Road Trip – Page 26

Roadtrip: Alpine Village Market – Torrance

December 23, 2013 mmm-yoso German Restaurants and Food, Los Angeles County, Markets & Grocers, Road Trip

**** Sadly Alpine Village Market closed in 2023

Please pardon all the roadtrip posts. I wanted to do this one, because this place just put us in the holiday mood. We decided to head up to LA to do some shopping this past weekend, mostly food stuff. On our previous roadtrip (more posts coming up), instead of visting sites and such, we just ended up hitting various markets along the way. On this roadtrip, we hit up old favorites like the Torrance Farmer's Market, which seems to get larger everytime we visit and of course, Marukai Gardena, the motherlode with regards to Marukai's. But I had my sights set on another place that I'd only recently heard about; the Alpine Village Market, located close by in Torrance.

The Market is located in a large complex, called…duh…. Alpine Village. Along with the market, a deli, and restaurant and ummm "bierhall" (of course), there's a travel agency, driving school, clock and watch repair, along with the mother of all swap meets, which made the parking lot into an insane swarm of vehicles trying to find a parking spot. We lucked out and found a tiny spot to the left of the rather kitschy looking exterior of the market.

I was totally set on being underwhelmed, but this place exceeded my expectations. The market isn't very large but they sure pack a lot into the place.

From the bakery, with stacks of wonderful smelling bread.

And all the old school type pastries. It's a good thing I don't have a sweet tooth, otherwise I'd have gone a bit crazy here. The couple in front of me at the register bought three loaves of bread and spent almost $300 bucks on groceries. Kind of tough, since the prices seem very reasonable.

There are all sorts of candies and confections, canned and jarred products.

This is a German market, so of course a third of it would be the wine and beer section.

This was all nice, but the one section that was just packed to the gills busy was the butcher shop. The line was four to five deep. Man the place was hopping.

The collection of sausages and charcuterie was impressive……

I was told that all of this was made in house. There were sausages and cuts, I'd never heard of. There was a cold case full of various "wursts", but no one was taking stuff from there….it was all happening in front of the meat counter.

One look at the selection of head cheese and we were sold; the Missus took and number and headed into the fray.

Honestly, if this were say 99 Ranch Market and a survival of the strongest type situation, we'd truly have walked away. But this crowd, though busy and intense, also had a bit of jovial, friendly nature to it. Perhaps it was the holiday season, but as nice as the crew behind the counter were (and they were very nice), the other customers were really friendly, at least to us. I guess we kind of stood out…..

Back in the line, the Missus was having a conversation with an African-American gentleman originally from Louisiana, who seemed to know everyone….he told the Missus he came here every two weeks. He had a basket full of smoked beef bones for his dogs. The Missus decided to send me off looking for these….which is how I came across this:

Grieben Schmalz, which I had heard off but never seen in a market. When you hear the term schmalz, you tend to think of the Yiddish "schmaltz" which refers to rendered fat from fowl……grieben schmalz on the other hand is rendered pork fat….think lard, that has been flavored with onion and in many cases, though not this one, with apple. How could I resist? I grabbed five beef bones and a container of schmalz and a older woman looked at what I had in my basket, smiled, and asked me, "you like schmalz?" I tols her that I'd never tried it, but seeing it, I just couldn't resist. I was told it is fantastic on toast. I mentioned that my wife is standing in line to buy head cheese. She asked me which one we chose….I told her all of them. She laughed and said we would have a fine buffet. Apparently, her daughter brings her here every two weeks to shop; "even though I live in Orange County and there are shops there, everything is twice the price and half as good as here….."

Interesting tidbit about buying deli meats…..the counter folks ask you for quantities in "slices"……though they were ok with the Missus ordering a quarter pound….of all the head cheeses.

Thus we ended up with a basket of smoked dog bones, head cheese, some candy, flavored lard, and three containers of sauekraut, purely for comparison of course……

All our stuff came out to $35, pretty cheap I think. I'm sure we'll be back again, this time for sausages, and perhaps more Grieben Schmalz.

Alpine Village Market
833 Torrance Blvd
Torrance, CA 90502
Hours:
Mon – Thurs 10am – 7pm
Fri – Sun 9am – 7pm

So we did end up having our "Kaltes Buffet" of sorts. So remember the variety of head cheese? Well here's sampling along with what seems to be cured pork belly stuffed with forcemeat….simply called "pork belly", along with a few cheeses.

My favorites are the top two; the "Norweigan" seemed to be made of shank and shoulder, with a nice pork flavor, no vinegar, with minimal aspic to hold it together. The second one down is the "Hungarian" version, which was full of various vegetables and some pickles, with a distinctive flavor that I found pleasant. The fourth item down, the "French" version had a good amount of paprika and reminded me of capacolla with a bit of pleasant sourness to it.

As for the schmalz….well, I started by tasting some of it straight from the container on a spoon, which tasted nice, but the Missus just wasn't able to eat it that way.

