Portuguese Egg Tart For Sunday Breakfast

Review submitted by: Jane Ong

I admire people who dedicate their Sunday mornings to making home-made breakfasts.  To me, Sunday morning is when I make up the sleep I miss during the weekdays. The last thing I want to do after waking up from my long sleep on Sunday morning is to make breakfast, I don't even want to make coffee. Unless I have some compelling reasons to stay home on Sunday, then I will unwillingly make breakfast.  Otherwise, after I rise and wash up on Sunday, I normally just leap out of the door and drive to my favorite places to get breakfasts. I usually go to different places to have different types of breakfast from week to week, and today, I went to one of my favorite Asian bakeries to get my beloved Portuguese Egg Tart ($1.65), to enjoy with my favorite Iced Coffee (medium 85C Coffee from the same bakery for $2.75, equivalent to Starbucks "Venti" size). 

This Portuguese egg tart is almost as good as the famous one I had from Macau during my vacation there a few years ago.  This is actually the freshest and best tasting egg tart I ever had in America. (Well, the last time I had Portuguese egg tart in America was at a supposedly authentic Portuguese cafe in Sherman Oaks CA, which I didn't care for because it was cold and the pastry wasn't fresh enough for me. I wasn't impressed with the way it tasted either. )

I also like the iced coffee here better than Starbucks because it's not as bitter, but it's more flavorful and aromatic,  and it comes already perfectly creamed and sweetened.  Sunday breakfast like this is one of the reasons I put up with the high rent and ridiculous long commute to live in Los Angeles.

Bakery: 85C Bakery Cafe

Address:1735 W Carson St, Torrance, CA 90501 

Phone: (310) 320-8585

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Cantonese Style Shrimp Chow Fun 乾炒蝦河

Review submitted by: Jane Ong

As lunch specials go, I consider the Cantonese style Shrimp Chow Fun to be one of the most satisfying.  At $7.95, I got a plate of aromatic flat rice noodles, freshly stir-fried with shrimps, green onion and bean sprouts.  On days when I don't feel like eating the same old rice for lunch (which I need to not feel hungry for the rest of the day), I opt for Chow Fun (fried flat rice noodles).  Among all styles of Chow Fun, I love the Cantonese style most because it's not drowned in greasy gravy.  Whenever it's available on the lunch special menu, I always order it because I don't think this is something that can be made in the average home kitchen. Making this dish requires very high heat and great skill of tossing and stir-frying on top of a very powerful stove.  Otherwise, the noodles will come out too bland and soggy, without the great aroma that's infused into the noodles from the high heat.  Even when it's not on the lunch menu, I usually just ask for it and the restaurant will make it for me.

Restaurant: Nice China Cafe
Address: 2543 Pacific Hwy, Ste B, Torrance, CA 90505
Tel:(310) 539-0323

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Cantonese Style Kung Pao Shrimp

Review submitted by: Jane Ong

I love Chinese food but if I have to pick my favorite among all Chinese regional cuisines, I have to pick the Cantonese cuisine.  Kung Pao Shrimp is basically on every Chinese restaurant's menu in America.  Yet Kung Pao Shrimp just tastes very different in every Chinese restaurant I visit.  I prefer the less saucy and less spicy kind of Kung Pao Shrimp that is rendered by the Cantonese chefs.  Kung Pao Shrimp is a variation of  the Kung Pao Chicken in China's  Szechuan cuisine.   The best Kung Pao Shrimp I ever had was in one of the side street diners in Hong Kong years ago when my parents first took me there for a summer trip.  It was the first time I ever had Kung Pao anything, and I will never forget the thrill of it. I was sitting at a table on a packed street with no air-conditioning but I had a blast and I consider that dinner to be one of the best I ever had.  I could see the chefs cooking on their roaring fire on one side of the street and then waiters fishing out live lobsters and fishes from the fish tanks on the other side of the street.  As a little kid, I was so mesmerized by the bustle and hustle of the cooking action.  I was totally hypnotized by all kinds of delicious smell floating in the air.  Back then I could care less about the name of the dish.  All I knew was I felt that  I had the best food in my life at the time (for my very short existence of only 8 years in this world).

