Margaritas and tacos fun @ Radio Mexico, Melbourne

A friend introduced to me to the fun at Radio Mexico when we went out for my birthday, where margaritas and tacos go hand in hand. The Covid-19 lockdown restrictions in Melbourne had recently lifted, but there were still a number of restrictions in place, so it was just the three of us who went out that evening, which was fine by me as I don't like big fancy birthday celebrations. First stop that evening was Radio Mexico, which were not accepting bookings, and we waited about half an hour for a table. My younger sister and I enjoyed this experience so much that we came back for a revisit a couple of weeks later on her birthday, this time with our older sister. Between those two visits, we tried all the different margaritas and most of the tacos on the menu. The tacos were delicious, and the perfect accompaniment to the margaritas. Our favourite taco was the BBQ pork belly, and the fancier ones with scallop and prawn made our top fave three tacos. If you're after a hip, fun and casual atmosphere in Melbourne, Radio Mexico would fit the bill very nicely.

Margaritas!

Totopos - hand-cut batch-fried organic white corn chips with house-made salsas:

Baja - beer-battered fish, pico de gallo and slaw:

BBQ Pork Belly - a twist on tacos al pastor, featuring pork crackling and pineapple:

Grilled fish with pickled red cabbage, avocado and black bean salsa:

Callo de Hacha - scallop and pork crackling with pickled red cabbage and habanero cream:

Camaron - Chipotle prawn and slaw:

Radio Mexico
11-13 Carlisle Street
St Kilda VIC 3182
Tel. +61 3 9534 9990

Mexican @ Don Pico's Mexican Bistro, San Bruno (California)

This was the very last meal we had on our trip to California last year. We had spent the previous 11 days on a road trip from LA to San Bruno, our final stop for one night before our flight back home out of the nearby San Francisco International Airport. Highlights of the trip (for me) were LA's beaches (in fact all along the Californian coastline was beautiful, from Santa Barbara to Monterey Bay), my friend's wedding (our first beach wedding), and the breathtakingly beautiful Yosemite. For the boy, the highlight of the trip was seeing an actual space shuttle, and baby girl loved the farm animals at Avila Valley Barn. I have no idea what my husband enjoyed the most on the trip - most likely the food! We'd driven a long way from Yosemite to our accommodation at San Bruno, and we were hungry for dinner. Having just returned our rental car and with two kids in tow, we chose the easiest and closest restaurant to our hotel: Don Pico's Mexican Bistro that was right next door. I think we got lucky with this one, because we had a good experience at Don Pico's. The service was pleasant, the atmosphere was family-friendly, and the food was delicious.

The semi-open kitchen near the entryway:

Housemade Fresh Sangria (US$6.50) - refreshing with just the right amount of boozy kick:

Complimentary corn chips with salsa:

Ensalada Don Pico (US$10.95) with organic spring mix, mango, avocado, candied walnuts, pomegranate seeds, jicama, organic flowers and cilantro-based vinaigrette. This was yummy - sweet, crunchy, creamy, juicy, crispy and tart:

We shared a three-items-combination set from the Traditional Favorites menu (US$16.95), served with rice and beans along with our choice of shredded beef, ground beef, chicken or cheese in our selections. I cannot remember what we chose for the fillings for our enchilada, tamale and burrito, but I do remember they were all tasty and very filling:

As usual, hubby could not resist dessert, and ordered the Alfajores (US$4.95 for three caramel-filled, flaky cookies). These were lovely, and very sweet, so one was enough for me:

What a nice meal to end a wonderful trip!

[Prices quoted above do not include tax or tips.]

