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!!