Crazy for Laotian Cuisine in Corona - CLOSED

Kra Z Kai's 

1218 Magnolia Ave. Suite 110

Corona, CA 92881

Time to get a little controversial. Coed baby showers are the worst. I swore I would never attend another one after one of my friends roped me into one six or seven years ago. I was promised the guys would hang out in the other room, watching football, drinking beer, and eating pizza. I got a broken TV in the community's clubhouse, boring Costco sandwiches, no other men in attendance, and my friend telling me he had to be here so no football would be watched. Thanks a lot for the false illusions of grandeur, guy. 

Fast forward to the present. My friend Ozker is having a baby any day now. Thanks to the pandemic, though, the baby shower was replaced with a driveby baby shower. Not to be too glib on the subject, but that meant no lame baby games, no making small talk with people I don't know, and, best of all, being back home way more quickly so we could continue binge-watching Peaky Blinders. It also allowed Katie and me to try a restaurant in Corona. I did some research and decided we'd try Kra Z Kai's. 

Kra Z Kai's is a Laotion barbeque spot. For those unaware, Laos is a landlocked country in Asia, surrounded by Vietnam, Myanmar, China, Thailand, and Cambodia. This is probably unsurprising to any of you, but this is my first foray into eating Laotian cuisine. It's not a real surprise when you consider a quick Yelp search that reveals that this is the only Laotian spot in Southern California I could find. The other handful of places serving food from Laos usually also serve Thai or Vietnamese cuisine. 

The Laotian food at Kai's is meat-centric, which I learned is what they would consider street food in Vientiane, the capital city, and other cities throughout the country. The menu here is small, with seven entrees, two salads, and some ala carte items. Prices at this counter-service spot are also modest, as an entree will only dent your wallet of $13. This will be a concise review, as Katie got the same plate as me. You'd think she'd know better after 11 years of this blog, or maybe it's just that I have such great tastes. Yeah, probably not. On to the Laotian barbeque. 

Since we only had one plate, I decided to add all the photos I took. This Lao BBQ Mix Plate ($12.99) is their most popular item on the menu at Kai's, and it also gives you a taste of almost everything they serve. Like a sampler plate, which I almost always gravitate towards when eating at a place for the first time. This meal includes one each of the following; a BBQ chicken thigh, BBQ pork rib, Lao sausage, a BBQ beef short rib, rice, and a side salad to round it out. My favorite thing on the plate was the Lao sausage. It's a pork sausage with onion, lemongrass, and scallion added. The texture might be too coarse for some, but the flavor resonates. I liked the contrast between the lemongrass, onion, and the rich pork. The pork spare rib was marinated nicely and full of meat that was very tender and flavorful. The chicken was juicy inside and had a nice, subtle, sweet glaze outside. The beef short rib was probably my fourth favorite, as it was too much work for so little meat. My bites were fine, but they did not stand out like the rest of the proteins on this plate. I should have taken a picture of the sauces that came with this, but I was intent on eating rather quickly after driving for half an hour with the aroma of barbecued meats wafting from the backseat. One of the sauces was a sweet and spicy chile sauce that packed a punch after you got past the sweet first part of each bite. The other sauce was Jeow Mak Len, a spicy tomato-based sauce seasoned with fish sauce. This one was excellent as well, so I alternated between the two. The salad was a basic green salad, and I went with the fried rice option instead of the steamed or sticky rice. This version of fried rice was much less greasy and lighter than you'd typically get at your local Chinese restaurant. The added onion was a nice touch as well. 

This was an excellent introduction to Laotian barbecue. It did not remind me of Thai food like others have said, but it was more like Hawaiian barbecue without the sweet teriyaki covering the meats. I didn't miss it, as these proteins could stand independently. I look forward to trying other Laotian favorites on their return trips; sticky rice, papaya salad, the Lao beef jerky, and the Lao beef dip. Even better news, I learned that they have opened a booth at the new food hall in Stanton, Rodeo 39, So the people of OC can now forgo the drive out the 91 Freeway and experience Kra Z Kai's Laotian cuisine closer to home. I'm still not into coed baby showers, but this driveby version wasn't awful, and it got me to cross off another country's cuisine. Only about another 130 more to go, give or take.  

