My point in bringing this up is that despite the amazing Chinese food, our Japanese restaurants in the area are comparatively lacking. We have our fair share of good places, but most would agree that the standouts are located in the Gardena / Torrance area or near Little Tokyo in downtown L.A., both quite substantial drives from the SGV. The Shin-Sen-Gumi restaurant empire, known for its authentic Japanese cuisine, operates mostly in Gardena. I only recently learned that they had opened a hakata ramen shop in Rosemead, CA (quite a bit closer to home) so I jumped at the chance to try out their ramen.

Hakata ramen features a milky pork bone broth with very rich flavors as well as thin, white noodles. This is a departure from the ramen I’ve had more exposure to, with the typical curly yellow noodles and shio / shoyu / miso soup bases. If I’m not mistaken, this is the first bowl of pork-based ramen I’ve ever eaten (the Nanchatte tonkatsu ramen at Foo Foo Tei was a playful interpretation that did not actually use pork ingredients). I loved the delicious Hakata soup with its undeniably porky taste and was immediately captivated. More please!

Shin-Sen-Gumi only sells this one type of ramen, but every aspect is customizable. In fact, when you place the order, you have to specify the intensity of the soup (mild / normal / strong), the amount of soup oil (light / normal / thick), and the firmness of noodles (soft / normal / hard). A variety of toppings including bamboo, corn, and eggs are also available for additional fees. The photo I took above shows the default toppings that come with the ramen at no additional charge.

As much as I enjoyed the ramen, this bowl of fried rice was the highlight of the meal. It came as part of a lunch set so I wasn’t expecting much from it. I’ve never tasted fried rice quite like this though. I was first charmed by the sweet and light, buttery flavor which was then tempered with a lingering herbal, almost earthly essence. Superb. The rice itself was unique as well, I would guess a wild grain with nice texture. I’m ordering this for sure the next time I return.

We had a couple other appetizers accompanying the ramen. The spam-musubi was another treat. After a bowl of rich, almost creamy broth, the saltiness of the spam and salted rice was intensified, cutting right through and awakening my taste buds from their post-pork slumber. The gyoza were hilariously tiny and filled with the typical pork and green onion. Decent, but nothing compared to the gyoza at Foo Foo Tei.

Shin-Sen-Gumi seems to be perpetually busy so a twenty minute wait on average is to be expected. Guests have to register their parties on a clipboard and then hang around outside since there is no room inside the tiny restaurant. Service is frenetic and they could clearly use one more waitress to help shoulder the workload. That means sometimes you might have to wait a few more minutes than expected to get your food and the check, but it’s not a big deal. For my favorite bowl of ramen thus far, the waiting is worth it!

Shin-Sen-Gumi
8450 E. Valley Blvd, #103
Rosemead, CA 91770
(626) 572-8646
Visit: 9.1.2009

Top row starting from left: Aoyama; Shibuya; Harajuku; Taipei (all city camo series)

Bottom row starting from left: Black/red exclusive to Bape club members; Salmon PONR shark; Navy blue knit wool shark; standard Bape crewneck

Of course, there’s a few dozen other sharks that have been made, but unless I can get any of them super cheap (not going to happen), my shark collection is essentially complete. Unlike some Bape diehards, who seem to be solely collectors and keep all their goods tucked away in the original plastic bags, I actually like to wear my hoodies out and about. I’m still waiting for the first day when I bump into another shark-wearing fan. Probably won’t happen unless I’m in Tokyo.

In case you were wondering what the shark hoody looks like when worn, here’s a photo from last summer when I visited my brother at Harvard. Putting the Harajuku white camo to good use and blending into the marble! It’s impossible to see through the shark face, so zipping the hoody up all the way is purely just for effect. Couple more photos of the Taipei shark hoody.

Ever since Las Vegas firmly established itself as a powerhouse city in the restaurant world, every new casino opening has proudly boasted a line-up of marquee chefs. Julian Serrano is the eponymous tapas restaurant by the chef who created Bellagio’s Picasso, one of the groundbreaking restaurants in Vegas dining. Although I do not have much experience with Spanish food, I was eager to visit Serrano, hyped by accounts that this was the highlight of the whole Aria casino. I found the food adequate but not especially impressive. Unfortunately, the experience was marred by new restaurant opening woes that left us displeased.

