california Archives

In burger

Chick-fil-A: Came here for the food, not the religion or politics

February 18, 2019

Chick-fil-A has tons of controversy surrounding this American fast food chain. The companies values are influenced by religious values of it’s founder and do close on Sundays. With over 2,200 locations in the US and Canada, they are still expanding and there’s tons of controversy that has popped up. I respect everyone’s differentiating options and values, but I just like to each chicken.

Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich

This classic sandwich has a boneless seasoned breast of chicken that is hand-breaded and cooked in peanut oil, then served in a buttered bun with 2 dill pickles. Good and simple.

Chick-fil-A Deluxe Sandwich

If you get your sandwich a deluxe, they add green leaf lettuce, tomato and American Cheese. I prefer it with the extra veggies for a pop of colour and some vegetables.

Spicy Chicken Sandwich

They also have a spicy chicken sandwich with added blend of peppers to the hand-breaded mixture. I was surprised it packed a punch. If you like spicy, you’ll really enjoy this.

Waffle Potato Fries

How can you not love these? They are so fun to eat. When it’s fresh, its crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. If you wait too long, they go soggy.

Chick-n-Strips

The chicken strips are from the breast meat, marinated, seasoned, hand-breaded and then pressure cooked in peanut oil. When it comes out, its ok. Not that crispy but it is meaty and tender. Don’t forget the dipping sauces because there are so many kinds to choose from.

Chick-fil-A Nuggets

These are essentially like the chicken strips but in smaller bite-size pieces.

Sauces

There are 7 sauces to choose from and it’s like an adventure wanting to try them all in one visit.

Chick-fil-A Sauce
Polynesian Sauce
Honey Mustard Sauce
Garlic and Herb Ranch Sauce
Zesty Buffalo Sauce
BBQ Sauce
Sweet and Spicy Sriracha Sauce

Of all of them, my husband and I really like the original Chick-fil-A sauce. He also liked the sweet Polynesian sauce and I liked the zesty buffalo sauce for an extra kick of heat.

Cookies and Cream Milkshake

This has cookies and cream hand spun the old fashioned way with ice cream. Then it is topped with whipped cream and a cherry. At 610 calories, milkshakes really pack a punch and definitely not for those on a diet.

Final Thoughts

That’s all the items my husband and I shared during one trip to Chick-fil-A. We made a good dent in the menu and were bursting from the seams. They make a solid chicken sandwich and you must get it with the waffle fries.

Website:
https://www.chick-fil-a.com/

In California

Jollibee: Filipino Fast Food Review

February 2, 2019

Jolibee is a popular Filipino fast food chain all around the world. I haven’t been yet, so when we were in California, we went here multiple times for breakfast and lunch. We really couldn’t stop devouring the great tastes of Filipino dishes. There are over 30 locations across the US.

We went crazy just ordering a bit of everything for the 2 of us. It needed to be done since there isn’t a Jollibee in Western Canada where we are from. We stuffed ourselves with Jollibee and we did not regret it at all.

Breakfast Joys

Breakfast Joys are only available until 11am and there are 5 types to choose from – Breakfast Chickenjoy, Pork Sausage, Beef Tenders, Corned Beef, and Sweet Pork. Each comes with garlic rice and an egg.

Corned Beef Breakfast Joys

This was surprisingly good. A good portion of corned beef, rice and egg. We also got free coffee that comes with this too, which was interesting. This was my favourite of the 2 breakfast items we ordered.

Pork Sausage Breakfast Joys

The Pork Sausage comes with 2 pieces with the egg and garlic rice. The sausage was devoured quickly and had a slight sweet flavour to it.

Buko Pandan Pearl Cooler with boba

One of their dessert items is their buko pandan pearl cooler with some sweet pearls on the bottom. It was good but on the sweet side.

Chickenjoy

This is their 2 pieces chickenjoy meal with adobo rice and a cup of gravy. The skin is very crispy and when you dunk it onto the gravy, it’s so heavenly. Plus, the adobo rice is so savoury and good.

