[Food] Southern Californian Food Adventures

Disclaimer: this will be a photo heavy post with few words. You can assume that everything was ridiculously delicious (it was). Enjoy.

Tacos Tamix in LA

Al pastor

Al pastor alambres

Al pastor tacos

Al pastor quesadilla

Buche, cabeza, al pastor

Buche

Al pastor burrito

George's breakfast burritos in Fullerton

Photo by my sister at www.janetcho.wordpress.com.

Soondooboo at BCD

Original Pancake House in Anaheim

Corned beef hash and eggs

Blueberry pancakes

Some home cooking

Bacon wrapped rice cakes

Beef wrapped spicy rice cakes

In-n-Out

[Food] Nation's Giant Hamburgers

I'm a bit backed up on blog posts right now and have been rather busy lately, but today I bring to you my review on Nation's Giant Hamburgers.

After last week's Nehemiah Band concert (see previous post), a bunch of us headed over to Nation's for a post game meal. The restaurant has a very nice old school diner feel to it. I love restaurants like that.

I got a cheeseburger because that's just the standard item to judge any burger joint by. If they can't make a proper cheeseburger, they probably won't be able to pull other things off. The burger took a bit of time and wasn't very cheap (close to $5). However, when I got my order and unwrapped the little gift, a little grin snuck its way onto my face. The first thing I noticed was they oily sheen on the bun. YES! That's one of the indicators of a good burger. It's gotta have that greasy shine all over it. The burger comes with standard fixins: lettuce, tomato, raw white onion (you can get grilled if you want), and albiet, a lot of mayo.

The burger itself was pretty awesome as foreshadowed by the grease. None of the toppings interfered with the flavor of the burger itself, which is very important to me. You have to be able to taste the beef. The cheese and other condiments only bolstered the flavor of the burger. I gotta say, I was extremely hungry, so that might have skewed my thoughts, but oh well, it was delicious. The buns were very soft, which I oddly enjoyed. I normally like a bit of crunch in my buns (I always get x-tra toast on my buns at In-n-Out). Overall, the burger just worked for me. It was simple and delicious. No need for any exotic mushroom or foie gras nonsense here.

We all got a chocolate creme pie to share. Awesome. Nation's is known for their pies. The one inch thick layer of whipped cream on top with a custardy, chocolatey cream filling, and a flakey pie crust. Sweet (it was). Must I say more?

Oh yeah, I love pie.

Nation's Giant Hamburgers 1800 University Ave Berkeley, CA 94703 (510) 843-7326 www.nationsrestaurants.com

[Food] Late Night: Classy College Food

It's 2 am, so don't expect a long post. Our floor got some sushi from Nude Sushi delivered, yep they deliver sushi late into the night. That's probably the only good thing about this place. I got a Crazy Monkey Roll, which is tuna, salmon, unagi, and masago. If you must get sushi late at night, stay away from the fresh fish, it ain't that great. [Edit: I just noticed that I said if not to get the fish if you want sushi...I wrote this at 2 in the morning. Forgive me.] I'll probably go with an avocado and cream cheese roll. To complement our sushi, we made the tradition Korean cup ramen. Always a winner in my book.

Nude Sushi 6228 Telegraph Ave Oakland, CA 94609 (510) 547-6833 www.getnudesushi.com

Hours Mon-Sat: 5pm - 3am

[Food] Bongo Burger

I made a visit to Bongo Burger on Northside with some floor mates the other day. I heard good things about this little chain, so I looked forward to it. Looking at the menu, I was a bit confused. Burgers and Persian fusion?

I got past the odd mix of cultures and got a bacon burger and fries.

Here's a close up shot on the burger. Sexy, eh?

As I sunk my teeth into the first bite, I immediately noticed how crunchy the sesame seed bun was. The bun itself was alright, a bit too crunchy for my personal taste. I couldn't taste the flavor of the patty through all of the other flavors, but once I got a bite of the patty by itself, I was pleasantly surprised, mainly because I couldn't taste it before. The patty had a nice, charred flavor to it. I couldn't taste the bacon until I got half-way through the burger. Once I hit the bacon, it was a flavor explosion. Bacony goodness. Bacon makes everything better. Overall, the burger was just above average. I wish the flavor of the meat cut through more; it was too muted. The bacon is what saved the burger for me.

