Some of you may have stumbled upon this site.
Some of you that stumbled on this site may still frequently visit the site.
However, the lack in updates isn't because I haven't been going to food trucks (which is also true) but I've been toying with the idea of having my own domain name.
And thus I bring you this.... website. It's not the greatest nor does it have fancy design. I plan on doing more of what I'm doing here but incorporating other things that I also enjoy as well.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Just Food [4]
Re: Ramen Yamada
I like this place a lot. Every time I go, the broth has been consistently thick, creamy, and full of pork flavor. Sometimes the broth also imparts a more oily texture on my tongue while other times it does not. I’ve begun adding different flavors by adding different types of toppings like corn, bamboo shoots, onions, etc. The one topping that stands out the most is the menma (bamboo shoots). The menma imparts a kind of a sour vinegary yet earthy taste to the broth. I think this gives the broth a nice contrast at times.
Here are two more pictures of the awesome broth ramen.
The left picture is the Chasuu Tonkotsu Shoyuu broth with fried rice and chicken karaage combo. Shoyuu (soy sauce) is not my favorite type of broth. Unfortunately the time I went they ran out of everything except shoyuu and spicy miso. I’m not a fan of spicy miso either so I was disappointed. This broth tasted like a very light version of the Tonkotsu broth. It felt almost watered down but not quite. Its like the chef added more water to the leftover broth that they couldn’t get into because of the bones, meat, and fat thats in the way of them scooping it out.
The right picture is the Kakuni Tonkotsu Ramen broth. The pork belly kakuni wasn’t as good as the previous time. The meat was a bit tougher on this cut. The broth didn’t taste as oily this time to me. However maybe because it wasn’t as rich and oily, this broth didn’t seem like it tasted as good as my very first visit.
I like this place a lot. Every time I go, the broth has been consistently thick, creamy, and full of pork flavor. Sometimes the broth also imparts a more oily texture on my tongue while other times it does not. I’ve begun adding different flavors by adding different types of toppings like corn, bamboo shoots, onions, etc. The one topping that stands out the most is the menma (bamboo shoots). The menma imparts a kind of a sour vinegary yet earthy taste to the broth. I think this gives the broth a nice contrast at times.
Here are two more pictures of the awesome broth ramen.
The left picture is the Chasuu Tonkotsu Shoyuu broth with fried rice and chicken karaage combo. Shoyuu (soy sauce) is not my favorite type of broth. Unfortunately the time I went they ran out of everything except shoyuu and spicy miso. I’m not a fan of spicy miso either so I was disappointed. This broth tasted like a very light version of the Tonkotsu broth. It felt almost watered down but not quite. Its like the chef added more water to the leftover broth that they couldn’t get into because of the bones, meat, and fat thats in the way of them scooping it out.
The right picture is the Kakuni Tonkotsu Ramen broth. The pork belly kakuni wasn’t as good as the previous time. The meat was a bit tougher on this cut. The broth didn’t taste as oily this time to me. However maybe because it wasn’t as rich and oily, this broth didn’t seem like it tasted as good as my very first visit.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Gourmet Food Trucks (22)
Re: Global Soul Truck (facebook)
A new truck at Westchester First Fridays... A random person suggested that I try this truck. I was halfway to finishing the No Reservations Catering BBQ Sandwich special with Garlic Fries... so I didn’t finish the whole sandwich but I finished most of the fries.
Anyways, the dish I ordered was the “Shrimp Toastie.” Four cajun-spiced? pan-fried jumbo shrimps on top of french roll with a curry sauce. There is a drizzle of garlic chili oil as well which make me think the shrimp wasn’t really cajun-ish. But man this combination was really good. Despite being full I was tempted to order something else just to try their other dishes. If this shrimp dish is good who knows how good their other ones could be.
