not taipei/LA: GLORIA's CAFE, LUDOBITES 5.0, UMAMI BURGER & CALIFORNIA CHICKEN CAFE

I've been a bad blogger. Instead of writing about food, I've just been daydreaming about it. In attempt to kick my semi-writer's block created by my return to the Taipei heat and humidity, I'm going to torture you with what we can't have (unless you're lucky enough to be in LA, of course). I have lots and lots to catch up on about my previous Taipei eats, but until then we will drool together.

1- GLORIA's CAFE

Heaping plates of El Salvadorian and Mexican food, complete with pools of beans and rice, and service with a smile makes Gloria's Cafe one of my favorite spots to hit up in LA. Ever since ordering the carne adobada on my first visit there over a year ago, I can't seem to want to order anything else.

My sister said she doesn't even like plantains and she thought that these were good.



We also went a little crazy ordering both the Mexican and El Salvadorian tamales with two different sauces to try- the El Salvadorian tamales tasted a bit smoother and creamy, while the Mexican tamales had the familiar courser, yellow corn masa texture. Both were the best tamales I've had in awhile.



2- LUDOBITES 5.0



Before I left for Taipei, I got the Golden Ticket of the foodbloggers' world- which was a coveted reservation to Ludobites 5.0. The reason why reservations were so hard to get? Chef Ludo and his team don't have a permanent restaurant- instead he rents out different locations and reinvents a menu to kick off that chapter. So everyone in LA has a limited window (usually a few months) to try out the food which has had food bloggers buzzing and me drooling on many occasions (who wouldn't over foie gras croque monsieur?!)



Ludobites 5.0's menu included dishes like goat cheese soup with bacon, lardo, tofu, green apple and frisee salad; foie gras with chinese bbq sauce with miso eggplant; steamed duck with crispy skin puree and white peach with balsamic (my 2nd favorite dish of the night); raw waygu beef over somen noodle; and campfire smores with a side of guacamole ice cream, but my favorite of the night was the Poached egg, Potato Mousseline, Santa Barbara Prawns and Chorizo Condiment.



The dish sounds and looks deceptively simple, but it was actually perfectly thought out and executed. To have a complete dreamy bite, it was like hunting for treasure. You needed to scoop up the creaminess of the potato, the soft egg, the bite of prawn and saltiness of the chorizo. I could eat this for breakfast and lick the bowl clean.

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of Chef Ludo's imaginative creations while spying on him in person at work, as well as just having a nice dinner out with friendly service led by Ludo's wife, Krissy. It was my first time and hopefully not my last.

3- UMAMI BURGER



I'd been wanting to try Umami for awhile, but never managed to make the drive out to Hollywood. But luckily for me, they have a location in Santa Monica now (in Fred Segal) which wasn't too crowded when we chose it for a lunch meeting on a weekday. The menu has about 8-9 burgers on it, but I recommend getting the signature Umami burger, best suited for those who like a bit of sweet with their savory. Don't forget to rock the sweet potato fries and cheesy tater tots too.



4- CALIFORNIA CHICKEN CAFE



If I could find a Chinese chicken salad in Taipei that matched the one from CCC, I'd be a happy camper. But it's hard to find a good salad here, much less a Chinese chicken salad.

5- MARIE CALLENDER's



And last, but not least... the strawberry pie from Marie Callender's. Big, juicy strawberries bathed in sticky sweetness countered by a bite of the flaky crust. Hopefully this will still be in stores at the end of summer when I go back to LA in a few weeks. And speaking of seasons, does anyone know why strawberries are in season in the winter in Taipei, but during the summer in the states? It always confused me!

So there you have it... some of my LA meals from my most recent visit- some old favorites, some new.

not taipei/california: OC County Fair 2010

For me, summertime in Southern California means time to go to the OC Fair for Mexican funnel cake! Ever since I tried the sugary, crispy confection last year, I had been counting down the days until I returned this summer and could get my hands on it.



