11 Simple Financial Tips You Should Have Followed 30 Years Ago

Came across this today and thought what a wonderful tips to end the year. It could serve as a good start for your new year resolution. HAPPY NEW YEAR :)

11 Simple Financial Tips You Should Have Followed 30 Years Ago

Parker House Rolls

My cinnamon roll made with Parker House Rolls recipe

When I found this recipe on Epicurious I was just looking for a good solid bread recipe.This recipe came as highly recommended so I couldn't wait to give it a try. But since I wasn't big on just plain roll so I deviated it a bit and came with different variations instead. For a healthier version, please see my notes at the bottom of this.

Taken from Epicurious

Yield : 20 rolls

ingredients
3 tablespoons warm water (105-110°F)
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4-oz package active dry yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons)
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup whole milk
2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 to 2 cups all-purpose flour

Pho Ngon - San Jose

Spring roll @ Pho Ngon

I think this place was just opened not long ago. I could swear a few times we passed by that strip mall it wasn't there before. Finally we decided to give it a try. It was one Saturday afternoon around 2 something. There was only another table occupied but it seemed that those people were owners or know the owner kinda of thing.

We ordered a bowl of pho raw meat with meatballs, chicken pho and spring roll. Mean while I looked around and the place looked new with contemporary decor. The tables were dark lacquer top. All in all the place looked clean.

Blueberry Buttermilk Bundt Cake

This recipe is taken from Epicurious. We made this to bring to this year's Thanksgiving dinner and we loved how simple it is to make. And the result was yummy.

Ingredients

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon grated orange peel
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups frozen blueberries
• Powdered sugar

Thanksgiving 2013

This year's Thanksgiving we were in mixed emotions. Part of us wanted to be thankful that we're healthy but at the same time the news that we received more than a week ago regarding one of our family member burdened our hearts.

We celebrated our Thanksgiving twice this year (just to show how thankful we are ! :) ) We did it on Thursday with hubby's side of family. We didn't do turkey. I personally don't enjoy turkey that much so I wasn't at all disappointed. We had hot pot instead with different types of veggies, tofu, mushroom, chicken and seafood.

I didn't have pictures from that dinner unfortunately.

And then we had another dinner the past Saturday with our close friends. Again, no turkey. This time we had pork roast. Yay.. I helped the host prepared part of the meal so I was impressed that what seemed like a simple recipe came out tasty. The pork roast was seasoned with dry spices consisted of ground ginger, cinnamon and allspice then roasted on top of cut butternut squash, pepper and onion. That's it.

pork roast on top of onion, butternut squash and bell pepper

Singapore Makan Time

This time in Singapore we had more time to go around looking for good eats. Below are a few that's worth noted. Thanks to FoodieFC and Ieat for their reviews on food in Singapore. I got a lot of inspirations from them. Too bad we only had 3 days in Singapore.

Yummy Wonton Mee (Sarawak Kolo Mee)
Blk 137 Tampines Round Market and Food Centre #01-45
65-9380 4478
5 am - 3 pm daily

Sarawak Kolo Mee $6 version (aka deluxe version)

If you want more toppings (braised ribs, char siu, etc) get the $5 and above 'package'. The one on the picture was $6. The basic one cost $3. This location is not exactly next to the MRT station but it's still within walking distance (about 15 minutes stroll) from Tampines MRT station.

Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice
Golden Mile Food Centre (basement)
505 Beach Rd #B1-35
65- 6298 6270
Mon-Sat 11:30-9:00 (closed Sunday)

Boneless chicken rice at basement of Golden Mile Food Centre

This stall is really the super star chicken rice stall. We were there just around lunch time. The lady manning the stall had a clipboard to write down the order. I don't see that with any food stall in Singapore so far. She kept on running around delivering orders and packing orders. She kinda reminded me of the Energizer bunny - on and on. It took us about 20 minutes to get our order. That showed you how busy they are. And it's worth the wait. The chicken was like they say..boneless and the rice was fragrant.

