thefoodadventurist – Royal Origin

Old Adventures and New | Daily Life

I had an adventurous week. Here’s how it went..

That feeling when you leave work for a long week vacation.

Parked the two beauties in my little man cave.

John came over to pick up some of the new merch, which you can get at shop.royal-origin.com.

John keeps his black Corvette pretty clean.

The next day, we went on a boat for a small cruise in San Diego.

Angelo cheering to the good life. We all had our cameras out and drinks up because of this…

Vinh proposed to Rica! You may know Vinh as the guy with the crazy red STI always on Work Wheels and Rica as the girl who sells stickers at the car shows for us. They’ve been together for so long and for some reason this moment made me feel 10 years older. We’re not those kids anymore ruining the streets of SoCal anymore..

Congratulations Vinh and Rica!

We couldn’t stay the night in San Diego because of an early flight the next morning to Washington D.C. Got to catch the sunrise in the morning before the airport.

I didn’t take any photos in Washington D.C. because I was mostly in the hotel room being a sloth while Julia was working. We ended up going to New York for the last couple of days of our trip.

Julia’s first time in NYC. The lights were blinding her.

The next morning we went to go eat at Clinton’s Baking Company for salmon egg benedict and pancakes.

We also went to Sweet Moment for this watermelon shaved ice. Bomb.

We decided to go to the Metropolitan Museum for the day. It’s crazy this place is donations only and you can choose how much to pay.Afterwards we walked around Central Park and found this castle in the middle of it all.

For dinner we went to Chelsea Market for Very Fresh Noodles for the famous long noodles.

Gonna end the adventure with Julia enjoying the fuck out of the noodles we got. They were so good!

Thanks for reading and now we’re back to the daily life.

-NGUMINH

August 19, 2017

Track Day Prep with John Tran | Daily Life

Spent the day helping John get his car ready for his track day and I got to use his tools to install the grill on my SC.

Oh yeah, starting to look more complete everyday.

John added a roll bar to his car for more chassis stiffness and did an oil change before his big track day. This would be John’s first time taking his car out to the track.

Gotta floss a bit while you’re hitting those apexes.

Came home to a hungry wife and we decided that we should just go to sleep for dinner, but in the spur of the moment we ultimately drove to Cali Tacos to feed our hunger.

Carne asada fries at Cali Tacos.

We also got two asada tacos which were huge!

Definitely give Cali Tacos a try, it’s a San Diego style taco shop, so you know it’s bomb!

-NGUMINH

June 9, 2017

Food and The 90’s | Food Adventures

The best time to hang out with me is when you’re hungry. I am always eating and I rarely say no when a plan is made to go out to eat. We’ll be having a food adventure of my routine Saturdays…

Breakfast at Aunt Yese’s Home Cooking, me and my wife shared this eggs benedict and hash browns. Basic, but extremely delicious.

Met up Hayle for lunch and caught her wearing the ‘Heritage’ dad hat available on our online store.

Royal Origin Online Store

Jon rocking the ‘Script’ snapback.

We met up at Mick’s Karma Bar for some of the best burgers money can buy. I got the Habanero Burger with bacon and eggs.

We sat out on the lawn chair and ate our meals like lavish people would do.

John having a difficult time eating without a table.

At night, I met up with Rodney, Vinh and Shavi for dinner. Rodney brought out his newly bought Cressida with a 1jz swap.

Fast for a grandma’s car.

Shavi decided to bring out the M30 to stretch it’s legs.

Shavi got stuck on the driveway and needed our help to move it. Check out that tire smoke in the back..

This thing needs wheels and to be lower asap.

We finally made it to our destination and ended the night on a good note with Raising Canes!

Days like these is the reason why I’m fat..

-NGUMINH

June 28, 2016

The Food Tour | Food Adventures

A food tour with the food adventurist..

Poke fries at MAR.

The Attic on Broadway with Hayle.

Hot Cheetos Mac and Cheese with crab meat and candied bacon.

Devlish eggs.

Poutine fries.

Shrimp pasta.

The Kitchen Sink Ice Cream Challenge with Shavi and Jennifer at Fairoaks Pharmacy.

8 soft ball size ice cream scoops with a shit load of toppings.

30 minutes to finish this monstrosity.

Size comparison.

Me contemplating my life.

We gave up and let Shavi get in on the action.

Shavi so serene.

Lechon at Barrio Fiesta in Glendale.

Pancit, adobo fried rice and lechon.

Garlic fries at Project West in Westminster.

Project Burger.

M Bison Burger.

Project Steak.

Spahghetti Chitarra.

Lunch at 1 + 1 dumplings with Bonnie, Angelo and Alyssa.

