LE GRENIER - London, UK

This French restuarant was recommended by a London based coworker. It offers only a three-course fixe prix dinner. They have a list of apps, entrees and dessert and you can pick and choose what you want.

I had the soup of the day - onion soup, entree of the day - halibut and sorbet for dessert. The soup was very good, lots of cheese and not too salty which seems to be the norm whenever I've had onion soup.

The entree was good, halibut with potatoes and fresh vegetables. But I could not get over how much butter was used in the dish. It was so rich. I thought I was back in Mississippi, except that this food was prepared infinitely better!

After all that rich food, the sorbet was a welcome finish. The cost? 31.50 pounds, about $62 dollars. Cost aside, the food was very good. However, considering cost, it was just good. Then again, given the "normal" prices I saw for meals in London, this was not expensive at all.

Overall rating - 3 sumos

MALMAISON ROOM SERVICE - London, UK

I only order room service when it's on the company's dime. I stayed at this hotel during the "work" portion of my trip. For a starter I had the greeen salad with walnuts and blue cheese dressing. It was super rich and very tasty.

My entree was steak frites with garlic butter. Mmm, butter.

And....I had an extra order of frites. They must have been fried in tallow 'cause they were gooood! The Europeans certainly know how to make tasty frites.

Overall rating - 3.5 sumos

JELLIED EELS - Harrod's Department Store

I first heard of this on Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods show on the Travel Channel. So of course I had to see for myself.
Yes, they looked exactly like you imagined. Chopped up bits of eel suspended in clear gelatin. I actually read that historically eels were quite abundant in the Thames and were a common food source.

Where these particular eels hailed from I have no idea. Did I try them? Um, no I did not. If they had lime flavored jellied eels on the other hand...

FOX INN - Broadwell, Glouchestershire - UK

I found this restaurant in Rick Steve's guidebook. I was staying nearby in another village called Stow-on-the-Wold. This was a picture perfect area in the Cotswolds.

There are walking paths throughout the area and the restaurant was about a 1 mile walk past small farms and cottages. It was summertime and still light out around 8 when I stopped for dinner. After my not so good luck with fish and chips in the UK I tried the daily special - Roast beef.

It was 7.95 pounds. In 2007 the exchange rate was around 2 pounds to the dollar, so this cost me about 16 USD. Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, green beans and the ubiquitous peas. Looks great, doesn't it?

Unfortunately, the beef was way overdone for my taste. I don't know if it was a British custom or not, but my experience with British food was underwhelming. I did have some good meals on my visit, but at French and Italian restaurants.

Overall rating - 2 sumos

THE GEORGE INN - Lacock, Wiltshire - UK

Yes, it's been over a year since the last post. Was waiting for my fellow contributors....so anyways let's start with my trip to the UK. Just south of Bath, the unfortunately named village of Lacock.

I stopped here for lunch on my way to see Stonehenge. Now Stonehenge has its own amazingly interesting history. Being a big fan of Spinal Tap just adds extra flavor to seeing it! But back to the food. This being my first trip to the UK I just had to try the fish and chips. Well let me tell you...it's better in the States. I tried it three times in three different restaurants. This was the last time. It was the best of the three.

After that I stopped wasting my meals and tried other dishes....to mixed success. What you see below was the typical fish and chips and accompanying peas. I've never seen quite a pea-happy food culture as the Brits. To each his own I suppose.

Overall rating - 2 sumos

MAMMY'S CUPBOARD - Natchez, MS

You can't miss this place. It's on the east side of Highway 61 just south of Natchez. They have daily specials, along with sandwiches and salads. But the main draw is their homemade desserts.

I went with the daily special, which on Fridays is chicken pot pie, with a 'layered salad' and cornbread. I have never come across a layered salad before. Apparently it's a regional dish, consisting of iceberg lettuce, hard-boiled eggs, peas, bacon, and cheddar cheese in a mayonnaise-based dressing.
The chicken pot pie was good. You can tell they used plenty of butter in the crust. Along with the well dressed salad I probably got six months worth of my daily recommended saturated fat intake in one meal!
But I couldn't stop there...may as well go whole hog. I got a slice of the lemon icebox pie. Again, you'll never complain about portion sizes here. The slice was big enough for two. I ended up taking half to go to eat later. It was very good, rich and lemony.

Overall rating - 3 sumos

LAEL'S - Vicksburg, MS

Finally, finally, the southern cooking I've been searching for the entire three months that I was in Mississippi! Lael's is a takeout only, meat and sides lunch and dinner place located in a shopping center just southwest of I-20 and Halls Ferry Rd.

If you're familiar with the takeout style bento places in Hawaii, then you'll see the similarities at Lael's. The menu is on the wall, step up to the steam table and pick out what you want.

I had a hard time picking between the fried chicken and the ribs. I could have gotten a combo, but I was on a diet :-) !

The owner was a wonderful woman who did all of the cooking from scratch. There was no place like this in Biloxi, and believe me, I tried my damnedest to find one.

I ended up getting the ribs, with rice, mixed greens (turnip, mustard and collard), potato salad and cornbread. I think the entire meal was $6.99. These ribs were so good - meaty, moist, perfectly cooked. They put The Shed to shame.

Since there were no tables to sit down at, I drove a short distance to a park overlooking the Mississippi River and enjoyed my feast. This was the single best meal I ate the entire time I was here. Please patronize this restaurant if you ever happen to be in the area.
M-Sat 1100-800. Sun 1100-500. 601 629-4335

Overall rating - 3.5 sumos

DEW DROP INN - Mobile, AL

This is a casual diner known for their hot dogs and cheeseburgers, which singer Jimmy Buffett, who was a Mobile native, credits with starting his love for burgers.