So what I did was toast some baguette, smear a bit of the schamlz on it and put back into the warm toaster oven to melt.

It is "betta' den butta'"…..

While this won't make me forget about duck fat; it sure will taste good with eggs or used to make brussel sprouts…or heck, even if we do cook some coleslaw……

Roadtrip: Solvang Stop – El Rancho Market and Birkholm’s Bakery

December 22, 2013 mmm-yoso Desserts, Markets & Grocers, Road Trip, Santa Barbara County

We left Hacienda Heights at 530 am, thinking that'd we'd avoid all traffic, even on a weekday….at least that's how things used to be when we lived here. I had an account in Hollywood and made a deal to come in early; leaving at about 515 so I could leave early, heck, even hit up the Zankou location in Hollywood and make it home in time! Times sure have changed….there's was a good deal of traffic at 530am on the 60 West, then on the 101. Once we got past Hollywood things got a bit better, then really cleared out until we hit Santa Barbara. Of course, it was prime time traffic by then. We'd decided on heading up this way, stopping along the drive, at places like Solvang. Right outside Solvang was our first stop…..we love markets, so dropping by El Rancho was a must…..

We loved El Rancho; good variety, the Missus got to add to Her apple collection. Prices that were reasonable, you could leave without feeling mugged. You could get local product, or if not, just to do your everyday shopping. We Also got some some organic treats for Da' Boyz….the Missus was tempted to grind Her own flour from wheat at the kiosk……

Loved the sign to the right….which was actually in the restroom!

The prepared foods section looked nice as well.

There's an attached coffee shop right outside the doors of the market where we got our "java fix". I don't drink much coffee these days so this really got me going…..

We enjoyed this as a nice little stop along the way. I thinknthey'd be great if you wanted to pick up prepared foods for a little picnic as well.

El Rancho Market
2886 Mission Dr
Solvang, CA 93463

After getting nice and "caffiened up" we headed into Solvang. We'd been to Solvang a couple of times and had never really enjoyed ourselves….too crowded, too kitschy, it just gave off that tourist trap vibe….. This time though, on a weekday morning in winter; the place seemed so charming.

It was just the perfect time for us, the half timbered structures, the quiet streets….the temperatures in the low thirties….even the locals we met were telling us how cold it was!

We enjoyed walking the streets and into the various businesses…..the folks were welcoming and relaxed.

I needed something to take back to the office, so I figured this would be the spot, right? We went to a couple of bakeries, but this one won out……

Birkholm's Bakery…..

Mainly because we were warmly welcomed….and they kept trying to give us samples! At the other places, we were basically ignored…..

The folks at work seemed to enjoy the stuff……

Birkholm's Bakery
460 Alisal Rd
Solvang, CA 93463

If we're ever back here, this is the way I'd want to do it….early morning on a weekday.

Soon enough, we'd hit our allotted time…….we needed to hit the road.

Roadtrip: Xi’an Kitchen (City of Industry) and other stuff

December 16, 2013 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip

After lunch at Shanghailander Palace we made the short drive to Gale and the City of industry for our appointment. We had thoughts of getting our appointment done and having an early dinner and possibly a later snack. Unfortunately, what is usually an hour appointment became a 2 1/2 hour one. Kind of bushed we decided to just stay in the area. We hadn't been to the area on Gale west of Fullerton Road in ages and I had a choice of two places; Remy's or Xi'an Kitchen.

The choice became rather easy as I've been looking for good Shaanxi food since we returned from Xi'an a couple of years ago. The places we've tried just didn't measure up. We didn't set our hopes too high….I just really wanted a good Yang Rou Pao Mo, unleavened bread in mutton soup.

The place was totally different in terms of service from lunch; the young lady here just wanted to do the bare minimum. She was more interested in talking to her friends on one of the tables than serving customers. In fact, when the older couple on the back table, returned the Yang rou chuan; the lamb skewers, because they thought it was too fatty, she loudly and blatantly mocked them when taking it back to the kitchen.

I was fascinated to see Rou Jia Mo on the menu as "Chinese Hamburger". This is basically a flat bread filled with fatty pork. What's not to like. In my mind, I thought if this was half as good as what we had at Fan Ji La Zhi Rou Jia Mo (樊记腊汁肉店), I should be happy. With that as the benchmark, I guess I should be satisfied.

The filling was rich and greasy, with a good porkiness, just about right. It was however, ice cold, which made it somewhat unpleasant. The bread was over-worked and too dense , repelling the wonderful porky goodness of something like this version from Xi'an:

The Yang Rou Pao Mo tasted almost exactly like the version at Shaanxi Gourmet, so perhaps these two places are somehow related?

