Viewing entries tagged
dessert

Belle Belle Cues

April 16, 2017

New to Chinatown, Belle Belle’s Cue serves authentic Texas style BBQ in the neighborhood of Los Angeles, taking no shortcuts, and using only the finest ingredients. The meats are cooked with Woodfire for an unforgettable taste. Owner Justin Mi is committed to bringing simple, high-quality BBQ with the traditional down-south fixings to the Los Angeles community.

One of my best friends, Ben Azarraga, joins me for lunch. He makes a great napkin passer for those finger lickin ribs. This photo is not yet to be approved by him, but I'm sure he would appreciate it anyways ;)

With 5 different house sauces to choose from, my favorite was the Habanero BBQ sauce. If you are a lover of spicy foods, this was definitely tolerable. If you are Ben who cannot eat much spicy foods, do skip (sorry Ben for saying it wasn't spicy haha). His favorite was the honey bbq.

Brisket - $12 Per 1/2 LbPulled Pork - $10 Per 1/2 Lb — Brisket - $12 Per 1/2 Lb
Pulled Pork - $10 Per 1/2 Lb

I've never had brisket or BBQ like this in Los Angeles before. I enjoyed the simple smoked flavors without the heavy sauces that normally overpowers the meat. I would love to give this another try again. I recommend coming in a larger group, preferably meat eaters, so you are able to try a little bit of everything. My favorite sides were the pineapple coleslaw & creamed corn.

Wednesday Thru Sunday

11AM to 4PM (or Sold Out)

701 W Cesar E Chavez Ave Los Angeles, CA 90012

323.897.9227 - info@bellebellescue.com

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Amara Chocolate - Old Town Pasadena

August 28, 2016

I've been to Amaras a while ago before they started to serve food. Just located conveniently off the Fair Oaks parking structure on Green Street and Raymond, you really don't need to travel far after parking. It's not everyday you find a cafe that serves Venezuelan food. The menu has a lot of exciting unique offerings like Arepas and Cachapas.

I started with one of their signature lattes, the Cacao. This was 61% dark chocolate, served over ice but you can just imagine how thick and creamy this was. Extremely rich in flavor and mellows throughout your meal as the ice melts. They also carry lemonades which they sweetened with agave syrup.

The Pabellon includes shredded beef, white cheese, black beans and sweet plantains. Salsa verde of the side served with mixed greens. The arepas is grilled white corn flatbread cut open and stuffed. Really tasty and filling from the beans and plantains. I loved how crispy the arepa was even after soaking up the salsa verde.

Grilled housemade yellow corn crepes with basil pesto sauce, Italian Burrata, Spanish Chorizo, roasted tomatoes, prosciutto, salame and olive oil. The cachapas had little corn kernels running through the batter. Loved the burrata and the different types of cured meats.

Lunch was ended with some Spanish churros. These Spanish churros were eggs and dairy free. We received the Ice Cream Churros which comes with 6 ribbon shaped churros topped with a chocolate chip vanilla ice cream with a side of chocolate sauce. What's not to love about indulging in delicious sweets?

Make sure to check them out when you are in the area:

55 S Raymond Ave
Pasadena, CA 91105

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Kings Row Gastropub - Pasadena

June 19, 2016

I hope by now everyone knows that I am not vegan/vegetarian. Or at least anywhere near it. No problem with people who are, I just want to make it known that I love meat. My dad was a butcher. Eating steaks and chops was something we did on a weekly basis. Knowing Kings Row serves a whole pig roast every 3rd Thursday of the month, I literally had my calendar booked for this day. The pig is beer brined and cooked low and slow in a hot box for 12 hours. So you can bet all you taste is pure pig goodness.

20 E Colorado Blvd Pasadena, CA 91105

Well of course the first thing first is always cocktail time.

It's never easy for people to see a whole pig like this. For me, I'm used to it. Not just because of my dad, but Chinese people eat a hell lot of roast pig. We find it beautiful and pretty awesome.

The belly is cut into to release all the juices and fat goodness into a cup. But for what? A jus? Executive Chef Sundeep was super excited during this. Which made us all wonder what we were in stored for.

The photo to the left is another photo of the cup being almost filled before switching it out for another. Before you know it, the juices were split into different cups.

Yup it's this bad boy. Only something you dream of doing because it's that naughty.

How was it? How did it taste? It was silky and delicious. Not as fatty as I thought it would be but oh you definitely know it's gonna cost you a few hours at the gym. But to good health with good fats!

