Happy Belated Memorial Day weekend everyone! I hope all of you guys have had an eventful and safe weekend! This past weekend, we thank and celebrated in memory of all who have served for this country! What did you guys do?! From what I’ve gathered, most of us hosted barbecues! mMm and the sun was perfect for grilling! Not to mention, a lot of shopping sales were going on too ehh? I must say I am guilty of shopping, but a little retail therapy never hurt anyone? 😀 This weekend, I decided to try a new cafe in Little Tokyo and hit a home-y restaurant in Viet town. Ohhh yesss, I will tell 🙂
When it comes to Japanese food, I think the majority of us think ramen and sushi right off the bat! I mean, those two are what Japanese food is notoriously known for! However, I’ve always wondered what eating at a Japanese cafe was like? I’ve been to the Vietnamese and the Chinese cafes and their food dishes are always slightly different from what their main restaurants serve. But what about Japanese? So I decided to visit Suehiro Cafe, Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, CA. And it was interesting and delightful! In addition to their bento boxes, they also serve a variety of other finger foods and different dishes cooked in their traditional sauces and flavors.
takoyaki – I call these octopus balls. Which, they are. HAHA. They’re minced octopus cooked in a wheat-flour based batter and topped with sweet Japanese mayonaise, takoyaki sauce, and dried fish flakes! I LOVE THESE. Everywhere I go, I order these. Be careful though; they’re super hot when served so I would hesitate to eat right away! Take a small nibble at it first to let some of the hot steam out hehe. Do you see the miso soup in the back? Sorry I didn’t take a clear picture of it but look at that steam coming out! First place I’ve ever been to where they served their miso soup boiling hot! I wasn’t expecting it and drank from it right away; my mouth regretted it instantly 🙁 Also, they added little seafood meat pieces in the miso soup instead of tofu! That’s new for a change 🙂
chicken mizutaki – chicken and vegetables cooked in broth (vegetables include carrots, soft tofu, cabbage, and wild japanese mushrooms) This felt really healthy to eat! So you pour the green onions, white onions, and squeeze the lemon into the shoyu sauce to use as a dipping sauce. Then you grab the food from the big pot and dip into the sauce and eat with rice! The broth was kind of bland but felt really clean and healthy to eat. The chicken was dark and white meat and juicy inside! I hate it when chicken is dry, but they nailed this one!
stir-fried eggplant, beef and bell pepper in miso sauce house special – served with sunomono, miso soup, rice – This was so good! So the sunomono is the lightly pickled green cucumbers (marinated with rice vinegar) in the small bowl on the left. The cucumbers were very thinly sliced and topped with some imitation crab on top. I was forced to try this eggplant.. It was good… *gulp*
comes with red bean ice cream! – Came with the house special and the waitress was nice enough to give us two scoops since there were two of us! Yay! This was so good! The ice cream was rich and creamy (definately can tell it was made from milk) and there are actual red beans inside! Yumm!
Then we went shopping at South Coast Plaza and I killed my wallet 🙁 But there were so many sales and how could I not take advantage of sales?! For dinner, I decided I wanted vietnamese food that wasn’t cooked at home for a change! Since we were already in the area, why not stumble over to Ngự Bình Restaurant, Westminster, CA to try the BEST bun bo hue restaurant in SoCal!!!! I have tried many places and I have concluded that this is my favorite place so far!!! And their appetizers are top notch! So good. Comforting food for me for sure! <3
bánh bèo and bánh nậm combination platter – Bánh bèo are steamed rice cakes topped with minced shrimp and crispy pork rind (the white cakes on the outside in the border). Bánh nậm are flat rice flour cakes topped with minced shrimp (on the inside). These are more of a soft, sticky, rice cake texture compared to the ones on the inside. The shrimp inside are minced finely. Served with nước mắm, which is a well known vietnamese fish dipping sauce. Vietnamese people love FISH and fish sauce and fishy foods! This is pretty fishy (because of the dipping sauce itself) so if you hate the smell of fish, I would stay shy away from this plate.
bún bò huế is spicy hue style beef noodle soup, which consists of round rice vermicelli, beef, beef brisket, pork’s blood, and pig feet. I LOVE BUN BO HUE! Everyone always goes hype over pho, but we have other delicious noodle broths too! This one is actually my favorite! Pho and bun bo hue run a super close race. Sometimes pho wins and sometimes bun bo hue wins. I love this place more than others because they make the spicy level a perfect mild. It is so savory and with each spoonful of gulp, you can taste the different layers of pork flavor from the bone and the meats in the broth itself. Then there are the meats itself! Tender and semi-thick slices of beef and pork; not to mention, 2 big pieces of “chocolate!” I call pork’s blood “chocolate.” 😀 Pork’s blood is one of my favorite blood meats to eat! Easy to bite and chew; has a slightly smooth and slick texture when you bite into it. Slices very cleanly. Hard to explain.. you just gotta eat it to know what I’m talking about 😀
Just another close up because I love this dish so much! Tata for now!
