The Limited Edition IndoMie Burrito

Source: www.komodofood.com

I don't really enjoy eating Indonesian food while dining out (because it's simple food I find at home), but this fusion joint was actually pretty worthwhile. Besides the IndoMie burrito, I tried the gourmet tacos that's propelled Komodo food truck into two brick & mortar locations. The MP3 taco stood out because it comes with seasoned top sirloin steak, good old fashioned toasty tater tots, and a fried quail sunny side up egg on top. That is a true Indonesian American fusion taco right there! Various tacos that also paid homage to Indonesian cuisine included the "Java" (pork Rendang) and the "Soi" (tempeh and tofu). Other notable tacos that alluded to different cultures included the "Burgerrito" (a deconstructed burger), the "Moco" (Hawaiian loco moco), the "blazin' Shrimp (Singaporean style spicy shrimp), and the "BMC" aka banh-mi-chicken (essentially a Pho taco).

Komodo+MP3+Komodo+Asian Marinated Chicken

For the IndoMie fanatics out there, you haven't really tried IndoMie in all its glory until you've eaten from a homey little bowl on the streets of Indonesia...in front of a cart...cooked out of the same pot as the previous patron...the noodles boiled while still immersed within the original wrapper...throw in aand voila - IndoMie a la street style. THE BEST THING EVER...but not sure how it would measure up to any health code here in the land of the free.

For all those others stuck in LA, we now have our own IndoMie symbol that Indonesian mouths can be jealous of. Chef Erwin Tjahyadi (creator of Komodo Asian Fusion Restaurant & Food Trucks) is the brilliant man who came up with the wonderful IndoMie Burrito. Successfully colliding the heart of Los Angeles (a burrito) with Indonesia's guilty pleasure (an infamous instant ramen) deserves a huge round of applause.

IndoMie is one of Indonesia's best exports (source: myself). "Mie" simply means noodles in Bahasa Indonesia. Most instant ramen are only served in a soup form, but IndoMie is even more delicious as a dry noodle...more points to IndoMie. Oh, on a side note, IndoMie has been voted #1 and #2 best instant noodles in the world. The IndoMie Burrito is created with dry IndoMie noodles, a pinch of egg green onions and fried shallots, Chinese sausage cubes, and the traditional Indonesian fried egg..all served in a gluten-free flour tortilla. 

At one point, I caught myself eating the IndoMie with a fork out of the burrito. Okay, IndoMie is always really good even when you make it at your college apartment, but imagine an actual trained chef cooking it with that gourmet touch of extra deliciousness sprinkled on. You only have until this Sunday to try it out the IndoMie Burrito, so hurry your horses. Here's to hoping they can add this to their main menu, but I guess it wouldn't be as fun.

More ingenious ideas:
The restaurant's ceiling is decorated with hanging french fries container trays.

Komodo Cafe

8809 West Pico Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90035

235 Main St

Venice, CA 90291

*The IndoMie Burrito only available until November 15th (who wants to start a petition?)

[THE DREAM] Crescendo Ice Cream

If you think that my love for ice cream sprouted overnight, look back into my earlier posts in which I partook in my own #20DaysOfIceCream Challenge last summer. Now with my good friends, Billy and Bernard, we are bringing into fruition the toils of our weekly brainstorm meetings for the past year.

I'm fascinated with ice cream, intermediately passionate about business, and extremely obsessed with music. It only made sense to join this food + business + music loving team!

THE IDEA...
Billy, Bernard, and I have worked on creative projects in the past for our church, so we already had that team dynamic established from the get go. Billy approached us to start our own business venture, as all USC Marshall Business School students are all about that entrepreneur life. (Meanwhile in my college, we took great pride in selling the most Boba on campus...*Anteaters assemble on ring road*) But I digress.

Billy wanted to sell the ice cream bread found in Singaporean street vendor carts. In the abundance of cultural foods in LA, I loved that this was untapped territory. Sandwiching ice cream in bread is how my family eats ice cream, so it's funny when people think this concept is unusual because to me it is a normal dessert at home. By the way, since when did we consider "cookies" to be sandwich material? A true ice cream sandwich, if you think about it, is actually our ice cream bread product!

THE MODERN TWIST...
I was sold on Billy's idea the moment he brought it up, however, I thought we needed to do add that extra pizzazz as Americans love to take ideas and embellish them to make it more "Americuhn." I enjoy claiming to be a "professional happy maker," so that's kind of my part in the creation process of Crescendo.

What's fun, exciting, and makes you happy? Clouds of smoke seem to generate commotion among the crowds. Aha, liquid nitrogen! 

THE INFUSION...
Imagine us three sit around our kitchens tinkering with ice cream. Now imagine our parents just thinking we should really get out of the house and do normal 20 year old activities. (I'm just kidding...our parents have always been super supportive!) So at this point we just had to develop new, unique flavors.

The culinary mind of the group would be Bernard; he's the one who concocted the recipes and sealed the final flavors. Splashes of our exotic tea blend include dragon fruit, passion tea, with little bits of strawberry & apple.

THE MISSION...
Our ice cream sandwiches are served in modern simplicity with a thoughtful vision. You can discover an Indie musical artist right in the palm of your hands as our cups display names of artists we have partnered with and proudly support. Our whimsical flavors are coined with musical themed names which include BABY GRANILLA, COCOA-COUSTIC, CHA CHA MATCHA, COOKIE CAJÓN, & BAILEYS BASS. After all, we're all about "harmonizing sweet tastes."

