Healthy Alternative: Cottage Cheese Stuffed Mushroom

I had mushroom stuffed with cream cheese and bacon at a restaurant the other night, and boy were they delicious!...and fattening. I was craving for more, minus the fat, so I made some changes.










Ingredients:
6 big mushrooms
1/4 cup of cottage cheese
1 slice of turkey ham lunch meat (sliced)
1/8 cup of chopped onions
dash of salt
dash of pepper
Pam cooking spray

Instruction:
1. Spray the frying pan with Pam cooking spray.
2. Stir fry the chopped onion.
3. When onion turned brown, add in the sliced turkey ham. Stir fry until hot.
4. In a bowl, mix together the cottage cheese, cooked onion and ham, salt and pepper
5. Spoon the mixture into the mushrooms.
6. Place mushroom onto a baking sheet sprayed with Pam.
7. Bake for 15 mins at 375 degree oven, or until mushroom

T-Rex Barbeque...RAWRRR!

1300 10th Street, Berkeley, CA
(510)527-0099
http://www.t-rex-bbq.com/

My boyfriend and I came here really hungry on a late Friday night for my early birthday celebration. Stepping into T-Rex, I was greeted and seated right away. It was emptying out already since it was quite late for dinner. Although those who remained seemed very chilled. The seats make place look very layback also, one side with the connected cushioned seat and the other with movable ones. The restaurant has a bar and big television broadcasting sport.

T-Rex's offer pretty simple appetizers but simple enough that it can be made different ways depends on the restaurant. These include devilled eggs, beef jerkey, fried oysters, and calamari. Entrees consist of mainly barbeque meat, mainly chicken and pork. As mentioned on the website, their meat are antibiotic and hormone free, and their fish is sustainable. It also offers salad, which includes unique ingredients such as Pt. Reyes blue cheese, dungeness crab, smoked trout and fennel. Also, T-Rex uses organic ingredients whenever possible.

After looking at the menu for awhile, my boyfriend and I decided to order Bone-in Chicken Breast with BBQ Sauce, Fried Chicken, Macaroni and Cheese with Aged Cheddar and Parmesan, and Belma Buckett's Cornbread with Honey Butter.

Belma Buckett's Cornbread with Honey Butter - I am never a fan of cornbread because a lot of times, it's either too dry or too moist that it crumbles apart. T-Rex's cornbread is nothing like the two I just described. It is so moist but hold its shape at the same time. T-Rex drizzles honey butter all over it before serving, so it was perfect when it gets to the table.

Macaroni and Cheese with Aged Cheddar and Parmesan - Funny thing, I am never a fan of mac and cheese either. It is usually overly cheesy that one bite and I'm stuffed. T-Rex's was different, I couldn't stop eating it. The cheddar and parmesan combination was delicious! Oh yes, they use shell shaped pasta instead of bow-shape, so it holds in lots of cheese in every bite.

Fried Chicken - Even though the chicken is fried, it seemed and tasted more grilled to me. I had a bit of it, and I was suprised that it was really moist and not overly oily. The mashed potato was a bit too creamy for my taste though.

Bone-in Chicken Breast - This was okay, nothing overly excited about. It was a little dry but still easy to chew. It comes with barbeque sauce on the side. The bbq sauce was okay, nothing too excited about.

Broadway Prime

1316 Broadway, Burlingame, CA
(650) 558-8801
http://www.boradwayprime.com/

Once stepped inside Broadway Prime, it was dim with candlelights on each tables. The restaurant was filled with steak aroma. The place looked pretty big, with steak cutters in white busy cutting prime ribs, and waiters in black constantly walking around to serve their customers. Right out of my head, this place is going to offer very good services.

My family and I were seated pretty quick since I made reservation before hand. We were seated at a corner upstair. To me, the upstair didn't seem as pleasant as downstair. It was a bit more "ghetto", with grayish walls and a window near ceiling of the wall that resembles those in a kitchen or bathroom. Nevertheless, I was excited about my meal.

Broadway Prime offers prime ribs, new york dry aged steak, fish of the day, and a vegetarian dish of grilled portobello mushroom. With each entree, it comes with a house salad, a side and popovers. My parents are big fans of ribs, so right away they knew they want to order prime ribs. Broadway Prime offers three kind of cuts for their prime rib and new york steak. The Peninsula Cut, which is a petite portion of the meat. The select Cut, which is a bigger size one, and the Broadway Cut, which is the thickest cut with the bone attached. Everyone in my family decided to order steak, so I want to change it up and order the fish instead. I know I can always eat off theirs and vice versa. The fish of the day for me was a grilled salmon. There are also many side orders to choose from: baked potato, creamed spinach, traditional mashed potato, creamed corn, and roasted garlic mashed potato.

Our waiter took our order and pretty soon, came back with our salad.

Fresh Salad with Broadway Prime's special dressing

The salad was drenched in dressing, which is one thing that disgust me with salad. Even though it disgusted me in a way, I took bites anyways seeing that my family who usually don't eat raw lettuce chowed down the plate. Boy! I was glad I ate some. The salad was delicious! The dressing definitely was something special. It resembles caesar dressing but tangy. I can also taste eggs in it.

Prime Rib (Peninsula Cut) with creamed spinach

Everyone in my family was surprised by the size of the meat that was on the table. The Peninsula Cut was supposed to be petite, but this thing was huge! It was very juicy and tender for the medium rare we requested. I was surprised that the au ju was also poured onto the plate already, and not given to us on the side. The plate also comes with horseradish dipping sauce on the side.

