Shang Artisan Noodle – Las Vegas, Nevada

Jun17

Wanna hear a funny story? Well it’s kind of funny. I came to Vegas back in 2022 and went to a little Thai restaurant in this strip mall. It was right next to Shang Artisan Noodle but we ate at the Thai restaurant instead. Shang has since expanded into the Thai restaurant’s lot. It was funny because as we pulled into this lot, I kept saying how familiar this place looked. Crazy stuff huh? Chan said they have the best beef noodle soup so of course we had to come. And of course, I end up ordering something else. My noodles were good too but when I tasted Chan’s bowl, I knew I would have to get the beef noodle soup from here on out. They make their own noodles and the broth is so deep with flavor. No worries, we ended up going to Shang’s new location at the new Durango Casino and Resort at the end of our trip so I got my beef noodle soup!!!

Spicy Wonton | $8.97
pork wontons with spicy soy sauce, green onion

These spicy wontons were good! Look at them, they’re swimming in chili oil. It’s spicy! Take their word for it!!

Spicy Beef Dumpling | $9.25
minced beef, white onion, green onion, spicy soy sauce

Look at the fancy lace around the dumplings. Actually the lace for me is not needed. I do like my dumplings pan fried though. Sorry to folks who enjoy deep fried mandoo, it’s not my thing. These were good!

Shang Beef Noodle (Spicy) | $14.97
beef & chicken broth (brown), braised beef brisket, veggies, green onion

That is comfort in a bowl. And they make their noodles in house, I believe Chan gets this dish with their hand pulled noodles. Yum! As an FYI, the original location has three noodle options: hand pulled noodles, knife-shaved noodles and plain noodles. The Durango location only has two options – no plain noodles.

Dan Dan Noodle | $13.97
minced pork, preserved veggie, spicy soy sauce, green onion

Look at how I take care of you folks. I even did a noodle pull! I guess in the 100-something degree weather, I wasn’t really feeling like a big bowl of hot soup and noodles you know? So I opted for the cold noodle option – I got my dish with knife-cut noodles. Been on a knife-cut noodles kick. It was good! But once again, I would order the beef noodle soup the next time around. Actually what am I doing? Here’s what we got on our final visit lol…

My beef noodle bowl! Yum yum! Tasted great and the same at both locations!

Wonton Soup | $12.97
Add noodles | $3.00
pork & chicken broth (white), house-made wonton, egg, seaweed, green onion

Chan’s wonton noodle soup! He likes to eat a bit lighter on days of travel so this is his dish. He enjoyed it! I’m sure if we weren’t flying out that day, he would have gotten the beef noodle soup again!

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Wakuda – Las Vegas, Nevada

Jun14

Another night of gluttony and alcohol. Okay just gluttony for me! Tonight is Wakuda and the cuisine is fancy Japanese food, they are located at the Palazzo Lobby at The Venetian Resort!

Big Eye Tuna Sashimi Toast | $30.00
toasted bread, wasabi butter, shallots, avruga caviar

Great start to the meal! Can’t go wrong with tuna and caviar and butter and shallots…I mean come on!

King Salmon Nigiri | $13.00 (per piece, 2 pc minimum)

Good but expected, nothing special you know?

Tobanyaki Japanese Scallops | $30.00
garlic yuzu butter, japanese mushrooms

Oh yum, this was so good. The scallops were cooked perfect, so nice and tender. Give me a bowl of rice so I can pour this over…mm…

New Zealand Lamb | $55.00
mustard miso

Lamb lamb lamb! I love char-grilled lamb. They served these little red berries with the lamb. Gosh, we asked the waiter what they were and he told us and I forgot already! You’re supposed to eat the berry after the lamb to cleanse your pallet. They look like peppers but is more like…a crunchy tomato texture!

Grilled Octopus | $30.00
spicy sudachi vinaigrette, kabocha miso puree, squid ink tapioca cracker, seaweed, radish

Fancy looking dish! I did try a piece of octopus but I think I was too into the other dishes to truly savor this dish. Chan and Bryson enjoyed it!

Seabass Miso | $65.00
patagonian toothfish marinatede in original saikyo miso from kyoto

Yikes, a bit pricey. I just noticed! But was it good? Yes. I don’t know if you can tell but it was a pretty big piece of fish and it was cooked to perfection. Moist and it flaked beautifully.

Foie Gras | $45.00
cassis, sudachi puree

Very interesting dish! The purees help cut into the richeness of the foie gras. Yum!

Otoro / Supreme-Fat Tuna Belly | $28.00 (per piece, 2 pc minimum)

Meh. I’ve had better otoro elsewhere, I don’t think this was worth it.

Wagyu Gyoza | $35.00
spicy ponzu sauce

Wagyu gyoza! Okay sorry, it was good but I don’t think it was worth it. When something is made into gyoza filling, I don’t feel like super high quality meat should be used, you know? No can tell it was wagyu. Delicious but not worth it.

