No Beef Wellington? It's ok ... Sticky Toffee Pudding saves the day!!!

I had Saturday off this week. This is a rarity, since I do work at the Disneyland Resort where we often say "We work while others play..." hence why I usually work Saturdays.

I asked for this Saturday off because I needed to go to a general staff meeting for Anime Los Angeles. (January 6-8, 2012 at the LAX Marriott ... register NOW!)

Anyhoo ... after the long day of executive meetings, interdepartmental meetings, and general staff meetings, it was time for my friend & me to meet up with another friend in Orange County (Santa Ana to be exact) to partake in dinner.

For some odd reason I have been craving Beef Wellington (I know ... kinda random, right?) ... I mean, I'm searching for recipes on Google, and I'm looking up videos on Youtube on how to make them (the most famous of which is THIS).

It was almost like I NEEDED TO EAT BEEF WELLINGTON SOON. So I was trying to find a local restaurant that had beef wellington on the menu, and lo & behold there was one in Orange County! The Olde Ship is a British pub & restaurant that actually has TWO locations: Fullerton & Santa Ana.

So I suggested this spot for dinner since it was SUPPOSED to have beef wellington on the menu on Saturday nights as a special. (this is what we call FORESHADOWING.)

After driving through dismal traffic from LA to the OC, we finally meet up with my friend at the restaurant. I immediately bust out my camera & prepare myself to take pictures.

It's nice & warm inside, with a loud yet welcoming revelry, one would assume would be at a British pub.

We sit in our booth, which happens to be located next to a private birthday party who hired a bagpipe player to entertain them. Yes ... a bagpipe player. The family was of Scottish heritage. xP

Our waiter came up & took our drink orders, & when he came back I ask the question of the night:

"So, do you have your Beef Wellington special tonight?"

"Oh not tonight. We have our Christmas specials all this month instead."

::jaw drops to ground in dismay::

Instead of doing this ....... ╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ , I order something else, while my friends order their dinners.

The food was relatively decent! Of course my brain was set on beef, pastry, etc., so I ended up getting their roast beef with Yorkshire pudding. The gravy was really good! Beefy, but not too salty. Very hearty, and it was smothered over pretty much most of my plate.

My friends enjoyed their meals too. We all were stuffed, and yet I wanted to try one of their signature desserts (and a British holiday tradition) ... sticky toffee pudding.

So all three of us shared one pudding. I took the first bite ... and let me say ... it made up for the restaurant not having beef tenderloin. Honestly, I forgot I WANTED beef tenderloin. Eating that sticky toffee pudding made me realize that I ended up at that restaurant BECAUSE OF THAT DESSERT, not because of beef wellington. Weird how things work out, right?

The shirt I was wearing to dinner was from a popular Youtube video featuring bacon (watch it here: THE BACON SONG) ... a line from this song is "It tastes like heaven, but it looks like bacon!" Well, this dessert tasted like heaven & looked like sticky toffee pudding. :)

Add all of that, plus waiters & waitresses with legitimate British accents, seeing dudes in kilts, & hearing bagpipes ... my experience at The Olde Ship was a positive one.

Here are all the food-like pictures I took, via my Flickr ... enjoy & keep eating y'all! ^_^;;

Atomic Eats - Cerritos, CA... featuring the Slummin' Gourmet!

So there's this little food truck gathering that happens every Wednesday night at the Babies R Us in Cerritos, across the street from the Target Greatland.

This has been happening since September, and since then has grown into this citywide tradition. I try to go as often as I can, though work (among other things like birthdays, life in general) tend to get in the way.

This group (Atomic Eats) sets up these events each week, bringing the finest gourmet food trucks from LA & the OC together in the Babies R Us/closed Office Depot parking lot.

And yes Cerritos (quoting one commercial) ... "take the 605 to South Street ..." (quoting another commercial). xP

Anyway, I absolutely LOVE this event simply for the fact that it is literally a 2-3 minute drive from my house. Honestly, if I wasn't Forever Lazy, I'd probably walk to Babies R Us!

