Steamed Fresh Chicken, Fish Cake in Bell Peppers, Eggplants and Jalapenos & Roasted Pork Bell @ my home

So all summer I was home, and that meant lots of good food as you can see from my earlier posts on this blog. One thing that's great about going to school not too far from home, is that I can go home whenever I want for a good meal! My mom usually makes the best food when I go home, and I think it's because I appreciate her food the most :D yummy in my tummy!!!!

Steamed Fresh Chicken
this is my favorite! believe it or not i can eat half of it by myself. basically take a whole chicken and throw it in a pot of water for 30-45 minutes, there is some kind of technique to it...i just don't know the details. i like to dip it into fish sauce, but with scallion and ginger sauce is good too!

Fish Cake in Bell Peppers, Eggplants and Jalapenos
bell peppers and eggplants were freshly picked from the garden in my sac home (my aunts grow them) and the fish cake my mom had her co-worker make for her. it consisted of fish, dried scallops and shrimp...very fresh smelling and fragrant. stuffed the fish cake mixture into the vegetables and pan fried! oh so juicy!!!

Roasted Pork Belly
so you know the roasted pork that you buy at chinese deli's, the one where the whole pig just hangs by the front door? well my mom made it! on a much smaller version, and way tastier! she marinaded it with "five spice" flavors, and you take a fork/knife and start poking at the pork belly's skin - this creates the "crispy-ness" preheat oven to 475, and cook for 45 minutes or so, until you start to notice that the skin begins to bubble. let it stand in the oven for another 20 minutes. voila!!!

way better than the stuff you buy at the deli - this one is juicy, crunchy, and a nice salty and savory flavor!

Ink Eats @ Sacramento

Semi-late night eats with Ducky and Canadia at Ink Eats. I really believe Sacramento, or rather Midtown Sac needs a good late night place, for coffee or dessert. Not a Starbucks or anything like it, but something like they have in Los Angeles, or cute asian dessert places like they have in Hong Kong or Sacramento. Regardless, Ink Eats was not bad. I was kind of like American Comfort food, or something like the sort. The food was good, but nothing amazing that I would repeat again if I had the choice.

Boneless Buffalo Wings
SPICYY!!! I think Ducky and I drank lots of water because of these. They definitely had a strong tobasco taste though...maybe too much? Cucumbers were refreshing :P

Steak Quesadilla
The first few bites were really good, and the steak was really tender, but in the end i felt like there was too much cheese, and then it cooled down..and the cheese turned out to be a little icky

Mac 'n Cheese
according to Canadia this is the most AMAZING Mac n' Cheese, it was good...but not that good. haha. it definitely wasn't rich, so you wouldn't feel sick afterwards, but it was missing...something

Pangaea Cafe @ Sacramento

Simply one of the tastiest sandwiches eaten near school is Pangaea Cafe. This place surely does take its time making sandwiches, but it is definitely worth it. I had the first sandwich two weeks ago when a fellow classmate suggested it. I ordered the Club Sandwich on Sourdough Bread. I once read somewhere that if you must order "white" bread order sourdough because it takes your stomach more time to break it down, and it will keep you fuller for longer. I had the craving for the same sandwich last week and just had to have it!

Club sandwich on sourdough bread, no mustard and no onions. Thanks :) It took about 10 minutes to do, and the reason being is that not only is there one person manning the register, making the drinks, and making the sandwiches, but each sandwich is made with much care and love. yes. I saw him making my sandwich, toasting the bread, heating up the bacon slices, and i asked (in my Lydia way - if you know what i mean) for extra tomatoes. He happily obliged, and let me tell you it was DELICIOUS! Fresh tomato, juicy...and just complements everything else oh so well! This sandwich was actually better from Mama Ann's...wow.

The Club
[turkey, bacon, cheese (forgot what kind), lettuce, tomato, mayo, and pickles all on toasted sourdough bread]
i ate and enjoyed every bite...until my stomach hurt because it was oh so good. i don't know why, but it all just melds really well together. i hate sandwiches that stuff so much meat into it, that i can't even put my mouth over it. i also hate it when the bread is so crunchy that it hurts the roof of my mouth and my jaw after wards. none of this happened to this sandwich. my tummy was happy. veryy happy.

