Colleen Cuisine

Wally’s 4th Annual Central Coast Wine & Food Celebration

2007-08-03T15:29:00.000-07:00

This Sunday marks the next (4th) annual Central Coast Wine & Food Celebration at Wally's Wine in West LA.

Remember last year?

Yeah, I pretty much gorged myself on treats from Spago, Hitching Post, Bouchon, Lucques, AOC, Sona, Sushi Roku, Campanile, Wolfgang Puck, Literati II... and they'll all be back... along with B.L.D., Mozza, Hungry Cat and several others.

Oh, and one can't forget the wine... Sea Smoke, L’Aventure, Linne Calodo, Saxum, Ambullneo, Clos Mimi, Brewer-Clifton and Alban among others. Looks like I'll be walking home...

Click here for tickets

Playa Del Carmen - Part Uno

2007-05-22T19:24:00.000-07:00

Last week I took a much-needed vacation and even managed to pull the technology heroin needle out of my arm. No phone, no laptop, no email, no blackberry, no watch, no anything that could remotely remind me of work. Don't worry, I laid on the beach and fantasized about work, which is almost as fun as being there.

We took a trip to a city I instantly fell in love with - Playa del Carmen - and stayed at a cool little hotel - Hotel Deseo, which I also loved (even though you need earplugs to fall asleep).

We ate, we drank, we walked around, we shopped. I got AT LEAST two shades darker. And while most of my vacations center around good food, this one was more about a good beach.

That said, this is a food blog, not a lay-on-the-beach blog, so here is a little quiz for you.
Playa del Carmen has really good:
1) Guacamole
2) Ceviche
3) Tamalas
4) Tortillas
5) Pizza
6) Margaritas
7) Salsa

Ding ding!! You guessed right. They have really good pizza. Super good, in fact... it's like, almost New York style good. Who knew.

Here's a slice of four cheese and a slice of mushroom... I also had pepperoni which was equally delicious. The place: Pizza Pazza on 12th.

OK, let's get serious. Nobody really reads these things, right? Just scroll down to see the food photos. I made a couple lazy grumblings along the way. (Geesh, I am turning into the laziest food blogger ever... please go here, here, here, or here if you want to read real food blogging that reflects time, thought and effort... I'm all out).

First up is a cute little Italian cafe called Casa Mediterranea. These people really care about they food they serve you, and they don't take credit cards. And they like to rhyme.

Complimentary Brushetta.

Roast beef with truffles and Parmesan cheese - this tasted a lot better than it looked.

Ravioli something or other doused in butter.

Gnocchi. I really love gnocchi and this one didn't have the best flavour, but it did have the best texture of any gnocchi I've ever had... like soft down baby pillows that melted in your mouth.

Overall, this was an average meal in a charming little place. If your mom cooked this for me, I would think she was a good cook. But your mom doesn't live in Playa.

Next, we went down to Tulum (Mayan ruins) and then to a really beautiful beach club (Paraiso) and then we had early dinner at Mezzanine, which is a hotel that has a Thai-flavored restaurant inside.

Umm... how can you not enjoy a restaurant when the view over your mango margarita looks like this?

MMMmmm. Mango margaritas. My favorite.

OK, I said the food was Thai-flavored, right? Not so much authentic Thai, but still relatively good. Made much better by the view of the Caribbean in the background, of course.

Chicken satay with peanut sauce and cucumber salad...

Crab wontons...

Vietnamese (or Thai-ish) spring rolls with a mango chutney

(not so) spicy beef salad - completely bland...

And the big winner of the meal... lobster curry, which was a huge fresh lobster tail that was doused in a mild-but-tasty green curry. Probably the best food dish of the trip besides the pizza.

OK, I've got to drag this into another post... more to come. Yes, I did actually eat some Yucatan food when I visited the Yucatan peninsula, that's coming next.

Orange Mocha Frappucino!!

2007-05-22T18:44:00.001-07:00

OMG! Starbucks finally released the Orange Mocha Frappucino! Freak gasoline fight accident not included.

*OK, not technically. But they have an Orange Creme Frappucino and an Orange Mocha so it is close enough. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you clearly missed the greatest comedy of all time. The end.

Frozen Faux-gurt: You Know You Want It

2007-05-12T16:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Pinkberry -
From the looks of your homepage, you seem to be doing a decent job of crisis management (acknowledge the issue, address the issue). Exhibit A:

But Pinkberry - PLEASE - unleash the marketing expert within you - this could be the next, NEXT big thing!

At my day job, we have a motto: if you can't fix it, feature it.

And in L.A., as you've probably discovered, people love "faux."
Faux fur, faux tan, faux boobs, faux relationships, faux dessert.

Frozen Faux-gurt

Seriously.
Real frozen yogurt has got to be damaging to the environment or cruel to animals or something. Give people a reason to go faux, and they'll be your faux friend forever.

B Cafe - The BEST New Spot in Town

2007-05-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

OMG, like, where have you totally been for the past two and a half months girl?

Ummm... DUH!!!!
I've been hanging out in the coolest place ever... the B Cafe!

Haven't heard of it? Well, it's pretty new. Yah, they got super sweet grub... pizza, salad bar, cappuccino machine, fro-yo (not Pinkberry, but it's just as good).

That's me and my bf in the picture - he's pretty cool.

Pretty soon it's gonna be SO popular that you might have a hard time getting a table. But give me a heads up that you're coming and I'll be sure to save you a spot.

Meet me there!!!

p.s. yes, this is my day job... it RULES

Peeps S'Mores

2007-03-04T14:02:00.000-08:00

Nearly one year ago today, I photoblogged what I believe to be "the greatest dessert invention of all time," roasted Peeps. No, I'm not claiming stake to the invention of roasted Peeps - people have been doing it for many years - rather, I felt it was my DUTY, my OBLIGATION, to share such a magical creation with the world, step by step, in photographic detail.

And today, dear readers, nearly one year since I documented Peeps Flambe, I share with you the next generation, nay, the ULTIMATE Peeps recipe of all time: Peeps S'Mores.

Such remarkable genius of food invention is rarely stumbled upon while sober. In this case, we were celebrating the birthday of my seen-on-TV foodblogging friend Dylan, who may have been in a state to come up with some really creative food inventions of his own (Iron Chef Sizzler, anyone?).

I'm not sure when exactly the idea struck. I'd hear about, read about, and thought about Peeps S'Mores before. But somewhere between the Gold Mountain, Taco Bell, Ralph's, and my kitchen table, the ingredients and the will collided.

And from this point forward, I will take the voice of the Peep.

Peep:
Hello there. And how are you? What say you, on such a lonely night as this, so full of longing and anticipation? Dost thou admire my coat, sparkling in a saccharine pink essence? As I sit atop a step of chocolate, I notice the fragile crumbs of graham cracker scattered delicately about. My right side exposed, naked, white. What dost thou think of this discovery?

Peep:
Such warmth. Despite being skewered, so fragile and exposed, I feel the warm breath of dear Bernzo heavy upon me. Oh Bernzo. Your breath fills me with a sudden terror. You are burning me alive.

Peep:
So this is how it ends... smashed between the rich and the banal in a careless embrace. Bargain basement graham crackers mock me, and yet I am melting into the finest Belgian chocolate. Conflicted. Confused. Dead.

Delicious.

It goes without saying that the magic of the Peep S'More is the delightful crisp and crunchy bruleed sugar that melts into the chocolate. Yes, it's decadent. Yes, it's delightfully tacky. Yes, it's pseudo-playful gourmet (I'm waiting to see this on the menu at Grace or BLD, complete with a mini campfire for the table).

It's everything I've ever wanted in a dessert, and somehow more.

Colleen Cuisine on KCRW's Good Food

2007-03-03T13:01:00.000-08:00

Here's another little piece on Pinkberry from one of my favorite radio programs, KCRW's Good Food. Evan Kleiman interviews Jennifer Steinhauer who wrote the recent NY Times piece "Heated Competition. Steaming Neighbors. This is Frozen Yogurt?"

Jennifer, thanks for the shout out for Colleen Cuisine!

Click here to listen

(thanks Eddie for the heads up!)

Pinkberry left its wallet in El Segundo

2007-02-25T19:15:00.000-08:00

Why, cruel world, why? I can deal with the rapidly-spreading virus that is Pinkberry infecting countless neighborhoods other than my own. But Pinkberry is getting a little too close to home with some new digs that are literally WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE of my office. I mean, if I were desperate enough, I could walk there (but I'll probably drive just so I can carry some extra back to the contraband freezer hidden under my desk).

Yes, come June, I'll be hooked up to the IV once again.

And those of you traveling from out of town can pick up a fix right on your way out of the airport.

Pinkberry Swirl is Official

2007-01-29T23:30:00.000-08:00

Like I said back in September, it was only a matter of time before Pinkberry finally figured out that they could make money by sticking the original and green tea flavors together and calling it a "special menu item." I mean, rather than telling people "No, no you can't have the two flavors together because we don't know what to charge you for it and it's not on the menu anyways. Nee-ner-nee-ner-neeeee-ner."

However, I am a bit mystified that this will only happen until February 14th (small print: offer valid until Feb 14th, Valentine's Day).

What happens after that? Does green tea decide he's too good for plain and dump her a** for Captain Crunch?

Ita-Cho on Beverly

2007-01-29T00:36:00.000-08:00

So, today a friend of mine asked me... "don't you have a food blog?"

And I was like, "yeah, I think so."

And she was like, "I haven't seen anything new on there in a while."

And I was like, "you know, you're right."

I kinda forgot to factor foodblogging into my Janorexia plan. Whoops.

So, this place, Ita-Cho, is pretty hit or miss. In case you couldn't tell by my utter lack of enthusiasm, I'm feeling a little dining unmotivated these days. What is up with that? Do I need an inspiring new restaurant, neighborhood, and/or food vice? Or would just one good meal do? (unfortunately, I've already blogged about Nozawa... so those two great meals I had this week won't cut it).

Harumph. Bah hamburger. Here. Food pictures.

Exhibit 1: Infinity pool sake. Jump in...

Exhibit 2: Remember that one time when people were afraid to eat spinach? Spinach sesame salad: peanut-buttery-ish. A near hit.

Exhibit 3: Broiled enoki. It's pretty hard to mess up enoki, kinda like it's hard to mess up bacon-wrapped dates. Always a hit.

Exhibit 4: Karaage. Hit. Again, it's fried chicken... did you expect it to be bad?

Exhibit 5: Miso-glazed eggplant. I used to love this dish, now I find it kind of gross. Too sweet, too mushy, like severely bruised fruit. Miss.

Exhibit 6: Maguro sashimi. BO-ring. Miss. Next.

Exhibit 7: King crab legs. Yummy. Bring it on...

How 'bout a little upskirt action?

Tally: 4 hits, 2 misses, 1 near hit.
The end.

Ita-Cho
7311 Beverly Blvd.
323-938-9009

iCandy

2007-01-09T21:29:00.000-08:00

Is it just me, or did anyone else decide to give up food for a couple months to save for one of these things?

Random Snacking: Hannam Market

2007-01-04T17:30:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite pasttimes is walking down the aisle of Hannam market and buying the most random stuff I can find. Sometimes you get a hit, sometimes a miss, but it's always something a little unexpected.

Like, for example, this box of frosted cookies whose package and inner wrapper seemingly promised a smily tongue face on the uppermost cookie.

There is no smiley face on the cookie. This is, however, enough trans fat to warrant a felony in the state of New York.

This is a fun little green tea cookie. The package is so cute, kind of like a zen sanitary napkin.

The green tea cookies were a hit... crispy and light with a delicate green tea flavour. If only I had finished on these instead of the last snack...

WTF. Seriously, what does this look like to you? Cause to me, it looks like a field of beautiful daisies where tiny children dance and laugh in the sunshine. Or not.

Colleen Cuisine in the LA Times

2007-01-02T20:55:00.000-08:00

Some fun news for the LA Foodblogging community...

Tomorrow's LA Times Food Section features an article on the LA foodblogging scene, plus a great big list of local foodbloggers. Colleen Cuisine is in there - my second LA Times mention so far, yay! - and I didn't even have to talk about Pinkberry.

Oh, crap. Apparently, I am "very fond of Pinkberry."

Well, whatever... I'll take it! As you all know, I'll slut myself out to Pinkberry for media coverage anytime.

The article went live tonight on latimes.com - read it here. I'll scan and post the hard copy sometime tomorrow.

Du-pars at The Farmer's Market

2006-12-30T19:04:00.000-08:00

After shuttering its doors for remodeling nearly two years ago, Du-par's at the Original Farmer's Market is once again open. Why should you care? You shouldn't.

As you can see, I've given this place a new name: Sub-par's. That's because everything we ate was... yes, you guessed it... sub par.

It all started with the magically cooling coffee. You know those self-heating coffee cans we heard so much about in 2004? (until they started exploding, that is)

Well Du-par's coffee is kind of like that, except, in reverse. I don't know how they do it, but within seconds of being poured, the coffee magically becomes lukewarm. I witnessed it three times: three pours from a seemingly "fresh" pot of coffee, three times that the first sip felt like drinking a can of soda that had been sitting out in the sun.

I keep reading great reviews on this place and I just don't get it... the food was fine, but nothing special. For starters, their French Toast doesn't even hold a candle the French Toast at Bread & Porridge, or Hugo's, or most breakfast places I assume.

The tuna melt was a near disaster. Cold tuna salad (update: it's supposed to be a hot sandwich) smooshed between two pieces of poor quality raisin bread (the Sun-Maid brand is ten times better), plus a couple slices of unmelted cheese, leave for one very pathetic sandwich.

Seriously folks. The Farmer's Market is filled with so many great stands: Monsieur Marcel, Loteria, French Crepe Company, Gumbo Pot, Singapore's Banana Leaf just to name a few.

Don't waste your time (or the calories) at Sub-pars.

But if you must...
Du-par's at the Original Farmer's Market
6333 W 3rd St (at Fairfax)
323-933-8446

New Year's Rule #1: A Better Relationship with Food

2006-12-29T15:22:00.000-08:00

I love rules. Brian thinks I would do well under a fascist regime, so eager am I to follow rules to the very letter. Give me a strict recipe and I'm in heaven... loose guidelines and I'm left wandering with no idea what to do.

Given my love for rules and regulations, I'm a bit surprised that I've never made any New Year's Resolutions until this year.

Perhaps that's because the word resolution is itself rather loosey-goosey: Resolution - a resolve or determination

No, I'm not one to be left to the open-endedness of my own determination. Instead, this year I'm going to make for myself some very strict New Year's Rules.

New Year's Rule #1: Develop a Better Relationship with Food
This is not exactly what you think. I actually have a very healthy relationship with food... I LOVE food (and it loves me back). No, this rule is not about dieting or eating healthy, or whatever. Rather, I want to really get to know my food. Like, what it is and where it comes from. It's time for me and food to take our relationship to the next level:

For the next year, I'll be making a once-weekly attempt at cooking food from scratch. And I don't just mean opening a can of tuna and making tuna salad. I mean going down to the fishmonger, buying a whole tuna, deboning it, and grilling it up myself. Or buying a whole chicken, degutting it, roasting it up whole, and making stock out of the carcass. You know, the stuff other people usually do for you behind the scenes.

We live in a land of too easy, too clean, too bloodless fast food, where chicken magically becomes bite-size McNuggets, where mashed pork gets pressed into McRib sandwiches, "rib bones" and all. They say driving is a privilege, not a right, so I'm applying that same principal to being a carnivore. This year, I'm going to earn my chops.

Week one, as you can see, is chicken. I'm roasting it tonight (yes, I'm getting a little head start), making soup out of it tomorrow. Next week, I think, will be lamb. OK, so I'm not going to go slaughter a lamb, make dinner, and then knit a sweater out of it - meet me halfway here people... it's a start.

*** more New Year's Rules to come ***

Merry Christmas: I Ate Rudolph

2006-12-28T11:43:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a very wonderful Christmas filled with family, friends, laughter, love, and good food. Perhaps you sat around the fire singing Christmas carols, or gathered round the tree to unwrap presents. You may have watched a Christmas classic, such as this one:
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Or, if you're like my family, you hit the backyard on a beautiful 80 degree December afternoon to barbeque reindeer. Hey, where do you think my dark sense of humor comes from anyways?

I didn't actually know reindeer were real - I tossed them out along with Santa Claus and the Easter bunny as a child. Of course, that left plenty of room for teasing when I proclaimed, "I thought reindeer were imaginary animals, or is that unicorns?"

Apparently they are both real, according to my dad. We'll be having barbequed unicorn next year.

So, back to poor charred Rudolph...

Dad must have (accurately) anticipated that we'd consider his reindeer games more of a sick joke, not an actual meal. So rather than purchasing reindeer steaks, he picked up a little slab of ground reindeer to make two small Rudolph burgers, serving them up as an amuse bouche to my bewildered siblings.
Reindeer tastes, well... kind of like hamburger, only a little more gamey and drier, probably due to the lower fat content and the fact that reindeer fly (cows don't). I didn't love it, but it tasted better than I thought it would.

I'm betting that next year's unicorn filet will be a whole lot juicier.

The Grinch's Holiday Gift Guide: Food Edition

2006-12-18T12:36:00.000-08:00

It's less than a week till Christmas, and I still haven't bought any gifts. I don't know how the time got away from me... I've been hearing Christmas music everywhere and diligently avoiding the malls ever since Halloween.

Well, after searching through dozens of "find the perfect gift" guides, I started getting a little sick of Christmas. Gasp! Yeah, that's right, I'm sick of Christmas. In fact, I this close to saying, Burn, Christmas! Burn!! (that's for you honey).

For those of you in the same boat, I'd like to share my own gift guide: Colleen Cuisine Presents the Grinch's Holiday Gift Guide: Food Edition. CCPTGHGGFE for short. Now, this could be considered a list for "the man/woman/child who has everything," but it's more likely to be used for "people you feel obligated to buy a gift for, but really didn't have the time to shop for, and really don't like all that much anyways."

Ahem.

Gift certificates are a great way to show that you're too lazy to shop for a present, while still conveying the "no really, I care" factor because you actually went and visited a store. This year, take it up a notch and give them not just any old retail gift certificate, but the food experience of a lifetime.

Is someone on your Christmas list especially handy? They're sure to love Garnishing for the Beginner. Because no child should be left without a shark made from a cucumber on Christmas morning.

Have someone on your list who loves flowers? Surprise them this year with an edible floral arrangement.

No really, I bet they will appreciate the stinky rotting sticky fruit sitting on their desk attracting fruit flies. Make sure to order a really big one so they're forced to eat it all in one day - better yet, include extra apples for a nice browning effect!

Want a touch of elegance? Just add cheese:

Here's a very informative book for a food lover:

When you open the cover, it simply says, "Don't eat meat. Dummy!"

Want to tell someone they are an enormous fatass without saying a word? Just buy them this:

What's that, you say? It's a crisper, a machine designed to keep snacks such as Oreos, crackers, and chips at their premium "crispness." Just in case you don't eat the whole box in one sitting (but I mean really, when does that NOT happen?)

Share one of the hottest L.A. food trends with an out-of-town pal: Sprinkles MINI Cupcakes!

Yes, Sprinkles has mini-sized versions of their famous cupcakes, perfect for gift giving. Just be sure to scratch off that part of the label that says "for dogs."

Technically, this is not a gift, but it could make for a very special dinner: Spinach and Green Onion soup... the perfect way to show off this year's most notorious crops.

Maybe you could serve this to me for dinner... it would match my Grinch costume nicely.

Am I a Pinkberry Slut or a Pinkberry Whore?

2006-12-04T19:49:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes, yes... I know what you're thinking. ANOTHER freakin' Pinkberry article that you're quoted in? What are you, some kind of Pinkberry media whore?

I thought about this a lot over the past few days and you know what I concluded? Um. NO, I'm not a whore. Whores get paid for ~~sex~~ their words, or at the very least, they get free meals. I'm not in the business of eating free yogurt (well, except that one time... oh yeah, and that other time).

No, rather, I like to think of myself as a Pinkberry SLUT. I give it all away for free and I love it. Quotes for your article? No problem. Pages and pages of emails with all the info you could possibly need about yogurt facts and trends? You got it. In fact, I'll tell you just about anything you want to know about Pinkberry, except for their secret recipe, which one of the store managers gave away in this article (think he's fired yet?).

Read the full article here

Want more? I won't charge...
LA Weekly
New York Magazine
Los Angeles Times

Restaurant Blind Items

2006-12-02T10:06:00.000-08:00

OK, so I have a bunch of photos from a bunch of places I really didn't enjoy. Rather than write up a crappy review for each of these crappy restaurants, I'll let you guess where the culinary offense happened.

1) What subpar pseudo-trendy restaurant near the Arclight serves low-grade ahi mixed with enough seasoning to just barely mask the spoiled tuna taste? The lotus root chips were the only edible part of this dish. Hint: it's not Hungry Cat.

2) What chain steakhouse is so full of itself for its fork-and-knife ribs (which really aren't all that), that it slips and serves mushy 3 inch tall ahi tuna rolls spiked with jicama? Jicama!

3) What DELICIOUS Thai Bistro recently pissed me off by refusing to deliver to my house because I live on the wrong side of the street accordingly to their delivery map? Seriously, we're talking 100-200 feet here people.

4) In the wake of the latest LA Fire Department scandal, what fast food chain continues to serve dog food in its spaghetti to the offense of rational people everywhere?

Eater LA Emerges!

2006-11-27T21:14:00.000-08:00

The much-anticipated Eater LA has arrived in Los Angeles! For those who follow the New York food scene, you're undoubtedly familiar with the original Eater and their infamous *Eater Deathwatch,* *Eater Plywood,* and other trademarked foodstalker items. Now Eater brings its cruel jaws to Los Angeles, albiet late enough to bypass the Pinkberry madness (thank your lucky stars for that!).

