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Happy Birthday Donny Wu

October 19, 2015

Ok. Took some of the worst pictures this night for Donny's birthday. I haven't mastered shooting in dark light... and the amount of old fashioned I was drinking didn't help either. We had reservations at Arroyo Chophouse in Pasadena. The chophouse is one of the Yorbas and Donny's favorite places to celebrate a birthday. And when they do, they do it big.

We... had a lot of these. This was the Donny birthday drink. Every year for his birthday, most of everyone will have this as their drink of choice. It goes down so smooth which makes it a dangerous cocktail. Based with bourbon or rye, the orange twist and bitters makes me a happy girl. Don't forget to drink your water (oops).

They made it to my decent photos. Before the camera shakes... and more old fashioned.

Shrimp and King Crab platter. (Alaskan Crab $18, Jumbo shrimp cocktail $14)

First off, the shrimp was supposed to be cocktail shrimp, so this (BBQ Shrimp) had to be returned. When the dish came back, everyone were immediately digging in to one of the largest shrimps I've ever seen used for cocktail. And by the way, it was DELICIOUS. King Crab? DELICIOUS. Everything was extraordinary.

Yeah I don't remember what kind of oysters these were. Just call this post a failed post. BUT, we ordered 2 dozens of the small oysters that they have since they carried 2 that night. These oysters were spectacular! Cold, clean, buttery, had a nice snap with a sweet finish.

We (as in Donny) ordered 4 of these. It was melting your buns good. Food gasmic in your mouth good. It actually made my mouth feel sexy if that makes sense. It doesn't huh? Well this was one of the best Foie Gras I've had. It's simple. They use a thick piece for every order. A literal explosion of flavor in your mouth, and one of my absolute favorite decadent things to order.

The Wagyu New York strip came in at 14oz. I was underwhelmed by how chewy it was.. With that being said, it did have good flavor, but it definitely didn't meet the expectations of a Wagyu Steak. American Wagyu or Japanese Wagyu, I've had both, and this was a bit disappointing.

On the other hand, I tried their Wagyu filet mignon, and that was much tastier coming in at $51.

Of course Donny ordered the Wagyu Rib Eye. The texture of the steak was also underwhelming. The fat in the steak however, was very flavorful. For the price, I would definitely order their regular rib eye...

or their Tomahawk:

This beast, made for a carnivore, came in at a womping 2 1/4 pounds. No knife, just gram the handle and chop it off like this was your last meal. Yes, 2 people can share it and maybe even 3. But you are about to die, so skip the onion ring and eat this up. I'm salivating all over again.

Of course, Donny ordered every single dish on the menu minus the Souffle. I say skip the dessert next time, and order yourself another Foie Gras. Just saying.

Um so yeah. I do have more photos, but it's pretty blurry. Just like the rest of the night.

$1,666 and tip wasn't even included? Bold. We strolled to Old Town Pasadena. Crashed the Blind Donkey (btw yummy burgers), had more old fashioned, water, and played a few rounds of Shuffle Board. Followed the birthday boy to Kings Row Gastropub. And then, ended up in my first UBER ride to another place that I had no idea existed. From there, there were blue liquid shots. I lost track.

And guess what? I drove everyone home! I'm SO AWESOME!

And the next day?

Hungover as F!

Mother F'ers. Happy birthday Wu! till whoevers birthday is next. I will be hibernating.

Life is good.

Daiisies

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Bun Rieu

October 19, 2015

Hi Guys! It's been a while, but I am back after a busy week. If you follow my Instagram: daiisies_eat, you will see a post I made of Bun Rieu.

My mom called me on my way home from work to let me know she made some Vietnamese noodle soup for me to take home. I didn't know what to expect, but I knew I was going to enjoy it. I think when it comes to flavor, I get that from my mom. But when it comes to creativity, I get that from my dad. Because everything my mom makes, I love. My dad? I'm not sure I know where to start... but he definitely gets an A for reaching out of the box... (sorry pops!).

Upon arrival to my moms, I noticed she was lugging out this huge bag. I wasn't sure what was inside besides "Vietnamese Noodles". I kept thinking it was Pho, because... heck we are Chinese, since when did my mom know how to make anything Vietnamese?

After parking my car, I did the usual with grabbing my phone, keys, bag, lunch pale, and then the dinner my mom made. It was HEAVIER than I expected. If my neighbors didn't know who I was, they would've probably assumed I stole something with my expression.

Well, you guys already know what's inside since the post reads Bun Rieu and it was also mentioned in the beginning of this post. But, DENG just look at this. She was not kidding about dinner. It was literally Bun Rieu for days. She was smart to put newspaper underneath, because it was spilling the way that I was driving.

Vermicelli noodles? Definitely not pho. My buddy boy there was intrigued with the smell too. On top of the loaded Vermicelli noodles were different herbs: mint (different kinds), Coriander, basil, and leafy romaine.

