This is Summer... at Orange County

It was the Valentine's Day weekend; It was the Chinese New Year weekend. It was the beginning-of-my-intense-business-trip weekend.
And the weather? 70- 80 deg F, with the lows at 60s. Wow, and you call that winter? Well, it was unusually warm, hot almost. Southern California just had their rain storm, and to continue the drought, more sunny hot days. It was just in time for me: going from the 20-30 deg F in Minnesota to the 60-80 deg F in Southern California. Nice!


Solana Beach: the waves, the sun, the sand, the perfection.

A small town, a small beach town. I really doubt people who live there can be productive in any sort. How can they live in a town like that, with waves like that, and with weather like that, and still be able to think anything else? Sometimes I'm glad I'm not living in Southern California.... maybe I get more of a brain work-out this way ?

Laguna Beach: The Hills, Laguna Beach, The O.C., and all the other TV shows that feature the beach. It is beautiful.

La Brisas: right off the cliff on the Laguna Beach. Comtemporary Mexican restaurant. It has a fancy location, but a very reasonable price. Definitely a fantastic date spot, if you don't mind the other population dining around you. Comtemporary Mexican Seafood, so please, don't order thr burriots here. Oh wait, do they even have that on the menu?

Mariscos en Banderilla
Prawns, lobster, swordfish and vegetables grilled on a skewer over wild rice with caper-butter sauce

Pasta de Mariscos
Prawns, large sea scallops, crab, green mussels and salmon sautéed and tossed with spicy tomato sauce, angel hair pasta and vegetables.

Playa del Sole
Filet of sole, layered, topped with king crab meat, spinach and avocado slices. Served with a roasted capers-lemon butter sauce, vegetables and Mexican-style rice
I don't know about you, but avocado and sole fish? That has to be the best combo! Mexican rice is done to perfection. Tender and flavorful rice. Very elegantly done sauce, creamy but not fatty.

Berry Tostada

Fresh berries in an almond Florentine shell with vanilla ice cream and fruit liqueur.
Oh my god, may I just say, This is outstanding!!! A roated almond sweet and cruchy shell filled with ice cream and fresh berries. This is really impeccable.

Crème Brûlée

Topped with caramelized sugar and served with mixed berries.

And how can you miss this classic dessert? A little bit on the sweet side though.

And how can you go to the OC without Asian food? Don't forget, I totally blogged about it already.

Tom Yum Gon Noodle Soup: Yum. Period. And yea, take it with shrimps, no chicken please.

 



I can start now!

Jasmine 26 on Eat Street

jasmine 26RESTAURANT & BAR




I came across this restaurant.... completely random. I was browsing through friend's facebook photos, got routed to their friends' facebook photos... and saw this Buddha Belly drink:

And I thought, "oh! this is so cute! I want to go to this place too!!" And of course, that person was only the friend of my friend's friend. 4th degree of separation, and I wasn't gonna be a creep and randomly ask that 4th degreed facebook person to tell me where that place was. So, I did some google search, and basically typed in "Where can I get the Buddha Belly drink in Minneapolis?" and somehow Jasmine 26 came up.


So I was all excited to go try this restaurant, just because of the drink. And yea, it looks kind of cool on the website too. So, all the anticipation for the buddha belly drink. And well,

There's no Buddha's Belly...

But there's this kind of Buddha's Belly Martini: Vietnamese iced coffee and chocolate vodka martini
Also, the Saigon Mojito: pineapple rum and melon liqueur with fresh mint, and the Ginger Frizz: ginger infused vodka with spicy sweet ginger ale. Very delicious. I always love fun cocktails.


Since I've already sat down in the restaurant, ordered a drink, which turned out not to be the one I was expecting, (look-wise, flavor-wise... I don't know how to compare with something I've never tried.) and the fact that I already told my friends to meet me up at Jasmine 26, I kind of had to stay and just go with the flow. (wow, that's one long run-on sentence) I don't know if I was disappointed or not at that moment, but I was very satisfied at the end of the night. :)

Entrees: I was really having a hard time choosing between the noodle salads and the specialty dishes... I always like the Vietnamese noodle salads, so refreshing. I especially like the sweet and sour sauce, those you pour over the vermicelli noodle, and the marinated shrimp... yummm! A mix of sweet, tangy and grilled flavors.

Grilled Shrimp Coconut Milk Noodle Salad: Grilled shrimp tossed in coconut milk with thick "udon-style" noodles, garnished with shredded lettuce, cucumber, herbs, cilantro, and a sprinkle of roasted peanuts. Served with house vinaigrette sauce.

But instead of the noodle salad, I picked the specialty dishes instead.

Jasmine Crepe: Crispy turmeric rice crepe, filled with stir fried pork and shrimp, bean sprouts, onion and yellow mung beans. Very very delicious. The turmeric rice crepe is very awesome! Not too turmeric-ky, but enough to bring in some kick to the pork and shrimp light stir fried. I especially love the bean sprouts. The whole thing kind of tasted like Egg Fu Yong, but, well, much better version of that.

Caramelized Lemon Grass Shrimp: Sauteed fresh garlic, onion, lemongrass and shrimp glazed in a rich caramelized sauce. This very much reminds of me the sweet mayo shrimp dish I always love and order in the Chinese restaurants. But it's not the mayo, it's the sweet flavor and the thin layer of crisp that I like. Similarly, this dish is very flavorful. And that's definitely a lot of shrimp for $15! Just that they charge you $2 for extra rice... What a deal?!

Overall a pretty decent place for a small and cute dinner. Love the cocktail menu, and the setting is really nice and quite. There was quite a crowd on a Wednesday night, and the restaurant was about 70% full. Service was decent, and the server kept asking us if we wanted more cocktails. Hahaha, very smart... But I'm smarter! I have to drive, and I'll always drink responsibly. 

And no, I still haven't found that Buddha's Belly vase restaurant. And I'm still not brave enough to break that 4 degrees of separation and start asking that friend of a friend of a friend. So, please, if any of you guys out there know where they serve that cute little Buddha's Belly, let me know!!!