Mama Lu's or Mama's Lu Dumpling House!?!

Asian restaurants in the United States are funny. The name that's on their menu might differ from the name they had plastered on the front door or awning. When I was growing up we would frequent a Chinese restaurant that we called "Daniel's Place" and I'm pretty sure that's how they would answer the phone, but on the outside, the green awning clearly said "Daniel's Palace." Typo or not, one has to laugh a little.

We find the same little things here in Los Angeles. We were meeting some friends for lunch in Monterey Park, a city full of yummy Chinese food. I looked on Yelp so that we could try something new, and I was craving dumplings. I found 3 listings for what seemed like the same place: Mama's Lu, Mama Lu's, Mama Lu's Dumpling House. Turns out there are two locations, with conflicting names on both the door and the menu. It's comical. But either way, this place rocked. We went to the newer and larger location, and it wasn't even crowded at 11am on a Saturday, surprisingly.

Mama's Lu, or whatever it's called, serves up some delish Taiwanese specialties like pan fried rice cakes, which are like coin-sized rice noodles stir-fried with veggies and meat.

They have beef rolls or wraps - like a Chinese burrito made with a green onion pancake and marinated beef and green onions inside. Yum!

And, of course, lots of different styles of dumplings!

I didn't even take a picture of every dish we ordered. There were four of us, and we polished off seven dishes. A little excessive, but soooo good. And, on top of all the goodness in the tummy, it is CHEAP! We ordered 7 dishes and only spent about 45 bucks total, with leftovers to take home.

This place definitely satisfied my craving, and we will be back. Next time maybe with the baby in our arms. :) If ever in the San Gabriel Valley, try out Mama's Lu in Monterey Park!

Pink's Hot Dogs, Hollywood

There are quite a few historical food landmarks in Los Angeles. The number of celebrities that frequent a place, whether high-end or hole-in-the-wall, just might determine its legendary status. And, restaurants that name menu items after famous people, well, they always seem to make it big.


There's Sue (pointing at the sign), Pam, and Aaron holding our place in line. We waited for 40 minutes to order! Can you tell she's happy to be there?

Pink's is one of those landmarks. It's just a shack on La Brea Avenue heading into Hollywood that's been around since the 1940's. It's a grease pit serving hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, and onion rings. It's a heart-stopper. Cholesterol and calories are served there. And yet, in this west coast town of vegans and organic-fanatics, the line is most usually 20-50+ people long. And, they have hot dogs named after Martha Stewart and Ozzy Osborne, just to name a couple.

After living here for close to 7 years, I still hadn't been. But when my mother-in-law and friends came to visit before our Vegas trip, Pink's was our lunch destination before a day of shopping at the Grove. Needless to say, we really didn't need to eat for the rest of the day...

Here is our lineup of hot dogs...sauerkraut, anyone?

...and the burgers...Yes, that's a polish dog and bacon on top of the chili cheeseburger on the left. Wow. It was a bit much!

It was a good experience, though I wouldn't eat here very often, just for my body's sake. It's pretty tasty grub and it's fun to enjoy with friends, but...just looking at it puts you in danger of gaining 2 pounds. My favorite thing was probably the chili. So, a chili dog or chili cheeseburger or chili cheese fries are probably the best things to order.

Not sure if we'll be back, but at least I can check this one off my LA bucket list!

Maui Babymoon & Food Tour

When we've mentioned taking a "babymoon," half the time we get blank looks in response. I guess it's a newer term than we thought. My husband surprised me with a trip to Maui this month to relax, celebrate, and enjoy our life as two before we become three. Our babymoon.

That's right, folks. A little baby Ringler is due to arrive in early November! We're almost 6 months along and I can hardly believe it. Blogging has already started to become difficult to fit in...I'm afraid I might drop off when our son arrives, but hopefully his coming into our lives will inspire me even more as a new mom trying to feed healthy and creative foods to a growing boy. We'll see!

