Food | fabliss - Part 31

Green Street Tavern | Pasadena, CA

we have had green street tavern bookmarked in our phones for awhile now because we read that they had a great bread pudding (one of my favorite things to eat)! we originally wanted to come here for dinner but the stars aligned and we dropped in for a nice sunday brunch.

what we ordered:

the GST burger ($18 with beer) – ground black angus, roquefort-gruyere fondue, homemade bacon, arugula, roasted garlic aioli
crispy pork belly – sunny side up egg sandwich ($14) – house cured and smoked pork belly served crispy on sour dough with tomato, butter lettuce and avocado, with green peppercorn dijonaise
white chocolate croissant bread pudding, blueberry and white chocolate sauce ($8)

remember how kyle and i hate eggs but try to eat them?! (here. here. and here!?) on this day, i felt bold and ordered the sunny side up egg sandwich. umm…it was the eggist sandwich i could have ordred. i wished i loved eggs more! putting my dislike for eggs aside, here are my thoughts:

food: ingredients are fresh. if i didnt cringe when the egg popped all over my sandwich, making it soggy, i think i would have liked the sandwich more! if you love eggs, crispy bacon and avocado, this is a no brainer. kyle ordered the gts burger. dont hate us…he liked it but nothing special. we were pretty disappointed since we heard so much about this burger.

the saving grace of this meal was the white chocolate/blueberry bread pudding! UH-MAZING! i’m excited to say that this little dessert is in my top 10! (another post for later) we are definitely coming back for the bread pudding!

atmosphere: decor is very chic. very good for a date! there are two rooms. the first room has a lot of light and is good for brunch. the second room, which is a little larger and seats bigger parties, is a little on the dark side. i think this second room would be perfect for a dinner date!

parking: parking garage in old town vs. metered street parking (cheaper option). good luck!

Green Street Tavern
69 W Green St
Pasadena, CA 91105
Neighborhood: Pasadena

By vivilinh | January 2nd, 2013 | Dessert, Food, Restaurants | 2 Comments

Chiang Mai, Thailand – Part II

one of the main reasons we chose to go to thailand was because we love thai food! naturally, we took a cooking class while we were in chiang mai. we took a half day (morning 9am to 2pm) class at siam rice cooking class since it was highly rated on trip advisor. for 700 baht (US$23) you get to choose a noodle dish, a soup and a curry paste/curry.

the food was amazing! (there is still hope for me as a cook) we hung out with nancy, our pretty awesome instructor. if i could, i would hang out with her all day! she taught us about the main base ingredients in thai cooking, the food, and thai culture/traditions.

a few awesome things we learned:

a lot of thai dishes use the same ingredients. the addition/subtraction of certain ingredients make a different dish/type of curry!
thai cooking uses a lot of sugar and fish sauce! in every restaurant, you will find sugar (sweet obviously), fish sauce (salty), and chili at your table so that you can customize to your own preference.
it’s not that hard to make! just a lot of ingredients to get together!

before the cooking class, we were taken to the market! i dont know if you know…kyle and i love going to local markets when we travel…its our way of immersing ourselves into the city’s culture. (plus kyle used to work at a supermarket so he loves that stuff).

as you can tell, we took a bajillion photos…this is what happens when you have an awesome day (2nd favorite thing we did in thailand).

mangosteen dragon fruit IMG_8321-1 IMG_8301-1 onions! candy..lots of it beautiful flowers the market rambutan soups veggies pink eggs! IMG_8323-1 excited for the cooking class IMG_8355-1 IMG_8358-1 IMG_8384-1 IMG_8385-1 IMG_8373-1 IMG_8377-1 IMG_8386-1 IMG_8396-1 chopping chilis IMG_8404-1 IMG_8408-1 this is what happens when you make drunk noodles pad thai drunken noodles oil, fish sauce, sugar, oyster sauce ingredients IMG_8466-1 IMG_8471-1 IMG_8474-1 my chili paste! IMG_8478-1 kao soi panang curry IMG_8507-1 IMG_8510-1 hot and creamy soup sweet soup with sweet basil

what we cooked:

noodles – pad thai and drunken noodles
soup – spicy soup with sweet basil and hot and creamy soup
curry paste / curry – panang curry and kao soi

we highly recommend doing this when you go to thailand! email nancy! we received a little booklet with all the recipes from the day. we are hoping that we can cook some thai food at home soon! fingers crossed.

By vivilinh | December 28th, 2012 | Cooking, Food, Thailand, Travel | 7 Comments

Roti Buns @ Papparich | Pasadena, CA

we have been hearing about this craze around roti buns. trust us. we didnt get it. since (i) we heard that papparich had the best roti buns in los angeles, (ii) our friends have cravings sometimes, AND (iii) since jonathan gold thought it was pretty heavenly himself, we tried it! our verdict: loved it!

i now understand why it was hard for people to describe what a roti bun was. when people tried to explain it to me…my reaction was… so its just bread. i’ll do my best but this is just something you have to have yourself. so its a bun… baked fresh with a buttery center and a mocha/maple crust surrounding it (the “original”). simple concept, huh? note that we tried the vanilla one…and liked the “original” the best. nice combo of salty and sweet (probably more salty because of the butter). it’s pretty freaking amazing…(says the girl who loves butter).

we also tried a milk tea. definitely get something to drink. you’ll be thirsty. the milk tea goes nicely with the bun. you just need to try it for yourself!

if you find other roti bun places, please let me know! i’m officially on the hunt!

Papparich
100 W Green St
Pasadena, CA 91105
Neighborhood: Pasadena

By vivilinh | December 28th, 2012 | Dessert, Food, Restaurants | 4 Comments

Homemade Pho

ah, homemade pho on a cold day. thanks, mom! note to self, please learn how to make pho.

By vivilinh | December 27th, 2012 | Family, Food | 0 Comments

Dim Sum @ Ocean Seafood | Chinatown Los Angeles

i have been going to ocean seafood in chinatown since as long as i can remember. my family and i have tried other dim sum joints up and down the street but always end up coming back to this one. my favorite things to get:

shrimp shu mai ($3.38)
house special har gow ($3.38)
shrimp rice noodle ($4.58)

food comes out hot and fast. tastes delicious. what more can you ask for?

keep in mind… service here isnt great. to their defense, a lot of the workers dont speak english and their job is to push you to buy items from their cart. i normally hate this stuff but to be honest… you’re in, order, eat up, and out within 15-20 minutes. so i dont really mind.