The Sandwich Story

The Sandwich Story. 12 Harness Ave. Pasadena, CA

Sandwiches are one of my favorite foods...vietnamese sandwiches, meatball sandwiches, tea sandwiches, PBJ sandwiches...if it has something meaty, cheesy or nutty in between two slices of delicious bread, I will love it.

So for this reason, I had to come to The Sandwich Story.

The Sandwich Story is a small (obviously) sandwich shop that is set up to cater the young, backpack-bearing students at Pasadena City College. I forget too, that these PCC folks have a life, since I was the sole person at this joint on a Friday afternoon. Cool with me, I had the whole place to myself. On a Friday. Just me and my sandwich.

The menu included smoothies, shaved ice, the traditional cold and hot sandwiches (turkey, ham, tuna, BLT, club, pastrami, etc), and their "Story Special" which cleverly listed 4 sandwiches in chapters. I had to start with Chapter 1: Toasted pastrami sandwich with coleslaw.

Chapter 1 had page-turning bites of lean cuts of pastrami, juicy coleslaw and toasted bread. The sweet and saltiness of pastrami and coleslaw made for a pleasant mixture of ingredients to taste. They classified this sandwich as "hot" but I could use a bit more heat to the meat.

One regular sandwich was about $5 and was more generous than the average Subway sandwich....even though it's a bit short of a foot long.

I ended Chapter 1 quite happily and can't wait to flip to Chapter 2.

Pie 'n Burger

The boyfriend and I decided to go here after a blog by one of my foodie friends (www.gastronomyblog.com). Pie'n burger (www.pienburger) is one of her two favorite restaurants in Pasadena, so the boyfriend and I wanted to give it a try.

From her recommendation, we just ordered the burger and skipped the fries. I ordered the turkey burger and the boyfriend ordered the traditional hamburger. They grill their buns and serve their burgers with a wad of lettuce and thousand island sauce. The combination of crunch, juicy patty, and savory sauce reminded me of a high-quality In-n-out burger--and In-n-out is already high quality in my standards! So these burgers below are spankin' good burgers.

The only recommendation I would have with this burger...is to make it bigger...because we both were still pretty hungry.

Since this place was called "Pie'n burger", and because we were still starving, we ordered the dutch apple pie with ice cream as our dessert:

I am a big pie crust person...I absolutely LOVE pie crust. This pie crust had a flaky, buttery taste, and probably a little too salty for my taste. However, the dutch apple was delicious, and probably can do okay with less ice cream (note the big wad of ice cream wrestling my pie).

I'd go back here again, but probably after spending some time trying other restaurants. It's not one of my favorite places to go to, but still makes the "good restaurant" list.

Luna Park

I had bought a $40 "groupon" for $20 (http://www.groupon.com/) for this place called Luna Park (http://www.lunaparkla.com/), so I decided to invite my cousins out for our monthly reunion.

This place is located right at the corner of Wilshire and La Brea in an area that I wouldn't expect to be "hip". It was across from blockbusters and away from other popular restaurants. To my surprise, my cousin who arrived first was asked if she had reservations. We didn't and had to wait 15 minutes for a table...not bad.

As usual, I was the late comer. As I stepped in, every seat at the bar was taken, and the wooden dining tables were filled with age groups ranging from mid 20's to early 40's. It was a happening place.

We started off with a large bowl of sangria:

I have bits of fruit in my sangria and be able to taste the wine in it. As you can tell from the bright cherry color, this was more like a fruit punch to me, and only had a lone piece of lemon to represent the fruit family. My cousin started to feel a buzz from 2 glasses, so it did it's job. :)

We ordered poke and a side dish of macaroni and cheese as our appetizers. The mac 'n cheese to me was my favorite out of all the dishes. I had a nice crusty topping and a cheese taste that isn't too overwhelming. One of my cousin's said she can make better mac'n cheese.

The poke, or marinated raw tuna, had tomatoes, ginger, poke, garlic, lime, and every ingredient necessary to make a salsa. It tasted good as a general dish, but if you order it, don't expect to get a traditional poke plate. I like to be able to taste more of the poke than it's supporting ingredients, and this one didn't really do it for me. "It's like a ceviche" said one of my cousins.

My cousin Lan got the pan seared Mahi Mahi with Morroccon couscous and baby bok choi. I thought the Mahi Mahi was good but lacked some flavor, and didn't realize that it was supposed to be "pan-seared" until I looked at their website. I always thought pan-seared meant "lightly cooked on the outside and raw in the inside"...but this one was cooked all the way. It didn't fit the bill.

My other cousin Thanh ordered the breaded pork cutlet, and I ordered the parmesan gnocchi bolognese.

