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Getting our hot pot on at Koi Palace

Hopped into Koi Palace at Thunder Valley Casino for dinner. On Saturdays they only do dim sum from 11-3, so we actually had to order off of the real menu.

We began with a pot of Jody's favorite pu-erh tea. All the aging and fermenting makes this stuff very smoky and dense. Jody always gets a surprised yet appreciative reaction when she orders this.

 
  

First up: potstickers. These are NOT your garden variety Panda Express potstickers.

 

Next we got some fried rice. Normally we get the traditional Chinese salt fish and chicken fried rice, but they had a new addition: smoked salmon and chicken fried rice. It was amazingly good.

 

Finally, we got their Special Lamb Hot Pot. This is stewed lamb in a hot pot with tofu skins, napa cabbage, and water chestnuts. All of it is in a hot bean paste broth. Not the most completely appetizing looking dish, but hot pots never are. Believe me though, it was absolutely delicious!

 
   

Desperate times call for desperate measures

Written and photographed by Designer Girlfriend

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Or rather, desperate financial times call for desperate financial measures. Thus, the theme for this article was born. I was recently accompanying Yod and Actual to an Asian supermarket. It's always entertaining to grocery shop with them, whether it be in a mini-mart, a mainstream grocery store, an ethnic market, or a discount food chain. On this particular shopping trip, I had an agenda. I wanted to gather up a nice sampling of ramen packages. You know, a girl has to watch her pennies in these uncertain times. And the last time I was watching pennies this closely was college. And isn't ramen the staple in every college apartment? So I was planning a college throw-back theme, minus the Coors Light and the horrors of midterms.

I gathered a nice sampling of ramen packages, different flavors, types of noodles, different ethnicities. I had about a dozen different types. And then I realized I had the opportunity to do some taste testing. I recruited my unwitting Cousin and Yod and Actual. The plan was set!

Here are the ramen packages, complete with their prices. You want to know if you just fell in love with a high-dollar ramen! (I was planning to sample 8 ramens, which we later edited to four.)

Next was a flurry of ripping open packages, tearing open various spice/seasoning packets (some powdered, some liquid), and boiling A LOT of water.

This particular package had a lot of flavor accessories.

So here were our four delectable choices:

Disregard those packages on the right, we didn't taste those. Everyone wrote comments for the four ramens.

Comments on Bowl A:  Mushy, not enough flavor, not enough tooth. Flavor is chicken-ish, but mostly salt and a hint of onion.  Ok if you are getting over the flu.

(Bowl A was the Nissin Oriental Noodle $0.69)

Comments on Bowl B: Smells of pine or mint.  Smells like lemongrass. Chunky things in the broth are odd. Would eat this again. LIked these noodles the best. Do not like the mouth feel of the noodles, they are mealy.

(Bowl B was the Indo Mie Chicken Curry Flavor $0.49)

Comments on Bowl C: This bowl looked the most appealing. It did not taste interesting. Smells faintly like soap and tree bark. Smells like Aveeno lotion. I think this wants to be duck flavor. Not much flavor.

(Bowl C was the Pho Bo Rice Noodle Beef Flavor $1.29)

Comments on Bowl D: The broth was a good color (it didn't photograph well in a blue bowl) and the noodles looked tasty. It smells like sour cream and onion potato chips. By far the best regular noodles. Sort of bland. Good amount of salt, not too much. Would eat again.

(Bowl D was Kung Fu Artificial Onion Flavor $0.59)

And ramen tasting was just Part I of our bargain night!  With our bellies full of broth and noodles, we went to the local Grocery Outlet to search for a meal for 4 for $20.  On this particular day, the fresh produce was unacceptable, so we needed to rely entirely on packaged foods.  This delighted Yod.  He tried to shoo us away from the fresh produce.  Then we saw the condition and the price of the produce, and we went back to food in bags, boxes and cans. Silly us, we thought it was Yod's inherent mistrust of fresh fruits and vegetables that made him shudder when we neared the produce gondola.  He was just trying to save us...

We wandered around the store for a long time, trying to compose a somewhat cohesive meal.  It was nearing closing time, and some tough decisions had to be made quickly. So we got a lot of interesting things that were not cohesive at all.

