calls for fresh ginger juice, which we did not have, save for a few drops. The basil, tarragon and cilantro, along with the tart lime juice were surprisingly nice complements to the decadent, homemade chocolate ice cream and the caramelized bananas. This dessert left one lasting impression upon me: we now have an official ice cream chef.

A great meal with great friends, now who can ask for anything more?


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