Kifune Japanese restaurant

Discovering a new sushi place is like meeting up with a person you've only met on myspace. Yeah, you've checked out their stats, personality, photos, likes and dislikes (menu...) but you never know how it's going to be until you actually meet up. To tell you the truth, I've never met anyone on myspace that I didn't already know, so this is what I'm assuming would happen if I ever got into that scenario. Anyways, we went to Kifune, after a friend insisted this was the best salmon sushi ever. It definitely did not disappoint...

Started off with a salad and miso soup. I liked the dressing on this salad - nuclear orange, atop icky iceberg lettuce mix. I guess it wasn't that bad, but in recent times I've become an iceberg lettuce hater. Miso soup is always good.



Spicy tuna rolls came next. We had a choice of sushi or sashimi with our meal, and this was one of our choices. Pretty good, but not too memorable.



Our other choice of sushi - tuna roll. Tuna is one of my favorite kinds of sushi. Again, these were good but not horribly memorable, as compared to what was coming up next...



And here is what Kifune is known for - their salmon sushi. Just looking at that plate makes my mouth water. Each of the pieces of sushi were two bites - a generously sized sushi. They had a great fresh oceany flavor, and just melted on the tongue. Totally delicious.

Here's where it all went crazy - we ordered the "Treasure Ship" for the three of us to share. It had EVERYTHING you could ever want from a Japanese restaurant: Beef teriyaki, Chicken teriyaki, Sesame chicken, Shrimp & Vegetable Tempura, Salmon teriyaki, Snow crab, Seafood kushiyaki, All served on a wooden craft boat. This was HUGE. It was enough food for 6 people. It was all really good though, and you can't beat that presentation - it just looked amazing. And it was a pretty good deal for 3 people (I think you can order it for 2 people, 26 dollars each. So about 50 for 3 people. Pretty good for a sushi place.)

I was TOLD this was a secret place to go to by my friend...but I am passing it along to you. Hopefully this makes up for not posting for such a long time....

405 East Washington Street
Marina Del Rey, CA 90291
Telephone: (310)822-1595

Vegas Birthday Trip

Wow, it only feels like yesterday when I went to Vegas, but that was around 4 months ago, so I'm glad I'm finally posting about it. I'm only going to focus on the food, as most Vegas trips usually just involve us walking around everywhere, gambling sometimes, and then walking around more. That's pretty much it. Oh, and this time we stayed at Monte Carlo. I think I've stayed at 6 different hotels on the strip now. This one ranked a little lower on my list - I mean, the rooms are okay and all (no noticeable dead bodies in the closets or between the mattresses) but I've definitely been in nicer rooms on the strip.

So on to the food. We decided to go to the Wynn Buffet, as we heard many good things about it and wanted to check it out. Our walk from the Monte Carlo to the Wynn was pretty nice, but it was a long walk, and by the time we got to the Wynn, a lot of us were pretty thirsty. We got at the Wynn at a good time - around 4pm, between lunch and dinner, so we just walked in, instead of waiting forever in line. Sweet. They were also having a special Easter dinner menu, so Alaskan Crab legs and shrimp were the special! Even sweeter!

This is a plate of what Amber got, I think. Check those crab legs. They had pre-split them so it was really easy to get to the meat, which was the sweetest crab meat I've had in my recent memory. The shrimp, in Ryan's opinion, tasted too much like iodine, so he warned us against them.
Here's a plate of what I got - mostly meats. Check that rack o lamb! And a salmon handroll! This place has everything! The fried poultry in the background is not chicken but it is actually quail. And the prime rib - to die for. It is that good. Oh, there was also ceviche. Very decent as well.
This is the scary pile of crab leg carcasses that were the product of all of our crab destruction. Truly scary, how many crabs perished because of us. But they were so delicious.....


What is in the cup, you ask? Looks pretty scary, no? It is - it is CLARIFIED BUTTER. I didn't have any - this is Dean's cup. He took a bunch of crab legs, shelled all of them, put the meat in a pile and then poured a bunch of this on top and ate the best crab meat pile in the world. I think he lost a few days of his life, but I think it might have been worth it.


This is some of the choice desserts they have at the Wynn Buffet. At this point, anything that has dough in it was pretty much unappetizing, as we were pretty full. Some stuff still looked pretty good though - clockwise from top right - coffee gelato, with a bit of bread pudding, tiramisu cup (very cute!), chocolate tart with gold leaf on top, caramel eclair, and hidden behind the dish, is bananas foster. I didn't eat all of it, but definitely got a taste of everything, which was excellent.

