Tatsu Ramen, Los Angeles

Greeted by 3 ipads on the wall at the entrance of the ramen joint that opened 23 May by Ryu Isobe, a recent USC graduate, who walks around the restaurant and chat with customers. On the walls of the restaurant, there was a photo of him and a short paragraph that gives a brief introduction about his life. From what I could remember, Tokyo, Japan, son of actor, Hiroshi Isobe, Hawaii, USC, best entrepreneur program in Los Angeles, wanted ramen in US to be like that of Tokyo, learned from pro Jap chefs, Tatsu = Dragon. Pretty sure I missed some stuff but I think I got most of the main parts.

Naked Ramen and Tonkotsu Ramen

Anyway, the concept was pretty interesting with the ipads on the wall and ordering and payment was done right at the ipads. The app was clean with a white background and nice pictures. The ramen was fully customizable with only 2 types of ramen, tonkotsu ramen and naked ramen. Customization includes amount of garlic, green onions, spiciness, pork or chicken or tofu and egg (sweet corn, seaweed and garlic cloves are free). Apparently they have “holy water” for free too LOL. The ramen was kinda too oily for my liking but I have heard many mixed reviews from friends that visited. Suggestions to maybe include the amount of oil in ramen and strength of soup base like that of Shin Sen Gumi would be good. Other than that props for opening till the latest on Sawtelle.

Tatsu Ramen
2123 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 684-2889
Opening Hours:
Mon-Wed, Sun 11 am – 12 am
Thu-Sat 11 am – 3 am

Bao Dim Sum House, Los Angeles

All day dimsum? almost unheard of. The interior decor looks totally like PF Chang. Typical of asian fusion restaurants. Dimsum was alright to satisfy craving near the West Hollywood area. Not having to travel all the way to San Gabriel Valley was a huge plus. They have a bar area and eating dimsum at the bar does sound pretty cool. Dimsum with alcohol? (read: interesting)

Front: Pork and Shrimp Shumai
Back: Crystal Shrimp Dumpling (Ha Gow)

Front: Juicy Pork Dumpling (Xiao Long Bao)
Back: Crystal Shrimp Dumpling (Ha Gow)

Front: Radish Cake w/ Chinese Sausage
Back: Pork and Shrimp Shumai

Front: Hainan Chicken
Back: Steamed BBQ Pork Bun

If you wanted something really authentic and legit, go SGV. Otherwise this will be enough to satisfy your dimsum craving for a couple more bucks. Definitely with much better service than anywhere in SGV. By the way, they had quite a big vase of lilies at the entrance which made the waiting area smell really good.

Front: Egg Custard Tart
Back: Sticky Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf

Bao Dim Sum House also recently created a new site that lets customers order online on both desktop and also a mobileapp. With a prep time of 25 mins and a section where you can addon special instructions for each order. Pretty cool interface.

Bao Dim Sum House
8256 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 655-6556
Opening Hours:
Mon-Thu 11 am – 10 pm
Fri-Sat 11 am – 10:30 pm
Sun 10:30 am – 9:30 pm

Father’s Office, Los Angeles

An entry for burgers. People that know me probably knows I am not a big fan of burgers. So people around me have been telling me that this place is a must try before you leave LA… this place is so good… this place is better than Umami Burger… blah blah blah. So I decided to give in and gave it a shot.

The Office Burgers
caramelized onion, bacon, gruyere, maytag blue, arugula and frites

The office burgers are alright, maybe cause I had higher expectations of it from everything that I have heard. The office burgers reminded me of banh mi, vietnamese sandwich. The string fries was good but its kinda weird they didn’t have ketchup. From what I heard, the Office Burgers are not customizable (you can’t order it with no cheese or no bacon) and served as is.

Steak Frites
the bistro classic

If you can find yourself a seat… This place makes for a good friday night hangout spot with a wide selections of beer, decent choices of food and televisions on all walls broadcasting NFL and NBA. The beer selection is really impressive.

Father’s Office
3229 Helms Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 736-2224
Opening Hours:
Mon-Thu 5 pm – 1 am
Fri-Sat 12 pm – 2 am
Sun 12 pm – 12 am

Golden Gate Bakery, San Francisco

A chinese bakery located in the hearts of Chinatown in San Francisco. They are famous for their egg tarts and probably one of the better ones I had in the States. You can hardly miss this place if you walk by Grant Ave as there’s always a long line. Trust me. As long as they are open, the traffic never ends. However, they are frequently out on vacation or they are just not open. It doesn’t help that the service is like that of a classic asian place but what do you expect in Chinatown right?

