Go check it out!

(And for my own reference:
Things to buy:
- fish sauce
- Better Than Bouillon
- agave nectar
- honey, maybe?)

Xian Rou Yue Bing (Meat Mooncakes) from Shanghai First Foodmall on Nanjing Road in Shanghai, China.
Along with them, Lao Po and Lao Gong Bing (Wife and Husband Cakes).

I haven’t been to Shanghai since summer of 2007. I wasn’t so much into documenting my food experiences at all back then for a number of reasonable reasons (heh). But I do remember certain food moments: rice and traditional Chinese food at a fast food place in Huangpu District the lunch after I got mugged, my first bowl of hand-pulled lamian (my big brother tried to get me to eat some Henan lamian in 2006, but I didn’t know it was hand-pulled, I just thought it was regular ramen which did not interest me), and these. Buying them for my [now ex] boyfriend along with boba milk tea and delivering them to him as a lunch. Him giving me some sort of foreign fruit that I peeled and ate using my lap as a table top. The night I met him and he smashed open a mini watermelon. Okay, this is getting a little too sentimental. Still, here’s the documentation of my quest for Xian Rou Yue Bing in 2007:

Nanjing Road, busiest road in Shanghai, and home of First Foodmall.

Almost always a huge line, and from experience the lady working there back then wasn’t very nice.

She wouldn’t give me a box, so I had to make do with a bag.

Ohh, just looking at these pictures, and not even seeing the juicy parts, makes my mouth water and makes me miss Shanghai so much.

Also on Nanjing Road is a bunch of other good food, and a Japanese ramen place of whose name I forget now, but it was pretty damn delicious at the time. I miss Shanghai. Next time I go, I’m definitely going to have some epic fooding experiences to write about. And sexy food porn to boot.

Well I had a gift card that expired in 2008 and lo and behold, what did I do? I went on the last day of 2008 to go experience my first own burrito. Acquaintances and friends have lauded the supposed deliciousness of the affectionately nicknamed “Chipootle” before, and I’ve stolen maybe a couple of bites over the years, but have yet to try it myself. Then again this wasn’t really only my own either since I had my friend take large bites out of it. But no matter.

Look at that shiny wrapper.

I got steak and medium spicy salsa, or something.

Lots and lots of protein and, well, rice. The rice was okay. What can I say. Hrm. It wasn’t bad. It was huge, as I’ve heard, and took hours for my slow-digesting metabolism to get rid of. But it was yummy and filling, indeed it was. I’m not a huge fan of Mexican food to begin with so I can’t say much about it. I liked it enough, though. Not enough to be a big fan (as my friends as Chipootlers are) but, well, there you go.

Mini-review follows:
Food: 4/5
Service: 3.5/5
Ambience: 3.5/5

Overall: 3.5/5

—

So today a friend with whom I’ve been meaning to hang out since last year and I (wow long subject there) finally got the chance to hang out. She suggested we get tea so I Yelped tea and Infusions of Tea came up as the highest rated. It’s off of Genesee, across from UTC, in San Diego near La Jolla, in the Costa Verde shopping center.

Infusions of Tea is a serious tea shop. Most cups of teas run from over $2 to $5, and their pastries aren’t too cheap either. Despite the price, though, their tea is high quality, and very srs bsns. I’m not sure I would pay $3 for a cup of “pomelo black tea blend” (black tea infused with hints of grapefruit) again.

Today was their fifth anniversary, though, and as a result, they had free snacks!

There was one snack in particular– a cracker with some sort of cheese spread and salmon sashimi on it with a bit of garnish (which I couldn’t recognize because I’m not a super-aware person when it comes to food, actually).

And lots of sweet treats, too. Cookies and such. I haven’t ate cookies in a while. It was delicious.

I believe that they ran out of the sashimi eventually and resorted to tomato slices. The crackers themselves were cute. Butterfly-shaped crackers? Aww.

Because they were free, I can’t really review them on that point except for their generosity on anniversary days. They were some mighty good and filling snacks, too. And sweet pastries/cookies always go well with a not-so-sweet cup of hot liquid.