In places such as Tong Sheng Xiang (同盛祥) in Xi'an, the dense unleavened bread is brought to your table whereupon you break the pieces up and the hot mutton broth is poured over everything. I didn't expect that here, could you imagine the young lady having her social time interrupted for those annoying customers? Anyway, like Shaanxi Gourmet, the bread was wrong, very waxy and slippery, seemingly over-worked, developing too much gluten. Thus the bread never absorbed the flavor of the broth, which was decent, and the nice and flavorful lamb.

Of course I was wishing for something along the lines of this.

No cilantro, chili paste, or pickled garlic either…perhaps I needed to ask for those standard accompaniments? So, I recall saying that Shaanxi Gourmet didn't quite take me to Xi'an….perhaps to New Guinea; this one took me to Catalina Island…….. Still, the portion size was quite large, and would fill one up quite adequately.

We ordered one other item; called "Braised Meat in Fermented Sauce", basically preserved meat.

We both loved the texture of this cold dish, though it was pretty salty. Still, this was the best dish of the evening.

The prices here are very reasonable, but you get what you pay for. I'll pass next time….should have gotten Niu Rou Mian next door at Remy's.

Xi'an Kitchen
18213 E Gale Ave
City of Industry, CA 91748

After dinner, we decided to drive up Fullerton Road into La Habra, then to Imperial to check out one of the Missus's old favorite haunts; Brea Mall. For some reason, the place just looked dull and uninspiring to the Missus….ah, how times have changed. After walking off dinner we crossed over the 57 and checked out Mother's where the Missus bought some apples….which seemed to be the theme of this roadtrip; the Missus bought apples everywhere; Braeburn, Black Arkansas, Crimson Gold; we got back home with a bag full of apples….go figure!

We ended the evening at Daiso….the Missus bought some trinkets for some friends. If I recall, this used to be a dance studio, which I think has moved further down the strip mall.

In what seemed oddly humorous to me; they kept announcing how many minutes to closing from the time we entered….830 pm, every five minutes! By the demeanor of the staff you could see that they just wanted us the heck out of the store; it was easy to read between the lines here. "Attention Daiso customers, don't go away mad….just go away!!!" After escaping from Daiso, we walked over to 85C bakery, where we soon noticed all the other folks who had gotten kicked out left Daiso had gathered. Daiso refugees one and all!

What was really sad is that the Albertson's, which used to anchor this strip mall is now gone. We hated the Von's in Rowland Heights, which became SF Supermarket, so we used to shop here every so often. I'm not the biggest fan of these mega-chains, but we had nice memories of the place.

So Von's in Rowland Heights is gone, Albertson's in Hacienda Heights, along with Ralph's off of Colima Road in Hacienda Heights, and Ralph's in Diamond Bar. Wow……..

We crashed early, deciding to leave for the next leg of our roadtrip early; like 530 am early. The Missus wanted to stop by Donut King in the same strip mall for a cup of coffee, for old times sake.

When we lived here, Donut King used to be open 24 hours….now they open at 3am. I'm still amazed that the place survives with Krispy Creme literally a block away and all the Asian Bakeries, but there were a couple of folks in the place at 530, so I guess they're hanging on.

It's been over a decade since we left this neighborhood…..we mulled over all the changes as we headed off into the early morning darkness……

Las Vegas Road Trip: NFR vacation and some meals

December 12, 2013 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Festivals & Events, Las Vegas, Nevada, Road Trip, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is a food centric blog, often with stories leading up to the reasons for the food. That's what's happening today. Kirk and Ed(from Yuma) are busy with 'research' for their food posts. Last week, Cathy mentioned she would be leaving on a vacation soon. She went and returned and now is blogging about her days out of town.

National Finals Rodeo, the best of the best. The top 15 cowboys from North America in each of seven events compete against each other in a rodeo a day for ten days. On the tenth day (this Saturday), the winner amongst winners receives a gold belt buckle in addition to their cash winnings. It's on the GAC channel, but last year the tenth day was broadcast on ESPN.

Before the rodeo starts, there's the Star Spangled banner, a prayer, a song by a famous Country Artist and the competitors line up and tip their hats to the crowd. The events are over in two hours.

Ms. T and I drive out here every year (and have for nine years now) for a "girls weekend" of relaxation, shopping and Rodeo. You can see splashes of pink on the cowboys and/or their horses as well as in the crowd because we were here on Day 5 of the Rodeo, "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" night.

My photos demonstrate the speed of timed events and not much else; the iPhone isn't quite sophisticated.

The Thomas and Mack Arena is surrounded with Sponsor booths and advertising.

The interior has a varied selection of food and adult beverage choices.

This booth caught my eye since I was looking for a low carb choice for a snack. This had sales of macaroni and cheese, chili and macaroni, chili dogs and also sold a cup of chili- for $3!

Meaty and with beans and a good tomato broth, topped with cheese and onions (no extra charge), this was a really satisfying snack. Chili and Rodeo also seems 'right'.

Ms. T and I had rooms reserved at Green Valley Ranch Resort, in Henderson.

