Phan Photography » Food

TGIF! – Alex Di Peppe’s Italian Restaurant, Arcadia CA

phan photographers — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 00:37:07 +0000

We love Italian food. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many Italian restaurants in or around our area that we can regularly go to for good pastas or pizzas. The other night we decided to get on Yelp to find one. We noticed a place called Alex Di Peppe’s Italian Restaurant on the top of the list and remember passing by it countless times – but never actually stopped by to try it out. It’s a very small hole-in-the-wall type of restaurant, but they always look really busy and have a lot customers going in and out.

That night, we decided to give it a try and ordered a small “Alex’s Special” pizza. With the Alex’s Special, we get to pick 6 toppings – Pepperoni, Salami, Olives, Pineapples, Mushrooms and Roasted Garlic. We thought it would simply be cloves of roasted garlic, but they actually throw the entire garlic in the pizza. It was SO good. They are very generous with their pizza toppings. Our son Kyle, who just turned 1, was screaming for some pizza and it was really hard to find him a cheesy doughy piece because the entire pie was covered in chunky toppings.

We also ordered their “Pasta Sampler”, that comes with a sampling of their Lasagna with Meat Sauce, and choice of two pastas. We chose the Penne Pasta with Meat Sauce and Spaghetti with Meat Sauce. A lot of Italian restuarants have marinara or meat sauce that’s more on the tangy side – but theirs was just right. I’m generally not a big pizza fan, but I found myself craving for more the next night – especially the roasted garlic. I think we’ve finally found ourselves a good, authentic Italian restaurant to frequent. =)

If you’re in the Arcadia area, this place is definitely worth stopping by.

Alex Di Peppe’s Italian Restaurant
140 Las Tunas Dr
Arcadia, CA 91007
(626) 445-0544

Alex’s Special

Check out those whole roasted garlic in the center of the pizza! YUM.

Pasta Sampler

Kareena wanted a picture with the pizza. =)

tgif! The Open Door – Monterey Park, CA

phan photographers — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:17:53 +0000

We have been making more of an effort to go out on mini date nights, happy hour or a quick dinner without the kids. It keeps us sane, especially after a crazy month of the kids being sick, a busy month at work and month full of weddings and photo sessions! We’ve heard about The Open Door through friends and have been wanting to try it out. The restaurant is small, but it was clean, the service was great and the food was super yummy. We loved their menu, which is broken down into small bites (munchies), big bites (appetizers) and bigger bites (full entrees). We like variety in our meal so this place is perfect for us. We ordered a few things from the small and big bites – and although the dishes looked small, it filled us up quick! They also have really good fruity drinks. The best time to go is during their happy hour, which is between 5:30 and 7pm. They have a pretty good happy hour menu that’s almost 50% off the regular priced menu. We can’t remember the last time we went out alone and drank with each other. Or did we ever? We ordered a Lychee Shochu carafe to start. It was SO good. Everything we ordered was really good and tasty – enjoy the photos!

Lychee Shochu
Lychee juice mixed with Shochu aka “asian vodka” – so goood!

Albacore Sashimi with Gochujang Miso

Salmon Sashimi with Garlic Citrus Soy

Fried Shishito Peppers

Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab

Beef Tataki

Braised Beef Short Rib
I just have to add that the meat melts like butter – it was so tender and the sauce was sweet and flavorful!

Go try this place out if you want to sample a bunch of little different dishes with awesome flavors. Aside from these unique dishes they also have a sushi/sashimi menu. :)
Happy Friday!!

TGIF! Hot Pot Hot Pot – Monterey Park, CA

phan photographers — Fri, 14 May 2010 22:50:14 +0000

We love hot pot! We often make it ourselves at home, given that it’s fairly easy to prepare and it requires no cooking skills at all. =) Food prep is very time consuming though. We’re always trying to find a hot pot restaurant that is clean and serves fresh food. It wasn’t until a couple of months ago that we found Hot Pot Hot Pot in Monterey Park through Yelp. It had good reviews so we thought we’d give it a try. After all, what can be worse than wilted veggies, brown looking meat and sauce that gets put back into the jar after it had been served to someone? Yes, we’ve seen it all.

This place was nice, but it’s still your typical chinese restaurant with extra bright florescent lighting. It was clean though, and the food was fresh. Service wasn’t too bad either so we were happy. If you like hot pot, give this place a try – their broth looks bland but it is sooo yummy and flavorful! A word of caution though – if you get the 1/2 and 1/2, order the spicy side with a level 1. Your mouth will be on fire even at level 1 (the lowest).

Another cool thing about this restaurant was that we ordered our plates from a menu sheet and everything was brought out at the same time. They had good portions too. The meat and veggies came in small plates that’s probably good for 2-4 people.

It’s such a great idea to serve the dishes on a cart! We loaded up on veggies. :)

They also serve fresh hand-made noodles.

Our veggies simmering – you have to order the pumpkin. It’s so tender and sweet after it’s boiled in the pot.

Oh boy. This is making me droool. We need to go back for more this weekend. =)

Happy Friday!!

tgif! Newport Seafood (Tan Cang) + Half and Half Teahouse

phan photographers — Fri, 07 May 2010 23:47:20 +0000

We eat out a lot. The other night we ordered take-out from Newport Seafood – their House Special Lobster is SO GOOD.

Milk Green Tea and Mango Green Tea from Half and Half Teahouse – currently our favorite boba teahouse!

That was our 11pm dinner! Lobster and boba. I can’t think of anything else that can top that. :) Happy Friday!!

