OC Fair 2011 - Orange County Fairgrounds, Costa Mesa, CA

So as a vegetarian that's trying to be kind of healthy, I ate something before I went to the OC Fair. There are the options of pizza and fried vegetables, but I didn't really want to eat that. I just had a couple of snacks along the way.

BBQ Corn

This corn was yummy, sweet and good for me plain like this. It's barbecued out in the open, not roasted in its husk. Both varieties are good. If the corn is good, it's nice and sweet...yum.

Fruit and Pretzel Mix (with Chocolate)

Now I didn't eat these, but they looked so good. Wasn't hungry enough to eat a plate of fruit, pretzels and chocolate.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries.

On the bottom shelf were plates of chocolate covered strawberries....yum...nom nom nom. Oh, I didn't eat these either. Instead I took pictures of the above food while waiting for...

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

My strawberry banana smoothie. This was good. Yummmm! All these fruits were at this fruit stand with caramel apples and chocolate strawberries and all things fruit. This was my favorite stand because I love fruit! Good smoothie...better than any chain smoothie place I've been at.

Funnel Cake

Last thing on this blog is funnel cake! Well I didn't eat this either, The Meat-eater did. If I were to pick something fried, I would've tried the Australian potatoes...those looked good...and heard they were good too. And something I was curious about would've been the fried Klondike bar. How to do that? Although I've tried Tempura Ice-Cream so...it's probably similar. Either way...oh so bad for you so I stayed away. Fried foods no longer sit too well in my tummy. (Well a little is ok.) ;-)

Guppy House - Irvine, CA : Shaved Ice & Boba Milk Tea

So we were at Diamond Jamboree again and I wanted some shaved ice. Hadn't had shaved ice in a long long time. So we headed over to Guppy Tea House and got the "to go" shaved ice. The ones you eat there are HUGE, so I thought "to go" would be enough for me.

Taro and Red Bean Shaved Ice (to go)

I remember they used to come in a wide cup with a lid type of container (kind of like Yogurtland cups) but I guess it's been a while and now it's in a big drinking cup. Kind of inconvenient for getting to the goodies on the bottom. I ordered the red bean and taro shaved ice, which comes with condensed milk as well. The red bean is the bottom most layer...looks like some condense milk and then a layer of taro, some more condensed milk and ice...and some more condensed milk. So I guess it's been a while since I've had shaved ice...but this was soooooo sweet to me. Actually I don't usually like condensed milk...perhaps without it it would be less sweet...or more ice wouldn't hurt. Stuff in Asia didn't seem so sweet...I guess this is Americanized shaved ice? Do people really like stuff this sweet? I guess you have to like condensed milk...which I don't really care for so that's probably why I didn't like it so much. (I didn't ask if you can get it without the condensed milk...that would help.)

Boba Milk Tea

Also tried someone's boba milk tea....even though Lollicup was in the same plaza...we were already at Guppy getting shaved ice so here it is. I tried it and...the boba was really mushy and small. Like it was sitting in the sugar syrup too long and it eroded, shrunk, was super sweet and mushy. Smaller than boba but bigger than pearl sized. The tea itself was...really milky. I've heard that the milk tea here isn't as good as at their original location in Cerritos so I don't usually come here to get milk tea....now I know. Now if you have a sweet tooth and want to get your sugar fix, this is the place!

Guppy House
http://www.myguppyteahouse.com/
2730 Alton Parkway, Suite 101
Irvine, CA 92614
(949) 851-9788

BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse : Veggie Burger

So I don't usually go to BJ's but they do have a variety of food and beer. For vegetarians you can get pizza (they're known for their deep dish and they now have whole wheat), pasta, giant potatoes, veggie burgers, salads...you get the picture.

BJ's Handcrafted Root Beer

For a beverage I usually get their Handcrafted Root Beer. It is so good. They use beet sugar instead of plain white sugar, and it just tastes better. It is sweet...but it's not the sweet that bothers me for some reason. And of course...free refills! Yay! *gulp* *gulp* *gulp*

Side Salad

I ordered the veggie burger and substituted the fries with a spring salad. They brought this out before the burger. So it's mixed greens, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and croutons. I'm glad they have mixed greens. So many restaurants offer you their house salad with just plain lettuce as their green. =P So this part is pretty healthy.

Veggie Burger

My veggie burger came on a wheat bun (I asked for that or else it's plain white) with lettuce tomatoes and pickles. The menu says it comes with red onions, but mine didn't, which is fine because I would have removed them anyway. I consider this semi-healthy because the patty is processed and the lettuce is just iceberg lettuce...but it's on a wheat bun and the spring salad before makes this a semi-healthy meal. I added ketchup onto the burger for flavor. I would say it's a simple burger. Nothing fancy, not terrible tasting, but not great either. It's good for sustenance and it doesn't taste bad....which is why I don't usually like to come here. I mean yes there is food for vegetarians, but it's not really good. The pasta isn't great either (to me) and I don't like deep dish pizza...so it pretty much doesn't suit my taste. On the occasion that a vegetarian does come here with their meat eater friends...there are options...I'm just saying it's ok food (in my opinion). The Meat-eater doesn't think their food is that great either. Some people say Naples is expensive, but if you come here it's similar pricing and I think Naples is better quality food...in my opinion anyway.

BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse
http://www.bjsbrewhouse.com/
Location this was consumed:
13130 Jamboree Road
Irvine, CA 92602
(714) 665-8595