Love Japanese bread? Have you tried breads and pastries made out of Hokkaido flour?? I remember enjoying this nice fluffy bread experience on my last trip to Japan and thought I'd never eat something so unique here in the states. Then just last weeknd I accidently stumbled inside Okayama Kobo Bakery in Anaheim, CA after my mom received her covid vaccination at Disneyland. We were trying to find a place to eat lunch on Yelp and I found a quaint brunch spot that just happened to be on the same street as this bakery. I was surprised to find this small little area filled with really cool restaurants and shops with such a cool vibe. It's located in 155 W Center Street Promenade where the whole block is lined with cool eats, bar and dessert shops. It's a must for all foodies to check out because you'll be surprised by what you can find here!

I was super estatic to stumble across across Shin Sen Gumi in Anaheim after my mom got her covid vaccine shot in Disneyland. Not knowing where to get lunch, I just yelped a nearby brunch spot. That original spot wasn't too promising so we walked over to the next block and found this street lined with Japanese ramen and bakery! We were happy to see table outside where you can do outdoor dining. The food is served in a take out container but on a tray. The temperature was aroun 65 degrees but once the sun came out, it was getting quite warm. There is no shade since the tables are situated right outside the restaurant.

Ever since this fairly new food hall opened back in 2019, it's become one of the famous foodie destinations in the Inland Empire! Packed with all sorts of various restaurants, it's a one stop place to get your cravings fixed from coffee, boba, Mexican, Meditteranean, Asian, American and so much more! They even have a full bar and a spacious cool outdoor patio. In the midst of covid, they had to stop indoor dining but you are able to comfortable dine outdoors. I even saw couple people bring their dogs over and many families gather to spend a fun afternoon/evening. You'll see that parking isn't a problem because there's a huge lot that's connected to another big lot next to it.

Located close by the 10 freeway, you'll end up at this hidden gem called Brick Pizza in Ontario off 4th street. It's in a sketchy area where I wouldn't feel comfortable coming here alone. But day time it's a nice place to enjoy your pizza with some wings in their cozy outdoor area. It's fairly a large space that can cater to big birthday parties and graduation celebrations. They even have a big screen TV to watch sports. Their menu offers various pizza toppings but one that stood out was the carne asada which was loaded with flavorful marinated meats and plenty of cilantro! It's a must try along with a nice selection of beers to wash it all down.

You know this new ramen place will be amazing when it's ran by the same owner as Oseyo Shabu Shabu in Pasadena! This spot is located in downtown Arcadia that's not too far from the Santa Anita mall. And I love how they offer more than just ramen! I came here before covid and was able to dine inside. Saw this place all over social media and Yelp so decided to give it a try. I was able to meet the owner and chat a little bit about his business. He picked quite clever names for both his Shabu restaurant and this ramen shop. Oseyo means "welcome" in Korean and Dashiwa means "come again" which I thought was pretty smart!

Quarantine life can be quite boring especially when you can't go out to bars and restaurants. But don't let that stop you can enjoying your own spread of delicious charcuterie board with wine and some candles lit around the house! If you can't enjoy this at a wine bar, might as well have a make believe wine bar experience at home and act out all classy and fancy too! I like to order my charcuterie board from Gouda Charcuterie that's located in Mira Loma. The owner is very sweet and she just started out her small business back in June 2020. I'm all about supporting women's small business and glad that I've found her on Instagram. Speaking of which, you can follow my IG account Missfoodaddict and see a video I've put together on my experience with her delicious charcuterie board. Her variety of choices are quite superb that comes with good quality jelly and honey too! I love the tasty crackers, cheese, fruits and pretty flowers that accents this board. It's such a show stopper that would be perfect to enjoy for yourself or send someone a surprise gift filled with deliciousness!

