Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Here's to you, your family, good friends and definitely good food!

Kubo's

We happened to be near the Village and craving some Japanese... so we went up to Kubo's.

If you park in the Village Arcade, you can get validation after you eat.

I ordered the Kobe Beef roll - I know it's weird that you go to a sushi place and not get fish.  But that just sounded good to me.  It was actually delightfully surprised that it's good.  It's seared beef on top and with some in the middle and with chives and veggie.

I saw that they offered Onigiri, and had to try that.  This is salmon inside.  What I didn't realized was that it's cooked salmon inside.  And after couple of bites it fell apart.  It's supposed to hold up better than that.

As I mentioned before, you park in the garage and take a ticket.  When you leave they will give you a validation ticket for exit.  They do have good happy hour specials that last all night at the bar only.  For the seating area, they do expire by 7pm.

Kubo's Sushi Bar & Grill

2414 University Blvd

Ste 200

Houston, TX 77005

713-523-7878

http://www.kubos-sushi.com/

Kata Robata

Was meeting a friend to celebrate a friend's birthday dinner. 

She's also moving to England, and she picked Kata because it'll be a while before she'll have decent Japanese.

One of my favorite, amberjack sashimi with foie gras with balsamic vinegar.

Toro & Short Ribs - it has tuna inside and braised short ribs on top with olive oil. Not super fatty, though each of the ingredients should be.

Uni King Crab Spoon - it's fresh king crab but the uni isn't as fresh as I'd hope.

For the colder weather, they are offering the Doshi Mushi.

It's essentially seafood soup in a teapot and you pour your soup into that little teacup to enjoy.  I will say that the seafood has a variety besides fish, it has squid. 

Portuguese Octopus which is fried octopus, and the piece between the squids are fried cauliflower.  They also have little bit of arugula and pickled onions.  The center is a yogurt which I didn't like it much.  I liked the octopus on its own though.

Pork belly with soft boiled egg paired with spinach.  The pork supposed to be slow cooked for 24 hours.  This is soft boiled egg at 60 degrees, like you get from a bowl of ramen.  When you break them all and mix them together, it's super delicious.

Beef Skewers - very nicely marinated and the sauce they put on there is awesome.

Had to get some sushi to top off the night... Uni, Unagi, and Sake.  Very fresh, very delicious.

Of course, when you go to Kata, you know they will deliver great food.  This time we ordered a variety of their menu which showcased both hot and cold dishes.  I would think my favorite was the pork belly.  The Doshi Mushi was definitely a second. 

Kata Robata

3600 Kirby Dr

Suite H

Houston, TX 77098

http://katarobata.com/

Nippon

When the weather turned cold, I was just thinking about a nice bowl of ramen.

Where do you go for Japanese food, but an authentic place... we go to Nippon.  They got a new menu.

I got an Unagi Handroll, but it's not as pretty as others I've had.

Here's the bowl of tonkotsu ramen.  The noodle is the Sun Noodles that everyone gets, but the soup is not as thick and rich as one would expect from a Pork Ramen.  I will say that the pork is delicious and it goes with the ramen and the dish.  I will say that I hated the ginger on it.  The seaweed, the sprout, and the egg worked well with the pork, but the soup is weak.  It'll do the job because I needed the warmth on a cold day.

Nippon Japanese Restaurant

4464 Montrose Blvd.

Houston, TX 77006

713-523-3939

http://nippon-sushi.com/

Lette Macarons

When I was walking around Little Toyko, came across Lette Macaron.

The cute macaron shop is super cute and fitting in the area.

Cute Halloween Tree

Hip decore with their boxes.

Lots of fresh macs

Loved the chic packaging

All lined up lovely and perfectly.

Or if you get the individual mac, you get the cute sticker.

We have Pistachio, Caribbean Chocolate, Rose, Earl Grey, Cassis, Colombia Coffee

Everything is lovely and it's fresh, all the shells survived the trip back home safely, so it is definitely testament that they made everything fresh.  The fillings are well done, and none are too sweet.  I would even dare say perfect balance.  You don't feel like you got ran over by a sugar truck, and you know there's alot of sugar into making this.  I would love to go back and visit.

Lette

107 Japanese Village Way

Los Angeles, CA 90012

213-621-4457

http://www.lettemacarons.com/

Noodles And More

Coming back, and weather turned cold... what is better than something warm your belly?

David turned me on to NAM = Noodles And More

They are mostly Vietnamese but have Thai & Chinese dishes too... I got a Thai Iced Tea, which didn't get to drink most of it... 

Spring roll, which has mushroom, pork and veggie inside.  You wrap it with your lettuce and dip it in the fish sauce.

Came here for pho, and they cutely named it Un-Pho-Gettable and the reason I think it's because the dish is full of meat, you got beef meatballs, eye round beef, and brisket.  Of course, noodles and veggies.  I would say the soup is not distinct, but they are generous with the meat.