Although they had typical southern dishes and daily specials, like fried catfish, I decided to try a couple of chili dogs with a side of cole slaw.


If you look at the picture below, you can kind of make out the type of chili they use. It's a very dry, crumbly type that I've never come across before.

I actually didn't care for it very much. They say that ex-Mobile-ers come from miles around to get their hot dog fix. I grew up on chili dogs from Tommy's and Pink's. Maybe it's just what one is used to, but the chili dogs from the Dew Drop Inn were, as Jules would say, "ain't in the same league, ain't even the same sport" as my favorites.

Overall rating - 2.5 sumos

EL SALTILLO - Biloxi, MS

As Yuki's was supposed to be the "best" Japanese restaurant in the area, El Saltillo was said to be the "best" Mexican restaurant in the greater Mississippi coast region. Kind of like saying that February is the best month in hell.

Someone ordered the enchiladas. Now doesn't this look like one of those $0.99 Banquet frozen dinners?

I ordered the carnitas. Now one thing I could never complain about was the portion size in the deep south. You certainly get plenty of food for your money. What you don't get, on the other hand, is flavor. The carnitas were just barely spiced, the wrong cut of pork was used, and it didn't have the crispy outside, tender inside of really well prepared carnitas.

And I thought the Mexican restaurants in Denver sucked (which they do).

Overall rating - 2 sumos

YUKI'S - Biloxi, MS

Now who'd have thought that you could get sushi in the deep south...not me. Then again, with a military base nearby you can usually find a variety of ethnic foods to serve the hungry population when they get tired of chow hall SOS.

Maria was an expat Samoan from Hawaii who worked on base. "Is there anywhere to get local grinds around here" I asked? Not bloody likely, but she said that there was a sushi place nearby. I skeptically asked if it was any good. "It's okay" she said. That was pretty much the theme the entire time I was down here. The vast majority of places were "okay," no more, no less.

At that point I knew I was tempting the food gods, but I had to try some sushi. I ordered the tempura/teriyaki dinner, plus two pieces each of salmon and yellowtail. The sushi was not bad, nice big pieces and flavorful. As for the dinner….hmmm, where to start? The tempura shrimp was about five parts batter to one part shrimp, like the kind you used to get at Far East, not that that's a bad thing. But to paraphrase Vince Vega, "I just got back from Tokyo." Tempura should be ethereal, like gossamer. It should dissolve as it hits your tongue. This batter was way too heavy.

But here's the topper, they served long-grain rice with dinner! Everybody knows that long-grain is Chinese rice and medium-grain is Japanese rice! What country is this? I could not have been more shocked if the sushi chef was wearing a Klan outfit. I guess I won't be eating any more Japanese food until I'm back home.

Overall rating - 2.5 sumos

ACME OYSTER HOUSE - New Orleans

Not all restaurants have reopened post-Katrina, even though it's been almost two years now. I read that Anthony Bourdain ate here after Katrina, so we went to check it out.

Lisa and I split a dozen oysters. This was only the second time that I have had raw oysters. They were okay, definitely fresh, but they were a little gritty. I wonder if it had to do with where they were harvested, or with the preparation. I first time I had oysters, at Emeril's in Vegas, they weren't gritty at all.

For my main course I had the crawfish etoufee. I was not impressed. I think they used minute rice in the dish. I've never had etoufee before, but it's supposed to be more spicy than gumbo. I thought it was just okay.

Overall rating - 2.5 sumos

CAFE DU MONDE - New Orleans

So I find myself stuck in Biloxi, Mississippi for three months, just west of the "Redneck Riviera." The food on base at Keesler is not fit for humans, so weekends and many weeknights find us checking out the eateries in the local and surrounding areas. The first weekend found us in New Orleans, since I had never been there before and I figured this was the most likely place for quality food. First stop, the Cafe Du Monde for their famous beignets and chicory coffee.

How was it? Well, drop dough in hot oil and top with enough powdered sugar to shoot a Scarface sequel...and it was pretty good. Of course, if I came here towards the end of my stay, after eating fried food for three months straight, and I may well have had a different opinion.

I ordered the regular black coffee, instead of the cafe au lait, because I wanted to see how much the added chicory added/detracted from the flavor of the brewed coffee. It wasn't that great. In fact, it was fairly bitter, which may have to do more with the quality of the bean and length of time the coffee had been sitting around.


Overall rating - 2.5 sumos

THE SHED - Ocean Springs, MS

The Shed is known amongst the locals as being one of the best BBQ places in the area. It's just north of interstate 10, but you'd think you were in the deepest south as the restaurant is in a wooded area and you imagine hearing banjo music.

I ordered the ribs/chicken combo, with cole slaw and potato salad as sides. Both meats were overcooked, especially the ribs. The sides were average, nothing more. I don't know if we caught them on an off-night (it was a Saturday), but if this was the best bbq in the area, then I truly feel sorry for the local residents.

Overall rating - 2 sumos

YOSHINO SUSHI - Tokyo

This restaurant is located in Nihonbashi. The owner's son and my cousin's husband went to school together. With that kind of connection, I made this the celebratory last meal of my trip.

This area is fairly quiet at night, and the restaurant only stayed open until 9:30. Usually that's plenty late for me, but my friend had a full night planned. This was a great way to start. Got the omakase, or Chef's choice. These are just pictures of my plates. They brought us one per person, so we had six plates between the two of us!

