Nine Ten, South Beach, Point Loma Seafood, Phil's BBQ, and Jsix @ San Diego

Last but not least, our food adventure at San Diego. 

Nine Ten @ La Jolla

Fennel and Eggplant Soup @ Nine Ten

Organic Greens Salad @ Nine Ten

Pan Seared Salmon @ Nine Ten

Grilled Shrimp Salad @ Nine Ten

Half Baked Chocolate Cake @ Nine Ten

This was our first meal after we arrived in San Diego.  Nine Ten is actually located in La Jolla, and it's known for their fresh and organic ingredients harvested from the local farmers.  They also offer a $24 three course pre-fix menu for lunch.  Due to my guilt of eating so much on the trip, I chose to go with a soup and salad combo instead of the three course meal.  The soup of the day was the fennel and eggplant soup.  I believe it was my first time having an eggplant soup, and surprisingly, I actually liked it a lot.  The fennel and eggplant complimented each others in flavors, and the grilled shrimp that came with the soup was so fresh and perfectly cooked.  For entree, I went with the grilled shrimp salad which also comes with watermelon.  I love watermelons in salad, especially when they are super sweet, the sweetness of the watermelons complimented the bitterness of arugula.  And special thanks to the chef for not overcooking the shrimp, the salad was fantastic.   The bf got the pan seared salmon as his entree, and once again, fresh seafood, cooked just right, and seasoned well, we really can't ask for anything more.  The vegetables on his plate were also delicious as well, I still remember how sweet those white corns were.  The only complaint I had about this meal was the half baked chocolate cake or chocolate molten cake, it's the same thing to me, if anyone thinks differently, please enlighten me.  The half baked chocolate were at best 1/4 way baked, it was too soggy, they should have either baked it a little longer, or let the cake seat for a little bit before it was served.  For the record, Oya @ DC has the best chocolate molten cake, for those who are interested.

Tacos @ South Beach Bar & Grill

We followed one of my friend's recommendation and went to South Beach Bar & Grill for a late night snack.  South Beach is famous for their fish tacos, and luckily, when we were there during their happy hour - $2.50/taco deal.  We tried the oysters, wahoo, shark, lobster, and pollock tacos.  Out of all of those, oysters, wahoo, and pollock were my favorite.  We didn't like the shark or lobster as much, because the shark meat was too tough, and the lobster were not fresh lobsters. 

Clam Chowder @ Point Loma Seafood

Seafood Soup @ Point Loma Seafood

Halibut Plate @ Point Loma Seafood

Fish Plate @ Point Loma Seafood

It was after this meal then I realize how much I dislike fried food.  It doesn't matter how fresh their fish is, there are so many ways I prefer their fish to be cooked than fried.  The halibut was the special of the day, which was worth the extra bucks. However, it also made the regular fish plate minimal.  My favorite item of the meal is definitely the seafood soup.  The clam chowder was blah.

Pulled pork sandwich

Beefy Rib

Baby Back Rib

Thanks to one of my food buddies' recommendation, we had the chance to had one of the best BBQ in the west coast.  Phil's BBQ, over 3000 review on yelp with 4 stars ratings, just by looking at this stunning record, how can you not be tempted to go!?  Like most restaurant that has good reviews, it is guarantee to have a long wait.  Fortunately, Phil's BBQ operates very efficiently, even though the lines almost wrapped around 3/4 of the restaurant, the wait was only a little over an hour.  The longest I have ever waited for a seat was probably close to 3 hours, and I don't mind waiting as long as it was walk-in and the food was worth the wait.  Phil's BBQ was definitely worth the hour wait.  Their award winning ribs are to die for and their onion rings are the best I have ever had.  The disappointment of the meal is the pulled pork, it was too dry even with the BBQ sauce.  I would just stay to the ribs, both beef and pork ribs were really good; tender and juicy.

