We went to Dino’s Chicken and Burgers for lunch on Saturday, March 22 to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of my move to Socal (actual date on March 15).  I first heard about Dino’s when I read a review in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune on another restaurant, Mr. Pollo.  The review said that many reporters believed that Mr. Pollo’s chicken was second to Dino’s in the San Gabriel Valley.  We also saw an ad for Dino’s in the Penny Saver advertising their $4.50 half chicken special.  We thought the ad was a coupon but it turned out to be their regular price.

Dino’s isn’t very far from our home, just west down Arrow Highway.  We arrived just after noon and there were several customers there.  They had a large menu on the board behind the counter that listed chicken, many different types of burgers, breakfast food (that they serve all day), sandwiches and Mexican food.  However they had an entire section of the board devoted to the half chicken special alone.

We ordered two specials at the counter.  While waiting we read a review posted near the wall from the Azusa Herald News.  I didn’t know my hometown had a newspaper.  It said that the Azusa location isn’t the only Dino’s.  There’s also one in L.A. near Pico and Berendo.  Dino’s has been chosen as one of the top 75 restaurants in L.A.

We sat in a booth by the window.  A TV showed the March Madness college basketball game between Duke and West Virginia.  The server brought us our orders on two large plates.  Each had two pieces of chicken: a breast and wing piece and a leg and thigh piece on a bed of thin fries and a container of coleslaw on the side.  The chicken was marinated in a spicy citrus (lime?) marinade giving it a reddish color.  It was then cooked over a flame.  The marinade flowed from the chicken onto the fries.  Each order also came with three corn tortillas with which we made little tacos with the chicken and fries.  The chicken was fully cooked and flavored through with the marinade.  The white meat wasn’t dry at all.  I could taste why this chicken is considered the best in SGV.

Our orders came with so much food that we took home most of the fries and the coleslaw and made another meal out of them.  We got to have the delicious marinade twice for the price of once.

We went to dinner at Ajisen Ramen in San Gabriel on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 to celebrate Mom's (my mother-in-law's) bonus.  She received a bonus even though she's retired because she worked during the first quarter of last year.  Mom and Dad (my in-laws) discovered Ajisen Ramen when they were on vacation in Singapore last year.  They were in a mall there, decided to try it because it was close and enjoyed it.  Later, Mom found out there was one in San Gabriel.

The restaurant is located in a modern outdoor mini-mall just past the Hilton on Valley Blvd in San Gabriel.  There is underground parking and many other small Asian restaurants in the mall including a bakery where mom says they make very good pineapple bread.  We sat down and then looked at the menu.  It has two large pages describing all the different types of ramen noodles.  Their most popular dishes are the tender pork ribs ramen and the tender pork ramen.  They also have seafood, pork curry, beef curry, pork cutlets, and many others.  More pages of the menu have many different appetizers such as rice, meat, seafood, but Mom said the ramen is their specialty and one bowl is plenty of food.  On the back of the menu they stated that they have 300 restaurants around the world including the Philippines.  It also had instructions on how to eat ramen stating you must first try the rich broth.  Slurping the noodles is not considered bad manners and you should finish eating the bowl in 10 minutes.  I don't know about eating the whole bowl in 10 minutes.

We placed our orders.  I ordered the beef with tomato ramen, a new ramen that looked good with beef, tomatoes, and green pepper.  I also know that my younger brother likes to eat ramen and chili (mostly store-bought) and this choice seemed the most similar.  My wife ordered the beef curry ramen.  They brought out our orders very quickly in large black bowls.  Utensils consisted of chopsticks and a long-handled wooden spoon with the "bowl" at a right angle to the handle.  Following the instructions I tried the broth first.  I expected it to be diluted like other Asian soups I've had but it was actually very flavorful and filling.  I could taste the tomato, beef, and spices in it and it by itself would be perfectly satisfying as a meal.  The beef was very tender and delicious like pot roast.  The tomatoes and peppers were cooked just right as was the ramen that was neither undercooked and al dente nor overcooked and sticky.  I was afraid eating it would be very messy but I had very little trouble.  My wife enjoyed her beef curry ramen and said it tasted just like curry powder.  Our server actually said she preferred the curry ramens because they had more flavor.  We all finished our bowls, though I took considerably longer than 10 minutes. 