Serrano is prominently featured in the Aria casino, located immediately adjacent to the front desk lobby. Decor is flashy and bold with dominant warm hues.

Sitting is split between a main dining area and a circular bar stretching across the interior of the restaurant.

Before I talk about the dishes, I should discuss the opening troubles mentioned previously. I visited Serrano about 2 weeks after the grand opening. Some people think that new restaurants and new casinos should be given leeway during the first month while they smooth out the operation and stamp out any difficulties. I’m all for being understanding, but if they’re going to charge full price, they shouldn’t be judged with lower standards.

I ate lunch at Serrano around 2 PM, with the restaurant maybe 30% occupied. However, twenty minutes passed before we received our first dishes. Tapas are essentially all appetizers so we were getting antsy sitting there waiting. The rest of the dishes took even longer to come out, and a waitress finally came out and apologized, saying that their computer order system had crashed. Not only that, but they were “out of stock” for two of the dishes we ordered (lobster-pineapple skewer and stuffed dates). By this time we were tired of waiting, so we chose not to order anything else and just wanted to finish lunch and get out of there.

I am no stranger to waiting in Vegas restaurants, and I make an effort to focus on the food when talking about restaurants. However, the overall dining experience with what appeared to be a disorganized staff negatively impacted the enjoyment of my meal at Serrano. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at some dishes.

Brava potatoes with spicy tomato and alioli sauce. The potatoes were pleasantly crispy on the surface with a fluffy interior. I didn’t care for the alioli sauce, which was too sour for my liking, but the spicy tomato provided a nice depth for the potatoes.

Spanish chicken croquetas. Appropriately crispy with a creamy chicken filling. Very lackluster presentation though.

Flat calamari with lemon extra virgin olive oil and onions. I loved the clean, fresh taste of the calamari which was complemented by lemon. Simple and delicious, my favorite dish out of the bunch.

Pintxo de chorizo. Well prepared sausage with caramelized surface and a sweet interior. The mashed potatoes were almost tasteless next to the burst of flavor from the chorizo.

Tuna-raspberry skewer. I appreciated the experimental attempt at playing with flavors, but the raspberry taste completely dominated both the tuna and the wasabi. I can’t remember tasting any wasabi flavor whatsoever, which is quite surprising and shows the complete flavor imbalance with this dish.

Marinera paella with shrimp, monkfish, mussels and calamari. Don’t be fooled by the pan, which is ridiculously shallow. Not worth it at all for the $45. The paella was also salted to the extreme and almost inedible. We were sufficiently bothered to flag a waiter, who said it was supposed to be salty. Maybe so, but all 4 members of my party thought it was excessively salty (even me, and I usually love salty food).

The paella was the last dish of the meal and left us chugging down water before we exited the restaurant. Out of the 6 dishes, I thought only the calamari with lemon was genuinely good while the rest ranged from adequate to poor. The restroom was actually my most memorable part of the restaurant. It is lined floor to ceiling with shimmering mosaic tiles and is quite a psychedelic visual spectacle. Spanish lessons play on the speakers in the bathroom, which was humorous and made the room that much more surreal. I am too self-conscious to walk into a restroom and start taking photos while other people are inside, and apparently I’m not the only one because I can’t find photos of this online anywhere. I can’t say I would recommend coming to Serrano just to check out the restroom, but if you’re going to be dining there anyway, don’t miss the highlight.

Julian Serrano (inside Aria Resort & Casino)
3730 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
1(877)230-2742
Visit: 12.27.2009

This photoset will wrap up my coverage of the trip. I want to take a quick moment to thank WET Design, the company that developed the Fountains of Bellagio and the CityCenter water features, for publishing my blog on the press section of their website. I’m assuming they liked my photos of their CityCenter projects, and I’m giddy that my post is listed in the company of articles from The New Yorker and Los Angeles Times. Probably the coolest moment for this blog since I started it!