It's always fun to see the dizzying array of food stands available- from the standard corn dogs to chicken and waffles to grilled corn.




It's amusing to see the cupcake trend has even made its way here.



I didn't have the urge to try all the deep fried craziness like the zucchini weenie or the deep fried smores, since I had sampled it last year. So instead I settled on some taquitos from Noel's since I spotted an open table nearby.



I was happy to see it slathered in guacamole.



I also tried corn dogs from a couple of stands and if I came back next year, I'd pick Hot Dog on a Stick over the others.

I was waiting for some friends to come to share the Mexican funnel cake with them, but they bailed last minute. It comes in a jumbo size only, so I wasn't able to finish it and it became a sugar overload by the fifth bite or so.



But if you're craving some deep fried butter (SHUDDER!) or chocolate covered bacon, this is your one stop shop to make sure to hit up- but only until August 15th!



OC COUNTY FAIR 2010
at the OC Fair & Event Center
88 Fair Drive
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

ocfair.com

not taipei: LA CABANITA

I have writer's block. Or I guess blogger's block.

So more pictures, less words will probably be the theme of the next few posts. In the meanwhile, let's mull over this memory of carnitas tacos, smoky and sweet mole enchiladas and an addictive basket of warm chips and salsa from La Cabanita in Glendale.

And wishful thinking that we can someday have So-Cal worthy Mexican food in Taipei?

LA CABANITA
3445 N Verdugo Rd
Glendale, CA 91208
(818) 957-2711

not taipei/snapshot: LA, OC and Las Vegas

Hi everyone! I've been in the states for about a month now, trying out new places and old favorites. I've been so busy that I haven't even really spent very much time in LA- I went to Irvine, Newport, San Diego, Las Vegas and Park City.

But despite being on food blogging vacation, I had to take a few pictures to share. Here are some highlights of my trip:



- the Scallop salad at Gulfstream in Century City, CA is one of my favorites. This salad was the beginning of my love for beets. Now I even get a huge scoop of beets when I go to Souplantation. haha! I also can't leave Gulfstream without getting the lemon meringue pie (lusciously light meringue and tart and sweet lemon filling) and the hot fudge sundae that you just can't find in Taipei.



- Deep dish mushroom and sausage pizza at Tony's Little Italy Pizza in Placentia, CA. Definitely no Zachary's, but it hit the spot after I had been searching for deep dish pizza in Southern California for a long time. A tiny restaurant in a strip mall, it was packed on a weekend night. We called ahead with our pizza order (it takes around 45 minutes to bake) and we still had to wait awhile for our food. The meatballs on the spaghetti were huge, but the pizza was better. The hot cheese oozed everywhere and and each slice was dense and filling.



- I am in LOVE with the Spicy Tuna Don with brown rice at Fukada in Irvine, CA and I think everyone else is too. The lines on the weekends are painfully long, but this is so so so good. Not too spicy with a touch of sweet, the texture of the brown rice compliments the tuna. The combo special also includes a bowl of udon or soba!



- It's hard to capture how HUGE the Snickers Pancake at Hash House A Go Go in Las Vegas, NV was, but maybe you can kind of see with my iPhone in the picture for scale. I gasped when I saw how big it was- the size of a small to medium pizza and enough to feed at least four people. This busy brunch place off the strip was featured on Man Vs. Food for its fried chicken benedicts (which were equally huge) and it was worth the trip off the strip. (Though the Wynn weekend buffet with fresh guacamole and prime rib was pretty enticing too).



- There were a lot of new things to try at Bazaar, in Los Angeles, CA, but the cotton candy foie gras had to be one of the most unusual. The melt in your mouth sugary and savory flavors and textures was to be tried in one bite and tasted like you would imagine. When I get back to Taipei, I want to post up the pictures from the rest of the food that night!

