Last Christmas I was fortunate enough to have been able to fly out to Los Angeles for a week to spend the holidays with my favourite Aunt and Uncle! And since I didn’t have much time I had to pick and choose where I will eat. A.O.C, Foundry, Izakaya Fuga were all out because we didn’t have much time. We also did not get to drive up to San Francisco because my aunt had deadlines. But all in all, the foodie in me was in culinary heaven.
First stop: Jollibee! While I don’t have pictures of my chicken joy and spaghetti, Jolibee is my childhood. And when my aunt asked me where I wanted to eat the night I flew into LAX, all I could think of was JOLLIBEE!!!!! Nonetheless, biting into that crispy and juicy piece of chicken, brought me back home. And the taste of the sweet red food colouring rich spaghetti sauce reminded me of my cousin’s 7th birthday party. LOL
Noodle World. Again, no pictures!!!! My good friend, Kuya Joe and I had lunch at Noodle World. I had the Penang Beef Curry (SOOO YUM!) while Kuya had the Beef Steak, we both shared a plate of Chicken Lettuce Wraps and Crispy Noodle Chow Mein. Yes, this meal had food coma written all over it. My aunt made a good recommendation with this place. I have become wary of her ideal places to eat, due to a bad experience at Bottega Louis — I don’t care how hip it’s supposed to be, my food was not exceptional! I still miss the Penang Beef Curry to this day.
Venice Beach Ale House. I had the quesadilla. It was quesadilla. My aunt enjoyed her tuna melt and my uncle liked his burger. I chose this place because they had 80 beers on tap!!! 80 CRAFT BEERS ON TAP!!!! I had the skate of beers!
Bazaar by Chef Jose Andres. It’s probably the closest thing I will ever get to eating at El Bulli. It was fantastic! Although, my uncle will not agree with me. He does agree though that it was interesting, and has recently told me that he has been telling his friends about his experience at Bazaar. But between you and I, I don’t think I can ever twist his arm to ever going back at Bazaar with me! LOL
And the best part of Bazaar?! The Magic Mojitos!!!! I loved this part!!!!
Osteria Mozza. Another place my uncle didn’t quite enjoy, only because he couldn’t get the meatballs that Mozza (sister restaurant next door) has on their menu. We were under the impression that we can get the meatballs al forno from Mozza even if we are at Osteria, I mean after all it’s just next door! I was kind of disappointed that they insisted on the 3 course menu that they have “planned” for all of their diners. Why can’t they just give us our food all at the same time?! We got a really late reservation so at 9:30 PM and being sat at 10 PM, there was no way we were gonna eat a 3 course menu. But nonetheless, the food was good. Again, for my taste! LOL I have horrible food pictures at Osteria Mozza, please pardon me! I was too excited to eat!!!
Din Tai Fung. Again, no pictures. LOL The best dim sum place I’ve been to in LA so far. No carts. You check off a sheet of paper with all the dim sum stuff and your server brings out your dim sum plates! Each plate or steamer is about 10 pcs of yummy dim sum! I wanted the Truffle dim sum, but it was 21 dollars. HAHA I should’ve just gotten it because I paid for this meal!!!! It’s all house made dim sum down to the wrappers. You can even watch them roll out the wrappers!!! We had the House Made Beef Noodle Soup (I was craving ramen, and this was as close as I can get), Juicy Pork Dumplings, Shrimp and Pork Shao Mai (siomai, shui mai) and my favourite Red Bean Dumplings!!! The dumplings were all good. I thought that we should’ve ordered the Vegetable Dumplings — we had way too much pork going on. The red bean dumplings were so good I ordered some to go to take on the plane with me — it didn’t make it to the plane. It didn’t even make it to the airport. It was gone as we were exiting the freeway. LOL The soup was so-so, it could’ve used a little bit more flavours. There was an 1 1/2 hour wait when I went. I highly recommend getting on the wait list and then roaming around the Americana while you wait!
Whew! The best part of all of this is when I got home and weighed myself, I didn’t gain a single pound!!! WAHAHAHAHA
— Check out the websites below for more information on the restaurants mentioned on this post!
Jollibee: http://www.jollibee.com.ph
Noodle World: http://www.noodleworld.com
Venice Beach Ale House: http://www.venicealehouse.com
Bazaar by Jose Andres: http://www.thebazaar.com
Osteria Mozza: http://www.osteriamozza.com
Din Tai Fung: http://www.dintaifungusa.com
Leave a Reply