New Capital Seafood Restaurant (Alhambra, CA)

140 W Valley Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776

626.288.1899

My last post on my trip to California is also the reason for my trip: Cathy's and Vern's wedding! It was my honour to be one of the bridesmaids on their very special day. I won't post pictures of the couple because their photographer will have way better pictures than mine. I will just include the food pictures!


Greystone Mansion.

The ceremony took place at the very picturesque gardens at Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. After the touching ceremony (I loved that they said their own vows and their choice of song when Cathy walked up the aisle - The Beatles' Let it Be), cocktail hour included champagne and pastries from a Cuban bakery. I was able to score a mango mousse and a guava strudel. Yum!


Pastries at cocktail hour.

After cocktails, we headed to the reception in style in a limousine hummer! That's right! It was pretty amazing to see the driver make turns. At a point, he even considered U-turning but I was quite relieved when he changed his mind. It was a fun drive. We got to rock to Weezer!


Our stylish ride. It wouldn't be a Los Angeles drive without hitting some traffic!

When we arrived at the restaurant, we rode the elevator to the fourth floor. The restaurant was packed with diners enjoying their Chinese food. They barely looked up when we walked by.


New Capital floor.

Ok, so at this point, I have to admit that I was super excited to have dinner. There is nothing I enjoy better than a Chinese wedding feast! Food just keeps on coming, usually family style; although since we sat at a VIP table (the head table), our plates were served individually. Also, Cathy made me happy by telling me that there would be no shark fin soup. It's a traditional soup at wedding that showcases one's wealth, but if you've ever seen sharks being thrown back into the ocean after having their fins cut off, you'd never want to eat it either! And supposedly, it doesn't even taste any good. No more gruesomeness nor animal rights' rants, let's move on to the food!!!


Cathy cleverly divided the dishes by vegeterian, sea and land.

For starters, there was a barbecue meat platter. While I enjoyed the meat, my favourite was the jelly fish. I just love the crunchy texture and the flavour of sesame oil. We were also served a hot and sour soup. You can never go wrong with hot and sour soup in my book!


Barbecue Meat Platter and Hot & Sour Soup.

Next, we were served French-style beef and Schezuan-style sauteed prawns with broccoli. Both the beef and prawns were great and well seasoned. I especially like the heat of the spices in the prawn dish.


French-style beef and Schezuan-style prawns.

Next up, we were served Peking duck. Now, as a half-Chinese, it's embarrassing to admit that I've never had Peking duck served at a restaurant, with pancakes, scallion and Hoisin sauce. I guess my family always bought our duck to go and ate it with rice. So it was nice to experience Peking duck in a new way. The pancake topped with duck made for a perfect little fatty package! M, one of the groomsmen who sat next to me, declared that this was his favourite dish of the night!

Peking duck.

The sea dishes were served together, the steamed black cod in a small bowl on a plate with the lobster with ginger and scallions. Both tasted great, as expected from a seafood restaurant. The vegetarian dishes consisted of braised haricots verts and fried rice. This was the second time on my trip that I had green beans at a Chinese restaurant. I don't usually order green beans at Chinese restaurants, but I really enjoyed them. The fried rice was good but I was honestly too full to eat anymore... until dessert that is.


The sea and vegetarian dishes.

There was a total of three desserts and two choices for cake. Chinese sweet treats were served, including sesame balls and bean stuffed sweets. Sweet tofu with ginger was also served. Finally, there was passion fruit or lemon cake, custom prepared by one of Cathy's food blogger friend Sarah the Bear!


Dessert time!


The cake was colour coordinated with the yellow-themed wedding!

What a wedding feast! I wouldn't expect less from the Gastronomer. It was an amazing night with amazing food. I was so happy to be able to share my friends' special day. I went home the next day after being very well fed for a week. I'm very thankful to all my family and friends in California!

P.S. I'll link to Cathy's wedding post once it's available.
P.P.S. For another perspective on the wedding's food, Diana Takes a Bite also blogged about it!



