Best Fusion Seafood at Roy

 

The best part of Hawaii isn’t the subtropical Mediterranean climate, the crystal blue green ocean, or the laid back islander pace of life. Okay, I lied. Those are all the best parts of Hawaii. But the cherry on top of your drool worthy paradise of a life is the food. And it’s not just any good fashioned Hawaiian meal, but the best of Asian/Polynesian food refined down generations and across the Pacific belly flopped into a pool of Western heartiness. Then take those traditional recipes, approach it with a think outside of the box redefinition of “Korean food” or “Italian food” or any other ethnic food by sculpting it together, and create the posh candle lit ambience of class and voila! What you have is Roy’s.

Roy Yamaguchi, a world renowned chef and James Beard Winner, opened his first high end fusion restaurant in 1988 with the vision of bringing the best Hawaiian fusion seafood there is to offer. Since then, he has opened an additional 30 restaurants. Then again, it isn’t much of a surprise that such a top rate restaurant can be so successful and spread its wings so internationally when you sink your teeth into their Misoyaki marinated Butterfish. It just melts in your mouth, carrying with it an explosion of spices and Umami like flavor. We ordered the Roy Sampler, which is a serious understatement for four of Roy Yamaguchi’s Original Hawaiian Fusion Classics; The entree sampler included Roy’s Original Blackened Island Ahi with Spicy Soy Mustard, Misoyaki Marinated Butterfish with Sweet Ginger Wasabi Butter, Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahimahi with Maine Lobster Essence, and Jade Pesto Steamed Opah with Chinese Style Sizzling Soy Sauce.

     

Another fulfilling signature dish is the Uncle Roy’s Pulehu combo dish. It includes the Hibachi Grilled Salmon, Mongolian Spiced Baby Ribs, Paniolo BBQ Glazed Shrimp. Yes, at this restaurant you can have your cake and eat it too! This three entree combo gives you sizeable portions that will leave you with a full belly and a mouth over stimulated. It is worthy of every molecule of saliva you render for mastication.

Not to mention, the top notch services of Aloha hospitality. Our waiter kept on coming back every ten minutes with a big smile asking if we needed any other accommodations but not before breaking down the menu for us, giving us the Roy’s nightly specials. I can only attest for the those two dishes as being the signature dishes you would find at any Roy’s restaurant. However, every Roy’s restaurant has their own eccentric platters they serve and the dinner menu changes nightly and depending on location.

So if you’re looking for a romantic night out or just want to experience quality seafood dining with an aloha welcome, then give your Uncle Roy a call!

Technorati Tags: Roys,fusion seafood,dining

Drink.Eat.Play

Paramount Studios Block Party

Location: 5555 Melrose Ave, Hollywood CA 90038

Entertainment Value: All you can drink beer, Eat.Drink.Play Beer Mug, Roach Coach gallore, live music, and sampling international hard to find beer brands
Entertainment Cost: $30
Food Cost: $10-$20 depending on what you want & which roach coach you want it from

What's cooler than an ice cold refreshing beer on tap? How about getting your own souvenir mug to drink from? Or how about getting to sample dozens of different name brands, some of which are rare, borderline weird? Hmm. Or how about walking around a New York backdrop inside the set of Paramount Studios? Well...Then how about drinking while the DJ spins live hip hop, trip hop, and pop round the clock with speakers set all around the block? Then add dozens of roach coaches serving their eccentric food items? Enter hundreds of young beer lovers like you who are there to cruise through the booze, dance to the mix, and fraternize? So what is really cooler than an ice cold refreshing beer on tap?  How about having it all? Yes, at this block party, you can pay for your beer and drink it too!

Never mind the fact that this block party gives you access into Paramount Studios, a paradise for starstruck Joes like me and a go-to site for Hollywood's best actors, producers, screen writers, extras, agents, stage developers, etc. This is where the magic all happens and it is apparently where all the magic water happens to be at on this fine occasion. Passing through side door entrance on Gower St. felt like sneaking into Charlie and the Chocolate Factory--it was exciting, it was new, and I was curious as hell as to what it would look like in there. Needless to say, I was not disappointed, although a little bit surprised. In many ways the back lot of a multi billion dollar company like Paramount studios looked mundane--I mean clean like a University dormitory, but very ordinary. I had expected some one way glass mirrors, solar powered robots hovering over ground running their errands, or at least a Saturday afternoon bombarded with busy people running around for a set. However, it was not only peaceful with scarcely a worker on site, but the offices were plain beige buildings with golden placards tagging buildings that would say "Lucille Ball" or empty carts next to big banners that said, "Congratulations to so and so for blah blah Emmy nominations". It was just all to paradoxical for me. Just like walking into the main lot, where star trailers were staggered together like the Metrobus lot on Sundays. As we almost arrived at the entry way to the New York Street back lot, to our right was the famous  Bronson Gate and to our left the Blue Sky B-Tank hungrily stealing the scenery with its massive facade of a cloud filled blue horizon putting all other backdrops to shame.

