[Los Angeles] [Japanese] Hide Sushi

Hide Sushi
2040 Sawtelle Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 477-7242

Yes, I wrote about Hide Sushi many many times.  But actually I haven't been there since April, and I miss it BAD.  We got takeout the other day to avoid the long wait on a Saturday night.  Since I wrote about it so many times, let's just look at the pictures this time.... and drool, of course.


Salmon Skin Salad

Cat in hat makes $10 million for town

This calico cat Tama is sooooo cute! She works at a train station in Japan and made the town US$10 million! I want to go to Japan to visit her now!



Ahhh.... she reminds me of Strawberry. Strawberry was also a tri color calico cat. Just as cute, too! By the way, do you guys know that all calico cats are females?

Thank you, Ayami, for forwarding me this super cute video! ^^

[Monterey Park] [Chinese] Noodle House

Noodle House
麵香園
958 E. Garvey Ave.
Monterey Park, CA 91755
(626) 280-0831

My parents love northern Chinese cuisine.  They love noodle, dumpling and buns.  After reading ExileKiss' post on Noodle House, I just had to take my parents to try it.  All their dumplings and buns are made to order.  Anything freshly made must taste good.  ExileKiss has some great pictures that made me drool.  I even wrote down all the dishes that ExileKiss recommended.  And yes!  My parents love it!



Noodle House is a humble looking restaurant located in a Chinese strip mall.  The restaurant is quite small, only about 5 or 6 tables.  As soon as you walk into the restaurant, you can see a group of Chinese ladies busy making dumplings and buns behind the counter.  They have many different buns and dumplings, as well as noodles.

Moving.... and How?

Hey guys.  I am going to move my blog to a new URL this weekend.  I am getting harrassed by a crazy person and I don't want this person to read my blog.  But I am not sure what should I do?  I want to tell my readers my new website, but I can't post it here because Crazy will follow, too.  But even if I change the address, Crazy can still google and find the new address, right?  So suggestions, please?  How can I tell me readers the new website but not letting Crazy know the URL?  Hmmmm....

UPDATE:  ahha!  Problem solved!  Maybe I don't need to move the blog anymore.  I did some googling and figured out how to block certain IP address from reading my blog.  So there....  Thanks to Crazy.  I learned something new!  ^^

Santa Ana Zoo

Santa Ana Zoo
1801 E. Chestnut Ave
Santa Ana, CA 92701
http://www.santaanazoo.org

For my Animal Handling and Restraint class, we took a field trip to Santa Ana Zoo.  We had a special lecture and zoo tour from one of the zookeepers.  It was very informative and fun.  Santa Ana Zoo is small, but they speciaized in primates.  Lots of monkeys.  Since monkey is my favorite animal, I really like this little zoo.



The zookeeper gave us a 1 hour lecture about various animals in the zoo.  She also brought couple lived one for us to play with.  She was holding a iguana in the picture.

[Alhambra] [Fusion] Savoy Kitchen

Savoy Kitchen
夏蕙西餐
138 E Valley Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91801-5130
(626) 308-9535

I told Dr. Park about the famous Hainan Chicken Rice at Savoy every time we pass by the tiny restaurant.  There are always people waiting on the sidewalk.  After hearing me talking about how great the Haiana Chicken Rice is at Savoy, Dr. Park suggested to try it on a Saturday night.  The wait was not as long as we expected.  15 minutes, got a table inside.


Iced Cappuccino ($2.00)

We started the meal with a cup of iced cappuccino.  I've always liked Savoy's cappuccino.  Perfect blend of sweet and bitter.

Shambala Preserve

Shambala Preserve
6867 Soledad Canyon
Acton, CA 93510
(661) 268-038
http://www.shambala.org

For my Exotic Animal Management class, we took a field trip to Shambala Preserve.  It is a rescue center for big cats.  They have more than 70 cats, including lions, tigers, cougars, black and spotted leopards, servals, bobcats, Asian leopard cats, jungle cat, lynx, and liger.  The preserve was founded by Tippi Hedren, an actress who starred in the move "The Bird".  We had a very informative and fun tour at the preserve.



The entrance, also a small gift shop inside.