Since then, I have been trying to find the same great Kung Pao Shrimp in America.  While I haven't yet found the Kung Pao Shrimp that tasted as good as the one I had during the summer trip in Hong Kong, I am lucky enough to find Kung Pao Shrimp that is decent. Even though Kung Pao shrimp is supposed to be a Szechuan dish, but I always feel that Cantonese Chinese restaurants produce better Kung Pao Shrimp than  the Szechuan restaurants.  To my own palette,  Cantonese chefs' rendition of Kung Pao Shrimp has just the right seasoning that is neither too hot nor too sweet.  The shrimp is also not drowned in sweet brown sauce like the ones produced by many American Szechuan restaurants.  I don't like Chinese stir fries that are too saucy.  I have to admit though I had never been to any Szechuan restaurant outside the USA.  May be I will be equally in love with the Kung Pao Shrimp produced by the more authentic Szechuan restaurants.

Until then, I feel fortunate to be living just a short drive away from  a Cantonese restaurant that serves decent Kung Pao Shrimp at $7.95 during lunch hours.

Restaurant: PV Palace
Address: 2166 Pacific Coast Hwy, Lomita, CA 90717
Phone:(310) 326-3228 Hours: Friday 10:00 am – 9:30 pm

Omakase Dinner At A Japanese Steakhouse

Restaurant reviewed by: Jane Ong

I had been to a lot of American Steakhouses, but this is the first time I visited  a Japanese Steakhouse.  I had the 5-course Omakase (Chef choice) dinner at $50.00.  It was money well spent because everything was delicious.  The first course was a plate of five dainty appetizers, a small piece of grilled filet mignon, melon with prosciutto, miso-marinated cream cheese, seasonal ohitashi (vegetable dish in the middle, crisp cucumbers), caprese heirloom tomato and buffalo mozzarella. I think this was French cuisine interpreted by Japanese, which was very well done.  It's different from the typical French cuisine, but it tasted just as good but lighter. I love the Japanese's touch of making the food taste light, fresh and tasty.

The second course was soup of the day, which was a cream broccoli cold soup. It was light, creamy and very refreshing.  I don't know how the two properties of  "light" and "creamy" can co-exist at the same time, but this was how I felt about the soup. It was so good!

The third course was a cold soba tapas (fresh made soba noodles topped with the chef's choice of accompaniment). This was another tasty and refreshing dish.  The noodles were well seasoned with super delicious Japanese dipping sauce.  The fish pieces on top were so fresh and so tasty. The tiny crunchy fried roes sprinkles were just addictive.  

There were a few options for the forth course, I chose the grilled miso-marinated cod, served with mashed potatoes and a vegetable medley. Most vegetable medley in American steakhouses tend to taste really bland and boring. But these vegetable medley made by the Japanese chef had a lot of flavor.  I cleaned out my plate and all my veggies. 

There were also options for the 5th course.  I chose the creme brulee which is of course very rich, creamy and delicious.  I licked my pate clean again, I used the strawberry piece to help me soak up the strawberry sauce on the plate. This was one  fantastic dinner that was totally delicious from the start to the finish. I felt really satisfied, yet without any bloating or sickly feeling I normally had with the American steakhouse.  I love the way the food was portioned, and the restaurant's use of fresh and high quality ingredients. I'd rather pay for quality than quantity. 

Restaurant: I-naba Steakhouse

Address: Country Hills Shopping Center, 2933 Rolling Hills Rd, Torrance, CA 90505

Tel: (310) 891-2333 

Delicious Chinese BBQ Combo Lunch Special

Review submitted by: Jane Ong

I love BBQ food, and Chinese BBQ never disappoints.  Today I had a $7.95 combo BBQ lunch special (BBQ Duck & Soy Sauce Chicken Over Steamed Rice With A Heap of  Bok Choi). It comes with free hot and sour soup.  I love the boned-in Soy Sauce Chicken but my experience with this famous Cantonese style chicken had been sighting of bones that were quite red.  When I visited Hong Kong, my friends there told me it was how the chicken was supposed to look because the chicken had to be extremely tender and juicy and with the bone also cooked through, the chicken had to be soaked in the boiling soy sauce for way too long, which reduced tenderness.  

