The Unvegan

Recent Posts

10 Years of Unvegan
A Quick Bite at Burrito Express
Serendipity at Northern Waters Smokehaus
Twerks and Burritos at Casa Amigos

‘Food’

7/14/2009 Los Angeles

Happy Hour Meats at Gyu-Kaku

A beautiful display of meats.
A beautiful display of meats.

In my never-ending quest for the perfect happy hour in LA, I wound up at Gyu-Kaku in West LA for Japanese BBQ. With five minutes left in their Happy Hour, we arrived and were told there was a ten minute wait. Discouraged, we still decided to make the best of it and took our seats after the wait. Our zealous waiter checked his watch as he arrived at the table and disappointedly reminded us that we had just missed happy hour. We told him that we knew, but we had tried to arrive on time and had to wait. Quickly thinking, he told us he was actually a manager and he would give us happy hour prices for our first round of ordering. Score!

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7/13/2009

Cured Meats Might Need to be Renamed “Treating Meats”

I was always under the impression that curing meats was simply a process of making meats taste better, but now it looks like curing has a double meaning. No, the meats aren’t exactly going to cure you of anything, but they just might help you treat some and prevent some diseases. The key is the nitrates and nitrites that we’ve all been taught to avoid.

According to Feedstuffs.com, “…the dietary inclusion of nitrites and nitrates may provide a rescue or protective pathway for people at risk for cardiovascular disease…[and] may also provide protection against tissue damage.”

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7/13/2009 El Segundo

The Inaccurately Named Stuft Pizza

Not exactly mind-blowing.
Not exactly mind-blowing.

One day I was reading about Stuft Pizza and saw somewhere that they had dollar slices on Mondays. Figuring that was a pretty awesome deal, I called them up to see if the dollar slices still existed. When I got a quick confirmation on the phone, I headed over for a cheap lunch.

At first, I was disappointed because the pizza rotating in the little pizza by the slice heater wasn’t even stuffed. Instead it looked like any other pizza and begged the question of how the place got its name.

Nonetheless, I was already there and determined to eat pizza, so I ordered three slices of pepperoni and waited for the man behind the counter to ask me for three bucks. This sound never came, as the man asked me for a total that far exceeded three bucks.

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7/9/2009 Lake Nebagamon

Tastes of the Northwoods, Part IV: Pizza Fries

So good I just can't explain.
So good I just can’t explain.

Bridge’s Tavern in Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin has no kitchen. In a lot of bars this can be a problem if I get the drunken munchies. Not at Bridge’s though, because despite their kitchen handicap they make Pizza Fries.

Pizza Fries aren’t too different from pizza, and they’re not really even close to being fries aside from abstract similarities in shape. Yet, Pizza Fries is the name that has been chosen for them. The closest thing they resemble is cheesey breadsticks, but this isn’t some gimmick to get people to buy an already existent product like when Burger King started making “Chicken Fries” (chicken tenders). There is just something about Pizza Fries that transcends any other nomenclature.

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7/8/2009 Duluth

Tastes of the Northwoods, Part III: The Green Mill

Stupid stupid celery
Stupid stupid celery

The Green Mill (affectionately referred to as “The Mill”) in Duluth is a place I have to visit every time I’m in the area. It not only has good food and drinks, but it has a great happy hour as well. What used to be 1/2 price appetizers and wings has now become 5 bucks. This isn’t such a big deal, since the prices are still so low.

Through many visits, I finally discovered the best that The Mill has to offer, Dixie Wings. These are wings with a buffalo-like sauce that stings the mouth, but always leaves me wanting more. The Mill is also one of the few places where I opt for boneless wings versus the much manlier wings with bones. For some reason, the Dixie Wing sauce just seems to work so much better with boneless wings.

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7/7/2009 Duluth

Tastes of the Northwoods, Part II: Old Chicago

That is one looong fry.
That is one looong fry.

