We unvegans tend to think of vegans as less than human and although this typically stems from the fact that they don’t really eat human food, sometimes a study comes along and explains even more. According to a study of fossils in northern Kenya, the consumption of animals was a huge catalyst in changing us from silly primates to genius humans.
For some brunch before my annual photo shoot with my grandparents, we headed to Zoe’s House of Pancakes in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Zoe’s didn’t exist before I moved out west, so going here wasn’t exactly a trip down memory lane, but I was glad to see a new business doing pretty well. Even on a Monday for brunch, they had a pretty good number of people, so I assumed they would have some pretty great food. I took a look at the menu and found some of the most inspiring breakfast food I’ve seen in a long time, with everything hovering around the $5 price range. They had tons of different pancake varieties, including one enticing option called the Fruit Explosion. Despite pancakes being the namesake of the place, my eyes drifted to the waffles section.
Although I grew up in Michigan, I can’t remember ever setting foot in Grosse Pointe. I guess it was just too far outside the bubble of Farmington Hills/West Bloomfield. Fortunately, my buddy decided to marry a Grosse Point native, giving me my first chance to see what food was like on the other side of Detroit. We headed to the nice little downtown area of Grosse Point and got ourselves a table at the Village Grille.
Somehow, some way, I was convinced to go to a restaurant in North Hollywood called HealthyCA (pronounced hel-the-ka, rather than Healthy California) . The very name offends me, but I have chosen a life of open mindedness, as opposed to the closed-minded lifestyle so many vegans choose. I must admit, though, that I feared this place, and not because it was healthy, but because so many people associate vegetables with a healthy diet. Us unvegans know they are wrong, but it is hard to convince vegans to pay attention to facts.
EDIT: This location is closed, but there seems to be a couple other Uncle Sam’s still standing.
On our way out of Arizona, the girlfriend thought it would be nice to visit a place of nostalgia for her so we could pick up some sandwiches for the road. The place was called Uncle Sam’s and was so patriotic that they had water misters spraying all over the outside just to prove how America has conquered the desert. Also, because everything was red, white and blue. The general style and ambiance of the place reminded me of the USA Cafe in Lansing, Michigan that I used to frequent in my youth, so Uncle Sam’s was a bit nostalgic for me, too.
Every once in a blue moon, a restaurant comes along that you just can’t pass up. Sometimes it’s Taco Bell, and sometimes it’s a place called Bacon in Scottsdale. Although clearly capitalizing on the current bacon trend, the name sounded great to me when the girlfriend’s family suggested it. Since it was Father’s Day, we expected a long line, so we called in advance and a table was ready for us by the time we got there.
For a little post-tennis victory Japanese treat, I headed to Asahi Ramen in West LA with my vanquished tennis foe to get some…ummm ramen. Now don’t be fooled by the name of the restaurant, as it apparently has nothing to do with delicious Asahi beer. Confused myself, I took the liberty of looking up Asahi on the old interwebs and found that Asahi is the name of about ten different towns and cities in Japan, so for the name to carry over into both beer and ramen isn’t that surprising. Anyway, enough with geography and economics, let’s get to the food.
In my experience, most taco trucks aren’t worth blogging about. It’s not that I feel like I am too good for them or that they aren’t interesting, but in most cases I have found that they all taste pretty much the same. This is not true of Tacos El Gallito. I stopped by here one night with no plans to blog, but just hoping to get a decent taco. Instead, I had one of my most legendary LA nights and wound up befriending a couple of their Mexican patrons named Toast and Reuben. I also fell in love with the truck and vowed to return to give them a proper unvegan review.
To many people, the bagel is the king of breakfast. It’s like an evolution of toast, similar, yet greatly superior. And the best of those who love the bagel bow down to the salt bagel, the king of all bagels. It adds a perfect amount of flavor that goes great with cream cheese, especially strawberry cream cheese. But why strawberry cream cheese? Well, combining the sweet of the cream cheese with the salt of the bagel creates a perfect balance unparalleled by any other food in the world. Ever.
But is the salt bagel perfect? No, far from it. While bagels are delicious, they have one major flaw. That flaw is obvious to anyone who has ever attempted to shmear cream cheese across the surface of the bagel. The hole. This hole sucks up perfectly good cream cheese, rendering the bagel an imperfect medium for shmearing. Enter the Salt Stick.
When you name a restaurant EAT, you better be prepared to have some good food and you better be ready to feed some hungry eaters. One day I was hungry and was looking for something to eat, so I was really hoping that EAT would deliver on their name. My coworker and I took a seat outside and then took a look at the menu. They had some specials that gave my fancy quite a tickle, but when he asked the waitress what some of the best dishes were, she pointed out The 76ER and I knew it belonged in my belly. Well, at least most of it. You see, it was one of those sandwiches where you slowly read the ingredients and get more and more excited, until you find something terrible and your sandwich fantasy comes crashing down. On this sandwich, that destructive entity was the tomato and the fantastical elements were grilled chicken breast, cheddar and swiss cheese, bacon and avocado on sourdough bread. Fortunately, I saw the tomato in the list and ordered my meal without it. Then I got some fries with that.