weinhaus happ

innsbruck, austria

website

a trip to europe to pick up my in-laws' new car. in munich (or münchen as die deutschen say), we had lunch at bmw welt. it was an atrociously unattractive white sausage, so i'm going to spare y'all that photo and move onto our dinner in innsbruck.

i asked our lederhosened hotel concierge where we could find schnitzel. to his credit, he didn't roll his eyes at all, but instead gave us three options in the historical old town area. we found weinhaus happ and it looked cozy enough. the outdoor seating was nice because we could see the historical square, including the famous innsbruck golden roof. our waiter was not particularly friendly. i asked him to recommend an austrian beer and he gave me something that tasted only slightly better than PBR, so i think i did that wrong. my schweineschnitzel was pretty good, but nowhere near as good as the schnitzel from blaue gans in nyc. the fact that it wasn't drenched in cream sauce probably puts this schnitzel at a disadvantage. still, it had a nice crunch and paired perfectly with a wonderful salad of various pickled things. a good start to our european driving/eating tour.

cat cora's kitchen @ IAH

houston, tx

link to yelp

at the airport yet again. this time at IAH, houston international airport, waiting for our flight to münchen. i'm a big fan of cat cora from watching iron chef america, so i figured this was a pretty safe bet. the menu and our waiter both talked up the spicy tomato soup. so i went with that plus a little burger. for airport food, not bad. the burger was a little overcooked and bland, but i just dunked it in the spicy tomato soup and it worked out quite well. good soup.

shawn cafe

arcadia, ca

link to yelp

anthony was visiting so i decided it was worth traveling to arcadia to get good chinese food. it also helped that anthony drove the whole way. we met g and cindy c at the restaurant and let cindy c order the best options from the menu. and what a spread! generally my favorite taiwanese dish is a meatball covered in glutinous sticky gooey stuff and unnaturally red-orange spicy sauce. trust me, it's delicious. but this time, cindy c introduced me to a new taiwanese favorite - xiang chang (chinese sausage) sliced with sticky rice sausage. chinese sausage is great with everything (shout out to my mom's signature sticky rice with chinese sausage and mushrooms) but this was a nice twist, serving it with sticky rice in a similar sausage shape. grab one slice of each sausage, stuff whole into mouth, and enjoy.

three twins ice cream

santa monica, ca

website

yet another picture of my sister's hand holding food. and my peeling nail polish. anyway - cindy was visiting, so i took her to main street in santa monica to check out some boutiques and the new muji store. couldn't resist stopping at a little scoop shop. can't go wrong with gourmet ice cream. my strawberry ice cream was creamy and delicious. cindy's lemon cookie ice cream was "really really good." a perfect treat to eat while shopping along main street or walking along the ocean. gotta love southern california.

tsujita la

los angeles, ca

website

more ramen! before tsujita annex, there was the original tsujita la. it's rare to see this restaurant without a crazy line outside. it serves a different type of tsukemen (dipping ramen). the noodles are similar to the annex, but the broth is completely different. the broth comes in a small bowl with small pieces of pork. there is a bit more oil in this broth, which can throw some people off. but i just mix it all together and it puts a nice coat of porky goodness on the noodles when you dip. there's also a slight sour flavor which pairs nicely with the noodles and a hefty squeeze of lime. both tsukemen are amazing yet completely different. try both and see which one is your favorite!

big thunder ranch barbecue @ disneyland

anaheim, ca

website

for derek and myself, a trip to disneyland is as much about the snacks as it is about the rides. and the cheerful disney music accompanying your every step. and the mental gymnastics of determining the optimal allocation of fast passes. but this past june was our first time visiting big thunder ranch barbecue. turns out, it's all-you-can-eat! if we had known that in advance, we would have prepared to be hungrier. sadly, we only had the stomachs for one extra bucket of ribs and chicken. meat was decent. beans and coleslaw were both very good. cornbread was completely tasteless. still, a pretty good option if you've managed to avoid snacking on corn, churros, frozen bananas, corn dogs, or popcorn throughout the day and can actually eat enough ribs and wings to justify the price.

capital seafood

arcadia, ca

link to yelp

met up with michelle and cindy c for dim sum in arcadia. so far! but it's worth the drive to see my far-flung friends and to eat yummy chinese food. the dim sum was pretty good, better than anything that i can get near my apartment in santa monica. but the best part of capital seafood is the fact that there was no wait at 12:30 pm on a weekend. incredible. plus, service was super friendly - they let me sit down and served me tea before the rest of my party arrived.

shin-sen-gumi

los angeles, ca

website

you would think that there would be a limit to the amount of ramen that i can eat and the number of ramen restaurants that i will try. but you would be wrong. this is shin-sen-gumi, which is one of many ramen shops on sawtelle. this place gets crowded, but not as crowded as tsujita annex. my new ramen buddy w and i decided to try shin-sen-gumi for lunch one day. broth was tasty, noodles a bit too thin. i liked that i could customize my ramen - choose whether you want your noodles al dente, choose how much pork fat you want floating in your soup, choose your toppings (corn!), etc. but since tsujita annex makes it perfect every time, why mess with perfection?

aeronuova @ jfk

queens, ny

link to yelp

as far as US domestic terminals go, jetblue's terminal 5 at jfk might be one of my favorites. (seattle's redesigned central terminal is definitely up there as well). jetblue's terminal 5 is a huge open space that rarely feels overwhelming despite the crowds. decent food. nice shopping options. since i was early for my flight back to la, i decided to enjoy a glass of red wine and a bowl of rigatoni bolognese at aeronuova. pasta was okay - i liked that it was al dente, but the sauce was a bit bland. wine was excellent. service was very friendly. a nice comforting meal before a long flight.