The Unvegan

Picturesque at Picca Cantina

August 22nd, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Peruvian empanadas?

Not knowing what I was in for, and being led to believe that I was heading out for a night of cheap cocktails and free food, I headed to Picca Cantina on Pico. Unfortunately, although I had been promised free food, a miscommunication led to food being regularly priced. But this regularly-priced food still looked quite good and the bartender gave us our first round of drinks for free to apologize for the confusion. The menu consisted of some great-looking Peruvian dishes with a bit of a tapas flair. I ordered myself a Cusquena beer and then we got busy with ordering food. Continue Reading»

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Chicken, Los Angeles, meat, Peruvian, picca cantina, restaurants, south american, steak

Good Enough to Frame at A-Frame

November 29th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

The only think I didn't need to frame.

Once upon a time I was totally on top of the food blogging world. Not so much that I was a good food blogger, but that I knew everything that was going on with food in LA. New restaurants, restaurants closing, new Taco Bell items. You name it, I knew it. But then I got busy with my real job and fell out of the loop. So when my buddy invited me out to dinner at A-Frame in Culver City, I really had no idea why he wanted me to go. But then with a little research I found out it was Ray Choi’s (the Man behind Kogi and Chego) newest restaurant escapade and was not to be missed. The old unvegan might have gone opening day, but the new unvegan let this restaurant opening get away from him, but was plenty excited to try it out. Continue Reading»

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A-Frame, Chego, Culver City, kogi, Korean, Los Angeles, Peruvian, ray choi, restaurants

Domo Lomo Arigato

March 1st, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Not the fanciest of trucks...

Although it seems like I’ve reviewed just about every truck on the streets of LA, there are still a few waiting for an unvegan visit. Lomo Arigato is no longer one of these. This truck dishes out Peruvian food and although they don’t fuse this with any sort of Japanese food, they still threw the word “arigato” into their name. This confused me, but I couldn’t let the strange name distract me from food. There were only three dishes in their menu and although they all looked pretty good, I decided to order their namesake, the Lomo Saltado. Continue Reading»

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El Segundo, food trucks, lomo arigato, Los Angeles, Mobile, Peruvian

Strange Meats: Alpaca

April 16th, 2009 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

It doesn't taste like wool.

Alpaca wool is known to be some of the softest and warmest wool in the world, which made it even more intriguing to me as a meal. When I was traveling in Peru, I knew the meat of that woolly animal had to be tasted.

My quest wasn’t easy, and the translations on the menus didn’t make it any easier. During the course of the trip, I happened upon a dish called “German Nicket to the Pleasure,” “Red Shoe,” “Chicken a la Coca-Cola” and the most frightening of all, “Chicken Locust.” At a restaurant in Puno, I ordered the seemingly simple “Spaghetti with Meat Sauce.” When it arrived, it was spaghetti, some sort of yellowish sauce and a massive chicken breast just plopped atop the noodles, where you might typically picture a diminutive meatball. Continue Reading»

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Alpaca, llama, Peruvian, Strange Eats, Travel

Rants and Raves

An Unvegan Twitter War

September 8th, 2011

Is this the face of unvegan hatred?

It began with a simple Twitter @ reply. You know the kind that happens every day. But soon it spiraled into something no one could have ever seen coming.

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.