[Los Angeles] [Bakery] Tous Les Jours

Tous Les Jours
2736 Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90006
(213) 382-8494

After our lunch at Jeonju, we walked across the street to the Korean market for a little grocery shopping.  On the way back to our car, we passed by Tous Les Jours and was lured in with the fresh baked bread aroma at the door.


Canele ($1.25)

I love Canele.  Dr. Park also fell in love after trying it last time.  Their canele was great.  Soft custard center with thick caramelized crust.  Perfect afternoon snack with a cup of coffee.

Evil Tracy at Work

* This is a venting post. *

Generally, I believe the goodness of people. Even people I don't like, I still won't think them as evil. But today at work, I found evil.

There was an incident between co-worker Tracy and I a few weeks ago. She made some mistakes on a customer's call and the customer called back angrily. I got the angry phone call and didn't really know what happened. I put the customer on hold while asking Tracy what had she done. She pretty much did everything wrong, even spelled the customer's name wrong. So I told her right there that she made a mistake. Instead of just admitting her mistakes, she went to our team lead and said that I embarassed her in front of other co-workers.

When our team lead told me about her complaint, I really didn't think I did anything wrong. I had to ask her about the previous call in the office because the customer was waiting on the phone. If she didn't make mistakes, why would she be embarassed? But this was nothing personal, it was just about work. I tried to be more considerate in her position. I guess for some people "face" is very important. To avoid tension in the office, I tried to be a bigger person and wrote her an apology note for "embarassing her in front of other people" according to her. She then told me that everything's cool between us and asked me not to tell he manager about the incident.  But I still told our manager the incident because I just think she should know about it.  I'm really glad I did that.

So issue was solved.  She stoped talking to me but that was fine.  I thought things were ok.... so I thought.  Until today....

[Los Angeles] [Korean] Jeonju Restaurant

Jeonju Restaurant
2716 W Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90006
(213) 383-4133

I read about Jeonju Restaurant on Potatomato's blog.  We always go to that plaza for soontofu but never knew about Jeonju's famous bimbi bap.  The photos on Potatomato's blog look so good.  We had to try the restaurant.



Only Korean writings on the outside.  I would never know about this restaurant if I didn't read about it.  Thanks, Potatomato!  ^^

[Culver City] [Italian] Fraiche

Fraiche
9411 Culver Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 839-6800
http://www.fraicherestaurantla.com

We've been talking about going back to Fraiche forever.  We finally did!  It was just as wonderful as the first time.


Blueberry Martini ($11.00)

I started out with a blueberry martini.  It didn't taste like blueberry, but more like tart raspberry martini.  It wasn't bad, but I like the strawberry martini I had last time better.

[Baldwin Park] [Fast Food] Cowboy Burger

Cowboy Burger
13101 Ramona Blvd
Baldwin Park, CA 91706
(626) 962-7372

Hungry after a long day at school, I stopped at Cowboy Burger to grab some unhealthy fast food with Entertainment Book coupon.



Cowboy Burger has 3 locations.  I went the the Baldwin Park one.  Entertainment Book has a coupon for BBQ ribs.  But this location does not have ribs.  Well, burgers will do then.  Besides the regular burger and fries, they also have Mexican food like burritos and tacos.

Mediterranean Stuffed Peppers

Another recipe from Vegetarian Times. This one didn't turn out as good as the last one. The recipe is here.



The ingredients are red bell peppers, pomegranate juice, dried figs, wild rice, yellow squash, feta cheese, and walnuts.

Spanich & Feta Cheese Spaghetti

I made a really simple spaghetti with only 4 ingredients. Fast, easy and delicious.



All you need is spinach, feta cheese, spaghetti sauce and spaghetti.  If you like, you can use substitue any green veggie, any cheese, any pasta sauce and any kind of pasta of your liking.

Cook the pasta according to the package direction.  Heat up the pasta sauce in another pot.  When the pasta's ready, mix in the pasta, spinach and cheese.  There's no real "cooking" required.  Simple, yeah?

[San Gabriel] [Taiwanese] Indian Restaurant

Indian Restaurant
633 S San Gabriel Blvd #105
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 287-0688

Dr. Park came to my side of town to visit and was in the mood for some Taiwanese food.  His first request was QQ Cafe, but I was in the mood for something different.  I suggested Indian Restaurant, the famous Taiwanese "beer house" in San Gabriel.



