jamillah garden -- islamic chinese food

i know that i've eaten at a pretty good restaurant when i'm inspired to go home and write a new food blog entry.

with our appetites a bit thrown off schedule from this holiday weekend, we were looking for an interesting place to eat. we stopped at a strip mall in convoy that we have yet to explore. jamillah garden was one of the two new restaurants in this strip mall and featured islamic chinese food. our curiosity piqued, we decided to step in and order.



inside, the restaurant looked like a typical chinese restaurant including an aquarium with colorful fishes and red high-backed booths. the menu featured a lot of dishes i have never heard of before, including "mutton-haslet soup" and "beef dough slice chow mein." there were also many recognizable chinese dishes. however, as i will explain later, the dishes with traditional names such as "salt and pepper shrimp" are sometimes created in a very different style from what we're used to. the prices were not the cheapest we've seen, but definitely reasonable and moderately cheap for a sit-down chinese restaurant with fresh quality dishes. you should know there is no pork on the menu, but there are a lot of beef, lamb and seafood dishes.

we decided to order two dishes, "salt and pepper shrimp" which is a favorite of oo -- and i picked the "lamb dough slice chow mein" because i love chewy noodles and wanted to try it in a style i haven't sampled before!



the "salt and pepper shrimp" arrived and looked a lot different from what we normally see in traditional restaurants. unlike the whole red-colored shrimp with heads attached and fiery red peppers, we had a dish with shrimp that looked a bit like popcorn shrimp, sprinkled liberally with garlic, green onions and cucumber. when we tasted it, the shrimp was crunchy. the shrimp was salty and had a pepperish heat that you would expect from the name of the dish. overall, i wasn't thrilled by the quality of the shrimp since it was too chewy (i love fresh shrimp but i know this is pretty rare in restaurants unless you're willing to pay the price) but the overall touch of spices, jalapeno, use of green onions and cucumber was surprising and tasty.



but my favorite of the evening was the "lamb dough slice chow mein" -- the dish was cooked in chow mein style -- but the noodles was very different from your typical shanghai/udon noodle. the noodles were thick -- chewy like not-so-fresh boba. or, as oo puts it, it's very "dough-y." aside from the noodle, the chow mein was excellent. it was not too greasy, there was a good balance of taste -- not too salty and not too bland. there was enough minced vegetables and lamb meat to complement the noodles. the lamb meat was also tasty, oo commented that it almost tasted like beef and definitely did not have the strong taste that usually turns people like him off from eating lamb. i loved this noodle, and ate off every little bit i could find on the plate. i would definitely come back here just for the noodles.

overally, i am really impressed because it is not only a good chinese restaurant, but the muslim influence definitely helps to keep chinese food interesting for me. there are many dishes that i wanted to try -- including the sesame bread, which the folks on the neighboring table ordered, the lamb stew and the sizzling rice soup. (can you tell that i live for carbs??) and i fully intend to come back here to try more dishes!

Jamillah Garden
4681 Convoy St., #C
San Diego CA 92111

LA- Part 4: brunch in santa monica

the next morning, we had brunch at Broadway Bar & Grill 1460 Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA 90401. it was late morning and i was hungry. our host, mr. dali, who has excellent taste in food, picked out this restaurant for brunch. i'm only starting to observe that an excellent food blog writer usually takes a picture of the menu to give you an excellent idea of prices, so i don't have a picture. i do remember brunch being on the pricier side -- ranging from 8 to 20 bucks depending on what you choose to order. they did have very interesting entrees ranging from omelettes with chive and cheddar and buckwheat pancakes.

but folks, the real reason why i love this restaurant is because of their hash browns!!! the hash browns consisted of julienned potato strips, individual strips which contributes to their crispy, flaky and light texture. the bagels was also a delightful surprise. i haven't had a freshly baked bagel since my days at williams college (man, those were the days when i could have an endless supply of lox bagels with cream cheese and tomatos!!!). these bagels were so much better than the ones i had in college. i lathered my bagels well with cream cheese since i knew i probably wouldn't have another great bagel like that again. i ordered the mushroom omelette. the omelettes were light and fluffy. however, i learned that i'm not really that fond of wild mushrooms. although i love mushrooms, it's really too bland of a vegetarian item to eat by itself, unless you have a craving for a very bland dish with mushrooms. but this is a really minor point, i truly loved brunch at this place. i would come back here just for the bagels and hash browns!!

