Transport That Tea: The Boba Truck

The Boba Truck has quite the extensive tea, boba, and jelly selection on wheels. I was impressed, considering I thought it'd just be regular boba milk tea!

Regular teas and milk teas cost $3.50 and $3.75, respectively. Premium teas and premium milk teas cost $3.75 and $4.00, respectively. Prices include your choice of boba, mini boba, lychee jelly, mango jelly, or aloe bits. Upgrade to a large for $0.50!

My large mocha milk tea with boba cost $4.50.

The mocha milk tea was nice and strong and creamy. The boba were perfectly chewy and just sweet enough.

Izzo got a large almond milk tea with mango jelly for $4.25.

She let me have a sip. Quite nice.

The Boba Truck may not be as good as Tea Station or Half & Half Tea House, but it was mobile and came right to our office!

Boy Meets World

Noodle World serves pan-Asian cuisine in a huge cafeteria-like room.

It's no wonder the place looks like a cafeteria. It used to be a Bob's Big Boy. The Los Angeles Times reported the history behind the Big Boy earlier this week.

Bob still overlooks the room, but the cuisine has changed drastically. One thing that has stayed the same, however, is the reasonable pricing. Our lunch cost about $12 a head, including tax and tip.

Shrimp fried rice. Pretty standard.

Spicy spaghetti. Surprisingly delicious. It's like a Chinese mom made Italian food.

Chicken with chilies. Quite good, but it should've been spicier.

Chicken pad thai. A couple notches above mediocre.

Chicken curry. Also a couple notches above mediocre.

Almond and honey milk tea with boba. Deeeeeelicious.

Oreo chocolate milkshake smoothie. I didn't name it. Or drink it.

With its extensive menu, Noodle World is kind of like an Asian version of The Cheesecake Factory. But better. And less likely to serve reheated frozen food. Notwithstanding the spotty service, my co-workers and I will definitely be back just for the variety of reliable dishes.

Taiwanese Tidbits

I love Taiwanese tidbits. "Tidbits" is my own terminology. Literally translated, the phrase is "small eats," but isn't "tidbits" cuter? If you haven't sampled Taiwanese tidbits, you should, especially if you like tapas, dim sum, or izakaya.

Mama Monkey is back from her 15-day European adventure, so Mr. Monkey, Brother Monkey, and I met her for Taiwanese tidbits at Plaza Deli (18920 Gale Avenue, Rowland Heights).


This place rocks. The food and service are good, and the prices are great.

You do have to know what to order, though, or you could be disappointed. I think this happens a lot to patrons who don't know they are in a Taiwanese eatery. They order Chinese dishes and miss out on Taiwanese treats.

My absolute favorite Taiwanese tidbit is ba-wan (in Taiwanese) or rou-yuan (in Mandarin). It is often listed as "meat ball" on menus, which gives you no idea of what this delicacy actually is. Here is Plaza Deli's version ($2.50).

Ba-wan has a thick translucent "skin" made of rice flour, corn starch, and sweet potato starch. If you like the consistency of mochi, you will probably like ba-wan skin. The skin envelops pork, bamboo shoots, and shiitake mushrooms. A sweet red sauce tops it all off.

Plaza Deli's ba-wan is delicious. The skin was nice and chewy, a key characteristic of a decent ba-wan. Thumbs up!

My second-favorite Taiwanese tidbit is gua bao ($2.50). Some call it the "Taiwanese hamburger," which I think is a stupid name, given what's in a gua bao.

The gua bao is closer to being a soft taco or a torta. If you've had Peking duck, you are familiar with the little steamed pillow-like bread. Inside this white fluffiness is stewed fatty pork, pickled cabbage, cilantro, sweet sauce, crushed peanuts, and sugar. When done right, it is heaven in your hand. Plaza Deli's gua bao had potential, but the pork should've been more tender. I still liked it anyway.

Another typical Taiwanese tidbit is bi-ko ($2.50). This is similar to the sticky rice you might find at dim sum wrapped in lotus or banana leaves. Pretty yummy.

Mr. Monkey is not as big a fan of Taiwanese tidbits as I am. His family never goes to these places, so I have to take advantage of the chances I get. But he enjoyed the other dishes we ordered.

Fried tofu ($2.50) always pleases everyone. For Mr. Monkey's sake, I didn't get the traditional Taiwanese stinky tofu.

The Tainan Peddler Noodles ($4.95) were great. Mama Monkey informed us that, in the city of Tainan, they come in a much smaller bowl. Yay for American sizing!

We were intrigued by the goose meat soup noodles ($5.95).

