Birthday party (dol) in Koreatown

Oh, Cafe Sanjang looks terrific too. And they speak English! Awesome.

aielee in Los Angeles Area

Birthday party (dol) in Koreatown

These are some great suggestions! I've never been to any of them, but I just sent a friend to Yellow House to scope the scene. The garden looks lovely.

I feel you on the chinese korean banquet food, I wish we could do a dim sum dol too!

Thank you!

aielee in Los Angeles Area

Birthday party (dol) in Koreatown

That's a little far, but it sounds terrific. I'll look it up! Thanks.

aielee in Los Angeles Area

Birthday party (dol) in Koreatown

Thanks, these are all great options. I was hoping to find someplace a little unexpected and unique. I actually wanted to throw it in the patio at Ogamdo, but they are now closed. The Prince would be fun if it was more child appropriate. But anywhere with character would be terrific.

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Ogamdo Cafe
842 S La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036

aielee in Los Angeles Area

Birthday party (dol) in Koreatown

Hello Chowhounders!

I am a chinese mom, tasked with throwing my daughter a traditional korean first birthday party called a dol. We live in the Bay Area but are from LA, and most of our family is there, so we'll be traveling in for a weekend to throw the party. I need help with a venue for the event.

Does anyone know of any interesting koreatown locations that have a patio or some other space we could do the party in? Someplace modern or beautiful would be amazing. I thought Beer Belly would be fun, but it's not big enough for us to throw a party there. I'd like to make this event a little funky and fun -- I'm trying not to go the typical banquet room, fancy dol.

We are on a budget
We like to eat
The party will be a Sunday afternoon in late April
Food doesn't have to be korean per se, but it should make sense for a korean/chinese/american event (ie, oaxacan would really bake my mother in law's gourd)

Our k-town haunts were Han Bat, Soot, Beverly Soon Tofu, Shik do Rak, etc. -- none of which are kid & party friendly.

Thanks so much for your help, I'm at my wits end.

aielee in Los Angeles Area

Ogamdo Closed!? Looking for Ambience in K-town...

Hello Chowhounders.

I'm a Chinese-American mom, throwing a first-birthday party for my half-korean daughter. I've assented to the korean tradition of a first birthday dol, but I'd like to do it in a unique way that recognizes and caters to everyone (or even no one).

I was planning to do it in the patio at Ogamdo, which doesn't have the best food, but it's Chinese Korean food and the decor and ambience is amazing and unique, and far from a traditional korean banquet room. But, sadly, Ogamdo has closed.

Does anyone have any recommendations for unique venues that would be fun for a 1st birthday party? In or around K-town or central LA would be great, but there is some flexibility.

Thanks in advance!

aielee in Los Angeles Area

Chowhounders, we need you! (esp. East Bay)

Sorry bbulkow, I just saw this.

Still working on nailing down the go-tos. We also haven't tried even a small percentage of the food on this list yet. The ones we've tried (in some cases, several times) and will go back to:

Vic's
Burma Superstar (we were hesitant because of the hype, but it lived up)
Ahn's Burgers
Fenton's (!)
Spices (hit or miss, but they have my favorite chinese vegetable, ong choy, with fermented bean paste)
Legendary Palace
Yume Restaurant
900 Grayson (for brunch)

In the City:
Roli Roti
Suppenküche
Limon
PPQ Dungeness Island
Shanghai House (salt and pepper pork knuckle!)

As you can see, there aren't a lot of asian foods on this list...yet. Haven't found Korean that satisfied. Still trying to find good pho that's open past 7. But we'll keep eating til we figure it out!

-----
Legendary Palace
708 Franklin St, Oakland, CA 94607

900 Grayson
900 Grayson St, Berkeley, CA 94710

Shanghai House
3641 Balboa St, San Francisco, CA 94121

Limon Restaurant
524 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Roli Roti
, Hayward, CA

Burma Superstar
4721 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA

aielee in San Francisco Bay Area

Chowhounders, we need you! (esp. East Bay)

Shanghai rice cakes. Preserved mustard greens. Banh Mi. Noodles. Spicy Jia Jiang Myun. Dduk Bo Ssam. Carne, chorizo, barbacoa... You're seriously speaking our language.