Chickenjoy and Jolly Spaghetti Combo

Best of both worlds to get a combo so you can taste more. You can mix up the spaghetti so all the sauce is incorporated. For fast food Filipino spaghetti, it wasn’t bad at all. It’s meaty, savoury with a touch of sweetness. Also, having the chickenjoy of the side was awesome.

Chickenjoy and Palabok Fiesta Combo

I was so excited to try this dish. A classic item with bohon noodles topped with secret Jollibee palabok sauce, eggs, shrimp, and other meats. Delicious.

Pineapple Juice

Included in meals is the pineapple juice. Instead of getting the regular fountain drinks, why not have pineapple juice to shake things up. A lot of people prefer this, but I did find it a bit sweet.

Peach Mango Pie

One of their warm desserts on the menu is peach mango pie, deep-fried to a golden perfection. The crunchy exterior was nice and the filling was surprisingly not too sweet. It does have a tinge of artificial peachy mango taste.

Tuna Pie

Yes, you heard that right…tuna pie. This is one of their items on the menu that is available for a limited time. It also has a tasty flaky crust with a creamy tuna mixture inside with strong notes of pepper.

Final Thoughts

We devoured quite a few items during our trips to Jollibee, but we still have many items to go through still. For Filipino fast food, it’s a great option. It’s like if KFC and McDonads had a baby. There were no line ups at the locations around San Francisco, so it was great.

Website:
http://www.jollibeeusa.com/

In American

Bubba Gump Shrimp: Happy Hour in Anaheim

March 5, 2015

We spent a whole day in Disneyland and needed a late night snack. Close to our hotel is a Bubba Gump Shrimp Restaurant inspired by the movie Forest Gump. If you are a fan of the movie, you gotta visit this place at least once. It’s a good thing I watched Forest Gump a few weeks ago, so I understood all the little references it makes to the movie.

They have happy hour daily from 9:30pm until closing. Also, Monday to Friday from 3:30 to 5:30pm. Select items on their happy hour are $4 – $6. Select drinks are $3 to $6. Great deals!

Since 9:30pm is quite late, the restaurant is pretty empty. Everyone must have been tired from all the Disney Parks madness. We were all tired, but we needed some food.

At your table, you have these license places that have 2 sayings to indicate if you need assistance.

Run, Forest, Run = Everything is A OK
Stop, Forest, Stop = I need some service here

We grabbed a beer to go with the meal. $5 for imported pints. It’s been a few weeks so I forgot what type of beer we ordered.

Bubba’s Far Out Dip ($4) has spinach, roasted red peppers, artichokes and Monterey Jack cheese with homemade Tortilla chips. The dip was really good and creamy. It probably has a lot of fat but we’re on vacation so we eat everything.

Cajun Shrimp ($6) is sautéed in a hot and spicy cajun butter sauce. It is also served with garlic bread. It wasn’t very spicy at all. The quality of the shrimp were ok but not great.

Fried Fish Tacos ($6) is pretty disappointing, its breaded fish with cheese and lettuce with a side of lime. You can just avoid these at all costs unless you order a side of salsa and sour cream.

Shrimper’s Heaven ($21.49) has hand breaded coconut shrimp, chilled shrimp, fried shrimp, and Japanese style tempura shrimp with fries. It also comes with a few sauces – Tangy Asian, Cajun Marmalade, and Zesty Cocktail.

This items is a good way to try all their different shrimp.

Overall, the food is pretty meh. I didn’t care much for it. I don’t think I would come here again.

We Rate Bubba Gump Shrimp:

Address:
321 W Katella Ave Anaheim

Website:
http://www.bubbagump.com/

In California

Cactus Taqueria: Mexican Food in Hollywood

March 3, 2015

When in Los Angeles, get your Uber driver to recommend places to eat. Thats what we did. We really wanted Mexican food, but it was so hard finding something close to the place we were staying at. It’s pretty hard navigating Yelp and Urbanspoon to find the right place.

Our driver dropped us off at Cactus Taqueria in Hollywood. He guaranteed us it would be amazing. He told us how one of his drunk passengers made him drive here in the middle of the night just to get a few tacos. Clearly he was feeling the late night munchies.

