My friend and I stopped by Sunday morning a few weeks ago and it was surprisingly very chilly so the ramen at Tatsu Ramen definitely hit the spot.

I decided to opt for the Bold Ramen ($13.50) because I wanted that egg.  I can't have my ramen without that delicious marinated soft-boiled egg and the ramen that I really wanted, Red Ramen, didn't come with it.  I would then have to order it on the side which was unfortunate.  

The Bold Ramen was incredibly flavorful and full of juicy pork fat especially with those thick cuts of pork.  Because it was so flavorful and fatty though, I couldn't finish the soup.  It was just too heavy for my stomach especially for a relatively early Sunday lunch.  The noodles were cooked al dente which is just how I like them.  I definitely recommend if you're looking for an incredibly flavored and bold ramen (pun intended)!

My friend opted for the Cheeky Ramen ($14.50) because he preferred his soup to be chicken-based as opposed to pork.  From what I recall, he isn't the biggest fan of pork so it was nice that Tatsu Ramen had options for those who prefer other types of broths.  

I didn't have a taste of that ramen but from what I could tell, he absolutely enjoyed it.  He gobbled that entire bowl down when I wasn't even halfway through with my own.  I think that clearly testaments how much he enjoyed that bowl of pure yummy-ness!

So originally, we wanted to grab a ramen burger as well since my friend never had one before and I wanted to get it for the gram LOL.  Unfortunately their grill was down and so we opted for the pork bun ($4.50) instead.  It was good but as you can clearly tell in the photo that the veggie to pork ratio is very much skewed.  And so, I didn't taste that much pork in the bun as opposed to the veggie and the sauce that it had.  

Overall, I would come back for the ramen.  I would be interested in checking out their ramen burger next time I visit and hopefully, the grill will be working!

Overall Verdict on Tatsu Ramen: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

I N F O R M A T I O N   O N   R E S T A U R A N T   M E N T I O N E D
Tatsu Ramen

167 1st Ave
New York, NY 10003
b/t 11th St & 10th St
(929) 284-7088

Website | Yelp

WHAT ABOUT YOU? HAVE YOU HAVE BEEN HERE? WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THIS RAMEN PLACE? LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS!   - Stephanie

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Aya Sushi | NYC

I came here for a quick lunch on a random Saturday in NYC.  It was between a few errands so I decided to get lunch by myself (because YOLO).  I Yelped a place nearby and found this small gem right in the center of Midtown.  I was in the mood for sushi and Aya Sushi seemed like a good choice.

And boy, I am glad that I went there.  They have a lunch special every day of the week.  It's so rare to find a restaurant that did that so the fact that I stumbled upon this place was incredibly lucky on my end.  The lunch special that I opted for was 3 rolls for $13.50 which also included a choice of miso soup or a salad.  I personally thought that this was a fantastic deal.  There is also a 10% off on Yelp if you check-in which is another deal that I was surprised by because NYC restaurants don't usually have Yelp check-in deals but this one did.  So I was pleased all around.

For my lunch special, I opted for the miso soup because I love miso soup.  There was nothing too spectacular about this one - it was good decent miso soup.  It was flavorful without being too salty which is very important.

I love all things salmon so of course my three rolls consisted of various salmon rolls.  I got the regular salmon roll, the salmon avocado roll and the spicy crunchy salmon roll.  To be honest, I don't usually get the spicy salmon ones because there's mayo involved and I'm not the biggest fan of mayo in my sushi.  However, after perusing the other options, I ended up with the spicy salmon roll anyway.

All of the sushi was fresh - they weren't "incredibly" fresh but it was decent enough especially with that kind of price point.  They were very generous in the amount salmon in each roll.  You will be surprised how many times I see the tiniest portion of salmon in a standard salmon roll but I am glad to see that this was not the case here.

I also ordered two extra pieces ala carte because I absolutely love ikura (salmon eggs) and uni.  And I try to order at least one or the other depending on what I'm getting as my "main".  Since I was ordering the lunch special, I decided to splurge and get one of each.  The ikura was $3.50 and the uni was $4 which was on the relatively less expensive end of the spectrum.  They were quite generous with the amount of uni but less so with the ikura.  Otherwise, both tasted fresh for the most part.  I was *slightly worried about this one part in the uni that appeared darker than usual but after testing it, it tasted fine so all was well.

Aya Sushi is a no-frills location.  It's incredibly tiny with only about 5-6 small square tables total in the entire place.  I would definitely not suggest this place for large groups because otherwise you might as well rent out the entire place.  That being said, the service was impeccable considering the fact that I literally sat 2 feet away from the only waiter/cashier/all-around staff there.  There was a total of two employees - the sushi guy and the everything else guy.

Overall Verdict on Aya Sushi: 🌟🌟🌟

I N F O R M A T I O N   O N   R E S T A U R A N T   M E N T I O N E D
Aya Sushi

314 W 39th St
New York, NY 10018
b/t 9th Ave & 8th Ave
Midtown West, Hell's Kitchen

(212) 221-5849

Yelp

IF YOU HAVE BEEN TO AYA SUSHI, LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THOUGHT ABOUT IT.   - Stephanie

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LA Food Adventures (Part 2)

On my second day in LA, there were more food adventures to be had.  I met up with a friend after church and we decided to stop by Pine & Crane to grab lunch.  It's a very cute Taiwanese cafe located near the Griffith Observatory which was where we had planned to go after lunch so it was a very ideal location for us. 

