We eat at Michelle's Chinese Pancakes, San Gabriel, CA

'So What' if Michelle's Pancakes forgot the spelling of their name on their sign? It doesn't mean they left out any details on their food! Let's move on to Michelle's pancake delishshiousness!

It's a hole in the wall, located in San Gabriel in the back of a chinese strip mall. Completely inconspicuous, completely a hidden gem. These chinese pancakes may be a traditional side dish but Michelle's gives it a brand new spin. The traditional pancake is a lot bigger and more doughy but Michelle's pancakes are much more delicate, smaller in size and updated with lots of gourmet flair.

No wonder even local Chinese peeps are hooked! For reference, these pancakes are similar to an empanada. The ingredients are mixed into a patty and stuffed into a thin layer of fresh dough, then pan-fried using little oil and medium heat. The result: a golden brown pancake with all the juices sealed in. One word of caution: Be careful on your 1st bite! The piping hot juices often squirt out soiling you and everyone around you! Also, don't forget to use some of their homemade garlic sauce - it's out of this breath!

What to order at Michelle's Pancakes:

Signature soup: Hot & Sour Veggie Soup - it's piping hot & perfect for a cold day!

Beef, Onion & Carrot Pancakes - Delish! Gimme more!









Pancake flavors: Beef & Leeks, Veggie & Tofu, Cabbage & Pork, Shrimp & Radish - try them all!

A bite later - oh hot, hot inside!









Cod Fish Dumplings - exclusive to Michelle's, a true delicacy









Economical paper menu

Michelle's Pancake, 5 stars for Really AWESOME!

706 W Las Tunas Dr.

San Gabriel, CA 91776

(626) 293-8098

Mon-Sun. 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Mon-Sun. 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

The Birth of "Red Geisha is a Foodie" Welcome my fellow foodies

Hi there! It's me, Red Geisha!

For years, I have been donating my writing to various sites on restaurant reviews, beauty reviews and even at times, giving up my most precious family recipes!

The truth is, is that I am a "Foodie" - I love to eat, I love to critique and I love to tell people about my experiences. I also like restaurants to be "accountable" in every way - from service, quality of food to mannerisms. So I thought about this long and hard and have decided to donate my writings to my own blog. Simply because I hate it when restaurants are subpar and try to cheat us with their crappy food and then charge us our hard earned money.

I am too passionate of a foodie/individual to let this happen. My reviews are at times, quirky, sometimes dirty, but always honest. You can count on me to give you the real deal.

I pledge to post the most honest and enticing reviews for your reading pleasure. Hell, I might even stick in a video or two!

So don't be shy, subscribe to my blog and let me know what you think. Be a "Two Cent Sally" and I will post your comments.

Thank you for reading and welcome to "Red Geisha is a Foodie!" A journey for a true foodie!

Cheers to you - my fellow foodies,

Red Geisha
Email me for comments or any foodie relations at: redgeishagirl@yahoo.com

Little Dom's - am I going to believe Food Network ever again?

Ok so you know I'm always honest - sometimes too honest! The only reason why I even know about this place is because of the Food Network show, The Best Thing I Ever Ate - Little Dom's Breakfast Pizza. Hence the reason why I dragged my mother, my friend, my husband to go out to Los Feliz to eat there with me. Looking back, it was a lost cause but at the time, as we were rushing to get there, my senses told me every bite of that pizza was going to scream "YUMMY" at me. Suffice it to say, that didn't happen. Am I ever going to believe what the Food Network has to say? I would have to sadly scream back, "Hell No!!"

First Impressions at Little Dom's:

-The hostess, the bartender and some patrons at the bar were more interested in talking about what show they booked rather than realizing there were 7 people waiting at the podium.

-Every other word that came out of their mouthes were "FUCK this/Fuck that."

-Loved the decor, loved the bar, loved the fruit-infused vodka bottles. By the way, can I get some attention here?

Service at Little Dom's:

-Hostess/Wannabe Actress: Can you clean a table w/o looking for your reflection in the window?

-Our Waiter: Nice. Big red beard. A bit impatient. Made cute joke about diet coke refill. He was fine though.

Food at Little Dom's:

-The Food Network featured Little Dom's breakfast pizza as one of the "Best Things I Ever Ate." Well, if this breakfast pizza was the best thing the Food Network ever ate, then I hate to tell you--THEY LIED! Never trust them again. There was nothing "Best" about it.




-Smoked Salmon flatbread w/ red onions, lemon juice, capers and cream cheese was good b/c it was nothing out of the ordinary. You could've used a thin slice of wheat toast w/ the same ingredients and saved $16 buckeroos.

-Rosemary potato and Fontina cheese Frittata...hmmm...really? No. I dont think I tasted anything worthy in this omelette. Yeah I said, omelette! Surely it was not a Frittata.

-Finally something WORTH MENTIONING! The Ricotta Cheese Blueberry Pancakes saved the day! They were fluffy, light, pre-made (which I do not like) but delish and served within 24 seconds of ordering them. These pancakes saved our Lil Dom's experience.

So the breakfast pizza was not close to the best thing we ever ate but the blueberry pancakes saved the day. Would I go back to Little Dom's? Hmm, probably not. If I lived closer, maybe I would just get their pancakes as take out b/c their service was far from stellar. Do they care about being stellar? I didn't feel it. I also didn't feel they were passionate about their food.
And that is a Big No No for me.