Chung Cheng Chilli Mee, Prawn Mee and Laksa
Golden Mile Food Centre
505 Beach Rd #01-59
Open daily 8:30-8:30 (closed on Tuesday)

Chilli mee (Chilli noodle) with soup on the side

I don't have this on my list. I found this as we were at the Golden Mile Food Centre and I couldn't decide on what to eat. I searched the whole food centre and found line in front of this stall. It's always a good sign to see line in front of a stall. And the food looked interesting too. So I went and ordered a $4 chilli mee, dry. I got a bowl of noodle with braised pork ribs, hard boiled egg, sliced fish cake and a half laddle drizzle of sauce. This sauce is sweet and spicy and tasted like combination of garlic, onion and shrimp paste. The soup served on the side tasted like light Chinese herbal soup. Interesting combination. Will try it again if I ever go back.

Dessert Stall
Kopi Tiam Food Court
Terminal 3 Changi

Mango sun rice (front) and durian ice kachang (back ground)

I don't remember the name of this stall but it's the only one at that Terminal 3 Food Court. We tried Durian Ice Kachang and Mango Sun Rise. Yup..that's the name. It's a scoop of mango flavored ice cream on top of traditional shaved ice and jelly, etc.

My personal size hot pot...yum.

Okay, last but not least. I don't remember the name of this stall at the Giant Tampines Food Court. It's in the middle (almost facing the drink stall). They sell noodles and the last item on the menu is this personal size hot pot. You could choose to have it with noodle or with steam rice. I saw one guy having it as we walked pass and I thought this is so cool. I want it. :) The hot pot had fish balls, veggies, fish cake and slice of pork. At the counter, you could customize your own dipping sauce. I had soy sauce with fresh chopped garlic.

If you're going there, there is shuttle bus from Tampines MRT. We couldn't find it though so we took a bus #27 (towards Hougang). This bus doesn't go in the bus circle at Tampines MRT so we had to walk out of the station and walked to one of the bus stop on the road side. But on the way back we found the shuttle bus to take us back to Tampines MRT station.

Giant Hypermarket - Tampines
21 Tampines North Drive 2 #03-01
Singapore 528765

Happy Ending with Airbnb

Our cute room with the huge bay window

Our experience with Airbnb did have a happy ending. Our host totally changed it around. They were responsive, friendly and accomodating. Their place was very close to the Tanah Merah MRT station which was perfect for our visit this time. They provided clear instruction on how to get to their place. We had a bit communication problem (which I totally blamed it on T-Mobile) but we managed to get there with no huge problem. And as soon as we settled in, they totally left us alone to give us privacy.

Their apartment was a cute, bright, well decorated apartment. There was a balcony overlooking green belt around the apartment complex. Our room was small but enlarged by a huge bay window with view of trees surrounding the apartment complex. Our host offered to keep our suitcases in the storage but we didn't really have lots of luggage anyway. I like the bay window. There was a day when it was raining outside and I just wanted to sit by the window and looked out to the rain drops. But hey it's not like we had that much time to sit around admiring rain drops. ha..ha..

We had our private bath room - just for us - and it's just outside our bedroom. The bathroom had a standing shower. Both the bed room and the bath room were very clean and well kept. Just what we were looking for. A clean place to rest.

We glad that we gave Airbnb a try. It gives option to a traditional hotel but it's not exactly bed and breakfast. At least not ours.

My Experience with Airbnb (Debugging Airbnb)

First heard about Airbnb about a year ago from my brother who was looking for vacation rental. He needed one because conventional hotel won't work for his family of three kids. Beside renting an apartment with kitchen gives extra value to his family. They could make simple breakfast and eat in instead of hunting for breakfast in the morning.

