yumyum in the tumtum -.'s Profile

i've been a fan of chaya brasserie ever since the first time my friend took me there back in college, and is probably one of my top favorite restaurants in LA. i've been to chaya venice as well, but the chaya on robertson boulevard is still my favorite. :) so anyway, we've driven by m cafe on culver many times, but it was only after finding out that it was owned/operated by the chaya family, that we made it a point to check it out. the photos on this post were taken back in nov 2008 on our first visit to m cafe. (please check out the photos on m cafe page, or "local photos" on my profile page.)

it is located at 'downtown culver city' where all the little cool shops are, and right across the trader joe's building.  there are outdoor seating, but indoor is as comfy and cozy.  inside, at one end is a whole row of counter display of salads, sandwich ingredients and desserts.  you place your order and pay at the counter,  get a table, and they will serve your food to your table when it's ready.  m cafe practices macrobiotics method of making food using only natural and organic ingredients with no refined sugar, eggs, red meat, poultry, or dairy products.

we arrived pretty late in the morning before heading to the gallery, so we decided to share a light brekkie. the $2 ice coffee was refreshing. :)  the $3.95 small bowl of mushroom barley soup has carrots, mushroom, barley, potato, and celery.  it's a little too oily, but otherwise, very flavorful.  the breakfast panini costs $11.45, but it is grilled crispy hot.  it has scrambled tofu, soy mozzarella, and is delish.  :)  

i really love this place... friendly staff, nice, relaxed, unpretentious ambient, with good choices of vegan/macrobiotic/healthy/vegetarian menu.  however, at one point, the chef came out of the kitchen and saw me snapping shots of the interior, and she asked a staff to politely tell me that they're okay with taking photos, but not with the interior which would concern them.  most of the time, it is usually asian (particularly chinese) restaurants that do not like photos taken of their restaurants interior and/or food, so this is my first such encounter in a non-asian establishment.  it's understandable, i guess, but in my experience, usually the more upscale a restaurant is, the less concern they are with customers taking photos. anyway, love m cafe nonetheless!  i've never been to their melrose location, but i love this culver city location lots.  it's closeby and a really nice and relaxing place to hang out with friends, or you can simply enjoy a quiet meal on your own finishing some readings/writings. :)  oh, and don't forget to try out their desserts as well!  ;)

once in awhile i treat myself to some beautiful spongy marshmallows. i love them...they're so cute and always put a smile on my face and in my heart everytime i see one. :)

we recently had lunch at europane bakery in pasadena, and bought their marshmallow there. (for photos i took of the marshmallow, please check the photos on little flower candy company page, or "local photos" on my profile page.)

each packet comes with four very pretty pastel colors vanilla marshmallows. the only complain we would have is how these are crystal sugar coated instead of powdered coated. when we bite into it, the sugar was so sweet and the micro-crystal texture simply overpowered the soft and delicious marshmallow itself. other than that, if you love marshmallows and sweets, drop by and pick one up...makes a nice little cheer up gift, too! :)

located at one of my favorite hang out places, the farmer's market at the grove, the marmalade cafe was an easy choice to have dinner at after a wonderful afternoon at the grove. this evening (we were there over the christmas holidays), with all the beautiful and joyous festive mood all around, we decided to get a table at the patio outside, instead of the warm, cozy indoor seats where at the time we arrived, had quite a waiting time since we didn't make any reservations.

our server was ronnie, who's just wonderful and attentive. after looking through the menu and couldn't quite decide right away what we wanted to eat, simply cuz almost everything seemed pretty good (we were hungry! :p) on the menu, we finally decided on crab cakes as appetizer, the siete mares, and half sized mediterranean eggplant salad with half portions of seared sea scallops add on. (for photos of the dishes i took, please check out the photos on marmalade cafe page, or "local photos" on my profile page.)