I don't mind a little less tenderness and a little less juiciness.  Whenever I order this chicken dish, I always request the chefs to please make sure there is "no red" in the bones.  I love this chicken dish so much. It's really flavorful.  It pairs perfectly with Chinese BBQ Duck or Chinese BBQ Pork.  These meats make the steamed white rice taste so good.  It's a very filling meal and a very popular lunch box meal choice in the Cantonese culture. (The culture of the Quangdong province in China that includes Hong Kong & Macau. The majority of people there are quite slim which may indicate that steamed rice, and moderate amount of flavorful meats can curb the desire to over eat junk food...)

Restaurant: Nice China Cafe
Address: 2543 Pacific Hwy Ste B., Torrance, CA 90505
Tel:(310) 539-0323

Chinese Clay Pot Chicken Stew In Black Bean Sauce - 香蔥豆豉雞煲

Restaurant reviewed by: Jane Ong

I love food being cooked and served in a Chinese clay pot.  To me, clay pot cooking just  adds a great flavor to the food. Of course, the sizzling fajita pan and the grill also add very nice flavors to food. When I was visiting Hong Kong, I could spend every night having dinner at clay pot restaurants.  But where I am living now, my choice of clay pot dishes is quite limited.  Whenever I spot it on the menu in a Chinese restaurant, I always order it.  This time I spotted it on a white board ($11.99), written in Chinese.  This dish isn't on the regular bilingual menu.  I guess the owner probably thinks this dish won't appeal to the typical Americans because it's made of boned-in chicken pieces with the skin still on (sort of like how Chicken wings normally are served).  It does take some time to get rid of the bone during eating.  But I'm used to this kind of chicken, so deboning the chicken pieces while eating just comes natural to me.  I however won't recommend this dish to young children.  

Chinese cooking often uses boned-in chicken pieces because the bone and the skin preserve the tenderness, the juice and therefore the flavor of the chicken meat. The downside of this type of cooking is, there can sometimes be tiny crumbs of bones that I have to fish out.  Just like every now and then there are crumbs of crab shells and bones I have to fish out when I crack and eat crabs.  I don't mind putting in such effort because I am always rewarded by the great flavor.

Restaurant: Nice China Cafe
Address: 2543 Pacific Hwy Ste B., Torrance, CA 90505
Tel:(310) 539-0323

Spicy Korean Ramen With Shrimp Tempura

Restaurant reviewed by: Jane Ong

There are so many restaurants near my home that I just haven't had a chance to try them all. This restaurant is one of them. I always drove by the strip mall and was very curious about the sign that says "Rice Heaven" with Korean Characters at the bottom.  I finally paid my first visit today.  The place looks like the typical little Korean casual diner that I saw in Korean dramas.  I was going to have the Korean BBQ ribs but I just couldn't resist my craving for my beloved comfort food, "Ramen". Many Korean restaurants serve BBQ ribs but not too many serve Korean Ramen.  So I ordered the Spicy Korean Ramen instead ($5.99) and added an order of Shrimp Tempera (5 pcs for $5.99) for the protein.  The food tasted comparable to the other Korean restaurants I often patron. But to me, this place has the best tasting Kimchi.  I love the Kimchi here the most.

For those of you who aren't lucky enough to have a Korean restaurant in your town, you can easily make the Ramen at home, just click here for the recipe.

Restaurant: Rice Heaven
Address: 2937 Rolling Hills Rd, Torrance, CA90505
Phone:(310) 257-0134

Chinese Broccoli Is One Of The Popular Chinese Dim Sum Items

Restaurant reviewed by: Jane Ong

Most non-Chinese  probably will think it's odd to have Chinese broccoli during breakfast. But this dish is found on a lot of tables in the Dim Sum restaurant in the morning.  I guess it makes sense to always have veggies and fibers in every meal, particularly to balance the meaty Dim Sum.  I'm not a big salad fan, I love fresh salad made by good restaurants but I normally have to force myself to eat the raw salad at home because I haven't been able to find any bottled vinaigrette based dressing in the store that isn't so sour that I always become jittery when I smell or taste the dressing.  I don't like mayo based dressing too much either.  But I can easily eat a whole order of Chinese Broccoli at a Dim Sum restaurant all by myself.  