The hotel, spa and casino are a nice respite for us.

After checking into our rooms, we met in the casino and walked across the street, through "The District" and across the main road to a Whole Foods store, where we each purchased snacks. \

The Protein bars and pecans and almonds were brought from home, as was the tea. Inside the box was from the prepared foods/serve yourself/by-the pound chicken adobo, which was delicious!

We went to Cowboy Christmas, a free-admission gift show, the following morning. Many purchases were made and events and giveaways enjoyed.

That first evening, I wandered into the casino area, where there is a"Food Court" and (of course) found a Starbucks, which took the place of a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf location a month ago.

The Capriotti's storefront in the Food Court caught my eye, with the 'breakfast' signage. I asked, and they said I could order a breakfast sandwich, even at 8 p.m..

I love being able to watch short order cooks…

Egg, cheese and genoa salami on a toasted Kaiser roll ($3.27). Excellent. Quite large and very, very tasty. I need to find out of the Capriotti's around here does breakfast; the menu looked good.

Every hotel has a 24 hour restaurant.

The Grand Cafe, inside Green Valley Ranch has a special menu from midnight until 6 a.m.

This is the most expensive menu item ($5.99) -steak, eggs(poached), hash browns and toast (rye). Coffee is extra, and necessary at this hour. The NY strip steak is a real NY strip and quite large and was perfectly cooked medium-rare, as I had ordered.

Of course, Ms. T and I also at at Feast (Link to restaurants in the hotel) the all-you-can-eat buffet, where I enjoyed a plate of mains (liver and onions, chicken picatta, egg drop soup and spicy eggplant), a plate of salads (ranch salad, egg salad, mandarin beets, sweet potato salad and pear Bleu cheese salad) and my 'carby' dessert plate (a cannoli and mashed potatoes with gravy). The food and pastries prepared in this hotel are exceptional.

At 6 a.m., a coffee service is set up in the lobby area. We were on our way home at 6:30. The outside temperature was 15.

The drive home was uneventful, except for a portion of the I-15 and I-215 split, with high winds and large profile vehicles parked on the sides of the freeway.

Home before noon.

I hope everyone has the time to take a relaxing vacation during this hectic time of year.

Roadtrip: Shanghailander Palace (Hacienda Heights)

December 10, 2013 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip, Xiao Long Bao

I took some time off at the end of last week. We had an appointment in LA and since I'd been working pretty hard over the last couple of months, I thought it would be good to take an extended roadtrip. Our first day would be in our old neighborhood of Rowland/Hacienda Heights and then we'd move further "North" for a few days.

Since this was a multi-day trip, we stopped at HK Plaza to stock up on some snacks and tea for our trip.

We also took the time to see what was going on here…..

We weren't too hungry, but of course we also didn't want to squander a lunch, so we headed to a place that caught the Missus' attention the last time we stayed in the area. According to what I've read, Shanghailander Palace was aiming to be the area's equivalent of Shanghai No. 1 Seafood Restaurant. So we stopped by to have a light lunch.

Arriving at almost 2 pm on a Wednesday, we were shocked to see how busy the place was! The crowd was composed of mostly older folks and larger groups. I really could have done without the middle aged woman dressed almost "cosplay" style in a short plaid skirt, blouse, and schoolgirl like sweater….yikes, it gave me the heebies!

The service was rather slow, but it could be understood since the place was slammed.

We started with the Xun Yu – "Shanghai Style Smoked fish", which as I've often explained, isn't really smoked. In what seems like the "new style" of Hu Cai (滬菜), this is served warm (deep fried after marinating) rather than as a cold dish.

I enjoyed this version as it was light, mildly "winey", not too sweet (though still too sweet for the Missus), with a nice soy flavor. Even though this was obviously fresh water fish; it lacked the muddy flavor I find unpleasant. This was much better than the version at Shanghai Number 1. I also thought the portion size was nice for an appetizer.

I will say that the tea we ordered – Ti Guanyin, a favorite of mine was just plain insipid.

I didn't see one of my favoite dishes; jellied pork on the menu, so we went with the mutton version instead.

I loved the texture, but the sauce provided was just wrong. I ended up opting for black vinegar instead.

Of course we had to get Xiao Long Bao. We went for the Pork and Crab version.

These were average at best. The tuft at the top was too hard, the wrappers ok….no leakage here, if perhaps a bit too thick and gummy. I thought the filling had decent flavor; not too sweet, but you could definitely make out the crab. Not enough soup though…..hardly any soup.

Some of the other dishes….stuff we could order if we could handle left-overs like the Braised Pork looked really good. So I think we'll probably be back.

Overall, this was a nice start to our roadtrip, which would be taking us North, culminating with dinner in San Mateo at Michelin Starred Wakuriya. Man was I going to enjoy this roadtrip!

