Charlotte: Queen City [Day 1]

For 3 years already, I've missed Halloween, but in return, I got to travel to HK, Taiwan, and China. I was super bummed out this when I found out I would not travel to Hong Kong like in the years past. No Far East work trip means no delicious Asian food in my belly :[

But, I was sent to Charlotte, North Carolina at the beginning of November. I've only been to the South twice, so I was definitely excited about going there. However later I found out that all the meals would be catered so all the attendees of the conferene would not have to worry about food. It's good in that it is all taken care off, but bad since that sorta prevented me from having to sample of what Charlotte has to offer.

I've split my posts about Charlotte into two parts. Definitely not as much fooding compared to what I usually do on these trips :P

Had to take the red eye flight out of LAX to Dallas, then to Charlotte. Travel time: 15 hours. I was pretty cracked out when I got to Charlotte.

By the time we got to the Westin Charlotte for the conference, they had already finished serving lunch, so I just grabbed two cupcakes and went to work. Peanut Butter Chocolate cupcake & Red Velvet. DAYUM they were so GOOD cupcakes. Super moist.

Best one was definitely the Chocolate Ganache Chocolate cupcake! Moist chocolate cake filled with chocolate ganache, then topped with dark chocolate cream and dark chocolate piece. Chocolate x4!

After the first day concluded, there was a free cocktail reception sponsored by Lowe's at the Mint Museum, an art museum, so decided to go and check it out.

Open bar! First time trying a Yuengling. I know it is one of those old school breweries in the US. I remember the first time I heard about Yuengling, I thought it was a new Chinese brewery haha.

View from the patio of the Mint Museum at the 4th floor.

Breckler Museum of Modern Art. Too bad I didn't get a chance to check it out.

View of the Nascar building and Westin Charlotte, the hotel where the conference was held and where I stayed.

The crowd at the reception.

Carving station being set up!

Foooooooooood!!

Okra gumbo. Southern influence with the okra.

NY Prime rib with horseradish sauce, egg bread roll, and the okra gumbo. Pretty nice for a "cocktail reception!"

Okra gumbo. Not a huge fan of okra but it was not bad!

Some cheesy hors d'oeuvres.

Had to go back for seconds, but made my self a sandwich this time! :D

Mediterranean flatbread with goat cheese, sweet peppers, figs, spinach, and caramelized onions. Very tasty and surprisingly light.

Crudites with seasoned salt! Crudites are raw veggies to dip in sauce, vinaigrette, or salts.

Himalayan pink salt, fire salt, and Sonoma sea salt. Himalayan pink salt is the purest salt on earth. TBH can't really tell the difference but I liked it cause it was weird sampling pink salt weird haha. Fire salt tasted like sea salt with some pepper powder mixed in.

Pulled bbq sliders. Sadly this was the only BBQ I had in North Caroline. The funny thing is that Charlotte is actually not known for BBQ even though Carolina BBQ is famous.

Bow tie pasta with butternut squash, arugula, and shiitake mushroom with sage cream sauce. Wasn't that tasty after it got cold.

Fresh chips with seasoned salt was great though!

Afterwards, decided to walk around Uptown Charlotte for a bit and right outside Breckler Museum is a shiny silver statue of Sungod made out of mirrors!

Now... for those of wondering why I got so excited about a statue, it is because at UCSD, there is a Sungod statue by the same artists, and the Sungod is a very symbolic statue at UCSD.

A sign commemorating the Battle of Charlotte.

After walking around a bit, I got a little hungry so decided to stop my Mert's for some Southern cuisine!

Mert's, one of the highest rated restaurant in Charlotte, according to Yelp :P

Brought it back to the Westin. Was gonna sit down and eat but decided to order to-go rather than sitting there like a loser HAHA.

Fried quarter leg chicken entree!

Cornbread... not gonna lie... it was pretty damn bomb, especially with the sweet butter!

:]]

Fried Chicken!! Seriously it was so good. No sauce needed.

Super moist. I was afraid of the skin, which is one of the best part, becoming soggy on my walk back from the restaurant but it was still crispy! Amazing.

I thought I wasn't that hungry but I probably could've ate 4-5 more pieces. It was that good!

Candied yams. Not that sweet, lots of spices.

Mac & cheese. Yelp reviews raved about it... but I don't know... I've had better hahah.

The cheesy crust was definitely the best bite.

Ended my night with a bottle of IBC Root Beer.

Not gonna lie thought, it was nice not having to worry about looking for food but it does take the fun out of traveling. I still dream about that fried chicken... in fact... I'll probably start a fried chicken adventure, like the one I did for tacos awhile back haha.

