Nanciful’s Blog

While Hubs and I were waiting for a seat at Hama Sushi, we spied the Calbi taco truck parked in front of American Apparel in Little Tokyo. We decided to try one pork taco since there was no line and were curious to see what the whole fuss is about.

Calbi’s pork taco took about 15 minutes to prepare. It was overflowing with toppings such as scallions and lettuce. The pork was flavorful as any Korean bbq meat but I wished there was a bit more of it in the tortilla. What stood out to me was the sesame oil which I thought paired very nicely with the tortilla and salad-esque toppings. The taco was good but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it. My thing is, if I want a taco I will visit my favorite al pastor taco stand in Highland Park, if I want Korean bbq (pork), I will go to Honey Pig in Koreantown.

Sorry for the mini hiatus. I didn’t realize that I’ve been neglecting my little ole blog so far.  A personal apology to all 4  of my readers. (Hi Jaya!)

Hubs and I have been venturing out of our comfort zone of SGV,  Silver Lake, and Santa Monica for our breakfast/brunch ventures. So after a nice long run at the Rose Bowl one sunny Saturday, we decided to try the breakfast/brunch at Auntie Em’s in Eagle Rock.

For some reason, I was really hankering for a sandwich all week so I decided to order the black forest ham and eggs with mustard see gouda on grilled pretzel bread. I thought the pretzel bread was going to be hard like well, a pretzel but the texture was a cross between sourdough and white bread. The black forest ham was not overly salted and the gouda added a nice fragrant touch to the sandwich. Although the sandwich looked like a monster overfilling with eggs and schtuff, it was actually not too heavy or too much. I finished the entire thing.yes I did.

Hubs opted for the very innocent looking scrambled eggs and Cajun turkey sausage & toast. It was good but nothing write home about.

I have eaten cupcakes from Auntie Em’s before but never had their red velvet ones (my favorite kind of cupcakes evers!) I loved that there Auntie Em’s offers 3 sizes, mini, small and large. I was pretty stuffed from my monster of a sandwich so I just ordered a mini red velvet cupcake for taste. When the cupcake was brought to me, our very friendly server Jody brought me two cupcakes! “I couldn’t just bring you one honey!” Love her!!!

Although I prefer more sour cream cheesy frosting on my red velvets like the ones from Lark Cakeshop in Silver Lake, Auntie’s Em’s red velvet cupcakes were moist and the frosting was nice and sweet. The chocolate cupcake was also tasty but I’m not really a chocolate person so I can only vouch for the nice cakey texture and not for the taste. The best part was when the bill came, we were not charged for the cupcakes or our drinks. Did I mention that I love Jody! By the way, it was my first time having Intelligentsia coffee which is self serve here. I am hooked! Love the dark roasty and smooth flavor of their coffee.

Okay, I admit that I actually went to Auntie Em’s again the following week. This time I was craving waffles or pancakes, one of the daily specials was pancakes with fresh berries with shaved coconut and real maple syrup. However, I was informed that they were out of pancakes. I was BUMMMMMED. The server (not Jody this time) suggested their french toast which was comparable to the pancakes. Being a french toast disliker but craving something carby, I succumbed to the suggestion but was later disappointed.

I have never been a fan of french toast so again, I probably can’t really accurately asses this dish. I just thought it was bland and had a crunchy shell. Looks pretty though no?

Hubs lucked out on the biscuit with eggs and turkey sausage gravy. We were pleasantly surprised and delighted at the sight of this dish! Look at it! Isn’t she a beauty?! Yes, those are Auntie Em’s homemade biscuits that was almost as big as my face! Hubs and I thought it was just going to be a regular biscuit with regular gravy and side of eggs. The biscuit was fluffy and the gravy was not over the top heavy.

Although I was disappointed with the French toast, the biscuits and gravy redeemed it.

Auntie Em’s “cooks by the season” so although they have a regular menu, their specials are what sets them apart because they take advantage of the items in season and cook accordingly. I am curious about their veggie and salad items and abundance of pastry items so I will be back soon.

For the 10 years that I have been traveling to Hong Kong for work, I never had a chance to actually tour the city. It’s always hotel, convention center, fishballs stall, hotel and repeat. This past trip, a free day was presented to me and I took the opportunity to finally be a tourist. My coworker and I decided to to to Lantau Island in the New Territories of Hong Kong to see the Giant Buddha.

It was a national holiday in Hong Kong that day so the place was packed with tourists as well as locals.

Right under the Giant Buddha.

