Hiccups Teahouse Heading to Inland Empire

Take a huge breath and hold for as long as you can until you realize that another tasty Hiccups Teahouse and Restaurant opens in Loma Linda, California on Monday, November 18.

If you’ve heard of and have eaten at this Asian fusion order-by-counter restaurant before, do 1 of 3 things for me. One: leave this page if you already know your go-to dishes and drinks (by the way, thank you for checking my post!). Two: get your curious eyes wander by looking at my food-tastic photos. Or three: read up on both my experience and recommendations during my visit on Hiccups’ most recent opening: in Santa Ana located close to South Coast Plaza and Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

When I’d visit a Hiccups, I personally like to order either a sweet drink or — depending on the location — a looped churro coated with their saccharine toppings. So on the former I crazily sipped (because I was drastically thirsty during that visit) on their Vietnamese Iced Coffee with Hazelnut, which was more mildly flavored on the nutty side than I expected. As far as my recommendation I’d automatically order their Taro Milk Tea — whether iced or hot — or the refreshing Horchata Milk Tea.

For appetizers my Man and I dived into their Popcorn Chicken and their Crispy Tofu Bites with their signature vegetarian sauce. The former showed off its perfectly juicy morsels, though I prefer a verdant dash of that fried Thai basil if Hiccups could provide them. Providing their red spicy sprinkles on the side was definitely appreciated. The latter item wonderfully returned from Hiccups’ old menu; garlicky was a prominent adjective describing these bites.

Onto the main courses: let’s first delve into their Pho, particularly their flank, tendon, and tripe Vietnamese soup. I enjoyed mostly on their flavorfully comforting broth and their impressively tender and exceptionally tasty yet atypical proteins –i.e. the tendon and the tripe. Their flank steak and thin noodles weren’t our personal faves, but what struck our taste buds the most was the insanely welcoming hotness from their freshly sliced jalapeno that unabashedly swam all over the broth.

Pad See Ew drew the most attention to me when it comes to main dishes. When I finally had that perfect opportunity to ravage this generously portioned platter, I became blissful eating a piece of beef, a piece of broccoli, and a slither of pan fried rice noodle all grabbed from my pair of chopsticks. That continued per every chopstick hold until my stomach waved a white flag towards this plentiful plate. In other words, more than 1/2 of it were destined to the leftover to-go carton.

If you need a friendly reminder of recommendations, certainly have a foodie partner or 2 help devour those 2 said main courses and/or their Kimchi Fried Pork Belly Rice, or anything smothered in Shaken Beef.

When visiting the Loma Linda location, make sure to gather your foodie crew and drink up your teas or coffees of choice without the presence of the literal hiccups.

25805 Barton Road
Loma Linda, CA, 92354
Phone: 909-478-9586

http://hiccupsteahouse.com/

#sponsored #hiccupsteahouse #lunch #lomalinda #inlandempire #sanbernardino #foodblogger #fiathe5footer

Birthday Brunch at Newport Beach’s Malibu Farm Lido Village

Saturday brunch at one of my favorite OC cities became one of my unforgettable birthday celebrations for this 5-Footer. Many favorable descriptions in this restaurant — named 1 of 2019’s Best New Restaurants of the OC from Orange Coast Magazine — popped into my mind: simple, relaxing, mellow, joyful, and subliminally unpretentious.

Sitting outdoors with a great Lido Bay view of the iconic boats, yachts, and cruises for weddings/events with a satisfying heater slightly above where I sat I enjoyed this seemingly little feast with my fiance, his brother/future bro in-law and his S.O.

For the sake of my birthday I blissfully quenched on their seasonal yet wonderfully vibrant F’Rose Cocktail. I relished every sip so slowly, and the mixture was beautifully done that my tongue detected subtle softness of the alcohol itself.

The girlfriend of my fiance’s brother happily shared the Avocado Huarache, consisted of heat flatbread jalapeƱo, ricotta spread, and Malibu honey lemon vinaigrette. It sounded quite fancy, but once I bit into a piece, this dish didn’t play games with my tongue. Instead, all ingredients harmonized throughout the bite.

Because I had another birthday gathering coming up within hours, I chose to eat their Fried Egg “Pytti Panna” Hash, embedding the potatoes, beets, squash, zucchini, onion, arugula, horseradish cream, and tender smoked salmon. It’s one of the most zesty and lightly feeling dishes I’ve ever consumed, and this entire dish indeed left my tummy in satisfactory level — neither feeling stuffed nor inadequate.

But the creme de la creme of all the foods from Malibu Farm Lido was their phenomenally delicious Fried Egg Sandwich. I admittedly rolled my eyes initially at the price tag of this $16 sandwich, but my careful bite on the fried egg, crispy bacon, arugula, havarti, perfectly soft country wheat toast, and notable lemon aioli slapped my mind unabashedly. My fiance and I were simply dumbfounded on this deceptively delicious handful.

The overall pricing may be personally higher than what I typically pay for restaurant breakfast/brunch, but the no-nonsense flavor profile from every item we ate and drank was worth every cent. This also reminded me of my wonderful foodie experience in Portland, Oregon, where I felt that practically every food I ate there had that farm-to-table concept. Malibu Farm Lido, I revisit you very soon regardless of occasion.

Malibu Farm Lido, 3420 Via Oporto #101, Newport Beach, CA 92663

#malibufarmlido #fiathe5footer #brunch #newportbeach #orangecoastmag