Banana and Strawberry Baked Oatmeal Casserole

If you haven't noticed on my Instagram or my Twitter account, I've been experimenting a lot lately with cooking and baking.  Not sure what it is but my inner Martha Stewart seems to have this desire to learn and try something new, even if I have this gut feeling, deep down inside telling me that whatever I am making won't be appetizing at all.  I think the sudden urge to throw and mix random fruits and seasonings in a bowl and hoping for the better is what excites me.  What's even better is knowing that what I've made actually is edible and worthy for anyone who dares to try it!

With that being said, I'm happy to say that the banana and strawberry baked oatmeal casserole that I made last night was actually satisfying.  So far I've gotten the approval from two very important people in my life.  The casserole might have turned out a bit dark and mushy-looking, but once you take a bite of it, it's actually not that bad.

Now that you've seen some of my photos, it's your turn to try this recipe out yourself!

What you will need:

• 1 Cup Walnuts
• 2 Cups Milk
• 2 Ripe Bananas
•  2 Cups Rolled Oats
• 1 Large Egg or 2 Small Eggs
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
• 1/3 (Brown) Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 Cups of Chocolate Chips
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
• 2 Cups of Strawberries - Any berries can be used for this recipe!

First things first, go ahead and preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.  Then spray the interior of a baking dish with a cooking spray.  This will help prevent your dish from sticking to the cooking dish itself.

Then mix the walnuts, rolled oats, chocolate chips, sugar, salt, strawberries, and the baking powder in a large mixing bowl and then place it in your baking dish.  With the thinly sliced banana pieces, place them on top of the mixture and evenly distribute them by leaving some space in between.

In a separate bowl whisk the milk, eggs, vanilla extract, and the melted butter until it becomes a unified yellowish color.  Then gently pour it in your baking dish and gently move the baking dish in a back and forth motion to evenly distribute the liquid.

Finally place it in the oven and wait for about 50 minutes or until the top looks golden brown.  If you want the dish a little bit sweeter, feel free to sprinkle on some brown sugar and serve!

Thanks you Inspired Taste for posting the recipe.

So I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did!

Bon appetite!

<3 Lina Chen

Frosting: Art of Cookie Decorating!

Ladies and gentlemen, I think I have found a new hobby!  Last night was my very first time decorating and frosting sugar cookies and guess what?  IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!  It takes up a lot of time and effort but the process of mixing ingredients, cutting the cookies individually from a template, making the frosting, and decorating is rewarding after seeing it all come together!  Only disappointment is how disgusting the frosting tastes.  Might need to work on that a bit...

Honestly, I think things are much more fun when they are spontaneous and unplanned.  Cookie decorating didn't come across our minds until about 8 or 9 in the evening.  Although it was fairly late, we decided to try a new chicken recipe AND bake/decorate sugar cookies.  I suggested postponing it since it was too late, but I'm happier that we didn't.  Being able to make memories is important to me and this is something that I will never ever forget.  Thanks Lisa!

And the results are in!

What do you think?  Cute right?

<3  Lina Chen

Infamous Sprinkles Cupcakes!

 

For those of you who haven't heard of Sprinkles Cupcakes, the original gourmet cupcake bakery, you are missing out!  But don't worry, I actually didn't know anything about it until a few months ago after my lovely birthday lunch with Lisa at the Tea Rose Garden.  We were in the car driving around Pasadena when all of a sudden Lisa suggests going to Sprinkles Cupcakes.  She was surprised I've never heard of it and off we

 went to find a Sprinkles location!  Sadly, we couldn't find the it and decided we'll save our trip to there another day.

 

I'm actually glad we didn't go because the following week, Erica (best friend) surprised me with a gift certificate to Sprinkles as a birthday gift!  It's as if she read my mind!  Thanks Erica if you are reading this!  What's really freaky is that I have never once mentioned Sprinkles to her AND that was the second time I've ever heard anyone talk about this place in one week!  Talk about a coincidence, right?