Don Pico's Mexican Bistro
461 El Camino Real
San Bruno, CA 94066
United States
Tel. +1 650-589-1163

Yucatecan @ Chichen Itza Restaurant, Los Angeles (California, USA)

After we'd managed to pull our astronomy-obsessed boy from gawking at Space Shuttle Endeavour, we walked a short distance (about 1 km) to Mercado La Paloma, a small food court of sorts in a warehouse-like building. The walk itself was not interesting, but the space inside the Mercado La Paloma was rather attractive. It was a clean and bright marketplace, home to non-profit shops and several small restaurants offering authentic cuisines from Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, Thailand and Ethiopia. The main draw for us was Chichen Itza Restaurant, specialising in Yucatecan cuisine. This was my first encounter with anything Yucatan, and the cuisine has Mayan, Spanish and Lebanese influences. I came across recommendations for the restaurant while searching for places to eat nearby the California Science Center, and we were keen to try a new cuisine. It was past 2pm by the time we arrived, but the food court was still bustling. Chichen Itza was still busy taking orders, and I was grateful that staff took the time to answer my questions. There is a good variety of affordably-priced dishes on the menu, and if I lived or worked in the area, I would definitely come back to try out everything on the menu.

The menu board and ordering counter at Chichen Itza Restaurant:

For the 6-year-old, Tacos de Pescado (US$5.25, order of 2) - moist breaded fish with tartare, cabbage and pico de gallo. The crunchy texture of the breading and the cabbage made for a pleasant mouthfeel, and I liked that the fish, though breaded and fried, was not overly greasy:

Salbutes (US$5.69, order of 2) - deep fried corn tortilla topped with lettuce, shredded turkey, pickled red onion, tomato and avocado. The deep fried tortilla makes it not the healthiest option, but it was tasty:

Torta de Pollo Asado (US$7.25) - a sandwich with charbroiled chicken, black bean, lettuce, tomato and roasted onions. Simple but flavourful and delicious:

We enjoyed this Yucatecan lunch at Chichen Itza Restaurant. The Mercado La Paloma is a good meal option near the California Science Center, and I would love the chance to try out the other restaurants.

[Prices quoted above do not include tax and tips.]

Chichen Itza Restaurant
#C6
3655 South Grand Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90007
United States
+1 213-741-1075

Hawaiian poke @ The Big Daddy Shack; and burrito @ The Flyin' Jalapeno, Venice Beach (LA, California)

I am back from California, and what a trip that was! It was a combination of exhilarating and exhausting, as it is never easy travelling across so many timezones with youngsters. Indeed, it was an experience I won't forget any time soon, and I have many photos to share in the weeks/months to come. Our first stop on the trip was Los Angeles, and we stayed in a rental house near Venice Beach. I tasked hubby with the job of doing up the itinerary of our two days in LA, and he did a fab job of it! We spent our first morning in LA at the beach, then we headed over to Big Daddy Shack for lunch. This was our first time eating Hawaiian poke, a raw fish salad heavily influenced by the Japanese cuisine. Big Daddy Shack is a small eatery mainly catering for take-away orders, though there were a handful of seats and some tables for the option to dine in. The girl serving at the counter was very sweet, friendly and helpful, and I loved her purple micro braids! The staff in general were lovely and amicable, so this place gets the thumbs ups for good service.

The Big Daddy Shack's shopfront:

The order counter and kitchen:

The front page of the take-out menu:

The menu was a pictorial instruction on how to build/design your poke bowl: choose a size (Lil Daddy for US$9 that comes with one topping of your choice, and Big Daddy for US$12 that includes two toppings), pick white or brown rice, decide between ahi tuna or salmon, and finally select one sauce. For those who don't fancy raw fish, there are a few seared and grilled options to choose from, and even a grilled chicken bowl for non-fish eaters. Also available were hand rolls, salads and fruit smoothies. Hubby and I are big fans of the poke bowls. The combination of flavours, textures aromas were excellent, and I liked how nutritious these poke bowls were.