when the crab cakes arrived, we were quite hungry by then and couldn't wait to try them. i love crab cakes, but haven't had them in awhile. these were richly stuffed (but not enough actual crab meat), served with lemon caper remoulada, and were quite favorable. the $13.95 appetizer also came with a bed of garden salad.

my friend's dish was the siete mares, which consists of jumbo shrimps, some crab meat, scallops,  clams, mussels, calamari, fish simmered in mexican style fish broth, chili fakes, cilantro, bell pappers, and four slices of really crunchy and delicious garlic toasts.  he didn'tlike his $17.95 dish at all...the taste, flavor, textures, freshness... though the garlic toasts were pretty good.

i'm happy to say that i enjoyed my dish alot more than my friend did his (again :p). my $9.95 half sized mediterranean eggplant salad consists of an organic mixed of garden salad, cubed eggplants, tomatoes, red onions, cucumbers, kalamata olives tossed with roasted pepper, feta cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette. i added half portion order of seared sea scallops for an additional $4.50 which i was glad i did. my dinner wasn't the best and the scallops were a tad bit overcooked, but i was still able to enjoy my slightly overpriced (;p) dinner and walked away at the end of the night with a filling tummy. :)

this is where we usually go to for k-bbq when we're in the torrance/gardena/lomita/south bay area. last weekend, after a long and productive day, we went to mugaboka for dinner to celebrate. :)

they have a la carte menu, but we usually go there for the "all you can eat" (ayce) bbq. i remember how the price used to be $14.99 when we first ate there few years ago, and it's now $20.99 per person!!!  you get to choose the usual variety of meat, such as the pork belly, brisket, beef tripe, spicy pork, calamari, beef tongue (my favorite!), rib, etc...

i love their salad!  it comes with the all-you-can-eat order, and you can ask for more if you want.  i usually eat my salad with the meat instead of rice.  there are usually about seven dishes of pan-chan, and the steamed egg.  (sometimes, they 'forget' to bring it out, so make sure you ask for it cuz it's included with your ayce meal!)  our 'standard orders' are beef tongue, brisket, and pork belly, then something else if we feel abit more adventurous. :D  the meats are abit inconsistent sometimes, but overall, it's still pretty good. :)  (for photos of the dishes i took, please check out the photos on mugaboka page, or "local photos" on my profile page.)  

since their prices went up, we haven't eaten here as often as we used to (whenever we were in the area), but we really like this place and the 'outdoor' seatings, though expect your clothes and hair to smell like bbq after you're done! ;p  they do have their own parking lot, but we can usually find a street parking with no problem when the lot is full.  though the restaurant might be pretty packed sometimes, but there has never been a time when we needed to wait for a table.  they're very friendly, but at times it does feel like they're a tad more attentive to koreans than non-koreans. :p  overall, we always enjoy dining here, and i really love the rice tea they serve at the end of the meal. :)

few years ago, my cousin and i stumbled upon this little treasure hidden inside a mall complex at the corner of orlando and beverly, and to this day, it is still my favorite sushi place to go.

on this particular visit, these are what we ordered (yup, we skipped breakfast to have a satisfying 'branch/lunch' :)  (please click on the photo section on top of hirozen review page, or "local photos" on my profile to see some of the photos i took of these hirozen dishes)

ankimo (monkfish liver) - yummily good, if you like the texture :)

toro & foie gras tower (layered grilled foie gras, toro & banana with black bean sauce) - this is good, and who wouldn't love foie gras! although after learning how foie gras was produced, i no longer allow myself to indulge in such cruelty since four years ago :(

nasa soboro (eggplant, minced chicken with snow peas) - my cousin didn't really like this one, but i love eggplants, though the minced chicken with snow peas tasted like a homemade dish i've had. this was probably our least favorite that day

uni (sea urchin), ikura okizuke (smelt eggs), and kobashira (scallop) - omg, just look at those uni and tell me you've had plumber ones! d best uni i've ever had! thinking about it and looking at the pics made me drool all over again :D the kobashira are so fresh! this is my favorite 'combo'! :)

