‘Meat’
Tuckered out after a day of rides, standing in line and more rides, the girlfriend and I headed to Downtown Disney for some fine dining. We ended up at Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen, a New Orleans-style restaurant. The menu was pretty pricey, even for Downtown Disney, but with my 20% discount, we figured the meal wasn’t outside our price range. We took a seat in their upper level and decided what to order. When the waiter came, I was struggling a bit.
Picture a huge grizzly bear wandering the forest and willing to take down anything that stands in the way of its food. Imagine that it stumbles upon a sleeping family out camping for the night. Each of them has bits of food in their tents and the bear can smell it. It tears apart the tents in search of the food and the family barely makes it out alive, carrying battle scars with them. That’s what I think of when I picture a hungry bear, but the folks at Disney probably weren’t thinking about that when they named the Hungry Bear Restaurant. Located in the heart of Critter Country in Disneyland, there was nothing but happiness and little chance of being mauled by a grizzly. We walked the long ramp up to the restaurant to see what the friendly Hungry Bear could offer us.
Ever since I learned of the existence of the Juicy Lucy, my life goal has been to chomp down on one myself. Just to tear it open with my teeth until the insides flowed out was something I thought would give me great pleasure. You see, a Juicy Lucy is something special and not-surprisingly comes from the Midwest. Minnesota to be exact. Rather than being content with the old ways of the cheeseburger, the innovative Minnesoootans decided to stuff their burgers with cheese, giving the burger a molten core of cheese just waiting to be unleashed. That is the essence of the Juicy Lucy and although I assumed I would have to make one on my own because I live far from Minnesota, I managed to find it on the menu at Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood.
On Monday, Bruce Willis appeared on Letterman wearing a meat hairpiece. It made him look like a deranged member of Devo, but was certainly a step up from any regular hairpiece. After watching the beginning of the video, I was almost ready to make Willis an Unvegan Hero, but that soon changed.
Growing up, fast food either meant burgers or Taco Bell. For the most part, this is still true, but more and more I find that not only has the quality of fast food improved, but so has the variety. Chains like Yoshinoya and Jollibee are good examples of this, and recently I experienced another: Ono Hawaiian BBQ. The menu has a lot of Asian-inspired dishes and some things that looked distinctly Hawaiian, but all in the setting of a fast food joint with fast food prices. My eyes quickly found their $5.00 meal special, that included a choice of four different dishes, which were Lemon Chicken, Chicken Katsu, Kalbi Short Ribs and Hawaiian BBQ Beef.
If you’re planning a trip to Hawaii, be sure to add “go swimming with dolphins” to your list of must-do activities. Several tour companies offer the chance to get up close and personal with these amazing creatures in their natural habitat. It’s an experience that’s not to be missed and one that you’ll remember for a lifetime. And after a day of swimming with dolphins, why not treat yourself to a delicious meal at Ono Hawaiian BBQ? With its Asian-inspired dishes and Hawaiian specialties, it’s the perfect way to cap off a day of adventure and relaxation in paradise.
For my second meal in the Windy City, we went to a tapas place called Cafe Ba Ba Reeba. It’s a part of the Lettuce Entertain You group, which despite having a suspect name, runs some pretty swanky restaurants. Although this was a tapas place, it also had a special brunch menu that started at 11 when the place actually opened up. Arriving at opening time, we took our seats in the back, since the outdoor area couldn’t seat such a big group, then took a look at the menu.
There is no question that meat is performance enhancing. The protein helps build muscles, the iron helps the blood flow and the vitamins of the B variety just generally keep the body functioning. Try getting all that from a vegan salad. But even though meat clearly enhances performance, there is only one man who has claimed it as a drug: Alberto Contador.
While I rarely venture into the valley after work hours, I recently took a trip there after dark for a bit of a birthday celebration. The gathering was at the Mad Bull’s Tavern in Sherman Oaks and although I wasn’t quite in a drinking mood (plus I was the driver and Sherman Oaks is a long way from home), I actually found myself in an eating mood. It was five minutes to 11:00 pm and when I asked for a menu, I was told that most of the food, except for appetizers, would only be available until 11. I had to think fast.
OK come on. This one’s really a no-brainer. Sunday night was the MTV Video Music Awards. I’m not entirely sure that the event is relevant anymore, but what is relevant is the dress that Lady Gaga chose to wear.
So apparently it’s been a while since I’ve had Burger King. In fact, since starting my meat blog I hadn’t set foot into a BK until now. Was there a reason for this? No, not really, except for the fact that I feel like LA has such better options for fast food burgers. Yet, with their new Smoky Cheddar Steakhouse XT, I felt like they deserved a visit.
I ordered a combo meal and made sure to order the burger my way. Hey, if any place is going to cater to an unvegan like me, it should be the place that once boasted, “Have it your way.”