Roasted bone marrow

Chilled crab salad

Crispy butterfish

King Cole Coriander & Fennel Duck

Chocolate ice cream

Dinner at Jsix, a restaurant which is known for being vegan friendly and gluten free.  For appetizer, we had the bone marrow and crab salad, and the bone marrow tastes much better by a long shot.  The roasted bone marrow paired with sea salt, herbs, and jam on crunchy toast was perfect.  For entree, we hare the butterfish and duck.  Butterfish or escolar really, has a flaky texture, pan seared so it was crispy on the outside, soft and tender on the inside, one can't ask for more than that in a fish.  The duck dish on the other side was mediocre, all I can say is, I had better duck before.

Overall, I was pretty satisfy with our food adventure from the West Coast, and I am still trying to lose those extra weight I gained on the trip!

Coming Up: Cafe Milano

In-N-Out Burgers, Bellagio and Paris Buffet @ Las Vegas

We ate so much at on the trip, I had to break the reviews in parts.  This part is for Vegas: In-N-Out Burgers, the famous Bellagio Buffet and the Village Buffet at Paris.  Let's talk about In-N-Out Burgers first...

In-N-Out Burgers

I admit, it was probably one of the best burgers I have had from a fast food restaurant. I like In-N-Out because not only they have a good burger patty, but the toppings and the buns are also really good.  Most people only focus on the burger patties when in comes to burgers but to me, everything matters.  That's probably another reason why I love Five Guys, I love those sauteed mushrooms on my burger!  For In-N-Out, I can't help to notice how crunchy and fresh their lettuce is, and finally I get a good thick slice of onion on my burger, not like a ring of onion.  In-N-Out definitely takes their burger seriously, I was very impress.
 
Bellagio vs Paris, whose cuisine reigns supreme?  
 

Prime Ribs @ Bellagio

Alaskan and Snow Crab legs @ Bellagio

Dessrt #1 @ Bellagio

Dessert #2 @ Bellagio

The first time I went to Vegas was in 2006 and I was a poor college student who was traveling with my student loan money.  Back then, I was not so much of a foodie, I love food, but I probably only spend like 10% of what I spend now on food.  Even though back then, I already know about Bellagio Buffet, and I really wanted to try it, but I would never spend $45 on any single meal, so I didn't get to eat at Bellagio.  Now this time, once we have made a decision to make a stop at Vegas on our trip, the first demand I had was - Bellagio Buffet.  For people who doesn't know, Bellagio is known for the most luxurious (priciest), and highest rated buffet on the Vegas strip.  After waiting for more than an hour, and only left with 40 min to eat, here's the verdict.  Without a doubt, Bellagio buffet offers an extensive variety of food, Chinese, Japanese, Italian and American.  I was very impress that they had a good selection of sashimi and sushi at the buffet.  The best thing I had at the Bellagio is definitely the prime rib, and since it's a buffet, I didn't mind how fat it was (prime rib should be fat), I don't eat chucks of fat, but I like my prime rib to be fat because the meat next to the fatty part are more tender.  Cutting out the fat, I am left with a smaller portion of meat, but I can always get 2nd, 3rd, 4th slice, and every slice was cooked perfectly medium rare, juicy, tender, and just melts in your mouth.  The crab legs at Bellagio were really salty, but other than that, everything was on par, but nothing really outstanding (except for their prime rib).  Since we went on a weekday, our buffet only cost $35/person instead of $45 on the weekend, so I probably didn't get the full experience.  I read that some people had foie gras at Bellagio buffet, but I didn't see any when I was there.
 

