CALI - Last meal at the Packing House

Our last day in California with our last meal over at the Anaheim Packing House was such a fun experience. Packing House is an old Sunkist citrus packing house that was repurposed into a food court with different vendors, bars, and famers markets. There are incredible skylights and plants everywhere that make the inside beautiful and the architecture inside is fantastic. It's an amazing open space that fills up with people but it's enough of a hidden gem that it's not overly crowded. 

LOCATION: 440 S ANAHEIM BLVD., ANAHEIM PACKING DISTRICT, ANAHEIM, CA. 92805

Food court style means that Christel and I go half on everything and get to try a few more things so we decided to go to The Chippy Fish & Grill for the 2 cod fish & calamari combo with a side of onion rings because Christel was hardcore craving it, Black Sheep GCB for their #1 (goat cheese, caramelized onions, roasted tomatoes, and an arugula pesto), and then we each got a drink over at Mini Monster because we're suckers for cute drink jugs with plastic ears. I got the sunset strawberry lemonade with boba while Christel got the strawberry lemonade without. 

I literally ran to the table with excitement once everything was ready for us. This is honestly such a beautiful setting for lunch and I would love to just move into this place because the available light is what dreams are made of. 

All of our food was great. The grilled cheese was well balanced and creamy but crisp on the outside. The fish and chips were huge and tasted so good. The calamari wasn't chewy and the onion rings stayed with their crust pretty well. I shouldn't have ordered boba with my drink because I was so full we couldn't even finish everything between the two of us. It was delicious and it was fun to sit there and hang out and eat and people watch. There was a cute family of four sitting next to us on this bench that we enjoyed and all the people walking around were happy and just having a good time eating lunch. This is easily one of my favorite spots of the trip and I would recommend it to everyone because there are so many options and its reasonably priced and tasty.  

CALI - Street Taco Time

Dinner time finally arrived and with it came street Tacos!! Christel's little brother Keith told us about some really great street tacos that he wanted to try so we met up with him and a group of his friends. 

LOCATION: W AVE 26 HUMBOLDT ST., LOS ANGELES, CA. 90031

Since these were street tacos they weren't the easiest thing to find and Christel and I ended up coming first down a semi sketchy alley way. We did see a lone man with a taco cart and elotes and almost stopped to buy tacos from him but I voted to drive a little further down the street where a bunch of other cars seemed to be going and check it out before the boys arrived. We ended up all the way down Artesian Pl, parking by the train tracks but thats where we saw the whole line of cooktops and people with tacos so we figured it was a good call. 

I'll start off by saying, these guys are fast. Even if there's a line it moves like the wind so be ready with cash in hand and know what you wanna order before you get there. They don't have a menu written down anywhere so this really is one of those spots that you only go to if you're in the know but its well worth it because these tacos are great.

All the basic meats are there, chicken, pork, beef, and then a wild card of pork stomach which some of the boys tried and liked as well. I think the fan favorite was the pastor (pork) which was lucky for me because that's what I ordered for me and for Christel seeing as I walked up to the counter first. Since we ate so much through the day I decided on two tacos and Christel went for three. Since this is street style we were handed a plate with the tortilla and meat and added our own toppings from the stand set up to the side. We also walked up several times to the end of the stand and got fresh potatoes which were the lifesaver of the night from hidden super spicy kicks in the guac and meat.

It seemed that these tacos were some of the best we'd had as a group. Christel did point out that she couldn't enjoy the flavor as much because of all the chaos of standing and not knowing what everything was and where to go and what to do and I totally understand what she was saying. As an experience this was super fun to me but it can totally be stressful and all of that adrenaline can be a distraction from the food. I would love to go to this kinda thing again because it feels fun and authentic and knowing what to do a second time around would make this more enjoyable but as a first time experience it was still fun. 