Out of five elephants (because Laos is known as the Land of a Million Elephants, even though their numbers have declined to just 800, unfortunately), five being best to zero being worst, Kra Z Kai's gets 3 solid elephants. 

For more information about Kra Z Kai's, head to their website here: https://krazkais.com/ 

Oh Boy! It's Oliboli Donuts in Tustin

Oliboli Donuts

135 West First St. 

Tustin, CA 92780 

Donuts are a magical force. There's not much that can get me up and out of the house before 7am on a Sunday. It's not even just me, my parents, sister, and brother in law joined as well. Donuts can not only work miracles, but they can also bring families together as well. If a little donut shop could do all of this, it definitely gives me some much-needed hope. Especially when you are talking about Oliboli Donuts in Tustin. 

I've been a little donut obsessed lately, as I stumbled upon Brad A Johnson's recent article in the OC Register about the top ten donut spots in OC.  I had been to a few of them, but I felt ashamed that I had not been to Oliboli, which took up residence as the number one spot on his list. I immediately made plans to meet my family there the week that the article came out, and since they are all early risers, we deiced to attempt to beat the donut crazed crowds and hit this place a half-hour after they open. It turned out to be a great move. 

Oliboli Donuts is a family run business helmed by Brooke and Victor DesPrez, OC natives and high school sweethearts. If the name sounds familiar it's probably because you remember Brooke from her days when she was one of the founders of another donut powerhouse, Sidecar Doughnuts. Not sure what led to her leaving that venture, but I think a lot of people are pretty happy that she did not leave donuts behind. 

From what I can ascertain, Brooke is the in charge of the kitchen, and Victor, the more talkative of the two handles the front of the house. My dad and Victor struck up an instant conversation before we even entered the building. We could sense the pride that he has in his business and his energy, which is very impressive since it was before 8am. He did mention that since the article came out, which was a surprise to them, that they had been extremely busy and resulted in them selling out of donuts the day before. 

The gloominess of the morning overcast melted away once I walked inside and the sweet aroma of freshly baked donuts hit my nose. The inside of the shop was sleek and clean with single donuts displayed behind the glass case carefully labeled. The chalkboard menus hanging above the display lists classics and special donuts available for that day. 

Prices range between $3.50 to $9, so yes, these are not like the donuts at your local donut shop around the corner. They are freshly made to order, with terms like, "forty-hour yeast" and "freshly milled" listed prominently on the menu. There's also a pretty extensive coffee, tea, and beverage menu, but I'm not into those, I was here for one thing, what some have called the best donuts in OC. Let's see if they live up to the hype. 

With the five of us, we had the opportunity to try a good cross-section of the donuts offered at Oliboli. What I noticed right off was that these donuts were lighter than your normal fried donuts. They were a great vessel for the quality ingredients topping them. They make everything here from scratch. The graham cracker and marshmallow are housemade on the S'mores Donut ($6.50), and they actually use real crumbled bacon on their excellent Burnt Butter Bourbon Bacon Donut ($4.50). You can actually taste the real fruit used to top the Strawberry ($3.75) and the mixture of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries in the popular Bumbleberry ($3.75). The cake donuts are my favorite with a slight crunch to it when bitten into, while the inside is pillowy soft, and airy. The Spice Donut ($3.50) is an elevated crumb donut from your local spot, with its pecan crumb topping mixed with cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. The yeast donuts are even lighter than the cake ones, which does not seem possible. The Bavarian Cream ($4.50) features really good chocolate and a dollop of vanilla cream on top, much to my dad's consternation, as he really wanted the cream stuffed inside. Always the purist, he still managed to snag the last bite of this one with a stealth maneuver. Very crafty Pop.  

I wanted to highlight what I felt was the best donut of the day for me, the Banoffee ($6.50). This is listed as one of their specials, so hope and pray that it's offered when you visit. Ever since the pandemic started I have been on a banana kick. While others have perfected their sourdough bread, I've been making banana chocolate chip bread, thanks to my sister in law's overbuying of bananas. Thanks, Sara. Anyways, this donut is inspired by the English dessert, banoffee pie, which will be my next dessert to try to make at home. This one at Oliboli is a yeast donut with sliced bananas, toffee sauce, whipped cream, and streusel crumbs. The result was one of the best donuts I have ever had. It was like a banana cream pie but substitute the crust for a donut. Genius. I played this down while eating with my family, so I could get more than my fair share, but they didn't fall for it. I regret greatly not getting one of these to go.  