For now, though, I had to post about this trip because of all the great places we discovered on the island of Maui. We were there for a short 5 days, but it did not disappoint. Along with the relaxed nature and beauty of paradise, the food there was amazing and I can't wait to go back. Here's where we ate and ate and ate...

Da Kitchen Cafe in Kahului Home cooking, island style, perfect for your first meal when you fly in to the airport (it's only 2 minutes away) and when you fly out! You will find Hawaiian plate lunches and more. But all I really wanted was Loco Moco: rice, hamburger patty and a fried egg topped with a lot of brown gravy. It was amazing. The husband had Kahlua Pork with brown rice. The pork was a little too salty, but the rice was really good - soft and sticky - surprising for a whole grain. We also tried the Chicken Katsu and Teriyaki Beef and Teriyaki Chicken. Those were all excellent. Each dish was enough to feed two people. We enjoyed our leftovers on the plane home!

Kihei Caffe We also ate here twice because we loved it so much. This little "dive" is in Kihei, the town between Wailea and Lahaina on the west coast of the island. You order at the counter and they bring your meal to you outside on the patio. The people that work there are so friendly, it's like coming home for breakfast (or lunch). And you can have breakfast all day - well, at least until 2pm when they close up. They are located across from a beach park, so I'm sure they get a lot of local surfers coming for grub. And is it goooooooood grub! We had the Breakfast Burrito with Chorizo and we also tried the Cinnamon Roll French Toast (with coconut syrup - yum!). Both were fantastic. They have pancakes and pork chop & eggs, and they even serve meusli and yogurt parfaits. It's fresh and the flavors are really wonderful.

Mama's Fish House This is the best-known fine dining restaurant on the island. It's expensive, but you get a great experience for the 4 dollar signs. It's located on the north shore, at a private beach outside of the town of Paia. It is a huge restaurant and you need reservations whether for lunch or dinner, on the weekend or during the week. The fish is caught fresh everyday and the service is excellent. They start by serving fresh baked bread and a tiny taster cup of tomato and ginger bisque. It is a perfect beginning to a meal. The cocktail and wine list are quite extensive as well. We ordered the Shrimp Wontons (whole shrimp wrapped in a wonton wrapper and fried), Pulled Wild Boar and Mahimahi, and the Opakapaka served upcountry style (pan-fried) with carmelized onions and bok choy. For dessert, we had French-pressed coffee and the Black Pearl Lilikoi Chocolate Mousse. Beautiful presentation and taste all around. Our whole dinner came to about $160 for the two of us.

Jawz Fish Taco Truck & Ululani's Shave Ice We met some locals at a happy hour, and they recommended Jawz fish tacos. We found the food truck on the way to Kihei so we decided to stop and give it a try. The fish is grilled and the tomato salsa on top was almost a little creamy. It was very good - but I'm not sure I would go back...maybe just to try something else. If nothing else, it's a cheap way to eat. Two tacos for $7.

Ululani's now has shave ice shops all around the island. With a 5-star rating on Yelp, you can't lose here. It was definitely one of the best authentic Hawaiian shave ices I've tried. It's super soft and finely shaved ice, with just the right amount of syrup. The ice cream and mochi add-ons are so yummy, and the "snow cap" of condensed milk adds a perfect sweet creaminess to the treat. I'm so glad we tried it!

Tommy Bahama & Lappert's Ice Cream & Coffee at the Shops at Wailea
Our favorite stops in Wailea, where we stayed, were the Tommy Bahama Restaurant Happy Hour, and Lappert's Ice Cream. Both are located in the same shopping mall. You may know Tommy Bahama's as a clothing store. Well, it is, but they also have a bar and restaurant! The happy hour was a deal with drinks at $8 and apps at $7-9 each. The prime beef sliders were our favorite, followed by the macadamia encrusted goat cheese. The atmosphere is great, and we met some great new local friends there.

Lappert's is an ice creamery in Kauai, which has stores on the other islands. The ice cream is so rich and creamy, and you get flavors you can only find in Hawaii, with coconut and kona coffee and macadamia shortbread pieces. Delicious.

