AnQi – Costa Mesa

An Asian fusion restaurant located at South Coast Plaza and has been featured on Food Network’s “The Best Thing I Ever Ate.”  AnQi is a higher-end restaurant that deserves to be reserved for a special occasion.  When my friends and I ate here, I heard many good things about the main entrees such the lobster, the filet mignon, and the pork chops, but my other half and I decided to go the tapas route and I’m so glad I did.  The tapas menu consist of hot and cold dishes ranging from $8-12 each.  Overall, this is one of those dining experience that makes you not want to eat “regular” food again.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but for those of you that cherish your fine dining experiences, you know what I mean.

Salt and pepper calamari with a jalapeno and sundried tomato aioli was something that I ordered that I was most familiar with, yet the aioli was what made it unique in a great way.  The calamari was fried, breaded and seasoned well have no complaints about it.  However, it is the aioli that takes if from good to great.  I love that aside from the sundried tomato, the aioli had jalapeno in it but it was  a  mild flavor with a small hint of heat that gives it a kick but does not make it overwhelmingly spicy. 

 

 

This is filet mignon summer rolls rolled with lettuce, rice noodles inside and topped with a creamy wasabi sauce.  The filet mignon was raw but quality of the meat was so superb that it practically melts in your mouth.  I am normally afraid of wasabi, but this cream sauce again has that wasabi kick and does not make it spicy and adds such a perfect compliment.

Ah, the famous garlic noodles and was featured on the Food Network.  The garlic definitely makes its presence known but at the same time is surprisingly light in the sense that it is not overbearing  like that aftertaste that stays in your mouth so that everything you eat after that tastes like garlic.  It is highly addicting and if I had only one dish to order off the menu, this would be it and is worth visiting AnQi alone. 

The wagyu beef carpaccio came in at a very close second place to the garlic noodles for me.  It is topped with scallions, and lemony cream sauce and sea salt.  I must warn you that my other half thought this was on the saltier side and I can certainly see that, but I absolutely loved it and can usually have fairly salty things with no complaints.  Once again, I was just amazed at the quality of meat and how well seasoned it was.  Even though my friends missed out when I offered for them to try it, I was ultimately glad they didn’t want to try raw meat because that just meant more for me.  I don’t want to encourage rudeness, but if your friends don’t ask to try, don’t offer :)

Triple chocolate peanut butter parfait with carmelized bananas consisted of chocolate genoise, which is similar to sponge cake, chocolate mousse, chocolate ganache, and peanut butter nougat.  This dessert is very rich and decadent and is great to have a couple bites of, but honestly I thought it was just a tad too rich and found that I had to make more effort than usual to finish this off.  Hopefully it was just a bad sweet tooth day, because I find this unusual for me.

I sampled some of my friend’s banana fritters with vanilla ice cream and thought it was so good that I had to order a second dessert so that I wouldn’t eat all of hers.  It comes out served from the fryer and I love how the heat from the fryer makes the bananas soft but not mushy and I love how this is served with ice cream.  The fritters are great on its own but the ice cream completes this.  Surprisingly, I thought the portion was generous, so don’t be selfish on this one and make your friends love you even more and compensate from not sharing your wagyu carpaccio.

Note: pictures were taken with the awesomeness of a camera my other half has.

Dining In: Trader Joe’s – Island Soyaki

Found at Trader Joe’s obviously, soyaki is an Asian marinade similar to teriyaki that can be used on chicken or salmon to satisfy a craving for simple home Asian cooking. I personally prefer to use it on salmon more because I feel the flavor of the sauce does better with salmon. The bottle says you can marinade for an hour but I would recommend giving if a couple hours so that you make sure it goes through the meat. I also recommend not allowing it to marinade overnight otherwise it becomes overbearing. Cook in a pan on low-medium heat so as to not burn the sugar in the marinade and top with green onions.

Dessert First: Donut Holes at Dave N Busters

DNB’s is mainly known for being an arcade for adults because of the bar in the middle, but they also sell food. The food really is typically nothing special other than predictable American drunk food with appetizers, sandwiches, pasta, and steaks, but does fulfill the purpose of satisfying your drunk cravings. But you’ll find a pleasant surprise in the dessert menu in the form of donut holes. These donut holes are not the traditional ones that you find in the mom and pop donut shops where they use regular donut batter. The kind DNB’s use is the donut cake batter, which are the more dense donuts. A serving comes with white and chocolate donuts where the white donuts are coated with powdered sugar and the chocolate coated with a chocolate sugar mix. They also come with chocolate and raspberry dipping sauce. If I weren’t surrounded by people or did not have much of dignity, then I would take a shot of the chocolate sauce. However I am willing to dip my finger when everyone was done. This is definitely a must for the sweet tooth.  One serving is about $6 and is perfect sharing with two other people, or not at all depending on how selfish you want to be.

Dining In: Happy Labor Day

This post is dedicated to home cooking equipped with meat, dessert, and drink. My meat portion is Asian rubbed flank steak.  This recipe is inspired from a recipe in Cooking Light magazine but I have since the lost actual recipe so I’ve had to improvise.

8 parts brown sugar
2 parts Kosher salt
2 parts garlic powder
1 -2 part(s) cayenne pepper, depending on how spicy you want it
1 part black pepper
1 part ginger powder
Sesame oil
Optional sesame seeds and green onion to top after cooking

Mix the ingredients except oil and optional toppers in order to make a dry rub. Coat flank steak with oil then with dry rub. Place in a pan at least an inch deep and bake in oven at 375 degrees until it reaches an internal temperature of 155 degrees for medium, slightly pink on the inside. When you take the steak out, there should be some au jus that bakes off the meat, pour out then set aside. Allow the meat the rest before slicing. Cut steak against the grain, and then place the slices back in the au jus so it absorbs more flavor. Top with sesame seeds and green onion.  Sadly I forgot the green onion but the steak itself it still awesome and your guests will rave.

For a simple dessert, slice up butter pound cake and top with sliced strawberries and whipped cream. This was inspired by Costco and their sample hour. Obviously I got the pound cake from Costco, but be warned the packages come in a set of three cakes. I love this because it’s so easy, and everyone will love it.

For drinks, or more specifically for the lightweights in your family, I recommend Framboise Raspberry Beer. You can find it at Trader Joe’s or BevMo. This was my first fruit beer and I love it. I don’t feel like I get that bloated feeling and it tastes great. There’s not a lot of alcohol content but you’ll get the edge taken off.  Happy home cooking!