Oriental Pearl- Teriyaki Tofu

While chilling at a friend's house in New Jersey, we decided to feed ourselves something from Oriental Pearl Restaurant (1880 Route 70 East, Cherry Hill, NJ 08003). Oriental Pearl Restaurant has three locations in New Jersey--- one in Moorestown, one in Haddonfield, and one in Cherry Hill. We ordered from the one in Cherry Hill. The restaurant lived up to its name and offered a vast variety of Asian cuisine. On the menu, there were Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Chinese food.

I got the Tofu Teriyaki and it was delicious. See my review below. My friends ordered Vietnamese Vermiceilli and the Thai Sweet and Sour Chicken. Unfortunately, they were not as pleased with their choices like I was. I guess when you have so much on your menu it is hard to be good at all the dishes.

Tofu Teriyaki

The Tofu Teriyaki came with pint of rice which was pictured. The entree tasted great. The tofu was well fried. It was somewhat crispy on the outside and chewy in the inside. It absorbed the flavor of the sauce. Sometimes I think Teriyaki sauce can have a overpowering soy sauce taste; however, this sauce was balanced and excellent. There were elements of sweetness and savoriness which I think might be from rice vinegar and soy sauce. The vegetables on the side were steamed perfectly. They were not too soft or too raw. I really enjoyed the texture of the tofu, the sauce, and vegetables. This is something I can imagine me having cravings for...it was that good. 

Ice Land- Rolled Ice Cream

A novelty has came to Philadelphia- rolled ice cream. Although on the news Sweet Charlie claims to be the first rolled ice cream shop, the first shop was actually Ice Land (224 N 10th Street). Ice Land opened two weeks earlier than Sweet Charlie. The rolled ice cream is made to order and they prepare the rolled ice cream on top of cold metal top behind the glass counter. To order you pick from a number of base, topping, and sauce options. There were also set items on menu which you can choose from. We chose something on the set menu and customized another one.

So apparently, the ones listed on the set menu were shaved ice cream. We got the Matcha Kingdom which was green tea ice cream topped with mochi, red beans, and condensed milk. Overall, it was good. The flavor was good. The texture of ice cream was icy flaky if you know what I mean. The toppings were okay.

Matcha Kingdom

For our customized beauty, we got the thai tea ice cream with lychee and condense milk. The thai tea ice cream resembled the taste of thai tea. The rolled ice cream was dense and creamy. I prefer this way more than the shaved ice cream. It was delicious. I wouldn't mind just eating this without the toppings. 

Thai Tea Rolled Ice Cream with Lychee and Condensed Milk

I recommend trying the rolled ice cream. It is definitely worth a try. Another cool thing is that the spoon changes color with temperature. The yellow spoon turn orange when it touches the ice cream and turns back to orange when you heat it with you mouth...awesome, right?

Seorabol Korean Restaurant

Seorabol located at 5734 N. Olde 2nd Street is a Korean Restaurant that offers a large array of Korean food, sushi, and Korean BBQ. The place was relatively big with two rooms. The table were customized to be used for BBQ and not to be used for BBQ. There was a cover over the grill if you chose not to do the Barbeque. Another unique thing was that there were buzzers at each table for you to call the server when needed. This is what I call cool beans. They also provided complimentary Barley Tea, side dishes known as Banchon, and Cinnamon Tea. 

The Barley Tea was good and rich in nutty grain favor. It was my first time tasting barley tea. I didn't know what it was at first, but thought it was some tea made of grains. I was questioning if it was some kind of rice tea if that even exists. My friend then informed me it was Barley Tea. 

Barley Tea

The Banchon was good. As you can see below there was an assortment of foods- cucumbers, string beans, broccoli, radish, kimchi, potatoes, dried shrimp, egg, and bean sprouts. All of the mini dishes were served cold and a majority of them have the fermented taste. If I was asked to pick a favorite, I think I like the bean sprouts the best. 

Banchon

As an appetizer beside the Banchon, we got Haemul Pajeon (mixed seafood, onions, and scallions pancake). This might be one of the best savory pancakes I ever had. It was tasty, crispy on the outside, and soft in the inside. There was some kind of red hot sauce for it. In my opinion, no sauce was really necessary. It was delicious on its own. I could devour this whole thing myself, but I had to share. Sharing is caring. This is definitely a pancake I will dream about. 

