A few months ago Jazmin and myself took our Academic Decathletes to Ocha-a great Thai restaurant in Los Angeles. We wanted to expose our students to life beyond Pico and food outside King Taco and Jack in the Box. They were hesitant but they quickly fell in love with Thai Iced Tea, curries, noodles and other goodies. Food. What a great way to expose students to other cultures.
My name is Daniel Diaz and I am addicted to Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" show on the Travel Channel.
I love his philosophy on traveling and experiencing other cultures-stay away from "touristy" places and indulge in street food. He has visited several East Asian cities like Ho Chi Minh City, Beijing, Indonesia (forget what city) Seoul, but recently he visited Laos, which looked amazingly beautiful. The food appears terrific, very similar to Thai and Indonesia cuisine. Bourdain makes a great point about the Laoatian Diet-it is the history of conquest, you can clearly see the Chinese and French influence in their various dishes. I found this observation brilliant and it piqued the historian in me. Imagine having students determine what a plate of food can tell us about a groups culture. I'm sure that students would come up with brilliant questions about the items on their plate. I digress, the episode in laos was particularly interesting because it is a place that we don't hear much about. The country is poor, and is still suffering the effects of Vietnam. At on point Bourdain enjoyed a meal at the home of a Laotian (am I spelling this correctly?) family. The husband had his leg blown off by a 40 year old mine that hadn't been discovered. The coversation over the meal was deep as Bourdain struggled with some very tough questions being posed by the husband as his wife cried.
If you get a chance, check out the episode, in fact just Tivo the entire series, you'll thank me.
About 5 years ago I worked in the N. Holywood area and I frequently would visit the Pho"001, a vietnamese restaurant, on the corner of Sherman Way and Coldwater Canyon. When I switched job sites back to Downtown Los Angeles I nearly stopped eating Vietnamese food all together. A year ago I found a similar restaurant closer to my home Pho'99. Although not related, I found my same favorite dish, seafood soup, #5. It is hot seafood soup with shrimp, squid, and crab meat. I recommend you try it if you are in the Cerritos area, next to the Cerritos mall and Babies R' Us. [Edit by="hmartinez on Jul 26, 12:55:33 PM"][/Edit] [Edit by="hmartinez on Jul 26, 10:37:33 PM"][/Edit]
If this one is across from the Liborio and near Vermont St. and Wilshire then I know what you mean. My father used to take our whole family to this place. We would order two of the sea food soups and white rice. We always joked that the flavor had to be in the type of tree bark used to make the soup, which is included with the soup but not edible. I haven't been back there in nearly a decade but agree in that it is good and a unordinary type of food.
If we could all please observe a moment of silence for Rocky Aoki. The founder of Benihana's died recently and I thought this would be a great fourm to honor the man who introduced myself and the world to Japanese Teppan food.
I was first taken to this great resturant by my mother for my 12th birthday. We used to live in the San Fernando Valley and my mom took me to the one on Ventura Blvd. Ever since that day, Benihana's became the place to go for my birthday every year. I don't know how authentic this place is as far as Japanese food, but I love the food and the experience.
When you go, you are in for great food, and a great show. The chefs cook at your table and put on a show with knives flying. Great food, great time.
Rocky is a great example of the American Dream. He opened his first restaurant in 1964 in Manhattan. He turned that one restaurant into nearly 90 restaurants world-wide.
Thanks for the memories Rocky!! :-D [Edit by="jfannon on Jul 28, 3:47:37 PM"][/Edit]
This is a great spot in LA on Santa Monica Blvd. There is also a location in Hollywood, but the atmosphere is not as good.
This is a great place to take care of your Thai Food fix.
I've tried almost every dish here, from the Pad Woon Sen to the Pad Thai, the Curry Colors (Green and Red) to the Panang, and the Pad See Ew to the Spicy Fried Rice. Oh, and the nearly undetectable Orange Chicken! Did I mention the Spicy Thai Basil? No, of course not. But, listen, I've had all the Thai you could have here and it's always left me in tears. Those tears, you ask? Fret not, they were the tears of joy. The kind of tears you emit when stranded on an endless plane of desert land, only to finally see the oasis on the horizon.
They also have burgers, pancakes, and a lot of other food I've probably passed up a million times.