I guess I could have made the same dish at home for a lot cheaper, if only I'm not so lazy and so unmotivated to do anything in my small kitchen.  After all, my mom makes the same boiled Chinese broccoli a lot, sometimes for every meal.   The key is to buy really good Chinese broccoli which isn't bitter.  Then just wash it, and boil it in boiling water very quickly until the color just turns jade green.  It's important not to over boil it. It needs to be removed from the boiling water instantly when the green color shows up.  Then just drizzle oil that had been used from deep frying chicken or other food,  drizzle also the Lei Kum Kee oyster sauce (Lei Kam Kee is the best tasting oyster sauce, much better than the Kikkoman brand,  in my opinion).

The oil that had been used for frying chicken or other food really bumps up the taste of the broccoli. Then the oyster sauce of course gives the ultimate flavorful finish.    My mom always only heats a couple teaspoons of corn oil in the pan and drizzle it over the broccoli because my mom rarely  deep fries food at home. But the oil from deep frying really makes a huge difference in taste. This is the reason why boiled vegetables in Chinese restaurants always taste much better than home boiled even though we are using the same brand of oyster sauce. Chinese restaurants have a lot of oil from frying the spring rolls and other food to be used to dress boiled vegetables.  This makes the boiled veggies taste better than the American way of throwing butter on it.

Restaurant: PV Palace
Address: 2166 Pacific Coast Hwy, Lomita, CA 90717
Phone:(310) 326-3228
Hours: Friday 10:00 am – 9:30 pm

The Legendary Tempera Bowl From Toyko

Restaurant reviewed by: Jane Ong

Besides nice comfortable weather all year round, one of the reasons I don't want to ever live anywhere else other than California is the easy access to great authentic international cuisines from all over the world.  With so many dining options within a short drive, there is no reason for me to cook.  I cook only when I really really have lots of time to kill.  I don't think I can cook better food than what I can order from the restaurants here.  My dinner tonight is the Tempera Bowl Combo (Tendon Combo $8.95) which includes a rice bowl topped with crispy shrimp tempera, fish tempera, fried egg and fried seaweed, and also a bowl of Japanese buckwheat noodle soup topped with tempera crumbles.  It also comes with the uniquely flavorful  dipping sauce.  The tempera and the noodle soup are very tasty. Food like this is what makes it difficult for me to get used to the food elsewhere whenever I work out-of-state.  

This restaurant is a branch of the very famous Hannosuke chain in Tokyo. The restaurant only specializes in tempera bowls, and nothing else.  So I am literally having the same kind of tempera bowl as those served by this restaurant  chain in Tokyo.  This is why I'm taking my vacation here at home. Comfortable sunny breezy weather, beautiful beaches, great Japanese food together just give me no reason to want to drag my suitcases to fly elsewhere.  I had been living in a hotel in Toms River New Jersey for the last 2 months and I just don't want to stay at another hotel. I prefer staying at my own home for now.

Restaurant: Hannosuke

Address: 21515 S Western Ave Torrance, CA 90501 

Tel:(310) 787-8350 

I Had Been Missing This Hong Kong Style Chicken Pan Fried Noodles So Much

Restaurant reviewed by: Jane Ong

When I was on exile in Toms River New Jersey for a business assignment, I had been looking for this kind of Pan Fried Noodles and was unable to get it in the Chinese restaurants I had been to.  The owners in the Chinese Restaurants there actually told me to go to "The City" to get it because they said they didn't cook this kind of Chinese food for Americans .  That was the first time in my life I heard that. But then I had never been to Chinese restaurants other than the ones in California, so I guess it's possible for Chinese restaurants in other states to cook differently for a specific demographic (I mean taste wise, not race wise,  since here in California, there are lots of Americans who prefer the real and better tasting Chinese food), just like the kind they can find in the famous Big Apple.

I was just shocked that when I was in Toms River New Jersey, everybody was telling me to go to "The City" to get Chinese food, and I asked them what city that was since Philadelphia is a city, Newark is a City, Atlantic City is also a city.  Then I found out they really meant "New York City".  I was surprised because it would be like if I am asking where can I get decent Chinese Pan Fried Noodles here in Los Angeles County, people are telling me to drive to Las Vegas to get it, no? 

