Class 302 and other discoveries in "Asia"

After my cousins brought me to Tasty to Go in Arcadia, an Asian "fast food" restaurant popular for their milk fusion drinks and shaved snow, I have been craving shaved snow.  It's different from shaved ice because instead of shaving frozen water, they shave frozen milk which creates a much softer texture.  Instead of crunching on it, the snow melts in your mouth.  Heaven on a plastic spoon, seriously.  Needless to say, I needed more.

I had always heard great things about Class 302 in Rowland Heights and their amazing shaved snow, but uh, unfortunately I am car-less, insurance-less, and usually money-less.  Not to mention, most of my friends who can drive cannot drive freeway to the eatery.  So I have been stuck reading their Yelp page over and over again, vicariously living through the reviews and pictures.  I know, so pathetic.  But today, my cravings have been answered, as well as a trip to Asia.  Thanks Laura!

Based on my yelp-review-reading-experience-of-class-302, I've heard and confirmed that service sucks.  The restaurant is really tiny--I was fooled by the pictures on Yelp.  The eating area is definitely smaller than your standard classroom, which is kind of sad since they've modeled the restaurant to resemble a classroom.  The tables are cute little desks, napkins and chopsticks are placed in a cute little backpack dispenser, but the chairs are un-cute and ridiculously wobbly!  I didn't expect it, so I spent the next minute after sitting down, rocking on my chair.  Fun stuff.  

The service was unappreciated too.  There wasn't a line of people waiting like I had expected, but the waiter popped up practically five minutes after handing us our menus.  Sure we knew what shaved ice we wanted, but everything else?  Not so much.  Poor Laura was rushed into casually picking out a wonton soup.  I suppose we could have asked for more time, but the waiter had stood there so expectantly with notepad and pen in hand.

They also serve their food backwards.  I mean, I can totally live with that; I just thought it was quite weird.  Whatever culture I'm eating, I'm accustomed to being served dessert last.  But you know, that might just be me...and the rest of the world.

But that's the end of my complaints.  So onto the food!  The prices are really reasonable, especially for the portions.

Strawberry Mango Shaved Ice ($6.50)

Even before they set this baby down on the table, I wanted to eat it.  But, like the good bloggers that we are, Laura and I first whipped out our cameras (and her octopus figurine).  Follow her food tumblr; she's gone to so many places to eat.  (So jealous!)  Class 302 has definitely perfected this recipe.  It's almost like vanilla ice cream, actually--less creamy though.  The shavings are reminiscent of pencil shavings, long and thin.  I suspect they use those deli meat counter slicers to shave their ice, but that's just me.  Also, they generously drench the mound of heaven with condensed milk.  The fruits are un-doctored.  They're just...fresh fruits.  Am I supposed to say more?  Haha, I was surprised to find that after ignoring the shaved ice to eat the other food and coming back to it, the mound had hardly melted.  Not sure if that's supposed to be a special characteristic, but I thought it was interesting.

Sweet Potato Fries with Plum Spice ($3.95)

So far, I've liked all the sweet potato fries I've tried--whether they be from Boiling Crab or Au79 Teahouse.  Of course, I like them for different reasons.  Boiling Crab for the crispiness; Au79 for the garlic flavor.  Unfortunately, these fries fell kind of flat.  Not crispy, kind of cold (though I did not touch them immediately after they were served).  The only thing they had going for them was the subtle plum spice.  They're decent but not memorable.

Shrimp Wonton Soup ($4.95)

Clearly Laura is a better blogger than I because I almost forgot to take a picture of the soup until she started taking pictures.  So sorry for the quick pic.  (Ha, internal rhyme!)  The wonton was very meaty--more meaty than I would've liked.  It was almost like eating into a dense meatball.  Soup wise, it was normal chicken stock with various vegetables like napa and celery.  Not bad.  Not amazing.  Wow, I seem like such a harsh critic, but I'm normally very easy on my food!  I swear!

The three dishes don't look like much, but for us two Asian girls, they certainly did do quite a lot.  So to work off our food coma, we went to Yes Plaza (on Colima Rd), also in Rowland Heights.  Aside from the usual Asian restaurants (I spotted a Phoenix Food Boutique), they had an Asian CD store.  Okay, so maybe I should have specified that this plaza was strictly Asian stuff.  Aside from CDs, posters, and DVDs, there were cute stuffed animals and keychains inside.  But what caught my eye were the JYJ and "DBSK" posters placed side by side on the outside of the store.  Please excuse the terrible picture quality.  The sun was being annoying, but I had to take a picture.

They used to be an amazing five-man acapella group, but things happened and they split up like that.  Despite having broken up for more than two years, some of their fans (including me) still believe that they will one day return as one.  But I'll stop for now.  I'm sure you'll get more tastes of the fangirl in me in future posts!

We stopped by a shop that sold Asian beauty products but also failed to mark their prices--which meant everything was probably going to be ridiculously expensive.  But we were still on a search for more Asian stuff, so back to San Gabriel we went!

There's a little cramped store hidden in a side street off of Valley Blvd that is home to a plethora of Japanese products.  Palty hair dye ranged from $9.95 to $12.95--which is extremely reasonable, if you ask me.  They also had a bunch of less reasonably priced makeup.  I forget what brand (it started with a "M") lip gloss cost $40 some dollars.  Dolly Wink eyelashes were about $17.  I understand that these are foreign brands and shipping them over here will obviously cause them to amp up the prices, but this was out of my budget.  So we walked across the street to Focus Plaza where the entire first floor of the department store housed fobby goods.  Eyelashes there only cost $2.50.  Just saying.

For a girl who's never been to Asia, surrounding myself with so many Asian things today was especially fun!  We have to do this again before you leave for college, Laura!  :D