Friday, December 28, 2012

Tar & Roses

Location:

Santa Monica, CA 90401

Link(s):

Visit Information:

Once on November 2012.

Impression:

Good vibe. We were seated at the half-open courtyard where we could see people passing though the tiled glass wall. The menu had some interesting ingredient choices especially for meat options.

Picture(s):

Popped Corn / crisp bacon / brown sugar / chili

I have tried bacon popped corn before and the addition of brown sugar and chili made this even better. It was salty, sweet, and mildly spicy - dangerously good as I could just keep snacking it.

Crispy Pig Ears / saffron aioli / lemon

Another good snack. It had a nice texture of being crispy on the outside and meaty in the inside. Be warned that it was a bit jellylike inside. I happened to like pig ears, but my spouse who doesn't usually care for them because of their texture also liked this dish.

Oxtail dumpling / san bai su / sriracha /green onion

Does it surprise you that I also like oxtail? My favorite is oxtail soup. This was good and obviously Asian influenced. I don't know if the oxtail really made a big difference, but it was really tender.

Bone Marrow / onion marmalade / sea salt / sourdough

This is really the restaurant for me. Now that foie gras is illegal in California (sigh), I'll have to make do with bone marrow for my yummy fat. I used to only find bone marrow in ossobuco, but nowadays it has branched out to other dishes. The sourdough and marmalade helped to temper the fattiness of the yummy marrow.

Squid Ink Tagliatelle and Octopus / blistered tomato / breadcrumb

The octopus was nicely cooked. I think the ink added seafood taste to the tagliatelle, but I might be reaching. I also liked the blistered tomatoes as it made them sweeter.

Strawberry Ricotta Crostata / honeycomb ice cream

Nice sweet pastry dessert. Pastry makes everything better and who doesn't like honey ice cream?

Arborio Rice Pudding / brown butter pear / candied walnuts

If you like rice pudding, you'll like this. My spouse did. I am not really into rice pudding, but I liked the pears.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Manhattan Beach Post

Location:

Manhattan Beach, CA 90266

Link(s):

Visit Information:

Once on May 2012.

Impression:

The place has a cheerful busy atmosphere. The food is in no nonsense home style cooking with what looks to be seasonal produce. The menu is interesting that it just lists the ingredients.

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Bundaberg Root Beer and Guava Soda

I like trying unique sodas and these were pretty good.

Bacon Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits

It came with maple butter. Biscuits with bacon and cheese. What's not to like?

Nueske's Bacon

My spouse and I decided to also get the bacon in its own glory. These were cooked along with rosemary, brown sugar and chili. One of a kind.

Blueberry Lemon Skillet Cake

Just like eating dessert for breakfast. I needed to used a lot of the vanilla maple syrup that came with it as I preferred it really moist but it was good even without it.

Truffle Honey Laced Fried Chicken

I had high hope for this. It was good but I was a bit surprised that this was not my favorite. The kholrabi slaw that came with it was not disappointing either for vegetable.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Singapore: Lei Garden

Location:

Orchard Shopping Centre, Singapore

Link(s):

Visit Information:

During vacation on June 2012.

Impression:

It looks like a typical higher class Chinese restaurant complete with its tanks of fresh seafood. If you have never been to one, it's clean and nice looking. The black pepper crab is really good.

Picture(s):

Fish soup

The waiter was really pushing for this. She is right as it's really good. It's as good as the one we had in Indonesia just the week before. I thought it was neat that they tied the vermicelli noodle in the soup as it made it easier to eat.

Black pepper crab with vermicelli

This is definitely the star for us. We consider black pepper and chili crab as must try dishes in Singapore. The vermicelli under the crab was soaked with the juice. We thought we wouldn't be able to finish it. I even said to my spouse not to worry of running out vermicelli only to found out almost right away that it was almost all gone. The slight dink on this dish was the type of crab itself. We had this problem in Indonesia too. The crab was refusing to let go of its meat compared to dungeness crab.

Honey and young ginger chicken

I might not get the name right, but no worries, it's actually sweet and sour chicken. Even the waiter called it that way later on. We were disappointed. Don't get me wrong. It's good, but it's nothing compared to the other two, and it's just hard to get excited over sweet and sour chicken.

It was explained to us as a triple mango dessert. A piece of mango inside mango pudding covered with mango mochi then dusted with coconut. I love mango and this is a good version of mango dessert that I previously have never tried.

Killer Shrimp

Location:

Marina del Rey, CA 90292

Link(s):

Visit Information:

Regularly with last visit on July 2012.

Impression:

We used to come here when it was a hole in the wall on Washington Boulevard. We were sad when it was closed. We found out recently that it was reopened in a new location that looks way nicer. More importantly, the food is still as yummy. Definitely try the signature dish Killer Shrimp with French bread for dipping.

Picture(s):

Yummy shrimps in their own original Cajun style soup. It's mildly spicy for me (be warned that I can eat spicy food). We always choose to de-shell the shrimps ourselves as it's part of the experience.

I love bread. And I love dunking them in soup. What else do you need?