To be completely honest, my sister and I initially did not have this place in mind.  We were originally going to go to Blockheads  (which is amazing) but it was under renovations so we had to hurriedly picked another place to satisfy our shaved ice cravings.  Okay, technically my sister picked it but yea.

We ended up at Salju Dessert.  Neither of us had heard about it but with over 900 reviews and a 4* rating on Yelp, we decided to go for it.  Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect because I was mostly craving Blockhead's rice balls so I was really hoping that this new place would have something similar.  THANK GOD IT DID.

My sister and I opted for the small with an extra topping which turned out to be $4.95 each.  Personally I thought that was a better deal than getting the medium because the amount that the small had was sufficient for me.  My sister ordered the matcha snow flavor with 2 orders of mochi and an order of rice balls.  I got the black sesame snow flavor with 2 orders of rice balls and an order of mochi.  You can clearly tell that we're sisters because we only got the rice balls and mochi toppings.  We both had very little interest in the other toppings.  Both orders also came with condensed milk on top.

The rice balls were delicious and had the right chewy texture that I absolutely love.  You can tell from the picture above that the rice balls were super moist and simply glistened (that sounds wrong...).  The mochi was really good as well but its chewiness had more of a bite to it.  The "snow" was perfectly done and the flavor of the black seasame was strong but not overwhelming.  

Overall, I thought that this place was a good alternative to Blockheads but I think Blockheads is better because the price is about the same but their regular is significantly larger.  And since the quality of both places is relatively similar, the price and the size at Blockheads comes ahead of Salju Dessert.

Overall Verdict on Salju Dessert: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

My sister and I later went for dinner.  Yes, we grabbed dessert before dinner .  And again we opted for Sichuan food because my sister and I simply can't get enough of it.  Plus, she said that this one was her favorite out of all the ones that she had tried already in the LA area.  So of course, I agreed and we headed to Szechuan Chef.

And, of course, we ordered the Mapo Tofu as our first dish.  As stated in my previous blog post, a Sichuan restaurant's Mapo Tofu is how their caliber is judged.  Compared to the Mapo Tofu that we had the day prior in Santa Ana, I personally found this one to be superior.  This one had a lot more depth in its flavor whereas the previous place, while delicious, was more focused on the numbing spice rather than the dish as a whole.

This place also served its Mapo Tofu as a vegetarian dish because there was no minced meat in sight.  Maybe it's a west coast thing to have this dish without meat?  Or perhaps it's just more common there to cook it without meat, I'm not sure.  Regardless, I found the dish to be very enjoyable and it was at a very reasonable price of $8.99 which is far less than what you would find here in NYC (unless it was a lunch special).

The second dish we ordered is another Sichuan classic, Dry Sauteed String Beans.  It's actually one of my favorites and I was glad to find this here because Sichuan Impression didn't have it (outrageous 😡!).  It was as if my meal wasn't complete without this vegetable dish.

This dish was done properly and I have nothing negative to say about it.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and found the dish to be flavorful and the ingredients fresh.  The price for this dish was also $8.99 which is also a steal coming from NYC where the average price for this dish is about $14-16.  To be honest, I played with the idea of ordering another one simply because I can get two of these for the price of one NYC dish.

The third dish we got is again another classic and definitely my favorite of all Sichuan dishes.  This is, of course, the Fish Fillet in Spicy Gravy (水煮鱼).   Okay, honestly, their English name for this dish is weird but it is what it is. I'm including their English name so for those interested and cannot read Chinese, they can still find this dish without any issue.

This dish was A M A Z I N G .  The size of this was monstrous - I don't know why my sister was shocked to see it because this was not the first time she ordered this dish from this place but I was definitely very surprised.  It also came with a heaping pile of dried chili peppers which really speaks for its authenticity.  It was also incredibly intimidating because there was just so much food in this one dish.  Honestly, we could have just ordered this one thing and been completely satisfied.  That's how large this dish was.

I loved everything about this dish.  Nothing was too overwhelming for me and the size of each fish fillet was very satisfying.  There were also an abundance of napa cabbage which were extremely flavorful because they were soaked in that delicious chili oil sauce.  Even though by this point, my sister and I were quite stuffed, we couldn't stop ourselves from eating more.  It was just that good.  The price for this dish was also very reasonable at $12.99.  Actually, it's more of a steal and not just simply reasonable.  This dish is usually double the price here in NYC so I was more than satisfied.

Next time I go back to LA, this place is on my list of go-to. 

As for the service, there was no wait when we arrived.  However, we did arrive on the earlier side around 6pm since I had to go to the airport shortly after to catch a flight back to NYC so that might be why.  And because there weren't that many people there, the waitress was pretty attentive.  We did have to wait for a bit for our food though - about 15 minutes or so.  I'm pointing this out because at Sichuan Impression, our food came out almost instantaneous (~5 minutes).  As you can tell, I am clearly comparing this place with Sichuan Impression .

