Capital Grille in Beverly Hills

This year my dearest brother turned 30 years old.  For this momentous occasion, the fams decide to go all out and treat the birthday boy to an amazing meal.  We stumbled upon Capital Grille on accident really.  The Fam Bams and I were yelping various steakhouses.  Initially, my brother wanted to go to BLT Steak in Hollywood, but they are closed on Sundays.  After browsing through numerous reviews, we decided on Capital Grille.  Capital Grille is located within the Beverly Center and was easy to find.  When we walked in, we were greeted by the hostess and noticed small lockers with plaques on the walls, each locker filled with personal wine stashes.

The entire experience was wonderful.  I made reservations and informed the hostess that we were celebrating my brother's 30th birthday.  Our table decorated with bits of confetti and the restaurant had a card ready for my brother, wishing him a Happy Birthday and thanking him for spending his special day with them.  Our main waiters' name was Emmy and the other waiter/bus boy name was Bentley... (I am not kidding!) they both were AMAZING.  The service was top notch, our waiter was extremely attentive, our glasses were never empty, didn't wait a long time for our food to be served, and the food... OMG.... Hands down... ONE OF THE BEST Steaks I have ever had and THE best Coconut Cream Pie.  My mouth is literally salivating as I reminisce about my experience here.  I kind of feel like the Capital Grille is a little gem at the Beverly Center.  I have never noticed it before while shopping at the Bev Center, but now that I know it is there I know I will be making frequent stops for the Coconut Cream Pie.  Everything about Capital Grille was great and everything we ate was flavorful and amazing.  I highly recommend giving Capital Grille a try! They can give Mastros a run for their money!!! :)

Enjoy the photos and let the droolfest commence!

confetti to help celebrate my brother's 30th birthday 

The birthday boy!! Happy Birthday to the BEST BROTHER IN THE WORLD!

My sister and GG... GG loves bread! 

Amuse bouche of Gazpacho with Lobster  

Pan Fried Calamari with Hot Cherry Peppers

Wagyu Beef Carpaccio 

Lobster Bisque 

Double Cut Lamb Rib Chops

Filet Oscar: Filet Mignon topped with Lump Crabmeat 

Side Orders of: Lobster Mac-n-Cheese, Asparagus, Summer Squash, Seasonal Mushrooms

Dry Aged Porterhouse Steak- so tender, juicy and so so good!

Porcini Rubbed Delmonico with 12-year Aged Balsamic with Lobster: my brother order this with the lobster.. amazing!

I also ordered the Procini Rubbed Delmonico with 12-year Aged Balsamic: WOW... SUPER SUPER YUMMMMMMY!  One of the best steaks I've ever had!

Coconut Cream Pie for the Birthday Boy!

Coconut Cream Pie and Cheesecake on the house for the Birthday Boy! Coconut Cream Pie was out of this world! Super light and the graham cracker crust... super moist and out of control delicious! 

My brother and GG! We're number 1!!!

My sisters and I with GG

My sisters and GG

My Momma and GG :)

Puerto Vallarta

As the taxi approached our hotel, Sunset Plaza, the man at the gate checked off our names and quietly instructed the driver to slowly approach the front of the hotel so we can be greeted by an employee of the hotel.  As we opened the door we were greeted by cold towels for our faces by a friendly employee of the hotel.  As we check into the hotel, glasses of Champagne began to flow... I thought to myself, "wow, is this how it feels to be a VIP and pampered?" The bell boy brought us up to our room and informed us that our personal butler will be up in the morning to introduce himself.  Was this a dream? No, it was Puerto Vallarta.

This is what I wrote to myself while on we were still on vacation in Puerto Vallarta.  I actually giggled while re-typing it onto the blog post... because even though the trip started off very luxurious with the flowing glasses of Champagne and personal butlers...  the majority of the trip was anything but luxurious.  Don't get me wrong, the hotel was beautiful and the staff did a great job of making sure we were taken care of.  But we weren't there for all the luxurious things... we wanted to soak in the culture and explore Puerto Vallarta outside of the confines of the tourist traps.  The entire experience was amazing and eye opening.  We explored the touristy areas of Puerto Vallarta like the Marina and the downtown areas, but we were also able to venture into the county sides where we did see very skinny animals and children walking around without any shoes.  I must say though that the consistent thing I did observe was that the people in Puerto Vallarta are extremely hard working and their hospitality is top notch.  Below are some highlights of the trip and of course... food photos because the food was amazing...

our view from our balcony 

a little something we found on our bed

view from the hallway.. if you look closely.. on the right hand side you can see the birthday girls shadow

the beer of choice for the weekend

beach side

the hotel gave us wristbands, we felt like super heros!  

the most amazing salsas from El Arrayan! A MUST stop in PV. A smoky chipotle, spicy red and mild green salsas.  