We arrived around 6:30pm and luckily  got the last table available.  There were at least 30 people waiting outside by the time we left.  I know this restaurant is popular, but didn't know it was THAT popular.  Most of the patrons were Chinese, but there were a few non-Asian also.

[Rosemead] [French] La Vie French Restaurant

La Vie French Restaurant
2547 San Gabriel Blvd
Rosemead, CA 91770
(626) 571-1180

La Vie is a Vietnamese owned French restaurant.  It's located in a tiny strip mall.  The restaurant doesn't have nice decoration, but it's known for their reasonable price.  I've been here once with friends before and thought the food was just alright.  My sister picked La Vie to celebrate her birthday with family because she heard good things about the restaurant from her friends.  Another chance for me to sample the food again.


Bread

The small restaurant was about half full on that Friday night.  Our waitress was polite and friendly.  French bread was served after we placed our orders.  We held off on the bread until our appetizer arrived.

Brazilian Black Bean Stew

Since I started taking my animal classes and working with them at the school farm, I decide to eat less meat. I searched for vegetarian recipes on Vegetarian Times.  The Brazilian Black Bean Stew with sweet potato and mango seemed delicious.  So I decide to give it a try.  It was indeed very delicious.  It's also very easy to make.  And one thing I love about cooking vegetarian food is the easy clean-up. 

For the recipe, I took pictures for every step to show you how easy it is to make.  My cooking style is prepare along the way and clean about as you go.  I think you save more time cooking this way.  If you don't like this way, prepare everything first before you start cooking.  Enjoy!



Here are all the ingredients.  1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 sweet potatoes, 1 red bell pepper, 1 can diced tomato, 2 cans black bean, 1 mango and cilantro.

Tests Tests Tests

Sorry guys. I have midterms this week for school. I really have to study hard. So I don't have much time to update my blog. I'll be back after my midterms. Wish me luck! I am gonna try my best to go for that straight A's! ^^

[Alhambra] [Vietnamese] Banh Mi Che Cali

Banh Mi Che Cali
647 W Valley Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91803
(626) 293-8396

Yesterday I blogged about my one month Fresh & Easy collections.  Today let's take a look at one month of Banh Mi Che Cali.


Vietnamese Chicken Rice (Xoi Man) ($2.75)

Usually I come here on the way to work.  So usually I am in a hurry.  They always have packed and ready to go items on the counter.  Those items are $2.75 each.  They have different selections daily.  This is Vietnamese Chicken Rice.  The grilled chicken meat was good.  Tender and sweet.  But re was no sauce from the chicken so the rice have no flavor at all.  They do give you a pack of soy sauce.  I never put soy sauce on my rice.  But I did on that day.  It would be so much better if they can give you fish sauce with this.  I like the chicken, but probably won't get this again.

[Los Angeles] [Fast Food] McDonald's

McDonald's
3454 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90010
http://www.mcdonalds.com

I like fast food.  I know it's not neccessary healthy for you, but it tastes good so I still eat it occassionally.  But after reading this article, I don't think I want to eat fast food hamburgers anymore. 


Salad ($0.99) & Fruit Yogurt Parfait ($0.99)

So here is my healthy version of Mcdonald's dinner.  A garden side salad with low fat dressing and toasted almond, and a fruit yogurt parfait.  Not only it's healthy, it's also cheap.  Both items are only $0.99 on the Dollar Value Menu.

So yes, we can still go to McDonald's.  But just have to pick the healthier options.

Raccoon Attack

My dad has been growing vegetables and fruits in our backyard. But lately our garden was attacked by some kind of animal. They dig up everything underground and destroyed all the plants. My dad set up a trap with a basket and a wooden stick. This was what we found in the morning....



The suspect was a raccoon!  He is so cute.  But we know raccoon bite and they carry a lot of diseases.  So I didn't dare to touch him.  He looked so sad and scared in the little basket.  We called animal control and asked them what we should do with the racoon.  They sent someone to our house to pick him up.  They said this one is just a baby, which means there is a raccoon family here.  I don't know what they'll do to the baby raccoon.  I know it's sad to know that there's possibility that they might euthanize him.  But obviously we won't be able to keep him.