tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-328018122024-03-11T21:50:59.060-07:00Chubbypanda.com - Restaurant Reviews and Original RecipesFood and travel in California and beyond. Orange County, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and Vancouver.Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.comBlogger243125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-49463968430314582622016-03-28T23:35:00.001-07:002016-03-28T23:37:38.929-07:00Yong Chen and Clarissa Wei on CCTV
It's always a bit of a kick when you see someone you know on TV. It's exponentially more awesome when it's two unrelated people you know. Long-time readers of this blog will be familiar with the close relationship I have with Yong Chen, Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, and my mentor in all things food. Some of our past is detailed in:
Five Things People Don't KnowChubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-13906135143122441972016-03-08T09:43:00.000-08:002016-03-08T15:44:24.053-08:00Tacolandia 2016 Exclusive Pre-Sale Code!
(Get your tickets a whole week before everyone else at Ticketfly using presale code TACOPANDA.)
It's coming...
It's coming...
TACOLANDIA.
That magical, lime and chili infused wonderland where Taco Spirit Guide Bill Esparza leads me on a kaleidoscopically gluttonous dreamwalk. Of the 7 major events in my annual epicurean cycle; Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chinese New Year, 626 Night Market, IrvineChubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-82510611437112590062015-09-30T16:19:00.000-07:002015-09-30T16:19:56.548-07:00Newport Beach Wine & Food Festival This Weekend!
Newport Beach's second annual Wine & Food Festival runs this Friday, October 2nd, through Sunday, October 4th, at the Newport Beach Civic Center. Tickets are still available.
The main event is the Daytime Festival from 1pm to 5pm on Saturday, October 3rd, and Sunday, October 4th. Cooking demonstrations, book signings, and tastings will be hosted by a distinguished lineup of local and Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-40181980655439274172015-09-28T17:41:00.000-07:002015-09-28T17:45:48.651-07:00Mid-Autumn Festival Dumpling Feast
(Home made dumplings with pork, Napa cabbage, and shrimp.)
Growing up, the Mid-Autumn Festival was a low-key affair for my family. Since it often happened during a school night, my mother would buy mooncakes from a local Chinese bakery and make us a hot pot or dumplings. When my siblings and I were younger, we'd sometimes go out to the backyard to look at the moon while she told us stories Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-50963129303056435642015-08-03T12:00:00.000-07:002015-09-28T17:42:59.873-07:00LA Weekly Burgers & Beer 2015 Buddy Pack
The LA Weekly has been on a tear over the past year with food festivals like Tacolandia, Pancake Breakfast, Sips & Sweets, and the Essentials. This Saturday's Burgers & Beer at the LA Coliseum is shaping up to be amazing, with burgers from headliners like Thomas Keller's Bouchon, the infamous Hawkins House of Burgers, Belcampo, and Vaka Burger. The artisan brewer lineup is equally exciting, Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-82088304343940986862015-07-21T14:39:00.000-07:002015-09-30T14:05:45.519-07:00Savor Santa Ana 2015 VIP Pass Giveaway!
Some exciting news for all you Hungry Pandas! Chubbypanda.com is giving out TWO VIP passes for the Savor Santa Ana food festival in Downtown Santa Ana this Thursday, July 23, 2015.
Each $45 VIP tasting package includes:
10 tasting tickets for food samples from participating restaurants.
2 drink tickets for beer, wine, of liquor at the patio lounge.
Access to shorter VIP lines for all booths.
Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-11787899899000494882014-11-17T15:13:00.000-08:002014-11-17T15:19:19.794-08:00Chop Suey, USA!
Of the truly great mentors I met at UC Irvine, Food and Asian American history professor Yong Chen was the most influential on my blogging. An incorrigible foodie, he shared with his students an infectious enthusiasm for food as a tangible form of history, a consumable form of expression, and a traceable social pathway. The first restaurant review I ever wrote, close 16 years ago, was an Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-7399282462065931172014-10-16T13:46:00.002-07:002015-09-30T14:06:04.372-07:00Savor Santa Ana Tonight!
Looking for something to do in the OC after work? Check out the Savor Santa Ana Tastings Night in Downtown Santa Ana tonight from 5:30pm - 9:00pm. Buy your ticket books HERE!
Each $10 book gets you 12 tickets and a walking map of participating eateries in the area. The idea is that you stroll from restaurant to restaurant exchanging your tickets for samples of signature dishes from each Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-89411325569094861202014-08-23T17:43:00.000-07:002014-08-23T17:43:46.467-07:00LA Weekly's 2014 Pancake Breakfast This Weekend!Looking for something to sop up your Sunday morning hangover? The LA Weekly has you covered!
