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Showing posts from March, 2009

Face Cafe: Visit #2

CHANGE is happening. About a month ago , Face Cafe was a place that had just a handful of customers. Yelp reviews gave this place an overall score of only 2.5 stars. The manager wasn't present. Service was pretty good. Now, it is a place that is full during the meal times, has many waiting customers, and the manager is out doing the waiting line. Times have changed. And so...when we decided to pick Face Cafe for dinner, what did we meet at the entrance? A huge line of customers, of course. But too tired to continue driving to some other restaurant, we waited, looking at the employees cutting lemon slices at the bar area, watching that TV that only just makes our appetite go more hungry... There were 10 parties of people ahead of us when we were waiting. That, for us, is a lot. But after about 15 minutes or so, we got our seat. What amazed me the most was that the booster seats were already breaking down, with the material on the outside cracking and tearing. Only a month or two and

Arcadia Garden Cafe: Breakfast!

One of the better places to go out for breakfast/brunch in Arcadia is to go to Garden Cafe for their breakfast. It's a good deal as a early lunch, brunch, or just as a breakfast. And you don't just have Chinese choices here. You also have a wide variety of "western" dishes like pancakes, omelets, waffles, oatmeal, and more. Many of the items are available as part of a "combo". We typically here order everything via combo. You typically will get 2 different food items plus a hot drink of tea, milk tea, or coffee. However, for cold drinks, there's an extra surcharge. One of the "bases" for the Chinese portion of the combos is dried scallop porridge. With mini flecks of dry scallop which have been rehydrated, the flavor of the dried scallop is all over the place, but it isn't heavy- more of a light flavor. The rice is all broken down, and the porridge's texture is very smooth. There's also another "base" for the Chinese Combo

Egg Tart Comparison: Lord Stow's Bakery in Macau and 99 Ranch Market in California

Egg tarts are what some may think to only have one variation. But, if you think so, you are wrong. There are many, many variations of egg tarts. Today's variation? Portuguese Style egg tarts. One of them is from Macau, where Portuguese cuisine is all over the city. The other? A market in California, where Portuguese food isn't easily found all over the place. What will the result be? Since there was a question of trying egg tarts in Macau from food blogger Pleasure Palate, let's start off with the egg tart from Macau. After all...it's probably more interesting to read. The place we visited? Lord Stow's bakery, which our local friend (who also brought us to Tai Lei Loi Kei) brought us here to visit. Since we were also in Coloane, which is a island of Macau, this place would be a perfect place to stop by. As we entered, we were a bit amazed that there was the rusty door that you see in the photo, as they proclaim to be the "creator of the egg tart" (and at t

Sesame Grill- Early Bird Specials!

Ads can help in many different ways to an advertiser. And well, it lured us back again to Sesame Grill, a place which we mainly eat for lunch because of their lunch specials. We typically don't eat here at night (lunch is a way better deal because of the special), but there was something new that was up for offer, and we went for the very occasional dinner here again. At night, the feeling of the place is well, very different. More mood lighting is on, and the ambiance is darker. White cloths are added to the tables, and so are tea candles which are placed in a glass cup. A cloth napkin is also folded nicely on your plate at night. But what really brought us here for dinner? The Early Bird Special! It's actually a pretty good deal for the price, and depending on which choices you pick, it can be a very good deal, even when you compare it to the Lunch Specials. We picked choices 1, 2, and 3 along with 3 different appetizers. But, what always comes free with any meal is some fres