our host, the great mr. dali ordered the mexican breakfast plate -- i 'm including a picture here in case you're interested in ordering the same. it's a very pretty picture. i didn't ask whether he enjoyed the dish very much but he certainly cleaned his plate faster than we did.

i should also mention that the service here is incredibly fast despite the fact that we were there during the busy sunday brunch hours. there was a bit of a 15 minute wait, but they took our orders quickly and the food arrived faster than i expected! in conclusion, i'm certain there are many great brunch places in LA, but the next time i'm in santa monica, i am definitely heading back here -- at least for the bagels if nothing else!!

LA Part 3 – Dinner at Haru-Ulala

Haru-Ulala was another one of those places that I read about through chowhound.com. i rarely eat in japanese restaurants since I think it's usually overpriced. but lately i have been developing more of an interest in seeing how different Asian cultures cook "home-style" food. what interests me about home-style food is that it tends to be low-maintenance and acts as comfort food rather as opposed to food that looks so fantastic that it feels like a crime to eat it. mmm-yoso's blog on a japanese restaurant that serves food izakaya -style has gotten me interested in trying japanese food cooked home style. so since i was given full discretion on deciding where to go for dinner -- i picked Haru-Ulala. the restaurant is located on 368 E 2nd St. in little tokyo, LA.

the first thing we tried was the grilled shiso peppers. i was really curious about this pepper because of an LA Times article I read. the pepper was supposed to be sweet and sometimes spicy depending on which pepper you happened to pick. the writer of the article obviously loved the pepper for its subtle sweetness and heat, so I had to try it myself. the shiso peppers came grilled with bonito on top. if you like roasted red peppers, you probably would like these peppers. it did have a sweet nature to it, just like red pepper and the pepper was really soft from the grilling process. i was lucky enough not to pick up a spicy pepper (apparently the spiciness of the pepper depends on which one you picked!) so i really enjoyed these peppers. we also ordered the grilled shiitake mushrooms. the texture was a bit like eating grilled portabella mushroom. but overall, i didn't find the taste to be particularly memorable, which is generally typical of shiitake mushrooms.

we loved the next two dishes we ordered, the fried oyster and the soft shell-crab! the fried oyster was rolled in panko (a type of bread crumb found in japanese cuisine) and fried. we squeezed the lemon over the fried oysters, and then bit into it. the oysters were delicious, the panko crust was crisp and the oyster practically melted in our mouths. the soft shell crab was also delicious -- it was crispy, had the right texture and was not too salty or oily. we loved both of those dishes so much, that we had second orders of the same thing! we ordered two more dishes, the scallops sauteed in butter and the sardine with roe. although they were both pretty good, the sardine was way too salty. the scallops were rather unmemorable, it had a nice texture but i had sweeter scallops before.

after all the entrees, i realized that we haven't had starch yet. it just didn't feel like a complete meal without rice! (no atkins diet for me!) so the waiter recommended a salmon rice soup. although this dish took awhile to arrive, (i had mine first and the two other rice bowls arrived almost fifteen minutes later!) the rice soup definitely hit the spot and satisfied my carb cravings. the rice came with a clear light seaweed soup. there was enough rice to fill me up and the grains were firm and not mushy like leftover rice. and the salmon was perfect, not too salty but not too bland either.

overall, i really liked this place a lot. it did get a bit noisy as it got later in the evening, and i was really glad that we started eating dinner at 5pm. i hope and i will try to see if i can find other ikazaya places like this in san diego. i learned from this experience that the japanese cuisine does not consist of just great sushi, but can also be a great comfort food as well!!

