Friday September 25, we arrived in LAX at 6pm. My brother was waiting for us at the airport and took us to his home in Hacienda Heights CA, which is about 30 minutes east of LAX. It was still upper 80F outside that we were all pretty tired by the heat. So we decided to go to this Izakaya Family Style Tapas Restaurant called “Ojiya” (http://www.ojiyausa.com) about 5 minutes from the house.
We ordered a lot of mini dishes “Japanese Tapas” Here is the part of what we ordered.
Real California Roll (Real Crab Meat!!!)
This California Roll melted in my mouth. It was SOOOOOO good. I don’t know what else I can describe this most wonderful California Roll I ever had in my life. The crab meat was tender and sweet and really good with “Shushi Meshi (Sushi Rice)” The light sourness of the vinegar was just right with the avocado. It was AMAZING! and Cheap! This plate was about $8.00… with the REAL Crab Meat!
Kababs Japanese Style
One on the left is “Kobe Beef Kabab” and one on the right is other Japanese Style Kabab (Chicken & Lever & Some Vegetables). They served these Kababs with Miso paste on the side. “Kobe Beef” was just as I expected tender, juicy, meaty, and great with the soy based sauce that they grilled with. Ahhhhh, if I can, I wanna eat this once a week to treat myself. Other Kabab was tasty as well. The soy based sauce was sweet but NOT Teriyaki. It was light but yet distinct soy flavor to it.
Agedashi Tofu (Fried Tofu)
This is Zach’s favorite Japanese dish “Agedashi Tofu (Fried Tofu in the broth)”. Their broth tasted like “Katsuo Dashi (Smoked Bonito broth)”, which was golden, very smooth, and sweet & salty. Tofu was fried very crisp and light. It was awesome match with the broth!! And it is Tofu that even though it is fried, you don’t feel guilty by eating it!!!
Crab Meat Fried Rice
We ordered Crab Meat & Japanese Pickle Fried Rice at the end. This was our closure meal of the day. The fried rice was mixed with Japanese Pickle called “Takana (Kind of mustard leaf)” and with Crab Meat Scramble Egg on top of that. The sweetness of Crab Meat was maximized by the sweetness of scramble egg, and the oiliness of the Fried rice was wiped out by the Takana Pickle’s sourness. It was a great choice to be the closure meal of the day.
As you may already notice, if you want to taste authentic Japanese Food, you don’t have to grab Passport and suffer over 10 hours in the aircraft. You can fly to Los Angeles to experience 95% of authentic Japanese Food. What is other 5%?? Well, you have to be surrounded by 100% Japanese people to experience 100% authentic Japanese Food. The atmosphere has a very important roll to the Food, don’t you think?
Happy Eating!
Mrs H