Popcorn chicken.

Pork dumplings.

Beef dumplings.

Blueberry pie and mint at Mama Pucci’s ice cream.

Went to down town Santa Ana to try Kebab Place with Cindy.

Beef gyro at Kebab place.

That’s all for the food adventurist today. Let’s eat again another day..

August 11, 2015

Random Foods | Food Adventures

Project West in Westminster is a new restaurant that I’ve been wanting to try for the longest time. They have so many food options and different tastes that it was hard to choose what to eat. Joining me on this food adventure will be Hayle, Sara, and Vinh, and we might even try a clean, all-natural plant protein blend to complement our meal. Using a tdee calculator beforehand helped me decide how much to enjoy without overdoing it. Additionally, if your natural collagen levels have declined, then you may consider trying collagen products from NativePath.

Cantaloupe horchata. Super bomb. and refreshing. Never thought that these two flavors would ever mix.

Pork belly buns.

Bacon jam burger.

Sisig.

The lighting here is on point for food photography.

That’s Hayle’s face when she’s eating healthy.

Look at the juices flowing through the burger.

Jason and Tiffany watching us eat our food.

Nice ambience at Project West. Thanks for the hook up Jason!

The next adventure would be at Baos Hog in Garden Grove that just recently opened only a block away from my house.

Crispy pork belly.

If you can believe it, this was all for me…

Ribeye.

Some duck.

Afterwards we ended the night with some Dole whip and shaved ice at Hula Girls.

Guys with glasses like to eat shaved ice together.

Writing this post has got me hungry. Went to Sushi + for some jalapeno bombs that were only $3!

Carne asada fries at my new favorite Mexican restaurant.

A stacked carne asada quesadilla.

The hot cheetos burrito is the main reason why Lupe’s taco shop is my favorite Mexican restaurant.

Ending it with a french toast on top of a earl gray tea ice cream from the newest ice cream shop in OC, Confection. Thanks for checking out all of this food porn and please follow my food Instagram @thefoodadventurist.

July 16, 2015

Let’s Make a Deal | LA Adventures

How many of you guys watch Let’s make a Deal? I’ve never watched the game show before, but when Rodney told me that he scored tickets to be an audience in the show, I became an instant fan of the nerve racking game show. After a week of studying past episodes, I was prepared to go on the show and win some fucking money! Sadly, they only picked people who are extremely out going. We ended up coming home with nothing, but it was a fun experience and Wayne Brady is funny as hell. Make sure you watch the next season of Let’s Make a Deal as me, Rodney and Trixie are right behind Wayne Brady the entire show. I think we’ll be in episode 4 of next season. After a long morning on the set, we were tired from dancing and needed some food to refuel us. We decided to pick up Derek and head to the Bun Shop.

Rodney loves that banh mi taste.

Aww so cute.

Thinking about Tiffany’s booty from Let’s Make a Deal.

Our food came out and if you know me, I like to order half the menu when it’s my first time eating at a restaurant, so I can try everything.

I got the kalbi, katsu and the pork belly buns.

Foodgramming.

Some up close shots of the delicious buns.

The ba’corn cheese is a must get when you eat here because it goes perfectly with the buns.

Trixie’s model face.

The I just ate more than I weigh face.

For the longest time, I’ve been wanting to try Churro Borough, a ice cream shop that sells churro ice cream sandwiches.

This thing is perfection. Churro wasn’t too hard and the ice cream was good.

Heaven in my hand.

I ate mine, so I couldn’t be apart of this photo.

Trixie loved it, so much she took a photo to make it Rodney’s contact photo, so whenever Rodney called her she could think of times when he wasn’t an asshole.

Rodney loved it so much, he started petting his churro ice cream sandwich like a dog.

When you realized what the meaning of life is.

We didn’t want to drive home to traffic, so we thought going to the Griffith Observatory would kill some time and we would be able to catch a sunset.

Daddy Rodney bought us tickets to watch the planetarium show.

I don’t remember most of it because I fell asleep..

After the show, the sun began to set and you could see the endless LA smog.

All he saw was black because he didn’t pay.

Loving the view from the observatory. So many nice houses in the hills.

Cute couple photo time even though Trixie doesn’t look amused.

Rodney likes to look back at it.

LA, the city covered in smog.

Summer vibes.

A silhouette of two gay guys and a bored girlfriend.

Trixie didn’t get the memo to the boy band stance.

Engagement photos for Trixie and Rodney…

Then Trixie realized she looks better without Rodney.

Got that blue steel on lock.

Got to check out the telescope inside of the observatory.

Sunset porn.

Trixie for Nguoi Viet magazine.

