LA and San Diego trip

My grandpa passed away recently so Patty and I drove to LA last Thursday to attend his funeral service.

THURSDAY
On our way there, we stopped at In-N-Out for lunch. (Even though we have a store about a mile from us, it's a requirement that whenever we drive to LA, we must go to In-N-Out.)

Doesn't it look like the burger is saying "Eat me..."?

After arriving, we had a snack at Niko Niko Sushi (Redland, CA). We ordered a genki roll (crab, eel, salmon) and inari to go. Both were pretty good.

Later in the night, we went to Victoria Gardens (an outdoor mall in Rancho Cucamonga) to walk around. I wish there was something like this in Phoenix. The most comparable mall here would be Kierland Commons. It's much bigger (and better) than Kierland though. Tempe Marketplace and Desert Ridge don't compare.

Before going back to my parent's house, we stopped by Pinkberry for a green tea yogurt w/ mango. (It was kind of chilly so we ate inside the shop - no pictures allowed.)

FRIDAY
We had a quick lunch at Tea Station. We had luo buo gao (turnip cake), fried taro balls, fried tofu, and gua bao (a kind of "bun" sandwich). We also had a boba tea. The food items were pretty bad (how can you mess up fried food???) but the drink was good.

Here are some pictures:

After lunch, we headed to the Buddhist Mausoleum at Rose Hills for my grandpa's service.
Here's a picture of him...

(Dec. 16, 1911 - Oct. 11, 2007)

Up until his late 80s, he was still riding a moped to get around. He was probably famous in our neighborhood as "the old man with the red scooter"...

After the service, we met up w/ my parents for snacks at Diamond Plaza (in Rowland Heights). We got pastries (can't remember the name of the bakery) and yogurt from Kiwiberry - hover over the pictures for descriptions. I loved the mochi topping on the yogurt...

Here are some pictures:

For a "pre-dinner" snack, Patty and I went to Canaan Restaurant (in the Diamond Plaza Food Court). We had mi fun and won ton soup. Both were good.

SATURDAY
Patty and I drove to San Diego for a short overnight trip.

Our first stop was La Jolla. We walked around the Village and Ellen Scrips Browning Park.
Here are some pictures:

For lunch we went to Curry House. We ordered a pork katsu curry, corn soup, and iced green tea. All of the items were just ok for me.

After lunch we walked around Nijiya Market (which is in the same plaza as Curry House).

We checked into our hotel, took a short afternoon nap, and then headed to the downtown/Gaslamp area. Before leaving, I checked out the Chowhound California board to see what restaurants people were recommending in San Diego. A French place called Cafe Chloe seemed to be mentioned most often so I decided to go there for dinner. We arrived at 5:20pm, right before the dinner rush. By the time we left (around 7), the place was packed. It's a nice looking place w/ indoor and outdoor seating. Here are a few pics:

We ordered the following items:

• Garlic Shrimp Brochette
  
• Steak and frites w/ a cauliflower gratin
  
• Black Cod w/ pumpkin puree and artichokes
  
• Pomegranate Mimosa
  

After almost twenty five minutes (from the time we placed our order), the Shrimp Brochette arrived. The shrimp were overcooked and lukewarm. Not a good start...

We waited another twenty minutes before our entrees arrived. The steak and frites were lukewarm. The accompanying cauliflower gratin was extremely hot. The black cod was also lukewarm. I'm guessing this was a timing issue where the kitchen was waiting for the gratin to finish.

The steak and frites were just ok. The black cod was slightly above average. The cauliflower gratin and pumpkin puree were probably the best items.

Service was somewhat erratic throughout the meal. Thinking back, we definitely should have mentioned the temperature of the dishes and the overcooked shrimp.

I was pretty disappointed w/ Cafe Chloe. It's a nice place but the food seems overrated.

After dinner, we walked around the Gaslamp area and Horton Plaza.