Happy Turkey Day!

Back to the South!

Sorry for the lack of updates. I haven't gone or tried anything exciting lately, but I am currently in Charlotte, North Carolina for work, so hopefully I'll be able to find some gems out here in the Queen City!

One thing that I'll guarantee: I'll eat fried chicken AT LEAST once during this 3 day trip! Gotta do the South right!

Time for some Monday Night Football.

Torrance: Capricciosa Finally Opens!

There's always been a huge demand for Japanese Italian around the South Bay so it's not surprised that Capricciosa decided to open the first US branch in Torrance, where there is a good sizeable Japanese population and where Japanese Italian is widely accepted.

Capricciosa is a huge restaurant chain from Japan, with several locations worldwide. Essentially it is an Italian restaurant with the flavors and dishes tweaked a little to suit the Japanese palate while trying to stay true to Italian cuisine. Nothing is too heavy and all the pastas focuses on more of the ingredients. There's no fusion like bonito flakes or uni as part of a pasta dish.

Took us awhile to find the place though since it shares a restaurant space with Tony Roma's. A little odd, yes, but there's actually a good amount of seating. Just this past weekend was their soft opening but they had most of their menu ready when we were there.

Capricciosa

24301 Crenshaw Blvd

Torrance, CA 90505

www.capricciosa.com

Entrance to the restaurant! I was definitely very excited to try it out :P

Nice and elegant decor throughout the restaurant. It does get a bit loud near the back, where it is closer to Tony Roma's.

Since 1978!

Menu (click to enlarge).

Complimentary bread.

Strawberry lemonade. Meh, nothing special but it looked good haha.

Garlic toasts.

It's rolls spread with garlic butter then toasted. We were expecting more garlic flavor. The only disappointment of the night though!

Choi's Squid Ink Pasta. Calamari, sauteed onions, garlic in a tomato based squid ink sauce. One of the better squid ink pastas I've had in the States! I am not a fan of the squid ink pastas with cream sauce as a base, so I like that they use the tomato based. It's much more true to the Italian roots (Venice).

Vongole. Garlic, clams, and wine. As simple as it gets! It's more like pasta in a clam broth. Definitely drink up that deliciousness. They give you so many clams here as well!

Original Tomato & Garlic. This is Capricciosa's signature dish. Great Arrabbiata sauce with sauteed garlic & peppers. Arrabbiata sauce is a classic Roman sauce of garlic, tomatoes, and red chili cooked in olive oil. It is sweet and tangy while the garlic chunks provides a huge punch of flavor. Favorite pasta dish of the night!

Spicy Seafood Linguine. Clams, mussels, shrimp, calamari in spicy garlic cream sauce. Seafood flavor integrated throughout and even though it is a cream sauce, it's not heavy at all! This is a perfect example of a pasta dish that's more suited for the Japanese palate with the lighter cream-based sauce that allows the seafood to shine through.

Chicken & Mushroom Fettucine Alfredo. Marinated chicken, onions, mushrooms, with creamy alfredo sauce. Marinated chicken is pure awesomeness. Tender but slighly crisped on the outside from being pan cooked. A hearty and earthy pasta dish.

Gotta say, I'm a huge fan of their pastas! Definitely will be coming back to try some of the other items like pizzas, lasagnas, and desserts. Also, with the opening of Capricciosa, South Bay has officially become the land of Japanese Italian! Too many good spots with Spoon House, Akane, Italian Tomato, and Il Chianti.

San Diego: Fooding Around Hillcrest

This past Labor Day weekend, I headed down to SD for the weekend with a few friends, and my priority was definitely eat eat eat. Now... I haven't been back to SD in over a year or two so there's a lot of places that are new to me, or I just never went. Somehow the two new spots that I checked out this time around were both in Hillcrest and both delicious.

Of course, for the SD peeps, these two spots might not be news to you but cut me some slack, I haven't been back in awhile :P

Bread & Cie

350 University Ave

San Diego, CA 92103

breadandcie.com

Bread & Cie for brunch!

Bread & Cie is a pretty cool bakery. You order your food at the front and while waiting in line, there's all these pastries tempting you.

Full menu.

Jadson's Croque Americaine, which is essentially a breakfast panini. Egg, crisp bacon, pepper jack cheese,tomato and watercress grilled on Lemon Pugliese Bread. Yea sounds crazy, especially that bread!

I think this was the grapefruit juice... don't remember.

Rosa's Ham & Swiss Gruyere Quiche. bread & Cie is also famous for the quiche. Very savory, and served cold. I sorta like quiches hot. Nevertheless, still really rich and the smoked ham is very prominent.

