Ohh boy it’s been two months. Here I thought that being free at home would make me more inclined to update my blog—clearly not. I actually haven’t been cooking or baking at all. I have, however, been eating out a lot, but I’ve been a poor photographer and neglected to bring my camera along on many of my eating excursions. I guess I just have an excuse to return to the places I’ve enjoyed so that I can gather some visual evidence.
I suppose I’ll start with my run with Anime Expo, a large convention dedicated to Japanese animation. Being the huge dork that I am, I attend this convention annually, and for the past couple of years, I’ve been staying with my friend at her place in Arcadia, which actually isn’t any closer than my house to the Los Angeles Convention center, but is a far more convenient drive. Arcadia houses delicious food.And by delicious, I mean DELICIOUS.
I took my first trip to Tea Station…and the next day, my second. There will be many more trips. Tea Station is a chain café kind of place that specializes in, as the name indicates, tea. Their drinks are superb. My first drink there was an iced rose milk tea with boba. (Boba goes by many names: tapioca pearls, bubble tea, squishy black things, etc. It originated in Taiwan, and it enhances pretty much every drink, even though it looks kind of scary. If you’ve ever seen someone with a drink that has a mass of black stuff at the bottom, it’s probably boba.) The rose milk tea singlehandedly placed Tea Station at the top of my list of good drink places. I don’t care if it was actually a rose tea base or some plain black tea base with rose syrup, but it was so good. I’ve had rose milk tea in other places, but there is no comparison. I say it’s a must-try. The next day I got a lavender milk tea and sweet potato balls. The sweet potato was interesting; it was deep fried, and mixed with rice flour, I think, since it had an extremely unusual texture. It was kind of soft yet chewy. As my Taiwanese friend says, Taiwanese people love their chewy stuff. The lavender milk tea was good, and I also sampled a white peach oolong tea, which was also good, but I think the rose is hard, if not impossible, to beat. I recommend everyone try it out. Just be warned: for a drink place, it’s a tad pricy. But the price is totally worth it.
I also went to Din Tai Fung, a fantastic dim sum chain with restaurants located all over the world…sort of. The one in Arcadia is always packed; the wait time averages an hour. But it’s well-worth the wait. Not that I’ve been to many places, but their xiao long bao is the best I’ve had. Xiao long bao is a steamed dumpling with broth inside. I’ve tried both crab and pork in the past, but I much prefer pork, which, I think, is more standard? I’m amazed at how chefs can make the skins so thin yet strong enough to hold in the hot, soupy goodness. Aside from the xiao long bao, everything else is pretty tasty as well. Din Tai Fung, also very much recommended.
I tried Roscoe’s House of Chicken ’n Waffles for the first time. Though I’ve lived in the greater Los Angeles area pretty much my whole life, I hadn’t been to this landmark restaurant until earlier this month. Like everyone, I scoffed at the idea of eating fried chicken with waffles. Like everyone, I was taught that chicken and waffles are no scoffing matter. Although I’m not on the bandwagon saying that Roscoe’s is so amazingly awesome, I think it’s pretty darn good. And it’s open late! The crispy chicken and spongy waffle mixed in with the sweet of syrup makes for an interesting experience for one’s palate. It’s sort of similar to having bacon with your pancakes, just significantly meatier. I just got the Carol C. Special, which is one chicken breast and one waffle, and I was pretty stuffed after. I’m astounded that people can eat significantly more than that, as in half a chicken plus multiple waffles. That would feed me for days. Anyway, if you haven’t been to Roscoe’s, I recommend it simply for the reputation. A place doesn’t just conjure a reputation out of nothing. I’d definitely go back.
Aside from going to nice restaurant chains that killed my pocket money, I also got back in touch with my childhood during my time in Arcadia and at Los Angeles convention center. I was in a scorching line, so I bought a classic Ninja Turtle ice cream-type thing from an ice cream cart outside. The artificial lime flavor and super sugary gumball eyes definitely cooled me down. I was definitely much happier after consuming my cold reptile friend.
NINJA TURTLES!!!
I went on a Lunchables overdose. Since my friends and I didn’t want to spend abhorrent amounts of money on mediocre convention food, we picked up the most convenient lunches from the grocery store. I think I’ll pass on any kind of Lunchables for the next couple years of my life. I don’t recall them being so salty, but maybe as a kid, I just had no sense of what was considered way too much sodium.
Anyway, this concludes my eating experiences from July 1-July 4. More about other foods and other times later.
Yogurt Delite makes me happy. It's a fairly inexpensive frozen yogurt place that has been around for what seems like forever, long before all the Pinkberrys and Yogurtlands started cropping up everywhere. They have a decent variety of flavors, and their yogurt has good texture and good taste. And they have a stamp card! Also, although I wouldn't say the view from the shop is breathtaking or that the ambiance is particularly noteworthy, there's something about sitting out front, chatting with friends on a warm summer night, and watching the cars pass through the intersection of Shoup and Ventura.