Any recs for Vietnamese broken rice plates, Vietnamese Pho (as opposed to Korean, which I hear is prevalent there as well), Korean bone marrow soup (Shul Lung Tang), or Mexican pozole?

And where is the place for XLB these days? Somewhere in the city? Clement Street?

aielee in San Francisco Bay Area

Chowhounders, we need you! (esp. East Bay)

Wow! Thanks everybody, I'm so excited to start checking these places out. And particularly amazed to find out that there's good dim sum in Alameda, and a Ranch 99 in Richmond.

Keep the recs rolling, the way the man and I eat, we can knock this list of in a couple of weeks! The non-asian suggestions are great too. Whatever's on your regular repertoire.

aielee in San Francisco Bay Area

Chowhounders, we need you! (esp. East Bay)

Hello SF Bay Area!

My husband and I are moving to Oakland (where I grew up), after 10+ years of living in LA. My husband is Korean and I'm Chinese. We dine most nights in LA's sprawling Koreatown, and spend weekends eating Chinese food is the San Gabriel Valley. We desperately and quickly need to find our regular go-to Oakland/Emeryville/Berkeley, mom-and-pop, "ethnic" food joints.

Any asian recs would be greatly appreciated, as would Mexican, Mediterranean, Jamaican, etc. I've been promising my husband good food, please help me prove to him that we can eat as well in the Bay Area is we do in LA.

And if you have recs that we should try that would take us out of the East Bay, those are more than welcome as well.

Thanks so much for the jumpstart.

aielee in San Francisco Bay Area

Does anyone do a Mongolian hotpot or Shabu at home?

Wow, thanks everybody, this is a lot of great information. I think I may do the butane + pot combo. My friend has a toddler, so the cord on an electric pot might be cumbersome. I'll let you know how it goes!

aielee in Home Cooking

Does anyone do a Mongolian hotpot or Shabu at home?

I'd like to buy a hot pot for a friend of mine for her birthday (for entirely selfish reasons). I've been looking online, and can't really tell what the best method would be. It looks like an electric hotpot would be easiest. But there are all sorts of electric hotpots, as well as electric woks and saucepans. And I can't find reviews on any of them.

Does anyone do hotpot at home? What do you use? Do you have a specific style of pan you like?

Thanks,

Aria

ps- Here's what I'm looking at right now: http://www.amazon.com/Shabu-Hot-Electric-Mongolian-509-001/dp/B000WUUTZO

aielee in Home Cooking

Juice Delivery (as in juice fast)

I'm looking for the same thing. Either a delivery place in LA, or even a place I can pick up all my juices for a cleanse. Did you ever have any luck finding one?

aielee in Los Angeles Area

Burlington to Pittsfield Adventure

Hello New England Chowhounders,

I'm an LA Chowhounder heading east for a wedding in Pittsfield, our first trip to New England. Our weekend will pretty much be consumed with the wedding, but I'll leave Vermont unfulfilled if I don't get a chance to sample some of the local culinary delights.

We'll need breakfast/brunch somewhere between Burlington and Pittsfield (I'm hoping for warm, fresh, baked goodness). Also we'll probably be able to fit some meals in in the Pittsfield vicinity throughout the weekend. An early dinner in Burlington before we fly out would be great too.

And please don't let our current location fool you. We are not scouting for sushi and salad.

Thanks chowhounders!

aielee in General New England Archive

Down & Dirty Foodies go Hipster?

