‘meatballs’

Sausage-Free at Tony’s Deli

November 14th, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

And here, Tony makes a sandwich.

Out in the strange region of the Valley known as Toluca Lake is a decent selection of restaurants for working-class folk like myself.  Filling the role of Italian Deli is a place called Tony’s, which is a tiny little sandwich shop that also happens to offer a couple easy-to-serve-at-sandwich-shops-but-not-actual-sandwich items like lasagna.  Most of their sandwiches come with an array of unvegan horrors like lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions, but one did not.  This was the way of the unvegan. Continue Reading»

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Sketching Out at Hollywood Pies

September 20th, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Best storefront ever.

You make a call and show up in a back alley 45 minutes later.  When you arrive, your guy comes out carrying about five pounds worth.  You hand him your cash, then take your purchase wherever you want and inhale it.  If this sounds like a drug deal to you, get your mind out of the gutter.  Unless your drug is pizza, in which case you should head to this back alley in West Hollywood immediately.  This is the way it works for Hollywood Pies, the sketchiest pizza place in LA you’ve never been to.  You may have eaten their pizza, and you may have even picked up their pizza, but you have never been there because there is no “there.” Continue Reading»

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When in Bella Roma…

May 13th, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Look how thick that cheese is.

About a five minute walk from the apartment of my special lady friend at Pico-Robertson is a restaurant called Cafe Bella Roma.  In the five years that she has lived there, she has never set foot in said restaurant, and since she is leaving the location next month, I was able to convince her to check it out.  So if it sucked she could be like, “Good thing I’m getting out of here,” but if it was awesome she could be like, “That’s worth returning to my old stomping grounds for.”  Which one would it be? Continue Reading»

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More Than Ice Cream at Al Gelato

May 14th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Leaf!

With a name like Al Gelato, you kind of expect to be walking into a gelato shop.  This is not the case with Al Gelato in Beverly Hills.  Sure, the place has gelato, but it is also a full-on Italian restaurant.  Aside from realizing that it wasn’t just a gelato place, I also found that Al Gelato didn’t carry a lot of the pretension that Italian restaurants seem to have.  There was no mood lighting, no fancy table cloths and no people with strange accents that weren’t quite Italian.  Despite this, I found that the prices still fell into what you would expect in Beverly Hills, with very little under 10 bucks and pasta prices jumping up to 15 if you wanted any meat. Continue Reading»

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A Classy Lunch at Bottega Louie

January 19th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

An open kitchen, always in motion.

Walking into Bottega Louie in downtown for lunch, I really had no idea what to expect.  My girlfriend had told me it was some sort of market, but I found that it was also a bustling restaurant.  And this was no ordinary bustling restaurant.  There wasn’t just one kitchen, but multiple kitchen-esque stations that were in plain view for everyone.  There was movement everywhere and a waiting list to get a table.  For lunch!  I knew this place had to be good. Continue Reading»

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Pre-Thanksgiving Turkey with Gayle’s BBQ

November 24th, 2009 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit
Chipotle

Chipotle

Although Thanksgiving is still a couple of days away, I’m already hungry for some Turkey.  Luckily, Gayle’s BBQ sent me some of her BBQ sauces and a recipe for some turkey meatballs for free.  Since I’m more of an eater than a cooker, I left my girlfriend to follow the recipe and make me some meatballs. Continue Reading»

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Turkish Food Week, Part V: Cigarette Bread, Meatballs and Pizza

January 16th, 2009 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

For my final day of Turkish Food Week, I’d like to wrap up with a few more interesting dishes I encountered on my journey. We’ll return to my regular unvegan lifestyle next week!

Not as unhealthy as real cigarettes.

Not as unhealthy as real cigarettes.

Cigarette bread is a mysterious food that was first served to me at the Ban Ban Cave Restaurant in Cappadocia. Considering how many cigarettes Turkish people smoke everyday, I wouldn’t have been surprised if someone told me cigarette bread was just a new way they found to ingest tobacco. For all I knew, it could have been bread wrapped around an actual cigarette. I bit in with immense curiosity and found it to just a thin shell of bread, wrapped around ricotta cheese and fried. This is probably only slightly healthier than actual cigarettes. It quickly became one of my favorite dishes in Turkey. Continue Reading»

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Going Global at Plan Check

Fries of the world.

A couple of weeks ago, The Backyard Bite invited me to The Burger Culture Clash, sponsored by Stussy (which apparently still exists) and Plan Check. Plan Check, by the way, is a sort of new (since February) restaurant in West LA with Chef Ernesto Uchimura of Umami Burger fame. As my love of burgers, especially those of the umami variety, I jumped at the opportunity.

Although I arrived alone, I was not the only lone eater. Just next to where I was seated, I met e*star LA and we decided to share a meal called loneliness, because it’s better than eating alone. We made quick friends over our respective blogs and Midwestern roots, then got to work at dissecting the special menu, which Plan Check will be featuring for the next month if anything tickles your fancy.

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Mmm marbly.

What is this?»

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