The broth and noodles were lovely, but the goose was a bit tough. Dipping the goose in this sauce helped a bit, but I don't think we'll order this again.

Of course, we can't go to a Taiwanese place without ordering pork chop rice.

Home food at its best. Crisp and crunchy and juicy and awesome. We even got one to take home. It was that good.

We washed everything down with boba milk tea ($2.50 -- buy one, get one free). The boba were perfectly chewy and sweet.

They were invented by the Taiwanese, after all.

You Get What You Pay For

Time for another quickie! I'm on a roll!

Glam, Giggles, and I went to Ba Le French Sandwich & Bakery (1426 S. Atlantic Blvd., Alhambra) after a failed attempt to get crepes elsewhere.

It would take too long to explain the no-crepes story. I might do it another day, maybe when we finally eat at that crepe place for real.

But back to Ba Le. It's a counter. No seats.

And there was a duck on the ground.

Yes, a duck. See?

Here's my boba milk tea.

Here's Glam's weird green drink. My sip tasted awful. I'm still not sure what it was.

Here's my barbecued pork sandwich.

My lunch cost under $4.00.

It also cost me an unexpected trip to the bathroom.

Not going back.

The end.

A Capital Time

Brother Monkey and I met Mama Monkey and her hubby for dinner last night at our usual halfway point of Rowland Heights.

Capital Seafood Restaurant (1015 Nogales Street, Rowland Heights) is one of the better restaurants at the 99 Ranch plaza.

It's not much to look at.

But the Cantonese food is reliable and fast. Everything we had was quite tasty and ranged from $8.00 to $13.00, save the crab, which was market price.

Jie lan with oyster sauce. Fresh and delicious.

Beef and assorted vegetables over fried noodles. Very good. You can't see the noodles here, but they were golden and great -- partially crunchy, partially soft.

Fried fish. Not sure what kind. Does it matter? You know I liked it.

Fried tofu. The outside was lovely, light, and crisp. Always a delight.

Crab! It was in a tank just minutes before we ate it. Yummy for my tummy.

Complimentary hot tapioca dessert. Enjoyable.

After dinner, we went into the 99 Ranch plaza for some boba. Lollicup had run out. What? That's like an ice cream truck running out of ice cream. Bizarre. Our runner-up was Banana Cafe, where one of my old SAT prep students used to work (and would give me free boba).

Gotta love buy one, get one free. The tea could've been sweeter, but the boba were nice and bouncy.

It was fun to see my family. Everyone is doing well!

I Had Columbus Day Off

For the first time in seven years, I had Columbus Day off!

We had lunch with Mr. Monkey's family at Icho Izakaya (708 E Las Tunas Drive, San Gabriel), a Japanese restaurant run by Chinese people.

Like many other restaurants of this ilk, it was fine but unmemorable. Lunch is a pretty good deal, though. A one-item meal with soup and salad costs only $4.99. The two-item version goes for $8.50. Available components include mixed sushi, mixed sashimi, grilled saba, tempura, teriyaki chicken, grilled salmon, tonkatsu, and various sushi rolls.

Calpico.

Peach nectar.

Complimentary edamame.

Salad.

Miso soup.

Sashimi.

Tonkatsu.

Tempura.

After lunch, we headed to Cathy's Bakery next door.



Our stash from Cathy's. Fresh. Flaky. Buttery.

One last stop before home -- Quickly for 98-cent boba milk tea. I like getting the mini boba at Quickly. Aside from the price, it's the only good thing there, as the actual drink leaves much to be desired.

The afternoon was lazy yet short because we headed to Dodger Stadium again.

When Brother Monkey went to buy beer, the cashier said, "You've gotta be kidding me!" What say you? Does he really look under 21? Any guesses on his age?

We were amused that pitcher Derek Lowe's theme song was Flo Rida's "Low." Nothing says baseball like Apple Bottom jeans and boots with the fur.

Mr. Monkey and his friend sat in separate seats from us today. Can you spot them? Mr. Monkey's friend is wearing a red Phillies cap. Boo!

Little Monkey Niece and her dad joined us.

LMN liked BroMo's glasses. She kept saying BroMo was silly. And, yes, the Monkeys did indeed buy that zip hoodie for her.

Mr. Monkey came to visit us for an inning.

Up until the eighth, I thought the Dodgers would win, as did this Phillies fan.

After LMN and her dad left (and after we lost the lead), BroMo and I headed down to some empty seats next to Mr. Monkey and his friend.



Even the proximity to the field didn't make up for what became a very bad night for the Dodgers. So sad.

But at least I had the day off. That was lovely despite the loss.