Pho Ca Dao

Pho Ca Dao is a Vietnamese restaurant in San Diego. Somehow, we ended up there after church at dinner time. We got there in time because shortly after we arrived, there was a line of people wanting to get in.

I could see why it was a popular place especially for families. It was very inexpensive. You get a lot of food. There were 3 of us so we ordered 3 entrees to share; the marinated char-grilled chicken, marinated char-grilled shrimp and marinated char-grilled pork. All entrees came with scallion garnished broth and steamed broken rice. Broken rice in case you don't know is Vietnamese rice that is a much smaller grain, hence broken.  The entrees were quite good. They had that charred flavor which would have gone well with good rice. Unfortunately, the so called broken rice was truly broken and needed fixing. We all thought it was undercooked. Other than the broken rice, the food was good and you get a really good deal.

Maybe next time, I can pack my own rice..... Pho Ca Dao is located at 11808 Rancho Bernardo Rd. in San Diego, California.

Restaurant Christine in Torrance

My friend and I made reservations at Restaurant Christine on Halloween night. Five in the afternoon was early enough plus we figured everyone would be busy getting ready for trick or treating.

Shortly after our basket of bread, we were given a cup of mushroom soup which warmed our tummies and set a good start to a nippy evening. We were treated to an appetizer of warm figs wrapped in prosciutto with fried goat cheese and some greens on a bed of thin slices of watermelon with a black currant vinaigrette. What an interesting combination of flavors; the sweetness of the figs were compensated by the saltiness of the prosciutto and the goat cheese fritters; then there was the refreshing taste of the sweet watermelon topped with the vinaigrette. We absolutely loved this appetizer! Another appetizer that sounded exciting was the Aged Parmesan Polenta with wild mushrooms, smoked bacon and crispy fried onions. This was almost like a thick soup and was terribly delicious. This will definitely be a repeat performance in my book.

For entrees, we ordered the Sugar Cane Skewered Shrimp, Sea Scallop and Ahi Tuna with coconut sticky rice, wasabi infused sesame seeds and stir fried vegetables in Hawaiian BBQ sauce. We had this the last time and we forgot that the tuna is served rare. Sandi made the comment  that she almost does not mind it if served in thin slices. It was good and fresh, all we had to do was dab some of the sauce to hide the color. The scallop and shrimp were tender and juicy as well.  The other entree we had was the Pappardelle Pasta Filet Mignon cooked in cream with mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, shallots, spinach, port wine an Parmesan. How could this not be good....absolutely delicious.

Dessert was an Apple Tart with vanilla ice cream and creme anglaise. We liked the fact that they were not stingy on the ice cream so every bite of  the apple tart had some ice cream. This was a nice conclusion to very good meal. I would definitely recommend this restaurant as not only was the food delicious, service couldn't have been better. Our server Nai, was friendly, professional and made sure we were happy with everything.

Restaurant Christine is located at 24530 Hawthorne Blvd. in Torrance, California.

Prosecco Trattoria

We had tickets to see a couple of my friends compete in the Hollywood Dancesport Championships last night at Universal City.  We did not want to eat at the Hilton Hotel where it was being held so I called the concierge at the hotel and they were nice enough to make a few suggestions.

The lady suggested Prosecco Trattoria if we liked Italian. The ambiance was nice; the owner greeted us and sat us in the back on an indoor patio with a beautiful chandelier.  The menu looked enticing. We decided on the Ragu; braised & shredded lamb, fresh pappardelle and the another Ragu: bolognese, savory beef short rib, penne. We asked our server if they could split the 2 entrees as we were sharing both. She replied: "No problem". Everything these days is "no problem" ; why should it be a problem to begin with? A more appropriate response would be: "Yes, It would be my pleasure or yes, I would be happy to."  Just before she disappeared, I asked her if there would be a charge for splitting the 2 entrees and she said: "Yes".  I naturally told her that we could split it ourselves if she brings us extra plates. What is the logic of this: To split 2 entrees, you only use and dirty 2 plates. If we split it ourselves, we have the 2 plates and the 2 additional small plates they gave us. 

You might wonder at this point if we enjoyed our food. We were hungry. The pasta was cooked aldente. The lamb ragu was tender but too salty that it would have been impossible for me (salt lover) to finish it so it was nice that we split that. The short rib ragu was good but nothing special. 

