Samurai Burrito

20161226
Trying to resume my keto diet, today I got a salad base (mixed greens with crab mix) poke bowl. For my 3 scoops I got ahi tuna, seared albacore, and yellowtail.

Poke Bowl

On top of that I got all the free toppings (cilantro, green onions, mango, masago, tomato, jalapeno, and white onion). Finally, I didn't get the poke sauce because it had sesame oil and cautiously got rising onion on the side. Upon trying some of it, I concluded it was safe and poured it over the entire bowl.

While the individual pieces tasted good, there was something odd about the overall taste.

(My friend's) Yakuza

[20161226 Quick Edit]

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Samurai Burrito

Relevant Links:
Samurai Burrito Website
Samurai Burrito - Fountain Valley, CA (Yelp.com)

Cafe and Te

20161226
My friend and I were looking for a nearby coffee place and this establishment popped up on Yelp. Checking it out, we saw the tea samples and each gave one a try.

Peach Fairy tea

Then we proceeded to smell various teas.

In the end, I decided to get a Peach Fairy tea (unsweetened) and my friend got one of the chia teas.

When it came out, I was surprised to find that my tea was served in a glass tea kettle.

The tea definitely smelled like peach; this smell lingered throughout. It was light and tasty.

[20161226 Quick Edit]

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Cafe N Te

Peach Fairy tea

Relevant Links:
Cafe N Te Website
Cafe N Te - Fountain Valley, CA (Yelp.com)

Karl Strauss Brewing Company

20161221:
Today I met up with an old friend and colleague for a drink and bite to eat.

To eat, I got the seared ahi with no sesame seeds. Overall, it tasted as good as most other seared ahi dishes I've had - though I partially expected it would have tasted better given its fancy description.

Menu Description:
SEARED AHI Organic spring mix, sashimi-grade peppered Ahi, pickled ginger, wontons, mushrooms, tomato, sesame seeds, firecracker sauce, and citrus vinaigrette. 15.95

In particular, I noted the salad tasted exactly how a typical Asian salad served at an American restaurant would taste.

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Karl Strauss Brewing Company

Relevant Links:
Karl Strauss Brewing Company (Costa Mesa) Webpage
Karl Strauss Brewing Company - Costa Mesa, CA (Yelp.com)

Solita Tacos & Magaritas

20161220
Today I came here for the first time. I got the carne asada (and esquites) salad with ranchero sauce and no crumbled tortillas. I also got a glass of tequila (7 Lequas Anejo).

grilled carne asada & esquites salad

Menu Description:
grilled carne asada & esquites salad $15.75 mixed greens topped with grilled carne asada, roasted & grilled sweet corn esquites with cotixa cheese, chipotle sauce, tomatoes & avocado chunk, crumbled corn tortillas. (Without carne asada $11.75)

Taco Tuesday!!!

Both the salad and carne asada tasted average. I would, however, attribute this to having acquired enough data points that the distribution of quality begins to converge; I've observed a similar effect with movies.

Corn freshly cut from the cob.

Actually, now that I had some time to reflect, the corn was good and the salad was at least average, if not better.

[20161227 Quick Edit]

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Solita Tacos & Margaritas

Tofu taco

Relevant Links:
Solita Tacos & Margaritas Website
Solita Tacos & Margaritas - Huntington Beach, CA (Yelp.com)

Ha Noi Avenue

20161219:
Chả Cá Thăng Long is one of my favorite dishes, but I hadn't thought to go grab a bite of it until my parents brought it up. It was also fortunate that Ada was around to try it as well.

Chả Cá Thăng Long (Tumeric Fish with Dill)

Unfortunately, since it was just the two of us, I opted not to get the Bun Cha Ha Noi. While there was the potential to reduce the Cha Ca Thang Long from the larger double portion to the smaller single portion, I wanted to emphasize the fish and opted for less variability and a more focused experience.

Bánh Tôm Co Ngu (Shrimp and Sweet Potato Fritter)

On a different note, when the server brought out the sauces, there was a brown sauce which I historically avoided. When the server returned, I asked if it had peanuts and he said it didn't. Then, with confidence, I tried it and found it delicious. It is called mắm nêm (Vietnamese fermented anchovy dipping sauce).

Overall, I enjoyed the lunch and Ada expressed that she liked it too.

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Ha Noi Avenue

Wiped Clean!

Relevant Links:
Ha Noi Avenue - Westminster, CA (Yelp.com)

PokiNometry

20171218:
Walking around and looking for food, Ada and I decided to eat at PokiNometry.