My typical dining experience will top things off with the Banana Spring Rolls and Mango Soy Ice Cream for dessert. No matter how full I am from my meal, I always make sure to get this before I leave. It's the best Fried Banana I've had anywhere. And there have been plenty that I've rocked, rest assured. These come topped with shredded coconut and drizzled with honey (or chocolate).
Organic almond milk, soy milk, the Calli tea, or Kombucha round out the beverages that would typically accompany my meal on any given occasion.
My lone complaint? More space would be nice. But when you like a place so much, sometimes you don't want too many people to know about it. Oh well, too late.
Stop by Santa Clarita, and I'll show you a sushi place that will keep you coming back.
I have to preface this review by saying that I am not a big fan of the whole raw fish sushi. But this place has enough of the cooked fish sushi that you will always want to come back. My wife loves the raw stuff and I have noticed that the fish portions are always much larger than other sushi joints. Most of those other places usually give you 75% rice, this place is more like 50/50.
My only complaint is that the place is small. It's not really that great for a group of more than 4. Otherwise, you'll have to dine outside, and even their outside dining area isn't expansive. But don't come here for the spaciousness. Come here for the sushi, itself. Just be prepared to come back again, and often, if you decide to give this place a shot for the first time.
If you are in Santa Clarita and you don't want just sushi, perhaps you'd like something more interactive, go eat at Yaki-Kui. It is Japanese and Korean style barbeque restaurant. They have a website, the link is provided below.
One of the best features here is the in-table grill that can be used by you and your family to cook your own food. I've been to a similar style restaurant when I was in Misawa, Japan. That one was called Viking Yaki Niku- all you can eat for an hour :-D Yaki-Kui is not all you can eat, but it is equally delicious.
Moderately priced $$$
By the way, the in-table grills can be used to make smores.[Edit by="jwilhelm on Jul 28, 10:01:15 PM"][/Edit]
I think that bringing food to the class is okay, but sometimes you have to keep in mind that there are students who have allergies. The liability risks are great.
I would recommend going to Little Tokyo to eat some outstanding Japanese food. With friends we usually go out to EBISU on second street. It has some really great sushi, and pitchers of beer are only 12 dollars. The beer goes really well with the Sake that they have which you can purchase for 5 dollars for a small hot sake bottle. Also, the venue itself is really spacious and all of the servers are polite and quick.
For non-sushi lovers, EBISU also has great finger foods like gyoza, tofu, and some really good tempura! After dinner, i would recommend walking around the plaza and having some Mochi ice cream - ice cream packed into small Mochi rice balls! really good stuff!
An era has ended; in San Diego Unified School District, we are no longer able to bring food into class to share with students (nor are students able to bring in anything prepared at home). Many "performance assessments" for food units have therefore gone out the window. As a partial solution, I recently took my 4th year students out to a fantastic Japanese restaurant called "Sakura Izakaya" on Convoy Street in San Diego. The little restaurant is located between both an Army and Navy recruitment station, is totally unnamed, and is largely frequented by the local Japanese population. The head chef and waitresses are all Japanese as well, a real rarity here in San Diego (as the ever-increasing Korean population is taking over many Japanese restaurants and jobs). In any case, if you find yourself headed to San Diego, stop by Sakura, and don't forget to try the salted squid guts!
For good Asian food in Southern California I always go to the city of Alhambra. It is inexpensive and always good food. You can get all types of Asian food!
If you get to Chinatown, you have to try Full House restaurant at 963 N. Hill St. The place always seems to be busy, whatever the time you go. We find that if we go with a crowd of six or more people it is more fun because you can order many different types of food and share. The honey walnut shrimp is out of this world. And the fish has always been delicious. We have been to many Chinese restaurants through the years, at least half a dozen in Chinatown alone, and this is our favorite. Try it. I bet you enjoy yourself and have a great meal too!
Another Chinese restaurant that is excellent is Yang Chow in Pasadena. It is located on Colorado Blvd., between Rosemead and Michillinda. We really liked their eggplant and long beans with pork (two separate dishes).
My favorite Japanese place is Sakura House on Washington in Venice. I've never NOT enjoyed the food (it would take a better person than me to turn down bbq'd skewers of veggies wrapped in savory pork!), and the service has always been wonderful.
A few months ago Jazmin and myself took our Academic Decathletes to Ocha-a great Thai restaurant in Los Angeles. We wanted to expose our students to life beyond Pico and food outside King Taco and Jack in the Box. They were hesitant but they quickly fell in love with Thai Iced Tea, curries, noodles and other goodies. Food. What a great way to expose students to other cultures.
