Hello, Sushi Sasabune Glendale in Los Angeles County, California

by   •   Food
 

I’m back in Southern California for a little bit again in preparation for joining one of my friends for a fundraising event, which is coming up this weekend.

While in town, I met up with my friend Kelsey Bunner, who I don’t get to see often because she travels a lot for work, but I managed to catch her this week to go on a food adventure together. She likes sushi but doesn’t go to omakase experiences too often, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to check out Sushi Sasabune in Glendale of Los Angeles County, California.

For our appetizer, we got a plate of three items: baby tuna with radish…

… salmon with mango…

… and abalone.

Our second opening dish was scallop.

Next was our first batch of nigiri. We got red snapper…

… mackerel…

… and tuna.

Only one piece of tuna is pictured here, but we got two—one akami and one chutoro. The chef told us that both cuts were from the same fish. I couldn’t tell whether he intended to say that they were both from the same type of fish, i.e., tuna, but it would be interesting if he actually meant that it was from the same physical fish.

As an intermission, we got another specialty plate, this one containing oyster, baked mussel, baked crab, and radish.

I have never seen any restaurant prepare a whole baked baby crab like this, and I thought this was very clever and creative. Kelsey couldn’t bring herself to eat her baked crab because it looked too cute, so I solved that by amputating all its limbs and flipping it upside-down so that it would look more like food and less like an animal.

Next were two more pieces of nigiri: sea perch…

… and sweet shrimp topped with caviar.

Next were three pieces of gunkan: sea urchin…

… salmon roe…

… and black cod.

We were nearing the end of our meal and had two more pieces of nigiri left: eel…

… and skipjack.

As the grand finale, and the last dish of the night, we each got a blue crab hand roll.

We opted not to order dessert à la carte, so the chef treated us with some Japanese grapes instead.

Omakase was $150.00 per person, and along with iced green tea for $3.50, $31.11 in tax, and $50.00 as gratuity, our total came to US$384.61.

Overall, I enjoyed my experience at Sasabune Glendale. All the fish was high in quality, and the way they prepared the specialty dishes was very unique and creative.

With that being said, the portion size of the meal was disappointingly small for the cost (and this is the only reason why I wouldn’t wholeheartedly rec­om­mend Sasabune Glendale). For an easy comparison, one of my favorite restaurants of all time, Masamitsu, also cost $150 per person, but I am pretty sure the amount of food I got at Masamitsu was literally about double of what I got at Sasabune—not only due to there being way more dishes, but also because the cuts of fish on the nigiri were much larger and thicker.

There seem to be multiple Sasabunes across the Los Angeles area. Some of the reviews of the one in Beverly Hills, which has omakase at the same price­point, say that the meal there was very filling. I’ve added that onto my list of restaurants to eventually try—I’m hoping that the Beverly Hills location maintains the same spirit of creative and distinct dishes, while having larger portion sizes.

 

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Hello, Nostalgia Street Rods in Las Vegas, Nevada (Part 1: The Museum)

by   •   Las Vegas
 

Nostalgia Street Rods is somewhat known among us Las Vegas locals as being a hidden gem in the Valley. Although it might not make it to the top of tourist’s lists of places to check out while in town, it still has a very good reputation for those who are interested in cars.

In between my back-to-back hours of work, I decided to squeeze in a break and get some fresh air. The weather has been scorching hot recently and not too many other people have been out and about lately, so I figured now would be a decent opportunity to finally make my way over to the industrial area near the Boulder Junction neighborhood to check out the museum and car collection while it’s not that busy.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. There were only two other people in my tour group—they were a couple who generally kept to themselves—so it ended up being a very private and personal tour experience. I paid US$20 for general admission, but it felt like I got lucky and almost got the equivalent of a one-on-one tour that would’ve gone for US$50.

There were two sections to Nostalgia Street Rods, the museum and the automobiles. The museum was the smaller section, housed inside a single very large room, and had a lot of memorabilia. Most of it was centered around media and pop culture, but there were also some interesting historical Las Vegas relics. I was especially satisfied with the high volume of music-related items to see. The tour guide pointed out that a lot of care was taken to verify the authenticity of everything on display.

The main section of the experience was the vehicles. There were multiple rooms and warehouses of cars, in addition to larger vehicles being parked out­side in the lot. One aspect of the automobiles I found nice was that there was a breadth of condition of the exhibits. In simpler terms, car museums u­su­al­ly only have very well-maintained and polished cars, and even older cars have been restored to a pristine condition. However, even though Nos­tal­gia Street Rods had a lot of those, it also had a bunch of vehicles that had clearly been used and abused and milked of their functionality, and it was nice to see the more practical and realistic side of the vehicles as well.

I took a lot of photographs, so I decided to split it up into two blog posts—this one contains specimens from the museum, and the subsequent one will have photos of the automobiles and other vehicle-adjacent items.

 

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Hello Bee Wizard

by   •   Cats, Face
 

If you know me, you know I adore cats, so when my friend Billie-Rae asked me to accompany her as she went to pick up her new kitten, of course I said yes. She already has a cat named Goblin, and this new kitten would be the second feline addition to her family. She decided to name him Bee Wizard, or Bee Wee for short.

When we went to the foster family’s apartment to pick up Bee Wee, I also had an opportunity to meet some of the other kittens that were up for a­dop­tion.

I made quick friends with this one after it emerged from under the dresser and greeted me.

After bidding farewell to his siblings, Bee Wee made his way into the cat carrier and sat peacefully on Billie-Rae’s lap in my pickup truck as we drove to his new home.

After we went indoors, Gobby noticed Bee Wee’s presence and went up to him to investigate.