For weeks on end I've been wanting to try Sprinkles and I was finally able to this past weekend by accident!  We were roaming around The Grove, which by the way is a great place to go to over on the weekends, and we came across the mini bakery that was hidden between a restaurant and a parking garage!

 

The cupcakes alone are $3.50 each so be prepared to break your piggy bank for a dozen of these babies!  Just kidding, but I have to admit, they're pretty expensive cupcakes!  I think it's worth it if you get the right flavors.  For example, we ended up getting the Banana, Strawberry, Coconut, and their Irish cupcake.  I liked all of them except for their seasonal Irish cupcake--the least moist cupcake and you can barely taste the Bailey's.  I think my absolute favorite would have to be the Banana because it was evenly balanced.  The strawberry was delicious except for the fact that the sweetness over-empowered after the third bite.  Coconut is great too but the Banana beat them all!

Can't wait to go back to Sprinkles again!

<3 Lina Chen

189 The Grove Dr.,  Los Angeles, CA 90036

323.931.4498.   http://www.sprinkles.com

Sugar Snap Pea Recipe

For all your bacon lovers out there, here's a recipe I'd recommend making!  The combination of the sugar snap peas and the bacon and onions makes this dish unbelievable!

Don't believe me?  Then gather up some of these ingredients and let's get started!!!

Ingrediants:

1. 3-5 slices of bacon (depending on how much you love bacon!)
2. 1 small pack of sugar snap peas
3. 1 yellow skinned onion, finely chopped
4. 2 cloves of garlic (optional)
5. Salt and pepper

1.  Cook 3-5 slices of bacon in a medium sized skillet until golden brown and let it cool down.  Then place the bacon strips on a cutting board and chop them into bits and pieces.

2.  Finely chop the onion and garlic if you haven't done so and add it into the pan until onions are tender.

3.  Add snap peas to the pan, cover and let it cook for 5 minutes.  Uncover, stir the peas and onions and cover again for another 5 minutes.

4.  Once peas are tender, add the bacon into the skillet and remove the pan from the heat!  Let it sit for a couple minutes and serve! 

Hope you guys will like it as much as I did!!!  Recipe found on the Food Network website. 

Thanks,

Lina Chen

Happy Harbor Dim Sum

If you've never had dim sum you are missing out!

So what is dim sum?  It's essentially Chinese food served in bite-sized pieces in rounded, steamed containers or on small plates.  Depending which dim sum place you go to, they may serve your food via cart.  This is where multiple carts are circulating around the restaurant allowing customers to freely choose what they would like.  Other dim sum places will provide you a slip form to fill in your order and eventually the dishes come out one by one from the kitchen when they are ready.

Often dim sum is served in the mornings and brunch, but of course there's exceptions such as the ones in Vegas.  

I really liked Happy Harbor.  Probably would give it a solid 4 star review.  They are in a shopping center off Gale Ave. and Nogales St. in the Rowland Heights area.  Not too shabby.  Interior is gleaming with bright lights and has a clean, cut look and feel.  All of the waiters sort of look like butlers because their attire reflects that of one. 

My boyfriend and I went there to celebrate his cousins' birthday and had a good time surrounding myself with good people and good food.  

Some of my favorite dishes are the...

1.  Steamed Pork and Shrimp Dumplings

2.  Shumai

3.  Spareribs

4.  Steamed Beef Noodles

5.  Har Gow

6.  Luo Buo Gao

7.  Lime Green Red Bean Buns

8.  Baked BBQ Pork Bun (which is heavenly!)

9.  Egg Tart

10.  Mango Pudding (even though it wasn't as sweet as I'd hope it to be).

A few snippets I took at the restaurant:

That's it for now!  See you guys next time!!!

<3 Lina Chen

1015 Nogales St.,  Rowland Heights, CA 91748

626.965.2020.