On this specific occasion, I decided to have dinner with my friend, Mr. Nick Noell (aka. Kami Digital Media). He's a photography student at LBCC, and he's pretty awesome. Cosplay, street photographs, portraits, graffiti, etc. I've been talking to him a lot about my recent surge into food photography for any pointers, and he's been an awesome help.

Anyhoo, we went, we talked, we grubbed, and of course I took pictures of food type things.

It was delicious.

All the food I ate came from the Slummin' Gourmet food truck. On their website, their motto is "fancy without the schmancy" & honestly, they are right.

My dinner consisted of a lobster corn dog & a Kobe beef slider. Talk about your unorthodox surf & turf from a food truck! Both items were DEELISHUS. (yes that's improper spelling ... DEAL WITH IT INTERWEBZ!)

The pictures tell the tale, so you can make your own decision ... or just follow the truck on their Twitter, & you can try them yourself!

I loved their combo of fancy food delivered to you in a very unfancy way. It allows the masses to try delicious & glamourous flavors of 5 star restaurants at the convenience of a food truck in the middle of a baby store's parking lot.

::with a snooty voice & nose straight up::

"Mmm yes... I had the Kobe beef AND the lobster tonight at the Babies R Us. It was quite exquisite. Now I must return to my Rolls Royce and swing by the WalMart to partake in their 'rolling over' of prices...." xP

DESSERT WAS GOOD TOO. Nick & I shared a crispy banana chocolate bread pudding which also came from the Slummin' Gourmet truck, and it was very yumtastical. It was served with a large scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, and it really hit the spot, especially on a cold evening in the middle of December.

All in all it was a fun time.

If you get the chance, check out Atomic Eats each week at the Babies R Us in Cerritos (address below), and follow the Slummin' Gourmet on Twitter to try their delectable goods.

Babies R Us
11540 South Street
Cerritos, CA 90703

That's it!

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WAIT.

You want to see my pictures, don't you? I almost forgot!

Well ... here's ONE (and the link to my Flickr too hehe.)



Enjoy the pix & keep on eating y'all! ^__^;;

A new spot for Dim Sum?

So the parents and I usually go to lunch on Saturdays before I go to work.

At first they were thinking about getting some Mexican food, when my dad on a whim decided he wanted dim sum.

Our local spot that we used to go to (Happy House ... who I always felt was run by Triads, but that's a WHOLE OTHER STORY THAT I WILL WRITE ABOUT SOON) closed down, so we needed to find another spot to fill that gap.

My dad's sister (aka. my aunt) told us about this place in Artesia called Great Seafood Harbor. It's on Pioneer Boulevard, just past Little India.



So we headed there for lunch.

Parking was as atrocious as any primarily Asian parking lot. It was small, cramped, and people weren't parked straight AT ALL. Thankfully we found a decent spot & went to the restaurant.

There was a lot of hustle & bustle in the restaurant, which was good, because I knew the food was going to be fresh. My mom said it was because Happy House closed down. Either way, it was exciting to see all the carts walking around.

As soon as we got to our table (mind you, we haven't taken our seats yet) THREE carts with a large variety of tasty morsels came up to our cart to offer their succulent dishes.

Siu mai. Machang. Guylian. Har gow. Shrimp anything. YES YES YES.

The best thing my family & I ate: leek & shrimp potstickers. I should have taken a pic of this lady. She was pushing around this metal cart with a gas burner inside of it, with a flattop grill on top of that. Then on shelves above that, she had pre-steamed dumplings filled with fresh leeks, shrimp, & other seasonings just waiting to be placed on that hot griddle. When you order from her, she'll grab 3-4 dumplings & fry them up TO ORDER for you.

I'm a sucker for table service ... seriously. Those things were AWESOME.