Although the site celebrated its soft launch today, there are actually posts dating back several weeks, including many links to all of you fabulous people (Jeni, Pat, Eddie, Jonah, Kirk, Bree, Tokyoastrogirl and others). Because of course, as any good editor knows, the TRUE way to a foodbloggers heart is through their ~~ego~~ stomach.

Welcome to the L.A.foodblogosphere Eater!

If I Did It, Here's How it Happened: Ross Cutlery

2006-11-24T19:28:00.000-08:00

Tonight on the Fox News Channel...

Let's say that I... ALLEGEDLY... carved up a small animal last night. I'm not saying I did, but IF I did, it probably would've been a turkey, and I probably would've used a very sharp knife, theoretically speaking.

Now of course, there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever that I carved up a turkey. Well, except for that very sharp knife you see in exhibit A, or possibly those cuts you see in exhibits B and C, which are actually injuries I sustained while golfing. Golfing on a turkey farm.

Now before you start thinking that I have incredibly poor taste (which I do), let me take a moment to explain exactly what my Thanksgiving carving story has to do with O.J. Simpson's latest tell-all.

You see, prior to beginning my Thanksgiving cooking extravaganza, I wanted to make sure I had the proper weapons... I mean, equipment. And nothing wreaks terror in the hearts of turkey carcasses everywhere like razor-sharp equipment.

For razor sharp knives in only 1 hour, there's really only one place to go in Los Angeles - Ross Cutlery downtown. Yes, THE Ross Cutlery where O.J. Simpson purchased a 12" knife one week prior to Nicole/Ron murders, because he most likely had some serious cooking going on that week too.

Ross Cutlery is a phenomenal knife store, not just because they have great prices (as much as 30-40% off retail for some brands), but also because the owners are knowlegable, helpful, and extremely customer-friendly. When I asked for a carving fork to go with my knives, they pulled out the Wusthof, but they also lined up several lesser-known and less-expensive brands and explained the difference between each. Compare that to my experience at Sur La Table, where the only option on the table was the $160 carving set, and they seemed really reluctant to show me anything else.

In addition to great knives, Ross Cutlery also offers a very speedy knife sharpening service. As a Global owner, I generally have a hard time getting same-day knife sharpening because Japanese knives are sharpened at a narrower angle (10-15%) than the more common European knives (20%), and as such, require different sharpening equipment and a more precise skill.

Having your knives sharpened by a professional is truly a treat, and after only a 45 minute wait, I returned to find my knives shiny and razor sharp.

Literally razor sharp.

They say that cooking with a dull knife is actually more dangerous than cooking with a very sharp knife and that's true... until you get to the point where you're washing and drying the knife and it's SO sharp that it cuts through the dish towel and slices open your fingers.

Which is exactly what happened last night, your honor. Exactly.

Ross Cutlery
310 S. Broadway St.
Downtown Los Angeles
213-626-1897

BLD Restaurant: Better Luck Next Time

2006-11-11T10:20:00.000-08:00

When Grace first opened several years ago, I was a bit of a junkie. Something about their beef tartare with truffled grilled cheese sandwiches, braised pork shank, and gourmet doughnuts just really hit me right. It felt professional but unassuming, upscale but comfortable - gourmet food without the fuss or the attitude, served in portions big enough to fill you up.

So when Grace offshoot BLD opened last month, I was expecting more of the same... only now I'd be able to get Breakfast, Lunch, AND Dinner all under one roof. It's probably a little unfair to BLD that I went within weeks of opening with the intention of comparing dinner there to dinner at Grace. They are pretty different concepts: Grace being more of your traditional fine dining, BLD feeling more like a diner that's trying to be a nice restaurant (or the other way around). One thing both restaurants achieve well is the unassuming vibe: although at Grace it feels intentional, and at BLD, it feels accidental.

Let's not beat around the bush here... the service was accidental, dare I say, abyssmal. Normally I can try to overlook bad service and focus on the food, but here, the service actually interrupted the food too.

Some of the food was good, some was fair, some was almost bad. Among the bright spots was the charcuterie: BLD's cheese and charcuterie selection rivals that of hometown favourite AOC (you know, someone should really put those two together, call it DA' BLOC, throw in some of Grace's donuts, and keep it open 24 hours... now that would be my kind of fusion restaurant).

BLD has about 20 different selections each of cheese and charcuterie. For our platter, we chose prosciutto di parma and a truffled cow's milk cheese. It came out on the slab looking all luscious and provocative, as parma tends to do, and tasted equally great. Nice selection of accoutrements, including a raisin-nut bread, french bread with honey, candied almonds, date cake, and apricot jelly. Yum.

Unfortunately, the "Yum" stopped there. If only the rest of the meal could've been as good as the beginning...

We started off with a fun-sounding tater tots appetizer, which, from the menu, sounded like a gourmet version of school cafeteria tots. When it arrived with a whopping total of just 5 tots, plus greenery, I almost thought we had ordered (or received) the wrong dish. They appeared to be deep-fried shredded potato balls, which sounds like it would taste great, but didn't quite hit the mark. They reminded me a little bit of the fried mac and cheese balls at Fred 62, only not as many of them, and not as good.

Although we had already ordered our main entrees, our waitress came by after we finished our appetizer, but not to pick up the empty plate. "I forgot to tell you, we ran out of the angus beef burger. Would you like to order something else?" Um, how do you run out of a hamburger two hours before closing is my first question. My second question is, couldn't you have told me that 20 minutes ago, before I was starting to envision that juicy beef in my mouth? "People really like the pork burger," she offered. It wasn't what I wanted, but as an indecisive menu reader, I didn't want to put my dining companions through the wait... "Fine."

I didn't want a pork burger at all. I thought about getting up and changing it, but figured it would probably delay things further. So pork burger it would be.

The pork burger was actually quite good, but only if you're in the mood for pork. It tasted like a more savory and juicier version of a turkey burger, fairly light since it's white meat. Unfortunately, the fries were soggy and cold and the bun tasted dry and day-old. I ate the pork patty just by itself and felt a little sad. Grace was nowhere to be found in this restaurant.

Cat had the Self-Constructive meal combo, which gives the diner a choice of one of four proteins (half chicken, hangar steak, salmon, or tofu), plus two sides (fries, asparagus, fingerling potatoes, garlic rapini, grilled mushrooms, etc.) plus one sauce (basil pesto, lemon butter, red wine sauce, etc.). I was expecting a little more of a disaster to come out of the kitchen, but it actually seemed to come together nicely: grilled chicken, french fries, garlic rapini, with a lemon butter sauce. Cat chose wisely...

The chicken and garlic rapini tasted pretty good, the fries, again, were soggy and cold. Not exactly Craft-style execution, but an interesting idea.

Brian had the braised short rib sandwich, which we all expected to be the best thing on the menu. Although it was better than either of our dishes, it still felt underwhelming. Too much coleslaw, dry and tasteless bread, soggy cold fries... hey, the beef can't do everything.

I didn't eat much of my entree, so I was pretty hungry and looking forward to some type of down-home dessert. The waitress brought by the menu... there were a lot of choices, many very yummy looking. I set my heart on the yellow cake with dark chocolate frosting, only to be informed when the waitress returned 10 minutes later: "Oh, we're out of that. We're also out of..." rattling off every item on the dessert menu except for the cookies, ice cream sundae, and crepes. Uh huh... maybe you could have just told us what was available instead. Thanks.

I do want to give BLD one more try. The prices are reasonable and I'm interested to see what they make out of a weekend brunch. But next time, I'll go in with expectations set low.

Who knows, maybe those teeny remnants of Grace will peek out and surprise me.

BLD Restaurant
7450 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
323-930-9744
Mon-Fri 7am-12am
Sat-Sun 8am-12am

National Pocky Day!

2006-11-03T19:03:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! Next Saturday, November 11th, is National Pocky Day!

To celebrate, I'll be hosting an Online Pocky Party all week long! What was your first Pocky experience like? Have a special Pocky memory or photo? What's your favourite Pocky flavour? Leave a comment or email me at rosiecolleen@gmail.com.

Don't be caught empty handed on National Pocky Day - check out Famima!! for a great selection of Pocky flavours. In the meantime, please enjoy these awesome commercials from Japan.

How come we don't get commercials like this in the U.S.?

Despite anything I could possibly tell you, nothing will prepare you for the awesomeness of this next one.

And finally, WOW! Where can I get Pocky G? I've gotta try this!

Shabu Shabu Ya on La Brea

2006-10-30T23:48:00.000-08:00

Excuse me please... (taps knife on wine glass). Ting - ting - tinggggg.

I have a question. Why is Shabu Shabu so expensive?

I've pondered this extensively: there is no actual cooking provided by the eating establishment. There is only prep work. They cut up meat and vegetables, bring a pot of boiling water to the table, make you cook it yourself, and charge a 300-400% mark-up on the ingredients. It's twice as expensive as Korean BBQ, and they don't even marinate the meat. What gives?

Before we get started here, I should probably let you know that I've never had Shabu Shabu before now. I've always meant to try it, but never got around to it... there were always these pesky little sushi joints getting in my way. Well, a NEW Shabu Shabu restaurant opened up within walking distance from me, so I figured, why not give it a shot? All the other restaurants within walking distance have proven to be complete and utter dining failures, so maybe this one would seem great in comparison.

Then again, maybe not.

Everything about the new Shabu Shabu Ya on La Brea was right... tasty food, fun eating experience, nice environment, super friendly service. Well, everything was right except one thing: the price. Suddenly you put a price on something and the value of everything else goes down immensely.

$107.25 for 2 people (no alcohol, mind you), is not exactly what I'd call a bargain. Especially when both of you leave hungry, talking about where you'll get "dinner" after having that oh-so-expensive cook-it-yourself appetizer in rather humble environs. I won't lie, I felt a little duped.

If we can ignore price for a moment, I'd like to show you what we ate, because it was pretty good and pretty fun.

Like any down-home Japanese restaurant, Shabu Shabu Ya makes sure to stock "the leading brand in the Marble Soda category," Ramune. Yes, there really is a Marble Soda category, and you really should check out the Ramune fact page for some other interesting translations, such as high techniques and making the bottle into a "hand lantern." Ramune, which is like the Japanese Sprite, is a fun and fascinating drink - the top is stopped with a glass marble that you "pop" open with a special plunger device. The marble then falls down to the bottle's neck, where it rolls back and forth each time you take a sip, making a fun hollow scrapy sound like marbles on concrete. Want more of a challenge? Try getting the marble out without breaking the bottle...

After you play with your drink, it's time to play with your food. Our waitresses brought by a special mortar and pestle filled with sesame seeds: first, you crush the seeds into a sesame powder, then they top it off with a sesame dressing. Fresh!

Shabu Shabu Ya has a couple side dishes, such as edamame and miso soup. The edamame was OK, but actually tasted a little freezer burned. The meat dishes also come with an assortment of vegetables and udon noodles that you can toss into the boiler.

Now on to the meat of the matter. Shabu Shabu Ya offers three types of meat: regular beef, washugyu beef, and chicken. Washugyu beef is a cross-breed of Wagyu beef and Angus beef, and at $54 for a large, one would hope the genetics of such a marriage would create sparks in the flavour department.

It certainly looked nicely marbled...

But as we cooked up and ate each tiny expensive sliver, I couldn't help but wonder if this really tasted that much better than the regular beef, which is half the price. Good, but not life-changing, and certainly not the experience you'd get from real Kobe beef.

After the plate of beef, we weren't just appetized, we were starving. On to the chipper chicken...

They ask that you cook the chicken for 15 minutes, and to help pass the time, you get this cute little chicken-themed eggtimer. Unfortunately, they took it away before the buzzer went off - I was hoping it cock-a-doodle-doed, or chirped, or something. The chicken was pretty tender and tasted good in the sesame sauce, but it was also, pretty plain. I guess that's the point.

After the chicken, yep, you guessed it, still starving.

I don't have anything against Shabu Shabu Ya - it's a nice little place with very friendly people. But given my first experience, I can't imagine myself going back to Shabu Shabu Ya, or back to Shabu Shabu in general.

By the way, my debit card receipt showed up as "Sake House Miro," which means Shabu Shabu Ya is probably owned by the same people who own Sake House two doors down. If only they could apply the reasonable prices of the former location to the new digs, I might actually consider giving it a second try.

Till then, you'll probably just see me swinging by to pick up another bottle of Marble Soda.

Hungry Cat Redux

2006-10-30T23:35:00.000-08:00

Have you ever done something silly, like try to drink your way through the entire Hungry Cat cocktails menu in one night?

I tried... once upon a time... and then I forgot to write about it. Most of these drinks aren't even on the menu anymore, but the Blood Orange Negroni (far left... R.I.P.) was particularly good. The other ones involved limes, mint leaves, lemon slices, and, yeah, I'm cheating. I don't remember.

While the food is still up for debate, the drinks rule. Old school, hand squeezed, not afraid to give you a bite of bitters when you're least expecting it. Cheers to H.C. for still keeping a little sophistication in a land of lycheetinis.

PiNkBeRRy iz kEwL! Colleen Cuisine makes the LA Weekly

2006-10-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

I don't know what's more flattering, the fact that Jonathan Gold compares me to "a 13-year-old MySpacer obsessed with Orlando Bloom," or the fact that Jonathan Gold read my blog. wOOt! lOl! rotfl!

Mr Gold - U R so KeWl!!! CoUnteR InTeLligEnce iZ a waY AwEsOmE bOOk! I FoUnD my FaVe ReStauRaNts cUz of U! ZaNkOu, sUsHi gEn, Sasabune, sOOt BuLl jEeP (hAHa LOL! jEEp liKe a cAr! O:) lOlrOtFl!). wOOt!

Angelini Osteria: A White Truffle Birthday

2006-10-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

Let Friday, October 20th, forever be known as "The Day I Died and Went to White Truffle Heaven."

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who categorize people, and those who don't. As one of the categorizers, I think of people in two categories: those who love truffles, and can justify spending nearly three digits for a sprinkling of them, and those who don't, and can't, and won't. For those in the second category, you may want to stop reading.

When Brian asked me where I wanted to eat to celebrate my birthday this year, only one restaurant popped into my mind: Angelini Osteria. Not just because Angelini is one of the best Italian restaurants in Los Angeles, but because my birthday falls at the peak of white truffle season. White truffles, of course, are best served in their natural environment, over Northern Italian food. Or over anything really...

[If you didn't know there were two kinds of truffles, white and black, or if you thought I was talking about chocolate, here's a quick little primer. White truffles are generally considered superior in taste to black truffles, and because they are rarer and cannot be cultivated, they're also much more expensive]

So when our very gracious waitress handed us the specials menu, my eyes lit up when I saw fresh white truffles served over pizza, agnolotti, tagliatelle, risotto, scrambled eggs, and a few other dishes I'm now forgetting. And when the table next to us snickered... $85 for a pizza! how big is it?!... I just sat quietly and placed them in the above-mentioned don't/can't/won't category.

Two things about Angelini's truffle specials: disappointingly, they shave the truffles back in the kitchen, not in front of you at your table. They seem to be missing some free advertising, as the scent and spectacle of live truffle shaving is rather spectacular (not as spectacular as live lobster sashimi, but close). However, they more than make up for that by giving not a sprinkling, not a shaving, but a generous drowning of fresh white truffle flakes. We picked the agnolotti special and got more truffles than I ever expected...

If you're a truffle-lover, you know the smell is amazing. Even just truffle oil or truffle cheese or truffle butter smells amazing. But having a plate of them freshly shaved is borderline overwhelming... in the most wonderful way. Just lean in slightly, take a deep inhale, and you could nearly pass out from the musky, heady aroma that somehow graduates from your nasal passages directly into your brain. I don't know if there's a science behind this, but they seem to spark a near-instant serotonin release, the result being a woozy, giddy, I-think-I-need-a-cigarette sort of feeling.

After finishing off the plate of agnolotti, Brian and I looked at each other and giggled. "Do you want to get another one?" he asked. "Don't you think that's a little obscene?" I responded, secretly hoping he would say no. So we asked for the menu again, scrolled down the choices, and settled on risotto. And we got even more truffles than the first time...

So how did it taste? Words cannot describe... either you get it, or you don't. Things like "lick the plate" and "bathe in it" come to mind.

If you decide to embark on this adventure yourself, I'd recommend going for the absolute simplest dish possible. While the agnolotti was delicious, the cheese-filled pasta just barely stole some attention away from the main attraction, whereas the risotto pushed the truffle flavour into full view. Were I to make the choice again, I'd probably go with the scrambled eggs.

Yes, we ate other things besides white truffles, but does that really matter? For those of you who fall into the "yes, it does matter category," here you go...

First of all, we had a fantastic red wine: Nebbiolo, which hails from the same region as white truffles, the Piedmont region of Italy. Angelini has a fantastic collection of Italian wines, with some of the best served by the glass, at very reasonable prices.

Brian had a huge and delicious Bistecca alla Fiorentina, which is a porterhouse, Florentine style. At nearly 40 ounces, this is not a steak for the faint of heart or small of stomach (Brian is a champion eater, and even he took home more than half of it).

I had the swordfish special, which was served over a bed of steamed broccoli rabe. The broccoli rabe was bitter, as it tends to be, and not my favorite. I'd probably substitute it for another vegetable if I order this again. The swordfish, however, was outstanding, a thick steak grilled to perfection, garnished with pesto olive oil and dried cranberries.

And now, I've run out of words. Can't stop thinking about the truffles...

Angelini Osteria
7313 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323-297-0070

Pinkberry Sporked Me

2006-10-21T11:58:00.000-07:00

My Pinkberry patience is wearing thin. A loyal customer since they first opened in spring 2005, I've withstood the lines, the parking tickets, the controversy, the much-too-long-wait for stores #2 and #3. Now that the buzz has softened and the crowds dispersed, here I am back at Pinkberry with no line, no parking hassle, just wanting to get a medium plain yogurt like the good ole' days.

So I did. And Pinkberry served it to me with... a spork.

A spork!?!? Why?

Sporks are good for two things: KFC coleslaw (where sporks were first used in mass foodservice), and Taco Bell mexican pizzas. Oh yeah, and prison. That's it. When I'm eating my plain Pinkberry fro-yo with NO toppings, I don't need or want those stupid fork tines scraping and poking my upper lip. It RUINS my yogurt chi! It would be like eating sushi with serrated chopsticks!

I'm not sure if sporks are the new delivery method at Pinkberry, or just a temporary replacement, but I do know this: Pinkberry's sporks were three-pronged (exhibit, right), whereas the KFC and Taco Bell sporks are four-pronged (exhibit, left). So it's not like someone went out and gathered up a bunch of fast food sporks because they ran out of spoons. This was intentional.

Go to Pinkberry: Bring your own spoon.

I Will Buy Anything Pink

2006-10-12T21:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr./Ms. Brand Manager of [every major CPG company in the world] -

Please continue to make pink products in support of breast cancer awareness. Even if it's not in support of breast cancer awareness, please continue to make pink products. I will buy anything pink. Seriously. ANYTHING.

Take for example, this pink can of soup I bought yesterday. I was really hoping the soup itself would be tinted pink, but no such luck. Still, it's so pretty and cute, I'm just leaving it sitting out on my counter admiring it, and consequently, admiring the Campbell's soup brand.

Or perhaps this pink yoga towel from Yogitoes. Best invention ever. It's a $50 towel for goodness sake, and I already had the blue one, but then you had to go and make a pink one and I love you for it.

Le Creuset, please bring back your pink limited edition line. I was a poor college student when it first came out, but now I have disposable income for which to buy ungodly amounts of pink products, and I would buy your entire french oven line if it came in pink. Every single piece. Even though I only cook once a year.

Yes, it's true. I am a PINK-PRODUCT-CRAVING MONOMANIAC

Must! Have! Pink! Stuff!

What else is available in pink for this oh-so-special month of October, also known as my birthday month? LOTS. For some reason, this site has a campaign against pink breast cancer awareness marketing (why?), but they were kind enough to provide a full list of pink products... I'm going out tomorrow to buy them all!!!

American Girl Cafe at the Grove

2006-10-07T11:22:00.000-07:00

American Girl Place is every marketers dream. From the moment you walk in to the time you leave, moms, dads, and grandmas are plunking down credit cards all over the store. It's a place where the average visit lasts 4 hours, the average purchase tops $300 per girl, and because it's usually centered around a birthday, the money flows all year long.

Oh, and if you want to eat there on a weekend, you need to call months in advance. It's a hotter reservation than El Bulli.

Well, that's not entirely true. You can eat there on very little notice if you pick the 9:30AM breakfast seating, which is exactly what I picked to celebrate the 11th birthday of my little sis, K.

K and I showed up bright and early, right as the store was opening at 9AM. That gave us a little time to peek around and decide what she, her doll Lily, and I would do after breakfast. Just as we were oohing and aahhing over the doll-sized shoes and dress hangers, an attendant rang a bell and asked the 9:30AM group to form a line outside the cafe door. It's funny when little girls go to a faux grown-up restaurant: you could tell they all wanted to rush up and push and shove their way to the front of the line, but because it was the American Girl Cafe, they were on their best behaviour and (im)patiently bounced and fidgeted until it was their turn to be seated.

The American Girl Cafe couldn't possibly be any cuter. Designed to look like a fancy restaurant that's just for girls, they have both indoor and outdoor seating, plus special chairs that allow your doll to sit next to you at the table. K and I decided to sit outside on the patio, where we had the entire balcony to ourselves.

While the restaurant decor is special by itself, it's all the little details that really take it to the next level. For example, the napkin holders are pretty hair scrunchies, there's a fresh pot of pink sunflowers on each table (they're fake), and a polka dot gift box holds a set of "conversation starters" designed to provoke the thoughts of girls and big sisters alike.