My heart exploded. Bun Rieu is a tomato based soup with crab, ground pork and shrimp, and some eggs mixed in throughout the soup. For this soup, my mom added pork feet and pork bone.

Put these babies together and you get:

The pork meat balls were mixed with shrimp. The soup had a strong crab shell flavor (Amazing). The pork feet has a nice gelatinous texture that I love. No it is not disgusting. I grew up eating this and probably had some when I was in my mums belly. I slurred in some thai spicy chili garlic paste to excel the flavors. It was a super hot day from what I remember. If I closed my eyes, I could swear I was in Asia. With the sweat dripping down my brows, the bubbles of sweat coming out of my back saying hello... and the awesome sweat stash that is haunting me for days.

Oh crap I just remembered that my mom made me wontons as well! I will update this with the recipe once my mom decides to teach me.

Now... go call your mom, and tell her you love her.. so she will make you some dinner.

Happy slurping.

Daiisies

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Holiday Cheer

October 6, 2015

2015 is almost over. Yes we are barely in October, but I'm already listening to Christmas songs on Pandora. The weather in Los Angeles hasn't been the greatest, and it really feels as if the fall spirit is gone. I need the holiday weather to happen now so all the fun stuff can fall into place. But of course, since I am already listening to Christmas songs, you can guess I'm already jumping ahead.

I made a pear tart the other day because there was finally rain... at least for 10 minutes or so. But I went on a cozy-comfort food-holiday cooking splurge.

Velveeta Mac n Cheese-Jalapeno-Bacon-Mapled

Recipe:

1 Box of Velveeta shell cheddar Mac n Cheese
1/2 a Jalapeno (depends on how spicy your Jalapeno is and how spicy you want it to be)
5 strips of bacon. Because bacon is always good.

Preheat the oven at 400 degrees layering your bacon on a sheet pan (I line it with parchment). At 10-12 minutes, take a peek to see how your bacon is doing because all ovens are different. Once your bacon start crisping up, I take maple syrup and drizzle it on 2 strips of bacon. As it sizzles, remove the 3 bacon without the syrup and let it soak on some paper towels. The other 2 in the oven with the syrup, make sure to keep an eye on because it can burn quick. I sprinkled just a little kosher salt because I used low sodium bacon. Flipped the bacon and added a little more syrup with just a hint more salt.

I chopped up the 3 strips of bacon and mixed it into the Mac n Cheese with the Jalapenos. (The Mac is made standard according to the box). I got some panko bread crumbs, tossed it with the bacon fat and let the heat toast the crumbs before putting them on top of the dish. Layer your mapled bacon and there you go! comfort Mac Bacon Cheese Jalapeno something!

** So yummy. I don't recommend you sticking this into the fridge to preheat it in the oven because the cheese does dry out.

Find the recipe HERE.

Basically, follow the recipe in the link, minus the honey and lemon.

I oiled a baking dish with 5 cloves of smashed garlic. A little salt was sprinkled as well. After patting dry and layering the chicken (about 2-3 pounds) I sprinkled the rub on top followed by some olive oil. Massage the rub and oil onto the skin.

The chicken was baked at 375 for 40-45 minutes and I will gradually increase the temperature to 400 at around 30-35 minutes (depends on your oven and chicken size). Don't be intimidated by the crust, it is just blackened and it is delicious.

A simple store bought coleslaw mix was served with this meal. I had hearts glowing all over my face.

Are you ready for the holidays? We wait the whole year for this! why not start early?

Let me know if you have any questions!

Happy COoking!

Daiisies

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Henry's Cuisine

October 6, 2015

Henry's Cuisine - 301 E Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801

If you are familiar with 626 restaurants, you can understand there is a lot going on in this area. With that being said, there are a lot of restaurants that stands out, and some that are just trying their best to survive. The more common restaurants like Tasty Garden has emerged over the past several years and has opened a few other locations. Phoenix Inn has been around for 50 YEARS (can you imagine that?) also evolved overtime and some even revamped the interior of their locations. Then, you have the typical Chinese cafes like Garden, Baccalis, JJ, JR, KT cafe, Ledo, and so much more. This is also followed by the many restaurants that serves dim sum in the morning, all the Vietnamese joints, HOT POTS, but we are definitely not going to to go into any of that today. (I'm mind blown just going through all other cuisines in my head)

I picked up my mom today to have dinner. We were trying to figure out how to set up her Bluetooth to connect to her car. I don't know if you remembered from a past post, my mom got a new car.

It took a while before I figured out that... I couldn't really figure it out. We decided to take a break from that and head to dinner. She already had her mind set on Henry's Cuisine because a few of her friends raved about the fried salted pig knuckle. I've heard about it, seen it, and always wanted to try it myself. I am a huge fan of roast pork. Being Chinese, it was really something we grew up eating in the household. We would order a few ribs, chopped it up, made some garlic sauteed veggie, a big pot of white Jasmine rice, and that was our meal. It was tough, but our parents made it easy for us to enjoy tasty meals with a low budget.