Shanghailander Palace
1695 South Azusa Ave
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745

Comfort Food Roadtrip: Qing Dao Bread Food (Monterey Park) and Shen Yang Restaurant (San Gabriel)

December 8, 2013 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip

We hadn't been down to the SGV since before our vacation in May. I've been pretty busy with work and had been craving some jiaozi (dumplings) for a while. Unfortunately, there isn't a place in San Diego that makes anything remotely close to a decent jiaozi, xiao long bao, or even dim sum. It's a shame. I was missing jiaozi so much that I actually went to Dump(ling) Inn, which was a big mistake. The Missus also wanted some hearty comfort food as well. So a couple of weeks ago, we headed on up to the SGV.

Qing Dao Bread Food:

Folks that read the blog long enough know that while I love a good jiaozi, I'm partial to the Shandong style; specifically QingDao style dumpling. The wrappers have to be rolled by hand, those edges have to be thin enough so that the texture of the wrapper will be even after folding. The texture of the wrapper has to have a bit of stretch, almost like a good al dente noodle. It should glisten when cooked. I know, blah, blah, blah……

What it basically comes down to is that I enjoy the mutton jiaozi from Qing Dao Bread Food. It's the style I enjoy the best and also the city the Missus is from. The Missus always laughs after talking to the guy here….according to Her; his accent is "totally, one hundred-percent Qing Dao" which has its own unique accent ( "Qingdao Hua" (青岛话)).

Since we were folding two meals into one, this was going to be something light….all the Missus wanted was millet porridge, which is something like 50 cents here.

I'm not a big fan of this, but for the Missus, it's comfort food.

Over the years, we've noticed that there are new specials offered; many of them examples of typical, traditional, Qing Dao style "soul food". On this visit; the Missus and I were amazed to see housemade Chinese Sausage. Not just any Chinese sausage, but stuff that really looked like the style made in Qing Dao. So we just had to try it.

According to the sign, it's a "special, secret recipe". I can say this though, the flavors are pretty much spot on. While I'm not certain if the attributes of this sausage is unique to Qing Dao, or if it is more of a regional style, I will say that the strong flavor of wine in which the pork is marinated in, and the five spice was there. In fact, the five spice had the potent fragrance and flavor of the stuff from Qing Dao; which is what I use at home. Interesting tidbit; in QingDao, you don't go to the market to buy five spice. Rather, you go to the pharmacy to get it! In terms of texture; it wasn't quite as "air dried" as I'm used to, making it more moist. Also, the meat was cut in larger chunks. It was also a bit more salty as well. Still, this was a taste of home for the Missus and comfort food for me. It's obviously hand made and not cheap at $20 a pound ($4 each), but totally worth it.

Of course I had to have the Lamb Jiaozi:

I won't go too much into detail, since I've written about this, several times before. I will say, that on this visit, while still good, it wasn't quite up there with what I'd had previously. That sheen was missing; the wrapper was a bit more brittle, lacking the slight pull I'm used too. It's still among my favorites though.

Qing Dao Bread Food is an interesting shop; they were quite busy on this morning, I think they've found their niche, the soul food of Qing Dao. Lots of guys coming in and buying mantou (which is the classic starch for the sausage) on this morning. I'm sure we'll be dropping by to pick up some sausage on future trips to the area.

Qing Dao Bread Food
301 North Garfield Ave.
Monterey Park, CA 91754

Shen Yang Restaurant (San Gabriel location):

**** Shen Yang Restaurant has closed

I'd been wanting to check out Shen Yang for a while. Since we were in the mood for the hearty type of Northern Chinese, we headed up to Shen Yang Restaurant.

There's something very "old school" SGV about this place. The service is pretty much all business, the customers older Chinese….not a single word of English heard from anyone other than us the whole visit.

We started up with the Stewed Pork Bones (Jiang Gutou).

There something so wonderful about picking through tasty pieces of meat, tendon, and other connective tissue around bones. The flavor of the bones have been passed to the meat; the stickiness of the tendon and other connective tissues, along with the varying texture of the "good bits" make this a great dish with a couple of beers. The flavor was straight ahead and I could probably pull this off at home, but this wasn't bad at all.

Since we're talking about Shenyang style food here, I had to try the Suan Cai. So we got the Shredded Pork with Pickled Sour Napa.

Not the prettiest looking dish, but this was very good. The suan cai was prepped well; neither salty, nor too sour. The texture was spot on. The Missus was told that they make their own suan cai, which takes about a month. This was very warming and hearty. The portion size was typical of Northern Chinese, very generous. The pork was tender and the flavors for this type of dish well balanced. Think of it as a sauerkraut stir-fry if you will.

We'll be back to try the suan cai yang rou soon. The prices are reasonable, though I'm not certain that unless you've been exposed to this type of cuisine, you'll really enjoy it. For me; it's hearty, comfort food.