Now ... is THIS place run by the Triads? I don't think so.... but I do think that they have their protection hehe.

Try it out if you can if you're in the area. Oh and another interesting note: on the weekends after 3pm all Dim Sum items are 50% off! No excuses now. xP

Great Seafood Harbor
18329 Pioneer Blvd
Artesia, CA 90701
(562) 860-7794

I took some pictures of the food we ate on my Flickr, so enjoy those too.

Keep on eating y'all! ^__^;;

Niko Niko Sushi - Cerritos, CA

Ok ... this LOOKS like my old school restaurant reviews, but it isn't.

Honestly, I didn't take the time to take notes of all the categories that I NORMALLY do, but I still wanted to write SOMETHING about the restaurant.

So ......... enjoy ......... please? ^^;;


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So my dad & I decided to head here for lunch. Normally my dad is off on Fridays, so he always offers to take us out to lunch. Ya know, good ol' father/daughter bonding times to be had. :)

Anyway, of course I agreed, since it was basically a free meal, with the added bonus of hanging out with my dad.

Now here's the thing: this restaurant isn't the GREATEST Japanese restaurant I've been too (I believe I haven't been to what I believe is the greatest just yet). It's ok for the prices at lunch, and the food is relatively decent, especially if you want Japanese food and you're on a budget.

Anyway, my dad & I went in today and got their 2 item combo bento boxes. They're a really good value, since you also get a salad & a soup with the meal (remember this, this comes into play later in my story).

He got the sashimi & the sea bass misoyaki combo, while I got the sashimi & pork tonkatsu combo. We exchanged general pleasantries like "have you started Christmas shopping?" or "are you happy that there's an NBA season again?" ... and before we knew it, my dad noticed another table who sat down later than us receive their starter miso soups.

We became curious & my dad asked a waitress if we were supposed to be receiving soups too. The waitress told us "No, that's extra." My dad & I looked at each other dumbfounded.

"Extra? No. That can't be right ... right?" So my dad double checked the menu, and in bold letters on the top of where the combo bentos were located it said "Bentos come with a salad AND a soup."

My dad told the guy with the crazy K-Pop hairstyle (aka. head waiter) about the situation, and he told us the girl we previously asked "was new to the restaurant," and he apologized.

We then received our bento boxes ... and afterwards we received our "starter" miso soups.

::sigh::

We ate, we paid, then we left.

Now, was it a completely terrible experience? No. I enjoyed the food I ate, and so did my dad. Does their wait staff need a major training revamp? HELL YES. If this girl was "new" she should have the menu memorized. Little things like "SOUP & SALAD INCLUDED" are somewhat important. Hopefully they'll learn ... eventually.

Here's a little nugget of trivia for you as well: this is the 2nd time that I've gone to Niko Niko and they've brought out the soup AFTER the entree. So ... training for the wait staff? Yeah. They need it BAD.

Will I eat there again? Probably ... but not till 2012. xP

OC Foodstock & Marketpl..... CANCELED?!?!

So I was going to tell all you people of the internetz about this cool event I was planning on going to with some of my co-workers called the OC Foodstock & Marketplace. It was going to be a 2 day event with food trucks, an "Iron Truck" Competition, baseball, farmer's market, etc. It was going to be super fun and awesome ... at least I THOUGHT it was going to be super fun and awesome....



Turns out that on November 17, the event was officially CANCELED. (yes there's only ONE "L" in the word "canceled" ... thanks.)

According to their website, it states that ...

"Due to the lack of interest, the OC Foodstock & Marketplace will not be happening this year. We do apologize for any inconvenience this may cause for those of you that purchased tickets ... We did not want to have a repeat of other non-successful events for both patrons and our food trucks/vendors. Thank you to those of you that did support us."
This really made me sad. After negatively anticipating a week that did NOT contain the shows "Once Upon A Time" and "Glee," the end of my week was going to be the highlight of that dark time. First would be Thanksgiving, 2nd would be going to my friend's lil baby boy's 1st birthday at Chuck-E-Cheese's, and 3rd was SUPPOSED to be the OC Foodstock & Marketplace.

