Kat's 9 Lives

Since I couldn't go to Yi Mei today, I just had this craving for "Fen Tuan" that needed to be satiated! lol To be honest, I rather brave Yi Mei even though it was shut down by the Health Department. O=P It has been a very long time since I went to Yung Ho to get breakfast food because I have heard about how it has gone downhill and I think my family has had it too without going back as well. Since it was such last minute that I couldn't plan the day out and I only knew of Yung Ho for breakfast food. I wish I knew where other breakfast places were nearby. =*( They were not busy around 5 PM. I have always looked at it when I went to Lu Gi or Bamboodles, but never really went there since the other two places are better. Sadly today Bamboodles ran out of their $1 deal since they were making a limited dessert they only made 60 portions. Lame! lol
Onto the food. I wanted to be smart in trying them again so I decided to just order one and see how it tastes before ordering a bunch for home. Little did I know that my Mom would have a really big mouth and tell them, then chat them up. She even started to spread the news of Yi Mei to everyone lol. I thought the "Fen Tuan" was a bit on the salty side. Normally I like things full of flavor and salty is good but this was way too salty. The Chinese Doughnut inside wasn't that crispy, there was not enough of Dried Pork Sung to balance out the saltiness, and the Salted/Pickled Vegetables inside were way overpowering. Their portion is pretty good and they were friendly since my family chatted them up... but that doesn't make good food or good reviews for me. Sorry.
I was very happy to hear that they had the Rolled Pancake with Beef and ordered one to try. They kind of messed up what I mean and got it to go but I took a bite immediately after I stepped out so I can judge it fairly. This definitely mixed the mark because it was just Marinated Beef and a Sweet Spicy Sauce. Umm.... I have never had it sweet. This was quite odd in my opinion. Usually the meat is flavorful and salty, of course just the right amount, and balanced out with Green Onions or some other sharp vegetable. Sometimes it is a peppered flavor on the meat, but here I couldn't really taste any flavor from the meat. All I tasted was the sweet spicy sauce... umm no thanks.

All in all, I am sorry to say but I wished I could have bought from Yi Mei. I don't care if they were shut down by the Health Department and Yung Ho has an A rating. This might sound gross that I prefer a dirty place to this, but lets be honest... most places in SGV/MP is pretty dirty behind the scenes... maybe you don't see it or choose to ignore it lol. After Yi Mei opens back up, I will probably go back. I am grossed out by the sign I saw today but it is much better than Yung Ho and really hits the spot! O=9

Yung Ho
533 W Valley Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 570-0860

Again I apologize the dates, I promise to catch up but I want to provide you the up to the minute news! ^_^ Today is 9/2/09 and I drove up to Monterey Park due to my family's influence. It has been a very very random day! @_@ lol I was looking forward to getting some "Fen Tuan", Salty Sticky Rice Roll, at Yi Mei. As we got there the place looked open and as we walked up I saw that the sign said closed. We were all a bit confused... not to mention that it is HOT there. I guess we just arrived a little too late as the Health Dept shut them down! BOOO!!! lol Okay, and EWWW! The sign said that they are shut down due to cockroaches~! It must have just happened because the employees were still inside. Don't know how long they will be shut down. =*( This is the said and scary part... if they would let me... I would still buy food there today! lol O=9 Hey if I drove that far, I want what I want! lol Also, lets be honest... everything around this area is uh... shady! What I don't know or even know... won't kill me... still tastes good... more flavor! haha j/k Still, I am sad that I wasn't able to get what I want as I was so looking forward to it. I went to Yung Ho after this and... **must read to know! lol**

