Shucks Oyster Bar

May 10, 2013 admin 2 Comments

Shucks Oyster Bar-Costa Mesa, CA. Located in the trendy center in Costa Mesa right off the 405 off South Coast Drive. Wanted to test out if oysters were really an aphrodisiac. Shucks has a very friendly and informative staff. They have a board of about 50 different raw oysters they offer with about 15 available each day. The staff can tell you characteristics of each oyster. You can dress your raw oysters with different topping ranging from homemade hot sauce, pickled cucumbers, horse radish and lemon. They also have cooked dishes ranging from grilled cheese, clam chowder, clams and fried oysters. Their selection of oysters including East Beach Blonde, Naked Cowboy and grilled cheese are delicious. Love, Peace and Oyster grease.

Grilled Cheese

Clam Chowder

Toppings: Hot Sauce, Pickled Onions and Cucumbers and Horseradish

Oysters: Hamma Hamma, East Beach Blonde and Naked Cowboy

Kusshi and Stingray

Food Trucks-Lime Truck and Soho Truck

May 9, 2013 admin Leave a comment

Decided to check out some food trucks for lunch. Went to the Lime Truck and Soho Truck. Both are high quality food trucks offering great food with fresh ingredients. The Lime Truck won Tyler Florence’s Great Food Truck Race season 1 show. It is also run by the owner of The Playground in Downtown Santa Ana (one of my favorite restaurants). The Soho Truck offers gourmet tacos and other offerings with protein ranging from carne asada, pollo asada, al pastor, shrimp, salmon, fish and calamari with a plethora of sauces and salsas. There tortillas are also handmade and thicker than normal premade tacos. I tried a pork rib quesadilla, calamari taco and carne asada taco. It was good and now I need to head to the gym. Love, peace and Carne Asada grease.

Urban Seoul-Korean Fusion

April 8, 2013 admin 2 Comments

Urban Seoul-Irvine, CA. Urban Seoul is located in Irvine in the Diamond Jamboree plaza. It is a Korean Fusion restaurant that is decently priced and also has beer on tap. Most of the dishes are Korean Fusion dishes or Korean street food with a twist. There are a lot of unique dishes and flavors including tacos, arepas, tortas or fries to name a few. Some dishes may seem salty but that is common among Korean fusion dishes containing marinated meat such as Kalbi or Bulgogi. They have a wide selection of different dishes with different korean meats. My recommendations are the Urban 3D which is their version of Bibimbap, Kalbi burger, Korean Pancake quesadilla, loaded fries and Chorizo fried rice. They also have a multitude of sauces so be sure to try all of them or ask for a side of them. This is a great place to get your Korean fix at reasonable prices and even to grab a beer. Love Peace and Kalbi Grease.

Gogi Tacos

Loaded Fries

Korean Pancake Quesadilla

Gogi Slider

Short Rib Arepas

Chorizo Fried Rice

Kalbi Burger

Chicken Lollipops

Urban 3B (Bibimbap)

El Coraloense C O Leonardo’s Cevice Co.-Super Ceviche

March 25, 2013 admin Leave a comment

El Coraloense C O Leonardo’s Cevice Co.-Bell Gardens, CA. Wow that is a long name, say that three times fast. I love finding these family owned gems. They have an extensive menu including seafood entrees, tacos, empanadas but they are famous for their ceviche. Their mango shrimp ceviche w/ spicy cream sauce is their most popular. This place definitely delivers on flavor. This family owned hole in the wall restaurant knocks it out of the park. Plus they give you free tostadas and salsa to munch on which are very good. Love peace and tostada grease!

Sushi Murasaki-Omakase

March 18, 2013 admin Leave a comment

Sushi Murasaki-Omakase-Santa Ana, CA. Went to get some Omakase sushi from Sushi Murasaki. Very impressed by the high quality of sushi. Sushi Murasaki has been in business for 6 years. They also currently run lunch specials and a Saturday 30% off omakase as well as have 10% off if you pay cash. Normally don’t see these types of deals at a such a high end sushi restaurant, but I am definitely not complaining. They also have some very unique dishes and rolls including a Seabass with Shishito pepper oil, seared black cod sushi, Blue crab roll with Masago infused with Habanero and Grilled Squid with Monkfish Liver sauce. The best tasting would have to go to Bluefin Tuna, Kanpachi, Seabass with Shishito oil, Toro, Yellowtail belly , Seared black cod and Uni. Will definitely go back for some more buttery yellowtail belly, toro and seared black cod. Love, Peace and Shishito grease.