My name is Daniel Diaz and I am addicted to Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" show on the Travel Channel.
I love his philosophy on traveling and experiencing other cultures-stay away from "touristy" places and indulge in street food. He has visited several East Asian cities like Ho Chi Minh City, Beijing, Indonesia (forget what city) Seoul, but recently he visited Laos, which looked amazingly beautiful. The food appears terrific, very similar to Thai and Indonesia cuisine. Bourdain makes a great point about the Laoatian Diet-it is the history of conquest, you can clearly see the Chinese and French influence in their various dishes. I found this observation brilliant and it piqued the historian in me. Imagine having students determine what a plate of food can tell us about a groups culture. I'm sure that students would come up with brilliant questions about the items on their plate. I digress, the episode in laos was particularly interesting because it is a place that we don't hear much about. The country is poor, and is still suffering the effects of Vietnam. At on point Bourdain enjoyed a meal at the home of a Laotian (am I spelling this correctly?) family. The husband had his leg blown off by a 40 year old mine that hadn't been discovered. The coversation over the meal was deep as Bourdain struggled with some very tough questions being posed by the husband as his wife cried.
If you get a chance, check out the episode, in fact just Tivo the entire series, you'll thank me.
About 5 years ago I worked in the N. Holywood area and I frequently would visit the Pho"001, a vietnamese restaurant, on the corner of Sherman Way and Coldwater Canyon. When I switched job sites back to Downtown Los Angeles I nearly stopped eating Vietnamese food all together. A year ago I found a similar restaurant closer to my home Pho'99. Although not related, I found my same favorite dish, seafood soup, #5. It is hot seafood soup with shrimp, squid, and crab meat. I recommend you try it if you are in the Cerritos area, next to the Cerritos mall and Babies R' Us. [Edit by="hmartinez on Jul 26, 12:55:33 PM"][/Edit]
[Edit by="hmartinez on Jul 26, 10:37:33 PM"][/Edit]
If this one is across from the Liborio and near Vermont St. and Wilshire then I know what you mean. My father used to take our whole family to this place. We would order two of the sea food soups and white rice. We always joked that the flavor had to be in the type of tree bark used to make the soup, which is included with the soup but not edible. I haven't been back there in nearly a decade but agree in that it is good and a unordinary type of food.
If we could all please observe a moment of silence for Rocky Aoki. The founder of Benihana's died recently and I thought this would be a great fourm to honor the man who introduced myself and the world to Japanese Teppan food.
I was first taken to this great resturant by my mother for my 12th birthday. We used to live in the San Fernando Valley and my mom took me to the one on Ventura Blvd. Ever since that day, Benihana's became the place to go for my birthday every year. I don't know how authentic this place is as far as Japanese food, but I love the food and the experience.
When you go, you are in for great food, and a great show. The chefs cook at your table and put on a show with knives flying. Great food, great time.
Rocky is a great example of the American Dream. He opened his first restaurant in 1964 in Manhattan. He turned that one restaurant into nearly 90 restaurants world-wide.
Thanks for the memories Rocky!! :-D [Edit by="jfannon on Jul 28, 3:47:37 PM"][/Edit]
This is a great spot in LA on Santa Monica Blvd. There is also a location in Hollywood, but the atmosphere is not as good.
This is a great place to take care of your Thai Food fix.
I've tried almost every dish here, from the Pad Woon Sen to the Pad Thai, the Curry Colors (Green and Red) to the Panang, and the Pad See Ew to the Spicy Fried Rice. Oh, and the nearly undetectable Orange Chicken! Did I mention the Spicy Thai Basil? No, of course not. But, listen, I've had all the Thai you could have here and it's always left me in tears. Those tears, you ask? Fret not, they were the tears of joy. The kind of tears you emit when stranded on an endless plane of desert land, only to finally see the oasis on the horizon.
They also have burgers, pancakes, and a lot of other food I've probably passed up a million times.
My typical dining experience will top things off with the Banana Spring Rolls and Mango Soy Ice Cream for dessert. No matter how full I am from my meal, I always make sure to get this before I leave. It's the best Fried Banana I've had anywhere. And there have been plenty that I've rocked, rest assured. These come topped with shredded coconut and drizzled with honey (or chocolate).
