i like to eat.

When I was young and underage, I'd go to a Korean restaurant in Oakland nicknamed "Porno." The place got its nickname because the interior walls were decorated with x-rated movie posters. I'd frequent this restaurant with Jason and his friends in high school to enjoy pitchers of watered down Miller and Kimchi Fried Rice.

After many numerous visits, Porno became old and we stopped going there. I don't remember exactly when we stopped, but all of a sudden, we didn't go there anymore.

It's been years since I've last gone, but the boys decided to reminisce and go after Eat Real's Ice Cream Friday event (see previous post).

The place looked the same, except there weren't as many x-rated posters. They were replaced with American and Korean movie posters. What's surprising is seeing the place almost empty. It was once a popular spot for kids and now it is dead on a late Friday night.

Jeff ordered an array of dishes for all of us that included kim chi fried rice, gizzards, fried chicken and spicy "everything (noodles, dumpling, vegetables, etc)." We also got a special on-the-house fruit platter because the boss remembered Jason (wow, 8+ years and she still remembers!).

The food was mediocre, nothing special and not as good as I remembered. I happily enjoyed a pitcher of soju cocktail. Don't worry, it wasn't completely by myself. Although, I wouldn't mind since it's so good. haha.

It felt lame hanging out there and just not the same as how it was years ago, so we left soon after we finished eating.

I doubt I would go back anytime soon. I'd like to tuck this restaurant with all my other high school memories and keep it there.

By the way, I finally found out the name of the restaurant that night - Dan Sung Sa. But, it'd always be Porno in my heart.

                 

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082809_porno.zip (2494 KB)

The whole reason we went to LA was to celebrate my birthday and Jason's (we're one week apart). For our first night, we wanted to celebrate at an affordable place (no bottle service at a fancy lounge), since there were so many of us.

The LA experts in our group geared us towards Koreatown, a non-pretentious place where drinks are cheap. We first headed to Bliss, which had the look of a night club, but was very mellow. It was too mellow for a late Friday night, so we went down the street to Blink. Blink was packed, but luckily there was a table to seat all 15 of us. Blink was less of a nightclub and more of a restaurant where you can drink a lot. haha.

What's cool about Blink is they offer drink and food combinations. If you order a bottle of liquor, it comes with your choice of appetizers. Within minutes, our large table was filled with various apps - dried squid, beef jerky, nuts, fried chicken, grilled beef, kabobs and fruit.

I stayed off the Glenlivet and stuck with soju cocktails and Korean beer, Hite. Soju cocktails are actually one of my favorite mixed drinks. Soju is rice wine, but it tastes like vodka, so I rarely drink it straight. At most Korean restaurants, you can order soju mixed with yogurt drink (something like Yakult). The yogurt drink is sweet and often masks the hard taste of liquor.

Remember I mentioned affordability? Blink only cost us $15 each!! Wow, I was shocked to hear how cheap it was. You can never get that good of a deal in SF!

           

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BDay_Celebrations_tag_bliss_bl.zip (1259 KB)

After the touristy stuff, we headed up to Yamashiro which means "mountain palace" in Japanese. Yamashiro is a gorgeous, ornate mansion (now restaurant) with a lush Japanese garden and dramatic views of Los Angeles. Oh yeah, and there's a 600-year-old pagoda(!).

                       

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Hilltop_Mansion_tag_japanese_c.zip (2309 KB)

After checking in at the Hyatt and enjoying a strawberry lemon drop from the bar, we were ready for lunch.

We drove to The Farmers Market, a historic destination of produce markets, specialty food markets and prepared food vendors.

You can find almost everything here - fresh young coconuts, crepes, mangoes, cakes, caramel apples, candy, marshmallow sticks (!), nuts, ice cream, margaritas, sushi, Pinkberry (my first time was at this location), meat, seafood, knick knacks, all sorts of hot sauce and even stickers.

There's also a wide assortment of ethnic cuisines - French, Korean, American, Brazilian, Southern, Japanese, Italian, Mexican, every thing's here! It's amazing how much there is at The Farmers Market.