So that's a little bit from me right now... I'm fighting a cold and it's raining and I have so many places I want to eat and not enough time, but I'll be back to Taipei in a few days and should be back to regularly scheduled blogging in no time!

not taipei/los angeles: i strongly recommend Animal

"I'm an animal. I'm an animal. I'm an a-a-a-a-a-a-a-animal." The lyrics to Far East Movement's "Animal" echo in my mind when I'm thinking about what to say about the restaurant Animal.

I'd been reading and hearing about Animal for months and after taking an informal poll on Facebook, I decided I had to try it for myself. Animal's menu changes daily and features all sorts of (ahem) animal parts- from the unusual (pig's ears and chicken liver toast) to fusion (kimchi pork belly or scallops with black eyed peas).



I made reservations for dinner a few days before and chose an early 6:30pm dinner over 7:40pm. When we arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to find the restaurant not packed. More elbow room for all the dishes we were going to order.



The waiter we got was exceptionally friendly and enthusiastic- happily making suggestions and answering questions and checking in on our table, without being over the top or fake. It might be some of the memorable and best service I've had in LA.

I hate it when I ask the waiter to recommend something and they say something like "Depends on what you like" or "Everything is good." Obviously, if I knew that, I wouldn't ask. But our waiter was helpful and steered us in the right direction.

We ended up getting mostly appetizers and one main dish and sharing. The more people you come with, the more you can order to share. Unless you can eat a lot like me and my very good friend.

I appreciated that the waiter did a great job pairing the appetizers that we chose and spacing them out so we could enjoy the dishes, rather than crowding up the table with everything we ordered like some restaurants do.

The first two dishes were two dishes I heard a lot about and deservedly so- the pork belly with kimchi, peanuts, chili soy, scallion (US$12) and the melted petite basque, chorizo and garlic bread(US$11).



While I think you could do practically anything with pork belly and it would be delicious (think of the Taiwanese gua bao), I loved how the outside of the meat was crispy and crackly and then the inside fatty pork melts in your mouth.



The toasty garlic bread was perfect for dipping in the cheese, but the chorizo got a little lost in all the gooeyness.

Round one winner: kimchi pork belly!



I don't know what the look was like on my face when the second round of appetizers came out, but I was amazed that the foie gras was so huge!

We decided after asking the waiter to get the foie gras appetizer over the main dish (foie gras loco moco) since he said that there was a lot going on the main (hamburger, egg, spam, rice, sauce) which some foie gras lovers felt that the foie gras flavor got lost in it. And I think it was a good choice.



I've definitely never had foie gras over a country style biscuit and maple sausage gravy,(US$22) but it worked. Kind of like having fried chicken and waffles, I suppose. The sweet mixing with the salty with the fat and the starch. Just enjoy the dish and don't try to think about it too much!

The scallops (US$12) were perfectly seared and I think it was my first time having black eyed peas, sort of a cross between lima beans and edamame.



Round two: very very close, but winner is foie gras.

Next was the huge rack of balsamic pork ribs, blistered corn and zucchini (US$37). I don't know if I was still trying to savor the taste of foie gras and scallops, but the pork ribs just didn't do it for me. They were tender and sauced up, but I only wanted to eat a couple ribs. The corn and zucchini were great though- sweet and fresh- tasting like they were dressed in a heap of butter.



And like true animals, we gnawed and chewed the meat away until only the bones were left.



For dessert, one of their most popular and unusual selection is chocolate covered bacon. But having just sampled it and fulfilled our curiosity at the OC County Fair, we decided to stick to something lighter and get the tres leches cake with dulce de leche sauce (US$7).



Like a spongecake soaked in milk, the tres leches was sweet, but not overwhelmingly so. It was a nice end to a memorable meal.

As we walked out of Animal, the twilight sky was a perfect indigo with clouds adrift. I thought about how amazing it was that we had things like food blogs and Yelp to help us discover awesome little places like Animal- which I doubt I would have ever visited otherwise- it's in an older neighborhood aways from my house and there isn't even a sign to capture your attention if you happened to drive by. So I'm glad I didn't miss out and maybe this post will help some of you discover a new favorite restaurant.

