Hurry Curry

HURRY CURRY

37 S. Fair Oaks Ave
Pasadena, CA 91105
(626) 792-8474

www.hurrycurryoftokyo.com

Soo, I'm going to try to keep this blogging consistent from now on. Read: I will avoid doing my homework at all costs. Anyway, back in December during Winter Break, I went with my boyfriend (my partner in crime for all things, including food-tasting) to this little shack. Well, not so much a shack but a mid-level dining 'place.' I don't remember the cost, now that it's nearly five months later so I'm going to say (as according to Yelp): $$ depending on how much you get. An entree and drink will probably set you back about $10 including tip. Not too pricey but not cheap enough, but one must take into consideration the location, location, location. This particular one is in Old Town Pasadena and caters to the mass amounts of rich kids who live in surrounding areas. On with the review!

The BF and I went between lunch and dinner. We're always hungry so there's never a set meal time for us. Just FYI, we were expected to show up at a Jewish Latkah party about one hour after finishing up at Hurry Curry. He had been here before and rated the food "okay, pretty good." Let me note, then, that my boyfriend has pretty picky tastebuds. He will scarf down a burger from Mickey D's but critisize a steak from Ruth's Chris. I guess you can say he sets standards according to his expectations that come from the reputation of the restraunt. Hurry Curry isn't one of those gourmet places and it's definitely no drive-through. When I left, I also felt like it was "okay, pretty good."

On the flipside of the menu was a picture of 'authentic' Japanese school girls in their sailor uniforms (fuku???) enjoying each others' company. Despite my appreciation for the picture, I couldn't help but feel that this was a bit tacky and exploitative of the "Tokyo culture." This place was obviously one of those white-washed-asian-places catering to, dare I say it, white folk. This created a chain of thoughts that consisted of phrases like: small portion, lack of flavor, plain rice. This will be explained as I review the actual contents of my order.

I ordered the Tokyo Curry. It was highlighted on the menu! How could I resist? Highlighted always means house special, and I always love me one of those. On the menu, it is described as this: A mixture of ground beef and vegetables are combined to make this unique curry, garnished with hard boiled egg. This sounded alright; pretty average stuff. If you've ever had Japanese Curry, it tastes a helluva lot different from Indian and Thai Curry (which share more flavor in common, imo). At Hurry Curry, I was able to choose from a range of spiciness. Considering that this was not authentically Asian, I chose the "hot" option assuming it would be okay for my accustomed tongue. As our 'appetizer' that came with the curry, we had the usual Japanese style salad with the 'special' sauce that you can find at any Japanese restraunt. I thought it was very good actually. I'm a sucker for salads and tasty dressings. The curry was served in a bowl soon after and rice was given separately on a modern square plate. I was delighted with the smell and quite surprised by the appearance of my curry. I expected it to be a lighter brown, but I guess the extra spiciness created a darker hue. It didn't LOOK appetizing, but it sure smelled good. I followed my boyfriend's lead and pushed an indentation into the plate of rice with my spoon. Then I started globbing the curry over my rice. At first taste, I noticed how salty it was. I quickly adjusted the amount of curry in each spoonful, realizing the possible reason for such a large portion of rice. I would have preferred less rice and less salty curry actually. The egg that "garnished" the curry was yummy, but this might be due to my bias for eggs in general. The spiciness, as predicted, was not that spicy. So for all those who have had Schezhuan (sp?) cuisine, don't even trip. This place won't have your mouth burning, but it might have you gulping water [if you don't like rice] from the sheer amount of sodium. I don't think there's MSG, but I still felt thirsty afterward. I don't want to say this place sucks, because it really doesn't. I mean, they do offer you a truckload of rice for the meal, so when eaten in the correct proportion, the curry was "pretty good." I'd say this place is one of those hard to review kind of eateries. My friends have had mixed reviews here and it seems to be a hit or miss kinda place. Maybe they switch chefs often. I wouldn't mind coming back here again, but I haven't thought of it once in the past five months since my first visit there. It's one of those affordable places you go to because of its convenient location after a couple hours of foot numbing, wallet emptying shopping.

Boiling Point

BOILING POINT

153 Garvey Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91755

(626) 288-9876

I can't believe it's been four months since my last review. I'm such a bad food blogger, but life has been harsh in thrusting me into the cages of death (school + work + bills, etc). All I want to do at the end of the day is stare at the ceiling. However, I've been to a couple of places lately that just cry out to be reviewed (despite my lack of readers). I suppose this blog is more for myself , my camera, and my memories than anything. Someday, when I'm 30 and doing a job that I don't want to be doing, I can go to this page and remember how much fun I had as a teenager. Which leads me to another point: I'm not a teen anymore! Well, at least, by name I'm not. I turned 20 recently; that's twen-ty, not twen-teen. Sad story. Anyway. . . no sad thoughts!

