BCD Tofu House

BCD Tofu House is a famous chain Korean restaurant originated from Korea. It serves authentic Korean tofu soup in a stone bowl, and serves many other Korean dishes as well.  BCD Tofu House is so famous that it even go its own tofu brand that it sells in super market. The BCD Tofu House restaurant that we went to this time is located in Irvine. This place is usually packed with people lining up even before the restaurant opens. We went there for dinner around 5pm so there wasn't many people and we got a table right away.

The tofu soup is obviously that main dish that it servers at the restaurant. We ordered short rib and Bulgogi, and to our surprise it also came with different flavors of tofu soup that we can choose from. We chose a seafood tofu soup and a kimchi tofu soup. After we placed our order, we were served with a big selection of side dishes. The side dishes included kimchi, fish cake, mashed potato, sea weed, eggs, and even a tail of fish for each person! We were really hungry and finished the side dishes very fast. To our surprise, a cart came by to refill all the side dishes and we just realized that there were many carts roaming around to make sure all the served side dishes are refilled.

After about 10 minutes, our main dishes came. The bubbling tofu soup never smelled so good before. The tofu was so fresh with lot of flavors. It even says the tofu served here is organic. The short ribs were amazing too with lots of flavors. When Bulgogi came, it was a mountain of Bulgogi beef. We were kind of already getting full from all these refilled side dishes and could not finish off the Bulgogi and had to pack it home.

Overall, this is an amazing restaurant and by far the best Korean restaurant we have ever been to. The price is not expensive either. For $21, you get a mountain full of bulgogi beef, a bowl of tofu soup, a bowl of rice, and unlimited amount of side dishes. We highly recommend this restaurant to anyone who is into Korean food!

Honey & Butter Macarons

Honey & Butter Macarons is a dessert shop specialized in Macarons. It is located within Irvine Spectrum at Souther Irvine. We had always walked by this place multiple times and never gave it a try. Thus we decided to give it a try and see how its Macarons taste like.


The store was decorated with many cute stuffed animals from different Japanese animation such as Totoro, Kiki's delivery, etc. There was a very big black cat from Kiki's Delivery sitting at the corner of the table. Other than that, there are many small stuffed animals stacked together along the wall.

From the menu. each Macaron costs $2, six for $12 and 12 for $22. So there wasn't any discount unless you buy a dozen. The Macarons made here were larger than what we had before, so it may justify its price. Other than the traditional Macarons, Macarons ice cream sandwich was also offered here for $5. Thus we decided to try the Macarons ice cream sandwich instead.

We ordered one Macarons ice cream sandwich with pistachio flavor on the Macaron. The ice cream flavor we chose was coffee hazelnut.  After the ice cream is placed between the Macaron, we were asked to pick what we want to splash on the ice cream. There are Oreo bits, fresh toast bits, and many other crunchy things. The ice cream was quite tasty and clearly hand made based on its texture. The Macarons crust was also very chewy. We also tried to take a bite on the ice cream sandwich but it was too big to fit in the mouth.

Overall, we liked this place. The Macarons were very well made and the staff members were very friendly. It also looked like they give away the stuffed animals during certain events but we didn't bother to ask.

Meizhou Dongpo

Meizhou Dongpo is a high end Chinese restaurant located in Culver Plaza in Irvine. The name Meizhou is a city in China and Dongpo is the name of famous Chinese pork belly dish. This restaurant has often being very busy all the time due to its specialties in Dongpo dish.


We got to Culver Plaza around 6:30pm on a Friday and wondered what to eat. Then we walked by Meizhou Dongpo and find that there wasn't many people in the restaurant and most tables are unoccupied. Since we had not tried this place yet, we figured today is a perfect opportunity to give it a try.  The hostess greeted us just right outside of the main entrance to take us in to sit at our table. The atmosphere within the restaurant was very well thought out and beautifully decorated. At the center of the restaurant, large Chinese calligraphy brushes were hanged from the ceiling to form like a curtain. It was quite an innovative decoration.

So the price at this restaurant are marked at the high end. We only had 2 people, thus we only ordered two dishes, including the bamboo shoot and Peking duck.  The bamboo shoot dish came rather fast. There are bamboo shoot, bacon, mixed with other vegetables. It was not as good as we have hoped, but it is all right.

We waited for a long time for the Peking duck, which was expected. About 15 minutes later, the Peking duck was delivered to our table. There were about 10 wraps provided for half duck. The dish on the side include onion, cucumber, and sugar. A duck leg was also given to us. We found that the Peking duck was quite greasy. It was a bit too greasy for what it should be and made us kind of lose appetite.  The duck meat was fresh however.

Overall, we probably won't visit this place again as we found that the dishes here were too greasy. We have not tried its famous Dongpo dish, but we may try it when we decide to give this restaurant another chance.

Santiago Oak Regional Park

Santiago Oak Regional Park is located in Orange of Orange County in Southern California. It is a popular place for mountain bike riders since it got many hills for people to go up and down. At the same time, it is also a popular place for horse riders and hikers.  The park is very close to any city within Orange County. At most, it is just 30 minutes of drive away from people, but it does offer a quiet place for people to escape from busy city life.


The park opens at 7AM and we got there around 8AM. There were probably only around 5 cars in total in the parking lot, but many people rode their bike to the park. There is a park entrance fee of $5 for people driving their car, but it isn't bad. When we got there, we found out many hiking trails were closed due to the forest fire earlier and it is under recovery. However, the best trails are still open for people to hike on.

We took the Peralta Hills Trail to go up the hills and it was a gorgeous view over the park from the top. The foot hills were so green due to the rain in the past few weeks and the trails running over the foot hills were just gorgeous. We could also hear many bird chirping and felt like we were far away from the city, although we still could see the highway from where we were.

After getting to the top of Peralta Hills Trail, we took the turn and went down Grasshopper Trail. Grasshopper Trail seems to be a more difficult trail and more steep. We did not encounter any bikers on this trail due to its steepness. We also had to walk slowly on this trail. Oak Trail may be a better option for many people since it is less steep.

We got down to the hill and ran into many horse riders with their lovely dogs. It was a very gorgeous scene that we saw in the movies. Dogs running on the side of the horse with the master sitting on the top of the horse.

Overall, this is an amazing park to visit. There were also many orange trees at the parking lot when we got there. One thing to note is that there were many bikers on the trail. Just make sure you keep your eyes out and hike carefully.