We have here a "Catering Collection" of appetizers, a tube of polenta, twisty pasta with cream sauce, a green chile marinated pork loin (for about $3.25!), caribbean blend veggies and a blackberry cobbler. And we came in on budget! 

The Catering Collection was impressive for its quantity of food. The stuff was also very tasty. We all had a different favorite item. Left to right we have spinach and cheese quiches, crab cakes, cheese souffles, and mushroom turnovers.

The twisty pasta dish did look a little curious when it came out of the bag...

The pork loin looked and smelled great

And it all came together to make this handsome plate. Thank goodness Actual saved the day while we were at the store, she found Caribbean Blend.  Vegetables made it onto the menu!  It was a good mix of broccoli, green beans, red bell peppers and carrots.  I would buy it again.  The veggies gave our plates some color.

It all looked and smelled good, and the appetizers had been great. We were ready to enjoy our $20 meal. Alcohol had a budget of its own.  Supplied from the cellars of Yod and Actual. I love that bubbly red stuff. I even held onto it in the photo, lest someone try to take it from me.

Satisfied customers

This is Yod's plate.  Note the presence of vegetables!

By consensus, the polenta was good, the veggies were good, the twisty pasta was bland and forgettable and the pork loin was interesting. It wasn't bad, just green chile marinade was an intersting choice for pork loin. But that's what you get at the discount market: very familiar foods with a little twist that didn't go over so well at the mainstream grocery stores.

After ramen tasting, a trip to the store, appetizers, dinner, and generous amounts of spirits, it was time for dessert.

The photo doesn't do the flavor justice. It was great.  Fresh berry flavor, a good amount of sauce and a tasty crust to boot.  I don't think Yod had any dessert, but us girls dove in.  I have had good luck with the Mrs. Smith's brand. I would buy this again.

We had leftovers from the $20 meal!  We could have fed another adult, maybe two.  But that might have been because the evening started with ramen tasting...

Go see what you can make for $20.  I dare you!

Celebrating National Cupcake Day at Icing on the Cupcake!

December 15th is National Cupcake Day! Chomple decided to celebrate it at Icing on the Cupcake, a local cupcakery in Rocklin, CA.

This is the box with all the goodness inside.

 

You actually have to cut the striped seal to get inside. I appreciated this design gesture, as it kept the cupcake vultures away long enough for me to snap some pictures.

 

Clockwise from the upper left: Double Chocolate, Chocolate Macaroon, Pistachio, PB&J, Banana, Chocolate Mint

 

This is the Chocolate Mint cupcake after Saucy hungrily mauled it.

 

The Pistachio cupcake after Actual took a small nibble. I think I see the face of Jesus in there, or maybe Archibald Asparagus from Veggie Tales.

 

And last but not least, the most interesting one of all: the PB&J. Yummers.

 
      

This place is great for cupcakes! Although I would suggest going for the non chocolate varieties if you prefer a moister cupcake (and I think chocolate cupcakes are, so, like, 1985). 

Check out their website (linked in the map below) for their varieties and flavor schedule!

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In-N-Out: Sorry, it's over between us.

So today I decided that I was going to blog the In-N-Out drive thru experience for those of you that don't live on the West Coast.

Apparently In-N-Out had different plans.

While we were waiting at the food window (the second window) I snapped a couple pictures of the window. Suddenly some girl opens the window glaring at me.

Girl: CAN I HELP YOU?!?!?!?

[We weren't sure if this was a rhetorical question. Obviously we were waiting for our food.]

Girl: I WOULD APPRECIATE IT IF YOU DIDN'T TAKE MY PICTURE. IN FACT YOU CANT TAKE PICTURES INSIDE HERE!

Jody: [laughing, thinking she's just being funny, as In-N-Out employees are renowned for being universally friendly] Glad we're outside then!

Girl: [still glaring] NO, YOU CANNOT TAKE PICTURES OF THE INSIDE OF THE RESTAURANT. IT'S A LEGAL THING.

So let me get this straight.

Even though In-N-Out Burger is by far one of the most blogged/photographed restaurant chains in the world, their official policy is that you cannot take a picture of the inside of an In-N-Out, even if you are outside?

And you have to be rude about it?

