Washington D.C. and NYC Favorites - Part 2

East Village/St. Mark's - Ippudo Special Ramen

East Village - Momofuku Milk Bar Crack Pie

East Village - Momofuku Milk Bar Compost Cookie (top left), Cornflake and Marshmallow (top right), and Blueberry Cream (bottom right)

53rd and 6th Halal Cart - Combo Rice

East Village - Otafuku Takoyaki (top) and Okonomiyaki (bottom)

Washington D.C. and NYC Favorites - Part 1

Washington D.C. - Teaism Salty Oatmeal Cookie

Washington D.C. - Ben's Chili Bowl Half Smoke

Upper West Side - Levain Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

Midtown West - Kyotofu (clockwise from top) Housemade mango, blueberry, and jasmine green tea sorbet; Signature Sweet Tofu, Japanese Green Tea Fudge, Strawberry Shortcake, Green Tea Creme Brulee

Midtown West - Kyotofu Green Tea Brownie and Black Sesame Soft Serve

March in Review

1. Making chong yao bang (green onion pancakes) with Garrett.

I have better pictures, but I'm too lazy to upload them here. Garrett says it didn't taste quite right; it could be because didn't actually use green onion, or because we didn't use lard or tons of oil, or because we used the wrong kind of flour. We'll try it again.

2. Din Tai Fung with Elizabeth.

Elizabeth and I had a long drive to and from Santa Clarita, so it was great when Elizabeth though of stopping by Din Tai Fung in Arcadia for dinner. I'd never eaten there before, but I had heard all sorts of good things. We ordered crab and pork siu long bao and Shanghai pan-fried noodles. Both were pretty tasty, but I thought it was a little bit too long of a wait and slightly overpriced. But still, it was fun to hang out with Elizabeth.

3. Late-night pho with ROCK.

We've been trying to resurrect our Friday-night ROCK hangouts after fellowship. I missed the 85 C expedition, but I did join the ROCKers for late-night pho. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant (Pho Vynh Ky) off Brookhurst and Hazard in Little Saigon and ate half-priced bowls of pho. According to Daniel, the discount makes it taste better. They need to bottle that and sell it at Chinese grocery stores.

4. Mitsuwa festival booths with ROCK.

We're not sure what was going on (Spring Picnic Fair, perhaps?), but for some reason they had a bunch of different booths with Costco-like samples. The first one we came to was a teppan table where they were making fresh yakisoba. We couldn't resist. They also had someone making fresh mochi and gyoza. I wish they had that every week. I think a week or two later, we were back at Mitsuwa for ramen and curry. I was nearly seduced by a tempting custard bun. Pat me on the back; I resisted temptation.

5. Five Guys with Aryn and Sam.

Strangely, I have no pictures of the burgers, nor of Steven, Sam, or myself. But this picture of Aryn is too pretty to pass up. Sam and I were looking for "real food," as he calls it, in a location between my house and Aryn's. Despite the fact that we had all eaten pretty late and weren't that hungry, we decided to meet at Five Guys in Cerritos. I'd only heard Justin mention Five Guys, but I didn't really known anything about them.

I was intrigued by the free peanuts (would be really dangerous for anyone with anaphylactic allergies), and I appreciated the customizable burger concept. I think the whole "free toppings" thing is kind of deceiving because the burger ends up being pretty expensive anyways, plus more if you want to buy a drink or french fries. At least they're generous with the portions. It was yummy, but nothing special. I'd have to agree with most of the Yelpers that it can't really stand up against In-N-Out.

6. Bottega Louie macaroon at work.

Yes, I used my stack of sticky notes to display this macaroon. I don't know what flavor it was, but Christina was sweet enough to share her macaroons with me. They were a gift and came in a really pretty little box from Bottega Louie in downtown LA. By the way, check out their blog, which has lots of pretty food pictures.

Asa Ramen (Gardena, CA)

Several weeks ago, I went for yum cha with my cousins, aunt, and uncle. Uncle Gary mentioned that he's really into ramen right now, which launched us into plans for possible ramen adventures. Being a ramen-lover myself, I suggested that we meet up in LA (where I work, Uncle Gary lives, and Tiffanie goes to school) and search for delicious ramen.

I searched Rameniac for high-scoring restaurant reviews in the Los Angeles area and stumbled upon Asa Ramen in Gardena and Gardena Ramen in Torrance (strange, I know) with scores over 20 points. I especially like shoyu ramen, so I was happy to read that that's their specialty.

I picked Tiff up a few blocks from where I work, and then drove another 20 or so minutes to Gardena. Fortunately, we had my trusty, albeit finicky (is that a contradiction?), GPS directing us to the restaurant. When we got there, we weren't sure which door was the ramen restaurant. We guessed correctly and entered through the door on the right side.

Asa Ramen is pretty small, with only room for a few tables and the traditional ramen counter with high chairs. Tiff and I both loved the decor and atmosphere of the restaurant; it's a dim little joint with bamboo and wood accents.

Tiffanie and I shared one plate of cheese mochi takoyaki, but I think the combination of cheese, bonito flakes, and sweet teriyaki sauce was a bit too much for us. It was my first taste of takoyaki, and I thought it was delicious, but I couldn't even eat my half of the six octopus balls. We figured it's because we're not used to eating that kind of Japanese flavor. I wonder if I could order it again without the sauce.

And of course, we can't forget the main course. We decided to order the kotteri shoyu tonkotsu ramen; Tiffanie added an egg. The bowls seem smaller than you would normally get, but it was actually plenty of food.

The soup was nice and murky, but for me, the best part of ramen is the texture of the noodles. And these super-thin noodles were perfect (I'm not a noodle connoisseur, but I know that I enjoyed eating them!). After a long day at work, it was just what I needed.

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Asa Ramen

18202 S Western Ave
Gardena, CA 90248
(310)769-1010

6pm - 2am (closed sundays)

LA Street Food Fest (Part II) and Orochon Ramen (Little Tokyo, Los Angeles)

Finally got around to finishing this post. A little recap of the LA Street Food Festival:

So, we stayed at the LA Street Food Festival until five, which was the closing time. They were pretty strict about shutting everything down right away. It’s not really worth driving all the way out to LA for only a few hours, so we decided to head to Little Tokyo to browse around and work off a few of the calories we had just consumed.

But anyone who knows us well knows that we wouldn’t go very long before finding something else to eat. We walked to Kinokuya bookstore above the Marukai and took a pit stop there. Some of us took our time looking at the magazines and books, while Sam, Auntie Linda, and Joseph waited outside at a table. Of course, Sam claimed that Orochon Ramen was “staring at him” from across the plaza.

Turns out Orochon Ramen is where Man v. Food’s Adam Richman (from Travel Channel) tried their spicy challenge. So, if you look at the menu, the spicy scale goes from 1 to 7 (seven being the least spicy, and one being the most spicy). Even spicier are “Special 1″ and “Special 2.” None of us has the guts to take on the challenge, but we were excited to be eating at the same restaurant (especially Linda, whose a die-hard fan).

Orochon Ramen’s shio ramen was very satisfying after a long day in LA. And characteristic of LA, Orochon serves massive portions; we fed four girls with one bowl (plus an extra order of noodles). The broth isn’t quite as nice as many other ramen restaurants, but the spiciness is really nice (we ordered a 4). We also tried the spicy fried rice, which had a slow, eventual bite to it. It’s the good kind of heat–slightly masochistic and very addicting.

While we weren’t going to try the challenge, we definitely egg’d on the guys at the table nice to us to give it a whirl. It was pretty amusing watching them sweat and try not to show that they were suffering.

After dinner, of course, you have to have dessert. There was a little shop in the middle of J-town where Joseph kept looking into the window or asking if Jen ordered something there. When we left to find a restroom, Joseph said, “Can we come back after dinner?” So as soon as we started heading back, Joseph requested we re-visit the little dessert shop. We managed to snatch up the last of the red bean pastries. They were delicious.

Needless to say, we were pretty stuffed by the end of our food-filled Saturday. It’s interesting, because I’ve never really appreciated living so close to Los Angeles. There are times when I feel frustrated by the congestion and traffic and dysfunction of LA’s urban sprawl. But when it comes to food, there’s really no other place in the world like it. And I’m thankful that I got to spend the day with people who love eating as much as I do. (Thanks to Diana, Sam, and Crystal for the photos!)

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Orochon Ramen

123 S Onizuka St
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 617-1766