Later that night, we checked out the Fremont Street Experience (the suck! It's just a bunch of stock footage playing on the ceiling and music playing!) and ended up at the California Club. Helen had a huge craving for their oxtail soup so we went to their 24 hour diner to get it. California club seems tailored towards Hawaiians and Asian people, as most of the items on the menu were Asian themed/inspired.

Since we were there after 10pm, there was a special - the 4 dollar steak plate. YES. 4. Dollars. It also came with two sides, and Ryan chose stringy overcooked green beans and mashed potatoes. I think Ryan noted that it sucked, but really, that's what you get for a 4 dollar steak plate. They totally overcooked it.
The oxtail soup fared much better- this is delicious comfort food to me. It came with two huge scoops of rice - unnecessary but nice that they added it. There were tons of pieces of meat in this soup, and delicious marrow to suck out of the bones. It's not like, THE BEST oxtail soup I've had (that award goes to my mom's version) but it was very decent for a restaurant. I think this bowl was a very reasonable 8 dollars, which really hit the spot for a late night treat.

Of course I stopped by Bouchon again, for brunch - I LOVE that restaurant. I didn't take pictures, because I figured my last outing sufficed, but this time around I again got their daily special - crab omelette with bacon on the side. The bacon was sooo good. They really hooked it up. Everything there was superb, as last time. I can't wait until they open their LA location (however, not until 2009, and I'm sure I should call now if I want to eat there next year, hah)...in any case, Vegas always hits the spot!

Buddha's Belly

On one of our rare outings for lunch (it's hard to drive anywhere for lunch, especially since my car is not parked in the same building as where I work. It's a 10 minute walk just to get to my car), we decided to go to Buddha's Belly - a trendy place off of Beverly Blvd. The place was hopping with people -mostly people from nearby businesses, I was assuming. We got a table outside to accommodate all of us, which was pleasant enough but service was a bit slow.

Julian got a Singapore Seafood Noodles -shrimp, mussels, scallops, flat squid ink noodles, red and green bell pepper, egg, onion, nira chive, cilantro, spicy yellow curry. I didn't try any of it, but he finished it and he said he was still hungry, so I guess it wasn't very filling.

Kue and Grace both got Spicy Tom Yom Koon Thai Ramen Noodle Soup - shrimp, thin egg noodles, lemongrass & red chili broth, tomato, straw mushrooms, cilantro, kaffir lime leaf. They seemed to like this alright, and it looked like a pretty big, filling bowl of noodle soup.

I got Seared Ahi Tuna Salad - sushi-grade ahi tuna, organic mixed greens, ginger, fried onion slivers, wasabi sesame seeds, wasabi-yuzu dressing. This was totally disappointing. Check out how PAPER THIN the ahi tuna was - if you held it to the light, you can see through it. I don't know why this place was totally shafting me on ingredients - I mean, I'm paying 13 dollars for a salad, and I'm glad they used mixed greens instead of romaine, but I severely felt angry after eating this. Ahi tuna sliced this thin should be wrapped around something...like...bacon. Ha! I guess that would take away the healthiness of this dish. But seriously. Boo.


Evan got the best thing at the table - Spicy Peanut Noodles - shrimp, chicken breast, flat rice noodles, celery, mushrooms, edamame, spicy peanut sauce. I had a taste of it and it was really delicious - rich because of the peanut sauce, which had a great consistency and flavor. If I ever had to come back, I'd get this instead of my rich people salad.

It was a nice lunch out, but I still feel burned over the price and cheapout of my salad. It's pretty trendy because of the location, so part of you're meal you're basically paying for ambience.


http://www.bbfood.com

Life on Wilshire

On my first day of work, I was very lucky to be dragged to lunch by my coworkers. We went across the street, to Life. Now, since going there, I have to say, the name of the restaurant is something I make fun of constantly. I say that I'd much rather go next door to "Death", or perhaps the alleyway inbetween death and life,"Purgatory". Ha. Anyways. On to the food...