variety roll (tuna, salmon and white fish) - pretty good :)

apple sushi - very creative... it's the first time i've ever had an apple sushi, so it was an interesting surprise :)

purple yam pudding - yam-my good but nothing new

sauteed banana - they're good, but i've had better ones :)

the owners are very nice and knowledgeable. (they do consulting work, too!) i'm so bad with names and i feel so embarrassed about forgeting the name of the lovely lady who came by and chatted with us. she was first curious on why i was snapping food shots each time a dish was served to us, and probably thought we might be 'spies' :p but she was very gracious knowing that taking food shots has been a 'hobby' of mine, and even after learning that my cousin's family is in the restaurant business. :)  all in all, i heart hirozen....lots!!! :) all the staffs are super friendly and attentive. and their wide variety of small dishes on the menu never ease to gastronomically surprise and satisfy any picky palette. :) ingredients are fresh, the flavors of the dishes are well balanced, and beautifully presented. a lovely small dining place, so don't forget to make reservations, and i wouldn't recommend it for large groups. if you wanna save on valet parking, find a street parking instead. :) hmm hmm hirozen-licious! :)

my friend picked me up after work to check out the culver city aaron brother's "buy one get second for one cent" promotion event, where i got pretty good deals for canvases, and scored a few nice 75% off photo frames. :) he had passed by pho show once recently and suggested we should check it out. throughout all these years living in marina del rey, i was surprised that there hasn't been any pho place in the area (the closest one i've had was at national/sawtelle alley, which i should blog about it some time later), so this is quite exciting (though i just found out that they have been here since last summer!)

it wasn't hard to spot them on sepulveda with the huge neon "pho show" sign hanging vertically at the 'store front'. at 6:50pm, we easily found a street parking spot couple store units away from them. they have an outdoor seating area, but since it's so close to the street, we preferred to enjoy our dinner indoor. there were only two other tables of customers when we arrived (not a good sign, but it was still early, so i was hopeful ;) ), and we were seated with our menus almost immediately with water served shortly after.

looking through the menu, they have quite a good variety of dishes compared to the usual pho places. nice selection of cha gio (egg rolls), cha cuon (spring rolls), salads, pho (rice noodle soup) dishes, bun (vermicelli) dishes, com (steamed rice) dishes, com chien (fried rice) dishes, "indochine" dishes, and pan fried noodles dishes. we went for #1 "cha gio" (pork egg rolls with fish sauce), priced at $4.50, and #101 "pho show dac biet" (rice noodles with rare steak, brisket, tendon, tripe, beef balls), priced at $7.95. the bean sprouts came without the usual sliced jalapeno chili pepper, so i asked for it (it's a must have for me for pho! :p) which the friendly server fetched some from the ktichen right away. :)

when the egg rolls arrived, we were surprised by the portion of the order. the three pieces of egg rolls were alot smaller than what we are used to. these look more like the egg rolls you get from dim sum restaurants. i was told that authentic vietnamese egg rolls would use rice paper, but pho show uses regular chinese style egg rolls wrappers. the fish sauce is abit blended. it was alright for me, but my friend wasn't impressed at all. it didn't take too long for the pho to be served. the soup was a tad bit more salty, peppery, and 'licorice-y', but after a few slips, i got used to it and thought it was still okay. there were about four pieces of the meat, couple 'strand' of tripe, a small piece of tendon, and half of a meat ball (we couldn't believe they wouldn't even include one whole piece of meat ball...it was a fairly small one, too! :p) in the noodle soup.