For the previous California posts:
* Bánh Mì Chè Cali & Tea Station
* NYC Seafood Restaurant
* Nem Nướng Ninh Hòa
* Quang An Duong Herb Store & Kim Ky Noodle House
* Oomasa Restaurant
* Fish tacos at Señor Fish
* Mario Batali's Pizzeria Mozza
* Crawsfish at The Boiling Crab
* All-you-can-eat Korean BBQ at Road to Seoul
* Rehearsal Dinner at La Grande Orange Café

La Grande Orange Café (Pasadena, CA)

260 S. Raymond Avenue
Pasadena, California
626.356.4444
website

I've been slow writing posts in general, and more specifically finishing my California posts . My goal is to finish writing these posts before I leave for my next wedding vacation next week! Really, there are only two left: the rehearsal and the big day!


Doesn't this entrance look quintessentially Californian with the bright sun and palm trees?

On the night before the wedding, Cathy and Vern invited all their out-of-town guests (which totalled a whopping 75 I think!) to La Grande Orange, which The Gastronomer had previously written a post about, generously hosted by Vern's parents. To start with, I got to munch on deviled eggs while mingling with the couple's family and friends.

Deviled eggs always hit the spot!

Cathy and Vern had reserved the yard which was a perfect spot for dining! I got to sit at the head table, in the company of Cathy's and Vern's old college friends, many of whom were very fit runners!


La Grande Orange yard.

We were first served a chopped caesar salad, garnished with large shards of cheese. Can't go wrong with that!


Chopped caesar salad.

For our entrées, we were provided three choices. Luckily, I was able to snap pictures of my neighbours' dinner. Unfortunately, it had gotten dark, so my pictures are not the greatest. Cathy's college friend T's prime rib was served rare just as she requested. I like girls who eat their meat bloody! The vegetables in the vegetarian taco dish were very colourful and were served with house-made corn tortillas.


Talk about two extremes: prime rib and vegetarian tacos!

I ordered the roasted organic chicken, after Cathy excitedly informed me that it was Jidori chicken, currently all the rage in California. I even read a New York Times article that she had linked while I was still in Canada. Jidori chicken is a type of free-range chicken grown in Japan, so technically this chicken was raised in California in the Jidori fashion. I loved the simple chicken with its crispy skin. Could I detect anything in particular? I think my palette is not quite that distinguishing, but the chicken was delicious!

Jidori chicken served with spinach.

While I was stuffed to the gills, I still managed to eat olive oil cake. It was nice to finish up the meal with a dessert that was not too sweet.

Olive Oil Cake.


Cathy with her college friends, including Lucious on the left who was a fellow bridesmaid!

Finally, after a nice thank you speech, Cathy and Vern presented the wedding party with some presents. I got to go home with a box of very beautifully colourful macarons. Lucky girl I am! What a fun night and the last post will be the wedding!!


My macarons that I saved for home.



For the previous California posts:
* Bánh Mì Chè Cali & Tea Station
* NYC Seafood Restaurant
* Nem Nướng Ninh Hòa
* Quang An Duong Herb Store & Kim Ky Noodle House
* Oomasa Restaurant
* Fish tacos at Señor Fish
* Mario Batali's Pizzeria Mozza
* Crawsfish at The Boiling Crab
* All-you-can-eat Korean BBQ at Road to Seoul
* Wedding Banquet at Capital Seafood Restaurant

Road to Seoul (Los Angeles, CA)

1230 S Western Avenue
Los Angeles, California
323.731.9292

Two nights before the wedding, Cathy, aka the Gastronomer, and her then fiancé, Vern, aka the Astronomer, hosted Frenz Nite for all their friends from out of town! For the occasion, we went for all you can eat Korean BBQ ($16.99).



We were first served banchan, including the Korean staple kimchi, pickled Napa cabbage. Going through the wikipedia descriptions, I think there was also dubu-jorim (tofu), as well as different dipping sauces and coarse salt. There was also Korean potato salad (not pictured) which I thought very amusing!


