[Monterey Park] [Chinese] 得月樓 Giang Nan

Giang Nan
得月樓
306 N Garfield Ave #A-12
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 573-3421

My parents like Giang Nan a lot.  Our relatives from Canada came to LA for my brother's wedding.  My parents took my aunt and uncle to Giang Nan for lunch.


薺菜豆乾 Gi-Chai with Bean Curd Cake

The waitress recommended Gi-Chai with Bean Curd Cake for appetizer.  The bean curd cake was chopped into tiny little pieces.  I like the taste of Gi-Chai.  This was a tasty cold dish to start the meal.

[Newport Beach] [Seafood] Jack Shrimp

Jack Shrimp
2400 W Coast Hwy #M
Newport Beach, CA 92663
(949) 650-5577
http://www.jackshrimp.com

Thanks to Boiling Crab, I realized how much I love Cajun food.  When I saw the $20 for $40 deal on Groupon for Jack Shrimp, a Cajun seafood restaurant, I bought one right away.


Summerland Chardonnay ($14.00)

We visited on a Tuesday night.  Lucky us!  They have a 50% off any bottle of wine on Tuesday.  I got a bottle of  Chardonnay for half off the original price.  Iced cold crisp Chardonnay went very well with spicy seafood.

[Laguna Hills] [Pizza] California Pizza Kitchen

California Pizza Kitchen
24155 Laguna Hills Mall
Laguna Hills, CA 92653
(949) 458-9600
http://www.ckp.com

Dr. P's family came to visit us down in South Orange County.  California Pizza Kitchen is one of Dr. P's mom's favorite restaurant.  She didn't feel like going out to eat on a weekend night because most likely there would be a wait.  So Dr. P went to get take-out for us to enjoy the meal at http://www.eileenlikestoeat.com.  Dr. P called ahead to order, and they offered the curbside pick-up service.  But we found out later that they charge extra $2 or $3 for the curbside service.  That's really lame.


The Original BBQ Chicken Pizza ($12.99)
Our most popular pizza, introduced in our first restaurant in Beverly Hills in 1985. Barbeque sauce, smoked Gouda and Mozzarella cheeses, BBQ chicken, sliced red onions and fresh cilantro.

BBQ Chicken Pizza is always delicious at CPK.  Actually I like their BBQ Chicken Salad a lot, too.

[San Gabriel] [Banquet] Mission 261 Restaurant

Mission 261 Restaurant
御珍樓
261 South Mission Dr
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 588-1666

My brother got married on September 5th!  2 weddings within 1 month.  My parents were busy, but very happy.  :-)



Their wedding banquet was held at Mission 261.

Our Wedding Photo Book

I know this is long overdue.  But I finally made a photo book for our wedding.  Gosh!  Has it been 3 months already?  haha.... Enjoy!

Cutest Puppies

Here are the world's cutest puppies, Teddy & Twinkle!



Awwww.....

[Irvine] [Chinese] Chong Qing Mei Wei Szechwan Restaurant

Chong Qing Mei Wei Szechwan Restaurant
重慶美味川菜
5406 Walnut Ave #C
Irvine, CA 92618
(949) 651-8886

After we came back from honeymoon in Costa Rica, Dr. P was dying to have some Chinese spicy food.  We headed to our favorite Chong Qing Mei Wei in Irvine to serve the craving.


風味冷菜 Cold Appetizer ($5.50)

I love the spicy kidney with sliced onion cold dish.  Can never get enough of it.  The spicy beef and tendon and green veggies were great as usual.

[Huntington Beach] [Deli] Lucci Gourmet Italian American Deli-Bakery

Lucci Gourmet Italian American Deli-Bakery
8911 Adams Ave
Huntington Beach, CA 92646
(714) 968-4466
http://www.luccisdeli.com

We were at Petco all day long.  Gotta get some lunch, but we didn't want to go to far.  Lucci Gourmet is right next door to Petco.  We decided to just go there to grab a quick bite.



Lucci's is a small Italian market and bakery in the front, and has a little deli and tables at the back.

Teddy & Twinkle's First Day Home

We have been talking about getting a dog for the longest time. Our apartment in Irvine didn't allow dogs. We finally moved into a townhouse with a patio in July. We talked about getting a dog after returning from our honeymoon ever since we moved in.  At first Dr. P was thinking about buying a dog from a breeder.  He had a great Labrador, Buddy, who he bought from a breeder many years ago.  Buddy was such a good dog that Dr. P thought about getting another Labrador from the breeder.  But I was leaning toward adopting.  I mean, there are already so many dogs needing http://www.eileenlikestoeat.coms.  Why spend money to buy when you can just adopt?



I saw Teddy on Petfinder.com, and immediately fell in love with him.  The adopting agency was called Pooch Match.  We found out there would be an adoption event at Petco in Huntington Beach where Teddy would be at.  We filled out an adoption application online, and got a very excited response back.  Yes!  We were approved!  The adoption event started at 11am.  We arrived at 10:30am because we didn't want anybody snatching Teddy before we did.  haha...  There he was!  Our little Teddy.  He was even cuter in person than his picture that we saw online.  In the picture with Teddy here was one of his sister, Tootsie.