we are probably spoiled by those authentic pho places in the south bay and in the east side, that this bowl of pho felt abit 'ripped off'. i still enjoy it though (i always have mine with all the sliced jalapeno chili peppers and chili sauce in the soup) and am happy that there's finally a pho place nearby! :) and it sure doesn't hurt that all the staff there are very friendly and attentive, which is always a plus if you're in the food&service industry regardless of how big or small a business you are. the interior decor is simple and clean, but we hope they won't keep playing techno music though. :p

when the check came, i asked for their to-go menu, and asked about delivery. they do charge an additional $1.50 for delivery around culver city and neighborhood areas that only take about 5 min drive to get there, or $3.50 for delivery to santa monica or the like area. that's pretty good actually, considering they're practically the only pho in the vicinity, if you're having one of those days when you don't feel like going out and really have an urge for some pho or other vietnamese dishes. :) starting in february, they'll also be opened earlier and serve breakfast from 7-11am! and despite the food quality, they actually get pretty good customer traffic. throughout the time we were there, there were new customers coming in consistently. i will definitely go back to try their other dishes as well. :)

i love thai food, and having read some of the four stars reviews on yelp, i had added it to my to-try list some time ago. my friend and i had passed by it a couple times when we were in the glendale area. but tonight, after dropping by a gallery in the area to pick up my painting, and hanging out abit at the americana, we decided to check out indra thai for dinner. we arrived shortly after 5pm. parking is easily available within the complex lot. through the window, it doesn't look quite attractive, but there were already about five table full of customers enjoying an early dinner, and that usually is a fairly good sign. we headed in. the first thing we noticed is the over-the-counter thai snack available as take-out (much like food court, panda express counter setup). there were fried bananas, fried spicy chicken, fried fish with spicy sauce, curries dishes, and couple of thai snacks. they all look pretty good, so i was happy and looking forward to our dinner. :)

after about 30 seconds standing at the entrance area, we were greeted and escorted to our table with the menus. skimming through the entire menu, we noticed there are alot of noodle dishes, and not many of my favorite thai dishes are available. the dishes are fairly priced, but the fish dishes i was interested in were marked as "m.p." (market price), the server, who speaks pretty fluent english (contrary to few of the reviews i read about them not speaking english), was very friendly and explained that it would depend on the size of the fish, but should be about $15. so, i chose #52 on the menu, which is stated as "fried fish w/kra pow sauce, whole fish deep fried until golden & topped w/spicy kra pow sauce prepared w/mint leaves & minced garlic". my friend chose #75 which is "pad see eew, flat noodles, broccoli, scrambled egg, & choice of chicken, beef, pork stir fried in soy bean sauce" priced at $6.95. he asked for pork. he also ordered #6, the "satay, marinated in spicy curry & skewed on the stick, this indonesian cuisine has been modified w/a thai twist. served w/ peanut sauce & cucumber salad. choice of chicken or beef". my friend asked if we could have it half chicken and half beef (which many restaurants would've accommodated this request), but the server said no, they can't do "since all the satay were pre-packaged and prepared already", whatever that means. with a tad bit of disappointment, he went with the chicken satay. she offered if we would like a bowl of rice and naturally we said yes (but thought to ourselves that the steamed jasmine white rice was supposed to come with the fish dish as stated on the menu?) anyway, i have a habit of ordering a glass of thai ice tea the first time i dine in any thai restaurant, so no difference this time. they called theirs "indra thai ice tea" priced at $1.50. ;) overloaded with the usual crushed ice which makes the taste abit diluted, but i like that the milk is not overwhelming which is nice and not too sweet.

satay as appetizer came first. the chicken meat was nicely done (no burnt corners), the peanut sauce is abit too diluted but still flavorful, and the cucumber salad was sweetly good. :)  our fish dish arrived in two 'small' pieces. i feel so bad saying this, but again, abit of a disappointment. the pompano wasn't deep fried long enough, texture of abit 'lumpy', and it was kinda barely warm when served to us. the kra pow sauce was very blended, but since i really love fish, we did finish this dish.  the best part of the meal ought to be the fried bananas. an order came with six pieces, and it was yummily crunchy. :)