I'm glad Mom and Dad found the place even though they had to go all the way to Singapore to do so.  We'll have to find other reasons to come back so we can try the other types of ramen.  Maybe I'll bring my brother there the next time he visits us.

We celebrated Mom's (my mother-in-law's) birthday at Yang Chow restaurant on Friday, March 14.  My sister-in-law generously treated us since she had just gotten a raise.  The restaurant's sign says "Mandarin and Szechwan Food."  Yang Chow is famous for its "slippery shrimp."  They get their name because the batter of the meal and spices in which they are coated makes them very slippery prior to cooking.  They actually aren’t too slippery after coating but they taste delicious (more on that later).

Yang Chow is located in Chinatown just north of Downtown L.A.  We got there by taking the Gold Line light rail.  Now I've been on all the MTA light rail and subway lines named after a color and including the Orange Line busway.  Yang Chow is a couple of blocks from the Chinatown Gold Line Station right down College and Spring streets.  It is near a shop that sells wheel rims and another that sells herbal remedies.

We arrived just before 6 pm, our reservation time.  It wasn't very crowded, but that would change very quickly.  The walls are decorated with Asian art and, in one corner, Laker and Clipper jersey lights.  The Laker Jersey had Magic Johnson's signature.  We weren't sure whose signature was on the Clipper jersey.  We noticed a poster for last year, the Year of the Boar on the wall and there was no poster for this year, the Year of the Rat.

Everyone in our party arrived and we looked over the menu.  We planned to order only seafood and vegetable in accordance with the Lenten restriction of no meat on Fridays.  We ordered and Dad talked about what was going on with our cousins in the Philippines.  He had just gotten back from the Philippines on Monday.

Our food arrived fairly quickly.  We ordered the Kung Pao Squid, the broccoli with black mushrooms, the pan-fried noodles with shrimp, the Three Tastes with snow peas special, and the slippery shrimp.  The Three Tastes normally comes with scallops, shrimp, and beef but we substituted beef with fish to conform to Lent.  The squid was cut up fancifully mostly into cross-hatched cylindrical shapes.  They cooked it with spicy peppers and peanuts.  It was delicious and not too spicy.  We also enjoyed the broccoli, the Three Tastes, and the pan-fried noodles.  My wife said the latter were more comparable to pasta than other places' crispy thin noodles and that this was a good thing.  But the best dish by far was the slippery shrimp.  Nearly golden in color, with the right combination of sweet and spicy, and cooked to the perfect consistency, they were on another level altogether above the others.  We finished eating them first.  I noticed that one party of two at another table ordered only the slippery shrimp and rice and I understand why.

We finished all our entrees and they gave us fortune cookies with our checks.  With them came the only negative aspects.  They charged us more than they said they would for substituting the fish for the beef in the Three Tastes.  My fortune wasn’t exactly a fortune but more of a backhanded compliment.  It said something like “you struggle for self-improvement and it shows.”  They gave us our check quickly.  By this time every table was filled and many people were waiting near the entrance.  It wasn’t even L.A. dinner time (8 pm) yet.

As we left we looked at the autographed photos on the walls near the entrance.  One wall was devoted to city, county, and other local leaders such as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former mayors Jim Hahn and Richard Riordan, Councilwoman Janice Hahn, Councilmen Bernard Parks, Tom Labonge, Jose Huizar, and Dennis Zine, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, District Attorney Steve Cooly, and L.A.P.D. Chief William Bratton.  Just about every civic leader was there.  On another wall were some signed photos of entertainment and sports celebrities such as the casts of Numb3rs, Heroes, and CSI New York, and Yao Ming.  The slippery shrimp brings in just about everyone both famous and not famous.