Fundraiser At TGI Friday

I went to TGI Friday in Rowland Heights, CA for lunch yesterday. My friend's friend's son was diagnosed with Leukemia in May 2011 and he is six years old now. For every customer who showed a "Benefit" flyer to their server(s), 20% of the check was donated to the family and the child's treatment. I printed out the flyer from the family's website, but the family also spent many hours outside the restaurant for the diners that didn't know about the fundraiser. While the child has his moments with pain and feeling nauseous, he is doing good and making improvements overall.

I can't remember if I came to this particular TGI Friday before. It wasn't very memorable if I did and I also wasn't into food photography or general photography at the time anyway. At this recent visit, I came with another person. We didn't get greeted by a host right away so it took us awhile to get seated. We almost wanted to pick up the menus and seat ourselves. It wasn't busy at all either. The customer service was generally good and our server made sure our drinks were filled while making sure we were doing okay.

 Shrimp Cocktail

 Petite Sirloin

 Peppercorn Crusted Pork Chop
 Oreo Madness

Hong Kong Palace

In Rowland Heights, CA, there are a plethora of Chinese and Korean resturants to choose from. Hong Kong Palace is a Chinese restuarant. They serve Dim Sum during the daytime and family style dishes for dinner. It is one of the few resturants that have people pushing carts with dim sum items around during dim sum/lunch/brunch hours while many other dim sum places have started using menus to serve dim sum items.

I used to come here for dim sum many years ago, but stopped for who knows why. I wasn't into food photography at the time either. I hadn't been here in such a long time that I didn't know this place got burned down a few times! I don't remember coming here for dinner before, but I came here last month for the dinner service as my cousin made reservations to host his baby shower here. So I can only tell my experiences on the recent visits that I made here.

There wasn't a separate room for parties, so the wait staff closed off a small section and put up dividers for my cousin's baby shower. We reserved four tables with ten seats. The wait staff was friendly and the food came out quickly. The place looked generally clean and the staff cleared off the emty plates at a reasonable time. I don't know the Chinese or English names to some of these dishes.

Shrimp
Shallots with mixed vegetables
Mushroom on bed of vegetables
Steamed Fish
Lobster
Fried Rice
Mango Pudding

I also recently came here for Dim Sum with some friends. I didn't realize how "crowded" and close the tables were until I came here for lunch. It was almost like you were sharing a table with a group of strangers. The aisles were a bit "crowded" too, so the carts would run into the back of people's chairs or run over someone's toes rounding the corner. The customer service was typical for a Chinese restaurant. The servers looked unhappy to be there, but they were generally ok. They seemed ok with one friend who was opening the lids to see what was being served at each cart. While they were pretty good at refilling the tea, they kept forgetting to refill our water, even after we asked for it.

Beef Meatballs
Shu Mai (pork dumpling)Shrimp and Chives Dumplings
Har Gao (shrimp dumpling)
Flat Noodle With Shrimp
Steam Pork Bun
Fried Shrimp & Chives Dumplings
Shrimp & Fish Stuffed Bean Curd
Chinese Broccoli
Egg Tarts

Mt. Vesuvius Burger - Red Robin

I recently went to Red Robin in West Covina after receving a "promotional" email about the Mt. Vesuvius Burger. For every Mt. Vesuvius Burger sold at participating Red Robin, 50 cents would be donated to the National Center For Missing & Exploited Children Foundation between July 26 to September 11, 2011.

This burger consisted of beef, bacon, bleu cheese, Provalone chese, and tangy lava sauce. It was created by a kid who was the grand prize winner in the 2010 Kids Cook Off! Kids are so smart these days and this burger was good!

Yogurtland

I recently visited Yogurtland in Diamond Bar, CA. A friend of mine mentioned that she visited one because she saw this sign and had to get her yogurt fix in a Hello Kitty cup with a Hello Kitty spoon! I couldn't wait to get a Hello Kitty cup and spoon! The cup isn't reusable, but the spoon is!

Strawberry Cheesecake Yogurt and Oreo Cookie Yogurt with cheesecake and oreo cookie crumbs toppings.

Malbec - Argentenian Cuisine

Malbec is an Argentinian restaurant in Pasadena. My family, my sister's friends and I recently came here and had dinner for my sister's birthday. I thoroughly enjoyed the ambience here and the customer service was nice too.

The food wasn't great, but it was nice. All the meat dishes are cooked over a wood burning fire, although your food may or may not be somewhat burnt or charred due to the cooking preparations.

There were about ten of us together and we had a "long" table for our group only, so it was hard to take photos of all the food that we ordered. The bread with herbs in olive oil is complimentary to all parties. We ordered several appetizers, most of which I can't remember the names to, but I was also only able to photograph the calamari.

I was also only able to photograph the main entrees that were closest to me as there were many ordered in our table.

Asado con Vegetales - Argentinian Style Short Ribs with Vegtables


Bife al Malbec - New York Steak


Ojo de Bife al Ajo - Ribeye Steak


Pollo al Limon y Hierbas - Half Boneless Chicken with Lemon and Herbs

Our table only ordered two types of desserts and they were shared amongst the people at our table. The desserts were Creme Brulee and Caramel Flan. The Creme Brulee wasn't a traditional dessert that everyone knew it as, but it was still very tasty.

Orange County Fair 2011

I recently went to the O.C. Fair. Fairs are fun to visit when there are interesting things to see, games to play, and food to try out.

I didn't try out a lot of food here, but tried out the ones that I wanted to eat. Also, how can you not have funnel cake at a fair?! The strawberries tasted fresh and sweet. Sweet, but not overwhelming.

The fried oreos were also sweet, but not overwhelming. I don't have a major sweet tooth, so it was nice that the sweetness in the fried oreos wasn't overwhelming.

I had always wanted to try the chocolate covered candied bacon and I finally got the chance. It was ok, but it wasn't as exciting as I thought. Perhaps it was sweeter and saltier than my liking. This may hit the spot for those who have a major sweet tooth and/or loves chocolate though.

Harlem Place Cafe

After visiting the Downtown Los Angeles Artwalk, my friends and I went to Harlem Place Cafe as one of my friends already knew about this place and thought that we should try it out. The artwalk in Downtown L.A. is usually held every second Thursday of the month and there are also other food places to try out including several food trucks during Artwalk night.

This place is in a "hidden" location at the end of a short alley next to the Museum Of Neon Art. I like the fact that there are art work (graffiti art, paintings, and photography) on the wall. It's also a "hip" place for the young crowds. While they play "cool" music, the music was very loud, making it hard to have a conversation with your friends and/or when ordering your food. How do you enjoy your meal and conversations with your friends if you have to yell over the music just to be heard?

Since this was my first time here, I had only tried the pulled pork sliders. My friends ordered the same, so there wasn't much to try out or get opinions on other foods or get photos of other food. The pulled pork sliders were pretty good though and it was reasonably priced for the portion with a soda. Each plate came with two sliders and cole slaw. The customer service was generally good, but we thought it was strange that they didn't give out numbers so that they could remember who ordered what. We had to remind our server once or twice about our orders, but he somehow forgot about one of my friend's order and he returned with three sliders for forgetting my friend's order which was awesome. Each plate of sliders usually came with two, but my friend got one extra on the house for the inconvenience.