Prime Rib and ribs @ Paris

Blueberries Crepes @ Paris

Snow Crab Legs @ Paris

Dessert #1 @ Paris

Dessert #2 @ Paris

For the second night, we ate at the Village Buffet at Paris, which is known as the second best buffet on the strip.  The Village Buffet is a French theme restaurant, most of the food at the buffet are French dishes or with French influences, and I am a huge French food eater so that Paris immediately became my second choice. Like Bellagio, they have some good and bad dishes.  Their prime ribs are definitely not as good as Bellagio's, I had half of my prime rib and I didn't want to eat it anymore, Bellagio ruined it for me. However compared to Bellagio, Paris' crab legs are better and not as salty - we probably ate 4x more crab legs than at Bellagio because of that reason.  Paris does have a few good dishes like the duck confit and spare ribs.  There is one dish you have to avoid at Paris, which is their French onion soup, it is the worst onion soup I have ever had, it's really ironic - bad onion soup at a French theme restaurant.  While they did really poorly with their onion soup, they made it up by having delicious dessert (finally representing the French).  You must go to the crepe station and make your own crepe, remember to add some ice cream on it, it makes the perfect dessert.  I also love the flan at Paris, it's very rich, creamy, and not overly sweet. I have had many flans, and Paris has the best.   

Even though both buffets weren't as good as I expected, but for $30-35 for such a huge variety of food, and don't forget you are in Vegas where nothing is cheap, I think it's not bad at all.  Of course, if you are a huge gambler than maybe you will have better hook ups, but I don't believe in chance.

Bellagio Buffet
Paris Buffet 

Coming Up: San Diego

Grand Cafe, Chowders, Fish, and Emmy's Spaghetti Shack @ San Fran/Sausalito

The last time when I hit my heaviest weight was after spending a month of winter break in CA.  I mean how can you not gain weight when you are surrounded by good food all the time?

Fried Frog Legs @ Grand Cafe

Oysters on half shelf @ Grand Cafe

Baked Oysters @ Grand Cafe

Frisee Aux Lardons @ Grand Cafe

Duck Confit and Wild Mushroom Scramble @ Grand Cafe

Lobster Sandwich @ Grand Cafe

Eggs Benedict with Country Ham @ Grand Cafe

Gravlax de Saumon @ Grand Cafe

Grand Cafe is one restaurant we ate at the most during the entire trip, it is a French brasserie at our hotel.  The oysters and frog legs are from their weekend happy hour special.  The oysters are fresh, and one of the best I have ever tasted.  Their baked oysters are exceptionally good, baked to the perfect level, fresh, creamy and sweet.  It was so good that we ordered two rounds, and the server saw how much we liked it, he was nice enough to throw in extras!  I would go back for their oysters any day without a doubt.  The next day we had our Sunday brunch at Grand Cafe, the Frisee Aux Lardons, duck confit and wild mushroom scramble, and lobster sandwiches are items on their brunch menu.  Frisee Aux Lardons is a classic French bistro salad typically served with lettuce, bacon, croutons, and eggs.  Lardons mean pork fat in French.  Grand Cafe added a nice twist to this classic French bistro dish and used fried pork skin as croutons (for crunch), and shredded pork belly instead of bacon (more elegant), plus the perfect poached eggs.  The result was a heavenly salad, it was so tasty!  To me, it was the strongest dish out of the whole meal.  Unfortunately, the meal went down hill for me when I ordered the duck confit scramble.  The seasoning was bland, the duck confit was slightly dry, and the worst part, the scramble eggs were overcooked. They can poach a perfect egg, but cannot scramble, overcooked eggs are nightmares to me. I thought the lobster sandwich was just decent, but my bf liked it a lot, and I am more picky on average, so feel free to disregard my comment.  The one thing I didn't like about the lobster sandwich, was the bacon. I thought bacon and lobster is a bad combination, since bacon is salty, strong in taste, and lobsters are sweet, and mild.  Too much contrast? Therefore, I thought the bacon was overpowering the lobsters in the dish, while I was really looking to taste more lobsters than bacon.  Another meal we had at Grand Cafe was their regular breakfast menu. We had the Egg Benedict and salmon, cream cheese bagel.  Both were fantastic.  The eggs were perfectly poached as always, and the Hollandaise sauce was good, that's all you need for a good Eggs Benedict.  Their cured salmon were fresh and they are very generous with the portion.  I had many salmon and cream cheese bagel as lunch and breakfast in Europe, I mean it's basically three of my favorites in one, but the one from Grand Cafe is definitely one of the best I have ever had. 

