[Azusa] [Japanese] 黑櫻樓 Black Cherry Garden

Black Cherry Garden
黑櫻樓
530 S Citrus Ave #13
Azusa, CA 91702
(626) 339-6058
(CLOSED)

We had a big dinner party at Black Cherry Garden about 10 days ago.  It was Wen's birthday party, congratulation party for Atsushi's new job, and a farewell party to Black Cherry Garden.


Yakitori

I wasn't sure how many yakitori we had that night.  I was super full, and super satisfied with the food.  After consuming a few glasses of red wine, I started forgetting to take pictures, and the pictures I did took turned out to be really blurry.

Kooza in Irvine

I usually do my computer thing in the morning or afternoon.  After I turn off my computer, I try not to go on again at night time.  See, that was one of my New Year resolution.... spend less time on the computer so I can do more useful things (such as playing on my PS3... haha... very useful!).  So one night just as I was about to go to bed at 1am, suddenly I got the urge to check my email.  I actually felt like I couldn't go to bed until I check my email.  Weird, but I did it.  I saw this email from Yelp for a contest for 2 Kooza tickets.  The drawing was for the next day.  So I entered with a simple click and went to bed.  Woke up the next morning, turned on my computer, and saw another email from Yelp telling me that I won!  Wow!  Talking about lucky!  I won two $90 Kooza tickets.



The tickets were for a Friday 8pm show.  Due to Dr. P's busy work, we arrived about 10 minutes late at Irvine Great Park.  The staffs were great about directing traffic for parking and exiting.  We thought we had to wait outside for the end of the first act to go in, but they actually let us in right away.

[Monterey Park] [Chinese] 上海錢塘春 Lake Spring Shanghai Restaurants

Lake Spring Shanghai Restaurants
上海錢塘春
219 E Garvey Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91755
(626) 280-3571

My parents wanted to go to Lake Spring Shanghai Restaurant because they are having a buy 3 get 1 free lunch special deal.  My brother lives nearby, so we called him to join us for lunch.


酸辣湯 Hot & Sour Soup

Right after ordering, our waitress brought us four bowls of Hot & Sour Soup.  It was your standard hot and sour soup.  Tasted good.

[Irvine] [American] Yard House

Yard House
71 Fortune Dr
Irvine, CA 92618
(949) 753-9373
http://www.yardhouse.com

For my friend Jennifer's birthday, our original plan was having dinner at Javier's Cantina.  She made reservation for 6:30pm.  But knowing how all of our friends have a habit of being fashionably late, she even told everyone the reservation was at 6pm.  At 6:30pm, Jennifer, her man Peter, and Peter's nephew who came with them, were the only 3 people at Javier's.  10 of us didn't show on time.... (*bad bad bad*)  Javier's refused to seat them.  They said that the entire party has to be there to be seated.  Not half, 75%, or even 90% of the party.  EVERYONE has to be there to get a table.  Hmmm.... I didn't like that rule.  And they only gave us 10 minutes window to get the table.  So to make the story short, we lost our reservation.  We got there at 6:45pm.  Most people showed up around... 7:30pm.  Talking about "fashionably" late....



Right when we lost our reservation at Javier's, Jen decided to go to Yard House instead.  She went there right away to put her name on the wait list.  Yard House was packed!  Also have a large group, so the wait was even longer.  We finally got our table around 8pm.

[Rosemead] [Chinese] 吉嶸川菜 Ji Rong Restaurant

Ji Rong Restaurant
吉嶸川菜
8450 Valley Blvd., #114
Rosemead, CA 91770
(626) 280-8600

It was my aunt Vivian's 60th birthday.  She picked one of her favorite Chinese restaurants, Ji Rong Restaurant, to celebrate the event.  Dr. P and I drove to Rosemead from Irvine on that Friday night for almost 2 hours.  I don't like traffic!  We got there about 40 minutes late.  So the pictures I took were all half-eaten dishes.  Sorry....


五福大拼盤 Five Flavor Combination ($18.98)

Ji Rong used to have a $130 banquet for 10 people.  No more!  Now they only offer a $250 banquet for 10 with pretty much similar dishes.  So my parents and aunt decided to order a la carte.  Five Flavor Combination is a cold appetizer platter.  There were braised beef, cold cut chicken, sliced pork, tofu skin, and cucumber.  Everything was pretty good.  But I thought $19 for this dish is a bit pricey.

[Garden Grove] [Vietnamese] Banh Mi & Che Cali

Banh Mi & Che Cali
13838 Brookhurst Street
Garden Grove, CA 92843
(714) 534-6987

While waiting for our food to be ready at Boiling Crab To-Go, we walked around to see what else is in this plaza.  There's a Banh Mi & Che Cali there!  We went in to take a look.