We had no idea where we were but that was ok since there was a long lineup for tacos. The staff were friendly. Seating is outside but it can get a bit chilly in the winter. We decided to do take out as our place was a short distance away.

We ordered a bunch of items to go and took tons of sauce and pickled vegetables. The sauces all tasted amazing!

Carnitas Tacos ($1.25 each) is topped with onion and cilantro. Definitely grab some of their signature sauces and add them on top. Mmm so good.

Fish Taco Supreme ($2.25 each) is topped with cilantro, onions, tomatoes, and sour cream. Very delicious and the sour cream works so well with these tacos.

Cheese and Avocado Quesadilla ($5) was cut up into 4 pieces and was oozing with delicious cheese. The avocado was a nice addition.

Wet Chicken Burrito was delicious! So saucy and so good. You will definitely need a knife and fork for this item.

Overall, the food was great! We were glad our Uber driver recommended this place for dinner. The prices were great and we loved every single bite.

We Rate Cactus Taqueria:

Address:
950 Vine St
Los Angeles, CA

Website:
http://cactus.menutoeat.com/index.cfm

In American

In-N-Out Burger: Not So Secret Menu

March 2, 2015

As a Canadian, one of my goals in life was to have a taste of In-N-Out Burger. I know, it’s a really sad goal but I love trying different fast food restaurants out. Vacations are a good reason to pig out.

In-N-Out Burger is located mostly in the South Western States. When we were in Hollywood, we decided to come here for a snack. The line ups were quite long.

Their menu is quite limited with only 3 types of burgers – hamburger, cheeseburger and the double double. There are a few hidden item on their menu like the Flying Dutchman, 3×3, 4×4, grilled cheese, protein-style and animal style.

Double Double with Animal Fries.

Double Double has 2 patties, 2 slices of cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onion, secret spread on a toasted bun.
Animal-style fries come with two slices of melted cheese, spread, and grilled onions on top.

Protein Style Cheese Burger is their regular burger wrapped a lettuce. Great for those who hate carbs.
Cheese Burger has lettuce, tomatoes, onion, a patty, and secret sauce in a grilled bun.

You can grab some ketchup and hot peppers.

My first few bites of In-N-Out Burgers and they were good for Fast Food Burgers, but not the best out there. It was a good experience, but I still prefer A&W in Canada.

We Rate In-N-Out Burger:

Address:
7009 West Sunset Boulevard,
Hollywood, CA 90028, United States

Website:
http://www.in-n-out.com/

In American

Disneyland: Redd Rockett’s Pizza Port

February 26, 2015

Finding cheap lunch in Disneyland with ample seating is quite tough especially when you want to stay out of the sun.

During our time in Disneyland, we ate at Redd Rockett’s Pizza Port in Tomorrow Land beside Space Mountain.

The spaceport is fully equipped with earthling food dispensed at 3 stations: Pizza, Pasta and Salads.

Enlist Space Age heroes like the Mars-inara spaghetti with Meteoric Meatballs, Countdown Chicken Fusilli with sun-dried tomatoes and garlic Parmesan cream sauce, and self-contained slices of Mega Pepperoni, Lunar Cheese, Orion Hawaiian and Venus Vegetarian pizza.

Gather galactic greenery with the Planetary Pizza Salad, Celestial Chicken Caesar or the Starfield of Greens with bleu cheese, walnuts and dried cranberries, and replenish your fluids with refillable soft drinks available in souvenir sipper cups.

Pretty funny descriptions of their food. Space themed Italian food.

Tons of seating for small to large groups! It’s air conditioned too.

It’s cafeteria style and you will only find 3 sections – pasta, salad and pizza.

Mars-inara with Meatballs ($9.99) has spaghetti and meatballs with celestial tomato sauce and freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Count Down Chicken Cavatappi ($9.99) has cavatappi pasta tossed in a garlic-herb oil topped with seasoned grilled chicken, a parmesan-pesto cream sauce and cheese.

Overall, the food is decent for fast food. You definitely get more value from the pasta than pizza. We got the salad to try to be a bit healthier. Redd Rockett’s Pizza Port is a good place to take kids.