To get me back on track, I want to start by talking about a recent hitwall that I've discovered. Hitwall is a term I made up for hole-in-the-wall. I love these places. They're dirty, dingy, and delicious. I think the fear of cockroach legs kind of authenticates the eatery. But maybe that's just the Chinese side of me. While most of my peers are facebooking, I'm yelping. I go on Yelp all the time to find places to eat. And Boiling Point was one of them.

Two Fridays ago (I think?), I ditched my classes. Not only did I ditch them, I drove nearly 3 hours north from San Diego. What would normally be a 1.5-2 hour drive became a tedious, stop-and-go trip in rainy day weather, which became further worsened as I hit lunchtime/weekend Los Angeles traffic. BUT, I didn't mind knowing my destination would fill me with the happiness of home and good eating.

I met up with my boyfriend at a parking lot in Alhambra so we would only have to take one car. Good thing we did; all the parking is on the street or around the corner in a supermarket lot. When we arrived, I was expecting the smell to have me flat on my back (from what I've read). But it was far from that. It was a pleasant smell, meaning the stinky tofu would probably not live up to my expectations. But, I had to get the House Special Hot Pot (the stinky tofu hot pot) because that's what this place is known for. I ordered this, plus a plate of Pork Blood Gao (it's like a gelatin). This came with a free drink. All of this for $8.99 + $2.00 = $11 + Chinese tip ($1 and change).

In retrospect, the hot pot wasn't amazing at all. But at that moment, I think I was in heaven. Maybe it was the long drive. Maybe it was from being starved by school food (sandwiches and salad, 7 days a week, no variety). Maybe it was the thought of having traditional Taiwanese street food. Or perhaps, it was just being at a hitwall that made my meal so grand. I left full and satisfied. I didn't pay a lot; I was stuffed; I was warmed up to face the cold weather. And the taste? Well, it's basically meat and vegetable soup with various dipping sauces. So when you talk about hot pot taste, what you're really talking about is the sauce. Just the basic hot sauce and bean pastes, but I was still digging it. Even now, my mouth is watering a little just thinking about it.


It's a cozy little store. It's a good place for a date on an empty Friday afternoon. I'm pretty sure it gets rowdy here at night, consdering it's in the heart of Chinatown #2. No eatery in the area goes undiscovered. I'm glad I "discovered" this place. It's one of those places that personifies home for me. My friends at UCSD always ask me why I prefer home to school. Well? Good friends and good eating. =) They still don't get it, but they don't have to. One of those good friends from home once told me that what's important is: "As long as you're happy with what you're doing, and you're happy with the options or outcome, then I'm happy for you." Well, that's basically what he said. It came out as intoxicated gibberish at the time, but I knew what he meant.


UPDATE: My one and only reader commented that I didn't really make any reviews on the actual food itself. After reading over my blog, I find that this is true. My House Special Hot Pot was the Stinky Tofu Hot Pot. It had tofu, cabbage, pork, and various other hot-pot styled vegetables. I ordered "Zhong La" (that's medium spicy). The soup was flavorful, and I found myself spooning it over my rice time and time again. The soup was spicy and savory; it had a salty garlic taste with a hint of pepper. The "spiciness" was not immediate, as it usually is in Asian style hot pot. It was more of a gentle after-bite that left my lips puffy and tingly from the natural spice stimulation. The rice was good, as usual. I love rice with everything; I just can't have it all the time becaues of my diet. There wasn't anything particular about the rice, but it complimented the hot pot food and flavor nicely. The Pork Blood Gelatin was tasty. This was the real stuff, not some fake "nuo mi fan" stuff. I particularly liked the texture. Biting into it definitely had a hard-jello feel but it was smooth on my tongue. After being in my soup for a long time, a lot of the Gelatin accumulated some soup. By the time I got to my last one, I bit into a spicy and juicy, jello-like Pork Blood. This might sound gross, but I love it. It kind of tastes like liver. Oh! And also, the portions are generous! I stuffed myself silly finishing the plate on my own (the boyfriend doesn't like it), but who am I go to complain? The sheer quality and amound made it definitely more than my money's worth. I didn't particularly like the type of tofu that was in the soup. It was the hole-y, juice-gathering kind. I like soft, smooth tofu. This was the spongy stinky tofu. I usually like the deep fried stinky tofu, but I should have known considering it was going to be in a boiling broth. There was a pretty good amount of meat for what I paid. Nothing special about this; just the average run-of-the-farm kind of pork meat. I must admit that there was some MSG in the soup, but I don't mind it the way others do. Actually, I sometimes enjoy it in my food. It adds flavor! Well, I'm not sure if this review is good enough but that's all I can think of right now. Especially because my teacher is lecturing in front of me and I'm trying to concentrate in class and on food. =)