Separation makes the heart grow fonder.  I had ordered this Chicken Pan Fried Noodles (Chicken Chow Mien $8.25) many many times before, but now I just appreciate it a lot more.  Before, I just took it for granted, and I didn't see anything special about it. It was just a convenient everyday cheap Chinese food to me that is served the same way by numerous Chinese restaurants here in California.  But now I am just looking at this dish with a whole lot of respect and admiration after I had spent 2 months without it. The noodles are just crispy on the surface, while the middle noodles are still having the regular chewy egg noodle texture and rich noodle flavor. It tastes and feels like noodles.  I was given literally a nest of fried noodle chips or fried noodle crumbles when I ordered this dish in Toms River New Jersey.  The noodles were so deep fried it could taste just like any kind of plain crackers and chips other than noodles.  Can you imagine if any restaurant does the same for lasagna and turn the noodle texture to be like bagel chips??

This dish looks oily but it's not oily. The shine is from corn starch that is mixed into the sauce.  I'm just so happy that I can easily have this dish from numerous Chinese restaurants within a very short and easy drive.

Restaurant: Nice China Cafe 

Address: 2543 Pacific Hwy Ste B., Torrance, CA 90505 

Tel:(310) 539-0323 

Very Fresh & Tasty Vietnamese Pho

Restaurant reviewed by: Jane Ong

Taking the opportunity to be granted a vacation leave back to California, I went to Trader Joe's today to replenish my empty pantry.  It was there that I discovered a brand new Vietnamese restaurant nearby.  It is tugged in a big strip mall with too humble a signage which is not self-explanatory about what business it is.  Since I go to this strip mall a lot to shop at Trader Joe's and Wholefood, I'm always conscious about checking out all the tiny stores around these big anchors.  I'm glad I'm curious enough because this new Vietnamese restaurant has the freshest and tastiest Pho within 10 miles in that area.  

I ordered a Mrs. A Hanoi Pho ($11.99), which is the traditional Hanoi Beef Broth Served With Medium Rare Angus Beef.  It's a lot more expensive than the average Pho places which are in the nearby towns where I have to drive 8 to 10 miles from home to get to.  But I could taste the much better quality of the beef and the much better quality broth.  The noodle soup tasted really really fresh.  As a new business, I don't think the owner is doing enough to promote the restaurant.  I mean the signage is totally inadequate.  They need more self-explanatory and visible signage that at least tells people that they offer fresh and high quality Vietnamese food.  

The bowl of noodle soup looks simple and plain but the flavor is rich and dynamic.  It's very healthy. I can easily go on a Pho diet on a daily basis but I don't think I need dieting just yet because I'm lucky to still have a slim figure.

I hope the owner realizes that "Open the restaurant and let people come" is not a good business strategy. I know because I work as a management consultant. I like this place and I hope it will become successful and stay for a long time.  Restaurants that focus on quality and freshness are few but I just hope this brand new place can afford to sustain the restaurant's business objective in offering "Vietnamese Food Cooked With High Quality Ingredients".  To do this, the owner should also focus on promotion in addition to only focusing on the kitchen and cooking alone.

The restaurant charges higher prices than other Pho places in the area, but it also has much cleaner and more comfortable seating than most of the Pho places I usually go for cheaper Phos.  The restaurant has only a few items on the menu but then I agree with the owner that a shorter menu with all good and tasty items are much better than long menus that have all bad tasting dishes.

Restaurant: Mrs. A

Address: 2531 Pacific Coast Hwy., Torrance, CA 90505

Tel: (310) 534-8899

Delicious New Yorker Sushi Bento For Only $6.49

Content contributed by: Jane Ong

Every time when I have high quality sushis like the above at a very affordable price, I feel so lucky to be living in Los Angeles.  The above Bento (lunch) box is called the New Yorker, which has 4 pieces of California rolls, 2 pieces of grilled eel sushis, and 2 pieces of shrimp sushis.  This beautiful lunch box with the beautifully packaged soy sauce pack is only $6.49, which is a bargain for fresh and high quality sushis like these.  I can't say this Bento is the best sushi in the world or even the best in Los Angeles.  But these are the best tasting sushis that are available in grocery stores.  Yes, I had tried all sushis at all grocery stores here in the greater Los Angeles area.  The above Bento is the only grocery store sushis I like, the only!!!  The quality and the freshness of the above sushis is way better than a lot of sushis that are available in expensive restaurants in a lot of towns in other states.   I went to this Japanese supermarket during lunch hour when there were a lot of Japanese executives and employees from Honda and Toyota  who were also buying the sushis there.  This is why this supermarket is "the place" to go for those of you who want to have a good taste of Japan here in the USA. In the evening, the sushis are all sold at a 20% discount.  I think it's because they don't keep sushis overnight and they have to make them fresh everyday.  I stop by there a whole lot after work because of the bargain. Be warned that once you have these sushis, you will not be able to go back to the typical grocery store bought sushis.  These babies will make you want to stay here in LA forever and ever... But I am sure Plano Texas will have good sushis like these pretty soon, since Toyota is relocating there in 2017.