We had originally planned to have the vegetarian meal here but since it was a holiday, the restaurant was packed and the wait seem days. I was bummed because I was looking forward to having lunch at the restaurant on the temple grounds. However, we discovered a walk up and order cafe next to the restaurant. We were hungry and the line was short so we ditched our place in line at the restaurant and headed over. No meat was served on temple grounds so everything at the cafe was vegetarian. I was delighted to the case of [crispy] pastries!

They had a “prix fixe” menu for the price of HKD 25 per person (around USD 3.50) which includes a  plate of vegetarian vermicelli or noodles, 2 pastries and hot or cold tofu (the sweet kind that you get at dim sum) We also ordered a plate of vegetarian meat (veggie pork, veggie squid,tofu)  for HKD 20. So our entire meal only cost us USD 9! A steal even in Hong Kong.

For the pastries, we ordered vegetarian egg roll, mochi with sesame filling covered with coconut shavings, cream of mushroom tart and veggie barbeque chicken pastry.

Hmm.sweet tofu. We ordered one hot and one cold. Since the weather was warm that day, I preferred the cold tofu. The consistency was also less jello-y like the hot tofu.

After lunch, we decided to take the local shuttle bus to Tai O, an old fishing village where people still live in houses on stilts over the water.

We walked through the outdoor marketplace where most of the vendors were selling dried fish/sea creatures and their skins.

Of course there were street vendors selling food such as dried squid so we stopped to grab a quick bite. You pick out the dried creatures and the ladies will grill them over an open flame. It’s like a mobile yakitori on a cart!

Before grilling it over the coals, the ladies brush the dried squid with some sort of teriyaki sauce.

Taste like squid jerky.

What is the facination with things on sticks in Hong Kong. Here is something that I had to get because it was on a stick. Can you guess what it was?

Another example of food on sticks, molasses sandwiched between crackers.on a stick.

Ready to eat.

For all 3 of you that read my blog (you know who ya’ll are), sorry that I have been on a mini hiatus. I was busy um..eating. Apologies.

I had to interrupt my blogging about the rest of my trip in Hong Kong and China because this place blew me away, thanks to Sinosoul and the power of Twitter. ednesday is Date Night with the Hubs and I was stumped on our dinner destination. But I had a vast amount of resources at my fingertips; I tweeted for help and got a slew of replies along with links to the recommendations.

Among them was Cube. Sinosoul had already written a review on the place  (and way better pics!) and sent me the Aperitivo menu for the week. Alas my attempts of getting there before 7pm was futile. Damn you LA traffic. But that’s okay, there’s always the regular menu. Cube’s menu changes every week according to what the chef gets at the local farmer’s market and the food is inspired by a region in Italy. The week we went, the fare was inspired by Umbria. Cube offers Italian fare with strong Californian influences. After perusing their menu online, I was in the mood for tapa-esque, fusion-esque foods so this place was perfect.

As we were seated in a corner surrounded by chocolates, jams and olive oil from Italy, it’s evident that Cube is a restaurant/cafe with a nice marketplace incorporated within. there were chocolates in packaging that would put the Japanese to shame. We were handed a menu, a wine list and another small leaflet of their cheese flight. Cube carries 85 different types of cheese and thus the required leaflet. Hubs and I decided to consult our very nice and informative server Nick for his favorite cheeses. Nick was extremely helpful throughout the entire night. We ordered most of what he suggested and they were just perfect.

A word of warning here, I am still learning how to take pictures in the less than daylight conditions with my point and shoot. So add that on top of hunger, you get fuzzy pictures.

After giving Nick a very generalized preferences of how we like our cheese (no goat and nothing that smells like toe jam), he presented us with the below slab of beauty:

From left to right: Gruyere (semi-hard, cow, Switzerland), Tomme Brulee (semi-soft, sheep, Switzerland, Hubs’ favorite of the three) and my favorite, couch farm triple creme (soft). We also ordered mixed olives and regular prosciutto to go with our cheese. The slab was sprinkled with almonds, rosemary jam, dried apricots and these mini raisins. We were also offered their house crostini which I quickly devoured with the triple cream cheese.

Next up was my favorite of the entire meal, the diver scallop crudo with peaches, blood orange juice and peppercress. OH-EM-GEE, scallop crudo was melt in your mouth, made me feel like frolicking through a field of sunflowers goodness. It was a burst of refreshing goodness in my mouth. The peaches were sliced so thin but the flavor so pungent.

Soft shell crab was next and although fresh, the batter was a little much and tasted like a pastry. However the sweet corn puree that the crab was sittin’ on was delish.