Cupcake Craving @ Sacramento

Ready for another cupcake post? Cupcake Craving. Cupcakes are seriously taking over in the dessert arena, and honestly not anyone who makes cupcakes out of their kitchen at home should be selling cupcakes for a living. Case in point, Cupcake Craving. The name is called Cupcake Craving, but personally I have not had a craving to eat such cupcakes since my first half. Canadia on the other hand...she really does crave them, but Canada doesn't have Sprinkles does it? Neither does Sacramento. Sigh...still in search for a cupcake that can share the high pedestal with Sprinkles...

What makes Cupcake Craving not so craving, is the whole package...the cake and the frosting. While the cake was airy and light, it was missing some density and flavor. The frosting was whipped cream..ANYONE CAN DO IT!....it takes a pro to make the frosting that Sprinkles has to offer...

Cupcake Display Case

i ordered two cupcakes...

Flirty Vanilla
[vanilla cake w. chocolate frosting]
so sad...no where close to vanilla-milk chocolate. i don't like whipped cream frosting.

Dulce de Leche
[vanilla cupcake w. caramel frosting on top and inside]
i asked what the "it" cupcake of the place was, and she instantly recommended red velvet..apparently it's the best. but every cupcake place claims they have the best red velvet, but it's all lies if you didn't know. so she later recanted and said it was the dulce de leche because there's a filling inside. it was ICKY! the frosting was too sweet both inside and out, and there was too much frosting. there wasn't a good balance between the cake and frosting.
Canadia really liked her Red Velvet. I tried a bite of it...i didn't like the frosting though it was a cream cheese frosting, she liked it because there was a tart flavor that was kind of lemony, and she likes lemon. red velvet cake...no good. no good. no good.

next time i'll try baby cakes in j-street. any more cupcake suggestions?

Mama Ann's @ El Dorado Hills

For those of you who don't know, although this Penguin is from the big city of San Francisco, and goes to school in Sacramento, she actually lives in suburbia. A place called El Dorado Hills which is about 25 minutes east of Sacramento. Like most suburbs there is plenty of chain restaurants and not much personality with regard to its cuisine. In the Town Center there is your average establishments; subway, cold stone, chilis, bistro 33, starbucks etc. So you can understand my surprise when I saw this cute italian deli - Mama Ann's! I thought it was going to be uber special, and uber delicious! I was wrong...and disappointed. I was starved that day, so everything I ate should have tasted amazing right? Nope..didn't happen.

I ordered the Big Pauly, which is basically a pastrami sandwich. I asked which sandwich I should have the Pauly or Paisano. They recommended the Pauly to me, because apparently they had really good pastrami meat. Well let me tell you...it was no Submarine Center from San Francisco. The pastrami was dry and didn't have enough flavor. The bread wasn't good...it wasn't toasted. And the romaine lettuce was lacking...there was no crunch, no crisp...sigh. Needed more tomatoes too!!! Ok I might give this place another try since it's so close to me, and I'll actually try the Paisano. If it fails the next time, then it's gameover. Btw bonus is that it has the Arancia Pellegrino, which I love.

Big Pauly
[Hot Pastrami, Swiss Cheese, Dijon Mustard, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Onions, Pepperoncinis on Pane Roll]
i added mayo to it, and still it wasn't there for me. compare this to sub center please, and tell me which one definitely looks more delicious! sigh

Opa Opa @ Sacramento

Are you ready for this?


GYROS IN SACRAMENTO! No not the chain restaurant Daphne, and no not some i-think-this-is-what-a-gyro-is type of place. But actually a cute little restaurant that is tucked in Sacramento I never would have expected...not midtown, not downtown, and not ghetto area. If you must know where I had this amazing gyro, that by the way I'm still craving, go eat at OPA OPA. The last time I had a gyro this good was in NYC, either off a cart in soho or at an israeli place in Flushing. Yes I am comparing a Sacramento gryo to one I had in new york city.

