Frittata here, Frittata there

No, Frittata, No.

The other day, I was invited by a friend (and her baby boy) to have brunch with them at Pelican Hill Resort's Coliseum Pool & Grill (restaurant), located in Newport Beach. I know - fancy! She lives right across Newport Coast so...

What she was looking forward to was the breakfast buffet but unfortunately, they only offered that during the weekend (and we came on a Thursday). So we went with their regular breakfast menu. She ordered the eggs with potatoes, bacon and toast, as well as a muffin basket, and I ordered the Italian Frittata. I don't know why I did since it's, well, basically a giant omelette. And I'm not so fond of eggs these days. I think my brain overlooked the word "frittata" and focused more on the "with potatoes, sun-dried tomatoes and spinach". Focus, brain! I guess this is what happens to the brain after having been hibernating for the past 2 months.

But anyway! When it came out, it looked delicious:

And so did the entire table:

(see baby Matteo watching his mama eating?)

It was such a nice day. We were seated outside on the deck above the pool and the right-next-to-the-Pacific-Ocean weather was just gorgeous!

But ugh... frittata. Why oh why???

Anyhow, would I recommend this place? Sure. Would I return? I don't know. It's not exactly economically friendly, although I suppose the words "resort" and "Newport Beach" could have suggested that. The frittata dish alone was $16, but I think the weekend breakfast buffet is $20? But don't quote me on that.

Potato indulgence

Those who know me know I'm a sucker for all things potatoes. In fact, I've had "potatofests" with more than one set of friends. These fests often include fries of varying types (shoestring, curly, seasoned, crinkle-cut, steak, sweet potato, crisscut... you get my drift), sometimes mashed potatoes, sometimes potato pancakes, sometimes tater skins, and oh, my absolute favorite potato item: hash browns. And I don't mean the shredded breakfast potatoes (although I do love those too), but I mean like the tater tot variety. Ooh yeah...

Back to my post.

There's this place inside Crystal Court (or as it's now referred to as, just South Coast Plaza, but the west side) called Pacific Whey Cafe and it's a nice little spot that's very casual but cozy with a decent menu. Sometimes we used to come here for lunch (while I was still working) even though it was a bit more of a drive than other usual spots, but it was worth it. Recently I went back to have my favorite dish of theirs: the Potato Mess.

Yes, it's called Potato Mess.

Let me explain.

It's a layer of fried potatoes (like country breakfast potatoes), topped with shredded cheese and salsa with a drizzle of sour cream over the entire dish, and then topped additionally with a giant dollop of avocado (not quite guacamole). Indulgence? Yes.

Did I finish it? No. Could I have? No! Don't be fooled by the deceptively small-looking portion, it was super heavy and super filling.

Would I recommend this place and this dish? Yes. Would I return and order the same thing? Obviously. Was it the best "potato mess" I've ever had? I wouldn't say that. I think I'd have to say that my absolute favorite is the Super Fries from Alertos (specifically the one in Fountain Valley on Brookhurst just south of McFadden). Their super fries is pretty much what you'd guess it'd be. A bed of french fries topped with nacho stuff: cheese, sour cream, salsa, guacamole... I can't remember if there is chili or if it is topped with your choice of meat.

And then my simple selection would be Del Taco's Deluxe Chili Cheddar Fries. I don't know what it is about it - is it the crinkle-cut fries? Is it their weirdly translucent thin-shredded "cheese"? Is it the sour cream with onion and tomato bits? Whatever it is, it be good. And cheap.

Okay, that's my potato post for the day.

Build-A-Burger

The other week, we went to visit a friend who works at a... I don't know what to call it. A rocket/aeronautics place? Here, you tell me: Spacex... oh I see, the sub-heading says "Space Exploration Technology". Anyhow, yeah, that place.

So anyway, for lunch he took us out to The Counter in El Segundo. We've circled the one located at the Woodbury Town Center in Irvine where another friend lives, but we've always felt we weren't hungry enough to dine there.

So anyway (again), you get a checklist to build your burger. What did I have?

Step #1: Choose a Burger - Beef, 1/3 lb (that was the smallest!), on a bun

Step #2: Choose a cheese - Jalapeno Jack

Step #3: Choose up to 4 toppings - Dill pickle chips, grilled onions, organic mixed greens (I couldn't decide on a 4th so didn't choose one)

Step #4: Choose a sauce - Roast Garlic Aioli

Step #5: Choose a bun - Onion bun

The result:

I barely managed to finish half of this burger. Yup. After realigning all the burger pieces together and spreading the sauce all over the top and bottom bun, I sliced the burger in half and... forced myself to finish that half. I was hurting afterwards. It was more meat than I should have consumed. But it was tasty. Except I didn't taste any Jalapeno Jack cheese. And the grilled onions were a little weak. But man, it sure was a burger all right. Would I recommend it? Probably. Would I go again? Probably not. Although I might... and get the veggie patty next time. And get the burger with no bun and in a bowl instead.

World Famous Dumplings

Or at least that's what people say regarding Din Tai Fung Dumpling House, with the only North American location (or, the only non-Asia location) located in Arcadia. We headed out there, which we found was only about 5 minutes from my sister's house, in part of a birthday celebration for a friend.