Let’s start with Bellagio. For this trip I had stayed at Vdara hotel, which was conveniently located right next door to Bellagio. The Fountains of Bellagio is my favorite attraction of the city. I will never tire of watching the stunning water spectacle. Director Steven Spielberg calls it the “greatest single piece of public entertainment on planet Earth”.

The conversatory near the Bellagio lobby is also a tourist favorite. Decorations are changed every three months to reflect the new season.

Entering the Bellagio Buffet. Foodies may turn their nose up at all-you-can-eat buffets, but the buffets at both Bellagio and Wynn are world class. Beware of the lines though. Waiting over two hours for the buffet at peak dining periods is commonplace. That may sound awful if you’ve never been to Vegas, but expect lots of waiting at virtually all good restaurants in town if you don’t make reservations. No reservations for buffets, unfortunately.

Neat decoration lining one wall of Noodles restaurant in Bellagio. This is a tasty, casual eatery featuring noodle dishes from all over Asia. Just to illustrate my point above: this restaurant isn’t particularly publicized but lines for dinner were well over an hour long.

Walking over to the Palazzo expansion of Venetian. Looks quite regal and stately when lit-up at night.

The centerpiece of Palazzo is this three-story waterfall atrium. Similar to Bellagio’s conservatory, the decorations here change with the season.

From the waterfall atrium, visitors can walk directly to the famous Grand Canal Shoppes in Venetian. Free gondola rides are quite popular. The drivers half-heartedly sing Italian songs.

Making our way over to Wynn Las Vegas and the Encore expansion. Wynn is my favorite hotel in Las Vegas to stay in, with the best buffet in the city, killer restaurants, best standard hotel room, and impeccable service and atmosphere. (No, I don’t own any Wynn Resorts stock).

Garden outside registration desks.

Playful parasol display hanging over an atrium.

As an expansion to Wynn, Encore maintains a similar feel but with new decor to provide a distinct identity. The entire building focuses heavily on the color red and a butterfly motif. A bit girly, but no doubt very appealing to the legions of Chinese gamblers.

A pair of peacocks welcome gamblers into the baccarat room. I’m an awful gambler and have not had a winning trip to Vegas, so sometimes it’s more fun to watch the action. Baccarat rooms fascinate me. The stakes are higher with elevated minimum bets, and it’s common to see curious crowds form around a hot table with players wagering thousands of dollars every hand. Most of the baccarat players at both Wynn and Encore seem to be Chinese. A few times I’ve seen some gorgeous Chinese ladies sitting at the table playing with their husbands’ money. The husbands were comparatively advanced in age so the ladies seem quite clearly to be trophy wives. Boy were they lip-bitingly beautiful.

Ending with a shot of the Mirage volcano show. Always a classic.

Don’t expect your typical extravagant Vegas hotel/casino here. In fact, there’s no casino anywhere in the building. Vdara has a professional, business-hotel atmosphere. Its contemporary feel matches well with the entire CityCenter project, but is that really what the typical Vegas visitor wants?

CityCenter was introduced rather poorly to the public, based on overhearing conversations from random visitors. Quite a few passengers on the tram ride from Bellagio to Crystals had no idea that Crystals was a mall. Curious people walked over to Vdara from Bellagio, only to turn back in confusion when they realized Vdara was literally just a hotel and had nothing fun for them to do there.

I imagine a similar confusion ran rampant when it came to Vdara’s parking situation. Vdara only has valet parking with no self-park garage. True, the valet parking is free, but I try avoiding situations in which I’m forced to tip, plus I don’t like strangers driving my car. CityCenter only has one self-park garage for all of its properties. Visitors to Aria will have no problem parking in the garage since Aria is next door, but Vdara is located on the complete opposite side of the complex.

The quickest way to get to Vdara is parking in the Bellagio garage, then walking through Bellagio’s lobby and crossing a short walkway into Vdara. I only knew this because I had investigated it prior to my trip. If I had parked in the CityCenter garage (a totally reasonable move to make considering that Vdara is part of CityCenter), a substantially longer walk with my luggage would have awaited me.

Vdara’s entrance is isolated from the Strip and is strangely reminiscent of an empty airport terminal. I specifically likened Aria to a metal lab bench (”sleek and modern, but cold“), but that description applies to CityCenter as a whole. Can’t get much more sterile and impersonal than an airport terminal. It’s a very eerie sensation to stand by the entrance and look around. I would have no idea I was in the heart of Las Vegas if I didn’t just spend 3.5 hours driving here from Los Angeles.