The jumbo shrimp tasted similar to those gourmet seafood restaurant shrimps that you get as an appetizer. It was cooked well. The shrimp rested on these french roll “plates.” They also drizzled some garlic chili oil which added some heat to the dish. The french roll that was soaked with this coconut curry sauce. I think its a green Thai curry that they used. But they said it was an Indian Madras curry base. I don’t know much about curry so I can’t really say. The french roll was slightly buttered (they said) but if they were... you couldn’t taste it over the curry sauce. The curry sauce is definitely something that is worth going back to. They could probably use that as the basis for another dish... its just THAT good.
Finally that garlic chili oil... damn good. They said they’ll be bottling it soon so I have to get my hands on a bottle.
Re: No Reservations Catering
I really hoped they offered their “heaven’s gate” grilled cheese. But apparently they were busy that they couldn’t prepare. Instead they had a the BBQ Beef sandwich.
The bread was too much. I ended up tossing half of it away. The BBQ sauce was pretty good. It had more of a citrus and sweet tart to the sauce instead of the traditional hickory smoke flavor or a Worcestershire flavor. I like this sauce since it didn’t taste really heavy.
A new truck at Westchester First Fridays... A random person suggested that I try this truck. I was halfway to finishing the No Reservations Catering BBQ Sandwich special with Garlic Fries... so I didn’t finish the whole sandwich but I finished most of the fries.
Anyways, the dish I ordered was the “Shrimp Toastie.” Four cajun-spiced? pan-fried jumbo shrimps on top of french roll with a curry sauce. There is a drizzle of garlic chili oil as well which make me think the shrimp wasn’t really cajun-ish. But man this combination was really good. Despite being full I was tempted to order something else just to try their other dishes. If this shrimp dish is good who knows how good their other ones could be.
The jumbo shrimp tasted similar to those gourmet seafood restaurant shrimps that you get as an appetizer. It was cooked well. The shrimp rested on these french roll “plates.” They also drizzled some garlic chili oil which added some heat to the dish. The french roll that was soaked with this coconut curry sauce. I think its a green Thai curry that they used. But they said it was an Indian Madras curry base. I don’t know much about curry so I can’t really say. The french roll was slightly buttered (they said) but if they were... you couldn’t taste it over the curry sauce. The curry sauce is definitely something that is worth going back to. They could probably use that as the basis for another dish... its just THAT good.
Finally that garlic chili oil... damn good. They said they’ll be bottling it soon so I have to get my hands on a bottle.
Re: No Reservations Catering
I really hoped they offered their “heaven’s gate” grilled cheese. But apparently they were busy that they couldn’t prepare. Instead they had a the BBQ Beef sandwich.
The bread was too much. I ended up tossing half of it away. The BBQ sauce was pretty good. It had more of a citrus and sweet tart to the sauce instead of the traditional hickory smoke flavor or a Worcestershire flavor. I like this sauce since it didn’t taste really heavy.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Just Food [3]
Re: Ramen Jinya
As I mentioned in the previous post, ramen is one of my favorite type of food. The combination of pork broth with noodles and sliced pork, bamboo shoots (menma), chopped onions, and hard boiled egg is just too good to pass up any day of the week.
Ramen Jinya was recommended to me almost two years ago. But the only location was in Studio City. I didn’t want to trek to Studio City on a weekday since traffic is always horrible in LA. I also never really found an excuse to go to Studio City until recently.
Now... THIS....
This is one awesome bowl of ramen. Its a pork tonkatsu broth base. The broth was flavorful and surprisingly neither too salty NOR too oily. The broth has a very light taste. It didn’t taste rich like Ramen Yamada (which was oily in comparison to this one) but it maintained its flavor very well. Honestly, I couldn’t get enough of this broth. I had to stop myself from finishing the broth before finishing the rest of the ramen, spinach, chashu, chopped onions. The chashu was very soft and tender. There cut of meat was pretty lean. I don’t mind lean cut but I think ramen requires fatty pork belly to taste good. I also wish they added more than just a few obligatory bamboo shoots. I find the bamboo shoots and chopped onions changes the flavor of the broth temporarily. Ramen Jinya also added some spinach into the mix.
