Daisy Mint

L and I finally got to go to a new restaurant which opened this past year: Daisy Mint oriental cafe. It's very close, just half a block west of chester on colorado street. The inside was really cool, two walls had picture frames, some with pictures in them, some which were just really cool frames, and some with slight variants on just being the frame (such as being a plate that looked like a picture frame, or a frame with some bees on sticks so that it looked like they were sitting on the glass interior of the frame). There was an absolutely gorgeous table in the center of the dining room, which had a glass center piece, under which were antique sets of plates and silverware for display, sort of like a display case table.

The menu was extremely varied. Like, really crazy combinations of things, most of which looked really good. I ordered a thai fried rice with beef, a tom yum chicken soup, and L ordered a spicy spaghetti. There was also thai iced tea that was excellent, and the menu also had a wide variety of teas that I didn't try, but noticed that some people would come in and order just a tea and have that. So they must be pretty good, I'll have to try some later.

Let's start with the soup. It was a pretty large portion, and served really really hot. The menu said it was spicy, which I wasn't worried about, but should have been. Holy moly was it spicy. The culprit was a crushed thai pepper (looked like a jalapeno but smaller/condensed), and it was really spicy. However, that wasn't actually the strongest flavor, the broth itself was actually a tangy/sweet combination of lime, lemongrass, sugar and some type of thai ginger variant. Really really tasty, and L really liked it, which is unusual. If only it weren't so spicy! The mushrooms and chicken in the broth helped carry the broth's flavor well, and it was a good dish. But... spicy! My mouth still burns!

The thai fried rice was excellent, and not spicy. It had a distinct flavor which I couldn't place, sort of a light savory/starch flavor, and the rice used was very tasty. It was a very small grained white rice, that really reminded both of us of couscous but wasn't exactly that. A good dish, and very affordable - it was $6.50 and with the amount we were served, I could probably have eaten for two and a half meals on just that dish. It also really helped absorb the spiciness of the other two dishes, so it was a good thing we got it.

Lastly, the spicy spaghetti was a neat combination of italian style spaghetti - the noodles, tomatoes, basil, green and red peppers, with thai flavor: a really tasty spice that builds up. I ate a noodle and gave L a look, cause she was saying it was really spicy and I hadn't tasted any. A few seconds later I went "OH!", because it took a while for it to arrive. It was really tasty, and a completely different style of spicy than the soup had been. L had ordered it mild spicy rather than it's usual spiciness, and it was a good thing, because it was a bit too spicy for her, and about right for me, except the soup had already thrown my calibration out of whack. The waitress was really nice though, we reassured her that it was very good and it wasn't her fault we couldn't handle even the mildly spicy version. She brought us some soy milk to help, and it did. It actually was a really good complementary flavor too, so I'd recommend ordering some to go with that type of slow spice.

Overall: Very good dishes though I'd recommend being very careful with ordering the spicy ones, the prices were very good for the amount you got (A lot!), and the menu had lots of other things I'd like to go back to try.

Restaurant Review

Just a quick post tonight, for I still need to work on the presentation some (it's tomorrow at 1:30pm).

Tonight's dinner was at a restaurant called the Louisiana Bistro, a few blocks away from Canal and Bourbon streets in New Orleans. Pretty small place, wasn't crowded and the group I was with had made reservations. The menu was very simple: five entrees plus today's special (which I didn't notice until leaving, so I don't recall what it was), a few appetizers and salad choices, plus a pretty large drinks list. I can't speak much about the appetizers, salads or drinks, as I didn't have either of the first two, and while I did have a coke, it was pretty normal. Most of the rest of the table had a red wine which was apparently pretty good, I had a dash so as to not be without something to toast with, but was glad it was only two sips worth as it had a weird aftertaste in the throat (but maybe that's normal? I dunno).

I got the entree called "Surf & Turf", though many of the other options looked very good, I had decided that since I've had sausage/duck/etc gumbo for two earlier meals, it'd be good to have something different (though that only ruled out two entrees, the others were short ribs, which I generally don't like, and a lobster dish). This entree was listed as pan-seared filet mignon with crayfish tail scampi and served on garlic mashed potatoes. This listing did not do it justice, nor could my words, however I should still try.

I ordered the filet mignon medium rare and it was served perfectly. The presentation was elegant - the filet was served surrounded by the scampi, on top of the mashed potatoes, and there was a plentiful amount of the cook's special cajun sauce over everything. Very appealing without being spare or pretentious. The meat itself was perfect, probably the best I've had, and upon adding the sauce it was just heavenly. Spicy without being overpowering, complementary flavors in the garlic potatoes and the scampi, and just one of the best meals I've ever had.