TGIF! Seafood Night At Home

phan photographers — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 23:30:19 +0000

We’re so fortunate to have good friends who spoil us rotten with food. And you know we LOVE food. :) Cupcakes, bakery from Porto’s, boba milk teas, baked catfish, sushi…I can go on and on. So once in a while, we’ll host dinner at home and treat some of our friends to a nice homemade dinner. Last weekend we had seafood. On the menu: Jumbo Shrimp, Dungeness Crab, Mussels and Cheesecake Swirl Brownies.

Live Jumbo Shrimp – they were jumping and flopping all over the place! We had 7lbs of these babies.

Dungeness Crab – we had 6 of these big suckers.

Mussels – yeup, had a tray of these.

Cheesecake Swirl Brownies – Kareena made this, I only helped with the measurements and the baking.

We simply boiled the shrimp, nothing fancy – but the meat was so sweet and juicy!

We topped the uncooked mussels with a mixture of mayo and masago and baked it.

Another simple dish, steamed dungeness crabs – so sweet and tasty!

Kareena’s brownies =)

Closeup. They were really good and moist!

I just thought i’d throw this photo in here with another quick update of her tomato and strawberry plants…the tomato plant is getting bushy! The strawberry plant may be a dud though.

Now go and have yourself a seafood night! Happy Friday!!

TGIF! Samurai Sushi, Cerritos CA

phan photographers — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 22:55:43 +0000

There are a few restaurants that we rotate on and go to at least once a week for lunch. Samurai Sushi, located in the city of Cerritos is one of our favorites. The owners (husband and wife) both work there and they are the sweetest and most hospitable people ever. We’ve been dining there since 2001, so we’re regulars and the owners know us by now. We’re not given menus when we arrive and we don’t even have to order because the waitresses already know what we’re having and how we like our food prepared. Yea, it’s crazy.

One of the best things about this restaurant is that every entree comes with a salad, miso soup and pickled veggies. So yummy.

Their Shrimp Tempura appetizer. The batter is light and crispy – so good.

Salmon Teriyaki and Tempura Combo – This is the only thing Kenny orders. Yeup, he’s been ordering the same combo since 2001! And no, he’s not tired of it because he adds variety by stealing all of the salmon sashimi from my plate.

Sushi and Sashimi Combo – this is what I order 95% of the time. The other 5% was when I was pregnant and was forced to order other things from the menu. This combo is so good and so big that it requires two photos, one from each angle. This is the view from the left…

and the view from the right. =) This entire plate was under $15.

Great customer service and good food. Go try it! Happy Friday!!

TGIF! – Dip’s Grill Part II

phan photographers — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:51:52 +0000

A couple of weeks ago we were asked to go back to Dip’s Grill to photograph more dishes from their menu. The food was so good that we decided to do an encore to the previous post. This is the absolute best part of our job – photographing yummy food and getting to eat everything afterwards! We love it!! So here we go, try not to drool on your keyboard or lick your monitor.

Their adorable little teapots.

Banh Beo

Banh Beo with Meat Sauce

Sticky Rice with Chinese Sausage and Shrimp – this dish is an absolute must have. SO good.

Veggie Skewers

Grilled Pork Chop w/Rice

Grilled Chicken Steak w/Rice

Grilled Chicken Skewers

Pork Belly Buns – OMG. i was in pork belly heaven. Another must have. :)

Spicy Beef Noodle

Fried Chicken Wings

If you haven’t gotten a chance to try the food at Dip’s Grill, you really should stop by. You won’t be disappointed!! They’re open! Visit their website for more info!

TGIF! – Akasaka Restaurant & Sushi Bar, Hacienda Heights

phan photographers — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 06:57:09 +0000

A couple of our friends recently introduced us to a sushi restaurant out in Hacienda Heights. While we were on our way there, it seemed like it was out in the middle of nowhere. The streets were dark and we were driving down a block of industrial warehouses/offices. We kept wondering if we were lost or if the GPS system was tricking us again. I had high expectations coming into this restaurant and it didn’t disappoint. I had seen the food they serve through yelp.com and I had been drooling since. Some of the entrees we had:

Chirashi Bowl – This bowl of rice and fish is massive. It’s not cheap either, but at $33 a bowl, it was well worth it. I heard there are at least 32 pieces of fish in there. This place is generous with their cuts of fish too – very thick and chunky. Yum!

Octopus Sashimi

Rainbow Roll

Notice the huge chuck of fish in the center of the rainbow roll.

Grilled Yellowtail Collar

Tempura and Teriyaki Beef

Tempura and Teriyaki Chicken

This restaurant gives huge portions! This place will definitely become one of our favorite Japanese restaurants.

TGIF! – Dip’s Grill, Alhambra CA

vanessa — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 07:55:56 +0000

Welcome to our very first edition of Thank Goodness It’s Food! TGIF will run every Friday, featuring a different restaurant or a home made dish every week with photos that will make you drool and your stomach growl. We’ll also give you a brief review of the restaurant’s food, service, ambiance etc. If you have a favorite restaurant that you’d like to have featured here, let us know! Recommendations are always welcomed!

In this first edition, we’re proud to bring you DIP’S GRILL – a restaurant specializing in Vietnamese and Asian-infused American cuisines, mainly grilled items. We were lucky to get a sampling of each of these dishes and they were all so good. We can’t wait for the grand opening!

Chicken Curry w/Bread

Beef and Veggie Skewers

Curry Chicken Skewers

Fried Shrimp Rolls

Eggrolls

Grilled Beef Salad

Grilled Shrimp Skewers

Grilled Shrimp Salad

Pan Fried Savory Rice Patties

Sauteed Beef and Shrimp Combo Salad

Thanks Ivy, for having us over for food sampling! The food was delicious. Congrats and we can’t wait for the grand opening!!