Banchan (including kimchi at the bottom).

They also brought complementary gyeran-jjim (steamed egg) and pajeon (scallion pancake). There's nothing like freshly fried jeon dipped in soy sauce!


Gyeran-jjim (steamed egg) and pajeon (scallion pancake)

For the BBQ part of the meal (gogi gui), Cathy ordered galbi (short ribs), bulgogi (beef), pork belly, squid and the long tubes you see on the grill below were intestines. They tasted like they looked, quite chewy and we preferred them more on the well done side, and in fact verging on charred!


BBQ meats in their uncooked and grilling state.

My favourite was taking a thin rice (I'm guessing) sheet, filling it with pork belly, lettuce and kimchi and dipping it in sauce. What can I say? I'm Vietnamese and I always prefer rolling my food!


My perfect little meat package!

I had great fun grilling my own meat even though I came out of the restaurant smelling like a piece of meat! I was quite full and was worried whether I would still fit into my bridesmaid dress...!



For my other California posts:
* Bánh Mì Chè Cali & Tea Station
* NYC Seafood Restaurant
* Nem Nướng Ninh Hòa
* Quang An Duong Herb Store & Kim Ky Noodle House
* Oomasa Restaurant
* Fish tacos at Señor Fish
* Mario Batali's Pizzeria Mozza
* Crawsfish at The Boiling Crab
* Rehearsal Dinner at La Grande Orange Café
* Wedding Banquet at Capital Seafood Restaurant

The Boiling Crab (Alhambra, CA)

742 W Valley Boulevard
Alhambra, California
626.576.9368
website

At the end of the street where I was staying with my uncle was the Boiling Crab. Supposedly, the Boiling Crab is a chain specializing in Cajun food, owned by Vietnamese people. The idea of trying crawfish was so exciting to me! I had crawfish in Louisiana, but it was in an étouffée or fried. I had never had it just boiled in massive quantities and this idea really appealed to me. But have you ever been so excited about trying something and the experience disappointed you? Unfortunately, this did.


I forgot to take a picture of the exterior even though I saw it every day!

As you can see from the picture above, this place was packed. In fact, on every evening, there were lines waiting outside the restaurant. If anything, this heightened my excitement. I called in for my order: 2 lbs of crawfish with medium spicy rajun cajun seasoning and an order of fried catfish ($8.99). I was warned that the medium spice level was quite spicy. Being confident in my heat tolerance, I decided to stick with medium. Big mistake!


Crawfish with the complementary piece of corn for every 2 lb order.

When I went to pick up my order, I saw tables covered with plastic and big piles of crawfish shells. I came home and was so excited to start chowing down crawfish. My aunt showed me how to eat a crawfish. First, you need to break off the head and then you pull out the tail. Unfortunately, after all this effort, I was rather disappointed to see the small amount of meat I would get. In addition to this, the seasoning was so spicy that it was really hard to enjoy. I couldn't even tough the corn. Finally, it was such a messy endeavour that I just lost all of my excitement.


Fried catfish and cajun fries.

The catfish wasn't as disappointing. However, by the time I got to the fried fish and fries, it wasn't quite hot and crispy enough to fully enjoy. I think this is a better dish to order when you're at the restaurant. My disappointment had nothing to do with the restaurant. I just don't think eating boiled crawfish is for me.



For my other California posts:
* Bánh Mì Chè Cali & Tea Station
* NYC Seafood Restaurant
* Nem Nướng Ninh Hòa
* Quang An Duong Herb Store & Kim Ky Noodle House
* Oomasa Restaurant
* Fish tacos at Señor Fish
* Mario Batali's Pizzeria Mozza
* All-you-can-eat Korean BBQ at Road to Seoul
* Rehearsal Dinner at La Grande Orange Café
* Wedding Banquet at Capital Seafood Restaurant