The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap Year 3

It's that time of year again! I've been a part of the cookie swap since it started in 2011 and I'm super excited to participate again. I'll going to be in Korea and Hong Kong, then back for a week and a half before jetting off again to Japan ... so I'll have one week in between those trips to bake my heart out.

If you want to participate, go here to sign up. There is a $4 donation made via Paypal and all proceeds are donated to charity. Sponsors will even send you goodies - last year it was an adorable little rubber spatula, just made for prying cookies off those baking sheets and into boxes to be shipped to your cookie swap matches. Looking forward to the goodies this year!

Fukagawa

The Japanese really know how to do breakfast. Look at this spread! There is only only one place that I know of in Southern California that serves this traditional style of breakfast. For the price of an extra value breakfast sandwich meal at Carl's Jr or McDonalds, you can get this instead.

Rice, cold tofu topped with bonito flakes and green onion, seaweed, pickled vegetables and miso soup. The miso soup has the dried bean curd in it, instead of regular silken tofu, and is pretty on point. But the best part are the two items you have choices on: your breakfast protein and your breakfast egg.

The breakfast comes with fish, either grilled salmon or grilled saba. For $1 more, you can get steak instead, but I'm all about the healthy, omega-filled fish. And the egg comes in a variety of ways: tamago, hard boiled, fried or raw. Which I didn't understand at first, but there is another breakfast combo where you get natto, and people like to mix raw egg into that. And by "understand at first" I mean that I totally just realized that right now. It's like a egg shaped light bulb went off in my head.

Looking at the picture on top, the breakfast may not seem like anything special but it's well prepared and will keep you going through the morning until lunchtime! Plus it's delicious, and the restaurant is quiet in the morning, which provides some zen time before the hustle and bustle of the work day. Bon appétit!

Fukagawa
1630 W Redondo Beach Blvd, Gardena, CA 90247

Crab Fest IX 2013

Another year, another Crabfest at The Hungry Cat (see Crabfest VII and Crabfest VIII) ... YUMZ! I wouldn't miss this for the world ... even though sometimes I really have to move my schedule around to accommodate the crab eating. This year, my boo Judy went with me (hi Judy!) and it was her first time. I was excited to show her the ropes.

The menu is prix fixe and consists of five courses. Taxes and gratuity is included within the price of the ticket, but drinks are extra. I'm not a drinker, but I have watched the bartenders/mixologists make their concoctions and they look tasty. Fresh squeezed juices for the drinks and everything.

crab cake, pork belly, fingerling potatoes

Maryland crab soup

jean's marinated heirloom tomatoes, provolone cheese

grilled corn, smoked paprika

beer battered soft shell crab sandwich, B&B pickles, spicy remoulade

Maryland blue crabs!!!

cornmeal scone, berries

I have to say, the dessert always kills me. Last year, I asked for TWO desserts because it was so good. We had great fun using the hammers and just tearing into the crabs with our hands - the best way to eat. Do I seem barbaric? Maybe a little bit.

But I have to admit, this year's Crabfest wasn't as good as the previous years. They stopped serving in real/ceramic plates and bowls, which is fine ... but I feel like the portions are smaller as well. Also, the prior years they let us have all the crabs that we wanted but they capped us off this year. Maybe the service was different because of the waitress this year? I'm not 100% sure but I'm still eager to try Crabfest again next year!

Also, this was the first year we didn't see Joel McHale. Noooo! Joel, you must go back to Crabfest again and enjoy the delicious crabs. This was the year where I was finally going to ask him for a picture too so that plan failed. But we did see Felicity Huffman and William H Macy with their kids.

The Hungry Cat
1535 Vine St, Los Angeles, CA 90028

MVP Seafood

It's not often that I blog about Chinese restaurants around the SGV, but this opportunity was too good to pass up. Probably because I ate so much seafood that I wanted to pass out ... see the theme there? Sometimes I go to American seafood places (like McCormick & Schmitt, which my dad loves but I despise) and wonder why their prices are so high compared to these Asian places in the SGV, especially for crab and lobster. We ordered all this seafood and the total came out to be a few bucks less than $150, with tax and tip included.

hand-shredded house chicken

mirugai / giant clam / geoduck sashimi

Let me take a minute to say OMGZ on this. The mirugai in sushi form usually runs an average of $7-8 for two pieces and here it is, an entire plateful in all it's fine glory. Freshly killed and sliced up. The restaurant was having a special where the mirugai was only $5.99/lb if you order at least $35 worth of food, which was easily done.

mirugai / giant clam / geoduck soup

After you eat the sashimi, the restaurant will take the body cavity portion of the mirugai and cook it in soup, rice, or congee/jook/porridge form. My parents wanted to order the soup but I think the congee would have been delicious.

dungeness crab, ginger green onion style

lobster, house style 

large pea leaves with garlic

complimentary red bean soup dessert

Red bean soup is delicious. I drank my portion and wheedled my way into drinking my mom's portion too. Couldn't take my dad's, even though he offered, cause it was his birthday ... next time though, all bets are off. Get yourself down to MVP Seafood for some super fresh lobster and mirugai! Everything we had was top notch and I was more impressed than I thought I'd be.

MVP Seafood
545 W Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776

Animal

Ahh, Animal. Ever since you opened, you've attracted hordes of hungry carnivores. On your extensive, meat-centric menu, you have but a handful of vegetarian dishes. Even though the ban of foie gras caused you to take some much loved items off your menu, such as the foie gras loco moco, you are still full of satisfied and meat-sweating customers every night.

My first time at Animal was prior to the ban and I only recently returned with a couple friends who were interested to try the place out. Lady Ducayne's man was working there at the time (hey hey Mari!) but I was only able to quickly wave to him through the kitchen before going back to the table. We ordered a bunch of dishes to share between us (the restaurant is family-style) and they demanded my full attention!

shrimp & rabbit sausage spring roll, mizana, green curry

The spring rolls were tasty ... but if they're fried then aren't they eggrolls? Am I wrong? Should I turn in my Asian card right now?! One of my friends refused to eat the spring roll cause umm ... she has a couple pet bunnies. But her husband had no qualms about eating them! In fact, he was the one that wanted to order them. She thought he was a barbarian.

charred octopus, rancho gordo bean, pistou, dandelion

roasted peaches, hazelnut, buttermilk, white currants, crispy ham

crispy pig head, short-grain rice, bulldog sauce, soy egg

barbeque pork belly sandwiches, slaw

poutine, oxtail gravy, cheddar

grilled quail, plum char-siu, pear, apple, yogurt, pomegranate

persian mulberry tart, lemon chiboust, vanilla, black mint

blueberry, frozen brown butter crumble, yogurt, bay leaf ice cream

Favorite dishes were the pork belly sliders and the blueberry dessert, hands down. Actually the desserts were pretty strong here the other time I visited as well. I wasn't blown away by the bacon crunch bar the last time I had it, so we didn't order it again. These two fruit-based desserts were the perfect ending to a heavy meal.

Animal Restaurant
435 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036