The food is nothing to write home about, but it's certainly cute and a lot of fun. To start, mini cinnamon buns - these were probably the best part of the meal.

K had heart-shaped waffles, which came garnished with star-shaped fruit. I'm sure they'd make the sausages a special shape too if that were possible, but then again, let's not give them any funny ideas.

I had a quiche. I think. I've never seen a quiche that looked like this before - it was more like an eggy doughy puffy soggy thing.

The grapes were good! Oh well, I had some of K's waffles to curb my appetite.
At the end of the meal, out comes dessert: chocolate mousse topped with Oreo cookie crumbs, plus a little daisy. Cute, cute, and cute.

I remember when American Girl first launched in 1986. Even though I thought I was too old to play with the dolls, I still loved reading the books and looking through the catalogue. Today, American Girl has grown from just a few historical doll characters to a dozen, plus an entirely new line of dolls that are "just like you" (in case you're wondering what I look like, check out GT25H).

After our meal, we decided to take Lily (the doll) on a little spa day. First we'd style her up, then we'd do a photo shoot with her and K. Here Lily is getting her hair done:

Yes, there really was a 60 minute wait to get your doll's hair done. Don't worry, you can always shop while you're waiting! (hmmm... methinks the wait is on purpose)

After the hair salon, we headed upstairs for a photo shoot, then headed home.
All in all, it was a very special day with a very special girl! Love you, K!

Dylan Noodles with Tony Bourdain

2006-10-05T16:55:00.000-07:00

I have the coolest foodblogging friends! Go check out my buddy Dylan's unbelievable moment of fame, serving as a noodle guide to food legend Anthony Bourdain.

(photo from EatDrinknbMerry)

Fun fact - that's actually what Dylan looks like in real life. He has a strange disease called pixelitis.

Go Dylan! We're all very jealous, but very happy for you!

USC vs. UCLA Chips

2006-10-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

Do people really care THIS much?

I've never been much of a sports fan, and the cross-town UCLA vs. USC rivalry always kind of confused me. Wouldn't it be more fun if the two schools liked each other and had fun parties together, and maybe even created a Los Angeles all-star team by bringing their top players together for Olympic-style football? I guess that's why women have such a rare place in politics - we'd be doing too much teambuilding and socializing, not even war.

I do have a stake in the matter - I went to UCLA for both undergrad and grad school. But somehow I can't ever see myself in the grocery store, coming across UCLA chips and thinking "Hell YES! I've GOT to have these! And let's smash all the USC chips into smitherines!"

I could understand if they actually gave each chip a different flavour... then I could line them up side-by-side and tell you who'd have the better season, based solely on the taste of blue corn vs. red corn. But no, it's just red food coloring vs. blue food coloring, and that's not very interesting for a food lover OR a football fan.

Pinkberry Koreatown Opens

2006-09-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

When it rains, it pours...

Yes friends, the long-awaited Koreatown Pinkberry is now open, and I dare say it's the best Pinkberry yet.

Why?

Because it's freakin' HUGE!

At nearly four times the size of the West Hollywood location, the Koreatown Pinkberry has a row of about 15 tables you can fight over, seating for nearly 40 (lots of long benches), and an entire public street where you can line up without being harrassed by angry neighbors. The place appears custom-built for a yogurt-frenzied mob, and if the first opening hours are any indication, it will be very soon.

Their yogurt machines are fully stocked, and when I arrived Friday evening, an army of super-pretty-cute yogurtista trainees shouted a warm hello to all who walked in. Now that's something the WeHo location could take a lesson from...

On to the yogurt. You know the drill.
It the best thing you'll ever put in your mouth... manna from heaven... crackberry... heroin... etc. etc.

But last night I discovered something new.

Now, I really shouldn't be telling you this, but you can get the green tea and original yogurt flavors swirled! It's not on the menu, but if you pay the higher green tea price and ask really really nicely, they just might hook you up. The combination of both flavours is awesome and I wouldn't be surprised if it pops up as a secret menu item in the coming days (think In n' Out).

When you've eaten as much yogurt as you can handle (which in my case was a medium plain, then a small swirl, then 30 bites of Brian's large), you can shop. The baselit glass shelves are stocked with the world's cutest kitchen and home furnishings from Italian super-design store Alessi.

Right now they're just on display, but the plan is that everything will be available for purchase very soon.

They also have plans to expand the space, with room for a cafe next door and possibly even a salon of some sort. Before you know it, you'll be fully indoctrinated into the Pinkberry lifestyle, which, actually, would be a pretty awesome thing.

But the best part about the Koreatown Pinkberry? You've got an entire parking garage to clog up...

Pinkberry Koreatown
6th St at Berendo
Los Angeles, CA

Pinkberry OPEN at La Brea and Melrose

2006-09-26T10:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, it’s true, Pinkberry’s second Los Angeles location has opened at La Brea and Melrose!

My favourite celebrity blogger – Perez Hilton – posted the news last night.

I can’t believe I got scooped (I’m the yogurt reporter for goodness sakes!). But at least now I know that Perez shares my Pinkberry addiction.

Perez, I love you. See you at Pinkberry!

24 Hours in Montreal

2006-09-18T20:35:00.000-07:00

Do you ever claim to hate something when, secretly, you love it? In my case, that list is populated by jury duty, fast food, Peeps, and business travel.

Take jury duty for example. Of course I hate jury duty, right? Everyone does. Endless hours of just sitting, waiting around. All that time to do nothing but read, daydream, and take two hour lunches... who on earth would enjoy that?

I complain about business travel too. Gosh it's so hard living out of a suitcase. Being away from the office, with no phones, no meetings, no copy machines... having to eat out for all your meals, which, by the way, are paid for. Terrible.

So when business took me up to Montreal, I tried to contain what would certainly appear as an unnatural excitement to leave the office. I mean, it's not like I was going to Bentonville, AR. Montreal is one of the world's premier cities, a magical world where people speak French, even though the U.S. is mere miles away, where the food is divine, the shopping, amazing, the people, diverse, the food, divine (oh wait, I said that), where... oh! I've run out of breath.

Since this was a last minute trip, I didn't have too much time to prepare my itinerary, but I knew that walking around the city would lead to culinary treasures galore.

Maybe I should've planned better.

It's not that I didn't like the food - I did - it's just that I don't feel I really got the best the city had to offer. Oh well, next time. Hopefully next time I'll be able to eat and enjoy it with someone else, and not alone. Because dining alone is something I say I love, but secretly hate.

First of all, dining alone always brings the dreaded and pitiful "just one?" question. And even when you're not "just one" in everyday life, being reminded that you're "just one" in a bigger city is a sad and kind of, well, lonely realization. It's not that I want to be "just one," I just am.

I didn't really want to eat at [restaurant I can't even remember the name of]. I just did. And certainly I didn't want to be reminded that I was at a not-my-top-choice restaurant... alone.

Oh yeah. I had a rack of lamb. It was decent.

Lunch at the hotel the next day was a little better. For one, the hotel was adorable, beautiful, and perfect. And supposedly its restaurant - "S" - was one of the better dining spots in the city.

I don't remember who exactly I heard that from, but I suspect it might have been the hotel's own Web site, because the food was slightly better than decent, and a little more than overdone.

OK, I can't make fun of this dish too much. It was only $4! But I seriously thought it was going to attack me. That's a mango avocado parfait, dressed up as Chewbacca. With vinaigrette.

For the main course, I had a fish, delightfully less garnished.

It was decent (recurring theme).

After lunch, before my plane left at 5PM, I had a few hours to shop and take in the city. Boulevard Saint Laurent is a popular shopping and eating district, and it didn't disappoint. I was expecting it to feel a bit like Soho, but it reminded me more of LA's Melrose Ave., minus the bums and Eurotrash. Tons of cute boutiques, lots of fun places to eat, almost all of it pretty cheap.

I was more in the mood for shopping than eating, so I didn't have too many blog-worthy adventures. I was lucky enough to stumble upon one bright spot on the walk home... Ripples home-made ice cream. I sampled a few flavours and instantly knew my new love - lemon chiffon.

Lemon chiffon ice cream really is sunshine in a cup. It's lemony, tart and flowery - it made me want to dance and skip all the way home!

Of course I couldn't leave Canada without some canady (haaha! get it? nevermind). Why do the Canucks get such yummy things that we don't get in the States? Do they think we can't handle it? Probably not...

All of these were pretty good. CandyBlog - one of my favourite blogs - has more in-depth reviews on Coffee Crisp and Aero... so I'll defer to her expertise. Wunderbar was a new one for me. It's essentially a peanut butter, caramel, chocolate and crisped rice concoction, similar (I think) to the 100 Grand bar and the UK's Star Bar.

And, fortunately, I was able to eat and enjoy these * not * alone. It was good to be home.

I'm a Pinkberry Addict: Redux

2006-09-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

Remember how I vowed to stop blogging about frozen yogurt?
Yeah, me neither.

Check out today's New York Magazine restaurant page which features a link to yours truly and my fellow foodblogging friend Jeni from Oiishi Eats. You go yogurt girl!

If this keeps up, I may have to rename the site Colleen Eats a Lot of Yogurt and Sometimes Other Things.

LA County Fair - I Didn't Go for the Food (or did I?)

2006-09-17T20:02:00.000-07:00

Here's proof that advertising (sometimes) works: a work friend of mine mentioned a funny TV commercial for the L.A. County Fair, which I didn't see, but it prompted me to go to YouTube and look up their past commercials, which I found, which made me laugh, and made me decide to go to the Fair this weekend. For whatever millions of dollars they spent in media, I was happy to contribute my $10 share.

In case you haven't seen them, these TV spots are pretty clever...

TVC 1: Does Cashmere Come From Cows?

TVC 2: What Comes From a Cow?

Iced caramel macchiato!! Precious!

I have fond memories of the Fair - my first "real" job was working the cash register for Grant's Hamburgers at the Orange County Fair, age 15. Not only did it indoctrinate me to the working world (as a carnie, nonetheless), it gave me a special nostalgia for the lights, sounds, tastes, and smells you only find at the Fair.

So when Brian and I decided to hit the LA County Fair Friday night, I went partially for the memories, and partially for the food. I mean, where else do you have an excuse to eat really, REALLY unhealthy food, then go shop for a jacuzzi or a ski-doo? (besides Wal-Mart)

Friday-night traffic aside, we got to the Pomona Fairgrounds fairly quickly, and we hit the ground running. For our first course, we started with a corn dog, nachos, frozen banana, and chocolate-dipped cone (not pictured). Sorry, I was so excited I forgot to take out my camera!

Then we moved on to some freshly fried potato chips, accurately named "Tasti Chips."

After gorging on all that food, we took a spin on the Zipper, the swings, the Moscow Circus fun house, the Euroslide.com (sadly, not a real Web site), and the Orbiter. Uggh. Maybe we should've held off on the food until after the rides... why do all carnival rides have to involve so much spinning? And spinning... and spinning...

After what seemed like an hour of spinning, we decided to settle our tummies with some dessert.

First a funnel cake. I didn't realize there were two different varieties of funnel cake: Pennsylvanian Dutch Funnel Cake, which is the kind pictured below, and Mexican Funnel Cake, which resembles churros squeezed through a much thinner, longer tube. Take your pick.

After that (what? you think we were full?), we split a caramel apple. Plain, no nuts, fresh from the bottom row.

It was at the end of all this gorging that I caught sight of the food miracle I wanted to try most: Deep Fried Oreos and Deep Fried Twinkies. I mean, really...

Despite their claims - "Try Me I'm So Good" - I was too full to stomache even one more bite. Too bad, I would've really liked to give you an update and some photos.

Maybe you can go to the LA Country Fair, try them, and update me. Then we'd really push the new media advertising bubble full circle.

LA County Fair
Ends October 1st
Wed-Thurs: 11AM-10PM
Fri: 11AM-midnight
Sat: 10AM-midnight
Sun: 10AM-10PM

Located at the Pomona Fairplex
1101 W. McKinley Ave.
Pomona, CA 91768

Bartering a Trend: Sprinkles Bites Pinkberry's Dust

2006-09-16T23:44:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning and vowed to myself that I would stop blogging about frozen yogurt... I mean, I'm starting to get a reputation and I wouldn't want that.

But then I was in line tonight at Pinkberry and something happened.

It was 10:55PM and the Pinkberry line was still about 20 people deep. A Pinkberry employee came out to cut off the line, right as a couple women were walking up. "I'm sorry, we close at 11PM and I have to cut off the line - no more people," she said.

The women, clearly devastated, started begging to be let in line to no avail. "Can I just go in and look at the yogurt? I've never even seen it before," one asked. "Oh please, oh please, oh please?"

What happened next would stick in my mind for the rest of the evening: one of the women proceeded to run back to her car and pull out a box of 4 Sprinkles cupcakes. "I'll give you these Sprinkles cupcakes if you let me get in line." The Pinkberry employee, who was clearly unwanting of the bribe, relinquished (I think she felt badly), and the women took their place in the queue.

Victory achieved.

Four Sprinkles cupcakes in exchange for a spot in line at Pinkberry... the cupcakes ended up on the ground (see photo, left), the women left smiling, yogurt in hand.

I think it's safe to say that the Sprinkles trend has officially bit the dust.

Fiore is King

2006-09-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

With more than 100 unique votes (nearly twice that of its closest competitor), Fiore All-Natural Italian Frozen Yogurt has emerged as the people's choice for best real frozen yogurt in Los Angeles (see poll: Who's the Fairest of Them All?)

I'm sure many Pinkberry and Kiwiberri fans will be shocked at how a non-descript, quiet little blip on the radar managed to outshine not just their yogurt, but also their public and very vocal rivalry. I'll continue to leave the poll open, but I doubt either Pinkberry or Kiwiberri will be able to catch the momentum of what was certainly an "email everyone you know and get them to vote on this random foodblog poll" campaign. However, if the results change by the end of the month and Fiore is unseated, I'll announce the new reigning yogurt king.

Your official L.A. Yogurt Reporter, signing off...

Who's the Fairest of Them All?

2006-09-08T00:08:00.000-07:00

It's time for The Pinkberry vs. Kiwiberri vs. Fiore Challenge. Please vote for your favourite below!

OK folks, it's time to settle this frozen yogurt debate once and for all. No more accusations, no more name-calling... it's time to let the people decide whose frozen yogurt is king.

Colleen Cuisine brings you: The Pinkberry vs. Kiwiberri vs. Fiore Challenge.
Three yogurts enter, one yogurt leaves.

I assure you that in true Democratic fashion, this poll is 100% independently owned and operated. You can only vote once, so there will be no ballot-stuffing or unfair play.

May the best yogurt win!!

San Francisco: Chouquet's and Boulangerie

2006-09-04T16:57:00.000-07:00

We wrapped up our San Francisco trip with Sunday brunch at Chouquet's, a French Bistro just off Fillmore on Washington St (formerly occupied by Pauli's Cafe).

Chouquet's is a rather trendy little restaurant that has a cute little patio with little tables and little chairs. Emphasis on the word little. The chairs are so tiny that little ol' me even had a tough time getting comfortable. Those French like you challenge you.

The tables are also really close together, so you get a great opportunity to eavesdrop on your neighbors. Sometimes you get a boring dining neighbor who talks too loudly about nothing particularly interesting. This morning, however, we were fortunate enough to get a zinger: the morning after breakfast of a first hook-up between two officemates. Oooh it was good. For starters, she was clearly head over heels for him, and he clearly couldn't wait to get away from her fast enough. She was obsessed with her job and office politics, he could care less. She kept throwing out snappy one-liners like "I could never work under you... well, at least not at work" (wink, wink), which he politely pretended he didn't hear. She became increasingly obsessive ("so you WERE awake when I was calling you the other night"), while he tried to keep his story straight on the other parts of his dating life. Too much good stuff to write about.

Fortunately, the food was just as indulgent as listening to their conversation, and our decadent eavesdropping turned into decadent brunching within about 30 minutes (I certainly can't accuse this place of hurried service).

Brian had the eggs benedict, which I like to think of as an Egg McMuffin deluxe. The Egg McMuffin is actually thought to be inspired by eggs benedict, although I doubt you'd ever see Lemuel Benedict shoving one of those in his mouth on the way to Wall Street. Picture perfect, and just about as solid an eggs benedict as one can get.

I'm a sucker for a good quiche, and Chouquet's was perfectly elegant and delicious. Instead of a slice of a bigger quiche, they serve an individual quiche tart... which was tasty and oh-so-cute. And probably 2000 calories... who cares...

We were on vacation, so of course we had to have french fries for breakfast... it's a free country, right?

Anytime I eat french fries, I can't help but think back to the completely silly episode of Freedom Fries from 2003. Just last July, the House finally changed the name back to French Fries in all of its restaurants. Hill fries free to be French again - thank God! I mean, it was only a matter of time before we packed up the Statue of Liberty and shipped it back to France, right?

If only our dining neighbor could ship his ~~mistake~~ date back on the same boat...

Chouquet's
2500 Washington St.
San Francisco, CA 94115
415-359-0075
Brunch: Sat-Sun 10AM-3PM
Lunch: Tues-Fri 11:30-3PM
Dinner: Tues-Sun 5:30-10PM

We decided to continue on the French theme with some treats from Boulangerie down the street. Bay Bread Boulangerie specializes in organic artisan breads, which I'm sure are great. But when I decide to get serious about eating, I go for the sweets.

When I saw that Boulangerie had macaroons, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. A very authentic-looking French bakery in San Francisco, the food mecca of the West Coast - the macaroons would be awesome, right? Well, almost. Actually, not really.

Will I have to travel straight to Paris to find a macaroon better than the ones at Boule? Perhaps, but that's certainly a trip I wouldn't mind taking...

Bay Bread Boulangerie
2325 Pine St
San Francisco, CA 94115
415-440-0356
Tues-Sat: 8AM-6PM
Sun: 8AM-4PM

Yogurt Queen Coming Soon

2006-09-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

I mean really... how many natural frozen yogurt stores does one city need? (and how come they all have the same pink and green logos?)

I'm confused, are they OPEN, or coming soon?

Let me guess, Yogurt Queen (on Melrose between Fairfax and Gardner) is planning to sell... all-natural, non-fat, sour-tasting frozen yogurt? What in the world would motivate them to do that?

Let's take a look at the Los Angeles yogurt timeline, shall we:

January 2005: Pinkberry opens
Spring 2006: the Pinkberry media hailstorm kicks into full swing
August 2006: Fiore opens
August 2006: gelatoDay Italian Natural Low-Fat Yogurt opens
September 2006: Kiwiberri opens
Fall 2006: Yogurt Queen coming soon
and certainly there are others on the horizon...

For the love of God, enough already! Don't you people know that we Los Angelenos flutter from one food trend to another without so much as blinking an eye? There's not enough gullible food-trendy-wannabees to go around - you'll all be out of business before you even know it!

San Francisco: Chez Nous

2006-09-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

I told you I went to San Francisco to eat, right? For our third meal of the day (I'm counting gelato as a meal, mind you), Brian and I took a quick walk from our hotel to Fillmore St. in Pacific Heights. Pacific Heights is like, my dream neighborhood, and if I ever were to live in San Francisco, it would have to be somewhere within a one block radius of Fillmore between Bush and Broadway.

My friend JW, who used to live in Pacific Heights, wrote down a bunch of places we could try during our San Francisco weekend. As we were walking up Fillmore, I recognized the name of one of them: Chez Nous, which translates to either "your place" or "with us" depending on which free online translation service you use. Note to self: take some French lessons.

Chez Nous is an adorable little cafe that specializes in Mediterranean small plates at equally small prices ($4-13, nothing over $13). They have a decent selection of wines by the glass, and it's the perfect little spot to relax and nibble, or have a full dinner, depending on your mood.

Our waitress brought out a homemade walnut bread to start, which had a good flavour but was remarkable hard and chewy - almost inedibly so. Perhaps they tried to heat it up, then left it sitting out too long? Along with that, we started with a spinach, gorgonzola, pear and candied almond salad which was very much edible, crisp and refreshing.

Chez Nous had a couple specials that day - we chose the ahi tuna tower, which featured a mound of fresh ahi mixed with minced onion, cucumber and tomato, topped with avocado and clover sprouts and served with wonton crisps and a wasabi creme fraiche. Mmm... I get hungry for this just typing out all the ingredients.

Like the salad, this was simple and refreshing - high quality ingredients assembled with just enough finesse to feel gourmet, not too much fuss to feel overdone.

After the light dishes, we moved on to steak and potatoes. The gnocchi caught my eye early on... I love gnocchi of all types for its pillowy fluffy goodness. This dish was served with baby corn in a pesto cream sauce. Heavenly, it a bit rich.

The one lowlight of the meal was the dish I thought I'd like the most - wagyu beef with baby carrots in a mushroom sauce. While it certainly looked pretty, the meat was tough and almost a bit stringy... a characteristic I've noticed often in wagyu.

Despite the one disappointing order, most everything coming out of the kitchen looked delicious, and I'd be happy to return to Chez Nous again to sample the remaining dishes.

Chez Nous
1911 Fillmore St.
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 441-8044
Lunch : 11:30am-3pm daily
Dinner: Sun-Thurs 5:30-10pm, Fri-Sat 5:30-11pm

San Francisco: Yoogo Gelato

2006-09-02T12:33:00.000-07:00

After we went shrimp-loco at Gold Mountain Dim Sum, Brian and I took our palates on a little flavour adventure at Yoogo Gelato across the street. Yoogo Gelato is like the multiethnic version of 31 Flavours, except they only have one location and they serve gelato, not ice cream.

They also bring on the flavours in ways Baskin Robbins would never dare: durian, budweiser, taro, avocado, seeweed, yogurt, and black sesame were just a few of the more exotic offerings.