Egg Tarts

My first encounter with their egg tarts were when my aunt bought home a dozen of them. She refused to eat them unless she just got them at the bakery. They tasted pretty good even when its cold. So I had to make a trip down to Chinatown to check them out myself. Obviously it did taste better when it was freshly baked. Definitely get a dozen for 15 bucks when you happen to be in the area. Oh one last note, as usual Chinatown = Cash Only.

Golden Gate Bakery
1029 Grant Ave
(between Jackson St & Pacific Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94133
Tel: (415) 781-2627
Opening Hours:
Mon-Sun 8 am – 8 pm

Sabella & La Torre

No one goes to the beautiful city of San Francisco, without visiting Fisherman’s Wharf!

It’s teeming with life, what with the street performers, squawking seagulls and jostling tourists! I first visited Fisherman’s Wharf in the summer of 2007, during my first trip to visit T, and we were bowled over by the wide range of fresh seafood there. Whatever crustacean/fish you crave for, you can find it there. As touristy as the place is, there is one thing you must do while you’re there. Forget about sitting down to have your clam chowder bread bowl and whatnot; Get your seafood fix from one of the crab stands there and just stand around to eat, making anyone who walks past you drool with curiosity. That’s what we did the first time, and last year, we revisited the experience when we were in the SF area. Some people are not keen on eating crab outside of home, because it’s troublesome and messy I guess. But for us, we definitely have no qualms about that because we are gluttons, and gluttons don’t care about keeping up appearances. So we ordered a crab (they boil it for you there), some snacks, like calamari and fries and voila, we had our lunch standing around. It’s about USD12 per pound of crab, and it’s worth the money because it’s quite an experience. You don’t get to stand around digging the meat out of a crab pincer in Singapore yeah. Also, we all know how the parking fees in SF could cost you a leg, but you could validate your parking when you dine there. Awesome!

There are a few crab stands there but we always go to Sabella & La Torre. They’ve got fresh stuff and great service. The crab we had was juicy and yummy. Maybe it’s the way we eat, attacking the crab like we’ve been starved for a while, but when we were there, quite a few people came up to us to ask about the crab. Or maybe we just look friendly and approachable. I would rather believe in the latter. Drop by if you’re in the area!

Sabella & La Torre
2809 Taylor St
(between Fishermans Wharf & Jefferson St) 
San Francisco, CA 94133
Tel: (415) 673-2824
Opening Hours:
Mon-Thu, Sun 10am-10:30pm
Fri-Sat 10am-12:30am

Shin-Sen-Gumi, Los Angeles

You know how sometimes, you wish you could customize your ramen a little more than just the ho hum requests like, “no spring onion“, or “add a flavoured egg“, or “additional chasu“? Ok, so maybe you are not as fastidious as I am when it comes to eating, but never underestimate the power of choices! The concept at Shin-Sen-Gumi Little Tokyo fits finicky eaters like myself, and the health conscious like T, to a t! Over there, you get to tailor the ramen to your liking, and the choices go down to the smallest details, like firmness of noodles, strength of soup base and even the amount of oil. You order by filling up this matrix of choices that would overwhelm you at the onset, but once you got used to it, it’s a breeze. Just tick the choices of what you want and don’t want, and you’re good to go.

We ordered the half bowl, because we don’t eat that much, and added all the usual stuff like egg and bamboo. For mine, it’s sans the ginger, for sure. Oh and we had our noodles hard, with light amount of oil and strong soup base. We were lucky to get seats by the counter, where you can could watch the chefs whip up a storm, effortlessly. There is a guy who prepares the ramen with the soup and toppings, and I reckon his job is the toughest, because every order is unique. He has to dilute the soup, use different amounts of oil, cook the noodles to the various desired hardness.. it really takes some coordination man. And sitting there watching him do it, order after order, in seamless perfection, it is impressive. I wish I had his brain power. Heh.

We went to Shin-Sen-Gumi at Little Tokyo, the latest branch that just opened its doors in Sept 2011, and they specialise in Hakata ramen, the same type as Ippudo. The Hakata ramen broth is white and creamy, and Shin-Sen-Gumi uses top grade Berkshire pork and filtered water, simmered over 15 hours to make its delicious tonkotsu soup. The Japanese really do have lots of patience and tenacity, which undoubtedly translates into perfection. That’s what you get at Shin-Sen-Gumi; a perfectly assembled ramen, just for you, with great service to boot. The best part is, you don’t have to wait over an hour like at Daikokuya for great ramen. Sweet.

