Blowfish Sushi To Die For

Sushi to die for? Well, good thing I didn't die.

This place has good and bad points, which brings the average out to 3 stars.

First off, the music is BLARING in here. I mean, it's like a full on club. This is good if you are looking for a club place, but not for dinner. Most of the time I was yelling at my friend and after a while, I just resorted to drinking. I'm not hatin on the music, since it was house music and I dig that genre. Seriously, turn that shiet down.



Service was slow as hell. I think we waited 15 minutes for our waitress to greet us. By that time, I was starving and getting really antsy since my last meal was 10 hours ago.

We finally order and just get a ton of stuff since we knew it would be a while before we saw her again. I had the lychee sidecar and my buddy had a pomegranate mojito. I dug my lychee drink and quickly downed it so I could indulge in another.



As far as food goes, there were hits and misses.

Hits: the special raffi roll was da bomb!!! I could have had 5 more of these. Salmon, cucumber, cream cheese, topped with more fish and coconut flakes. Delish!



The spicy hamachi roll was good too, and it came with that awesome cock sauce.



The firecracker roll came with an interesting presentation, but didn't tantalize my taste buds.



Unagi nigri was tasty. Yellowtail nigri was alright, I didn't much care for the skin on the side. Meh.

Misses: Fire oysters was a no go. What's up with all that melted cheese? I couldn't slurp my oysters.. booo hooo.



Their grill wasn't working so we couldn't order any hot food. Bummer. I really wanted to try the sea bass.

Overall, this place is good for late night bar hopping. I would have enjoyed my food more if I didn't have to hold my conversation at such a high level. But, if you go for the food, get that raffi roll. It's amazing. Just bring someone you don't really have much to to talk about with. Or get completely wasted and you won't think twice about yelling.

Blowfish Sushi To Die For
355 Santana Row
San Jose, CA 95128
408.345.3848

Mandarin Noodle Deli

I made the trek out here yesterday so I could indulge in some good ol' Taiwanese comfort food. My first impression upon walking in was "wtf? why isn't anyone greeting us, but yet they greet the other party who arrived afer us?"

Before I got annoyed, the lady told us to sit down anywhere. Whew. Yes, I know it's an Asian place and service sucks, but come on now.

Since my friend has never had Taiwanese before, I did all the ordering for us. I even managed to bust out some Mandarin. I noticed that once I spoke to her in Mandarin, the hostess/waitress was much nicer.

This is what we ordered:

Marinated seaweed- thin slices of seaweed marinated with garlic and cucumber. I loved it! Perfectly seasoned and the garlic gave it a nice kick.



Beef Pancake- this is basically a twist on the green onion pancake, stuffed with beef, cilantro and green onion. Very hearty dish. I liked it, but it wasn't da bomb.



Stir fried vermicelli noodles with pork- Otherwise known as mi-fun. My favorite dish of it all because my Mom always makes it for me when I go home. The flavors were all nicely balanced, but I would forgo the pork. They should have a ground beef option.



Beef noodle soup with homemade noodles- Damn! This dish was good! We all dug in and I loved the broth, noodles and even the beef! My kid loved it too and she's damn picky when it comes to eatin. I loved the veggies inside, not sure if it was spinach or hollow heart veggies.



Green onion pancake- another bomb dish. Ain't nothing wrong with some fried cake with some scallions. Yum.



Steamed dumplings with pork & shrimp- MEH.. this one was not a winner. The meat was too chewy and just tasted meh.



I'd come back for sure though. Great find thanks to Yelp! All this food was $40 and we had tons of leftovers! Cash only.

Mandarin Noodle Deli
9537 Las Tunas Drive
Temple City, CA 91780

Zucchini Pasta

Since I love to cook, I whipped up some zucchini pasta tonight. No recipe, no frills, just simple down home cooking.



Basically, just saute olive oil, garlic and chopped zucchini in a pan for a few minutes. Boil some angel hair pasta in a pot with salt and olive oil and voila!! There ya have it. Enjoy.

Chilli Thai

After watching "Sunshine Cleaning" at the Landmark theatre across the street, we headed over here last night to get some Thai food.

It was my suggestion since I saw the sign, we were starving and we haven't had Thai in a while. Ooopps, my mistake!

The food was blah and not worth it. I wish I had checked Yelp prior to this. As I can see now, most of the people agreed with me.

Our first dish was the fresh spring rolls. What a joke! These rolls were mostly lettuce, a piece of cucumber, vermicelli noodles, and some red cabbage. It was tasteless and fell apart in my hands. I hate when rolls, burritos, or tacos fall apart on me!



Next up was the chicken coconut soup. I was really excited to try this dish, but it was a huge disappointment. Why? Because, the chicken was so hard to chew that I had to spit it out! Yes. I spit out my food. And it takes a lot for me to do that. However, the straw mushrooms were really good. Soup itself was very watery, and even though soup is mostly liquid, there should still be some sort of consistency to it. The presentation of the soup was cool, as it arrived in a flaming metal bowl. But, it was hard to scoop out the soup into the bowls. Oh wells. Guess you can't have everything.





Our main course was the tofu pad thai. It was slippery and watery as well, and had this weird taste to it, almost like someone went dose happy with the vinegar bottle. Blech. Definitely not my favorite paid thai.



I'm not coming back here. I'd rather eat at Jack in the Box.

Chilli Thai
10889 Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064

Asakuma

I'm big on fish these days since I've given up land animals. So, Japanese cuisine has been at the top of my to-eat list.

My friend and I came to eat here last night. It's been a while since I last frequented this place and I remember the miso cod being a stand-out item.

Good thing we got it again. It arrived in all it's glory, nicely baked to perfection with a sheen of glaze. We both dug in immediately. This is what good cod is all about! Soft, flaky, buttery goodness. It was complemented with some pickled veggies, but eating the cod with rice was good enough for me.