Website: https://disneyland.disney.go.com/dining/disneyland/redd-rocketts-pizza-port/

In American

Original Pancake House: Breakfast in Anaheim

February 25, 2015

When in America, make sure to see if there is an Original Pancake House nearby. Or at least that’s what I do. Ever since visiting one in Chicago, I’ve been thinking about their Dutch Baby and Apple Pancakes ever since then. It is a chain restaurant around America, but it was first started in Portland in 1953.

The seating is nothing fancy, but the staff are very friendly and accommodating. It was our last day in Anaheim and our group of 5 ladies with a suitcase each really stood out. Everyone else seemed to be a local.

Coffee was needed by all of us. There was no denying this.

Dutch Baby is oven baked German pancake. This is one of their signature items and it comes in 2 sizes – small and large. We wanted the large size, but the small size arrived at the table.

Served with whipped butter, lemon and powdered sugar.

Apple Pancake is oven baked with fresh granny smith apples and pure Sinkiang cinnamon glaze. It has a lot of sugar on top. It was decent here. I had a better one in Chicago.

Bacon and eggs is a classic. We needed something savoury to balance out the sweet pancakes.

Hashbrown and eggs is another good item to share with the table. Best eaten with ketchup and hot sauce.

Pancakes were beautiful and served with whipped butter.

Side of Sausages were delicious and an essential part of any breakfast.

Strawberry Waffle has their golden brown waffle lightly dusted with powdered sugar then topped with strawberries and fresh whipped cream.

We ordered everything and it was delicious! Original Pancake House was a great time for us ladies. We took an Uber here since we are not familiar with the area at all.

We rate Original Pancake House:

Address:
1418 E Lincoln Ave
Anaheim, CA

Website: http://www.originalpancakehouse.com/

In American

P.F. Chang’s China Bistro: American Chinese Food

February 24, 2015

P.F. Chang’s is an American chain restaurant featuring Asian food. As an Asian person, it just seemed weird to dine at an American Asian Restaurant since Vancouver has a lot of Asian Restaurants.

I’ve spent years avoiding this restaurant because I assumed it would just be crappy food court-like food. This time around, I’m glad I came here for dinner since their American Asian food was quite food. It’s a good fusion of both cuisines.

Stella Artois was needed for a long day at the Disney Parks. Beer with Asian food is awesome.

Mongolian Beef has sweet, soy-glazed flank steak wok-seared with scallions and garlic. The beef was tender and full of flavour.

Chang’s Kung Pao has spicy Sichuan chili sauce with peanuts, celery, scallions and red chili peppers. Not too spicy at all.

Rice comes in a small bowl.

Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wrap is their signature appetizer. It has wok-seared chicken, mushrooms, green onions and water chestnuts over crispy rice sticks, with crisp lettuce cups.

You grab a little bit of filling and put it on a leaf of the lettuce. Then you fold it up and eat it.

Pad Thai has bold Thai spices wok-tossed with rice noodles, egg, tofu, bean sprouts, crushed peanuts, crispy shallots and cilantro.

Shanghai Waldorf Salad has fresh chopped kale, endive, radicchio, crisp apples, grapes, celery, grape tomatoes and candied walnuts tossed in a light miso-lime vinaigrette. This salad isn’t Asian at all, but it tastes really good.

At the end of the meal, there are fortune cookies. A fun way to end the meal.

Overall, the food was pretty good for American Asian fusion food. A nice surprise!

We Rate P.F. Chang’s China Bistro:

Address:
321 W Katella Ave
Anaheim, CA

Website:
http://pfchangs.com/

In American

Smoked Turkey Legs in Disneyland

February 23, 2015

We found ourselves snacking a lot at Disneyland instead of having a set meal during breakfast and lunch. There really wasn’t time for real meals when we only had a few minutes in between rides. We had so much fun that we only stopped to eat when our feet got tired.

One fun thing to eat at Disneyland are their Smoked Turkey Legs. You can find them throughout the park for about $9.99.