A little treat for being a good spectator.

For $15, you get a good sized portion of the pig and skin with jalapeno mac & cheese and an arugula salad. I don't devour that much mac & cheese because I am lactose intolerant, but I would do it for the mac & cheese that's served on this plate. Extremely comforting with the pork. The crispy skin... The best part and always a favorite is the pork belly. It's cooked oh so tender that it literally creates strands like spaghetti. And if you are good, like me, I got a special part of the pig, the cheek.

They also have other great dishes here if pork isn't for you. Things like cheese burgers and this awesome fish'n chips will make you order more beer. The fresh cod is a nice big chunk of flaky meat you will not complain about portion. Their fries also, is to die for. If you come here, always order their fries or something with it.

So mark your calendars for the third thursday of every month.

They also carry great breakfast/brunch that you need to check out.

20 E Colorado Blvd Pasadena, CA 91105

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C.O.D Restaurant - Seafood & Raw Bar - Beverly Hills

May 24, 2016

8408 W. 3rd Street Los Angeles, CA 90048 — 8408 W. 3rd Street Los Angeles, CA 90048

C.O.D hasn't quite officially opened yet. They are still undergoing their soft opening which means open to service. Fortunately, most of the menu items were available with some added additions not on the menu. The added additions are normally chilling with the others at the raw bar. It wasn't long before our tasting started. My drink of choice was a glass of red wine.

These were incredibly fresh and creamy. These were plump, sweet and had a slight lingering faint mineral taste. It was pretty much how it was described on the menu.

What I fell in love about C.O.D is the amount of items they had on their menu. You didn't just get seafood, but there were also other items like braised beef cheeks. See the whole spread below:

Spicy Tuna Crispy Rice

Lobster Roll

Crispy Pork Belly

Tuna Poke

Braised Beef Cheeks

Uni Pasta

Chocolate Bread Pudding

Sweet Purple Yams

I was a huge fan of everything you see. Just to dance around the food, the spicy tuna crispy rice wasn't too spicy, but the rice was perfectly crispy with a nice soft chew from the rice. I'm not a fan of overly crispy rice cakes. This was nice and crispy on the outside and hot and fluffy on the inside.

I also loved the crispy pork belly. It was actually one of the favorites on the menu. I recommend ordering a beer to wash this done. It's sharable, but do you really want to? It's fine if you want to try a bunch of other dishes. This is a definite must order. The lobster roll was also extremely freakishly delicious. The lobster was perfectly cooked and jammed packed into a nicely crusted brioche bun. There's nothing better.

Then you have entrees like Braised Beef cheeks served over a creamy quinoa. This was definitely $$$$ quality and NOT something I would expect to find here. So delicious. I've never had quinoa prepared like the way it did here. Very decadent and definitely the show stopper. The uni pasta was also very unique. They use a nori fettucinni which causes the green color. The sauce had mentaiko folded in which is a very classic Japanese tradition used in some pasta dishes. The uni pasta also had truffle, but not over powering. Amazing subtle and friendly to the not so uni friendly crowds.

The desserts were rich and full of flavor. They will be getting coffee soon which will be great to get a jolt of pick me up.

Highly recommend C.O.D if you are looking for a place to dine. Beer, wine and sake are available. I believe a full liquor license will be on its way.

8408 W. 3rd Street Los Angeles, CA 90048

Cheers!

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Phoenix south eash asian cuisine - Alhambra

October 27, 2015

This is my dad and his sister. My aunt is the oldest out of 6 followed by my dad. All of my family has immigrated to Canada making my cousins 2nd generations. From my dad's side of the family, my aunt Betty is the only that resides here in Los Angeles, California with her 2 daughters that live up in San Francisco. I'm not sure what the term is in Cantonese, but I am pretty sure these 2 are best friends. They spend every Saturday having breakfast together for almost 2 decades. With that being said, my aunt recently moved to San Francisco a year ago for her retirement, and to be a caretaker for her first granddaughter, Abigail. With the mentality that my aunt was leaving, I remembered how sad this whole situation must've been for these 2. My dad doesn't talk much about it, but I knew he was saddened.

Wow. Writing this makes me a bit choked up with them staring at me in this photo.

I decided to be breakfast buddies with my dad now that my aunt has moved (John comes along of course). This means a lot. This means no sleeping in, up at 9AM to meet my dad at the same Chinese Cafe that he likes. No matter if I sleep at 3AM from shows, coming home late at night, or hungover in the morning. The breakfast still goes on. This has become one of my sacred mornings that I cherish.