I got a House chopped salad, which was decently tasty - tomatoes, romaine, goat cheese, ham, chickpeas, all tossed in a balsamic-laced dressing. It was decent, but the price was a little steep for just a salad - I think around 12 dollars. Sometimes, I really hate that healthier food costs more...shouldn't I be rewarded for wanting to eat better? I guess not...
This is a plate of what they're known best for - their jalepeno mac and cheese. I hear that some days it's great, some days it's so-so. On that day it was pretty good - spicy, zesty, probably could have been cheesier but it's a good plate of deliciousness. It's like grown up mac and cheese, with a grown up price tag - 9 dollars, I think.
Here's their Warm Spinach Salad. It comes with sauteed mushrooms, caramelized onions and spicy candied pecans with a honey dijon vinagrette. My coworkers seemed to like it, but I think this is a really small salad for its' 9 dollar price tag. However, they were splitting this with the mac and cheese, so that's a pretty decent sized meal.
My coworker was on some eating restrictions that day so he just got a side salad. Mixed greens and such. Nothing to write home about other than everything was fresh.
Another coworker got a burger, which looked pretty decent, with a side of fries. A big restaurant burger is good at any time. I think Life's fries are the best thing they have - they actually also have these other fries, the curry fries, that have a good seasoning spice they sprinkle over it. Aside from that, I've had their sliders, which are 3 VERY SMALL burgers, made with sirloin, and I've had their turkey burger, which was decent but to switch from fries to a salad was an extra charge of a dollar.

If you don't care about spending some cash, I'd say go here. It's a nice space to hang out in, and a lot of people head over there for Happy Hour after work. Price is my main complaint here, but everything else is solid.

New Orleans Day 5 and 6 - last moments in New Orleans

Alright, last post on New Orleans, which, again, was months ago.

Owen was having quite a headache the next morning, so Patty and I decided to get some breakfast on our own. We headed to the Coffeepot again, as we promised Miss Pearl that we would return and try her bread pudding. Patty was still recovering from her flu, but she was feeling a lot better than she had been a few days ago.

It was raining pretty hard outside, which was nice (I like rain), and we scurried into the restaurant, which was bustling with the same awesome waitresses we had last time. Patty got a simple breakfast of bacon and eggs (I think), so I didn't bother taking a picture.


I got a catfish po'boy, with fries. Corey's catfish plate looked too good last time for me not to try it this time around. It was good. And fried. Like everything else I was eating in New Orleans...

I also got Owen a shrimp po'boy and bread pudding to go, which he inhaled once I got back. The bread pudding truly was something to write home about. An incredible flavor (bourbon?), infused the bread pudding, luscious cream surrounded it, it was just...perfect. Really spot on. I didn't take a picture of it because it was in a humdrum takeout container, but seriously. It was the thing to get there.

We lounged around until Brad arrived (it was supposed to be a surprise, but David accidentally spilled the beans earlier in the week) and we got dressed up to go to the most anticipated meal that we had planned for our whole New Orleans trip - we walked over to Antoine's.

Antoine's Restaurant "has the distinction of being the oldest family run restaurant in the United States", according to Wikipedia. Established in 1840, this place is a legend - it INVENTED Oysters Rockefeller, amongst some other notable dishes. I was super excited to try...
Everything is very formal here. The service was top notch. The dining room was very decorative, and it all reeked of old school bygone days. It was like eating in a piece of history!

Back to the service - our waiter had an eye on us the whole time - but was never creepy or intrusive. He would constantly refill everything we needed - bread, water, even ice, when he carried over an ice bucket and would individually place fresh ice cubs in our glasses. He had forgotten that I ordered a diet coke at one point, profusely apologized when we politely reminded him, and then RAN to the kitchen to get me the diet coke, again with more apologies. That's service. Probably some of the best service I've had. By the way, the bread was awesome - light, crispy on the outside, warm.

Patty ordered a soup - a deep rich Bisque d' Crevette - Louisana shrimp soup. This was a SUPER INTENSE soup, I tried a small bit of it. Patty could only finish about half of it.. I kinda wish I could have frozen the extra, and used it as a base to the next 20 soups I made back home. That's how strong this soup was. By the way, this was ordered instead of an alligator soup that Patty was about to order, and was advised by our waiter that this was the superior soup. Also, he let us in on a secret - the alligator soup they have was actually made out of turtle!

The highlight was ordering what Antoine's is best known for - their Oysters Rockefeller! Our waiter suggested a few other flavors, as well. Oysters Rockefeller (far right), Huitres Thermidor (far left), and Huitres Beinville (closest). Oysters Rockefeller: Oysters baked on the half shell with the original Rockfeller sauce created by Antoine's in 1889. Huitres Thermidor - Fresh Louisiana oysters baked on the half shell with a bacon and tomato sauce. Huitres Beinville - Oyster baked on the half shell with a white wine sauce seasoned withi onions, pimento and fresh peppers. I admnit, the Huitres Thermidor (the red ones) were quite tasty - I mean, everything was AWESOME, but the Thermidores were just out of this world. Even Patty was pretty impressed, and usually she's an oyster hater!