At night, the lights give the place a bit more vivacity. I said earlier that people not staying at Vdara have no reason to visit, but I take it back. If you’re wandering around in Bellagio anyway, take a few minutes and make it over to Vdara to check out the entrance. The quietness and serenity is really quite surreal and completely unexpected amidst the surrounding Vegas bedlam.

The massive Aria resort-casino dominates much of the view from Vdara’s entrance.

If you’re like me and want to self-park, you’ll have to make your way to Vdara from Bellagio. This is the walkway linking the two properties and is clearly a rushed, unfinished construction. First of all, the walkway is open-air. Temperatures at night were near freezing, and while you should pack warm clothes anyway when visiting Vegas in the winter, being blasted with frigid air is unforgivable when the walkway should have been better constructed. Halfway across the path, the metal overhead cover suddenly disappears.

Pipes and air ducts lay completely exposed. For many people walking into Vdara for the first time, these are the first visuals they see. My brother remarked that he felt like he was walking in a warehouse, not on the way to a major building of a $9 billion construction project. Hardly a great first impression. I hope that this walkway will be revamped in the very near future.

After the walkway, this is the view of Vdara’s lobby from one of the far ends. Yep, that’s the entire lobby. This is the point at which I’ve seen some people take a few bewildered glances around, then walk back to Bellagio. At the end of this hallway are the registration desks and elevators to guest rooms. A couple bars are located on the left facing the courtyard outside Vdara’s entrance (aka the airport terminal). Immediately behind this vantage point is…

…Silk Road, a restaurant with a hip, groovy design that sadly seemed to be perpetually empty.

Slick hallway on the way to my 33rd floor guest room.

Vdara’s standard room is among the better ones on the Strip. Decor is contemporary and minimalistic. All rooms are smoke-free (in fact, the entire building is smoke-free). It’s comfortably spacious, which isn’t surprising considering these rooms were originally meant to be sold as condominiums. But on the flip side, as a condo the space isn’t impressive, if that makes any sense. I can’t imagine these easily selling as residences, so perhaps it was a smart move to convert Vdara into a plain hotel instead of a condo-hotel.

My room had a fairly good view. This is accurately called the “partial Bellagio Fountains” view.

A futon sofa bed comes standard in every room.

Very small kitchen next to the room entrance. A neat bonus for a hotel room, but a kitchen this small would be a dealbreaker if I were shopping for condos.

Clean and roomy bathroom, though not especially extraordinary.

Vdara clearly isn’t party central and probably isn’t attractive to the typical Vegas visitor. But for those seeking a more quiet, professional place to stay in the middle of the Strip, Vdara may become a new favorite. While the location is a bit inconvenient, that isolation from the unyielding din, loud crowds, and smoke-tainted air of other Vegas hotels is simultaneously quite welcome and refreshing.

CityCenter recently opened in December 2009 as the most ambitious project in Las Vegas yet. The largest privately funded construction project in U.S. history, it represents a paradigm shift in Vegas resort design. Like Tokyo’s Roppongi Hills and other similar urban complexes, CityCenter is meant to be a city within a city where residents can live, dine, shop, work and play without leaving the complex. While CityCenter doesn’t have any office spaces, it features thousands of condominium residences and hotel rooms spread across multiple high-rises along with a large shopping-entertainment district that will house a future grocery store.

Visiting CityCenter was to be my highlight of this trip, and while the scope and design of the facility are impressive, I was unfortunately underwhelmed.

CityCenter has six components:

• Aria - the main feature and the only one with a casino
• Vdara - originally planned to be a condo residence tower, but was converted to a hotel due to the bad economy
• Mandarin Oriental - condo residences and hotel rooms
• The Crystals - shopping mall
• The Harmon Hotel and Spa (under construction)
• Veer Towers (under construction)

With only one casino in the whole complex, visitors accustomed to all the other casino-resorts in Las Vegas might be a bit bewildered by what to do in CityCenter. Honestly, unless you have a room in one of the hotel towers, there’s no real reason to visit Vdara or Mandarin Oriental unless you’re like me and want to scope out all the new places. I stayed at Vdara hotel and will share my experience in my next post. (UPDATE: Vdara impressions/review)

I wandered into Mandarin Oriental for the express purpose of checking out the Sky Lobby. I love hotels with lobbies like this (Park Hyatt Tokyo comes especially to mind).