Nope, I didn’t double post the same picture. We got this dish twice and I ate two pieces from this order lol. I love lamb. It was so good!!

WAKUDA’s House Special | $14.00
soft-serve miso ice cream

Fancy yeah with the gold? I’m not a big fan of vanilla ice cream but I had to try their take on miso ice cream! It’s actually very good, a nice blend of miso and vanilla. If you enjoy a nice vanilla ice cream, get this!

Kakigori with Candy Floss | $25.00
kanazawa shaved ice, seasoned fruit puree, seasonal sorbet, milk syrup, citrus & berries

What a sight! Look at this cotton candy cloud on top of the shave ice. And the ice was supposedly from Japan? Ho da fancy! It was delicious too. I really enjoyed this dessert!!

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Aloha Kitchen – Las Vegas, Nevada

Jun12

Oh boy did this trip prove how Asian I am. I needed rice the morning after we landed. I wasn’t even 24 hours out of Hawaii yet. We did a water run at Target and I looked up a place to grab breakfast and found Aloha Kitchen. No regrets!!!

Longanisa and Spam Breakfast Platter | $16.29

Chan’s breakfast, two scoop rice and scrambled eggs. Kind of pricey for the plate but they actually give choke!

Portuguese Sausage & Longanisa Platter | $16.29

My platter! I wanted my pocho sausage. The sausage was just alright. I like to get my eggs over medium. Great portions! We had enough leftover for another day of breakfast. Thankfully our room had a little kitchenette!

Side Order Tater Tots | $5.29

LOL, what you want me to say. It’s like mini hash browns okay!

Kind of a double post, anytime I go mainland, I have to go Bambu! Since it closed down in Hawaii, I haven’t been able to get my number 10 dessert fix.

Almost forgot to take a picture, it is too hot outside to do anything so I took one in the car. Was it good? Uh, yeah! Should have got another one of these during the trip. Along with playing more games of craps!!!!

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Sparrow + Wolf – Las Vegas, Nevada

Jun10

I’m back and ready to post! Chan and I had a wonderful trip to Vegas, hung out with his friend Bryson and boy oh boy, cruising with two foodies made such a difference in our meals. We went all out during dinners and it’s some of the best food I ever had! I apologize that I do not partake in alcohol – I don’t have much to share on that end, but I will say they enjoyed their alcohol pairings. Sparrow + Wolf is a restaurant Chan tried before and that Bryson is a regular at so we had EXCELLENT service. The food, service and drinks were *chef’s kiss*. I would call their menu…neo-American and Asian fusion style? Didn’t have a single bad dish!

Sage Me From Myself (proofless) | $10.00
cold pressed blueberry, raspberry, pineapple, and fennel bulb

You will however get to check out all the non-alcoholic drinks I tried! I was told that they have like an $11,000 juicer in the kitchen which is why this drink is so so so good. He was right. I drank two of them. Yum!

Grass fed Beef Tartare | $22.00
grass fed beef tartare, confit egg yolk, grilled sourdough

All our orders were at the recommendation of our awesome server, we did no ordering on our own. They matched the foods perfectly to Chan and Bryson’s drinks. The foods all matched my tummy’s needs. 🙂 This dish looks interesting and not like your typical tartare, I was like, why they bringing out imitation crab salad? Haha! No worries, you mix it up and eat it with the bread and it is just really good beef tartare!

Kanpachi | $23.00
kanpachi tiradito blood orange aji amarillo, olive oil

Nice bite! Was it the most memorable dish of the night? Maybe not, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t good! Blood orange with kanpachi, who would’ve thunk it?

Spring Onion Cappalletti | $28.00
ramps, calamansi, garlic flower, miso

OKAY YUM. It’s a really interesting dish, calamansi is a strong flavor of it but it also had a nice buttery miso taste to it. I can’t explain it! It was so good! Frothy pasta shell, sounds weird but tasted great!!

Bánh Cuốn | $20.00
ground duck, wood ear mushroom, habanero, coconut

Bánh Cuốn is vietnamese rice rolls. I would call this dish like Bánh Cuốn deconstructed, there were strips of rice paper around the dish with the “innards”, very soupy as you can see but delicious! And isn’t it pretty?

Black Pepper Honey Pork Secreto | $38.00
sweet potato banana puree, peanut nuoc cham

Another winners dish. Super tender slices of pork and wonderfully seasoned. I love vietnamese flavors in dishes so it was a winner!!!

Charred Brocollini | $16.00
green goddess, black garlic, fines herbes crumb

I don’t know if this is vegan or not but I assume it is and I would be dang happy to eat this as an entree if I was! I love brocollini so much and they charred it perfectly, great dish!

