August Roundup

September 1, 2017 Archel Arindaeng

Food adventures are the definition of a memorable summer night out. Although I've been to OC Night Market numerous times, each experience is always different. There are new vendors to try, things to watch, people to meet, it's just an amazing place to be. From cosplay contests, to gaming tents, it's not all just about the food. Make sure to add this event to your summer bucketlist for next year, it's definitely worth it!

Here's my August Roundup for top 12 vendors at OC Night Market, enjoy! Hope you're not too hungry :)

The Bonks Lab - Refreshing Filipino drinks in a large ziplock bag?! Yes please. I got to try "Oh My Buko" buko pandan with coconut shreds, #pandan jelly & milk. Of course I got my favorite Ooo-beh: Ube sweet purple yam milk with Halo Halo ingredients. Drinking from bags is a common thing in the Philippines! They brought it to Socal with a laboratory theme.

Momma Fung Buns - Don't want none, unless you've got buns, hun! Magical unicorn buns are taking over the night market and reinventing a dim sum classic! Inside you can get are uni-pork, cosmic chicken curry, and sun kissed veggies. Stop by and get your freshly steamed pastel colored buns!

Honey Honey Drinks - Blended with real fruit and honey as a sweetener, Honey Honey smoothies are 100% quality! You can taste the difference when it's all natural flavors. The source their honey and honey comb locally and are proud about supporting local farms. I tasted their matcha and mango drinks, and loved the edible honeycomb they included on top as a garnish!

Workaholics - These colorful Korean dumplings from Workaholics were BOMB! They're colored with natural dyes so you don't have to feel guilty eating this rainbow food. Pictured above is their activated charcoal pocket with Spicy BBQ Pork, purple cabbage pocket with beef bulgogi, and spinach & yellow bell pepper pocket with wild mushroom #vegan

Rakken Tacos - These guys have TWO booths at each night market, meaning their demand is through the roof. That's how you know their stuff is good. I got to try their LOADED Crab Fries smothered in yummy garlic aioli. Perfect option for seafood lovers.

Sweet N Hollow - Next level ice cream cone alert! Fresh baked cinnamon sugar chimney cone, with nutella filling, vanilla ice cream, Oreos and sprinkles on top! So good. The owners were inspired on their trip to Europe, so they brought back a popular dessert for all of us to experience.

Shake Ramen - What’s in my cup? Ramen noodles, shoyu sauce (soy), some spice and garlic, pork belly, and all the sides!! After you order, they layer everything up and seal it with a plastic top. Shake it till everything's mixed up and it's ready to eat! I love that I can eat ramen on the go! Shake Ramen is a food truck so go check out their schedule to try it yourself!

Flavor Fusions - Yummy craft sodas are the perfect way to wash down all the food you're eating. I tasted the Thai green cotton candy soda with a sprite and the raspberry soda. You get to keep the light-up bucket that flashes through the night.

Egghausted626 - Pretty layered drinks are definitely Instagram-worthy! Pick up the Sunset Passionfruit Soda and Moon Night Lychee Soda and take some pictures before you mix it all up and enjoy! Pair it with a super cute minion black truffle cheese tamagoyaki, a Japanese omelette.

Chana-mana Thai - One flavor wasn’t enough, so I decided to try them all! Chanamana Thai's flavored chicken wings were simply AMAZING. Their five flavors are garlic, tom yum, sweet n sour tamarind, sriracha, and parmesan peppercorn. Their wings are served in cute take-out boxes and they stick origami cranes as a topper!

Lucky Ball Korean BBQ - Your night market experience isn’t complete without a magical light up drink in a UNICORN FLOATIE. The best part is that you get to keep this cup holder forever! You can choose from different float designs and then you pick your choice of lemonade. I tried the watermelon lemonade and it was super refreshing.

Cafe 949 - Treat yo’ self with a whole grilled lobster and garlic noodles and wash it down with some Vietnamese iced coffee! They grill/torch the lobsters right in front of you, so you know it's fresh.