The view is fantastic. Like any upscale luxury hotel, the ambience was very quiet and subdued. Mandarin Oriental is a hotel chain with locations throughout the world, and other than the view, there wasn’t anything Vegas-specific here. It would be comfortably at home in any metropolis like New York City or San Francisco.

Adjacent to the check-in desk is a bar. I’ve read that this has quickly become a favorite spot for some people to grab a drink and chill out for awhile. Can’t blame them, look at that view!

After looking at the lobby, I was done here. Vdara and Mandarin Oriental are clearly not targeting the random Vegas tourist walking on the Strip, so that leaves Aria and The Crystals. As mentioned previously, Aria is the only part of CityCenter with a casino and includes the typical features one would expect like a poker room, sportsbook, etc. I wandered around the place for about half an hour and had my fill. Yep, it’s a casino, alright, but I wasn’t hooked.

As the newest kid on the Strip, Aria will no doubt attract a large number of curious visitors coming in for the first time. The Cirque du Soleil show based on Elvis will also ensure a steady stream of traffic, but other than that, I wonder what proportion of people will return. Wynn Las Vegas is my favorite property on the Strip, whose inviting, warm luxury whisks you away to their reality. Aria seems sterile in comparison, like a metal lab bench — sleek and modern, but cold.

My favorite part of CityCenter is the five water features designed by WET, the design firm most known for creating the Fountain of Bellagio, also in Las Vegas. These five are nowhere near the scale and complexity of that massive fountain show but are amusing and enchanting in their own way.

WET feature #1: Focus, pictured above. This is a 270 foot long, circular wall with water running down the pebbled surface at various speeds and patterns. Very soothing to watch and listen. It surrounds the main entrance into Aria and faces the Strip.

WET feature #2: Lumia, my favorite out of the five. It is located in the center of the courtyard outside the Aria main entrance. The water fountain operates continuously with a range of programmed routines and patterns, accompanied by dazzling light projections. Very charming and a photographer’s dream. Both my computer monitors currently have Lumia as wallpapers. I took a ton of photos here, a few of my favorites are below.

WET feature #3: Latisse. This is in Aria on the opposite side of the main entrance. Water trickles down the back of the glass panels in patterns. Pretty boring and my least favorite.

The last 2 water features are located in The Crystals shopping mall. But before heading there, let’s make a brief stop at the Dale Chihuly art gallery in CityCenter. He is a glass sculptor and if you’ve been to Bellagio Las Vegas, you might have seen his ceiling display in the lobby. The pieces shown in the gallery are samples, and guests can order commissioned work. When I came in here, an interested buyer was inquiring about making an order. Just one of the flowers above costs thousands of dollars.

Chihuly’s flower ceiling display in Bellagio. I can’t imagine how much he charged for this, must be in the six figures.

Reflecting pond for contemplation as we make our way out of Aria into The Crystals shopping mall.

The Crystals is highly stylized with angled walls and ceiling design. Although open for business, the mall is clearly a work in progress as only a handful of stores are open. It’s aiming for the upscale market with luxury fashion brands so I wasn’t planning on buying anyway, but nevertheless disappointing to see. Despite its cavernous open area, I felt ironically constricted with all the walled-off future retail spaces.

A lot of people were milling around the mall, eager to see the new place and window-shop, but probably disappointed like I was about its limited state.

There was a lot of hoopla for the Louis Vuitton store at The Crystals, which is the largest one in North America. It’s nice, no doubt, but pales in comparison to the Paris flagship that I visited last summer.

Light display on the storefront facing the Strip.

WET design #4: Halo. Water inside plastic cylinders is spun by generators to produce vortices. The lighting changes constantly as well as the height and speed of the vortex. I wasn’t too impressed by this one, but the kids were fascinated.