Next, we headed to Little Italy. We stopped at Cafe Zucchero for a chocolate and nocciola (hazelnut) gelato. We thought the gelato would/should be decent in Little Italy but we were wrong. The texture and flavor of both the chocolate and nociolla was off. Both had a powdery texture and artificial taste.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Saffron for a "post-dessert" snack. We originally wanted sticky rice w/ mango, but the cashier told us that it was only available during the summer months. We ended up getting sticky rice w/ banana instead. It was very tasty!

SUNDAY
We spent the morning at Balboa Park. It was beautiful - I wish we had something like this in Phoenix. It's so sad - I can't think of any major "attractions" in Phoenix. Whenever people come to visit, we end up taking them to Sedona, the Grand Canyon, etc. Why are we still here?!?

As we were walking back to the car, we saw condos (directly across from the park) w/ a banner - "Starting from the 300's". We were going to check them out but upon closer inspection, we saw that they had studio, 1br, and 2br units. 300k for a studio?!? Given it's a prime location, but still...we passed and went to lunch instead.

For lunch we went to Dumpling Inn. I've been to Dumpling Inn twice before, on previous visits to San Diego.

We had spicy beef noodle soup, marinated cucumber, and xiao long bao. The beef noodle soup was good, although the beef was not quite as tender as it should have been. The marinated cucumbers were great - the best thing I ate during our trip. The xiao long bao were good - not the best I've had, but good.

After lunch we headed back to Phoenix. It looks like we got out of there just in time! (raging fires in San Diego)

Andreoli and Mercato del Gelato

Yesterday we finally tried Andreoli Italian Grocer. It's a market/deli that also has food available for taking out or eating there. They opened a few months ago and I've been reading really good things about the place.

We shared the panino di caio (panino with thinly sliced ribeye steak, fontina cheese and onions) and an order of tiramisu.

All of their specials sounded really good as well. I can't remember the exact details, but there were some pretty unique items: rabbit, venison, baby bass...

The panino was fantastic. The beef was extremely tender and full of flavor. The bread (made on-site) had a nice and crispy crust. The accompanying side salad was just ok - romaine lettuce tossed w/ oil and pepper.

The tiramisu was great - one of the best we've ever had. It was pretty light and had a great coffee flavor. I also liked that the alcohol flavor wasn't too strong and overpowering.

It's too bad that we live so far from Andreoli, otherwise we'd be regulars there.

On our way back home, we stopped by Tempe Marketplace to walk around. It's very similar to Desert Ridge in North Phoenix - an open-air mall with a bunch of big box retailers surrounding it. The stores in the mall itself all seem to be targeted towards the teen crowd (Wet Seal, Gap, Aeropostale....). There is nothing exciting in terms of the dining options, except for Lucille's Smokehouse Bar-B-Que, which I want to try. The big box retailers - yet another Ross, Michael's, Old Navy, etc. The same thing you can find all over the city. Yawn.

We walked by a gelato shop called Mercato del Gelato and decided to give it a try. We first tried a sample of their hazelnut gelato. It had a powdery texture and weak hazelnut flavor. Pass. Next we sampled the pineapple sorbet. It had a strange and artificial flavor. Pass. Not wanting to just walk out, we got a small dish of the lemon sorbet (how bad can lemon sorbet be?). We should have passed on this as well. Similar to the pineapple sorbet, the lemon sorbet tasted strange and artificial. We ended up eating a few bites and tossing it. I'm guessing they are using a bunch of pre-made bases and mixes. Yuck. I definitely recommend passing on Mercato del Gelato and heading to Arlecchino Gelateria for some real gelato.

Noodles Ranch

Uh oh - four days behind! Time to catch up!!!

On Monday, my Cousin Poly was in town. I had originally planned to take him to Zinc Bistro for dinner, but he had a craving for some Vietnamese food, so I took him to Noodles Ranch instead. It has been a few years since I've been there and I remembered that it was pretty decent. I would have taken him to Pho Avina or Da Vang, but Noodles Ranch was much closer.

