Dinner tonight

Here's what I made for dinner tonight:

salmon w/ a bit of cajun seasoning

stir fried baby bok choy, mushrooms, and cilantro

Prepped and cooked both in less than 15 minutes!

Weekend highlights (part 2 of 2)

Every summer, during the off-season, many of the resorts in the area offer fantastic rates and special package deals. For the past two years, we've stayed at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge (read about it here - "Deals @ the JW Marriott Desert Ridge").

This year, I had narrowed it down to either the Arizona Biltmore or Hermosa Inn, and finally decided on the "Night at Lon's" package at the Hermosa Inn.

The package included the following:

• one-night stay in a deluxe casita
• enhanced turn-down service
• $100 credit at Lon's at the Hermosa
• $50 breakfast credit

We paid $267 for a Sunday night stay - about $200 less than the rate during the winter (peak season) months.

Here are some pictures of our stay:

Our "deluxe casita" - there were 2 units in the building...

Big room!

HUGE bathroom!

awesome shower...

pool area - we went once in the evening and once in the morning and were the only guests there

welcome gift

2 chocolate cookies and personalized event guide w/ turndown service

Dinner - dining room @ Lon's

The next morning, we had breakfast on the patio of our casita:

You still have a few more months to take advantage of the summer deals, or you'll have to wait until next year!

Places mentioned:

The Hermosa Inn
5532 North Palo Cristi Road
Paradise Valley, AZ 85253

LON's at the Hermosa
5532 North Palo Cristi Road
Paradise Valley, AZ 85253

Blue Gold : World Water Wars

I don't care if you are a global warming/energy crisis skeptic, everyone should watch the documentary, Blue Gold : World Water Wars. It's a pretty disturbing film about the current situation of water around the world.

Watch the trailer here: (and watch the movie soon!)


Learn more about your local watershed and what you can do here:
The Action Plan

BTW, I just looked up our local water supply and it's pretty scary...

Good thing we filter our tap water.

Avoid bottled water whenever possible, and eat locally grown food!

Weekend highlights (part 1 of 2)

Here are a few highlights (and lowlights) from this past weekend:

Bowl of ramen from Republic Ramen

We metup with friends at Republic Ramen. Patty ordered a bowl of the "miso" ramen ($6.95). I had the "tonkotsu" ramen ($6.95). Both bowls of ramen looked identical, so I'm only posting one picture. We ordered both bowls with pork and egg (+$1.00). The miso ramen was, to put it mildly, not so good. The broth had an off taste. The tonkotsu ramen was marginal.  The pork they use is completely wrong...

I would recommend going elsewhere to satisfy your ramen cravings.

On to some highlights!

Meyer lemon (left) and Caramel (right) macaron from Essence Bakery

After Republic Ramen, I suggested going to Essence Bakery for dessert. Patty and I have been a few times before and love their macarons. We ordered one meyer lemon and one caramel macaron. I'm not sure if they have made some changes recently, but they seemed to have skimped a bit of the filling (the filling should go to the edges of the cookies). Overall, these were still very good.

Fried pork chop over rice at iKitchen

We stopped for an afternoon snack at iKitchen. Patty and I shared a fried pork chop with rice ($6.25). FYI - this is a Taiwanese style dish. I thought it was pretty good, but Patty thought it was just "ok". In her opinion, the pork chop should've been thicker. She's from Taiwan, so I'd say that she's the expert. Still, it's not bad for the area!

On Sunday, we went with a friend to the newly opened Nobuo at Teeter House. Here's what we ate:

Watermelon goat cheese salad $6

Panko-fried soft shell crab sandwich $10

Tonkatsu sandwich $10

Ebi salad $9

Coconut curry grilled lamb $12

Everything was fantastic! They are currently only open for lunch, but we're looking forward to returning once they start their dinner service (w/ an expanded menu).

Places mentioned:

Republic Ramen
1301 East University Drive
Tempe, AZ 85281

Essence Bakery
825 West University Drive
Tempe, AZ 85281

iKitchen
5055 West Ray Road
Chandler, AZ 85226

Nobuo at Teeter House
622 E. Adams Street
Phoenix, AZ 85004

Vietnamese - Da Vang and Central King Egg Roll

Last Tuesday, we met some friends for dinner at Da Vang. We probably frequent Da Vang more than any other Vietnamese restaurant in the Valley. It's definitely not the nicest looking place, but the food is excellent and the prices are extremely reasonable.

Here's what we had:

Grilled pork w/ egg roll over rice noodles

Beef pho

The next day, Patty was craving for pho again. Little Saigon (another favorite) and Da Vang are both a bit of a hike for us, so I did some research online and found a place near us that had Vietnamese food - Central King Eggroll. For me (and I'm guessing others), the name is a bit misleading, as it sounds more like a Chinese restaurant. The restaurant does serve some Chinese food, although the menu is primary Vietnamese dishes.

Here are two pictures of the restaurant:

Here's what we ate:

Grilled lemongrass chicken - I thought this came over rice (per the menu description), but as you can see, it came served over rice noodles. It was good though.

Beef pho - I thought this was a great bowl of pho! The sliced beef was fresh and tender, the noodles weren't mushy (from overcooking) and the broth was clear and complex (with noticeable hints of star anise and cinnamon). If you compare the picture above, to the one from Da Vang, you'll also notice that there is no oil on the surface of the broth (there shouldn't be any!).

The ethnic dining options in the far West Valley are pretty limited, so I'm glad we discovered Central King Egg Roll! It's definitely going into our dining "rotation". FYI - other restaurants in the rotation include India Garden (Indian), Sala Thai, Tomo (Japanese), and AJK Chinese.


Places mentioned:

Da Vang
4538 N 19th Ave
Phoenix, AZ 85015

Central King Egg Roll
13530 West Van Buren Street
Goodyear, AZ 85338

Tomo Japanese Cuisine

We went to Tomo Japanese Cuisine for dinner tonight. Tomo is one of our favorite places for sushi in the Valley. The food is consistently good, the prices are very reasonable (especially during happy hour), and most importantly, it's only a two to three minute drive from our house.

Here are some pictures of Tomo:

Here's what we ate:

California roll - $2.95 during happy hour

Caterpillar roll - $9.95

Salmon skill hand roll - $3.95

Yellowtail kama (jaw) - $5.50 during happy hour

As usual, everything was great!

Places mentioned:

Tomo Japanese Cuisine

1550 N Dysart Rd
Ste. A7-9
Goodyear, AZ 85395

Le Chalet

For dinner tonight, I metup with a friend at Le Chalet (their website is a disaster btw...). Le Chalet opened earlier this year and I've been wanting to try it. I bought a $20 Groupon deal for $10 a few weeks ago, so this was the perfect opportunity to use it!

Here are some pictures:

Complimentary cheesebread - delicious!

Each of us ordered a savory crepe. I had the "Mediterranee" - sea scallops sauteed with julienned leeks in a creamy saffron sauce ($13.95).

This was excellent. The combination of flavors was fantastic.

My friend, D., ordered the "Fermiere" - creamed mushrooms and sauteed onions topped with sliced chicken breast and Swiss cheese ($10.95).

This one was a bit boring. If eaten on its own, it would probably be pretty good, but compared to the Mediterranee, I thought it was kind of plain.


I really enjoyed the "Mediterranee". Next time, I'll take Patty and we'll have to split a savory crepe so we room to try one of the dessert crepes.

Places mentioned:

Le Chalet
5626 West Bell Road
Glendale, AZ 85308