The famous Clam Chowder @ Chowders

horrible crab cake @ Chowders

fish and chips @ Chowders

One of the meal we had near the fisherman wharf was at Chowders located at Pier 39.  Their famous dish is their clam chowder in sourdough bread bowl.  The chowders come in two types, white and red.  We only tried the white one this time, which turned out pretty good.  The only thing I didn't like about it was the texture, I thought it slightly snotty for my taste, but it has good flavors and loaded with clams and vegetables.  We also ordered the crab cake and fish and chips, both were disappointing, so please don't wast your calories on them.  Baltimore Lexington Market still has the best crab cake in my mind.

White Clam Chowder @ Fish

Red Clam Chowder @ Fish

Fish Taco @ Fish

Grilled Rainbow Trout @ Fish

One of the best meal we had on our trip was at Fish in Sausalito.  It was recommended by our server from Grand Cafe.  Fish is known for their fresh seafood and I can assure you their fish is FRESH! No question asked.  We had both white and red chowders, both were excellent.  I like Fish's white chowder more than Chowders.  It's really hard to pick between the white and red chowders at Fish, I would recommend getting both if possible, but if I can only order one, I might have to go with the red one.  It's tomatoes and vegetable based, but have lots of spice and a little kick;  it's unique but very good. After all, both chowders have well balanced flavors, perfect texture, and fresh ingredients.  For entree, we got the special of the day - grilled Rainbow Trout, which was simply fantastic.  The fish was fresh, tender and perfectly grilled, every part of the fish was delicious, and we ate the whole fish to the bone.  The fish taco, on the other side, was mediocre at best.  Next time, I would get their fish and chips instead, our neighbor ordered it, and it looked really good. 

Spaghetti and Meatballs @ Emmy's

Cod Stew @ Emmy's

We are such foodies that we were constantly on yelp digging out those hidden pearls.  Emmy's Spaghetti Shack was one of those we found on yelp.  Calling it a shack is the perfect description, Emmy's is a small restaurant near downtown San Francisco, you would probably miss it if you weren't specifically looking for it.  Their famous dish is spaghetti and meatballs, nice and simple right? Hey...the simplest thing is the hardest to do well.  I like Emmy's spaghetti and meatballs, the meatballs are huge and it has the perfect fat content in it, delivers the right tenderness.  However, the spaghetti are overcooked, I like my pasta cooked al dente, again simple but you will be surprise how many times I have been served overcooked pasta. The cod stew has really good seasoning to it, but after tasting fresh fish for lunch, it was recognizable that their fish is not as fresh.  Almost forgot to mention one thing, they have balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil for bread dipping, first time I have seen it since Italy. On top of the awesome dip, they had the right kind of bread for it too. You should have seen me, I wouldn't stop eating their bread.  I can eat that all day long!

Coming Up: Bellagio vs Paris @ Las Vegas

Grand Cafe @ San Fran

Chowders @ San Fran
Fish @ Sausalito
Emmy's @ San Fran

Bon Chon, Patzeria, Yakitori Taisho, Joe Shanghai @ NYC

Sorry, I have been neglecting this blog. Life has been really busy, but it will get better, I promise.
Overall the weekend, I have made my 4th trip to NYC this summer, once again trying to stuff more yummy food to feed my food baby.

Bon Chon

I know there is a Bon Chon 45 min away from my house, and yet I have never been there given that everyone around me have been raving about it. Coincidentally, our hotel in NY is two blocks away from K-town, so we figure, why not try out Bon Chon while we are here.
 

