This is the second part of my two-part blog post series on Nostalgia Street Rods. If you want to see photos from the museum section and read my overall thoughts on the experience, I recommend checking out the first part.
Hello, Nostalgia Street Rods in Las Vegas, Nevada (Part 1: The Museum)
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.
Hello Bee Wizard
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.
Food photo dump from June and July 2024
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.
Hello, The Neon Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada
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.
Hello, YakiYa in Pasadena, California
While still in California for a string of travel and before heading back home to Las Vegas, I met up with one of my friends and her parents to try the chef’s tasting menu dinner at YakiYa in Pasadena of Los Angeles County, California.
When we arrived, we were given warm hand towels and yuzu refreshers to prepare us for our meal.
Our appetizer was raw ground A5 Miyazaki wagyu with ponzu jelly, truffle, and arimo sancho pepper.
The wagyu had a surprisingly mild flavor and was a bit gelatinous. I didn’t spend any extra time to carefully inspect it before eating it, but I’m guessing that it was intentionally made to be lighter. It was overall pretty refreshing.
Here is a random photograph of our golden utensils.
Next was USDA Prime ribeye tataki with ponzu, garlic, and Kaiware. This was served raw like carpaccio. I thought it would have probably been better with a light sear on the outside, but it wasn’t bad as served either.
My friend and I got two non-alcoholic beverages. Mine was the Soft Pagoda with yuzu, honey, lime, and a yuzu gummy; my friend’s was the Cherry Blossom with Amareno cherry, grenadine, and lemon. The Soft Pagoda tasted almost exactly like the yuzu refreshers we got at the beginning of the meal; the Cherry Blossom tasted like a citrusy sweet cherry juice.
Our next appetizer was bluefin tuna and hamachi with Kaluga caviar, scallion oil, and wasabi. The fish had very low fat content so it was fairly firm, but it was still very clean and fresh. The caviar was as expected, and the scallion oil added an interesting uniqueness to the sashimi.
From here, I started questioning the ordering of the dishes, because our next dish was chawanmushi with Dungeness crab, ikura, and shiitake mushroom. I feel like this could’ve been better served between some of the meat dishes or later on in the meal, but it still had good flavor and wasn’t bad early on in the menu. The texture was a bit strange, though—it started out with the slightly firmer and custardy texture you’d expect from chawanmushi, but it was way too watery once I got to the bottom.
Next was local farmer’s market crudité with multigrain rice cracker and red miso. This, again, felt like it would’ve been better elsewhere in the meal—namely, near the beginning. The rice cracker was good, the vegetables were clean and refreshing, and the red miso added a nice richness to the veggies.
At this point, we were confused if we would ever actually use the grill in front of us, because the waitress brought out wagyu meatballs and radish in oxtail broth. Again, it tasted great, but this would’ve been better in between meat dishes as somewhat of a palate cleanser to change up the texture sequence of the dishes, as opposed to just having back-to-back non-grill dishes right at the beginning.
It was finally time for the grill… and unfortunately, this is where things sort of started going downhill. First up was American wagyu beef tongue with scallion kosho. Tongue is my favorite cut of beef, so I was looking forward to this one.
Unfortunately, we found out that it wasn’t actually a real chef who was cooking our wagyu for us, but instead, just our waitress. A big part of good wagyu is making sure it is cooked properly, and just by looking at the way our waitress even picked up the tongs, it showed that she was neither experienced nor confident.
The tongue came out overcooked.
Our next batch of meat was USDA Prime ribeye, USDA Prime outside skirt, and A5 Miyazaki chuck with a side of wasabi sauce.
By the time the waitress thought she was done grilling this and moved it onto our plates, it was still very undercooked. I’m someone who likes meat rare, and it was still raw to my standards. After I took a bite into it, I put it straight back onto the grill.
Our palate cleanser between plates was heirloom tomato, shishito pepper, and truffle mushroom.
Our next batch of meat was American wagyu short rib and USDA Prime filet mignon chateaubriand.
The filet mignon was served with bone marrow, garlic miso, kimchi, and nori.
Our final meat dish was A5 Miyazaki wagyu strip loin with poached egg and a sprinkle of Maldon sea salt.
The waitress once again improperly cooked the meat—not only did she take it off the grill too quickly, but she immediately placed it in cold raw egg (which was not poached enough), and that killed all the heat momentum on the meat and left it as-is. This left the consistency of the meat too stringy and the egg too watery.
Our first dessert was lemon sorbet with basil oil.
This was my favorite dish of the meal. The basil oil added a very special and one-of-a-kind twist to the lemon sorbet. I had never tried this combination before, and this was a fun introduction to a new flavor profile.
Our second dessert and final dish of the dinner was matcha balls.
Here are some photos of the interior of the restaurant…
… and one of the front entrance.
| Chef’s Tasting Menu ×4 | $ 512.00 |
| Soft Pagoda | $ 13.00 |
| Cherry Blossom | $ 13.00 |
| S.Pellegrino sparkling water | $ 8.00 |
| S.Pellegrino still water | $ 8.00 |
| Gratuity | $ 90.00 |
| Sales tax | $ 56.79 |
| Total | $ 700.79 |
I mentioned this a handful of times throughout this blog post, but I cannot emphasize this enough—the ability to cook wagyu properly is just as important as the quality of the wagyu. You can have a wagyu steak worth hundreds of dollars, but it’s not going to reach anywhere near its peak potential if you don’t prepare it well.
Wagyu also needs a lot of salt to bring out the rich flavor. Yakiniku restaurants will always give you a side of salt—either a salt-and-pepper mixture or some flaky salt—to dip your wagyu in to enhance the taste. YakiYa did not give us a side of salt… or a side of any seasonings or sauces, for that matter.
Overall, I was a bit disappointed by YakiYa. I feel like they took the chef’s tasting menu concept and tried to mass-produce it to be able to serve a lot of people at once. Chef’s tasting menus and omakase experiences are usually done in an intimate setting bar-side next to the chef and are usually capped at about eight people per round so each diner can get an appropriate amount of attention from the chef. YakiYa had a chef build the menu, but then delegated the rest to regular staff members who are unable to properly execute on the chef’s instructions.
The portion size of everything also seemed underwhelming. For some of the shared dishes that came combined in the same bowl or plate, it made me wonder whether we ended up with less food, e.g., rather than each person getting 1 portion, it might have gotten scaled down to 0.8 each as more portions were being added. I ended the dinner pretty hungry and drank a Soylent meal replacement shake right after to get some more calories.
Considering this is in Los Angeles, US$128.00 per person isn’t too bad, but I still wouldn’t consider it to be a top pick. For example, the omakase at Masamitsu, a restaurant less than a ten-minute drive away from YakiYa and still out in the suburbs, was absolute top-tier for only $22 more per person—good enough to be one of my all-time favorite restaurants.
So, the final verdict? It was fine, but there are better alternatives for the price. If you do still end up going to YakiYa anyway, just keep in mind that, at least in the way that they structured it when I was there, this is not indicative of what you should actually expect at a real high-end chef’s tasting menu restaurant.