LA- Part Two - Fugetsu Do Bakery- Mochi

after the tofu festival, we decided to explore more of little tokyo and check out the mochi shop that i read about on chowhound.com, fugetsu do, which is located on 315 E. 1st Street. the store is very quaint inside. it almost reminds me of an old chinese apothecary shops in chinatown. the service was very friendly and nice, and they wrapped our mochi with a little ribbon and gift wrap. i'm really tickled by that.

folks, i really wanted to like this place badly especially since it's a mom and pop establishment and a mochi shop! so i'll keep this brief. i was really disappointed in the mochi. the mochi didn't melt in my mouth. either they didn't make it well or the mochi wasn't fresh. if the mochi at hogetsu bakery in chula vista, san diego was given an A, the mochi here at fugetsu-do ranks a C-. the colored rainbow one was especially tough to chew on, i took one bite and it was like chewing on glue. i disliked it so much, i gave the rest to oo. neither of us said anything after eating the mochi. i think the fact that we left two mochi uneaten says a lot about the mochi.

in conclusion, either i got unlucky and tasted a bad batch, or whoever recommended the mochi obviously never had better mochi before. there is one mochi shop in gardena that has been consistently good. their stuff is so fresh that when i tried their mochi in hawaii the next day, i thought it was the most fantastic thing i've ever eaten. so you see how sad it is, when a person walks right into a mochi shop in little tokyo and buys a mochi with a texture as fresh as frozen wonton wrappers.

but all is not lost. we fared much better with our dinner at haru-ulala, to be written about in part 3...

LA-- Part One -- onolicious bakery and tofu festival

LA was having a tofu festival. being the health nut i am, and always looking for new dishes to make, we had to check it out. of course, being in LA, we embarked on a smorgasboard of other eating adventures as well!

first stop, onolicious bakery in oceanside. the very morning we're about to take off from san diego to LA, mmm-yoso had just published his blog entry about malasadas in oceanside. apparently, they also had coco puffs!! that clinched the deal, and we made plans to stop over in oceanside.

as we pulled into the parking lot, we were greeted by the sound of ukuleles. there was a group of women gathered in a circle practicing their ukuleles together, just like all the tutus back home. now all they need is a bunch of little kids gathering around like at roy sakuma ukulele studio back home (i used to take piano lessons next door!).

we entered the store and were greeted by a very simple display full of familiar items. there were manapuas, malasadas (.85 cents), coco puffs ($1.00), chiffon cakes of all types($15+), and a few other danish-type of pastries. it didn't take me long to decide what i wanted. three malasadas, three haupia malasadas, and three coco puffs. as we headed out the door, i saw a couple of issues of our local newspaper, the Honolulu Advertiser, on the coffee table. i wanted to touch the actual editions of the newspaper, because it reminded me of life back home. but as soon as I took my eyes off the paper, i bounded out, excited at the prospect of visiting little tokyo!

we started off first with the malasadas. the regular malasadas were ok. i agree with kirk that the interior of the malasadas were on the dense side, and had a texture more like a dense cake than a light donut. and if i haven't said it enough, i'm not really fond of thick cakes. the sugar on top of the malasada did remind me a lot of malasadas back home. the haupia malasada also had the similar problem of containing a dense cake texture. but i also noticed that they weren't very generous with their haupia filling. the best donuts and malasadas always have filling oozing out when you take a bite. i really don't mind a plain malasada, but if you're going to advertise a haupia-filled malasada, it doesn't pay to be too stingy with the filling or it will send a subtle message to your consumer that you're trying to save money at their expense!! overall though, this is not a malasada that will lull me back even if i was homesick for a malasada.

next, we tried the coco puffs. i should let you know that we didn't try the coco puffs until we arrived in LA almost an hour and a half later. during that time, the coco puffs were sitting on my lap, mostly forgotten under the hot sun. so this might have some damage to the actual taste of the coco puffs! as you can see on the right, the coco puffs looked a lot like the famous coco puffs sold at liliha bakery back home. it is filled with a chocolate pudding filling and topped with a chantilly cream drop. how did it match to the liliha bakery coco puff? hmm. if the coco puffs back home was a 10+, i give this one a 7. the chocolate pudding filling was not as sweet as the original. the chantilly cream drop tasted pretty good, but it didn't quite have the same rich buttery taste as the Liliha version. finally, correct me if i'm wrong, but i think the texture of the bread is a little different too. this one had more of a stale crust than the ones back home. i'll have to try the original back home again to compare though. i don't usually pay much attention to the bread since it was the chantilly cream drop and inner chocolate pudding that drew much of my attention and drool. overall, it was like eating a memory of the original. i may order this again if i have a craving for a coco puff, but i'm more likely to beg visiting hawaii friends to bring me a box of liliha coco puffs.