Shen Yang Restaurant
137 S San Gabriel Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776

2014 Rose Parade Float Road Testing-Baja Ranch Supermarket-Pasadena Farmers Market (Road Trip)

October 27, 2013 Cathy Farmer's Markets/Night Market, Festivals & Events, Los Angeles County, Markets & Grocers, Road Trip, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for stopping and reading mmm-yoso!!!, a food-centric blog. There are numerous ways to find and acquire ready made food and ingredients for meals at home. Today Cathy will share a couple of those ways along with sharing a bit of a quick Road Trip from San Diego. Kirk and Ed(from Yuma) are relaxing today.

The Mister and I woke up late yesterday morning. It was 4:45 a.m. and the dogs had to be fed and let out, we dressed quickly and were out the door at 5:07 a.m.. There was a low fog overhanging the freeway the entire drive. We got to the Red Hill exit from the 5 (in Tustin) around 6:25 a.m. and stopped at the Starbucks for coffee then drove up the street to Cream Pan and picked up three hot, fresh pastries. The cinnamon pecan roll ($3), which is filled with crispy, whole pecans; a raspberry bottomed cheescake in a paper cup ($2) and a ham and cheese croissant ($2.50)…light breakfast to eat in the car. The freeway entrance is just around the corner.

In about 45 minutes, we were in Pasadena, parked, crossed the Metro tracks and the Rose Parade float Road Test was already underway. The eHarmony.com float (the first dot com float ever in a Rose Parade) was going to be tested with people on board. (During the parade, Natalie Cole will be on the float, singing along the parade route).What will end up being the last float in the parade was also being tested- it looks like a football…and it looks like two GIANT screens will be inserted into those frames…we don't know, but speculate may be playing highlights of either prior Rose Bowl Games (2014 will be the 100th anniversary of the Rose Bowl Football game) or of prior parades (2014 will be the 125th Tournament of Roses parade). We'll have to wait and see… This VERY large float will be one of the first you will see in the parade- it is by Honda, the sponsor. we suspect it will look somewhat futuristic, because

it will be preceeded by these five smaller (powed by Honda motocycles and one driver, no 'viewer' inside) floats, depicting various "Dreams Come True"-the parade theme-along time… The famous WWII poster (and some sort of circular float behind it).

A sort of Model T vehicle.

A construct of the Spirit of St. Louis. There's also a small diorama depicting Man landing on the moon.

Other floats tested were in their basic stages… The City of Beverly Hills will be celebrating 100 years as a City and will have a float in the 2014 Rose Parade.

The RFD-TV float looks like a large barn-like dance floor will be on the front of the float, with smaller buildings behind. I'm interested in seeing how this ultimately will appear. The front piece, made with heavy steel beams (instead of rebar) is unique.

We left the road testing area, and had no plans for breakfast, drove up to Orange Grove Boulevard and stopped at Baja Ranch Market, which I only mentioned slightly in another float road test post last November. We wanted to grab another quick bite. When you first walk into this medium sized Mexican/Latin American Market, you are in the Bakery area.

It is right around the corner, next to an extensive steam tray area.

We picked up 1/2 lb of those fresh chicharron from the end tray.

and also asked for one of each flavor of the empanadas- the ham and cheese and the ground beef (which is made with corse ground hamburger, hard boiled egg, olives and raisins; a very traditional and wonderful flavor combination), sometimes called 'picadillo'.

We also picked up a few other items, went to the car and started driving East while munching on an empanada.

Baja Ranch Supermarket 475 Orange Grove Blvd, Pasadena 91101 website

Parking on a side street, we had a short walk to the Saturday Pasadena Farmer's Market on Sierra Madre Boulevard (see Pasadena High to the right? The set up of booths is in the parking lot of the school.) This is the street where the Rose Parade floats line up at the end of the parade route.

I have become enamoured with young, small, tender jicama ever since I bought it here. It is so good, a bit sweet and easily a craving without needing to be mixed with other foods or topped with Tajin.

The autumn vegetables and fruits are in abundance. This Farmers market is central to so many farms and really is the nicest one I've encountered other than the one I went to when I was young..

I hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend!

Andy’s Coffee Shop & 2014 Rose Parade road test & Pasadena Farmers Market (Road Trip)

September 22, 2013 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Breakfast/Brunch, Farmer's Markets/Night Market, Festivals & Events, Los Angeles County, Road Trip, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for stopping to read mmm-yoso!!! Kirk and Ed (from Yuma) are busy busy busy right now, so Cathy is writing a post for today.

Yes, another road test for some floats that will participate in the 2014 Tournament of Roses parade was conducted on Saturday and The Mister and I woke early so we could be there at 7 a.m. Since this is a food blog, the first part of this post is about our breakfast that morning.

Andy's Coffee Shop is located on Colorado Boulevard; it's easy to miss (parking is in back and we are always looking for cars on the street to see if a place is open).

Inside, it's a step back to the 1950's. In fact, a few episodes of Mad Men were filmed here.