Now, to the main course. Patty, Owen and I ordered the The New York Strip steak. "A Prime New York strip with caramelized onions, mushrooms with a red wine and cracked pepper sauce". This was just...ok. The steak was cooked well, but the sauce was REALLY salty. The gravy was good with bread, enough to mellow it out. I'm not used to this kind of steak. I mean, it was high quality but it already came out pre-cut? Well maybe that's how they did it in the old days...
Patty had ordered a side of potato puffs. These also helped mellow out the intense saltiness of the gravy on our plates. These were fun and tasty, crisp and, well, puffy. They were like potato chips that wanted to be potato skins.

Brad got the Filet de Fruite au Vine Blanc - Filet of trout in a white wine, shrimp and oyster sauce then baked with a light bread crumb and cheese gratinee. I tasted a bite of this, really good, but again, very salty. Do a lot of older recipes require more salt, maybe? In the days before refridgeration, maybe more salt was a good thing, to keep things better preserved? Just a guess.


Another side - asparagus with butter. I didn't try one so I don't know what it tasted like. I'm assuming, asparagus-like!



A decadent chocolate cake slice was part of dessert- Patty ordered this because she wasn't going to partake in what we ordered for dessert - chocolate is one of her favorite things, (same as Owen.) I tasted a bit, it was good...but we were busy tackling...


...a baked alaska! I've actually never had one, so I made sure to order it here, at one of the more famous places to have it. If you don't know what it is, it's an ingenious piece of dessert. It has a ice cream center, atop cake, covered with meringue, then baked at a high temperature to brown the outsides of the meringue. The meringue insulates the ice cream, keeping it cold. Our waiter presented this to us and I was blown away by the huge size of it. He split this monstrosity into 3 portions (one for me, Owen and Brad.)

Here's my slab of it. It was really sugary, but all the vanilla flavor, it was something I enjoyed, especially the cake and ice cream part of it. Owen wasn't too jazzed by it, he admit it wasn't his bag. I think I gave up around half-way. It was just too much. Well, I had to have it at least once!

Our last morning in New Orleans, and we wanted to hit up one of the famous muffaletta shops in the Quarter - Central Market, to get one of their muffalettas to go. On a side note, the person who rang up our order was super indifferent and made it seem like we were bothering him. Wanda, the lady downstairs, noted that they are ALWAYS like this, and it was normal. Funny, really.

So here's our take, as we sat out on the gallery.

Drink Barq's. It's good. Hilarious. Owen got this, sometimes he likes a good root beer.

A bag of Zapp's chips - sour cream and onion chips. They were tasty.

And here's the sandwich, still in its' wrapping, ready to be freed...

And here's a wedge of it, sitting on top of the rest of the sandwich. This truly was a delicious muffaletta. Just thinking about it again makes me hungry for it. What made it perfect was the olive salad, for sure. It mellowed out all the saltier meats on the bottom, and the bread soaked up all the tasty olive oils perfectly. A great way to end our New Orleans trip, as the rest of it kept in our carryon bag, and I polished off the rest of it after we unpacked when we were back home.

New Orleans Day 4 - Heart clogging goodness

Out and about on our second to last day in New Orleans, we awoke to clear skies and humid weather, which I admit, as west coasters we are NOT used to. I had seen a restaurant that had outdoor seating, on one of our walks around the Quarter, and decided that might be a good place to sit down for awhile and enjoy some live music, played by a lively one man band. The restaurant's name was the Market Cafe...

No meal is complete without some hot sauce, in this case, Crystal. This is some great hot sauce, that spiced up our po'boys...

Owen, wanting to try something different, got a roast beef po'boy. Po'boys here come with Ruffles chips.

And here's a close up. This was a sandwich that was really...too salty. I liked how they melted the cheese all over the meat, but it just intensified the saltiness. I can't say that New Orleans is known for their roast beef, so that's probably one of the reasons.

I was trying to go for the true New Orleans experience, and ordered a half shrimp, half oyster po'boy. This was a GREAT po'boy. I don't think I could ever get enough oysters, and in a place famous for seafood, I couldn't resist. These oysters were really really good - crisp outside, gooey oystery crud on the inside, with a simple shredded iceberg lettuce and tomato slices to liven everything up.

