‘meat’


FuRaiBo Knows

January 26th, 2012 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

FuRaiBo knows fried chicken.

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»


At Home at Victor’s Meats & Delicatessen

January 25th, 2012 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Meatwich!

I must confess that I have lived quite literally two minutes (by foot) from Victor’s Meats & Delicatessen for the past six months, yet had not once set foot in the place until this past weekend.  “Why?” you ask.  Well, the answer isn’t simple.  It’s also not difficult, because there is no answer save for my foolishness.  And it is pure foolishness because Victor’s is a dream come true.

While part of the place is straight-up butcher, Victor’s also serves up sandwiches and assorted pre-cooked foods and salads and such.  I was in for a sandwich, but I got more than I expected. Continue Reading»


Dining in Cooks County

January 18th, 2012 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Say cheese!

You may think that as a meat blogger I am constantly defining which restaurants my girlfriend and I eat at.  Often that is the case, and for no other reason than that people are constantly giving me suggestions, but this weekend we reversed the trend and she took me out to dinner at a place from her own to-eat list.  The place was Cooks County in Mid-City and although a quick Google search will reveal no county named Cooks, there is certainly at least one Cook County (in Illinois), which may be some sort of basis for the naming of this restaurant. Continue Reading»


Bulgarians Love Meat

January 11th, 2012 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

More meat, Mr. Khan?

While some people still try to claim that meat is bad for you, I think just about everyone across the spectrum of vegetarianism can agree that meat is unquestionably healthier than cigarettes.  So when I read an article entitled “Meat Displaces Cigarettes from Bulgarians’ Diet,” I was nearly as happy as Khan Krum must have been when his Bulgarians defeated the Byzantines at the Battle of Pliska. Continue Reading»


Beer Belly for My Fearless Belly

January 6th, 2012 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

There are peas in my cheese!

Two of the things I love most in this world are beer and my belly.  No, I don’t have a beer belly…much, but when a gastropub in Koreatown called Beer Belly opened up, I figured I had to try it out.  I was meeting a group of people, and arrived to find the place packed.  And this was not a big place.  Like about 8 tables and a few bar stools big, and all of them were loaded.  Plus, it was first come, first served, so we got to hang around the tables like vultures surrounded a wounded gazelle.  It was the tail end of happy hour, though, so I ordered a beer and hoped a table would clear out soon.  Fast forward thirty minutes and we’re still waiting when a woman working the place asks if we’re waiting for a table.  Uh, no, lady, we’re just standing here awkwardly for the hell of it.  She then proceeded to ask us if we wanted to be on the list.  This “list” was new to us, and apparently also new to her, as she told us she had just started it.  Well, at least we wouldn’t have to stand awkwardly any longer. Continue Reading»


An Explosion of Flavor at C4

January 2nd, 2012 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Oh Arizona.

Remember playing Cowboys and Indians as a kid?  Thankfully, there is a place in the world where that fantasyland still exists.  It’s called Arizona, and while not everyone runs around with a gun or bow and arrow, there are places you could picture saddling up a horse just as easily as stopping by in a hybrid.  One such place is the Cave Creek Coffee Company, affectionately known as C4 by locals.  The facade is reminiscent of Tombstone, but the interior is pure class (not that Tombstone was lacking in class…). Continue Reading»


Meet Horse Meat

December 2nd, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Sitting on a pile of food.

What’s your favorite type of meat?  Is it beef, chicken or pork?  Or maybe it’s something cool and exotic like venison or rattlesnake?  What about horse?  Didn’t think about that one, did you?  Not exactly exotic, but also not exactly meat to most Americans.  Now, though, thanks to a little slip of legislation, the slaughter of horses for meat has been legalized in the USA. Continue Reading»


Heading for Philly at South Street

November 18th, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Looks eerily like natto.

While LA may not have a signature food (the closest it gets is either Asian fusion or burgers), it has a hell of a lot of options for immigrants who miss the signature food of their homeland, be it Chicago Pizza or Detroit Coney Dogs.  The Philly Cheese Steak is no exception, with plenty of places offering their “authentic” version.  I don’t claim to be an expert on the cheese steak (only been to Philly once, during a massive blizzard), but the sandwich has always been a dear friend of mine.  After all, what can go wrong when meat and cheese mix?  Don’t answer that if you’re one of them Kosher people.  South Street in Burbank has been bringing Philly toLA for a few years, so I thought I would see how they measure up. Continue Reading»


Liam Hemsworth: Unvegan Hero

November 17th, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

We can't all be perfect...

I’m going to be up front with:  until I started browsing the internet for meat news today, I had no idea who Liam Hemsworth was.  But now, with the beauty of research, I can proudly proclaim him as an Unvegan Hero. Continue Reading»


Digesting Your Vitamin B12 (and Other Goodies)

November 13th, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Mmm delicious B12.

There are more than a few things lacking from a vegetarian diet, many of which are more essential than tastiness. Needless to say, carnivores who enjoy a balanced diet not only benefit from all the pleasures only a medium rare rib-eye with all the trimmings can bring, but by proxy we don’t need to worry about the nutrition we could be missing out on by having selective diets.

Of course, the science behind it all is fairly fascinating. For instance, vegetarians are always taking pills to top up their vitamin B12 levels…but why do we need vitamin B12? What the heck is B12, anyway? Continue Reading»


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.

Continue Reading»