Oliboli not only has sweet but a few savory donuts options as well. You should not miss the Croque Madame Donut ($9.25). This puts most breakfast sandwiches to shame and proves that if chef Brooke had wanted to get into fine dining, she'd probably be a success there as well. With this one, she uses her yeast donut as a base and then layers comte and gruyere cheeses, a delectable mornay sauce, and prosciutto across the donut and tops it with a duck fat fried egg, chives, and black lava salt. It's as indulgent as it sounds. The egg was a tad too overdone on this one, as a runny yolk would have made this even better. Still, it was extremely satisfying. and a nice balance to the sweeter donuts that I highlighted earlier. 

Oliboli really blew me away. I'd go along with Brad Johnson on this one, these are the best donuts in OC, and I might even take it a little further. These are just as good as the ones I had at the Doughnut Plant in New York many years ago. It would be a tough choice between the two, so I'll take the easy way out and call it a tie right now. The high-quality ingredients, attention to detail, and the creativity show up big time at Oliboli Donuts, and I predict the crowds will follow and not diminish for a long while.  

Out of five wooden shoes, (because the name of this place is a spinoff of a Dutch-style donut, and one of the symbols of the Dutch is a wooden shoe), five being best to zero being worst, Oliboli Donuts gets 4 wooden shoes. 

For more information about Oliboli Donuts, head to their website here: https://www.oliboli.com/

A Taste of Peru in Lake Forest - CLOSED

Renzo's A Taste of Peru

24354 Muirlands Blvd. 

Lake Forest, CA 92630

Whenever someone asks me what kind of cuisine I think will trend next, I always have it in the back of my mind that it will be Peruvian food. Peru, much like the US, could best be described as a melting pot when it comes to the culinary scene of this South American nation. Besides the dishes of the indigenous inhabitants, Peruvian fare draws from Europe, Asia, and Africa to create its own mashup. Peruvian food is ready for its moment in the sun, just like quinoa or rainbow-colored fads of the last few years. 

A quick Yelp search of Peruvian restaurants in OC yielded nearly 40 restaurants, which was more than I thought there would be. I feel bad I have not done my part to promote Peruvian food, as I've only reviewed two Peruvian restaurants during the run of this blog, both of which have since closed. On one of my recent days off from work, I decided to remedy that with a trip to Renzo's in Lake Forest.  

Renzo's caught my attention with their very active Instagram account and the delicious-looking sandwiches and plates they feature there. As you will see, their food can even make a subpar photographer like myself take good-looking pictures. I excitedly called in my order on a Thursday before noon and hurried over there within the 15-minute time I was quoted. 

In case you were wondering, there is a Renzo, and he's Renzo Macchiavello, owner and chef of this joint. He's from Peru but has lived in the US since he was 17. Renzo started as a dishwasher in San Francisco and knew he wanted to become a chef after that. He moved to Los Angeles, worked in numerous hotels and restaurants in the LA area, and graduated from culinary school in 1993. His migration south continued when he moved to OC and opened Peruvian Grill in Huntington Beach to wide acclaim. 

That restaurant closed, but now Renzo is back, taking over another Peruvian restaurant after the previous owner suddenly passed away. Renzo's is situated in Lake Forest, near the intersection of Ridge Route and Muirlands, behind the Walgreens, and in the exact center as Avila's El Ranchito and Burger Town USA. A little hard to find, but I was looking forward to finally trying Renzo's take on Peruvian cuisine. 

The menu is small and compact but full of what you'd expect to find at a Peruvian spot. There are six starters, including the national dish of Peru, ceviche, which I learned is a sandwich. There are five sandwiches, three salads, five entrees, and a trio of sides. No main dish will cost you more than $20, and lunch and dinner portions depend on how hungry you are. I was hungry, so let's see how well I liked Renzo's. 

