Bachi Burger - Las Vegas, NV

While I was out in Vegas this past weekend, I got the chance to eat at a couple of new-to-me restaurants. One of these places was Bachi Burger which was featured on an episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. I got that in the correct order, right? I'm always switching those D's around to my liking.

I know, triple D got me again. I can be so suggestible, except this time, I was not the one that fell for it. Obviously, because this post is all about burgers. It has M written all over it. I like burgers enough, I just never crave for them. Can't relate? That's okay, let's move on.

There were a couple of things that really bothered me about this place that I want to just get off my chest before I start talking about the food. Our party of four arrived at the restaurant around 2pm on a Saturday afternoon. So it was already past normal lunch hours. We opened the door only to find that the front of the restaurant was full of people waiting for a table. We ended up waiting for 30-40 minutes before we were finally seated. The restaurant isn't huge but it isn't small either but the food is made to order and that takes time. A lot of time apparently. Once we were seated, the servers were so busy that it took another 10-15 minutes before anyone came by to take our order. Once our order was in, it took another 20-30 minutes before the food arrived. So from the moment we got there, it would be about 1.5 hours or so before we were actually eating. I don't know who's fault this is really. There were many comments on Yelp about the bad/slow service here but upon closer inspection, all the wait staff were really busy attending to the customers. It wasn't like they were standing around with nothing to do. I think this place just needs more cooks or wait staff. They have a second location near by to alleviate the amount of people wanting to eat here but we picked the wrong location that afternoon or maybe it is equally busy.

Aside from all that though, the burgers were pretty amazing! The patty was juicy and cooked perfectly, while the bun was fresh and nicely toasted. This isn't my burger but I had a bite and it was heavenly. Made me almost wish that I had ordered one myself. Next time.

These pork belly in steamed buns were equally delicious! There were even slices of boiled egg in there. It didn't really need it but it also didn't take away from it's deliciousness.

Okay, so you want to know what I ended up ordering? Before you shoot me, let me explain. I ended up ordering a salad. But it was not just any old salad. It was the Bachi Chicken Caesar Salad and it held it's own at this burger joint. What? I'm a disgrace to the foodie community? Hardly! This was the best Caesar salad I've ever had. I was really surprise to find that the chicken was boiled but it was really moist and the chicken flavor really stood out. My mom prepares a boiled chicken dish at home but I rarely eat boiled chicken when I am dining out. It was a pleasant surprise. Reminded me of my mom. There were also two anchovy filet that topped the salad and they were not from a can. The wait was terribly long but somehow after eating this salad I almost didn't mind.

Another note-worthy thing at Bachi's is their drinks. Sister K ordered this strawberry jasmine ice tea that was made with strawberry puree. It was unique and tasty. Not your average strawberry ice tea for sure.

Bachi Burger
9410 W Sahara Ave, Ste 150
Las Vegas, NV 89117
(702) 255-3055

Leaving Las Vegas

I took a little trip to Vegas this past weekend. And as to be expected, it was hot as Hades! Topping out at 109 degrees during some parts of the day. I wouldn't say that I would want to live there or anything but I am always cold so I don't exactly hate the dry heat. 

I didn't win big. I did find these very large playing cards and poker chips. I can't remember if I was tipsy in this photo or not but I'm going to venture and say yes!

There was a lot of damage done on the eating front. This is just part of it. 

We stayed at the MGM Grand Hotel and they had a pretty nice pool area complete with a lazy river. I was too cheap to pay to use the gym and it was too hot to run outside obviously so I jogged around the lazy river. That was my workout that day.

This was my jogging fuel so it was probably all a wash.

I got back in town late last night. I went for a run this morning to undo some of the caloric damages that was incurred in Vegas. I probably didn't run enough. A billion more miles sounds about right. After my run, we all headed to Huntington Beach to cruise around on the bike path. 

There was some sort of Fourth of July festive near the pier so we stopped to get some lunch.

We concluded this gluttonous weekend by having dinner at the Kickin' Crab in Santa Ana where we demolished a huge bag of garlic-y seafood. Yeah, I guess I will be extra good next week with my workouts and diet. I mean I pretty much have to now. There is going to be one last feast tomorrow at my parents' to celebrate the Fourth. I should have signed up for a race tomorrow to offset all the eating I'll be doing but I'm just not prepared to "race" anything tomorrow except to the dinner table. Haha. I'm such a pig.

Legend of the Nojoqui Falls

So this is more of a story than a legend but that doesn't mean we can't make this story legendary. Ok, no it is just a story.

So just down the road from where Samuel L. Jackson buys his produce is the Nojoqui Falls Park. Just as the name would have you believe, it is a park with a waterfall about a 0.6 mile hike in. I mean up.