It’s massive and quite heavy. It’s about a pound or so. The meat inside was tender and had a strong smokey flavour, so the turkey tasted more like ham. It makes me curious how they prepared these legs. Plus, what happens to the other parts of the turkey.

You can eat it with fork and knife or go animal style and eat it off the bone. I would suggest fork and knife so you can share it with your friends. They might be grossed out if you slobbered all over it. It’s very tempting, but I had to share because the leg is huge.

I tried to take a size comparison with my iPhone, but I needed it to use it to take a picture of the food. So, here is the turkey leg with my head. One thing I couldn’t do was find Gaston and eat this Turkey Leg at the same time. Tracking down those characters are quite hard.

Website: disneyland.disney.go.com

In American

Churros in Disneyland

February 22, 2015

I love Churros! I made it a mission to have a few churros in Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park. It’s not hard to find them since there are carts everywhere in sight.

They heat them up fresh on the spot and cover them with plenty of sugar and cinnamon.

Churro ($4) is pretty expensive when you know you can get it at Costco for $1. But, since you have no other choice, this will do. It does taste pretty good. The churro is pretty long, so it does make for a great snack.

Just watch out for all the falling sugar, it might get on your clothes if you’re not careful.

Website: disneyland.disney.go.com

In Anaheim

Tiki Juice Bar: Dole Whip in Disneyland

February 21, 2015

Tiki Juice Bar inside Disneyland serves up Pineapple Dole Whip Soft Serve. When you visit Disneyland, you must make a stop here. Since you’re probably at Disneyland all day, it a great refresher and to cool you off from the hot sun.

Pine no more for pineapple—savor a taste of sunshine with the legendary frozen treat known as Dole Whip. This counter outside the Enchanted Tiki Room hosted by Dole® also serves pineapple spears, juice, Dole Whip floats and fruit bowls.

The line up wasn’t to long since we went in February but the staff seem to prepare them ahead of time so the line does move quickly. I’m not sure about the busy months of the year.

Dole Whip Float ($5.19) was what I ordered because I wanted to try their soft serve and their soft serve. A perfect combination and the size was quite big.

Pineapple Dole Whip Soft-serve ($3.79) was large a well. We all got one and the first few spoonfuls were amazing. Since it was so large, it did take some time to finish. Then it just got sweeter and sweeter. In the end we wish we shared instead of getting our own.

Overall, no regrets. It was delicious and very refreshing.

Location: Outside Adventure Land in Disneyland

Website: https://disneyland.disney.go.com/dining/disneyland/tiki-juice-bar/

In American

Cheesecake Factory Anaheim: Lunch near Disneyland

February 16, 2015

The Cheesecake Factory is located in the Anaheim GardenWalk, it is about a 15 minute walk away from Disneyland and California Adventure Park. After taking a 40 minute ride from LAX, we arrive in Anaheim at 2pm and wanted a quick lunch. Since GardenWalk is a few steps away from our hotel, we decided to come here and get some pasta.

Cheesecake Factory is a US Chain restaurant best known for their vast varieties of Cheesecake and huge entree portions.

The restaurant seats a lot of customers.

We gravitated towards their lunch menu since these are smaller versions of their entrees.

Complimentary bread arrives and you have brown and white. It comes with butter on the side. These kept us occupied before the main meal arrived.

Louisiana Chicken Pasta ($12.50) has parmesan crusted chicken served over pasta with mushrooms, peppers and onions in a spicy new orleans sauce. Good portion size and it tasted good according to Mandu.

Pasta with Chicken and Scampi Sauce ($12.50) has chicken breast sautéed with garlic, herbs, tomato and white wine in a scampi cream sauce tossed with spaghettini. Of all the pasta dishes we ordered, this was definitely the best and has loads of chicken.

Fettuccine with chicken and Sundried tomatoes ($12.50) was good but the sundried tomatoes were sweet, which was odd. Other than that, the chicken and the sauce were great.

Overall, the food was decent and filled us up for lunch. The portion for lunch is still quite large, so I can only image how big the dinner sizes are.

We Rate Cheesecake Factory:

Address:
321 W Katella Ave #100 Anaheim, CA

Website:
http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/