Hubby's Big Daddy poke bowl of ahi tuna with brown rice, mango and macadamia nuts, drizzled with house shoyu sauce. Mango gave some sweetness, the nuts gave a crunchy texture, and they both combine well with the sashimi tuna:

My Lil Daddy-sized poke of salmon with white rice, seaweed and avocado, in sriracha aioli sauce. I loved this combination as it was spicy and had two of my favourite ingredients (seaweed and avocado):

We got our something sweet with the Acai Bowl (US$6) with mango juice base, acai pulp, blueberries, kiwi fruit, granola and honey. Eye-poppingly red and delicious too:

We enjoyed our poke bowls, appreciated the good and helpful service (especially after our baby girl tipped half our acai bowl on the floor), and highly recommend this casual eatery for a delicious and nutritious meal in Venice Beach.

The Big Daddy Shack
79 Windward Ave
Venice, CA 90291
United States
+1-310-804-5734



Almost everything on the Big Daddy Shack's menu contained sesame (except for the fruit smoothies and acai bowl, which aren't exactly lunch material for our sesame-allergic boy), so the chick at the counter suggested we headed next door to The Flyin Jalapeno. Hubby went with the 6-year-old to order the boy's lunch, and they came back to the table with a massive Chicken Burrito (US$10). It was hefty, packed with vegetables, beans, chicken and rice, which the boy happily ate. I cannot comment on the service of The Flyin Jalapeno, but I can certainly say that the burrito was delicious!

The Flyin Jalapeno was next door to Big Daddy Shack:

Chicken burrito (:

:

The Flyin' Jalapeno
83 Windward Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90291
United States
Tel. +1-310-392-8900



[The prices above do not include taxes and tips.]

San Francisco Day 3: Chinatown, Fortune Cookie Factory & Mission-Style Burritos @ El Farolito

This post is a bit of a photo dump, as I am determined to be done with blogging about our August trip to the US before we go to Australia next week over the Christmas holiday (it doesn't help that in addition to trip preparations, I'm always busy at this time of the year). The following photos document our trek through San Francisco's Chinatown (the largest outside of Asia, and the oldest in North America), and hubby's mission to try out the famed Mission-style burritos (aka San Francisco burritos) out in the Mission District itself. Without much further ado, here is a taste of what we saw and did on our third and final full day of our time in San Fran.

Chinatown

Early in the morning, we walked to Chinatown from our hotel via the quickest route, and that route didn't bring us through the Dragon Gate that we'd walked by late in the evening on Day 1.

Our route to Chinatown from our hotel brought us through Stockton Street Tunnel:

Downtown San Francisco is quite hilly, and many streets have very steep inclines:

Yummy-looking Chinese bakery goodies:

We dropped by the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory:

Inside the factory, there's a sign that says "Hello! If you take a picture, please pay 50c". Here you can watch three women deftly fold discs of warm cookie dough around slips of paper containing fortunes written in English and French. This is a process that needs to be done quickly otherwise the cookie will harden before it has the right shape:

Samples available for visitors to try:

We bought a big bag of fortune cookies for US$4.50, and it lasted us many weeks after we returned back to Hong Kong:

An amusing observation - here is Stockton Street in Chinatown (with the distinctive Transamerica Pyramid in the background), which is less frequented by tourists but represents a more authentic Chinese atmosphere with fresh produce and fish markets, Asian grocery stores and restaurants...

... in contrast to Grant Avenue (where the historical Dragon Gate is), with souvenir stores, mini-malls and restaurants that are obviously catered more to tourists than the local Chinese. This street is cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing, and there are even red lanterns strung overhead:

Mission-style Burritos @ El Farolito in Mission District

After wandering through Chinatown, we made our way to the The Mission for lunch. We took the BART to the 24th St Mission station, and hubby led the way to a popular taqueria called El Farolito which was highly rated and reviewed for the giant burritos. This area had a distinct ghetto feel, and I wouldn't want to hang around on my own or after dark. Nevertheless, we could still enjoy lunch and a leisurely walk through the neighbourhood afterwards.