when the check came, we noticed they charged an extra $1.25 for the one-person bowl of rice they served us with.  the menu, however, did state that the fish entree is "served w/ steamed jasmine white rice".  somehow we forgot to ask them about it and paid that puzzling extra $1.25?  before we left, i stopped by the counter for a to-go order of the spicy sliced fried catfish priced at $7.95 (i'll yelp about it on a separate entry.)  though it's a very friendly and cozy environment, and the food wasn't all that bad, my friend isn't too keen to come back again, but with the steady traffic of customers coming in and leaving happy (and with all the other positive yelp reviews), i would want to come back to try the other dishes. :)

after spending an afternoon at lacma, we headed to korean town for some grocery shopping at the galleria supermarket. my friend suggested to have dinner at park's bbq where he's heard good reviews of. having not really eaten for the whole day, and with the drizzling rain, it was the perfect choice to end the cold evening...plus, we both love k-bbq! :)

it didn't take us too long to find the place, but it was impossible to find a space to park in the complex. so after some time of driving around the block to find one, my friend got abit impatient and decided we should come back at another time. i asked him to drive around once more before giving up, and sure enough, how lucky we were that a couple just finished their meal and got into the car, so there, we got a nice street parking space. :) once we got inside, we were greeted by the staff and were told to wait at the seating area along the entrance for 30-40mins. sure, no problem! ;)

when we were seated to our table, service was pretty fast. got our menu, water, variety of yummy panchan (small dish appetizers), placed our order, got our salads, and the dipping sauce. the panchan consisted of the usual assortments such as kimchi, steamed egg, pureed squash and many more. we had the marinated prime beef short rib, and my favorite prime beef tongue. the meats were tender and juicy, and of premium quality. but i didn't realize that my friend also ordered a prime beef short rib soup with ginseng, which was actually really good!! i love soups, and it was perfectly flavored

at the end of the night, we were both really full, but gastronomically happily satisfied. :) to date, i would say this is one of the top best korean bbq places i've eaten in LA! service was fast and efficient. they were very attentive and almost throughout the whole dinner, we didn't really need to cook anything ourselves. (hmm, i actually prefer to be able to cook most of the food ourselves, so we could take the time and choose what we want to eat first. :p) they use traditional charcoal for the bbq here, which is rare these days but a really nice touch. :) glass and steel modern decor throughout the interior. prices are on the higher ends, but you really pay for the excellent service and premium quality of the food. highly recommended if you don't mind the price and parking, and don't forget to make reservations if you don't want to wait! ;)

my friend and i wanted to try everything at this food court, and tonight, after catching a movie and did some light after-new-year's shopping, we settled for some korean food. so, we headed to sorabol, where you get to choose either noodles, rice, or half-and-half of both, then choose one entree, and two side dishes (pan chan).  my friend had half-and-half glass noodles and brown rice, picked the bbq beef, and bean sprouts and broccoli. the beef was over cooked, so it was disappointing for him.  i asked for all glass noodles (i love jap chae!), spicy pork, and broccoli and spicy cucumber. the glass noodles were just okay (abit too sweet and dry), the spicy pork is pretty spicy (i love spicy!) and tender. i enjoyed my pick more than my friend did his, and spicy food usually keeps me happy! :) i even asked for some extra of those spicy sauce for the pork. hehe :)

in general though, i wouldn't recommend to those who appreciate authentic korean food, but if you were shopping in the mall, or before/after the movie, and crave for some korean food for a quick bite, then this would kinda be alright for that.

straight from LAX, we were too tired to drive around for dinner, and i wanted to do some grocery shopping before heading home, so we decided to have dinner at the mitsuwa marketplace. this is one of the places i frequent for grocery shopping and quick meal with friends at their food court. convenient, fast, cozy, fulfilling. this time, i ordered a beef and tofu don from misasa, and my friend had a burger dinner from china table tokyo hanten. (not recommended! :p)  the beef and tofu came with a bowl of miso soup, a little tofu cold dish, and a cup of tea. it was statisfying, and misasa has been one of my favorite to dine at this misuwa foodcourt. :)