Step 1: Choose Your Base
We got half and half of brown rice and salad.

Step 2: The First Layer
I don't recall if we got the sliced white onions, but we got the sliced cucumbers and we definitely got the crab meat!

Step 3: The Good Stuff
Having ordered the large size, we got five scoops of meat: salmon, tuna, srhimp, octopus, and... (I don't remember).

Step 4: Choose Your Sauce
We probably got mild, if not medium spicy.

Step 5: Top It Off!
We got everything except sesame seeds (masago, green onion, ginger, wasabi, and seaweed).

Overall, it was solid, but I wish all the ingredients from Step 1 to Step 5 had been mixed together.

[20170105 Quick Edit]

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PokiNometry

Relevant Links:
PokiNometry Website
PokiNometry - Los Angeles, CA (Yelp.com)

Trieu Chau Restaurant

20161218:
I came here today and got hu tieu mi Nam Vang dac biet. Given the option between thick and thin noodles, I opted to get both thick hu tieu (flat rice noodles) and thick mi (Chinese egg noodles).

It was delicious. Though I later had some of Ada's thin Chinese egg noodles and I liked it better than the thick one - at least for this dish.

The broth tasted good as well; I had added vinegar to it.

Ada liked her thin flat rice noodles more than her thin Chinese egg noodles; the hu tieu was softer. I also had her compare her thin flat rice noodles with some of my thick rice noodles and she found the thin ones to be softer - even though I thought the thicker rice noodles were softer.

While also getting the special combination bowl like me, she didn't eat the duck meat or liver. As such, if she came here again she'd be best off getting a (thin) hu tieu with chicken.

I'd still be good with the same order I had today, except I'd swap out thick Chinese egg noodles for thin ones instead.

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Trieu Chau Restaurant

Relevant Links:
Trieu Chau Restaurant - Santa Ana, CA (Yelp.com)

Mustard Cafe

20161217:
The spinach omelet was too cheesy for me. Furthermore, there wasn't enough spinach. It tasted better with smoked Tabasco sauce.

Menu Description:
Spinach Omelet Spinach, mushroom and swiss. Served with potatoes & toast. Egg whites only add $1.30. $11.44

Ada's turkey sandwich was good, but plain. It tasted awesome with smoked Tabasco sauce.

Menu Description:
Garden Variety* Alfalfa sprouts, avocado, romaine, tomato, red onion and cucumber, on toated whole grain with a touch of mayonnaise $10.27

*Since the picture of the sandwich entirely matches the description of the Garden Variety except for the turkey, I'm 98% sure that Ada ordered the Garden Variety with Ovengold Turkey (add $2.86).

[20170219 Edit]

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Mustard Cafe

Relevant Links:
Mustard Cafe Website
Mustard Cafe - Newport Coast, CA (Yelp.com)

Tender Greens

20161215:
While this was the first time I've eaten at a Tender Greens, my friends once ordered some chicken for me from a Tender Greens while I waited and saved seats inside of a movie theater (of my own volition).*

In any case, after looking through the menu I decided to get the tuna niçoise.** My friend Michael - who has the same exact pizza topping preferences as me (first: sausage, second: mushroom) - also got the tuna niçoise.

Menu Description:
TUNA NICOISE grilled rare albacore, baby greens, tomato, potato, capers, green beans, quail egg, olives, sherry vinaigrette $12.00

*Probably Batman Begins but I'm not sure. Definitely Irvine Spectrum.
**Tender Greens spells it with a regular 'c' and I had no idea how it was properly pronounced until looking it up later.

[20170106]

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Tender Greens

Relevant Links:
Tender Greens Website
Tender Greens - Pasadena, CA (Yelp.com)
Salad niçoise (Wikipedia.org)

Porto's Bakery & Cafe

20161215:
Today Ada and I stopped by Porto's in Burbank to get some desserts for friends and family before heading to Pasadena.

Before dinner, while waiting for friends, I tried a cheese roll and unfortunately it was underwhelming: I was expecting the pastry to taste amazing, but it only tasted normal.

Description:
Cheese roll (TM) cheese filled pastry Sweet, flaky pastry dough filled with cream cheese filling. $0.80

To be fair, it seems that the elimination of sugars from my diet has reduced my overall appetite for desserts.

[20161230 Quick Edit]

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20161216:
Today after dinner we ate a bit of every pastry we bought.

Flourless chocolate

Website Description:
Flourless chocolate A decadent chocolate cake made with 64% Ecuadorian dark chocolate. A chocolate lovers' favorite. $3.50

The flourless chocolate was tasty. It tasted like fudge.