I'm ready to go again. Maybe next year to celebrate baby's birthday?!? wink, wink.

Bruxie's Gourmet Waffles

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

If you're in Southern California this Memorial Day, or any time in the near future, check out Bruxie, an awesome new find in Orange County. They have three locations - Brea, Rancho Santa Margarita, and the City of Orange. We've been to the one in Orange two times now, and have NOT been disappointed. Everything we've tried is tasty and "crave-worthy." That is, it's food that I crave on a regular basis. Unfortunately, I'm a bit too far to go out there every time I want it, but it's been a treat in my recent life, and I like it.

If you love waffles (like I do), then the thought of a sandwich made with waffles instead of bread is like heaven. This place is just a little shack. Seating is available outside only and you won't miss it because there's a line around the corner at any given time of the day.

They fill these folded waffles with everything from PB & J to a classic burger, from pastrami to prosciutto to pulled pork. It's glorious.


Here's the cheeseburger...simple lettuce, tomato, and cheddar, but so juicy and good.

Of course they have to have a fried chicken & waffle too - served with maple syrup and pictured here with a side of waffle cut fries.

Then, there's dessert...

You can do it simple with lemon cream & berries, or nutella & banana, OR, you can do it up in a sundae with frozen custard and the works...

This is what we demolished...a traditional Belgian-style waffle, the batter studded with sugar crystals so that they carmelize in the waffle iron, topped with frozen custard, peanuts, chocolate and caramel sauce, and lots and lots of whipped cream.

They also serve housemade old-fashioned sodas, lemonade, and shakes. There are always specials too...of course there are!

It's different, it's really good...and if I have to list a negative, it's that there's no onsite bathroom. But, trust me, it's worth the walk to the local Starbucks for a restroom just to have your tummy full of this goodness.

Try it. You'll like it.

Alpine Village: Another Great Local Find

When we moved to Torrance, California, we knew we would have no shortage of Japanese cuisine. Because of the Toyota and Honda manufacturers making a home in our hometown, there are Japanese markets and restaurants everywhere to serve the community of workers who moved here. Japanese-Americans all over LA know that good food can be found here.

What I didn't expect was to find a real authentic German restaurant in the neighborhood. I'd heard of Alpine Village as a place to go for Oktoberfest, but in the 2 years we've been here, we've missed it. So, when Groupon had a deal for this place, I jumped at the opportunity to go and check it out.

Alpine Village is an interesting place. It's got a restaurant and café, and a community center room that can be rented for parties. It even has a little business area with shops, a dentist office, a hair salon, and even a wedding chapel. Fascinating and a little kitschy. Let's just say, it opened in the 1960s and there hasn't been a ton of updatin', if you know what I mean. :)

The timberframe architecture takes you away to a tiny German village. The restaurant is dim and wood paneling covers the walls inside. The beer is ever-flowing, and the potatoes and sausage are
d-a-n-g-e-r-o-u-s-l-y scrumptious.

I don't remember what hubby had to drink, but mine was a heifeweizen...I can tell by the orange slice.

Hubby ordered a classic wienerschnitzel, which is served on top of the most amazing potato, bacon, onion, and parsley concoction I've ever had. So good.

I had a Hungarian sausage plate with sauerkraut, the wondrous potatoes, and a duo of mustard. You'll see in the picture, on the bottom left, there's a piece of bread with chicken liver paté. They give you a whole little pot of that with a basket of bread and butter before your meal. It's so yummy. I took the rest home to eat the next day.

After dinner, we checked out the market. Now that was like walking into a supermarket in the middle of Europe. It made this girl so happy. Especially when I wandered into this aisle...

Chocolate! All the chocolate that one can find in Europe. It was glorious. Lindt, Ritter Sport, Milka.

And they also carry a lot of products that can only be found in Germany...like Smurf soup mix. I love how it's translated - schlumpf. Hehe.

Needless to say, this is a fun place for Europhiles like me. I had a great time, and we can't wait to take our German relatives here next time they are in town!

