Happy Family Vegetarian, Lares

Happy Family Vegetarian: Rowland Heights smelled delicious. I've been to a vegetarian restaurant in Boston that made dishes like meat dishes. This restaurant did a much better job, and yet the dishes themselves still seemed lacking. We tried taro made like dried fish covered in sesame...pretty good. The best dish was probably the mushrooms cooked like batter fried chicken. We also had green beans that were fine, and another dish that was spicy small cubes of maybe tofu. Oh, and an appetizer with crunchy things in a cabbage leaf that was rather good. I'd be ok with going back.

We also went to a neat dessert place in diamond plaza...some shaved ice, octopus balls, taro milk tea, and red bean paste in fish-shaped waffles. All of it so good. I would love to go back here.

Lares: An excellent Mexican restaurant. We ate upstairs with a nice view out the back to the mountain. I had a margarita on the rocks that was very tasty. Chips were thick and tasty. Salsa was delicious. Appetizer was a fish ceviche that was absolutely delicious. Main courses were two shrimp dishes that were delicious (good shrimp flavor) and a thin sliced steak in sauce. A great mexican restaurant. A sit-down place, so classier than Tacos Por Favor, though perhaps not tastier. I would love to go back and would prefer this to Gilberts.

Shaherzad, Paris Pastry, Saffron and Rose Ice Cream

Shaherzad: Last time we were in the area, Shaherzad was packed, and it had been recommended to us and it's highly ranked on Zagat. So we headed there for a Saturday lunch. The waiter was a bit standoffish, but not to the point of rudeness and the food was rather good. We got the hot combo appetizer with excellent dolmes, some wonderful eggplant dip, a good cutlet, and some ok/forgettable chicken salad. For the main course we got the chicken koobideh (very good) with some of their special cherry rice on the side (very good), and the whitefish (fine) with a special herbed rice (tasty. The meal came with extremely good flatbread and a raw onion. I also got a very good Persian tea.

Paris Pastry: Just down the street is a patisserie. The raisin roll was not so good, tasteless and without the structure I've come to expect thanks to Le Pain du Jour. The meringue is amazing, and the cookies range from ok to wow.

Another stop at the Saffron and Rose Ice Cream. This time I got their poppy seed slush. Highly recommended, especially with lemon juice to cut the sweetness.

Tacos Por Favor

Tacos Por Favor: has been recommended to us several times. Today it was recommended again and we up and went. On a whim I got a carnitas sandwich (with egg and this delicious mole sauce and avocados and onions) that turned out to be outstanding. In fact, everything we got was wonderful. That includes pastor soft taco, chorizo soft taco, mahi mahi sopes, and a guacamole burrito. Oh, so delicious. The pico de gallo and salsas are great too. Not expensive and apparently they deliver. The al pastor and the sandwich were probably the best, but all of it was something I'd want to eat again.

Miyako, Frutti Yogo

Miyako: I've walked past this restaurant many times, and have even been to the adjacent frozen yogurt place next door, but I never wanted to go in because it didn't look busy enough. After we got rudely treated at nearby The Counter, we hopped out looked toward 31st street but didn't see anything interesting (though apparently Mrs Winston's Green Grocery is over there), and stopped in here to be quite pleasantly surprised. For a very reasonable price we got a huge amount of eel on a bed of onions sizzling on a hotplate, plus a nicely cooked salmon teriyaki bento, and a shrimp tempura appetizer (half off during certain hours). The bento came with quite a bit of tasty veggie tempura (or I could've chosen shrimp), some edamame, very tasty sprouts (pickled?), rice (can get brown rice), a passable salad with a peanut flavored dressing, and an orange slice. The eel special also came with rice/salad/edamame/sprouts. Some of the eel was excellent, most weren't bad. So not the highest quality food, but pretty good nonetheless. Worth going back for.

Frutti Yogo: The second time we've gone. Again, great tasting frozen yogurt. This time we got the lychee and they were awesome. Kiwi, not so good. Strawberries ok.

Jordan's Market, Saffron and Rose Ice Cream

Jordan's Market: I was told at my cooking class to go here to get tenderloin for a party. I expected it to be a butcher shop, and they do have a butcher counter, but it's more of a small convienience/ethnic store. The tenderloin was only $8 / pound, compared with over $25 / pound at Whole Foods, so I was happy to pick some up. Also got some ground beef that looked beautiful for about $3 or $4 / pound, but there wasn't as much variety/selection as I would prefer. I also bought some delicious Turkish Delight and pretty good yogurt soda (carbonated yogurt milk...how interesting).

Saffron and Rose: Just down the street from the market was an ice cream place. I tried the saffron and pistachio, the walnut and raisin, and the strawberry. The ice cream base is rich and smooth and all three flavors were good. It's rare that ice cream has a good raisin flavor, so kudos for that, but I liked the saffron/pistachio flavor best. We also tried numerous other flavors (we weren't asking for them, they just kept handing them over) and they were all good, though the rose ice cream was too delicate for me.

This block or two had several interesting Persian restaurants, of which Shaherzad seemed to be doing the best (only?) business at 3pm on a Sunday. There was also a greek restaurant that was practically empty, and a french bistro that was packed. Unfortunately the patisserie/boulangerie was closed, but the cakes inside looked very pretty.