Rather than simply labeling each container, Yoogo's purveyors decided to drop a key ingredient plop in the front of each bin. I'm sure this was to remind and reassure customers that the gelato was made with real ingredients, but the effect was akin to trash scattered on the beach. Especially when you got to the empty Budweiser can and the mini bottle of cheap rum.

I noticed they DIDN'T drop a durian fruit in the durian gelato. Hmmm... wonder why?

In my mind, durian is one of those flavours you can't not sample, but when I asked the barista for a taste, she responded with "Are you sure? Do you know what durian is?" Yes, yes I do know what durian is thank you very much. It's a stinky awful miserable fruit and I'm very curious what it tastes like in gelato form.

I didn't actually say that...

She handed me a bite and I took a sniff - didn't smell awful. Then I tasted it. Blech - it was just like the fruit, but sweeter. Like sweet manure. I swear, anyone who says they like durian is lying and just trying to make themselves sound like a foodie badass. Acquired taste? I just can't believe that's true...

Brian went ahead and ordered two scoops: budweiser and lime. The budweiser gelato tastes exactly like budweiser. Whether or not that's a good thing has a lot to do with your taste in beer. It seems to me a shame that they wasted such a novel concept on such an inferior brand - the world could definitely benefit from a guinness gelato or a trappist monk ale gelato. Oh well, the budweiser mixed really well with the lime flavour, and it actually tasted kinda good. For about two bites.

I had to get the awful taste of durian out of my mouth, so I went with two flavours I knew for sure I'd enjoy: yogurt and mango. I was expecting the yogurt to be a little more sour - instead it tasted almost exactly like the yogurt flavour of Hi-Chew, but in gelato form. In a similar manner, the mango tasted exactly like mango Hi-Chew. I was in heaven!

Granted, the gelato at this place is not that great (no Mikawaya, that's for sure). But it is worth a visit if only to try some flavours you'd never find in gelato anywhere else.

Again, whether or not that's a good thing is entirely up to you...

Yoogo Gelato
601 Broadway St.
San Francisco, CA
(415) 398-2996
Mon-Thur: 10am-12am
Fri-Sat: 10am-3am
Sun: 10am-1am
CASH ONLY

Jar Restaurant

2006-09-01T22:11:00.000-07:00

Let's start the morning off with some mathematical logic, shall we?

Colleen's Corollary 2.0: the fancier the restaurant, the more likely you are to want to blog about it.
Colleen's Corollary 2.1: the fancier the restaurant, the dimmer the lights

Therefore, by way of analysis, one can assume that the more likely you are to want to blog about a restaurant, the more likely it is that your photos come out looking like absolute crap.

Take a look at exhibit A: Jar Restaurant on Beverly Blvd. Despite being one of the better lit upscale LA dining establishments, the mere act of shooting without a flash produces photos of the yellowish-squint-and-you-can-barely-make-it-out variety.

Excuse me waiter, do you mind if I take this dish outside for just a moment? I just want to ~~photograph it in natural light~~ show it to someone.

Oh well, I trust that you all can use your imaginations and forgive me for the lack of photographic detail.

I'd been to Jar once before, several years ago, and had a great meal sitting in the clubby dining room. This time we sat at the bar and I enjoyed it even more. There's something about kicking back at a fancy place and treating it like bar food - it allows you to be even more surprised and delighted than you would be sitting at a table, where expectations are high.

We started out with a couple martinis, Brian's a watermelon, mine lychee. Unlike trendier bars that interpret fruity drinks as "Jolly Rancher in a glass," the martini specials at Jar are subtle, with the essence of fruit, not a full-on fruit cocktail. The lychee was especially good...

Sadly, they had run out of the homemade potato chips, but we did get a big heaping bowl of mixed nuts, which are roasted on location at the restaurant and tossed in a salty and barely sweet dust.

Since we had eaten a late lunch, we decided dinner would be one appetizer and one entree shared between us. We chose the lobster cocktail for an appetizer, and it came out piled high with lobster - equivalent to the amount of claw meat you'd get from a full 2 pound crawler. Resting atop a bed of julienned green mango with a spicy lime vinaigrette, this dish was refreshing and surprisingly filling.

Jar had a couple specials that night and we decided on the fish - grilled mong chong from Hawaii. Mong chong is a white fish with a surprisingly rich flavour... it almost has a steak-like quality in that the meat is luscious, full and satisfying without tasting fishy at all. Crunchy and a teeny bit charred on the outside, smooth and rich inside, it came with a creamy citrusy sauce that really hit the spot.

This was hands-down the best cooked fish I've ever eaten at a restaurant... we asked our waiter to add us to the mailing list so we could be notified whenever they were serving it again. It's that good.

Fun fact: mong chong also means "a bloody idiot" according to Urban Dictionary.

In a smooth and seductive environment like Jar, it would be a shame to pass up dessert. Everyone seems to rave about the butterscotch pudding, so we drank the Kool-Aid and dove in.

Wow. Now I know why people go nuts for this stuff. Every ingredient in the dish comes to life, from the rich toasty butterscotch to the fluffy cream floating on top. It's clearly made with an expert hand - I hate (I mean HATE) pudding, and yet I loved every bite of this.

So much for bar food...

Jar
8225 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
323-655-6566

Kiwiberri Grand Opening

2006-09-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

Pinkberry copycat Kiwiberri opened today, and while they're giving away free yogurt all evening long, it's really not worth the gas money or the parking hassle.

Anyone who reads this blog knows I love Pinkberry, and when I saw the first signs of Kiwiberri, I was just happy to have more sour-tasting yogurt in the neighborhood. Then things in the blogosphere went sour, and my comment section became a battleground for the Pinkberry/Kiwiberri feud.

I promise I went to Kiwiberri with a completely open mind. In fact, I really wanted to like it, simply for the fact that their location is closer to me than Pinkberry. Bottom line: not only was it not as good as Pinkberry (or Fiore, for that matter), it was actually kinda bad. The yogurt had no depth to it, no richness, no creaminess. It was just sour, then it morphed into a bitter aftertaste. The toppings were awful: blueberries were mushy and tasted a bit spoiled, the mango wasn't ripe enough, and the "granola" was actually Kashi Go-Lean Crunch (classy).

Compared to Pinkberry and Fiore, Kiwiberri's portions are small. Their regular size was equivalent to the Pinkberry small, and at a slightly higher price ($5.00 vs. $4.95 for a medium with 3/toppings), Kiwiberri doesn't exactly bring on the value. Skimpy on the toppings too.

Was there anything good about Kiwiberri? Let's see... they have bathrooms (Pinkberry doesn't). And that's about it.

In addition to the mediocre yogurt, the store seems to be the hangout of an unsavory cast of characters. When I walked in, a group of about 10 hoodlum-looking guys proceeded to stare me up and down the entire time I was in the store. They weren't eating yogurt, they were just... hanging out. Every couple minutes, a manager-looking guy in a Kiwiberri apron would go over to their table and give them all high fives. Hey, if the yogurt business doesn't work out, they can always go back to running drugs.

Me, I'll continue to fuel my sour yogurt addiction at Pinkberry.

Kiwiberri
Minimall at the corner of 3rd/La Cienega (kitty corner to the Beverly Center)

If Fruit Could Talk

2006-08-27T12:44:00.000-07:00

Shoot. My laptop crashed and I had to send it to the repairman. Stuck on the hardrive are all my photos from San Francisco, Jar, Magnolia, Bombay Cafe, and a few other places I still need to write up.

All I have on Brian's computer are these strange photos I took about a month ago, right after we went to see the masterlesspiece Lady in the Water by M. Night i'mabigShamalan.

I think my original idea was to retell the story of the movie using fresh produce, but somewhere along the line, I forgot which items represented which characters and here I am. This, of course, will only be somewhat amusing if you saw the movie and heard all the ridiculous plot and character lines within it... Narfs. Scrunts. Uh huh.

This iteration of the photos doesn't make a lot of sense either.

I'll be back with some real food blogging soon. Promise.

Cherry Pie Massacre

2006-08-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you draft a food post and leave it sitting in your queue for days, then weeks, then months. Occassionally, this isn't obvious to your readers - who cares if you ate at Boa last week, or in 2004? But sometimes, it's painfully obvious, as is the case with my cherry pie experiment, which went out of season 2 months ago, and which I served at a BBQ back in mid-July.

Why have I had such a hard time writing this post? Probably because of the horrific images seared into my mind from the experience. Tender cherry flesh, ripped open and sprayed all over the walls in my kitchen... bloody red juice trickling down my arms... pastry dough stretched too thin and falling off in fleshy chunks on the floor...

It was kinda like The Shining, but with cherries.

I've always had a fascination with cherry pie. My mom used to sing this song when I was a kid, "Can she bake a cherry pie, Billy boy, Billy boy, can she bake a cherry pie, charming Billy?" Then we would go to Polly's Pies and I would get the biggest, most obnoxiously-sweet piece of cherry pie I could ever imagine. I don't even think I like cherry pie anymore, but somehow childhood memories win out and I continue to call it my favourite pie flavour.

So when I got invited to a July BBQ at the height of fresh cherry season, I knew it was time to bake my first ever cherry pie.

OK, here's where it gets messy. Baking a fresh cherry pie is no small task. You've gotta go to the farmer's market and buy the freshest cherries possible, of course, but then there's the problem of the pits. Uggh. "The pits." You start to see where that phrase comes from.

I had heard of a fun-sounding kitchen device called a cherry pitter. I thought it might be something incredibly automatic, like you pour the cherries in one end and they come out pitted on the other. No, my friends, a cherry pitter is more like a garlic press, only it requires much more effort, attention, and patience.

It also requires a lot of bleach. You know, the kind they use when cleaning up a crime scene? Until you've pitted 100 cherries, you haven't truly seen the horrors of the kitchen. By cherry number 20, I was covered in red juice, and by cherry number 50, the furthest reaches of my kitchen counter were splattered - I was finding new spots and cleaning it up for days.

Maybe I'm giving the cherry pitter a hard time - it's actually a pretty useful device (you can use it to pit olives too). But I can't say that I'll forgo the frozen cherry section of my grocer's freezer next time.

If there is a next time...

After you crush and pop open the juicy cherry flesh, leaving bits of cherry innards scattered everywhere, you heap them all up in a pan and set them on fire. The point of this is to soften them and leach out the cherry juice for later, but at this point, I'm thinking any cherry torture is a good thing.

Did I mention one of my favourite shirts is now permanently stained with cherry juice? Burn, cherries, BURN!

After unleashing my cherry aggression, it was time to focus on the crust. The soft, tender, flesh-like crust. Unfortunately for me, the recipe called for an unusual method of lattice building: they instructed you to build the lattice separately on a baking sheet, then slide it off onto the prepared cherry pie. Ha haa. So simple.

"Sliding" lattice onto a pie is about as easy as stapling jello to the ceiling. And the end result looks about the same. The entire thing slid to one side, so instead of lattice, it looked more like a tight basket weave, covering only the left third of the pie. Somehow, I managed to separate it out without breaking to many strands, and popped the sucker in the oven.

Phew. Crime is tough.

If anyone still wants to attempt this recipe after seeing the aftermath, you can find it here (note - I used madagascar vanilla and cut the amount of vanilla by two-thirds).

Nearly two months ago, this was the last time I baked. No wonder...

San Francisco: 36 Hours, 3600 Calories

2006-08-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

We food geeks love to skip town for a little culinary adventure. That's why we adore people who make that a possibility, like my sweetie pie husband Brian who swept me off to San Francisco for the weekend with one quest: TO EAT.

Ever since Taco Bell coined the concept of "The Fourth Meal," I've made it my mission to approach out-of-town fooding with a series of broad, well-paced, and frequent meals. For this trip, we'd start with dim sum for breakfast, followed by dessert, then a lunch/dinner, then another snack, then a late dinner. Five meals, five things to blog, YIPPEE!, right!?!

Unfortunately, my blogging eyes were bigger than my stomach, and by the time we were approaching our 10:30PM fifth meal at Delfina, I was reeling from too much bread, too much dim sum, too much gelato, too much... everything. So we had to call it a night and ended up bedridden at the hotel, me massaging my aching belly. Be warned - eating can be hazardous to your health.

Saturday morning started out innocently enough with dim sum at Gold Mountain. I was lucky that Jeni called that morning to inquire about the location of the Koreatown Pinkberry (yes, we foodbloggers are obsessed), because I was able to pick her brain about some places to visit in Chinatown. "I'm looking for a dim sum emporium," I inquired, and she kindly pointed me to Gold Mountain.

Gold Mountain definitely meets the definition of dim sum emporium: it's big, it's loud, it's crowded, and it's good. They have a ton of stuff, lots of variety, and many things you don't find at your regular Chinatown dim sum. However, during this visit, I started to confront the awful truth that...

I don't think I really like dim sum.

I've tried, really, I have. After about 20+ visits to Empress Pavillion in LA's Chinatown, trips to just about every dim sum place in NYC's Chinatown, and now this, I just... I just... I think I like different things for breakfast. Why can't dim sum be a bar food?

My personal self-confrontations aside, Gold Mountain delivered. They had a ton of different dishes and I was curious to try many of them, but because we were on meal #1 of 5, we decided to go slow and not accept everything that passed our table. Which was wise, because everything that passed our table involved shrimp in some form or another.

Don't get me wrong, I'm cool with shrimp. But it can get old after three dishes in a row. After the 15th waitress passed by with yet another iteration of shrimp, we were relieved when they started to bring out some other meat. Even though it was unidentifiable meat. What's that? Well, it wasn't pork, it wasn't shrimp, and it didn't really taste like chicken either. It was "other," hidden inside a greasy dumpling.

Fortunately, we did get to sample the sesame balls at the end, which are my favorite dim sum offering. Despite the fact that they became a greasy lead weight in my stomach later on, they sure tasted good. Hot, sweet, sticky, and oh-so-sesame-y. More sesame seeds per square centimeter than any other sesame ball I've had... EVER. Guaranteed.

Budget-wise, we were off to a good start. Is it possible to incur more than $15/person at dim sum? I've never had a check above $30, and this was my second lowest check on record. The lowest was $13 at Empress Pavillion, when they decided to stop serving non-Chinese people around 12:30PM.

So what's the ideal dessert after shrimp and mystery meat dumplings? Why, durian and Budweiser gelato, of course...

Bread & Porridge

2006-08-15T23:50:00.000-07:00

The morning after...

It doesn't really matter what you're recovering from - a great morning-after breakfast is practically a Sunday prerequisite. When you're single, the morning-after breakfast could be a number of things... a second date, a time to soak up your hangover, a dish session with your girlfriends, or maybe all three combined (you crazy kids!). When you're married, however, the morning-after breakfast means recovering from a wild night of going to yoga and watching South Park DVDs. I mean, do that two nights in a row and you are hitting it HARD! Whew!

Even when I'm completely rested with no debaucherous memories, a morning-after breakfast at Bread & Porridge is always a treat. About six years ago, when I lived in West LA, B&P was a weekend staple. They offer great, wholesome food in a cute little space - it's not granola cruncher healthy, but real, fresh picked, fresh-tasting favourites.

They also have an interesting staff philosophy. When I took Brian a few days ago, I was somewhat surprised to see the exact same people working there as I remembered from many years ago. Apparently, all of the employees serve all the different functions - host, waiter, busboy, chef, dishwasher - on a rotational basis, and they pool and split all the tips. Some might call this Communism, but I call it love. And it seems to keep the employees around for quite a long time.

But enough rambling, let's get to the food! I believe the secret to a great breakfast place is really, REALLY delicious coffee. Bread & Porridge delivers on that and then some, with a lovely French press that brings rich, aromatic, and very strong coffee to your table.

What's a French press? I'm glad you asked! Photo below, definition here. Dang, Wikipedia has an entry for everything! The hardest part about this method of delivery is waiting three minutes before you press down the plunger.

When it comes to the breakfast dishes, you really can't go wrong. You can check out the menu online for an idea of what they offer.

I almost always go for the eggs: two of my favourites are the sweet pepper scramble, which has roasted, marinated red peppers and feta cheese, and the breakfast quesadilla, which packs a nice jalepeno kick inside a freshly made tortilla.

Brian's more of a griddle man, so he usually goes for the pancakes or the french toast. Although the pancakes pictured are of the plain buttermilk variety, I've also tried some of the fillings/toppings, which are great - particularly banana pecan and blueberry!

Everything at Bread & Porridge is simple, but you can taste the quality ingredients. Like, instead of plain Farmer John sausage, they serve a variety of gourmet sausages (try the Maple Breakfast - it's like sausage infused with maple syrup!). Add that to great prices, and you've got a breakfast place you can frequent every weekend.

Even if it's not the morning after...

Bread & Porridge
2315 Wilshire Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA
310-453-4941

Chow.com Launching Soon

2006-08-15T22:58:00.000-07:00

The fabulous and ever-stylish Ms. Lee tipped me off to a new Web site launching soon: Chow.com.

Look familiar?

It should, it's owned by the same people who brought us the new and "improved" Chowhound.com (which, sadly, I rarely use anymore... it's easier to search, yes, but not as much fun).

It might also look familiar it you ever read Chow magazine. I was a HUGE fan of Chow magazine... sadly, one of not too many fans, for the magazine folded before it even really got off the ground. But if you're able to find and get your hands on the Nov/Dec issue (at left), it's a must read - if only for the Turkey Two Ways recipe alone.

I'm hoping the new Chow.com site has a similar feel to the late Chow magazine: it was hip, fun, and slightly irreverent, but still very much gourmet. A magazine that really spoke to those Gen Y foodies - it was sort of like Food & Wine meets Design Within Reach meets Maxim (in about a 50/40/10 ratio).

Check out the NY Times article here.

Wally's Central Coast Wine & Food Celebration

2006-08-14T20:36:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago, my friend Susan invited me to help set up the silent auction tables at Wally's Third Annual Central Coast Wine & Food Celebration. I'm always up for meeting new people and checking out new things, but I had no idea what a food and wine extravaganza I was in for! After about two hours of setting up tables, checking in silent auction items, and arranging and rearranging tables, the food and wine vendors began to show up. And boy did they ever!

Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of the wine tables, but suffice it to say that some of Central California's best and brightest were in full force: more than 50 wineries, including favourites Qupe, Saxum, Sea Smoke, Summerland and many more. We tasted about 10 different wines and most of them were quite excellent.

Once we had sampled the wine, it was time to eat! Wally's rounded up some great restaurants to accompany the tasting: Sona, Spago, Grace, Campanile, Bouchon, and several others.

First off, the Hitching Post, which rose to notoreity following the release of the movie Sideways, where the restaurant played a key background setting. Hitching Post had some excellent french fries and tri tip, and if you were quick, you could scurry back to the tent and pair the snack with the Hitching Post Pinot (I didn't, but in hindsight, probably should have).

A recurring theme at this event was beef. Bring on the beef! Wagyu (Kobe-like) beef made a prominent showing at the tasting, with a Wagyu kobe burger from Spago and braised wagyu beef from Bouchon. Mr. Hefter himself was on hand to serve up the rich and juicy McSpago, and if you are by any means a chef stalker, you would have been in heaven to meet and chat with the many chefs in attendance (me, I like to admire from a distance).

LA's handsomest chef David Myers of Sona made an appearance, serving up a steamed white fish with hand-peeled baby tomatoes in a citrus reduction... mmm, yummy! And the folks at Literati II served up a pretty little dessert - puff pastry topped with panna cotta and fresh berries.

Heading back to the Spago table for dessert, we were greeted with two delicious sorbets: espresso and raspberry. Both were handmade, and equally divine. The espresso was rich and creamy with a strong espresso finish, the raspberry bright and fruity, heavy on the berries (in a good way). I still can't decide on a favourite.

The sorbet made for a good palate cleanser as we headed into dessert. I'm a major sucker for Grace's amazing desserts (hello, doughnuts), and their tasting stood up to all my expectations. They served a very grown-up popsicle, which actually became a plated dessert as the afternoon sun wore on. The flavour? White chocolate cashew schezuen peppercorn, topped with pralines. They were perfect. I ate three of them.

After eating several popsicles on a plate, I was craving a popsicle on a stick... and Campanile had them! I'm not entirely sure what this stainless steel contraption does, but the end result is a cute, fruity, mini-popsicle, freshly baked.

After a couple hours of non-stop eating and drinking, I was woozy and a bit sleepy. I hung out a little longer, snapped some photos, chatted with Pat from Eating L.A., and made my way home for a nap.

Susan - thanks so much for inviting me... it was lots of fun!

Fiore Frozen Yogurt

2006-08-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

The LA Times got me all excited by promising that the Koreatown Pinkberry would be opening "sometime next week." Well, the last official day of "sometime next week" is today, and the Koreatown Pinkberry isn't exactly looking open.

Fortunately, my friend Jeni from Oishii Eats tipped me off to a new Pinkberry-esque joint called Fiore, located in Japanese Village Plaza (p.s. Jeni - sorry for copying your photo layouts, but I couldn't resist!).

Fiore calls itself Natural Italian Yogurt (who invented this stuff anyways - Korea or Italy?), and while they're not the first sour frozen yogurt joint in L.A., they are the first one with their very own Web site. Pinkberry.com? Kiwiberri.com? Not yet. Come on guys... it's not that hard.

Fiore is similar to Pinkberry in many ways: they both offer all-natural low-fat yogurt with lots of fresh fruit toppings, served in a cute mid-century modernish space. One key difference between Pinkberry and Fiore though is that Fiore sweetens their yogurt with stevia, not sugar, which means fewer calories and more natural-ness. They also have a few more toppings, such as cucumber, red bean, and some others.

While Fiore's first location opened just a week or so ago, already the online buzz is beginning. While some say it tastes exactly the same in every way, minus the parking problem, my own experience did not deliver the same results.