We did not want to be late for the competition so we left without having dessert. Prosecco Trattoria is located at 10144 Riverside Dr. in Tolouca Lake, California.

Apple Picking in Oak Glen

My friend Sandi had the bright idea of going apple picking. She did it in Vermont and thought it would be fun for us girls to go pick our own apples. Sue and Ana were excited. I was excited to eat apple pie and maybe BUY some apples but not go picking especially when I learned that we had to pay for the privilege of doing manual labor. As far as I am concerned, I should be paid for labor and not the other way around. Oh well, I am usually a good sport so I had to show some enthusiasm.

We left at 8:00 a.m. on a Monday morning. On our way through the winding roads uphill, we encountered a fawn that looked lost and confused. I had to slow down as he looked at us then went on to cross the road.  It was getting chilly as we climbed to nearly 5,000 ft. Our first stop was Law's Oak Glen Coffee Shop. We had to eat a hearty breakfast to get the energy to pick our apples! It was a given that we order something with apples.  Apple pancakes sounded good so that's what we had. The pancakes were big and fluffy. They had apples in them and a small bowl of cooked apples accompanied the pancakes. They had maple syrup and apple cinnamon syrup. I never had apple cinnamon syrup. I tried a bite of a pancake with just maple and another bite with the apple cinnamon. I liked them both so ......I poured both syrups together. It was deeeelicious. The apples in the bowl were not sweet enough so it had to be doctored by a drizzle of the apple cinnamon syrup.

We then went to different apple farms, Riley, Apple Annies, Moms Country, Homestead. Pretty soon nobody was interested in picking apples especially when they were all selling apples in bags as we sampled numerous kinds. We all agreed on the best kind of apple which we sampled; it's called MUTSU apple. It was very sweet with a hint of tartness; crisp and just yummy.  Yummy (fresh) apples was never in my vocabulary, except of course for caramel apples.

After a couple of hours walking and going in and out of shops we all decided we had to sample some apple pies before heading back. There was a mile high apple pie that looked good and we were ready to all buy one to take home. Someone suggested we order a slice (big slices) of apple pie and a slice of the cherry pie. We also ordered some vanilla ice cream to go with our pies. We were elated that we didn't buy the pies as they really were just o.k. Sue said she would make us apple crisps that's very good. Both Sandi and Ana also said they can bake better pies that those. I was the only silent one as I don't bake pies, I only know where to purchase them.

We encountered traffic coming back to L.A. and decided to have another bite to eat at a restaurant as it was dinner time. I would say it was a fun day for the ladies. Oak Glen would be fun for families as well as they have petting zoos and activities for the whole family. Oak Glen is located in the San Bernardino Mountains between Yucaipa and Beaumont.

JuJuya

Jujuya is a Euro-Asian seafood tapas restaurant owned and run by executive chef Makoto Tanaka "Mako" for short. Mako has an impressive background working for Wolfgang Puck in the original Spago, Chinois on Main and later his own restaurant in Beverly Hills called Mako.

Jujuya opened early this year (2014) where Frascati used to be at the Promenade on the Peninsula in Rolling Hills Estates.  One thing about the hill is we usually do not have any good restaurants and if we get one, it does not stay open for long. The hill is sometimes referred to as "hamburger hill" as people are too cheap. Frascati was very good and reasonable so I don't really know why it closed.  I am truly hoping Jujuya will stay for a long time and make Rolling Hills it's new home.

Sandi and I had dinner there 2 nights ago. We previously had the Crispy Oysters with basil sauce, black olives and sun dried tomatoes. We both loved them but didn't order it this time as we wanted to try something new. We did like the Beet Salad so we decided to start with that. We were a bit disappointed as the red beets were hard. The yellow ones were fine. Two servers came at different times to ask us how the salad was and we did tell them about the beets; both apologized and told us they would pass it on...end of story.

The Crab Spring Rolls with tarragon aioli sounded enticing. It was served in a martini glass. I have to let you know not to miss the aioli sauce in the bottom of the glass as it is hard  to see. The rolls were nice and crispy with lots of crab and when dipped in the sauce.....you can just imagine how good it was.