The specialty at Yoshino is baby clam sushi. It was really good. Very tender and flavorful. The food just kept coming and coming. I don't know if this was the norm, or if we got special treatment. That's what I'm thinking. We had so much food I was stuffed, and I never get full on just sushi and sashimi.

Below from left to right is: top - salmon eggs, tamago (egg), squid, bonito, middle - flounder, maguro (tuna) , toro (fatty tuna), hamachi (yellowtail), bottom - tekkamaki, hamachi, ebi (shrimp), and unagi (eel).

I don't remember how much it cost. Another friend joined us and I think we had a total of three beers. With all that food and the beers I think it was around $80, a bargain considering everything we got.

Overall rating - 4 sumos

TSUKIJI FISH MARKET - Tokyo

I couldn't go all the way to Japan without visiting the famous Tsukiji fish market. Apparently one used to be able to view the fresh tuna auction, which takes place at 5:30 am. I understand that tourists aren't allowed to view the auction anymore.


That makes sense to me. The first thing I thought when I got there was that the entire market should be off limits to tourists. It's a place of work, and I did not feel comfortable wandering through there. With such narrow passages, even though I tried to be conscious of the workers, there just isn't enough room to keep from getting in their way.


I tried to get up early, but I didn't get there until 7:00 am. By then, the activity was winding down. I can't imagine how busy it must be earlier in the day.

UNKNOWN - Kyoto

I went to this restaurant on the way back from Kiyomizu Temple. It's either on Kiyomizu-zaka or Chawan-zaka. I was starving. I should have eaten before I went to the temple. That's my problem when I'm sightseeing. I want to see as much as I can and often end up eating at odd hours wherever I happen to be.

Anyhow, the prices were right and I needed some good old japanese comfort food.

I got the omelet with fried rice inside, with "ketchup sauce."

900 yen, about $7.50 US. I think it was the cheapest meal I had in Japan. I don't know if it was because I was starving, but this really hit the spot. Nothing like fried rice and eggs!

Overall rating - 3 sumos

OMEN - Kyoto

This restaurant was recommended by my guidebook for its vegetable udon. It's located right off Shijo-dori in central Kyoto, on Gokomachi. It's amazing that right off this busy street, you step into another world, like you've just walked into a country inn.


They did not have an english menu, and luckily for me, there was a sole employee would could speak english, which was light years more advanced than my japanese.

I used to love udon as a kid, but haven't eaten it in years. Here they serve it deconstructed, you take the udon noodles and dip them in the sauce, accompanied by vegetables. It was good, for udon, but it was just udon, you know? A bit bland.

I knew that wasn't going to fill me up, so I ordered tempura also. I thought it would be a side dish, but it cost the same as a regular meal. The tempura was very good. I think each dish was about $11, so the total bill was $22.

Overall rating - 3 sumos

KYUSHU JANGARA RAMEN - Tokyo

This is a chain of ramen shops. We went to the one in the Omotesando shopping district, near the Harajuku station. Apparently, there are multiple styles of ramen. Who knew? I grew up on the dried kind, four for a buck in the soup aisle.

I believe this one specializes in Hakata-style, pork bone broth, which produces a rich, dense, flavorful base. Not at all like the powdered stuff that comes in the supermarket ramen. My friend took me here. He's an expat from LA who has lived in Tokyo for about five years now.

If I ever had a picture in my head of a typical ramen shop in Tokyo, it would have looked exactly like this. That's something I love about traveling, you walk into a place like this and you get a snapshot of the culture in a meal.

They have an english menu. We got the 1A, kind of like getting a burger with everything. I think it was 980 yen, about $8.30 US. As you can see, it's cash only, something I found more often than not in most of the restaurants here.

They have all kinds of options, for example you can order an extra serving of noodles for a marginal cost (usually 90 or 100 yen) - less than a buck. Yep, that's what we did. As soon as they brought our bowls out, we ordered up another serving of noodles. You can also order extra broth if you run out.

There's all kinds of condiments on the counter for you to dress up your ramen. I added garlic and pickled ginger to mine. That's seasoned "spicy" cod roe submerged at 3 o'clock in the bowl. I'm not quite sure how they make it spicy, and I don't really want to know. Definitely an acquired taste...and texture.

Overall rating - 3.5 sumos

AJI NO MIYAGAWA - Tokyo

This restaurant is located in the basement of the Daimaru department store, next to the Tokyo train station. We came here for lunch because it was near the office. There were a ton of restaurants here, so we just picked one and went inside.

As you can see from the picture, the menu was all Japanese. So we had to go to Plan B - point at the plastic food models in the front display case.



This being my second meal in Japan, I had to get the tempura lunch. It was damn good. The tempura batter was very light, almost ethereal. This is how all tempura should be. The bowl in the upper right of the photo below was chawanmushi, or egg custard. Now this was another first for me. I didn't realize that this was a savory dish, not a sweet custard. Thinking it was, I saved it for last. The custard is opaque, and has bits of meat, seafood and whatnot suspended in the custard. I bit into something that had an extremely fishy taste - tasted like Long Beach. I think it may have been an eyeball. I'll never know, and that's probably a good thing.


Overall rating - 3.5 sumos

KATSU TOKI SUSHI DAI - Tokyo

This is not the same Sushi Dai restaurant that is inside the Tsukiji fish market. This restaurant, however, is very close to Tsukiji. I'm hoping that someone who reads this can identify the exact location for me. We were taken here by a coworker who works at our Tokyo office, and I have no idea where we were, other than it was close to the market.