WET design #5: Glacia. Pillars of real ice are illuminated by soft lights. My understanding of how this works is that the ice columns are frozen in the chamber below the surface and are kept cool by rods running through the column. The shapes of the columns are controlled by varying the temperature of the rods. Before the ice completely melts, the column is retracted below the surface to be re-frozen.

Hope you liked this photos! My next post will be about Vdara, the hotel in CityCenter that I stayed at. Then I’ll wrap up with a collection of miscellaneous Vegas photos and a couple restaurant reviews.

The concept for stick #2 was inspired by how Taeyeon’s military hat and M. Bison’s Shadaloo cap looked remarkably identical. Since stick #1 was predominantly white, I wanted stick #2 to be black for contrast. #1 is still my favorite design as that shows more aesthetic sense, whereas #2 is just two people plastered on either side of the controller. I contemplated #2 for awhile because I was not satisfied with the design. However, the continuation of the Taeyeon theme and the link between the hats were irresistible.

A faint Shadaloo skull symbol menacingly lurks between Taeyeon and M. Bison. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to see on the print, which is my mistake as I made it too dark on the black background. The idea was to have a very subtle, almost hidden, skull in the background, and I toyed with the gray level many times to get it just right. Unfortunately, I should have brightened it a tad more for the printer. Here is my original Photoshop design.

The horizontal Japanese characters say “Aku no soshiki” aka “evil organization” representing Shadaloo. This name was created by Triumvir for their Shadaloo clothing collection. The vertical Korean characters say Kim Taeyeon (leader of Korean girl group SNSD). The X is commonly used in Asia to represent a collaboration.

Completing the modification is a custom dustwasher with “aku no soshiki” and the Shadaloo logo. I also replaced the stock white joystick top with a black mesh ball-top.

Working on these two arcade sticks has been a very fun project. It’s my first time doing mods like this and completing them was surprisingly easy, considering how daunting it appears. I encourage anybody who finds this interesting to give it a shot! I have already inspired two SNSD fans from SNSD fan community Soshified.com to make their own designs.

Kufuu:

myst:

For more information about how to mod your Madcatz TE arcade stick, refer to the links at the end of this post where I walk through the entire process from Photoshop templates to opening up the controller. I used the services of Tek-Innovations for the plexiglass, printed artwork, and custom dustwaster. Sanwa OBSF-30 black pushbuttons and black mesh ball-top were purchased from Gamingnow.net

Otacool is a DannyChoo production featuring otaku rooms from all around the world. The vast majority of the rooms are anime and figurine focused. I’m only superficially into anime and don’t like figures at all, but I always find it fascinating to see how passion in hobbies can transform our living spaces. The ultimate example of this, of course, is on the grandest scale — Akihabara in Tokyo, an entire district taken over by otaku culture. I’ve been to Akiba several times and am endlessly enchanted by that destination.

I dream of designing a gaming room when I move into my own house at some point and have been slowly collecting source material for inspiration. Although the rooms in this book are mostly opportunities to show off vast collections of manga volumes or figures rather than any serious attempt at design, they’re still neat to see. I tried taking photos of pages from the book, but it was difficult to lay the book flat for clean photos without destroying the spine. Here’s a few page examples directly from DannyChoo below.

(on a related note, this Korean Star Wars fan has done a great job of integrating his hobby into his house. Of course there are the requisite masses of merchandise scattered everywhere, but he has a couple clean, classy and stylish rooms)

Filipino celebrity cosplayer Alodia Gosiengfiao

Aliens diehard fan

Good representative of the typical anime/manga/figures fan

Danny Choo himself

Do you keep your hobbies close to the heart and let them influence your room(s)? Or do you think themed rooms are embarrassing? The key to success (and tolerance by other people) is to keep it classy.

UPDATE: More photos of book pages (way at the bottom, after lots of photos about promoting the book)

Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” TV show highlighted this special noodle in his Hong Kong episode. He portrayed the technique as a very rare and dying artform in a surprisingly poignant segment (starts 1:20 in this clip). My curiosity was sufficiently piqued to give this place a visit.

