JennToTT

New York Day 3

2011-07-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

Last day in NY, before heading to Philly!

It's snowing!!

Macbar

Mac Stroganoff: Braised beef, stewed mushrooms, and sour cream sauce

Rice to Riches

Vanilla rice pudding with oatmeal coconut crumble

New York Day 2

2011-07-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

Grimaldi's

Taking a stroll on the Brooklyn Bridge

Central Park Reservoir

The Met

53rd and 6th

Chicken and rice!

Wafels & Dinges

Belgium Waffle with bananas and their speculoos sauce

5 shots of Jameson for $10 @ Continental

The Meatball Shop

Big Apple 2011-Day 1

2011-02-22T10:56:00.000-08:00

NY again?! I LOVE NEW YORK. If I could I would move out there for 6 months-yr. I love everything about it. Food, public transportation, and SHOPPING! When I was here back in May 2010, there were still a lot of places I’ve missed as far as restaurants. Southwest had a sale so Krisheila and I booked a flight to NY to cover all the restaurants we've missed.

Clinton Street Bakery

Mexican Coffee

Eggs Benedict

Eggs Benedict, Blueberry pancakes, and sugar cured bacon

Doughnut Plant

Creme Brule Donut

Carrot Cake Donut

Joe's Shanghai

Juicy Pork Dumplings

Luke's Lobster

Lobster Roll

Caracas's Arepa Bar

Michelada: Pacifico beer, lemon, homemade spicy

panela and salt,Tinto de Verano:
refreshing and sparkling wine-based cocktail
similar to sangria, very popular in Andalucia, and Mimosa de Parchita:
the classic Mimosa with a tropical and funky
twist: passion fruit juice

Bolirepitas con Nata:

mini balls arepas mixed with white cheese

and a side of nata (sour cream)

Yoyos:

fried sweet plantain balls stuffed with

white cheese

De Pabelló: shredded beef, black beans, white salty

cheese and sweet plantains, La Sureña:

grilled chicken and chorizo, with avocado

slices and the classic and always enigmatic

spicy chimi-churri sauce, La Playera:

shredded white fish garnished with onions,

peppers & herbs

L.A.

2011-02-04T16:25:00.000-08:00

First Monday of 2011, and I had the day off. Luckily Louvain was in town, and we decided to go to L.A. to eat! We also met up the one-eyed bandit aka Tristen, to show us around her town. We started off the day eating at Alcove for brunch. Then went to Scoops for dessert. Stopped by Intelligentsia for a coffee break. Then went back to Tristen's apartment in Silverlake to meet up Kc and took a few shots of Henny before we headed out to dinner at Animal. Overall it was a fun-filled day full of food and laughter.

ALCOVE

smoked salmon breakfast stack: two potato pancakes topped with smoked salmon, poached eggs, creme fraiche and fresh dill, served with seasonal fresh fruit

meat lovers omelette: new york steak, applewood smoked bacon, chicken apple sausage, roasted peppers and caramalized onions, topped with pepperjack cheese and topped with a spicy hollandaise

Alcove is a cute little place in Los Feliz- It got pretty good reviews on yelp, but I'm not quite sure if I would rave about this place. Our meals were good, but I guess we were expecting more, or maybe we just ordered the wrong things. We didn't get to try any of the baked goods, we just wanted to save our appetite for some ice cream and lattes!

Ice Cream @ Scoops

Lattes @ Intelligentsia- Cool little spot in Silverlake where all the H-sters hang out

ANIMAL

barbeque pork belly sandwiches, slaw

marrow bone, chimichurri, caramelized onions

bacon chocolate crunch bar

tres leches, dulce de leche

poutine, oxtail gravy, cheddar

Animal- Featured on the Best Thing I Ever with Bacon. This tapas style restaurant is filled with exotic dishes. Pretty much everything on the menu has something to do with an animal. From bone marrow to veal brains and rabbit legs we decided on the bone marrow, oxtail poutine, melted petit basque with chorizo (not pictured), and barbeque pork belly sandwiches. All were so flavorful and good. This was my first time trying bone marrow. The texture was a bit too gelatinous for me, but it was still good. I really liked the other 3 dishes were ordered. The pork belly sandwiches were just so fatty and delicious! The oxtail poutine was so tender. Tthe melted petit basque (sheep’s milk cheese) which came out sizzling, and it was oh so creamy. Now off to the desserts, we ordered tres leches and the bacon chocolate crunch bar. You can’t go wrong with tres leches, and the bacon chocolate crunch bar had a contrast of sweet and salty flavors, but the saltiness took over. I wished they would have used milk chocolate instead of dark since milk chocolate is sweeter.

Happy 2011!!

2011-01-11T21:12:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I've posted anything on here. 2010 has been a fun and busy year. Cheers to a New Year!! More posts to follow.....

