Finals Week Fuel

It's that time of year again. Finals week has come upon us. I remember when I was in school I'd practically live on campus for the week of finals. I think at one point I brought a toothbrush and left it in my purse when I'd stay overnight and go home at 5 or 6 in the morning. Nevertheless, our campus wouldn't have much eateries open, the only real option was Denny's or a 24-hour Starbucks. But you can only handle so much of it. Except there were those times when food trucks like Kogi would drop by the campus.

I would only find out when Kogi would drop by via Twitter; then I found this website that helped me find even more food trucks around or see where my favorite food trucks were on real time. So this is my finals gift to all of you students studying for finals. We need to fuel up to have the perfect amount of energy for those finals.

Check out http://roaminghunger.com/OC for the food trucks that drop by late night for your finals schedule.

Good luck on finals and congratulations to the 2013 graduates!

Healthy Eating Means Good Fortune at Fortune Cookies

Tired of Chinese food to-go? Want some fast casual AND healthy Asian food? Well I've got just the place - Fortune Cookies Restaurant.

Restaurant Layout

Fortune Cookies is not your typical cultural setting. First, it's located in a not so appealing plaza but don't be fooled by its externalities. Ignore the sign outside of the building seeming as plain as Times New Roman font; just take a peek through the glass window and you'll be curious to go inside and try the place out for yourself. It's set in a modern atmosphere with cushioned booths, tables for larger parties, and a sushi bar that runs along the wall. The ambiance is casual and the seating is spacious.

What takes the cake for this restaurant are the healthy alternatives they have to offer. There are:

-Heart Healthy options for those watching their cholesterol, blood pressure, and/or blood sugar levels

-Gluten free options on over a dozen menu choices

-Rice substitutions in addition to white rice (brown rice for a healthier alternative, red rice for a nutty, earthy feeling, and black rice for your daily dose of fiber and antioxidants.)

-Healthy sashimi and salad dressing options in any combination you choose and the entrée would be less than 250 calories.

Brown Rice Option

The Eat Healthy, Stay Healthy program helps promote better eating for students and families. Kudos to that! This has also become a tagline, or motto, for their website and restaurant. It works as a loyalty program using rewards cards every time they dine. A percentage of their meal goes to a child's school or if it's a family rewards card, points are accumulated and deals are offered from time to time. (For more info on the program check out the Eat Healthy, Stay Healthy tab on the main website.

Personally I like my Asian cultural cuisine to be experienced separately if the restaurant I'm dining markets as one specific type - though there are a few exceptions. Most of the dishes were Chinese, but then you get to the end of the menu and suddenly there’s a full sushi bar. Weird, but I guess it works out as people have told me the sushi was good.

Appetizer

I dined with a friend one night and our wait time wasn’t long at all. After being seated, our waiter took our drink orders and came back with a complimentary appetizer. Another kudos for that! Feeling the mood for seafood, we ordered the Veggie Lo Mein, Kung Pao Shrimp, and Fish Filet with Garlic Sauce. This place gave generous proportions so it was easy to share. Some dishes proved to be more authentic than others, though that would be because of the healthier option that was available. The glazes and sauces were not that sweet/savory, but they did add flavor to the dishes. I guess that’s where the healthy part kicked in. They weren’t drenched in soy sauce or sweet and sour sauce, just lightly coated. We also ordered brown rice for a healthy alternative. The entrées satisfied. The service was super efficient, considering we came during the dinner rush.

Veggie Lo Mein and Fish Filet

Kung Pao Shrimp

Overall, Fortune Cookies is a better alternative to everyday chinese food meals we eat. While you won't have that traditional deep fried goodness, you'll still delight in the taste of savory goodness from other chinese dishes. Just like their motto, Eat Healthy Stay Healthy, this restaurant is a great place for healthy eating and  happy living.

Fortune Cookies is located at:

18774 Brookhurst Street Fountain Valley, CA 92708

www.fortunecookiesrestaurant.com

They also have a second location is in Los Alamitos!

Pieology: The Art of Pizza

What do Subway, Chipotle and Pieology have in common? It's the freedom to make your food the way you want it. Subway with sub sandwiches, Chipotle with burritos, and Pieology with pizza... Yes, you read it right - PIZZA.

Pieology sign - seen on N State College Blvd in Fullerton, Ca

When you step into Pieology you get the same feeling at a Subway or Chipotle. The friendly workers, Employees, or Pieologists (as they like to call them), are behind the glass waiting for you to instruct them on how to decorate your 8" thin crust pizza. For my fellow crust lovers, sorry but they only do thin crust. Except the real deal about this place are the toppings of choice.

Prepared fresh everyday, choose from a varitety of meats, vegetables, fruits, and spices to top your pie. You control what to put on your pizza, the amount and placement. They also have seven Pieology creations that you can choose and even add on to if you can't decide where to start. Granted, pizza may not be the healthiest snack, though they have a gluten-free crust option, which I've tried once and is pretty darn good, and their ingredients are fresh. The fact that you're controlling your proportions should be considered a better alternative. Pieologists bake your pizza in a fire stone oven right in front of your eyes; the natural oils from your toppings are what you'll get out of it. Your pizza will be ready in less than 10 minutes - thought you'll probably consume it in less time than that!

