2009.06.25 Cheesecake Factory

Cheesecake Factory
Westfield Shopping Mall in Arcadia
(626) 447-2800

Ahi Carpaccio - Thin slices of raw ahi tuna, wasabi pesto, creamy avocado and togarashi aioli. This dish was on the sour side for me. Tangy, fresh tuna, crispy chips were a great compliment to go with it.

Fried Calamari - Served with garlic dip and cocktail sauce. Added some lemon juice on dipping sauce. This has been a dish we always get when we come here. Great crispy texture on the outside. Tender, chewable pieces of calamari inside, fresh, hot, tasty...always.

Pasta da Vinci - Sauteed chicken, mushrooms, onions and garlic in a delicious Madeira wine sauce tossed with penne pasta and Parmesan. The first bite of this dish was a surprise! It was lon the sweet tasting side and pasta was Al Dante, just the way I like it. Any more less cooked will be undercooked. Plenty of sauce, no fear of it running out. Excellent dish for the first time.

Cajun Jambalaya Pasta - Shrimp and chicken sauteed with onions, tomato and peppers in a very spicy cajun sauce. All served on top of fresh linguini. Flavor on this dish was surprisingly light to me. It was just a little bit of spicy, not even close to what I expected. I could have used more of a kick to this dish. Although I like dry noodles just as much as sauced pastas, this dish can be a bit too dry for someone who is used to saucy pastas.

30th Anniversary Chocolate Cake Cheesecake - Two layers of their original Cheesecake and two layers of Creamy Chocolate Fudge Cake filled with Chocolate cream and finished with crunchy pearls of chocolate.
Looks great, I only had a couple bites. Delicious.

Thai Paradise

Thai Paradise

141 N Atlantic blvd #113

Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 281-8886




Ice Coffee

Pad Thai with Tofu. Very flavorful, teaste, temperature, texture was excellent! Their Pad See Ew is also very good! In fact the menu has so many great items that always makes it hard to choose from!

Tom Yum Soup with Noodles and Shrimp - A bit spicy, sour, flavorful taste of lemongrass, fresh scent of cilantro. Great flat wide noodles. Another awesome dish.

This restaurant also does some GREAT lunch specials. Prices start around $6 to $10 for lunches, some includes soup, your entree, and even a hot dessert included! Can't beat that kind of deal for what kind of food you are getting. I highly recommend this restaurant if you are near the area!

Carnival World Buffet, Rio Hotel & Casino

Carnival World Buffet
Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino,
Las Vegas
Hours: Breakfast: Mon-Fri 7-11am;
Lunch: Mon-Fri 11am-3:30pm
Dinner: Nightly 3:30-10pm
Sat. & Sun. Champagne Brunch 8am - 3:30pm
Cost: $$Honestly, I don't go to Rio enough times to realize that they have a few other dining choices, including this buffet. I always ended up at their Village Seafood Buffet instead. Since this was a free meal, we tried it out!
The first thing that really surprised me was their wide selection of food that this buffet carries, hence the "world" buffet. Believe it or not, the first dish that I grabbed was the "dim sum", or the Chinese food that they offered, due to the fact that its been a few days now since my wife and I had Chinese food. On the picture you see that they have spring rolls, egg rolls, BBQ Pork bun, "Ha Gao", next to it was also a Turnip cake (although this one is somewhat breaded and more fried than the traditional version, it was pretty decent), Sesame sticky ball with red bean inside.
The center of the plate is Singapore Fried Rice Noodles.
The Asian section of the kitchen also had a dozen if not more of roasted ducks hanging behind a glass case. Picture above is more dim sum and siu mai, and I threw in a piece of Fried Chicken, haha.
Feel Free to click on pictures to see them up close!
As I wondered off to other sections or serving stations, there were popcorn shrimp, onion rings, fried fish, fried scallops, and many other selections that I passed. All of them were also pretty decent for a buffet. You also notice some assorted salmon cut rolls, and a few simple "sushi" dishes they do carry.
Here's another view
The next place I stumbled on was pizza, Cajun shrimp, pesto shrimp, spaghetti and meatballs, mussels, clams. phew! what a mix.
Of course, they also carry crab legs. As usual, they tend to be heavy on the salty side, BUT I do have to say, the crab flavor was also very noticeable, which makes it better. I have had all salty strands of meat before, but you couldn't tell that it was crab meat.
Tender, prime rib. Not as tender as Lawry's now, but not bad for all this other things in this whole dining experience!
Shrimp cocktails and more fried stuff.
Assorted desserts: I really enjoyed the cheese cake on the bottom left. The texture was fairly fluffy and wasn't too heavy, I was able to eat the whole thing without feeling being drowned in it. The top piece of cake tasted like a Red Velvet cake, with cream cheese on top. I also liked the fruit parfait they offered. A bit Tarty, perfect after a heavy meal.
Assorted chocolate desserts also! Actually, there were so much more to offer here, I never made it to even try more than 50 % of the items they carried.
Again, I would not have chose this restaurant to eat on my own, but I do have to say that for the price they charge, this is a great place if your party may be picky on certain types of food, since they do carry so many different things here that I wasn't even able to attempt to taste.

