Reviews

Misled to Asakuma Restaurant

February 8th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Oh I get it, because it looks like watermelon.

So one night I was told we were going to a cheap sushi place for dinner.  Fine.  You all know I am not a sushi fan, but if I’m going to eat it, it should at least be cheap.  Somehow we wound up at Asakuma Restaurant in Brentwood, which was not cheap at all.  This wasn’t the fault of the restaurant, but still I can’t understand why sushi is expensive.  I fail to notice a difference between expensive and cheap sushi.  In fact, some of the best I’ve ever had was also some of the cheapest I’ve ever had.  Wow, do you readers ever get tired of me griping about sushi?  No?  Good, then read on about some Asakuma.

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Memories of the Elephant Bar

February 5th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Made with real elephant. Wait. No.

As a child of 13, I went to the Elephant Bar in Palm Desert and loved the perpetually moving straw fans on the ceiling.  Of course, that was all it took for me to like a restaurant at the age of 13.  Now things are a little different.  Those fans still cater to my easily distracted mind, but my taste buds require something more.  A quick look at the menu made me feel like the Elephant Bar was suffering from mild schizophrenia.  While most of the menu was filled with American fare, for some reason a whole page was devoted to Asian stir-fry-esque meals.  This threw me off and made me feel like this place wasn’t made for Asian food.  I flipped back to the American comfort zone and found what I wanted.

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Being Seasonal at Mimi’s Cafe

February 4th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Brie-tacular.

Recently I paid a visit to the desert, aka Rancho Mirage, to visit my grandparents.  For dinner one night we headed to Mimi’s Cafe, which is apparently a chain that I had never heard of and was very appropriate for a meal with the grandparents.  This was all new to me, though, so I was excited to see an entirely new menu of good food.  It was obviously prepared with the health-conscious in mind, since it had its own little healthy section.  Some of this section was even unvegan, but I was not in the mood for health.  Instead, I found my way to their seasonal menu and their Brie Chicken.

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Gator Chomping at Tart Restaurant

February 3rd, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Munchin' on gator.

On the recommendation of a friend, I ventured out to Tart Restaurant near The Grove on Fairfax to try out their alligator.  This friend had never actually had the alligator, so it was a bold suggestion, yet I always thought it would be great to consume gator just as Brandon Graham consumed Tim Tebow in the Senior Bowl on Saturday.  Tart isn’t just some random restaurant serving gat0r, though.  The whole place is a Southern theme, which the gator fits right into, so I went in looking forward to some good Southern eats.

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Borderline Okay at the Border Grill Truck

February 2nd, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Sweet design.

Finally, I feel like I’ve been to just about all of the food trucks in LA that I have any desire to visit.  Yes, I know I haven’t been to all of them, but I think I’ve been to enough to justify paying a visit to the Border Grill Truck, despite the fact that the Border Grill is already a restaurant I have been to.  I guess I just wanted to see how an upscale Mexican restaurant could translate into a truck.  People  seemed to be enjoying their food outside of the truck, so I went to see if I could partake in their enjoyment.

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Fighting for Frankies at India Jones

February 1st, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Hello Frankie.

I visited the India Jones truck at good old First Fridays evening on Abbot Kinney.  The area was pretty packed, but I had been following India Jones on Twitter and was eager to try them out.  When I got there, Mr. Jones himself was dealing with a horrible skater punk who had decided to steal a can of Pellegrino.  It was an uncomfortable situation, because the skater guy was obviously a terrible person, and luckily someone stepped in and grabbed the can to return to Jones.  One of his idiot friends decided to hit the truck with his skateboard and ran away, because he was like a child, and although Jones chased after him, it was to no avail, the buffoon had gotten away.  After seeing this, my hunger for some food from this truck grew even more.  Jones was willing to defend his truck and fight against dumb hooligans, so I was happy to support.  And by support I mean order food.

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Getting Fried at Asian Soul Kitchen

January 29th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

It's a sooouuuul truck.

Combining Asian Food and Soul Food is kind of an interesting concept, and in doing so the Asian Soul Kitchen truck was born in LA.  I decided to follow them on Twitter because their twitter name of “itsbentobaby” sounded pretty awesome to me.  I found them on Abbot Kinney and took a look at their menu.  Although some of their specific Asian foods like yakisoba looked good, I needed something with a lot more meat to it.  To get that fix, I turned to their Lollipop Chicken.

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Loading up on Dough at CPK

January 28th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Bread!

A long time ago, I tried out the BBQ Chicken Pizza from California Pizza Kitchen (CPK).  By this time, the restaurant was in Michigan everyone had been raving about it.  I tasted it was really disappointed.  Using BBQ sauce instead of tomato sauce disturbed me, and the onions hidden in the cheese made it even worse.  Later on, I tried many different pizzas from CPK and was pleased.  Yet, since moving to California, I have had very little, if any contact with CPK.  Recently, though, I had the chance for a revisit to their Beverly Hills location and decided to once again try out their BBQ Chicken Pizza.  But this time, I was prepared.

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Triped Out at Super Pho & Teriyaki

January 27th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Any signs of organs?

Recently a little pho place opened down the street from me and called itself Super Pho & Teriyaki.  Anything that starts with super must be pretty cool, so I took a stroll down the road with my friend so we could get ourselves a taste.  The place is pretty tiny and nondescript, but had enough tables open for us.  We ordered at the counter and I decided to get their House Pho.  This included meat balls, brisket, tendon and tripe.  A few more organs and I would have had enough to build a whole cow from scratch in my stomach.

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A Sad Ending at Yamato Restaurant

January 26th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Raw tuna. Hooray.

In yet another night that I was made to eat sushi, I was brought to Yamato Restaurant in Westwood.  Catering to the college crowd, their sushi is always half off, which is great, except that it makes you wonder why they wouldn’t simply print prices that are low.  Is it some way to confuse people into ordering more or to make them think they are there at a special half off time?  Either way, it is weird, but good for the wallet.  When I arrived, some food had already been ordered, which was slightly bothersome, but I decided to roll with it (pun!).

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Exposing The Vegetarian Myth

Essential reading.

What do you get when you mix a huge dose of recovering vegan with liberalism and some over the top feminism?  No, not Roseanne Barr on Atkins.  You get The Vegetarian Myth, by Lierre Keith.  Flashpoint Press was nice enough to send me a copy of this eye-opening book and although it took me a few months to get through, it has been an enlightening read.  In it, Keith combines her own personal experiences with some good hard data to help debunk the vegetarian myth as we know it.

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