Seafood, onions, and scallions pancake

For my entree, I ordered Hemul Dolsot Bibam Bap (hot stone bowl assorted vegetable and squid over rice). The stone bowl rice came with squid, clams( which I wasn't expecting), sauce already in it, limited amount of vegetable, and shredded seaweed on the top. The squid was cooked to perfection. It was very tender. The rice on the bottom was crispy. I really wanted to like this dish. I think I would if a few changes were made. I wished they had put the sauce on the side. The sauce was a little too hot and a little too much for me. It was kind of weird that they mixed the sauce in because two of friends who ordered the beef hot stone rice bowl got their sauces on the side. Also, there wasn't enough vegetables in the bowl. The only vegetable I notice was cabbage. To make up for the lack of veggies, I added the bean sprouts from the Banchon to the bowl. In addition, I don't like clams. I could do without them in the rice bowl especially since it was not mentioned in the description. I gave the clams to my friend. Next time if I decide to order a rice bowl I will make sure to specify sauce on the side. 

Vegetable and Squid Hot Stone Rice Bowl

Lastly, the dessert was Cinnamon Tea. It was refreshing. It tasted like cold water blend with cinnamon and sugar. A great way to end a meal. 

Cinnamon Tea

Overall, I enjoy all the complimentary foods and drinks. I will definitely be coming back for that as well as the seafood pancake. I will also like to try different things on extensive menu.

Dottie's Donuts

Awhile ago my friend and I went to see what the hype was about the relatively new vegan joint, Dottie's Donut (4529 Springfield Ave). The shop itself was kind of hard to find. We had to ask two strangers. The outside sign was not very eye catching. The store was small with minimum seating. My friend and I got two donuts each to share and sat on the stools by the window. Below is what we got.

Clockwise starting from top left, Mango Coconut, Toast'n Nut, Almond Joy, and Vanilla Glazed Donuts

I bought the Mango Coconut and Almond Joy ones. My friend got the Vanilla Grazed and Toast' n Nut. The donuts were on the bigger size as well as on the pricer side ($2 each). All of the favors of the donuts were good. The almond joy did really resemble the almond joy taste of the candy bar.  The frosting on the mango coconut, vanilla and toast'n nut donuts were sweet and pleasant. The shredded coconut on Mango Coconut and Almond Joy were crispy and good; however, I was not a fan of the texture of the donut. The donuts were too chewy for my liking.  It must have been difficult to come up with donut recipes without diary so I give this shop props for making vegan donuts, but they just weren't for me. I am glad I had a chance to try them, but I don't think I will coming back for more.

Valanni

For a friend's birthday, we had a celebration at Valanni (1229 Spruce St.). The restaurant had a modern and fancy feel to it which I really dig.

Below are dishes we got that I could eat.

Medi-Latin Plate was an assortment of appetizers which included hummus and pita, calamari, beef kabobs, empanadas, bacon wrapped figs, spanakopita, warm feta and olives. I thought the hummus was somewhat light and creamy. Seasoning-wise nothing particularly stood out about the hummus and pita. The veggie empandas were good. See the next paragraph for more details. I didn't eat the beef kabobs or bacon wrapped figs. My friends did rave about the bacon wrapped figs, though. The spanakopita was soft in texture. It was rich in feta cheese and spinach. The calamari were good. It was well-seasoned, crispy on the outside, and tender and somewhat chewy in the inside. 

Medi-Latin Plate

Vegetable empanadas were filled with shitake mushroom, manchego, roasted peppers, caramelized onions and came with chipotle aloli. The empanda's skin was thick and crispy. The filling was delicious. The empanda went well with the creamy aloli sauce.  

Vegetable Empandas

Baked Brie had grand marnier- soaked the cranberries, pears, and hazelnuts in it. It was accompanied by toasted baguette. I think this was my favorite. It was nutty, cheesy, and sweet. and crispy with the toasted bread. I love all the combination of texture and favors. 

Baked Brie

Grilled octopus was cooked with braised fennel, sundried tomato remoulade, micro greens, and pesto. The sauce was somewhat creamy. The octopus was very tender. I feel like octopus is usually firmer than this and chewy. But this octopus kind of melts in your mouth. 

Grilled Octopus

The Crispy Brussel Sprouts' description says marcona almonds, granny smith apples, and aged balsamic. I thought we were going to get half or whole brussels but they were leaves of the sprouts. They were flakey and crispy. I didn't eat any almonds and apples, but I can definitely taste the sweetness from apple and balsamic.