This year while planning for our trip to Asia I plan on giving it a try. So I browsed around and finally found a place that we would like to book. After sending the booking request I was surprised to find out that I needed to be verified. So even though they allowed me to input my credit card number didn't necessary mean they trusted me yet. I was allowed to compose a message to the host but if I didn't get verified then the message would never be sent and my credit card would never be charged.

I understand the reasoning behind it. Unlike hotel where you get identified when you check in by asking for you passport/ID card. The host would never check your ID (I think so) that's why it's Airbnb who would do the identification. I didn't quite like the idea but comply with it anyway. Even that it's not enough because that was only my offline ID. Airbnb also wanted to verify my online ID either my Facebook, LinkedIn or Google Plus account. Having to choose either one of those I let them linked my Google Plus account. But it didn't work out because I was told that I didn't have enough activities. I didn't like it but sort of agreed.

I then reluctantly linked my Facebook account. Guess what. Again I was told that I didn't have enough activities. The option left was to send them a 30 second video describing myself and what I like to do. Instead of sending the video I sent an inquiry. I suspected there was a glitch in the system and hoped that they looked into it when I inquired.

But the reply was only to ask me to submit the video. I hate it but decided to move on and looked for other alternative. A few days later an email came from Airbnb asking for my opinion on recent communication with them. I decided to go all out and let them know how I felt.

After I sent in my rant. I figured out if I can't use the service, I don't want them to have link to my social media accounts. So I unlinked both my Google Plus and Facebook account. On a second thought, I tried to trick the system. So I linked both accounts again. And this time it worked. It allowed me to send in my reservation and request to the host I wanted.

I really think there is a glitch in the system. I was disappointed that Airbnb didn't look into my inquiry when I sent them one. If you ever encountered same situation, try what I did and hope it works for you too.

LOL Chicken - San Jose

Our platter of chicken - spicy soy garlic, original flavor and LOL flavor

Finally we had a chance to check this place out. It was opened maybe about 2 months ago. We passed by one day and saw the sign up and thought to ourselves, Korean Fried Chicken ?? yay !!

We got there late around 2 pm and we didn't know that they close at 2:30 and reopen at 4:00. Yeah..I don't know why because during the time we were there were lost opportunities of 2 parties. I don't know too many businesses that run on those hours so I thought it was weird.

Anyhow even though we came in last minute, they were nice to us. We only felt bad when we were brought bill and we were the last one in the restaurant. By then I was pretty much done and just asked for boxes to bag our left over.

Watami - Woodland, Singapore

Beef Yakiniku - rich broth

This time in Singapore we were invited to lunch at a Japanese restaurant at Causeway Point Mall in the neighborhood of Woodland. Walking in the restaurant there were not too many tables occupied so I had a suspicion that the restaurant wasn't exactly just a Japanese fast food restaurant.

When we sat down, we were given a huge menu with so many pictures, prices and options. I let the host decided how we are going to order. I assumed she is more familiar with the whole ordering process. We all looked at the menu and finally my friend Rita called up the waitress and asked about the set menu.

Now I understood a bit more. If you choose from the set menu, pick the menu for 2 or for 4. One could pick either one and add on to it. So Rita picked the menu for 4 which came with certain dishes and certain options that we could choose from.

The Padang Restaurant Experience

This is how your table would look like at a Padang restaurant

I asked hubby what is the food that he thinks is a 'must try' for anyone visiting Indonesia. His answer was nasi Padang (Padang style rice).

If you like dishes rich in spices you should try nasi Padang. And even if you don't like spices, you could still try their fried chicken which is different from your typical KFC chicken. If you're in Jakarta, stop by any Padang restaurant which usually says "masakan Minang" (means Minang cuisine).

The closest dish is quail egg with potato, the one to the right is potato with gizzard, middle back is chilli shrimp

Ebisu - San Francisco International Airport

They offer an array of sushi combo, rice bowl and noodle soup. I ordered a bowl of ramen noodle soup. It came in a small plastic bowl with plastic utensil with slices of grilled pork on top side by side with spinach, fish cake etc. It wasn't the best bowl of ramen but it filled the spot. It went well with our cold sandwiches. Err. Sort of.