I'm no Peruvian food expert, very far from it, but I'd argue that while ceviche is Peru's unofficial national dish, Lomo Saltado ($18) is the most popular, It's also so damn photogenic, as you can see from the pictures above. For those that don't know, this is a stir fry dish which combines strips of steak, french fries, tomatoes, onions, and cilantro. It came with a big side of white rice also, which soaked up a lot of the soy sauce. Even though the steak was not the most tender I have had, and maybe needed a bit more seasoning added to it, when combined with everything else it was a very good plate of food. The fries stayed crisp almost all the way through my meal, the delicious aji sauce really tied this plate together wonderfully, and the three extra dollars I paid for the dinner portion of this really was a lot of food, even for me. 

 

For part 2 of my meal, I tried the Roasted Pork Loin Sandwich ($11), also listed on the menu as the buttifarra. This hefty sandwich comes with sliced roasted pork, sweet potato, onion, citrus salsa, lettuce, and aioli, all on a French baguette. There was only one issue keeping me from loving this sandwich: the roasted pork. It was extremely dry the day I was here, which is a shame because the rest of the sandwich was excellent. I loved the notes of citrus and the tang from the aioli, and the bread was top-notch. I took off some of the pork, and it made the sandwich better, but I was still bummed. I hope they just had an off day, or I'll try their Cuban or turkey sandwich next time. 

Even with the subpar roasted pork on the sandwich, I'd still suggest you try Renzo's. The lomo saltado alone is worth the visit, and for ceviche fans, I hear you will not want to miss the one here. I found the price point more than fair, especially considering the size of the portions. A regular person could easily split one of the dinner portions with a friend. Service was prompt, as they had my to-go order ready and waiting at the promised time. Renzo himself also thanked me for visiting, which was a nice touch. I'm still sure that Peruvian food will have its moment in the sun, and I look forward to having it more often, especially before everyone else finds out about it. 

Out of five alpacas (because Peru is home to more than 75 percent of all the alpacas in the world), five being best to zero being worst, Renzo's A Taste of Peru gets 3 alpacas. 

For more information about Renzo's A Taste of Peru, head to their website here: http://www.renzostasteofperu.com/

Surf's up in Yorba Linda?

 

Seasurf Fish Co. 

18401 Yorba Linda Blvd. 

Yorba Linda, CA 92886

I admit I was not overly excited about going out to eat with my parents. After a month or so of not seeing them, Katie and I made plans to drive up to Yorba Linda for a visit. My lack of enthusiasm had nothing to do with my relationship with my parents, but rather their choice of restaurant that they wanted us to eat at. They excitedly picked this new seafood restaurant, Seasurf in the newish Yorba Linda Town Center, which is pretty close to their house. 

The Seasurf menu did not really take hold of me when I checked it out online. I was at a loss for what to order when I was perusing the menu before we were going to be having lunch here on a recent Sunday afternoon. I decided I'd look at the pictures on their Yelp page, and just go with what seemed to be the most popular. I'm not sure if I was just not in the mood for seafood, or if I was just being difficult. If I'm being honest, it was probably a combination of the two. 

Seasurf has two locations, this Yorba Linda spot, which opened for business in January, and a location little farther south in Del Mar, which has been serving customers since 2017. Both locations get high marks from Yelp reviewers, as they both have four and a half star ratings. Their website states their mission statement as wanting to serve high quality and flavorful seafood in a fast-casual setting, at a reasonable price point. 

The Seasurf menu is pretty ambitious for a fast-casual spot. My unofficial count has them offering close to 50 items. These include burritos, tacos, bowls, grilled fish options, poke bowls, sandwiches, and their specialties. Prices average around the $12 mark, with a lobster pasta dish being the most expensive thing on the menu at just shy of $17. Ordering is done at the register, and then the food is brought out to your table. Let's see if my apprehension about Seasurf was warranted, or would I be pleasantly surprised. 

As I usually do in a seafood restaurant, I have to give their version of clam chowder a try. At Seasurf that means I ordered their Fisherman's Wharf Clam Chowder ($3.99). This creamy chowder contained both baby and sea clams, cubed potatoes, onions, and celery. This was a pretty solid effort. I liked the creaminess of the chowder, the clams were prevalent, but not overly fishy, and the celery and potatoes added just enough texture to not distract from the clams. A few more clams would have been appreciated, but this was a nice start to my meal. 