Inside El Farolito right near the back of the narrow dining area, looking out towards the entrance:

Complimentary basket of corn chips:

Cheesy Quesadilla for the boy (only half is shown):

A Super Burrito:

We chose shrimps for our choice of meat:

The Super Burrito comes with rice, beans, fresh tomato, onion, cilantro, salsa, cheese, sour cream and avocado:

The Mission-style burrito was huge, and one was enough to fill us both up. It was satisfying and enjoyable, and we understand why this is a popular style of burritos.

El Farolito
2779 Mission St
San Francisco, CA 94110
United States
Tel. +1 415 824 7877



Apparently the Mission District is also known for its street murals, and we saw several during our short walk around the area:

After our quick lunch, we hopped back on the BART bound for Fremont, which was about an hour's ride away. There we were met by Steph's dad, who drove us to San Jose where we met the some of Steph's family for dinner. We were treated to fantastic hospitality for that few hours, even though I had only met Steph's dad once before earlier this year. That four hours with Steph's family, particularly her dad, did much to sweeten our experience in California. A post on that family dinner is to come shortly...

Delectable lunch @ The Prado at Balboa Park, San Diego

I have never been a huge fan of the food offerings inside tourist attractions such as amusement parks, theme parks and zoos. Sure, it is convenient to eat snacks and meals inside such places, but the food are often overpriced and not that great. If it is possible to exit and re-enter such places, I would always research prior to our visit for a good alternative outside. During our fun day at San Diego Zoo, we left the zoo for an hour or two around lunchtime and headed for The Prado at Balboa Park where we enjoyed a fabulous meal. San Diego Zoo is situated inside the huge Balboa Park, and it is lovely to stroll through on the way to lunch. There were many beautiful heritage buildings, and I wish we weren't constrained by the zoo's closing time so that we could have taken our time admiring the Spanish-style architecture.

The Prado is located inside one of the historical buildings, and the interior was richly and tastefully decorated:

Complimentary crackers and dip which were moreish:

The service we received at The Prado was welcoming (even though we were dressed for the zoo and not a fine restaurant), and our friendly waitress was very helpful in recommending what to order when we had trouble deciding. The lunch menu offered a nice variety, from sandwiches and burgers, to salads, risotto and paella. There was a cute Children's Menu that our boy could colour in, and all items were well-priced at US$7.95 which includes a drink and ice cream.

Spcy Maya Hot Chocolate (US$3.95), with Chuao chocolate, steamed milk and whipped cream. It was yummy and we liked it:

Our boy chose Crispy Chicken Fingers from the Children's Menu (US$7.95), served with warm marinara sauce and taro chips. You can tell that these chicken fingers were handcut, crumbed and fried in the kitchen, and so much better than the processed packaged stuff. Juicy and moist, our son loved it. Even us adults couldn't keep our hands off the chicken fingers and chips:

Hubby ordered the Grilled Fish Tacos (US$14.95), with marinated mahi mahi, red cabbage-jicama slaw, mango-jalapeno salsa, mango mustard and corn tortillas. Thoroughly enjoyable and delicious:

Mine was an item off the daily menu, a Grilled Salmon with Corn Salad, which was highly recommended by our waitress. And it was a good pick. The salmon was grilled to perfection, and I adored the corn salad:

The dessert item that came with the boy's chicken fingers: Vanilla Ice Cream with whipped cream and chocolate sauce:

For dessert, we shared a Triple Chocolate Threat (US$8.50) - chocolate cookie crust, dark chocolate baked custard, dark chocolate ganache, salted caramel ice cream and cocoa nib garnish. Utterly decadent and a chocolate lovers' delight:

I was curious about the Chocolate Martini (US$8.50), made with Smirnoff vanilla vodka, crème de cacao, Kahlua and chocolate. This was a potent drink, perhaps not for the middle of the day, but we liked the chocolate flavour:

We quite enjoyed our lunch at The Prado. The food we ate were presented well and tasted good, which I'm sure were much better than what we could have gotten for lunch inside the zoo!

[Prices quoted above exclude additional taxes and tips.]

The Prado at Balboa
1549 El Prado
San Diego, CA 92101
United States
Tel. +1 619 557 9441