First of all, I'm crazy about food. People who are crazy about food do crazy things, such as go to one yogurt store downtown, then immediately drive across town 10 miles to another yogurt store to do a side-by-side taste test. While my side-by-side taste test sample 1 (Fiore) didn't quite make it to West Hollywood, I had enough of the taste in my memory to really see how different they were. Bottom line: Fiore is really good, but Pinkberry is better.

Here's why: Pinkberry's yogurt is more sour, guaranteed. Fiore's tastes somewhat sour at first bite, but about halfway through, the sourness seems to disappear. It seems subtle, but when you eat Fiore and Pinkberry side-by-side, the difference is remarkable. Second, Fiore's yogurt has more water in it, which gives it a slightly icier texture than Pinkberry. The mouthfeel of Fiore's yogurt is like a good italian ice meets gelato: it's creamy and stiff, but when it melts it's more watery. Pinkberry on the other hand has a richer base: it's creamier, not quite as stiff as Fiore, and when it melts the consistency is thicker and milkier.

So there's a new kid on the block... they're very good and I recommend you try them. But when I see you in line at Pinkberry once again, we'll smile at each other and know exactly why the WeHo parking nightmare is worth it.

Fiore Frozen Yogurt
134 Japanese Village Plaza Mall
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-626-0806
Hours: 11AM - 10PM daily

M Cafe de Chaya

2006-08-05T16:48:00.000-07:00

Mommy, what's macrobiotic?

It sounds like a disease, or perhaps, the medicine used to treat a disease, but macrobiotic is defined simply as "The theory or practice of promoting well-being and longevity, principally by means of a diet consisting chiefly of whole grains and beans."

The theory and accompanying diet come from Japan by way of Europe, emphasizing organically grown whole foods that provide a balance between yin and yang properties.

Most sources break down the diet like this:

Whole cereals: 50-60%
Vegetables: 25-30%
Beans: 10%
Soup: 5-10%
Seaweed: 5%

Thrilling, no? And while proponents tout the amazing health benefits of eating macrobiotic, foodies usually cringe as the inherent blandness of eating 115% plain healthy food. No sugar, no eggs, no dairy, no red meat... what's a girl to do?

Fortunately, M Cafe de Chaya brings a little finesse to the macrobiotic lifestyle. Describing their fare as contemporary macrobiotic cuisine, M Cafe offers a broad range of dishes that even include healthy versions of naughty foods like cheesecake and chocolate truffles.

Their menu features breakfast, lunch and dinner items, with most of the food available on demand from a glass display case. The upside of this is that the food is available quickly, the downside being that if you go late in the day, which we did, the food may have been sitting out for a while. That's fine if you're getting a wrap or sandwich, but not so great for sushi...

M Cafe's Tuna Inari sushi sure looks pretty, all wrapped up in a tofu pouch with organic brown rice...

Didn't taste so pretty though... the tofu/rice pouch being completely soggy, the tuna stale. Maybe it's better if you get it made fresh.

The hummus and falafel wrap was much better...

A big tortilla chock full of hummus, falafel and veggies, with fresh whole wheat pasta salad and a tahini-soy yogurt dressing. This is big and filling - enough for one man or twelve actresses.

I had the "M" Chopped Salad, which was just OK...

Like the sushi, this tasted like it had been prepared six or seven hours earlier, and had been sitting out in the display case for most of the day. Even so, it was satisfying and seemed like it had potential - great tamari roasted almonds, and the tempeh "bac(fake)on" was an interesting touch... tasted almost like real bacon if you closed your eyes and visualized Ms. Piggy.

The ginger ale tasted more like sparkling apple cider (the Trader Joe's version is way better)

And by far the highlight of the meal was the tofu cheesecake.

TOFU CHEESECAKE?!!

Seriously? Tofu cheesecake (the name alone is such an oxymoron I can't stop saying it) is something most people would scoff at. I mean, if you're going to have cheesecake, why not just go for it and get the dense, fat-and-sugar-laden real stuff? I won't lie, I had my doubts about this one...

After tasting M Cafe's cheesecake though, I have to say I prefer the taste and texture of it over regular cheesecake - it's fluffy and creamy, not too sweet, and it feels light in your mouth and in your tummy. I usually get a stomachache with the regular stuff, so this is a good substitute. And yes, it really does taste like cheesecake... almost. Enough to be convincing.

Yes, I'm going to say it: tofu cheesecake is good.

You pay a bit of a premium for M Cafe's fare - about 2 to 3 dollars per entree over what you'd pay at a regular bistro or deli. But if you're into the healthy thing, the upcharge for quality, tasty, health-conscious food is probably worth it.

The best part? Starting in September, there'll be a Pinkberry next door. I have a feeling I'll be getting lunch at M Cafe much more often...

M Cafe de Chaya
7119 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA
323-525-0588

I'm A Pinkberry Addict

2006-08-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true, I'm a Pinkberry addict. Originally, I just ate it, but a couple weeks ago I got into smoking it and just yesterday I started shooting up. I tried to keep it to myself, but there it is, splashed all over the LA Times in black type:

"It has been called "Crackberry" and "frozen heroin juice" by its fans and detractors because many of the college kids, television writers and well-to-do families who cheerfully queue up as many as four nights in a single week agree with food blogger Rosie [Colleen], who wrote recently: "I would get Pinkberry IV'ed into my veins if I could."

It's a great article and reveals some key tidbits about new Pinkberrys opening soon: Koreatown opens next week, La Brea/Melrose will open in September.

However, my favourite part of the article is that she calls Kiwiberri a copycat - I love it! Now we know the truth about all those weird comments John Bae left on my previous Pinkberry/Kiwiberri posts. In case you missed them, these are some of the comments he left and then deleted (they get sent to my email before they're posted):

-----Original Message-----
From: Johnbae11 [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 11:52 PM
Subject: [Colleen Cuisine] 7/05/2006 11:52:01 PM

I heard pinkberry stole the idea and recipe from a hard working korean family who own a shop called "red mango"
--
Posted by Johnbae11 to Colleen Cuisine at 7/05/2006 11:52:01 PM

-----Original Message-----
From: Johnbae11 [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 12:00 AM
Subject: [Colleen Cuisine] 7/05/2006 11:59:33 PM

here's to people who steal ideas and like to pretend they came up with it.only thing you came up with is a poorly designed room that your trying to disguise bad taste by putting glass everywhere good idea! I love the shitty track lights too!!
--
Posted by Johnbae11 to Colleen Cuisine at 7/05/2006 11:59:33 PM

Nice, real professional. There are a bunch of other comments about how great Kiwiberri is that come from the same IP address, so apparently, he's taken to creating fake user profiles too. Gotta love the internet! I promise to still give Kiwiberri a fair chance if and when it opens.

Check out today's LA Times article on Pinkberry and Kiwiberri here (it's free to read, you just have to register).

Read my other posts on Pinkberry and the L.A. Frozen Yogurt scene here:
Pinkberry (the post that started it all)
Pinkberry coming to La Brea/Melrose
Sprinkles Bites Pinkberry's Dust
Pinkberry vs. Fiore vs. Kiwiberri
Fiore Frozen Yogurt
Kiwiberri

Key Lime Meringue Pie

2006-07-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

I don't usually make pies - cooking for just two means that a 9-inch pie becomes a extra 9-inches on the waist after that initial slice.

Me: Just a tiny bite more
You: Would hate for it to go to waste
Me: We gotta finish it before the weekend's over
You: Well it's three-quarters gone, we might as well eat the rest

And so forth. Soon, you're eating pie for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For men, that's fine, for us girls... not so much.

So I was, of course, thrilled to have a chance to bake some pies for the L.A. Foodbloggers Potluck/BBQ (the first of many, I hope!). Since we have so many great fruits in season right now, I settled on Key lime and cherry.

My Key lime pie is a hodge-podge of a couple different pie recipes: the graham cracker crust and the key lime filling are adapted from Gourmet magazine, the meringue topping adapted from Food & Wine's grapefruit caramel meringue pie recipe (which is also an amazing pie, but takes about 2 days to prepare).

So here we go...
Key Lime Meringue Pie: A Photographic Journey

Graham Cracker Crust

9 graham crackers, crushed in a food processor
2 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350. Stir together the graham crackers, sugar and butter, press mixture evenly onto the bottom and sides of a 9-inch glass pie plate. Bake crust in the middle of the oven 10 minutes; remove from oven and cool on a rack. Leave oven on.

Key Lime Filling

1 (14-oz) can sweetened condensed milk
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons fresh Key lime juice (from about 20-30 Key limes)

First, squeeze the lime juice. Despite the incredible simplicity of this recipe, don't underestimate the time needed for this step. Also, don't underestimate how many limes you'll need. I bought 30 to be on the safe side - I ended up using almost all of them.

Twenty-seven limes, 21 minutes and a severe case of carpal tunnel later, I had produced...

...a whopping 1/2 cup and two tablespoons fresh-squeezed key lime juice, the exact amount I needed. My foodblogging friends gave me a great tip: roll the limes against the counter before cutting them open - it helps release the juice and make for easier squeezing.

Whisk together the condensed milk and yolks in a bowl until combined well. Now that you have the juice out of the limes, add juice and whisk until combined well (mixture will thicken slightly). Pour filling into crust and bake in the middle of the oven 15 minutes. Cool pie completely on rack, then chill, covered, at least 8 hours.

Be sure to cover the pie with foil, not plastic wrap - the plastic clings to the top and ruins the look of the pie when you try to take it off. Hence, why I added the meringue topping in the first place!!

Meringue topping

6 egg whites
1 cup sugar

Bring a medium saucepan filled with 2 inches of water to a simmer. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, combine the egg whites and sugar, set the bowl over the simmering water (double-boiler style), and whisk over low heat until the sugar is dissolved and the egg whites are hot to the touch. Transfer the bowl to the mixer fitted with a whisk and beat at medium-high speed until the whites are stiff and glossy, about 8-9 minutes.

In case you haven't made meringue before, it's a piece of cake with a KitchenAid mixer. The key thing is to know what it should look like when it's done. You want it to be thick and stiff, so it hold peaks easily.

Spread the meringue topping over the pie and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Once you're ready to eat it, the pyrotechnic fun begins. For anyone who knows me, I'm always looking for an excuse to set food on fire. And meringue makes a great excuse! Light up your torch and go at it. No torch? You're missing out on all the fun: just put it under the broiler for a couple minutes.

Mmmm. It turned out quite good if I do say so myself. Tarty, limey, refreshing and not too sweet. In case you're wondering, "Hey, how come it's not green?," that's because Key limes produce a yellow-ish juice, not green. Any Key lime pie you've had that's green is either not from real Key limes, or it's been colored with green food coloring. Which is fine too... but if you're gonna go green, why not go purple and really confuse people?

Next up: Cherry Pie Massacre

Nectarine Mango

2006-07-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

Wait, you mean they couldn't come up with a better name than Nectarine Mango?

I'm all for cross-pollinized fruit. BRING ON THE SCIENTIFICALLY ALTERED FRUIT!! But please, give me a little something on the name.

Take dogs for instance. It's not a Labrador Poodle. It's a Labradoodle. Not just a Beagle Pug... a Puggle. You can break down and decipher where some other hybrids came from: Maltipoo, Cockapoo, Bichon Poo (OK, enough with the poo).

So why couldn't we give the Nectarine Mango a better name? Nectaman. Go-Nectar. Mantarine.

Floyd Zaiger had it right. In case you aren't familiar with his name, he's the guy who brought us such cross-pollinized classics as Aprium, Nectaplum, Nectarot, Peacotum, and Pluot. Floyd certainly would have named the Nectarine Mango something a little more snazzy, more intriguing, more... succulent.

So what of the Nectarine Mango? Well, it looks like a greenish-yellow nectarine, and it tastes like a mango. That is, if you find a tremendous difference between the taste of a yellow nectarine and the taste of a mango... it's subtle, but a slightly sweeter and firmer flesh, not as juicy as a nectarine, but just as delicious. You can also eat the skin, unlike a mango, and it's a whole lot easier to cut up and prepare (my usual mango adventures end up looking like something out of a cartoon horror film).

The season ends soon - they'll be in stores for another week or so.
Nectarine Mangos available at Whole Foods.

Hugo's Restaurant

2006-07-13T22:03:00.000-07:00

Whenever I go to Hugo's, I undoubtedly see someone famous. Once it was Jake Gyllenhaal. Another time it was Fabio. This time it was Alicia Keys, plus entourage. Hugo's celebrity magnetism may have a lot to do with its location (right smack in the middle of WeHo), or it might be because you can get high quality, tasty food that keeps you thin. Stick thin.

As I mentioned a couple posts ago, I spent the past 3 weeks on a vegan diet, mostly as a means to detox all the fried, red-meaty, sugary food I had been binging on of late. Let's not lie, though... stick thin was sounding pretty good to me too.

Los Angeles is one of the few cities where you can actually get healthy by eating out. In fact, many restaurants make food about 25 times healthier than I would ever create at home, and somehow, they make it taste good. Well, as good as that kind of food could taste anyways.

Hugo's is one such place - not only do they offer healthy food, but they pride themselves on having organic, high quality ingredients from sustainable sources. Ever since I saw An Inconvenient Truth, I admit, I've gotta respect that.

Hugo's menu features a wide range of dishes that will please vegans, vegetarians, and meat eaters alike. In addition to their main menu, they also have weekly specials that range from good to really delicious... the specials are almost always the best thing to try.

For an appetizer, we tried one of the specials - Hugo's Vietnamese spring rolls:

With romaine lettuce, carrots, mint, avocado, soba noodles, and a light peanut dressing, these were fair. Not as good as traditional spring rolls... I thought the soba noodles tasted kinda weird and I missed the charbroiled steak and shrimp (OK, so I was kind of missing the point here - they're supposed to be meat-free).

For a main course, I had the Hugo's Stir Fry with tofu:

This just might be the healthiest thing I have eaten in a restaurant, like, EVER. Tofu, snow peas, tomatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, and green onions, served on a bed of quinoa.

What's quinoa? It's this:

Considered the "mother of all grains" by the Incas, it tastes like brown rice meets oatmeal and it's really really good for you (supposedly).

Brian had Pasta Victor, which features chicken, sundried tomatoes, sweet corn, chiles, and cilantro in a light chipotle-cream sauce.

Yummy. Too bad I couldn't try this - it looked delicious.

Hugo's has a pretty interesting history... several decades ago it was called Hugo's Fine Meats and was the only veal specialty shop in the country. From there, it evolved into takeout and catering, and finally into a restaurant and tea house. And although the weekend brunch gets ridiculously crowded, it's great for people watching, and of course, celeb spotting.

Hugo's Restaurant
8401 Santa Monica Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA
323-654-3993
Hours: Mon-Fri 7:30AM-10:00PM, Sat-Sun 8:00AM-10:00PM

Wien Bakery & Cake House

2006-07-13T20:25:00.000-07:00

Melting pot. Salad bowl. There are a variety of culinary terms used to describe the cultural make-up of Los Angeles. I'd like to add another theory to the mix: smorgasboard. This is what happens when two cultures form an unlikely marriage on the dinner table.

I've had and greatly enjoyed French-Japanese, French-Vietnamese, Indo-French, and others (those French get around, eh?). But Austrian-Korean is a new one for me.

Wien Bakery & Cake House (aka Wien Konditorei Und Cafe) looks like a charming and authentic Austrian lodge from the outside; inside, the food is traditional European bakery fare with a Korean twist.

Wien is the German word for Vienna... as in, Vienna, Austria. Although I only spent two days in Vienna on my vacation last year, I did have a chance to sample some of the delicious bakery treats there. When I passed Wien on Olympic, I was excited for the chance to relive those treats - streudel, sachertorte, palatschinken, etc. Although it should be noted that Wien has less of the truly Austrian desserts and more of the type you'd find in an upscale grocer's bakery: eclairs, cakes, tortes, and the like. The display case is beautiful with some truly mouthwatering creations in all sizes and flavours.

Most of the cakes are available in full cake form and by the slice, which gives a great opportunity to try before you commit to the full monty. The cakes are so beautiful though, I'd be proud to bring one to a dinner party without even tasting it first.

Wien also has a large selection of freshly baked breads, which were soft and fluffy. Like a misbehaved child, I squeezed and hugged and fondled a large majority of the breads, working my way down the line from fresh cream bread to baguettes to croissants and danishes.

And though I did buy a loaf of the cream bread, I unfortunately put it up in a cabinet and forgot about it until it had molded.

One thing I did try was the "green tea creamcake."

In all fairness, I probably chose something that wasn't in my normal range of favourite foods. I'm not a big cake person, and though this was creamy and fluffy, the flavour was very light, so it just tasted like whipped cream to me. Good graham cracker crust though.

Wien is definitely a place I need to explore further. They had some interesting bakery twists like red bean doughnuts, sweet potato danishes, and black sesame cookies.

As I learned online, the Euro-Korean bakery theme isn't unique to Wien... it's actually a trend that has been popping up all over L.A. recently. For more, check out this LA Times article from a few weeks ago. It always makes me mad when I try a place thinking it's fairly undiscovered (I went to Wien back in May), and then a major publication writes about it before I get a chance to. Arrrgh!

Wien Bakery & Cake House
3035 W. Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
213-427-0404
Hours: Daily 7:00AM-10:00PM

Kiwiberri Coming Soon

2006-07-03T23:38:00.000-07:00

Hmm. Does this place remind you of something?

Back when I first posted about Pinkberry, a reader commented on a new yogurt shop opening soon - Kiwiberri. Then that commenter left another comment, and another. And another. It got a little weird. One day, all the comments disappeared, removed by the author and by the blog administrator. And I was left wondering, is Kiwiberri some type of mafia storefront? A side shop set up by a disgruntled Pinkberry defector?

No matter how you slice it, the similarities are striking, the timing, interesting. The signs don't say when Kiwiberri is opening, but they do offer a few pictures. Here's a look at the yogurt (compare to Pinkberry):

As well as the menu:

And their future store plans:

I don't know when exactly they're opening, but you can be assured that I'll do a side-by-side taste test when they do: Pinkberry vs. Kiwiberri, a fight to the death!

Kiwiberri (opening soon)
3rd St at La Cienega, next door to Sushi Mon
Los Angeles, CA

Famima!! in West Hollywood

2006-07-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

If you could design the perfect mini mart, what would it have in it? Mine would have great sushi and salads, drinks from all parts of the world, and shelves stuffed full of exotic snacks. Not just any snacks, but the kind you usually have to search all over Japan/Korea/China-towns for: Hi-Chew, Pocky, Pretz, Shrimp Chips, etc.

Until now, I had enjoyed combing Los Angeles for fun and unusual treats. Now, I'm pretty happy to know that I can find them all in one place: Famima!!

Really, I'm not that excited, the exclamation points are part of the name. My discovery of Famima!! warrants maybe one exclamation point. "!". There you go.

Famima!! is the American version of Family Mart, a popular chain in Asia. And just in case you were curious about whether or not this is the place for you, their Web site offers a rather frank description of their target market and their full-scale rollout plan:

(psst, Famima!!, these are the types of things you usually don't broadcast on your Web site... !!!!)

The West Hollywood Famima!! (OK, the exclamation points are getting annoying) has a ton of great options for lunch. Everything from sushi to panini to spaghetti to dim sum, all cutely wrapped and packaged with nutritional content information. The food looked pretty fresh - everything is date and time stamped too.

I went in to Famima thinking it was just a lunch-on-the-go place and discovered it's more like a really killer 7-11. Minus the mystery hot dogs and Slurpees.

For one thing, Famima has Pocky, and lots of it!

They even have a couple flavours I hadn't seen before, like Pine Pocky (most likely pineapple, not pine tree flavoured), and Coconut Pocky. I didn't buy any, but YUM, I'll have to go back and try them soon.

The drink section is stocked full of fun things to drink, such as Calpico, which I first fell in love with when I had it as Calpis Water in Tokyo.

Then there's the famous Famima!! Signature Dessert!! A whole banana coated in chocolate, covered with whipped cream and wrapped in a delicious pancake. Wow, that's something. You will go bananas if you don't try it. Guess what: I didn't try it and I did indeed go bananas! Truly!! Bananas!!!

Given all the great things in the store, my lunch will seem little boring: Vanilla/Coconut White Iced Tea, a Tuna Hand Roll, and Edamame. Snooze. But sometimes it takes a look at the basics to tell you whether or not a place is good.

First, the Tuna Hand Roll had an innovative package that kept the seaweed paper crisp - the paper was wrapped inside a plastic sheet, separate from the rice. Peel back the plastic, re-roll your roll, and voila!! It tastes almost freshly made. Very nice touch. The edamame was very fresh too - much better than I've had at Whole Foods or any other grocery store.

So there you have it - the basics are indeed quite good. And with all the interesting treats in the store, there's surely something for everyone.

But the best part about Famima!!(?)
They've got great hours...

Famima!!
8525 Santa Monica Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA
310-659-2684

Honey's Kettle Fried Chicken

2006-06-30T21:21:00.000-07:00

Due to the topic of this blog, you may be surprised to hear that I've been on a vegan/macrobiotic detox diet for the past 13 1/2 days. Why? Um. No good answer, other than that I was feeling unhealthy and wanted to set things on a positive track for the start of summer movie blockbuster season. I'm a serious movie watcher people... it was time to get in fighting shape.

I'm not quite sure how long I can keep this up, because posting about macrobiotic food just isn't all that compelling (neither is eating it, for that matter). Fortunately I have a little stash of the photos that led me to the detox here.

This was me, sliding down into a sea of fried goodness...

Best. Damn. Fried. Chicken. EVER.

Whole fried catfish - after you eat it, you can comb your hair with it.

Coleslaw counts as a vegetable, right?

And by that token, lemonade is a fruit, right?

Up until now, I had been a Popeye's junkie. While Popeye's is good, it doesn't even hold a candle to the juicy, crispyliciousness of Honey's Kettle. This is seriously good fried chicken, best enjoyed piping hot.

