Kushiage Dining Horon - Torrance

Horon specializes Japanese kushiage skewers and they are cheap. Each skewers are between $1-$3. In fact, everything on the menu are really cheap, most items are between $3-$5. As you can see our food below, nothing over $5. Slow service though.

Complimentary seasoned cabbage

Kiwi sour
delicious. They put actual kiwi in it.

Uni tofu $3.80
So soft, melt in your mouth but uni didn't have much flavor.

Shrimp Cake, Totus Root with Sea Urchin, Tsukune, Potato with Spicy Cod Roe Mayo

Fried yam-mochi in soy sauce broth $4.80
loved it.

Wagyu tataki $4.80

Quail Egg,  kobe beef, oyster with tartar sauce

Japanese spring rolls $3.80
My least favorite. Yamaimo root in it so if you don't like it, don't get this one. If you don't know what Yamaimo is, just to let you know, it's slimy. Also carrots and lettuce in it

Unigiri  (uni rice balls) $3.80
Not much flavor

Tonkotsu ramen (s) $4.80

Panna cotta with 2 fruits glaze $3.80

Zenzai with mochi $3.80

Rating: 3.4 / 5
Service: 3.6 / 5
Repeat: Maybe

Kushiage Dining Horon
2143 W 182nd St
Torrance, CA 90504

(310) 515-6147

Mon-Sun 11:30 am - 2 pm
Mon-Sat 6 pm - 1 am
Sun 6 pm - 10 pm

http://www.dininghoron.com/?lang=en

http://www.yelp.com/biz/kushiage-dining-horon-torrance

French toast for my breakfast today

I made french toast for my breakfast today. I'm too lazy to find the perfect french toast recipe so I just made with what I had in my fridge.

brioche bread
ice cream
bananas
blueberry jam (melted)
powder sugar
syrup
milk
cinnamon
vanilla extract

Mix milk, cinnamon and vanilla. Soak bread for 1 minutes.
Melt butter in pan, cook bread. Garnish. Done.

Yelp elite event at Juan's Restaurante - Baldwin Park

I recently attended Yelp's elite event (yes, again). It was probably my first time going to Baldwin Park but it only took us 304- minutes from Downtown, L.A. during busy traffic time.

The food was healthy, unique and interesting. They have so many cactus dishes.
 
"Juan’s Restaurante serves a pre-Hispanic inspired Mexican cuisine along with healthier versions of Mexican traditional recipes. 

Chef Juan Mondragon has taken a special interest in pre-Hispanic ingredients and dishes, which have many health benefits, and in finding ways to prepare traditional Mexican dishes healthier. We use grape seed oil in all of our cooking, no lard, egg whites in all of our flans, grill our empanadas, handmake our tortillas, and we believe in the health benefits of seeds and nuts and use them extensively throughout our menu and moles. Our agua frescas, or “fresh waters” are not sugar sweetened (stevia or pineapple juice instead), the queso fresco or “fresh cheese” is from organic hormone-free milk, the beans are made fresh (not refried), and we use a free-trade organic coffee bean from Chiapas, Mexico."

So there were not enough servers. Waiting for 90 minutes with a cup of caucus water. We were wondering if we ever gonna get our food soon? We saw other tables were getting their second dishes. Well, they totally forgot about our table. But as soon as one of us at our table told them that we haven't got our food, they started bringing us food. Also there was a fly in my drink, and there was an ant in one of our lime martini.

cactus water

Empanada -Cactus tortillas filled with squash flower

Grilled Cotija cheese squares in Guerrere style salsa
Since I don't eat cheese, I only ate salsa with tortillas. It was really spicy.

cactus tortillas

And after this, we were supposed to get our third plate, pear cactus salad, but they forgot about our table again, so we didn't get our salad.

And of course they forgot about our martini so we had to ask about it again. We finally got our Cactus Pear Martini about 1- 2 hours after they took our drink order.

Green chile, and pumpkin seed mole sauce, served with chicken breast and tamales nejos. Their tamale is very unique. It looks like eraser. Well, it's healthy version.

Red chile, 50+ ingredient mole sauce served with tamales nejos

And here comes delicious coffee
Mexican FTO Chiapas coffee brewed with sugar cane, cinnamon and ginger.

And my favorite of all. Plantain fritter filled with black beans, topped with a guava preserve and mexican yogurt

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And some yelp goodies to take home with me..

Juan's Restaurante 
4291 Maine Ave
Baldwin Park, CA 91706

(626) 337-8686
Thu-Fri 11 am - 9 pm
Sat-Sun 8 am - 9 pm

http://www.juansrestauranteinc.com/

http://www.yelp.com/biz/juans-restaurante-baldwin-park

No oil No butter healthy Carrot and Flaxseed Muffins

I made carrot muffin today. Original recipe use 2/3 cup sugar but I only used 1/3, I also used some almond flour. Since I didn't have any raisins or walnuts, I used cranberries.

Recipe adapted from Hazelnut Blog 

Carrot and Flaxseed Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups ground flaxseed
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup dried cranberries and pineapples
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F.  Combine flour, flaxseed, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in large bowl.  Add sugar, carrots, raisins, and nuts one at a time until thoroughly mixed.  In separate bowl, whisk eggs, milk, and vanilla.  Add wet ingredients to dry and fold together until just barely mixed.  Scoop into lined muffin tin and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until firm.

Tsujita LA Artisan Noodle - Sawtelle, West L.A.

Tsujita is very popular for their ramen noodles, but they only serve ramen during lunch time. I was here for quick dinner. Lucky me, we didn't have to wait at all, there were some tables open on Saturday night.

It's little pricey during the dinner time. I'm sure you can find better Japanese restaurants in Torrance/Gardena area, but as a Japanese restaurant in LA, this place was very good.
Also, I really like the menu here. Just by looking at their menu makes me wanna go back because there are so many other items I wanna try. I'd also recommended this place to Vegetarians.

Plum wine

Mango nectar $5
was DELICIOUS. Big pieces of mango in it

Cod roe with shiso leaf $9.50
I couldn't decide between this and uni tempura, but I choose this since I was getting uni bowl. It's rare to find cod roe tempura in L.A. It was little too greasy, they could cut more oil, but good.

Uni-Ikura bowl (half) $14

I actually wanted to order assorted sashimi bowl but my mistake, I ordered this. Still, not sure if I'd pay $14 for this but it was good, it wasn't amazing though.

Tofu okonomiyaki $12

My friend wanted gyoza, but they were sold out so my friend ordered this instead. Because they use tofu, it's so soft and healthier, I guess. There were shredded cabbage and bean sprouts under 5-6 slices of soft tofu.

Rating: 4 / 5
Service: 3.8 / 5
Repeat: Yes

Tsujita LA Artisan Noodle
2057 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025

(310) 231-7373

Mon-Sun 11 am - 2 pm
Mon-Sun 6 pm - 12 am

http://tsujita-la.com/

http://www.yelp.com/biz/tsujita-la-artisan-noodle-los-angeles