I know it isn’t technically limited to the Northwoods, but I will always associate Old Chicago with Duluth, Minnesota, because that’s where I always seem to get it.

With a huge beer selection that includes my perennial favorite, Leinenkugel’s Honeyweiss, Old Chicago also has a decent food menu. Looking it over for a while, I eventually decided on the Meatball Stromboli, mostly due to its lack of vegetables.

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7/3/2009 Santa Monica

Further Down the Riva (CLOSED)

Well, it looks pretty.
Well, it looks pretty.

My friend told me about a relatively new “pizza” place called Riva in Santa Monica. I put pizza in quotes because in my mind a pizza place is like a parlor. This, however, was no parlor. Rather it was a posh and fancy restaurant that happened to have pizza as its specialty.

We took the bar-style seats that had a perfect view of the preparation area and the wood-burning oven. While sitting there, it was really unnecessary to look at the menu, because we could decide what we wanted based on what we saw in front of us.

In this case, I took a slight deviation from my usual unvegan pizzas. Instead of getting the meaty offering, I got the Patate Semplice, which is just a fancy Italian way of saying potato, rosemary, fontina and sea salt pizza.

In the meantime, I enjoyed the appetizer of Wood Fired Pizza Bread. With olive oil, it tasted pretty good, but almost seemed silly to order a partial pizza as I was waiting for a real pizza. Nonetheless, the wait was quite short, as I watched my pizza go in the oven mere moments before it was pulled out fully cooked.

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6/30/2009 Los Angeles

Avoiding Toppings at Fuddrucker’s (CLOSED)

Condiments done right.
Condiments done right.

EDIT: This location is closed, but I mean, you can find one of these elsewhere and they’re all the same.

Though rare in Southern California, Fuddrucker’s is a pretty common burger chain with an uncanny name. The Fuddrucker’s I found was in the Century City mall’s food court, sandwiched among many fancier looking places. After a short perusal of the other restaurants, Fuddrucker’s became my top unvegan option.

One thing that is unique to Fuddrucker’s is that that they put no toppings or condiments on your burger. I ordered the bacon cheeseburger knowing that they wouldn’t be putting any terrible vegetables on it. Rather, once the burger is served, there is a virtual cornucopia of toppings to add to the burger. Sadly, most of these were vegetables and no good to me.

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6/29/2009 Los Angeles

BBQ the Right Way at Baby Blues BBQ

Such a pretty plate of not vegetables.
Such a pretty plate of not vegetables.

After attending the LA BBQ Fest, all I wanted to do was find a good BBQ place to go to whenever I wanted to. I heard some great things about Baby Blues BBQ and saw their mac n’ cheese at the BBQ Fest, so I decided to try the place out.

The restaurant looks like a BBQ place should, reminiscent of a shack and nothing fancy by any accounts. The wait to sit inside was pretty long, while outside seating was pretty empty. We decided we may as well sit outside and eat because it would probably take just as long to get our food and eat outside as it would to just wait out there for a table inside. Does that make sense? Well, it does in my head. Anyway, the waitress was there in an instant to offer my girlfriend use of her jacket, which was one of the nicest things I’ve ever seen a waitress do, and she accepted the offer.

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6/26/2009 El Segundo

A Crazy-Good Deal at Togo’s

An amazing deal.
An amazing deal.

I discovered a Togo’s coupon at work that seemingly granted me one of the cheapest meals ever. It said that I could get a free sandwich with the purchase of chips and a drink. Not too shabby in a world that usually offers minor discounts on chips and drinks after you purchase the sandwich. I decided to try it out and see how good of a deal it really was.

I handed the lady behind the counter the coupon and proceeded to order the meatiest sandwich available. The best I could find was the capicola, salami and provolone. Keeping it simple and veggie-free, I didn’t get anything else on it. I picked out my chips and drink, and went to get rung up. Amazingly, the total came to $2.73! I couldn’t believe what a deal I had somehow been granted. Cheap, however, is not always the best thing. I had to make sure it still tasted alright.

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