Sure beats tofu...

Honey's Kettle Fried Chicken
9537 Culver Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232

Pinkberry Is Coming to My Neighborhood!

2006-06-29T19:51:00.000-07:00

Oh joyous of most joyful days!! Pinkberry is coming to my neighborhood!

A mere 2.09 miles and one year (or less) are all that separate me from my one true food addiction. The new Pinkberry will be right next door to M Cafe de Chaya in a cute and tiny little space - it looks to be about 10 feet left-to-right.

I'm going to camp out prior to the opening, Star Wars style. Who's with me?!

Chowhound Meets the Modern Age

2006-06-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

Wizzaa-WHAAAAA?

Let me say that again: Wizzaa-WHAAAAAAAAA???

I never thought the day would come. After years of secretly loving how low-tech Chowhound was, I can now say, with a sigh, that the simple days are over. Yes, Chowhound actually looks like a real modern Web site now. With formatting. And pull-down menus. And - GASP - required registering. Yes, no more anonymous posting... you actually have to create a profile now to post.

It's new. It's different. It should be simpler, but it took me about 25 minutes to figure out how to post something. I never thought I'd say it, but I think I like the old format better.

What's next, cruel internets? Craigslist?

And by the way, dear poster, NO, you should not put bleach in the baby pool, or in the baby bottle, for that matter.

101 Coffee Shop

2006-06-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

When Brian and I lived in the Hollywood Hills, the 101 Coffee Shop was our breakfast, lunch and dinner of choice. It's almost always open, reliably good, and fairly cheap. If you're into being healthy, there are a few healthy items on the menu, but not too many (go to Hugo's if you want healthy... much better for that).

But what I love most is that the place has a great kitsch about it. Formica, wood paneling, stone walls, 70's lighting... it'll definitely take you back to childhood (either as an actual child or as an adult, depending on when you were born). If you go, be sure to check out all the 70's photos lining the walls - you may even recognize a few relatives. Daily Gluttony has a great review with some photos of the 101 decor... yes, what's old will always be new and hip in Hollywood.

Time to eat.

Brian and I always seem to pick the times when it's crowded, which means two for the counter. The counter features an angled mirror near the ceiling, so you can see everything going on behind and around you. It's a great place to sit and check out the many types of people who hang out at the 101 Coffee Shop. And when I say "many types of people," I mean, "people who are in A.A." It's like the Swingers on Beverly crowd, but greasier.

I spy... Colleen Cuisine on the ceiling:

The sign for the 101 Coffee Shop boasts that it's the Last Cappucino before the 101. Well, I had the last latte... and a foamy latte at that:

101 Coffee Shop has really great diner food. Yes, there is such a thing. The food is a little bit like Fred 62, but with fewer choices, lower prices, MUCH lower music volume and (in my opinion) better food. Stick to the basics and you'll never go wrong...

Here's the huge and glorious Hamburger:

Perfectly simple - great beef, great cheese, nice bun, juicy, hot, fresh. It usually comes with fries, or you can get mashed potatoes (like Brian did) or any of their other sides.

I'm hooked on the tuna melt and onion rings:

The tuna melt is outstanding - just make sure to order it without tomatoes if you don't like tomatoes in it. The tuna salad is simple, the sourdough bread fresh, doughy and crunchy on top when cooked.

But the best part of the 101 Coffee Shop is the onion rings. Holy moly... these are good onion rings. If you're into the breaded vs. battered debate, you must know that I stand clearly on the side of battered. Breaded onion rings are just soggy, oily, flaky and gross. Battered onion rings, on the other hand, are crispy, crunchy, hot, not too oily, and delicious. SO delicious!

Check 'em out:

The onion rings were so good I could not stop taking photos of them.
OK, I know taking pictures of your food is a little weird and funny looking, but you don't have to LAUGH at me for goodness sake!

The above photo is part of a new series I'm working on: Life through the Onion Ring. It's the first in a series of about 50 photos I took, only 2 of which I'll post here (otherwise you'll be laughing at me like the guys above). Clearly you all don't see my vision.

I think I got a little too ambitious with the onion ring photos. However, I continue to believe that this would be perfect as Brian's new author photo...

He's a bit skeptical. Honey, I work in marketing, I KNOW these things!

101 Coffee Shop
6145 Franklin Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
323-467-1175
Hours: Daily 7AM-3AM

Monsieur Marcel

2006-06-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

Here's how I feel about The Grove.

(and to my all-time favourite painting, RIP)

No, I'm not talking about the traffic, the always-packed parking, the parents who feel the need to take their whiny kids out shopping, or even the look-at-me-I'm-so-trendy Apple store (aren't 98% of us PC users?). The Grove, to me, symbolizes the highbrow version of the mini-mall-ization of America. We think we're too good for the Best Buy/Target/Bevmo/Baja Fresh/Jamba Juice/Starbucks/Borders mini mall (oh wait, we have that too), so instead we build ourselves a grand, sweeping outdoor extravanganza that eschews the less elegant retailers. Instead of Target, Crate and Barrel. Not Ross, but Nordstroms. We'd never eat at Claim Jumper, just Cheesecake Factory. Etcetera.

Woe to he who tries to visit the Original Farmers Market in peace. Once a place to spend a leisurely Saturday afternoon, it's now a place to dodge strollers, squeeze by pudgy, slow-moving Midwestern tourists, and stand in line to BUY, BUY, BUY.

The Original Farmers Market vendors surely appreciate the increased foot traffic they get from being right next to The Grove. But sometimes I wonder if they too wish for one Saturday afternoon in peace, where those who visit visit only to meander, enjoy some great food, and relax. I'll guess we'll never know.

Fortunately, there remains one stall that offers a bit of leisurely escape: Monsieur Marcel. It's a sit-down restaurant in the far corner of the market, and while you do get the occasional traffic through the tables, it's mostly a quiet respite from The Grove mania.

Monsieur Marcel offers a wide menu, with traditional French bistro fare, cheese, wine, and many other dishes perfect for a weekend afternoon.

Our lunch started with a generous bread basket:

For an appetizer, we felt like having a salad. Among the many delicious-sounding salads, we chose a caprese, which had fluffy fresh mozzarella, sweet, perfectly-ripe tomatoes, and garden fresh basil:

Choosing lunch was a bit more difficult. There are some really great-sounding menu items, and I'm anxious to go back soon to try a few more. I settled on the Croque Marcel, which is kind of like a Croque Monsieur, but with turkey instead of ham:

MMMM. Delish. The top of the bread is crispy with cheese, the turkey warm, thick and melty. It's incredibly rich - I could only finish about a quarter of it, but man is it good. It comes with crispy shoestring fries which were quickly outshined by the other potato dish on the menu... potatoes au gratin (see below).

It's rare to find a great steak at a decent price. Like blue jeans, the price of steak in Los Angeles has crept up and up over time - $40 now seems de rigeur for a good piece of meat. The Steak au Poivre at Monsieur Marcel is only $22 (I think... somewhere around there), and it's OUTSTANDING.

A juicy cut of sirloin, it's tender like a filet but with a great beefy flavour. You can choose from a variety of sauces on the side - the gorgonzola sauce is great with the steak. As I mentioned above, the potatoes au gratin are delicious... a great crispy crust on top and flavourful, rich potatoes underneath.

After all that, we were pretty stuffed. The desserts looked especially delicious - I've gotta go back and try the tart tartin! We were also running late for a movie, so we got an espresso and closed up the check.

I'm not a big espresso-file, but I do know that a major component of the properly brewed cup is a good head of crema, that rich, reddish-brown foam you see floating on the surface here.

After the espresso, we saddled up to once again to face the madness in the walk back to movie theater.

Monsieur Marcel
Inside The Original Farmer's Market
Third & Fairfax
323-939-7792
Mon-Thu 11:30am-10pm
Fri-Sat 11:30am-10:30pm
Sun 11am-8:30pm

Boa Steakhouse on Sunset Blvd

2006-06-11T17:55:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while I decide it's time for a food extravaganza, and Brian and I talk about what restaurant we'd like to empty our pockets at for the evening. This time, we decided we were in the mood for steak, so we headed over to Boa on Sunset Blvd.

Boa has reached that point in its life cycle where it still looks hip on the surface, but the cool crowd has moved on to something newer and better, leaving behind the Sunset second string. The greasy guys, the boob-job-ed divorcees, the parents, the tourists... it's not the place I remembered from several years ago, and the Dodd Mitchell-designed room certainly outcools the clientele. I guess all formerly trendy restaurants reach this point sooner or later, and fortunately for Boa, the food is still good.

When Boa was Balboa, they stuck to the more basic dishes... crabcakes, caesar salad and the like. Now that they're Boa, they've added some more adventurous menu items. Sometimes you see things on a menu that you can't NOT order. For example, Truffled Nachos:

Truffled nachos sounds totally awesome IN THEORY... but let me assure you friends, they are anything but awesome. The major problem seems to be the chips, which are homemade yukon gold potato chips - great on their own, but the flavor completely overpowers any possible hint of black truffle in the cheese. The second downside is the cheese itself - much too runny for proper nachos, it had a consistency more like ranch dressing. When you taste the cheese on its own, you can certainly locate the truffle essence, but all together, it's a bit of a gooey, discombobulated mess. Great concept, flawed execution.

Despite the truffled nacho lowlight, there was one major highlight of the evening: a special for tonight only, real Kobe beef from Japan. When the waiter informed us they had Kobe beef I was skeptical. "So, is it Wagyu beef raised in the states?" "From Japanese seed cattle?" and various other snobby foodist questions. The waiter passed the test and assured me that this was indeed REAL Kobe beef - the cow had been flown in from Kobe, Japan the day prior, a connection with the owners and some friends in Japan, or something. Do Kobe cows fly first class, I wondered? I assume the cow was dead... but at $13 an ounce (another sign it was possibly real Kobe), I have to wonder if even a slab of it was seated in business class, receiving a posthumous beer massage.

I had real Kobe once before at Sugiyama in New York, and this tasted much like I remembered - very raw, very buttery, very rich. If you've had excellent toro, the texture is very similar to Kobe, with a similar rich-but-mildly-flavorful taste that melts in the mouth. I have to admit, I don't think Kobe is so amazing that it's worth $60 for a few bites. It's a novelty, and an expensive one at that. But sometimes it's fun to try things just because they're there.

Each of these is a one ounce cube - about one square inch:

It's always served seared, because to cook it is to detract from that which makes it special: the marbling, which is best observed extra rare. Kobe served medium or medium-rare tastes just like regular steak... I've heard.

After tasting Kobe, you wonder if your main event steak will pale by comparison. This bone-in Kansas City filet (Brian had the same), certainly stood up to the test. Rich, tender, surprisingly flavorful for filet... it must have been the bone:

I don't have much else to say about Boa - I liked it before, I will continue to like it.

On another note, sorry the photos are so hard to see. I'm looking for a new camera that takes good low-light pictures... anyone have any suggestions?

Boa Steakhouse
8462 W. Sunset Blvd. (inside the Grafton Hotel)
West Hollywood, CA
323-650-8383
Hours: Sun-Thurs, 7-11PM, Fri-Sat, 7-midnight

Mikawaya Sweet Shop and Sushi Gen

2006-05-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

Thunk.

That's the sound a jury summons makes when your spouse drops it off in front of you at the dinner table. Jury duty. Again. While most people dread and complain about jury duty, I secretly love it. Not only is it a free day off to read a book, there's also the famed 1 1/2 hour LUNCH. Not just any lunch, but a free-for-all of choices among one of Los Angeles' most ethnically-diverse areas. Within walking distance of city hall lies Little Tokyo, Chinatown, Grand Central Market, and a whole bevy of restaurants and bistros. When I lived downtown, I hated it and complained about the food. Now that I'm out of downtown, I miss it and remember how great the food was. Go figure.

I decided that today was Little Tokyo day, so I headed a few blocks East to the Japanese Village Plaza. First stop: Mikawaya Sweet Shop. Mikawaya gained quite a bit of mainstream popularity with the introduction of their mochi ice cream back in 1993. The Little Tokyo outpost creates fresh mochi ice cream and much more... rows and rows of wagashi (Japanese traditional sweets), some American pastries, and (surprisingly?) some outrageously good gelato. I was an Al Gelato woman before, but Mikawaya converted me.

To get to the gelato, you have to go towards the back of the store. You'll know when you find it because it looks like 20 stainless steel bins of heaven. Fluffy, pretty, soft, yummy gelato and sorbet.

Mikawaya has the subtlety of flavour down pat. Their gelato is not overly sweet, so the taste really shines through. They have a wide range of flavours, many of which you don't find in a typical gelateria, like kiwi, passion fruit, green tea, and green apple.

My favourite is apple pie gelato, which tastes exactly like homemade apple pie. Alas, they didn't have it today, so I chose green apple and coconut.

The coconut I've had before and it was just as good as last time. Green apple was a new one for me - the first thing I noticed was a strong sour-appley taste, almost like a Jolly Rancher, but fresher. If you love sour apple, you simply must go try this gelato - it's insanely good.

I'm not a big mochi fan, but people who are tell me Mikawaya's are great.

I decided to try a few today. The one on the left is orange flavoured, the one on the right is traditional red bean mochi.

Hmm. Yeah. Still not my thing. But for people who like it, I think you'll be pleased with Mikawaya.

Mikawaya
118 Japanese Village Mall
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-624-1681
Hours: Mon-Fri, 9:00AM - 6:00PM, Sat-Sun, 9:00AM - 7:00PM

Next up: Sushi Gen!
I was fortunate enough to try Sushi Gen a couple months ago and I've been longing to return ever since. Just little old me at the bar this time.

First, hamachi, which tasted buttery and super-fresh:

Next, hotate (scallops), which were not as good as last time, but still really good. I think I missed the lemon and salt that Kazu garnished them with.

Maguro, which looks hot pink in the photo, was actually more of a bright red. This was a bit of a disappointment (although far better than most sushi spots). The fish was a little soggy, and didn't have that rich flavour you long to sink your teeth into.

Uni brightened things up a bit. I love uni, and this was fresh and sweet.

Albacore was heavily sauced, but tasty...

And finally, aji, which was hands down the best dish of my lunch. Really fresh-tasting, with that strong, assertive flavour that only aji provides.

Total bill before tip: $38. A veritable bargain!

Sushi Gen
422 E Second St
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-617-0552
Hours: Mon-Fri 11:15AM-2PM, 5:30PM-10PM
Sat: 5PM-10PM

I did a little photography on the way back. Most people like to shoot the Frank Gehry architecture, me, I likes me the Caltrans building. It looks like something out of the future.

Boule Patisserie and Sprinkles Cupcakery

2006-05-25T22:25:00.000-07:00

Next stop on my L.A. Bakery tour with Amy: Boule. Prices aside, Boule is hands-down my favorite L.A. bakery - they create some really beautiful and interesting desserts and present them as miniature works of art. Yes, you pay for the presentation, but you also pay for some of the highest quality and most exotic ingredients you'll find in any L.A. bakery... tonka beans from South America, Kalamansi limes from Southeast Asia, real Lapsang souchong tea from China. It's a patisserie for slightly more adventurous palates... those seeking basic chocolate truffles may be surprised to bite into a truffle infused with habanero pepper (which, as I learned at their recent tasting, is HOT!).

But one Boule treat sure to please every palate is the macaroons. They're fluffy and a little bit chewy, with a slightly crunchy shell that gives way to a rich, soft interior. With something for every flavour fetish, they come in approx 8-10 different flavours each day, with a rainbow-sherbet color palette to match.

Front row, front to back: chocolate, lemon
Center row: raspberry, lavender, pistachio, coconut
Back row: lemon, tahitian vanilla, lemon, raspberry

Meet Mr. Lemon Big Mac

All the flavours are really good, but I particularly like raspberry, coconut and lemon. Sadly, two of my favorites, passion fruit and apple cinnamon, were replaced by two new flavours, lavender and mocha. The lavender is interesting and quite good, the mocha is probably my least favourite of the batch.

We also picked up a lemon tart...

(I'd love to comment on this, but Brian ate it all before I had a chance to taste it... it sure looks pretty, doesn't it?)

Some chocolates...

Counterclockwise from top: Oscuro (Lapsang souchong-infused chocolate, dark and smoky), Lili (Passionfruit Ivoire, a fruity white chocolate), Jade (green tea, smooth and soothing), and a new truffle, I didn't get the name of it, that contains black licorice.

A purse of Boule's fantastic fleur de sel caramels, and I was set. Most women come home from shopping and lay out all their new clothes and shoes... I come home from shopping, and lay out my bounty of treats:

Boule
420 N. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90048
310-289-9977
Hours: Mon-Sat, 10AM-7PM, Sun 10AM-5PM

Next stop: Sprinkles Cupcakery in Beverly Hills.

I must be getting old... when did cupcakes become all the rage? I guess it started with Magnolia Bakery in New York, which hit mainstream (read: exploitable) popularity when its cupcakes were featured on Sex and the City and then again in the completely hilarious Lazy Sunday SNL skit. Like many one-trick food wonders, what starts in New York frequently trickles down to L.A., and we Angelenos were quick to gobble up our very own cupcakery - Sprinkles.

On a once semi-quiet street in Beverly Hills came the cupcake invasion: you may not actually recognize the photo at left, because there's not a line of 200 people coming out the door (photo from Food GPS, which has an informative article on Sprinkles' cupcake philosophy).

So on a sunny and otherwise pleasant Saturday afternoon, we stood in line for nearly 40 minutes for our cupcakes. Let me rephrase that: we stood in line nearly 40 minutes for the PRIVILEGE of paying $3.25/each or $36/dozen for cupcakes. During this time, several curious passerby had to ask what we were doing: What are you guys buying tickets for? What's going on inside Rubio's? (Rubio's Fish Tacos is right next door) Is this the line for Rubio's? What's this line for? By the fifth or sixth inquiry, you start to wonder yourself: what AM I standing in this ridiculously long line for, anyways?

Oh yeah, cupcakes:

Sprinkles offers about 10 different flavors of cupcakes each day. On Saturday, we chose from: Banana, Black & White, Coconut, Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Peanut Butter Chocolate, Red Velvet, Strawberry, Vanilla, and Vanilla Milk Chocolate. I was a little disappointed that they shelter the more exotic flavours from the Saturday tourist crowd. Alas, I'd have to come back all week to sample Carrot (Mon, Thurs), Ginger Lemon (Wed), Orange (Wed), Pumpkin (Wed, Fri), and Chai Latte (Friday).

At $36/dozen, you hope that they'll be legendary. My first taste test was dark chocolate.

Blech. WAY too sweet - I almost had to spit it out. I know what you're thinking, "Hey dummy, it's a chocolate cupcake, it's supposed to be sweet." Well, this was like your basic devil's chocolate cake with an extra two pounds of sugar. Chocolate comes unsweetened, so there's no excuse for something so over-sugared. Vulgar.

Fortunately, the next two were a bit lighter. Here's the coconut...

The coconut was also way too sweet, but manageable. I really liked the coconut sweetened cake; the sugar-saturated frosting combined with the sweetened coconut flakes was a little much, but pretty good overall.

Finally, banana:

Banana was by far my favourite of the three. Why? I could actually eat a second bite without feeling like my teeth were going to fall out. The cake was a sweetened version of banana bread, rich and moist and very homemade-tasting. The cream cheese frosting was again oversweetened, but at least it had the tang of the cheese base to mellow it out.

Sprinkles Cupcakes
9635 Little Santa Monica Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
310-274-8765
Hours: Mon-Sat, 10AM-7PM

By the time we got out of Sprinkles, most bakeries were nearing closing time. Next time Amy comes to visit, I'm planning to take her to Jin Patisserie in Venice and Bluebird Bakery in Culver City. Any others we should check out?

Sweet Lady Jane

2006-05-22T23:57:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law Amy was in town this weekend, which means I had a great excuse to stuff my face with delicious treats. Why? (who needs a reason, really?) Well, the official reason is that Amy's a pastry chef at Jean-Georges' Prime Steakhouse at the Bellagio. And I figure, if a pastry chef is visiting L.A., I should probably take her to all the famous L.A. bakeries, right? So on Saturday, we took a little tour around town.

First stop: Sweet Lady Jane.

I've eaten many cakes from Sweet Lady Jane, but I've never actually been to the bakery. Since it was my first time, I had two objectives: the first was to eat a brownie, since they were voted "Best Brownies in L.A." The second was to eat lunch, so I wouldn't slip into a sugar-induced coma by the end of the bakery tour.

I'm so glad I decided to eat lunch at Sweet Lady Jane - their sandwiches are perfect. Homemade, assembled with love, fantastically fresh.

There are four sandwiches on the menu, with four choices of bread - 16 possibilities in all. After much agonizing, I decided on the curried chicken salad sandwich on fresh baked rosemary bread.

Mmmm, mmmm, MMMMMM! I love this sandwich! Delicious, really high-quality chicken, perfectly "curried" with raisins, sitting on top of fresh crunchy lettuce. The rosemary bread was pillow-soft and tasted like it just came out of the oven.

I ordered the half-sandwich, half-salad-of-the-day, which meant a caesar salad with real homemade croutons. LOOK at that crouton! It's a crouton-lovers dream!

On to dessert...

Here's that oh-so-famous brownie in all it's sunlit glory

It's a firm brownie, more chewy than cakey, not too moist. It's flavoured with espresso and almond, which gives it a rich taste that is nothing like the Better Crocker version. I actually kinda like the fudgy brownie-in-a-box variety... shhh! Don't tell Jane! Her's was great though, and certainly in a class above the rest.

Amy had a slice of the triple-berry shortcake, which is yellow cake layered with whipped cream and fresh berries - one layer each of blackberries, raspberries and sliced strawberries.

You may not know this, but the USDA actually recommends Sweet Lady Jane's triple berry shortcake as a good way to reach your five daily servings of fruits and veggies. No, really, they do.