It's not as bad as I'm making it out to sound. It's more of a gradual incline. Plus, it is 0.6 miles of natural beauty. Plus, it is only 0.6 miles.

About 0.2 miles into the hike, Sister K and I noticed this sign. 

Upon closer inspection of the sign, we discovered that making a lot of noise while hiking reduces the chances of surprising a lion. Wait, what? No one said anything about mountain lions. I want my money back. Oh yeah, this was free. Surprising anything that you can't out run is like at the top of the list of bad ideas for runners or it should be. 

My sister and I are pretty soft spoken people so we felt that it would probably be safer to just play some music on my iPhone while we hiked. She tells me to select Gotye's Somebody That I Use To Know. So I did. So that was the day we used Gotye to scare off the mountain lion while hiking to Nojoqui Falls. I can't make this stuff up.

What the heck? No one said anything about stair climbing.

So we finally make it to the falls. It was pretty dry there that day but still pretty cool. This fall is seasonal so depending on the weather/season when you come to visit will determine the amount of water flow of the falls. This fall is unique in that instead of eroding the side of the cliff it is actually building outward.

And just so you don't show up and think that this is a massive waterfall and accuse me of false advertising, here I am next to it for size comparison.

Miniature Unicorns and Zonkey!

I am taking a rest day today. Yep, completely off from running or any other sort of activities that may be mistaken for exercising. I went on a run this past Monday after my not so good race in wine country and that sucked as well. So I'm just going to give it a rest until Friday. I have a pretty long run coming up this weekend in preparation for the Ojai Marathon so I need to make sure that I am mentally prepared for that. It's been awhile since I've done a long training run. I know that sounds weird coming from someone who runs as many races as I do. So that's enough talk about running. Let's talk about miniature horses and donkeys!

As you know, I like to roll my vacation time into my race weekends and kill two birds with one stone. So naturally this past weekend when I was in town for the SB wine country half, I tried to fit in as much activities as I could. Luckily, I was traveling with Sister K who is the master of fitting in as many activities as one can in a short amount of time. Really, she's a genius at what she does!

One of our stops this past weekend was at the Quicksilver Miniature Horse Ranch. We had passed this place a couple of times during our other visits into this area but had not stopped to check it out until now. So I have to just say that miniature horses are adorable! If I had the space and money, you'd know there would be a couple of these walking around the grounds of my huge mansion.

They really are cute! I found them fascinating because they are about the size of a large dog when they are babies. I don't know why but I started to talk about unicorns with Sister K while we were walking around admiring these animals. Apparently, I wasn't the only one that had unicorn in the brain since I overheard some other people there also talking about unicorns. I think seeing horses the size of dogs causes one's brain to go haywire. Before you know it, you actually start to think that maybe, just maybe they can breed unicorns. Maybe I had just been out in the sun too long because as Sister K pointed out...unicorns are not real but miniature horses are so if you are in Solvang anytime soon, so check them out. It's free.

So this little guy caught my eye. The little brown and white one. 

Just look at that little face! He would make a beautiful unicorn. Yes he would.

Just make sure you don't do this. Just leave your box of fingers in your car.

Quicksilver Ranch

1555 Alamo Pintado Road

Solvang, California 93463

10-3pm

Our next stop was at the Seein' Spots Farm to check out some miniature donkeys. There was this large tom turkey on this farm that was making a lot of noise dragging his wings on the ground. I'm not exactly sure if he wanted to show us who's boss or if that is some normal turkey behavior. 

Sister K + Donkey equals Konkey. Okay I made that up.

But here's something I didn't make up. This here is a Zonkey. Zebra+Donkey. Who knew!

There was also this magnificent horse there. Want!

Seein' Spots Farm

2599 Baseline Ave

Solvang, CA 93463

Running All Day...Errands That Is

Last night before I went to bed I wrote up a list of errands that I had wanted to get done today. It's been a while since I've had a free Saturday to run errands so I wanted to get as much of it done as possible. First up, I wanted to hit up the farmers market to pick up some produce for the week. I've missed the beautiful produce at the farmers market. If you like beets and Maui onions, you are in luck because they are in season now and they are huge! I saw some cherries but they are not quite there yet.

Next up, the OC Fairgrounds to pick up my race packet for the OC Half Marathon tomorrow. Really slow moving traffic into the parking lot of the fairgrounds. Thousands of people trying to get into a small area. Sucked! I ended up parking on a side street because it would have taken me two hours to get into the fairgrounds parking lot. There was a lack of signage so I had no idea where the registration area was located. There was a kids race going on near the Centennial Farm area so I just walked over there. I finally found the expo located in one of the buildings. I picked up my bib and shirt, walked around a bit and left. From there I headed to the car wash and then the grocery store.