Boba & Pudding Milk Tea

In Alhambra location, boba milk tea is $2.00 buy 1 get 1 free.  In this location, it's $2.75 (I think) buy 1 get 1 free.  That's probably the cheapest boba in Orange County.  We both ordered boba plus pudding milk tea.  Yum!

[Garden Grove] [Seafood] The Boiling Crab

The Boiling Crab
13892 Brookhurst St
Garden Grove, CA 92843
(714) 636-4885
http://www.theboilingcrab.com

I have heard about how good The Boiling Crab's spicy seafood is for a long long time.  I also heard about how long the wait is at the restaurant.



So we picked a weeknight to try the Cajun seafood joint for the first time.  The wait shouldn't be that bad on a weeknight, right?  Wrong!  There were like 100 people waiting outside (ok maybe I'm exaggerating... but it felt like there were too many people waiting outside).  The hostess told us the wait for a table for 2 would be a minimum of 1 hour and 45 minutes!  Is the food good enough for a 1 hour 45 mins wait?  Hmmm.... So we asked the hostess if we could get the food for to-go.  She told us to walk a few doors down in the same plaza to their to-go store.

[Las Vegas] [Dessert] Serendipity 3

Serendipity 3
3570 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(877) 346-4642
http://www.serendipity3.com

While driving on Las Vegas Blvd, I saw Serendipity 3 and screamed out "SERENDIPITY!"  Dr. P was like "what's that?"  I said, "What?  You don't know Serendipity?  How can you not know Serendipity?  Oh well, I guess you're not a girl so you wouldn't know."  haha....  I went to Serendipity 3 with my sister when we visited New York.  See, I didn't have the habit of taking food pictures back then, and just can't remember what we ate.  I just remember we each ordered something and the portion was huge.  But I do remember it was really really good.



Our original plan was to have lunch at our hotel, check out, and head to the outlet before going http://www.eileenlikestoeat.com.  But sweet Dr. P said, "why don't we go to Serendipity for dessert before leaving Las Vegas?"  He totally read my mind!  Serendipity is right in front of Ceasar Palace.  We parked in their garage, and walked to the dessert shop through Ceasar Palace's beautiful fountain garden.

[Las Vegas] [Deli] 'Wichcraft

'Wichcraft
MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
3799 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 891-7777
http://www.wichcraftnyc.com

Our last day at Las Vegas, we came to "Wichcraft for a quick bite before heading back http://www.eileenlikestoeat.com.



"Hey! That's the sandwich deli by Tom Colicchio!"  That was my reaction when I saw "Wichcraft while walking around in MGM Grand.

Le Reve

There are so many Cirque du Soleil shows in Las Vegas, but this time we decided to watch Le Reve.  Le Reve is like a Cirque Du Soleil show but with water, lots of water.  To save money, we purchased the least expensive ticket, which is in the first row.  Usually first row tickets are the most expensive.  But for Le Reve, there's a chance that guests in first two rows might get wet, so the tickets are cheap.



We did got splashed, but only very little bit.  It really wasn't bad at all.  And we got to see the performance so up and close.  I love it that we can see the performers facial expression.  As we were waiting for the show to start, we saw a "lizard" swimming in the water.

[Las Vegas] [American] Sage

Sage
Aria Resort and Casino
3730 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(877) 230-2742
http://www.arialasvegas.com/dining/fine-dining.aspx

With our hotel reservation, we also received $100 dining credit to use at the new Aria Resort and Casino.  Lucky for us, Kevin Eats just wrote his reviews on Bar Masa, Sage, and Julian Serrano.  After reading Kevin's review, we like Sage the best, and decided to use our dining credit there for dinner.



We made an early reservation for dinner because we had a show to go later that evening.  We arrived about 10 minutes before our reservation, but they weren't ready for us.  So we sat outside and did some people-watching.  A lot of people came to look at Sage's menu, but not too many people actually went into the restaurant.

Walking Around Las Vegas

We had plan to have dinner at the new Aria Casino for dinner. Since it was walking distance from MGM Grand, we parked our car back at the hotel and started walking around Las Vegas toward Aria after lunch.



We saw a Best Buy vending machine in MGM Grand.

[Las Vegas] [Thai] Lotus of Siam

Lotus of Siam
953 E Sahara Ave
Las Vegas, NV 89104
(702)735-3033
http://www.saipinchutima.com

Too bad Rosemary's Restaurant only opens for lunch on Friday now.  Otherwise we'd definitely be there on our second day at Las Vegas.  We also went to Lotus of Siam during our last visit, and enjoyed their super spicy Thai food.  I remembered they have a lunch buffet, and decided to go check it out.



The restaurant was completely full on a Monday during lunch hour.  We waited for about 15 minutes in their little waiting area with beautiful Thai statues.