we arrived at the tofu festival at the peak of the afternoon. individual tickets were $8 bucks each and the scrips for food costed extra, about a dollar per scrip. you can buy most of the food and drinks for 1 or 2 scrips. now, i originally envisioned the tofu festival to be similar to the fabled street in taiwan which is solely devoted to tofu vendors and shops. the reality was a lot different than what i imagined. each tent was hawking a tofu product or restaurant, rather than different styles of tofu dishes. instead of getting to try stinky tofu, jai with tofu, and other fried bean curd type of dishes, i was exposed to tofu products such as tofurkey, tofu spaghetti, and tofu dog. essentially, each vendor in the festival was trying to get me to sample and buy tofu products that are substitutes of the real thing. aka, hot dog, fettucine, chili, and fries. but i did enjoy myself a lot. the soy milk with green tea tasted really well together. instead of getting into the spirit of the festival, oo cheated and got chicken sate sticks which were quite delicious! but i really liked the strawberry dessert that we got. it had a mixture of red wine, basil, almond and strawberries. the taste was clean, tart and a bit sweet. there was entertainment at the festival and it had a very family friendly atmosphere with activities for children. there were lots of different foods to try, especially if you want to learn how to substitute all your favorite american foods with tofu. i saw a booth advertising tofu gumbo, tofu chili, tofu quesadilla and tofu fries. in retrospect, i think the only way one can have a real tofu experience (real, as in tofu in its native environment) is to fly straight to taiwan and find that tofu street. but this tofu festival comes close enough. especially if you want to learn how to eat tofu american style!! in addition, all the profits go to a good cause -- supporting the little tokyo service center -- they provide a lot of community services to the local community such as domestic abuse rescues, tutoring, etc.

after we decided we had enough of tofu, we headed out to explore more of little tokyo. next stop, fugetsu-do sweet shop for mochi!!

the unforgiveable sin- La Scala

This past Monday, when my coworker asked me where I went Friday night to celebrate, it took me a couple of minutes to remember. Then it all came rushing back to me. The odd couple singing big-band lounge type of music in the corner, the dark corner lit only by a dim oil lamp, the waiter who frightened me with his jokes and deadpan stare (a side of anchovy please. what side?) the family full of kids who looked too chubby to be eating all that pizza, the mirror to the side of me, reflecting sad faces full of mortality and hunger. (mostly hunger.)

Yes, I went to La Scala this past weekend and I lived to tell the tale.

Unfortunately I do not have many pictures because we were placed in the darkest corner of the restaurant. What little we could see of our food came from the paltry gas lamp that was no taller than the size of my hand. We sat down and perused the menu. This is not a cheap take out pizza place like Bronx Pizza (the god of all pizzas in San Diego, second best is Fillipo's Pizza Grotto in Little Italy- must check spelling later). This is an actual italian restaurant where one can have a romantic dinner in a dim corner and/or hearty dinner with a family. The prices are reasonable for a family style Italian restaurant. We ordered a Margerita Pizza for $14.95 and a side of anchovies for $4.95. We heard from a colleague that the pizza here was really good. So we ordered and waited. and waited. and waited.

We were hungry. I was so hungry that when the waiter came with bread after about twenty minutes, I had only good things to say about the bread. In retrospect, the bread was merely buttered crispy toast. Nothing special really.

When the pizza finally arrived, it looked good. (from what we could see in the dim light). I carved out a piece for oo and myself. Then I lifted the pizza and took a bite. The first bite was fantastic -- the cheese was the best pizza cheese I ever had -- but then, the unforgiveable sin occurred. The pizza was soggy. SOGGY!!! Fifteen bucks for a pizza, forty minute wait, and the pizza was soggy!!!