OC MUD RUN

2010-05-04T12:48:00.000-07:00

The mud run was a success! We started tail gating around 8 am, and we were planning to take about 2 or 3 shots before the run, but somehow that ended up being 8 shots. Good thing we decided to drink as much as we did because the actual course was pretty boring. We were expecting the course to be harder and have obstacles, but all it really had were mud pits and small hurdles. Run HMC will do it again next year, but this time we are going to try the Warrior Dash. This event looks way more exciting than the OC Eco Mud run we just did. Can't wait to do it again next year!!

Thanks again to Maureen and Dan for helping us make our shirts!

The Shrimp Guys

2010-03-31T11:48:00.000-07:00

Lychee Green Tea

Garlic Butter and Coconut lime Shrimp

I am obsessed with food trucks! I recently discovered The Shrimp Guys truck at grandstar one day, and by far this is my favorite truck! I absolutely love shrimp, so I was excited to try this. This truck is similar to Giovanni's truck in Hawaii, but I can't compare the 2 trucks because I haven't tried Giovanni's yet. I got the garlic shrimp and the coconut lime. The guy was nice enough to let me get 2 flavors one on plate since they weren't busy. The coconut lime was my favorite because it was saucier than the garlic butter one. For $8 you get a choice of garlic butter, spicy garlic butter, coconut lime, and loco moco (for those who are allergic to shrimp) and it comes with the Hawaiian sun drinks. I tried the lychee green tea one, and it was so refreshing. You can usually find the shrimp guys at soul sessions every other Friday. Looks like I will be hitting up Grandstar more often just to eat, sorry full house, I am taking a break from you.

Ultimate Heffers

2010-02-16T13:46:00.000-08:00

Del's soft frozen italian fruit ice in watermelon & mango peach flavor

Flying Pig Truck: grilled beef short rib taco Don Chow's Taco Truck: Soy Ginger Shrimp Taco, Chinese BBQ Pork Taco, and Ultimate LA Taco: carne asada with grilled onions and bacon)

Dogzilla: Japanese Style Hot Dogs

Dogzilla (Grilled Onions, Avocado, Bacon, Teriyaki Sauce, Japanese Mayo, and Furikake)

Furikake Dog (Grilled Onions, Teriyaki Sauce, Japanese Mayo, Furikake, and Nori Strips).

Cool Haus Truck: chocolate chip cookie w/ brown butter bacon candied ice cream & brownie w/ strawberry ice cream sandwiches

Grilled Cheese Truck
Cheesy Mac & Rib (mac & cheese w/ bbq pork & carmelized onions)

Dessert Melt (marshmallow, bananas & nutella)

Madness

Popshop Lychee Popsicle

Komodo Truck:
Komodo Signatures (signature top sirloin with homemade guacamole and Cotija cheese)

Slicetruck :cheesy spicy garlic pizza

Frysmith Truck:
Rajas Fries (Fire-roasted poblano chiles, caramelized onions and shawarma-marinated steak with Jack cheese)

Sweet Po Fries (Free-range chicken in tomatillo-tamarind sauce over sweet potato fries topped with cashews

Lychee, Mango, and Watermelon Shaved ice w/ ice cream

The Buttermilk Truck: Buttermilk Brick-hashbrowns, eggs over easy, buttermilk biscuit & housemade chorizo gravy

The Buttermilk truck: cake donuts

red velvet chocolate chip pancakes

Arrived at the street LA street fair at 10:30, waited in line till about 11:30 till they opened. Left at 4:30. Lines were so crazy. The longest we waited was 2 hours for the frysmith line. I absolutely loved the Grilled cheese, buttermilk, dogzilla, and cool haus truck. I hope they have another street fair soon, because I am already dying to go back!

Not pictured: Baby's Badass Burgers cougar & original beauty burger

LA Street Food Fest

2010-02-10T10:20:00.000-08:00

FINALLY!!! I get to try out some of the LA food trucks. I'm never really in LA during the day to catch these trucks, and this event will probably be my only opportunity. Woo Hooo can't wait!!

Trucks that I want to try:
The Buttermilk Truck
Fry Smith
The Grilled Cheese Truck
Flying Pig Truck
Cool Haus
Don Chow

Mini getaway: SF

2010-01-28T00:18:00.001-08:00

It's been awhile since I've actually been to SF. Usually when I go to the bay, I would be in San Jose, and I never get to explore the city. My friends and I decided to go to the bay and visit some friends that we haven't seen in awhile.

Thank god it stopped raining on Saturday. It was a beautiful day to go sightseeing in the city.

