Now its easy when it comes to ordering because you just use the numbering system rather than try to say what you want.  It makes it easy because the person taking your order probably has a limited grasp of the English language.  (This goes for most Asian restaurants.)

I noticed that the menu can easily be improved to add efficiency.  Instead of a new name for a rice plate or bowl of pho when a different meat, vegetable or side is introduced, why not just let us order from a set of options to go with the standard rice and veggies.

For example, item #1 can be rice with charbroiled beef and shrimp paste and item #2 is rice with shredded pork and egg rolls.  In the end, its just different combinations of these items:  charbroiled beef, charbroiled pork chop, shredded pork, shrimp paste, shrimp egg roll, sausage, conbination egg roll, steamed egg and bean curd shrimp paste.  Some items have 3 items, some have 4 and some just 2.  This is ridiculous because in order for me to find the right combination I have to sift through about 60 different item combinations.

Wouldn’t it be easier if the menu just offered meat side options as two or three items at different price points.  Seriously, I can then choose and match the stuff I really want without spending 5 minutes looking for something that may not even exist.

In the end though, as delicious as it is, it always somehow taste the same.  Especially once you pour that fish sauce over the rice.

One of my favorite items to order from In-N-Out, besides their hamburgers, would bee their Animal-style french fries.  Ever since I picked up my deep fryer, a Waring Pro DF100, I wanted to start creating some cool french fries recipes and one challenge was to create my own In-N-Out Animal-style fries.  On one evening, I set out to create three different types of french fries:

• In-N-Out Animal style french fries
• Garlic Fries

Here is my recipe for the In-N-Out Animal style french fries:

• One onion – sauteed in a sauce pan with butter, black pepper and salt
• One potato – cut into strips and put into deep fryer until you have fries
• Secret In-N-Out sauce ingredient – most people say its just Thousand Island but its not.  I had to create a combination mixing part of Thousand Island dressing mixed with tartar sauce for the tangy flavor add just a bit of ketchup and further sweetening it up with sugar.  Mix well altogether and you will soon have that secret sauce
• After the fries are done, put two pieces of cheddar cheese on top of the hot fries and put the sauteed onions onto the cheese; this will melt the cheese in between the two layers.  Finally top off your creation with the sauce you just created.  Overall, it is quite a satisfying snack but a bit messy to be a finger food.

Try my recipe out and see if it lives up to the In-N-Out standard and if you never tried it, trust me, you cannot go wrong with the recipe I just provided.

I always feel ripped off when I go to a restaurant and order garlic fries for it to show up as just some normal fries with garlic salt seasoned on top of it.  A true garlic fries should use real ingredients and I decided to make my own creation:

• 4 cloves of garlic; diced into small pieces
• Scallions (green onion) – sliced into small pieces as well
• 1 potato – cut into strips and put into deep fryer until cooked
• Add a bit of vegetable oil into a cooking pan and warm it up.  Add your diced garlic and scallions into the pan to heart up.  The fries should be ready from the deep fryer but make sure it is dried of all access oil and it is golden brown and crispy.
• As the garlic and scallions are heated up, add some salt to flavor and once they begin to cook; transfer fries into the cooking pan and mix well together for about a minute.  Add a bit salt to flavor the fries and once the garlic and scallions are mixed with the fries, remove and serve the best tasting garlic fries you’ll ever have.

Hope you enjoy these two recipes; these will be great to share with friends for parties and entertaining guests.

Let me know what you think?  Thanks.

Ingredients needed:

• 1 egg
• 2 strips of bacon
• 2 pieces of bread
• A slice of smoke cheese

This could be the easiest but most tastiest meal you will ever experience and it is so simple to make.  All you need is to fry an egg sunny side up first.  Then put your two pieces of bread on a the same pan used for the egg.  Make sure you get the bread toasted and then add the slice of smoked cheese til it melts.  Spread the cheese evenly on the toasted bread and remove from the frying pan.  Now fry up 2 strips of bacon, I prefer maple cured bacon which offers a hint of sweetness.  Also, I like my bacon for this sandwich less crispy so I just heat it up one on side for about 30 second to a minute and flip over for another 30 seoncds to a minute before removing.  Place the bacon on one toasted piece of bread and the sunny side up egg on top of the side of bread where you spread the smoked cheese.