Bluefin Tuna-beautiful cut

Kanpachi

Seabass with Shishito Oil-Very unique flavor with the Shishito pepper oil

Seared Black Cod-Melts in your mouth

Yellowtail Belly-so buttery

Aji

Amaebi-Sweet Shrimp

Toro-Need I say more

Grilled Squid with Monk Liver Sauce

Uni-this could be the best uni I have had

Blue crab roll with Habanero infused masago-Never had this for and it had a huge kick from the Habanero

Hawaiian Poke with Ponzu Salsa

Halibut

Fried Shrimp Head

Miso Soup with Shrimp

Shishito Peppers stuffed with Spicy Tuna

Mackarel

Siam Taste of Asia-Santa Ana, CA

March 1, 2013 admin Leave a comment

Siam Taste of Asia-Santa Ana, CA. Siam Taste of Asia is a small family owned and run, sit down restaurant in Santa Ana. This isn’t a Thai take out restaurant, it is an actual nice cozy sit down restaurant with a homely decor. The owner is very sweet and will talk to you. They have some great Thai Food some of the best I have had in the states sinMy favorite are the Fried Garlic Tofu and the Fried Chilean Sea Bass w/ Thai Green Curry. The Fried Garlic Tofu might be the best tofu that has ever entered my mouth. But the Spicy Beef Salad, Papaya Salad, Pad See Eew and Pad Thai are also delicious. Love Peace and Fried Garlic Tofu Grease!

Kirimachi Ramen-San Francisco, CA

February 27, 2013 admin Leave a comment

So whenever I travel I am always down to try new Ramen places. I am always in search of the best ramen. I still think in the states Southern California has the best ramen hands down. I wanted to try Kirimachi Ramen because it was rated one of the top 7 ramen spots in SF. This is a family owned place with only one cook and one waitress when we visited. The Ramen was good, nice broth and very good soft boiled egg. The noodles tasted mediocre to me. I did enjoy the chicken karage. I still say SoCal has a lot of better ramen spots, but that is just me. Love, Peace and Tonkatsu Ramen Grease.

Commonwealth-San Francisco

February 20, 2013 admin 1 Comment

Commonwealth-San Francisco. So this weekend I went on a road trip to the Bay Area. One of my friends really wanted to try this restaurant and was denied the chance last visit. So we decided to try Chef Jason Fox’s Modern Progressive American restaurant. Commonwealth provides a fine dining experience at a rather affordable price. The quality of food and service is very high at a fraction of the price of most high end restaurants in San Francisco. One unique thing is he donates $10.00 for every tasting menu that is ordered. This was a great dining experience with some unique and creative items and flavor combinations that you won’t see anywhere else. His presentation is also very beautiful and refined. This was a great dining experience for a fun impromptu trip to Frisco. If you love unique food experiences Commonwealth won’t disappoint. Love Peace and Pork Jowl grease!

Homemade Potato Chips with a malt vinegar mousse

Japanese Rice Beer

Black Cod steamed over ginger snaps, parsnips, charred rapini, mint and rau ram

Pickled Herring, chicken skin bread crumbs, fennel, currant, beet miso puree and dill

Root vegetables cooked in ash, brussel sprouts, shittake onion jus and truffle froth

Cedar grilled mussels, pork belly, broccoli bread pudding, celery root, saffron and cured egg-the broccoli bread pudding was very interesting this dish was very good.

warm oxtail terrine, whipped bone marrow, shaved root vegetable and arugula emulsion-This was my favorite dish presentation wise and that whipped bone marrow was amazing. I wanted a bowl of it to just eat it as a soup.

Pork Jowl, Blood Orange, Rutabaga, Sweet potato cooked in duck fat and tarragon

Peanut Butter Semifreddo with frozen popcorn- which I would describe as an Ice Cream Chocolate bar with a Popcorn cottage cheese. The dish sounds weird and I am not a big fan of peanut butter but it was delicious. The frozen pop corn which has the consistency of a cottage cheese was also very interesting but also worked together with the other flavor components. A very unique dish!

Tea

Sugar

Bay Cities Italian Deli

February 17, 2013 admin Leave a comment

Bay Cities Italian Deli and Bakery-Santa Monica. Bay Cities is a must have when traveling to Santa Monica. They have a famous sandwich called the Godmother which consists of genoa salami, coppacolla, ham, mortadella and prosciutto and provolone with Italian dressing and hot or mild pepper salad. It is to die for. They have a full Italian market and bakery with hot food ranging from pastas, marinated olives, salads antipasti, Mac & cheese, meats and cheese.

Picca-High End Peruvian

February 5, 2013 admin 20 Comments

Picca-Los Angeles, CA is a high end Peruvian restaurant with Japanese flair. Picca which means “to nibble” is owned by Chef Ricardo Zarate. Ricardo won Food & Wine magazine’s best new chef award. Picca’s menu is tapas style which is small dishes that are meant to be shared. When you enter Picca you immediately see the open aired kitchen and two level restaurant with a large amount of seating. They seem to pretty much fill up every night. Ricardo has a very innovative and creative menu reinventing many Peruvian favorites and mixing them with elements never seen before. Almost every dish I tried was delicious. Their menu is so extensive, I would definitely want to go back to try many of Picca’s other offerings. I cheers to you Ricardo Zarate for your fearless ambition towards innovation. Love Peace and Quinoa Fried Chicken Grease.