Oh, Little Little Tokyo, the gem of the LA’s west side. Aside from Little Ethiopia, there’s really nowhere else that you can be driving along regular LA streets, suddenly find yourself in a foreign country for two blocks, and then pop back out into regular LA again. There’s a pretty steady stream of awesome restaurants and stores in this foreign territory and for this review a group of us headed to FuRaiBo. In order to be seated immediately, we had to sit in their floor room (like a tatami room, without the tatami). This meant sitting on the floor. While this sort of seating is not common in modern Japan, it certainly still exists. The trouble with this seating at FuRaiBo, however, is that their floor seating gives a distinct lack of leg room, such that my legs couldn’t even get under the table. Nonetheless, while seating played a role in the meal, it didn’t define it. Continue Reading»
‘fried chicken’
Waffling at Bru’s Wiffle
January 3rd, 2012 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble RedditWhile “the bun” has undergone many iterations (pretzel, brioche, etc…) and sandwich bread is known for its varieties, there is one bread-like breakfast conduit that still hasn’t really seen much glory as far as being put to alternate uses. It is the waffle, but Bru’s Wiffle in Santa Monica is out to change that. You see, Bru’s thinks that waffles need more of the limelight and they are willing to give it. At Bru’s, you can get a pizza waffle, taco waffles and even “sliders” with waffle buns. Of course, Bru’s offers waffles in their sweet breakfast form, but the savory offerings were really what drew me to Bru’s. Continue Reading»
A Little Cajun at The Cheesecake Factory
March 14th, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble RedditEveryone knows The Cheesecake Factory for their namesake. And those people are also probably aware that The Cheesecake Factory is a full-on restaurant with a restaurant about as massive its portions. Sadly, when I went to Cheesecake in Beverly Hills, my stomach wasn’t treating me as well as it usually does. So naturally, as an unvegan, I turned to fried chicken. Yeah, that’s right. Continue Reading»
Getting Back to Basix
January 3rd, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble RedditOrdinarily, I am pretty bothered when a place takes a word as simple as “basics” and turns it into “basix.” This kind of goes against being called “basic” because it has overcomplicated a basic word. So, with these overcomplicated thoughts in my mind, I headed into Basix Cafe in West Hollywood, not knowing if should expect something basic or otherwise. What I found was a nice mid-sized cafe with a nice variety of menu items ranging from pizza and pasta to fried chicken and sandwiches. They also had unvegan unfriendly salads and other such dishes, but there were certainly enough vegetable-free dishes to make me like the menu. Continue Reading»
Gator Chomping at Tart Restaurant
February 3rd, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble RedditOn 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. Continue Reading»
Getting Fried at Asian Soul Kitchen
January 29th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble RedditCombining 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. Continue Reading»
Free Meat Alert: Dinah’s Fried Chicken
August 18th, 2009 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble RedditDinah’s Fried Chicken in Glendale is offering some free chicken that is sure to please. According to LAist, “Customers have their choice of a leg and thigh or breast and wing plus one side dish absolutely free.” I guess they were just waiting for the Grilled Chicken War between KFC and El Pollo Loco to cool off. Fortunately, this offer isn’t about supposedly “healthy” grilled chicken.
The deal runs through the end of August and the only catch is that you can only go once, as they will be checking IDs and putting your name on a list (more incentive to finally get that fake ID?). Continue Reading»
Dipping With Honey at Honey’s Kettle Fried Chicken
June 24th, 2009 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble RedditWhen I first took a gander inside Honey’s Kettle Fried Chicken in Culver City, I was a little taken aback because the crowd didn’t look exactly like people who would be eating fried chicken. They looked more like people who would rather go somewhere like Rush Street or Ford’s Filling Station. Nevertheless, I had heard good things, so I went in.
A quick look at the menu revealed a wide range of non-vegetable fried options that I could enjoy, except that they all seemed to come with pickles. I decided on the three piece breast strip meal, which came with fries, a biscuit and pickles. I ordered without the pickles and asked the cashier why it was called “Honey’s Kettle,” thinking there was somehow honey involved in the fry batter. She told me that it was actually because the guy who created the batter realized that it went perfectly with a special kind of honey that they have in the restaurant. Continue Reading»
Rants and Raves
“Does Everybody Hate PETA?”
May 14th, 2009That was the interesting question was raised by the LA Times recently. It was asked in response to PETA’s attempts to seemingly put an end to dog shows. As a proponent of simply eating animals, I don’t have too much of a say in the matter and my actual opinions of other PETA actions have been been documented in the past. Click here for the article and let me know if you agree with the comments.
Beer Me Some Breckenridge Agave Wheat
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.
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