I must give a shout out to Gourmet Pigs for driving from LA and it was great hanging out with everyone. It's been a while since I have seen Hellobear and Tiramisu. We all journeyed fall and wide to Oxnard for their infamous California Strawberry Festival on May 17th. The weather was all over the place with the sun hiding most of the morning. I actually enjoyed it better without the heavy sun in the afternoon. At least I had sun block this time around! O=) The festival was PACKED this year. We were parked super far away on rough dirt. It definitely was not a good idea to wear flip-flops as my feet became super super dirty trudging through the parking lot.
The entrance fee is $12 for adults. Somehow Hellobear got in for free! I am going to use that tactic/secret next time! lol Parking is $5. The first thing that we did after we got to the festival was grab some grub! ^_^ Gourmet Pig and I set out for the Corn on the Cob stand. We saw that they offered Strawberry Cream Lemonade and we couldn't resist trying it out. Man, was this a heavy price to pay for not shopping around a bit more. The bill came out to be $8 for corn and lemonade... YIKES! lol What can you expect at a festival. *sigh* The corn was good but I wished there was more roast flavor and tastier butter. Still, they were sweet.
I thought the Strawberry Cream Lemonade looked super pretty. The strawberry that they throw in really makes it beautiful. I didn't really taste the "cream", but it was a very good and sweet lemonade. If only it wasn't $4! lol I saw at the other food stands that they sold it for $3. Oh well!
Later on we noticed that it would have been a better deal to get the Strawberry Smoothie drinks as they were the exact same size and half the price! It was sweet and filled with blended strawberries. Deal wise, this was much more worthwhile but I still prefer the lemonade. It's much lighter and brings out the flavor of strawberries versus a thick syrupy sweet smoothie. I have been pondering about taking some of the strawberries I bought to make some delicious homemade strawberry lemonade. O=)
After that we moved on to the other food stands. Hellobear and I decided to share a Pork Kebab smothered in Garlic Soy Sauce, but the meat was overdone. Kind of sad! We waited there for a long long time breathing in all the bad smoke from the grill. *cough cough* Everyone else abandoned us to do their own things! lol Gourmet Pigs tried out the Strawberry Crepes. The crepes looked decent but loaded with cream! lol We all got split up after a while and ended up seeing each other at the Funnel Cake line. How dare Gourmet Pig not call us to ask if we wanted one! lol They got their share while we were stuck at the end of the line. It's all good though because I made hand signals at them and got to share with them. O=) Got to work the magic! lolThey also had a Cajun stand that looked tempting. I played it smart and waited for Gourmet Pigs to test out the food before I made my purchase. Curious that their line was never that long... she got the Jambalaya and at first I was going to get one myself but the "sausage" part looked like hot dog meat. That sealed the deal for me. I think the best cooked food was the Smoked Turkey Leg and I don't even like turkey!Let's not forget about the delicious Chocolate Covered Strawberries sold by the Buddhist Temple. The strawberries were beautiful gigantic long stems covered in either white, milk, or dark chocolate. They were $2 each or slightly cheaper if you buy more so we did. I thought the dark chocolate was the best combination to bring out the flavors of the strawberry as well as compliment the chocolate. When I had the milk chocolate I just felt it was disjointed in taste and didn't enjoy it as much. Needless to say we gorged out on festival food. ^_^
Of course that was more to the festival. I had to bring back 2 flats of beautiful strawberries. I have been giving them out to people left and right, but of course I save the best for Ms. Lin when she comes home tomorrow! The strawberries are sweet and juicy. They taste almost like candy! ^_^ We bought some arts and crafts there as well. I almost wish I made my own candle! We should have made our own Strawberry Short Cake as well! lol They had live music, but from what I heard while standing in line for the Funnel Cakes... oye! lol Still, a good time was had by all and I got to catch up/meet up with many great friends. Good times!

Hmm how odd. A few days ago I went on the ABC website and none of the partners were announced. I thought I got an inside scoop tonight, 8/25/09, at STK in West Hollywood when I saw Melissa Joan Hart and Derek Hough together! Now I just went back online to make sure that I spelled their names right, only to find out that Mark Ballas is her partner. Where was Mark!! lol Ms. Lin would have loved it more if I got a sneak peek or picture of him! lolOkay here comes the funny part. I must say that I love Gastronomy! She is so funny! Her antics for the special viewing at STK of Hell's Kitchen and outside were superb! Good times had by all. She is also such a sweet and wonderful person. I am glad that I made the special trip up to see everyone! Thank you Gourmet Pigs for inviting me. It was wonderful to meet Mattatouille and Pleasure Palate, as well as seeing KFP again. Now onto the fabulous occurrence that took place... As we were all leaving to meet up at the next location... we heard Gastronomy scream... "SABRINA! SABRINA! Come back and see Sabrina!" Keep in mind that we were not close by but we could hear her clearly. lol So we started to walk back. GP and I were thinking... who's Sabrina? Someone from the Hell's Kitchen show? Or the head chef at STK? huh? haha Through the paparazzi we were finally able to see that it was Melissa Joan Hart. She headed for the private entrance into STK and then there was a guy there. I was not standing close nor did I really care since I am not that into stars... I heard Gastronomy shouting... "CHASE CRAWFORD! WOO! CHASE!" I looked up to see if it was him.. albeit, I don't really even know what he looks like! haha I recognized immediately that the guy was Derek Hough. I told her that the guy was not Chase Crawford. She kept on screaming, "CHASE! WOO! CHASE CRAWFORD!" haha I kept saying that it was Derek Hough. She loudly replied, "WHO'S DEREK HOUGH?" haha I told her that it was the guy she keeps shouting is Chase Crawford. lol

California's best summer wine event celebrating Malibu's scenic beauty for the benefit of Childhelp. Why not take the chance to drive out to Malibu on a beautiful weekend full of wonderful wine and food, plus the chance to make a difference and help out a wonderful organization. A portion of the purchase price ($50) is a tax-deductible charitable donation to Childhelp®, a national children’s charity. Even more reason to come out to enjoy the event. If you cannot make the event, you are always welcomed to donate directly to the Childhelp foundation. There will be over 60 wineries and 2 dozen restaurants presented at the event for the "Grand Tasting".

When:

Saturday, August 29, 2009 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM

Where:

Malibu Civic Center

23555 Civic Center Way

Malibu, CA 90265 USA

Tickets:

Advanced Purchase $79.00

At The Door $100.00

Parking:

Valet Parking is $8

Attire:

Casual Attire

For more information go to http://www.malibuwineclassic.com/ or to donate directly go to https://www.childhelp.org/donate I recommend that you check out the event and make a day of it! There are many wonderful things to do in Malibu. Be sure to check out all the fresh seafood places along the way! ^_-

Sorry for the long hiatus. I am even more behind as you can tell from the dates. O=9 I have deathly ill because of food poisoning so I have not updated this site. As soon as I get better I will try and catch up. Sorry to all my loyal and wonderful readers. Since some of my dear friends are getting married, I wanted to give a shout out to them! I have been sick and recovering since the beginning of July and they are the friends that I have seen most. They are both truly great people. No better couple deserves a world of happiness!
Today on August 8th, 2009 we will celebrate their blessed union. May Anibel and Richard's lives always be filled with happiness and love!