Thankfully, In-N-Out is not a place I love so much that I would put up with this kind of abuse.

So, farewell, rude purveyor of hamburgers. It was fun while it lasted.

Oh, and my 4x4 Animal Style was perfect, as usual.

La Flor de Michoacan: America's official El Salvadoran embassy.

The short version of this review is that you should go there right now, as fast as CHP will legally allow you to travel. I would even suggest going faster than that, but our lawyers tell me that I could be held responsible if you get caught and end up claiming that this blog spun you into some sort of psycho pupusa fervor and that's what made you drive like a maniac.

I am a pupusa addict, and everyone in town has been telling us to hit La Flor de Michoacan for as long as I can remember. So we finally headed there with Designer Girlfriend.

When we got to the strip mall it was in, we couldn't find it. Turns out the sign you can actually see just says MEXICAN RESTAURANT. The sign that says La Flor Pupusas is the small oval thing on top.

 

Luckily there's a nice green neon sign that clued me in.

 

We walked in and ran into the owner lady (for the life of me I can't remember what her name is). She is the best restaurant owner EVER. She works the cash register while managing the kitchen. Super friendly, and she was extremely patient as I gave her my extremely long and disjointed order. She gave me suggestions as to what else to get and even steered me away from one combination of ingredients I asked for that wouldn't turn out very delicious. Every customer seemed to be on a first name basis with her, which is a great sign. My kind of place.

Things to note here: 

• This place is cash only. 
• Ignore most of the menu board. The stuff you want is on the rightmost panel that says "El Salvadoran Specialties" and the paper signs taped all around the order counter.
• The prices are VERY reasonable. The most expensive pupusa on the menu is $2.50. The total cost for everything you will see in this review is $31.
• Everything is cooked to order. You will wait at least 10 minutes for your pupusas. Be happy about this.
• Clean off your table before you leave. Bring the dishes back to the window, throw away your garbage, and use napkins to clean up your crumbs and spills. If you don't, the pupusa lady has to leave the cash register and kitchen to clean up your mess. Don't be a jerk.   

So, the food. Oh my goodness, the food.

 
 

First up, a plate of fried ripe plantains. These things were perfectly ripe and cooked until they had a great crust outside and tender slightly sweet flesh inside. Most plantain dishes just taste like plain baked potato. Not at La Flor de Michoacan. Comes with beans and crema.

 
 

om nom nom

 
 

Next up, Salvadoran tamales. Steamed in plantain leaves instead of corn husks. These were filled with pork. Salvadoran tamales also contain fun things like chick peas and potatoes. A lot more fun than Mexican tamales. 

 

Almost to the pupusas. This is our bowl of curtido, which is a pickled cabbage relish served with pupusas. Salty, spicy and a great palate cleaner in between dishes.

 

First pupusa was a rice flour pupusa with a bean and cheese filling. This was absolutely spectacular, and would hold the record of "best pupusa I ever ate" for about 45 seconds.

 

 

We got four corn pupusas: chicken/cheese, pork/cheese, bean/cheese, and jalapeno/cheese.     

 

This is the jalapeno and cheese pupusa. Check out that gooey goodness inside. Just the right amount of jalapenos in there.

 
  

And the pork and cheese!

 

These were the best pupusas I've ever had by far and one of the best things I've ever eaten. On top of that, the price is more than right and it's also the friendliest restaurant I've been to in a while. Just a few days ago I was complaining that I hadn't eaten anywhere blog worthy in a few weeks. Well, that certainly changed. 

Run, don't walk to this place. Take a plane if you have to.

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Pizza Antica: My new favorite p-p-p-pizza place!