There are photographs signed by famous stars of the past. The large photos are of crowds camped in front of the storefront to watch the Rose Parade.

The Mister ordered French Toast ($5). It's made with fresh bread, unlike when we make it at home with days old bread. So very good- crunchy on the exterior and creamy soft on the interior.

I ordered a bacon and egg sandwich on rye toast ($7.25). Really really good and served with crispy hash browns.

This was a very good meal and we enjoyed sitting at the "U" shaped lunch counter in the center of the room, seeing the hustle and bustle of the workers: the booths and tables were taken.

Andy's Coffee Shop 1234 Colorado Boulevard Pasadena, CA 91106 (626)793-0825 Mon-Sat 7-3, Sun 7-2

Before our breakfast on this overcast morning, we were on Raymond Street

The colorful float with them "So Near and Yet Safari" is very animated with the gazelles racing, giraffes bowing their necks and elephant ears flapping as well as water flowing from the top of the 'rock' formation. Behind that float, you can see the "Banner" float- which will introduce the 2014 parade with it's theme of "Dreams Come True".

Here is the City of Glendale float, covered in its cocoon. Last month, it was only out of rebar and a lot of the design wasn't very clear.

The CIty of Los Angeles float was also in it's rebar form last month. Now that it's covered and partly painted, the details are emerging.

Above, you can see the City of Los Angeles float in its collapsed state (so it can fit into the Phoenix Decorating barn as well as under street and signal lights along the parade route) and you can also see the head of the Chinese dragon, which is painted with its colors and ready to be decorated. All items covering the float must be natural, alive or had been alive and in case glue fails or items are washed off by rain, you'll still see color when watching the floats in person or on television. I think it's nice that the dragon will be on the 'other' side of the float- away from the television cameras-people sitting on that side of the street sometimes don't get to see a lot of the float details.

After our breakfast, we stopped at our usual Saturday morning Pasadena trek- the Farmers Market, held in the parking lot of Pasadena High on Sierra Madre Boulevard.

You can see the cloud covered Sierra Madres in the distance…very overcast. That's the booth where we always buy a loaf of seed filled, corn meal bottomed rye bread for $4.75. It's so good.

This market is my favorite out here; it's busy and the vendors are knowledgeable and the variety is amazing.

We drive North on the 5 and home on the 15…where we passed a convoy of about ten Marine LAVs (Light Armored Vehicles; they float)…another Saturday of fun. Hope you are having a good weekend!

Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘n Waffles (and the 3rd 2014 Rose Parade float Road Test)-Pasadena

August 20, 2013 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Breakfast/Brunch, Festivals & Events, Road Trip, What Cathy Eats!

Here you are again, at mmm-yoso!!! the food blog. Kirk is really really busy today and so is Ed(from Yuma) so Cathy is writing about another one of her eating adventures.

It was a foggy August Saturday, The Mister and I woke before 4 a.m., let the dogs out, secured the house and started driving North. I'll start with breakfast (but really this was our fifth stop of the day).

Roscoe's House of Chicken N Waffles has been "pecking around since 1975" according to the signage. It opens at 8 a.m. daily and there seems to be a constant flow and lineup of people from about 8:25 forward.

The Pasadena location is next to a KFC, across the street from a Popeye's and a Church's- all chicken centric eating establishments.

We were seated at the second to last empty table, in the rear of a former Pizza Hut building. Decor is simple, with photographs and posters, many of the staff with President Obama, taken when he stopped here. The above photo is Louis Armstrong, New Orleans native and American Jazz trumpeteer virtuoso. His contribution to Jazz is unsurpassed.

Condiments on the table are simple and include Louisiana Red Rooster hot sauce.

The menu is very simple; only two pages. You can get eggs and call it breakfast, or not, at any time of the day.

The Mister ordered the C- 'Stymie's Choice': fried chicken livers, grits, two eggs (over easy and nicely runny) a fresh hot buttery/not flakey biscuit and gravy with onions. ($11.70). Each item was really fresh, flavorful and cooked in the proper manner.

I decided to try…the 13- 'Carol C.': a fried chicken breast and a waffle ($8.95). The waffles are made with Roscoe's own mix, are not sweet and have a bit of 'chew' to them…really good. The chicken breast was perfectly and freshly fried-crispy thin layer of nice flavored batter- and not dry. This was quite a bit of food and we took home some of the livers because there were so many.

I couldn't take photos of all the people inside and outside and so put my phone away. As I was pulling out of the parking space, another car was waiting…and as I started to drive out of the lot a BIG black horse, with noisy shoes, and a rider wearing a black cowboy hat came trotting at a fast pace toward the car, passed us by and continued. It was surreal.

So, earlier that morning -beginning at 7- were Rose Parade float road tests at Phoenix Decorating. Above, the 2014 City of Los Angeles entry. You can make out the Space Shuttle that was moved there last year. Some of the other details will become clearer at the next road test.