There are actually two locations back-to-back: one is the older, smaller original restaurant, and the second is a newer and larger addition. We went to the original one, and would have gotten seated pretty quickly since we were pretty early, but with 1 member of our 5-person party missing, they wouldn't seat us. Really!

Preparing the dumplings...

So when we finally got seated, it was kind of cramped, but it was okay. And one of their dishes was already out (as in, no more)... so we ended up getting... 6 orders of the pork dumplings, 1 order of the fish dumplings, 1 order of the pork and crab dumplings, 1 order of sauteed spinach, 1 order of sauteed baby bok choy, 1 order of spicy beef noodle soup, 1 order of chicken noodle soup (rice noodle), 1 order of fried pork chop... is there anything else I'm forgetting?

Anyway, the big deal about their dumplings is that within the steamed little pouches sits a pork (or whichever meat you chose) meatball swimming in a pool of soup broth. Yes, soup broth. So if you're not careful, the juices could be flying everywhere! In fact, on the back of their chopstick wrapper are directions of how to properly eat their famous dumplings!

In case it's illegible, the directions say: 1) Pour vinegar into the small saucer with the ginger; 2) Gently lift one dumpling and dip it into the ginger vinegar; 3) Place it on your spoon; 4) Take a nibble on the dumpling skin and sip the juice; 5) Drizzle some vinegar and ginger slices on top of the dumpling; 6) Now Enjoy!

Verdict: it was a good meal alright! I know I'm Asian and I'm supposed to like dumplings and stuff... but seriously, those little suckers were addicting! Would we recommend this place? Yes. Would we come back? Yes! Except next time, we'll go to the newer location.

Fair Food

Summertime means OC Fair time again! Sometimes I forget about it and sometimes I'm excited for it... this year I was excited for it because we had gotten tickets to see Adam Lambert!!! *squeal* Since it's part of the whole summer series, your concert ticket gains you admittance into the fair as well. Since the concert fell on a non fair-operating day, we returned later to indulge... Here we go...

Oh gosh, was indulgence on the table! However, our entire afternoon/evening at the fair, Corina and I managed to eat only two things:

Zucchini Nachos

Stringed zucchinis, battered and deep fried, topped with nacho cheese, bacon bits and jalapeno slices...

The result? GOOD. Although I think I would have preferred the typical breaded zucchini over this universal batter that seemed to be shared throughout the fair (did you see the signs for deep fried butter and Klondike bars??? A friend of mine actually tried the deep fried butter *clutches heart* and she said it was kind of good, tasted like a super greasy churro...).

Having had enough calories to perhaps last us another couple of days, we ventured through the fairgrounds people watching and taking photos. But we knew we had to return for this, which we did as our last meal of the day (right before watching the hypnotist show, which I am hoping we burned the right amount of calories from laughter that we had consumed).

Mexican Funnel Cake

What's that, you ask? Why, it's a super long wrap-around of a churro, drizzled with some chocolate, dusted with powdered sugar, and topped with strawberries (we omitted the whipped cream for Corina's sake - girl doesn't dig that stuff).

The verdict? So good. And so greasy. We couldn't even finish it. And keep in mind that we shared the one order of the Zucchini Nachos and this one order of Mexican Funnel Cake. I guess we'll just have to wait for next year to try another heart-stopper (or not)!

Baby Blues BBQ

So it's been nearly 3 months since my last post - woops, sorry! A lot has been going on and while I continue to cook at home and occasionally head out to dine somewhere, I've stopped photographing, particularly at home. I'll try to pick it up again, I promise! Meanwhile, let's see what I've got stored in my photo library...

In early July, a few of us headed up to Malibu visit the Getty Villa... unfortunately, we were a couple of days late for the exhibit we had wanted to check out, but still had a nice time anyway. On the way back home, we decided to swing by Baby Blues BBQ in Venice, as featured on Guy's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

It's a fun, not-quite-a-bar, not-quite-the-back-of-someone's-house feel where they specialize in, you guessed it: BBQ. According to Yelp!, the must try was the pulled pork, the mac n' cheese and the cornbread. And they make their own BBQ sauce in 4 different flavors: Sweet, BBQ, (something I can't remember the name of but it happened to be my sauce of choice), and XXX (the hot one).

So... the hubster and I ordered some chicken wings and the "Big Blue" platter (24.95) with 3 choices of meat (we went with the pulled pork, Memphis-style ribs and baby back ribs), 2 choices of sides (mac n' cheese and collard greens), and it came with cornbread. YUM!

Between the two of us, we didn't finish. It was good though, real good. The ribs were tender and yummy and the mac n cheese was pretty darn good... it was kind of thick, so any more than the serving they gave might have gotten me sick, but splitting it, it was the perfect amount. I wasn't fond of the collard greens, but the hubster was all right with that - more for him!

Would I recommend this place? If you're in the area, sure, why not? But if it's going to be a trek, I think your local BBQ place might be okay. Like Lucille's or something. Yeah.