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28 07, 2012

Cold Noodles @ Corner Place | Cerritos, CA

By vivilinh | 2014-07-24T10:24:05+00:00 July 28th, 2012 | Food, Restaurants | 0 Comments

from what i have heard/understand/experienced, corner place has the best cold noodle soup (“dong chi mi gooksu”) ever! fact. just googling “korean cold noodles dong chi mi gooksu”, the first or second result says “best cold noodles.”

when the temperature tuned 85+, a friend and i decided to meet up in cerritos (a half way point between me and lake forest) just to have some cold noodles (and shop. and eat dessert. and catch up on her guatemala adventures). i would like to put it out there that (i) this was obviously my recommendation since i have been craving it for awhile now (ii) she turned down my other suggestion to go to lucille’s bbq because we always overeat when we go there and then hate ourselves afterwards (this has happened more than once). hope you can enjoy these cold noodles one day (with some kalbi and some bahn chan?! heaven. ps. there is more than 1 location. lucky us.

Corner Place
19100 Gridley Rd
Cerritos, CA 90703

24 07, 2012

Picca | Los Angeles, CA

By vivilinh | 2014-07-24T10:26:08+00:00 July 24th, 2012 | Food, Friends, Restaurants | 7 Comments

six people. 6:45pm reservation at picca. dinela. two hours and forty-five minutes later, thirty dishes down! boom. for dinela, we decided to go to picca, a trendy peruvian restaurant in west la. for a fabulous $45 a person (not including alcohol), you get to enjoy two appetizers, two main dishes, and a dessert.

since we were a table of six, we were able to order almost everything and even double up on certain ones! here is what we tried:

appetizers

ceviche criollo – seabass, rocoto leche de tigre, sweet potato, canchas
pan con tuna – grilled bread, spicy tuna, rocoto sauce, yuzu mayonnaise
causa snow crab – snow crab, yuzu kosho guacamole, huancaina. one of my favorites. it was amazing!
causa chicken – sous-vide chicken, celery, cilantro, mayonnaise, huancaina. aka chicken salad.
anticucho corazon – beef heart, rocoto pesto. very tasty!
anticucho tomatoes – cherry tomatoes, honey-serrano glaze, burrata black mint pesto
anticucho salmon – miso anticucho, pickled cucumbers, micro greens
chicharron de pollo – crispy marinated chicken, salsa criolla, rocoto aioli. this is pretty much a fancy chicken nugget.

main dishes

bisteck a lo probre – skirt steak, fried egg, pan-fried banana, chickpeas tacu tacu. sounds weird. banana and meat. but i liked this dish a lot. however, you do have to eat it all together or else it tastes a bit salty.
lomo saltado – sautéed beef filet, roma tomatoes, red onions, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, banyuls vinegar, kennebec fries. tried this dish at mo-chica. i’m a fan.
arroz chaufa de mariscos – peruvian fried rice, clams, mussels, scallops, shrimp, pickled ginger
seco de cordero – braised lamb shank, canario beans, cilantro beer sauce
artichoke – pisco and anji amarillo butter, aioli. this is just an ordinary artichoke dish.
sudado de pez espada – peruvian “bouillabaisse” swordfish, yuyo
chicharron de costilla – crispy pork ribs crostini, sweet potato puree, huancaina, salsa criolla

dessert choices – flan or alfajores (cookies)

verdict: very good! (although not all are winners). trust me when i say you will be stuffed and satisfied. favorite dish was the snow crab appetizer, pan con tuna, and the bisteck a lo pobre! the main menu is so extensive, i think i will need to come back and try certain dishes not on the dinela menu.

since the sun set while we were eating, there wasnt enough light to keep using my dslr so i had to switch to my point and shoot canon s95! however, i couldnt take pictures of all our food (trust me, there were a lot more dishes). haha.

picca down, so many more food adventures to go! shout out to the dinela crew. to old friends and the loveliness of new ones. cheers!

Picca
9575 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90035
Neighborhood: West Los Angeles

23 07, 2012

Huckleberry | Santa Monica, CA

By vivilinh | 2014-07-24T10:27:07+00:00 July 23rd, 2012 | Coffee, Tea, & Bakeries, Food, Restaurants | 10 Comments

huckleberry. a ridiculously cute cafe in santa monica that i have been wanting to try for awhile now. i do not think that my pictures do this place justice.

huckleberry has a pretty extensive breakfast menu ranging from pastries to hot sandwiches. it gets pretty crazy here on saturdays and sundays… be ready for long lines. we ordered:

an egg sandwich
breakfast burrito
breakfast porridge
fig pasty

jen got the egg sandwich was a fan. it looks delicious.

