King Hua Restaurant - Alhambra

It started out as a Twitter conversation when David Chan (who has eaten at 6,297+ Chinese restaurants) mentioned the crispy deep-fried milk at King Hua Restaurant in Alhambra. One More Bite said she loved the dish. I haven't had sauteed milk since Macau Street - Monterey Park closed a while back and a deep-fried crispy version sounded intriguing.

We made plans to meet up and Gourmet Pigs decided to make King Hua one of her going away dinners before she moved to Boston. Well, I don't know if she picked the restaurant in particular or was more nudged in that direction, but it helped me achieve Cantonese seafood restaurant trifecta (dim sum, wedding banquet, and regular dining at one location). Not that that should be a goal, mind you, just happenstance.

A few years ago, I blogged King Hua Restaurant - Alhambra for dim sum and later that year, attended a wedding banquet so I knew it was a solid Cantonese restaurant. Part of the reason Gourmet Pigs chose it was for some fresh Chinese seafood since she doubted her options in Boston would be as good.

Media Preview: L.A. County Fair Food - Pomona

Gourmet Pigs invited me to be her +1 at a media preview for the LA County Fair.

Deep-fried foods? Sure!

Unlike the LA County Fair media preview we went to two years ago, there were no food trucks in sight. It was a return to basics. Well, basics as far as county fair food goes, which meant deep-fried, artery-clogging goodness. Deep-fried Twinkies. Bacon-wrapped pickles. Krispy Kreme burgers.

Sam Woo Crisp Fish Skin Laver Flavour

While at Sam Woo BBQ - Alhambra recently to pick up a to-go order, I saw a young couple in front of me buy a bag of Sam Woo Crisp Fish Skin. Huh! I've never seen this before.

Is it good? I asked the cashier.

She said it was, and at $2 a bag, not too bad of a price to experiment. They had regular and laver flavor. I opted for the seaweed, thinking just plain fried fish skin didn't sound very flavorful. I thought maybe it'd be like the salmon skin in salmon skin rolls at Japanese restaurants?

Subway's Creamy Sriracha Sauce

I haven't done a "fun food" post in a while. Tipped off by Cousin Q's post about Subway testing a creamy Sriracha sauce in some markets, I hit up my local Subway to check it out. I got a six-inch Cold Cut Combo on honey oat wheat with everything and two drizzles of the creamy Sriracha sauce.

Here, I'll open the sandwich so you can see. It's a bright orange color, which led me to wonder if the "creamy" part was achieved by watering down Sriracha sauce with mayonnaise?

Vegetable-Dyed Crackled Eggs

When my brother and I were little, our mom helped us make those shrink-wrapped images to wrap around eggs for Easter. She also hid chocolate eggs for us to find. I wonder where my mom got the idea? From the nuns who sponsored us? Or the parishioners who taught my mom and aunts how to make Christmas stockings? It's funny to think about it now, these little rituals introducing us to American pop culture.

It's been years since I made eggs for Easter, but ever since I saw the colorful crackled eggs on Barefoot Kitchen Witch, I knew I wanted to dye them with vegetables for a more natural effect. Beets were an easy given. Remembering the vivid purple of my Mashed Okinawan Sweet Potatoes, I hoped for a similar result, but it was a rather disappointing light blue-green. I decided to use turmeric to add a third color into the mix, and that ended up being my favorite.

My brother said they looked like dinosaur eggs. And I elicited "Ooohs" out of both Pablo and the niece when I peeled the eggs in front of them. Just a fun project to try without any artificial colorings.

Japanese Meiji Ginger and Milk Chocolate

Speaking of Japanese chocolates, lil' sis brought gave me this Meiji Ginger and Milk Chocolate after she got back from Japan. I loved the individually-wrapped sticks. Love great packaging.

The flavor was very mild and smooth.

She also got me these cute panda pins to decorate bento boxes and food-safe pens since she remembered the ones I used for the Hello Kitty Cake Pops didn't work so well.