Ramen

San Francisco International Airport

Terminal G - food court

(650) 588-2549

Every day 8am - 11:30 pm

A Stroll Through Memory Lane : Indonesia's Food and Fruits

I think I got the name right. The top green part was made of rice flour, coconut milk and sugar. The bottom layer was made of sticky rice, coconut milk with a hint of salt. Really tasty combination.

Jackfruit. The fruit that we took for granted while growing up. Especially hubby. Now living in San Jose, we realize how expensive it can be when we tried to buy it at the Asian grocery store there. 

Jambu. The pinkish color juicy fruit is another fruit that is hard or impossible to come by in the US,

Kok cay. Aka steamed vegetable dumpling. We tried to reconstruct this at home and came pretty close. But these original ones were just awesome.

Chef Ma

Pork with hot garlic sauce

Our friend suggested to have lunch at this restaurant. The Szechuan restaurant is inside a building that used to be a grocery market on De Anza Blvd. Half of the building was rented out to different tenants selling food, clothing, insurance, jewelry, etc. Quite an interesting arrangement.

We selected house special tofu, stir fry string bean, Yang Chow fried rice, pork with hot garlic sauce, siao long bao (broth filled dumpling), spicy sausage. The spicy sausage was suggested by the waitress/owner's daughter. She said her mom's sausage was homemade and loved by a lot of their clients. They sell the raw one as well.

Cute cookie

It's always nice to receive gift especially if it's cute or tasty, or both. Recently we had a coworker that came back from a trip to Japan. He brought us gift. A cute package of cookies that sat for a few days because nobody wanted to be the one to ripped off the packaging.

This is how it looked like.

Inside packaging looked similar to outside but just white color

Individually wrapped little cookies

In Search Of Northern Style Pho

Beef noodle soup from Pho Hanoi

Years ago we didn't know there was  such thing as Northern style pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) until we found out about Pho Hanoi in San Jose. The northern style pho uses fresh wider rice noodle and served with no bean sprout.  After we tried beef pho at Pho Hanoi it's really hard to like beef pho at other pho joints. So when we found out that Pho Hanoi closed their door down about a month ago we were broken hearted.

Last weekend I googled northern style pho and found out Pho Y #1. We have been to this establishment years ago. They only serve beef noodle soup so we never step our feet back there. But I was curious about their beef noodle soup. Can we really found a replacement for Pho Hanoi ?

When we got there the place was busy. It took us a few minutes before we got our table. The place was bigger than it looked from outside and bigger from what I remembered it last time. Anyhow. I ordered noodle soup with rare steak and well done flank. I asked the guy whether I could have it with the wide noodle. He took my order down. I was excited about it. Hubby ordered a chicken pho. He was curious whether they serve decent chicken pho.

After quite a wait finally our orders arrrive. My soup broth was on the clearer side and not much of smell of star anise. I took a sip of the broth. It's okay but certainly not close to the Pho Hanoi's broth that was a bit darker with hint of ginger and smell of star anise.The wide noodle tasted soft and not sticky to each other. It was quite decent bowl of beef pho but not exactly what I was looking for.

The chicken pho was okay. The white meat was not completely dry but it wasn't exactly moist either.

The search continues.

Pho Y #1
1660 E Capitol Expy
San Jose, CA 95121
(408) 274-1769

Kashi Hummus Crisps

I got this product by joining BzzAgent. This is my first product review as a member of BzzAgent so I was pretty excited waiting for the bag of chips to arrive.

I love hummus and chips so I thought this would be an interesting combo. I was imagining chips that tasted like hummus. So when I took my first crunch of the chips I was a bit disappointed. The chips was crunchy but the flavor was very subtle. I think it would go better with some sort of sour cream dip.