Las Vegas' Bachi Burger!

Dear Bachi Burger,

I cannot wait to go back to Las Vegas just to have your savory burgers in my mouth.  I would love to try your Oxtail Chili Cheese Fries, Banh Mi Burger, Miyagi-san's Grass Fed Wagyu Burger, Spicy Miso Burger, and The Crusty Crab.  So basically the entire menu....

I wasn't able to experience the feel of the restaurant since I was sitting in the hotel room aching with tremendous pain, but luckily my best friend (Erica) and her boyfriend (Son) brought back the Pork Belly Steamed Buns as well as the Kalbi Burger.  That initial bite into the Kalbi Burger helped temporarily alleviate the sharp feeling in my leg.  And let me tell you, nothing could really get my mind off of it, so that means a lot.  What I loved about this burger was that it came with a side of Korean-styled, spicy red-pepper cucumbers also known as oh ee ji (Korean) or liang ban huang gua (Chinese) which is my absolute favorite Korean side dish of all time.  Their menu has Bachi Pickles but I'm unaware if they are referring to the cucumbers as described above. On the inside, the Kalbi Burger is light pink with juices oozing after each bite.  It has a thin crispy, brown layer from the sweet kalbi marinade and has kimchi, ko chu jang mayo, and green onions for added flavor.  Wasn't able to get a snapshot of the burger since it disappeared before I could get my camera.  Yeah, it was that good.  Love Korean food?  You'll love the Kalbi Burger.

Bachi Burgers' Pork Belly Steamed Buns were equally delicious!  These Vietnamese-inspired pork buns consisted of pork belly, hoisin, scallions, cilantro, Chinese black vinaigrette, and a boiled egg (which was excluded in our order).  I just remember the pork fat melting while the soft puffiness of the buns filled my mouth with the saltiness of the hoisin and the distinct taste of cilantro.  Bachi Burger is known for their creative Asian fusion burgers, but this wasn't necessarily the first time I've had something like the Pork Belly Steamed Buns.  Can't remember where else I've had this dish, but its still a must-have especially if you would like order it as an appetizer and share with other people since they are bite-sized and comes in an order of three.

Thank you to both Son and Erica for introducing me to Bachi Burger, my new favorite, creative burger joint of all time.

<3 Lina Chen

9410 W. Sahara Ave.,  Las Vegas, Nevada

702.255.3055.  www.bachiburger.com

Yard House: A Full Rack

Just to let you know upfront this will be a pretty extensive review very much like the one I did for Taps Fish House and Brewery.  If you haven't read the review for that place, definitely check it out by clicking here. 

Now where do I begin with Yard House (YH)....Just a mental note, this will be my third visit but my first review.  From what I recall service was average and the food is pretty good.  Can't really remember what I ordered in the past but I can tell you exactly what I got this time around.  By the way, we also ordered a lot of food here so hopefully you can keep up with me by the end of this entry, if not, feel free to just scroll through the images and their respective reviews if something looks interesting to you.

First the appetizers...

Grilled Artichoke

Great appetizer especially if you haven't had grilled artichoke's before.  I love spinach and artichoke dip so I had no doubt that I wouldn't like this starter.  What's unique about this dish is that you break a piece of the artichoke wedge off of it's stem, dip the bottom of the wedge into the aioli dipping sauce, bite into the wedge and slowly scrape off the artichoke off of the skin with your teeth.  I thought that was genius!  Just being able to discover new ways to eat foods just fascinates me.  Not knowing this any sooner just surprises me since I've been to countless restaurants and this is the first time for me.

As far as taste, it was good.  Squirt the lemon on top of the wedges and you are good to go.  The chips were excellent since they kept it's crispy texture throughout the night.