This was the first sushi I tried, on my first trip to Japan. So we went all out. We got the omakase, or Chef's choice. I tried stuff I never order, like Uni (Sea Urchin). I figured if it didn't taste good here, I'll never order it anywhere else. Our first dish were these tiny, whole shrimps. They tasted very clean, "of the sea" as they say.

The deal here was that you could get another piece of something you really liked, or you could get the uni. I tried the uni, and I was underwhelmed. Given the cost, I wouldn't try it again unless I find myself back in Japan.

We had a piece of tuna, that the chef very barely seared with a blowtorch. It was the best piece of tuna I've ever had, ever. At this point, in all my eating experiences, it may have been the single tastiest piece of food I have ever eaten. Yeah, it was that good.

Unfortunately, I have no idea how much this meal cost. We had just flown into Tokyo the night before, and had gone into the office the next day and did not get a chance to get to an ATM. Being typical tourists, we assumed that we could pay with a credit card. Not bloody likely. So our Tokyo coworker ended up paying.

Overall rating - 4.5 Sumos, near perfection.

Roach Coach - Akihabara District, Tokyo

Check it out, a roach coach selling doner kebab in Japan! Doner is a Turkish gyro, and I ate these all the time when I was stationed in Germany. I wish I had tried one here, but we had just finished eating lunch at an all-you-can-eat curry buffet and I was stuffed! Next time....

CHI-CHAN - Hiroshima, Japan

Okonomiyaki is kind of like chop suey on a crepe. It's a common working-class style dish and you can find restaurants where you can either cook it yourself, or where it's made to order. This restaurant is located in Hiroshima's Okonomi-mura, 3-3 Nakamachi, which consists of two floors of stalls selling the same thing, okonomiyaki.

I ordered the special, which included a mix of cabbage, noodles, bean sprouts, shrimp and squid, topped with a fried egg. I had thought that the dished was topped with a flourish of mayo, which would have made it better, but at this place, the only optional topping was a brown sauce, which was kind of like a watery tonkatsu sauce.


It cost 1050 yen, or about $9, certainly one of the cheapest meals I had in Japan. In the picture above, I've already eaten one-quarter, with one-quarter on my plate and another half still on the grill. It was a lot of food, but it wasn't to my taste. I'm not a big bean sprouts fan. I would probably not try this again, but am now able to check this dish off on my list of dishes to try.

Overall rating - 2 sumos

CATHAY AIRLINES - 1st class dinner

I'm including this because I never fly first class, unless work is paying for it, and who am I to deviate from policy? This flight was from Hong Kong to Tokyo. You're actually handed a menu and get to choose what you want....on an airplane, what a concept! From the top of the photo we have "mugwort soba noodles," "salmon tataki," bread and "honey roasted carrot with orange segment and black olives." No, I have no idea what mugwort has to do with soba noodles.


For an entree, I chose the "Grilled fish fillet with bean curd skin, japanese rice and mixed japanese vegetables." I figured since I was on my way to Japan, I should prepare myself gastronomically.


The dessert course was cheese and fresh seasonal fruit, plus these cool, tiny little Haagen-Dazs ice cream cups. Somehow I didn't get a picture of those, I guess I ate them too quickly.


Overall rating - 3 sumos

PO LIN MONASTERY - Hong Kong

The Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island is known for having the world's largest, seated Buddha statue made of bronze. With all those qualifiers, I'm sure that there is a plethora of "world's largest" Buddha statues throughout Asia.

There is a recently built tramway from the port that is much quicker than the old, but still running, bus service. There are banners hanging from each tramway support column that state "The path to enlightenment!" At Po Lin, the path first leads you through a bunch of shops. I guess Vegas casino designers got their inspiration here.


Besides the statue, the other thing that the Po Lin monastery is known for is its vegetarian meals. I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a vegetarian. But I figured, when in Po Lin...if anyone can make a tasty vege-meal it should be these folks, right? I was underwhelmed, and still hungry after everything was gone.

Overall rating - 2 sumos

LUK YU TEA HOUSE - Hong Kong

This is regarded as one of the best places in Hong Kong to get dim sum. The guidebooks say either to bring a local with you, or to come early, otherwise you may not get good service. Luckily for me, I had jet lag, so I was up with plenty of time to get there when they opened at 7 am. It's located at 24-26 Stanley St, in the Central District.


Since we got there right when they opened, it wasn't busy at all, and we got the food from the carts right out of the kitchen. It was all quite good. Much better than what you can find in Denver, but I didn't find it any better than what you can get in Alhambra or Monterey Park. I didn't pay but I remember it being a little pricey.

Overall rating - 3 sumos

TAO LEE YUEN - Hong Kong


This casual, diner style restaurant is located in the middle of the Temple Street Night Market, at 119 Temple St., Yau Ma Tei, in Kowloon. After spending a few hours perusing authentic Onega and Siwss Arny watches and wandering through what appeared to be a location set from a John Woo movie, it was time to eat.

For my first meal in Hong Kong, since it is just south of Canton (Guangzhou), I had to get the classic Cantonese (or at least Americanized Cantonese) dish of sweet and sour pork. It was a tough choice, as everything on the menu looked good. I splurged and got the set meal, which included soup, rice and tea.

The price was $36 HK dollars, or about $4.50. This was the best, cheapest meal I had while I was here. Good portion, freshly made, very tasty.

Overall rating - 3.5 sumos

EL GAVILAN - Arequipa, Peru

One of the mainstays of Peruvian cuisine was influenced by the large number of Chinese immigrants in the 19th century. Known as Chifa from the mandarin words "chi fan", meaning 'to eat rice,' these restaurants can be found throughout Peru. Although the best are supposedly in Lima, this restaurant was just down the street from our roach hotel. El Gavilan is located at 110 Calle Puente Bolognesi, just west of the Plaza de Armas.