The pork cutlet was very good...it reminded me exactly of the Japanese pork katsu...except this one had a dab of cranberries on it, making it more American.

My gnocchi were as big as big marshmellows and the texture of the gnocchi was almost as soft as marshmellows. It's with "ground Ninan ranch flat iron"...which basically means ground beef (I couldn't taste the difference if ground flat iron is supposed to be better quality). Overall, I think flavor-wise my dish was good, but again, it's not quite the traditional gnocchi I was expecting.

Overall, if you're looking for a happening place to hang out with your friends or a place to go out for a casual date, this is it. If you're looking for "the place" to go to for food, I'm sure there's better places out there. I had fun.

JJ's Bakery (Arcadia)

This is probably THE most popular JJ's bakery in Los Angeles. When my college friends found out I was moving to the "valley", they told me that I HAD to try this Chinese bakery. And of course by the time I moved up here, JJ's was no mystery...my co-residents already knew about it.

It's located in the chinatown of san gabriel valley--Arcadia...right off Duarte and Baldwin Ave.

Weekends are busy days for JJ's. Crowds are lined up trying to get their freshest baked goods--straight from the oven.

They use the same type of bread for almost all their baked goods--it's this slightly chewy and slightly sweet soft bread--probably very similar to the texture of hawaiian rolls. The main difference is what's inside (or outside), and it varies from dried pork, barbeque pork, coconut, taro, red bean, mochi, hot dog, corn, and more.

They also have more "baked goods" which includes moon cake, birthday cakes, mochi, and little fruit tarts. The other side of JJ's has a small "cafe" that serves coffee from Illy-the famous rich Italian coffee.

(from left: hot dog bun, red bean mochi, dried pork)


I've been here probably half a dozen times so far, and can say that I've tried half of their baked bready items. So I thought I can give my "tips" of going to JJ's:

1) Arrive early if you want the freshest and largest variety of baked goods.
2) If you do arrive early and they don't have what you want, ask them. Most likely it's in the back.
3) All of the baked buns have a unique look on the outside--if you know exactly what you want, you can tell by how it looks without reading their small signs.
4) Buns run out fast, especially the popular ones.
5) If you don't know what to get, look at what others are getting.


My favorites:
Sweet buns: Red bean bun with mochi (outside: half of the bun has sesame seeds)
Savory buns: Barbeque pork bun (outside: plain), or the 3 miniature dried pork buns (comes in 3, has dried pork all around it)

Pop Champagne Bar

33 E. Union St. Pasadena, CA http://www.popchampagnebar.com/

I met up with an old junior high school friend at this cute little hidden champagne bar just a block away from the hustling Old Town Pas.

Every Thursday they have 33% off bottles and and a tasting menu that allows you to try 3 different flavors of champagne for $14-19. The extensive champagne (and wine) list included bottles ranging $30-60. They do have a list of more affordable half bottles (my kind of list). We went for a half bottle.

Our server helped us choose a nice dry champagne called Philipponnat. It was light, crisp, and just lovely. It went well with the truffled mac n'cheese and sliders:

The quick and dirty:

Carrot soup-came out luke-warm, was just okay;

Sliders--came w/3 different ones...one with goat cheese, another with bbq sauce and the last was a classic mini-hamburger. My favorite was the goat cheese and classic one, although all were good. I'd eat more.

Truffled Mac n'cheese: One day I will taste what truffles really taste like. This was another dish where it was "lightly truffled". Really? I didn't taste it. Mac n'cheese was good, but not the best.

Service: awesome, server was knowledgable of the champagne and wine list and can suggest them according to our dish and our preference in taste.

I'd come back here again, not necessarily for their food, but as a nice social get-together or a girls' night out. Who's down?! =)

Julienne

http://www.juliennetogo.com/

This little restaurant is located in wealthy neighborhood of San Marino at 2649 Mission St. I didn't follow the "note to self" (check out hotdog blog) and came here on a Sunday when it was closed. The boyfriend and I returned here on a Friday happy to find that the crowd of middle-aged summer-dress-wearing women and polo-shirted men spelled out "yes we're open".

This place seems to be known for their breakfast. They serve breakfast M-F 7-10:45am and Sat 7:30-11:30am (again, no hours listed on Sunday means, closed on Sunday...learned that the hard way). People were scrambling in at 10:40am making sure they made it in on time for their most important meal of the day.

The boyfriend chose the health-conscious route and ordered the egg white omelete with sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes and basil. Sadly, the side of fruit was the best part of his meal. The omelette came with no sauce, no cheese, no spices. It was tasteless. He wasn't too happy with his meal. But hey, I gotta give the restaurant credit for offering a healthy option though.

