For a fancy Sunday lunch, I went out to Rock’n Fish in Manhattan Beach at the request of my favorite girlfriend. The name makes it sound like some sort of gimmicky musically inclined restaurant. It’s actually nothing of the sort, and more of a fancy little place.
I’ve never been the biggest fan of consuming fish before dinner time, so I looked more closely at the cow and chicken options. The place had some good unvegan choices, but I finally settled on the Hibachi Teriyaki Chicken, which didn’t have a vegetable in sight. It also included two sides, so I got shoestring fries and the spicy mac ‘n cheese.
To this little unvegan, few things are more incredible than a buffet. Where else can a man choose from such a vast collection of meat products? Whoa, are there vegetables in the general vicinity of this chicken dish? Too bad, I guess I’ll just move on to the next one. A buffet is a place of choice and almost literally a microcosm of the fulfillment of the American Dream.
As the dream goes, there is no greater collection of delicious buffets than in Las Vegas. It’s no stretch to think of Vegas as the buffet Mecca, and the Kaaba in this Mecca must surely be Rio’s Carnival World Buffet.
When I was seated, I didn’t even take the time to sit down, as I just threw my jacket on my seat to begin my feast.
Round 1: Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese and a meatball.
Round 1
There was no need to take it slowly. It is a fact that it takes twenty minutes for the mind to realize that the stomach is full, so I had to get as much food as I could before my crazy stomach decided it was full. Since I had been drinking all day, I went straight for the fried food. The fried chicken was a good heavy hitter to coat my stomach. The mashed potatoes were great as a side, featuring a healthy amount of butter and even some cheese. The single meatball stood strong for a loner, while the only disappointment was the mac and cheese, which needed a lot of salt and loving.
When I began writing about my life as an unvegan, I made a solemn promise to myself that I would dedicate my blog simply to the reviewing of restaurants as they relate to my taste in foods. Any rants, complaints or praises I had about people or things in general would somehow make their way into my review and never grow into their own entries.
Today, I break that promise.
Today, the world has changed.
Today, a friend has brought to my attention a campaign by PETA to rebrand the word “fish” as “sea kittens.”
Check out those pieces with just fish. Yeah. Those are mine.
As a warning, I am not one of those people who gets crazy cravings for sushi or thinks of sushi as some amazing dish that has to be eaten weekly. In fact, I am still waiting for the “sushi fad” to fade away like Pogs, skateboarding and the pet rock did years ago.
Despite this, I found myself in need of an afternoon snack in that crazy Japanese strip of West LA. My friend recommended Hide Sushi, and I complied. My unvegan diet doesn’t leave too much room for sushi, especially if you consider seaweed a vegetable, so I avoided the rolls and ordered the basic yellowtail over rice from the menu.
Sushi doesn’t take too long to make, so I didn’t have to wait too long to fill my mid-afternoon void. I filled my little bowl with soy sauce and a healthy dose of wasabi before dipping my sushi in.Â
