Summer Road Trip 2018 Day 1 - Lunch at Ballast Point Brewing Co., Long Beach

On a small inlet between Seal Beach and Long Beach,

is the Alamitos Bay Marina Center...

Angel Food Donuts + another giant donut sign

I'm a sucker for stuff like this.

 I remember texting the photo of the giant donut from afar to Cathy of mmm-yoso. Her immediate reply, "You need to stop there!"

Steelhead Coffee @ Steel Craft

After our drinks and snacks at The Merchant,

we headed over to our second coffee stop of the day...

The Merchant, Long Beach

In searching for coffee shops in Long Beach...

one that popped up that was relatively new was this...

The Merchant, which is just a few steps away from the Long Beach Creamery (a bougie ice cream place recommended by a friend)...

Signs in Long Beach + Bridges in San Pedro

Check out this old school sign for Don the Beachcomber...

This was one of those kitschy tiki places...one where you could probably get a stiff tropical drink. It will have to be next time...

Nomad Asian Bistro

After our brief foray to the  Huntington Pier...

we headed to Long Beach to meet up with our friend for lunch...

Siem Reap

[Update - Closed as of last year, but there was a recent yelp review dated 2.12.17 so what gives]

Even though we did not have a chance to explore the Venice canals on foot due to the horrendous parking, we knew that we would still have a great end to our day by having Cambodian food in Long Beach. The original plan was to have it at Phnom Penh Noodle House.

Unfortunately, it was already closed by the time we arrived.  They closed early at 3 pm dagnabbit. Of course, I had a Plan B...

La Palapa

After our mini morning snack at Sophy's, we headed out to the Long Beach pier area to meet a new friend and fellow FANHS member, Ms Eloisa Gomez Borah. She is a FANHS National trustee and a very knowledgable lady. She helped me with a few questions I had about Filipino American history. I'd been reading and citing her research for the past 10+ years but hadn't actually met her. Until today. She and her husband were taking us out to lunch.  We drove by the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier in search for parking.

The weather was getting pretty warm, like high 70's. Plus, we read in the paper that there would be Santa Ana Winds today. We ended up not parking here since we weren't sure about the meter situation. There were tons of spaces but the meters looked expired. Wasn't sure if it was "free" today but instead of taking chances, we drove around and went back to the pier area and parked there instead.

Here's part of Belmont Plaza. There's a ballroom on the second floor of this building. La Palapa, the restaurant where we would have lunch, is at the corner end of this photo.

We had time to kill (30 minutes) so we decided to walk to the pier and see the sights from there.

Another view of the restaurant...

Here's a bit of evidence of those Santa Ana winds - you can see some sand being kicked up in the distance. We walked backwards part of the way so the sand wouldn't get in our eyes and mouths.

Looks like there was some sort of race going on that day...there were also people in these golf carts shuttling people back and forth the length of the pier.

You can see more of the sand being kicked up by the winds. If you look in the distance, you can also see the Queen Mary, a former ocean liner turned hotel/restaurant which is purportedly haunted!

The menu which you can also see online here:

She and her husband were okay with me taking photos of our food. Turns out that her husband like reading food blogs and even cited Oggi's blog, I Can Do That! as one that he liked to read. What a small world! This photo is my French Toast, taken from the Brunch menu. I wanted something sweet after the salty beef jerky from this morning. The French toast came with syrup, whipped cream, berries, and toasted hazelnuts (nice!). Very delicious!

This was our friend's Pulled Pork Sandwich...I had a tiny bit of it and the pork was very flavorful!

Bert got the La Palapa Club wrap, which is what our friend normally gets. The wrap consists of Grilled chicken, bacon, rice, tomato, onion, lettuce and avocado mixed with ranch dressing & wrapped in a flour tortilla. I had some of Bert's lunch and it was really good and quite light. The lettuce and ranch dressing tasted particularly fresh. Of course, having bacon and avocado in it made it even better!

Our friend's husband got the "Classic Hamburger" - you can see all the fillings oozing out. Mmmm.

We sat on the outside patio. The winds blew the shade umbrella down which fell partly on us and the diners behind us. We ended up moving to an "inner" table away from the umbrellas which was still on the outside patio. This is the view looking in the restaurant from our outside table.

And the view out towards the beach...

Before we headed to downtown L.A., I snapped a photo of this place...Chucks. Turns out that the "Weasel" is "a dish of two scrambled eggs smothered in Chuck's chili recipe, then topped with fresh chopped onions and shredded cheese...it is also served with potatoes". Sounds good! We'll have to try this place next time we're here!

Here's a mural we spotted while driving out of Long Beach...

It's part of this big event, the Toyota Grand Pix of Long Beach. Part of the freeway was the race track itself. There were also spectator stands being set up.