Shin-Sen-Gumi 
Hakata Ramen – Little Tokyo
132 S. Central Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone: (213) 687-7108
Fax: (213) 687-8572
Restaurant Hours: Open 7 Days 11am – midnight

Espresso Profeta, Los Angeles

I have lots of photos that are backlogged, but instead clearing them in a chronological fashion, I go against the current (pun unintended) and write on the current ones instead. Maybe this is what they mean by the recency effect? Or maybe it’s because the recent photos are all from my latest holiday, so I have fonder memories of them? Well, no matter. It’s all going to roll out, sooner or later!

Coffee junkie T and I have Starbucks every single day when I was over in the West Coast. Sometimes, we have it more than once a day. Be it Arizona, or Vegas, or Fremont, wherever we drove to, Lady Starbucks is with us, keeping our hands warm and our caffeine fix, fixed. Honestly, the Starbucks is so much better in US than SG. Alas. Well, but either way, it’s everywhere there, so getting our caffeine fix is easy, even though it’s over commercialized coffee. So on one of the mornings, T pulled over at Westwood to get coffee, presumably from Starbucks, right? No. I somehow found myself at Espresso Profeta, an indie coffee joint along the quiet stretch of Glendon Ave. It has a nice little courtyard, and just enough tables inside so one doesn’t feel claustrophobic reading a book and sipping their coffee. The walls have paintings that you can buy. The entire place just feels homely and inviting.

They use coffee beans from Espresso Vivace (apparently a really awesome coffee place in Seattle), and I won’t spend time elaborating on the impressive resume of their barista, Mitch Hale (you can google him if interested), because I just want to say that I’ve had the best cappuccino in The States, at Espresso Profeta. Creamy and smooth, with no residual bitterness, the cappuccino reminds me of my all time fave one from Papa Palheta. Finally, a little piece of home for me. It’s a pity I only got to discover the place towards the end of my trip, but will definitely return for more when I visit LA again.

Espresso Profeta sure is a gem in Westwood, and I’m so jealous of the UCLA students who can just stroll over from school. Pfft. Oh, and Espresso Profeta apparently means “the prophet of coffee“. Whatever that means, their coffee sure is divine yeah.

Espresso Profeta
1129 Glendon Avenue (Westwood Village)
Los Angeles, California 90024 US
Phone: (310) 208-3375
Email: espressoprofeta@hotmail.com
Hours of operation:
7 am to 7pm every day

Macarons in LA

First post of 2012!

I’ve been blogstipated for a while now, and it’s because I was away on holidays! But the main reason is pure laziness I suppose. Hah. Lazy and me are synonymous. So anyways, I was in The States for a while, in Los Angeles to be exact, where T is based. We drove around quite a bit and went as far as Utah and Tahoe this time round. It was a smashing holiday, and I can’t wait for my next holiday! So last Xmas when I was in NYC, cupcakes were a big thing there, what with Magnolia Bakery and Sprinkles (though Sprinkles is from California), and we had a great time photographing them, because they all look so pretty!

But this year, it seems like macarons are the new cupcakes, especially in LA. They come in so many colours and flavours, and they’re easy to eat, as compared to cupcakes; Just pop one in your mouth and savour ! The macaron is basically a French confection consisting of 2 layers of light meringue-based cookie filled with ganache, buttercream or jam. So here are some of the best macarons we’ve had in LA.

Bottega Louie

You can tell how popular Bottega Louie (BL) is from the bustle once you step into it. It is a restaurant, patisserie, bar and gourmet market all rolled into one spacious, white marbled, high ceiling and floor-to-ceiling windowed entity that sits on a corner in Downtown LA. The moment you walk in, rows of delightful macarons greet you, and it’s hard to imagine anyone walking out without at least buying one macaron to enjoy. I went BL for lunch (they’ve got great pizzas and portobello fries as well!), and after the meal, we bought some macarons to try. They cost USD 2 each and you would be spoilt for choice, with 14 different flavours to try from! We bought 5 to try and my all time fave is the pistachio, so that’s the yardstick flavour. Macarons from BL make good gifts, because they’ve got really sweet boxes and ribbons. Personally, I loved the food at BL, but the macarons were a bit too sweet for our liking. But, what are desserts if they ain’t a sweet finish to the meal right? 🙂

Bottega Louie, Los Angeles
700 S Grand Ave 
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Tel: (213) 802-1470
Hours of Operation:
Mon – Fri 10.30am – 11pm
Sat – Sun 11am – 3pm Brunch, 3pm – 11pm Full Menu