I ordered the Parmesan Crusted Potato Cake with Poached Egg, Guacamole and Salsa. Let me start off with the egg--look how perfectly poached it was--one poke and the yolk comes oozing out, just the way I like it. The potato cake was tasty and reminded me parmesan mashed potatos with a crisp hash brown crust. Guacamole? Delicious. My meal? Fantastic.

One thing about this restaurant though is that with a name of "Julienne" I had expected a French restaurant with dishes such as Croque Monsieur, Crepe and French toast (just kidding about the last one being French). Instead their menu is pretty "American" with gourmet ingredients. They do in fact have French toast...gourmet American French toast.

Runyon Canyon

One of my dog-owner friends told me about Runyon Canyon. "You can take your dog off leash and stars like Ryan Seacrest run there!" What?!! (I run into the car, tires screeches off...Garmin searches this "Runyon Canyon")

Not that I have a special liking to Ryan Seacrest--but the thought of seeing hot tan celebrities running along Runyon Canyon in the scorching sun in nothing but their six packs? Ohhh yeah...I'm there. =) (hi boyfriend you also count as my personal hot tan celebrity)

Aside from my own superficial reasons of wanting to go to Runyon Canyon, this park is a really fantastic place to hike with or without a dog. I brought the boyfriend and Chewy and had an absolutely awesome hour and a half hiking experience.

Runyon Canyon is an 130 acre park 2 blocks away from Hollywood Blvd. There are 3 entrances, one off Vista St, one off Mulholland, and the one I took which was on 2000 N. Fuller Ave. There are a few trails to choose from--we followed everyone else up to the peak of the canyon that led us to an amazing view of Griffith Park, the Hollywood signs, and Hollywood Hills.

Along the dirt-trail hike, you can look over at the homes of the rich and famous on Hollywood Hills. If you look even more closely, you might even see Lindsay Lohan's house being robbed...again.

Unfortunately no celebrities were seen, but a handful of physically fit Southern California guys and girls did flaunt their sweaty tone bodies as they effortlessly ran past the "trail-walkers" like myself.

But don't let the "fit" people scare you! The hike is suitable for people of all sizes, shapes and levels. It's such an easy and enjoyable hike. Chewy loved it.

For more information, check out this website: www.lamountains.com/parks.asp?parkid=122

Korean BBQ: Dong Il Jang

A Korean bbq festival was in town, but since we had to miss it, the boyfriend and I decided to have a little celebration of our own. We got a list of recommended Korean bbq restaurants from a friend of a Korean friend who lives in Koreatown and opted for a non-all-you-can-eat bbq restaurant: Dong Il Jang.

The restaurant boasted of many traditional Korean decorations, brown maid dressed waitresses, and wooden benches with a built-in tabletop stove. There was even a different section where you can take off your shoes and eat on the ground, I guess the traditional way.

The menu had the traditional bbq dishes including those I was familiar with--bulgogi and kalbi. The prices ranged from $20-25 per portion, however, you would have to order a minimum of 2 of the same dish (a minus in my opinion especially if its a small party). The boyfriend and I decided to go with the roast gui, a dish other yelpers recommended.

To start off, they brought out about 10 delightful and fresh appetizer dishes. I'm a big fan of kimchi (pickled spicy cabbage), and their kimchi was pretty tasty. The fishcakes were also a personal favorite.

Our main dish came out next, and it was disappointingly brought to us as a plate of frozen sliced beef. For $25/portion, I had hoped for fresh beef.

Next, our waitress turned on our skillet, slapped on some butter, placed a few slices of beef on the pan, and left us on our own to enjoy our meal. The boyfriend and I (non-Koreans) looked at each other, then down at our sauce, then at each other again. At this point, I had wished I brought my Korean friend to show us "the way" to Korean dining. We wanted to make sure we did things right.

Luckily, we figured it out (I think). We cooked the meat ourselves to our liking. The meat can be eaten with sliced green onions and dipped into the provided sauce. The flavor overall was pretty decent, but I thought the meat itself was lacking in...texture. It was pretty chewy for a meat that was thinly sliced. Perhaps I was more used to the marinated pork and beef, that without the strong flavors, what's left to criticize about the roast gui was the meat itself.

Lastly, when we were done with our meat, our waitress came by and asked us something. I had remembered my friend telling me about the kimchi fried rice at the end, so right when I heard "kimchi" from our waitress' mouth, I eagerly said "yes yes! Kimchi fried rice!!"

She smiled and came back with several ingredients to make our final dish: rice, kim chi, sliced meat, and spicy sauce. She started putting the ingredients together, and at the end, she packed the rice on the pan to let it sizzle on the bottom.