ANIMAL
435 N Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 782-9225

animalrestaurant.com

Hours: Sunday - Thursday. 6pm-11pm. Friday - Saturday. 6pm-2am

not taipei/los angeles: i recommend Westside Tavern

Yum, yum, yum and yum.

I have been enjoying a lot of the new places that have cropped up since the last time I was in town earlier this year. I don't know if I would have found Westside Tavern eventually when watching a movie at the revamped Landmark theaters at Westside Pavilion, but we ended up there when a friend chose a place for dinner.

Westside Tavern has a menu full of appetizers, soups/salads, sandwiches and burgers, mains and desserts served with a modern California flair.

It was my first time eating burrata, which we mistakenly thought was a type of proscuitto for some reason when reading the menu. When the Gioia burrata and heirloom cherry tomatoes (US$14) came, we thought, where's the proscuitto? Oh.... it's cheese!



But a lovely cheese it was, like a softer, creamier buffalo mozzarella. If you like that sort of thing.

My friend got the lamb french dip and I got the Spit Roasted Chicken Cobb Salad (US$16)- which after falling in love with the yummier (and cheaper) Cobb salad at Tender Greens, the Westside Tavern's Cobb Salad just didn't compare.



We did however throughly enjoy the Lemon Meringue Pie, which was like a crown of baked egg whites on the perfectly tart and sweet lemon pie. Something nearly impossible to find in Taipei.



The second time I visited Westside Tavern was about a week later with a couple girlfriends I hadn't seen since middle school. Yes, MIDDLE SCHOOL! Craziness. Westside Tavern was the perfect place to catch up on our lives and split an appetizer and a few desserts.

The baby artichoke and smoked mozzarella flatbread with roasted tomatoes (US$14) was like a fancy pizza- baked to the right crispiness and topped with a dressed arugula.

We couldn't decide between the warm sticky toffee cake (US$8) or the hot fudge pudding cake (US$7) and we ended up with both. It's hard to tell from the photo, but we couldn't finish because one dessert could easily be shared between 3-5 people!



I'd stick with their signature warm sticky toffee cake only next time. The hot fudge pudding cake wasn't particularly decadent or memorable, while you just wanted to keep eating the gooey, moist toffee cake though you knew it was full of sugar.

So the next time you want to eat before a movie, skip the food court across the mall and make a reservation at Westside Tavern.

WESTSIDE TAVERN
10850 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064-2132
(310) 470-1539

westsidetavernla.com

not taipei/dessert: Crumbs

The first time I spotted Crumbs was in Glendale and I delighted in the classic looking storefront and array of oversized, colorful cupcakes. I think I had the red velvet and something else, and it was a bit drier and too sweet than I had hoped for. I love the red velvet from Auntie Em's and I compare every cupcake afterwards to it.

Last week, my sister was raving about Crumbs to my cousin who had yet to try it, so I tagged along hoping the Beverly Hills location would be tastier. Sprinkles still had a line in front when we passed by on a weekday afternoon and a little bit more east on Santa Monica was Crumbs. You can get cakes as well as cookies, brownies and cupcakes (US$3.75) as well as a sampler pack of mini cupcakes.



They were out of red velvet that day, so we quizzed the girl at the counter about the different cupcakes to decide which ones they wanted to get. There isn't any descriptions in sight, so you might end up waiting behind someone like us who doesn't know what they want.

They ended up picking Brownie which was chocolate overload with brownie bites and fudge on top, Hostess, inspired by the original Hostess chocolate cupcake,



Artie Lange which is "vanilla cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting filling, topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting dipped in chocolate fondant and rimmed with chocolate and vanilla sprinkles" and Lemon Meringue which was lemon cake with meringue frosting.



I like how they packed it up in custom cupcake holding plastic containers, so that the frosting is untouched when you transport it home. There's only a few outside patio tables to eat at there, so most likely you'll be taking your cupcakes to go. I noticed a few people eating their cupcakes next door at the gelato place.



