JJ Bakery - City of Industry

Why would I write about bread? Well, I'm not because JJ Bakery has a joint restaurant thing on the side selling taiwanese food. I've actually been to the one in Irvine a few years ago but I never went back or thought about it because the food was just so-so but priced above average. My friend was ranting about JJ and so we all went... Well, yes a bakery should just bake and leave the rice, noodle, or pork chops to the real restaurants. 

Anyhoo we were there so might as well give it a try... 

Honestly, nothing memorable including bad and slow service and cold food... So here are some photos with captions explaining the dishes:

I think this is called Special Order Noodle - dry noodle with taiwanese meat sauce and sesame paste ? Weird combo tasted kinda like "Dan Dan Mian" if you know what I mean but with some meat and bean sprouts... I'll give it 2/5

Pork Chop Combo - all you see with the soup below = over priced and also 2/5 

Bland egg and tomato soup

Scallion cake with egg = crepe was far too soft with no crispy texture... nice dipping sauce tho. 

Horrible pic but average grilled chicken lunch combo - heard the chicken was actually alright. Also came with that bland soup

2/5 because it was COLD. Can you imagine? This is the Meat Crepe thing and it should be a hot dish with crispy crepes! 

They left out my friend's first order, so she got this meat sauce over rice - far too fatty (which makes it taste good) overall cheap price - $1.95 (Probably cheaper than their drinks...) 

Tofu with the nice garlic sauce so 4/5 for the sauce. It's hard to go wrong for tofu tho'....

There you have it. I don't think I'll be a returning customer but it never hurts to try :D 

Wood Ranch BBQ and Grill

I searched and searched for a steakhouse - Mortons, Ruth's Chris, Houston's... etc for a long time but in the end, I ended up choosing Wood Ranch BBQ and Grill. Mainly because of it's reasonable prices and familiarity with the restaurant. For steakhouses, I'm only familiar with Ruth's Chris and I didn't want to take risks with Houston's or Morton's, even though reviews were relatively well. Since it was our three year anniversary, I just wanted to go somewhere for dinner where I can dress up a little and still be casual and enjoy a great meal. I picked Wood Ranch because it's not somewhere we usually go like Cheesecake Factory. I also really love their tri tip! This time, I ordered a prime rib because the waitress said they still have it. I wanted to try something different so I decided to get the prime rib. I got the 16oz (big mistake) because it was only $26! It came with soup or salad and one side. I picked the Clam Chowder and an Idaho baked potato. I have to start with the Clam Chowder because it was fantastic! I've never had so many clam in my chowders before (not even in Seattle...) It was perfectly creamy with loads of clams and veges! Very satisfied with that! The prime rib itself was not bad either but because it was 16oz, it was quite a big steak to finish (which I didn't finish!) The baked potato was fluffy but average. He got the BBQ ribs dinner which came with two sides and he picked peanut coleslaw and mashed potatoes. I love their ribs! So perfectly grilled with that great BBQ sauce! They also have a bottle of BBQ sauce on the tables so you can add more to your meal and for bread dipping too!
The coleslaw was good but a little bland. The mashed potato had a pretty good buttery flavor too!
We washed down our meal with a drink each. I picked the Red Sangria (recommend!) and he picked the Sterling Merlot (recommend too!)

I'm glad we picked Wood Ranch, I'm much suited eating ribs with my hands and licking my fingers!

Vinylmation DIY Project

Okay, so finally I get to write a post that fits into the "Play" part of this blog. Yes, it's true (and sad) that my life revolves mainly around eating and cooking. As you can see from the title of this blog, I personalized a vinylmation figure. Why? You may wonder of all crafts and fun things I can do had I decided to do vinylmation? Well, it all started when I was looking for a present for the bf to celebrate our three year anniversary.

Indian Beer House - San Gabriel

I really felt like "Three Cup Chicken" (三杯雞) for dinner last night, so me and the bf went to Indian Beer House. We were actually debating between B2O Beer House or Indian. I complained that B2O's has a lot of broken pieces of chicken bones... so we went to Indian. It was 6pm saturday night and luckily it wasn't packed yet! I guess we were early like the old peeps at the next table...

Since it was just the two of us, we ordered a three cup chicken (~$8) and a spicy stinky tofu (五根麻辣臭豆腐) (~$10) and an appertizer - lamb skewers ($3.50). Usually these food go great with beer, hence the beer house name... but we didn't really feel like beer so we just had the food.
The chicken tasted sweet and savory but they didn't have any garlic cloves like B2O! So that's a big NO- NO! The stinky tofu was not bad, it went well with rice because it came with a lot of preserved veges (the sour kind). The stinky tofu came with pig's blood which I had to eat because he doesn't eat any organs or blood... I guess the best was the lamb skewers! Smelled great and the meat was tender with a slight crisp on the outside.

I took the photos with my iphone so the quality is not that good (esp the chicken)

(this was almost gone when i took it@@)

Shrimp and Pork Wontons

I've never been a fan of wontons. Whenever my parents made it when I was a little kid, I'd never eat it because they give me a headache... Today, my parents made wontons with fresh shrimp and pork, no vegetables except scallions! No matter how much I don't like the wonton wrap, I really wanted to eat them.

I probably disliked them as a kid because of the soup my parents serve wonton in. I guess another thing is the wrap that just tastes so slimy.. ick. Today, I decided to make my own sauce - soysauce, sesame oil, garlic, scallions, and hot chili sauce and mixed it with my wontons so it's not soupy but nicely seasoned.
The wontons were really good because the shrimps were big and succulent. The pork added a nice texture that blended with the crunchy shrimps!

Mmm, I'll only ever eat wontons if there are big fresh shrimps in them.

Mine ! 

My dad's soupy wontons:(

Easy Macaroni Pasta

This year's Halloween was spent quietly at a friend's house with potluck and wii games. It was really last minute as no one had a costume and were all too tired to trek all the way for the Hollywood Parade. So, I had about an hour to whip up something for the potluck. Since we didn't really have a theme, I decided not to make crazy Halloween finger foods. I opened up my freezer and found some meatballs. I also found spinach in the fridge. Since my parents were back, we have plenty of fresh garlic, butter, and flour. I always have some sort of pasta at home. So I decided to throw together a macaroni dish. (Something that I always do... I know...)

Blue Marlin

Blue Marlin is a japanese restaurant that is known for its omni rice. Omni rice is fried rice with ketchup with a layer of egg over the fried rice, kind of like an omelette. Usually the rice is served with curry sauce or white sauce.

Blue Marlin is located on Sawtelle Blvd in Westwood. Recently I visited it again after a long gap of several years! I heard it was shut down but it wasn't.
I ordered the chicken katsu omni rice. The chicken is very crispy and tender on the inside. However, my chicken was rather over fried and too brown. Overall, the taste wasn't as great as what I remembered it to be. It was an average omni rice. The curry sauce was so so and the rice was so so. There's really not a lot of words to describe something that is so so.
My sister had the pork katsu and it was way too dry and chewy! So, chicken is the better choice there.

The restaurant was still full but not too packed. I think they really need to do some renovating. Maybe change their menus or something.

Overall, I think one person came down to ~$17-$20/person.