Finally open : House of Pho - San Jose

Unique spring roll - combination of sweet, savory and crunch. Yum

Not too sure if this location is affiliated to the one on El Camino in Sunnyvale. But this location had the sign up for ages. And at one point me and hubby lost all our hope to ever see this one open. But finally last Friday as we were in Costco Almaden which shares parking lot with them (and all other stores) we saw people outside the premise. Only then I noticed that the restaurant was finally open for business. Yay !!

We went there that weekend. There were people waiting but we were all seated pretty quick. We ordered grilled pork springroll, chicken pho and seafood pho. The service was prompt and efficient. I didn't expect that at a newly established restaurant. I do think they are not new in this business. All the employees were very efficient. No confusion or mistaken or missing order. Thumbs up for that.

Quality wise we were not completely satisfied. The springroll was the highlight of our meal. It was unique in flavor and freshly made. It has the chewiness of the rice wrap and also crunchiness of fried wonton skin (?) wrapped in the roll. We would be back for more of those.

I think it's not fair to say that the quality was mediocre based on chicken pho and seafood pho alone. Those were not very common dishes people order from a pho restaurant. Some restaurants do them better than others. We would go back and try other dishes just to give a better rating of this place. So far we like them because it is close to our house. That's always a plus, right ?

House of Pho
5353 Almaden Expressway, Suite 50
San Jose, CA 95118
(408) 266-6683

Stupid Accident and Stupid Insurance

well, it's not exactly like this..

I am expecting a UPS delivery that requires signature. I missed the first attempt because even though it said on the website "delivery at end of day" - they showed up at 1:30pm ! I don't know whose end of day they refer to. Maybe the driver ?

So the following day  I stayed home until 12:30 and hubby said he'd try to be home to cover the rest of the day so we won't miss the UPS guy again. But then he called me before I left and said his car was hit at his workplace parking lot while backing out. What ??  He said it was pretty bad but the other driver admitted fault and said she wanted settlement without involving insurance.

That afternoon and the day after hubby went and looked for a few quotes before he called the other driver back. When he called the other driver back, the story changed. The other driver suggested to go through the insurance instead and asked for hubby's insurance information.

Long story short. Even though the other driver admitted fault and to give her credit she stuck to her story, her insurance managed to put my hubby at fault. In the end her insurance put 10% fault on her and 90% fault on hubby. And our insurance pretty much agreed to it.

Apparently on most cases of accident involving car backing out, the driver of the backing out car is always at fault. The argument was the driver has to make sure that it is safe for him to back out. That makes sense but he was already partially out of his spot when his car was hit. But neither of the insurance wanted to hear that part.

image source : www.123rf.com

The Counter - San Jose

A few nights ago I was invited to a farewell dinner for a coworker. We decided to take him to The Counter at Santana Row. When I got there it was only a bit after 6 but the place was already busy. By the time everybody showed up it took us about 15 minutes before we got our table.

Everyone got a paper menu to customize their own burger. Wow..that's exciting and a bit intimidating at the same time. Some of us were trying to take a peek at what the others were ordering.. LOL.

My menu looked like this. It was a bit unconventional. But that's the whole purpose, right ?

Target Summer Pops

I am not sure if this event is held every year. We've been there twice but I didn't remember going there last year. Maybe we just missed it. So it was a good thing that we received a postcard this year with the dates otherwise we would have missed it again.

It's a free outdoor concert at the San Jose State University lawn (by the library). Pack a picnic basket, bring a blanket and head out there. Invite a friend or two so we could all enjoy the free music. Watch for the dates with free ice cream !

This was what I saw when I laid down on the picnic blanket. View of the clock tower.

Restaurant Story and Bakery Story

The last few weeks we have been busy around the house. Home improvement warehouse down the road has been our best friend now. Hubby has been doing some minor repairs around the house. And I keep myself busy with my online games. I have been hooked on Restaurant Story and Bakery Story ever since I found out about them last year.