As soon we hit the NY set, the first thing I did was fill up my mug with Blue moon and with my husband's mug, Samuel Adam's Summer Ale--both well recognized brew brands in So Cal. While sipping away at the cold brew that tingled on the way down and double fisting through the crowd, I noticed the wide array of international and domestic beer brands that I've never even heard of (not that I'm a beer connoisseur or anything, but you're average Joe, aka me, would even have to do a double take on some of these eclectic brands). The range of beers go from light Pale lager such as Edison Light to American Strong ale's Arrogant Bastard. There were interesting international brew company brands like Czech's golden pilsner Bierbitzch, Japan's Sapporo, Tibetian's Chhaang, and Thailand's Singha, just to name a few. Domestic breweries such as Noble's Pale Ale, Bootleggers, Bitchcreek, and  Sudwerk also made their mark. They even had drinks that weren't beer: Sailor Jerry Rum, Naja's herbal tea, Korea's Makgeolli--a milky off white rice wine, and Honest Tea giveaways by the bottle. As someone who likes fruity, carbonated drinks, my all time favorite beer at the festival was Hornsby's red apple and green apple Cider. It was so good, that half an hour later when I went back for a second round (which is out of the norm considering there were dozens of available beer booths there), they had ran out of the green apple flavor. Hornsby's Cider had the tang of Martinelli's apple cider with the malted fuzz of beer--light, cold, and smooth. 

Not to mention the many different roach coaches out there. For those of you who don't know, roach coaches are your think outside of the box ice cream trucks and your old school taco trucks. Roach coaches are mobile trucks that travel from city to city hot spots feeding busy hungry businessmen and college students with their specialized menu items. Since the lucrative Kogi truck started, many entrepre-imitators have sprouted like California wildfire. What we have now is not only just a new wave of aesthetic enterprise but also a cultural fusion phenomenon. There were about 6-8 different food trucks at the party-- all different ethnic foods with its own unique flavor: Some highlights were:  Delicious Meat's wraps from Turkey, Kogi's Korean BBQ burrito, Dim Sum's Peking duck taco, Don Chow's Spicy BBQ pork taco (Chino-Latino fusion),  India Jones' curry, Fry Smith's Kimchi Pork Fries,  Crepin Around's fluffy sweet crepes, and Mediterranean's sweetly layered Baclava and fruit kabob.

By the second hour, I was feeling pretty good along with 200 other people there. It was getting pretty obvious that everybody was buzzin when even the vendors were smiling for the camera and giving nice compliments such as, "cool tattoo" and "pretty lady" this and that. People asked about the camera, they asked about my blog, and they asked about where we're from. The point is when people ask you personal questions in LA, that is being more than friendly--that's being buzzin friendly--and that's when you know you are at a good block party. Soon, networking started, people danced to the rhythmn of the DJ's beat, cigarettes and cigars distributed around among newly shaken hands, and spirits lifted higher and higher along with the vibrant late afternoon air. Cool magic water, cool LA air, cool music, cool setting, and cool people. All around a cool day

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Iron Chef Cook Off!

Iron Chef Cook Off!

Location:

2400 Jefferson St
Torrance, CA 90510

Entertainment Value: Friends, Food, Fierce No Mercy Competition, Alcohol and Fun

Food Cost: $10 in the pot so the head chefs could go and hunt for ingredients

Don't let the fact that friends, alcohol, and parks fool you into thinking this is just recreation. Beneath the veneer of laughters, clinks from shot glasses, and delicious food, there is a firestorm brewing. The three head chefs, Chef Tony, Chef Gus, and Chef Roderick, all hope to lead their team to the glory of fine grilling--bbq at its highest aesthetic sizzle. On a fine Sunday afternoon at Wilson park, they've come to test their wits and prove their culinary skill. The mission? To make a three course entree based on the secret ingredient that is revealed only moments before the game starts.

Each entree wll be judged on three criterion:

1. Flavor/Taste

2. Presentation

3. How clever the secret ingredient has been integrated into the dish

Sweet Tea Vodka...Ohhh yeah~

Team Tony hustling and bustling with their mushroom burger

To make it even more interesting? Once the teams were given the secret ingredient, Floral Peppers, they are only given an hour and a half to shop for their ingredients on a $50 budget. They must be at their grilling stations within that time frame or else they would be penalized for their time grilling. Once the party have all arrived, we have the lightening round. This quirky part of Iron Chef is a way for each team to test their fitness in food preparation. At a head to head relay match, each team has to effectively complete a preparation challenge. In our cookout case, one member had to first successfully cut and quartz a pineapple in order for the second team member to proceed onto finely chopping onions, which then allowed for the final team member to squeeze enough lime juice to pass the designated mark on the cup. First place winners, Team Tony, received an extra 2 point advantage in judging marks. Second place winners, Team Gus, receive a 1 point advantage.