Kalbi Eye of Rib | $59.00
chili lobster gratin, thai basil, lime, garlic breadcrumb

HELLO. This was a great ender for the meal! Lobster and rib eye? No can go wrong brada! So good and cooked perfectly. By the way, all dishes are served family style.

Chocolate Ganache Torte | $12.00
pistachio gelato, toasted coconut

Nice little dessert to share at the end of the meal. Very rich chocolate ganache torte, maybe a bit much for me since we had choke food. I still helped myself to a few bites hehe. It was good especially if you love chocolate.

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Mixed Plate Friday

Jun7

Jollibee Amazing Aloha Burger | $10.99
A double patty Yumburger topped with melty cheese, a grilled pineapple ring, crispy bacon, Aloha Dressing, and fresh lettuce on a fresh bun.

I didn’t look at the description of the burger and would you believe it, there is pineapple in it and I actually liked it. I usually hate mixing fruit with savory food but my oh my, this burger works so well together. It was so good!!!! I would recommend.

Teruya’s Andagi Shrimp Roll Bento | $8.95

Got this for lunch the other day, wasn’t hankering for anything in particular so I got this. Pretty good price but the bento wasn’t a winner. The shrimp roll was good, the tofu patty was good but the pieces of chicken were not good. Dry, tasteless and hard. It was a bit of a letdown.

HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND LOL (not my car)

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Recipe: Dry Hot Pot

Jun5

Is this really a recipe? I can’t say it is, I really just followed a TikTok video and threw choke things into a pot. What is a dry hot pot? It’s basically all the things you would eat in a hot pot but without the hot soup. The way I ended up making it, it had plenty liquid so really you are just eating hot pot in my mind. Well, Chan and my brothers all seemed to really enjoy it so it was a hit! I’ll just show pictures of the ingredients I threw in. If you really want a recipe, let me know lol.

I got the thinly sliced beef from H-Mart. This was the most expensive thing in the dish – I went for the leaner cuts.

I bought the unseasoned aburage from Don Quijote – I sliced it up and threw it in. I love adding this to dishes that are saucy because the tofu just soaks up all the flavor! Yum.

Enoki mushrooms and boy choy

King oyster mushrooms. Yeah, this was an expensive dish to make. All these mushrooms were expensive!

Chinese cabbage and the stems of the boy choy, I saved the bok choy leaves to the end because they cook the quickest!

My favorite fish balls hands down. Fish balls with roe! I had to buy these in the frozen section of Don Quijote too.

Dried beancurd sheets. I was about to buy the beancurd sticks because I am used to those in Chinese cooking but I really don’t like how hard and chewy those can be so I decided to go with the sheets.

I heated up some water and then threw the sheets in and let them rehydrate. I am happy with my decision to buy sheets and will do so in the future as well!

I’ve been looking for these noodles a long time. If you wanted to search for it, it’s usually called knife cut noodles or in this case, sliced noodle.

Just a fun-ner noodle to eat. I love it! I found these at H-mart.

This is the main seasoning of the dish. I used both packs in this, it gives the dish the mala hot pot flavor. Must be used! I also got this from H-mart.

Sorry, this is just me showing you that I literally just threw everything into the pot. Yup, the whole block of meat right on top. The final product is up top. It was very time consuming to prep this dish and it was pretty pricey, I don’t know how often I will make this dish. Maybe once in a while since Chan and the brothers enjoyed.

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Tenfusa – Toyosu, Japan

Jun3

Ah yes, my super belated Japan posts continue. Well, there’s actually not much more to share so it will probably be in bits and pieces. This is one of our last outings of the Japan trip before coming home. Tenfusa is located in the Toyosu Market, Chan’s friend Daisuke was nice enough to pick us up early in the morning to bring us to this restaurant. Thank God he did, all the menus are in Japanese. There was a line for the Daiwa Sushi next door but this restaurant seemed to be filled with locals (maybe fishermen).

Appetizer Menu (Well I consider it the appetizer menu!)

Maguro | ¥900

Scallop Sashimi | ¥850

Shirasu | ¥400

Whale Meat (Raw) | ¥700

This is my first time trying whale. This may be the last time I am trying whale. Look at the color! It looks like raw beef. It tastes kind of like raw beef too. I didn’t enjoy the taste. Glad I tried so I can say I tried it but I am good in the future.

Tempura Teishoku

Tendon

Chan and I had the Tendon. Gosh, I was so like…full from this trip already. And we got choke appetizers. By the time the main entrees came, I was already stuffed. But the tempura was super good. Perfectly cooked seafood. The pieces of fish were so tender and fried light and crispy. I was very happy to have tried Tenfusa!