I has a sad. =*(

But I guess it's a good thing, since if they wish to do any more events like this in the future, they need to have a good rapport with the vendors. If the event went through as planned, and the vendors/trucks/etc. had a terrible time, then the event would probably never happen again.

In THIS case, they have a chance to step back, fix things, then bring it back into the foreground.

I really hope they do bring this event back. It sounded like so much fun! Plus they needed to do a LOT more advertising. The only advertising I saw was from Twitter, and that was pretty much IT.

Now Twitter DOES get to a good amount of people ... but for the crowd they were expecting, they needed to spread the word in other spots as well. I guess this is a learning curve for everyone.

My co-workers & I decided that since we already made plans to hang out during the day, that we would instead eat lunch at Mama Cozza's Italian Restaurant, which was featured on the show "Diners, Drive Ins, & Dives." Then (hoping that food coma would not take over) we would all eventually head to work. xP

I'll probably take pictures at the restaurant & eventually post the food ones on my Flickr. That way, the day wouldn't have been wasted... and that's a good thing, right? :)

Keep on eating y'all. Hope your days aren't wasted. ^__^;;

EDIT: So Mama Cozza's is CLOSED for lunch on Saturdays. (HOORAY FOR BAD LUCK ... ugh. >.< )

So we ended up going to the Lazy Dog Cafe in Anaheim, followed by dessert at Yogurtland in Fullerton.

We still ended up with awesome meals...... but I am still having food truck withdrawals. xP

My Thanksgiving 2011

Even though I had to work on Thanksgiving, I'd have to say it was a good day.

I posted the food pix on my Flickr ...

Looks good, right? xP 
That link has basically all the food pix I took on Thanksgiving at work and at home. It was pretty cool that I was able to pretty much have 2 Thanksgivings.

At work we had a potluck in the office, and we were all invited to basically stuff our faces in celebration of the holiday. :)

I didn't mind, since I was getting paid holiday pay to basically eat. HAHA!

Ham. Stuffing. Chicken. Gravy. Mac & cheese. Rice. Potatoes. Pumpkin pie. Sweet potato pie. Ice cream. Cupcakes.

Yeah I'm stuffed.

Thanksgiving = successful. Hope y'all had a great one too.

Keep on eating everyone! ^_^;;

Happy Thanksgiving 2011!!!

Hey all!

I sincerely apologize for the lack of updates on this here food blog. The latter half of the year has been relatively interesting for me, and unfortunately this blog was a casualty.

BUT NO MORE.

Starting TODAY (November 24, 2011), I will DO MY DARNDEST (yes that's a word ... in someone's dictionary) to keep this blog up to date with food related .... STUFF. :)

I mean, I HAVE been taking pictures of food on my Flickr.... I just haven't been writing much down.

THIS NEEDS TO STOP. NOW. LIKE SERIOUSLY JOCEY WTF? xP

I will take pictures of the food I ate at Thanksgiving ... I will talk about the food I ate at Thanksgiving ... and if I have access to it, I will post recipes of the food I ate at Thanksgiving.

Because gosh darn it, I SHOULD.

Raise your glass interwebz, this ones for you! ::glugs a shot of random beverage that will not be named but more than likely is non-alcoholic::

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!! :)

OC Foodie Fest - Aug. 27, 2011!

The OC Foodie Fest was started last year, and apparently it was a HUGE success. Tons of different food trucks, vendors, & restaurants showcased their awesome awesomeness in the parking lot of Angel Stadium in Anaheim. I missed it because I didn't plan ahead. =*(

THIS YEAR IS DIFFERENT!!! :)

I planned ahead, requested the day off, AND got my ticket early (EARLY ENTRY FTW). Plus I'm going with my friend, so I won't act like a photographic glutton alone. xP



Don't worry... pictures WILL be taken. I'm actually considering renting a lens from Borrow Lenses, so we'll see how those delicious photos will come out. I will be posting them on my Flickr, so you guys (hopefully more than ONE of you? hehe) will be able to see them.

