Revisit to Foo Foo Tei

One of the many posts that is long overdue. A couple months back I went back to Foo Foo Tei in Hacienda to get a bowl of ramen before class.


The usual suspects.


Nasu miso to start. It was a little too salty for me. I'm no expert though on this dish, only having it at one other place, which made it more on the sweet side. Anyone have a recipe for this?


Yasai Shio Ramen with Chasu. Lots of veggies in a good sized bowl. Personally, I am a miso fan, but I decided to take a risk and to go for the shio. I didn't like the consistency of the broth because it was kinda thick. If you ever cooked those non freeze dried / "fresh" noodles in the soup base instead of cooking them separately, you'll know what I'm talking about. Not sure what was going on that day. While I did enjoy the taste, I still like miso better =)


Oodles of noodles.


Friend ordered the Shin Shin ramen. It was supposed to be very spicy, but he said it wasn't too bad.

I finally experienced the horrendous wait here, so it's best to come during the off hours. Service was quick and efficient despite the growing crowd.

Foo Foo Tei
15018 Clark Ave
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745

Have a nice Sunday!

Tamaya

I have a few posts that I uploaded the pics for a while back but haven't wrote about, so I'm going to try to catch up...

A coworker recommended a Ramen place, so I was off to Tamaya located on Azuza and Colima in the same plaza as Guppy's, which is diagonally across from the Puente Hills Mall.


I ordered the Miso Nikuyasai Ramen, which had pork and vegetables ($7.50). At least this is what I think I got. What I care most when I have ramen is the broth. And I didn't really like this one. Some of the vegetables had been cooked separately, (I think pan fried), and then put onto the ramen. But what I guessed happened is that a lot of the oil used for cooking also got into the broth, so it tasted very oily. The bottom of the broth was a bit better, so maybe I should have mixed it. There were a few pieces of pork around, and the noodles were just okay. Overall an average bowl of ramen.


A friend ordered the Pork Katsu Curry Ramen ($8.95). He let me try some, and I found it to just taste like watery curry. (Is that what it's supposed to taste like? I really have no idea because I've never had this before.) The katsu was cooked just right though and was good. My friend thought it was okay.

Service was friendly; nothing to complain about. Overall, a decent place, and it seems to be an alternative to waiting in long lines for Foo Foo Tei from what I've read on Yelp. Still, my search for good ramen around the area continues...


17142 Colima Road
Hacienda Heights, CA

And btw, does anyone who uses blogger know how to set a default font when writing a post? I find it annoying to have to keep changing it to Arial.

Guppy Tea House

I heard a while back that there was now a Guppy Tea House in Hacienda. Guppy is a chain that is well known for two things: their popcorn chicken, which is liberally sprinkled with crack cocaine, and the shaved ice. Picture below taken from a blog by the young, up and coming Jomo.


Holy sh!t. Look at that damn thing....

I met up with a friend to get some dinner about a month ago. I wanted to get the shaved ice, but the small is too big for two people. The pictures didn't turn out that great. We opted to sit outside because it was too loud inside the place, and I didn't know how to use my camera that well.


Started with some miso soup that came along with my meal. Pretty good/standard with some pieces of seaweed floating around.


Spicy Dumplings $8.50. I think these were filled with pork. They were not very spicy. I cannot remember if we were asked how spicy we wanted it, but I do remember that our waitress was cute. It was very vinegary and sweet and reminded me almost of a balsamic vinegar.


Superb Meatballs Meal $8.25
2 big ass meatballs in a cabbage broth soup along with glass noodles, tofu, and some cabbage. Sides of corn and "pickled cucumbers" and a big bowl of white rice.


It almost looks like there is a skin over the soup, but that's just the oil/flash. The meatballs were soft, but I thought they had been dredged a little too much in flour before hand. The broth was ok. This is a comfort food like meal.

We also got espresso milk teas, which were delicious, to end the meal.