A review in song, to the tune of Lady Gaga's Poker Face

 
 

I want a pizza like they do in Italy
Knead it, toss it, bake it at some crazy high degree (I'll eat it)
Fennel sausage, portobello, and onions make this pie 
Some of you like Pizza Hut and I think you should die
 

 
 

Yum, yum yum yum, yum, yum yum yum yum yum
Bake it up, show me what you got
Yum, yum yum yum, yum, yum yum yum yum yum
Bake it up, show me what you got

 
 

You can be
You can be
You can be my pizza place
(Even if you're really fancy)
You can be
You can be
You can be my pizza place
(Even if you're really fancy)

P-p-p-pizza place, p-p-pizza place
(mmm mmm mmm mah)
P-p-p-pizza place, p-p-pizza place
(mmm mmm mmm mah)

 
 

Potato on a pizza is something from Japan
Pizza has enough starch, this I understand (I wondered)
But the truffle oil and onions pack a punch
It's so f*cking good I wouldn't share with the Brady Bunch

 
 

Yum, yum yum yum, yum, yum yum yum yum yum
Bake it up, show me what you got
Yum, yum yum yum, yum, yum yum yum yum yum
Bake it up, show me what you got

You can be
You can be
You can be my pizza place
(Even if you're really fancy)
You can be
You can be
You can be my pizza place
(Even if you're really fancy)

P-p-p-pizza place, p-p-pizza place
(mmm mmm mmm mah)
P-p-p-pizza place, p-p-pizza place
(mmm mmm mmm mah)

Our third pizza had three cheeses
Shaved broccoli? Yup believe it!
Pancetta and some onions
Made this pie great beyond comprehension
The other pizzas were good too
A great meal place for me and you
If I find out you had Dominos
You're banned from this blog, I promise you...

 
 

You can be
You can be
You can be my pizza place
(Even if you're really fancy)
You can be
You can be
You can be my pizza place
(Even if you're really fancy)

P-p-p-pizza place, p-p-pizza place
(mmm mmm mmm mah)
P-p-p-pizza place, p-p-pizza place
(mmm mmm mmm mah)

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Tandoori Night: HOLY F***ING S**** THIS IS THE BEST PAKISTANI RESTAURANT IN THE UNITED STATES

I'll just say this up front... the food was f***ing amazing. Out of this world. Mind blowing. 

I've eaten at maybe 100 Pakistani restaurants all over the world. None of them are better than this one. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's talk about the first time I ate at a Pakistani restaurant.

I was working for AIG in Bangkok many years ago, and my aunt showed up at my desk one day before lunch and said "Yod, we go lunch now. You must come with us!"

So my aunt and I gathered up the rest of her friends in the office, skipped the executive dining room and headed down to street level, into the smog and chaos of Bangkok.

When we arrived, my aunt and her three friends told me what they wanted to eat. I shrugged and walked through the cinder blocked building and to the rickety card table that served as the main counter. I started to order in Thai. The Pakistani guy behind the counter had no idea what I was saying. He tried to respond. His Thai was worse than mine.

"Uhh... um... English?" I asked.

He flashed me a grin.

"Cheerio mate, and hello to you, my valued customer!"

WTF?

Now, I've always had a hard time describing this guy's accent every time I tell this story. But I figure if you kidnapped a child from Pakistan, then trained the child to speak English using a combination of East Enders reruns and language lessons from the members of Oasis, the result might sound like this guy.

The meal I had there was phenomenal. Most of the 99 other Pakistani restaurants I've eaten at since then were great too.

But not this great. Not by a long shot. Not by a country mile.

This is their very unassuming storefront next to a sushi buffet.

 

Note their hours. A lot of restaurants close in the afternoon, but none of them explain it honestly like these guys!

 

Now several Yelp reviews of this place mention that everything is cooked from scratch. That the spices are blended in-house. That the owner owns part of a chain of halal meat shops and that's where he sources his ingredients. That this is an offshoot of some phenomenal chain of Pakistani restaurants in the Bay Area.

I believe it. You don't get food to taste this good doing stuff the lazy way.

We started with the sheekh kabob. This is your standard ground beef kabob cooked in a tandoori oven. Except not really. Way more flavor than all the versions I've ever had and topped with fresh herbs and onions.

 

Next came our order of naan. Each piece was about the size of an extra large frisbee, hot, warm, crispy and delicious. There's two pieces in this order but you can't see the second one under the one on top. This was the best $1.00 I've spent in quite a while.

 

This is order of nihari. It's a traditional Pakistani beef stew that is one of their national dishes. The beef is perfectly braised and the flavor of the entire dish is entirely indescribable other than to say it's incredible. Right now would be a good time to mention that these guys are not shy with the spice level--they make it for you just like they would make it for themselves.

