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I can't stop eating these.
I don't even like them all that much. I mean, I like them. But I don't loooove them.
I picked up this package of Natori Ika Fry "Mayonnaise" at Mitsuwa today because I was hungry. For a buck-something, you get a pack of 5 large, flat crackers shaped like cuttlefish, smelling like cuttlefish, and tasting of rice cracker and what else--cuttlefish. Can I taste the mayonnaise? Um, I'm not really sure, but what I can taste is all the MSG that will undoubtedly send me into an utter state of thirst sometime soon.
And I only have one left. What am I gonna do?
Besides the fact that there are a couple of neon-lit signs in Thai out front, you'd never know that you were setting foot inside a Thai sweet shop. We first visited North Hollywood's Bhan Kanom Thai after downing pupusas over at Texis No. 4 across the street on Sherman Way, our eyes practically popping out of thier sockets with excitement at all the options in the spacious, brightly painted room full of treats. The cliche "kid in a candy store" applied to me and my friends in every which way.
Shelves lined with colorfully packaged Thai goodies flanked the back wall--on one side, clear bins full of various Thai candies; on the opposite side, wrapped ever so prettily in cellophane paper and tied with colorful ribbons are not salt water taffy or pretzels, but banana and taro chips. In the middle of the room are two counter-like displays--one with trays of packaged Thai snacks like sweet rolls and lotus-leaf wrapped sticky rice, the other with clear bins of preserved fruits like papaya and mango.
Pretty packages of Thai treats
More goodies to tempt you
Fried taro, banana and more...
Most of the excitement, however, came from seeing the dessert cases at the counter where trays of brightly colored balls and shapes looked back at us. "Oooh, lookit that! Oooh, what's that? Oooh, that looks gooood!" we'd mumble. We stared...and stared...until the moisture from our gaping mouths started fogging up the glass. The lady behind the counter, who soon became our best friend in the whole wide world, sensed that we needed help--and fast! Bless her heart, she gave us samples of everything we asked about and then some. Handing us one dessert after another--some out of this world and some tasting oddly of perfume--she gave us information about what it was made of, and even gave us glasses of ice water in between to cleanse our palates! A good strategy, I must say, because my friends and I walked out with boxes and boxes of Thai treats that day, and have been back to this place four times in the last week and a half to get Thai iced coffee or whatever else we may have been craving. See what happens when you're nice?
The other day, someone at the office brought in some store-bought packaged baked goods like brownie bites and coffee cake, the kind that contains so many preservatives that you can practically taste them, and everyone gobbled them up. I offered my Thai desserts to people when I got back from lunch and most people looked at me like I was trying to feed them poison. Oh well, closed-mindedness just means more food for me. I shared what I could (mostly with my girlfriends who were with me at Bhan Kanom Thai to begin with!) and then holed myself up in my little office like a rat hoarding food. Suddenly I pictured myself as Smeagol from Lord of The Rings: "My precious..." I had all the plastic containers lined up on my desk as I indulged myself in each treat that sent me into a peanutty-coconutty milky-sweet ricey stupor for the rest of the afternoon. (But in a good way)
My favorite of the bunch is probably the pang-chee, a grilled muted-purple cake of taro, rice flour, coconut and corn. The lady at Bhan Kanom Thai says it's their best seller, and for good reason. It's chewy, coconutty goodness...it has the consistency of anything made with rice flour; the taro definitely lends some mild, sweet starchiness and the corn adds an interesting, pebbly texture. Next runner up is the kanom krok, a dessert that kind of reminds me of Saturn or a flying saucer or something of that shape: a creamy coconut milk mixture is sandwiched between airy, grilled, rice flour domes for a mildly sweet, puffy treat.
Pang-chee
She's rightfully proud of her pang-chee!
Flying saucer-ish Kanom Krok
I quite liked the kanom sai-sai, little plastic cups the size of minature Reese's peanut butter cups filled with a gelatinous white coconut cream and surrounding a bright green gumball-like sphere. I thought for sure it was a gumball, but was pleasantly surprised when I took my first bite and broke apart the green peanut-filled sphere that was followed by a cool, refreshing creaminess. Also interesting were the diamond shaped cakes made of corn, taro or kasawa. They had a bouncy texture and were lightly sweetened with coconut and sugar. Refrigerated, these small, muted-colored cakes are also a refreshing snack.
Kanom Sai Sai
Kasawa, Cream Corn and Taro Cakes
Looking a little like alien planets, I just couldn't resist the aesthetic appeal of the tua-peab and the kanom-tom, pastel green and purple spheres covered with squigly shredded coconut. They certainly looked more interesting than they tasted, as these were probably the blandest of the bunch. One, the tua peab, contained a mung bean filling which wasn't sweetened enough; the other, the kanom-tom, contained a granular filling of some sort that was more salty than sweet.