From the mind of KCRW's Good Food host, Evan Kleiman, comes this year's LA Weekly Pancake Breakfast lineup, featuring 38 of the hottest breakfast and brunch spots in all of Los Angeles. Confirmed attendees include Roy Choi's A-Frame, Berlin Currywurst, bld, Canelé, East Borough, Eggslut, Euro Pane Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-68557699354777709022014-04-24T11:43:00.003-07:002014-04-24T13:02:44.163-07:00Last Day for the Tacolandia 2014 Presale!
(Get your tickets before everyone else at Ticketfly using presale code CHUBBYPANDA.)
The best part about business trips to our Mexico offices? Hanging out with my engineers at those offices.
The second best part? Tacos.
Whether it's grabbing a quick bite from the cart of a street vendor, gathering for a team lunch in a fancy restaurant, or sucking down beers at an impromptu BBQ after work, Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-42235690626758712832013-12-11T16:52:00.000-08:002018-11-06T18:34:18.745-08:00Mag's Donut and Bakery - Irvine, CALook out Dominique Ansel. The California donut industry is coming for your cronut.
(A Croissant Donut from Mag's Donut and Bakery in Irvine.)
The morning began like any other before it. I woke up, performed my morning ablutions, and decided to stop by the neighbourhood donut shop on my way to work. As I had done thousands of times before, I stepped up to the counter to order a few dozen Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-12124557887958764372013-11-07T14:57:00.000-08:002013-11-20T06:55:23.535-08:00Comikaze - Should You Go? - Los Angeles, CA(Been hard at work on the new layout for Chubbypanda.com. There's still a lot of work to be done. However, I've decided to start publishing again, even with a buggy site, to get my regular rhythm back up. It's been at least two years since my last post, so I've got a lot of work to do and a lot of backlog to work through.)
(Raven and Nightwing from the Teen Titans. Full slideshow available Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com3Los Angeles, CA, USA34.0522342 -118.243684933.2099567 -119.5345784 34.8945117 -116.95279140000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-91212445231103176812011-09-10T09:57:00.000-07:002013-08-24T10:02:46.902-07:00The Sunny Side Cafe, a choka (長歌) - Berkeley, CA(Pictures for this restaurant review taken with my Apple iPhone 3Gs.For fun, I wrote this restaurant review of the Sunny Side Cafe as a choka (長歌). See the section below the review for more details.)Up at 6:00am,Sleep-fogged mind barely working.Strange bed, no wife - Huh?Disorientation andconfusion. Panic.Relief when I realizethat I'm on a business trip.Running for the BART.Caffeine and Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-60669359823292398192010-11-08T23:23:00.000-08:002013-08-24T10:03:01.452-07:00Takoyaki Tanota (たこ焼き たのた) - Costa Mesa, CA(Pictures for this review taken with my Motorola Droid.)With his shaggy hair tucked into a black baseball cap, he looks like a worn out roadie as he hunches over the sizzling hot griddle. A skilled flick of an oil-soaked cloth cleans each indentation, brushing a glistening layer over the ebony surface. Then, a thin, creamy batter is ladled on in a explosion of savory steam, filling the trays toChubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-82450456733398928482010-10-10T15:51:00.000-07:002013-08-24T10:03:15.636-07:00Valhalla Table - Costa Mesa, CA [CLOSED](Pictures for this review taken with my Canon PowerShot SD800is.This article is dedicated to Kelly von Hemert of Galley Girl for her friendly and persistent nagging. She's in your kitchen and my head!!!