After the lightening round, teams receive an additional hour and a half to come up with three different entrees. Throughout this time, our faciliator, David, and our host, Orn, is monitoring the progress of each team, while chaos unleashes--organized chaos that is. We hear orders being barked from Team Roderick's group, cheese melting on propane burners, knives chomping down on spicy peppers, and salmon flying in the air. It was a brutal race against time, but we could see how hard each team member was working. Sweat dripping down on smokey grills, coals sizzling under the tongs clamping down on burger meat, bacon wrapped sausages, and chicken breasts, and feet shuffling around to get this and that all added to the excitement. 

Once time was up, amazingly all the teams finished on time, through sheer versatility and adrenaline induced shot calls, made possible from good teamwork and top notch leadership. Food tasting judges, Lackena, Johnny, a mystery judge, and yours truely sat down before nine varietated and orally seductive dishes.  Since a picture is worth a thousand words, we'll break down the product of their culinary endeavors... but before I do I plead a disclaimer!! I did not cook these so my descriptions are very limited. I'd like to encourage the judges to come forward and write their description on the comments section below. I apologize in advance if I lack the details in the formulation of the product that could fully describe food presented here. So in any case, here are their finalized products:   (Please don't forget to take a moment to fill out the survey poll to the left column of this blog after you are finished viewing the food)  


Team Gus:

Appetizer: Rasberry, blackberry, mango, strawberry fruit parfait; Second dish: Ceviche

Entree 2: Bacon wrapped sausage with green peppers with toasted bun

Entree 3: Hearty all American burger with melted jack cheese; bell peppers on the side

Team Tony:

Appetizer: Bacon Stuffed yellow peppers with....? glaze.. help me here Tony..

Appetizer 2:  salty and spicy salsa

Appetizer 2: Melted cheese dip with green and red bell cubes

Entree 2+3: Bell Peppers on top of bacon wrapped hotdog; Portabello mushroom with melted Jack cheese blended inside the meat 

Team Roderick:

Appetizer: Mango salsa

                                               

Entree 2: Chicken breast with green onions layered on top, siracha sauce dipping in yellow chilli cavity

Entree 3 + 4: bacon wrapped sausage with asparagus, grilled pinapple slice, and juicy burger with all the bacon, red onion, tomatos, lettuce in between

 So ladies and fellas, judge for yourself. We can tell you who won, but we don't want to biase you. Which team do you think deserved to take the prize of good food based on the pictures?

Stroll & Savor on Second Street

Location: Downtown Long Beach

Entertainment Cost: Free

Food Cost: $1 per ticket or $10 for 12 tickets

     

Have you stood in front of two restaurants and couldn't decide which one to go? Italian or Japanese? Greek or Indian? What if you could have both? Even better, how about if you can have it all...all for one third of the price of a dinner outing? Look no further, because that is what the Downtown Stroll and Savor allows the fickle food lover to do. It's like having your cake and eating it too!!

Luckily I've have had many years of Costco Sunday Sample training so I knew instinctively that I would have to wait my turn amidst the eager and hungry crowd while keeping a keen eye on the trend of the lines--my experienced sonar tracked down time and again all the you just-gotta-wait lines.

Once we bought our tickets, we were given a map

of the 20 or so different restaurants that were displaying their signature samples on their front porch. In addition to the ethnicalicious food vendors saturated across the 14 block outdoor promenade, the trek towards our favorite palate pleasers allowed us to also appreciate the diverse array of boutiques, coffee shops, and speciality stores. From bougie women wear such as Jennys and Heavenly Couture to high fashioned candy shops like Frost, Powell's Sweet Shop, Yogurtland, Pinkberry, to eccentric specialties such as Party Props, Storyteller Productions, Pussy and Pooch-- a Juicy Couture equivalent of a pet store for dogs and cats, its like a hodgepodge of liberal creativity for the hipster.

As diverse as the food and the shops were, the crowd was just as mixed as the United Nations. It was heartwarming to know that I live in a city where diversity is the status quo, that the locals all seem to interact with each other, bustling with kindred spirit of commercialism. When it came to entertainment, it was still a bit shy from the hustle of Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, but it did have its few moments of street blues in the form of New world tunes and good old strumming on familiar guitar strings. There was even a makeshift food court with the family centered music and dancing. It was altogether a homely feel--like having a warm cup of cocoa in a San Francisco coffee shop.

 

We sampled Pad Thai, Lucille's hot links, bar bred hot wings, NY pizza, Peat's fusion teas, Yogurtland, Chuck and Toby's 1 ticket Tacos and by the time we were contemplating Lebanese and Greek, we were already stuffed at full capacity. The four of us (Lisa, Kathy, Gus, and I) each bought our own tickets and five minutes before the end of the street fair (6:00pm-9:00pm), we were all loosening our pants with altogether five tickets left to spare. We took home a meal sized doggy bag full of leftovers from random places we hadn't visited.

If you haven't experienced downtown Long Beach, you would definitely miss out if you overlook this underrated promenade. Compared with the more famous Santa Monica Promenade, I would say it is comparatively better in food selections and shop eccentricities. Though there could be more improvement on the street entertainers, there is plenty of food sampling opportunities to make up for that. The Stroll and Savor fair only happens twice a month, so be sure to open your mouth and your minds to the Belmont Shore Stroll and Savor when the time calls for you.