 

I thought the nihari was mind blowing... that is, until I had the next dish: their boneless lamb stew. Once again, I'm at a total loss of words for how to describe this to you, other than to say it was amazing and that you should go get some right now.     

 

Witness the impact of two of the most delicious things I've ever put into my mouth: Tandoori Night's naan and their boneless lamb curry (unfortunately this was Jody's bite that I tried and failed to steal).

 
  

Sorry for the complete lack of description in this post, but the food here is seriously, indescribably good. I definitely have to make this statement here:

WHAT IS THIS PLACE DOING IN A ROSEVILLE STRIP MALL???

If you're a fan of tandoori cooked meats or curries, you need to go to Tandoori Night. RIGHT NOW. Don't wait. Just make sure they're open.

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Pasta Village: Roseville's "Steve Approved" Lunch Deal

Meet Steve. He's my REALTOR and he rocks like no REALTOR has ever rocked, ever. I met him through his wife Heather, who you may know as the intrepid @RosevilleRockLn on Twitter. They're super cool folks and probably two of the most hilarious people I know. 

And unlike most of the REALTORs I've dealt with in the past, Steve actually uses email and text.  If you need a house in the Roseville and Rocklin area, definitely give him a call. Just wait for me to get my house first! Check him out at www.RosevilleAndRocklin.com

 

Steve is a hungry guy and reads Chomple to try to find new places to eat. But he has a problem. All of the good meal deals I ever find are the kinds of food he doesn't really like. I find a great cheap sushi buffet (two of them even)... and Steve doesn't like seafood. I find a cool noodle place, but Steve likes clean bathrooms and servers that speak English. 

One day, we were touring a foreclosed house with an especially fragrant and biologically dangerous swimming pool filled with a dark green soup of chemicals and algae. As we started getting dizzy from the fumes, Steve had a question for me.

Steve: Yod, do you ever find any good lunch deals that I would like?

Yod: What's wrong with the ones I've already found?

Steve: I don't like seafood. And I don't care for restaurants where I feel I need Heather to spray me with Lysol after we eat there.

Yod. Hmm... you know, you're right. All of the good deals I find are either seafood or marginally hazardous to your health.

Steve: Well, I'm going to find you a good "Big White Guy" meal deal you can send everyone in town to. Trust me, I know all the good spots.

As my balance started to fail me, I retreated to the interior of the house, which thankfully smelled more like carpet cleaner than tear gas. I wondered what kind of restaurant Steve would find. Where do REALTORs eat anyway? The way I saw it, REALTORs never ate or slept, and perpetually just wandered the world in their large four door sedans. 

A couple months later, the Chomple crew was headed to a Chinese dive down the street from Steve. We arranged to meet up with him there. Thankfully (for Steve) the Chinese dive was closed on Mondays. (this dive will never see a single review here... ever. We ate there the next day and it was horrible).

We called Steve and told him the place was closed. He said no worries, he had the perfect place:

PASTA VILLAGE

So we headed there.

Upon entering, we were confronted by a sign that advertised their lunch box deal. $7.99 was a great price... but what did you get for eight dollars? According to the sign:

-"Small Salad" assembled by them from your choices a la Plutos/Jack's Urban Eats
-Pick a pasta, sauce, and two vegetables
-Pick an appetizer
-Cookie
-Bread
-Drink

All that for eight dollars? We were expecting microscopic portions. 

We were so wrong.

Here is my "small" salad. That plate is a dinner plate, it's not a small bowl. My salad was romaine, black olives, and peas with a spicy peanut dressing. Everything was fresh and flavorful. 

 
 

Actual's "small" salad of spring mix with tomatoes and cucumbers topped with Caesar salad. She loved this salad, and she's really picky about Caesar dressing.

 
 

Saucy's salad of romaine with tomatoes and tortilla strips in a lime and herb dressing. She licked the plate clean (she loves sauce of all types, ya know).

 
 

Here's my main plate. Rigatoni with garlic butter sauce, mushrooms, and black olives. By garlic they meant GARLIC. Deep fried mushrooms with ranch. Slice of bread and a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie. SO GOOD... and it made me full.

 

Actual's bowtie pesto with mushroom and broccoli, side of cheese sticks. She thought this was awesome, I would have thought so as well if I liked pesto, but I don't.