Lette

Lette used to be called Paulette, until they got embroiled in some trademark lawsuit over the use of “pau”, so now they’re just called Lette. I tried Lette’s macarons the last year I went to LA, and I loved them! So I was looking forward to sinking my teeth into them again this time round. They’ve got 2 outlets in LA, and 1 in Pasadena. We normally go to the one at Beverly Hills. No, I have not spotted any celebrities there yet! Tough luck for me, considering I’ve been to LA so many times. Then again, T lives in LA and he hasn’t had much luck either. Hah. Anyway, they’ve got a kaleidoscope of 12 varieties of macarons that would entice anyone to swing into the shop if they happen to be passing by. They cost USD 1.70 each and we normally buy one for each flavour. Sometimes there are extra seasonal flavours too. The macarons from Lette are soft and creamy, they melt in your mouth, and they’re my favourite! No bones about that!

Lette, Beverly Hills
9466 Charleville Boulevard at Beverly Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
Tel: (310) 275-0023
Opening Hours: Monday – Saturday 10am – 6pm

Napoléon’s Macarons

Napoleon’s Macarons is located in a Westfield mall in Canoga Park, which is about a 40 minute drive from where we lived in LA. So we purposefully dropped by to try their macarons. They don’t really have a shop of their own, more of a counter in the mall, blink and miss kind. That’s what happened to us. We were trying to find it, but we somehow walked past it without seeing it, until we backtracked. When we got there, some lady in front of us already bought ALL the tiramisu macarons, so we were left with 8 remaining flavours, which we got one of each. They cost USD 1.70 each, and their box looks a bit similar to that of BL, but the BL one definitely looks more classy. Somehow, the state of the macarons did not feel like they would last until we got home, so we had no choice but to photograph them there and then. The quirky pair working there seemed to have difficulty getting their act together (they claim it’s their first day working together), and when we wanted to get an extra box to frame the photo nicely, we were refused, politely of course. So we borrowed the box. They normally have 17 flavours to choose from, and I thought their macarons were pretty good. Not as sweet as the ones at BL, but still, not as yummy as the Lette macarons. I suppose everything French is about opulence and extravagance. However, the entire experience from Napoleon’s Macarons was sorely lacking in that. For the 40 minute drive there to specially pick up some macarons, I would say it was not too worth the effort.

Napoleon’s Macarons
6600 Topanga Canyon Blvd
(Located in Westfield Shopping Center, K25)
Canoga Park, CA 91303
Phone: (818) 704-1741
Email: napoleonsmacarons@gmail.com
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 10 am – 9 pm, Sun 11 am – 7 pm

So there you have it. The 3 better macarons in LA. There are probably more that we didn’t get to try, but if you search the web, these are the better ones around. For me, I still love cupcakes, but I can still have my cupcake, and eat my macaron too yeah. Cheers to 2012!

Cooking Papa Restaurant, Santa Clara

Met up with some friends, J and P, at Cooking Papa located in the heart of Santa Clara that serves pretty authentic and delicious HK styled food. The place sure was crowded like any of the other HK restaurants in the Bay. Private Parking was really limited but street parking was easily available and the wait wasn’t that long before we got seated. Chatted a little and our friend, J, whose been there couple times ordered.

Roasted Peking Duck wrapped with Steam Bun

Food in general was pretty good and the environment was kinda cozy but loud like what you would have expected in most Asian Restaurants.

Rice Noodle Roll with Beef Fillet & Mushroom

The rice noodles roll was really good, probably one of the best I had in the bay.

Shredded Pork & Preserved Snow Cabbage Rice Noodles

Stir Fried Glutinous Rice

Hong Kong Style Egg Puff

The puff were huge and it tasted kinda like donut according to P. I heard alot of people really like this tho. It’s also one of their signature desserts. J had been there several times and commented that the puff was not as good as the last couple times he came.

Anyway, I really like this place and definitely will visit them again the next time I drop by the area. However, be warned, its CASH ONLY.

Cooking Papa Restaurant, Santa Clara
2830 Homestead Road
Santa Clara, CA 95051
(408) 247-3748
Opening Hours:
11am-2:45pm, 5pm-9:45pm (7 days a week)
Cash Only
No reservation accepted

Cooking Papa Restaurant, Foster City
949A Edgewater Blvd
Foster City, CA 94404
(650) 577-1830
Opening Hours:
Mon-Fri: 11am-2:30pm, 5pm-9:30pm
Sat-Sun: 10:30am-3pm, 5pm-9:30pm