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