Sleepy Day

Today has been a very sleepy day. Between the late night game of OOTS (see previous post) and getting up early to take Ris to the airport, there was not many hours to sleep. After the airport trip an adventure began, as L, Ryoga, and I stood in line at Fry's: We were talking about how sad it was that there wasn't a Fatburger in Burbank any more. Yep, the same Fatburger that we took my mother to, once. Alas, very sad, except the guy in front of us heard us and said that there was another nearby! It was in Studio City (yes, apparently that's a city?), and he gave us directions which we promptly committed to memory and then forgot. This lead to us remembering exactly the first two turns of the directions, and not much else, so we meandered in the general direction for a while. Google was queried for help via text message, and that led to certain people being distracted by other neat features of their text message reply service, though we did get an address out of it. Anyways, the easiest way to describe that trip is to say that Ryoga was driving, though navigation certainly wasn't his fault. At one point we did two U-turns in a row, as right as the first was made we saw a sign for the 101, which was a clue that we should have kept going rather than turn around. Once we spotted the Fatburger, which was in a shopping center next to the street we were on at the time, we made 450 degrees worth of turns to enter the parking lot. It was a very enjoyable trip though, and the burger was as delicious as I'd expected.

Eddie's Market

There is a little shop near Grant Park, the park just across the street from where we live, and it is called Eddie's Market. It's been there for a long time, I know certainly since before I came to Tech, and I'd expect for quite a while before that as well. The shop had sandwiches, and chips and ice cream and sweets, all the things you'd expect to sell to the parents and kids who frequent Grant Park in the afternoons and on the weekends. I'll always remember the three people who worked there, though to my shame, I don't think I ever asked their names even though they felt as familiar as old friends. There was the man, tall and with a kind face and who I always felt was interested in whatever I had to say when we'd make small talk while he was making sandwiches. There were the two woman, one of whom I always thought was the man's wife and was quiet but clearly in charge, and the other, who seemed older, and who loved to talk about the area, the people she'd met and in general just liked conversation.

A while ago, maybe several years, I learned that they were going to close down the shop. It had been theirs so long and they'd gotten tired and wanted to move on. I couldn't blame them, but I also found it hard to even say anything to them about it. I wish I'd said something, maybe another thank you for making my sandwiches for so many years, or just good luck for their future plans.

I started writing this with the intention of reviewing the new Eddie's Market, as it re-opened after a while with a new set of people running it. They apparently wanted to change the name, but the person who owned the property said they shouldn't. I think, however, I'm just going to leave what I've written as it is and leave the review for another time.

To those that ran Eddie's Market for so many years, should you ever read this: Thank you.

Restaurant Shyness

I ran into an interesting situation in a restaurant for dinner today. We were at Indochine Palace, a Vietnamese place I like for their Pho, and we'd nearly finished the meal when the waitress brought an absolutely delicious looking dish past us and to a group sitting at a table behind us. It was some sort of crisp noodle base on a plate with vegetables of all colors heaped on top. So here's the interesting part: do I ask the waitress what the dish is, so that I can try it later?

This is a tough question for me usually, because I don't really like interrupting the waitress or calling attention to myself. In this particular situation it wasn't that bad, as I've been to this restaurant many many times and at least recognized the waitress (she is one of the ones who always remembers what I order), so I asked. It turns out it was a vegetarian dish whose name I have already forgotten, but I know the spot on the menu where it appears (in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian versions). So I'm looking forward to trying that one next time we go there and I don't really want the Pho. Unlikely, I know. :)

Anyways, what do other people think about this situation? Is that type of interaction with waiters/waitresses hard for some people but not others? I know I usually have a hard time even calling for a check.

Spicy Tuna

Today's entry in the restaurant review section is from dinner at Zono Sushi. It's located on Lake, between Del Mar and Cordova, so it is a very short walk for us and one of the places we like to go to. Both the sushi bar and the tables there have great service, and today we sat at a table. My order was for the dinner combination: beef steak teriyaki and vegetable tempura, with an extra order of spicy tuna cut rolls from the sushi bar. What followed was an excellent dinner, i'll describe each item in roughly the order it was eaten.

Edamame: A bowl is brought just after the drinks when eating at the table (rather than sushi bar). This was perhaps the weakest link in tonight's meal. If I were to compare the size and quality of the edamame, it would be to Kabuki's offering, which is usually hot with sea salt on the outside and huge soy beans (steroid-juiced?). We were served what looked like pretty normal soy beans. Some sort of scrawny, and not really any specialness to them. They were good, but just not quite the polished component which I've sometimes seen elsewhere.

Miso soup: Served extremely hot, in a bowl perfect for sipping. I can't stress enough how the serving temperature affects miso soup, even when way too hot it can be allowed to cool down, but if it's lukewarm it just doesn't taste as good. This was excellent miso soup, lots of particulate in the broth which made neat patterns while sipping, and a scattering of the tofu and seaweed which adds flavor.