The pita at Opa Opa was fresh...it was soft, it was fragrant and not at all filling like most carbs. The pita was filled with plenty of gyro meat that was tender, juicy, flavorful, and just cooked to perfect. This was all topped with tzatziki sauce that was refreshing and just fresh, and tomatoes - i love tomatoes. What is also good about this place is for $8 monday-friday, there's a lunch special that comes with a gyro sandwich, soda and fries! man...and if you really want your tastebuds to go on fire with flavor, you have to try the garlic fries! it can definitely feed three people, but if you're starved and still hungry after eating a gyro two people can eat this. Canadia and I over estimated how much we could actually fit in our stomachs. While we ate our gyros, we couldn't finish the garlic fries. By the way, dip the garlic fries in either tzatziki sauce or their special GARLIC SAUCE! yes! When will I go back? I hope really soon...this penguin has cravings that need to be satisfied!

Fully Loaded Garlic Fries
do you see the pieces of garlic? i'm salvilating..

Gyro
look at the layers of meat! look at the spices on the meat! the pita is homemade or at least it tasted like it was. the tzatziki sauce is incorporated all over the gyro, and i actually spread more sauce on it while i was eating it. i loved it that much! btw there are other things that were at opa opa, but i love gyros...and gyros are just difficult to make. takes a lot of skill

Pho Bac Hoa Viet @ Sacramento

So many pho places in Sacramento, especially up and down Stockton Blvd. Ducky and Penguin went on this Pho frenzy last year in the beginning of the fall semester. We were both trying to find the "perfect" or "amazing" pho in Sacramento, cause well it has to exist because there's so many Vietnamese people in the area! However, we learned after about 4 restaurants...that it doesn't really exist. Now if I had my food blog at that time I would have taken tons of pictures and posted all of these places, and could tell you more, but I can't. I think we were both trying to compare pho places to places we've eaten in San Francisco, but nada. Honestly what gives? Do people in Sacramento have lower expectations? Do their taste buds fail?

Anyways...we found this family-chain-like pho place on Broadway near school - Pho Bac Hoa Viet. I call it a family-chain-life pho place because it has multiple locations in the Sacramento area (I can't seem to find its website). While it's still not amazing in comparison to what we have had, it does the job and more importantly it's closer to school than driving all the way to Stockton Blvd. The pho is decent here, and prices are a little bit high - another problem, why does ethnic food always cost more than it would if you were to eat in the motherland??!!? makes no sense.

For all you out there...if you know of a good pho place please recommend it to ducky and I! We're still in search...

Bun w. charbroiled pork, eggrolls and shrimp
[all over noodles and veggies, there's no soup but you pour yummy sauce over it]
portion was huge! i couldn't eat it all, and thankfully the pork was not dry. yay! ducky ordered noodle soup, i believe she liked it cause she ate it all!

Fuji @ Elk Grove

Fuji. Some of you may recognize this name from Davis, CA....you might have went to UC Davis and fed yourself on a college budget at this place many times. Or...you might have heard that Davis has this amazing sushi place and you ventured out there. The latter explains how I came across this place. One can eat very well at Fuji, and be seriously full for less than $15 a person. By the way did I mention that this place is a buffet? It isn't one of those sushi/asian buffet's that has horrible food, and they have only like 3 rolls, and no sashimi. It is actually the quite opposite! They have yellow tail, tuna, salmon, raw oysters, softshell cram hamachi kama, and tons of other rolls that I may not like to eat but othere people do. They have calamari, tempura, seared ahi tuna, salmon skin roll, and a hot food bar! I honestly don't know how this place makes any money. I secretly think that the restaurant is a front for something else...maybe money laundering? Ha. While their sushi isn't the GREATEST grade, it isn't fishy by any means, and well for $15 a person, what more can you ask for?

A boat going by - there are two lanes

Cucumber Salad
very refreshing in between dishes

Fried Soft Shell Crab
this is easily $10 at a restaurant, and albeit they probably make it look a lot more prettier. however the taste is all the same, and there wasn't alot of batter on it so i wasn't getting cheated, which is nice!

Dragon Roll
[tempura, avocado, cucumber, and unagi w. sauces]
does the job :D

Dragon Hand Roll
same thing has a dragon roll, but made in a hand roll. i actually liked this a lot more than the regular...it tasted better in my opinion. oh yea, i had to special order this because the guy wasn't sure how to make it...but it wasn't that difficult!

