I’ve been working on the westside recently and we had lunch at this cute Santa Monica breakfast joint.

Even though most customers stopped by for take out, it does a outdoor patio for sit-ins.

We waited a bit for a table. The menu is generic Los Angeles cafe food: salad, sandwiches, soups. Fresh and big portion.

I have a Egg Benedict…hmm..’healthy’ tasting. The taste is pretty generic overall, which is alright for a local neighborhood joint. You mostly come here for the casual vibe, familiar breakfast/cafe essentials and cute patio.

Tags: Breakfast

We randomly went inside this Taiwanese place when we saw the “all handmade” signs on their windows. They specialized in Taiwanese style Fried Buns that are made to order (with variety of flavors to choose, including Vegetarian). It’d take awhile so you have to order it once you sat down. There’re instructions on the wall recommend calling before you arrive.

Fried Bun with Pork, Sea Cucumber and Shrimp: The skin is fluffy and smooth.

The three ingredients (Pork, Sea Cucumber and Shrimp) created a very smooth but chewy texture. It’s juicy and delicious~

The menu also offers a Noodle + 5 Dumplings set. Sole Fish with Leeks Dumplings, the skin is very thin and light but won’t fell apart. The fish filling is smooth and tasty, I can’t help gulping them down.

Pork with Herb Dill Boiled Dumplings: the dill gave an unusual aroma to the standard pork dumplings. Beef Noodle: the broth is too light for my preference, but the noodles are fresh and light.

Dan Dan Noodle. I thought I was ordiering the spicy Sichuan kind, turns out it’s the Taiwanese kind that’s served with peanut sauce. It’s a little dry and heavy, bad idea to get when you already have so much dumplings and buns stuff your stomach with.

The pickled cucumber are very good. They also sell variety of breads for take-out only (wheat, flower-bun, etc). We bought some Brown Sugar Buns and steamed at home, the mild sweetness is very pleasant. Joan concluded that she prefer Kingburg to Luscious Dumpling.

Kingburg Kitchen (626) 282-2366
715 W. Las Tunas Dr. San Gabriel, CA 91776

Tags: Chinese, Dumplings, Noodle

We went to Breadbar at the Century City Mall for a light meal. From the menu their sandwiches didn’t attract us as much as the salad and bread. So We got the French Country Salad: brie cheese, mesclun greens, figs, granny smith apples and honey-balsamic vinaigrette and balsamic reduction. When the plate arrived we were quite taken aback by how little mesclun greens there were. The star was definitely the slightly baked figs with melting brie. It’s a very delicious combination. I wish there were a tad more balsamic reduction too for it was very tasty.

BREADBAR’s Bread Basket for Two: Chef’s selection of four different breads, comes with butter and spreads. I didn’t notice at that time but we only got 3 kinds of bread instead of four. Later on I saw the table next to us had baguette in addition to their basket. Oh well, too late to complain. The bread were very good indeed, definitely live up to their name. Great spongy texture, perfectly crispy crust, I especially liked the olive one. Wish I could try their baguette instead of the the double amount of walnut-raisin bread though. I prefer eating the bread with just butter or olive oil/balsamic vinegar. The spread didn’t do much for me.

Their bakery section has many other delicious looking pastries and bread too. Next time if I found myself at the Century City mall again I would just get the pastries and eat them at the bench outsides or at the food court upstairs.

Tags: Bakery, bread

We went to the one Michelin star Northern Italian restaurant Trattoria Tre Venezie for our father’s birthday. It’s located in a cozy small house on Green Street in Old town Pasadena just a block from the insanely crowded and gaudy Buca di beppo. The interior was intimate and looked like someone’s house. Though the opinions on the food seems to be divided among critics and netizens. The press reviews were uniformly glowing (”authentic” “very regional”) while quite a number of chowhounders / bloggers / yelpers found it disappointing and overpriced. The menu sounded very interesting to us so we decided to give it a try. However it was very disappointing that the two dishes I like to try most weren’t available on the night we were there. One is cjalsons, an ancient and traditional pasta known only in a little area in Friuli called Carnia and the other is Bolito Fish. You can see pictures of both dishes on my friend’s blog entry.

Boreto Alla Gradese - Sauteed fish with roasted Garli, black pepper and soft polenta. It’s a traditional fish dish of Laguna di Grado. It was good but I wasn’t blown away by it.

Casunziei all’ampezzana - Ravioli filled with red beets and seasoned with brown butter, Parmigiano Reggiano and poppy seeds. An interesting tasting dish. I like the subtle sweetness from the beets. It smells great too.

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Bollito Misto: a North Italy dish: traditional dish of boiled mixed meat, comes with green sauce, house-made mostarda di frutta (Fruit Mustard, it was Peach), salsa al rafano (Horseradish) and Himalayan pink salt. This dish strongly reminded me of something I had at Vienna, perhaps it’s from the northern part of Italy which had strong influences from Austria. Out of the meat I like the tongue the most, wish there were more pieces of it. The lamb were a bit overcooked. The horseradish and fruit mustard made the meat tasted very Austrian/German. It’s hearty but overall I think it’s just an okay dish.

