Things you put in your belly: New Capital Dim Sum

So I went to dim sum with my family at New Capital Seafood in Hacienda Heights a few weeks ago when I thought I was getting better but actually wasn't getting better. Being a vegetarian, it is difficult to find things to eat at dim sum that are not sweet or that come in a salad form with seaweed in it. Luckily, at this place there were a few options like the fried tofu and things wrapped in rice noodles or tofu skins. They were actually pretty good. I can see why this place is always crowded, even at 9:30am when we went.

I am back in SB, and I, luckily, bought some dim sum bao back here. DID YOU KNOW!?! If you freeze dim sum bao as is and re-steam it or re-bake it, they are delicious once again!!!!! HOORAY FOR MODERN REFRIGERATORS!

Things you put in your belly: Evelyn's Favorite Pasta

So I am still sick. It sucks to be sick and hungry at the same time. So I went out to the Cheesecake Factory to eat hearty pasta. HEARTY because I was hungry and because a HEART is what I lack. HO HO HO Merry New Years. It was delicious. There are sun-dried tomatoes, broccoli, bell peppers, eggplant, pine nuts, artichokes, and pesto of some sort. DELICIOUS. I would eat it everyday if I could eat at the Cheesecake Factory everyday. And if someone could guarantee I would not look like I ate at the Cheesecake Factory everyday, because if I did, I would be a Fatty McFatter Pants. 

Things you put in your belly: Salt-fried Crab from Seafood Village

Seafood Village is the restaurant that we choose to go to for our greasy Chinese food fix. It is delicious there. Like MSG, salt, garlic, and oil like no other. It will beat your choice Chinese restaurant up and leave it on the street to wither up and twitch on the sidewalk.

Mama Chan also told me how to make it. You deep fry some garlic (YUMMMMM) and cover the crab with a cornstarchy rice flour mixture and deep fry that, and then toss everything together in a big wok with a big flame. Toss in a lot of salt, chili, and green onions, and EAT IT.

Fried garlic are like little chunks of gold in your mouth. 

Sadly, I do not eat meat or seafood so I will just have to enjoy this photo.

Oh, and the Chinese name for the restaurant is 避风塘 in Monterey Park.

Places: Carmel By The Sea

A winter day at the beach, pub lunch, and fancy coffee. har har har!

Places: In-n-Out

What can a vegetarian eat at In-N-Out, aka the best fast food ever? GRILLED CHEESE. FRIED. CHEESE. They only have In-N-Out in CA and NV I think. That's what my office husband tells me. British cousin loves it! If you ever come to California, GO TO IN-N-OUT. SO DELICIOUS!!!!!

Places: Solvang

I am moving to Santa Barbara soon! So I will be in and out of LA and SB. Friendie, British Cousin, and I went to my dorm/apt, and then we headed off to Solvang (NOTE: NEVER EVER TAKE THE 154 IF YOU CANNOT DRIVE THROUGH MOUNTAINS). It was interesting. I can honestly say, I've never seen anything like this. It was kitsch, funny, and fun allllllll at the same time. We stopped by the Danish Mill Bakery for an apple boat. FREAKING DELICIOUS. So oily, flaky, crunchy, crispy, and sweet. I can eat 100000000000000000000 of them if someone could pump my stomach immediately after. Go for the danish. DANISH. If you can make me a danish as delicious as this, I will marry you.

Places: The Counter in Pasadena

Went to The Counter in Pasadena with British cousin and friendies. We split the fries/ sweet potato fries. I appreciated their shoe stringy like quality. I had the veggie burger bowl (I love bowls, taco bowls from CHIPOTLE AKA THE BEST AND MOST WONDERFUL FAST FOOD EVER). For the set price you get to choose what you want from each list (if you want extras, they list the price added on the side). I had the organic greens, veggie patty, sharp provolone, olives, jalapenos, sun dried tomato vinaigrette, and pickles. The ingredients were FRESH, and the only worry we had was if the combinations we picked would work together or not. IT WORKED. Service was friendly, but I felt like I had to be really friendly back. All in all super duper duper duper. BECAUSE BOWLS ARE THE WAY TO GO. GO. GO.
 

Food/ Places: Veggie Life on Garvey in Rosemead and their steamed buns

I went to Veggie Life, which is a Vietnamese restaurant that serves all vegetarian food, and usually I just eat there because they give you tons of yummy herbal veggies. This time, I also bought home the steamed bun. It was JUST OK. It was expensive (I think $1.50), so I'll stick to eating the noodle dishes at the restaurant. Slightly SAD FACE for the bun because it was expensive, but other than that no bad points.