Kanom Tom (purple) and Tua Peab (green)
Bhan Kanom Thai also sells small trays of gelatinous goodies. Their glo-worm green "layer cake" is artfully cut into raised cubes inside its small, clear plastic tray. Scoop it out of its tray and you get something that resembles the green slime on that old Nickelodeon show. "It kinda smells like peanut shells," my friend said of this gooey green coconutty dessert. To me, it kinda smelled like those scratch- and-sniff stickers we used to have as kids (the peanut flavor perhaps?). It was something that I couldn't quite place my finger on, but somehow, it was still OK with me.
Alien green layer cake
Their coconut jelly is perhaps a little less scary in that it doesn't leave you guessing about any smells. Like the layer cake, it's served in a small square tray, but unlike the layer cake, it's made of gelatin instead of rice flour so it doesn't have that gooey consistency. The transparent and opaque white layered gelatin is very clean tasting, subtley sweetened with coconut, and extremely refreshing. Also refreshing is their ta-ko, cups of creamy coconut milk jelly atop either starchy bits of taro or crunchy bits of water chestnut.
Coconut jelly
Bhan Kanom Thai also has other sweet treats like sticky rice with mango and fried taro and banana. And, if you're in a savory mood, they've got an assortment of small dishes and snacks to choose from.
It hasn't even been two weeks and the staff there knows us already. (Hmm, I wonder why?) Honestly though, I'm a tad coconutted-out, so I may have to take a break from Bhan Kanom Thai for a little while. Two weeks, maybe?
Bhan Kanom Thai (other locations in Thai Town and in Paramount)
12714 Sherman Way
North Hollywood, CA 91605
(818) 255-3355
If they only knew what I do to it. Read on...
Back in the fourth grade, our teacher assigned a project for health and science where we had to keep a food journal for a week so that we could see how much of each food group we were eating. Sounds easy enough, right? Doing such a project now would be a cinch. Hell, if anything, I'd even be glad to do a food journal if it meant getting a step closer to six-pack abs. But to a naive 9 year old who was only one of two Asian kids in class (the other kid having Americanized parents) and whose nightly dinner consisted of stuff like roast pork and tofu with fermented shrimp paste or stir fried pig stomach with pickled mustard greens, this project wasn't as easy as it sounded. To make matters worse, each student had to present his or her journal in front of the class. To think that somebody would eat tripe in black bean sauce and actually enjoy it??? I'd be the laughing stock of the school!
So little Pam faked her journal, taking out the breakfast of soup or porridge that Grandma lovingly prepared every morning and replaced it with bacon and eggs. Dinner of steamed pork with water chestnut became pork chops or fried chicken--you know, stuff that real Americans ate. I got through my project with out any embarrassment, but looking back, I am ashamed of myself that I was ashamed of my culture's food. I should have boasted about the foods that brought me so much joy everyday, not lied about the sheer fact that it even touches my lips!
Fortunately for me, I have been given another chance, not by my fourth grade teacher, but by Kirk of mmm-yoso!!! and Elmomonster of Monster Munching, who have both recently tagged me for the latest meme going around our food blogosphere. Of course it won't be complete redemption as the only way to get that would be to stand in front of an audience of my old fourth grade classmates and reveal what my daily diet really consisted of, but it will at least give me a chance to tell the world (or at least my small audience of readers) what foods truly floated my boat (and still do!) as a little tyke.
All I have to do is write about five fave foods from my childhood. For official rules and regulations, read on:
"The rules of this meme are simple. Write about five foods from your childhood that you miss...what's the catch? There is none, really. AND so that the people that started this darned thing can keep track of it, here's something else that you need to do:
Remove the blog at #1 from the following list and bump every one up one place; add your blog's name in the #5 spot; link to each of the other blogs for the desired cross-pollination effect. Then tag three people and you're over and done with it all."
1. BeautyJoyFood
2. eat stuff
3. 'Ono Kine Grindz
4. mmm-yoso!!!/Monster Munching
5. Daily Gluttony
OK, now that all the formalities are out of the way, let's get this show on the road:
1. Noodles in broth: This can be any type of noodle, but my favorites are rice noodles (either the stick kind or the wide kind used in chow fun) eaten with some kind of vegetable like napa cabbage, bok choy, or maybe even pickled turnips. My parents usually made this for me when I was sick, the steamy chicken broth soothing my runny nose and the hearty noodles soothing my stomach. I even have a soft spot for the "fusion" versions my Grandma made using whatever ingredients she could find in the cabinet--American macaroni, diced ham, and Chinese pickles in chicken broth, for example.
2. Steamed pork with preserved duck egg: Mixed together and steamed in a shallow dish to form a "cake", this dish is best eaten with a bowl of steamy white rice. My favorite part was always the bulbous, bright orange salty yolk, which I'd mash in with the bits of pork and custardy egg into my rice. Every grain of rice had to be eaten of course, because as all Chinese parents tell their daughters, I'd end up marrying a pock-faced man if I didn't. Isaac's face is pretty smooth, so I guess eating all my rice worked!