We also shared a spider crab roll which was decent, but not memorable. Well, I remember it being huge pieces and kinda hard to chew, but that's not necessarily a good thing.



I highly recommend coming here for the cod. Take it to go if you have to. Just try it.

Asakuma
11701 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025
310-826-0013

Jack n' Jill's

S and I were craving some good food this morning. He wanted breakfast and suggested this place. I agreed since I do like their lunch options. We drive over and park in the lot across the street. Free parking for 2 hours! Woohoo.. almost unheard of in LA.

Since I was coughing up my lung all night, I ordered the mint tea in hopes of soothing my sore throat. He had a large apple juice. I'm not sure if it was an off day or what, but the service was basically non-existent today. We had to flag down our servers a few times and no one really came by to check up on us. Moving on..



I had the veggie burger which came with mixed green salad and french fries. Yeah yeah, I could have got the fruit salad instead, but remember, I am the potato whore. And thank goodness I did, cuz the fries were perfectly crispy. Dipped into ketchup mixed with Tobasco sauce, yummm yummm. Of course, Mr. Healthy stole some of my fries. The burger was ginormous. I couldn't even get my mouth around it!! But, it was tasty. Veggie patty topped with avocado, tomato, red onion, and cucumber (hold the Havarti cheese please) hit the spot. I had 5 bites and was full. Well, you know they say that veggies fill you up fast.



S had the hi-protein scramble which had egg whites, spinach, turkey bacon, tomato, onion and mozzarella cheese. He's a big guy and he ate 3/4 of it and was full. It also came with a side of cottage cheese. Personally, this isn't my thang, but he liked it.



All in all, the food was tasty. The service was lacking. So, 3 stars, yo. Oh ya, I love the free Tootsie Roll lollipops they give you at the end of the meal.

Jack n' Jill's
342 N. Beverly Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210

Back Home In Lahaina

After a very drunken night at the Mayan, I was in desperate need of some greasy food. Thank goodness my jury duty is close by to Manhattan Beach. Lucky for us, the judge gave us a 2 hour lunch break.

I came here and was so tempted to get the fried chicken, but since I cheated on my non-meat diet with a 3 am stuff-my-face-fest at Hodori (KBBQ), I opted for the Portugese sausage fried rice.

Oh wait, that was meat, but it was only a miniscule amount compared to the chicken.. Anyway, the rice was really damn good! It had tiny bits of sausage, green onions, egg and some sort of seasoning. I added some cock sauce and it was even better. $8 for this dish and I was stuffed!

Back Home In Lahaina
916 N. Sepulveda Blvd
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266

Caffe Primo

Located in a plaza on Sunset Blvd, Caffe Primo serves up great breakfast and lunch options. I came here yesterday with S for brunch and was not disappointed.

Ordered the tomato and basil omelette with roasted potatoes and a side of fruit. Good thing they have veggie options since I am still not eating meat. This diet restriction may soon be broken since I just got an invite to go to dim sum. Crap.

So, the omelette comes out and it's circular. Hmm.. interesting. I wasn't too fond of it as it didn't have much flavor so after several rounds of pepper, I was able to bring out some of the natural flavor. 2 corn muffins sat on either side of the omelette. They were hard and blah, so I gave them to S. 

OMG. The roasted potaotes were off the hook! I took one bite and was my taste buds just exploded in delight. Perfectly cooked, seasoned and flavorful, these were my favorite. Sigh. I am such a potato wore and damn proud of it! Potatoes have lots of vitamins so no guilt over there. Whoever said carbs were evil must be a bitter, sad person. :P

Fruit was fruit. Nuff said. 

Service was good and I like that they take away the dishes when you are done. Nothing worse than sitting there with dirty plates. 

Good place to people watch. We saw these 2 really buff guys in tank tops with permed hair. Ummm yeah. It was quite.. interesting.

Caffe Primo

8590 Sunset Blvd

West Hollywood, CA 90069

Cravings Restaurant

One would think that with a name like Cravings, this place elicits fantasies of mouth watering dishes. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. 

We came here yesterday for brunch and I was really looking forward to some belly satisfying food. I remember the food being pretty good, about 4 stars, but this experience left me with a 3 star feeling.

It was quite warm yesterday, around 80 degrees. 80 in March?! Only in Hell-Yay. One plus about Cravings is the al fresco dining which was perfect for the weather. 

I was craving a salad after reading "Skinny Bitch" and being totally turned off by meat. Cravings salad it was! It consisted of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and scallions topped off with lemon vinaigrette. It was decent, and I ate the entire plate. Cucumbers and tomatoes are a good combo fo sho.

For our entrees I had the angel hair with basil, garlic and tomato. My daughter had the Cravings Pizza- pepperoni, sausage and mushroom. S had the veggie omelette with roasted potatoes and fruit. Yes, the 3 of us are quite different in terms of taste. It's a good balance. 

My pasta was aite. I thought it was too soft and saucy. And I had to add a ton of red pepper flakes to give it some flavor. Ugh. Didn't finish it since it just wasn't worth the additional calories. 

K's pizza looked way too cheesy and thick. I didn't try it since I dislike pizza, but she ate 2 slices and called it a day. I just didn't think it looked appetizing.

S liked his omelette and I ate his potatoes. When it comes down to it, I am a potato whore. Love them, can't resist them! He said his omelette was good as evidenced by the disappearance of it. 

Overall, the meal was okay. Price was $58 before tip. Service was slow as hell, and we had to wait a while to get refills on drinks. Maybe it was an off day. But, Cravings did not leave me craving for more. 

Cravings Restaurant

8653 W. Sunset Blvd

West Hollywood, CA 90069