Beef Barbacoa from El Arrayan

Duck Carnitas... my favorite of the whole trip!!! Duck had crispy skin, moist meat and an amazing mole sauce! 

one of the national landmarks in PV, the caves.  Our guide informed us that you would be able to kayak to the cave! 

View from the Botanical Garden

flat tire while ATVing

yay! going through the water! 

the rest of the ATV crew 

Agave plants! 

very smooth and delicious tequila!  

ceviche from Ochos Tostados: not what we expected but not too bad

Seafood Stew from Ochos Tostados: exactly what you expect seafood stew to taste like.. sooo yummy!

Salmon 

Sangria from Buenos Aires Argentinean Restauarnt

Caprese Salad

Flank Steak  

Prime Rib

Steak Salad

Continental Breakfast before a long day of Ziplining 

The photo that caused 3 people pain.. literally 3 people, including myself, wiped out on this very slipper rock! You can't see it, but their is pain in our eyes. :D BUT on the upside... this day was filled with amazing Ziplining considered to be one of THE best moments in my life.

Much needed drink and food after Zipling and getting abused by a rock

nursing my wounds... notice the empty drink... 

complementary Guacamole from Pipi's 

everything is big here at Pipi's, including the margaritas! 

queso con chorizo 

complementary quesadilla filled with sauteed vegetables and gooey cheese

I wasn't kidding about the portions.. this is ONE order..  

he ordered the Macho Combo... but when it arrived.. he didn't feel that macho anymore

shrimp fajitas 

chicken tostada salad

finally started clearing up on the day we were leaving!

Laksa

I have been inspired to make various foods I love to eat out.  One of them is Laksa, a popular Singaporean noodle dish.  I was introduced to Laksa by my love when we went to his favorite place to get Laksa, Litz Restaurant in Monterey Park.  Since I will be making the big move in a few months, I decided to look up various recipes on Laksa and try to make it at home.  That way when the craving kicks in, I can whip up a batch! I googled Laksa, and discovered it is a very long process to make the stock from scratch.  So I did the Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade thing and went to a local Asian Supermarket to buy Laksa sauce packets.   From there, it was not difficult to make! Added water to a pot, boil the water, add the Laksa sauce packet, coconut milk and various proteins such as chicken and shrimp then simmer.  After about 20 minutes, I poured the creamy broth over a bed of vermicelli noodles and topped with fresh mint (courtesy of mama's garden)  What I ended up with was a curry like broth that was a bit spicy and very flavorful.  I will definitely be making this again, especially since it was a lot easier than I thought!

The final product: Homemade Laksa :)

Earthen Restaurant

In my quest to consume as much Asian food as possible before making the big move, my friends and I got together at Earthen Restaurant in Hacienda Heights.  It was a cute little restaurant that cranked out some seriously good food and this place definitely satisfied my Asian food craving for the day.  Also, it was very nice to get together with my fraternal family from college and reminisce of the times of when we were young and wild.  Enjoy the photos!!! Shout out to my dear friend, photog mentor and lil bro, Warren Li for being the photographer while I enjoyed my food! :) Check out his blog! He has amazing photos!

House Chicken: crispy soy sauce goodness... hiding is a bed of sliced cucumbers which made the dish amazing!

Keeping my eyes on the prize

Beef Noodle Soup: a little spicy and filled with flavor.. super yummy!

Green Onion Pancake: one of my favorite discoveries! I started dating my Taiwanese Love almost 4.5 years ago, and one day while having dinner with his family, they ordered this and I fell in love. Earthen's was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  Just the way I like it! Amazing! 

Everyone enjoyin' the yummy goodness

Mushroom and BokChoy: of course we needed to order a veggie dish.. it wouldn't be a complete chinese meal if there wasn't a plate of vegetables on our table.  These shiitake mushrooms soaked in a gooey sauce was wonderful!