The fries aren't that great. They are of the flavorless, crinkle cut variety. I do give them this, they are crispy. The ranch really brings them to life. The ranch sauce here is reminiscent of George's back at home in Fullerton. Thin, not thick and laced with crack. Not your typical ranch. Perfect.

They proudly (and obviously) serve Niman Ranch beef.

The Persian Burger seems to be rather popular here. It's made with lamb and is served on a long, baguette style bread rather than a bun. Perhaps I will try that next time. The burger and fries (surprisingly) filled me up, but the price seemed a bit steep for what it was. The total for the burger and fries came out to be about $8, which in my opinion is a tad bit too much for a fast food style burger. But then again, my standard is a #1 at In-n-Out.

There are two other locations around the UC Berkeley campus.

Bongo Burger 1839 Euclid Ave Berkeley, CA 94709 (510) 548-3400

Hours Mon-Fri: 8am - 10pm Sat-Sun: 8:30am - 10pm

[Food] Bette's Oceanview Diner

Last week a few of my suite mates wanted to grab breakfast, so we headed over to Bette's Oceanview Diner. Like most places here in Berkeley, it was a small place. We waited for 45 minutes or so before we were seated. The host was a rather interesting character, I'm not going to say much more about him. The place had a very nice classic diner feel to it with counter seats and booths. Don't expect to take a big party here, unless you want to sit outside; the booths will seat 4 people. There's also a giant slice of pie hanging of the ceiling. Awesome. Onto the food. Note: I sadly didn't have my camera with me (great forward thinking, Edwin!) so these photos were taken on my friend's phone. Sorry for the image quality, hopefully this won't happen again.

Roommate #1 got the two eggs with ham, toast, and homefries.

Roommate #2 got the Philadelphia Breakfast, which was scrapple, poached eggs, grilled tomatoes, and a scone.

We were seated around 11, so got to choose from either the breakfast or lunch menu. The suite mate got a sandwich (sorry, I can't remember which one he got) with potato salad.

I was obligated to get the Mexican Scramble because of my Southern Californian roots...and it came with house made chorizo. The Mexican Scramble was scrambled eggs with cheese and salsa, chorizo, flour tortilla, and I substituted some homefries for the black beans. The eggs were nice, fluffy, and a bit runny, which is perfect. Who eats fully cooked scrambled eggs anyway? The chorizo was well seasoned, but it was not greasy enough. Chorizo has to be swimming in a pool of orange nectar; the whole plate should have been orange. But it was still very good. You health nuts would probably prefer this breed of chorizo over the pure bred Mexican variety. The flour tortilla was nothing special, definitely a good receptacle for delivering the contents of my plate to my mouth. Finally, those homefries were pretty magical. Cooked just right, soft on the inside with an ever so slight crust on the outside, then topped with cold sour cream. Wizzow! They must have been sprinkled with crack.

Bette's is a great, cute breakfast place. If you are ever in the area, you should definitely check it out. Prices are a bit high for college students, but it's worth at least one visit. Oh, and be prepared to wait for a seat. During your wait, you could walk around the area, which is very nice and is full of furniture stores if you are into that kind of thing.

Bette's Oceanview Diner 1807 4th St Berkeley, CA 94710 (510) 644-3230 www.worldpantry.com/bettes

Hours Mon-Fri: 6:30am - 2:30pm Sat-Sun: 6:30am - 4:00pm

[Food] Kirala

Before my family headed back home, we had lunch at Kirala. Upon entering, we were greeted by the friendly waitstaff. It's a small, popular restaurant, so it was crowded. The complementary hot matcha was definitely a plus.

