Journey to the West

Yet another Spring Break had passed. It felt like I just entered college last semester!

I had quite a good chance to taste good foods in big cities. I mean, Urbana-Champaign are two small twin towns, and you can't really expect much for foods. I ate in a Japanese sushi restaurant in Champaign before, and the next day, my two other friends and I were having diarrhea :(

And so... I took some pictures of what I ate there. Yes, I didn't take a shot of all the food. Very unusual, isn't it? Well, that's because there were 5 hugely intimidating camera lenses and 1 better point-and-shoot camera to snap high resolution pictures. I mean, honestly. I felt pretty intimidated to the point that I lost interest in taking pictures of the food. Sigh. I know, I know. I shouldn't have done that.

That being said, I completely forgot to take note of the names of the restaurants that we went. Ahahaha. HOW STUPID :( I'm just gonna rely on my poor memory to remember the names, okay?

1st stop: San Francisco

Beef Tataki

Ohhh yumm :) I wish they add some yuzu to it, though. I think they'll taste great with some addition of yuzu.

Crispy Tofu

I'm not a big fan of this crispy tofu even though my friend greatly recommended this. Maybe it's just a difference in preference...

Chillean Sea Bass Hot Plate

Lots of f-f-f-fatttt but how bad can a chillean seabass be? :)

Complimentary Green Tea Ice Cream

Somehow tasted like avocado to us :S It's not so good, and not so bad. Mediocre, I'd say.

2nd stop: South Lake Tahoe (Red Hut Cafe)

The Red Hut Cafe at Lake Tahoe

Excellent (if not awesome) service! I love the food - even though it might be a little too much. Breakfast menu is served with a choice of toasted bread and hash browns. I had 2 easy over eggs with sausage. Way too much for my size, but it's probably normal for Americans.

The ladies' bathroom at Lake Tahoe. A very unique decoration!

3rd stop: Lake Tahoe (Scusa- literally meaning "excuse me")

Seared scallops with sun dried tomatoes, heart artichokes, asparagus, linguini, and olives

It's unique, but I feel that some items are a little mismatched. The sauce is a little too sweet for me, and it's too oily that the flavor didn't stick to the linguini. Tasted a little bland if you eat the linguini without the olives or sundried tomatoes.

4th stop: San Francisco Japan Town - Osakaya

Hiyashi Soba

It's not sour at all... maybe I mistook it for Hiyashi Chuka? The sauce is way too sweet, I don't like it :(

5th stop: San Francisco - Kow Loon Tang (dessert place)

Hot Tea

It's just a normal tea, but I like the cup. And surprisingly, even though the tea was really hot, the mug holder wasn't hot at all (and that's why I burned my tongue LOL)

Steamed Egg Custard

Very, very, very eggy! This is the dessert my mum kept talking about. It's her childhood dessert - grandma used to make it for mum, but she could never reproduce it :(

6th stop: San Francisco - Dim Sum

Dim Sum (ha kau, xiao long bao, chai tau kuay, chai pau, chee cheong fun, shiu mai)

Funny enough, there was no dim sum place opened that day that had tables and chairs for us to sit on, so we decided to make the dim sum for to-go and ate in the car!

7th stop: Some unknown Korean place in San Francisco

An array of kimchi

 I forgot the name of the restaurant, but we ordered Chilean Seabass Jjim and Fried Chicken. The Chilean Seabass Jjim was TOTALLY AWESOME!! The fried chicken was just so-so; I don't get why Yelp reviewers recommend this fried chicken so much :S

Oh, and before I forget, for awesome gelato, go to Marcopolo. They serve great durian gelato! It's sooooo creamy!!



8th stop: San Francisco Airport, Terminal 3:

Peet's Coffee and Tea

Not found in Mid-West area?

 

Iced Machiato Latte

Strong caffeine and coffee flavor but was not bitter nor sour! Awesome! :)

9th stop: Las Vegas, MGM Grand - Wolfgang Puck

Halibut with squids and shrimps, spicy

Awesome food, but the baby carrots somehow just... didn't really match the entire set :(

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