Ahi Poke Bowl

I'd pass on the ahi poke bowl.  This dish consisted of raw, marinated ahi tuna with sliced carrots and daikon atop of two deep-friend wonton chips with a slice of avocado on the side, which was weird to me. It would have been better if they incorporated the avocado into the dish instead of it being a sidekick.  Sharing this dish was a little bit harder because of that reason.  Everyone's forks are trying to break up a piece of the avocado, some bigger than others, but if they were already diced to proportion then maybe there wouldn't be that problem.  

Out of all the raw dishes, this one was a bit tasteless.  I think you really have to rely on the marinade in this one because the carrots, daikon, and the wonton doesn't do much for the ahi tuna.  Also, if everyone in your party took a large portion of the avocado, you're basically S.O.L.  I'll give it a try again next time only if someone else decides to get it.

Spicy Tuna Roll

Died and went to heaven.  Only thing that kind of threw off the dish was the edamame but who cares, they sort of fell off of the roll and I really didn't bother to eat them with the spicy tuna after the first bite with it.  The mushy texture from the avocado + spicy tuna and the hard bite into the soybean didn't do much for me.  The dish itself is still heavenly especially if you are a avid sushi eater.  For an American restaurant, they did a pretty good take on a spicy tuna roll.

Truffle Fries

The truffle fries are a must here.  I adore french fries so when they are fried in truffle oil with shredded parmesan and herbs to finish it off?  It was to die for.  I can just imagine myself going to YH just for their truffle fries.  Okay, maybe with the Spicy Tuna Roll too. ;)

And the entrees...

Ahi Crunchy Salad

I love salads that have a strong sesame dressing.  Maybe it's because I'm Asian, but what can you do.  Greens were fresh, wontons crunchy, and the ahi tuna was nicely seared.  Don't mind getting this again the next time I'm feeling like I want a light salad for din din.

Pepper Crusted Filet

The boyfriend ordered the pepper crusted filet after the waitress had recommended it to us.  I've had wayyy better steak.  Kind of disappointed to see this on the not-so-good side of the review because I was pretty stoked after having all those delectable appetizers to start with minus the ahi poke tuna bowl.

St. Louis Style Ribs

NOW THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!  I did a review on the baby back ribs at The Stinking Rose, but that place had some dry a** ribs.  YH did good.  My baby back ribs were sweet, tangy, moist and finger-lickin', mother-may-I-have-some-more, gooooooood!

With my FULL rack of baby back ribs!

I usually like carbs on the side whether if it's rice or bread with my meat but it's all good since the creamed corn and the beans made up for it.  I don't like beans unless if they're in my Chipotle burrito but that's about it, but these beans had a sweet taste to it.  The cilantro is a plus (since I love that stuff!).  The creamed corn comes close to a second when it comes to this dish.  After I had eaten as much as I could, I see forks coming left and right going after my creamed corn!  Sharing is caring but internally, I was struggling to let my boyfriend and his sister-in-law take some.  Next day when I took my leftovers to work, I only had like a mini, clear plastic sauce containers you dispense ketchup in at a Burger King.  Sad, but I couldn't let it go to waste!

Last image is just a piece of artwork hung right behind me.  I'm starting to show bits and pieces of the restaurant so that you can somewhat have an idea how it's going to be.  This artwork doesn't sum up the entire setting, but it caught my eye.  That and I felt that the bandit was going to steal my food!  Not this time cowboy!

<3 Lina Chen

13881 Peyton Dr.,  Chino Hills, CA 91709

 909.631.2200.  http://www.yardhouse.com

Mexican: El Farolito

This is as good as Mexican gets.

First of all I love this little town.  It has a genuine Mexican feel like you would see in the movies.  Okay, I can't say I've been to Mexico before but according to my boyfriends family, it reminds them of the little towns south of the border.  As we got there the lines were long (maybe 10 groups ahead of us).  We ended up putting our name on the list but roamed around the town in case if we found a restaurant that had less of a wait but was also suitable for our taste.