Golden Gate Bridge

Palace of Fine Arts

Ghiradelli Square

cable car

Ferry Building

Bay Bridge

SF Eats

2010-01-28T00:18:00.000-08:00

To do list: EAT, EAT, and EAT
SF has so many great places to eat, but we managed to try every single thing on our list.

Bi-Rite Creamery

I wanted to try out Mitchell's, but I've heard from a few people that Bi-Rite Creamery is way better. After trying both spots, I can say that I like Bi-Rite more. Although they have less flavors, their ice cream is DELICIOUS! The girl that helped us was really friendly and she pretty much let us taste every single flavor. My personal faves were toasted coconut and ricanelas (cinnamon with snickerdoodles). I decided to go with the toasted coconut because it somewhat reminded me of the Somoas Girl Scout Cookies. I'm so glad I got to try this out during the winter, because I heard during the summer, the lines are wrapped around the building!

Cako Bakery

R and G Lounge

Salt and Pepper Crab

SALT AND PEPPER CRAB. 'Nuff' said. OMG! Their salt and pepper crab is to die for! We also ordered honey walnut shrimp, and beef pan fried noodles, and we seriously devoured our food! This restaurant was also featured on Anthony Bourdain's:No Reservations. This place is a MUST. I liked this crab better than PPQ's peppercorn crab.

Osha Thai Noodle

Crab Fried Rice

Chicken Panang

Beef Pad See Eww

Chicken Satay

Osha Thai is a late night thai spot in SF. It pretty much reminds me of Thai Patio in Hollywood, but I like Thai Patio a lot better, and also because it is cheaper. I really like their crab fried rice. I could care less for the chicken satay only because I wasn't feeling the sauce too much.

Lucky Chances

Tapsilog

I guess Lucky Chances is the place to be at when you are drunk in Daly City to get some late night Filipino food. I love tapsilog, but I think i can spend my $10 elsewhere for late night grub.

Sudachi

Japchae

Fried Calamari

Mori Soba

Bulgogi quesadilla

The bulgogi quesadilla was surprisingly good, but it wasn't something that I would crave. I didn't care too much for the soba, but the fried calamari and the japchae noodles were really good.

21st Amendment

Watermelon Beer

This beer didn't taste like watermelon to me, but according to Katrina, it tasted like a Sushi bar. haha

The House

Classic Fried Calamari

Ahi tuna tartare with roasted nori chips

Warm wasabi house noodles with angus flatiron steak

Angus ribeye steak, housemade teriyaki, toasted garlic butter

Kobe Steak Special

Grilled sea bass with garlic ginger soy

This place was soooooooo good! The house is a small restaurant that only has less than 10 tables. Good thing Katrina made reservations, because we were seated right away. For appetizers we got the calamari and the tuna tartarte. I didn't like the the tuna tartarte that much because it had wasabi, and I am NOT a fan of wasabi. The grilled sea bass was really good. It melts in your mouth good! It also came with string beans and wasabi noodles. I ordered the angus rib eye steak, the meat was so tender and juicy. For the price we all paid, they gave us a generous amount a food. We were all too stuffed to even try their desserts!

Seniores Pizza

Garlic Chicken and Pesto Pizza

This has got to be one of the best late night pizza spots that I have tried. The pizza itself is really good, but they have this special red/orange sauce which is kind of a mix of marinara, mayo, or ricotta, and some peppers. I really have no idea what is that sauce but it was good!

PPQ Dungeness crab

Fried Calamari

Garlic Noodles

Roasted Crab

Peppercorn Crab

Our last meal was @ PPQ Dungeness Crab. This place was was good, but now I wished I was able to try Thanh Long instead. The garlic noodles were a little bland, but after using some of the roasted crab's sauce, the noodles tasted a lot better. Between the 2 crabs, I liked the Roasted crab. It had a lot more flavor. If I wanted fried crab, I would want to go back to R and G Lounge for that.

100 Things to try before you die

2010-01-28T00:17:00.000-08:00

While I was up here in SF. I wanted to try a few things from the The Big Eat SF: 100 Things to Try Before You Die list. I was able to knock out 4 items from the list.

10. Baja-style fish tacos at Nick's Crispy Tacos

The Pescado, baja style fish tacos "Nick's Way"

Jalapeno Poppers

Elote (grilled corn on the cob with butter, fresh grated cheese and chili powder)

Out of all the of the restaurants on my list to try in SF, Nick's Crispy Taco,s was one of the places i really wanted to try. I was excited to try this place out. I have heard great things about this place from yelp and a couple of friends. I ordered the Pescado tacos "Nicks way" (guacamole and jack cheese). At first I thought, damn $4 per taco, it better be damn good, and sure it was. These tacos are so big, i had to use a fork to eat it because It was hard to eat. The fish was super crispy and HUGE. I also tried their jalapeno poppers which were really good too. Jalapenos were stuffed with cheddar cheese and came with a ranch sauce. The Elote corn was really good as well. I was too stuffed from my taco that I had to force myself to finish the corn. It was a bit spicy for me, but I still loved it.