Here's a close up of some of the fried-ness. Yeah. That's good eating. Owen had some of the shrimp po'boy, as he is not a fan of oysters - and he was very pleased. Great little lunch spot to hang out and chill.

After more exploring around the quarter, and another nap (I don't think I slept very well at night, those naps were a blessing!) we went on the Haunted History tour, which was top notch. I suggest anyone who visits New Orleans to do that - it was great. Our tour guide was a great storyteller, and it was not at all cheesy, as I thought it was going to be. Afterwards, we asked him for a suggestion for a good take out place, as we wanted to watch Lost...yeah, we're addicted to Lost. He suggested the place right next to our meeting area - a bar called "Yo Mama's". No joke.
The menu to prove it. It is truly..Yo Mama's bar. Great sense of humor around here.

A frozen margarita, to tide Owen over while we wait for our order (which was to-go.) Even though this came from one of those icee-style machines, he said this was really good! Good ratio of alcohol to drink, and really refreshing. Makes me wish I could drink...I just sipped on a diet coke.


Here's my massive burger in its' takeout container. It's just a cheeseburger, but it was massively good. Huge, but good, and definitely hit the spot. The burger came with a baked potato, and I chose chili and chives. It was very decent.

Owen went the whole hog, and took our tour guide's advice - he got the peanut butter and bacon burger. Yes. Peanut butter. And bacon. On a burger. This is a burger that is not joking around. Thing is - I took a small bite, just to try it out - it worked! It was totally overload of intense flavor, but the peanut butter took to all the grease well, and gave it such a great flavor. It enhanced the bacon, even! It was REALLY rich and dense though - I'm amazed Owen tore through it to so quickly. His baked potato had cheese, chives and even more bacon.

Whew! My heart is still trying to recover from that day...

Coming up, more New Orleans, the final round!

New Orleans Day 3 - Dinner at Chartres House

(Day 3, pt 2, of our New Orleans trip. Read the other parts to pick up where I left off..)
Ah, another evening in New Orleans. A sidenote, I love when it is evening in New Orleans, because of the real gaslamps that dot the streets of French Quarter. It gives this old timey feeling when you're walking around, and it's amazing they keep them running day after day. Anyways, back to dinner....

Patty still wasn't feeling too great by dinnertime, so we were still on our own. We wandered around, doing some window shopping and checking out all the cute stores, restaurants, basically, enjoying the ambiance of the French Quarter. We made a few random turns, not really knowing where we were, but enjoying the journey. We ended up choosing Chartres House for dinner - the place we had had pecan pie from the first night, to try their food.

We were seated in an outdoor courtyard, with a very friendly server (I think everyone in this town was extremely friendly). It had been raining earlier in the day, but the lingering humidity made us really thirsty. Owen got a Hurricane drink......which was damn pretty and damn tasty. I got a diet coke, so not very interesting on my part.
We ordered an appetizer of fried stuff. New Orleans really has a hold on this whole frying food thing...we are definitely in the south. This fry bucket (as I like to call appetizers like these - throw everything in a deep fryer and eat from a bucket, then throw up back into the bucket? Ahhhhh, back to the food...), contained some catfish, hush puppies, shrimp, calamari and fries, with dipping sauces. Whoa. Owen is not too much of a fan of catfish, as he found out after the first few bites, so I got to partake in most of the fish. Pretty tasty, and not too oily. Fries could have been crispier, as they soaked up a lot of the oil from the rest of the fried food. A solid start.
Owen got a combo platter - The Taste of New Orleans, which contained red beans and rice, jambalaya, and gumbo file. This was a deceptively small plate, but after Owen started tackling it, he realized it was more than enough to satisfy him. The surprise on the plate was definitely the red beans and rice. It was simply amazing. I never knew red beans and rice could be this good. The jambalaya and the gumbo were alright, definitely edible, but the rice and beans, I will remember for a long time.

As for myself, I ordered the Jambalaya, with chicken. This was just...ok. The rice is not cooked as much as I am used to (like in Chinese and Japanese cooking), and it really just paled in comparison to Owen's red rice and beans.

We also got a dessert to go, but I neglected to take a picture of that, as I completely forgot about it. It was a chocolate...something. Owen inhaled it so I'm assuming it was good.

More posts from New Orleans..? Didn't I go like, 6 months ago? Yes. I did. And yes, there are more posts coming up. Yes. I am extremely far behind...