One corner of the restaurant facing the entrance is walled-off by glass, creating a viewing area for customers to watch the noodle-making process. The chef only occasionally comes out to put on a show, but I would guess you’ll be able to see him if you’re there at prime dining hours. Or you can just watch this Youtube video.

The paper placemat gives a little background for jook sing mein.

As I typically do when trying a new Chinese restaurant, I ordered the beef noodle soup (niu rou mien / NRM). The bamboo-pressed noodles were clearly more chewy and springy than standard noodles. Unique texture, but nothing especially revolutionary. But while the noodles were an interesting novelty, they couldn’t save the dish when the other components were so lackluster. The broth lacked the hearty beefy flavor I expect in NRM and had no complexity whatsoever. In fact, it tasted diluted. Beef chunks were of mediocre quality and dry.

This will make me sound like a food snob, but I had no interest in finishing the bowl after tasting the first spoonful. I still ate the whole thing because… well, this was lunch. Quite disappointing, a subpar NRM.

Someone else in my dining group ordered the chicken noodle. I only tried a sip of the soup, which didn’t seem remarkable to me.
The calm, smooth surface of the soup…

…broken by the monstrous gang of noodles lurking below!

Bamboodles has a great hook to draw first-time diners, but how many will return? I think it’s unfair to completely dismiss a restaurant after eating just one dish. But the reality is I only return to Los Angeles a couple weeks out of the year, and when I come home, I want to eat great meals. The likelihood that I will give Bamboodles a second chance anytime soon is slim with so many familiar tasty restaurants to choose from and promising new ones to try.

Bamboodles
535 W Valley Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 281-1226
Visit: 9.4.2009

Warning: 5-6 MB of photos

Day 1:
Casual play prior to the SF4 team tournament. Notice Daigo amidst the crowd.

Justin Wong offering tips.

Daigo playing a casual match of Street Fighter 3: Third Strike. Notice the tiny TVs. Most TVs used at the tournament were CRTs like this. Apparently serious players prefer these because of decreased frame delay. I’ve been gaming on HDTVs for the past 5-6 years so it was rather weird to be playing Street Fighter 4 on these old TVs.

This was the featured station where the main fights were held. Adjacent is the commentator desk with online stream and direct feed recordings provided by FADC Seb

The tournament venue. Very spacious with a great layout. Everybody was raving about the Korean-inspired food and boba tea drinks. They were decent, but I’ve had much better. Not much of a surprise since I’m from San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles — home to the largest Taiwanese community in the U.S. Don’t forget that boba tea is a Taiwanese creation!

Day 2:
Justin Wong’s team in the SF4 team 3-on-3 tournament

Viewing area for the featured station.

The online stream viewers at home saw the matches shown on these mounted TVs.

Rows of CRT TVs lining the wall. SF4 pools underway!

Daigo always attracts a crowd. Facing off against Nam

Triforce from Empire Arcadia in his usual Power Glove.

Right after losing to Sanford’s Cammy in the team competition, Daigo chatted with SF3: Third Strike master Issei. Perhaps seeking advice?

Daigo playing Jibbo in pool round. Guess who’s behind Daigo?

Justin vs. Sanford in team 3-on-3

Day 3:

Starting the top 16 in SF4 Finals! Vegita X (on floor) vs. Lud

Dr. Chaos (on floor) vs. Wolfkrone (pad player)

DemonHyo (on floor) vs. Eric “ramza” Kim

Sanford vs. Checkmate

Triforce with a T-shirt of his namesake.

Justin Wong vs. Chris “Fascinating” Hu

vVv scrub vs. Issei

Chris Hu vs. Dr. Chaos

Chris Hu attempts to regain composure after losing a round

Eric “ramza” Kim vs. TwistedJago

Seth Killian and Skisonic rocking the commentary.

Sanford vs. Floe

Iloveu Joe vs. Daigo

TwistedJago vs Floe

Finals underway as Justin Wong picks Fei Long!

Justin stands up for the crowd after perfecting Daigo with Fei Long. Iloveu Joe was ecstatic, the crowd raucous, the atmosphere electric

Justin grimacing during a fight

Giant crowd watching every move of the Grand Finals

Friendly handshake when Daigo wins the championship

Rare smile from Daigo after putting in a hard day’s work and earning the win