Tea: 5/5
Service: 5/5
Ambience: 4.5/5

Overall: 4.5/5… but because it’s so expensive, I am hesitant to give them a perfect score.

—

In other news, Burger King is offering people one free Whopper for defriending ten people on Facebook. Ahh, the betrayal. The icing on the cake is that instead of Facebook’s usual policy of anonymity, Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice Facebook Application will actually notify your defriended friends that you defriended them. For a Whopper. Geez, BK is out to get some friendships, now isn’t it?

Ate my first blood orange the other day. Imagine, five years ago I didn’t even know what a blood orange is. Anyway, once I was aware of this citrus delight, I’ve always wanted to try one. And so I have. And it was glorious.

They started out by giving us complimentary pre-meal snacks of peanuts and spicy vegetables and the like. We ordered a few appetizers, one of which was a sampler of many things– spring roll, fried wonton, etc. The spicy pork was rather good (I don’t know what it is in English). For main courses, we ordered a seafood clay pot– which was delicious but the actual clay pot was rather shallow and doesn’t seem worth its hefty price– cumin lamb, which was deliciously delectable, and zhajiangmian (noodles with black bean sauce).

The food was excellent. I miss the zhajiangmian, though the black bean sauce was not exactly the taste I prefer. The cumin lamb was rather delectable. We didn’t actually order many spicy dishes as my parents don’t take spicy so well, but all in all it was a good experience and I shall go back once I return to NorCal. The service was also very friendly, though seemed a little weird for some reason, which is why I’m not giving them a perfect score.

Food: 4.5/5
Service: 4/5
Ambience: 4.5/5

Overall: 4.5/5

I ventured into Eddel’s Deli. I’m not very familiar with Filipino food, so I didn’t know what anything was or what it was called, but the woman working there tried to help. I got some sort of “beef stew with vegetables, except with pork, not beef” and rice. The price was fantastic and the food.. well, the pork and vegetables combo was good but not completely warm, and there’s not much I can say about rice.

If I find myself forgetting to bring a meal again, I shall definitely come back.

Food: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Ambience: Inside of Vinh Hung supermarket, there’s not much to say about ambience…

Overall: 4/5

Nami’s food.

Mine, and…

fries.

Photo quality due to forgetting my camera and having to resort to shaky camera phone.

Food: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Ambience: 3.5/5

Overall: 3.5/5

First, I couldn’t even find the eclairs and I almost believed that they didn’t even have them (what kind of placed called Eclair Pastries/Bakery doesn’t have eclairs?!) but my friend helped me find them.. they were at the very bottom of the display on the far right.

So I ordered an eclair and taro boba. I used to work at Surf City Squeeze so I know how to make blended taro milk tea drinks. This one was passable, but the boba was too soft.

The eclair looked better behind the counter, but once I got it, the chocolate was a bit lopsided on the pastry.

It wasn’t the best eclair I’ve ever had, but it was alright. All in all, a satisfactory but not outstanding experience.

Food: 3/5
Service: 3.5/5
Ambience: 3/5

Overall: 3/5

Could it be that the only one I’ve found to like is the one in Price Center, of all places???

I suppose so.

The service was excellent (the cashier named Van is especially friendly), the fries– while not mildly spicy at all, nor were they fat and juicy as I prefer them– were nice, and the chicken bowl special (I got grilled) with chicken over a “bed of vegetables and rice” (bed recalls lettuce or cabbage, not peas and corn, but that’s okay) was filling and, dare I say it, actually kind of good?

While the prices are still ridiculous compared to NorCal ($7.45 for combo meals that don’t even include that much?), and while I have yet to try their boba, I rather like this one. Hurrah for TapEx at UCSD (boo on the ever-present long lines of students).

Food: 4/5
Service: 4.5/5
Ambience: 3/5

Overall: 4/5

Plus, making so many dishes for a huge party is a lot of work!

Spring rolls. Mmm.

Our family friend was kind enough to drive from Antioch to Oakland early in the morning to pick this cake up for us. I love cakes from Chinese bakeries with fruit, and even though I don’t usually like cream, I don’t mind them on these kinds of cakes.

Mmm, close-ups.

Happy New Year everyone!

May your year be blessed and filled with delicious noshing.