After sampling all of them, I had wished there was more whipped cream inside the Hostess cupcake (I barely saw any) and none of the cupcakes made me want to devour the whole thing. Which is probably a good thing in disguise, right? I don't think that the cake itself is as moist as I've had in other cupcakes, but I do like the variations of cream cheese frosting they have.

Crumbs has its fans and shops around LA and NY, as well as ship cupcakes via UPS, so you can decide for yourself if you are set out to give every cupcake eatery a try.

Where are your favorite cupcakes from?

CRUMBS
9465 Little Santa Monica Blvd
Beverly Hills, CA 90291
(310) 550-9811

crumbs.com

not taipei/california: i strongly recommend the OC County Fair

Taipei has night markets filled with stinky tofu, oyster omelettes, mysterious things on a stick, shaved ice and drinks filled with boba. While there are no night markets on this side of the ocean, we have our county fairs filled with equally fried, equally weird, equally delicious goodness.

I've never been the OC County Fair, but we decided to check it out a few weekends ago after hearing about it from some friends. It seems closer than the LA County Fair out in Pomona and we ended up being there for 8 hours, riding the roller coasters and giant slide, picking up a set of keepeez lids and getting slightly sunburnt wandering the fair.

I was on the hunt for funnel cake.

I love funnel cake and since it's pretty much the combination of being sweet and fried, it's right up my temptation alley. For some reason, I ended up getting it from a vendor with a huge pink sign, and it was the wrong call. The funnel cake with strawberries and whipped cream came out a bit too quickly for being fried-to-order and tasted like it was probably fried awhile ago- lukewarm and not crispy.



It did have a pile of fresh strawberries and addictive whipped cream, but I should have complained and taken it back to ask one be freshly made. Perhaps it was an excuse to try funnel cake somewhere else.

Walking around, I was in awe of all the things that were offered up as fried. It was like a live version of the thisiswhyyourefat.com- fried smores, fried twinkies, fried oreos, fried white castle, fried avocados, krispy creme doughnut burgers, zucchini weenies, fried artichokes, huge turkey legs, and... fried frog legs? Ewww.



When my sister ended up joining us later in the day, she and her friends vowed to sample as many of the crazy fried foods as possible, so of course I had to steal a few bites.

The fried smores tasted pretty much like tempura batter- I couldn't really taste any chocolate inside or marshmallows. It was a big gooey mess.



The zucchini weenie was surprisingly tasty- I guess the vegetable part of it makes it less unhealthy?



I then pointed her toward the vendor that I had thought about trying, but thought was too expensive (I think it was around $10)- Mexican funnel cake. What makes it Mexican? Instead of regular batter, they make it like a super long Möbius strip churro.

And I have to admit, the Mexican funnel cake tasted pretty fantastic.



It was huge enough to share with at least five other people- and this was the regular size- there's a bigger jumbo size.

Make sure to also get the apple fries. I've never had apple fries before, but they were like eating the good stuff straight out of an apple pie, but slightly crispy with powdered sugar.

And if you're curious, you can also pick up some chocolate covered bacon from the vendor bringing you the Mexican funnel cake. There were a few long strips in a chinese take-out box, chilled and looking like regular chocolate. Taking a bite, I tasted the crispy saltiness inside the chocolate and it was a weird savory, sweet mixture of flavors.



I had a lot of fun at the OC County Fair despite paying $6 for a giant ICEE and other hiked up amusement park prices for food and drinks. There was a Dasani flavored water booth near one of the entrances and they were giving out free bottles if you tasted their water and filled out a short survey. They also had a free petting zoo and elephant and pony rides. Lots of rides for adults and kids and lots to eat. I think they have special promos on certain days, you can check their website- otherwise it's a $10 admission fee for adults.



Were there any must eats that I missed? It ends on August 9th, so there's a few weeks left to go back and try some of the other things before I leave the world of funnel cakes and back to the world of stinky tofu.

OC COUNTY FAIR 2009
at the OC Fair & Event Center
88 Fair Drive
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

ocfair.com