New York Deli

It has been over 7 years since I dined at New York Deli in Torrance.  Aaron, Sandi and I thought of ordering the Mazo Ball Soup. We decided not to waste our calories on that after reading my previous blog in 2012. The place looked more appealing with the lights, the old Hollywood photos and pleasing music in the background.

We all thought we should split sandwiches but later decided to order our own and have half to take home. Aaron and I ordered the Hot Pastrami, NY Famous and Sandi decided on the Hot Beef Brisket. She had cucumber salad with her sandwich and I opted for the potato salad. We also ordered more starch, French Fries which turned out to be tasteless.  The sandwiches were excellent with coleslaw that went well with the meat.

When you can't make the trip to Canters Deli, NYD (New York Deli) is a good substitute, but when you crave good Matzo Ball Soup, you can't beat Canter's. NYD is located at 2424 Sepulveda Blvd. in Torrance, California.

Honeymee

My family and I visited the Japanese Village Plaza Mall last weekend to have breakfast at Cafe Dulce  (my favorite) and lunch at Kouraku . After making that trip, it wouldn't have been worthwhile not to have dessert. My nephew had wandered off and returned with what looked like a cup of soft ice cream with a piece of honeycomb on top. That intrigued me so I went into this place called Honeymee; true milk ice cream & pure honey.

My first question was did they have coffee ice cream. The answer was no but they had the "Honey Affogato" ice cream drizzled with coffee and honey with a honeycomb. That was pure delight! It was not too sweet and chewing on the honeycomb was really good. I felt one in nature so to speak, like bonding with the bees. My next question is where else were they located aside from downtown Los Angeles. The lady told me they had multiple locations and none were near me. When I got home, I quickly googled the locations and I couldn't contain my excitement when I found out there is one in Gardena, which is not too far from me.

I can't wait to go with my friends and introduce them to Honeymee.

Star Fruit

Star Fruit (Carambola), commonly known in the Philippines as Balimbing is a delicious low-calorie, low-sugar, tart-flavor fruit. Daniel, a friend from my gym brought us some. I had forgotten how good they were.

It is best eaten when cold and sprinkled with salt. It's very refreshing. You have to make sure they are ripe or it can taste sour. That is usually when the ridges turn a bit brown. The appearance of the fruit is waxy and a cross-section when sliced looks like a 5-pointed star. It apparently is not hard to grow and can be grown in a pot. Since it originated in Asia, warm temperature is ideal.

Simple Simon's Bakery & Bistro

If you are ever in the vicinity of Riverside, California, make sure you stop by this bakery either for breakfast or lunch. We were lucky to get there early enough because, by the time we left, there was a line of people waiting to order.

They had a special that morning which was an egg sandwich with tomato, bacon, and cheese on their freshly baked sourdough bread.  It was very good. Sandi had the Winter Omelette which I should have gotten. It had Gorgonzola cheese, roasted pecans, sauteed apples, and grilled onions.  That was interesting and wonderful.  Sujata was not impressed with her egg omelet as it was rather bland. Even their homemade jam was delicious.

I bought 1 Sticky Bun to take home a few large Oatmeal cookies which looked divine. I loved the sticky bun and the loved the cookies even more. They were not at all sweet so you could really taste the oatmeal. My only regret is I should have bought a dozen of the cookies!

Simple Simon's Bakery & Bistro is located at 3639 Main St. in Riverside, California.

Egg Salad Sandwich from Tous les Jours

This might be the best egg salad sandwich I have ever had. It is made of whipping cream pan bread. Aside from eggs, it has small pieces of bacon, just enough not to overpower the eggs, Romaine and Iceberg lettuce, honey mustard, celery, onion, cranberries, mayonnaise, sugar, and black pepper.

It has 860 calories and costs $5.00. Well worth the calories and a bargain for the price. I got the sandwich at the Tous les Jours inside H Mart in Torrance. I imagine they have it in their free-standing store on Sepulveda in Torrance.

Duane's Prime Steak & Seafood

Duane's is located in the legendary Mission Inn Resort and Spa in Riverside, California. We celebrated our friend Sujata's birthday there a few nights ago along with experiencing the famous Festival of the Lights in and around the hotel.

The ambiance alone is enough to set you in a romantic mood but in the case of three women, we settled for a very festive mood. We brought a bottle of Veuve Clicquot to help us celebrate the occasion. The birthday celebrant ordered the Chilean Sea Bass which was served on top of spiced Beluga lentils. Sandi had her favorite Alaskan Halibut which was pan-seared served with celery root puree and mustard cream. Both were outstanding.

I had to have meat so I settled for the Steak Diane, medallions of super tender beef with Boursin whipped potatoes, sauteed asparagus with mushroom sauce. I had Sandi taste the medallion and she quickly commented that she was able to cut the piece of steak with her fork without using a knife. And that's how tender it was. Just writing about it makes my mouth water all over again.

After our meal and just before dessert, Santa stopped by and greeted Sujata a Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas. The carolers who strolled from table to table also made their last stop at our table and asked for requests. I requested the German Christmas song; Oh Tannenbaum and they happily obliged but not before singing "Happy Birthday" to Sujata.

They asked us what dessert we would like, the consensus was the Banana Pie since the souffle had a longer wait time. They did bring the pie with a candle which they lit for the birthday girl to blow off. We were surprised to see that they had charged us for the dessert as most restaurants do not charge for it, especially for a very expensive restaurant.

The Pan

I have been to The Pan in Gardena three years ago. It was one of the best breakfasts I have had but somehow I had forgotten all about it until recently when Sandi brought it to my attention that they had opened one in Lomita.

It was time to try it out, so Amy, Zohreh, Sandi and I drove there. They don't open until 9:00 a.m. There were a few people outside waiting for the restaurant to open its doors. It was 2 minutes past and the gentleman told us the lady inside made an announcement that she would let the people know when they could come in. After a brief discussion among the people who were getting a bit ticked off, we all decided to just walk in since the door was not locked. One of the servers told us she would be right with us while the other gentleman led us to a table.

This restaurant is right next to the Sprint store and it used to be a Thai restaurant.  They had the place nicely decorated. We all thought they did a good job. The menu was extensive. We all wanted to try as much as we could so it took careful planning and strategy. Sandi finally took charge and announced she would order the Lemon Curd Pancakes which she would be happy to share. Zohreh decided on ordering the Mediterranean Omelette which Sandi also wanted. At first, Amy only wanted an egg but she also wanted pancakes. She finally settled on one "Best Ever" Banana Pancakes which Sandi and I have had and was fantastic. Both Sandi and Zohreh were very happy with the omelet. Amy loved her banana pancake, unfortunately, I was so engrossed in my eating that I neglected to take a picture of her pancake.  She did mention that her poached egg was overcooked.

I had Short Rib Benedict; 2 corncakes topped with braised short rib over Mexican street cream corn with poached eggs and poblano cream sauce. I shared some with Sandi so she could share some of her lemon pancakes. The short rib benedict was a real winner. I had everyone taste it and they all agreed how delicious it was. The lemon pancakes were also very good.

We were all excited about this restaurant since everything was perfect except for one important factor. The food was not hot. I later spoke to Daisy, the manager and suggested that maybe they should heat up the plates prior to serving the food.

The Pan is Lomita is open from 9:00 am to 9:00  p.m. Monday to Thursday. Closed on Tuesdays and are open 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 Friday and Saturday and on Sundays, they open 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Their address is 2104 Pacific Coast Hwy. in Lomita, California.