Website Description:
Mixed Berry Danish Our signature Danish Dough with a touch of vanilla custard and garnished with fresh mixed berries $2.50

Mixed Berry Danish

The mixed berry danish was alright. Because we placed the pastries in the fridge overnight, the pastry was cold.

Website Description:
Refugiado (TM) guava & cheese pastry Flaky puff pastry filled with guava and cream cheese. $0.89

The guava pastry was delicious!

Cheese Rolls (20161219)

[20161230 Quick Edit]

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20161218:
We drove to the Downey location today on our way to Los Angeles and decided not to stop when we saw a line of people going out the door.

[20161230 Quick Edit]

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20161219:
Today Ada and I took an early morning trip from Orange County to Downey to buy some pastries for her to bring back home.

This time I took the opportunity to immediately eat a cheese roll. Unfortunately, it was a bit burnt, had a slight burnt flavor, and was almost cold, but at least it was still crunchy. I liked the glazed texture of the cheese roll I had the other day more.

Pork Empanada

After eating the cheese roll I ate the ground pork empanada (Ada had the chicken empanada). The empanada had a deliciously sweet and soft crust. Meanwhile the meat was also sweet and tasty, but there wasn't much of it.

[20161230 Quick Edit]

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Porto's Bakery & Cafe

Relevant Links:
Porto's Bakery & Cafe Website
Porto's Bakery & Cafe - Burbank, CA (Yelp.com)
Porto's Bakery & Cafe - Downey, CA (Yelp.com)
Porto's Bakery & Cafe - Glendale, CA (Yelp.com)*
*I haven't been to this location.

Luciano Ristorante Italiano

20161205:
The bread was soft and fresh.

The calamari was not crunchy; it was only lightly breaded.

Involtini Di Pollo Alla Fiorentina

Menu Description:
Frittura Di Calamari Tender baby fried calamari, served with marinara sauce 12.99

I had a bite of the polenta and it was buttery.

Frittura Di Calamari

The chicken of my stuff chicken breast dish could have been softer, but the spinach and cheese inside it was good.

Menu Description:
Involtini Di Pollo Alla Fiorentina Tender chicken breast stuffed with spinach, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheesse, topped with a port wine sauce 24.99

Salmone Con Capperi

The vegetables tasted standard.

Menu Description:
Salmone Con Capperi Marinated grilled salmon fillet, topped with capers and lemon butter sauce 19.99

[20170220 Edit]

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Luciano Ristorante Italiano

Relevant Links:
Luciano Ristorante Italiano Website
Luciano Ristorante Italiano - San Antonio, TX (Yelp.com)

Eiko's

20161202:
Ada and I started with a ceviche for an appetizer. Ada, however, liked the ceviche from Foreign Cinema more; this one had too much vinegar. I, on the other hand, liked it - particularly for the chewy pieces of octopus. I had about six spoonfuls of ceviche.

Bluefin-Avocado Sashimi

Menu Description:
Fresh House made Ceviche Sashimi Grade Snapper, Octopus & Shrimp | Cucumber - Yuzu Salsa | Served with Wonton Chips and Avocado $14

I ate the first piece of my bluefin-avocado sashimi in separate parts (bluefin -> avocado -> garlic chip) and without soy sauce. It was good. Ada tried one and liked it as well.

Ada's tempura dish was decent. Ada said she likes the tempura at Spiral Japanese Cuisine more.

Shrimp Tempura

Next I had one of the two chu toro. I mashed the fish around in my mouth and I could taste the fat. Unfortunately, it was not that tasty.

Returning to the bluefin-avocado sashimi, I also ate my second piece without soy sauce, but this time managed to grab all three parts as one. The avocado seemed to stand out in an unnatural way.

Menu Description:
Bluefin-Avocado Sashimi Spanish Bluefin Wrapped around Avocado | Topped with White Onion vinaigrette | Crispy Potato, Micro Greens $19

Chu Toro (Fatty Tuna)

My third piece of the bluefin-avocado sashimi, like the first, fell apart.

In the end, I liked the bluefin more than the chu toro.

Menu Description:
Chu Toro (2pc.) Fatty Bluefin Tuna $12

Ada tried a little section of the second piece of chu toro and described it as fishy.

Overall, the food was not bad, but far from excellent. I'd rate it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

[20170221]

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Eiko's Sushi Restaurant

Ceviche

Relevant Links:
Eiko's Website
Eiko's - Napa, CA (Yelp.com)