Sweet Lady Jane
8360 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
323-653-7145
Hours: Monday-Saturday, 8:30AM-11:30PM (Lunch from 11:30AM-2:30PM)

Next stop on the L.A. Bakery Tour: Boule

Thai Iced BlaK(TM)

2006-05-22T19:30:00.000-07:00

Flametorching peeps was fun and all, but unfortunately, I wasn't the first to do it. Today, I decided to make an original contribution to the food universe and so, I present to you: Thai Iced BlaK(TM).

That's right, Thai Iced Coffee, made with Coca-Cola BlaK.
What. Why are you looking at me like that?

The problem with Coca-Cola BlaK is that the idea of it just doesn't sound that good: carbonated soda-coffee-something. Coke effervescence with coffee essence rhymes (how long did it take them to make that up, by the way?), but it still doesn't sound much better.

Since no one seems to like BlaK except me and Steve from Gastrologica, I decided to try and make it a little more fun by combining it with a concept most people DO like: Thai Iced Coffee. Some of the tastiest food inventions come from unexpected combinations: Chicken Fries, Nerds Rope, Hamburger Helper... (OK, I'm losing you, come back).

But really. Thai Iced BlaK(TM) is pretty freakin' good. I make the peasant's version of Thai Iced BlaK(TM)... no cardamom pods in this recipe. All you need is crushed ice, sweetened condensed milk, and, of course, Coca Cola BlaK.

First, crush the ice, then pour in the BlaK, layer on a heaping tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk...

Stir, and serve.

It's like a Thai Iced Coffee, but a little bubbly and with a hint of Coke flavour.
I usually like mine stronger, so next time, I'll be layering the bottom of the glass with an espresso shot. And there you have it.

Susina Bakery & Cafe

2006-05-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

The last time I went to Susina Bakery, it was still called Sugarplum Bakery, and I had an outrageously good quiche that I still use as a measuring stick against all other quiche in L.A. Tonight, I wasn't craving quiche, but rather cookies and cake, so we set off on the short drive to Beverly and La Brea.

Susina is a remarkably pretty bakery with a friendly, psuedo-European feel. All the goodies are out on display, and my first impression is akin to the scene in Willie Wonka where all the school kids are unleashed on the village candy store. Rows and rows of cakes in all flavors and sizes, treats stacked high in beautiful wrappers, jars and jars of old-fashioned candy... it's a dieter's worst nightmare.

Well, not EVERY dieters' worst nightmare. My favorite "diet" book, French Women Don't Get Fat, actually condones this sort of place. If you crave sweets, the author rationalizes, journey to an exquisite bakery that makes fresh treats from the finest ingredients. Don't absent-mindedly stuff your face with garbage throughout the day, but make it an event: go, sit, breathe, bite, savor, relax, enjoy...

So I did. I started with a chai tea latte, which puts next-door-neighbor Starbuck's version to shame:

Brian had a slice of cheesecake, which was so light and fluffy, the filling must have been air-whipped. Each bite had a rich but light flavor and melted in your mouth - I dare say this is the best cheesecake I've had in L.A. With each bite, I giggled. It's like eating a bunny.

I had a plate of tiny Italian-style cookies...

The macaroons were pretty bad (no Boule, that's for sure), but I liked everything else, especially the dark-chocolate-covered candied lemon peel.

We also took a few treats home to enjoy later. In case you're wondering, yes, stuffing your face with cookies and candy when you get home from eating cake and cookies is part of the French woman diet too. It's the missing chapter they added to the second edition.

I'm a sucker for Sea Salt Caramels, and Susina's didn't disappoint - but they didn't really wow either. What did wow me is that they managed to repack Swedish Fish and charge a 500% mark-up. Who would pay that much for Swedish Fish, when you can buy a gallon at Bed, Bath & Beyond for a few dollars? Oh yeah, me.

I was going to run a little experiment to show you that these are the exact same Swedish Fish you can buy at the drugstore, but then I forgot. They're the same thing -I promise.

Susina also had some cute cookies themed for Mother's Day, so being the sweet daughter that I am, I bought some Mother's Day cookies... for myself. Sorry Mom - they fell into my mouth!

There are few things more invigorating than breaking the head off of a $4.50 cookie.

Well, one thing - the first bite:

Susina Bakery & Cafe
7122 Beverly Blvd. (near La Brea)
Los Angeles, CA
323-934-7900
Hours: Mon-Fri, 7AM-11PM, Sat-Sun, 8AM-11PM

Jollibee's on Beverly

2006-05-11T18:09:00.000-07:00

I'm a huge marketing geek - can't get enough targeted messages, commercials, mascots, logos, creative product names, etc. RARELY do I take off my overly-analytical cap and allow myself to be swept up in the magic of a marketing campaign. But one day, two months ago, it happened...

I was driving down Beverly when I saw a new fast food outlet in construction. Red and yellow... a new McDonald's maybe? Blah. Boring. But then a couple days later I saw the sign: JOLLIBEE'S. Complete with a freakin' adorable bee mascot wearing a chef's hat. Jollibee's - Jolly Bee. A jolly bee mascot! Love at first sight, I was hooked.

It took me a few weeks to get out to the new Jollibee's, but in the meantime I did some research. Jollibee's is basically the Filipino version of McDonald's. In fact, there are more Jollibee's in the Philippines than there are McDonald's, probably because our Filipino friends find the McDonald's molester clown just a little bit creepy (understatement) and would rather break bread with a Jolly Bee instead. Wouldn't you?

I also learned that Jollibee's specializes in chicken, burgers, and spaghetti. You read that right - SPAGHETTI. Fast food spaghetti, nonetheless. Genius.

Part of what makes Jollibee's so great is their overly-obvious use of catchy product names and borderline ridiculous advertising. I'd love to hear the creative discussions behind these ads:
"Let's see if we can get the woman's eyes closed in post so she looks more entranced in her chickenjoy experience."
"Spicy chickenjoy is hot, and when you're hot, you sweat, so we need to show the guy wiping sweat off his brow. Yeah, good, that looks perfect. Now we need to fix the top image so that he appears to be 'making love' to the chickenjoy. Perfect."

Product names are everything! I mean, what sounds better: Big Mac or Juicy Yumburger? Fried Chicken or Crispy Chickenjoy? And with Chickenjoy, you even have a choice: you can Chick ENJOY or Chicken JOY. Swell!

Here's what I ate. Make no mistake, it was mostly terrible - maybe the worst fast food I have ever had in my life. But you gotta give 'em credit for the marketing effort...

Crispy Chickenjoy: slightly worse than KFC, not even in the same league as Popeye's. Passable, but not enjoyable.

Jolly Burger with Jolly Fries: Brian said it tasted like a school cafeteria hamburger. Meat was OK, but the bun was particularly awful and really dry. The fries seemed suspiciously like the Burger King fries, but cold. Thumbs Down.

Jolly Spaghetti: This ain't no Italian spaghetti. I'm not sure WHAT is was. The sauce was sweet, almost like barbeque sauce, with cheddar cheese on top (what?). I don't even understand this dish, or the fact that you can order it in the drive-thru (how do you eat it in your car?). Two big thumbs down. Heinous.

The sweets were a little better.
Pearl Cooler: it's like a Boba Tea milkshake. This is pretty good, if you like Boba. Me, not a fan: I feel like I'm sucking eyeballs through a straw. But the taste of the shake part was really good - possibly pistachio flavoured? The Filipino equivalent of the Shamrock Shake - they also have a purple one in Ube flavour, which looks like it would be grape but is actually coconut-chocolate.

If you look at the cup while you're drinking, you feel like you're sucking the little bee eyeballs right out of his head.

Banana Langka Pie: Sort of like the McDonald's apple pie, but supposedly in a different flavour. Langka is jackfruit, which I've never had, so I have no idea what this is supposed to taste like. But it was pretty flavour neutral. I only ate a bite - not worth the calories.

Halo-Halo Supreme: No, there is no regular Halo Halo, just supreme. And, it's pronounced Hollow (as in Mahalo), not HAY-lo as in, the thing angels have on their head. Listen to stupid me asking for the HAY-lo HAY-lo and the lady at the counter says, "OK, one Hollow Hollow." Sheesh.

This was the most interesting dish of the lot. And so COLOURFUL - I loved it! I have no idea what any of the ingredients are, but going strictly by color, some of them were ice creamy (lavender, orange), some of them had the consistency of red bean mochi (maroon, dark purple), some were gummy (green) and some crunchy (tan). It's served on top of crushed ice, so you stir it all up into a big ugly mess. Red + Orange + Green + Purple + Tan = Ugly. But tasty.

After all this food, I was still hungry. Mostly because I only took one or two bites of everything and threw the rest away, even the fries.

Bottom line: Jollibee's did not make me Jolly. It made me Glum. Very Glum.

Jollibee's and No, I'm Not Dead

2006-05-10T15:20:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not DEAD! I ate at the new Jollibee's and lived to tell my tale!

Where have I been? Well, there was the whole food poisoning thing. Then my laptop broke. Then I got an $8000 bill from the IRS (egads!!! still recouping from that news).

More about my Jollibee experience to come...

Poor Me - Boo Hoo

2006-05-02T21:41:00.000-07:00

Dear Colleen Cuisine -

Oh Sally, you don't want to know. But it's exactly why Colleen hasn't updated her blog in over a week. She hasn't eaten in a week... and the stuff she did eat gave her food poisoning, so she won't be writing about it. Because that would be... NOT NICE to the restaurant (read: libelous). And she's sad, because it's a restaurant she loves (loved) and used to eat at all the time.

She's on the road to recovery. One more day of "just crackers, thanks" and she'll be fine. Perhaps she'll be more adventurous tomorrow, with some chicken broth? A slice of toast? The menu of a woman in recovery is not exactly the most exciting of times, but she promises to be back later in the week with better material.

Properly refrigerated, thoroughly cooked and washed material, that is.

Mysterious Pink Gummy Candy

2006-04-24T23:55:00.000-07:00

Hey look, it matches my blog!

It sure looks like sushi, but it's not. What is it? I have no idea.
They sell it at the Hannam Market in K-Town and it tastes like gummy... nothing. No flavour at all.

It's so pretty, I was really hoping it would taste like... something. But no, nothing more than a gummy supermodel - all looks, no substance.

Kasugai Peanut & You

2006-04-24T23:42:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite snack of the moment. A crunchy, salty, soy-saucy-sweet shell, peppered with seaweed flakes, and... SURPRISE! There's a peanut inside.

The name sounds a bit like a Barbara Walters special. "Tonight at 10, Kasugai Peanut & You - What You Don't Know CAN Kill You"

Um yeah. They're good. Buy them.

The Hungry Cat

2006-04-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

A review of The Hungry Cat would be the perfect place for me to post gratuitous photos of my kitten children, but today, I will spare you. Here's a photo of the Hungry Cat mascots instead (pssst... they're open for lunch!)

We chanced upon The Hungry Cat over the holiday weekend when the movie we went to see at the Arclight was sold out. I had heard of the place and had been meaning to try it, but the Sunset/Vine complex is not a place I find myself very often.

At about 9PM on Thursday night, the restaurant was completely packed. With no reservation and no tables available, the host kindly offered to seat us at the "Chef's Table." That sounds fancy, but it should more accurately be called, "The Dish Station," because it's right next to the dishes and offers a fleeting view (yet no interaction with) the chefs. Despite literally being within arm's reach, the chefs don't even hand you your plate... they pass it through the serving station immediately to the left, then around to your table. That said, it's a cute little spot at the bar and offers a nice view of the action.

Hungry Cat has a simple but well-thought-out menu (mostly seafood) with several daily specials. They also have a nice beer/wine/cocktails list, with (gasp!) reasonably priced drinks. Nary a $15 martini in sight.

Drinks to start:
Greyhound Proper w/grapefruit juice and candied grapefruit ($8)

This has to be the freshest greyhound I've ever had. Captain Bartender Man cut a grapefruit in half and squeezed it right in front of me! Delightful, and the candied grapefruit rind is a nice little appetizer.

Turbodog ($5), a delicious dark brown ale:

I think I'm on a beer kick lately... I've been wanting to try different beers at every meal.

For food, we started with the "Pride of Baltimore" crabcake ($14)

The crab cake was nice and crunchy on the outside, warm and crab-meaty inside. I later learned that this is made from a 100-year old family recipe. Does that mean it's really good? YES. The best crabcake I've had in my life? NO. But really good. And the jicima coleslaw on the side is refreshing and complements the crab well.

For dinner, I had the Lobster roll w/fries ($22)

Now, I don't like to make comparisons - every dish should have a chance to shine on it's own, right? Well, my very first lobster roll was at Pearl Oyster Bar about 3 years ago, and I still think about it. Hungry Cat's lobster roll was good. Indeed, very good. Just not a Pearl lobster roll. That's all I'm going to say.

My other half had a "Pug Burger" with bacon, avocado and blue cheese ($14)

Now this was something - so huge that I had to draw out the diagram just to figure out where all the ingredients were. The bacon was thick slab cut, perfectly fatty and tasted great with the blue cheese. But the real star in this burger is the bread - it's a crusty, crunchy ciabatta-like bread. So good. The only challenge is figuring out how to eat this thing... it measures about 6 inches tall when you stack it up.

Overall, I thought The Hungry Cat was good, but like many Goin/Lentz restaurants, I'm afraid the media coverage hypes it so much that you go in expecting to be dazzled. Dazzled I wasn't, but happy and satiated... yes.

The Hungry Cat
1555 N. Vine St. (Sunset/Vine complex)
Hollywood, CA
(323) 462-2155

Zankou Chicken

2006-04-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

If a mere two syllables could start me salivating, those syllables would have to be: Zan. Kou. I love Zankou Chicken. LOVE it. And yet I only go about once a year... why? Not sure. All I know is that while Zankou is always delicious, it is sometimes... dangerous. It's the triple fudge chocolate cheesecake of chicken. Or something like that.

Zankou Chicken has six locations in the greater L.A. area, including the original (the one I always visit) on Sunset and Normandie. It's a hole-in-the-wall type of place with some amazing wood paneling and orange formica tables that only add to its charm.

Zankou serves a variety of Middle Eastern dishes, including shawerma, tarna, falafel, hummus, mutabbal, and others. The meat is out of this world - they roast it on a giant spit right behind the cash registers.

I think the plates are the best choice, because you get a little bit of everything, and it's all cut up and ready to eat. The whole chicken is good too, but when you are starving (and when you smell it, you will be), you may not want to deal with carving up the entire bird.

Here's the chicken tarna plate, which includes fire-roasted chicken, hummus, sesame sauce, garlic sauce and pita.

The shish kebab plate, with piles of charbroiled steak, hummus, peppers, and pita.

While the meat is fantastic on its own, it's the accoutrements that take everything to a new level. Tear off a corner of soft, fluffy pita, load on a kebab, douse it in hummus, and dig in. Juicy, garlicy, succulent... there aren't enough adjectives to do this place justice.

The chicken plate comes with two additional sauces: a sesame-garlic sauce, which tastes a bit like the hummus, but saucy-er...

And Zankou's famous, unbelievably rich garlic sauce. I have no idea what is in this, but it's super garlicy, super fluffy, buttery and sublime. Outrageously good.

I haven't been to the other Zankou locations, so I don't know how they stack up, but I do know that some dishes (kebabs and soujouk, for example), are only available at the Hollywood location. Go when you are hungry, bring a friend who doesn't mind garlic breath, and be prepared to take a heck of a lot of leftovers home.

Zankou Chicken
5065 Sunset Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90027
(323) 665-7842
10AM - midnight

Doughboys Bakery & Cafe

2006-04-11T22:13:00.000-07:00

After Eat, Drink & Be Merry took us all to SNL's Taco Town, I got to thinking: What Los Angeles restaurants truly embody the Taco Town mentality of more is better? Let's see, we have Cheesecake Factory. C&O's Trattoria. But even those stay on the side of regular dishes in big portions. I was looking for a restaurant that makes truly outrageous dishes in big portions. Something where I read through the menu and think, "wait, are they serious?"

In terms of portions and ingredients, you can't get more Taco Town than Doughboys Bakery & Cafe. A peek at the Doughboys Menu reveals such gems as The Monster, a big gooey mess of meat, cheese, onions, mushrooms and bread (they even suggest you eat it... like a taco!) or the PBC&B, a french toast, peanut butter, banana, chocolate dipped thing (that gets even more awesome when they wrap it in an authentic Parisian crepe and DEEP FRY IT!).

Geesh, I was getting a stomach ache just looking at the menu.

A wanted to try a range of dishes, so between the two of us, we decided to get three items - a salad and two of the "lighter" (ha!) entrees.

The goat cheese, tomato, walnut salad...

Which came with some yummy focacia toast points topped with an olive tapenade. Add a little goat cheese and walnuts, and voila! A complete meal.

So pretty...

We were pretty full after sharing the salad. But wait, there's more!

Brian had Scrapple with Dirty Eggs. I don't even want to go into the number of ingredients in this dish...

First, we take shredded pork and make it into a PORK PANCAKE! Then, we scrape up all the EGGS in the entire restaurant and scramble them with SAUSAGE and POTATOES and ONIONS! And it gets even awesomer when we throw in not 1, not 2, but 4 HUGE SLICES of parmesean FOCCACIA BREAD! Then we soak it all in BUTTER and smother it in CHEESE! And serve it to you on a plate the size of a coffee table with TONS OF HEALTHY SALAD!

I had the After-School Special, which is a grilled cheese and tomato soup. I was expecting a dainty little sandwich and a medium-sized bowl of soup. I mean, how big can a cheese sandwich and a bowl of soup be? Silly me...

First, we take a quarter-pound each of FIVE KINDS OF CHEESE! Then we put the cheese between TWO WHOLE LOAVES OF BREAD! But wait until we smother it in BUTTER and PAN FRY it! Then we take a giant mixing bowl and pour in tons of TOMATO SAUCE! You'll love it when we dump in a GALLON OF HEAVY CREAM!
(just a little perspective - that's a four-inch serving spoon in the photo, not a regular spoon)

The first bite was good, but after that it was just too much. Too much cheese, too much butter, too much soup.

See, look at me... I'm drowning in butter and tomato soup...

Ugggh. We each ate about a 1/3 of our entrees and could barely stand up.
I was surprised they didn't try to put our leftovers in a bag and pour three gallons of chili on top of it.

Doughboys Bakery & Cafe
8136 W Third St
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 651-4202

World's 50 Best Restaurants

2006-04-11T18:01:00.000-07:00

The UK's Restaurant Magazine named the 50 Best Restaurants in the World this month.

I have eaten at exactly ONE of them (Jean Georges, woot woot!), but I haven't given up hope to eat my way through several more by the end of the year.

A couple questions...
1) Is French Laundry really that good? Worth the day trip?
2) Has anyone been to El Bulli? I am DYING to go there... (Honey?)

World's Best Restaurants 2006 winners list:

El Bulli, Spain - The Penfold's world's best restaurant, best in Europe
The Fat Duck, United Kingdom
Pierre Gagnaire, France - Chef's Choice
French Laundry, US - best restaurant in the Americas
Tetsuya's, Australia - best restaurant in Australasia
Bras, France
Restaurant Le Louis XV, Monaco
Per Se, US
Restaurante Arzak, Spain
Mugaritz, Spain - highest new entrant
Can Fabes, Spain
Nobu, UK
Gambero Rosso, Italy - highest climber
Gordon Ramsay (Royal Hospital Road), UK
Restaurant Alain Ducasse, France
Jean Georges, US
Le Cinq, France
Daniel, US
Oud Sluis, The Netherlands
Chez Panisse, US
El Celler de Can Roca, Spain
L'Astrance, France
Hof van Cleve, Belgium
La Maison Troisgros, France
L'Atelier, France
Charlie Trotter's, US
Le Gavroche, UK - outstanding value
La Colombe, South Africa - best restaurant in the Middle East and Africa
Enoteca Pinchiorri, Italy
Rockpool, Australia
Le Calandre, Italy
Le Bernardin, US
Noma, Denmark
Restaurant Dieter Muller, Germany
St John, UK
Hakkasan, UK
Martin Berasategui, Spain
Le Quartier Francais, South Africa
Chez Dominique, Finland
L'Ambroisie, France
Die Schwarzwaldstube, Germany
Dal Pescatore, Italy
Bocuse, France
L'Arpege, France
Gramercy Tavern, US
Bukhara, India
De Karmeliet, Belgium
Oaxen, Sweden
Comme Chez Soi, Belgium
DOM, Brazil

Chyn King Chinese

2006-04-08T14:22:00.000-07:00

My first foray into Miracle Mile Chinese Food was passable, but not great. I decided to skip the next five places on my Citysearch map and go straight to the one with the highest rating: Chyn King.

Chyn King is what you could call Fresh Americanized Chinese. Which was fine, because while I consider myself an adventurous eater, I'm not really into "parts," which seem to be part and parcel at the more traditional Chinese restaurants. You know what I mean by parts, right? Feet. Gizzards. Tendons. Intestines. Hearts. Noses. Not really my thing.

So when we sat down at Chyn King, I was happy to see a pretty broad and fresh-looking menu that had some healthy entrees as well. Not that I would actually order any of the healthy items, but nice to know they're there.

Before we got to eating, the owners thought it would be a good idea for us to take a nice, long look at our relationship. See, Chinese restaurants not only serve you food, they also provide relationship counseling. Take the "birth year/animal" diagram, for example: I'm a Sheep, Brian's an Ox... Chyn King tells me we're the least compatible set on the placemat.

B: So, you're trouble, for me huh... You'd rather be with a Boar than me, wouldn't you?
CC: Honey, you know that's not true... but perhaps your SNAKE girlfriend might have something to say about it, hmmmm?
B: This is really about the BOAR isn't it? You're secretly seeing a Boar behind my back, aren't you?!?
CC: What?
B: Ribbit.