The Standing Room

Los Angeles food trucks have gotten a lot of hype lately. They deserve it. There are some good eats coming out of those restaurants on wheels, no doubt. They are fun to chase too. But sometimes you just don't feel like chasing. That's when you go to the Standing Room.

Here are the guys waiting in the aisles to place our order. The neon menu is between them and Seinfeld is playing on the TV to the right. Love it.

Food truck food on the ground. In a liquor store. Behind the canned corned beef and Boston Baked Beans, and next to the refrigerator of sparkling water and Coca-Cola. Across from the shelves of Vodka and cigarettes...there is an itty-bitty kitchen with three dudes working their *!# off to make some really yummy food.

The Bull Burger. Korean bulgogi beef on a cheeseburger.

The Pulled Pork Sammie. Check out the bread!

The Shortie. Braised short rib on a french roll

Korean-influenced burgers, "sammies", plate lunches, and fries. Kim chee aoili. Bulgogi on a beef patty. Braised short rib, pulled pork, grilled salmon, roasted brussel sprouts. Flavor-packed food. In a liquor store. Check it out if you ever find yourself in the South Bay. Lucky for me, I find myself in the South Bay everyday. :) This is a new favorite spot. Come and visit. I'll take you there!

Viva Las Vegas

Happy 2012 Everyone! Hope you enjoyed the holidays as much as we did.

My husband and I went to Las Vegas last weekend for a little getaway before all the family events that were in our then-near-future (now past). We went with great intentions to hit up all the fancy restaurants we could handle. I made reservations at four restaurants. We made it to two of them. Not bad odds for Vegas, right?

Here they are, for your viewing and salivating enjoyment:

Mesa Grill @ Caesar's Palace Quite possibly our favorite place to splurge. Great cocktails (margaritas always, and mimosas at brunch), excellent food.

Bacon and Hashbrown Quesadilla topped with a Fried Egg, Salsa, and Cotija Cheese, and Cilantro - to die for.

Blue Corn Waffle with Blackberries and Cream - delish!

Striploin Steak  with Scrambled Eggs and a variety of toppings to make breakfast tacos - yum!

Mon Ami Gabi @ Paris Las Vegas It was our first time eating at this restaurant and I loved it. Charming ambiance and definitely Parisian. The food and service were absolument superbe!

Onion Soup - full of gruyere cheese and dark carmelized onions. A bit salty, but really satisfying.

Blueberry French Toast, a side of scrambled eggs, and a decaf latte for hubby.

Moules Marinieres for me. So meaty, so good!

Moules aren't complete without Frites! These are super crispy and more like chips than fries.

And then we hit up a couple of other places without reservations:
Hubert Keller's Burger Bar @ Mandalay Bay Resort It was...okay. Burgers, beer, and really good fried sides.

Slightly disappointed in this place...the sliders were dry and didn't have much flavor. But Hubs' burger was good, as were the pepperjack potato popper-thingies. Probably won't go back to this place.

Serendipity 3 @ Caesar's Palace A must-go for a late night treat. We actually had dinner (salads) and then indulged in ice cream. The salads were actually really good. The ice cream, well...just look.

That dark stuff on the plate is hot fudge. Oh yeah.

Ok. Best sundae of my life. Vanilla and Coffee ice cream, bananas, and a SLICE OF PEANUT BUTTER PIE, topped with whipped cream, peanuts, and a cherry, of course.

No visit to Serendipity 3 is complete without a Frozen Hot Chocolate. This one was Amaretto flavored topped with candied almonds and cream. Decadent.

We ate well. Could you tell? Thankfully we only gained a couple of pounds each. :)

And totally unrelated to food, we went to see the new Cirque du Soleil show, Immortal World Tour: Michael Jackson!! It was a really great show. Awesome acrobats, dancers, sets, and the music was, of course, nostalgic, thrilling, and a wonderful tribute to MJ. The King of Pop, oh yes, he was. Go see it if you have a chance...it's on tour now.  :)

Seattle Food Tour, Part 2

It's time I finished posting about Seattle. It's already been a month. Man, time is fleeting. I'll make this quick-ish!