Grilled Salmon with Mango Salsa. I ordered a side of boiled spinach because I don't like anything creamed. Anyhow, I know I say this everytime but I am stupid for ordering fish at a steakhouse. My salmon was pretty dry and hard to eat. I usually don't use lemon juice on fish. But since the salmon was a little bland, I had to keep adding lemon juice and salsa to it.

The prime ribs were pretty good overall, but my favorite part of my meal are these popovers. I just had to dive into them right when the waiter placed them on the table because they were still warm. The outside was pretty crusty but inside was very custard-liked. It was great comfort!

After my family and I chowed everything down. We had no room for dessert. When the waiter saw my sister's empty plate, he asked if she wants another slice for prime ribs! Whoa! Soooo, with that said, my tip to you is that order the petite cut and wait to be asked for second when you finish it, or ask for a second piece yourself. It is on the house...FREE!

Even though Broadway Prime is a dim place with candlelights, it is not a quiet place. It wasn't overly loud, but not quiet either. It is definitely one of those chill places that people gather and talk.

Friendly reminder: Unless the restaurant is famous for its fish, otherwise, don't order fish at a steakhouse unless you want your fish dried.

Yucca What?! -- Limon Rotisserie

1001 S Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA
(415)821-2134
http://www.limonrotisserie.com/

My friends and I bought tickets to a concert by a Japanese group from Japan named An Cafe; and so, we decided to grab dinner around the area before heading to the show. One of my friends suggested Limon Rotisserie.

Limon Rotisserie is famous for their what else--rotisserie chicken aka Pollo a la Brasa ! The chicken itself is #37 on the Big Eat SF list, and the restaurant is one of the listed "Top 100 Restaurant" in San Francisco. As mentioned on their website, their rotisserie chicken sits in its marinade for 8 hours before roasting, so before I even enter, I know it is a must try!

Upon entering, the smell of roasting chicken rushed through my nose! It was a small but bright and modern restaurant. The menu consists of small cold plates and small hot places along with Pollo a la Brasa and side dishes. We decided to order one cold plate, one hot plate, one whole rotisserie chicken, and some sides to share between the four of us. With our food, we ordered glasses of sangria and a lemonade.

Pollo a la Brasa - Oh boy! This is one tasty chicken! Crispy and flavorful exterior, and moist tender interior. We ordered one chicken to share among four people at first, but it was so good, we ended up ordering another whole chicken on top of our food.

Ceviche de Pescado y Camaron - Halibut fillet and tiger shrimp marinated with lime juice, rocoto, garlic, and served with choclo-on-the-cob, camote and cancha - Yup, that's all the ingredient that's in this tapa. Simple yet exotic. The lime juice definitely made this dish very, very refreshing. The choclo-on-the-cob looks like corn but much starchy. Rocoto is a round chili pepper that is common in Peru, it's spicy enough to add a little kick to enhance the dish.

Seco de Costillas - Braised beef short ribs with huacatay and cilantro, served with potatoes,carrots and English peas. I usually don't like beef short ribs because it never seems tender to me. But Limon's beef short ribs is definitely very, very tender. They fall apart in your mouth. This dish also reminds me of the beef stew from Chinese restaurant.

Yucca Fritters (front) - The Yucaa Fritters are so good! It's crispy and light on the outside and inside is starchy goodness. The taste reminds me of sweet potatoes and the texture reminds of me regular potato.

Tacu-Tacu (back) - Tacu Tacu is a Peruvian dish made with seasoned bean and rice. The beans are mashed up and mixed into the rice, so to me, this looked like refried bean minus the oil and tasted like mashed beans paste. It tasted okay since I'm not a big fan of beans.

The sangria from Limon Rotisserie is oh la la, quite strong. It was un-gulp-able. I have to sip it! My friend ordered a "Fresh Made Lemonade" and indeed it tasted very fresh made and refreshing.

Limon's service was great! The waiter kept coming back to check on us and to fill our water. My gosh, their rotisserie chicken was good and yucca fritters are super yummy in my tummy! I can definitely go back for more any time!

Oh yes, here is a friendly tip for dinning in a restaurant serving small plates and tapas...bring as many friends as you can! Usually the menu consists of bil-jillion items that by going in a group, you can order more to try and to share!

Daikokuya Ramen

327 E 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA
(213) 626-1680
http://www.dkramen.com/

This is by far one of my two favorite ramen shops to go to in Los Angeles! Everytime when I'm in LA, I make sure I make a trip there, even when it's too hot for ramen.

Daikokuya is not a very big shop, so there is always a group of people waiting for seats outside the shop. Oh yes, and the wait is well worth it! The soup looks like miso soup, but it is actually made with soy sauce and pork bones. It is really tasty, and I can always taste the pork flavor in the soup. The chashu they use is kurobuta or black pork, which is one of the more tender kind of pork. The boiled eggs they used in the ramen are soaked in a special sauce over night before serving, and the yolks are always golden yellow and custard-liked. The ramen is thin but chewy. If you want the soup to be richer, you can ask for kotteri flavor, which uses "added soup extracted from the back fat" of the pork.

Daikoku Ramen - tonkotsu soup base, boiled chijire style egg noodles, kurobuta pork belly, marinated hard boil egg, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts and a tons of green onions.

It is pretty standard thing to order gyoza with ramen, but that's not the case with me most of the time. BUT at Daikokuya, ordering gyoza is a must! It is homemade, pan-fried and not deep fried like most ramen shops. The pork and vegetable filling is so juicy and tasty.

I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but Daikokuya loves topping their dishes with green onions. So if you don't like them, ask them not to put them. I always forget, so I always end up digging them out. I must say, they add up to a big pile every time!

I can't wait to go back again!