Hey look, crispies! A good distraction from all these Ox/Sheep/Boar/Rabbit worries...

We were feeling hungry, so we ordered quite a bit of food: 3 appetizers and 3 main dishes. Here's the procession...

Chicken Egg Rolls ($1.99 for 2), which had real white meat chicken breast! Is this common? I think this may have been my first white meat egg roll.

Vegetable Potstickers ($4.95 for 6):

These were made fresh, not frozen - check out the tiny cubes of sauteed tofu.

Hot and Sour Soup ($3.25): rich, thick, and just spicy enough

Beef on Sizzling Plate ($8.50): this was the highlight of the meal. Really good, hot beef in a delicious sauce. Just for clarification, the beef is the one doing the sizzling, not the plate.

General Tsao's Chicken ($7.95): this was OK. Kinda bland. Sauce a bit too sweet. PSA: do not eat the red peppers... even if you think it would be a funny joke... it's not a funny joke.

Vegetable Chow Fun ($6.50): fresh tasting, filling-but-not-heavy, lots of veggies. This is the only dish we didn't actually finish, so I'll be having this for lunch today.

And finally, a few backhanded "fortunes" to close off the meal.

Total bill: $38. Not bad.

Overall, I thought Chyn King was pretty good. And, THEY DELIVER, which makes them even better. There were a couple things on the "King's Specialties" menu that sounded awesome: Crispy Duck (Duck marinated with Chinese herbs and spices, fried to a crisp, served with 4 Chinese buns on the side); Fish Steamed with Scallion & Ginger (steamed boneless filet of fish in scallion and ginger sauce); Corn with Asparagus Crab Soup (creamed corn and asparagus cooked with luscious crab meat and egg drop). I'll be trying those next time...

Chyn King
5770 West 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA
323-939-0011
Mon-Thurs: 11AM-10PM
Fri-Sat: 11AM-10:30PM
Sun: 11:30AM-10:30PM

Sushi Nozawa

2006-04-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

Thursday, 8PM

A lot of times people ask me, "Colleen, what's your favourite restaurant in L.A.?" What's my FAVOURITE restaurant in L.A.? Are you kidding me?!?

That's like asking someone to choose their favourite child, or, in my case, favourite cat. Who's my favourite cat?

Well, duh, that's easy. Orbit. He's the cutest and most wonderful.
Likewise, Sushi Nozawa is my favourite restaurant in L.A. No contest, always has been, always will be.

I first discovered Sushi Nozawa in about 2003 and have eaten there close to a hundred times. That's like, $10,000 worth of sushi! No matter, because from the bottom of my heart...

I LOVE THIS MAN:

And for you, dear reader, I have sacrificed being barred forever by sneaking a few covert photos (OK, more than a few), so that you too can see the magic that is Nozawa. See, I normally sit at the sushi bar, where I would never dream of snapping a photo, but tonight the hidden corner table was open, so we sat there.

Nozawa has the most amazing sushi in the United States. I've been to almost every good sushi restaurant from here to New York and have never experienced anything quite like it. It's not just impeccably good quality fish, there's something else, a chemical perhaps, that makes your head absolutely woozy with delight.

For me, a trip to Nozawa is like a visit to a psychotherapist. You can't help but feel like a weight has been lifted from your shoulders. It's sort of like yoga for your palate.

The best way to experience Nozawa is to follow the sign: TRUST ME
Trust Me means omakase, chef's choice. It's the only way to fly...

Please keep in mind that these photos in no way do the sushi justice. It's so much more than how it looks - it's the texture (like butter), the flavour (impossibly fresh), and the perfect marriage of the cool fish on warm rice that make this experience truly special.

Every visit starts off with a plate of tuna in ponzu sauce with green onions:

Followed by toro and hamachi, also known as "orgasm on a plate"

Then we might move on to some albacore:

A crab hand roll midway through (one bite left!):

Excuse me miss, your toro is showing:

The ever-succulent toro roll... just half a bite to go:

Perhaps some halibut:

Crisp, luscious ama ebi:

And of course, my favourite, uni:

Now this is where I feel really loved. See, Nozawa knows I love his uni (I usually get two or three orders). However, he also knows that Brian's not a fan of uni, so every time, even when we're out of sight at the corner table, he remembers to send me an order of uni and to send Brian a lobster roll. Ahhh... love.

Let's take a closer look at the uni, shall we?

Here he is... the man, the myth, the legend: Kazunori Nozawa
(Brian had me convinced that he's a ghost and wouldn't actually appear on the film, but you can just barely see him below)

Nozawa is not cheap... our meal, which included one large beer and one small beer, came to $137 before tip. But if you TRULY love sushi, do yourself a favour and make the pilgramage to this, the Mecca of raw fish.

Sushi Nozawa
11288 Ventura Blvd.
Studio City, 91604
(818) 508-7017
Mon-Fri 12pm-2pm, 5:30pm-10pm
Closed Sat-Sun

Surya India

2006-04-06T01:15:00.000-07:00

8:30 PM and I've got a craving for Indian. Where to go? Citysearch's restaurant mapping has been helpful in the past, so I put in a search. Nothing within 1 1/2 miles... what the #*@& kind of a city is this? (I guess I should have known when my 3 closest "restaurants" include a KFC, a Quizno's and McD's)

Well, I might as well make the drive for something good. I'd been wanting to try Surya for a while now, and at 1.7 miles away, it was close enough. It was particularly windy, rainy and cold Tuesday night, so I was expecting to find the place pretty slow... however, I wasn't expecting to find it completely 100% empty. Hmmm. That always gives you a little pang of nervousness doesn't it? A few other people trailed in after us, but it was a pretty slow night.

Surya is a really beautiful space, with red walls, bright vibrant paintings, and a cozy-but-upscale feeling.

You can tell that a lot of care is put into the details - the menu opens with a promise from the owner about the quality and preparation that go into each dish. Sometimes I'm skeptical about those type of diatribes (ahem Mr. Healthy Organic Biodynamic), but in Surya's case it was real. The owner, Sheel Joshi, was in the restaurant and took a significant amount of time visiting each customer and talking to them about the food. It was more attention than I've ever received at a restaurant, and it was actually really nice.

Surya is a bit more expensive than most L.A. Indian restaurants, with entrees in the $10-15 range. It's similar in price to Bombay Palace on Wilshire, but with a simpler, fresher, more inspired menu. They also have a nice beer and wine list, with about 4 or 5 different Indian beers. Here are a couple we tried with our meal, Flying Horse, and India Special Reserve:

The menu had some interesting items that I hadn't seen before, such as seared ahi tandoori:

This was a really fresh-tasting twist on typical tandoori. It had that hot-but-not-spicy taste that warms up your mouth, but it was even more tender than the typical chicken version. Weighing in at a sizable 10 ozs (approx), we still powered through it in just a few minutes. I would have liked it to be a little more rare, which I'm sure you can request. Overall, a great dish, and it tasted amazing with the mint chutney.

For our entrees, we ordered lamb tikka masala (it's not on the menu, but they're happy to make it), saag paneer, chicken tikka kebabs, rice, and garlic naan. The chicken tikka kebabs were particularly good, very tender, juicy and flavorful.

Here's a sample of the dishes:

One thing I noticed is that Surya clearly starts with very high quality ingredients and spices. Each dish had a very fresh, full flavor, and you could really taste each of the components: with the lamb tikka masala, I could taste the freshness of the tomatoes in the sauce, and the lamb was so tender it splintered off my fork. Sometime saag paneer includes hard chewy cheese that tastes more like bad tofu, but the cheese in Surya's saag paneer actually tasted like cheese! (I read somewhere that they use farmer's market cheese, which would explain it).

If you're in the mood for lighter, more upscale Indian, Surya is definitely a great choice. We left satisfied but not stuffed, and took home a significant amount of leftovers.

The next evening, I ate some of the leftovers cold out of the refrigerator (because I'm lazy and keep forgetting to set up the microwave), and still really enjoyed it. If that's not a test of good Indian, I'm not sure what is...

Surya India
8048 W. Third St.
Los Angeles, 90048
(323) 653-5151
Mon-Fri 11:30am-2pm
Sun-Mon 5:30pm-8:45pm
Tue-Sat 5:30pm-10pm

Tam's Garden Chinese Food

2006-04-03T20:18:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't call Miracle Mile a food wasteland, but the meal choices aren't exactly jumping out at me from every direction. There are exactly seven Chinese restaurants within 1 mile of me: are any of them good? I decided to start exploring at the top of the list with the closest, Tam's Garden Chinese Restaurant (I was secretly pleased to see it had one of the highest Citysearch ratings for Chinese in the area).

I'm not a huge fan of Chinese food, but having a reliable local Chinese spot is sort of like having a bottle of Whisky in the cabinet - you don't need it all the time, but it's nice to know it's there.

Tam's Garden is a sit-down/take-out, family-owned spot. They have everything you would expect on an Americanized Chinese menu, and not a lot else. It's a hole-in-the-wall type of place, but it's clean (A - 92) and friendly. It's also very small - the area where you order and pay is part of the kitchen. They had 3 chefs working when I arrived, and you could see everything as they cooked it.

I decided to do take out so I could come home, plate the food, and pretend I made it myself.

Egg rolls (4 for $3.35)

These had a slight cinnamon flavor that I couldn't quite place... I'm pretty sure it came from the pastry dough. They were hot, crunchy, a little bit sweet, and really hit the spot. Very good.

Hot and sour soup: $3.75

This wasn't as spicy as I normally like, but it was good. Rich, syrupy broth and lots of tofu and egg.

Beef with Broccoli ($5.20)

Nice thick sauce, crisp broccoli, tender beef. No complaints...

Kung Pao Chicken ($5.20)

Where's the spicy? I've had spicier Kung Pao at Panda Express (not that I eat at Panda Express often, but I did this one time). This had a lot more vegetables than I'm used to - zucchini, onion, carrots, water chestnuts - and I liked it. It tasted kinda healthy. Next time I'll ask for more spicy.

I wanted to order more, but it's cash only and I only had a 20 on me (everything above came to just under $19). Tam's Garden was satisfactory - I'm happy to know it's just across the street. They also have well-priced lunch and dinner specials, which I'll have to try next time ($3.90 lunch special, $7.10/$7.80 dinner special).

Geesh, could this be my most boring post ever? Take-out Chinese is the next cheese sandwich...

Tam's Garden Chinese Food
5269 W. Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323-936-2858
Open Monday-Saturday 10:30AM - 9:00PM

Mango Mochi Ice Cream

2006-04-01T21:40:00.000-08:00

Mango Mochi, oh how I love thee. This is one of my resurfaced addictions... I used to have a freezer stocked with every flavor of mochi ice cream (coffee, red bean, strawberry, chocolate, green tea, mango, vanilla). For now, I'm on a mango kick, so mango mochi is it.

Mikawaya, the company that invented mochi ice cream in 1993, also has a great store in Little Tokyo. They have all kinds of delicious desserts, FRESH mochi ice cream, and some of the best gelato I have ever tasted. I'll try to get out there soon for a photo review.

Update: Here's my post about Mikawaya

Mikawaya
118 Japanese Village Mall
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-624-1681
Hours: Mon-Fri, 9:00AM - 6:00PM, Sat-Sun, 9:00AM - 7:00PM

Luna Park on La Brea Blvd.

2006-04-01T20:16:00.000-08:00

Sunday, 5:30 PM

We all love a great neighborhood restaurant. A friendly, reliable place where you can tuck in and have a consistently good meal. When I lived in West Hollywood, that place was Hugo's. When I lived downtown, it was Daily Grill (hey, there's not a lot of choices after 2PM down there). Now that I live in Miracle Mile, I was hoping my friendly neighborhood restaurant would be Luna Park, but it won't be.

There's nothing worse than a disappointing meal. It was my first night in my new hood and I needed some good comfort food served with a smile. We checked out Luna Park at 5:30PM Sunday evening. The place was empty except for a few people and we were seated at a big booth. The decor reminded me of a low-budget La Boheme... dark, sort of Bohemian, with chandeliers and red walls.

Our waitress came by to take our drink order. We ordered a diet coke and a water. "So no cocktails, then?" she said with a sneer. "No, thanks, it's kinda early, maybe next time." She gave us the you're-scum-because-you-didn't-order-expensive-drinks huff and scurried off. Service only went downhill from there.

I can put up with annoying service, but annoying service combined with mediocre food is too much to bear. Here's what we had...

Goat cheese fondue with apples and toasted bread ($8.25). Also know as "Jenga fondue" (get it? because the bread and apples are stacked like... nevermind)

This was harmless. I have mixed feelings about melted goat cheese, but whatever. Still, no finesse to this dish... it was literally just melted goat cheese, bread and apples.

Our entrees sucked. Brian ordered the "[UN]Tasty Burger" ($10.50). I remember once I made the mistake of buying pre-formed frozen hamburger patties at the grocery store. When I barbequed them, they were disgustingly dry and flavorless. Just like Luna Park's Tasty Burger. Seriously folks, I've had a better burger at Denny's.

I ordered the "Breaded Pork Cutlet Stuffed with Mushrooms and Gruyere Cheese with Mashed Potatoes, String Beans and Apple-Cranberry Sauce" ($16.50). This was a small step above Lean Cuisine. Oversweetened, oversalted... the pork was pretty tender, but the seasoning was all wrong.

Here are our entrees - the restaurant is so dark that one lady pulled out a flashlight to read the menu... the food's not worth seeing anyways.

Next time, I'll spend the extra 20 bucks and go to Campanile.

JITB: Chocolate Malted Crunch Milkshake

2006-04-01T19:46:00.000-08:00

I don't normally do this, BUT...
Jack and the Box's Chocolate Malted Crunch milkshake is hands-down the best fast food milkshake I've ever tasted. With vanilla ice cream, bittersweet chocolate syrup, and chunks of malted milk balls, it's too thick to drink through the straw... and yet they're silly enough to give you one anyways.

They really nail the right combination of malt and chocolate. It's kinda like a McFlurry, except tastier and much worse for you.

I really didn't want to know this, but the SMALL size weighs in at a whopping 720 calories and 22 grams saturated fat (that's 110% of your recommended daily intake, by the way). Don't even think about what the LARGE size does to your arteries.

Daikokuya in Little Toyko

2006-03-24T21:19:00.000-08:00

It was my second-to-last night living in Downtown LA (finally, I'm moving tomorrow!), so I decided it was time to check out a place that had been on my "to dine" list since I moved down here: Daikokuya Original Noodle & Rice Bowl.

Daikokuya is a specialty noodle house on 1st St. in Little Toyko. They're most famous for their homemade Daikoku Raumen, which is truly very special (so special it made Jonathan Gold's 99 Essentials list).

This is no Top Ramen by any stretch of the imagination:
* The raumen includes noodles, a boiled egg, seasoned bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, and green onions in pork soup
* The broth is made from pork bones that are boiled for more than a day
* They use kurobuta (black pork), which is known for its tenderness and unique flavour
* The eggs are soaked in the broth overnight prior to serving

Hungry yet?

You know how takeout tastes even more delicious the next day, because the flavours have had time to brew? That's how everything at Daikokuya tastes when it's served. It's rich, savory, down-home delicious comfort food, Japanese style.

Oh, and did I mention they have good cheap Japanese beer on tap? $2.00 buys you a mug of Kirin, $10.00 buys you a gigantic pitcher. We don't mess around...

We ordered a bunch of food because everything looked and smelled so good. To start, spicy tuna roll ($4.95)...

Lots of soft, flavorful tuna, crunchy cucumber strips and fresh avocado.

Gyoza ($4.95)...

The gyoza tasted freshly homemade - hot, crispy, green-oniony, so yummy.

Brian ordered a combination dinner ($10.50), which came with cabbage salad, a chicken and rice bowl, and a bowl of raumen:

The salad has a fantastic thousand-island-ish dressing - it's so simple, but really good.

Here's the Chicken and Egg bowl. I only had a small bite of this... barely enough to taste it. Brian managed to inhale the whole thing in a matter of 1 or 2 minutes, so I guess it was really good!

Then came the raumen ($7.50 for just a bowl by itself). WOW...

This is some serious stuff. The broth is really rich - one spoonful is enough to warm you from head to toe. And it tastes SOOOO amazing. Apparently, you can also order the broth stamina style, which means extra rich... I couldn't imagine it getting more rich than this.

The noodles are very al dente, which gives them a nice chew that softens up as time passes.
My favorite part was the pork strips in the broth.

This is the TORO OF PORK: it's fatty, savory, and literally melts in your mouth. I am salivating as I type just remembering how delicious it was! The taste is like bacon meets toro, and then some.

Daikokuya is a cool little spot. Very homey, diner-like, but hip - everyone in the restaurant looked like they had stepped out of a music video. They're open late too: usually till 2AM or later. It was about a 20 minute wait when we got there, but well worth it.

After this meal, we came home and promptly fell asleep. I haven't had such a comforting meal in a really long time - I slept like a baby. I really loved Daikokuya and will definitely be back: it almost makes me want to stay downtown... almost.

Daikokuya
327 E. 1st Street
Los Angeles, CA
213-626-1680

Nozawa + David Myers = Sokyo!

2006-03-22T09:34:00.000-08:00

Could it be true? Two of the greatest culinary masters (in L.A. at least) are joining forces to open a new, Japanese-themed restaurant in June 2006?

I squealed with delight when my friend S.K. first shared the news that Nozawa of Sushi Nozawa and David Myers of Sona were in talks to open a restaurant together in the former Noura Cafe space. Now I have so many questions: What will it be called? Will Nozawa select the fish? Will Sushi Nozawa stay open?

Here's the juicy news bite: Chef David Myers, who opened Sona in Los Angeles three years ago, is working on a new project with Kazunori Nozawa of Sushi Nozawa: a modern 100-seat Japanese restaurant serving small plates. The space, which will include a lounge, patio, and two private dining rooms, is expected to open on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood in June 2006.

It would be great if they named the restaurant TRUST ME and they literally had no menus at all. I am so excited I can hardly contain myself... It's going to be a nail-biting three months!

UPDATE: The restaurant is going to be called Sokyo. I still like Trust Me better. These may be sketches of what the restaurant will look like on the inside. They will have a menu consisting of various categories, such as salty and crunchy, raw, robata, vegetables and bowls, and mini-sweets from pasty chef Michelle Myers. And finally, Nozawa will only serve as a consultant, which kinda disappoints me a little... I was hoping he would actually be a chef there (at least on Saturdays, since Nozawa is closed on the weekends).

Hollywood Bowl Summer 2006

2006-03-20T21:27:00.000-08:00

Don't get me wrong, I love classical music... but the Hollywood Bowl is upping the ante with some great electronica this year. Although the site says single tickets aren't available until May 6, you can create your own series and secure your tickets earlier.

Here's what's on my series... I'll probably show up to more shows later this summer, but these tickets seemed like they'd go pretty fast. Hope to see you there!!

Flaming Lips, Thievery Corporation

Sun, Jul 23, 2006 07:00 PM
Thievery Corp is one of my all-time favorites.

KCRW's World Festival: Gotan Project, Zero 7 and Jose Gonzalez

Sun, Aug 27, 2006 07:00 PM
Gotan Project and Zero 7... two of my other all-time favorites. You MUST see Gotan Project live - they are incredible. Tango meets electronica with a live accordian player over deep house/dub beats. Super cool. Which reminds me, I need to get my hands on their new album.

Video Games Live 2006

Thu, Sep 21, 2006 08:00 PM
Sweet!

80's Night

Sat, Sep 23, 2006 07:30 PM
Double-sweet!

Four Things: The LA Edition

2006-03-19T18:08:00.000-08:00

OK, I'm a little late in the game on this one... but better late than never, right!

Four Jobs I've Had In My Life In L.A.:
1) UCLA Wooden Center (low-budget student gym) - "Weight Room Manager" (ha!)
2) Unpaid PR flack
3) Paid PR flack
4) Barbie marketer (current)

Four Movies About LA I Could Watch Over And Over:
1) Mulholland Drive
2) Swingers
3) Collateral
4) Clueless

Four Places I've Lived All Over L.A.
1) Westwood (UCLA days) - started on the West side
2) West Hollywood - slowly moving East
3) Hollywood Hills - East-er still
4) Downtown - OK, a little too East. Isolated, boring, crack junkie central. Moving back West-ward to Miracle Mile this weekend.

Four LA-Themed Shows I Love(d) To Watch:
* I don't really watch TV, so I'm just guessing here...
1) Beverly Hills 90210
2) Melrose Place
3) ???
4) ???

Four Places I Would Vacation At In LA:
we're talking about hotels, right?
1) Hotel Bel Air
2) Casa del Mar (Santa Monica)
3) Shutters (Santa Monica)
4) Chateau Marmont

Four L.A. Based Websites I Visit Daily/Frequently:
1) Defamer
2) Chowhound Los Angeles board
3) KCRW Music Calendar
4) Perez Hilton

Four Of My Favorite Foods Found In LA:
1) Crab hand roll at Nozawa (ANYTHING at Nozawa, actually)
2) Pinkberry frozen yogurt
3) Mango and sticky rice at Wat Thai Temple
4) Bacon-wrapped dates at A.O.C.

Four Places In LA I Would Rather Be Right Now:
1) Eating at Nozawa
2) Eating at Urasawa (still haven't been!)
3) Eating at Pinkberry
4) at the Beverly Center with an unlimited budget

Downtown - Mile 26

2006-03-19T14:04:00.000-08:00

Lucky me - I live at Mile 26 of the L.A. Marathon. It feels pretty good to wake up at 2PM and know that several thousand people have already run 26 miles today. Poor souls...

*Who has the best real* frozen yogurt in Los Angeles?** (choices in alphabetical order)
	Fiore
	Kiwiberri
	Pinkberry