Le Village Buffet, Paris Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas

Le Village Buffet
Paris, Las Vegas
Hours: Breakfast: 7AM - 11AM; Mon - Sun
Lunch: 11:00AM - 3:30PM; Mon - Fri
Champagne Brunch: 11:00AM - 3:30PM; Sat-Sun
Dinner: 3:30PM - 10PM; Mon - Sun
$15-25


Crayfish, mussels, ravioli, sausage and the list goes on.
Roasted Lamb~! Mint Jelly! Grilled Rib Eye was also okay.
I had a few plates of crab legs. As always.

There is one thing I really like about this buffet is the crapes that they make for you on request at the crepe station.
Banana foster! Ice cream on top and caramel sauce. What a way to overload yourself haha!

2009.05.20 Steamed Dover Sole

This is a super simple dish that anyone can make at home.
Ingredients:
Dover Sole Filets
Mango
Bell Pepper (red or green)
Salt
Black Pepper
Cucumber
Ponzu Sauce
Soy Sauce
Garlic

Chop peppers into small pieces. Chop garlic into small pieces. Slice cucumbers, cut mango into small pieces. Season fish filets with seasoning, then roll chopped items and have the pieces of fish rest on a slice of cucumber. Steam for 5 minutes and add sauce or other seasoning and serve!

Uncooked version.

2009.06.12 Sushi Sasabune

12400 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA

This is the best statement of this restaurant! "Omakase" I was told that means what it says! "Trust Me".
Click On pictures for larger view!

Sliced Albacore: Super "crunch", I really missed this dish because its been almost 10 years since my last encounter of Albacore sashimi. It almost felt like I was eating Giant Clam. Very light in flavor, but all about texture. Lovely.

Penshell: This is my First time eating this dish. I believe they said it was a Penshell Scallop. For sure it tasted different than a lot of other scallops than the past. Not quite a crunch, but it is nothing mushy like the usual scallops.

The first dishes came with seasalt and very spicy wasabi to accompany them. I chose to eat the sashimi without mixing or covering of flavors.

Bluefin Tuna & Toro: Blue fin Tuna was super tender, topped with a sauce that is salty n sweet at the same time. As the waitress would say to some of the dishes, "No dipping!". What can we say about Toro? It simply "Melts" in your mouth and you want to ask for more. very very soft, fatty fish of Tuna. Yum.

Yellowtail: This yellowtail was decent. Nothing too special here. No complaints, still good.

Ono: I honestly would have to goback, eat this all over again to make any comments on this one.

Oyster & Baked Mussel: I passed on the oyster, baked mussel was very good, more than I expected. Inside the baked sauce of Japanese Mayo, all the meat was tender, nothing was chewy, (that's what I was looking for, all because I always ate pieces of tough, chewy membranes in the past) this piece of mussel was good!

Albacore: As the waitress would say, "Don't dip!" No sauce is needed. This sushi was sitting on some Ponzu sauce, fish was super tender, "melts in your mouth", not quite like toro, but it was very soft. Great dish at Sasabune, always.

Sweet Shrimp & Scallop: Sweet shrimp was definitely fresh, sticky, sweet and smooth texture to the taste. I also thought that this shrimp is better than a few other places. I was not as impressed with the scallop.

Sea Urchin, Salmon Eggs. The Sea Urchin was super fresh, no fishy taste, and plenty on that piece of rice. The Salmon Egg was also special to me, especially because the eggs are not as salty as the usual ones I eat. I thought that was very unique and shows me that this restaurant carries better quality products than a lot of other places.

Japanese Mackerel, Norway Mackerel. The Japanese type, initial taste was soft, tender, sweet, very different from other types I've had before. The Norway Mackerel, don't remember. It was also pretty good.

Orange Clam and Giant Clam. They were both sweet to the taste, and has its own "crunch" texture, always a pleasure to eat this raw.

Eel, Monk Fish Liver Sushi: Baked eel in eel sauce over rice, topped with some sesame seeds. This sushi was as good as expected, warm, sweet, flavorful of eel. The Monk Fish Liver was also a great dish, rich, warm, and flavorful, no ugly aftertaste.

Blue Crab roll, Toro Roll: Blue Crab Roll! How do you describe it? Although it seems a bit too salty, the flavor of the crab is "Incredible". I would say they picked the best type of crab meat for this dish. Just because when you bite into it, its a burst of sensory overload. The Toro roll, beyond breaking the layer of seaweed, everything else inside melted in my mouth. What an awesome dish to finish the meal!