Reviews

Haute Food at AOC

March 11th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Say cheese!

For the birthday of a special someone in my life, we headed to little French restaurant called AOC.  You may be wondering what AOC stands for, and so did we.  Apparently it is not some made-up acronym, but actually is the French version of the FDA, which makes it far more pretentious and Frenchier.  We had a reservation and were seated immediately, as I would expect from the French.  Our waitress, who had an indistinguishable accent that most certainly was not French, brought us our menus so we could figure out some foodstuffs.

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Eating the Desert at Nick’s Coffee Shop

March 9th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Hmm what's the ruling on cactus?

For a nice little Sunday brunch, the girlfriend and I headed over to Nick’s Coffee Shop at Pico-Robertson.  Coffee shop is kind of a misnomer for this place, since it’s really more of a diner in the S & W vein.  The place is pretty small, so there was a bit of a wait, which wasn’t a big deal on the sunny morning.  By the time we took our seats, I was hankering for some food.  I perused the extensive menu and found an omelet that looked pretty good to me.  It was called the Cactus Omelet and the menu described it as being packed with nutrients.  This was confusing, but then I saw that the ingredients included Hebrew National Salami and Jack Cheese.  It came with a side, so I got myself some grits.

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A Great Decision at Ana Maria’s

March 8th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Long line=good

While thousands of fools were waiting in the long lines of the LA Street Food Festival to get the same food they could get any night from those Twittering food trucks, my buddy and I made a great decision to head for a different part of downtown LA.  This was the Grand Central Market, a glorious collection of restaurant stalls, produce vendors, butchers and more.  Almost dead center in this gem of a market was a Mexican place called Ana Maria’s.  We took a page out of my Asian handbook and decided that since this place had the longest line, it had to be the best.

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A Shiny Shiny Beacon

March 5th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

A beacon of hope.

On a cold, wet afternoon, I was hankering for some lunch when I saw a beacon of hope in Culver City.  No, not just any beacon, but a restaurant that was actually called Beacon.  This name was just so similar to bacon that I had to try it out.  Well, also I had heard some pretty good things about the place.  The lunchtime crowd was pretty big, but my girlfriend and I still found a table pretty easily.  Beacon was an interesting blend of Asian and American fusion, featuring dishes like “black” edamame (which sounds like an even scarier version than regular edamame) and Miso Braised Short Ribs.  By far the most confusing part of the menu was figuring out which dishes were salads and which were sandwiches, since they both fell under the header of “Salads and Sandwiches.”

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I Could Use More Mo Mo Sushi

March 4th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Gimme some mo'

They say mo’ money, mo’ problems.  And by they I mean Puff Daddy and the Family.  But for me, Mo Mo Sushi is less less problems.  To start off, Mo Mo Sushi is anything but trendy.  It sits in a tiny little corner strip at La Cienega and Olympic with 3 or 4 other shops and a 7-11.  Although the inside is certainly Japanese, it doesn’t have any of that overdone Japanese decorum that makes trendy places look more Japanese than Japan itself.  So for a sushi place, Mo Mo already had me happy before I looked at the menu.

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A Biblical Valentine

Let's get biblical.

This year I got biblical for Valentine’s Day.  No, not like that you sicko.  Instead of having a boring, fancy meal with my girlfriend, we decided to get cooking.  And not just any kind of cooking, we decided to use Lobel’s Meat Bible, which was sent to me by Chronicle Books a few months ago for free.  I knew this book would be incredible just based on the cover, but the back cover really sealed the deal for me because it says, “Armed with Lobel’s Meat Bible, carnivores will find themselves with more delectable meaty choices than ever before.”  Mmmm meaty choices.

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