A special of the night, spaghetti with crab. It was the favorite of the night. Very flavorful. The crab meat were fresh and tasty.

In the end we weren’t disappointed though we weren’t really blown away by them either. We did enjoy the food though, but they were a bit on the pricey side. Next time I would love to try the cjalsons and Bolito Fish, and I think it’s better to get more simple pasta dishes like spaghetti with crab.

Trattoria Tre Venezie
119 W. Green Street, Los Angeles, CA 91105
(626) 795-4455

Tags: Italian, Pasta

Finally went to Fair Oaks Pharmacy and Soda Fountain, the old fashion South Pasadena corner drug store dates back to 1915. It was onced a rest stop of route 66 back in the days, I’m glad they preserved the charming vintage interior. Love the bar area. The restaurant section only occupied 1/4 of the space, the rest sells retro nick-nacks (I got a cute plastic bear toy) and the actual pharmacy locates in a seperate section.

The ice-cream sodas, shakes and floats are the reasons to come to this place for. Ice-cream soda with Coffee flavor: soda water with coffee and vanilla ice-cream and coffee shakes: basically same as the other one but blended with double portion. Creamy and thick, delicious! I prefer the soda one slightly more.

We weren’t that hungry so just grab some small bites. Jon got the Chicago dog, he said it’s not authentic. Garden fresh salad, so-so. Don’t expect too much for the food and just come here to enjoy the wonderful ice-cream and shakes.

Fair Oaks Pharmacy and Soda Fountain
1526 Mission St, South Pasadena, CA 91030
(626) 799-1414

Tags: American, Dessert

Another 24 hours joint has opened in the Hollywood, Kitchen 24 is the complete opposite of Pantry Cafe. Its attention to design and slickness might put off some people.

The menu was a heavy lamented ring-binder book that’s quite heavy to hold. Despite the weighty menu, many items were cross out with tapes. The center island sells cupcakes, jellybeans and other American sweets. I love the walnut wood tables, white sofa and pink highlights.

K24 Burger $9.95. The burger was served on a toasted brioche roll, nice! It’s juicy and yummy, nothing to complain.

The LA hipster diner stable: Sweet Potato Fries, delicious! From another lunch: Smac And Cheese 8.95: elbow macaroni and a three cheese blend of cheddar, mascarpone and smoked gruyère. It’s surprisingly not heavy, the sauce was runny but still cheesy and flavorful.

K24 Tuna Burger: chopped ahi tuna patty served on a sesame bun with pickled ginger, wasabi mayo, sliced tomatoes, romaine and onions. The fusion flavors worked surprisingly well, it tasted less predictable than your regular burger, the wasabi mayo was tasty and the Japanese pink pickled ginger actually worked in a burger. I love it!

Mixed Green Salad $6.95: tomatoes, cucumbers, marinated yellow beets, challah bread croutons, candied walnuts, goat cheese and a honey red wine vinaigrette. The ingredients weren’t run-of-the-mill. It’s delicious and relatively cheap. Even the bread croutons felt freshly made and light. I think I’ve found that cheap work day salad lunch that I could “abuse” multiple times a week.

There’s also a bar at the back. This place seems like a good addition for people who’re looking for breakfast or burger 2 AM that’s not 101, Fred 62, etc.. The location is great for Arclight Cinema go-ers. It’s also a good new lunch spot for those of us who worked nearby.

Kitchen 24
1608 N Cahuenga Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028

Tags: 24 Hours, Diner

Back to the popular authentic Taiwan snack joint Sinbala. Last time we stayed on the boring side and ordered sausage with leek, this time we  tried the ones with fruits. Sausage with Lemon juice and Sausage with peach. Both are great! The sourness and sweetness of fruits went well with Taiwanese sausages which are sweeter in taste compare with American/European ones. Though we’re still not in rush to try the one with chocolate.

Tainan (southern Taiwan) style rice cake. Made with sticky rice, with meat, dried shrimp and soy sauce marinated quail egg on top, served with a Taiwanese savory sweet sauce (not sure of the official name). I like this a lot, it’s filling too.

Taiwanese fried chicken, one of the specialty of Sinbala. The fried batter is vastly different from American’s. It’s thinner and very crispy, so it’s not a seperate layer wrapping the chicken like in the American’s. I preferred the Taiwanese style more. Fried with pepper, salt, chili and basil.

Babaobing (Eight treasure shaved ice) - Shaved ice is the standard Taiwanese dessert for the summer. They have lots of different ingredients you can choose from, or you can get the “Eight Treasure” which comes with 8 ingredients underneath the ice : red bean, green beans, taro, egg pudding, mochi, grass jelly, boba, aiyu jelly (the last two are truly Taiwanese specialties). The shaved ice was topped with sweet condense milk and molasses syrup which was delicious. Personally I preferred less “beans” and no boba (not a fan). I love the grass jelly and aiyu jelly a lot. Next time I would just get ingredients I like and request more molasses syrup.

Sinbala
651 W Duarte Rd, Arcadia, CA 91007
(626) 446-0886

Tags: Chinese, Dessert, Taiwanese