food panda

Boiling Point This is a restaurant I should have written about long time ago, though as many of you know, my blogging queue is sadly growing by the day. In regards to Boiling Point, it's a Taiwanese restaurant that specializes in personal hot pots, similar to the ones found at night markets in Taiwan . Having grown up in Taipei, and my yearly return visits back to the Motherland, visiting one of the many night markets in Taipei has become commonplace in my itinerary. One of the more popular food stands, especially during the winter seasons are ones that offer personal hot pot like the ones served at Boiling Point. Lunch Special Sign Part of the Lunch Special (Old Point and Shoot Shot) Though the prices will never be as cheap (or nearly as good) as the ones I've had in Taiwan, the lunch special at Boiling Point is quite a bargain for the amount of food given. For $8.99, you're given your choice of hot pot, choice of rice/vermicelli, and a choice of soft drink or tea (no re...

Bright Pearl in Toronto Chinatown After realizing the day before that we landed in Toronto in the mist of a long holiday weekend, we were faced with closed shops and restaurants. So much for breakfast at St. Lawrence Market , thus it's we had to alter our itinerary and head towards Chinatown. Hey, as we all know, Chinese people never close their shops for major holidays. As predicted, Chinatown was packed with people and we were ready to get some grub. What's better than some dim sum, right? O~ Canada One shocking display that I was met with upon arrival, and sadly didn't take a picture of was 3-4 people cooking various dishes on portable stoves in the lobby. I mean, WTF?? We were too hungry to worry about that as our hostess led us to our table, and it was time to eat! Fried Tofu (炸豆腐) Glutenous Rice (糯米雞) Jellyfish (海蜇皮) BBQ Bun (叉燒包) Shrimp Dumplings (蝦餃) Siu Mai (燒賣) MaLai Cake (馬來糕) One thing I noticed immediately about the Bright Pearl was that it was lacking Chinese...

After reading the recent LA Times article and hearing recommendation from my friend, I was fairly anxious in trying out Ning Jie, especially being a fan of lamb meat. Roasted Lamb Leg (small order) - $25 Upon our arrival, our friend already has the first dish ordered for us, the roasted lamb leg. The flavors of the lamb were accentuated by the use of various spices (ie: cumin), but yet, the great flavors of the lamb meat remained. A solid lamb dish, very nice. (Top: Chicken frames - $5, Bottom: Chicken Heart & gizzard $1/skewer) The chicken frames, heart, and gizzard were all very nice, and the price for each dish/skewer was amazing. The frame, were fairly meaty, and similar to the chicken wing had excellent flavor and juicy at the same time. I found no issues with the heart and gizzard skewers and could probably have ate 2 of each myself. Both were excellent dishes that would go great with beer. (Ning Jie does not have liquor license however, but YMMV with BYOB!) Lamb Skin Jelly ...

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...

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...