Grace and I had dinner at Sushi Ichi in Pasadena today. We ordered the sashimi plate, agadeshi tofu, and grilled shishito peppers. I obviously did not read the menu or the Yelp review close enough, otherwise I would have noticed that they served uni with quail egg. We missed out!
Traffic and security at LAX were smooth today. My flight landed early and my cousins were only 20 minutes late at picking me up from the airport. I think this Labor Day weekend is going to be alright.
Wendy, Lina and I had dinner at Oyaji tonight. We ordered way too much and because SF is such an environmentally friendly city, I felt a little bad about asking for boxes. Will everyone please remind me not to eat too much this weekend? PLEASE!
Assorted Sashimi
Agedeshi Tofu
Aspara Beef
Monica Roll
Oyaji Beef
Sunagimo
Tatsuta Age
Okay, this is going to be a long post. I’m going to back track a bit to last weekend’s bachelorette party in Vegas for my friend Peian. We did a lot of partying and a lot of eating.
Our first meal was at my personal Vegas fave, Ichiza, which is a izakaya restaurant located off the strip on Spring Mountain Road in the heart of Chinatown. Cheap and yummy. Since we got there just a little after it opened for the day, we didn’t have to wait in line.
beef carpaccio
stir fried kimchi and pork
salmon and yellow tail sashimi
yakitori
tuna tar tar w/ rice?
bacon wrapped potatoes
takoyaki
honey toast w/ vanilla ice cream
We were still full from Ichiza, but we made our way to our dinner reservation at Bouchon Bistro anyway. It was a good idea for us to take in more fuel so that we had enough energy to play at XS that night. Hmm…I don’t think our server was too happy with what we ordered though. There were six of us and we ordered only sides, appetizers, and I think one entree? Oh well.
mac n' cheese
Oysters from I forgot where. I prefer the ones from Sydney.
Mussels from I don't know where.
pommes frites
I like figs.
Getting ready for XS.
Lena, Me & Peian
The Sisterhood
Fast forward to the following evening, our dinner reservations were at STK in the Cosmopolitan Hotel. The wait for the food was an hour too long. So long that I was full after the first two bites of my steak. Sad right? The restaurant itself was a lot of fun though. There was a DJ spinning and our server Collin was very entertaining.
I ate a lot of bread while waiting for my steak. It was so good.
pear & endive salad I think?
16 oz sirloin - medium rare. It was a waste on me. I only had two bites and I was full.
green beans - gotta have the vegetables
parmesa truffle fries - Argh! Word press won't rotate the image. Damn it!
some more mac n' cheese
dessert sampler for the bachelorette
chocolate covered cheesecake
Party destination for Saturday night was Marquee. The club has four levels and we only got to see two. Why? Because the club had too many damn stairs and not enough elevators. We did see mermaids though. Oh and Dash Berlin was there too.
Mermaids chilling in the pool.
Dash Berlin
Before we left Vegas on Sunday, we had brunch at Max Brenner. Oh how I love the mac n’ cheese there. I feel like I OD’ed on mac n’cheese this weekend.
Judy's cup of caffeine. I think it was a capuccino?
Golden latte. Perfectly refreshing for a Sunday brunch.
My favorite mac n' cheese.
waffle fries w/ cocoa powder
I only ate half of my burger.
I forget how much fun it is to party all night with the girls. I have to do this more often before I get any older. It took me almost a whole week to recuperate.
Last night I had dinner at Ikko in Costa Mesa with Peian and Branden. My advice to all that decide to have dinner at Ikko, call ahead to make reservations. The restaurant is small and I noticed that people take their sweet time eating and chatting, including my friends and I. We heard the proportions were small so we ordered a bunch of dishes to share.
Edamame Mousse Stuffed Fried Potato Tube
Stuffed Chicken & Brown Rice With Ginger
Stir Fried Black Pork Sausages & Japanese Peppers
Asparagus Wrapped Jumbo Shrimp Tempura
Our Sushi Platter
I like how they add a thin slice of radish on top of the some of the sushi.
Red Snapper? I'm not a fan.
Panko Fried Calamari With Mango Jalapeno Salsa
One of my favorite dishes, which I couldn’t figure out how to take a nice picture of, was the steamed egg custard with crab meat. It was very smooth or “滑” and it reminded me of a time when my grandma used to make her steamed egg dish plain. Unlike now, grandma decided that she needs to add vermicelli or anchovies. I disagree with the new additions, but what can a granddaughter do? Tell her 92 year old grandma “no”. Well I did tell her “no” and she ignored me. *sigh* I thought the dishes were quite interesting so I think I’ll be coming back again. I just wished Ikko wasn’t so far away from where I live.
I rarely dine in the downtown LA area because parking is a real b***ch, there are way too many pedestrians, and an over abundance of stupid drivers. I’m glad I didn’t argue when my friends suggested to have lunch in downtown because otherwise I wouldn’t have had a chance to try the sushi at Sugarfish. The restaurant had a casual atmosphere with very comfortable chairs. The dishes were simple and traditional, there was none of that modern, fancy fusion stuff that I’ve been eating way too much of lately. Ooh and I like that the rice was a little warm. I could become a regular at Sugarfish.
I like the lights 
tuna sashimi
I'm pretty sure this halibut.