i got the breakfast burrito (despite my distaste for eggs but willingness to try and try again). umm, best burrito ever? it comes with creme fraiche (yep, it’s faaancy). the burrito itself is not too eggy. the salsa adds a great kick. it’s so good, i don’t know what to do with myself. really.

the breakfast porridge was pretty delicious! knowing me, i wouldn’t have ordered this myself but i’m glad my friend did! healthy choice.

as a treat, we all split a fig puff pastry. this is extremely pleasant. not too sweet and great with a cup of coffee. i’m excited to go back and try other pastries!

ambience: like i said, ridiculous cute. i loved coming here for brunch. i could see why this is a turn off to some people because there is a line on the weekends. but i don’t really mind. plus it moves fast!
service: pleasant service. pretty efficient getting people through the line.
parking: metered street parking.
overall: i’m a fan. my favorite breakfast burrito to date. pastries are solid. would recommend to anyone.

Huckleberry
1014 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Neighborhood: Santa Monica

21 07, 2012

Blue Plate Oysterette | Santa Monica, CA

By vivilinh | 2014-07-24T10:28:39+00:00 July 21st, 2012 | Food, Friends, Life, Restaurants | 0 Comments

it was a bittersweet dinner. a good friend and colleague of mine is heading back to japan with his wonderful wife (who i just had the privilege of meeting). he and i, along with a handful of other people, went through a (what seemed like the longest) training program together. during this 1+ year period, we grew close since we saw each other every day, studied together, struggled together…these are the people who i started my career with.

fast forward four years. i am sitting here wishing him a bon voyage and reminiscing about days we took for granted. during the training program, he got married, i got married, i got a house, and we developed our food palette (him on the west side and me in the valley/everywhere else). it was good to see him and to finally meet the wife i have heard so much about.

since we were all foodies, we decided to try blue blate oysterette in santa monica.

the food: we hit a gem. i say this because i definitely think its harder to go somewhere and like pretty much everything that is set in front of you. we definitely were too aggressive with the ordering and overestimated our stomach capacity. so on yelp, this place had 3.5 stars 368 reviews. since i quickly glanced at this before dinner, i didnt really think i was going to be blown away by any means. here is was we ordered (i will give my comments at the end):

raw oysters (east coast will remain my favorite)
2 orders of new england clam chowder – has bacon in it.
butter lettuce salad with steak
lobster mac and cheese – maine lobster, gruyere, herbs, truffle oil.
mussels – rosemary, garlic, lemon, red curry, iron skillet roasted. (my favorite)
fried seafood combo – calamari, oysters, shrimp, fried.
lobster roll – maine lobster, brioche roll. melts in my mouth and comes with french fries.

this place is a little pricey, but then again, its a great location near the water and its seafood. i saw the menu and knew we had to get the lobster roll (because kyle and i get this every where we go: nyc and hungry cat). our server recommended the lobster mac and cheese and the mussels, which turned out to be my favorite dish! hands down one of the best mussels i have ever had (a close tie with mussels at firefly in studio city). lobster mac and cheese was also very good. clam chowder good. however, keep in mind that there is bacon in it, which is overpowering. fried seafood combo was also good (comes with two yummy dipping sauces).

the curry mussels were a winner. the sauce was so delicious. mussels were hot.

the lobster roll was good but short of mind blowing.

so i read some of the reviews on yelp on this place right now and a lot of them have to do with the price of some of these dishes (lobster roll is $22 and small. i think this is pretty market. we paid the same thing in nyc and at hungry cat in hollywood), long waiting time with no reservations (we didnt mind so much. is this because we were in good company?) and that the lobster roll came cold (i laughed at this one). i liked this place a lot and look forward to taking kyle here.

small note: these pictures were taken with the canon s95. its a pretty awesome point and shoot, huh?

Blue Plate Oysterette
1355 Ocean Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Neighborhood: Santa Monica

19 07, 2012

Susina Bakery & Cafe | Los Angeles, CA

By vivilinh | 2014-07-24T10:29:49+00:00 July 19th, 2012 | Coffee, Tea, & Bakeries, Dessert, Food | 1 Comment

susina bakery & cafe in mid-city is famous for its berry blossom cake. we found this bakery via our favorite source, yelp. 612 reviews, four solid stars later, people are still raving about this cake calling it “the stuff of dreams.” obviously we needed to try it.

verdict: ugh, i love cake. good thing this one it is pretty awesome. moist, not too sweet (although we didnt eat a lot of the frosting…) and just delicious! the berries make me think it’s a healthier option… #denial.

anyway, we get the hype and we will definitely be back.

Susina Bakery & Cafe
7122 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Neighborhood: Mid-City West

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