Vanilla cupcake. Not your traditional shape but they also add coconut shavings on the top. Nice touch.

Diana's Turkey Pesto Panini. Probably my favorite out of all the things I tried. Turkey, sliced tomato with a basil, garlic & pine nut pesto on sourdough. Pesto spread is on both sides so each bite is full of flavor!

Panini perfectly pressed.

Also came with a side of pickled cucumber. Reminds me of Chinese cucumbers since it has the red chili flakes haha.

My single shot latte. Did not know it was gonna be this big. Served with an almond cookie as well.

So being the fatass that I am, I decided to get the Boxed Lunch. Comes with a panini and a slice of lemon cake. Originally it is for people that wanted a to-go lunch so they can bring it on a picnic or wherever they go. I like the way they package it haha.

In a to-go wrapper since it is a "boxed lunch."

California Muffuletta Panini. Genoa salami, provolone cheese, roasted red peppers,red onion, tomato, fresh basil, and olive tapenade then drizzled with extra virgin olive oil & balsamic vinegar. Wrapped and marinated OVERNIGHT on Italian Ciabatta Bread then pressed. I'm a huge fan of muffuletta so I had to get it. Did not disappoint.

Of course it's not the traditional New Orleans muffuletta but all muffuletta has to have some sort of olive spread and the olive tapenade here is punch full of flavor. Ciabatta as a panini is great cause it has that super crunch crust on the outside.

Came with some seasoned breadchips, which is just seasoned croutons.

The slice of lemon cake with my boxed lunch :D

Zesty! Jadson said it reminded him of the lemon cleaners and I can see where he got that from, but man it was tasty HAHA.

I like Bread & Cie a lot! Hillcrest is definitely a lot more hipster now and Bread & Cie fits in perfectly. It's a great casual spot to have breakfast or brunch on a weekend or just grab something quick to go on the weekday.

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The next day, we originally wanted to grab brunch at The Mission before we headed back to LA but it was too packed. Then we went to Baja Betty's, for their brunch buffet and unlimited mimosa, and after waiting for an hour, we couldn't stand it anymore and decided to go around the corner to Amarin Thai, which turned out to be one of the best Thai restaurants in SD!

Amarin Thai

3843 Richmond St

San Diego, CA 92103

amarinthaisandiego.com

Amarin Thai in Hillcrest.

Of course, had to start off with a Thai Iced Tea.

We ordered the Chicken Satay to start. Generally not a big fan of satay since chicken always gets so dry but it's quite moist here. The peanut sauce is pure money (forgot pic).

Tom Kah (large) was perfect for sharing. Lots of coconut milk in this one but still zesty from the lime juice. Great starter.

Lots of mushroom and chicken!

We each ordered a dish but ended up sharing among everybody. I got the Mambo Mambo Chicken which comes with stewed chicken with ripe mango in red curry sauce. I am a huge fan of red curry and with the ripened mango it is both savory & sweet. I got a level 7 for the spiciness and found it to be just right since the coconut milk did cut the heat a little.

Massaman Beef, beef in curry sauce with potato and onions. Seems like a mix of yellow and red curry. Great tender pieces of beef.

Spicy Noodles. So good. They use quite a bit more of soy sauce here so it has more of that aroma that just makes you salivate. Level 5 was perfect for this dish!

Garlic Salmon Fried Rice. I couldn't get enough of this! Awesome garlic flavor through the fried rice with a little bit of lime. We spent awhile wondering how they got so much garlic flavor throughout!

Choo-chi Duck, which is roast duck in choo-chi sauce. I don't know what the sauce is but I was pouring it over my rice like a maniac :P

We were extremely full satisfied afterwards but since everything tasted so good, we decided to get a dessert to share and went for the FBI, which is fried bananas egg roll with coconut ice cream. The coconut ice cream itself isn't sweet but they drizzle plenty of honey for sweetness, and as for the fried banana, it is super crispy thanks to the egg roll wrappers.

Apparently this spot gets super packed at night. They even have a few awards from Wine Spectator, most likely for pairing wine with Thai food. They do have quite a few bottles near the front. Definitely impressed. But really, Amarin Thai was probably the best Thai food I've had in a long long time, and that's counting LA and Thai-Town! Good way to end the weekend!

Oh and yea, had to throw in a picture of Phil's BBQ. How can you go to SD and not eat Phil's??? Too bad the lighting was so bad at the patio and my iPhone is horrible haha.

Oh and another random pictures... saw a double rainbow on the way home!!! Youtube video is currently replaying in my head hahaha.