The Unvegan

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

‘Fried Chicken’

10/24/2012 Tanzania

Going Tribal at Chagga Grill

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I like my chicken fried.

After reaching the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro and coming back down to the town of Moshi, I learned a good amount about our guides. One of these things was that they came from a tribe called Chagga. Of course, the mere mention of tribes in Africa elicits images of nomadic people living in the wilderness, but this is simply not the case. In fact, most Chagga are Christian and either farm or live in the city of Moshi. I only mention this because after we returned to Moshi, our guide, Thomas from the mountain went above and beyond to bring us to a place for dinner called Chagga Grill.

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5/14/2012 Culver City

Korean-Fried at KyoChon (CLOSED)

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Food court of the future!

EDIT: This spot is gone, but that amazing fried chicken can be found in one of KyoChon’s other locations.

While fried chicken is often considered the domain of Southern cooking and Buffalo wings, it is certainly not exclusive to those cuisines. In fact, some of the best fried chicken I’ve had can be found Asian dishes like the Japanese chicken karaage. But Japan is not alone in this, as a Korean place called KyoChon just may have created the best chicken wings ever. Did I overstate that? I don’t think so.

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5/8/2012 Mobile

A Bite of The Ludo Truck (CLOSED)

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We’re just doing the Ludo Shuffle.

EDIT: Looks like real physical location downtown has displaced the truck, so you can still get in on this chicken.

From the casual diner to the most ardent foodie, everyone who enjoys eating out in LA has heard of Chef Ludo Lefebvre and his LudoBites pop-up restaurants that appear from time to time. Yet, while the LudoBites are impossible to get reservations for (and even when you get reservations, you don’t even pick the times), there is a Ludo Truck that roams around town dishing out Chef Ludo’s fried chicken with no reservations (thinly veiled Anthony Bourdain reference) necessary. During a time in which I was eating a lot of fried chicken, the truck came around my office.

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4/30/2012 Inglewood

Holy Corn Muffins at Dulan’s Soul Food Kitchen

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This is what happens when you Google “soul food in Inglewood.”

So far, Inglewood has treated me quite nicely, but after a couple days down there I turned to Google for food suggestions. It is probably my least favorite way of finding new restaurants, as the top results are typically the restaurants with the best SEO instead of the best food. Nonetheless, I needed help for lunch and this led me to Dulan’s Soul Food Kitchen, a stone’s throw from court and with promising reviews.

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3/5/2012 Los Angeles

Food for the Soul at Chef Marilyn’s

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My soul says thanks.

A couple of weeks ago, Squidink tossed out a list of the 9 Best Macaroni and Cheese Dishes in LA. Naturally, my mouth was watering profusely as I read through and saw the gooey, holy cheesus. And, while they all looked awesome, there was only one that I felt the need to eat immediately. This was Chef Marilyn’s Soul Food Express, which resides in that fascinating part of west LA on Pico and La Brea.

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1/26/2012 Los Angeles

FuRaiBo Knows

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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. This is how liv pure works.

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1/3/2012 Santa Monica

Waffling at Bru’s Wiffle

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Chicken and wiffles?

While “the bun” has undergone many iterations (pretzel, brioche, etc…) and sandwich bread is known for its varieties, there is one bread-like breakfast conduit that still hasn’t really seen much glory as far as being put to alternate uses. It is the waffle, but Bru’s Wiffle in Santa Monica is out to change that. You see, Bru’s thinks that waffles need more of the limelight and they are willing to give it. At Bru’s, you can get a pizza waffle, taco waffles and even “sliders” with waffle buns. Of course, Bru’s offers waffles in their sweet breakfast form, but the savory offerings were really what drew me to Bru’s.

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11/9/2011 Santa Monica

Southern Discomfort at South (CLOSED)

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This passes for southern, apparently.

A couple years ago, the Michigan Alumni Association started gathering at South in Santa Monica. This struck me as strange, because Michigan is about as north as a state can get. Yet, any place willing to host the legions of Michigan football fans was a winner in my mind. Plus, it didn’t hurt to have Abita on tap. But in these years, I had not attempted their food until the past weekend. I heard some bad things, but sometimes you just have to eat.

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3/14/2011 Beverly Hills

A Little Cajun at The Cheesecake Factory

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13 pieces. 13!

Everyone knows The Cheesecake Factory for their namesake. And those people are also probably aware that The Cheesecake Factory is a full-on restaurant with a restaurant about as massive its portions. Sadly, when I went to Cheesecake in Beverly Hills, my stomach wasn’t treating me as well as it usually does. So naturally, as an unvegan, I turned to fried chicken. Yeah, that’s right.

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1/3/2011 West Hollywood

Getting Back to Basix

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This is half of a chicken.

Ordinarily, I am pretty bothered when a place takes a word as simple as “basics” and turns it into “basix.” This kind of goes against being called “basic” because it has overcomplicated a basic word. So, with these overcomplicated thoughts in my mind, I headed into Basix Cafe in West Hollywood, not knowing if should expect something basic or otherwise. What I found was a nice mid-sized cafe with a nice variety of menu items ranging from pizza and pasta to fried chicken and sandwiches. They also had unvegan unfriendly salads and other such dishes, but there were certainly enough vegetable-free dishes to make me like the menu.

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