Little Dom's Food: 3 Stars for the pancakes, 2 stars for everything else

2128 Hillhurst Ave.

Los Angeles, CA (Los Feliz area)

(323) 661-0055

The Formosan, a Taiwanese Steakhouse

A Taiwanese Steakhouse? Really?
Yes! And it's really GOOD too! If you've traveled to Taiwan before and spent time eating at a night market, you probably remember seeing these sizzling hot metal plates with a big piece of meat on it, steam rising through the air and the smell of black pepper sauce calling out your name. The good news is, you don't have to go to Taipei for Taiwanese steak! You can find it in the Cerritos area! (it's closer than Taiwan ok! Geez!)

The Formosan is not only a bargain for hot plated steaks, your meal comes with soup, salad, garlic bread, sizzling egg & vegetables, steak and a side of spaghetti or rice. There's also a combo plate -- their version of a Surf N' Turf -- you can choose from Rib Eye, Filet Mignon or a T-Bone steak AND a fillet of Sole, grilled shrimp or calamari steak (my favorite). The combo plate is a lot of food but for the price of $17.95, YOU CAN'T BEAT IT! Many thanks to Andy Man for the intro! We absolutely LOVE The Formosan! ps...they are closed on Tuesday nights.

Here are the mouth watering highlights of our dinner: Dang! I'm hungry!

The Formosan Restaurant
18846 Norwalk Blvd
Artesia, CA 90701
(562) 924-0366

4 Stars for Food, 5 Stars for Price

Combo plate: Filet Mignon with Grilled Shrimp

Combo plate: Filet Mignon with Calamari Steaks -My favorite

Danny is getting credit for having dinner w/ me

Oh boy, I'm stuffed. Get me to bed now!Treat yourself to an excellent meal!

Cheers to being a Foodie,
Red Geisha

Shinsengumi - 4 stars for food and 1 star for the seating host

Shin Sen Gumi Yakitori

Category: Japanese

Neighborhoods: Gardena, Torrance area

We love Yakitori and this is the place that we always always go to. The food is a 4-star hella excellent, the atmosphere very noisy b/c they do a traditional Japanese welcome shout. Some would say is rowdy and all too loud but when you're drinking, it all becomes great fun. So once you are seated, everything is great. BUT the SEATING HOST is a SUREFIRE 1 STAR wonder. Here's my annoyance: We waited for over an hour this past weekend but that wasn't the kicker. The kicker was the Seating Host -- 1. Spoke extremely poor English 2. Did not know how to manage the flow of hungry people signing up -- so he told everyone the wait was 15-20 min. THEN on top of having our names on a waiting list, he would jump around to the ppl who he could speak Japanese to. My party of 4 got bumped off TWICE. WTF? He said, oh those ppl to bar, you no bar right? I said, bar or table is fine by me...but he managed to hear what he wanted to hear. Our usual Shinsengumi guy - Teppei - was not there to impress our out of town guests, so it was an embarrassing experience for us. The Seating Host needs to be switched out immediately or we probably won't go back. The South Bay has lots of Japanese to offer. Once we got in, thankfully our Sapporo beer was served promptly!

Shin Sen Gumi Yakitori
4 star food/1 star service
18617 S Western
Gardena, CA 90247
(310) 715-1588

Shin Sen Gumi - All Star Delights

BEST: Chicken Meatballs & Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

Japanese style chicken wings aka Tebasaki

Don't forget to get the grilled garlic on a stick!
Yum!


Yaki-Onigiri (Grilled Rice Balls) w/ Salmon fill

Eat something tasty today!

Cheers to being a Foodie,
Red Geisha

October 3, '09 - Happy Moon Festival! We eat at Oak Tree, Pasadena, CA.

Oak Tree is one of those Chinese restaurants that caters to all kinds. It's not the super chinese-y restaurant - they speak English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghai-nese and Caucasians can order safely. With that said, you can order sweet and sour -- whatever -- and you can also order one of their specialty dishes -- Taro Duck. Sounds weird but it's pretty delicious and pretty exclusive to Oak Tree. The buttery taro is smothered on top of ready cut duck fillets and fried into a deep crisp. Served like a layered taro duck cake with a crispy outer layer & a sweet savory sauce on the side...this dish TASTES EXCELLENT! I cannot think of any other Chinese restaurant that serves this dish. So it makes this Taro Duck THAT more special.

Other dishes that are specialties of Oak Tree are: Baked Rice with Chinese Sausage (2nd BEST!), Pepper Steak (um, where's the pepper and how comes the sour is so strong?), Deep Fried Salty Pork Chops, Pipa Tofu (one of their specialties but kinda of bland for my taste), Fresh Saltwater Shrimp (OH so Yummy & Fresh!), Sauteed Veggies (very easy to recreate) and Egg Whites/Broccoli & Scallops -- which in my opinion are kinda blah. As some of you know, I am a gourmet wanna-be chef that cooks & recreates foodie dishes on my own. For this Egg White/Broccoli/Scallop dish, I would add some chili pepper flakes, grated ginger, garlic and a hint of vinegar to bring out the seafood aroma. It would be a HIT with high heat and just the right amount of tarte added to it. In summary, Oak Tree is safe for the dishes they specialize in. But any dish out of the ordinary (like Sauteed Crab w/ glass noodles) would be a ho-hum dish to order. 
Oak Tree (****) 4 Stars out of 5

Happy Moon Festival to you all!









Taro Duck- special dish, exclusive to Oak Tree

Chinese Pepper Steak - very tender!

Saltwater Shrimp - so fresh and so sweet

Chinese Broccoli sauteed w/ shrimp paste

Pipa Tofu - another specialty at Oak Tree

Deep Fried Five Spice Pork Chops w/ scallions

Egg Whites sauteed w/ scallops & broccoli

Happy Moon Festival w/ the family!

Eat something tasty for you!
Cheers to being a Foodie,
Red Geisha