Ever since the start of covid, I have been deprived of eating dimsum and more specifically enjoying some steaming hot juicy pork dumplings from Din Tai Fung. This is the kind of food that you don't want to do a take out because that would change the texture and taste. When I saw the patio outdoor seating available, I had to change my dinner plans and get my fix of dumplings! Unfortunately reservation was all filled up due to the limited seating options so I went home sad with a hangry belly. The week after I came back to have a 4:30pm dinner. They took my temperature and asked to keep my mask on other than when I'm eating. The ordering process was easy. You just check off all the items you want to order and the quantity. The server confirms the order and when your meal is done, you do a contact less payment.

This is my dining experience pre-covid back in 2019. After seeing a lot of posts on Instagram, this place sparked my taste buds and I just had to try their black truffle pasta! Made a trip all the way to Culver City from OC fighting through traffic and was super excited about this pasta place. You order at the counter and seat yourself either inside or outside in the heated patio where it's also pet friendly. They bring you fresh bread but water is self serve.

A boy and a girl Met each other at a bar and soon after decides to open up a restaurant called Met her at a bar. What a cute story and how this restaurant began not too long ago. I am not surprised that this restaurant does super well and is really appreciate the kind service I've received from both the manager and owner during my last visit! Their waffles with chicken is seriously the best I've had and the intense Thai flavors that burst in every bite was phenomenal! This is a must order dish! I've nevee been a huge fan of quinoa but that all changed when I had their healthy quinoa bowl! Whatever dressing they used kicked up a whole new level of deliciousness that I forgot that I'm eating healthy! It balanced well with all the carbs I was eating from the waffles dish.

Pasadena has a lot of hidden gems around the city but did you know that there are very talented small business owners selling some of the best goodies that can't be found any where else? I was fortunate enough to try Eugenie's choux. She is the founder of Choux & Co. and makes these delicious mini french pastry puff in two different flavors. There is the cheese choux and the crystal sugar choux. Both are available frozen so you will need to bake it off at 360 degrees for 25 minutes. After picking this up from Pasadena, I drove back to Orange County and tried baking some in my oven.

This new location is popping with their signature French Toast and Eggs Benedict just like the Alhambra location! I don't know how they can make their French toAst so crispy and delicious because this is what keeps me coming back for more! Trust me when I say that you HAVE to....MUST...order their French toast. You rather eat soggy ones? Whyyyy!!! Just don't. Because the way this place cooks their toast is perfectly tasty and the best EVER!! Everyone who has tried this french toast will say that it's the most crunchy, flavorful and delicious french toast that's perfectly battered and fried with the right amount of sweetness!

Amara has always been my go to place for coffee and churros. Everyone that I bring over to Amara agrees that they carry the best churros AND either regular brewed coffee or their famous cocoa latte. I know for sure that this place doesn't disappoint when it comes to the high quality chocolate, coffee and churros. And then one day I tried some of their brunch and lunch menu.....OMG!!! Have you ever had Venezulan food? Well let me tell you it's sooooo amazing!

There's a lot of options when it comes to a great taco and burrito place all over the city. But one place really stands out enough for you to keep going back and support them. The owner and his family run this small restaurant inside Haven City. The husband and wife are one of the sweetest people who work tiredlessly to succeed during this rough patch due to the pandemic. One of my favorite things to order at Ibasa is their carne asada burrito. This burrito is filled with juicy flavorful and perfectly marinated beef, delicious rice, beans, onions and cilantro. Just look at the picture and tell me what you think? Keep salivating because this burrito is amazing!

What time is it? I mean, besides being covid time and being stuck at home without having the option to dine out/dine in at any restaurants and feeling bored and thirsty all day. It's Boba Time after lunch, mid afternoon or after dinner for me! My favorite drink called the coconut strawberry smoothie from It's Boba Time in Rancho Cucamonga inside Haven City is how I keep myself happy and cheerful! I get my drinks without boba because I am not a huge fan of those tapioca balls. Plus, I think it's extra calories that I need to stay away from! But if you're a fan of boba, this place cooks the boba balls perfectly where it's chewy yet not too soft and the texture is on point! They had a media event where we took this cool tower of boba's that we were able to sample!