Spicy tuna cut rolls: This is a particular favorite of mine, and something which I'll order from every sushi place I go to in order to compare the myriad ways in which it can be served. There are three main components which tend to vary for this dish: The consistency and composition of the actual spicy tuna mixture, the flavor and type of spice used in said mixture, and the extra garnishing and presentation of the rolls. I should probably expand on this subject in a seperate post, but as I only analyze these pieces as I'm eating and then file (later) an overall assessment of how much I liked the type, it's hard for me to actually compare with past selections as this will be the first time I've recorded the actual components. The spicy tuna cut rolls at Zono are one of my particular favorite types. The spicy tuna mixture is excellent: no hint of mayonnaise (which typically is used as a binding element and conveyor of the spicing), excellent and generous amounts of tuna, and a solid consistency with just enough porousness to allow the wasabi/soy sauce mixture to seep into it. I don't have a good word to explain the flavor of the spice, other than it is the usual flavor used for spicy tuna. This version was not extremely hot, but had a solid spice heat that built up over repeated exposure. The wasabi in the soy sauce complemented this nicely with a small flash of instant heat that quickly died off only to leave the realization that the background level of heat had risen pleasantly. Finally, the only addition to the spicy tuna rolls were finely cut pieces of cucumber in the roll, which added a fresh crunch to the roll which I liked. Overall, an excellent spicy tuna roll and one of my favorites out of any sushi place I've ever been to.

But that's not all! As I was rambling on here, the main course actually had arrived only very shortly after the sushi, and so I started on that as well.

Vegetable Tempura: There are again many ways to serve this dish, and to meet my approval there must be two important components: The tempura sauce must be served extremely hot, and the tempura batter can't be too thick on the vegetables. The whole point of this dish (in my opinion) is to serve excellent cooked vegetables with a light batter that performs the duty of conveying the tempura sauce, such that the resulting flavors are a mixture where the primary taste and texture is that of the vegetable, with a light crunchy texture from the batter and the sauce's flavor overlaid upon the whole thing. The common mistakes of lukewarm sauce or thick batter can easily turn this dish into a good or mediocre one. If the sauce isn't hot enough, the dried batter on the vegetable, which usually retains heat very poorly even though the vegetable will be quite hot, when soaked in the sauce, becomes a lukewarm wet batter which contrasts with the warm interior. If there's too much batter, it can be hard to taste the real center of the dish, the vegetable, and all you get is tempura sauce flavored batter. I have now been horribly sidetracked. The vegetable tempura was excellent: the sauce was hot enough that steam rose off the surface. The batter was perfect, completely covering the vegetables, but so thin that the color of the vegetables shone through. I had zucchini, eggplant, onion, green bean, carrot, green pepper, mushroom and sweet potato. A few of these deserve special mention: I don't normally like the eggplant, green pepper or sweet potato (or for the latter, not as much as L does, so she tends to claim it). With that in mind, they were excellent: I normally do not like cooked green pepper as it will go mushy, even though the taste is still good. In this case it was cooked perfectly, the outside having a slight crunchy texture without causing it to go mushy. The mushy texture is also why I tend to dislike eggplant, but in this case it was pretty good. The only odd thing was that I couldn't taste much eggplant, I'm not sure if it has a strong flavor or not as I don't tend to eat it, but it came across as mostly a solid base for the sauce flavor.

Pickled cucumbers: a small side dish that comes with the combination, I loved the japanese style pickled cucumbers as they are sweet but not overly so, and a great spiced taste.

Beef Teriyaki: There are two levels of beef teriyaki on this planet. There is the good, solid beef teriyaki that has a solid texture and conveys the sauce well. Then there is the tender, perfectly cooked excellence that I usually think of as a different dish entirely. I find it is usually pretty easy to figure out which kind I'm getting: if I order beef teriyaki and the server asks how I'd like it cooked, it will be the second kind. That is exactly the kind I ordered and got at Zono tonight (cooked medium-rare), and it was excellent, tender and juicy in its own right, and served with plenty of teriyaki sauce which complemented the beef's flavor, rather than taking it over.

The salad, rice, and egg roll: I actually remembered to ask for no dressing on the salad, as the usual one I don't really like. It was a good salad, fresh lettuce (though mostly iceberg) and a scattering of cabbage and carrots. The rice was great, though I ended up being too full to finish it, I like having it with the teriyaki as it tastes great with the teriyaki sauce. The egg roll was a tiny little thing served as decoration perhaps, but still crunchy and tasty.

Dessert: a generous slice of orange. Excellent, fresh and so juicy I had to eat it with a napkin at the ready so as to not endanger others nearby. A great finish to the meal.

On the whole it was an excellent meal, and I would (and do) recommend Zono Sushi to anyone in the area. I've eaten there many times and it's always a great experience. I feel like I should mention the prices here - it came to roughly 40$ (before tip) for the two of us, and my meal was a slightly larger portion of that.

Teriyaki Tacos

This just in: Teriyaki Tacos are delicious.

Take one corn tortilla, add rice, shredded beef teriyaki, generous amount of teriyaki sauce and eat. Very tasty. This meal was served courtesy of B&C Teriyaki, a restaurant in Arcadia (or perhaps Monrovia, it's right near the edge) on Foothill. We've been by this place several times before, and it was always noticeable by the big signs in the window saying "Tacos" and "Teriyaki". It indeed serves a selection of tacos and teriyaki. In particular, there's about three different taco choices, three burrito choices, and a selection of teriyaki and curry (beef or chicken). I chose the beef and rice plate, which also comes with beans (which were ok), salad (forgot to ask for no dressing), teriyaki sauce in a separate cup, hot sauce, and three corn tortillas, which led to the assemblage of the teriyaki taco as mentioned above. I did not get a chance to test their hot sauce, due to the stunning surprise that was the teriyaki taco.