My aunt and her first daughter (don't want to say anything that makes my cousin Celia feel a certain again.. ooops!), came to LA to finish up some errands. I am happy I got to catch dinner with them, because I don't have much family in LA, so it's amazing and always a fantastic time to be around each other.

Now. FOOD.

This is definitely one of my favorite dishes. I actually grew up eating at Phoenix in Chinatown in DTLA. That location has been around since, I believe, 1960, so just imagine the history and the type of classic Chinese dishes that are served there. This chicken is served cold. Extremely comforting over a big bowl of hot rice. The cold sauce will slowly melt through the rice, heavenly. Yes, I would 100% recommend to order this.

I don't even know how I would explain this. Ong Choy is a water spinach. The stems has a nice snap and crunch to them. The soft leafy parts get really tender as you cook them through. I normally like to order this with fermented soybean, but my family felt like the shrimp paste.

Come on, have you seen my dad? He needs his beef. I think that's where I get it from. This is something we would order, but it made it to our table that night. Tender, and the sauce was not too powering as it looks. The rice always acts as support to any saucy dish.

The tofu fried with a simple corn starch batter, topped with seafood that's cooked in a broth with more corn starch to thicken. This is something we always order. I don't know why, we just do. I like to splash a little soy sauce and chili oil. Just a simple sole, shrimp, squid, canned mushrooms and snow peas.

This is a classic Cantonese dish. But, beware. The melon is obviously bitter. We eat it because the taste is acquired, and it's good for you. My parents would always cook this for me as a detox, especially when I had pimples or oily coughs from eating too much fried foods. People always ask me what I do with my skin. Besides drinking a lot of water, I grew up eating stuff like this and Chinese herbal tea drinks. Let me know if you are ever interested and I'll talk about that.

The sea bass was really butter and cooked to perfection with the fermented black bean and garlic sauce. They normally add sugar to the bitter melon to balance out the bitterness, but not so much in this case.

You guys... do know I'm Chinese right? This is one of those "what's wrong with this?" foods that is second nature to me. I don't find it disgusting. I am hooked on the taste. and my brother eats this too. He likes the ones especially with the dirty brown bits inside. No not really, but we joke around with that. I can tell that Phoenix, in Alhambra, doesn't really serve this too often. Some places that I order this from, have more finesse with the presentation. Like, a green onion is stringed through, fried, and sliced in an angle, presented in perfect alignment. This looks a little like... "Oh shit! someone actually ordered the intestines tonight! do we have anymore?". I have a lot of leftovers still. I cleaned out the gutter, and popped it in my breville at 450 for maybe 10 minutes to crisp it up. SO much better. Oh, and it comes with a sweet and sour sauce that helps with this, none. MAN UP AND EAT THIS! One of my favorites if done right.

Black rice, with coconut cream and jelly. One of my favorites and something that my dad taught me to make growing up. You can find mixed black rice in any asian market to make this at home. I'll look into it and share it with you. This is sweet, hot, a little sticky, but thick. The coconut milk/cream thins out this hot dessert. It's really lovely, and different. I'll bet you've never had this before.

Durian, black rice, coconut jelly and coconut milk.

But.. this might be my new favorite. Yes, Durian has a strong scent, but I love it. A lot. I'm a secret Durian lover even though it's not a secret anymore. Durian.. is like.. a sweet rotten onion. Ok that doesn't sound delicious, but I don't know how else to describe it besides that. with the black rice... and the coconut noodle.. Oh MAN! I need a large spoon, with Homeland, and I can be a caveman for THE REST OF MY LIFE. Don't you like moments that make you feel that way? I live for those. If you've never had durian, make sure you have a group of people to try it with. Chances are you won't like it. But, you never know.

And that was that. My aunt left 2 days later. It was easier to say bye this time since it wasn't a vacation visit. My next trip will be to San Francisco. Are you ready? I can't wait to visit Chinatown, by some Chinese sausages, and make some cooked rice.

Stay tuned.

Eat well, Travel well, Family first, and always, food within reach.

Daiisies

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Wine & Dine

Belle Belle Cues

Amara Chocolate - Old Town Pasadena

Kings Row Gastropub - Pasadena

C.O.D Restaurant - Seafood & Raw Bar - Beverly Hills

Phoenix south eash asian cuisine - Alhambra