That's it from me.

Thanks for reading & keep on eating y'all! ^__^;;

Flickr Groups

Thanks to my friend (Nick ... aka. KAMI Photography), I learned that I could put my pictures in specialized groups so more people would be able to view them!

I mean it makes sense, but for some reason I couldn't put 2 & 2 together.

Anyway, I have begun joining food photography related groups & I have started adding my pictures to those groups. Hopefully this way more people will be able to see my pictures.

Have YOU seen my pictures yet?



Iron Chef Joce's Food Photography


Check em out when you can, and leave comments. I am a willing learner, hoping to always learn from as many sources as I can gather.

Thanks & keep on eating y'all! ^__^;;

Wood Ranch BBQ

This isn't a review of sorts. This is just something I wanted to post, since I took pictures.

Today for lunch, my dad took my brother & I out to the Wood Ranch BBQ in Cerritos, CA.

No special occasion or anything ... it was just for us to have a nice time together, catching up, bonding, & eating.

I recently purchased a used Nikon Nikkor 50mm lens from eBay, & I've been TRYING to work with it. I'm still getting used to it, but so far it's been fun.

So I took some pictures with it from the restaurant ....


My dad's lunch... BBQ Tri Tip Sliders (BBQ sauce on the side) served with grilled corn on the cob:



My Salad... "Natalie's Salad," mixed greens with avocado, bleu cheese crumbles, & candied pecans:



"12 fl. oz. of American Flavor" (aka. BBQ sauce) ... the house sauce:



Complimentary garlic herb roll:



My lunch... BBQ Tri Tip sliders served with mac & cheese:




So yeah. Let me know how those look. I also recently started a Flickr (check my previous post about that), and let me know if those look alright too.

That's it from me. Keep on eating y'all!!! ^__^;;

Food Photography?

I NOW HAVE A DSLR CAMERA!

Just an FYI to everyone out there. I recently procured a Nikon d3100, and I absolutely LOVE this camera. True, it's a "entry-level" DSLR, but I think it's awesome nonetheless.

Anyway, because of this, I started a Flickr account to showcase all the pictures of food I've been taking with this camera. Check it out ...

IRON CHEF JOCE'S FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY



I think they came out alright. Please check them out.

Ok that's it for this entry. I need to be a lil more consistent with the blog entries. Maybe now that I have a fancy camera, I'll have more to write about hehe.

Thanks & keep on eating y'all! ^_^

Curiousity....

So I think it's safe to say that everyone knows pretty much the only TV I've been watching lately (aside from GLEE) is related to food.

Whether it's a competition like CHOPPED, or just a regular ol' cooking show like GIADA AT HOME ... or even a showcase show like DINERS, DRIVE-INS, & DIVES ... it's somehow related to food.

So, why this post you ask? Well whenever I see these shows, I become curious. Curious at how DELICIOUS some of the stuff on camera seems. I'm curious as to where they get those ingredients or where I can buy the specific item they're eating, etc.

So ... tonight my search led me to LOBSTER ROLLS. I know, totally random, right? Random, and yet DELICIOUS.

Honestly I've only had ONE lobster roll: the one they sell at Red Lobster.

Now if you're a TRUE New England-er, you would probably hang me from the highest bow for even remotely BELIEVING the sandwich I had at Red Lobster was a proper lobster roll ... but seeing as I've been born & raised in California, and have never BEEN to New England (specifically Maine) before, I wouldn't know the difference. THANK GOODNESS FOR THE FOOD NETWORK. xP

Tell me this, oh wise interwebbians: where have you had your BEST lobster roll? If so, WHY was it the best? Describe in detail for me, and provide pictures if you can. Then maybe ... MAYBE I can experience it virtually, & eventually be inspired to possibly make one of my own. Or ... have the "cojones" to fly out to New England to try a legit one.


