A Visit to Torrance, the "Real" Little Tokyo

Due to the "high" demand (2 to be exact), I am writing my second post moments before I pass out and say goodbye to my delicious weekend. Unexpectedly, this weekend has turned out to be quite an adventurous food experience. On Saturday night, Max and I went to a dinner party at Buddha's Belly to celebrate a good friend's birthday and going away. I've been to the one in Hollywood twice, but it was my first time at the newly opened Santa Monica location by 3rd Street Promenade. Even though I was pretty excited to go to Buddha's Belly before getting there (because of my unwavering love for Asian food), I was still pleasantly surprised by the abundance of vegan selections on the menu. After a difficult internal debate, I decided with a bit of uncertainly on the Tofu Steak.

Tofu Steak

To be honest, I was not extremely impressed with the dish. What I liked the most was the sauce, which was a thick spicy soy sauce with a twist of zest. But given the interesting description of the entrée (check the menu on the restaurant website), I expected something more visually stimulating than what I saw. I guess the most disappointing part was the lack of vegetables, but then again, what should I have expected other than 3 blocks of tofu from an entrée called "Tofu Steak"? Still, I like my veggies.

Although my entrée at Buddha's Belly was sub par, it was still more memorable than my hit-or-miss home cooking/experiments, so I wouldn't hesitate to consider it a part of my scrumptious weekend. However, what I had today was even more unforgettable. Max and I went to visit my brother today in Torrance. The population of Torrance is primarily comprised of Japanese and Koreans. It is also where many Asian companies are headquartered, such as Toyota and Honda. My brother works for a company that many (if not all) vegans know. He works for Morinu, the wonderful company that produces the silken tofu that we vegans cannot live without.

We met up for lunch, where my brother took us to a Japanese restaurant called Sen Nar. Since Torrance is my brother's territory, I gave him the liberty to order for me. He ordered A LOT of food for us. Here's what I had (don't judge): mixed spring salad with sesame dressing, cold tofu with soy sauce, potato croquet, cold soba noodles with soy dipping sauce, and sansai (mountain vegetable) udon. Yeah, I know. It was a lot of food, but c'mon, it was a special visit. And, yes, I ate everything, with no shame. Then, we went to an amazing bakery that my brother's friend works at called Chantilly. Of course, everything was made of cream since that's what they're famous for, but I did manage to find 2 vegan desserts. Here's one of them:

Grapefruit Geleé

The other one I had was similar but has kiwi and tangerine instead of the grapefruit. What I was most impressed with was not so much the taste but the presentation. Like everything Japanese, all the desserts were beautifully presented. I loved the little cups that these jello came in. I'm going to keep it to put some pudding in, if I ever make some.

As you can see, I had a really palate-satisfying weekend. To top it all off, the last thing I had this weekend was a Japanese potato snack called Jagarico. If you click on the link, it's the bottom left corner one (in blue, original flavor). As a food curiouso (yeah, I just made that word up, but I'm sure you know what it means), not a lot of things impress my palate, but this little potato stick snack was, frankly, mind-blowing. All I can say is track down the nearest Japanese grocery store to you and buy this snack. You won't regret it, trust me.