Edit 08/24/2013: Valhalla Table has closed.)Valhalla - The Hall of the Slain. It’s the final resting place of the Einherjar, heroes felled in glorious combat and selected by Odin the All-Father Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-10651059373948863752010-02-26T13:59:00.000-08:002010-02-26T14:22:43.539-08:00Mukmuk Zamboni!That's just fun to say. I need to start blogging again, so here's a short post to warm me up.Scored me a sweet pin of Olympic mascot sidekick Mukmuk driving a Zamboni when I was up in Vancouver last week. Then the wife blogged about it on Outblush. Mukmuk is the bomb!Support Mukmuk in his drive to get promoted from mascot sidekick to full Olympic mascot. According to the lil' guy's bio, "Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-56322277074181094772009-08-30T14:13:00.000-07:002009-08-30T14:52:19.843-07:00Bell Pepper Beef Stir-fry - [Cooking](Pictures for this recipe taken with my Canon Rebel XTi.)It's bell pepper season at the farmers' market! With modern growing and transportation methods, bell peppers have become so ubiquitous as a year-round staple that most of us probably don't think about their natural growing cycles. However, bell peppers are actually a type of berry. Like all fruits, they're best enjoyed at the peak of Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-13190071793573370542009-06-19T23:49:00.000-07:002009-06-20T11:07:34.437-07:00Daddy Cakes Bakery (Highly Recommended) - Newport Beach/Orange County, CA [Supplying](Pictures for this review taken with my Canon Rebel XTi.Daddy Cakes Bakery is holding a Father's Day Pancake Brunch this Saturday, June 20th, from 10:00am-12:00noon at the Whole Foods in the Tustin District. Dads dine for free! Everyone else pays only $5. All proceeds go to a local food bank. See you guys there!Disclosure: Daddy Cakes Bakery generously sent Chubbypanda.com samples of their Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-65405245350870571002009-06-17T23:33:00.000-07:002013-08-24T10:04:13.220-07:00Kaju Market Hotteok Stand - Los Angeles, CA(Pictures for this review taken with my Canon PowerShot SD800is.)What's your snack of choice when you're cruising the city late at night? Do you like wrapping your lips around the obscene, incestuous porcine coupling that is the Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dog? Are you lured to the kaleidoscopic glitter of roasted meat served up at the many taco stands that dot La La Land? Maybe you're the kinky type, Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-6629269004389248372009-06-14T23:38:00.000-07:002013-08-24T10:04:24.711-07:00Tustin Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off - Tustin, CA(Pictures for this review taken with my Canon Rebel XTi.)Last Sunday was the city of Tustin's 25th annual Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off. Believe you me, people in Tustin know how to throw a good bash.(Corner of Main and El Camino Real.)Here's the recipe. Start off by shutting down vehicle traffic to all of Old Town Tustin...Line the streets with stalls run by artists, food vendors, and Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-17557050845425045262009-05-22T08:22:00.000-07:002013-08-24T10:04:44.505-07:00Kaya Sushi - El Segundo, CA(Pictures for this review taken with my Canon PowerShot SD800is.)The restaurant was dim, lit by neon lights and a painfully bright plasma TV. Stands of lacquered bamboo thrust up from the tiled floor in a garish mockery of once-vibrant life. A wall of glass stood between us and the dining area as water streamed down its surface. Tendrils of manufactured mist swirled around our feet from a poolChubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-46938657617046361342009-05-09T21:06:00.000-07:002009-05-09T22:09:03.958-07:00Anonymous Email #1 - [Criticism]When I first began food blogging, one of the questions I asked myself was how I would handle critical emails or comments from business owners upset by negative reviews. Having worked in the restaurant industry in the past, I know how much of themselves small business owners sink into their endeavors. Few people handle criticism well, so it's natural for someone to want to rebut, refute, or Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-62207488374735715802009-05-02T13:38:00.000-07:002009-05-05T09:21:03.332-07:00Twitter Added! - [Crazies]Hey guys!I'm happy to announce that I've added a Twitter feed to Chubbypanda.com.My schedule has gotten a lot busier since the beginning of the year, which has made it harder for me to post as many reviews as I'd like. But, that doesn't mean I've stopped eating. I've added a Twitter feed at http://www.twitter.com/chubbypandablog so that I can post thoughts about the restaurants I'm visiting, Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-47470800834801139872009-03-10T22:10:00.000-07:002009-03-10T22:14:37.348-07:00Daddy Cakes Expands Orange County Distribution - [FoodVibes](What are FoodVibes?As a food blogger, I regularly get emails from publicists, publishers, restaurateurs, and business owners eager to share information about their latest projects, great deals, and upcoming events. Sure, they're looking for some free publicity, but a lot of it is interesting stuff. Rather than just keeping it to myself, it seemed like a good idea to make this information Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32801812.post-35005634230954103162009-03-08T23:44:00.000-07:002013-08-24T09:54:34.896-07:00Hamilton Petit Cafe (A Call to Action) - Huntington Beach, CA [CLOSED](Pictures for this review taken with my Canon PowerShot SD800is.)I am one seriously pissed off panda. I can't remember the last time I was this angry. We have rising gas prices, plummeting real estate values, double-digit unemployment, the specter of economic depression, and stock markets that have fallen with such rapidity that they threaten to drag the rest of the country into the Abyss with Chubbypandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930326230203564199noreply@blogger.com9