Din Tai Fung- Arcadia, CA

I'll start with the story of how I was initially introduced to juicy pork dumplings (aka Shao Long Bao). BFFF's dad, the ultimate food nazi, so kindly treated us out to dinner for her birthday, so of course we go asian. Now, I've never really seen the fuss about them before because most of the time when you order SLB at dim sum restaurants, it's just a regular steamed pork dumpling with nothing special about it. SLB are dumplings where the soup is supposed to be cooked INSIDE the dumpling for maximum juiciness when eating. I typically take a quick nip at the end of dumplings to let the steam all out so I don't kill any tastebuds, but Mr. Food Nazi was quick to point out that if we didn't want to waste any of the soup inside the dumplings, it had to be eaten in one swift bite. Great. So I was yelled at for wasting the dumpling soup. Now you know how to eat one!

Mostly I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. This place has got THE juiciest pork dumplings, among other tasty asian foods. Also on the menu that is quite good: Shanghai rice cakes (the oval-looking noodles pictured below), steamed sesame bun (black paste in white bun), spicy beef noodle soup (not pictured), and the pork fried noodles (not pictured). Also to note- the crab dumplings contain REAL crab meat. I personally wasn't a fan since the texture is crabbier than expected, but it's nice to know they spend the time digging the meat out of the shells.

Ray's Sushi- Hayward, CA

"The most bang for your buck" sushi sounds preposterous (and I'm not going to lie. I had to look up the exact spelling of that word. Yeah, I almost failed spelling). Ok maybe that word is too harsh, but really? It makes me think of old smelly sushi that you buy from the non-Asian grocery store at 9 PM when they try to get rid of it by lowering the price.

ANYWAYS..Ray's Sushi. It was my first experience with Sushi back in the day when I was still scared to eat raw fish. It was well worth it. It's run by Chinese people, but don't be scared away by that. They offer FATTY pieces (fat like large, not unhealthy) of sashimi for the same price as any other decent Sushi joint. and their crunch rolls are to DIE for.

I don't think I've ever encountered a bad dish at this place. Rolls are good. Sushi/Sashimi is good, and so is the udon and tempura. we paid about $20/person and had leftovers. not bad.

Pizzeria Mozza- Los Angeles, CA

If any place can can seriously consider itself a "gourmet pizza shop," it's Pizzeria Mozza. First off, I'm totally enanamored by celebrities. Since Food Network is my weekend TV station of choice, I'm extremely familiar with Iron Chef, and the man known as Mario Batali.

So this is the Pizzeria that complements the always-packed Mozza. The menu at the Pizzeria is different, from what I know of Mozza so far, but still gourmet, and it's PIZZA created by Mario.

First, I didn't think a pile of green could actually be tasty, but it is. We had the Tricolore with Parmigiano Reggiano & anchovy dressing (don't be scared by anchovy. it's just essence-of) and the Rucola, Funghi, & Paive salads. Both really light and tasty. We were also recommended the Pane bianco with olio nuovo (basic bruschette) which I had assumed would come out with some kind of salsa/tomato thing. It actually just looked like 2 pieces of toast. But trust me. the $3 you pay for expensive toast is totally worth it. In the words of the recommender, it was "divine" and that's all truth.

The pizzeria has a number of pizza choices all fairly priced and all delicious looking. We had the Coach farm goat cheese, leeks, scallions, and bacon (bacon being key) which was REAL bacon, not the crap you get in carl's jr burgers. We also had the Pizza alla benno (speck- a type of prosciutto, pineapple, jalapeno, mozarello, and tomato). Again both divine on the thin crust. The Pizza alla benno was my fave since it resembles my favorite all time pizza (Hawaiian, if you didn't get that from the pineapple) only the alla benno pizza had a little kick with the jalapeno and some goodass proscuitto.

For dessert, we had the Butterscotch budino (pudding) with rosemary and pinenut cookies. It sounds very strange, and it was, but it tastes AMAZING. I also had the opportunity to try dessert over at Mozza, where I tried (wait for it..) the Olive Oil gelato with Rosemary muffins. again an OMG moment (but in a good way, not disbelief).

Anyways, if you're looking for celebrity chef-style food, but don't want to wait a month for reservations or fork up $$ for a meal, Pizzeria Mozza is definitely the place for a tasty bite at a decent price.

http://www.mozza-la.com/pizzeria/menu.cfm

Sea Empress- South Bay, Los Angeles

One food-type I miss in living in LA is the authentic Chinese food (and by authentic, that completely encompasses cheap.) Yes, you can argue that Monterey Park and Arcadia are around the corner, but I don't justify driving over 20 mins to get to my Chinese food. To narrow down even further, dimsum is only served for brunch/lunch and again I don't feel justified in going more than 20 mins. out of my way to find good dimsum. Trader Joe's dimsum just doesn't cut it sometimes, and spending more on gas than my food is even worse.

