The SLY Foodie

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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.

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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!

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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.

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On to the reception... Beginning with the cocktail hour in which the servers walked around with assorted trays of crudite, antipasta, hors d' oeuvres and crackers/bread with dips and spreads. The hors d' oeuvres included a beef and chicken satay in a spicy ginger and peanut teriyaki sauce, roasted lamb chops with an apple cider glaze, and a tropical mango ceviche-tini with fresh fish and bay shrimp. Personally, I felt that the dipping sauces for the satay were a little too salty, but otherwise, it was flavorful. I didn't try the lamb because I don't like lamb. I thought that the ceviche presentation was cute and appropriate for the event, but it could have definitely used more acid.

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.

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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.

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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:

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