Cheer Up With Food

We recently hit up  Cafe de Japon  a few hours ago.  After eating some of the Japanese comfort foods, I was surprised that there were no other customers around... This place should be bumpin during the weekends!   On the left I tried the Agedashi Tofu from the Daily Specials Menu.  It is hot silken firm tofu, cut into cubes, lightly dusted with potato starch or cornstarch and then deep fried until golden brown.  I've had   this dish countless of times at other places, and this was the first time the tofu stood out from the others I've had.  The toppings and the sauce that accompanied the tofu was quite delightful.   To the right is Omu Rice - It is chicken fried rice covered with egg and homemade tomato sauce on top. Their homemade tomato sauce was bold, which I enjoyed because to me it paired well with the fried rice and egg.  I love their philosophy of  Family, Health and Deliciousness.   According to their w...

I had heard Yu-Yu was a restaurant that recently opened in China Town, so of course I had to check this place out!  This restaurant specializes in kushi age  (Japanese deep-fried meat, vegetable, and fruit on skewers).  Their deep-fried delights don't compare to what you eat at fast food chains.  Upon seeing them you'll notice they're not soggy and not leaking thru with oil, they're deep-fried just right! I loved their simple decor, it was splendid! Tofu Salad - this was one good d*mn salad   !! As you can see the kushi age are lightly breaded and small. I remember we had shrimp, water chestnut , lotus root, shiitake mushroom , squid leg, silver fish, Asian pear, etc. I never knew so many foods could be fried and still taste great than just by itself!  The foods are typically dipped into a batter of egg, flour, panko  (bread crumbs); and deep-fried in vegetable oil. Tamago  (Japanese omelette) with a side of da...

My fuel while studying, tofu hot dogs - looks like the real deal:

I really enjoy eating at  Komol , their Thai food never disappoints me.  I've been coming here since I was kid... Maybe thats why I'm so attached to this place! The staff is always friendly, offer great service, and my friends and I have had nice conversations with them!   The appetizer Bronsen and I always get is the Vegetarian Satay  - flame broiled tofu strips on skewers with curry peanut sauce, toasted bread, and cucumber salad: The tofu satay always comes out perfectly light and broiled evenly :)  I highly recommend getting any item served with the curry peanut because its heavenly ! I also recommend trying the  Pineapple Fried Rice - with pineapples, cashews, green onion, tomatoes, shrimp, and chicken; and try any of the vegetarian dinner specials.  My favorite one is V egetarian Dinner Special #3 - comes with a spring roll, mushroom tom kha soup (as shown in the pic below), and pad Thai  (stir fried noodles with eggs, fish sauce, bean ...

I've been exploring more Thai food lately and have noticed there's many small Thai restaurants hidden throughout the city, if you look hard enough! For the longest time, I passed by Thai Style Noodle House across from 99 Ranch Market on Spring Mountain Rd and finally went in there a couple weeks ago. I had an awesome experience there! It was small place and had a few Thai decor inside. I've been learning the Thai language and was excited that I could recognize all the characters on the board! Bronsen had phở (rice noodles, broth) with vegetables and spring rolls. While and after he ate, he couldn't stop saying how good his phở was! There wasn't too much or too little spices and herbs in the phở, just right! The lunch special I chose was the ginger chicken with rice and fried tofu, and soup. I was afraid that the ginger chicken was going to be greasy. I was surprised and relieved that there was not much oil. It was as if the chef knew how much oil I liked in ...