Whenever we go to dim sum with my family in OC, we always go to Seafood Paradise.  I think everything is good, but I still think I like the one in Chinatown better.  Tutu said after this meal that she likes Happy Days in Hawaii better.  There is always one nice dim sum lady (which is very, very, very rare)...she always smiles a lot and is always very polite!  It almost seems strange and weird!
We went with Uncle Mike, Aunty Jeannine, Jennifer, Julien, Jaren, Tutu and Scott, Sean and I... Tutu wanted to celebrate the good news that she got from the doctors in Denver, and we were more than happy to be able to participate in the celebration.  

For dinner we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Newport.  I don't think I've been to one of those since I was about 10 years old!  All I remember is spumoni at the end of every meal haha... I can definitely see why the kids love it-- a balloon man comes around and makes them things to play with- Kalani got a monkey climbing up a tree and Julien got a sword!  The food was very so so, but cheap, so you kinda get what you pay for I guess!  Everything came with a soup or salad (although she didn't ask us which one we wanted and we all got salads...), a drink and dessert.  I got the spaghetti vesuvius and it was really just very soso.  There was chicken, sausage, meatballs, mushrooms, green peppers and a spicy tabasco sauce.  I swear the sauce was no better than a lean cuisine though!  Everyone also commented on how much smaller the portions got, but since we had the salad and cheezy bread (which I liked) for appetizers, it was enough.  
It was so nice to have everyone there at dinner... wish mom and dad could have been there, but we got a nice family picture in as well.  Here's to a happier, healthier life for tutu and that things improve.  I love my tutu!

I have been so excited for LA Beerfest.   Have  a few friends who had been the year before and all had a blast!  I sent out an email to our friends asking who wanted to go, and was surprised that more people weren't interested!  We had a fun group though, and a few of our friends were already going with other friends so we were able to meet up with them too...
Even better than tons and tons of different kinds of beers...what could that be?  Food trucks!!!!  Yes, you heard me right!  A bunch of food trucks came to the event as well, which was definitely really clutch.  Very LA, right?!  I was stoked about the grilled cheese truck since I haven't had a chance yet to try it and even though the line was ridiculously long, it was soooo worth it!  Marion and Laura gave up, but Sam and I were pretty stuck on trying it, so we just took turns in line while the other went and filled up our beer mugs.  I mean, hey, we'd be doing the same thing elsewhere, might as well get our food too!  Sean and Vince opted for the Nom Nom truck instead- so I had a bite of his and it was better than I remembered (maybe it was because I was drunk, maybe it was because Sean said he added a lot of sauce haha), but either way, it was the best of both worlds - a bit of nom nom, a "signature" grilled cheese- mac & cheese, pork, grilled cheese goodness and then a ton of beer... I was a very happy camper until I got sick :(  
We walked over to rush street after and had a few more drinks, but I think the combination of drinking in the sun always gets me... too bad, I felt pretty awful by 6 pm, but luckily we got home not too long after and I slept it off.  Either way, I'll have to suck it up, because I definitely think BeerFest will be an annual tradition from now on!

One of Sean and I's favorite places for sushi is Kabuki.  They have great rolls for an affordable price.  We love it.  However, the last time we were there for late night happy hour, the service was pretty horrible.  Our server was really nice, but the sushi just took FOREVER to come out... As a result, he highly discounted our bill and everything was like $20, so we left content.  Well, this Friday we headed over early to celebrate Marilyn's Birthday.  We got there around 6 and there was already a bit of a crowd, but when I checked in, they told us 20 minutes.  So Sean and his dad had a seat right next to the check-in and Marilyn and I went over to Nordstrom rack.  We came back and it had been over half an hour, and we noticed people who had come after us started getting seated... some understandably were only 2 in their party, but then we saw a party of 3 being seated, and then another, so we peeked over and saw that like 5-6 parties after us were crossed off and we were left on the list!  So I asked the hostess very politely what the reasoning was and she says "oh, sorry, we called you and you weren't here so..." Sean then said "it's ok if you forgot, but don't lie, we were sitting here the entire time".  Understandably so, Jim got really mad as well and then we were seated shortly after.  We sat there for 5 minutes, decided on our order and still no one came to our table... we had to flag someone down to hand him our sushi order and ask him to put in our drinks.  He wasn't even our waiter but he brought the drinks over right away.  Our waitress then introduced herself another 10-15 minutes later and then sushi didn't come out for another 15 minutes or more.  Even worse, Sean saw one of the managers grab the rest of our food from the sushi bar and leave it on the bar counter.   It just sat there!!!  So he decided to get up and grab it himself finally after a while-- our waitress saw him and didn't even say anything.  Pretty terrible.  Overall we were there over 2 hours, which is really unacceptable for Kabuki!  :(

Forget the free ice cream or whatever for birthday's, we went home and enjoyed our sprinkles cupcakes that Jim brought home.  Happy Birthday Marilyn!

P.S. though my consensus about Sprinkle's remains the same...frosting is TDF but the cake part is always very dry!

I haven't made yakisoba in a while, so I decided to make it for dinner with some steak.  I like to add celery, carrots, napa cabbage, shiitake mushrooms and fish cake (kamaboko).  

Not sure why the name of this restaurant has a question mark next to it, but I did enjoy it!  Tutu wanted to have some japanese food for dinner, miso soup in particular, because it had been such a cold day.  At 5:30 no one else was hungry yet, so it was just tutu, scott, sean and I.  We had a nice dinner together!  Tutu always talks about this place and raves about it and couldn't believe we had never been there, so I'm glad we got to try it.  She kept saying what a good deal it was, and while it was reasonable, I didn't think it was that cheap!
We all got combination meals... Scott got the teriyaki chicken with sashimi selection, sean got the teriyaki chicken with california rolls, and I wanted to get a teriyaki salmon with california rolls combo but they didn't have it for some reason!  So tutu ordered her teriyaki chicken with california rolls combo and I just ate hers :)  
Sean and I also got a dynamite appetizer, one of our favorite things, but sadly, this was the only thing on the menu that I really didn't care for.  The scallops seemed a bit chewy, and there wasn't much variety.  We definitely won't be ordering that one again.  
So as a consensus, good, but not so great that I'd crave coming back soon.  I also liked my teriyaki salmon, but I think the one I cook is better!!!!

Whoohooo!!!  Marukai opened on the westside-- finally!!!  I mean really, it's about time!  No longer are the days of me having to stock up when I go down to OC and visit family... I can go whenever I want!  It's located on Pico and Bundy, so it's right down the street from my work.  Clutch!   I find that the prices on the whole are a lot cheaper than Mitsuwa and Nijiya.  I just bought furikake at Mitsuwa, because they were out at Nijiya and while it costs nearly $5 a bottle there, it was under $3 at Mitsuwa.  So I got 2 more.  Not to mention they gear more towards the Hawaii folks, with an entire isle of Hawaiian Sun, Diamond cookies and crackers, li hing products, etc.  So me definitely love Marukai!  The only downside is that this location is a bit small, and there is no food court :(  They still have the premade meals/ boxed lunches (bento's) and a good selection of sushi and musubi's though.  I had one for lunch the other day and really enjoyed it!  
We were able to get some frozen beef for a bargain.  Made it teriyaki style for dinner the other night with some rice, corn and enoki mushrooms.  Yum!