A Taste of Home

It can't be denied that one of the things that made me stay in LA is the food. And importantly, it's the fact that I can get food from my home country here. And good food at that. Lately I've been going to Simpang Asia in Palms for Indonesian food. They used to be exclusively a grocery store that sells some Indonesian dishes to go. Then they expanded to the store next to them to open up a small cafe, serving, to my delight - durian smoothie and avocado juice (this is avocado blended with chocolate or coffee).

Nowadays they are Zagat rated. Which means they get crowded. Oh well. At least if business is good they will stay open.

This is a typical celebration dish, "Nasi Kuning" (literally, yellow rice). It's turmeric rice with roast chicken, eggs, a type of potato ball, egg in "balado" sauce, etc.


Oh, and the fried shallots on top of the rice is veeery very important! We put it on almost everything, soup, fried rice, ramen noodles ...

Oh did I mention simpang asia has the cheapest Indonesian food in LA?

Simpang Asia Groceries
10433 National Blvd #2
Los Angeles, CA 90034

Yujean Kang Gourmet Chinese

I've been hearing a lot about Yujean Kang's and since it is in Pasadena after all, I decided to give it a try one day. We went as a group of six to old town Pasadena. The whole old town + atmosphere surprised me, since the place seems rather fancy for good authentic Chinese food. We didn't have reservations and they were busy but they were very nice and after about 10 minutes they accomodated us.

Their polenta appetizer was reviewed by LA Times, so obviously we had to give it a try. Although it wasn't what I would picture as a "polenta dish", it was definitely yummy :)

I really liked the crispy beef, shown here:


The Chinese food here really is a step up from most other Chinese restaurants in quality and the ingredients used. Although one person said the food is still not as high quality as Mr Chow, the price is definitely way waaay better than Mr Chow.

Yujean Kang's
67 N Raymond Ave
Pasadena, CA 91103

Twas the season

There is the season each year that you look forward to, that you save up all your money for, so you can splurge and spend it all in one go.
No, I'm not talking about christmas, nor the holiday season.

Naturally, I'm talking about the white truffle season. This year, I decided to give Angelini Osteria's white truffle dish a try. Got the pasta, as it was the cheapest :)

A friend of mine looked at me funny (the-you're-paying-that-much-for-plain-pasta-with -shavings look), but he just does not understand ... the odor! OMG! As you take a bite, the unmistakable white truffle smell just bursts in your mouth.

For dessert we had the chocolate pudding, which is the same as the Bunet that they serve at La Terza. Once again, was amazing. Very chocolatey but smooth.

We also had the panna cotta, which was very good, but everyone mainly went for the chocolate pudding :)


ANGELINI OSTERIA
7313 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90036
Phone: 323-297-0070