This photo has nothing to do with errands, just some pretty flowers from Sister K.

Some beautiful produce I got from the farmers market that I will be cooking up for my pre-race carbo meal this evening. 

And for dessert...

Kaya (Soft Tofu) - Irvine, CA

I have to admit that I am not all that knowledgeable about Korean cuisine. All I know is that I like it. I can count all the times that I've eaten at Korean restaurants. Most of my encounters with Korean cuisine have been because of my brother-in-law who loves Korean BBQ and Soft Tofu Restaurants. There have been a couple of times that I've accidentally walked into a restaurant not really knowing that it served Korean food. Yeah stuff like that happens to me all the time.

Anyhow, this past weekend Sister K was in town and whenever she is in town I always want to try new restaurants with her because she is a pretty adventurous eater. We actually found this place by chance; and in "we" I actually mean my sister did. :D

Long story short, by the time we got to the restaurant that we had originally wanted to eat at on that day, lunch was already over so they were closed. Sad! Sister K quickly hoped on Yelp and found this place and it took little convincing before I had already turned the car around the was headed here.

Some Japanese and Korean restaurants have fake food displays so you can see what the dishes look like before you order. It's a smart idea because people eat with their eyes first.

Since we were having a late lunch, it wasn't too crowded or noisy in there which was nice. While I was sitting there, I realized that I had been there before. Perhaps about 10+ years ago when I first started living in Irvine. Don't know why I had not been back. I even remembered what I had ordered.

They brought out a veggie pancake-like appetizer for us to snack on while we waited for our orders. It was pretty greasy and I probably would not have eaten it except that I was hungry.

I decided to order the Kal Gooksoo which is a seafood broth noodle soup and Sister K ordered the Seafood Soft Tofu Soup. Her soup was really flavorful and if you have never had soft tofu before, you need to go and try it. The tofu is the silken variety and it sits in a flavorful broth that is served piping hot alongside a bowl of freshly steamed rice. I think I am going to order this the next time I come back.

Here is the Kal Gooksoo up close and personal. The seafood broth to this noodle soup was equally flavorful in a different way then the soft tofu soup. The noodles were chewy and had that made in-house taste. I have to say that very few things in life compares to a big bowl of hot noodle soup. It's a total comfort food thing.

So one of the coolest things about Korean cuisine is the banchan! Banchans are small dishes of food served with your main meal. Kind of like little side dishes. Each one different. Offering different textures and tastes. A couple of banchans we had with our meal included marinated potatoes, steamed sprouts, seaweed salad, kimchi and some stewed tofu, just to name a few. Different restaurants tend to serve different types of banchan but they always seem to include kimchi. That is a must! I enjoyed my meal here today and hope to come back soon to try some of their other offerings. Can't let another ten years go by without eating here again.

Kaya (Soft Tofu) Restaurant
14120 Culver Dr, Ste G

Irvine, CA 92604

(949) 726-9424

Spectating the Socal Half Marathon

This morning was the running of the SoCal Half Marathon held in Irvine the first weekend of January. Believe it or not I did not run it this year even though it is literally in my back yard. My UC is acting up so I haven't been running as much as I would have liked but I woke up early this morning to cheer on my fellow runners.

The spirited ladies of Team Sparkle: Sarah, Kat, Heather and her daughter, Julie, some super short chick and Margot. When I saw Heather's tweet a couple of weeks ago about being out on the course on race morning to cheer on the runners, it occurred to me that this was the perfect opportunity for me to still be a part of the race without running it. Plus I would get to spend some time with some of my Ragnar teammates.

I'm such a rookie at this race cheering stuff, unlike Sarah who came with an actual cowbell or Heather who came with posters or Julie who came with extra cowbells and mimosas (thank you for lending me a cowbell!) or Margot who came with orange slices. Gah! Next time!

It was actually really fun to spectate and cheer, plus we coordinated the heck out of those Sparkle skirts. Hehe. It wasn't even planned. Being a spectator did make me realize that I need to be more interactive with the crowds the next time I run a race.

Photo borrowed from Sarah

I left my cheerleading duties early because Sister K was in town and I wanted to spend time with her.

We went to the farmers market to pick up some produce for the week. Then we went to a late lunch at a Korean restaurant. I will post about that at a later time.

I've been craving strawberries but they have not been looking very good in the markets but today I saw these organic ones and they are amazing!

Since we had a late lunch, we made this snack later on in the evening to eat while watching Chopped. Calling it a day! Good night!

Happy Birthday Sister K!