But I was too hungry to complain. I chewed on the cheese happily, happy for sustenance, and spat out the wet dough. The anchovies were super salty, strong but interesting. It was the first time I ever had european-style anchovies, and I thought it was pretty interesting. I wouldn't order it again though personally.

Once my hunger fever was satiated, I reassessed the dinner. Overall it was ok. I was not happy that we had to wait awhile for dinner. The music, which I really enjoyed for the first ten minutes, started to drive me batty after waiting over forty minutes for dinner. But for me, the unforgiveable sin was soggy pizza. Soggy pizza, only happens to me when I eat microwaved pizza. I hate soggy pizza. To me, it implies lack of care, quality and time spent on the pizza. The cheese was fantastic, so I don't know why the pizza dough was sloppy. Maybe the chef just didn't care about our dinner. And that a chef wouldn't care about our dinner, why, I find that a bit of an insult!

In any case, perhaps the other entrees would be better. I suppose it's not a bad place to go if you like old big band lounge type of music, and cheesy type of dishes that doesn't involve pizza dough. They definitely had great cheese! The band playing was not bad too, it's just that an hour of listening to that music in a hunger state will start to make you wonder if you just entered...the twilight zone!!!

childhood memes - food

I've been tagged by Kirk to do a meme on my childhood memories of foods. When I first started this entry, I thought this is going to be really amusing because I grew up without junk food in the house. I'm not going to be the typical american adult writing about cookies and cakes that Mom bakes. I started to grapple with some of the most primal memories I had with food and surprisingly they're not necessarily all good memories. But I wrote them all down, good and bad since I think it's what makes food memories so interesting!

Anyway back to the memes, so I need to write about five memories of foods from my childhood. I also need to do the following: "Remove the blog at #1 from the following list and bump every one up one place; add your blog's name in the #5 spot; link to each of the other blogs for the desired cross-pollination effect. Then tag three people and you're over and done with it all."

1. BeautyJoyFood
2. Eat stuff
3. Ono Kine Grindz
4. Mmm-yoso!!!
5. Green Beans

Ok, that's done. Whew! Now I'll be tagging three people who based on what they've written in the past and/or how quirky they are, I think will have very interested food memories. No links for now until they actually tell me they are willing to do one!

1. Robin
   
2. Tigercub
3. Irieeyes

1. Cheong Fun -- my absolute favorite favorite food in the world. I will fight you for the last bite! When I left Hawaii for the mainland, I made a point of learning the name of this particular dim sum dish. This is the one dish I absolutely must have before I leave a dim sum restaurant. (And if your cheong fun sucks, your restaurant sucks!) Cheong fun is essentially really soft rice noodles with a filling inside it. My favorite is the shrimp cheong fun. Another reason why I think this dish is so addicting is because of the sauce that comes with the cheong fun. I still don't know what the sauce is -- but it's similar to soy sauce but on the sweet side. For some reason kids love this dish, I guess because it's so soft and easy to eat. I think there are adults who love it too!


2. Haw Flakes -- I don't actually know what haw is. Considering that we don't eat much junk food at home, I really don't know where I get these haw flakes from -- aka, my kitchen, friends, etc. But I do remember eating them stealthily, and in chinese school, where I get to be a kid without any parental reprisals. Considering that these are not candy, I am amazed at how much I love these things. The haw flakes are neither super sweet or rich. It was just flaky (you had to be careful not to break them up in too many little pieces), one piece fits perfectly on the tongue, and when you bite it, it's nice and chewy. I'm really curious as to whether this is a local thing or a Chinese thing. I'm guessing that like all local things in Hawaii, it's probably both.

3. Condensed Milk on Toast -- for this memory I have to thank my aunty, who is not as strict as my parents are. When I helped her out at her chinese fast-food restaurant, I learned just how tasty condensed milk can be on toast. I was so addicted to this stuff even my aunt warned me not to put so much of it on my toast. This is a very chinese/taiwanese/hong kong dish. I've seen this dish served at a taiwanese boba shop in New York Chinatown. But it's really easy and cheap to make it in your own kitchen. (Plus you can add as much condensed milk as you want!!) Instructions: Open a can of condensed milk, take a spoon and scoop the thick milk onto toast. Open your mouth, bite it and chew!! Condensed milk also goes really well with tea, or even hot water alone!!