Crispy Brussel Sprout

Brick and Mortar

Brick and Mortar is a relatively new restaurant located on 312 N. 12th Street . It was our meet up destination for a group dinner. According to the server, the establishment opened in June 2015. Brick and Mortar had a nice casual and modern feel to it. Below is what I ordered. Before you judge me on what I ordered, one I would like to say that there was a limited selection for vegetarians, two it's the company that counts, and three the two items were unique to the restaurant. 

I got the Spring Salad. It came with watercress, dandelion chervil, green radish, hazelnut, ricotta salata, and lemon horseradish vinaigrette. The salad was very fresh. The dressing was on the sweeter side which I didn't mind, but I could not taste the horseradish. Overall, the salad was healthy, pleasant, light, and appetizing. I liked it. 

Spring Salad

In addition, I ordered the Fries Bravas which were fries with house seasoning and house sauce. In this case, the seasoning was berbere spice and ginger ketchup. In my opinion, the fries were over seasoned. I found it to salty and spicy for my palate; however, they were cooked to perfection. They were somewhat crispy on the outside and tender in the inside. The sauce was supposedly ginger ketchup, but I didn't detect any ginger. It just taste like plain marinara sauce to me. 

Fries Bravas

That night, we scored complimentary desserts! The server said that he noticed that it took longer for our food to come out and they had a new grill chef. I honestly didn't think the food took long to come out at all for a party of 6. I don't think we even waited 30 minutes for the food. I have waited longer for food when there was only two of us which I thought was ridiculous. Nonetheless, I am not going to decline free desserts. Below are the three desserts he bought us. I only remember the name of one of them. The dessert in the bottom of the picture is a Sticky Toffee Muffin. It was the bomb dot com. It was warm, moist, and had a nutty favor. It was topped with whip cream, but oh how I wish it came with vanilla ice cream. That would have completed my life. The other two desserts were subpar compared to the Sticky Toffee Muffin. The upper left hand corner is some kind of pound cake that appears to be made with corn meal and topped with blueberry compote and maybe lemon sorbet. I didn't enjoy it at all. The pound cake was very grainy and that's all I focused on while tasting it. The last dessert on the upper right hand corner was some kind of chocolate mousse with berries. It was good and tasted like chocolate pudding, but it was nothing phenomenal. 

Desserts

Overall, this was a nice place to have dinner with friends. This wouldn't be my first pick to go catch up with my friends since their vegetarian options are limited, but if one of friends wanted to go there for dinner, I would go. 

Vientiane Cafe- Lao/Thai Dining

Located on 4728 Baltimore Avenue, Vientiane Cafe is a Lao/Thai family-owned restaurant named after the capital and largest city in Laos. My friends and I had a lovely early dinner there. The establishment had a nice ambience. The place was well lit with wooden chair seating, wooden tables, and pretty decor hanging on the walls. We all ordered the dinner special. For less than $20, you get a three course meal- a salad, an appetizer, and an entree.  You can customize your entree with one of these four protein tofu, chicken, beef, or shrimp options.

For my greens, I got the Tofu Yum Salad without crush peanuts. The salad was Asian herbs, lemongrass, and kaffir leaves topped with fried tofu and dressing. The dressing tasted like the sweet and sour fish sauce used in Vietnamese cuisine. It is one of my favorite sauces in the world. The tofu was crispy and absorbed the sauce. Overall, the salad was very tasty and somewhat refreshing.

Tofu Yum Salad

I ordered Steamed Vegetable Dumplings for my appetizer. Three dumplings came on a small place with a little bowl of garlic soy sauce. It was also topped with fried radish. The dumplings were soft and the skin was thin. The sauce was not too salty, but I could not taste the garlic favor.  I thought the dumplings were okay. I could not really make out what were in them. I think the stuffing might be grind imitation meat with seasoning.

Steamed Vegetable Dumplings

Lastly, I got the Sweet Basil Tofu with sticky rice. The sticky rice came in a fancy bamboo container. The rice was well cooked, soft, and had a somewhat chewy texture. The Sweet Basil Tofu was cooked with garlic, chili peppers, broccoli, carrots, and onions. The sauce had a sweet, salty, and spicy taste. When I looked closely, there were dried chili peppers in the dish which made it noticeably spicy. I thought the plate was overall flavorful and went well with my sticky rice, but it was a little too salty for my taste. The blend of sweet, salty, and spicy were not perfectly well balanced for my palate.

Sweet Bail Tofu with Sticky Rice