Hamachi and Maguro Sashimi
very delicious. it fixed my hamachi craving. so far i've eaten more than my $15 share...yay

Hamachi Kama
[collarbone of yellowtail fish]
this is probably one of my favorite cooked japanese dishes. It's hard to find too, and many restaurants run out because one fish has at most two pieces, because one fish only has one collar...right? i'm surprised that Fuji has a cornucopia amount of this. by the way this costs $10-$14 at restaurants.

Unagi
[bbq eel]
this wasn't too good. i was kind of sad, because this is one of my favorite sushi's, and you really can't fail in making it. but i felt like it wasn't fresh - it was cold, and too much sauce. i don't like that much sauce on sushi, it ruins it

Calamari & Shrimp Tempura
unfortunately the calamari had too much batter and the shrimp was cold. uber disappointment

Burgers & Brew @ Sacramento

I know...I know...I didn't even think it could be possible to find a place in Sacramento that is worthy of going to after the initial try. But seriously, Burgers & Brew, is an amazing eat and it could quite possibly be the BEST place to get a burger in Sacramento.

The first time I went to Burgers & Brew (they don't have a website, but here's yelp) was back during the end of Spring Semester. Me and a few friends went to the one at Davis, because they didn't have a restaurant in Sacramento yet. Let me tell you, a nice fat juicy burger before property with a nice cold beer is a great meal. I ordered the Mushroom Burger, and I was like WOW. Up until that point, the best mushroom burger I've ever had was at Mel's Diner in San Francisco. While the mushroom burger at Burgers & Brew was pretty scrumptious, it still didn't compare to Mel's Diner (Mel's and I go way back...to about when I was 5...and it brings nostalgia feelings to me). The mushroom burger at Burgers & Brew was huge, juicy, not too oily, meaty and had all the amazing fixings. It had the right cheese - swiss, and the mushrooms were sauteed. There were sauteed onions, and topped with lettuce and tomato, like a real burger should. The bun...well it was home made, or at least it felt like it. It was not too soft, but it had a nice bite to it. I could fit it all in my mouth!! My indication of this amazingness burger is that I crave it from time to time. If I crave the food, then it's a definite repeat...need I say more?

Mushroom Burger w. Seasoned Fries
i dipped the fries in ranch dressing....it makes it even that much better! they also have curly fries and onion rings for additional charge. oh yea...if you want to be health conscious, you can get a side salad, but why do that? you're eating a burger already, you might as well go the full distance!

look at that masterpiece! look at the beef patty! look at the thickness of the cheese! look at all those mushrooms! are you drooling yet?

Aura @ Sacramento

Aura is in midtown Sacramento, and it seems as if someone took what looks like a "trendy" restaurant and transplanted it into Sacramento - random no? While the decor made it look like it belonged in New York or even Los Angeles, the food did not taste like it was from either location. It's not that the food wasn't good, there was something missing that would have made it go BAM...it just was missing something. I don't know how to explain it...like pzzaz? The clencher?

Rolled Duck Breasts
i initially liked this, until i took the second bite and realized that it as too charred. portions were too small too, even though i didn't really like it

Petit Fillet Mignon w/ creamy mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables
watermelon had this...was it good?

Mama Mia's Chicken Pastry
[Chicken wrapped in puff pastry, stuffed with jack cheese and mushrooms, all topped with rich sauce, accompanied with seasonable veggies]
yes the description sounds good right? i took it technically off the website. i have to say that i ate all teh veggies because i actully liked them, though they had too much sea salt on it. as with the chicken, being chicken breast it was too dry. however i really liked the puffed pastry, the cheese and mushroom. hahaha. ok so i wasn't that impressed, and it was expensive!

a closer view

Creme Brulee
one of the safeest things to order for dessert is creme brulee, especially when you just can't be impressed with ice cream. this creme brulee was good, and it wasn't horrible by any means. however, it was missing that special something! it didn't have the passion fruit flavor like the one from maui, or even that special yummyness that palomino's has to offer with its creme brulee

Dragonfly Sushi @ Sacramento

First Sacramento entry!!!! Sushi can never compare to Tekka in San Francisco, what can I say? Sushi at Dragonfly wasn't too shabby. It's not the greatest, but for the price one pays...the food is pretty decent, and 2 people can definitely be full for $25 or less. Well on a Sunday, when they have 1/2 rolls during dinner time.