Finally, my point. Sea Empress (the sister restaurant to Empress Pavilion in Monterey Park or somewhere far like that) in the Gardena-area has amazing dimsum for super duper cheap. It's an average $2.85 for your classic dimsum dishes, and $4-something for the bigger dishes. They have everything from shrimp dumplings to chicken feet, all tasty and authentic. The only dish I'd stay away from is the Shaolong Bao, which if you're looking for a tasty Shaolong Bao (aka Juicy Pork Dumpling, aka Soup Dumpling) then refer to Din Tai Fung.

Anyways, go here for a VERY cheap and delicious mix of dimsum goodness that's more local to LA than Monterey Park or Arcadia. The cart ladies loved us so much they even hooked it up with a free noodle-thing. Another plus- they take AmEx.

Red Fort- Torrance, CA

This place was definitely nicer than any other Indian buffet place I've been to in LA. This is speaking strictly from the cleanliness/decor perspective. Food-wise it's definitely nicer than most, especially the fact the naan is made fresh, AND they offered garlic naan or plain naan. They also kept the Tandoori chicken wrapped in foil so it didn't dry out as much.

Now, I usually don't expect fantastic service at buffets in general, except for maybe the Bellagio buffet, where you literally pay for a higher quality of service, but the guy who seemed to be the manager or maybe the owner of the place really hooked it up. It might've helped that when we showed up, there was no one manning the front, and Sam and I walked around like losers trying to figure out if we could sit anymore (all tables were open except 1) and if we could just grab a plate and start eating. Or, if I whipped out a camera to take pictures of the set up/food, so he, thinking I was an actual food critic, hooked it up with extra attentive service, free mango lassi, and a few references to us being his "friends" (i.e. "Hello, friends. How is everything?" or "Friends, do you like your food spicy? You should try this salsa." How nice).


Well, I definitely stink from the curry and the garlic naan, but who can blame me. If you're willing to make the drive down from LA, it's definitely worth it.

Cafe Beaujolais- Eagle Rock, CA

Do I know how to pronounce that? No. But that's ok. The food was awesome. I haven't had too much experience with French food, and I don't often crave it, but every time I go, I'm impressed with the food in general (as a genre).

Cafe Beaujolais in particular is this super cute, quaint little French place (no crepes though). A fairly extensive menu (which I always forgot to take a photo of) which included soups, salads, seafood, land meats, pastas, and vegetarian dishes.

I was so hungry and anxious to dig in (like a true fatty) that I completely forgot to take a photo. We ordered this AMAZING goat cheese salad. Apparently they use a similar salad dressing on the goat cheese salad as the regular "mixed greens" salad, but it was delish, so who cares. No pic of le salad. BUT, here is my rack of lamb in all its glory (minus one rib which was eaten immediately).


I also sampled the filet mignon, which was served with a tasty gravy/jus. I'll go back to check out the steak and mushroom pasta. Also PLEASE remind me to not fill up on the bread. I'm horrible at that and then can hardly finish the entree portion of my meal!

A for taste. Oh, one downside which is accompanied with a story- so BF and I had a clear view of the front door, and we laughed at a guy who walked in carrying a sitting pillow. Shortly thereafter, we begin to realize our asscheeks hurt from the wooden seats which are sort of concave and definitely uncomfortable. If you don't have your own sitting pillow, maybe opt for the booths.

Hamada of Japan, Las Vegas

Forget Todai's. If the only reason why you go eat at those buffet sushi places is to kill the sushi, then go to Hamada instead. This place served up both sushi and rolls (no Sashimi unfortunately) and it was FRESH fish.

I've only tried one other restaurant that does the "all-you-can-eat to order," and that place CLEARLY packed on the rice so you'd get full faster. Plus, they made that lousy rule where if you have left over rice they'll charge you extra bucks. Whatever. Hamada of Japan also said if we don't finish our sushi they'd charge us as well, but at least they didn't pack on the rice!

Albeit they sorta messed up our order multiple times (like they gave us 8 albacore instead of 4 albacore, 4 yellowtail) it's not like it stopped you from ordering the yellowtail that was missing from your original order. Story- so BF really loves salmon. After our first sushi and roll plates, we order a second round of salmon- 4 orders (8 pieces) of salmon and some other variety of sushi. only 2 orders of salmon came out and we're all confused. It's not like they had a policy against how much you could order per order. Anyways, I think our waitress just thought that we couldn't finish it, so she cut our salmon order in half. No problemo..we ordered salmon 3 more times. Do not underestimate us.

Now the only draw to eating here is that the selection IS rather small. And for people with a sweet tooth, it's unfortunate they don't include ANY type of dessert in your buffet. It's a shame they didn't offer any green tea ice cream. I've sorta learned to expect it after eating loads of sushi. B+/A- for all-you-can-eat sushi.