Mix Bon Chon Wings

After having my first Bon Chon, my impression was, why do people rave about it so much? Is it because people haven't had many Asian flavored wings before? I agree, Bon Chon wings are really crispy, but I thought Pollo Campero has pretty crispy fried chicken as well.  I do love chicken wings, probably one of my favorite food, I will eat it in any flavor, even just plain with salt, so I am not hating on Bon Chon, I just don't understand what's the hype?  I would eat Bon Chon again if I happen to be in the proximity, but definitely not going to wait in line, or call ahead to order and drive all the way to the store for pick-up. Like really? No.

Bul-go-gi Taco

While the wings were not up to our expectations, the Bul-go-gi taco, we thought were fantastic.  Love the spicy mayo with Korean BBQ flavored beef. Really glad we ordered it on top of the wings, and special thanks to the waiter for reassuring us on ordering the tacos, because we told him it's our first time at Bon Chon, and we weren't sure if ordering Tacos is a good idea, but he told us, he actually love the tacos more than the wings. I cannot agree more.

Sausage Pizza

Before catching Phantom, we wanted to grab something quick to eat.  After doing a quick search on yelp, we found this little hole in the wall Pizza Joint - Patzeria Perfect Pizza near the theater district.  90% of the shop is the kitchen, oven and register, there are only 4 stools in the shop and a short bar table.  When we first got there, the premade pizza on the display cabinet didn't look too appetizing at all.  But trust me, after they heat it up in the oven, you will find yourself with some toasty, crispy, Italian thin crust pizza with delicious toppings and melted cheese which you are going to have a hard time not to devour it in a short time.
   

Tomatoes and Basil Pizza

Haven't had really good pizza in a while, probably not since my trip to Italy. Highly recommend, will come back next time when I am in the theater district.

Chasyu Tonkotsu Ramen

I do admit, Yakitori Taisho is like my to-go place in Japanese Town. Even though the food is not extraordinary, but in terms of the variety of dishes and yakitori, affordable pricing, and the cheap draft Sapporo, I really can't complain. For the sake of blogging, I promise, next time I will try some place new.

Quick review on their Ramen, broth is good, the pork is good, my two complains, both equally important, I don't like their noodles and where's my egg? Yes, I know I can get the best ramen from Ippudo, but I don't want to wait 3 hours.

Combo A

I love getting this combo, because of the chicken gizzards and chicken skins.  One of the reasons why I like coming here is because of their yakitori, it's not as good as the old Sushi Taro's yakitori (omg, I don't want to get started on that), but I really don't know any other place in MD/DC that has affordable yakitori (Kushi is not affordable).  If only Sushi Taro still serves yakitori...(reminiscing the good old days)

Yaki Onigiri with eel

 Grilled rice ball with eel, pretty good, especially when it was hot.

Hokke Tei

Grilled Hokke, this was ... not good at all. I recommend grilled fish from Tempari. It's way better, so don't waste your money on this dish.

Sapporo

Joe's Shanghai @ Chinatown

Whenever I go to NYC, there are two places I always try to eat at (1) Otafuku in Japanese Town (best Takoyaki and yakisoba) and (2) Joe's Shanghai.  I have only been to the one in Chinatown, since it is one of the few good restaurants left in Chinatown. When I am in Flushing, I usually like to try somewhere new.
 

Chicken with noodle and peanut sauce

This is one of my favorite Shanghai dish, it's really good if prepared right. I was very disappointed that Joe's Shanghai did a poor job with this dish.  The noodles were too soft, and the sauce is lacking flavor, I will not order this dish again at Joe's Shanghai.

 

Soup Dumplings

This is a must at Joe's Shanghai, basically you don't have to order anything else, this is reason why they are famous, and why people come here. Definitely best soup dumplings I have ever had.  Of course, I have never  been to Dang Tai Fung or Shanghai.  One day, I will!

Coming Up: Probably Cafe Asia