How I got myself to work as a content creator for Jojo's Kitchen inside Haven City in Rancho Cucamonga... Haven City is a food hall that opened in 2019 around October. It's a fairly new place that has a hip vibe and many great restaurants serving delicious eats. I did a couple of media events for a handful fo restaurants and they've seen a sucessful growth of business. One day the owner of Jojo's Kitchen asked if I would be interested in working as his restaurants content creator. Having a good number of followers on Instagram and Youtube proved that I was able to make some eye catching content by creating videos and photo's. The audience is intrigued by delicious photo's of food or eye catching fun video clips. This also visually helps the potential future customers to try the food that they've tasted with their eyes. I saw first hand how the pandemic fractured a small business that was ready for take off. However, good food is what helps a business survive and keep it moving forward. You can do all the advertising across every social media outlets but if your food is dull and boring, the word of mouth spreads quickly and can damage your sales. Jojo's Kitchen uses their deep family home recipe made by the owners grandmother and father. Many Taiwanese customers had said this food reminds them of home back in Taiwan. That's when you know that your food is quite legit and it'll cause the customers to repeatly come back for more!

As a food blogger, I'm compelled more than ever to help the restaurants that are struggling to get the word out and bring in traffic so their business stays open. Whether you're a fine dining or hole in the wall restaurant, this pandemic has hit every single business owner. According to Yelp, nearly 160,000 businesses had to shut its door between March-Sept of 2020. This huge setup has put an increased stress on other surviving businesses to try something different. At one point, dine out was allowed for couple of weeks and then it gets shut down. Some counties are allowed dine in/out while others are takeout only. Every month the rules and regulations change and it's difficult for restaurant owners to just kick back and relax. There's an increased fear and uncertainty across every household and most people wondering if they would be able to keep their jobs. Some people take a second job becoming delivery drivers or working a seasonal job.

Despite living in Brea for over 10 years, I just found out last week about this small community displaying Christmas lights every year. What should have been a 10 minute drive over to this area from home took over 1 hour. We went on Dec. 22 around 6pm and the traffic was bumper to bumper for a good 1 miles stretch. It was ridiculous and long but I knew this was going to be something worthwhile and special. Prior to covid, this neighboorhood had residents sell pastries and coffee. They would be outside greeting everyone and some houses would have live music. Unfortunately, majority of the visitors just drove through this area which caused more traffic than usual. There were a handful of visitors on bikes or just strolling through but they live close to enough to choose alternatives way of browsing in this area.

Hidden gem in the heart of Glendale where you'd find all your favorite Argentinean grocery products along with fresh meats and deli in this small yet quaint little store! This is a small market that's easy to miss unless you were purposely coming here and knew that this place exists! It's a tiny market that's filled with fresh deli and meats along with staple Argentinean groceries.

Have you had this pizza called Ajarski? I'm not an expert when it comes to this dish and had to google the origin. Turns out this is a traditional Georgian dish of cheese-filled bread shaped of a boat and there's an egg baked inside a bed or mozzerella cheese! So you're suppose to pull the bread apart and dip it into the cheesy egg mixture. It's definetely a hands on food where you must use your fingers to eat it. Living in Glendale for over 2 decades, I didn't even know this kind of food existed! No one ever told me about Ajarski or about Pizza boy. They sell regular pizza's but are also known for their Ajarski. Somehow this food made its way over and became popular with the Armenian people. Again I'm not too familiar with the history of this dish but it's quite delicious and something everyone needs to try at least once. It's fairly a rich and heavy meal that will fill you up quickly.

Have you tried supermarket sushi? If you've had real sushi, eating any sushi from the grocery stores deli would be a complete turn off. I get it. They are usually stale, flavorless and the rice is borderline chalky and hard. However, the AFC sushi from Ralphs is quite decent! If you go around lunch time, you can request the sushi chef to make anything you see in the deli case right on the spot! It'll be super fresh and tasty but the best part is the price. The rolls will be under $10 and on Fridays you can get it for $5! Now that's a great deal!