[Henderson] [Buffet] M Resort Studio B

M Resort Studio B
12300 Las Vegas Blvd S
Henderson, NV 89044
(702) 797-1000
http://www.themresort.com/dining/studiob.html

After checking into our hotel, we immediately went out for one of the main purposes of visiting Las Vegas: BUFFET!  I am a big fan of Bravo's Top Chef.  M Resort was the host of last season's production.  For some reason, that made me feel M Resort must have really good food.  When I went online to look up their restaurants, I found out they have a buffet that offers UNLIMITED wine and beer!  Seriously?  All you can drink booze?  We are so there!



M Resort is not even in Las Vegas.  It's in the city of Henderson, which is about 15 minutes drive from Las Vegas.  The hotel was so new that I couldn't even find the location on my navigation system.  We actually had to call them for direction.  We got to the buffet around 8pm.  There was a pretty long line.

MGM Grand Las Vegas

MGM Grand Las Vegas
3799 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 891-1111
http://www.mgmgrand.com

We had a mini winter vacation in Las Vegas right after new year.  We decided to stay at MGM Grand Las Vegas because we found a great deal.  The rate is only $51 per night, and they even offered $100 dining credit at the new Aria in the City Center!  It was like staying at the hotel for free!



We left Los Angeles around 2pm and arrived at the hotel around 6:30pm.  They still had the Christmas decoration with the famous lion in the lobby.  The hotel and casino was a bit empty, but it was a Sunday night.

[Irvine] [Taiwanese] 大肚魚 Guppy House

Guppy House
大肚魚
2730 Alton Pkwy #101
Irvine, CA 92614
(949) 851-9788
http://www.myguppyteahouse.com

Dr. P loves beef noodle soup, and I love pork chop rice.  So we just had beef noodle soup and pork chop rice at A&J restaurant.  Two days later, we went to Guppy house just to have the same things again!  This was our second visit to Guppy House.  We ordered exactly the same thing the first time, but I forgot to bring my camera that time.  This place is always packed with young kids at night time.  The only time to get a table without waiting was to go for lunch.


鹽酥雞 Popcorn Chicken ($5.50)
Small pieces of nugget chicken flavored with pepper, garlic, and spices.

We ordered Popcorn Chicken for appetizer.  I forgot to snapped a picture, so this picture was actually a half-eaten order.  The chicken was ok good, not great but acceptable.  It was kinda dry for my taste, but the flavor was good.

[Irvine] [Chinese] A&J Restaurant

A&J Restaurant
半畝園
14805 Jeffrey Rd #D
Irvine, CA 92620
(949) 786-3585

It was the end of the year, and we were on a tight budget after spending way too much on shopping for the holidays.  The weather was cold, so we want something hot and soupy.  Beef noodle soup!  We headed over to A&J Restaurant on a December night for some Chinese comfort food.


泡菜 Pickled Cabbage ($1.25)

We started the meal with some Pickled Cabbage.  It was sour, not spicy, not sweet, and not a whole lot of flavor.... just sour.  At least the cabbage was crispy.

Starbucks Card for Free Rewards

I don't really go to Starbucks all that often. But during midterm and final weeks, I visit the coffee shop more. If you ever buy anything at Starbucks, doesn't matter the frequency, I highly recommend getting the Starbucks Card. It's like a prepaid card that you can use when buying coffee. The reason that I recommend the card is for the rewards. If you are buying coffee there anyway, why not get some rewards for it? Here are some rewards that they offer:

* Free Drink on your Birthday
* Free Wi-Fi
* Free Beverage Customization
* Free Refills on Brewed Coffee
* Free Beverage with Whole Bean Purchase
* Free Trial Offers
* Free Drink Every 15 Stars
* Personalized Offers and Coupons

Even if you are just a once in a while Starbucks coffee drinker like me, get the card! It doesn't expire, and you can reload it when the money runs out. And who doesn't like free stuffs? ^^

[Tustin] [Japanese] Tommy's Sushi & Japanese Restaurant

Tommy's Sushi & Japanese Restaurant
1051 E Main St
Tustin, CA 92780
(714) 544-5241

I saw a picture of the Poke Bowl from Tommy's Sushi on Michelle's blog, and my mouth immediately started watering.   One night when Dr. P and I was out, and trying to think of a place for dinner, I thought of Tommy's Sushi.  Dr. P's first reaction when he heard the name was "Tommy's Sushi?  Do they put chili on their sushi?"  haha....  We punched in the name on my navigation system, and it found the address for us.



The restaurant looked pretty old school from the outside.  There was no window for us to see how the inside was like.  The only way to peek inside the restaurant was through the heavy wooden door.

[Brea] [Mexican] El Torito Mexican Grill

El Torito Mexican Grill
555 Pointe Drive
Brea, CA 92821
(714) 990-2411
http://www.eltorito.com

It was our annual Christmas get-together brunch with the girls (and our boys too this year).  The choice was between Taps or El Torito's Sunday brunch.  Taps has a pretty nice seafood brunch, but the price tag is about $35/person.  Jennifer and Peter has been to El Torito's Sunday brunch before.  They said the food was great, and the price is only half of Tap's.



