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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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