food panda

Outside Mama's Lu Ah, being behind on food blogging and photo editing. It seems that some food bloggers are better than others, but sadly, I'm pretty behind. On one raining evening in the SGV, I met up with Matt of Mattatouille , Christine of folie a choisauce , Mike of Pepsi Monster , and Jackie of Citynitz for a Northern Chinese "doughy" dinner at Mama's Lu, a place recommended to me by a friend that I had yet to try. Since I was the lone FOB, *ahem* I mean Chinese speaker of the group, I took the liberty of ordering for the group. Seriously, shouldn't this place be called "Mama Lu's" instead of "Mama's Lu?" Menu Green Onion Cake (蔥油餅) - $1.99 We started off with 2 orders of their famous green onion cake. Although it's one of the most simplest thing on any menu, especially at a Northern Chinese style restaurant, I've had some pretty horrible green onion cakes in my days (soggy, oily, you name it). The version found here i...

Quality Seafood After perusing through my pictures from my trips to Torihei, I realized I'm too lazy to get the review out today, but I did notice a few uni pictures I took at Redondo Pier and realized I could use some right now! Various Seafood Tanks (Top: various clams, Bottom: Uni (Sea Urchin)) Uni Master at work Pictures of my delicious uni Now, originally, I was not a fan of uni. I may have been traumatized from the low quality uni served at Todai Buffet while I was in College. As time progressed, I've enjoyed eating uni at various sushi restaurants, but this was the first time I had uni (sea urchin roe) inside the sea urchin itself. Unaware of the price, I assumed it would be quite hefty, similar to the uni I've had previously. However, the sea urchin was sold at $6.99/lb and my alien looking creature was actually less than $7, what a bargain! Rich, fresh, and delicious are three words I would describe about this magnificent creature. While it was a bit uncomfortabl...

Outside Kingburg Kitchen After getting my Canon dSLR just days before my Urasawa dinner, I've stopped using my P&S camera (other than the Jitlada dinner), and subsequently, I gave it to my mom for her to use. However, after going through a few folders of my old back logged pictures shot by my point and shoot camera, I've stumbled upon some pictures from my go to spot for beef noodle soup ( NRM ) in the San Gabriel Valley, Kingburg Kitchen. Sign states: Order, Make, Wrap, Pan Fry (re: Pan Fried Bao ) A hearty bowl of Beef Noodle Soup After trying the various beef noodle soup around town ( Kam Hong , A&J, Noodle King, Dai Ho, Ding's Garden (2 of them), and even at Cotton Candy), there were always something that I wasn't too happy about with the bowl of noodles I ate. In a way, my cravings of a bowl of beef noodle soup has never been met. Sadly, even after Kingburg , I found there's still no perfect bowl of NRM on this side of the Pacific, yet, this wa...

Outside Din Tai Fung Din Tai Fung , one of the most famous names in either side of the Pacific when the topic of Xiao Lung Bao ( XLB , soup dumplings) is mentioned. I've had it a few times in the two stores in Taipei (which has since expanded to 3 stores), and I was also dragged there a few times to the Arcadia location when I first moved to Southern California. Everytime , my reaction to eating here was a " meh ." I was never impressed, but since I never took food pictures then, I figured it was about time to try Din Tai Fung again. I joined Jackie of citynitz and her boyfriend David for some XLB , since it's been awhile since we each had DTF . "Hey Amigo!" I'm looking at you! Dining room of the new wing of DTF Workers wrapping the dumplings Similar to what Anthony Bourdain had mentioned previously in No Reservations about restaurants in New York City , the Mexicans actually dominated the kitchen at Din Tai Fung , more specifically, the wrappi...

Church & State To say I've been slacking is an understatement. What's better for my "comeback" post than the dinner I had @ Church & State hosted by FoodDigger Various outside shots of Outside Church & State (one of the sous chefs caught me taking a pic @ top) During my dinner @ Urasawa a few months back, I met Will and Brian of FoodDigger and was told of an upcoming dinner event planned at Church & State, and being the curious foodie that I am (or at least try to be), I was definitely interested. Even though I've never used FoodDigger previously, as I was wasting my time using Yelp, I've definitely heard a few bloggers post there and it seems to be dedicated for people that are interested in food instead of a site full of douchebags trying to use it like "eHarmony." Safe to say, I'm very interested in what FoodDigger had to offer and of course, dining with a few Los Angeles food bloggers was just icing on the cake! Along with...