I'm glad we went back though.  This restaurants success is from the hard work that they put into it, but also stems from a strong family bond--love.  The food reflects that love.  Below is an image of their story which is displayed on the front of the menu...

"'El Farolito,' which meant to him ((Dad) the light of hope."

First their salsa and chips.  Chips were thick and extra crunchy.  I love ALL things crunchy so the chips were bomb-ski!  And once you dipped it into their spicy salsa, it was like a fiesta in your mouth.  Talk about it being SPICY!

Horchata is also a must for me every time I go to a Mexican restaurant.  It had a strong sweet cinnamon taste.  A great side drink if you want something other than water.  Although I have to say that this place ranks second as far as their horchata.  Maybe if they had real bits of cinnamon pieces like the one at Liliana's Tamales in DTLA, then they could possibly tie for first.  Just a suggestion if anyone from El Farolito is reading this.

Machaca de Carnitas

As far as entrees go, I wanted to try something new instead of my Meixcan favorites chile rellenos (which I absolutely love to death) or enchiladas so I got the machaca de carnitas...  First off, I must rave about their beans.  I dislike Mexican pinto beans (unless if it is in my Chipotle burrito) because they've always tasted like plain old mush with a muddy look that has always disgusted me.  BUT, I always take a bite regardless in hopes that there would be a restaurant that can prove me wrong and El Farolito did that.  I STILL don't like them but the beans here aren't bland.  They added something to it to make it tasty and rather desiring to eat.  It's still on the mushy side but the taste makes up for it.  

After my encounter with their beans, I knew this place was going to be good.  And it was.  I recall the pork being extra juicy and salty but once it was placed on the corn tortilla, with rice and beans, and topped off with their specialty salsa from their chips and salsa, it was pretty damn good.

Best Mexican restaurant I've been to in a very long time.

<3  Lina Chen

201 S. Bradford Ave.  Placentia, CA 92870

714.993.7880.

Shanghailander Palace

This place is perhaps one of the fancier Chinese restaurants I've ever been to.

A dragon-like door knob guarding the entrance.

So fancy on the inside!

An ol' fashion telephone.

Decor near the restrooms.

Parts of the ceiling was glowing with these colorful lights.

Through the window, you can see chefs hand-making their dumplings.

Attention to detail.  Love the colors and the velvety, plum chairs.

Decor for one of the dishes.

Sweet Braised Pork

The food here was wonderful and rather tasty.  We ordered the braised pork served in this big old, cool looking pot.  It had a sweet honey taste to it, but I can't say if there was any honey in it or not.  Everyone seemed to like it.  Luckily everyone at the other table wasn't able to finish their braised pork so everyone at my table were able to get seconds of this appetizing entree. 

 

Water Spinach w/Garlic

  The water spinach with garlic was our only vegetable dish.  A table full of carnivorous

Kung Pao Chicken

You can never go wrong with Kung Pao chicken.  It is an upgrade from your regular Panda Express that's for sure.

Black Peppered Beef

Black peppered beef was definitely dark and peppery.  At first I wasn't sure what it was, maybe the darkness of the color meant that the meat was charred, but after a bite or two I realized that the color of it is from the black peppers that they used here at Shanghailander Palace. 

Fish Fillet w/Seaweed

Fish fillet = a fancy word for fish sticks.  Make sure to wait a bit till grabbing a bite of these since they can be extremely hot in the middle.  Very good, but hot.  I just remember holding my hand up to my mouth trying to blow out the hot air and visually seeing my glasses fog up.  

Special Fish Soup

The last and final dish was the special fish soup.  Apparently this dish is pretty authentic because of the big ole fishballs that they used in this dish.  For me, I could go without it.  Like the image above, it just seemed like it was cabbage/lettuce soup.  Not too appealing to me.  I'll stick with my meats. 

 

<3  Lina Chen

1695 South Azusa Ave.,  Hacienda Heights, CA 91745

626.839.7777