Last year's visit to the market was lunch at Pampas Grill, a churrascaría (Brazilian steakhouse/barbecue) vendor. The meat was so good - moist, tender and had a bold barbecue flavor. The meat was roasted in a large open oven on sticks and were cut to order. It's definitely not a place for vegetarians.

Wanting to try something new, I ended up at Loteria for some Mexican food. I ordered two tacos that came with shredded marinated chicken on corn tortillas. Instead of your typical taco with guacamole, sour cream, cheese and salsa, it was topped with guiso, a traditional Mexican meat and vegetable stew. I've never had tacos with guiso, but it made the flavors all melt into one another. I was missing something that made it "fresh," whether it was salsa or a squeeze of lime. Either way, decent.

They unfortunately ran out of my favorite Mexican drink, horchata, so I quenched my thirst with hibiscus tea. I was surprised that they served this. It sounds like an exotic drink, something a Jamaican vendor would sell. It had a light floral taste and was refreshing, but I'd much rather have an agua fresca or horchata with my Mexican fare.

So far, lunch in Los Angeles, not bad. I couldn't wait for my next meal!

                                                     

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farmers_market.zip (7966 KB)

Kate was leaving for her usual Taiwan summer trip, so we had a goodbye dinner before she took off.

The dinner was filled with a ton of good food - bacon wrapped asparagus, artichoke shrimp (see original post), zucchini with mushrooms, chives and bean sprouts, roast beef, garlic broccoli, prosciutto wrapped dates and barbecued chicken (not pictured).

Everyone pitched in and made something (image 13 is cheesy, I know). It was fun cooking with everyone and helping each other make their dishes.

For dessert, we had a delicious, moist strawberry cake for Cocola.

And of course, sangria, served on a vintage cart - super cute. This time, we made the sangria with boxed wine. It tasted OK, but it gave me a nasty hangover. So, wine box, out.

As the night continued, we munched on Shrimp Flavored Chips. Yes, that sounds disgusting, but they're good. The taste is kind of indescribable since they do not taste like shrimp at all. They're extra crunchy and is a childhood memory. I used to eat them a lot when I was growing up.

The night ended quite late with our tummies filled with delicious food and wine. Good times.

Thank you Kate and Kai for having us, we miss you already!

                                   

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See_You_Soon_tag_dinner_americ.zip (4152 KB)

Oh my! It's been so long since I've last posted! I got super busy during the Holidays and work all of a sudden. Sorry! I'll be back in business in no time. ;)

Hobson's Choice....new favorite hang out spot on Haight x Clayton. I'm finally expanding my five block radius and discovering new joints. ;)

Their punches are delicious. You can even get a huge punch bowl to share with your friends (minimum of three people). The TRUE highlight of Hobson's, in my opinion. The bowl makes the difference! ;)

There are three flavors of punch - cranberry-based, mango-based and lemon-based (all mixed with different types of juices and rums). My favorite would have to be the red one, cranberry. Second favorite is orange, mango. I can care less for the yellow one.

Another incentive is you can order from Asqew Grill and get it delivered to the bar. I was crazing for something salty and THOUGHT i ordered some fried zucchini sticks but ended up getting grilled zucchini. What was I thinking? Of course, it's grilled, it's from Asqew! :P

Try Hobson's, a really cool, laid back, Victorian-inspired neighborhood bar.

     

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Go-to_Place_Hobsons_Choice_tag.zip (1013 KB)

Last Saturday, my friend, Bruce, threw a get-together at his apartment. It turned into another night filled with a lot of food, sangria and card games. It's always a good time when sangria's in the equation. ;)

Bruce is known for his dumplings [ one of the first times I met him was at his fabulous "dumpling party" :D ], so we made two types of dumplings this time. One was pork with ginger, soy sauce and onion. The other was a vegetarian one- filled with peas, cilantro and onion. Both came out really good...it was so much work making them though! Not a tough thing to do, for sure, just very tedious making a whole batch. :) Still fun, not complaining.