4. Chocolate Dream Cake -- I don't usually like cake, so I don't know why the memory of this particular cake sticks out in my mind. It could be the fact that this is the same cake my mom buys for my birthday several years in a row. The chocolate dream cake has white frosting and flat brown confetti-like sprinkles all over. Inside, the cake is just dark brown and moist. I still see it in bakeries in Hawaii -- St. Germain's in Ala Moana, etc. I don't think it's so much the taste of the cake that draws me, but rather the memories of that cake. Birthday cakes were just one of the more happier memories I have of my childhood.

5. 50 cents Nacho and Slush -- I thought of this while riding the bus home from downtown today. When I was in first grade, Fridays was Nachos and Slush day. The JPOs (Junior Public Officers for those of you who didn't go to public school in Hawaii!) had a fundraiser and sold nachos and slush for fifty cents each. I remember watching my classmates wistfully and trying to ignore the fact that they were happily eating nachos and slush. Those were long afternoons waiting for school to end and the buses to arrive to take me away from all the happy people chomping on their food. Despite my woebegone memories of Nachos and Slush Day, I must have had tried a nacho from someone's dish because I remember the nachos being just melted velveeta cheese and chips. I also remember someone throwing up because they had too much slush to eat. (I don't think it was me even though I remember the horror of that sight and teachers getting upset.) I think a little bit of that envy still carries over today. Yeah, you know those people who eat take out food everyday -- I get envious of them since I always bring home lunch. Although my lunches are much healthier and definitely cheaper to make, a crispy, cheesy sandwich packed full of fresh veggies just looks better. I guess some things just never change.

not all tacos are created equal- it's a taco shop and robertos

so last saturday we drove around looking for a place to eat. nearly overcome by our hunger pangs, we decided to stop at this restaurant called "it's a taco shop." i guess the name is for those who otherwise wouldn't figure out what type of food they serve.

the taco shop is located in point loma on 3910 W Point Loma Blvd. there is a place where you can go inside and order food as well as a drive-through if you're inclined to eat a taco on the go. what i find unusual about the interior of this taco shop is that there were prison bars at the order window. i saw what looked like a bullet hole in the window. i'm not sure this is the kind of place you might want to go late at night!!

the taco shop offered the typical fare of mexican food seen on most menus. the prices were neither cheaper or more expensive than other taco shops. we ordered a pollo asada burrito and a fish burrito. when our order finally arrived, i was impressed by the heat of the tortilla. a hot tortilla just seems more enticing than a lukewarm tortilla! we took a bite into our own burritos.the fish burrito was ok -- they were pretty skimpy on the lettuce. i also didn't taste any sauce in the fish burrito. i thought the fish burritos at roberto's in point loma (see below) was much better. essentially the fish burrito was like eating frozen fish sticks and days old lettuce wrapped up in a hot burrito. it's a nice attempt if it was something i made for myself at home, but definitely not food that i would go back to this taco shop for. the pollo asado burrito (chicken with spices) was better. however, it was a bit too salty and otherwise uninspiring.

overall, it's a good place to stop if you're hungry and can't make it to the next block for food. but the food is rather uninspiring, and if you already know of better mexican food restaurants nearby, it's probably better to go the extra mile and eat there.

where can you get better mexican food in point loma, you ask?

well, try another mexican restaurant, and tell me about it if you like it! but i also really like roberto's taco shop which is located off the 5 south exit going into point loma. it's on the same street and side as big lots, but if you passed big lots and walgreens, you've already gone too far. i can't be more specific with the address since it's a new location that doesn't have a physical address listed yet. but i'm really happy with the fish burritos i had there.