The LAUNCH: 626 Night Market
The 626 Night Market is held three times in the summer with 80,000-100,000 guests attending each weekend. You only need to understand so much math to deduce that this means big business exposure for newbies like us. The collaboration of our efforts resulted in the liquid nitrogen infused ice cream with exotic tea blend. Sure enough, children, teens, and adults were equally fascinated by the clouds of liquid nitrogen infused during the ice cream making process.


Thank you to all those who supported throughout this summer. To all the family, friends, and new friends - we are so blessed by the love we experienced from this venture.

To our new vendor friends -- watch out because I'm inspired to write special posts on ya'll!

P.S. If you want to have the COOLEST party, book our catering services for your next event! 

This Is Going To Revolutionize My Coffee Weakness

Yes, I've got a long list of Starbucks lovers! Cue "Blank Space" by the Swizz.

When I am traveling, I try out the local coffee houses. However, when in LA you can't help but be bombarded with rounded forest green logos roaming the streets. Plus, for the amount I drink, regular coffee at Starbucks is pretty cost effective.

On the real though, this is going to change everything... Starbucks Mobile Orders! Whip out your beloved iPhone and place an order on the Starbucks mobile app. Voilà! Your one pump sweetener-light ice-whole milk Iced Coffee is ready at the bar of your Starbucks location of choice.

My only question...why did they take so long to finally roll this out? Oh and be on the watch for wireless smartphone charging that is trickling into a few locations.


--C.H.

Daifuku's Story In My Own Eyes

Just because you start a restaurant...

does not mean you're ridiculously made of money trees.

Many restaurants start as a family's dream, driven by the raw desire to provide for their loved ones. This man had been out of work for two years. He had suffered loss of his wife's mother and brother and his own mother, all within two years. He went through a difficult period in his life, struck by a discreet illness where he could only watch his family struggle to find a solution to their dire needs. 

Behind every trial is a victory. Behind every victory there is a story.

The man's dream was to find a career path that could lead him to victory. Not just for his family, but for other families as well. His biggest dream in life was not to open a restaurant. No, he loved to dream big, and even bigger than his own self-ambitions. This family's dream was to support those who needed to see their dreams come to fruition, too. 

One of my dad's biggest dreams is to be a part of the solution for children in countries all around the world who have lost their parents...because there are bigger dreams out there. A child wanting to go to school or having decent shoes to walk in - these are the bigger dreams to pursue. 

So I hope you can spread the love and understand what this restaurant means to my family and our business partners. It is not only our livelihood, but our avenue to serve for needs much bigger than ours. To fight for dreams much bigger than ours.

--C.H.

Daifuku Japanese Restaurant
2040 S. Brea Canyon Rd.
Diamond Bar, CA 91765

Relaunching Soon.

I promise.

Life has been quite the whirlwind lately. I've decided to not just relaunch but rebirth FooodisGoood.com! 

With several plans to unfolding this summer, FooodisGoood will venture into food entertainment initiative projects. For business inquiries: info@fooodisgoood.com

[SEATTLE BYTES] Seattle Foodventure Tips

I fell in love with this city called Seattle. Supposedly, it is the rainy city and associates with gloomy weather, yet within the four days I was there, the sun shined brightly each morning and the horizon was clear as a bell. 

Seattle is THE place for people who are crazy about these 5 Cs:

1. Coffee
2. Chic Cuisine
3. Contemporary Music and Arts
4. Comfort Casual Attire
5. Chillin' with C-Hawks ;)

Maybe my scope of Seattle is quite biased, or maybe Seattle just loves me as much as I love it, I would like to lean towards the latter. So without any further adieu, here are a few "Seattle Bytes" to check out should you ever visit the home of the Seahawks...

1. Pike Place Chowder at Pike's Market // 1530 Post Alley • Seattle, WA 98101

Dungeness Crab Roll + Market Chowder

2. Moore Coffee Shop // 1930 2nd Ave • Seattle, WA 98101

Lavender, Horchatta, Regular Latte with a cube of milk chocolate on the side

3. Top Pot Doughnuts // Multiple Locations • Seattle, WA

Old Fashioned Doughnut

4. Piroshky Piroshky Bakery // 1908 Pike Place • Seattle, WA 98101

Freshly baked Russian pastries

5. Beecher's Mac & Cheese // 1600 Pike Place • Seattle, WA 98101

The "World's Best Mac & Cheese"

6. Biscuit Bitch at Caffe Lieto  // 1909 1st Ave • Seattle, WA 98101

Sausage, biscuits & gravy, cheesy gritts

7. Umi Sake House // 2230 1st Avenue • Seattle, WA 98121

Quality Crafted Sushi Rolls

Chirashi Bowl

8. Paseo Caribbean Restaurant // 4225 Fremont Ave N • Seattle, WA 98103

Caribbean Roast Pork Sandwich

9. Molly Moon's Ice Cream // Multiple Locations • Seattle, WA

Rasberry hard cider sorbet & wild honey

10. Taylor Shellfish Oyster Bar // Multiple Locations • Seattle, WA

Fresh from the SEA of SEAttle (Yes, it's named Taylor) 

Honorable Mention: The Gum Wall // Pike Place Market Alley • Seattle, WA





BRING YOUR OWN GUM! (This is for photo op purposes only, unless you are really craving a free piece of gum...)

Seattle was absolutely beautiful last autumn. *Governator Voice*: I'LL BE BACK! #BananasTakeSeattle (Thanks to my Banana Pack for the food tour guidance.)

Cheers,
-C.H.



*Edit:

If you feel like this reader, I'm down to take a trip with ya'll, too :)