77. Eggs benedict on the back patio at Zazie

La Mer: with fresh hand picked dungeness crab, green onions, and haas avocados

Florentine: with spinach and portobello mushrooms

Croque Royale: with grilled levain, Zoe’s proscuitto, tomatoes provencales, and gruyere

Omelet

Mango Mimosas

This place is well worth the $30 bucks I spent for brunch! I decided to get the La Mer Eggs Benedict since our waitress said it is one of their signature items. I am so HAPPY that I ordered this dish. It was mouthwatering! What can u not like about this dish: dungeness crab, egg, avocado, and hollindaise sauce. My meal also came with home fries that were also really good. They were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside with pieces of garlic. The mango mimosas didn't taste too much like mango. We all got slightly buzzed off this one drink.

96. Baby-coconut ice cream from Mitchell's

Move over Mitchell's because Bi-Rite has my vote! Mitchell's has a lot of interesting flavors, and a lot of them were tropical: Buko, Avocado, Mango, Macapuno, and Jackfruit. You can walk into any Filipino supermarket to get those those and I even think the Magnolia's brand is way better than Mitchell's.

99. Clam chowder at Hog Island and Oysters

Clam chowder: Manila clams with aromatic vegetables, bacon, potatoes and cream

Grilled Cheese Sandwich: Cow Girls' Mezzo Secco, cave-aged Gruyere and Fromage Blanc served with house made pickled vegetables

The clam chowder was just ok to me. I like my clam chowder to be thick and creamy. This one was very soupy, and it had the actual clam shells in the soup, which kind of got in the way of eating the soup. I did love the grilled cheese sandwich. This wasn't an ordinary grilled cheese sandwich. The bread was soft, crisp, and buttery. I would come back again to eat this, and maybe next time try their oysters.

New Years Day Brunch

2010-01-27T18:30:00.000-08:00

blueberry ricotta pancakes & ode to butterfields egg benedict w/ flat iron steak & cabernet hollandaise

My girlfriend and I decided to drive all the way to L.A. to try BLD. Ever since I watched The Best Thing I Ever Ate:Wake Up Call, I've been dying to try these pancakes! I'm not big on pancakes, but they sure looked good on T.V! I first tried the pancakes plain, and I wasn't too impressed, then I poured on the syrup, and wow it made a BIG difference. They were really good, but I wasn't amazed by them. I really want to try Clinton Street Baking Company in New York. I heard they have the BEST blueberry pancakes. Hopefully I will get to try it when I go back to NY in May. The odes to butterfields eggs benedict was delicious. I never had cabernet hollandaise sauce, but it was amazingly good.

Party Time

2010-01-27T12:27:00.000-08:00

Harlot SF

Ambassador

2009 Recap

2010-01-12T22:58:00.000-08:00

Some people hated it and some people loved it.

I personally thought it was a good year, but it had its ups and downs.

2009 HIGHLIGHTS:

Chi-town:
The Windy City

Deep Dish Pizza @ Giordanos

Waited in line Hot Doug's for about an hr in the freezing cold.

Tapas and Sangria @ Cafe Ba Ba Reeba

NYC:

Concrete Jungle where dreams are made of

BonChon Chicken & Yogurt Soju @ Mad for Chicken

Bulgogi Hot Dogs @ NY Hot Dog and Coffee

Soup Dumplings @ Joe's Shanghai

Lychee Ice Cream @ Ice Cream Factory

Margarita Pizza @ Lombardi's

Miami:

Drink all day, play all night

Breaded Steak @ The Original Versailles

Seared Scallops Provencale

Caribbean BBQ Shrimp

My very first Key Lime pie and it was AMAZING!

@ Blue Heaven- Key West, FL

griyo - fried pork chunks with vinegar dipping sauce and onions, Grouper fish with avocado, Spinach in coconut sauce @ Tap Tap Haitian Restaurant

Lobster Mac & Cheese and Crab Claws @ Joe's Stonecrab

2010, it's time to shine..

2010-01-12T22:17:00.000-08:00

Ringing in the year @ Geisha House in Santa Ana. Fun times with great friends!

So it's a new year and I've decided to start blogging as one of my hobbies thanks to mofeeva. So here's to the start of

JennTott

2010 Resolutions:

Work out at least 4-5 times a week.
Eat healthier.
Keep my room clean and organized all year long.
Cook more at home, and dine out less.
Keep up with my blog.
Read more books.
Try out different hobbies.

Things to look forward to in 2010:

SF
OC mud run
NYC
OC half marathon
Thailand & Japan
Women's Nike Half