There were 12 of us.  Sunday brunch was $17.49 per person.  We were seated in the nice outdoor patio overlooking the 57 freeway and Brea Mall.  Brunch also included free non-alcoholic drinks.  We had a large group, but the servers were attentive and friendly.  They kept on coming to refill our drinks or pour us more water.

[Santa Ana] [Chinese] Tan Cang Newport Seafood Restaurant

Tan Cang Newport Seafood Restaurant
新港海鮮
4411 W 1st St
Santa Ana, CA 92703
(714) 531-5146
http://www.tancangnewportseafood.com

Our original plan was to have Christmas dinner with Dr. P's family at Tan Cang Newport Seafood.  Dr. P's mother wasn't feeling well that day so dinner plan was canceled.  But Dr. P still wanted to take me to Newport Seafood for a Christmas lobster dinner.  I told him it would be too much food for 2 people.  He said, "That's ok.  It's Christmas!  Only the best for my baby!"  How sweet!  @^_^@



Original plan was to go to the San Gabriel location, which is a lot nicer.  It was my first time at the Santa Ana location.  It looked like a hole in the wall sorta place.  To be honest, if I didn't know about the restaurant, I probably wouldn't go in if I just pass by because it just didn't look nice and clean from outside.  But we all learned "never judge a book by its cover" since we were little, right?

[West Covina] [Malaysian] 馬來檳城 Penang Malaysian Cuisine

Penang Malaysian Cuisine
馬來檳城
987 S Glendora Ave
West Covina, CA 91790
(626) 338-6138

Mom, sister and I went to see Avatar 3D in West Covina.  Love the movie!  I went online to search for a place for dinner in West Covina before going to the movie.  I found out that there is a Hong Kong Supermarket square in West Covina, and supposedly there are a lot of Asian restaurants in that plaza.



The plaza was big, with a big but empty parking lot.  There are a lot of stores and restaurants, but most of them were not even opened.  This plaza just looked and felt strange.  It was like a ghost plaza.... dark, cold, and deserted.  The few restaurants that were opened had no customers.  It was just sad.  Sister decided to try Malaysian food at Penang Malaysian Cuisine.

Brookstone Shiatsu Massaging Seat Topper

I know it's a little late, but I still want to write about my Christmas present.



I jokingly told Dr. P I want one of those $3,000 massage chair from Brookstone.  Ok, maybe not entirely a joke, because I actually really really really really want one.  But I know we don't have that kind of money to burn.  So Dr. P tried his best to get me what I want.  It was a Brookstone Shiatsu Massaging Seat Topper.  Of course it is not as comfortable as the $3,000 massage chair, but it works wonder at its bargain price comparing to the chair.  I really enjoy this little massage seat topper.  Now every night I can have a massage while watching TV.  Love it!

Thank you, Dr. P!  ^^

[Newport Beach] [American] Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar

Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar
455 Newport Center Dr
Newport Beach, CA 92660
(949) 720-9633
http://www.flemingssteakhouse.com

We have heard great things about Fleming's Prime Steakhouse from friends for quite a while.  I saw American Express offers Fleming's gift card for member rewards, and exchanged my points for a $50 gift card.  Finally we got to try the restaurant at the end of the year 2009.



We made our reservation at the Newport Beach location.  The restaurant is in the Fashion Island shopping mall.  We spotted a yellow big truck parked outside the restaurant.  The truck looked like it was custom built.  Very unique.

[Irvine] [Ice Cream] Coldstone Creamery

Coldstone Creamery
71 Fortune Rd
Irvine, CA 92618
(949) 453-9738
http://www.coldstonecreamery.com

We passed by Coldstone while shopping at Irvine Spectrum.  It was a little chilly on that day, but I just love having ice cream on a cold day.  (P.S.  Call me weird but I also like having hot pot in the summer.  haha....)


Berry Berry Berry Good ($5.70)

Berry Berry Berry Good is my all time favorite signature flavor from Coldstone.  They actually took it off their menu for a while.  I was so excited to see it back on the menu again.  It is made with their sweet cream ice cream mixing with strawberry, blueberry and raspberry.  Love the combination of sweet ice cream and tart berries.  A medium size one cost almost $6.  Very expensive!  But I don't have Coldstone all that often so it's alright.

Who else like having ice cream in winter?  ^^

Sebastian Sidi

After lunch at Javier's, we went shopping at the Irvine Spectrum. As we were walking around, we spotted a pianist performing in one of the courtyards.



His name is Sebastian Sidi.  Our first impression was that he doesn't look like a pianist at all.  He looked more like a rocker.  But man, this guy can play piano!