Organic almond milk, soy milk, the Calli tea, or Kombucha round out the beverages that would typically accompany my meal on any given occasion.
My lone complaint? More space would be nice. But when you like a place so much, sometimes you don't want too many people to know about it. Oh well, too late.
Stop by Santa Clarita, and I'll show you a sushi place that will keep you coming back.
I have to preface this review by saying that I am not a big fan of the whole raw fish sushi. But this place has enough of the cooked fish sushi that you will always want to come back. My wife loves the raw stuff and I have noticed that the fish portions are always much larger than other sushi joints. Most of those other places usually give you 75% rice, this place is more like 50/50.
My only complaint is that the place is small. It's not really that great for a group of more than 4. Otherwise, you'll have to dine outside, and even their outside dining area isn't expansive. But don't come here for the spaciousness. Come here for the sushi, itself. Just be prepared to come back again, and often, if you decide to give this place a shot for the first time.
If you are in Santa Clarita and you don't want just sushi, perhaps you'd like something more interactive, go eat at Yaki-Kui. It is Japanese and Korean style barbeque restaurant. They have a website, the link is provided below.
http://www.japaneserestaurantscv.com/">Yaki Kui Japanese Barbeque- link
http://www.japaneserestaurantscv.com/
One of the best features here is the in-table grill that can be used by you and your family to cook your own food. I've been to a similar style restaurant when I was in Misawa, Japan. That one was called Viking Yaki Niku- all you can eat for an hour :-D Yaki-Kui is not all you can eat, but it is equally delicious.
Moderately priced $$$
By the way, the in-table grills can be used to make smores.[Edit by="jwilhelm on Jul 28, 10:01:15 PM"][/Edit]
I think that bringing food to the class is okay, but sometimes you have to keep in mind that there are students who have allergies. The liability risks are great.
Maria La Costa
Cabrillo HS
Oh, I forgot; Sam Woo's in Chinatown is great. Their menu mainly consists of seafood; the lobster with bean sauce is to die for.
I'm getting hungry already.
Maria La Costa
:P
I would recommend going to Little Tokyo to eat some outstanding Japanese food. With friends we usually go out to EBISU on second street. It has some really great sushi, and pitchers of beer are only 12 dollars. The beer goes really well with the Sake that they have which you can purchase for 5 dollars for a small hot sake bottle. Also, the venue itself is really spacious and all of the servers are polite and quick.
For non-sushi lovers, EBISU also has great finger foods like gyoza, tofu, and some really good tempura! After dinner, i would recommend walking around the plaza and having some Mochi ice cream - ice cream packed into small Mochi rice balls! really good stuff!
An era has ended; in San Diego Unified School District, we are no longer able to bring food into class to share with students (nor are students able to bring in anything prepared at home). Many "performance assessments" for food units have therefore gone out the window. As a partial solution, I recently took my 4th year students out to a fantastic Japanese restaurant called "Sakura Izakaya" on Convoy Street in San Diego. The little restaurant is located between both an Army and Navy recruitment station, is totally unnamed, and is largely frequented by the local Japanese population. The head chef and waitresses are all Japanese as well, a real rarity here in San Diego (as the ever-increasing Korean population is taking over many Japanese restaurants and jobs). In any case, if you find yourself headed to San Diego, stop by Sakura, and don't forget to try the salted squid guts!
For good Asian food in Southern California I always go to the city of Alhambra. It is inexpensive and always good food. You can get all types of Asian food!
If you get to Chinatown, you have to try Full House restaurant at 963 N. Hill St. The place always seems to be busy, whatever the time you go. We find that if we go with a crowd of six or more people it is more fun because you can order many different types of food and share. The honey walnut shrimp is out of this world. And the fish has always been delicious. We have been to many Chinese restaurants through the years, at least half a dozen in Chinatown alone, and this is our favorite. Try it. I bet you enjoy yourself and have a great meal too!
Another Chinese restaurant that is excellent is Yang Chow in Pasadena. It is located on Colorado Blvd., between Rosemead and Michillinda. We really liked their eggplant and long beans with pork (two separate dishes).
My favorite Japanese place is Sakura House on Washington in Venice. I've never NOT enjoyed the food (it would take a better person than me to turn down bbq'd skewers of veggies wrapped in savory pork!), and the service has always been wonderful.
Pages