Places: Extraordinary Desserts in Balboa Park, San Diego

I had a Danish Parisenne or something. It had a complicated name. It was pretty delicious. It had the sugar crystals on top that you could crunch and munch on, but not enough PINEAPPLE! WHY!?! WHY WERE YOU STINGY ON THE PINEAPPLE?!?! It had vanilla custard on the inside, which was good. The Extraordinary house coffee was pretty yummy. It is in San Diego, but that is veryyyyyy fall from LA. My ass hurts from all the sitting and driving.

http://www.extraordinarydesserts.com/

Places: Brioche in East LA Pt. 2

So I talked about the macaroons at Brioche. Here they are! Also carrot cake and opera cake. OMG SO DELICIOUS. Why are they delicious? They are not heavy or oily, and they are not too sweet. I am not a fan of my mouth being invaded by sugar crystal soldiers cutting my taste buds into smithereens. You know how I roll. It has to be balanced. BALANCE IS ESSENTIAL IN LIFE, AND BAKED GOODS ARE LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love you. xoxoxo

Places: Brioche in East LA

I met college best roomie this weekend, and we caught up over at Brioche, which is a small french bakery over on Whittier. I had the iced coffee, which is pretty good, meaning that there was nothing I hated about it. The shiny goodness was the pastries. I had a cranberry orange scone. SCONESSS ARE DELICIOUS. I like them better than donuts because they are not as greasy, but they are covered in powdered sugar goodness. I also liked the pretty plate.
College roomie bestie is applying for med school (ie: that which destroys one social life). She is suffering, but it is for the sake of a good lucrative future. Oh yeah, she mentioned helping people too. I love college roomie bestie. She is so on top of it.

On another note, I bought some macaroons, which they are famous for, and cakes to go home. I will share later.

http://www.briochepastries.com/

Places: Fine Garden in San Gabriel Valley/ LA

In the SGV area, there are a lot of Chinese vegetarian restaurants, but this one is by far my favorite because there are two AWESOME things: almond tea (top) and vegetarian dimsum (素点心). There is almost no such thing as vegetarian dimsum, but this place has it. The almond tea is super duper too. They basically put a puff pastry on top of almond tea and bake it. Puff pastry and almond tea, nothing can go wrong.There are only two words that can describe this place: 好帮。 The only down side is that it is PRICEY. A bit for Chinese food.

http://www.finegardenveggie.com/


EAT IT. IT IS DELICIOUS.

Places: Perfectly Sweet

I had the carrot cake, and newly relocated friendie had the raspberry mousse. OH MY GOD. SO GOOD. I would punch someone in the face to live there.

http://www.perfectlysweet.com/

I encourage you to go, but you know a better suggestion? I encourage you to take me with you. K thx bye.

Places: Honey Badger + Newly relocated Friendies

I went to Honey Badger Cafe in Alhambra. Only two words can describe the way I feel about that place: FREAKING AWESOME. They had a ricotta and portabello mushroom sandwich, which was really really really really really good. I had the honey chrysanthemum tea, which was light and good for summer, but the flower petals kept falling off and in my mouth. That was not as awesome. It seems like a good place to study, chit-chat, and eat delicious sandwiches. Newly relocated friendie went there with me. Welcome to Alhambra and LA my dear! 

On another note, Honey Badger also had art hanging on the walls, which made it seem very comfy. I will definitely go there again. Who will go with me? It is lonely to go by myself. I'm a big baby, DEAL WITH IT.

Places: Big Man Bakes & Blossom in LA

I spent the day with my office husband yesterday. We went to the Art in the Streets exhibition yesterday at the Geffen Contemporary. (Will post about that later). We also were planning to go to Nickel Diner, but sadly it was closed. Note: IT IS CLOSED ON MONDAYS. BUT we found other wonderful things. We went to Big Man Bakes (http://bigmanbakes.com/), which had AMAZING CUPCAKES. Now, I love baked goods, and this was a delicious baked good. OH had the chocolate on yellow cake, and I had the lemon. Big thumbs up on both. I heard that their red velvet is delicious as well. I really want to try the carrot cake one next time.

We also went to Blossom( http://www.blossomrestaurant.com/), which is a vietnamese restaurant. It was really good too! Prices were reasonable. Service was good. They had young coconut ($3.50). HUZZAHHHH!! I had the veggie spring rolls ($4.50), which was super good. I liked the atmosphere the best. There seemed to be two parts to this restaurant. One side was more traditionally restaurant-ish, whereas the side we sat on was like a wine bar/ cafe/ tea house. It had a more modern feel to it with big windows. LOVE BIG WINDOWS.

Next post will be art in the streets, which is free on Mondays!