Tudor Tea House by Santa Monica Beach and 2nd St Promenade

The Tudor Tea House
1403 2nd Street Corner Second and Santa Monica Blvd) Santa Monica, CA 90401
Phone:(310) 451-4107 · Fax: (310) 394-8924

I always have a weakness for afternoon tea as this habit came from college. Today I went to the bridal shower of a college friend AY and it was held in Santa Moonica at the Tudor Tea House. The tea house is nestled after walking into their shop area and the room is very cozy with cute floral wallpaper and knick knacks around the space. We had some Earl Grey and finger sandwiches, scones (warm and delicious) with some quiches. The sweets at the end I was told were very English but a bit too sweet for me. One piece which I thought was chocolate was actually fruit cake. Another piece which I thought was mincemeat pie was actually made of currants.

The service was efficient and very friendly. The servers had the English accent and were attentive to our bridal shower party.

We had a grand ole time and the table next to us had a lovely birthday celebration.

8 forks out of 10 forks

*good service

*authentic English sweets

*good location

Ramayani--Indonesian Cuisine in Westwide area --CA

Ramayani Indonesian Restaurant
1777 Westwood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024 (btw Santa Monica /Massachusetts Ave)
310 477-3315

Small, family run and clean restaurant in the heart of "Little Persia" as my friend MD told me. Usually when she eats there it is not so packed. On the night we went, it was very busy and full (not bad for a Wednesday night).
Pleasantly decorated with efficient service we had a nice meal in the Westwood Area. I only had a few dishes of Indonesian food (Gado Gado) but I wanted to have other stuff. We had lightly sweetened Chrysanthemum tea which MD recommended and I enjoyed.

Sambal Goreng Tahu Buncis string beans and tofu in a seasoned coconut curry-

Cah Kangkung hawaiian watercress quickly stir fried with garlic and chili and shrimp paste and tomatoes

Special Bakmi Goreng indonesian style egg or rice noodles with pork, chicken and shrimp

Bubur Keta Hitam a warm sweet, black wild rice pudding topped with coconut milk

The Sambal was not what a I expected kind of lackluster and not that flavorful with a tepid coconut sauce. I did like the chunks of fried tofu bits (but I enjoy tofu). The watercress was very good with the tomatoes, slight heat (even for medium I did not feel much), barely any shrimp paste (then again I am used to the strong Shrimp paste used in Chinese cooking). The Bakmi Goreng reminded me of lo mein but had Chinese sausage, egg, shrimp and chicken was good but nothing different from what I had before. One big highlight was the rice pudding---it was excellent. Not overly sweet and I enjoyed the texture of the black wild rice.

Prices overall were affordable and portions were generous.

8 forks out of 10 forks.

Pa Pa Walk---the place for Mango Shaved Ice in San Gabriel!

PaPa Walk
227 West Valley Boulevard #148B
San Gabriel, CA
626-281-3889

Literally a nice 3 minute walk away from Jian Jian Restaurant we went for Mango Shaved Ice which I was craving to try after reading CC's blog entry as the place to get it! Even her hubby who dislikes Mangoes enjoys dessert (ok she eats the mango fruit).

We walked into the restaurant with many people enjoying their desserts (they do serve food but CC only comes for the Mango Shaved Ice). The Chinese name is Mango Ice Mountain! (BOY they were not kidding when they say "Mountain".) The walls are laden with many colorful paper with Chinese characters in black ink of all the special dishes! They do have a menu with English Translations (do not fret). I heard some Canto pop in the background.

After a minimal wait, we got our Mango Shaved Ice! It was gorgeous and DELICIOUS!
Topped off with a scoop of mango ice cream, the shaved ice mountain I could taste the mango and condensed milke and heaping amounts of sweetened mango pieces strewn at the base took us a bit of time to eat. In fact, CC said she usually is rolling out of the place in an uncomfortable state. They do have the option of big $8 or small $5 but of course we HAD to get the big!

Xie Xie CC for taking me to PaPa Walk for this mango shaved ice mountain!

9 forks out of 10 forks

Yokohama Japanese Restaurant--Culver City area in Los Angeles

Yokohama Sushi Restaurant 3857 Overland Ave, Culver City, CA 90232 (310) 202-7062

I touched down into LAX and it is almost 9pm. My friends JB and TN pick me up and we have a quick bite at Yokohama near their place in the Culver City area. It is a small place in a plaza. Owned by Koreans (Korean music and servers) they are known for good maki rolls and affordable drinks at the bar.

We shared a Peach Sake Cocktail (more peach and sake so I liked it), some rolls--salmon skin, kappa, spicy tuna, unagi and avocado were some choices we had.

Lots more rice and presentation was decent. Service was attentive and atmosphere was nice very lively and not overly noisy for a Tuesday night.

7 forks out fo 10 forks

J & J Restauarant in San Gabriel---Shanghainese treasures

So I went with my good friend CC to San Gabriel in the LA area. (Jian Jian Restaurant (626-308-9238 301 West Vallue Blvd, #109 San Gabriel, CA nestled in the I wanted to have some xiao lung bao and we got a nice meal (which we couldn't finish) and something to go for under $40! Cheap Asian Food abounds in the Los Angeles area (in this case San Gabriel which has a few Asian malls teamed with dessert, food places to tease your taste buds but not at gut busting prices!).

We got the pork chop rice (I missed the Taiwanese style with the tea egg, mustard greens and the pork) over a bed of lightly seasoned rice. Then we got a tarot cake (but not the traditional Cantonese style but fried and looked like puff pastry) it was good. We had some seaweed (thick and skinny slivers lightly seasoned sweet vinegary dressing) which was delicious. Then we shared the seafood tofu soup--thickened broth (almost egg drop soup consistency) with bits of seafood and egg. We got the eight treasures rice (sticky rice with a variety of ingredients but it was more on the sweet end for me). The Xiao Lung Bao (soup dumplings with crab was good --this shop is known for these dumplings) and with the soy ginger vinegar dipping sauce added a nice tang.

Service was not great. We had to wait a bit to get our bill, order and get the servers attention. It is a small shop with only two servers and less than 10 tables. But it is great for the price and good food. Pretty framed pictures of Shanghai lined the walls in this simple store front.

Food 8 forks (Xiao Lung Bao was a 9 fork) out of 10 forks