The Unvegan

Brunch Clubbing at Lime

December 7th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

A limey Ruben.

Something unique about San Francisco is that day drinking is kind a given. If you don’t enjoy throwing back a few beers on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, you’re pretty much considered antisocial in San Fran. So on Sunday morning when we decided to go out for brunch, I should have known I was in for more than just brunch.

We went to a place called Lime in the Castro. Walking in, the place looks a lot more like a nightclub than a brunch restaurant. I love Sunday morning mimosas as much as the next guy, and I have no problem eating at a place that looks like a club, but this is the last place I would have wanted to be if I was hungover. Not only were the acoustics of the place loud because of all the people, but there was loud music blasting all the way. One of our friends had arrived early, so we were lucky and didn’t have much of a wait. Continue Reading»

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Brunch, California, lime, restaurants, San Francisco, Sandwiches, Travel

Getting Cooked at Sushi Raw

December 6th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Not sushi and not raw.

Now calling a restaurant Sushi Raw may seem redundant at first, because sushi is usually…well…raw. But the name does have a ring to it and almost sounds like it could be the Japanese word for “Law.” So even though I’m no sushi fan, I was still interested in seeing what this sushi could be like. Sushi Raw has locations throughout San Francisco and the one we went to was in the Lower Haight. Continue Reading»

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Beef, California, San Francisco, sushi raw, Travel

Feeling Patriotic at Richie’s Real American Diner

September 9th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

An American Californian burger.

Out visiting my uncle in Murrietta, we were in need of some dinner. Having just moved there a few months ago, there were still some local places he was looking to try out. On this night, Richie’s Real American Diner was calling his name. This is one of those places loaded with in-your-face patriotism and reminded me of what every restaurant must have looked like in the ’50s. Since I am a true American, this looked like it would be a good place for me. Continue Reading»

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Burgers, California, diners, hamburgers, meat, murrieta, restaurants, richie's real american diner, Travel

Pre-Hiking at the Park Rock Cafe

June 2nd, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

These lentils have been cracked.

Before spending a weekend of hiking in Joshua Tree National Park, we stopped at a little shop near the visitor center called the Park Rock Cafe. We didn’t need too much before a day filled with jerky and trail mix, but we at least wanted to get ourselves a square meal. There weren’t a lot of options, as you would expect. It was mostly sandwiches and all of them had some sort of vegetable plopped inside to ruin it. Despite this, I still chose their Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich, which came with onions and peppers. I ordered mine without those sandwich killers and then was given a choice between soup and salad. I made the obvious choice for soup, which was cracked lentils. I don’t really know how you go about cracking a lentil, but I do know that lentils are more of a legume than a vegetable, and legumes are just fine by me. Continue Reading»

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California, Cheese Steaks, joshua tree, meat, restaurants, Travel

The Hidden Treasure of Jasmine Market

March 23rd, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Biryani me!

I’m not totally sure how it happened, but at some point in the last year I heard about a place called Jasmine Market in Culver City. Unfortunately, life happened and it took me until recently to finally get to pay the place a visit. Jasmine Market is unique because it is both a market and a restaurant, but even more interesting than that is that they serve Burmese food. Never heard of a Burmese restaurant? Well neither had I. In general I’ve avoided things related to Burma (Myanmar) for fear that anything I did would seem like I support the military junta there. But you don’t find a Burmese restaurant too often, so I knew I had to try it out. Continue Reading»

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Asian, Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma, Burmese, California, Los Angeles, myanmar, restaurants

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. Continue Reading»

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Bacon, Beef, Burgers, California, Coachella Valley, elephant bar, hamburgers, Palm Desert, restaurants, Travel

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. Continue Reading»

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American, California, Chains, Chicken, Coachella Valley, mimi's cafe, Rancho Mirage, restaurants, Travel

Legendary Meat at Langer’s Deli

December 21st, 2009 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

In cursive, so you know it's good.