CALI - Snack pt.2 at Dirt Dog

You would think after lunch and first snack of milk buns we would calm down a little before meeting Christel's brother for dinner but no, that would've been too sensible. Not only did we go for snack part two at dirt dog but we stopped at Coco along the way to get some bubble tea too. Our stomachs are insane when we're on vacation but I'm happy I found a friend who handles marathon eating better than I do. 

LOCATION: 2528 S FIGUEROA ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90007

Christel has been mentioning dirt dog since we started planning our trip and its right next to USC where her brother currently goes to school so it was a convenient spot for us to check out while waiting for dinner. We were trying to be a little good about food and not fill up too much so we could eat dinner with him and his friends so instead of ordering a hot dog we just decided to share an order of elote fries. 

The line for this place goes out the door but honestly we were inside and ordering in less than 15minutes. They have a system where you can't save a table until you've placed your order at the counter but theres just enough space inside that there always seems to be just enough seats waiting for you once you've ordered. 

I'm not a huge fan of hot dogs but fries and corn are my jam so this is a perfect combination. Elote fries come with corn, lime mayo, chili powder, cotija cheese, cilantro, and bacon. This was a perfect dish for me. I loved every component; the fries weren't too crispy but not soggy either. There was just enough corn to go with the potatoes. The kick of lime and spice were great and the lime mayo on top was a great creaminess as well. I would go back just for these fries honestly but they also have a bunch of other combinations I would love to try. I'm a sucker for variety and toppings on fries are never a bad call to me. 

CALI - Snack time at Bao Dim Sum House

Christel has been talking about milk buns the whole time we've been here in California and we finally found a lull today in our schedule to eat a snack so we headed over to Bao Dim Sum House.

LOCATION: 8256 BEVERLY BLVD., LOS ANGELES, CA. 90048

Christel called them ahead of time and asked for one order of milk buns to go and we headed over from Griffith Observatory giving them plenty of time to make our buns! 

These guys are little so we didn't want to go in to the restaurant and sit down so we just took them out to Christel's car and inhaled them while we planned the rest of our day. Luckily we got a great parking spot with a meter still running and had tons of free time on our hands to kill. 

I've never had bao's like this before but they're kinda great. They're soft and warm on the inside and have an almost gooey airy texture to them. They taste milky/custardy through out and are dense as all hell so it's good they were little but they still have a great chew to them. I'm not sure I would crave this but I hope if I do I'll be able to find them somewhere because this is the first time I've heard of these and I don't want it to by my last. 

CALI - Gangnam Umuyi

My first go at Korean cold noodles today because I showed some interest in trying cold noodles and Christel is like my magical food genie while we're here in California.

LOCATION: 1600, 10031 GARDEN GROVE BLVD., GARDEN GROVE, CA 92844

Neither of us have been here before but we looked up Korean cold noodles on yelp and decide to just go, and we lucked out. Gangnam Umuyi opens at 11:30am and we showed up about 10minutes after that so we were the first customers of the day! 

Let me just say, this place is super cute. The woman who was our waitress was the cutest little Korean lady ever and was so great to us, filling us up on small plates and taking care of us so well while also watching Korean game shows on the big screen next to our table. 

I decided to get Mul Naengmyun which is a cold noodle with sliced beef and vegetables with broth and Christel got the Kalbi + Mul/Kalbi Bibim Naengmyun combo which is kalbi and sliced beef and a spicy version of my cold noodles. Our sweet waitress then advised me to put in chili paste that she gave me and some vinegar on the table into my noodles because it would 100% taste better. She was right and I'm so glad I listened to her. I think I might've added a little too much vinegar because it was a little too tart and sour but all in all it was a great meal. I managed to finish all my meat and noodles and was stuffed in the end but the good kinda stuffed. Cold noodles leave you filled but not gross; its light and cool for your stomach and you feel satisfied but not sleepy and heavy. I almost wasn't able to finish it all and it got a little difficult to eat in the end because it has a lighter touch to it which is not something I'm used to but I'm going to be craving these cold noodles again soon, I can already tell.