December 21, 2006 5

Tasty Garden (Arcadia)

//// By in 01: San Gabriel

Another last week entry before vacation report!

This Hong Kong style ‘tea restaurant’ (a type of eclectic mix of Chinese + Western + fast food + snacks + entrees + anything goes cafe, the menu is usually like nouvella size long). in LA recently opened a branch at Arcadia, they advertised

The menu features many authentic tea restaurants and Hong Kong’s signature snacks. Such as this one:
DSC02380.jpg
Little Chicken Egg (literal translation, it’s a type of HK invented waffles). The awesome HK based food blog Cha Xiu Bao had an entry about it recently. These are so good, they might look a bit dried but the taste is perfect: crispy on the outside, texture is airy and the core middle is moist. They are so addictive.
DSC02375.jpgDSC02382.jpg
Hawthron with Chrysanthemum Tea. Another traditional HK street side snacks: Curry Fish ball with turnip and pork skin, trashy but so tasty~
DSC02385.jpg
Portugese style seafood (a Macau-influenced dish I think?), the sauce is coconut curry, they made it so sweet~

Craving the waffle, I went back there and tried more:
DSC02416.jpgDSC02419.jpg
Hainanese Chicken Rice, I was so impressed by how good this is. Big portion, the chicken are very flavored (even the one and only breast piece is good too ^^:;). We also tried their proud Claypot Rice that is made with a digital controlled fire or something like that (so that it’s made fast, even fire and much shorter time). I got the Chinese sausages flavor, so much food, very greasy but oh so satisfying.

Tags: , , , ,

December 21, 2006 3

Jin Patisserie (Abbot Kinney)

//// By in 15: Venice

I just got back from my company’s Xmas vacation at Ensenada Mexico (Joan is still out on vacation up at SF), food report coming soon.

Last week I had more wonderful tea and cake at Jin on Abbot Kinney (old entry).
DSC02366.jpgDSC02368.jpg
Marquise: mousse on top and genoise cake at bottom that’s filled with many I-don’t-know-the-names-of stuffings (dried fruits? some taste odd ^^;;).

Their Macarons are tiny but really good. Airy, delicate, distinctive flavored craem and don’t fall apart. They came with 8 and 12 pieces set. I especially like the Black Sesame flavor that you don’t find in most other bakery.

Tags: , ,

December 14, 2006 3

Rasraj (Artesia)

//// By in 18: Greater LA

DSCN9293.jpg
Malai Kofta & Naan. A thick creamy soup that’s very rich and tasty. There are meatballs (Kofta) inside. Can’t stop eating it with the Naan, very good!

DSCN9294.jpgDSCN9291.jpg
Paneer Kima & Naan. Also very tasty and rich, there are cheese inside the soup. Spent an afternoon in Artesia aka Little India that’s located in the part of LA I’ve never venture to. The neighbourhood is basically made up of jewelry shops, Sari/traditional Indian clothes, restaurants and markets. We picked this place because it’s crowded. As soon as we walked in we know this place is authentic. All the clientes are Indian and the menu only has Indian names without descriptions. Since I’m not so familiar with Indian food I was quite at lost at what to get. Thank god for the walls that’s filled with pictures of the dishes and I really like what we got.

Tags:

December 14, 2006 2

The Lilly’s (Abbot Kinney)

//// By in 15: Venice

DSC02300.jpgEven though it’s right next to one of my favorite restaurants Joe’s on Abbot Kinney, I’ve never been to this French restaurant. It also has business lunch course, for only $10. The lunch main course choices are mostly sandwiches (-_-). Thankfully they had a pork rib as special of the day.
DSC02302.jpgDSC02301.jpg
Pork Rib and Cauliflower soup. The rib was pretty good~ The side veggie is tasty too. But still pretty standard overall (esp. compare to Joe’s at next door).

Tags:

December 13, 2006 2

Csardas Hungarian Restaurant (Melrose)

//// By in 07: Mid-Wilshire

This Hungarian restaurant is one of those I drove by everyday and everytime I wonder about it. I heard about their buffet and good freshly baked bread. The night we went didn’t have buffet.
DSC02340.jpgDSC02343.jpg
The bread is very good! Stuffed Mushroom.
DSC02350.jpgDSC02346.jpg
I got the Wiener Snitzel (veal cutlet fried in breadcrumbs). The fried breadcrumbs was light but the veal was bland. The cabbage side is very tasty~ Joan has the Stuffed green peppers with ground pork and rice in tomato sauce, very tasty!
DSC02373.jpgDSC02339.jpg
The owner gave us this bread to take home (he joked that we left this the last time we were there. :D). Too bad it was so empty that night, we felt lonely…^^;;
Csardas Hungarian Restaurant
5820 Melrose Ave.

Tags: , ,