They had a wide range of traditional Taiwanese dishes and a rotating selection of cold appetizers.  I wish I had taken more photos of the place but this all took place before I decided to start a food blog so I only have a few photos available unfortunately.  That day, I believe they had 5-6 options for the cold appetizers and I selected the smashed cucumbers for $3.50.  I wanted my vegetables!  The cucumbers were very good - I only wish that it was slightly more seasoned as I found it to be on the blander side.  However, at the same time, it's probably a good thing to consume less sodium.

For my main dish, I ordered the very traditional Minced Pork on Rice which came with a Soy-Braised Egg and House Daikon Pickle.  This dish reminded me of summers spent in Taiwan without the humid heat and it was surprisingly, non-greasy.  The ones I had in Taiwan are usually on the greasy end and I was pleased to see that it wasn't so at Pine & Crane.  The price was also very reasonable at $7 for my main dish which brought my total bill to about $11 with tax.

On my friend's side, he ordered the Zha Jiang Noodles (📷: Kevin).  I believe he enjoyed it since he finished the entire thing and his noodles cost $8 which was also incredibly reasonable for the size and quality of the food.

They also had a very cute interior design as seen depicted in the image above (📷: Kevin).

All of the dishes were very fresh and you can tell that the quality is also top-notch.  The service was also very good as even the cashier lady (is that the correct title?) was very engaging in conversation.  The wait for the food also did not take very long.  I believe all of the food arrived within 10 minutes of ordering.

Fun fact: they are also somewhat self-service with the utensils and water.  One thing to point out is that you order and pay for your food at the front first before seating yourself.

Overall Verdict on Pine & Crane: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

I reserve 5 stars to those unicorn places so I am quite picky with my 5 star restaurants.

Next stop, D E S S E R T!  As stated in my earlier blog post, there is always room for dessert.

My friend was craving patbingsu since it was crazy hot in LA  and of course, I agreed because I can never say no to any form of shaved ice.  So we ended up wandering back to the outdoor-like mall in K-town which was where I was literally at the previous day grabbing the ice cream taiyaki.  It turned out that Sul & Beans was literally right next door to SomiSomi (what are the chances of that?)

We opted for the Original Milk Bingsoo ($8.95) and decided to share at my friend's insistence.  He claimed it was too big for one person but personally, I'm 99% sure I could have finished the entire thing by myself (hahaha...).

The Original Milk Bingsoo came with a dollop of red-bean paste and some mochi-like pieces on the very top.  It was also drizzled with condensed milk.  This probably one of the most traditional/original bingsoo available and one of my favorites.  Personally, I always end up going back to the traditional flavors because it works well.  Either that or the strawberry and/or mango flavors.  Everything else ends up being too overwhelming for me.  There's too much flavor and tastes that it all gets lost somehow.

That being said, I really, really enjoyed this patbingsu.  For those who don't know, patbingsu is the shaved ice with red bean on top which is what we ordered and bingsoo (bingsu) are the other varieties of shaved ice.

The best part for the Original Milk Bingsoo, in my opinion, was the mochi pieces.  They were absolutely delicious and had just the right chewy texture.  The amount of red bean on top was perfect as well - just enough to have a bit of red bean in each icy bite.  This bingsoo is definitely going to be my go-to order next time I visit Sul & Beans.  Now I'm just wondering if I can order more mochi on the side...

Overall Verdict on Sul & Beans: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

I later met up with my sister for dinner at Mokkoji, a Japanese shabu shabu.  It is easily one of my favorite places to eat in LA. As of today, I have been there three times and I have loved every second of each time.

For some reason, I do think that the price went up at Mokkoji compared to the last time I went there.  Though, I did go there for lunch last time and this time, I went for dinner.  So perhaps that's why.

This time around, my sister and I opted for the pick 2 combo ($19.99).  I decided on the steak cut and lamb while my sister got the angus toro (later changed to wagyu toro since they ran out) and lamb (📷: Tiffany).  For the soup base, I got the fire hot drop mala soup which had a drop of ghost pepper in it.  I considered opting for more drops but since I still wanted to enjoy my food, I decided against it.  My sister got the spicy miso which is her go-to soup base.

There are two things that I love about Mokkoji:

1. Unlimited refills for the veggies excluding enoki (not really sure why since they're not expensive), udon and their house-stamped tofu
2. The sesame paste sauce is absolutely delicious.  It's flavorful but not overpowering and it works well with all of the ingredients in the shabu-shabu.  

The service at Mokkoji is sometimes a hit or miss, though.  This is mainly due to the refills.  Sometimes when I go, I ask for a refill on certain veggies and they come back with the tiniest portion.  I'm talking about 2-3 pieces of broccoli or 5 spinach leaves.  It's miniscule.  So you have to constantly ask for refills.  However, this last time that I went with my sister, the waitress came back with overfilling plates of veggies so that was a surprise.  Other than that, I have always been satisfied with the service.

One thing to note that when you first come in, you need to write your name down on the clipboard.  I've noticed that a lot of places in LA do this so I guess this shouldn't come as a surprise.

Overall Verdict on Mokkoji: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I N F O R M A T I O N   O N   R E S T A U R A N T S/P L A C E S   M E N T I O N E D

Pine & Crane
1521 Griffith Park Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
Silver Lake
(323) 668-1128
Website | Yelp

Sul & Beans (many locations)
621 S Western Ave
Ste 208A
Los Angeles, CA 90005
Koreatown, Wilshire Center
(213) 385-5510
Website | Yelp

Mokkoji (many locations)
815 W Naomi Ave
Ste F
Arcadia, CA 91007
(626) 254-0018
Yelp

SomiSomi

621 S Western Ave

Ste 208-A

Los Angeles, CA 90005

Koreatown, Wilshire Center

(213) 568-3284

Website | Yelp

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