Lots of food for two people to share. But next time, I'd like to skip the meal and go straight for the shaved ice. And maybe some chicken on the side.

Guppy Tea House
17188 Colima Rd
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745

I'm checking out early for the week. Going to the Mojave Desert for the weekend.

For my next trick...

All you L.A. dwellers, do you know where this? holla holla holla holla! =)

Earthen Restaurant

Got to cross out another place on my "to try list" last weekend: Earthen Restaurant in Hacienda Heights. The commentary will be brief because I was well sauced by the time I stepped foot into this place. All pictures courtesy of Jomo because I decided to take a break from taking pictures that night. I really grew a greater appreciation for food bloggers after starting my own blog. Taking pictures can be tedious work, especially if you are hungry or have ordered a lot of dishes.


The green onion pancakes. I've never had these before, so these were new to me. A little on the oily side, but nevertheless good. It would have been nice to have some sauce with it though. Jomsees told me to dip it in the next dish.


Beef noodle soup (Niu Reu Mein?). My second time trying this. Too much talking was going on at this table and not enough eating. All I remember was trying to help dish out these long noodles, and the broth tasting a bit like anise.


House Chicken. I thought this was a hot dish, but what do I know. I'm just a kid. A good amount of cold chicken with plenty of minced garlic and small pieces of cucumbers below in some kind of soy/sweet/garlic sauce.

Overall, a positive experience where Yelp reviews came through and some good times w/ friends.

As I walked out, I noticed that all the tables were pretty much eating the same things we did, so it seems those three dishes, along with the dumplings seem to be the most popular items. We had gotten there at 5:45, afraid of the "long waits," but when we arrived, the small restaurant was only partially full. We put our names on the list, said we would return around 6:30, and were promptly seated then. By the time we got back, the list had grown to about 8 parties, and as we left, there was a good amount of people standing outisde waiting to get a seat. So try to get there early if you can.

Service was quick and efficient, and there were no problems even though none of us spoke Chinese.

1639 S Azusa Ave
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745

Yeah Chicago lost. Damn. One hell of a crazy series...

I leave you with a clip of the young Rose, Rookie of the Year against the Sixers:

Finally got to check out a ramen place I've been wanting to go to a few weeks back called Foo Foo Tei in Hacienda Heights off Seventh Ave. The place is a little small, but the wait was minimal.


A cutoff picture of their menu.


Miso Pork and vegetable ramen with extra egg. The ramen came out very hot, so +1. The broth had a strong pork/meaty flavor to it, which overpowered the miso a little bit. There was a lot of veggies in this with cabbage, onions, and some sprouts. The pieces of pork were big, chewy(but not overwhelmingly so) and almost sweet tasting. And yes, there werenoodles underneath it all, which I found to be perfectly cooked. This was a pretty big bowl that I had trouble finishing.

Service was friendly and efficient. I'd come back here again to try something else on their menu. Nice to know somewhere I can get my ramen fix now.


15018 Clark Ave
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745

On the way back, I stopped by Beard Papa's inside the Puente Hills Mall (same entrance as AMC Theatres) to get some cream puffs. If you've never had it before, I think it's worth a try. I don't really like cream puffs, but I think the word "cream" is a bit misleading here because it's more of a custard. They have regular (vanilla) in which you can see the specks of vanilla bean in the cream and some other flavor of the day. I recommend their regular. It is a bit pricey with one being over a buck, but it's a nice treat to have every once in a while.


The puffs are a bit flaky and airy. The nice thing about them is that they're filled to order, so no soggy puffs, unless you leave them out for a while.


Worker X making my order.


I got 6 for around 10 bucks. The more you buy, the cheaper it gets. Sorry, I should have taken a closeup shot of the inside, but we all ate these pretty quickly.

They've also got some drinks and other things, but otherwise not too big of a menu.

Beard Papa's
1600 Azusa Ave #160
City of Industry, CA 91748