The endless photo shoots at the Griffith got us hungry again and it isn’t a LA trip if I didn’t go visit Jerald at El Barrio Fiesta.

Trixie working it on Jerald’s RC350.

Rodney knows what guys want to see.

That tip of the dick in your mouth face.

Glad to see Jerald’s RC tucking his VIP Modulars wheels.

Thanks Jerald for the food and thanks Rodney and Trixie for taking me to Let’s Make a Deal.

July 15, 2015

Sabrosa Food Expo | Food Adventures

I got invited by Kamilah to go to the Sabrosa Food Expo because there would be free food all day. I hit up Jerald since he only lives 15 minutes away and luckily it was his day off too.

As many time as I see it, I can’t get over how cool the Lexus RC looks.

Time to wreck this place.

Lumpia the Filipino egg roll by Pampanga.

Hayle was working this booth, so we got wrecked off lumpia.

Diane was working at Manila Sky and hooked us up with some fat scoops.

Some cooking demonstrations.

Ice cream tasting by Choctal, they use different beans from all over the world.

Whenever we hang out, it’s always food related.

They finally got to rest.

Kamilah’s husky, Hercules!

Walking Kamilah around.

Afterwards, me and Jerald went to T-Pumps for some drinks.

Bomb as fuck and lactose free.

Did a mini shoot while we were waiting for Hayle to meet us up.

Alright.

We decided to hit up Din Tai Fung at the Americana.

It’s nice here..

Braised beef noodle soup.

My favorite are the spicy wontons.

Soup dumplings.

Hayle is alot happier when she’s full.

She’s already hungry.

June 12, 2015

Birthday Dinner | Food Adventures

If you’re hungry, you shouldn’t be reading this post..

El Toro Burger, where they have colorful burgers.

Went to Riverside for a random visit with Vinh Luong and hung out with Keith, Nimo and Vu.

Vinh’s truck is bad ass.

Kim Su for dim sum with Hayle.

Cauldron ice cream with Hayle.

Food Coma.

Past Memories for John’s birthday.

Stay hungry my friends.

June 10, 2015

AYCE | Food Adventures

Work, eat and sleep. I feel like that’s all I ever do now a days, making enough money just to go crazy on my food binges. Right after Wekfest LA, we decided that we all deserved some all you can eat sushi. Our destination would be Sake 2 Me in Tustin, where they have the best rice to fish portions.

Instead of rice on the outside, its just more fish!

Heaven on a plate.

If Hayle was a Sim’s character she would only have two statuses. She’s either hungry or getting hungry.

We kinda over ordered…

Not real sushi, but Ryo can dig it.

The waiter knows that we’re fucked.

It just kept on coming…….

We started to argue who would eat what..

In the end, our stomach’s came in clutch. Derek the master of the bills.

Spotted Chris’s LS430 while we were on the way to get dessert.

I just remembered he was coming from the late Jon Pham’s 3 year memorial. Sad that I couldn’t make it because of work, but I will never forget all Jon did for me to get me as far as I am in the car scene. R.I.P JONES.

Becky extremely excited for ice cream.

The cute girl laugh when on a date.

It doesn’t work for Vinh.

Alright…

Ice cream porn.

The “Keith”.

When you find out Caitlyn Jenner is actually Bruce Jenner.

Damn do these wheels look good on Vinh’s STI.

BONUS ROUND AT BRUXIE

June 8, 2015

Super Kawaii Hangs | Out of Towners

The best part of Formula Drift is having out of town people come to visit. Every year I seemed to be hanging out with people from the north either Seattle or The Bay. This year the Super Kawaii crew came down to hang and get fat with us.

The bridge between both crews.

Finally grew up and got some real wheels.

Gram lights tucking.

The first place I took them was 4th street market, but first let me take a carelfie(car selfie) because I got some prime parking in front.

Stoner fries from Dos Chinos.

Everyone digging into their food.

Hayle trying to snap everything.

My god..

Everything came with an egg on top.

Food buddies. Ended the night with some ice cream and basketball, no photos because I forgot my camera.

The next morning, Hayle hit me up to eat because she was hungry and she knows that I’m always hungry. She brought out the new bae to go eat with us.

We went to Anepalco cafe which has the best Mexican breakfast. Pictured here is the chipotle crepe with a nice cheese potato soup.

Hayle got the Chilaquiles with pork which I didn’t know you could add meat to this dish.

Delicious..

Paying for it is cool too. I don’t mind putting my card in this pink box.

Next we went to Chunk N Chip for some ice cream sandwiches. I got red velvet cookies and white chocolate ice cream. I really loved the colors this sandwich was giving me, so i couldn’t stop taking photos of it.