mushroom — Wine & Dine

Rice boxes are a huge staple to the every day Chinese fast food. But calling it fast food is a huge understatement. I watched tons of Hong Kong soap operas as I was growing up and a lot of times these "Fahn Hup" were known as fast food for the working class. When we think about fast food here in America, we are familiar with McDonald's. In Hong Kong, you would find white rice, and proteins like BBQ Pork or Roast Duck with a side of gai lan.

Rice Box is a new up and coming concept coming in the near future to run with the modern approach of Cantonese BBQ. They will be at Unique Markets in Los Angeles this Saturday & Sunday, 04/30 - 05/01 from 11AM - 6PM. They will be featuring a few of their Rice Boxes. We had the pleasure to taste a few of their items before this event. I can't tell you how excited I am about how incredibly delicious the food was. It really reminded me of great comfort rice boxes when my parents would bring some home.

One of the first dishes we had was this Sesame Cold Noodle. It's made with organic noodle, house pickled carrots & cucumbers, organic tofu, sesame dressing, and house made chili oil. This was very fresh and slightly creamy from the sesame dressing.

Growing up, I hated these things. I think I disliked them because it was something my parents always ordered when I wanted egg rolls instead. But once I started getting older, and I start eating less with them, I find myself not having these as much as I used to. And now, I really really love them. The daikon cake is made with daikon, rice flour, bacon (hormone/antibiotic free), dried scallop-shrimp-shiitake, house made chili oil and garlic sweet soy sauce. The cake is normally steamed first before pan fried.

Get it? This is for the absolute mushroom funk lovers. This daikon cake is made with daikon, rice flour, dried wild porcini, oyster mushroom, wood ear, and shiitake served with house made chili oil and garlic sweet soy sauce. I could eat these during any sports game.

One of the ultimate fahn hup's I grew up eating. Rice, BBQ Pork, Gai Lan, and a sunny side up EGG ALWAYS. This organic, hormone & antibiotic free pork shoulder was not shy of any flavor. Their eggs are also organic served with some organic quinoa rice. The best parts are the burnt ends that has been caramelized in the open flame.

Soy sauce chicken is one of my favorite Cantonese dishes. It's hard to find made right. A lot of times, it's extremely dry from staying under the heat lamps for so long. People just don't appreciate this style of chicken anymore. This was perfectly executed. The chicken breast was extremely succulent and I can't say that a lot about chicken breast. The soy sauce was not too salty, but perfectly balanced with the sweet marinade. Served with house ginger scallion sauce, and charred Gai Lan with sesame seeds on organic quinoa rice.

This is for the Vegan/Vegetarian peeps. You get the same marinade as the Cha Siu pork, but with a Cauliflower Steak. Have you ever had a Cauliflower steak? It changes you.

These are for the spicy lovers. Beware because these poppers pack a lot of heat! The organic tofu is deep fried then doused in minced jalapeño, scallion, garlic, salt and pepper. I could take the heat, but I'm not going to lie that I sweated a little.

Roasted Pork belly. It's pretty self explanatory. This might be one of my top favorite ways to eat pork. It's a huge staple in our culture. Something that is served for celebratory events, holidays, or just a Friday night special. The pork belly is the best cut of the whole roasted pig. Rice Box focuses solely on the belly. Yeah, it's good.

To wrap things up, everything we had was phenomenal. To me, this is what Chinese BBQ is all about. If there was a restaurant that made food this great in a rice box, I would be there in a heartbeat almost everyday. This is also something I know a lot of older generations would love.

Don't forget to check them out at Unique Markets. Tickets are sold $10 at the door -Cash Only, but you can always purchase your ticket online by clicking HERE.

Stay tuned as Rice Box is working into becoming a brick and mortar.

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One of my best friends Dom hit me up this week to catch up. It's always random with this guy because our lives are so busy. But, it's so easy for us to get together. Catch up? ok. When? ok. Place? ok. Time? done. Nothing complicated, no over thinking, just go.

What I love about Dom is how he loves to try new restaurants like I do. He doesn't think too much of it either. He just knows there's of a new place and recommends us to try it without any doubts... unless there was a ton and he never mentioned in. He's a therapist. He's good at keeping his cool when things are totally NOT cool. He keeps me calm that way. With his soft voice "no no Daisy don't do that", "no no Daisy remember what we talked about?", "no no that's the angry Daisy", and my favorite of all "nooooo no no no". Love you Dom.

Honey Badger is located on Main street and corner of 5th:

555 W Main St
Alhambra, CA 91801

The menu was pretty simple and straight forward. I didn't read into what they are about. If the food is good, I would want to know more. Well, if the food is bad, I would want to know more about the background of the creators and why they think their food is acceptable. Like really, I pay for this so I expect answers. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!

The restaurant is very hip for Alhambra. It's a new twist and something I would expect walking into in Downtown Los Angeles. The place was pretty empty walking in around 6pm, so of course seating was not an issue.

I was going to go for the classic Taiwanese beef noodle soup, but I wanted to try something different from their signature noodles selection. Truffle Mushroom medley noodle. Like ok my mind was set. Especially with the fried egg on top.

Ok I was extremely excited when this came out. It looks hearty, portion was sized good, and the fried egg was cooked perfectly to my liking. BUT... to be honest, the dish lacked a lot of flavor. Some of the mushrooms could've been cooked out more to release the moisture and to create a nice caramelized exterior which normally gives a dish like this the umami you are looking for. Salt was not present in the mushrooms as well. PS> huge pet peeve when the food is not seasoned well. The essence of truffle was minimal to none. The noodle was good, but there was an awkward chew to them. I've had noodles like this before, but I've never had to really chew for each bite like I did with this. In the end, I had to add salt, black pepper, and a little soy sauce. And since I couldn't taste the truffle, I ended up putting some sriracha on it.

Will I come back? Probably, but not anytime soon. With that being said, I know what I ate had potential to be great. Not trying to give a negative review to the restaurant, just being honest. It's tough to do what they do with so many other restaurants surrounding them within a one mile radius.

I'm just amazed at how downtown Alhambra has changed. It used to be a sh*t hole and I hated going there. But now, there's so much more life and restaurants to try that I think about heading out during the weekends.

Downtown Alhambra has not seen the last of me yet. Stay tuned for more local eats in Alhambra.

Thanks Dom for the great conversations, belated dinner, and for your beautiful soul that I am going to take from you.

daiisies

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