Overall Verdict on Szechuan Chef: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

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
Salju Dessert

35 W Valley Blvd
Ste B
Alhambra, CA 91801
626) 289-3578
Yelp

Blockheads Shavery (many locations)
12 W Main St
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 282-8727
Website | Yelp

Szechuan Chef
937 E Las Tunas Dr
Ste B
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 872-0106
Yelp

Sichuan Impression (many locations)
13816 Red Hill Ave
Tustin, CA 92780
(714) 505-9070
Website | Yelp

IF YOU HAVE BEEN TO THE PLACES MENTIONED ABOVE, LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THEM.   - Stephanie

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LA Food Adventures (Part 3)

I swear, this is the second to last LA Food Adventures post before I can finally move on to something else .

But today, I am bringing you to Laguna Beach and Santa Ana.  My sister and I decided to do a day out in the area and check out some of the beaches there.  To be honest, I was not a huge fan of the main Laguna Beach and found myself much preferring Thousand Steps Beach and Victoria Beach.  They were much cleaner in terms of the sand and the crowd wasn't as crazy.  I would definitely recommend those areas instead.

But anyways, F O O D! 

We were originally going to go to another place for lunch but considering the fact that they had an hour long wait, we opted to go somewhere else instead.  We were also hoping for some seafood since we're right by the beach and so we found ourselves at Slapfish.

Once I saw the menu, I immediately knew that I wanted to order Fish & Chips 🐟 as that is my go-to whenever I see it on the menu.  It came with a very large serving of fries (or chips) 🍟 and had a large piece of fried white fish on top.  I'm not entirely sure what kind of fish it was but it was perfectly fried.  The fish was also incredibly fresh.  The only one downside to this dish was that I did find that the batter to fish ratio a bit skewed - there were more batter than fish in some areas.  Otherwise, I was very satisfied with my choice.  The price for this was $11 which was very reasonable. 

My sister ordered the Traditional Maine Lobster Roll and found it incredibly fresh as well.  She said that it was much fresher compared to other lobster rolls that she has had in the past so she was well-satisfied with that as well.  It also came with a side of fries but it was quite dismal looking compared to my portion.  The market price for her lobster roll on the day that we went (7/7/2018) was $24.  Since I don't usually order lobster rolls, I'm unsure as to whether or not that price is fair but my sister seemed satisfied and not surprised by the price so I assumed that all was well.

Her boyfriend was also there and ordered the Ultimate Fish Taco (not pictured, sorry! ) for $7 which was quite a steal to be honest.  The taco was huge and he mentioned that it was very healthy tasting (i.e. quite bland) so thankfully Slapfish provided quite a number of hot sauces for instances such as that. 

My sister also later ordered a Creamy Clam Chowder ($7) which I believe she mentioned that it was just okay - nothing too special.  For the same price, I personally would have gone with the Ultimate Fish Taco because that taco looked really satisfying.  

As for the service, Slapfish is a small place and gave off fast-food-like atmosphere so there was pretty much non-existent service.  However, I found the food to be fresh and the price very reasonable so it was overall a win for me.

Overall Verdict on Slapfish: 🌟🌟🌟

After a full day at the beach, we decided to go to Santa Ana for dinner since it was on the way back home.  Plus, we weren't really feeling any Western food and were really craving Sichuan food.  So when my sister found that a chain of Sichuan Impression was there, we headed there.

I realized afterward that I should have taken individual photos of each dish but since they all came at the same time, I ended up doing a group photo instead 🙈 sorry!

The first dish that we ordered was the Spicy Fried Chicken 🐔 (top picture).  I actually have not heard of this dish before and it was recommended by my sister's boyfriend who claimed that it was very good.  I'm also not entirely sure about the price for this dish because it wasn't on the menu - it was something he ordered off-menu.  However, it was incredible!  The fried chicken was extremely tender and it was so flavorful with the chili numbing spice.  It was sauteed with strips of celery, green peppers and dried chili peppers.  Tons of flavor was found in this dish and we found ourselves pretty much devouring the entire thing.

The second dish that we got was the classic Mapo Tofu (bottom left picture).  This is the one dish that you always order at a Sichuan restaurant to see how authentic it really is.  I was pleased to find that this dish was delicious.  They really succeeded in that spicy numbing flavor because this dish had a lot of numbing spices to it.  The waiter even mentioned that they added extra .  I also noticed that the Mapo Tofu here was vegetarian which is interesting because the ones that I order back in NYC usually comes with minced meat or they, at least, have an option to have it or not.  But not here.  This dish was $11.99 which I found on par with the prices in NYC.

The third dish that we ordered was the Couple's Sliced Beef in Chili Sauce (bottom right picture).  Out of all of the dishes we ordered that night, I was most disappointed with this one.  It was good but because the slices of beef were cut too thickly, I found that there was a lack of flavor in some of the pieces.  I tend to prefer the slices to be cut very thin so the chili sauce can really soak into each piece.  This dish also usually comes with ox tripe but in this case, I only found a few pieces here and there which was a bit disappointing.  It also came on the warmer side which is odd for me because this dish is usually categorized as a cold appetizer so it was a bit off-putting.  This dish was $9.99 which was actually on the pricier side.

