President Thai – Pasadena, CA

I love it when I see a great place like being called family owned.  The menu itself features many of the typical Thai and Asian influenced dishes, but there is something about this place makes the food stand out.  I have no idea what it is, but I bet it has to do with love.  Come here with a group of friends because their portions family style.  And make sure you don’t have a three hour comedy show while its 90 degrees at night afterwards, otherwise you’ll be scrambling to find a Target so you can buy a cooler.  Also, make sure they are willing to give you ice from their soda dispenser, so that you don’t let your $30 worth of leftovers spoil.

Calamari with a sesame plum sauce – I love that the breading was extra crispy and had sesame seeds actually in it.  Definitely one of the better calamari dishes I’ve had.  The sauce just really makes it better because you don’t see calamari served with plum sauce much,  it’s usually marinara or sweet and sour sauce. 

 

Stuffed chicken wings – Chicken wings stuffed with noodles, cabbage, mushrooms, and other veggies.  The panko breading was also so good and deep fried to a perfect golden brown.  However I did have issues with the chicken skin because it was chewy and seemed wrong just to attempt to eat.  I was hoping that the skin would crisp up even a little since the whole thing is deep fried.  But aside from that, the chicken itself, the stuffing and the breading were great.  Just separate the skin and you’ll be fine.

Crab fried rice – This dish was ALMOST there.  No issues with all the ingredients such as the eggs, bean sprouts, crab, and other vegetables.  The problem is that the rice itself was on the dry side.  However I was able to fix that by adding their house cilantro sauce, as you will see in the next entrée. The whole rice dish became pretty fantastic I was able to see what the hype was about.  I would say it was probably even better with the cilantro sauce.

Charbroiled beef – Now here is where is starts to get legendary.  The beef has got to be marinated in a soy sauce vinegar marinade because it was so flavorful and the beef was cooked perfectly.  Not at all over done or dry.  The cilantro sauce was even great with it, but quite honestly the meat was also great on its own.

Pad thai – You can’t go to a Thai place and not order pad thai.  I didn’t find any ingredients out of the ordinary, but this is the best pad thai I’ve had to date.  The sauce has to have some sort of special ingredient that only family knows because it tastes just a tad sweeter than most, but its that tiny extra sweetness that makes it perfect.

 

Pad see ew – With beef and broccoli, I felt same here too.  Just by looking at it, there is nothing out of the ordinary, but its the best pad see ew I’ve ever had.  The way the black bean sauce incorporates and is soaked up by the noodles, just packs it with incredible flavor.

Rating: 4/5 Forks

Budget: $$, about $20 per person.

I heart the Kogi Truck

If you’ve never heard of the Kogi truck, then you must have been living under a rock.  A Korean-Mexican fusion taco truck that brings the taco truck to a much tastier level.  Entrees include, but not limited to, tacos, hot dogs, burritos, quesadillas, and sliders consisting of Korean BBQ and other Asian flavored meats and ingredients.  Check out their schedule and their website at www.kogibbq.com.  I highly recommend getting there a half hour early and bring cash.  And try not to order the entire menu because believe, you’re going to be tempted.  But also trust me when I say that you won’t have enough room for it unless you take it home.  Entrees range from $2-$5.  I also high recommend bringing your own drinks because the canned soda will really drive up the cost.  You can easily spend $15-$20 on the entrees alone without even realizing it.

The Kogi Dog -  A hot dog topped with their chili soy vinaigrette salad and house red sauce.  I don’t think this will become one of my go-to entrees buts its still worth trying.

Kim chi quesadilla -  I should warn you, in reading other peoples experiences with the kim chi quesadilla, people either really enjoyed it or just didn’t at all.  I was one of those that did.  You wouldn’t think that cheese and fermented napa cabbage would go together but it actually works out surprisingly well.  You may not like it if you haven’t gotten used to the acquired kim chi taste, but it’s worth giving a try if you have.  It is topped with their red sauce and has sesame seeds, and is a little tangy and a little spicy but not overbearingly spicy.  Make sure you bring your Tide pen because this especially gets messy.  That Tide pen has saved me on more than one occasion.

The Kogi sliders are by far my most favorite item on their menu.  The meat is Korean BBQ with shredded cheese, chili-soy salad and sesame mayo.  The buns are buttered and toasted and everything together is just oh so heavenly.  The anticipation is brutal but the rewards are priceless to your tummy.

Our Kogi feast.  Don’t worry, it’s not all for me, although that would be fantastic.  Sorry I didn’t get a better picture of the chocolate cake in the middle, but that’s because I dug into it so fast I forgot to get a close up.  Anyways, that’s their Chocolate Tres Leches.  A super moist chocolate cake that’s topped with peanut brittle, toffee, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cocoa pebbles.  The diddle has tapioca milk that oozes once you open it up, which is probably why they keep it in the aluminum up.  As they describe on the website “you can totally make out with it in a dark corned shamelessly,” which when my other forgot to get me a fork, I did.  I ate it right out of the cup and wasn’t ashamed to do it in front of four other people. 

Rating: 4.5/ 5 Bites

Budget: $-$$, probably spending in the teens depending on how desperate you are to try everything.

Tip:  Bring your own drinks because drinks ,if you buy it from them, it will easily drive up the cost and its just canned soda.

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.