There was also some amusement park looking place near what looked like a mall (you can see Borders).

Next up, Little Tokyo and Hi-Fi!

Sophy's Thai & Cambodian Cuisine

[Update - Sophy's is now Cambodian Town and Food Music]

During last week's road trip, we found ourselves in the Long Beach area. It was a bit strange not having TC with us. She was probably happy that her parents weren't around so she could yuk it up with the cousins. As for us, we felt almost like we were dating again. Woo hoo! We had a long itinerary ahead of us (courtesy of me, because I'm super anal)...

 The weekend's weather was summerlike and we read that there would be Santa Ana winds, which we would experience later on today. But first thing's first...remember when I mentioned restaurant rec's from Elmo? I'd originally asked him for seafood places but also mentioned we'd be going to Long Beach. Since I knew that Long Beach had one of the largest Cambodian populations outside of Cambodia, I definitely wanted to try something from that culture. Seemed like most of the places were on Anaheim Street. Elmo recommended Sophy's on the PCH (not on Anaheim Street!) in Long Beach...

We got there around 9:30'ish. The sign outside read "Closed" although they were supposed to be open at 9:00 a.m.  WTF?

The restaurant had  a private parking lot in the back and the sign said 'Open'. Their door was open too. Hell, we were going in! Look, there's Bert!

The entry way through the back is flanked with benches and framed articles about Sophy's as well as photos of celebrities who'd eaten there. You'll see those later...No one seemed to be around.

Bert called to someone in the kitchen to let him/her/them know we were there. The restaurant is deceptively small looking outside but is quite large once you get in. There's a big dining area on one side plus booths in the middle which is where we sat.

See the booths? Those face outwards onto the main stree, E. PCH.

This is the front entry...very cool eh?

We were planning to meet up with a fellow FANHS member later for lunch so we wanted something light...

Here are their specialities...and even though they offered "Thai" food here, we came for the Khmer food. You don't really see much of this kind of stuff in San Diego. There is Trieu Chau on University but I don't think it's anywhere near as nice as this place.

More of their menu...

There was even more seating down the other end of the restaurant. The white display case held desserts.  Bert said he saw Sophy herself get in to work. I must have missed that.

The 2nd container held crushed chilis which you can sprinkle or pour onto your food. Be my guest, it's your colon. Otherwise, sugar, salt, pepper, hoisin, some sort of chili sauce and of course, Sriracha.

I ordered an iced coffee for my breakfast drink.

While Bert's idea of a breakfast "drink" was Chang beer from Thailand. It's never too early in the morning to get your buzz on!

Hmmmm, you can see a preview of our first morning "snack" behind the beer...

This was the Such Koh Ngeat - Beef flank jerky marinated in red wine, then fried, then baked until dry. Oh. My. God! This beef jerky kicked ass on the flaky strips we had at Yoma Myanmar last month. It was almost better than the Lao beef jerky at Asia Cafe, wait, it was better! These were big hunks of meat my friends!

The jerky was served with a vinegar and garlic dip. We only ate one piece between the both of us, intending to save the rest for later.

Along with the jerky, we also ordered the Neoum Such Meoung with Bong Keah (Khmer Chicken Salad). This was shredded chicken, cabbage, carrot, cucumber, glass noodles, shrimp, basil leaves with a sweet and sour vinaigrette with crushed peanuts. The salad was refreshing (good for a hot day) but we couldn't eat a lot of it. Again, we were going out for lunch in a few hours. We wanted a mini-sampler "taste" of Khmer food.

Our waiter was very helpful, answering our questions about the cuisine and ingredients. He seemed like a really nice guy. He talked about the Cambodian community's humanitarian efforts to raise money for this toddler who needed a heart transplant. There were Visa problems and they were trying to raise money for the toddler and her father to come to the US for the surgery.

Here's that article on Sophy on the back entry wall...

And another one about their beef jerky. Looks like the jerky used to be served atop shredded lettuce or cabbage?). It's better unadorned since the greens are just there to prop them up and most likely will go uneated and therefore be wasted.

Okay! Here's a celebrity photo I didn't expect to see! Matt Dillon! Remember him in "Little Darlings", "My Bodyguard" or (sigh) "The Outsiders"? He's still looking pretty good for being 45!

Hello! What's this? Matt Damon? This is Bert's Brokeback Mancrush! It's Jason Bourne with Sophy!

We spent a leisurely hour and a half at Sophie's before heading over to the Belmont area of Long Beach to meet up with my new friend and her husband. But before I end this post, check out the cool handpainted sink and faucet in the women's bathroom at Sophy's.

For more on Sophy's, check out an old post at their old location from the blog Pleasure Palate, a more recent OC Weekly article, a short review here, and the mixed bag reviews on Yelp. Glad we checked this place out. We'd definitely come back here with bigger appetites next time!