I have enjoyed several years here on Livejournal...even before HPM I was blogging under another username...


BUT it's time to move on...you can now find Hot Pink Manolos at HotPinkManolos.com


I hope you will all make the move with me!


Please make sure you update any RSS readers and bookmarks!!


XOXO,
Christina

Okay if you check out the Yelp reviews for this place, or even the Urban Spoon reviews, it's kind of mixed. But the one thing everyone seems to agree on is that this place is the place to be if you're 1) Asian and 2) Drunk out of your mind.

Now normally I find these kinds of generalizations slightly off-putting, because I feel like once you bring race into ANYTHING it becomes polarizing. BUT, I have to say, we walked in to Hodori at like 2am and it was filled with drunk asians. Yup. We walked in 3 latinos and a white dude and felt oddly out of place.

There are also tons of reviews about the horrible service. Didn't really notice except it did take a long time for our server to come over to us. But maybe it's because the place was packed. With unruly drunks. And as a server in my past life, I can tell you, trying to get through an order of 15 drunk 20-something year-olds is unbelievably difficult.

But here are the good things about Hodori. it's 24 hours. and I enjoy finding 24 hour places that aren't...Denny's...or IHOP...

Plus the food is pretty good. I enjoyed the stuff we had. Oh, and if you can't tell by what we are wearing, I've had this post sitting in my queue for awhile....




Hodori Menu:




Mool Man Doo (Steamed Dumplings):




Yook Gae Jang (Hot Spicy Shredded Beef Soup):




Galbi (BBQ Pork Rib)




And the happy eaters!







(213) 383-3554
Koreatown
1001 S Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90006
www.hodorirestaurants.com

I should note that PolkaTots is less than 5 minutes from the home I live in, and HAVE been living in for 3 years, and yet, until Great Chefs of LA I didn't even know it existed!!! A shame too, because I would have been eating these cupcakes a a long time earlier.

Polkatots opened in 2008 and has been quite a success - these gals have received plenty of press and rightfully so. Their cupcakes are not only delicious, but artfully designed.

I'm not going to lie, it's a little funny to see a designer cupcakery in the area that they are in. I mean the Bev Hills area Sprinkles is in makes sense. The Old Town Pasadena Dots makes sense. Even the original Dots on Arroyo makes sense. The Frosted Cupcakery on La Cienega makes sense. But Polkatots??? Let me explain: On the corner is a center with a 7-11, a Puebla Tacos taqueria, an AutoZone, and a Subway. Polkatots is in the next center over from the corner with a Greek/mediterranean fast food place, and Slaw Dogs (which has achieved some foodie attention as well). But there's also a ton of fast food places (a McDonalds, a Carl's, a FatBurger, a KFC, a Burger King) a Roscoes, and frankly, while it's no South Central (oh wait, I'm sorry "Central Los Angeles") the area is still a little scuzzy. I mean I only live a few blocks away, and I regularly hear shots fired in my neighborhood. 


Despite this, there they are - a beacon of frosted, yummy cuteness. We stopped in, and I was delighted to discover that most of the place is painted in bubble gum pink, what part of the wall is not, has the Polkatot signature swirls…and contains a metro rack with the cutest and colorful candy and cupcake themed retail items. Everything about this shop just exudes "cute."


The display is well organized and clean and the cupcakes simply yet beautifully frosted so that they grab your attention. We decided to get a few.


The Dolcissimo: Award Winning Renown...Dulce de Leche Cupcake with Dulce de Leche Buttercream. This was a dream, but I'm a little partial to all things Dulce de Leche…


Strawberry Shortcake: Strawberry Cupcake with Strawberry Buttercream


Caffe Latte: Vanilla Cupcake with Coffee Buttercream


Lemonade: Lemon Cupcake with Tangy Lemon Buttercream


They even include this adorable card with pictures of all the cupcakes and their descriptions so you can remember what you brought home (because I know we've all gotten home with an assortment of cookies and go, "Damnit! Which one's which?!") and on the reverse side it has "Cupcake Handling Instructions" - Number 5 happens to be my favorite, "And finally, Enjoy, Pig Out and Have Fun!" Pretty much my motto for life…


They do mini and standard size cupcakes. Minis are 1.50 per, and 16.50 for a dozen. Standard size are 3.00 per and 33 a dozen.

Check 'em out. Even if you're not a cupcake fiend, it's good to support your small local business owners! :)

720 North Lake Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91104
(626) 798-3932

I like to drag everyone into this crazy food blogging thing that I do, which includes my family. I’m surprised anyone is still willing to go out to dinner with me, but the beauty of family is that they have to like you, no matter what. Sort of. Okay, well they put up less of a fuss at dinner when I whip out my camera than other people…I just get a lot of exasperated sighs.

But truly I am blessed to have a wonderful family that I honestly enjoy spending time with. So when my sister was home from college for the holidays I made it a point to spend as much time with her and my pops as possible. This included dinner out a couple times.

One night I was desperately wanting to go to Hakata Ramen Shin Sen Gumi so I dragged my dad and sister down to Rosemead. When we got there, though, the line was ridiculously out of control. My pa being the (extremely loveable) curmudgeon that he is, was not about to wait in an hour line for “ramen.” So the three of us walked around the strip mall to see what else there was. – not a ton, including a C grade pho place which had no customers and seemed a little sketchy.

BUT what we did stumble upon was Angel Thai House. I like Thai food…I don’t know a ton about the cuisine, or whether what I’m eating is even close to being authentic (the way that Panda Express is not authentic Chinese, ya know?) but I do know that 1) I like lime – thai food uses a lot of lime and 2) I LOOOOVVVVEEEE cilantro…and Thai food uses a lot of cilantro. Good enough for me.

The place is clean and bright, and has a rather large menu – although there were a couple of dishes we had wanted we did not get to try since apparently a large party had just been in and sort of cleaned them out.

We started with one of my personal favorite: Tom Kha Kai – spicy and sour coconut milk soup with chicken and mushrooms.

We also ordered beef satay – I was mildy unimpressed by their satay. Their peanut sauce was a little too…peanut buttery. Like they had scooped some JIF onto the plate. Beef was a little over done. But the peanut sauce was good with the toast that came on the plate! LOL!! (Sometimes I crack myself up….)


And what’s Thai food without a little curry? Panang curry is always a good stand-by and Angel House’s did not disappoint. Chicken with bell peppers, red curry, and peanut sauce and coconut milk.




We also ordered the Garlic Shrimp and Scallop – but it ended up being just garlic shrimp – since apparently the big party had cleared them out of scallops – sautéed in garlic herb sauce, with black pepper and onion. This was pretty yummy!



I would have to say the best dish of the whole evening was the Pla Neung Ma-Nao – steamed sea bass with garlic, ginger, green onion, chili and lime. They bring it out in this steaming, boiling thing over sterno – not only is it visually impressive, but it is absolutely delicious.




Overall a pretty good meal.  If I’m in the area craving Thai food, I’d definitely stop by again.

Angel Thai House
8450 E. Valley Blvd. Suite 116
Rosemead, CA 91770
(626) 288-1183

"I love you like a fat kid loves cake"

Wait...no...





Ah...thanks, Cake Wrecks! A very worthwhile "Sunday Sweet"


Apparently the photo (and cake?) credit goes to http://www.tortentante.blogspot.com/