My niece Kaylie was eating with us this afternoon and wanted to give the Guacamole and Chips ($4.99) a whirl. Kaylie is not a very adventurous eater, as you will see in a bit, and she was absolutely shocked that Seasurf dared to dress up their guacamole by adding some corn, tomatoes, and red onions. She likes more traditional guacamole. She ended up picking around the corn and other things and ended up enjoying the guacamole underneath. I thought it was okay, but I wish they had decided to dress up the avocado with more spice and maybe some jalapeno. It came across as a little on the dull side for me. The chips were nicely fried though and tasted pretty fresh.   

My mom is very predictable when it comes to seafood restaurants. She will always steer towards fried fish. She's also a light eater, so if there's a kids menu she will try to order off of it. She checked off both of those boxes by getting this Crispy Fish and Chips ($4.99). This little meal comes with two fish sticks, fries, and a side of tarter sauce. I assume the fish was cod just like their regular order of fish and chips. It was fried nicely, with a good batter surrounding it. I did not try the fries, but no complaints from my mom, who finished everything, which is kind of rare for her. 

As I mentioned earlier, I was kind of at a loss as to what to get at Seasurf, so I left it to the fate of what Yelpers thought was the best item on their menu. Most people raved about the North Shore Garlic Shrimp ($14.99), so that's the direction I went in. This peel and eat shrimp was a good choice. I got six pretty good-sized shrimp that came with an excellent ginger garlic sauce, a scoop of rice, and an Asian cucumber salad. I usually like the shrimp already peeled, but the sauce on the outside of this made it delicious. I'll ask for an extra side of it next time. I'm not usually a cucumber fan, but this salad was a nice side to go alongside the sweet and briny shrimp. The rice was fine on its own, but I used it mainly to sop up the excess sauce, as I did not want to waste a drop. The Yelpers got this one right, this was an excellent choice.  

Katie is up next and went with the Mahi Mahi ($13.99) one of six options from the grill section of the menu. They offer three different seasoning choices and Katie went with the garlic butter. Not the most photogenic of all the fishplates I've snapped a picture of, but it ended up tasting pretty solid. The fish was moist and had a slightly sweet taste on the back end of each bite. This usually comes with rice, but Katie asked for double ponzu greens with tomato relish and they were happy to oblige. She left Seasurf pretty happy with her meal. 

Another happy camper was my dad, who ordered the Blackened Jumbo Shrimp Alfredo ($14.99). This came with fettuccine as the noodle and garlic, olive oil, mozzarella, and cajun seasonings all mixed with a wine cream sauce. My dad called this the perfect amount of heat, which was present but did not overpower the rest of the dish. He was also pretty pleased with the price point here, as he was glad it, "did not break the bank." 

As I mentioned earlier, my niece Kaylie is not very adventurous when it comes to food. This was not only her first time having clam chowder and trying a bite of Katie's mahi-mahi, but it was also her first time ordering poke. Come on, live a little Kaylie. She got the Spicy Poke Bowl ($10.99) here at Seasurf. The cubes of ahi were marinated and tossed with yogi Sriracha for a tinge of spice, then rice, pickled cucumber, avocado, and nori were added to the bowl. This was a fairly generous sized bowl, which Kaylie had no hope of finishing. She was not really a fan of the texture of the poke, and I'm not really sure why she ordered this in the first place. I thought it was good but wished for a little more spice. The bowl featured fresh produce and fish, which is what you most want most when eating poke. I don't think Kaylie will be having poke again for a while, at least until her tastes mature a bit.  

Even though Kaylie was less than enthused about her meal, my apprehension about Seasurf was unwarranted. I actually was pretty impressed with what I tried here. The flavors were vibrant, the serving sizes were generous, which is something you don't often expect at a seafood joint, and the price point was manageable, even for my dad, who always keeps one eye on how much money is escaping his wallet. I still enjoy Slapfish more, but Seasurf will due when you want a more straight forward, casual seafood experience. 

Out of five bales of hay, (because this restaurant started in Del Mar, home of a horse racetrack, where I'm sure they go through their fair share of hay), five being best to zero being best, Seasurf Fish Co. gets 3 bales of hay. 

For more information about Seasurf Fish Co., head to their website by clicking here: https://www.seasurffishco.com/