As you can see from the picture below, the most expensive item on the menu was five sols, about $1.50...but I was on a budget!


I got the Fried Rice, or Arroz Chaufa, for the princely sum of three sols. The serving was huge, too much to finish, although believe me I tried. It wasn't up to the quality of say, Sam Woo's fried rice, but it was good.

Overall rating - 2.5 sumos

TASAICO - Arequipa, Peru


This bakery was on the same street as our "hotel" (I use that term loosely). I'm not sure what this place is called, but that's the name on the banner hanging across the entrance. The address is 126 Calle Puente Bolognesi, just west of the Plaza de Armas. They served mostly pastries, but also had a light menu.

Although the pastries looked good, typically in South America, I've found that they are not as moist compared to the U.S. I don't think it's due to freshness, I think it's because they don't use as much fat (or sugar) in their baking.

Instead, because I was still hungry, I got two hot dogs. They were one sol each, or about $0.30, what a country! They came dressed with ketchup, mayo?! and french-fried potato strips?!?! I don't know how much of that hot dog was meat, and how much was lips, lungs, snouts and rectums, but the price was right!

Overall rating - 2.5 sumos

CASABLANCA - Chivay, Peru

This is the first of three reviews from my trip to Peru in July, 2006. I had a lot more pictures, but due to an unfortunate camera "malfunction" I no longer have them. If I can digress for a moment to write about travel, the purpose of our trip was to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. We used Peru Treks and it was the highlight of the trip. You can read about the trek, as told by a fellow hiker here. After the trek, we went to visit the city of Arequipa and the town of Chivay, the "Gateway to Colca Canyon."

So should you ever find yourself on the way to Colca Canyon (which IMO was not worth the effort), you will surely find yourself spending the night in Chivay, a 2.5 hour (give or take) bus trip from Arequipa.

Casablanca is located in the ubiquitous Plaza de Armas, the address is 705. It's a small plaza, so you can't miss it.

This being my second trip to South America, I've found that you can find good, cheap and tasty pizzerias pretty much everywhere. In fact, some of the best pizza I've tasted has been at these small, mom-and-pop restaurants. No frozen ingredients, freshly made dough, wood-fired ovens, all for around 4 bucks.

I got a medium pizza with cheese, ham, garlic and onions, and a mixed salad. In Peru, the salads often consisted of a mixture of raw greens and cooked vegetables in a vinaigrette dressing, all for a couple of bucks. Everything tasted great.

Overall rating - 3.5 sumos.

FAR EAST CAFE (now Chop Suey Cafe) - Los Angeles

The Far East Cafe is an institution for any Japanese-American who lived in LA from the 30's and after WWII, up until the place closed due to damage after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Birthdays, weddings, funerals, any occasion to eat the uniquely Chinese food tailored for the Japanese palate. Almond Duck, Sweet and Sour Pork, and Hom Yu were always part of our order. I remember many occasions as a kid eating there with the extended family (grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins), sometimes getting to eat upstairs in the balcony which I thought was particularly cool.

And when I worked at Hayashi Automotive on 8th and Central, we would often make a food run on Friday nights to pickup our favorites to take home. Part of this was necessity, as even way back in 1983, it was impossible to get parking in front of the restaurant.

After the '94 quake, the building was red-tagged. Many stories developed about how the restaurant was going to be reopened, either by the original family, or some new owner who was going to keep the old recipes. Even after I moved to Denver, I would google "Far EastCafe" in the hope that I would find out that it was open and could revisit the place on my trips back to LA.

Well, 12 years later, it's finally reopened as the Chop Suey Cafe & Lounge. Hmm, "& Lounge" should have been my first warning. I was so excited about it, I told my family and friends to check it out and give me a review. I carved out time during my trip home at Xmas to go there.


My cousin was the first to visit. I anxiously awaited his email report. His first two words, "DON'T BOTHER!" I felt sick. What a damn shame. As I trust his sense of taste, I became the town crier and notified everyone I know. But, my friend's father wanted to go there for his birthday. Even after he told him about my cousin's experience.

So, the second opinion? "This place SUCKS!" It's funny that both my cousin and my friend's son said that they'd eat at Panda Express before they would ever eat here again...and believe me, that's the bottom of the barrel. So, there you have it, from two trusted guest reviewers. Do not eat here, period.

Overall rating - .5 a sumo, because if I gave it a no sumo rating, readers may think I forgot to rate it.

MANAGO HOTEL - Captain Cook, HI

We stopped at the Manago Hotel on the way back from visiting Hilo and Volcano National Park. It is written up in all of the guidebooks, for good reason. Even if the food wasn't an attraction, the hotel itself is worth a look.
It was started in the early 1900's and has a very unique, old-style character. It reminds me of the old Far East Cafe in L.A. and a low-budget version of the Fujiya Hotel in Japan.

Their dining room is open to all, in addition to hotel guests. Their signature dish is the pork chops, and all dinners come with three sides, served family style.



I believe the sides change periodically. The night we went, the sides were cooked cabbage, black beans and potato salad.

I think we all got the pork chops, except for my nephew, who tried the mahi-mahi. My feeling is, if the place specializes in that wonderful, magical animal, the pig, then that's what I'm gonna get.

