Hot Pot City in Westminster, CA

I've been debating if I should keep my anonymity but my yelp account links to this blog so I suppose I'll be open. 

I work at the best place on Earth! No, not Disneyland you cray cray! Matsu Japanese restaurant in Huntington Beach, hollaaa. Every year we have a Major Cleanup Day, where everyone (that includes the servers, cooks, hosts, busboys, everyone!) comes in before opening and cleans the entire restaurant. Ughh. I swear it hasn't been a year yet but this weekend we all came in to clean up boo. I'm sure I inhaled quite a bit of Windex and dust T_T. Jk, cleaning isn't that bad; my coworkers are hilarious. My boss is the biggest goof of us all. He found an umbrella and purse in our lost and found and started posing with them. I told him to pose for my camera but he said no. I snapped one picture of him that came out funny and kind of cool. 

Why so shy, Yu-chan?

After cleaning up, we all sit in the bar and eat lunch. Sometimes we get burgers, sometimes sushi, one time Thai food. This time...

 Pizza! Boo, my coworkers and I wanted salad hahah. Ironically, I've never been a big fan of pizza but sometimes I get cravings for it. Mmm crispy yet doughy crust with sweet tomato sauce and a crudload of meat and veggies. 

Pizza doesn't really come close to satisfying my culinary cravings so the next day, I went to eat hot pot!

Hot Pot City in Westminster. This place is just A-OK (portions are pretty small) but I like it because it has both hot pot AND a grill. Some places have only hot pot or shabu shabu and places like korean bbq have only grills. Hot Pot City is a satisfactory medium; I can slurp on some soup and eat some hot, sizzling meat. They have meat and seafood plates ranging from $3-$6 and vegetable sets (~$5) as well. Hot Pot City is different as well in that you kind of serve yourself. You walk to these big glass refrigerators in the back of the restaurant and just grab whatever dishes you want, go back to your table, and cook! We got: quail eggs, a veggie Canh Chua set, clear noodles, ribeye beef, pork, and prawns. There's  housin sauce, nuoc mam, chili pepper, peanut sauce, butter, etc that you can use to flavor up your food. I really just wanted canh chua, yumm.

Canh chua, my favorite Vietnamese soup!

Then when I got home from that, my little sister made my favorite sushi! My little sister is a great cook; she's only 16 and still learning but I give my props to her. Sometimes (actually, a lot of times) her food doesn't come out that well haha, but sometimes she makes great things. I've been cooking since I can remember, but sometimes my lil sis even exceeds me. This time, she made me a garlic shrimp roll! I know, sounds gross but so good. Replica of Sagami Tei's Stinky Grilled Shrimp Roll. 

California roll and on top is grilled shrimp and garlic chips. 

Mmm, rice, seaweed, shrimp, garlic. Delicious combination.

I've had chipotle chicken breasts marinating in my refrigerator for a while and this morning I cooked them to make healthy chicken burritos. I cooked brown rice, sliced some avocados, made corn salsa. But right when I was done, I had a craving for something else...

Neoguri: Spicy seafood flavor

Instant ramen! Hahaha instant ramen is one of those guilty pleasures that I think most people love. I haven't had a dose of MSG in a while soo I abandoned my chicken for this. Not sure if this brand is new, but I've never had it before.

So cute, it actually has strips of dried seaweed for flavor!

I do not subject myself to eating instant ramen by itself, so I prepared some shrimp, shiitake mushrooms, green onion, corn, arugula (unorthodox but I love arugula) and a poached egg. 

Unhealthy, but hey, I put some veggies in it!

I'm still new at food blogging so it's been a bit of a struggle trying to document my culinary experiences. Like this evening, my boyfriend and I made Japanese beef sukiyaki that came out soo good, but I was so absorbed in eating that I forgot to take pics. The one time I actually cook something, I forget to take pictures of it. *bangs head against wall* Oh well, I'll get used to this soon enough!