Sandi loves halibut so one plate had to be the Wild Halibut with tomato coulis and black olives. The Saikyo Miso Chilean Sea Bass with ponzu sauce and black rice sounded more exciting to me. Both were very good but I have to tell you that next time, I will have to order the sea bass just for me and will not share it with anyone; not even a bite! That's how good it was....you almost needed a spoon as it fell apart with the fork and forget about the chopsticks.

Dessert was Apple Tart with salted caramel gelato. It was a perfect ending to a very good and satisfying meal.  The next time, I will have to order an extra scoop of the gelato as Sandi and I had to fight over that one scoop.

I can't wait to go back and try the various sushi's. This may well be our little Nobu on the hill. Chef Mako was there and I had to tell him how that Sea Bass was amazing!  Jujuya is located at the Promenade of the Peninsula in Rolling Hills Estates, California.

Dominique's 2nd Anniversary

Dominique's Kitchen on 522 Pacific Coast Highway in Redondo Beach is still going strong. It is currently still celebrating it's 2nd year anniversary and I am very happy about that.

We didn't have the task of trying to figure out what to order. They had a fixed menu that evening which included a complimentary glass of champagne and your choice of red or white wine to go with the meal. Our first course after the warm french bread with the salted butter, was the Potages Garbure; a French stew soup with meat, vegetables and a slice of the bread with cheese. We all loved this soup. I almost would have been happy with just the soup and more of the bread with the nice Cabernet. I say almost only because I would not have settled for just that since I knew what was coming. I had to leave some room for the Beef Bourguignon which was a big piece! It was tender and just delicious with the mushrooms and carrots. The mashed potatoes were nice and creamy. It's hard to believe that even I could not finish everything. Only my son cleaned out his plate. Three of us left with "people bags". We only had a few bites of the Tiramisu as we were all too full.

 Both Dominique and Liza came by to serve us more wine and made sure we were happy. Congratulations to Dominique and Liza and here's to another successful year! 

Din Tai Fung

The infamous Din Tai Fung finally opened it's doors at the South Coast Plaza shopping center next to Sears. I have been to the one in Arcadia, another one opened in Glendale but both were too far to drive and fall in line.

Sandi, Ana and I travelled to South Coast Shopping Center in Costa Mesa to have lunch there. It was Ana who introduced us to this wonderful restaurant. Sandi and I have been to the one in Arcadia and ordered so much and we were just overwhelmed.

This time we gave it a lot of thought. We put Ana in charge of ordering. The Pork XiaoLongBao for $9.95 was a bargain at 10 pieces. Those were the steamed dumplings that had soup inside of it. The proper way to eat one is to pick it up with a chop stick, give it a good bath in the aged vinegar with a bit of soy sauce, rest it on the spoon  with your left hand (your right hand still holding the chop stick and the dumpling) while you take a small bite so you can sip a bit of the soup then pop the dumpling in your mouth. It is truly amazing! The liquid stuff inside is not chicken or pork stock, it comes from the fatty tissue of the pork as it is steamed.

We had to order Truffle and Pork XiaoLongBao. In my opinion, this was even more amazing as it had that earthy truffle flavor from truffles they import from Italy. This is why you only get 5 little dumplings for $22.50

Ana recommended the Shrimp and Pork Wontons with Spicy Sauce. They arrived all white as the sauce was underneath. As soon as you stirred everything, these wontons came to life. They were wonderful and went well with the Shrimp Fried Rice; super delicious with fresh and tender shrimps.

We took some Pork Chop with Fried Rice home "to go" for dinner. These chops were thin and tasted better than it looked. They too were tender that you could cut them with your spoon or fork.

I have to tell you that the following day, Sandi and I were in the area again and it happened to be lunch time so we decided to go back. The restaurant opens at 11:00 on weekdays and we were there at 10:40 a.m. and a line has already formed. By 11:00 a.m., there were a ton of people behind us!

We ordered the Pork XiaoLongBao again and the Shrimp and Pork Wontons with Spicy Sauce. We wanted to try the noodles as they looked good. We both decided on the Chicken Fried Noodles. Boy were they yummy. The only thing was we had a devil of a time trying to eat these slippery fat noodles with the chop sticks! We ended up eating them with a fork.

Din Tai Fung has locations in the state of Washington and California. They are also located in countries like Australia, Japan, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan.