Pho Bac Ky

I think it's one of the better, cleaner pho place in Irvine.
Highly recommended for people who never had pho,
Why?
Because they have pictures for each ingredients they used,
So at least you can take a look at it before you finally make up your mind and order something you can't even pronounce.

Part of the Menu-


Special Combo Pho-

I always use 3 slices of limes and 3 spoonful of chili sauce for my pho,
Not a correct way to eat it,
But who cares,
I love it.

Cindy's Rating (after mixing up with my own sauce): 7

Spring Rolls-


Cindy's Rating: 4


Overall Rating: 6.5


Ps. This place gives you 10% discount if you show them your student ID.
If you have one.
And if you look like a student.

Pho Bac Ky
4250 Barranca Parkway, Suite K
Irvine, CA 92604

(949) 857-8808

Sushi Gen in Little Tokyo

Ahhh I'm craving for otoro...

Where can I find it?...

Am I asking too much?

The Restaurant-

We sat at the table today.

But I usually prefer to sit at the bar,

Better view as to "observe" the flow of the kitchen, and how my sushi was made.

Better interaction with the chef,

And usually better service.

Part of the Menu-

Sashimi-

A little bit of everything.

Nigiri on the Left-

Nigiri on the Right-

Can't specifically remember what we ordered,

As far as I remembered,

There were toro, amaebi, hamachi, tamago, uni, salmon, and more...

Overall Rating: 6.8

Nice place,

Good service,

Fresh food.

Sushi Gen

422 E. Second St.

Los Angeles, CA 90012-4209

(213) 617-0552

At Last!

Wiping out the tears in my eyes,

Squeezing out the sweats from my shirt,

After 23 years of handicapped life,

Finally,

My day has come,

I am riding on a bicycle!

Great accomplishment comes from great effort-

Gone with the wind-

Thank you Joanna!

I'll never forget this!

The savior of my 23 years life on foot.

Cindy's Simplified Zha Jiang Noodles 炸醬麵

At last!
Lunch at home!
I've been eating out these past few days,
I miss my not-so-good homemade meal.

Cindy's Simplified Zha Jiang Noodles-



Ingredient:

Noodles
Green bean sprouts
Shitake mushroom (sliced)
Garlic
Scallion
Bean curd (sliced)
Ground pork
EVOO
Salt
Black pepper
Soy Sauce
Spicy soy bean paste (辣豆瓣醬)
Cilantro (if desired)
Sesame oil (if desired)

How?
Drizzle some EVOO in the pan,
Toss the garlic and wait until it turns slightly brown.

Toss in ground pork,
Add some soy sauce, tiny tiny bit of salt, black pepper, and the bean paste.
Keep stirring till the pork is cooked and the sauce is half way absorbed by the meat,
Add all other ingredients in to the pan.

All you have to do now is simply wait till everything's cooked.

Don't forget to cook the noodles on the side,
And remember to add a little bit more soy sauce if eating with noodles.
Only add cilantro and sesame oil if desired.

Easy to make,
I finished the whole process in 40 minutes (from chopping, cooking, and eating),
One lazy meal.

Cindy's Rating: 6

Pirates of the Caribbean-At World's End

Few words about this movie-

Special effects were good,

Story lines were...ok...

I have to admit that I got confused in some parts of the movie,

Not like I can't understand English,

Just,

Somehow it seemed so fragmented (to me),

Fragmented in a way that...it doesn't flow anymore.

However,

I do give extra point for At World's End because of Yun-Fat Chow (周潤發),

I love him.

Great actor,

Great person.

PS. Remember to stay all the way till the end,

unless you want to skip the "last part" of the movie.

Cindy's Rating: 5

Little Tokyo Shabu Shabu

After numerous days of Korean food,
I finally got out of that cycle.

Today, I'm having Japanese shabu shabu.

Ps. Shabu is the action when you "shake" the sliced meat in the pot.

Menu-


Top: Goma Sauce (Sesame)
Left: Rice
Right: Ponzu Sauce-


I always put a lot of scallions and Daikon (radish) in my ponzu sauce.
Along with a little bit of spicy oil,
Just my personal preference.

Vegetable-


Cindy Style:
Just toss everything in the pot at once,
And you don't need to worry about it anymore.
I'm lazy.

Beef-


Overall Rating: 6

Japanese shabu shabu,
Taiwanese shabu shabu,
They all taste awesome to me.

This place also serves sukiyaki,
But I never tried it here,
Never a big fan of sukiyaki.

PS. The service is good here, waiters and waitress always smile at you. Just you might have to wait a little bit longer when it gets busy at night.

Little Tokyo Shabu Shabu
Diamond Plaza
1330 S. Fullerton Rd.
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

(626) 810-6037

Kaju Soft Tofu Restaurant

I love Soon Dubu,
I really do,
I ate that for more than twice this week already.

Part of the Menu-


Little Dishes-


Cindy's Rating for Pancake: 6.5
Cindy's Rating for Kimchi: 6
Cindy's Rating for Salad: 5
Cindy's Rating for Bean Sprouts: 4
Cindy's Rating for Bean Cake: 6

Pork Bulgogi-


Cindy's Rating: 5.5

Vegetable Tofu Pot-


Spicy spicy.
And I like my egg yolk RAW!