We started off with the Rock'n Roll (eel, yellow tail, avocado, with tobiko outside) and the Spicy Scallop roll. The Rock'n Roll was flavorful and had a great mix of texture. I wish the spicy scallop roll had bigger pieces of scallops, but it was still a good roll.

My mother got the kitchen special, which consisted of fried oysters and shrimp, chicken teriyaki, udon, and rice. I tried some of the chicken and it had a nice kick to it once the sweet faded out. I really enjoyed that mix of flavors.

My sister had the sushi special Chirashi, which had salmon, tuna, shrimp, tamago, ikura, tobiko, and another kind of fish I can't recall. I tried a bit and the sushi was excellent. Better than most of the sushi places I've been to down south.

I had the katsu-don. It was good, but pretty standard, nothing too special going on here. In fact, I think I prefer the katsu-don at Koraku in Torrance better. The katsu itself was very good. It was a thick cut of flavorful pork, but overall, the dish was just run of the mill.

My father had the tonkatsu entree, which was great. Same katsu that went into my donburi.

Overall, Kirala was awesome. Definitely not somewhere I would go every day because I'm a poor college student.

Kirala 2100 Ward St Berkeley, CA 94705 (510) 549-3486 www.kiralaberkeley.com

Hours Mon-Fri: 11:30am - 2pm Mon-Sat: 5:30pm - 9:30pm Sun: 5pm - 9pm

[Food] My First Week Up North

My lack of posts as of late has been a result of moving up to college! I'm up North now and wanted to do a quick post about the food I've been eating outside of the dining commons. My comments on the food will probably be very concise and general. Upon arrival, we stopped by the Hong Kong East Ocean Seafood Restaurant.

We had some dim sum, honestly, I don't know what everything is called, but that's how it usually is at dim sum places. We had the pork and shrimp shumai, various dumplings, rice paper rolls in XO sauce, and the taro cakes.

This was the amazing view out of the window that we were seated next to.

The food was good, pretty much on par with the other dim sum that I've had in the past; there was nothing that really stood out, minus the view. The rice paper rolls in XO sauce were fairly new to me, I've never had that dish at a dim sum restaurant before, but my mother had made it at home once, so I was familiar with it.

Hong Kong East Ocean Seafood Restaurant 3199 Powell St Emeryville, CA 94608 (510) 655-3388 www.hkeo.us

On our visit to San Francisco, we went to the Pier Market on Pier 39.

We started off with some calamari. I've had better calamari in the past, but it was definitely good.

The rest of my family had their famous clam chowder. I tried a little bit and wow, it really was good. Definitely different from the chowdah that I had at the Black Pearl in Rhode Island (which was also great).

I had the fish and chips. The fish was pretty good, but a tab bit over-battered. I definitely got full fast. The fries (or chips) were reminiscent of Burger King fries, not a bad thing at all.

Pier Market Seafood Market Pier 39 San Francisco, CA 94133 (415) 989-7437 www.piermarket.com

More posts to come. I still have to cover two more restaurants.

[Food] Macaroni and Cheese (A Recipe)

Hello readers, today, I bring to you a recipe. I made a killer macaroni and cheese today with a good friend, so I just had to share my recipe with all of you.

INGREDIENTS

Alright, let's start off with the ingredients. Just a disclaimer, I don't measure most of my ingredients. I prefer to eye everything, so my proportions probably won't be the same as yours. This recipe is for 2 pounds of pasta, which will feed a rather large amount of people. The less the pasta to sauce ratio is, the creamier the end product is going to be. Adjust amounts as needed.

-2 pounds of Shell Pasta (or Elbow Macaroni or just about any pasta your heart desires) -6-8 cups of grated cheese (I used Extra Extra Sharp Cheddar, Extra Sharp Cheddar, Gouda, Gruyere, and a little bit of left over Pepper Jack, feel free to use whatever cheese(s) you want) -1/2 cup Butter -1/2 cup Flour -6 cups of Milk -Bacon -Potato Chips -Pinch of Nutmeg -Salt and Pepper to Taste (I didn't use any salt as the bacon and potato chip topping are already salty)

You can add other seasonings if you'd like (Worcestershire sauce, mustard, spices, etc.)