I wasn't disappointed. Meaty, flavorful, good-sized, with just enough fat on the edge. Mmmm, pork chops. Overall rating - 3.5 sumos

TWO LADIES KITCHEN - Hilo, HI

Two Ladies is a small shop that sells manju. It's located at 274 Kilauea Ave.

I'm not a big fan, so I can't comment on the taste compared to any other place and won't assign a sumo rating. But if you like manju, this is the place on the Big Island to try.

KEN'S HOUSE OF PANCAKES - Hilo, HI

Ken's is located at 1730 Kamehameha Ave. and is open 24 hours a day. It gets pretty busy and we first tried to go here the evening after the Merrie Monarch Festival exhibition...couldn't even get into the parking lot.

So we made it a point to get there at 8 the next morning and were seated right away. They have an extensive menu and I wanted to try just about everything.

The portions are big, not quite as large as the Hawaiian Style Cafe. My brother-in-law had the #33, Rough Night Chili Cheese Omelette. There was nothing left on the plate.

My sister had the #5 Strawberry Pancakes. She liked it and thought the food quality was better than the Hawaiian Style Cafe.

I, of course had my usual, Portuguese Sausage, Eggs (over easy) and Rice. Yeah, the breakfast of champions! I could eat this everyday for breakfast, and I think I did the whole time I was in Hawaii. Thank goodness for Lipitor.

The service was good and quick. When we left at around 9, the place was packed. So go there early or off-hours. Overall rating - 4 sumos.

ITSU'S SHAVE ICE - Hilo, HI

Okay, Mike is catching up to me in reviews, so I need to clear my backlog of Big Island posts.

Itsu's is a plate lunch, shave ice and fishing tackle (not kidding) store in Hilo. It's on 810 Piilani St., across from the Edith Kanaka'ole Tennis Stadium, which as I'm sure you're all aware is where the annual Merrie Monarch Festival is held.

You apparently can't take food into the festival (though I didn't see any signs), so while we had time before the exhibition started, I walked across the street to Itsu's and had the beef stew (sorry, didn't get a picture) and a shave ice for dessert.

I don't know why, but they did not have my favorite flavor, cherry. That's inexcuseable in my book. Not that it kept me from getting something, I think I ended up with strawberry, which is a totally different red food coloring.

Still, I've never had a shave ice I didn't like. Overall rating - 3 sumos.

Crab House
Second Floor, West Side Of Pier 39 (Cross Street: near the Embarcadero)
San Francisco, CA 94133View Map
(415) 434-2722

Well it's been a busy two weeks. Been eating out a lot lately meeting friends. I had a friend come in from Denver for the weekend. She's been craving seafood since she's landlocked, so we decided to go to this place she loved. The weather was perfect for this restaurant. We got there about 4:00 pm on a sunday afternoon. There was no wait which was great. Looking at the billboards, this place was rated as one of the best crab restaurants in the city. I had to see this for myself. The view is really great at this restaurant so if you're looking for a good date restaurant (not a first date place) this is a place to go. When our appetizers came out the sun was setting over the golden gate bridge. Forgot to get a picture. I was too busy eating!


So we started off with drinks, a mojito, spicy bloody mary, and a riesling. Their mojitos are really good. We started off with a salad, crab chowder, garlic bread, a plate of mussels and a plate of their garlic dungeoness crabs. Just a word of warning. It says that it serves 4 but that's not 4 hearty eaters like us happy sumos. Plus everything's a la carte at this restaurant.


The salad was a ceasar salad with romaine lettuce hearts. Talk about low maintenance salad. But it was pretty good.

The soup was a little bland, but a had a big chunk of crab meat on top. Personally I thought it was to make up for the lack of taste.

I don't like mussels but my wife said they were good.


Then the main course came out, the crabs. This is when my 10 month old daughter decided to start throwing a fit. I ate about 3 legs when she started whining. So while my wife ate. By the time I started eating more than 2/3 of the plate was gone. =( Even though the crab was deep friend in a garlic sauce, you didn't taste much of it in the crab meat. So the shell was tasty but not the meat. =) But I was still hungry so I ordered another whole crab which I polished off myself.

So in the end, when the bill came, for 5 adults and 1 child, it came out to $315. THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN DOLLARS! Can you believe that? I mean the view was nice, but not THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN DOLLARS! Save yourself $200 and go to Costco and buy yourself some king crab legs. Sure it's not as sweet as the dungeoness but it'll definitely fill you up. I prefer king crab to snow crab or dungeoness any day of the week.


So my recommendation: 1 out of 4 sumos

Beard Papa
99 Yerba Buena Ln (Cross Street: Mission Street between Third and Fourth Streets)
San Francisco, CA 94103View Map
(415) 978-9972

This restaurant just has desserts. Cream puffs to be exact. The story behind the logo is that the guy is supposed to look like a santa and he's supposed to look like a cream puff.

So anyways. When we walked up to the place I saw this long line, about 25 deep. They have cream puffs & Eclairs. I tried one eclair and one cream puff. Unless you have a massive craving for chocolate don't get the eclair. It's SO sweet. It's smothered with chocolate. Too rich for my tastes. You can order the cream puffs & eclairs with vanilla, chocolate, caramel, green tea, pumpkin, milk tea or strawberry. I tried the vanilla filled and a chocolate filled. Mmmm. The chocolate was very sweet. If you can't tell I don't like very sweet desserts. But the cream puff was pretty good. I prefer a hot krispy kreme though.



