Boiling Point – Taiwanese Hot Pot Dining

As with any trip to the Los Angeles area, I always make my friend, Brooke, dine with me. Utah is limited in its culturally diverse dining… So, based on recommendations, I forced Brooke (mostly by guilt) to bear the waitlist at Boiling Point – Gardena location.

Loops with Emily Wells – Kilby Court

Emily Wells played Kilby Court last night! It. Was. Awesome.

Local band, Daisy and the Moonshines opened it up for Emily and Dark, Dark, Dark. If you’ve never seen Emily play live – it’s something you cannot miss. Just ask Jeremy, my friend who I completely guilted into not flaking out. I don’t care if you just worked after having to babysit drunkards all last night! Yep, that’s what I said to him… well, okay, not exactly. But hey, guilt works.

Saffron Valley – Indian Chaat Food Porn Quicky

Saffron Valley! Why? Because, apparently, you can’t get much Indian food in Japan… A friend of a friend, and now a friend, came into town from Japan and wanted to eat Indian. So, we ventured out to South Jordan because I love the chaat that Saffron Valley carries! If there are other places with chaat that I do not know about in SLC, please let me know!

Dahi Puri – loveeeee it, one of the best reasons to drive all the way to South Jordan.

Naan – um, I was the only one who did not get this, but it looked good? Bryce, Midori and Kotomi finished all of their portions.

Paneer (Indian grilled cheese) Dosa – good but I think I prefer their other dosas. it’s all about that giant, beyond the plate, ridiculous dosa!

Saag with chicken – this was Bryce’s dish… I think he liked it…

Yum, yum, yum.

Yakitori Totto, NYC – Food Porn with Diversity

A change of pace… throwing in some diversified food porn! I’m going to go all Disney up in ‘ere. Hahahahaha. Erm… Okay… I’ll stop.

 

While browsing through Cat’s photos this morning, I remembered that I hadn’t posted much of my NYC eats. Here’s one of a few to start us off: Yakitori Totto. I ran away from work to grab lunch up on 55th Street. There’s also a Totto Ramen – next time (as in… next time I’m in NYC, I’ll have to go, not… next time I post, sorry)!

Michael (who else?) and I sat at the bar to see all the action up close!

Salads first with miso, of course. I love that light, refreshing dressing on Japanese salads.

I got the Totto Don: Negima (minced chicken with negi), Wings and Meatballs on a stick with very lightly poached egg over rice.

And he – the Karubi Don: Galbi, or uh カルビ (Korean-style short rib) on three sticks with very lightly poached egg over rice.

I also had a drink – Fresh Shochu Cocktail, orange, if I remember correctly. Yep, went right back to work after this lunch – walked in the rain, went down through the subway and everything.

Oy vey! I need to stop doing these food porn posts so late at night. I’m hungry. And there’s nothing like this in Utah, crap, dammit.

The Okonomiyaki Experience – Gaja in Lomita, CA

Last month when I was in LA, I went with an old high school friend and her husband to gorge on KBBQ. And about 8 hours later, an old friend from college took me to gorge on okonomiyaki (some call it a healthy Japanese cabbage pancake, er… yeah) and beer at Gaja. This is that latter pig-out in photos. Ugh, I must’ve gained 30 pounds that day but I want to go back immediately! Aiyah.

Gossip Bun with Pork and Egg Roll – Food Porn Quicky

Gossip‘s Bun Cha Thit Nuong – Vermicelli noodles with charbroiled pork and a crispy egg roll. It comes with veggies, peanuts, fried garlic awesomeness and a Vietnamese sauce to moisten the noodles. Yum.

Lam Zhou Hand-Pulled Noodles – Food Porn Quicky

Lam Zhou hand-pulled noodles in New York. I love noodles! I love hand-pulled noodles! And I totally want to learn… how to pull noodles. *mimics hand-pulled noodling gesture*

It’s a total hole-in-the-wall that’s sort of become infamous (at least, it seems that way). Verdict – cheap, awesome noodles. The soup and stuff are average but the noodles are great – very “QQ.” Can’t beat that for five bucks in NYC! Awesome lunch in Chinatown.

NYC East Village Food Binge – Food Porn (Not So) Quicky

Anyone that vacations with me knows that I try to pack as many food highlights as possible… New York City was definitely no exception.

After watching Fuerzabruta at the Daryl Roth Theatre near Union Square, we begun Melani’s downward food spiral. She was eating healthy, proportionate meals at regular times of the day until I came to stay with her in NYC. Muwahahaha.

Bubble Drinks By Way of Tea Way

Brian had found this so-called tapioca heaven long before I visited during my birthday trip. First day in San Francisco, he took me up to the Richmond area to experience this long awaited bubble journey.

Steamed and (Pan)Fried… Pork Buns – aka Bao.tzi

A couple of weeks ago, I traded Matt food for knowledge. After a cram session at Salt Lake Roasting Company, we walked over to Everest Tibetan Restaurant for a late dinner. It was good. Don’t get me wrong. But the cheap frugal person that I am, I balked at the $10.99 price for seven pan-fried momos. Momos = just like Chinese bao or a variation of the Japanese nikuman.

And plus, c’mon! Chinese food should not be that expensive (and hey, you can get delicious nikuman at a Japanese 7-Eleven for ~100 yen).

So, just the tiniest bit enraged (and very, very full from the still delicious dinner), I decided to make my own bao-tzi/bao-zi over the weekend.