The Lutheran Hour Ministries float is all painted, so there's an outline for all the various dried and fresh items to be placed. I beleive the 'windows' will have a 'stained glass' look…You can see the church steeple is in its descended position- so the float can pass under the various signal lights, street lights and other obstacles along the five mile parade route.

The Donate Life float, "Light Up the World" depicts various lanterns. Seated on the float and walking alongside it during the parade will be families of organ donors and donor recipients. As you can see, the float was road tested with a full weight load on board.

Trader Joe's entry this year is titled "Relish Your Dreams", going along with the theme of the 125th Rose Parade, "Dreams Come True"…and this float seems to depict an old fashioned "relish tray" along with cheese wheels and wedges – and pickles, crackers, olives, honey and other snacking items.

Now, recall that I mentioned that the floats along the parade route need to be able to fit under signal lights, street lights, etc?

I took photos of the Trader Joe's float hydralics being tested. You can see the how the mechanics of these floats have to be in working order…

The doorway of the Phoenix Decorating Rose Palace barn is the maximum dimensions that a float can be.

The City of Glendale's entry depicts "Meatball", a bear that made headlines in that City last year.

This is the Artist's rendition of how the float will appear on January 1, 2014.

All in all, another busy and exciting Saturday. Hope everyone is having a good week!

Roscoe's House of Chicken 'N Waffles 830 N. Lake Avenue Pasadena (626)791-4890 or (626)791-5097 Website

Bon Epi Patisserie and Café-(Irvine)-Road Trip

August 5, 2013 Cathy Bakery, Orange County, Road Trip, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for stopping and reading mmm-yoso!!!, the blog about food. Sometimes Kirk, Ed(from Yuma) and Cathy write about local eating adventures and sometimes they drive to find a place to eat. This post is about two of Cathy's driving adventures, because after her first visit, she just had to bring The Mister here.

This post is a continuation of an eating adventure which began very early one Sunday across the parking lot. The first bakery we hit (85C) is Taiwanese and this bakery, Bon Epi, is Korean. CC and I were driving North with an ultimate purpose (to meet and hear Marvin Gapultos speak about his newly released The Adobo Road cookbook). It was so early, we were missing crowds and finding fresh baked goods at an interesting variety of ethnic bakeries in Irvine, Costa Mesa, Tustin and Pasadena.

Several posters (corner of which is in the bottom left of this photo above) advertising macarons, are all around this mall (Diamond Jamboree). This is going to be a post of the first of *many* macaron posts…after this visit, macarons have became a snack obsession.

I purchase pain d'epi, wheat stalk shaped bread, at Major Market in Escondido whenever I am there…being wheat stalk shaped means it can break apart into rolls and I find that convenient. I figured Bon Epi would sell many breads and compared to other bakeries, it does (that's a whole table of just breads to the left when you walk in).

There is a small eat in area inside and quite a few tables outside.

The baked pastry area is fairly small, but kept constantly filled with fresh choices.

The refrigerated cases to the other side of the cash register hold a beautiful array of colorful macarons as well as other refrigerated colorful sweets.

The macaron (not to be confused with a coconut macaroon) is delicate, small and packed with flavor. The 'gateaux sec' is the dry cake (and most colorful part you see). It's basically a meringue: egg white whipped with sugar and crushed almond/almond flour and usually that's all the flavor in it. It's a light and crispy crust with a softer interior cookie. The fillings of the macaron are varied in flavor and texture.

This was cc's purchase that first day. The box costs $1 or 50¢ extra, but is a nice keepsake and presentation as well as protectant for the delicate bites.

My purchase that first day here consisted of the pistachio and the white chocolate peach. The pistachio was very nicely nutty flavored, lightly whipped and went well with the almond 'cookie' exterior. The peach was basically peach colored and basically filled with thick white chocolate. It was very sweet and not what I like.

CC bought this peanut bread (topped with crushed peanuts; it looks so good) and almond Danish stick; I got the Biscuit Cream seen on the left; it was a very generous filled and delicate cake-like pastry.

When I came back with The Mister, we also exercised restraint, knowing we were on a bakery centric morning and got the ham and cheese croissant here (to compare with the one I had just purchased at 85C) and The Mister chose a salted caramel macaron…which was thickly filled with a heavy real salted caramel. It lasted a while because a tiny bite just filled your mouth with flavor and the chewiness of a soft caramel.

I breifly mentioned in another post that I am also currently infaturated with ham and cheese filled breads. I do think the ham and cheese croissant here is the best I've ever had…so far. Maybe because it was still warm, maybe it was the chunks of white cheese or maybe the thick and flavorful slice of ham…or the combination of all three. (See the macaron on the table? We each had a small bite of it and wanted to savor and stretch out that flavor…)

Bon Epi Patisserie and Café 2750 Alton Parkway, Suite 101 Irvine, CA 92606 (949) 251-0070

Open seven days 7 a.m.-midnight Website