So my sumo rating is: 3 out of 4 sumos

Everett & Jones
126 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94607-3716View Map
510-663-2350

It seems lately I've been going out to eat more. Gotta keep the other sumo writers off my back! I was watching the travel channel a couple of months ago when they were doing an episode on the top 10 bbq places in the U.S. Everett & Jones was rated in the top 10 and since they were close by, I had to go try it out. Everett & Jones has several locations now (even one in Sacramento), but I had to go to the original to try it out. It's located right near Jack London Square in Oakland. It's a good place to just walk around and window shop. The restaurant is in an older building so it gives it a rustic feel perfectly fitting the type of food they serve. When you walk in, smack dab in the middle of the restaurant is this huge bbq oven (for lack of a better word) with a huge fan over it. Good thing they have high vaulted ceilings.

On to the food.
I decided to get a ribs & beef brisket combo with a side of sweet yams, baked beans and cornbread. Gotta have some lemonade with it also, of course. The portions are definitely huge. So be prepared to eat. I first devoured the brisket. With the first bite, though, I knew how the rest was going to be. E & J's smokes their meat. Which is fine (I'm not a big fan of smoked bbq), but the meat was overcooked. Even burnt to a crisp. Charcoal is not very appetizing. And then there was the sauce. I'm a very big sauce guy. If the sauce is good... you're set. But their sauce was just mediocre. MY special bbq sauce is better than that. Needless to say, I was very disappointed. Top 10? Maybe top 10 in jack london square (considering they only have 6 or 7 restaurants there). =) The spare ribs did come out better though. I would recommend getting the ribs over the brisket. They didn't even have green beans or corn. What kind of bbq place doesn't have green beans or corn? They didn't even have wonder bread! Humph!




Sumo rating: 1.5 out of 4

Ettore's European Bakery
2376 Fair Oaks Blvd Sacramento, CA 95825-4741 View Map 916-482-0708

Ok, just to start off, this is one of my favorite restaurants in Sacramento. I mean their desserts are just divine. We always get birthday cakes from here. Their fruit basket is delicious! Their napoleans are good too but not like Andre's in Denver. Andre's has THE best napoleans I have EVER tasted. I'll have to try some in France sometime to see if they are any better there.

So back to Ettore's. This is a great place if you want a lighter lunch. They have a great salad sampler there and they bake bread fresh daily. The day we went, my wife and I had lunch so we sampled a little bit of soup and some salad. This day I had the chicken corn chowder. It was good, just a little too soupy and not thick enough.


Youngsun had the salad sampler with a curry chicken salad, pasta salad and a fruit salad. They always serve at least 1 chicken salad every day. The chicken curry salad was a little unusual, but flavorful (if you like curry). The curry wasn't overpowering so you don't have to stay away from this one. The fruit salad was fresh and sweet. The pasta salad was a little bland, but overall it was a good balance.

You know me I like hearty meals, but this is a nice change from the usual. Plus it gives you an excuse to have one of their desserts. I'm telling you, if you're in town, you HAVE to try their desserts.

Overall rating: 3.5 out of 4 sumos for the food.

Crawdad's River Cantina
1375 Garden Hwy (Cross Street: Gateway Oaks Drive)
Sacramento, CA 95833View Map
(916) 929-2268



I took my wife and daughter to Crawdad's a couple of weeks ago since we haven't gone out to a nice restaurant in a while. This restaurant is a great place to enjoy a view of the river here in Sac. It's right on the water on a dock that will rise in the event of a flood. So no damage to the facilities. During last year's torrential rain, the restaurant just floated up along with the rest of the dock. So don't worry about any mold from flooding.

On to the food. Well I forgot to take pix of the food before we started eating. I decided to have the steak sandwich. The nice thing about this sandwich was that it was big chunks of steak not strips of steak.



Youngsun had the Jambalaya (crawdad tails, cajun sausage, vegetables and creole rice). It was a little too spicy for me though. She said it was really good though.



The food was a little pricey though. For 2 of us it was about $35. So although the food was good, we thought the food was a little too overpriced. I'm more of a $5-10/meal/person kind of guy. Youngsun's a cheapo too! =)

Overall rating: 3 sumos

Kings Land Chinese Seafood Restaurant , 2200 West Alameda Avenue, Denver, CO

Yum Yum, Dim Sum!

Today we satisfied our dim sum cravings at our favorite, Kings Land Chinese Seafood Restaurant. The other place is good too, but it doesn’t beat Kings Land, especially since they don’t have the signature green beans that we all love.

So we started out with the green beans, and followed those up with various dim sum: Har Gau (Thoy’s favorite, the tiny shrimp dumplings with the translucent wrappers), siu mai (my favorite, the little shrimp-pork-mushroom dumplings with the carrot in the middle), Potstickers (the seared pork dumplings that Marnie favors), gooey rice pancakes with shrimp in the middle snipped with scissors (we miss you Mike and always eat these in honor of you!!!), seafood dumplings with shrimp and scallops, shrimp and leek dumplings, eggplant stuffed with shrimp topped with a black bean sauce, bean curd yummies stuffed with chicken and veggies (the brown things), and these lovely little shrimp balls coated with glutinous rice, that were something new today we tried on a whim.

As usual, we ate heartily (some of us ordered rice on the side) and drank lots of tea to aid in the digestion. The two happy dim sum eaters with their chopsticks are Kathy on the left and Thoy on the right. No dessert today. We also ordered an entire fried flounder and totally demolished it! I apologize that I didn't get a picture of it before we killed it, but you can see that potentially it was very lovely. It was floating in a sweet brown sauce and topped with chopped green onions and jalapenos - Wow! There was nothing but bones left when were finished with it and I won't publish the picture I took of the skeleton - the waiter who knows us was staring suspicially at us anyway, because we have been coming there as a pack since 2003 and this is the first time we've pulled out a camera and started snapping photos. Anyway, I highly recommend this local favorite which came dangerously close to being a victim of WalMart sprawl - all these successful businesses started and run by immigrants were going to be razed for a Super WalMart before the neighbors and customers went ricky-tick.