The chicken karaage had this ponzu sauce that tasted very good. The chicken itself tastes similar to how other Japanese restaurants make the dish. I wish they would put the ponzu sauce aside as a dipping sauce instead of pouring it on the chicken. I think it would taste much better to continually dip it after each bite.
As I mentioned in the previous post, ramen is one of my favorite type of food. The combination of pork broth with noodles and sliced pork, bamboo shoots (menma), chopped onions, and hard boiled egg is just too good to pass up any day of the week.
Ramen Jinya was recommended to me almost two years ago. But the only location was in Studio City. I didn’t want to trek to Studio City on a weekday since traffic is always horrible in LA. I also never really found an excuse to go to Studio City until recently.
- The broth is always the first thing I taste. I always ask myself:
- Is the broth flavorful?
- Can I taste the pork (if its a pork based)?
- Can I see the tiny white bits of floating marrow?
- What else can I taste? Garlic? Onions? Sesame?
- Are the noodles chewy?
- How are the toppings (corn, bamboo shoots, spinach, chopped onions, seaweed)?
- Do they complement the broth or the noodles or each other?
Now... THIS....
This is one awesome bowl of ramen. Its a pork tonkatsu broth base. The broth was flavorful and surprisingly neither too salty NOR too oily. The broth has a very light taste. It didn’t taste rich like Ramen Yamada (which was oily in comparison to this one) but it maintained its flavor very well. Honestly, I couldn’t get enough of this broth. I had to stop myself from finishing the broth before finishing the rest of the ramen, spinach, chashu, chopped onions. The chashu was very soft and tender. There cut of meat was pretty lean. I don’t mind lean cut but I think ramen requires fatty pork belly to taste good. I also wish they added more than just a few obligatory bamboo shoots. I find the bamboo shoots and chopped onions changes the flavor of the broth temporarily. Ramen Jinya also added some spinach into the mix.
The chicken karaage had this ponzu sauce that tasted very good. The chicken itself tastes similar to how other Japanese restaurants make the dish. I wish they would put the ponzu sauce aside as a dipping sauce instead of pouring it on the chicken. I think it would taste much better to continually dip it after each bite.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Gourmet Food Trucks (21)
The fourth Santa Anita Food Truck Festival arrived on the first weekend of October. From the website, there were up to 60 trucks listed. Of the 60 trucks, I had already tried 35 of them. Actually... two of the trucks are old re-branded Calbi trucks (Short Rib Tacos and New York Galbi) so in reality, 58 trucks.
Re: Almoosal
I went in to this fourth festival with the intention of only eating at new trucks. The first truck on the alphabetical list was Almoosal. They serve Filipino fusion food. At the festival they served pork tocino, beef tapa and hawaiin pork sausage longazaino. I probably mispelled all of them but they don’t have a menu for me to reference! I had the sausage sandwich. It came with sweet potato fries and a garlic sauce. The sausage sandwich was pretty good. The Hawaiian sweet bread, arugula, tomato, onions and a garlic aioli sauce went pretty well with the sausage.
The sweet potato fries were very good with the garlic sauce. The fries were fried just right. The sweetness of the fries went well with the garlic sauce. The sauce reminds me of the Athena Grill garlic sauce.
Re: Asian Cravings
Next on the list was this truck. This is an asian fusion truck. I saw that they had pork tacos so I ordered those. These pork tacos by themselves are pretty simple. They put shredded pulled pork with pickled cabbage. To make the tacos “asian fusion,” they added a nice ginger sauce to the top. The tacos themselves are pretty standard. The only thing they didn’t do was to add shredded cheese which is good since not everything has to have cheese on it (a la Calbi and Kogi truck).