MORE PHOTOS:

Pacific Food and Wine Classic

August 27, 2017 Archel Arindaeng

The Event

Set in beautiful Orange County right on the sandy shores of the Newport Dunes Resort, it’s the perfect setting to have a summer festival. Spanning two days, Pacific Wine and Food Classic is a weekend perfect for foodies! With various food and drink vendors, you’ll leave the event full and happy. Tickets were all-inclusive, which meant unlimited food and drink! With VIP weekend passes, we were able to enter the event an hour earlier than GA. There was also a VIP only section with special tastings and an exclusive lounge. What I loved about having a two-day pass was that we didn’t have to rush through all the vendors. We were able to take it slow, taste almost every offering, and connect with chefs and restaurant owners. When we needed a break to digest, we sat right on the sand and watched paddle boarders paddle by while sipping some rose. They also had cooking demonstrations throughout the day. Classy jazz music and good vibes from all attendees filled the air, it was the perfect chill weekend. The whole weekend experience was exciting and memorable, I definitely had a culinary adventure that I’ll never forget.

The Food

Pacific Wine and Food Classic featured the best of Orange County. Many restaurants from around the area came to showcase their top dishes and provide samples to taste. There was something for everyone, all types of dishes were served from appetizers, main dishes to desserts. The Chunk N Chip collab with Patron was my favorite! Yummy alcohol infused ice cream sandwiched between gourmet cookies was perfect for the hot day! If you're a taco lover, there were various vendors with specialty tacos waiting to be eaten. Here are some photos of the food offerings:

The Beverages

Even though wine is in event title, the event was pretty generous in beverage offerings. After checking in, we received a branded cup for all the sample pours throughout the day. We got to taste Patron in the VIP section, had some stouts and ales, mixed drinks from Bacardi and Absolut Elyxx, and of course, every type of wine imaginable! Imagine all the different pairings.

We had an amazing time! Thanks for having us at Pacific Wine and Food Classic, see you next year. Cheers to the good life!

626 Night Market // Top 12 Vendors

August 20, 2017 Archel Arindaeng

When you attend 626 Night Market, you better come hungry! Set in Arcadia at the Santa Anita Race Track, hundreds of vendors line the parking lot, serving up innovative food and selling unique merchandise. There’s something for everyone, but food is the main attraction. The endless aisles of stalls and food trucks will take you into a foodie wonderland. Once you get full, they have a marketplace where you can buy numerous things, like original art and kawaii merch. Throughout the night they have live entertainment and DJs spinning so you can dance and burn off all those calories! We definitely lost track of time eating our way through the night market, next thing we knew it was closing time and our tummies were full and happy.

Here are some of the top vendors we got to try at 626 Night Market:

Flavour Fusions - Inspired by Thailand bucket drinks, Flavour Fusions puts a spin on craft sodas. Served in a bucket with a built in LED light (with different modes), you’ll shine through the night market while sipping on some yummy drinks. You get to keep the bucket too! We got the fresh lychee and wild strawberry sodas which were topped with rainbow jelly, fresh fruit and jello shot syringes!

A+ Tea House - Made with real fruit and absolutely no powders and syrups, A+ Tea House is a refreshing choice of drink. We got to try the strawberry mint bubble, strawberry americana, and watermelon lychee green tea. They layer each flavor so you can take pretty photos, make sure you mix it up before you drink!

Paella Paella 2017 - Seafood lovers, you have to try this vendor out. If you want a cooking show, they have a huge pan filled with yummy paella. We got to try the seafood bowl which included lobster, shrimp, squid, octopus, mussels and of course rice. Each spoonful was a different experience, I loved the variety of seafood with each bite!

Them Balls - Them Balls was such a creative new thing to try at the 626 Night Market! They specialize in meatballs but they bring in flavors and tastes from different cultures. We had the B-Boi Q, the Banh Mi Balls, and the Side Chick. The B-Boi Q was the “BBQ” topped off with amazing brisket and some really delicious onion rings! The Banh Mi balls brought the Vietnamese banh mi flavors to meatballs and was refreshing. The Side Chick was your classic “fried chicken and waffles” style dish, but with meatballs instead of fried chicken. All three flavors took me on a culinary adventure around the world and it was a definite must try, especially if you are a meat lover!

Mason’s Den - Taking street corn to the next level, Mason’s Den created crazy new elote flavors. First we had the Hot Cheetos elote, which was covered in mayo and crushed hot cheetos with a drizzle of more mayo on top. This had the perfect amount of heat! Next we had something magical, the unicorn elote! Painted with different colors of mayo and cheese, this rainbow corn is perfect for instagramers.