 
 

Saucy opted for penne alfredo with tomatoes and italian sausage. Probably the best of the three.

 
 

Here's Steve with his "small" salad. He's so happy! I guess we've finally found the elusive STEVE APPROVED Roseville meal deal!

 

So, for all of you guys that wanted a great lunch deal free of seafood and unsanitary conditions, here you go, courtesy of super REALTOR Steve Ostrom. He finds great houses and great meals. Maybe I'll have him pick my next pet too.

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Sakuran Sushi: I should just get waterboarded for charity next time.

As many of you remember from my fundraising adventure that ended up with me going raw vegan for a week, there was a whole list of other things I had to do at certain dollar amounts. One of these tasks was to go to my favorite sushi restaurant on Earth and have a meal consisting of California roll. I could not accept anything they decided to comp me because they felt sorry for me. Of course, Girlfriend Actual and Saucy Girlfriend were free to order and eat whatever they wanted. And that they did.

Nothing against California rolls or the people that eat them, but I find them kind of boring. With all of the scrumptious options at a sushi bar, why would you ever want to get a California roll. It's like going to Peter Luger's for a hamburger. Sure, the burger might be crazy good, but wouldn't you rather have the dry aged prime porterhouse every single time?

In any case, you guys paid to see me do this. I sat down at the sushi bar. Our favorite sushi chef started taking our orders. He got to me and I said "California roll." He stared for a second and turned his head sideways. I repeated "California roll!" He shook his head and said "ok... ok ok California roll." On his way back to the sushi making area of the bar he gave a big shrug to the restaurant owner who was in attendance. 

You can tell as he's making it for me that he's wondering what the hell happened to me. Check out the look on his face.

 

And here's his standard California roll. I have to admit, it was really good. And I mean really really good. Their sushi rice is perfect as always. Perfect salt level on the crab salad. Perfect ripeness on the avocado. And rolled to a perfect tightness that held everything in while not compressing any of the ingredients. You know what they say about hiring an architect to build a doghouse: it's a waste of talent, but that's going to be one damn fine doghouse.

 

We didn't explain my forced circumstances to him, so I can't blame him for causing 40 or so of the most painful food minutes of my life. But after he was done with our California roll, the chefs specials started coming across the bar. And of course, I couldn't eat any of them. Charities are a cruel mistress when you sacrifice your palate to help needy kids.

So while I was dining on perhaps the best California roll in California...

Seared diver scallops with raw marinated tiger shrimp. The scallops weren't even really seared, more kissed with the blowtorch. The raw tiger shrimp were crisp and sweet (so I was told) and marinated in some sort of ponzu based mixture. I've feed spectacular amaebi (raw sweet shrimp) to Actual before and she said the flesh of these shrimp was even sweeter. That's actually pretty scary considering that tiger shrimp aren't necessarily the sweetest fleshed shrimp.

 
 

No, seriously, it was that good.

 
    

I was ready to riot at this point. Yes, we get food like this every time we come here. But this time, I couldn't eat it. SUSHI FAIL (for me).

Next up was their take on the much loved pepperfin dish. Some version of pepperfin is on most sushi menus and is usually the only sashimi dish that the California roll crowd will usually try. A traditional pepperfin is some sort of whitefish in sesame oil and lemon juice with some jalapenos (hence the pepper) thrown on top of each slice. Sakuran's version (for today, at least) consisted of yellowtail (I don't know where the hell they get their yellowtail, but it's way better than anything you've ever had guaranteed) in a sauce that was simply out of this world. We could taste ponzu and extra virgin olive oil, but past that we were mystified. Amaaaaaziiinnggg...

 
 

At this point I felt he had to be messing with me a little. Take a California roll, take out the avocado and replace it with tuna. Then put three different kinds of fish over the top and then add tobikko. Yes, it tasted phenomenal. Yes, the girls had to tell me how it tasted because I couldn't have any today. 

 

And then we had the Sakuran Moment(tm).

