[Alhambra] [Chinese] 海霸小炒皇 Harbor Kitchen

Harbor Kitchen
海霸小炒皇
1411 S Garfield Ave
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 289-2328

My sister went to Harbor Kitchen before and really liked the food.  So for her birthday lunch, she wanted to go there.  I thought it was just another Cantonese cafe and didn't expect much.  But the food turned out to be soooooo good that now Harbor Kitchen is one of my favorite restaurants in that area.



We wanted to go there for lunch special, but got there a little late.  After 3pm, no more lunch special.  But guess what?  They have an afternoon tea menu, and the deals are even better!  The price is cheaper than lunch special for the same portion of food, and you also get a free drink.  We didn't even know about the afternoon tea special.  Now we know, we'll always try to go there between 3~5pm.

R.I.P. Mowgli & Twinkle

Back in August, my sister adopted two cats from the shelters.



Mowgli was adopted from San Gabriel Animal Shelter.  My sister picked him because he was so ugly and sad looking.  He had ringworm on his head so there was a big bold spot.  He also had respiratory problem so he always had eye boogers around his eyes.  He had diarrhea so he was stinky.  But he was the sweetest kitten ever!  Even though he was sick, he still liked to play.  He was a purrrrrr machine.  Loved to be petted.

[Irvine] [Bakery] Layer Cake Bakery

Layer Cake Bakery
4250 Barranca Pkwy #1
Irvine, CA 92604
(949) 786-0223
http://www.layercakebakery.com

For my sister's birthday, she requested macarons instead of birthday cake.  A quick internet search and I found Layer Cake Bakery in Irvine.  It was a Thursday, and the plaza was packed with high school kids around 11am. Layer Cake Bakery was also filled with kids.  Most of them were getting sandwiches for lunch.  But I came for their sweets.



There were 7 different flavored macaroon on the day I went.  There were Hazelnut buttercream....

But I Still Want to Play

When we were trying to house train our puppies, we put them in the kitchen tiled area to sleep with a baby gate when we go to bed.



But some time they still don't want to go to bed.  Teddy's way of showing us "but... I want to play some more" was by having his whale friend in his mouth.  He likes to fetch, and we always use his whale to play with him.  When he doesn't want to go to bed, he'll just have the whale in his mouth, sit by the baby gate, and look at us with the cutest face.  haha....

[Tustin] [Bakery] Panera Bread

Panera Bread
13205 Jamboree Road
Tustin, CA 92782
(714) 665-1470

There's a Panera Bread in the same plaza as the animal hospital.  We went over there for lunch one day.  I've seen Panera Bread all over the place, but had never tried it before.


1/2 Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich / Greek Salad

I got half sandwich and half salad.  For salad, I picked Greek Salad.  It was your standard Greek Salad with romaine, tomatoes, feta, onions, peperoncini, Kalamata olives, pepper and Greek dressing.  It was a good salad, but I thought portion was pretty small.

[Irvine] [Korean] Dumpling & Noodle House

Dumpling & Noodle House
13256 Jamboree Road
Irvine, CA 92602
(714) 508-8989

I had a short-lived job at an animal hospital for about 2 months.  (I'll talk about why it was only for 2 months a little later. ;-))  The hospital is right near Irvine Market Place.  I spent a lot of my lunch hours there.


Jajangmyun ($6.44)
Ground beef, pork, and blackbean paste noodle

My first day of work, I had Jajangmyun from Dumpling & Noodle House for lunch.  It's a small Korean restaurant.  One lady worked as the waitress and also worked at the counter.  A Hispanic guy was doing all the cooking in the kitchen.  I watched him made my Jajangmyun.

Sunbeam Breadmaker

I am really bad at baking. I never thought I would be able to make bread... until I found out this thing called "bread machine". From what I read, all you have to do is put all the ingredients into the machine, press a button, and then bread is done in a few hours. You don't even have to mix anything. It sounds amazing!



I picked Sunbeam 5891 2-Pound Programmable Breadmaker because it is the mid range bread machine with the highest reviews.  It's about $45 and has 12 cooking functions, which include basic, French, whole wheat, quick, sweet, ExpressBake 1-1/2 pound, ExpressBake 2 pound, dough, jam, cake, sandwich, and bake.