We also ordered another dish - Boiled Fish with Rattan Pepper.  We were originally going to order the classic Sichuan Boiled Fish but because everything else we had ordered was already in that same red chili numbing sauce, we opted for something different for our palates.  To be honest, I was initially hesitant about ordering this dish because it looked really similar to the sour and spicy version (my Google sleuthing says that dish is Suan Cai Yu or Sour Vegetable Fish for a direct translation).  However, the waiter said it wasn't sour, just spicy.  So we ordered it and I am glad that we did.  It was honestly very similar to the traditional version but so much cleaner.  It was spicy but it didn't have that numbing aspect to it.  It was also less oily hence a cleaner taste.  The pieces of fish were also very large and very tender.  If I had to pick a favorite dish, it would be a toss up between this one and the fried chicken.  The price for this dish was $13.99 which I found very reasonable for the amount of food in it.

At the very end, we ended up ordering another dish (not pictured, sorry! 🙈) because my sister was still hungry .  We mostly got this dish because we saw a waiter go by with it and my sister thought it looked really good.  I believe that this dish was the Sauteed Shredded Potato but I'm not 100% sure mainly because, as stated, we saw this dish go by and ordered it from that and not the menu.  However, if it is that dish then it was $8.99 which I believe is quite reasonable.

Overall, we were quite satisfied with our dinner and the dishes that we ordered.  There wasn't a single one that wasn't good which is always a plus.  The service was also very decent as the waiters and waitresses around were always attentive and willing to answer any questions asked.  The restaurant was also very packed when we first arrived and had to wait about 15-20 minutes before being seated.

Overall Verdict on Sichuan Impression: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

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
Slapfish (many locations)
211 Broadway St
Laguna Beach, CA 92651
(949) 715-0460
Website | Yelp

Sichuan Impression (many locations)

13816 Red Hill Ave
Tustin, CA 92780
(714) 505-9070
Website | Yelp

IF YOU HAVE BEEN TO THE PLACES MENTIONED ABOVE, LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THEM.   - 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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LA Food Adventures (Part 1)

I'm not from LA but I figured what better way than to start off my blog with my most recent travel adventure to the lovely sunny city of LA , where the people are so chill except when it comes to driving .  Seriously, there is no chill there.

And of course, my first stop was lunch at Yup Dduk La, a Korean rice cake restaurant known for its intense spiciness.  My initial thought was to get the Challenge level but realized that a) it's I N S A N E L Y spicy as per other Yelp reviews and b) the size of that dish is ginormous so there was absolutely no way the 3 of us would be able to finish that with that level of spice.  Then we debated about getting the Original level but because my sister couldn't really handle spicy food, we opted for the Mild level.  At the end, this was a good choice because it was just spicy enough for me to appreciate the spiciness as well as the flavor of the food.

We also ordered a number of toppings including mozzarella cheese, cellophane noodles, fried dumplings, yup dduk fries, and ramen noodles.  The best parts were definitely the cellophane noodles and yup dduk fries 🍟.

Before we finished ordering, we noticed this sign (apologies for the slight blurriness):

So of course we opted to order a side of rice balls because we wanted to survive  which turned out to be delicious.  They were essentially plain white rice covered in seaweed and also seasoned.  Surprisingly, very delicious.

FYI, I was there with my sister and her bf and we still weren't able to finish everything.  The huge bowl of rice cakes was just too much.

Next stop, D E S S E R T!  There is always room for dessert.

We stumbled upon this place called SomiSomi while waiting for the movies (for those curious, we were waiting to watch Jurassic World) and my sister pointed out that this place was really popular with their very Instagrammable ice cream taiyaki 🍦.  I concurred and we settled on grabbing some for dessert.

Is that or is that not Instagram-worthy?

I got the black sesame and ube swirl with the custard filling.  My sister opted for the matcha and milk swirl with red bean filling.

To be honest, the ice cream was probably the best part but the fillings were sorely lacking.  We were all expecting the taiyaki to be filled with the filling of our choice (i.e. custard for me and red bean for my sister) but that wasn't the case at all.  The "fillings" were just slightly smeared along the inside of the taiyaki and the rest was just ice cream.  So definitely a bit disappointed with that part.

As for the ice cream, I found the combination of the ube and black sesame to work surprisingly well.  It was a bit overly sweet but I think it still worked out well.

For those who don't know what taiyaki is, they are Japanese fish-shaped cake and the inside was originally filled with red bean paste.  Nowadays, lots of other fillings can be found.  I have included an example below. 

Anyways, that was all of the interesting foods that I ate that first day in LA.  Stay tuned for Part 2!

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
Yup Dduk La

3603 W 6th St
Los Angeles, CA 90020
Wilshire Center, Koreatown
(213) 263-2355
Yelp

SomiSomi
621 S Western Ave
Ste 208-A
Los Angeles, CA 90005
Koreatown, Wilshire Center
(213) 568-3284
Website | Yelp