Moments after arrival, Bee Wee got to enjoy the addictive Inaba Churu.

Time for a quick Gobby intermission.

Bee Wee found the water fountain and made sure to stay hydrated.

After filling up his small belly, Bee Wee went on an adventure and did a great job exploring Billie-Rae’s home, making sure to check out all the corners and edges. Whenever he encountered something new, I tried to go over and teach him how to interact with it—like how to swat at a feather toy, or how to scratch corrugated cardboard panels.

Hello Gobby.

After getting Bee Wee set up in his new room with some food, water, a litter box, a bed, and plenty of toys, Billie-Rae and I went to grab a quick dinner. Upon our return, we discovered that Bee Wee seemed to have tired himself out with all of the toys and eventually fell asleep inside a ring torus tunnel.

Before heading out, I grabbed him for a quick picture.

Bee Wee and I are glowing purple here because Billie-Rae had some purple mood lighting on. Alternatively, we are glowing purple because Bee Wizard is an actual wizard and he cast a spell on us.

 

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Food photo dump from June and July 2024

by   •   Food
 

I like reviewing high-end restaurants, but sometimes, I like to step out for a quick meal with friends without having to sit through an entire tasting menu or ordering multiple courses to properly assess a restaurant’s offerings. I still take photos at those spots too, but never enough of them to warrant an en­tire blog post dedicated to that restaurant. I still want to share those photos though, so here is a photo dump of some of the food I’ve had over the past two months.

Here is a chirashi bowl from Izakaya Osen in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.

The following three photos are from Summer Canteen in Burbank, California. Here is some slow-braised pork belly with Thai herbs. It was a bit dry.

This is stir-fried shrimp with fresh garlic, black pepper, and a side of steamed vegetables. This tasted clean and refreshing.

We had mango sweet sticky rice for dessert, which I liked.

Here is a Greek yogurt strawberry blueberry waffle bowl from Jamba.

The next four photos are from President Thai in Pasadena, California. Here is some orange chicken…

… garlic sole with mixed vegetables…

… green curry with zucchini, green beans, and basil leaves…

… and a side order of broccoli and sliced carrots.

The next three photos are from one of Noodle World’s full-service locations. This is chicken Thai noodle soup…

… charbroiled pork chop over vermicelli noodles served with fried onions, peanuts, and fresh vegetables…

… and deep-fried egg rolls stuffed with ground pork, carrots, bean thread noodles, onions, and black mushrooms served with a side of sweet sauce.

Here is a pack of pink Kit Kats my friend Billie-Rae brought back for me from Japan.

The next batch of photos is from Wa Sushi & Izakaya in Alhambra, California. Here is some soft shell crab…

… an avocado cut roll…

… some specialty sushi roll, but I forgot its name…

… a rice bowl with blue crab, sea urchin, salmon roe, caviar, egg yolk, and tamago…

… two pieces of eel nigiri topped with avocado slices…

… mixed vegetable tempura…

… and two pieces of salmon belly nigiri topped with salmon roe.

Taking a brief intermission, here is a Spicy Spring™ pizza with pepperoni, mozzarella, pecorino romano, and fra diavolo sauce from Prince Street Pizza. It looked extremely unhealthy and I could almost feel my cholesterol rising from all the processed meat and saturated fat, but it was delicious.

Back to some more sushi. Here is some salmon carpaccio…

… another specialty roll, but I forgot the name of this one too…

… a rice bowl with salmon, sea urchin, salmon roe, caviar, egg yolk, and tamago…

… and a cut roll with yellowtail and avocado, topped with slices of yuzu.

This is a chicken sandwich from Hattie B’s at their Las Vegas location inside the Cosmopolitan.

This is a Korean pork shoulder sandwich with house kimchi, chili mayo, cilantro, and lime from Lardo in Las Vegas, Nevada.

And finally, these last two dishes are from Raffi’s Place in Glendale, California—Scottish salmon…

… and chicken, charbroiled with tomato and bell pepper.

 

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Hello, The Neon Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada

by   •   Las Vegas
 

After a long string of back-to-back travel, I’m finally back home in Las Vegas to rest up for a bit before my next trip. After settling in for a few days and getting some errands done, I decided to go check out the Neon Museum in downtown.

The Neon Museum is a fairly popular tourist hotspot, so it was about time for me to go visit it after having been a resident of the Las Vegas Valley for the past six years (though I guess two of those years don’t count because I was road-tripping cross-country full-time). I scheduled my tour for the night­time because I wanted to see the signs illuminated. This also meant I didn’t have to face the brunt of the excruciatingly hot summer temperatures, as it had (marginally) cooled down post-sunset.

It’s become a well-known meme at this point among my peers and fans as to how much I love Las Vegas, and with that adoration, I’ve done a lot of re­search about the city and the surrounding unincorporated towns. During that process, I’ve learned about the history of Las Vegas and the way it e­volved to what it’s like today. Because of that, walking through the Neon Museum and recognizing the names on some of the old neon signs was a fun ex­pe­ri­ence.

I got a discounted locals’ general admission ticket for US$23.00 and purchased a guided tour add-on for US$15.00. Along with the US$1.34 transaction fee, my total for the visit came to US$39.34. I do think that is a little bit pricey compared to other mu­se­ums, but I’ve traveled a lot and been to a lot of mu­se­ums, and I can say that I’ve never quite seen anything like the Neon Museum before when it comes to the nature of the exhibits and the historical sig­nif­i­cance of all the displays.

Here are some of my favorite shots from my walk through the Neon Boneyard.

And yes, I still drive the same pickup truck.

 

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