But only this weekend I realized that I could delete my neighbors. ha..ha.. So those neighbors that don't bother to send you gifts and don't bother to tips ..off you go ...hasta la vista..

See that 'Edit' button in blue circle. I don't know how I missed it all this time.

Click on remove to delete the unwanted neighbors..Voila..less neighbors to send gift to. :)

La Boulange Bakery - San Francisco

Tuna melt combo with greens @ La Boulange

This bakery occupied half of the lobby of Merchants Exchange Building. Being on the ground floor with the high ceiling making you feel like you are in a ballroom. But the rustic heavy duty table making it feel very homely at the same time.

Their name resembles Le Boulangerie that was based in Sunnyvale. But they are not related. The menu is pretty similar. We were there during lunch time and I selected the combo open tuna melt sandwich with side of greens. The open sandwich only means that there is only one slice of bread instead of two. I like having that option actually since I would pretty much be seating the whole afternoon. A lighter lunch will hopefully keep me awake during my training in the afternoon.

Your bucks don't go too far here. It's not a place I would go for lunch everyday. It is a nice place to meet a friend and has a leisure chit chat over lunch. Nice atmosphere.

La Boulange Bakery
465 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94104
(415) 402-0576
http://laboulangebakery.com/

Revisited : Pho 24 - San Jose

Cafe style noodle restaurant with free wifi. Clean and modern decor with decent beef noodle soup. Don't try their chicken noodle soup though, not worth it. Do try their grill pork spring roll. It's the bomb.

Also check out our original posting of Pho 24.

Grill pork spring roll with spicy dipping sauce

Pho 24
747 S Winchester Blvd Ste 100
San Jose, CA 95128 
(408) 248-2838

Nando's Flame-grilled Chicken - Burnaby, Canada

http://www.nandos.ca/bc-menu

One of the place that I have been wanting to try in Vancouver was Nando's flame-grilled peri-peri chicken. There was one location just on Kingsway about a block from Metrotown which we passed by a few times.

Finally the chance came when we visited the Metrotown food court. There was a stall there that sells Nando's chicken. The line was long since it was mother's day and everyone was out. It took about ten minutes to get to the front of the line. But it gave me enough time to decide on what to order.

John's Deli - San Francisco

We heard about this place on a tv show. It was frequented by people working in the area because it offers good Korean food and decent price as well. But we never had a chance to try it because it only opens on weekdays. Last week we had a chance to be in the city on a weekday and we thought we really needed to give it a try.

Hubby went earlier to beat the lunch crowd. It’s a tiny place and it’s more for a place to do take-out. We found a nice 'picnic' area under the sun and opened our take out boxes. We got spicy pork bento and barbecue chicken. Each pack came with a tiny container of kimchee, a side of greens and two slices of orange.

The spicy pork looked more appetizing due to the reddish color on it. While the barbecue chicken looked pale compared to the pork. Both were well marinated and taste fine. Nothing stood out.

Each lunch box cost around $9. Quite a good value for SF Financial District. We would probably give it another try if we have a chance.

John's Deli
40 Battery St.
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 434-4634
http://www.snackanddeli.com/

Pho Lee Hoa Phat - Vacaville

This eatery was one of the highlights of our road trip this time. We visited this place on the last day of our trip back to Bay Area. We were excited about coming home and was ready to almost skip lunch to be able to make it home faster. I was then looking around the area we're passing through and discovered this place.

One of the reason we chose it was because it was just by I80. Very convenient. So we swung by and gave it a try. It shared parking lot with an Asian grocery. When we walked in the place was quite spacious. One guy  showed us to a table and gave us a menu. We ordered a chicken pho, a seafood pho and spring roll.

Com Tam Saigon - San Jose

crispy chicken with noodle soup

This location used to be Tii Cafe. One day we went to the restaurant next door and saw that this place has changed name. We took a mental note that we will come back and gave it a try.