Address: Mitsuwa Market Pl, 21515 Western Ave, Torrance, CA 90501. Tel: 310-212-1101.

I Always Love Hot Pots Until Today

I always feel that I am a hot pot fanatic. Since I had tasted the first hot pot many years ago, I have felt that  it's the most comforting of all comfort foods.  Hot pot is a very popular type of table top cooking in China, Taiwan and Japan.  I'm not sure if this is the case in Korea though.  In Japan, this type of cooking is called Shabu Shabu.  I think I like both the Chinese and Japanese hot pots equally.  But today I realize I'm quite ignorant to believe that I love "Chinese" hotpot as if all the Chinese hotpots I had could represent all the hot pots in China.  

Today, one of my clients in Torrance took me to a popular hot pot restaurant for lunch.  This restaurant is called Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot Restaurant (2575 Pacific Coast Hwy, Torrance, CA 90505).  My client took me there because he knew I was always craving for hot pots and he heard lots of good reviews on this restaurant.  Adventurous as he is about food, he took me there because he wanted to experience what hot pot dining was like. In any kind of adventure, there is of course the risk of a bad ending.  And that's exactly the case for us today.  We didn't enjoy our lunch.  There was the early sign that told me this restaurant wouldn't be my cup of tea.  The decors are good and the restaurant appears to be clean, modern and spacious.  But after I settled in my seat, I had been smelling some kind of weird smell that made me nauseous. At the beginning, I wasn't quite sure what it was. The smell was  musty, gamy, and somewhat  herbal (not the refreshing smelling type of herbal fragrance like our shampoos, but some very foul smelling herbs from some old Chinese grandma's herbal  medicine pot that had been simmering on the stove for hours...) 

Anyway,  I thought after I started my hotpot, my table top cooking would generate such a nice aroma that I wouldn't notice the musty background smell  anymore.  So I ordered the $9.99 lunch special with the half and half broth bases (the house special broth and the house spicy broth at medium), which also included my choice of meat (US Prime with an additional $1.00) and a plate of mixed vegetables,  tofu, four meatballs,  and the buckwheat noodles.

When my hot pot arrived, that was when I realized the background smell that I disliked had become a lot stronger.  It was coming from the pot of broth!  But the broth looked very similar to the delicious ones I had tried at other hot pot restaurants that I love.  I thought may be after the broths were heated up, the strange smell would change into the aroma I loved during the cooking process.  So I waited anxiously for the arrival of my meat and veggies so I could dump them all in and start the cooking process.  When the plate of food arrived, it was then I also noticed, the veggies were a little wilted.  The tofu had a texture that was different from the kind I normally love.  The mushrooms were also not fresh and firm.  The meatballs and the meat didn't have the quality and freshness I expected either.  May be I shouldn't expect so much from a lunch that cost only $ 9.99 when I normally paid the usual price of $20.00 at the other hot pot restaurants that gave me much fresher ingredients to cook with.

I really disliked the broths, both flavors generated the aromas that made me feel nauseous.  The meat and meatballs weren't that fresh.  The meatballs were not of good quality.  I once had freshly made meatballs in one of my favorite hot pot restaurants, the good ones are always made of freshly minced meat that are hand molded into balls inside the kitchen.  You can tell just by biting into them, they aren't the rubbery factory manufactured ones imported from China.  If the meat and vegetables were disappointing, the broths certainly didn't make our lunch taste any better. I don't know what was put inside the broths that produced such musty and gamy aroma.  May be it was the lamb bones?  May be it was the medicinal herbs (not cooking herbs) they added to the broth (and you can see them floating in the above photo).  I'm sure a lot of people like this kind of age old  musty smell.  But not me.  I don't like the smell of Chinese medicinal herbs, and I don't like anything that smells gamy. But the sensation of smell is a subjective thing.  May be this is just how the Mongolian hot pot is supposed to smell.   