korean melon and an indepth analysis of why i adore mochi

recently i've been obsessed with korean food. i attribute my obsession to a korean soap opera named "dae jang geum" or "jewel in the palace." the soap opera is about a talented orphan girl who grows up to dominate the kitchen in the palace (which seems to the highest honor a woman can get in those days) and eventually becomes the first and only female doctor in the korean palace. i don't know much more than those details because i love the show so much that i'm watching it at the pace of a glacier melting. anyway, in the show, you can see the women competing against each other with their cooking competitions -- much of the food preparation shown on tv was too time consuming for me, but the devotion that they put into food have occasionally inspired me to cook elaborate dinners. that is, elaborate by my standards.

anyway, so we made a trip to the korean supermarket -- zion, this weekend because i wanted to pick up more korean seaweed, fermented soybean for tofu stew and korean pepper for simple kimchee dishes. in the produce section, i picked up a korean melon -- it's shaped like a papaya, has white stripes and looked like the picture on the right. my curiousity is also piqued by the fact that my dad was a produce worker at a supermarket, and he loves to bring home ripe fruits for us to eat. i don't think he has ever seen this melon before, so in the interest of discovering new melons that i can introduce to him if he ever visits san diego -- i figured i'd give it a try.

when you cut inside the melon, there are a lot of tiny seeds. the seeds are hard, and so i removed them and then took a bite out of its flesh. i don't think the melon was ripe enough, but the texture and taste reminded me a lot of honeydew melon that's not ripe yet. so there you have it, if you ever wondered what a korean melon tastes like, it tastes like honeydew, and it's probably best to let it sit on the counter a few days before cutting it open!

on sunday, we decided to check out the japanese mochi bakery, hogestsu in chula vista, thanks to the recommendation of mmm-yoso! in hawaii, or maybe it's just my workplace, people tend to bring snacks or tasty goodies to share with everyone at work. it's great because you get to find out where people buy some of the best stuff to eat. one afternoon, someone brought in a box of mochi from a los angeles japanese bakery. i can't for the life of me, remember what the name of the mochi bakeries were, but there were two of them located next to each other in gardena, los angeles. the mochi, made fresh, were the best things i've ever tasted.

what i love about fresh mochi is the way it melts in your mouth. it's also nowhere as fattening as some of my other delicious things in life, such as creme brulee, ice cream, creme brulee, chocolate chip cookies, creme brulee, haupia, liliha bakery cream puffs and creme brulee. but there's also a very "clean" taste to mochi -- i love mochi for the same reason i love fruits-- there's no overwhelming taste of sweet mushiness that comes with eating rich things like chocolate, but rather a clean cut taste of simple sweetness. in the throes of mental bliss after eating five mochis at once, i turned to my significant other (hereinafter, known as oo) and said that i'd take five mochis over a treat at extraordinary dessert anytime. i am truly a simple girl at heart!

the first mochi i tried was the atom-shaped green mochi -- i'm not sure how to describe it since i don't really know what it's made of, but it's super sweet and gooey in the middle. the green "atoms" has a firm bite -- it was sort of like biting into candied fruit. i didn't like this too much.

the pink mochi with the yellow dot was a cake mochi-- i wasn't very fond of it because i don't like cake in general. the cakes at extraordinary desserts is the only exception to my dislikes for cakes. the interior of the cake mochi contained an azuki bean filling. i like the filling a lot, but i didn't think the smooth texture went well with the crumbly, dry cake texture.

the pink mochi with the brown filling is my absolute favorite. i loved the way this mochi melts in my mouth. the filling is sweet but not too sweet. it was a bite out of this particular mochi that led me to declare mochi "king" over any treat at extraordinary desserts. it's simple to look at but so very tasty.

next, i tried the green tea mochi with azuki red bean filling. i like this mochi a lot because the mochi covering distinctly tastes like green tea. it's also really pretty to look at. but i though the mochi was a bit on the dry side compared ot the above pink mochi with brown filling. maybe it was an older mochi.

this last mochi is my favorite. it's covered with a brown dusty powder that tastes like peanut butter. the inside is filled with a smooth azuki filling which i liked better than the chunky filling in the green tea mochi. this mochi also melted in my mouth. i love eating fresh mochi!!

in conclusion, i was extremely happy that i got my fill of really good mochi. i think that i will probably stick to the traditional mochi since i love the way it melts in my mouth. i am also extremely happy that we won't have to drive to LA every time we have a craving for mochi!!