Finally we had a chance to go back and checked it out. The place offered some outdoor seatings which was perfect this time of year. It was late in the afternoon when we were there and we saw some tables weren't cleaned yet. The guy sat us and brought us our menu.

I ordered Mi Ga Quay (egg noodle soup with crispy roasted chicken). I actually asked if they could have the soup on the side since I wanted my noodle dry. Hubby ordered rice noodle with roasted chicken. I don't remember the Vietnamese name for it. Bun thit nuong maybe?

Palio D'Asti - San Francisco

Penne pasta primavera

Nice Italian restaurant in the Financial District San Francisco. Not somewhere you want to go for lunch unless you are ready to spend around $20 (no drinks).

I ordered penne pasta primavera. It's basically penne pasta in tomato sauce with slices of asparagus and pepper. Good but not special. This place could be saved for those special occasion with the special someone. I could imagine it as a nice place for a quiet dinner. $$$

Motel 6 - Roseburg, Oregon

Before I got distracted further, let me just post the review of this Motel 6 in Roseburg, Oregon.

Having experienced the drive to Vancouver, we decided that it's best to cover more driving on the first day so we could be less tired on the second day. But we could not leave too early from Vancouver due to morning rush hour. So we decided to split the distance sort of evenly in two days. And we decided to spend a night in Roseburg, Oregon.

Tokyo Express Restaurant - San Francisco

We visited this restaurant at lunch time. We were there as a group of six. Most of the tables were occupied since the place was tiny. As we were standing there thinking, the guy behind the counter approached us and reassured us that he'd find us tables to accommodate us. As they prepare the tables for us, we went and ordered at the register. I got a bowl of seafood udon (Japanese rice noodle soup). I felt like having something light and soupy.

I then went and found our table. Our group of six were separated into two tables. My table mates ordered chicken teriyaki and rice and the other ordered salmon teriyaki rice combo. We all got our bowl of  salad. The salad was iceberg lettuce with miso dressing - very light and refreshing. My order came last, a bowl of hot udon with prawns, imitation crab, spinach and fish cake.  It fills the spot. Given opportunities I would go back and try a few more things on their menu.

Tokyo Express Restaurant
660 Sacramento St
San Francisco, CA 94111   (415) 956-3040
tokyoexpressteriyakihousesf.com

Tlaloc - San Francisco

Found this place one day when me and a few coworkers were looking for lunch in the city. The line out of the store brought us in. I chose chicken quesadilla that day, paid and got my number.

We went up the stairs to find a table, none available. As we turned around back down, we saw a third floor section but it wasn't connected to the second floor we were in. So we went down and just next to the salsa bar was an elevator and another sets of stairs that brought us to the third floor.

Dae Bak Bon Ga - Vancouver, Canada

beef and octopus stew at Dae Bak Bon Ga

This time in Vancouver our friend took us out to a Korean restaurant in the downtown area. When we got there it was close to 9 pm but the place close late at 11 so we were welcomed. I liked the way they used some sort of decorative grass to make the booth felt more private.

We ordered the seafood pancake for appetizer, bullak jeon gol (beef, octopus, vegetables stew) and spicy grill pork From my experience the stew is usually enough to feed at least three adult.

Manhattan Hub - San Francisco

California cheese steak

For the size of the restaurant, they offer quite an extensive menu. Burgers, sandwiches, cheese steaks, salad, etc. Everything looked delish. After browsing through the wall menu, I decided on California style cheese steak with bacon and avocado. Yum..

Place your order and grab the number given to you. Pick a drink and pay at the cashier. Either wait for your order to go or find a seat. It's that simple. And surprisingly they got my order fast too. They must have tons of people working in the kitchen as well.

My California cheese steak was yummy. The bacon wasn't too overpowering. The cheese wasn't too rich and greasy. All in all a satisfying lunch. I wanted to go back to check out their salad and soup option as well.