Cindy's Rating: 7

Rice-


Better than other places.

Ice Cream-


See the shape?
I'm the master of ice cream making!

Cindy's Rating: 4 (Still, not bad though)

Overall Rating: 6.5

Not that many customers here,

But as the food and service quality goes,

I wish they will have more businesses later on.

Kaju Soft Tofu Restaurant

7933 Valleyview st.

Buena Park, CA 92844

(714) 736-0008

The Getty Center

Highly recommended.

One of my favorite places in California.

---Top 10---

Here are some of the pictures.

(I didn't take pictures for the Central Garden since I have a bunch of them in my laptop already)

In Between Pavilions-

Facing the Freeway-

Facing the North Building-

Looking Up-

Bees (I did take some pictures for the flowers though)-

My Other Side-

The Getty Center

1200 Getty Center Dr.

Los Angeles, CA 90049-1687

http://www.getty.edu

Another location is in Malibu,

You do need to make reservation to go up there,

Remember to call them or check online before your trip.

The Getty Villa

17985 Pacific Coast Highway

Pacific Palisades, CA 90272

(310) 440-7300

Jurassic Restaurant in City of Industry

**2013 April side note on the bottom**

Good place for drinking beers.

Sign-

Lamb with Essence and Onion

Steam Pork Blood Rice Cake

BBQ Sauce with Beef and Water Celery

孜然羊肉, 豬血糕, 沙茶空心菜炒牛肉-

Cindy's Rating for Lamb: 6

Cindy's Rating for Rice Cake: 4

Cindy's Rating for Water Celery: 3 (It was too salty)

(In the Bottom)

Taiwanese Style Pickled Cabbage

台灣泡菜-

Cindy's Rating: 3

(This rating is not fair at all because I'm comparing it to the ones from Taiwan)

Final Greeting from the Dinosaur-

I checked the English names on the restaurant's website,

But apparently it didn't help at all,

And the background music on the website was super annoying.

PS. We ordered a lot more,

But I was kinda lazy to take pictures since I was super hungry...

Jurassic Restaurant

15301 Gale Ave

City of Industry, CA 91745

(626) 336-5899

http://www.jurassicrestaurant.com/index_en.php

 

**2013 April Side note**

 

I've been coming back to this restaurants for counteless times ever since. The food quality has been improved and actually got quite tasty. However, most of them are still on the saltier side, but I guess that's kind of an unspoken norm for restaurants aiming at alcohol sales.

 

A new review will definitely be up soon sometime in the future. As for now, I would like to bump up the rating for Jurassic from 6 to 8! That's right, two levels up!

Absolut Search

How many bottles can you find?

http://absolut.com/search

(Drinking is illegal for people under 21 years of age)
(Please drink responsibly)
(Don't drink and drive)

Goong Korean Authentic Cuisine in Irvine-宮

Soon Dubu = Korean Tofu Pot = Yummy Stuff!

Menu-

Little Dishes-

Just name a few,

Cindy's Rating for stewed potato: 7

Cindy's Rating for bean sprouts: 5

Cindy's Rating for kimchi: 6

Cindy's Rating for pan-fried fish: 3 (I'm not good at eating fish with bones)

Vegetable Soon Dubu-

Extra Spicy.

Cindy's Rating: 6.2

This place has changed a lot since the first time I went there,

Which was around...4 years ago?

Remember that I always call them in advance,

And bring the food home,

One bowl of rice,

One bowl of soon dubu,

And one box of little dishes.

The name also changed a few times,

The place was tiny and gloomy,

And now they even have plat panel TVs on the wall.

Business doing well.

Goong 宮

14775 Jeffery Rd. #B

Irvine, CA 92618

(949) 786-2412

Chopstix in San Diego

Decided to eat in San Diego to avoid traffic after visiting the zoo,

How about restaurants in Gaslamp?

La Jolla Village?

Nah...with our "zoo outfit,"

I don't think that's a good idea,

Let's just dine in a cozy Japanese restaurant.

Menu-

Crunch Roll-

Cindy's Rating: 4

Gyoza-

Cindy's Rating: 3

Deluxe Chashu Men-

Cindy's Rating: 4 (I prefer really really fat chashu, theirs are lean)

Mapo Ramen-

Cindy's Rating: 5.5 (best one of the day)

Overall Rating: 5

Chopstix Sushi & Noodle

4633 Convoy St

San Diego, CA 92111

(858) 569-9171

San Diego Zoo Revisited

I love food,
I love movies,
And I love animals.

Zoo Map-


My legs are sore...

Meditating Monkey-


Mother and Son-


Turtle-


I think his neck is sore...

Hippo-


Zzz.....

Polar Bear-


I guess they can't serve seals here...
Only cabbage...
(Treasure this moment....Less and less Polar Bears in the world due to global warming...sigh..)

Giant Panda:Take One-


So hard to get my food (frustrated)

Giant Panda:Take Two-


Whatever, I'll just eat it this way.

Harpy Eagle-


They hunt birds and mammals,
Sometimes even monkeys and small deers,
Strong bird indeed.

Shadow-


Please Treasure our mother nature.

San Diego Zoo

2920 Zoo Drive

Balboa Park, CA

(619) 234-0551