All-too-often restaurants claim to have “the best” blah blah blah in the world, but sometimes there is a restaurant that makes no claim to have the best of anything and lets the customers tell the good news. Langer’s Deli is one of the latter. Located in the not-so-posh neighborhood of MacArthur Park, Langer’s has become known for their pastrami. Many who have tried it have claimed it is the best ever, so to do the unvegan world a favor, I had to try it out myself. Continue Reading»

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California, Corned Beef, Delis, Jewish, langer's deli, Los Angeles, macarthur park, meat, pastrami, restaurants, Sandwiches

Road Tripping to the Mad Greek Cafe

November 30th, 2009 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Maddeningly Greek.

My usual drive to Las Vegas involves getting there as fast as possible to gamble and returning as fast as possible to cry into my pillowcase after losing copious amounts of money. This trip, however, was a bit different. Rather than a rush back home, we took our time and stopped for lunch.

Anyone who has made the drive between Los Angeles and Las Vegas knows of the Mad Greek Cafe. Billboards seem to advertise the “Best Gyro” every few miles, so for our little road trip lunch, we thought a trip to Baker, California and a stop at the Mad Greek Cafe would be worth our while. Continue Reading»

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Baker, California, Greek, gyros, Las Vegas, Mediterranean, restaurants, road trip, Travel

Not Quite the Best of Mediterranean

November 18th, 2009 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Get that green stuff out of here.

It was a night for delivery and looking through LAbite, we found a good-looking Mediterranean place to order from it was called Best of Mediterranean (BOM), which is quite a boast to be put in a name, even for a place in West Hollywood. Obviously a place by that name had to be checked out. I was too hungry for a schwarma sandwich, so I ordered the chicken schwarma dinner plate. This came with hummos, tabouli, rice and garlic sauce. Knowing that tabouli is some strange mix of greens, I tried to order without it, but the website wouldn’t allow me. This was a big fail on the part of both LAbite and BOM, because many other restaurants allow you to customize dishes. Unfortunately, I knew that vegetables would be dying for my sake that night and wouldn’t even have the pleasure of being digested. Continue Reading»

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Best of Mediterranean, BOM, California, Delivery, labite, Los Angeles, meat, Mediterranean, Middle-Eastern, restaurants, schwarma, west hollywood

Rants and Raves

Destination: Namibia

July 29th, 2009

It looks like I’ve found the next stop on my quest for a meaty utopia. No, not Taco Bell. This time I hear a whole country calling my name: Namibia!

According to an eye-opening article from WHL, Namibia sounds like a paradise on Earth. It is entitled Namibia: A Truly Meat-Loving Country, by Rachel Harlech-Jones. In the article, Harlech-Jones writes about how the country didn’t even seem to know what a vegetarian was when she first went to Namibi (apparently they now know what a vegetarian is, but “still do not really know why vegetarians exist.”) This has nothing to do with a bad language exchange since their official language is English. Rather, they are just my type of people, constantly confused by people who don’t want to eat meat.

Beer Me Some Breckenridge Agave Wheat

The taste of skiing?

Colorado is definitely a beer state, and not just because Coors comes from the Rocky Mountain State. No, it is also home to New Belgium (of Fat Tire fame) and seemingly countless other micro and craft breweries. While in Breckenridge for a ski weekend, I decided I had to at least try one of these, and because it turned out to be the only one available at dinner, my choice happened to come from the creatively named Breckenridge Brewery. The brewery, by the way, is actually no longer in Breckenridge, having expanded and moved to Denver in 1992.

‘California’

Brunch Clubbing at Lime

Getting Cooked at Sushi Raw

Feeling Patriotic at Richie’s Real American Diner

Pre-Hiking at the Park Rock Cafe

The Hidden Treasure of Jasmine Market

Memories of the Elephant Bar

Being Seasonal at Mimi’s Cafe

Legendary Meat at Langer’s Deli

Road Tripping to the Mad Greek Cafe

Not Quite the Best of Mediterranean

Rants and Raves

Destination: Namibia

Beer Me Some Breckenridge Agave Wheat

What is this?»

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