There are definitely different kinds of foodies. There are those who keep on top of every new restaurant that opens in LA -- who know the chef and the specialty wine choice at each. Then there are those of us that prefer finding hole-in-the-wall mom & pop restaurants that serve a rich, marrow-filled soup in some dark nook of k-town. We're in the latter group, and taking a friend in the former group out for a birthday dinner tomorrow night (so weeks-in-advance places like Mozza are out).

Any suggestions on where to go? Fancy is ok, but not just for the sake of fanciness -- I'd like the food to reflect the price. We're all mid-city, so central LA would be best.

Thanks for the tips Chowhounders!

aielee in Los Angeles Area

Eagle Rock adj. Dim Sum?

My Chinese family is congregating for Dim Sum on Saturday. The catch is that my cousin will be at an event in Eagle Rock (around Colorado and Figueroa) and only has a short lunch break. Does anybody have any recommendations for good dim sum that may be within a 15 minute (driving) radius for him? The rest of us are coming from West LA and Ventura.

Chinatown seems to be the closest, but we've had bad experiences with the Empress lately.

Any recommendations that won't garner the evil eye from my dowager of a grandmother would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

aielee in Los Angeles Area

A bacon-wrapped hot dog emergency!

Thanks everybody for the great info. We didn't want the Pink's dogs, we wanted them straight off a cart -- so we set off on a Mission.

We traveled down Pico from Fairfax, and then down Olympic toward Hoover, then trolled around the Hoover/Washington area, then headed slowly (with our eyes and noses peeled) up to Hollywood...and didn't find a single dog.

What is LAPD doing to the hot dog sellers!? Aren't there crackheads to bust? What's wrong with allowing a little street food?

So our friend went home with an empty belly. And the night-time Guadalajara dog search continues.

aielee in Los Angeles Area

A bacon-wrapped hot dog emergency!

Chowhounders, help!

We have a friend in town from NY who has heard about and lusted after the idea of our famed "Guadalajara Dogs" -- those dirty and delicous late-night bacon-wrapped hot dogs served out of carts around LA.

The problem is, they seem to be disappearing and we no longer know where to find them. Does anyone know of a regular Guadalajara dog spot that we could hit tonight? We're in picfair, so Pico, Hollywood or K-town would be ideal.

Thanks in advance!

Aria

aielee in Los Angeles Area

good chinese delivery 3rd + la brea??

I'm Chinese and would never have ordered from a place called Wok on Fire if my boyfriend hadn't made me try it. It's the best "Chimerican" food we've had in the area. I love the Mapo Tofu, and they make a pretty good Kung Pao.

Wok on Fire
1447 S La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90035
(310) 289-5168

aielee in Los Angeles Area

Cheap(ish) Ramen Dinner in Torrance Tonight!

Awesome! Thanks sel, I'm on my way!

aielee in Los Angeles Area

Cheap(ish) Ramen Dinner in Torrance Tonight!

Going to be in Torrance tonight, and I would love a delicious bowl of ramen. I'm currently going through the Chowhound posts, and the favorite seems to be Santouka, which I don't think I'll be able to make it to before closing (as heavenly as it sounds) before they close. Does anyone have any good reccomendations?

Thanks Chowhounders!

aielee in Los Angeles Area

Birthday Dinner in Ventura County?

I'm taking my family out for my mom's birthday dinner tomorrow night (Sunday). The family lives in Camarillo. Does anyone have any great chowhound recommends for a mid-priced restaurant in Camarillo or the surrounding area (Thousand Oaks, Oxnard, Ventura)? Any type of food is fair game.

Thanks Chowhounders!

aielee in Los Angeles Area

Pork Pozole, like Tere's makes it... [moved from Los Angeles board]

Does anyone have a good Pork Pozole recipe? I love Tere's (on Melrose @ Cahuenga) pozole so much, but it's hard to come by.

I'd love to be able to do it in a slow cooker, but I'll take any chowhound tested recipe -- crockpot or not.

Internet recipe searches have called for such ingredients as canned chili and bottled enchilada sauce. My brain's hurting going through them all.

Thanks!

aielee in Home Cooking