I’m a sucker for any dish with the word crunch or crisp so I had to order the summer crunch made with farmer’s market beans, sweet corn, hazel nuts and pecorino. It was definitely a crunch a offered a pleasant contrast to the meltiness and gooeyness of the 2 items that preceded it.

Hubs and I decided to only order one main entree so we can save some stomach space for dessert and antipasti. With the high recommendation of Nick, we had the seared diver scallops with lemon risotto, asparagus and bacon vinaigrette. Yes, those were bits of bacon on top of the scallops. This is a MUST EAT at Cube. I’ve had my share of scallops before from French restaurants and Cantonese restaurants. But these scallops are possibly the best ones I’ve had so far. The bacon bits on top provided a nice opposition but not overly salted addition to the dish. I am not a fan of risotto but I was fighting Hubs for the last spoonful.

Next up was Hubs’ favorite of the bunch,the baked 4 cheese mac and cheese with fried guanciale and truffle oil. I have no idea what fried guanciale is but man it’s delicious! It taste like bacon but with a denser composition, very similar to the Chinese cured meat. The top layer of the mac and cheese was slightly crunchy and bottom layer a melted heaven. Great contrast and not too creamy.

By this time both of us was stuff to our throats but desserts (and soup) ends a good meal. There were so many tempting choices on the menu so we had to consult our server Nick again for his must haves. Here is what we ended up getting the Victorian rhubarb and raspberry cobbler with tahitian vanilla ice cream and  crispy cinnamon fritters  with dark valrhona chocolate and fresh cream for dipping in which Hubs’ proclaimed upon first bite, “They are like bites of clouds!” Gotta give him kudos for that since his literature consists of curly brackets and semi colons. The cobbler was a very generous portion of sweet and tart goodness. The top crust was not too overpowering and was a good balance to the mounds of berries underneath. Both were Nick’s suggestions and both were unforgettable in a delicious kind of way.

So here’s my only decent picture throughout the entire night.

Yes yes, take some time to admire that. See what a full and happy stomach can do?

Cube is now one of my favorite restaurant in Los Angeles. I was so in love with my experience there that I wanted to come back the following weeks but didn’t because I was ashamed that I haven’t blogged about it after telling Nick I was going to. (Sorry NIck!) Cube’s food is fresh, fabulous and flavorful and the service is top notch which made the food that much better. Now that I blogged about this gem , I can return without shame.

615 N. La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90036
Tel:323-939-1148

I always end up eating at the same place every time I travel to my usual destination for business. I chalk it up to having no time and no hassle but really it’s just pure laziness. Laziness to decide where to eat and if the new place ends up being a fluke, you wanna kick yourself in the arse for trying new things. However, I had an urge to try new restaurants this time around on my trip to Hong Kong. My co worker and I walked around our Hong Kong ‘hood, Causeway Bay and found a restaurant called Red Ant, tucked in a tiny side street behind Times Square. Their menu taped on the side of the window, full of dishes that play on both spectrum of East and West.,dishes such as Lah-sa with glass noodles and Scallion Pancake Pizza caught my eye. And there were pretty pictures of food on the menu. Yes, I’m a sucker for visually pleasant things.

Stepping into the restaurant was like stepping into a cross between Tao nightclub in Vegas and Burke Williams. Lots of reds and bamboo textured seating and I swear I heard a fake waterfall somewhere. . But the food made up for the Asiancentric decor.

My coworker felt like noodles so she opted for a prawn cioppino with noodles. Once my eyes landed on the words scallion pancake and pizza, my mind was already made up. I ordered the Peking duck scallion pancake pizza. That is very CPK-esque but I was taken to liking the fact that instead of regular pizza dough, it’s made with scallion pancake. I have a weakness for carbs that can be both chewy and crispy at the same time. We decided to share a smoked salmon dragon fruit salad with mango dressing. I needed something RAW after all those fishballs on a stick.

As I was still on my infatuations with tomatoes, those cherry tomatoes were sweet and delicious. The noodles were cooked to al dente and there were generous chunks of fresh prawns in the pasta. Luckily, my coworker didn’t seem to mind as I was only eating the cherry tomatoes. Love that the portions were huge for Asia standards.

Here is my Peking duck pizza on scallion pancake.

I loved the texture of this pizza, chewy, cheesy, meaty, crispy. The chef was smart not to overkill the pizza by adding any other ingredients to spice up the pizza as the peiking duck already had a very powering taste and the slight scallion taste from the dough and the sprinkles just added that kick.  Yes my friend, I ate every piece of this pizza, all by myself. I really like that this restaurant took new approaches to Chinese and Western food without completing reinventing the actual dish. Sometimes a little tweak is all we need to make things fresh. Definitely recommend.