All I know is this: lobster rolls are DELICIOUS. :)

From Elbow's Mac N Cheese in Cerritos!

My lunch! YUM. Swiss & bacon mac with seasoned chipstix & a soda!

Chobani Greek Style yogurt with strawberries!

Afternoon snack. =) Has anyone else tried it?

My dinner from Lucille's! =)

Baby back ribs & brisket!

Sliders & brownie from BACONMANIA!

Dinner part 2!

The title dog from Dogzilla! =)

Dinner part 1 =)

Panda Inn for my dad's bday dinner!

My yummy plate of food!

MY LUNCH TODAY! HAPPY BDAY DAD!

2 fish taco plate from Rubio's!

My newest cookbooks!

These were all 20% off at the Borders in Cerritos. Sadly the Borders will be closing down. =(

Strawberry milk tea from Cocary Shabu Shabu/BBQ!

My delicious beverage!

The ChocoFlan I brought for the DCA ODV President's Day BBQ!

My mom still won't tell me her recipe for this lolz!

Shinsengumi Hakata Ramen (with extra chashu & egg) ... YUM!

This was my lunch on Sunday. =)

Homemade bread pudding!

To warm up your tummy ...

Brocolli cheddar soup from the Pacific Wharf Cafe.

Lunchtimes. =)

Bacon fried rice? Yes.

Leftover steamed rice + real bacon bits + garlic salt + a lil soy sauce + 1 egg = bacon fried rice! Render the bacon first for the fat & use that to cook the rice! YUM.

OMG IT'S 2011!!!

Hey everyone!

I apologize for the EXTREME lack of updates here. I know I was going to update y'all on the food from my trip WAY BACK in October ... that didn't happen.

But it's a new year, so HOPEFULLY I'll do better.

The pictures of the different meals that I ate during the trip are currently up on my Facebook right now. So check them out when you get the chance.

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It's been a few months, but recently I have sort of developed a new activity of sorts: chasing gourmet food trucks. I had eaten at a few before, but never to the degree that I am at now. I follow them on Twitter, and when they are nearby my city (or at least where I'll be at later), I'll make an effort to go out there and try their food.

I've been to ... Kogi, White Rabbit, Manila Machine, Tapa Boy LA, Rolling Sushi Van, Dogzilla, Komodo, Shrimp Pimp, Crepes Bonaparte, Shortstop BBQ, the OC Foodtruck, Piaggio On Wheels, Louks To Go, Dan Dan BBQ, Dosa Truck, Buttermilk Truck, Lardon, Baconmania, Ludobites, Vizzi Truck, Lomo Arigato, Mambo Juice Truck, Sugar Babies, The Bakery Truck, Longboards Ice Cream Truck, Lake Street Creamery, Coolhaus, The Greasy Wiener, Crepe N Around, The Burnt Truck, Grill Em All Truck, etc. etc. etc.

This was seriously all in the span of a few months.

I have considered opening up MY OWN food truck, so I guess you can consider this research. :)

I've taken pictures of the different foods I've eaten from these crazy trucks, and they're all on Facebook & Twitter.

Now that I am somewhat conscious, I'll be sure to post them HERE on my Blogger as well. It makes sense, right?

I'll also try to post other culinary adventures here too. (i.e., my visit to Umami Burger for the first time, etc.)

Please stay tuned. I think you'll enjoy what's being posted. Thanks again, and to end this, I'm posting a pic of the burger I enjoyed from the Grill Em All Truck - THE BEHEMOTH. :)

Dude are you kidding me? It's got grilled cheese sammiches as the BUN!

Keep on eating y'all! ^_^;;