The Forge Lounge We stopped here after yelping bars in the area downtown, where we were waiting for our friend Mel to come and pick us up for dinner. It was a fun little hole-in-the-wall (my favorite type of place). I'm trying to cut down on the alcohol (my liver is not behaving), so I asked for a mocktail. The bartender was awesome. He made me a ginger beer with club soda and a squeeze of lime and lemon...delish! And the coolest part about this guy was that he was cooking up a batch of bacon jam while he ran the whole happy hour by himself. Yes, that's what I said. Bacon Jam. And, he let us taste it. You can bet you will be seeing that one on this blog sometime in the near future - combining two of my favorite things into one. Oh yeah.

Volterra We went here after a couple of drinks in the Ballard area. Cute, chic, fun part of town. Supposedly this Italian restaurant is one of Rachael Ray's faves. It was quite yumm-o. The cheese and charcuterie (meat) plates were amazing. These were our entrees. It's been so long I don't really know what they were. But they were good. :) The pea risotto at the bottom was hubby's favorite of the night, light, creamy, and topped off with some homemade sausages.

Roxy's Diner We met our friend Jillian here for breakfast before heading out of town to Yakima, WA. This place has a massive menu of Jewish deli food - bagels, lox, latkes, pastrami, bacon...you get the picture. Haha. Ok, it's Jewish deli food plus all the American goodies too, like peanut butter pancakes. This place is great for breakfast or lunch. We tried both because after taking these pictures...

Jillian, me, and hubby. I love reunions.

The Monte Cristo Breakfast Sandwich...a winner!

Potato pancakes with bacon and eggs

...I left my camera on the table, and I had to go back for it...so we ate lunch there 3 days later. Everything was really good and the service is great too. A real local hang out. It kind of screams, "Seattle!"

Bonair Winery & Silver Lake Winery Drive 2 hours outside of Seattle, and you'll find a little wine country. It's beautiful out there with crisp clean air and really nice wines. They have ice wines, which are really wonderful, sweet, light dessert wines made from grapes that are frozen while still on the vine. We picnicked on the grounds at Bonair, which reminded us of Europe. I didn't get any great photos here, unfortunately. But you can click on the names of the wineries and they will link you to their webistes for more info.

All in all, we had a fabulous time in Washington and wish it was even closer...we'd be there a lot more often if that were the case. Great friends, great food...can't get much better for this girl. :)

Seattle Food Tour Spotlight: Salumi

Salumi is a Seattle Food Tour stop that gets its own "spotlight" post because I took so many pictures there and I wanted you to see them all. And, it was the one place that I had on my mind's Must Eat list for the trip. And, it's uh-may-zing. First of all, they are a specialty shop making cured pork products and I love me some pork. Second, the owners are the parents of an Iron Chef.

Can you guess which one?

Maybe this picture of their bookshelf will give you a clue...

If you guessed Mario Batali, congratulations! Either he's their son, or they are just really huge fans. :)

This was the line outside when we arrived at 11:40am. It looked the same when we left at 1pm. They are only open to the public Tuesday-Friday 11-4. But, they cater and can host private parties.

Like any good Italian establishment, there's a wall of family photos.
Mario is in the color pic in the middle.

The counter where you place your order and pay.
Notice the massive meat slicer front and center.

The Porchetta: braised pork shoulder with onions, peppers,
and lots of Italian spices served on a chewy baguette. Think Italian pulled pork.

The Muffo: their take on a classic muffaletta, complete with salami, sopresatta,
provolone, and an olive salad soaked into a ciabatta bun. Think Italy hits New Orleans.

Happy me. Hubby and I always talk about our Top 5 Sandwiches because he's a sandwich lover. He's definitely rubbing off on me because this is definitely Top 5 material and I was loving it. It was well worth the wait in line and the trip to Seattle. I can't wait 'til we get to eat there again!  Oh, and if you're reading this and you live in Seattle, it is your civic duty to try this place out. It will not disappoint.