Capitol Roll sans cream cheese
[spicy tuna, avocado served tempura style]
this was pretty good, the batter they use to fry the roll was perfect...panko flakes and not just regular batter, so it wasn't too greasy

California Roll
[real snow crab]
i love california rolls that use real crab rather than the imitation ones. real crab just takes that much better...no?

Vegetable Futomaki
[burdock root, dried gourd, pickled radish, asparagus, and cucumber]
doesn't sound too good right? well it was AMAZING! i liked the veggies in the in the roll

i honestly don't remember...it's been too long. this is why i need to blog as i eat, or i forget things...haha

The whole thing! Four rolls...enough to feed 2 people, and less than $25. woot!

Cafe Sevilla @ Gas Lamp

Tapas!!! So after drinking wine during brunch at Crab Catcher, my mind finally was cleared of the alcohol, but that only meant more drinking in the evening! Drinking and tapas at Cafe Sevilla was in the plans. Before getting there we heard that they have sangria in BARRELS there, yes BARRELS. How crazy does that sound? Well...I imagined a giant barrel on the floor where we would scoop the sangria. My imagination went a little too far, but the barrel was still pretty cool. We order two that night - regular sangria and white sangria. I liked the white sangria, but others thought it was too sweet and didn't taste that great. I like sweetness :) The tapas here weren't that amazing, I wasn't really impressed. There some thing wrong witht the flavors - they didn't mesh together, or I just didn't feel the individualized attention to each dish. Oh yea, I was having a strangely weird craving that night, I wanted fried foods...more importantly tacos from Jack in the Box. Yes...I'm strange.

The Barrel

About half way done...

Bread with some kind of butter and marinara
tasty...

Empanada
i wish it was more bite sized and more fried...hehehe

Grilled Spanish Sausages
hmmm...sausage was spicy...and oily

Shrimp Ajillo
shrimp was very tasty..love garlicky shrimp

Dates Stuffed with Corbales Cheese Wrapped with Bacon
apparently this was a hit, but i wasn't that much of a fan...i don't really like dates, but i like bacon...haha

Meat Paella
[roasted pork tenderloin, chorizo, morcilla, roasted chicken and lamb chop]
there wasn't much difference between this paella and the seafood paella, except for the protein that was piled onto the rice...btw rice was too salty

Seafood Paella
[mussels, clams, shrimp, calamari, scallops, roasted chicken and chorizo]
i like the seafood..that was very delicious, but the rice was kind of blah. it was too salty, too soft...and something else. meh the alcohol was good...lol

Crab Catcher @ La Jolla

Crab! Crab! Crab! Crab! Do you like crab? If so Crab Catcher in La Jolla, is quite yummy! If memory serves me right everything on their menu involves crab in some shape or form. They also have a list of where their crabs come from, which is pretty cool. The setting of this restaurant is really cute. It's right off the coast on Prospect Street, and you have to go "down" from the entrance, and the restaurant is nestled right in a cove that's fasting the water. On a nice day, there's sun and a light breeze so you're not dying while sitting in the patio. Ha! Enjoy!!

Bordeaux
this wine was very good, so good that we had two bottles! man...drinking during the day is rough...that headache...where does it come from!?!

Complimentary Bread
too dry...and crumbly...tasted a little good with some olive oil? i need balsamic vinegar too

Stuffed Mushroom w/ Crab
Di really wanted this, so much that she suggested we ordered this about 5 times within 10 minutes. ha! it was actually very good. very juicy, both the crab and the mushroom. i love mushrooms though, and well crab that i don't have to de-shell myself is AMAZING

Crab Cake Sandwich
[dungeness crab cake, tomato, lettuce, avocado spread, carmelized onion, spread, all on sourdough bread. parmesan fries]
wow

i mean just look at it!! it's so compact, and the bread though big is super fluffy! the crab cake was super light, and all the components go together very light. the flavors weren't strong, which is good because i could taste the freshness that was the crab cake. also...crab cake didn't have a lot of batter which i loved, because most of the time when it come with seafood restaurants cover up the lack of freshness and lack of amount with batter, here not so.