Both my client and I found this smell too foul for our taste and we had a hard time trying to get rid of it for hours... It stuck inside our mouth and our nose for the rest of the long day. It was rather unpleasant.  So today is the day I finally realize that there is actually a certain style of hot pot that I can't stand.

Young Chow Fried Rice From Nice China Cafe

We are often told that Chinese food are better the next day. Sorry, we can't agree with that.  We think that fresh Chinese food is so much better than the leftover that had spent one night in the fridge.  But if we have no choice but to live on leftover Chinese food due to certain logistical reasons, like when we have to pack our lunch to work; then Young Chow Fried Rice is the kind of Chinese food that we don't mind so much as leftovers.  We actually often stock up on Young Chow fried rice during our dinner runs just so we can have extra to bring to work for lunch the next day. Young Chow fried rice stores very well in the fridge and it can be heated up easily in the microwave.  For those of you who are talented cooks, we believe that you can easily make it yourself. After all, it's just rice stir-fried with green peas, tiny diced carrots, shrimps, leftover Cantonese style BBQ pork, diced green onions and scrambled eggs.  It's very much like the combination fried rice but it's called Young Chow Fried Rice because it's named after the Chinese city where the inventor of this dish was a magistrate back in the 18th century. The name of the dish is spelled differently in different parts of the world, but it is simply the name of the city in China, which is Yangzhou in the Jiangsu Province.

Since we aren't quite there yet in terms of cooking skills, and we are having this sucky jobs that have long commute and long working hours, we always just go get the fried rice from the Chinese restaurants.  We feel that different Chinese restaurants cook different tasting Young Chow Fried Rice.  Essentially, we only like the ones in which the rice isn't  soggy, or sticky, and that isn't too salty with too much soy sauce.  In fact, there shouldn't be soy sauce in Young Chow Fried Rice.  We also prefer the kind that is well balanced with the BBQ pork, shrimps and the veggies. We don't like our Young Chow Fried rice to have too much of any of the ingredients. We can't say we have already found the restaurant that makes the best Young Chow Fried Rice, but we think Nice China Cafe (2543 Pacific Hwy Ste B., Torrance, CA 90505) makes decent Young Chow Fried Rice for $8.25.  We only go there for take-out because this is a tiny restaurant that is under staff. It is just  too crowded during peak meal hours for dine-in.   We usually split one order of the Fried Rice into two servings to save money.  But the half portion is still very filling to us.  We often order multiple orders and store them in single serving glass containers in the freezer for our last minute lunch packing.  We've been trying to keep our lunch at under $5.00 per person....

Santouka Ramen

Written by: Jane Ong

Santouka Ramen is one of the many Japanese ramen shops in Southern California.  While it's definitely not the best Japanese ramen I had tasted in America, it tastes pretty good in terms of flavor. The skinny ramen used in this shop is very different in taste and texture compared to the thicker and more chewy ones used by other ramen shops. But  it does blend very well with their rich and flavorful broth.  The texture of the cha-shu   pork is sometimes mouth melting and sometimes tougher and less flavorful.  It never tasted the same to me for each visit.  I guess it all depends on the cut and quality of the meat available at the time and how the various cooks handle the slow cooking process.  The spices in the meat and the broth on the other hand tastes relatively consistent.  Like all Japanese ramen shops, Santouka Ramen has pretty tasty marinated eggs.  Since I personally don't like runny eggs, I prefer the eggs at Santouka to the traditional runny eggs in other ramen shops.  The rice bowl there isn't too impressive though.  Besides, it's just too much carb when consumed with the carb loaded ramen.  I usually order a bowl of noodle with an egg for an extra charge and I don't like ordering the combo that includes the rice bowl.

Overall, it's a pretty decent ramen shop for those of us who want a quick and low budget Japanese meal but don't want to venture out into Little Tokyo near downtown LA.  I rate this ramen shop a 7 out of 10.

**Featured in the above photo is Spicy Tonkatsu Ramen Combo at Santouka Ramen.  Address: Mitsuwa Market Pl, 21515 Western Ave, Torrance, CA 90501.  Tel: 310-212-1101.