I didn't realized they have more than one location in Houston.  This is a perfect spot for the Rice students to walk to, and it's affordable.  They do have Bahn-Mi, Thai & Chinese dishes too.  I will come back and try their rice dishes and see if they are as up to par as the other Vietnamese places.  But for Village, this is easy to get to, easy parking out front and a quick in and out.

Noodles And More

2512 Rice Blvd

Houston, TX 77005

713-533-1188

http://namnoodlesandmore.com/

JJ Cafe

On our way to the airport, we went to Monterey Park for some Chinese food.

JJ Cafe is known for Hong Kong style food.  

Hong Kong style macaroni soup with ham, pea and corn.  The soup is pretty good, I must say.

Hong Kong style breakfast, which is pretty close to anybody's breakfast, haha... it's eggs sunny side up, bacon and buttered toast.  The eggs, I must say was undercooked, which was a bit disappointing, but I know they're going for effort.  

I actually ran into a friend who lives here at this place, and he mentioned that this is the best spot in town and he's been coming here since he was in high school.  I honestly don't remember this place when I lived here when I was little but then we were in the south part of town and don't go up to the north side much.  They do have limited parking, and it is packed easily, so go early, snatch a spot underground, and go get a spot.    

JJ Hong Kong Cafe

447 W. Garvey Ave

Ste 1020

Monterey Park, CA 91754

626-280-3833

Singapore's Banana Leaf

One of my favorite haunts in LA is the Original Farmer's Market. 

Singapore's Banana Leaf, I love how the owner of the place is so friendly and he knows no stranger, which makes this a very fun place to go, and of course the food is good to boot.

I had the Mee Goreng with chicken and egg on top and of course Chendol.

This is stir fry noodles with satay and Indonesian peanut sauce.  Basically, this is fried noodles Malay style, with an egg on top.  And Satay is also very Malay too.  The sauce is the spicy kind, but it does go well with everything.  If I have some roti, I would just soak it all up.

Chendol is one of my favorite childhood drinks.  It's mostly coconut milk, shaved ice, pandan flavored tapioca, palm sugar (which gave it the brown color).  You mix it all up and drink it al up.  It's all delicious and as close to childhood in a drink as I can get.

It's mix of Indo-Malay style cuisine, and you can get all of one style or the other, and it taste pretty darn good, which you don't exactly expect in a tourist hot spot.  To be honest, alot of restaurants in the market does taste pretty good despite being in a well known tourist spot.  But having your food there and the seating right in front has its charm.  You feel like you can continue your conversation with the owner guy while sitting in front of him, or if you want some privacy, he will let you be and enjoy your meal.  Needless to say, I have plenty of good things to say about this place.   If you park on the Farmer's Market side, they will validate your parking.

Singapore's Banana Leaf

Original Farmers Market

6333 3rd Street

Los Angeles, CA 90036

323-933-4627

Mikawaya Mochi

You know if there's dessert in Little Tokyo (LA) , I will find it...

They handmade their mochi, and you can see, by lunch, most of them were sold out.

I got Mocha & Cookies & Cream.

Here's the Mocha Coffee, and it's definitely full of taste.  I'm not sure if it's the rice cake or the ice cream, but it was delicious.

This is Cookies n' Cream.  This one is more vanilla than the cookies....

I swear it was a little dessert heaven, they made all of that in house and constantly have people coming and going.  The only thing is, though, it's cash only.  So, either go prepared or come back with cash.

Mikawaya Mochi

by the Frying Fish Sushi

118 Japanese Village Plaza Mall

Los Angeles, CA 90012

213-624-1681

Kaba Robata

A friend in LA came to meet me, and both of us have never been to this place, thought we'd give it a try.

The place is supposedly known for robata, but it's relatively new, supposedly opened for couple of months.

They do use the most up-to-date technology at each table.  You can scroll thru their menu set up at each categories, and you can even place your order via the system.  I will say though, it does time itself out sometimes.

Complementary edamame.

Lemonade

Carpaccio yellowtail, amazingly it's pretty good.

Pork teriyaki, which is much more like shachu wrapped with seaweed and doused with teriyaki sauce.

We ordered chicken karaage but strangely, it came with salad with ranch dressing.

This is a weird mix of sauces they gave us.  It's pesto on the left, masuda sauce, and mango salsa.  I never heard of the masuda sauce before, but it's like sweet soy sauce that's nice and thick, perfect for meat...

Spicy tuna roll

Rainbow roll

Assorted skewers: salmon, shrimp, chicken meatball, ribeye, mushroom, and asparagus.  We love the mushroom, the salmon wasn't at all what we expected.  The meatball was good, and the asparagus is not all that cracked up to be.

To end our meal, we were given complementary green tea ice cream.  

The place has tons of wires everywhere to support these ipads on each table.  The serving team is young, but the owners are friendly and they are very quick to correct any issues.  The skewers weren't as good as the sashimi but I appreciated their efforts.  Hope they will can keep going and keep improving.

Kaba Robata

141 S. Central Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90012

213-346-9740

http://en.robata-kaba.jp/