Yellow Business - Aesthetic ice cream alert! Yellow Business creates super cute desserts out of egg waffles and various toppings. They have a signature puffle waffle style that makes their ice cream so unique. The Unicorn had a rainbow waffle, strawberry ice cream, and topped with marshmallows, mochi, sprinkles, sour straws, and a bugle chip for the horn. The Charcoal had a waffle made with activated charcoal powder, cookies and cream ice cream, and was topped off with fresh berries and powdered sugar.

Chick n’ Skin - We all know what pork rinds are but have you ever had FRIED CHICKEN SKIN? Chick n’ Skin revolutionized snacking with their flavored deep fried chicken skin. The skin is fried a total of THREE TIMES for maximum crispiness. I love fried food as much as the next person but sometimes you want something different other than various forms of loaded fries. My favorite item from Chick n’ Skin is their nachos. You got your nacho cheese, jalapenos, and sour cream. The texture and flavors brings something awesome and new to your taste buds!

Friedays - What happens when you combine your two loves, pizza and fries? Friedays created something genius, PIZZA FRIES! A pan full of perfect french fries with melted cheese and pepperoni slices on top. We also had crispy tots with chicken and sriracha mayo drizzle. DIdn’t know something so simple can taste so good!

Anchoi - Anchoi revolutionizes Vietnamese food in ways you would have never imagined! We tried their new item, where they brought something new to the table by bringing in the flavors of pho noodle soup and putting it into a banh mi sandwich. The sandwich had beef, bean sprouts, and parsley. Rather than having the typical “banh mi” fixin’s, the sandwich was modeled after a French dip, but instead of was a pho broth dip! I love pho noodle soup so it was really cool to have it in sandwich form. This is only one of Anchoi’s culinary creations. You definitely cannot go wrong with any of their items!

Deeya - South Pacific island inspired food, Deeya makes your taste buds go on a vacation! Here we had the So’mo fries. A mountain of seasoned fries topped with bacon, green onions, special deeya sauce and melted cotija cheese. It’s the perfect plate to share with friends… or eat all yourself.

Ice Cream Garden LA - Rainbow grilled cheese and potted ice cream, what a magical combination! They cut their sandwiches so you can pull it apart and create a perfect rainbow cheese pull. If you’re also craving something sweet, they have various ice cream flavors served in a pot! We had the dirt cup, which was crumbled oreo with gummy worms on top and the Rainbow cup which was strawberry shortcake, and teddy grahams.

Crescendo Ice Cream - Here we got to try their Ube and Oreo milkshakes! I have a major sweet tooth, so these were perfect for me. When you buy the milkshake, you get to keep the mason jar mug! The Ube shake had fruity pebbles on the rim, a heart-shaped ube loaf, wafer stick, marshmallow, and topped with whipped cream and sprinkles! The Oreo Shake had chocolate drizzle lining the mug, with the same fruity pebble rim, topped with waffle cone, an oreo, M&M’s and a sprinkle coated marshmallow.

Norigami Tacos - Sushi in taco form, no need to wait for taco tuesday! We got to try their top three specials! The Maui Wowie, Hawaiian poke with wasabi, The Firecracker, spicy tuna and crispy shrimp, and The Mr Krabs, crispy soft shell crab with citrus ponzu sauce. The shell of the taco is made of crispy seaweed and each noritaco is topped with cucumbers, imitation crab and micro greens.

Bulba 626 - Lightbulb Drinks are a classic Night Market find. We got to try the Taro and Watermelon slush. You get to keep the high-quality glass light bulb bottle too! It even comes with a little LED lightbulb keyring. These drinks were super refreshing and a must try when you visit 626 or OC!

Thanks to Andy for creating this recap video! Extra photos taken by TIffany and Andy. Follow our food adventure at 626 Night Market:

This time we go even BIGGER at 626 Night Market! Our crew is bigger, the venue is bigger, and the portions are bigger! Please watch and follow us on our foodie adventure in the biggest night market in socal! Watch to see me look like a complete idiot in front of Forrest Wheeler from Fresh Off the Boat!