Japanese Wasabi Kit Kat

While waiting for our orders at Ton-Chan Ramen - San Gabriel, Gourmet Pigs brought out a wasabi-flavored Kit Kat she picked up at the airport in Japan.

It's been a while since I've done a fun food post, so thought I'd share.

Flying Cauldron Butterscotch Beer

Shortly before Halloween, I was contacted by Emily Straubel of Reed's Inc. asking if I'd like to sample its Flying Cauldron Butterscotch Beer. I'm a fan of Reed's Ginger Brew and Virgil's Root Beer, so I eagerly agreed to sample its butterbeer, I mean, butterscotch beer.

While Flying Cauldron Butterscotch Beer isn't affiliated with Harry Potter, there are plenty of allusions. The flyer said, "Taste the magic of a wizard’s buttery, vanilla, cream soda brew. Since 1374, the Flying Cauldron has been making this magical brew for under-aged wizards, and wizards who are young at heart, at their brew pub in Hogsbreath, England."

Not Hogsmeade, but Hogsbreath. Not the Leaky Cauldron, but Flying Cauldron. Not butterbeer, but butterscotch beer.

It's not affiliated with Harry Potter. Got that?

Nam Matsutake Xao (Vietnamese Sauteed Japanese Pine Mushrooms)

On my way back from my $41.40 roundtrip flight to Portland, my parents also sent along matsutake (Japanese pine mushrooms) my dad had foraged in the forest. I've mentioned before about how my parents foraged for chanterelles, but matsutakes were unfamiliar to my dad back then. Until now, when someone showed him how to identify matsutakes.

Matsutakes, also called Japanese pine mushrooms, are aptly named. They're found in the duff below pine trees and take on the aroma of the wood. According to Wikipedia, they're very prized in Japan, where the pine trees have been infected and supplies have dwindled. Consequently, matsutakes can command up to $2,000 per kilogram. Imported matsutakes, mainly from North America, run about $90 per kilogram. These are very prized mushrooms indeed.

These mushrooms are quite firm with a pine woodsy aroma. I simply sauteed them with garlic and a few dashes of soy sauce or fish sauce, although you can certainly add them to dishes as well. This isn't so much a recipe as a lesson in how to prepare matsutakes, in case you ever come across any.

Dragon Fruit Granita

This year's crop of thanh long (Vietnamese dragon fruit) haven't ripened on the vine yet, but triple-digit temperatures means I long for something cold and soothing.

Traditional and Piggy Mooncakes

Isn't it so cute?


I forgot that I had taken these moon cake pictures last year and since it's Mid-Autumn Moon Festival time again, figured I might as well share.

Meal, Ready-to-Eat: Chicken Cavatelli

One of my dad's customers gave him a bunch of MREs (Meal, Ready-to-Eat), field rations used by the American military. My dad said he remembered the rations tasting better, having traded for them during the Vietnam War so he could try American food. I don't know how much of that was nostalgia or truth. What my dad ate were either MCIs (Meal, Combat, Individual rations) or LRP (Long Range Patrol rations) which were replaced by the MREs in the early 1980s.

So-Yah! Creamy Coconut Curry Tofu Shirataki Noodles

One last item in the goody bag from my Behind the Scenes: House Foods America Corporation - Garden Grove tour was this package of So-Yah! Creamy Coconut Curry Tofu Shirataki Noodles. After being underwhelmed with the So-Yah! Red Vindaloo Curry Tofu Shirataki Noodles, I wasn't too excited to try the coconut curry noodles.

Like the vindaloo noodles, these shirataki noodles were made from yam flour and tofu. They're low-carb at 3 g of carbs and 20 calories per 4 oz serving.

Even though the ingredients were the same as the red vindaloo curry: tofu, yam flour, coconut cream, tomato paste, garbanzo beans, red bell peppers, carrots, and spices, the taste was quite different.

How different?

So-Yah! Red Vindaloo Curry Tofu Shirataki Noodles

Part of the goody bag from my Behind the Scenes: House Foods America Corporation - Garden Grove tour was this package of So-Yah! Red Vindaloo Curry Tofu Shirataki Noodles.