And there you have it, top the egg with some black pepper and you are ready to eat the most amazing breakfast sandwich in the WORLD!!  I shit you not…

**Note: If you do make this sandwich, make sure once you combine the sandwich, flatten it and burst the yolk so it goes all over the cheese, bacon and toasted bread.  It is a bit gooey and messy but you can’t deny the awesome flavor and thats the way I created it, and thats they way it was meant to be eaten.

Enjoy!! Happy experimenting and let me know if you enjoyed it!

The wife and I decided to check out Roy’s Hawaiiwan Fusion restaurant in Pasadena since we have heard great things about it.  Here is a quick breakdown of our experience.

We made reservations for 8:00 PM, Friday night and it was so busy that we did not get seated until 8:30 PM.  This is good and bad.. obvious because the restaurant is so busy must mean the food is great but at the same time, when you make a reservation, you do not expect to wait another 30 minutes to be seated.

Once seated, our server came around immediately, and promptly supplied us with their house edamame peas which were very delicious.  It took us quite some time to decide whether on going with the Dine LA week menu or just ordering off the menu.  We were almost settled on having a Dine LA menu with an order of Surf and Turf.  After conversating with our waiter, we felt having the Surf and Turf may have been too much and thought we’d just take advantage of the Dine LA menu promotion.  In the end, we ordered a Risotto appetizer which was a combination of a seared scallop topped with uni sauce which tasted awesome combined with the recommended grape fruit yellowtail sashimi.  We also ordered the chicken katsu salad which was very delicious.  The chicken katsu had the right amount of crust and it is flavored just right without an overkill on the fried breading.  For the entree, it was recommended to us to have the short rib, a rather generous piece of meat along with gratin potatoes.  Finally, we finished our meal with their signature chocolate soufle and vanilla bean ice cream.

The portions were a bit small, but it felt like an expensive five course meal without the heavy price tag usually comes along with it.  I would definitely recommend taking advantage of the current Dine LA week promotion as it definitely will lead you to come back for more.  I look to return to Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion in the near future to order the Surf and Turf as well as taking on their newly added Rack of Lamb on the menu.

Overall experience, besides the awful wait, most likely due to the Dine LA week promotion, the food was great, service was great, and so I look forward to returning to Roy’s Hawaiian for some more dining experience.

The Derby Restaurant is famous in Los Angeles because it is right next to the Santa Anita Race Track and can be considered a landmark restaurant off Huntington Drive.  As you enter, you can feel the coziness and historic sense of horse racing throughout.  It is definitely a nice place to bring a date to; with its dim lighting and cozy atmosphere.

Being that this was my first time here; I literally did not know what to order but took a stab at the menu.

My wife and I shared a cranberry salad, which was very nice.  Light flavoring with fruits mixed with fresh greens.  I would say it would be perfect for a person that does not like greens by itself as the fruits add sweetness to the salad and the crumbled goat cheese add texture and contrast in flavoring:

We both ordered entrees.  My wife had the Triple Crown which consists of grilled tiger shrimp, 8 oz. filet mignon and bacon wrapped scallops (which are to die for).

And I ordered; as usual the lamb chops which is cooked Colorado style with special wine-reduction sauce coming with steak fries and steamed vegetables.

In addition to this; we also shared their french onion soup and had some of their garlic cheese bread.  Overall; I think the entrees were a bit over-priced and did not think the meal was as great as I expected.  The highlights for the meal would definitely be the bacon wrapped scallops (which are available to order as an appetizer, highly recommended) and the cranberry fruit salad.

If you are looking for a nice restaurant with a cozy atmopshere, dim lighting and a bit of history; make sure to check out this restaurant.  It may be a bit pricey but then again, if you just order the scallops as an appetizer and have some wine without the entrees, I believe it is all worth it.  If you are looking for a better lamb chop; I typically go over to the Outback and order their rack of lamb.  Now that is a good rack!

The Derby Restaurant
233 East Huntington Dr., Arcadia, CA 91007.  (626) 447 – 2430