During almost every meal we have at Sakuran, there's a moment near the end of the meal where something completely unexpected gets handed to us. One time it was a egg salad (the eggs being sea urchin, quail, flying fish, and salmon). Another time we got spanish mackerel sashimi served on deep fried spanish mackerel. Then there was the time they created the much loved and much ordered Japanese Nachos which consisted of tuna tartare on tempura fried shiso leaves (these are now, thankfully, on the menu).

If you're an Apple fan (like me, and UNLIKE Miss Apple HATER Girlfriend Actual Macdeath) this moment is akin to watching a Steve Jobs keynote and seeing that slide that says "One more thing..." pop up behind him. Well, except the last time, which was kind of lame.

This is the plate that was handed to us. We couldn't figure out what it was at first. Saucy refused to eat any before someone else tried it. Girlfriend Actual tried to figure out what it was and said it had to be some sort of sea monster. 

 

But once we had some... oh my God. Saucy, who was completely full, ate three pieces anyway because she couldn't stop.

We jokingly named this dish "Yod's Boss's Favorite Dish" although he has yet to ever have it (obviously). My boss loves two things and two things only at Japanese restaurants: teriyaki and shrimp tempura. If I had come in one day and told the Sakuran crew that my boss was coming in and to create something that would blow his mind, this would probably be the result.

For this dish, they take their perfect tiger shrimp and wrap some tasty vegetables around it. Then they wrap some Korean bulgogi (marinated thin cut steak... see my reviews of Oz Korean BBQ) around that. Then they cover the entire thing in panko crumbs and tempura fry it. For these guys to blow our minds (well most of ours, not mine, since I was eating California roll to benefit the Active 20-30 Club of Greater Sacramento #1032) with a cooked dish is even scarier. I didn't think this place could get any better, but they have. Cooked foods are their bitch now too (raw foods, been bitched for a while now).

Here's what the end result looks like. What kind of mad genius comes up with this kind of thing anyway?

 
 

Not going to link the map and address and phone number, by now you people should know how to get there.

Every night that Mikuni's stays packed while this place is only moderately full...well... it makes me hate this town just that little bit more. And you guys wonder why Chris Webber called Sacramento a cowtown.

Sabores Mexican Cuisine: What is this place doing in Roseville???

For some reason, the Roseville and Rocklin area seems to attract way more spectacular restaurants than would befit a medium sized suburb of what is not necessarily one of the better cities to dine in. If you like sushi, Roseville and Rocklin have a place as good as any in any major city. Want Cantonese food? You actually have more than one world-class option. For Mexican food, the area already has Rudy's. Time to welcome the next "What is this place doing in Roseville?" restaurant: Sabores Mexican Cuisine. For you Sactown people, this place is owned by the people that own Tres Hermanas.

 

The decor is pretty cool. When I sat down I took off my glasses and the wall hanging in the back looked like it had Dora the Explorer printed on it. Stuff looks really strange when you're nearsighted.

 

The usual salsa and chips. Salsa was pretty good, chips were nice and warm. Nothing out of the ordinary, but a solid start to the meal.

 

Saucy Girlfriend's salad. Yes, the veggies really were that colorful. The salad came with a creamy cilantro dressing. Saucy is addicted to cilantro. She guarded the plate like it was jail food until she had consumed all of the dressing using our tortillas.

 
    

Actual and I opted for the soup option, which today was an albondigas soup. The flavors (and not the spicy level, I mean the actual flavors) were cranked up to 11 here. Absolutely spectacular.

 

To the entrees! First up, Actual's still sizzling beef fajitas. The meat was tender and perfectly marinated. Best fajitas we've had in a long time.

 

Fully assembled fajita. Oh, their guacamole is amazing too. But you probably guessed that already.

 
 

Saucy went for the carnitas enchilada with verde sauce. They also offer a mole sauce which is out of this world (I asked for some on the side). Note the jealously guarded plate of creamy cilantro dressing over there on the right :)

 
   

This is my carnitas and chile relleno platter. The carnitas were the best I've had in at least two years. Cooked perfectly and with absolutely megaton nuclear porky flavor. Fork tender and juicy as an orange. Better than the stuff I had on the street in Mexico.

 
 

Even their salt and pepper grinder/shaker is cool.

 

As you might have guessed by now, we're giving this place our RUN DON'T WALK, RUN THERE! rating. Good lord, this place is good. We'll be back, want to come along?

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