Overall Rating - 4 Sumos

New Saigon Restaurant, Denver

We had good food and boba drinks at New Saigon restaurant recent, on South Federal Boulevard in the Vietnamese area of town. New Saigon has been around since at least the 80’s, so they must be cooking it up right. Location: 630 Federal Boulevard. Me, Eric, Thoy and Mitch started out with Vietnamese Eggrolls. Usually I eat the pork version but Thoy wanted shrimp, and they are remarkably similar. Grab a piece of eggroll, put it on a lettuce leaf, add bean sprouts, carrot, cucumber, mint leaves and cilantro, and roll it up into a kind of "Vietnamese Burrito." Dunk it in the fish sauce and enjoy.

I had the Combination Noodle Bowl, which has a lot of the same elements as the eggroll dish: A bowl of rice noodles with carrot, cucumber, bean sprouts, cilantro and mint leaves, that is topped with perfectly grilled marinated chicken, beef and shrimp, then ground peanutes. Served with fish sauce. It was really good, a lot of food. Order it if you are really hungry. It's a total explosion of a lot of different flavors in your mouth.

Mitch had a bowl of the Vietnamese soup. It looked really good, but I didn't get a review from him so I have to go by what I saw. A huge bowl of broth chock full of noodles and vegetables; there was a piece of fried yam sticking up from the side, that's what you see in the image.

Here's Eric's review of his dish and an image: "I don't remember the name of the dish but it was deep-fried scallops with peppers and onions. It was pretty good, nice and tasty, good sized portion. The worst part was that I took half of it in a doggie bag, but in my rush to go home on Friday I left it at work. I was really looking forward to eating it again for dinner."

Here's Thoy's review of her dish and an image: "Some Seafood Dish - Scallops, Shrimp and Lobster sautéed with mix vegetables - presents well, but a okay dish. More like a Chinese dish than Vietnamese. Would probably be a great dish for someone whose not Asian. I may have liked it better if I had ordered it spicy... I love spicy Asian dishes."

After lunch we ordered boba drinks to go - I had the passionfruit with coconut jellies, Mitch had coconut pineapple, Eric had something else fruity, and Thoy had her signature smelly Durian fruit, which I tried again. Makes the car smell like gasoline. The first time I tried it I can only say "Onion Smoothy." I tried it again, because I understand that it must be an acquired taste, and it was a little better, but still an acquired taste.

Overall rating - 4 sumos

Wow it looks like someone reads our blog other than us! In response to your comment, Alan, we are 4 friends who either work or worked at Janus Capital in Denver. The other 3 members are still there, I jumped ship and moved out to Sacramento to run a beauty supply business. But I still enjoy eating out, just not anywhere of note.

TEX DRIVE IN

Tex's is a casual, plate lunch place in Honokaa. It's on Pakalana St., just north of Hwy 19. There's also a second location in Pahala, on the south end of Hawaii. They are known for their malasadas, or Portugeuse style donuts. We stopped here after visiting Waipio Falls. After hiking down (and back up) to the valley, we were in serious calorie deficit.


The menu looked good, but since we ate a huge breakfast at Hawaiian Style Cafe, we just ordered malasadas. Mmmm, malasadas!




They make three kinds, plain, bavarian creme and strawberry. We got a dozen mixed.



I had the plain and the strawberry. They were really good. I didn't taste the bavarian creme, but my brother-in-law said "they ruled!"



My take: Service was good, Ambiance was good, Food was very good (only tasted the malasadas). Overall rating - 3.5 sumos.

Tommy's Celebrates 60th Anniversary

I wish I was there. There's nothing like this in Denver.


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tommys16may16,0,6207517.story?coll=la-home-food

HAPPI YU SUSHI

Happi Yu Sushi is located in Kona. It's in the Long's Drug shopping center, on Palani Road, just south of the 19 Highway. It's takeout only. It is open Mon-Thu (9-3), Fri-Sat (9-4) and Sun (10-3). We went here to pick up an early dinner to eat on our way to Mauna Kea. We actually got there after they had closed (around 3:20), but the owner was really nice and took our order. It must have been the hungry look on our faces.



We ordered California Roll ($4/6pcs), Hawaiian Roll ($4/6pcs), Salmon Skin Hand Roll ($4/1pc), Inari ($3/4 pcs), and Spam musubi ($1.50, I think). I left a nice tip since she stayed open for us, and it was after 3:40 by the time she was finished - it was all made to order. My brother-in-law ran over to L&L while we were waiting 'cause he had to have his katsu curry fix. I make it a point to never go to L&L when I'm in Hawaii. It's like having McDonald's, Tommy's, The Hat and Lucky Boy's on the same street and picking McDonald's. By the way, L&L screwed up his order, but that's another story...


I didn't get a picture of the sushi since we pretty much ate it in the car on the way to Mauna Kea. I thought everything was really good, but I was starving. She put a lot of care into the preparation. For example, the spam was placed in the middle (not on top - the lazy way) of the musubi, and sprinkled with furikake. I wish I had stopped here again to get some sushi to take on the plane ride home.

My take: Service was very good (yeah, it's takeout but we did get there 20 minutes after closing), Ambiance n/a, Food was very good. Overall rating - 3.5 sumos.