PREP WORK

Cut up your bacon. I like my bacon to be about 3/4 inch wide by 1 inch tall, but again, whatever you like.

Cook your bacon.

Drain your bacon and set it aside. I like to reserve some bacon fat for later. If you are a health nut, get rid of it.

Grate your cheese. Please don't buy shredded cheese to save some work. It really is better when you grate it yourself. Set the cheese aside. I recommend covering it with plastic wrap and putting it in the fridge for later.

TOPPING

Now, for the all important topping, I've been using potato chips. This was inspired by Chef John of Foodwishes, the greatest internet chef to live.

Crush up your chips. You can crush them in the bag or put them in a Ziplock back if that floats your boat.

Here's where that reserved bacon fat comes into play. You can use butter instead. Put some bacon fat (or butter) into a pan, then add your crushed potato chips. Make sure you have enough fat to coat all your chips.

Cook them medium low until they get nice and brown. The difference should be noticeable, but they shouldn't be anywhere near burnt.

SAUCE (and Pasta)

Now that all of that is done, it is time for the sauce. Start off with a roux, which is just equal amount of flour and butter. This will act as our thickening agent. I didn't get a photo, but it's not much to miss out on. Melt your butter, add the flour, and let it cook until the mixture gets light brown; don't let it get too dark. This is where I add my nutmeg and white pepper. To this, we are going to add our COLD milk. Note, cold milk. Hot Roux + Cold Milk = No Lumps. Thank you to Chef John again.

Bring this up to heat as we are going to turn off our heat when we add the cheese.

Let it get to the point just before it boils. Once it gets there, turn off the heat and add about 2/3 of the cheese. Stir until the cheese completely melts. Save the rest of the cheese for the topping.

While you are making the sauce, get the pasta going. Cook the pasta a minute or two less than what the directions say on the packaging, as the pasta will continue to cook later in the oven. Drain and set aside.

FINISH IT

Put the pasta in a baking dish and mix in the sauce and about 2/3 of the bacon. As you can see here, we got some spillage of the sauce, but that's okay.

Once that is all mixed together, we are going to top it off with the remaining cheese and bacon that we saved and the potato chips. Feel free to layer the topping as you want. We pretty much put a lasagna of toppings on top of our macaroni.

Bake the whole tray of glory. Honestly, I'm bad with oven temperatures, so I always guess, much like my eyeing of ingredients. I baked mine at 375 for about 15 minutes. Just put it in the oven and let it cook until the top gets brown and the cheese melts, but make sure you keep an eye on it.

Enjoy. Thanks for reading and post your thoughts or comments.

[Food] George's Breakfast Burritos

Earlier this week, I celebrated the end of finals with some good ole comfort food for breakfast. George's makes the fattest breakfast burritos around this area and their chili cheese fries are pretty top notch around here as well.

You have to douse these things in their homemade ranch crack sauce. They call it ranch, but it's not thick enough to be ranch. I'm not a fan of regular ranch, but this stuff is straight up addicting. You can put it on almost anything and it will bring happiness back into your life. My sister isn't a fan of breakfast burritos or ranch, but she loved it. The reason why this baby (it weighs more than your average newborn) so big is the massive amounts of hashbrowns they throw in here. Some people hate that, but I love it. Besides the potatoes, you get eggs, salsa, bacon, and cheese all wrapped up in a large flour tortilla that is just slightly crisp.

Now these are some glorious chili cheese fries. There are many, many little burger joints in my area that make some good chili cheese fries, but I must say, these are a notch above the rest. I can't really put my finger on what it is, but the fries, chili, cheese, and onions work together so well.

My sister and I shared this and we couldn't finish it; I'm not a weak eater either. Not to mention, I was full all day. Best of all, it only cost around $8. Talk about a deal.

George's Hamburgers is located on 815 W Commonwealth Ave. Fullerton, CA 92832. Check it out for yourself and feel free to leave your thoughts here.