Cream Pan

Located in Tustin, Cream Pan is a Japanese bakery that offers a wide range of small eats, from savory things such as futomaki and steamed buns to pastries like croissants. Their most popular item is the strawberry croissant! There is an ample amount of custard and it’s just sweet enough to complement the fresh strawberries. The croissants remain flaky even if you leave them sitting on the counter for a majority of the day. They’re worth venturing out to get if you’re not in the area!

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Cream Pan
602 El Camino Real
Tustin, CA 92780

 

Usagi

Omurice w/ Menchi Katsu and Hayashi Sauce

Usagi is a Japanese comfort food restaurant. This type of Japanese cuisine (yoshuku) is Western-influenced, so it features dishes like steak and spaghetti.

Some dishes that may peak your interest are their uni (sea urchin) risotto, mentaiko (spicy cod roe) pasta, and hamburger steak.

My absolute favorite dish to get here is omurice with menchi katsu and hayashi sauce. The omurice is an omelette filled with chicken rice, and menchi katsu is a breaded and deep-fried beef cutlet. Omelettes and deep-fried foods, as you may already know, come from Western cuisine. You can choose what sauce to top off the dish with, but I always go with hayashi. Hayashi is made up of beef, onions, and mushrooms in a thick demi-glace that contains red wine and tomato sauce. Demi-glace is a brown sauce popular in French cooking.

I recommend getting their green tea parfait to finish off your meal! Green tea ice cream is layered with red bean, corn flakes, whipped cream, and then topped off with a cookie to form a nice dessert that you’ll want whether or not it’s hot outside 🙂

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Usagi
505 2nd Ave
San Mateo, CA 94401