We ordered a Green Papaya Salad and Banh Xeo to share and a Pho Tai for each of us.

The Green Papaya Salad came first. The taste of the salad was somewhat off, or flat. I think it was because the papaya was too ripe, making it not as crispy as it should have been.

Next up was the Banh Xeo. It looked very different from what I'm used to. The taste was ok but the lettuce leaves that came with the dish were way too small to wrap the pancake.

The Pho Tai was pretty good. I would have like the broth itself to have been much hotter, but the flavor was good. Sorry for the dark picture...

I would say that overall, the food was mediocre. If I were in the neighborhood, then I might come again, but for now, I'll stick with Pho Avina, Little Saigon, and Davang.

For dessert, I took my cousin to Arlecchino Gelateria to try Phoenix's "best" gelato. I had a scoop of nocchiola (hazelnut) and peach and Poly had scoops of coconut, Cortina (almond w/ lingonberry), and chocolate. Everything was fantastic, as usual. For our "second" round, we both tried a scoop of Valentino (pomegranate w/ rose and lavender), a flavor that I've never seen before at the shop. This one tasted quite strange to me. Poly mentioned that it tasted like "marinara sauce". Oh well, it definitely wasn't my favorite flavor of gelato. Maybe it's an acquired taste! =)

dish and Houston's

For brunch on Sunday, we headed to a place that had opened recently, called "dish". It's a market/bistro. The full service bistro is only open during dinner hours. The market is open throughout the day. In the market, you can get prepared and made-to-order foods at various food stations.

Here are a few pics of the market:


We tried a naan bbq wrap ($8) and a 1/2 lemon herb rotisserie chicken ($5.50). For drinks, we had a GUS (Grown Up Soda) Dry Meyer Lemon soda and an Ito En Teas' Tea Rose Green Tea. The wrap was pretty good, though I thought it was a bit expensive for what you got. From what I remember, it was bbq pork, cheese, cabbage, and some sort of cream sauce, wrapped in naan. The rotisserie chicken was also good. The skin was really tasty (crispy and flavorful), though the white meat portions were a bit too dry. I thought it was a good value for $5.50. I really liked the GUS soda. The lemon flavor was just right and the drink itself wasn't overly sweet. The tea was a typical Japanese style drink - unsweetened green tea w/ hints of rose.

Here are a few pics of the food and one of the bistro area:



For dessert we tried gelato 3 flavors of gelato - Strawberry, Chocolate Hazelnut, and Lemoncello. We actually didn't order the Lemoncello, but the server scooped it by mistake so she gave us the dish for free. The Strawberry wasn't so good. It had a strange texture (almost too smooth) and flavor. We think it was actually Kiwi-Strawberry. The other two flavors were decent. The gelato at Arlecchino Gelateria is much better.



It's a neat place but I'm not sure if it will survive. The place is huge and the rent must be way up there. It also seemed to be way overstaffed - I'm guessing there are around 50+ employees working at any one time. I wouldn't go out of my way just for the food. We'll see...

For dinner, we met up with Denise and her brother, Cedric, at Houston's (Biltmore location). I ordered a bbq burger and Patty (and Denise) had a sea bass special. No pics - it was too dark inside.

The burger was just ok. Can't think of much more to say about it. The sea bass didn't taste like anything like Chilean Sea Bass. We flagged down one of the servers and told him about the fish and he replied that it was a "Blue Nose Sea Bass" and that it should have a very similar taste and texture to Chilean Sea Bass. It didn't - it tasted more like swordfish or mahi-mahi. Both Denise and Patty replaced the dish with a Crab Cake special (that Cedric had ordered). The crab cakes were pretty good - full of large chunks of crab meat. We were kind of shocked though when we got the bill - they were $32! Houston's is supposed to be well-known for its customer service, and on past visits the food has been pretty good (for a chain). Overall, we left disappointed.