Sake 2 Me A.Y.C.E. Sushi

How often do you get to visit an A.Y.C.E. Sushi restaurant? For $22 per person at Sake 2 Me, you can order as many sushi, hand rolls and non-sushi items as you want and you get three rounds to eat all of the same stuff.

Sake 2 Me seemed to be in the middle of a business name change as it was called "Joe's Sushi".

I came here for dinner on a Friday with my family. We were greeted by a manager who opened the door and came outside for us. This may annoy some customers, but I thought that this was funny. He also didn't do this with every group of customers that came. The customer service was pretty good, friendly, and attentative. We had two servers who took turns, checking up on us and getting our food out. The food was pretty good and for someone like me who enjoyed food photography, I loved how they plated the sushi. The only problem that we had was that there were gnats everywhere and we had to constantly keep checking the food to make that none of the gnats landed on the food. Despite the gnat problem, I would still  come here again and recommend others come here too.

We ordered so many sushi that we barely made it through 1/4 of the sushi for the second round. We left pretty content and full.

Our appetizers: edamame, "taco" sushi, and salad

We ordered so many items that I can't name everything.

Cham Sut Gol AYCE Korean BBQ

I went to Cham Sut Gol with a friend who was visiting from New York. He was invited by some friends who loved going here. We came here on a weekday for dinner (we arrived at 7pm) and it was very busy! We had to wait an hour for our table!

This an A.Y.C.E Korean BBQ restaurant and for $20 per person, you get good quality meat that taste great. You also get free ice cream and it's in a self-serve ice cream box in the corner in the back. There are several flavors of ice cream: mint chocholate chip, pistachio, vanilla, and chocolate.

We had an issue with the vent when we were grilling/cooking our meats. The vent kept going out on us and the smoke kept getting into our eyes. When we told our server about it, she looked at us like we were crazy, but she turned it back on for us everytime. We joked that she and her staff members were trying to plot against us, forcing us to eat faster or kick us out sooner. Other than that, the customer service was good despite how busy they were.

We ordered several meats: brisket, short ribs, pork belly, and a few others that I can't remember. You also get several side dishes and condiments which were also nice.

Kogi BBQ Food Truck

Kogi BBQ was in Diamond Bar feeding their fans earlier this evening. This was the first time that I tried their food and they serve Korean style food. I usually don't visit trucks when it's just one truck alone, but decided to give Kogi a try since it was four miles from my house.

Kogi Dog

The Chuck Wagon Stop

Every Thursdays from 5pm to 9pm, several food trucks come together at Robbins Bros in Fullerton, Ca for Chuck Wagon Stop event to feed their fans. The line up varies from week to week and is usually up in the air until that week. I met up with the SoCal Nom Noms meetup group at this event to try out various food trucks that were there. You can't tell that there were six trucks there in the photo, but there was on directly in front of the food truck (far left). If you live/work in or near the Fullerton area, you'll enjoy visiting this event regularly as there are always different food trucks to try.


This week, the featured food trucks were:

* Bacon Mania
* Short Stop BBQ
* Piaggio
* Chunk-N-Chip Cookies
* The OC Food Truck
* and Chupacabra TacoWagon

Some of the food that were ordered because SoCal Nom Noms members and I were:

Mac'n Bac'n Fries from BaconMania

Moca Choco Latte from Chunk-N-Chip Cookies

Twinker Bell (fried twinkie) from The OC Food Truck

Short Stop Burger from Short Stop BBQ

All of these items tasted very good, although I would prefer CoolHaus over Chunk-N-Chip Cookies.

The Stinking Rose & Garlic Restaurant

I went to The Stinking Rose & Garlic Restaurant in Beverly Hills for a friend's birthday dinner.

It's a bit pricey, but if you're willing to pay a little extra more, it's worth the trip to the restaurant in Beverly Hills. The general manager and wait staff are very friendly, attentive but not too much, and very helpful. The common ingredient in most of the dishes is garlic, so if you're a garlic fan, you'll definitely love this place.

 Garlic Bread

 Silence Of The Lamb Shank

 Italian Garlic Meat Loaf

 Forty Clove Garlic Chicken

 Rabbit

 Salmon
 Not sure what this is called...

Urth Caffe - Downtown Los Angeles

I don't visit coffee places very often, but when I do, I enjoy the quaint little ones. Starbucks is so overrated! Over the weekend, I visited Urth Cafe, located in Downtown Los Angeles, CA and met up with a few members from the Pleasure Palate meetup group. When the event host mentioned Hello Kitty latte and other characters that were drawn on the foam of the lattes, I was pretty much sold and I was so excited see that part! It has an indoor sitting area as well as a large outdoor patio area. It gets pretty busy here on the weekends, so both indoor and outdoor areas get full. Boba teas and hot teas do get served here, so if you're not a coffee drinker, it's ok. They will also make characters by requests on the foam on your tea lattes as well! This is certainly a great place to hang out with your friends. The only thing that I don't like about this place is that while the music that they play is nice, it's also a bit too loud. There is already enough talking amongst the customers and at the counter all of which are loud enough already, so when you're sitting inside and talking with your friends, it's hard to hear them if you're not shouting over the music.

 I ordered a Cafe Mocha

Santa Anita Park Food Truck Festival - January 2011

I attended the Santa Anita Park Food Truck Festival in Arcadia, CA last weekend. Santa Anita Park was normally known for its horse racing, so the guests in attendance of the food truck festival got a chance to watch and make bets on the horse racing.

The participating food trucks were:
* The Grilled Cheese Truck
* Don Chow Tacos
* Border Grill
* Canter's Truck
* Chunk'n Chip
* Baby's Bad*ss Burgers
* South Philly Experience
* Dosa
* Yatta Truck
* The Sweets Truck
* Dante Fried Chicken
* Dogtown Dogs
* Barbies Q
* No Reservations
* Knockout Tacos
* Chef Brian's Comfort Truck
* Ragin' Cajun
* Crepe'n Around
* Lobsta Truck
* Fresh Fries LA
* Lardon Truck
* Tapa Boy LA
* NaanStop
* Coolhaus
* Lake St. Creamery

While the concept of gathering several food trucks together in one place was great, it was amazing how many people were there. Perhaps the event was over-advertised because the lines to order food at most trucks were outrageously long (2+ hours) and the wait (45 minutes) to pick up the food after ordering was also ridiculous.
 Chocolate Brownie from Sweets Truck

 Kiwi Cupcake Shooter from Sweets Truck

 Slumdog from Dosa Truck
The best way to describe Dosa is like a French Crepe meets a Mexican Quesadilla meets Indian ingredients. The Dosa (dough) is fluffy and w/holy. The first bite is enlightening with a great balance of tangy Paneer (cheese), acidic Tomato, mushy Yellow Curry Potato, and green "Indian" Pesto. It's got just the right amount of grease to warm your insides, and enough crispy edges to keep your figure in check. There were other dosas on the menu, but I decided to try a slumdog (a dosa with potatoes and spiniach) which sounded, looked and tasted very good, light, fluffy and not greasy.


 Two "Big" Scoops from Coolhaus; one chocolate and one Thai Iced Tea. Coolhaus ran out of cookies before I ordered my ice cream.