See? Literally. Meat. Veggie. Rice. With the addition of the porridge because my mom was not feeling well. First thing first.

Deep Fried Salted Pig Knuckle:

Seriously, it was decadent. My mom went straight for the skin, took one bite, and told me "MMMMMM, it's good" in Cantonese or "MMMMM. Ho sik". I tried it for myself and almost cried. The meat was lean, but tender. The brininess of the pork was perfect. This dish was pretty extraordinary. The saltiness of the pork really makes it distinct as well as the hue of the meat. My mom called dibs on the bone, but before she did I peeled a few bits of skin off for myself. She was one happy mom.

The vegetable was simple. Something we always order because we need to have some green with our meal. It's just the way every Chinese meal goes.

This is another typical staple in the Chinese cuisine. Whether you are sick, or having breakfast, this is always a go to comfort food. Preserved eggs are not for everyone. I didn't start enjoying the eggs till I was in my 20's. I would normally eat around it because I do like the flavors it brings to the congee.

All in all, thumbs up. This place was not packed whatsoever and that makes me really sad. There were these 2 mainland Chinese ladies that arrived at the same times as we did. They ordered food at the same time, but left in the middle of our meal. My mom overheard them saying the food sucks. I'm like it sucks? "MMMMM HO SIK AH!" that's what I said. The ahh puts emphasis on your statement.

How rude were these ladies? They actually went up to the waitress who was closing out their bill, and spoke in mandarin that the food was poor quality. The phrase in our language is actually a lot worse than the English "It sucks/not good/taste bad". It's a lot meaner to say it in our language. The restaurant was not full, so them saying it a few times stung me a bit. It made me slightly mad. The meal I just shared with my mom was delicious. The service we had was one of the best that we had in the area. The food was comforting and there is no reason to be hostile.

I want this place to do good. So I hope that you all can give it a try (especially the pork knuckle). I would totally save the bone, and make congee with that. Just imagine all the delicious roasty pork flavors you can extract from it?

Or you can chuck it at those 2 ladies I saw.

Chow!

Daiisies

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Patio Burgers & Beer

October 3, 2015

The name says it all. Restaurant search: Patio? check. Burgers? Check. BeER? Double down checking that. I don't know if you ever check my Instagram (@daiisies_eat) but I've been on this mass burger diet. And diet means more consumption. It's insane, gnarly, and it makes me feel fantastic.

I was picking up my best friend Jocelynn in Eagle Rock the other day, and we've decided to stay local (which is normally the case). She asked me where I wanted to go and I suggest Oinksters, because hey, it's Eagle Rock. She asked if that's what I felt like and "sure that's fine" which is totally NOT fine. Like-sorry I don't live here anymore. It's like someone visiting California wanting to eat at In & Out. I asked her what she recommended. After little thinking, she recommended the Patio Burgers and Beer.

Address: 4541 N Eagle Rock Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90041

It's a really small joint, pay attention or you will miss it. This place used to be "The Bucket" but has closed after many years of service. I was super excited even though I had a sandwich for lunch and a burger for dinner the night before. I really don't care so get off my back. Oh and yes, I do exercise.

Their menu is really simple. Maybe time to time, they will serve a special burger of the day, but there was none when we went. So let's get it ON.

I ordered their regular burger with added avocados, and Jocelynn ordered a cheeseburger. We also ordered their loaded fries which consisted of cheddar cheese, bacon, grilled onions and their house sauce. Two beers were ordered. She ordered a blonde, and a double IPA for me by 805 local brewery. Both beers were fantastic.

The burger is pretty much self explanatory. But don't worry let me explain it to you. The meat had a very nice crust on it. I haven't had a burger like this in a long time where the grill would char a crust on the meat itself. I love it. With thin slices of red onions, pickles, shredded lettuce and their house sauce sandwiched with a thick brioche bun. I mean it when I say thick. The brioche was one of densest I've had. With a good char on the buns as well, it really held up to it's shape. The burger was cooked medium. For the add ons, they only offer avocados, bacon, fried egg and 3 cheese to choose from (cheddar, swiss, bleu). I wished they offered fresh Jalapenos.

I squished this into my burger. The fries could've had a little more salt in my opinion and a tad more cooking time. I did enjoy the grilled onions with some crispy edges, the shredded cheese that melts ever so gently on top of the fries.

I see a lot of potential for this place. Let me know your thoughts after giving it a try.

Happy burger biting!

Daiisies

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Wine & Dine

Happy Birthday Donny Wu

Bun Rieu

Holiday Cheer

Henry's Cuisine

Patio Burgers & Beer