It sure has been a while since I posted! I've been regularly posting on Instagram but have neglected my blog. But I recently did a fun taste test and got inspired for a blog post - a showdown between six different fast food spicy chicken sandwiches! As a disclaimer, this taste test was sponsored by Boston Market, who just launched their new hot chicken sandwich and asked me to pit it against all the other ones. With the help of Wandering Chopsticks, we picked up spicy chicken sandwiches from Boston Market, Jack In the Box, Chick-Fil-A, Wendy's, McDonald's, and Popeye's.     Bo ..read more

Thanksgiving holiday is upon us! If you're celebrating with your family, my LAist roundup has all the non-traditional Thanksgiving options around town this year, but being single I know how hard it is to find a feast for one, especially when it's a holiday like Thanksgiving when a lot of eating is involved. Still, us singles deserve to eat well - and I know many of you want to keep friends and families safe and not go to a gathering! So. Here are the places I've found so far that offer Thanksgiving feasts/ tasting menus for one: Photo courtesy of Gwen Gwen This one's a splurge f ..read more

Plant-based instant noodles? Yep. And it actually tastes good. Noodelist makes plant-based instant noodles that is also nutritious. Their noodles are made with moroheiya (also known as mulukhiya, mallow leaf and other names). This plant comes from Egypt and has a high nutritional value. According to their website, it is high in fiber, carotene, calcium, iron, vitamin B, C, and antioxidants (the noodles also contain wheat, though, so it's not gluten free).      Noodelist offers a couple of flavors right now. The company is started by a Vietnamese-born Finn, so the flavors certain ..read more

If you've been following me over on Instagram, you may have noticed how many sushi and chirashi I've been eating as takeout. I decided to do a roundup of all the ones I've eaten so far! Here's the list and my thoughts, arranged from the lowest priced to the highest.  1. Kaisendon from Iki Ramen ($19.50) Even though the kaisendon at Iki Ramen has slightly increased in price from $18 to $19.50 it still the best deal around. They have some great quality fish, with fatty yellowtail, fresh scallops nicely topped with yuzu, blue crab, salmon, ikura and spicy tuna. It really hits the spot ..read more

Disclaimer: this is a sponsored post, but opinions are my own.   Since we've all been spending a lot more time at home, I've been noticing how dirty my tables and other surfaces get. I was recently sent a bottle of SimpleCoat, which is a non-toxic multi-surface sealer. The sealer is meant to protect surfaces from stains, fingerprints and the like. The label says it's a stone and stainless steel sealer but I was told it works on many different surfaces.   I tried it on my outdoor stone table first, which I've been using for pretty much also my takeout food photos. You can see th ..read more

I have not been to Orange County in a while but Habana's 25th anniversary celebration next week might just get me down there! While many restaurants have closed because of the pandemic, I'm glad to see that some are still going strong. This destination for Cuban food in Orange County is celebrating their 25th with some great specials at both their Irvine and Costa Mesa locations from September 14-20.  Photo courtesy of Habana First off, during lunch (11:30 am to 3 pm) you can get menu items for the prices they were offered back in 1995! That means you can get their signature ropa ..read more

Another restaurant in LA whose takeout I've been enjoying is Providence. They change their menu every week and calling it Providence En Voyage. Each week took us to a different region (although this week was a Black Truffle menu, not tied to a specific region). The first one of their En Voyage menu I got was "Summer in Narragansett" - I had to order because lobster, of course. The dinner consisted of Parker house rolls, a Celebrity tomato soup (not pictured) with scallop dumplings, and then lobster stuffed with peekytoe crab and mushrooms, a side of potato and green beans amandine, and then f ..read more

I meant to be blogging more when the lockdown happened, but well, it was hard to find motivation! But now I'd like to highlight some of my favorite takeouts that I've had over the past few months. I hope you guys are all getting takeout and supporting local restaurants when you can! I've been ordering a lot of bento boxes, and two of my favorites came from sister restaurants IMA and Yazawa in Beverly Hills (the restaurants are right next to each other and pickup for takeout is at the same spot). Both of them are wagyu specialists that import their meat straight from Japan. Yazawa focuses on y ..read more

It's been a while since I've blogged! How is everyone's quarantine going? With so much time staying at home, I've been snacking more, of course, and I'm here to tell you about one of the sweet snacks that I've been kind of addicted to lately: the butter crunch from P.O.P. Candy Co in Santa Monica. So what is butter crunch anyway? Butter crunch is kind of like a love child between a toffee and brittle. According to their website, "Butter crunch is typically toffee that’s got crushed nuts on its chocolate coating." The basic ingredients is basically some sort of nuts, butter, and sugar (and ma ..read more

This is the time to show our support for the black community in our country, and to fight for racial justice. There are many ways we can do so, including putting our dollars in support of black-owned businesses. Bucketlisters has a useful list of other ways be an ally and fight for racial justice including organizations to donate to, petitions to sign, etc and you can check out that list here. As a food blogger living in the San Fernando Valley, I decided to put together a working list of black-owned restaurants in the valley. For restaurants beyond (but also including some in) the SFV ..read more