This was the best part of our meal. The mixture of slightly crunchy rice, pickled cabbage, meat, and special sauce pleased my palate. It was the flavor that I had been looking for. Overall, I thought the roast gui was okay, service was pretty good, great atmosphere, tasty kimchi dishes and the kim chi fried rice was freaking awesome. The latter had especially made my night. =)

Orange Grove Dog Park

Having lived in San Francisco for 3 years with my dog Chewy, I've become so appreciative of their dog parks and how friendly and well trained the pups (and owners) are there. It was one place you can bring your dog to, unleash him, and let him run off to sniff Fido, Fluffy, and Foofoo's butts without a worry. I thought to myself...how can I find something like that when I leave SF?

Lucky for me, I found an LA version: Orange Grove dog park. It's located off Sierra Madre exit north of the 210 in Pasadena. They have 2 gated areas for dogs--one for the big dudes, and the other for the small and special-needs pooches. They even have 2 gates that you enter before coming into the dog park to allow you a chance to unleash your dog first. Well planned, I must say!

I took Chewy to the little dog side. As we entered, there were so many happy dogs excited to greet this new kid on the block. They exchanged their butt sniffs and were instant BFFs. Chewy immediately went off on his own to play--every now and then, he'd come back to his Mom (me) to make sure she's okay. Makes me think--shouldn't it be the other way around?

Well, to take care of the pups' parents, there's plenty of plastic chairs and shade around the park for people to sit in and relax in. I brought some reading material but quickly found that watching the dogs so much more fun. I'd say there were probably 30 dogs on the small dog side alone!

To take care of all the pouncing paws, they have a water fountain for dogs and trash bags all over just in case Rover or Odie makes a little doodoo.

Overall, I'm very impressed by this place. They have everything you need to keep both you and your dog happy.

I'm beginning to think that I can probably find anything in SF in LA.
I would just have to drive. A lot. In traffic.

PCC Flea Market

Pasadena City College (PCC) hosts a flea market on their campus every 1st Sunday of the month. It's free to get in. The flea market consists of vendors all throughout the Bonnie & Del Mar parking lot structure and the Bonnie & Colorado open parking space.

Vendors sell things such as little trinkets, old records, cds, clothes, antiques, dishes, furniture, jewelry, shells, and more. If you're thirsty or hungry, there's a few vendors that sell drinks and food. The flea market is like a bunch of garage sales that come together for this one day to sell their..."collectibles" and things they don't need anymore. I walked out empty handed and full-walleted. Ok wallet may not be that full...just untouched.

I personally think a lot of their stuff is old clutter waiting for a home to become new clutter. But who knows, if you like collecting things, or old stuff, you might want to check this place out.

Vietnamese sandwich: Banh Mi My Tho

The French, Chinese, and Southeast Asian influences in Vietnam has brought together many different flavors in Vietnamese dishes. Although not necessarily a dish, the banh mi, or Vietnamese baguette is one example.

Banh mi starts off with a French baguette that is spread with mayonaise and pate. Inside can be either a combination "ham", bbq beef, meatball (nem nuong), or even vegetarian meats. Pickled carrots and jicama, cucumber, green peppers, and cilantro is typically added to add more flavor and freshness to the sandwich. When eaten together, you would expect a bite into a nice chewy bread followed by flavorful meats and tart and spicy vegetables.

I decided to pick up some banh mi at Banh Mi My Tho in Alhambra for a picnic with my cousins. This place is a small mom and pop shop and is meant for to-go orders only. The shop was cluttered with many Vietnamese packaged goodies such as soi (sweet rice), cha gio (eggrolls), and banh (desserts). Along with the clutter is a a crowd of 5-6 people waiting for their orders.

I decided to order 4 banh mi thit nuong (bbq beef sandwich #8) and 2 skewers of nem nuong (meatballs). Total came out to be $12 for everything.

We ate the food about 1 hour I bought it, yet the sandwich still retained its flavor. The bread was fresh and a little chewy as expected, with the crust crumbling down my shirt with every bite. The bbq meat was slightly sweet and has a nice charcoal bbq taste. It complemented the pickled vegetables, although I would have preferred a little bit more meat. Overall, this is a pretty decent sandwich...probably among my top three sandwich places (my #1 is Banh Mi Ba Le, the sandwich shop I grew up on in San Diego).

Nem nuong means "grilled ground pork" in Vietnamese and usually consists of ground pork with fish sauce, sugar, garlic and other ingredients to flavor. The one presented here is in a form of a meatball skewer. The nem nuong at Banh Mi My Tho can probably be eaten by itself, as none of the flavors are too overwhelming. It makes a great snack or appetizer, or would even go great with Bun (vermicelli).

The owners of this place have a few jokes up their sleeves too. I asked in Vietnamese "Can I have 2 meatball skewers" and they replied "You can't have it, but I can sell it to you". =)