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Mixed Plate Friday

May31

Maybe when you’re reading this post, I’ll be off to Vegas! Excited for a mini-vacay to Las Vegas! No, not to gamble. I am excited for all the good eats and of course Trader Joe’s and Ikea, let’s be real! I’ll try to schedule out a few posts for while I’m gone. Have a good weekend folks!

Fort Ruger Market Sweet Longanisa, Egg, Rice | $9.95 (May 2024)

I was super excited to try this. I love me some longanisa sausage and I thought there could be no wrong. I WAS WRONG. The sausage was so weird and mushy, the texture was totally off. When I buy the ones from the store to make myself, the skin is almost crunchy (sounds gross but it’s good). This was 10 bucks! Well at least it was fried rice I guess? I would not get this ever again.

Kahala MKT Zaru Soba | $8.99

This one was quite a surprise, I really really liked this. And what this dish included was eggplant and I usually hate eggplant. HATE. But this eggplant was cooked and seasoned perfectly, not at all mushy, had a bit of crunch and there was a nice smoky flavor to it. The only downfall of this dish was the imitation crab. This sounds weird but this crab was like super dry, I like imitation crab that is wetter? Is that weird? Do you know what I mean? I don’t want to feel like I’m chewing on paper is what I mean. Would get this again!

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Nanzan GiroGiro – Ala Moana, HI

May29

Oh man, I’ve been wanting to try Nanzan GiroGiro for the longest time! Since they opened! Thankful for an invitation for dinner here one rainy night – what a wonderful treat! Parking in this area can be a nightmare and it was storming (the great 2024 storm session, iykyk) but luckily we both got parking right in front of the building! Service was immaculate, dinner was superb! They change their menus monthly, we had the May 2024, 9 course meal ($168). Check it out!

Starter
blue fin tuna, shiso, fried tofu, asparagus, green, sesame soy sauce, wasabi

Perfect starting bite(s) – super fresh fish and wonderful flavors. I love me some shiso! Great dish!

Soup
black cod, sesame tofu, white miso, yuzu kosyo pepper soup, spinach

Can you ever go wrong with black cod? Perfect cooked piece of fish, lovely flavored soup. It was the perfect dish for a rainy night. And a nice portion of fish too!

Oshinogi
hamo eel, foie gras sauce rice, sugar pea, kinome sansyo pepper leaf, bellpepper

I know it’s a faux pas but I love fois gras. Lovely dish, perfectly fried hamo eel. Light and crispy. Loved this dish!

Vinegar
duck, lotus, root, tomato vinegar soup, kale egg tofu, pea sprout

This was a good dish, not the most memorable of the night but good! I enjoy duck so of course I will enjoy this. Good dish, just not memorable.

Main
beef, ayu and corn crocket, ankake soup, wasabi, sprout

Yikes, this was the main dish and I did not like it. Specifically, I did not like the ayu. I just looked it up and it’s also called sweetfish, what a name. This piece of was SO bitter. I couldn’t eat it. I ate around it like a good girl but the fish, no can!

1st of 9
otoro, uni sea urchin, eggplant, wasabi, dashi jelly, bok choi

Was this good? Yes. Yes it was. (end of story)

2nd of 9
lobster, bisque sauce noodle, caviar, mizuna

What do you want me to say folks? That this was junk? That would be a lie! Of course it was good! Was I getting full? Yes. Did I still eat this up? YES.

Rice
tai snapper, tai broth, heart of palm rice, mitsuba

Okay, I was like pretty full at this point. I gave my fish to Chan and had at it with the nice clean broth and rice. It was nice!

Pickles
hakusai cabbage, cucumber nukaduke, ume puree, wasabi

The pickles were served with the rice dish. Was good! I was too full to really appreciate it and enjoy you know? If this is too much food, you can always order the 6 course menu and then ala carte the additional items on the 9 course menu if you wish!

Sweets
baked vanilla cheesecake, mango sauce, lime jelly, blue berry sorbet and graham cracker crust crumble

There is always room for dessert. I ate this whole thing. Yup. It was soo good! They told us to eat the cheesecake all together. Like grab the cheesecake, lime jelly, crust and dip it in the mango sauce and then eat! It was yum!

Kyoto Matcha Green Tea

The matcha was nice and smooth. Perfect way to end the evening. They also have special wine pairings for the courses if you are interested! I had a cup of orange juice because they don’t serve soda here. LOL. It was a wonderful dining experience with great company and great food! I don’t know how often I would be able to make it out to this restaurant but I really enjoyed this experience.

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I’m here I’m here…!

May20
Parked in Manoa and came back to pretty flowers on my car…looked better in person lol

Sorry about the unintended break! I’ve just been super busy the past two weeks so I haven’t had time to properly post. Hoping to get back into it next week. I’m also super excited to be going to Vegas in a few weeks! Need to get off this rock! And share the good eats from Vegas of course! Hope you’re all doing well!

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