[Japanese] [Tustin] Kobe Teppan & Sushi

Kobe Teppan & Sushi
13741 Newport Avenue
Tustin, CA 92780-4687
(714) 544-4055
http://www.kobeteppan.com

My friend Wen told me about the $20 All You Can Eat sushi lunch special at Kobe Teppan & Sushi.  On the day we decided to go, I purposely didn't eat breakfast and went really really hungry.  (And later found out that was the wrong strategy.  Why do I always get full so fast when I am super hungry?)



Kobe Teppan & Sushi, just like its name stated, serves both Teppanyaki and sushi.  The restaurant is divided into two sides.  Their teppanyaki side was really popular during lunch hour.

Grilled Chicken Club Salad with Guacamole Dressing

I was in the middle of cooking Grilled Chicken Club Salad with Guacamole Dressing when Dr. P called and told me his meat eating brother was coming over for dinner. I told him that I was making salad for dinner, and he said, "uh.... would you like me to get take-out for dinner?" "No, I made more than enough salad for 3 people." But Dr. P didn't sound too excited.


Grilled Chicken Club Salad with Guacamole Dressing

This grilled chicken club salad actually took some work.  I had to grill and chop the chicken, chop lettuce and tomato, bake bacon in the oven then crumble, and make the guacamole dressing.  The end result... every bit of work was worth it!  This salad was more than delicious!  Dr. P and his brother both raved about it for days.  We also used the leftover to stuff inside pita bread to make a chicken salad sandwich the next day for lunch.

[Costa Rica Honeymoon] [Day 8] TACA Airline San Jose, Costa Rica --> LAX

It was time to say goodbye to Costa Rica. As much as we love this beautiful country, we were just started to miss http://www.eileenlikestoeat.com.


Chicken Dinner

We were sooooo glad that they served dinner pretty soon after we got on the plane because we were so hungry. I really like TACA airline. Service was so friendly, and their food was really good.

[Costa Rica Honeymoon] [Day 8] San Jose International Airport (Juan Santamaria)

Our flight http://www.eileenlikestoeat.com was at 5:20pm. But there were other people in our tour group who had earlier flights. So we still got on the bus at 7am and got to the airport around noon.



There's a small food court in the airport.  This was our only food option.

[Costa Rica Honeymoon] [Day 8] Restaurant Anaconda

Restaurant Anaconda
Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
(506) 2777-0584
http://www.costaverde.com/facilities.htm

It was our last day in Costa Rica.  We had breakfast with the other people from our tour group who also stayed at our hotel.


Typical Breakfast

It wasn't on the menu, but a lady at our table asked the server if we could have the typical Costa Rican breakfast.  I don't know why they didn't have something like this on the menu.  It was soooooo much better than their "American" style breakfast.  Love the bean and rice and plantain.

[Costa Rica Honeymoon] [Day 7] Animals in Manuel Antonio

On our walk back to the hotel, we saw more animals.



I like sloth.  I think they have really cute face.

[Costa Rica Honeymoon] [Day 7] El Avion

El Avion
Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
(506) 2777-3378
http://www.costaverde.com/avion01.htm

We woke up in the early afternoon after our morning nap.  Time to go out to find some food.



At first we wanted to take the bus into another part of town.  But while we were waiting for the bus, it started to drizzled.  We didn't know if a storm was coming or not, and decided to just stay near the hotel.

[Costa Rica Honeymoon] [Day 7] Restaurant Anaconda

Restaurant Anaconda
Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
(506) 2777-0584
http://www.costaverde.com/facilities.htm

Day 7 was a day at leisure.  We still woke up early to have the included free breakfast at Restaurant Anaconda.


Desayuno Continental
Tostadas, pan de banano, jugo de naranja y cafe o te.

I had Continental breakfast with ham, cheese, and toast.  I put everything together and made my own breakfast sandwich.

[Costa Rica Honeymoon] [Day 6] Restaurante y Bar Las Gemelas

Restaurante y Bar Las Gemelas
25 m Antes de la Musmmanl
Quepos, Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
(506) 2777-5238

After leaving the national park, we went into to town searching for a lunch spot.  There were a few restaurant in town.  The two big ones were full of tourists.  We took a look at the menu at their doors, and thought prices were on the higher side.  We saw a local old man just hanging out at a street corner, and decided to ask him for a suggestion.  He walked us over to a smaller restaurant called Las Gemelas.  He said that this is more of a local spot with good food and reasonable price.



We grabbed a ocean view patio table.

[Costa Rica Honeymoon] [Day 6] Manuel Antonio National Park

Manuel Antonio National Park
Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio
Puerto Quepos 6350, Costa Rica
http://www.manuelantoniopark.com


I went on hiatus for 3 weeks.  I took me a while to get used to the new working schedule of waking up at 5am and working 10 hours day.  So now I am back to write some more.

I was really looking forward to visiting Manuel Antonio National Park because I read that there are monkeys everywhere.  For those of you who do no know, monkey is my favorite animal.  I took SOOOOO many pictures on this tour.  Get ready to see LOTS OF animals....



People from our tour group stayed at 3 different hotels near the national park.  We took the bus to this hotel to pick up the last group of people and started walking toward the national park.  The national park is only 5 minutes walk from this cute little hotel.