Since Pieology is across the street from the Cal State Fullerton Campus (Go titans!) and I live in the area, I've spent quite a few times in this pizzeria. In the past, these were some creations I've made/ordered:

This was a Create Your Own concoction of mine. I was going for the meaty/hot theme with sausages and pepperoni then a nice drizzle of jalapeño and peppers. Then I added some red sauce, cheese and other veggies to balance out all the meat. 

I asked the worker one time if many people get 'the works' as Subway would call it. And they said yes, but the pizza gets pretty heavy/tall. Well that pretty much convinced me one time to get pretty much everything. And that's the result of this pizza. Well, every topping but I only asked for Pepperoni as my meat.

This has got to be my favorite thing to order at Pieology- #3 BBQ Chicken pizza. I've tried others but nothing compares to this. The BBQ drizzle is the right amount to balance out the sweetness of the sauce with the savory taste of the cheese and chicken. The thin crust adds just the right amount to 'fill you up', making this pizza perfection. That's exactly what this is - perfect.

The place is very casual with low couches, booths and regular wooden tables. It feels like a garage, being the main window in the front opens like a garage. It may be a bit messy at times because the place is constantly crowded, but you're meant to just stay there for probably 30 minutes to enjoy a pizza and a quick conversation with classmates/friends. I'm sure your friend's garage wasn't the cleanest, but it was still presentable. And that's what the inside of this place feels like.

What really caught my attention was the quote wall. It has nothing to do with the pizza, just something a quote freak like me would appreciate. Maybe what the owner was trying to say is to read these inspirational words, take control of your pizza choices, and take control of your life. Huh... It's possible that he WAS on to something when he added the quotes to the wall! Or you know, just to make the place look more hip and cool for the younger crowd. Either way, this place is a great hidden gem.

Pieology is definitely a place for happy eating. It's a great alternative because you get to control what you add to your pizza (not to mention fresh ingredients), and you leave the place with a smile on your face all the time. So it's definitely happy living too. And their philosophy works well with mine: "MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE ONE PIZZA AT A TIME." Watch out world because Pieology is the next big thing!

Pieology is located in Fullerton, Ca
516 N State College Blvd Fullerton, Ca 92831

*Pieology recently opened their second restaurant in Irvine, Ca. Check them out!

Sipz: A Vegetarian/Asian Fusion Experience

Happy New Year my fellow foodies! Hope you had a relaxing and food-filled holiday! I spent a good amount of my vacation in my hometown, San Diego. I love San Diego and everything about it- the people, the location, the lifestyle, and especially the food. It may not be the top metropolitan foodie city of California, but San Diego’s got its gems for sure. One of them is a mom and pop joint called Sipz - a vegetarian-Asian fusion experience. I come from an Asian culture and I know that the food can be hit or miss with being heavily vegetable influenced or meat influenced, especially with my specific culture. So I thought it was interesting going to a vegetarian/vegan Asian restaurant. Though I can vouch for others when they say Asian food is good but not always healthy (i.e. greasy, fatty, fried). I’ve heard great reviews about Sipz so before I went back to Orange County, some friends took me there for an early birthday dinner.

Let’s start with location. The one we went to was located on 30^th street in the North Park, a business district. That said, it’s street parking, but what can you expect at a downtown type of neighborhood? Sipz is on the same block as sports bars and other restaurants that are pleasing to the meat eater. But if you disregard the “Vegetarian” in the sign and actually go inside, you won’t regret it. The place was chic and had a very modern atmosphere. The service was of good quality. We got to experience it during rush and calm rimes since we dined right before and during the dinner rush. My friends were new to vegetarian restaurants and our waiter helped them decide what to eat. The waiter was genuine with his suggestions based on your personal food preferences and he didn’t push them to go for anything pricey; in fact, our waiter kept telling us the better ways to order some things (i.e. Get a FREE Mango Iced Tea with any entree paid for in cash, order a large option instead and share because it’s much cheaper). That sold me right there.

Japanese Fire Noodlez (Mild-Medium)

The menu was 100% vegetarian and I want to say about 40% was vegan (plus gluten-free options). It consisted of Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and Thai dishes. What I liked was how confident they were to write chicken or shrimp without quotations because obviously you’d know this was vegetarian and the taste would be almost the same. We ordered the Japanese Fire Noodlez and Tangy Orange Chicken to test out the meat. The chicken tasted pretty good and was pretty damn close to the real thing, but I guess the carnivore inside of me still knew it was imitation chicken. That would also probably be due to the fact that I’ve grown familiar to soy than tofu, that I recognized the difference in texture. Nevertheless, the food was delightful. Their ‘no meat’ dishes are packed full of veggies, like the Vietnamese Rice Noodle Soup we ordered, so I would so don’t fret about ordering something with no meat. Pricing is reasonable - less than $20 a dish and it’s a casual setting that happens to be located in a downtown-like neighborhood; so several factors are put into price. But you get what you pay for, which is good tasting vegetarian food for the healthy eater on a budget.

Vietnamese Rice Noodle Soup

Tangy Orange Chicken

Sipz was over all very good experience, even with figuring in my preconceived ideas about vegan or vegetarian ‘meat’. Like what another friend of mine who I was dining with said, the best vegetarian places are the ones where you can leave without feeling totally bloated or bloated at all and feeling good about yourself. Sipz did justice. I’d give it 4 out of 5 stars only for it’s downtown location (parking), but Sipz is definitely a place for healthy eating and happy dining :)

Sipz has 2 locations in San Diego (Neighborhoods: Clairemont and North Park)
www.sipz.com