I also helped Bruce make bacon wrapped asparagus (I accidentally overcooked them. oops!), bacon wrapped water chestnuts in barbecue sauce, inari (rice in tofu skin), spam musubi (spam on top of rice), spinach, cheese and mushroom rolls, and my friend, Kai, brought homemade oatmeal cookies.

My other friend, Jun, also brought these adorable animal shaped plates. Sooooo cute! :D Unfortunately, there wasn't a piggie in the batch. Boooo!

Tons of fun and I haven't made so much food in a long time. I can't wait until I get to throw my own party!

                               

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Feasting_Bruces_tags_food_part.zip (11500 KB)

My friends and I had dinner before the rock show at Sudachi on Sutter x Polk. I've walked by this restaurant a few times and seen the large banners outside promoting $1 beers and $1 sakes. The banners definitely caught my boyfriend's attention and was one of the main reasons we decided to choose this place to eat. ;)

From the outside, it looked like it'd have a shabby interior, but it was better than I expected.

Upon seating, we quickly ordered a round of $1 Stellas (yum!) and cold sake. The beer was refreshing and light while the cold sakes were extremely watery and tasteless...it WAS $1 sake, so what do you expect? :P

I ordered tempura udon that costed about $7. When it arrived to the table, I instantly knew that it wouldn't be good. The noodles looked mushy and looked as though it's been sitting in the broth too long. It was edible, but I'd probably not order it again. My boyfriend and our friend ordered an assortment of sushi which consisted of very low quality of fish. :X

The waiter asked to take our picture and in exchange my friend had suggested, we all get a glass of free beer. The waiter agreed and next thing we know, we had to down our entire beer with him. haha. Quite a memorable experience. :)

This type of restaurant is affordable to drink and hang out with your friends (they also close late - midnight on certain nights!), but definitely not a place to have good Japanese food.

My friend, Kate and I decided to throw a small "Spore After Launch Party" for my BF at her place. It was a night filled with a ton of food and a lot of drinks...although we didn't drink that much....

Kate and another friend, Tony, had gone to Good Luck Dim Sum in the Inner Richmond earlier that day and got some dim sum. I really enjoy dim sum. It's fun to sample all the different small dishes. Although, I stay away for the more "authentic" dishes such as chicken feet and stewed blood cubes. No thanks. :P

Anyways, they brought some dim sum - steamed chicken buns, siu mai (pork dumpling) and ha gow (shrimp dumplings). It was actually pretty good and heard it was affordable. :) I'm usually not a fan of take out dim sum because they don't ever taste good (or maybe I just never went to the right spot..?) and I enjoy eating dim sum at a restaurant where you can see the carts roll by. Dim sum was just something I never had to-go. But, Good Luck Dim Sum proved me wrong. It was tasty. :) Wish it was in Chinatown though. Inner Richmond's a bit far to go for dim sum. I'm sure there's a good take out dim sum place in Chinatown....suggestions?

While eating dim sum, we drank ume blanc (plum white wine). Never had the white version before but it's a sweet wine from Japan. It tasted like dessert wine, but not super sweet....like juice and it was easy to drink. I can see myself drinking the entire bottle. :P

For our "main" meal, we ordered a medium Yard Sale from Extreme Pizza. It's a combination pizza of tomatoes, mozzarella, Italian sausage, pepperoni, olives, bell peppers and onions. Extreme used to use fresh tomatoes but within the past year, changed to canned tomatoes. :( Fresh tomatoes were so much better! The canned tomatoes are mushy on the pizza and don't taste "real." :(

I love sangria and I have the best recipe for one. ;) We made a big bowl with all sorts of fruit - apple, lime, lemon, orange. One thing about making sangria is you don't need to buy expensive wine. I've used Little Penguin Cabernet and Yellow Tail Merlot and the sangria's turned out yummy. Any reasonable wine less than $10 wine works. :) Unfortunately I didn't get to drink the sangria because it wasn't cold enough and we had to go home. The man of the hour was really tired and sleepy. :P

What a night. I was also pretty tired by the time we got home. Too bad I missed out on the sangria, but there's a lot of leftover alcohol so Kate will have to throw another party so we can help her get rid of it. ;)

         

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Party_On..zip (1518 KB)