Life of a Wallflower, 13 – Wallflower in LA Day 2

We began Day 2 late. After indulging in so much food our first day in Southern California, we slept in.

When we were finally ready to explore Southern California, we decided to head over to Jazz Cat to try another hot pot spot. It was over 90 degrees outside, but we’ve heard good things about this place so we decided to go. I actually liked this spot more than Boiling Point. I like that there were more options in soup bases and that you get to add your ingredients. That way your meat and vegetables can be cooked to your liking when you want it to be.

Jazz Cat

I love having an individual hot pot. It means you can order whatever you like.

1.5

After lunch, we walked over a few stores to buy pastries as a gift for my uncle and my Southern California cousins. It’s always nice to buy gifts for people you’re visiting. JJ Bakery had huge selection of Asian style pastries.

JJ Bakery

We also visited Half & Half for pearl tea. They’re well known for their iced flavored milk.

Half & Half

Afterwards, we met up with my uncle and explored Old Chinatown for random little items my parents wanted like cheap pots and pans.

Explored the shops at Montebello.

Montebello

Then it was dinner time again. My Southern California cousins wanted to take us to a trendy Korean BBQ restaurant located in downtown LA called Road to Seoul.

4.5

I have never had Korean BBQ before, and this spot was especially different. The restaurant is constantly crowded with people waiting in line for seats. They played loud club/EDC music while people grilled and ate their meal. While I normally love Korean food, I found that I’m not a big fan of Korean BBQ. This place was all you can eat, but I discovered I can’t handle so much meat. And that’s all that it really was. Plus Korean BBQ is usually beef, and I don’t eat beef, which made things so much more difficult.

Road to Seoul

As if our all you can eat meal weren’t enough, we opted to make one more stop for dessert, Guppy House, which is famous for their shaved ice.

Guppy House

The “small” bowl of shaved ice was huge. It’s enough to serve at least a dozen people. We ordered strawberry mango shaved ice and honey brick toast. I highly recommend this place. And I would have enjoyed it more if I weren’t so full from the BBQ.

Shaved Ice

Brick Toast

See? This is how huge the “small” bowl of shaved ice is. My sister had trouble holding it.

9

 

Hope you enjoyed seeing some of my adventures in LA.

Until next time!

38 comments

  1. Time Traveler says:

    The dish with shaved ice looked like it had milk or cream on it too. I love strawberries, however, have never had Mango. We saw some in the store, unfortunately do not even know how to prepare them. My husband is more adventurous than I am. Maybe you can show us how to prepare them?

    • Andrea| Cooking with a Wallflower says:

      It had condensed milk on top. Mangoes are really easy to prepare. Peel off the outer skin. Sometimes that’s hard to do if the mango is very ripe and soft. Slice the mango into bite sized cubes. There’s a huge seed in the middle so you might hit that when you slice. Just move the knife over to make sure you don’t hit it. I hope that helps for now. The next time I have a mango post, I’ll be sure to demo =)

  2. mytiturk says:

    Ate hot pot in Xi’an in 2008. My daughter lived there for a couple of years. Loved the meal. I noticed you had your group’s photo taken BEFORE the meal 😉

  3. Ala says:

    You’re having SUCH a blast in my neck of the woods–welcome, girl! I don’t know if my last comment got through from your previous post, but we must be clones/twins/weird identical somethings, because I had no idea you were from SJ and now down in LA. We need to talk about this serendipitous encounter. I hope you’re getting Diddy Riese right down here on the west side, ho ho!

    • Andrea| Cooking with a Wallflower says:

      Hi Ala! I just saw your comment! I’ve been so behind in reading and responding to comments these last few days while I was in So Cal! Too busy eating my way through So Cal. And I wish I had posted earlier so that I could have gotten your recommendation sooner. But now I’m back in the Bay Area. Darn! I wasn’t in that part of LA. But it’s going on my list for the next time I’m in the area. They look soo good. And it does seem we have so much in common! We’ll have to sit and chat sometime =)

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