food panda

Bar View @ Shin After living in Torrance for a few years, Shin Sen Gumi Yakitori had become my frequent yakitori establishment of choice until I noticed Shin about a year back and loved my visit. If I love a place, I'm the type that would go back over and over again (Of course, if I did that with Urasawa , I'd be a very poor broker). This time, I decided to take my eating companion for the night *Hi Tammy!! =)* who has never tried Yakitori before. Where else could be better than Shin, my new found favorite Yakitori place in the South Bay, right? (From Left: Pork Belly Wrapped Asparagus, Chicken Heart) (Top: Beef Tongue, Bottom: Pork Belly wrapped Enoki Mushrooms) (Left: Chicken, Right: Liver) I'll start by saying, the beef tongue was delicious. It was meaty, tender, and cooked just perfectly. The liver, my favorite organ meat was also done very well, as it remained flavorful and moist like I had remembered. One skewer I did not enjoy was the pork belly wrapped enoki ...

Soon Du Bu (From So Kong Dong) In the three years I've been down here in Los Angeles, one of the things I was able to count on was the weather. Maybe I got spoiled by living in the South Bay where it was always sunny, dry, and all in all, the perfect weather. Although I told most people I missed the rain up North, but seriously, why would I complain about the So Cal weather? Well, I guess I asked for it. Once I moved to the SGV, the next thing I know, rain, snow (up in the SGV mountains), and Nor Cal like weather became the reality. However, one good thing came out of the change in the weather, my ability to eat various soup dishes, and Soon Du Bu has always been one of my favs over the years. Now, there are many places to choose from, especially in Los Angeles' Koreatown, let's see which locations meet up to my standards! First we have the ever popular BCD Chain: As many have heard and probably tried BCD in the past, it's really just average at best Soon Du Bu. The be...

Front of Lake Spring Lake Spring, one of the many Shanghai style restaurants that has been popping up along Garvey Avenue in the Monterey Park area in the year 2008. My first visit here was with a few friends and had a pleasant dinner (a then 30% off special helped quite a bit). Subsequently , I came back to Lake Spring to a dinner hosted by Tony C. and the group of us feasted on various seafood dishes and their famous pork hocks done 2 ways. While there were some misses, my overall take on the place was: Solid Shanghai style cuisine, at an affordable price. Well, this is San Gabriel Valley, and not West LA. Expensive, poor quality Chinese will not cut it here! With that said, on Chinese New Year, when all the restaurants around town are bustling with families (what recession??), my friends and I decided on Lake Spring after seeing the god awful lines at Newport Seafood on Las Tunas. What should we order??? Well....you can't forget the most important item in any Chinese estab...

Is it really time? Well, this might not be a food post nor a restaurant review, but I should say a few words before "officially" start up this blog. Call it a "soft" opening if you like. :) I've been meaning to start a food blog for awhile now, especially in the past few years living here in Los Angeles. One of the first blog I read was Eileen's blog about food in Los Angeles. Ever since then I've noticed the Los Angeles food blogger community has gotten bigger and more wide spread. Over time, I've became an avid reader of many food blogs around the area and had the privilege of meeting and eating with quite of a few of them. I can't list everyone, but T ony's Sinosoul , Mike's Right Way to Eat , Matt's Mattatouile , Choi's Folie a choisauce are amongst the many I read and help me get through the day at work. (I'll also add Kevin's Kevineats which are my eyes to many of the fine dining establishments around the wor...