The shirataki noodles are made from yam flour and tofu so they're low-carb. Only 20 calories and 3 g of carbs per 4 oz serving.

This package was 10 oz, so still very low-carb if that's what you're looking for.

Besides tofu and yam flour, ingredients also included: coconut cream, tomato paste, garbanzo beans, red bell peppers, carrots, and spices.

But how did it taste?

House Foods Chinese Mabo Tofu Sauce

Part of my goody bag from my Behind the Scenes: House Foods America Corporation - Garden Grove visit was a package of House Foods Chinese Mabo Tofu Sauce. Just add meat and tofu, it says.

How does it compare to making homemade Ma Po Doufu (Chinese Pockmarked Old Lady's Tofu)? Not bad. Not bad at all.

The homemade version doesn't take long to prepare, however, if you don't keep Chinese black bean and fermented soybean sauces in your pantry, this was actually quite a good alternative. The ingredients list fermented soybean paste, so you're getting similar flavors. No Sichuan peppercorns though, so you'll miss the numbing sensation, or maybe that's a good thing? There is black and red pepper as the replacement. And tomato paste, which was unusual for me, but the flavor didn't really come through so it was fine.

Grapefruit-sized Shasta Gold Tangerines

Last week, while at the Alhambra Farmers' Market, I thought I saw ugly oranges and asked what kind they were. Turned out, they weren't oranges, but super large tangerines. Shasta Gold tangerines.



How large?

Guelaguetza Restaurante - Los Angeles

Shortly after the devastating 7.0 earthquake in Haiti, Gourmet Pigs organized an online auction of gift certificates to Los Angeles-area restaurants with all the proceeds going to charity. I scored a gift certificate from Guelaguetza Restaurante of dinner for two that included two appetizers, two entrees, two desserts, and two drinks. She bought the other gift certificate.

So in March, we decided to try Oaxacan Mexican cuisine and invited L.A. and O.C. Foodventures and WeezerMonkey to join us.

While we were looking over the menu, the waiter brought us tortilla chips topped with mole and queso fresco.

LudoBites 3.0 at Royal/T (In Bed Together) - Culver City

Since I had such a great time when Gourmet Pigs took me to Ado Ristorante - Venice for my birthday, I wanted to take her out for a nice dinner for hers. As luck would have it, LudoBites 3.0 at Royal/T was extended for several weeks and I managed to snag a reservation. While LudoBites is really quite a bit more than I would spend on a meal, I was very curious about this pop-up restaurant that had been hyped so much, especially the way Ludo Lefebvre, who was on "Top Chef: Masters Seasons 1 and 2" in case you didn't know, is reported to combine unusual ingredients. Since reservations are nearly impossible to get, I didn't want to pass it up.


I experienced literally two bites of Ludo's food at Hello Kitty's 35th Birthday celebration in collaboration with the "In Bed Together" exhibit that would replace it, so this was all new to me.

Bakmi Parahyangan - West Covina

While eating the cow hooves and cow brain curry we ordered from Raso Minang at the Hong Kong Plaza food court, we noticed a crowd of people gathered in front of one booth. It looked like they were praying or blessing? New restaurant opening?

Then we noticed that everyone was lining up for free food.

Free food!

So some of us lined up too. :)

Raso Minang - West Covina

Rocky Mountain oysters and squid lips weren't the only unusual food I ate this year. Shortly before our trip to Mesa Verde National Park, Gourmet Pigs organized a meet-up at Raso Minang in West Covina. I had heard of this food court at Hong Kong Plaza before, which features a handful of Indonesian food stalls. While some Indonesian dishes have become a bit more familiar to me, I'm still on a quest to learn more about the cuisine.

Gourmet Pigs said Raso Minang features food from Padang, in West Sumatra, which is known for being spicy and for being cooked in the morning and left on display for customers to choose from what's available.

She promised us the good stuff -- cow brain curry and cow hooves.

Ooh boy! I definitely haven't had either of those on the blog yet.