The pork was juicy but it lacked “asian” flavor. The cabbages added a nice sourness and crunch to the taco. The ginger sauce was very good. It brought the ingredients together. However, I really think that they could have done more to meld the ingredients together. Individually, each of the ingredients were bland. The pork was not seasoned. The cabbage tasted like they were pickled but again nothing stood out from the pickling process. Only the ginger sauce tasted good and that taste brought out most of the flavor from the pork and cabbage.
They have other items which would be interesting to try. Hopefully their other tacos are better.
Re: VChos
Pupusas for those that might not know are very similar to the Tex-Mex quesadillas. The main difference that I see is that quesadillas sandwich the ingredients (cheese, meat, salsa) while the pupusas are slightly thicker (like a pita bread) and have the ingredients already mixed (or stuffed?) into the bread. I had the pork, bean and cheese pupusa.
The container contained some spicy sauce which by itself would have been great with the pupusa. But it also had cabbage mixed in which really ruined it for me. I took two bites and tossed it. The pupusa came out hot and freshly made. It was a bit hard trying to cut it into manageable bite sized pieces with one hand but I managed.
I tasted the beans and the cheese... but I didn’t really get a lot of pork. The pork flavor was there which leads me to believe there was pork in the mix. Maybe it was mixed into the bean and cheese? I don’t know. I think it was good and for the price is pretty reasonable for the amount of food you get. This is one truck that’s worth going back to. Apparently they have a pretty good chicken pastelito -- stuffed chicken pockets.
Re: Almoosal
I went in to this fourth festival with the intention of only eating at new trucks. The first truck on the alphabetical list was Almoosal. They serve Filipino fusion food. At the festival they served pork tocino, beef tapa and hawaiin pork sausage longazaino. I probably mispelled all of them but they don’t have a menu for me to reference! I had the sausage sandwich. It came with sweet potato fries and a garlic sauce. The sausage sandwich was pretty good. The Hawaiian sweet bread, arugula, tomato, onions and a garlic aioli sauce went pretty well with the sausage.
The sweet potato fries were very good with the garlic sauce. The fries were fried just right. The sweetness of the fries went well with the garlic sauce. The sauce reminds me of the Athena Grill garlic sauce.
Re: Asian Cravings
Next on the list was this truck. This is an asian fusion truck. I saw that they had pork tacos so I ordered those. These pork tacos by themselves are pretty simple. They put shredded pulled pork with pickled cabbage. To make the tacos “asian fusion,” they added a nice ginger sauce to the top. The tacos themselves are pretty standard. The only thing they didn’t do was to add shredded cheese which is good since not everything has to have cheese on it (a la Calbi and Kogi truck).
The pork was juicy but it lacked “asian” flavor. The cabbages added a nice sourness and crunch to the taco. The ginger sauce was very good. It brought the ingredients together. However, I really think that they could have done more to meld the ingredients together. Individually, each of the ingredients were bland. The pork was not seasoned. The cabbage tasted like they were pickled but again nothing stood out from the pickling process. Only the ginger sauce tasted good and that taste brought out most of the flavor from the pork and cabbage.
They have other items which would be interesting to try. Hopefully their other tacos are better.
Re: VChos
Pupusas for those that might not know are very similar to the Tex-Mex quesadillas. The main difference that I see is that quesadillas sandwich the ingredients (cheese, meat, salsa) while the pupusas are slightly thicker (like a pita bread) and have the ingredients already mixed (or stuffed?) into the bread. I had the pork, bean and cheese pupusa.
The container contained some spicy sauce which by itself would have been great with the pupusa. But it also had cabbage mixed in which really ruined it for me. I took two bites and tossed it. The pupusa came out hot and freshly made. It was a bit hard trying to cut it into manageable bite sized pieces with one hand but I managed.
I tasted the beans and the cheese... but I didn’t really get a lot of pork. The pork flavor was there which leads me to believe there was pork in the mix. Maybe it was mixed into the bean and cheese? I don’t know. I think it was good and for the price is pretty reasonable for the amount of food you get. This is one truck that’s worth going back to. Apparently they have a pretty good chicken pastelito -- stuffed chicken pockets.
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