Perched on a corner in downtown Culver City, I have somehow managed to avoid Akasha. “Why?” you ask. Well the answer isn’t so simple. I have no excuse. With a Japanese-sounding name and the knowledge that Akasha wasn’t a sushi place, I should have flocked to Akasha much sooner, but it took a tour of Culver City with my mom to finally come face to face with the place. What I found was truly intriguing. Akasha wasn’t Japanese at all.

Instead of being Japananese, the place was named for its chef, Akasha Richmond. So instead of Japanese, the menu was filled with interesting ingredients (not that Japanese ingredients aren’t interesting) like quinoa, lamb sausage and spiked turkey. There was even a good-looking burger, but knowing I was going to Comme Ca the next day, I opted for something different. That something was the Skillet Macaroni & Cheese. Made with gruyere, cheddar, bread crumbs and nothing fancy, this mac and cheese sounded delicious.

It arrived soon enough and although it looked small for the $10 price tag, I was eager to eat it right of the skillet. They say size isn’t everything and that certainly proved to be the case. Crunchy on the top from the bread crumbs and creamy and gooey on the inside, the mac and cheese was delicious. Plus, after devouring most of it, I realized this was one filling skillet of noodles. It’s not easy to make a delicious mac and cheese, and in truth that is because Kraft is just amazing. Too many times restaurant mac and cheese just can’t compare to those noodles and powder from the blue box. Akasha, however, made mac and cheese worth leaving home for.

So apparently my blog was listed as an attacker page on Google because some sneaky bastard figured out a way to hack me and install malware. That was no good, but luckily it has all been cleared up. The only thing my blog is intended to attack is arteries, and few places attack arteries quite like Vicious Dogs, a wonderful little hot dog joint in North Hollywood. Some places you can tell are going to be good just by taking a look at their facade. This facade was pretty amazing, sporting a 10 foot plastic hot dog, and although this hot dog was loaded with veggies, it was a very good sign. I walked on in and was surprised to find that Vicious Dogs also doubled as a cupcake shop. It was a strange mix of foods, but I had no time to deal with cupcakery, I was here to eat something vicious and dog-like.

Their menu was loaded with some great hot dog options. The man behind the counter who seemed to run the place told us to get the Sweet and Spicy Kielbasa. I do usually like to go with recommendations, but that hot dog full of peppers and onions would have been wasted on me. Instead, I saw one of their specials on the counter, called the Daddy Mack. This hot dog creation consisted of a hot dog wrapped in bacon, topped with either mustard or BBQ sauce, and then further topped with mac and cheese, all for only $3.99 (and an extra 10% off for Disney employees like this guy). I had to to have such genius in my mouth and ordered it with BBQ sauce. My compatriot ordered the Sweet and Spicy Kielbasa, so I was able to at least get a look at the chef’s special.

When it arrived, I was slightly disappointed to see what looked like Velveeta Shells and Cheese topping my hot dog. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Velveeta Shells and Cheese, but I kind of hoped Vicious Dogs would give me something more unique. Nonetheless, this thing was loaded and I grabbed a fork, knowing that bun couldn’t contain all that mac. I started digging in and was happy to find that the bacon was thin and crispy. On its own, I think bacon should be thick, but for a hot dog I didn’t want it to overwhelm. The mac and cheese tasted like I had expected, which wasn’t amazing, but I do have to give the place major kudos for coming up with the idea of adding mac and cheese to a hot dog. It certainly took the cheese dog to the next level. Now the hot dog itself was pretty tasty, and despite the toppings it was flavorful enough to maintain its position as the centerpiece of the meal.

I am definitely looking forward to visiting Vicious Dogs again. They have some great concepts and although the Daddy Mack hot dog could have used a few more touches, it was pretty inspirational. Plus, their specials seem to always be changing, so I know that I’ll be able to find new hot dog creations to chow down on for a long time.

Before leaving the Northwoods, I made a stop at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota to eat at Crave. Although the Mall of America can hardly be considered part of the Northwoods, it’s close enough to be included in my weekly special.

Crave was a nice and spacious restaurant that came highly recommended by my family that was taking me there. A whole lot of food on the menu looked great and we started by ordering appetizers. We got the Mini-Burgers, which the menu said came with bacon, cheddar and rosemary. We also ordered the Lemon Garlic Wings, which came with “Amablu cheese dressing” and cucumbers. Since the family likes cucumbers, I didn’t order the dish without them and just hoped they didn’t touch any of the wings I wanted to eat.

While waiting for the apps, we made our main course orders. I ordered the Baked Truffle Macaroni and Cheese, and asked for grilled chicken in it for good measure. Shortly after, our appetizers arrived in a sort of disappointing fashion. The Mini-Burgers, which made no mention of vegetables in the menu, had tomatoes on them and pickles on the side. And also, the were even mini-er than I could have imagined. Maybe micro-burgers would have been a better name. Nonetheless, once I realized the pickles didn’t touch the burgers and the tomatoes had been evicted, they tasted really good. The chicken wings were still bleeding, so we sent them back to be cooked for a little longer. No one wants salmonella on a cross-country flight. Our re-cooked wings came back just before our main course arrived. They were definitely cooked enough now, and seemed to have lost half of their mass in the process. Luckily the cucumbers didn’t make any contact with the wings and they ended up being pretty good.

When my main course came, it had some pretty funky looking chicken in it. After a quick taste test, I found that it was not chicken at all, but bacon. Good thing I don’t keep Kosher. I alerted the waitress, and about ten minutes later she returned with chicken for me to put in the mac and cheese. I wasn’t terribly disappointed to be getting two meats for the price of one, but it would have been nice if they had gotten the order right in the first place.

In the end, the food was really good, despite the number of mistakes and attempts it took to get everything right. I’m not a tough man to please and my food standards are low. All I really want is for the menu to warn me if there will be vegetables, for my food to be fully cooked and to actually get what I order. Crave didn’t deliver on any of these and although the food tasted good, it just wasn’t worth the seemingly endless hassle.