3. Man-tou, or any of the various steamed buns that my Grandma would make: my Grandma's hands were frail, but yet they were so strong. I'd love watching her pound and roll out dough for the steamy white buns that she'd always offer to us kids when we came to visit. Grandma's dough was really special to us, not only in the yummy Chinese treats she cooked, but also in the other ways she tried to use it in trying to please us kids. She tried to shape the dough into hot dog buns or pizza crust a couple of times and make us her versions of the American foods she knew we liked so much. Sometimes, she had extra dough left which she gave to us to play with...I guess it was Chinese Play-Doh! OK, I'm gonna cry...
4. Tater-Tots: So this is one thing that I wouldn't have been embarrased to say I ate in front of my fourth grade class. No, I never kept them in my pants pocket a la Napoleon Dynamite to snack on in class, but my best friend and I loved them so much that we used to intercom the lunch lady for seconds when we volunteered in the school office. And of course, no tater tot is complete without ketchup.
5. Cream of Wheat--the Chinese way: "What is this???" you're asking. Well, "regular" people make Cream of Wheat with milk or water and maybe a little butter or brown sugar. My family made it with chicken broth and soy sauce. It makes a porridge of sorts, thick and creamy like Cream of Wheat, but with a distinctive Asian flavor. I still make it sometimes, especially when I'm a little under the weather. It's goooood. (Really!)
I know I'd get some great childhood meme-ories out of these witty Angeleno food bloggers: Sarah from The Delicious Life, Pat of Eating L.A. and one of my newest food blogging reads, Kris of The Best of LA. Tag, you're it!
Memories of my Italian holiday dance in my head; how I wish to be back anywhere on that infamous boot--in the Tuscan countryside gazing at all the lovely rolling fields, in Florence shopping my ass off, in Genoa enjoying the best seafood I've probably eaten in my life, in Rome doing as the Romans do, on the Amalfi Coast sitting back with my lover sipping limoncello while taking in the breathtaking views.
OK, so maybe I never sipped limoncello on the Amalfi Coast with my lover. Truth is I went on a 3 week Italian vacation with my family a few years ago, and don't get me wrong...I had a wonderful time and saw and even ate alot of great things. But sometimes when you're travelling with a bunch of old school Chinese people whose idea of good Italian food is pepperoni pizza, you sometimes don't get to live your vacation to its absolute fullest.
So in reality, the first time I really got to try one of my favorite liqueurs was when this girl at work had just come back from her Italian holiday sans parents and had given each one of us a tiny bottle of the stuff as a souvenir. (Probably the only good thing that's ever come from knowing this girl, by the way; she's a bitch. Sorry, I had to get that out of my system. I didn't want to give her too many props.) It was only enough to fill one shot glass, but was nevertheless love at first sip. Chilled, this sunshine-yellow liqueur originating from the lemon producing Amalfi Coast and made by infusing lemon peels in alcohol, is potent liquid lemon love. You can sip this refreshing drink chilled or on the rocks by itself or mix it into a delicious lemony cocktail. I'm gonna let you in on a little secret: yummy sugar crystals will form around the neck of the bottle after you open it and keep it in the fridge for awhile...that's why I sometimes take a swig straight out of the bottle that I keep for myself in the fridge. No, I'm not a lush or anything!
You can actually make limoncello yourself if you have the time and patience; I just buy mine, made by Sorrento's Villa Massa, at Trader Joe's for about ten bucks a bottle.
By the way, I was supposed to post this yesterday after I had poured myself a glass to unwind after a long day, but I before I knew it, I was sleeping like a baby!
Thanks again to Mr. Skaf, my friends and I had yet another wonderful dining experience with smiles, friendly service and kick-ass kebabs, hummus and cabbage salad. And thanks to Mr. Skaf, I also got to try Lebanese coffee for the first time. Mr. Skaf is proud of his coffee and for good reason; he made it for the three of us on the house because we'd never ordered it before and he wanted us to try it. What a guy.
You may already be aware of the fact that coffee does bad things to me, but I wasn't going to pass up free coffee from Mr. Skaf now, was I? Of course not, silly! As we nibbled away at our shish tawook and shish kebab, we saw him brew our after-lunch treat in a rakweh, sort of a tall, narrow pot used specifically to make Lebanese coffee. And it's not simply a Mr. Coffee drip kind of brewing process, either. No, no--Lebanese coffee takes much more care. According to several recipes I saw on the web, this coffee has to be boiled and carefully watched so that it doesn't boil over, then brought back to a boil about three times. What results is a perfect afternoon pick-me-up: a thick, strong, full-bodied coffee that's only slightly sweetened.
He brought our coffee to us, served in dainty little flowered demitasse cups, on a tray as if we were guests in his home. Each tiny cup packed enough punch to keep you going at the office and then some. But as opposed to the sugary blended mocha drinks and the like from those corporate st*rfucks, this coffee didn't send me onto some insane sugar high roller coaster. Energy highs that rise and then taper off steadily are good. Energy highs that make me act like a raving lunatic and send me crashing down half hour later are bad. This was good.
And to make it even better, Mr. Skaf threw in a couple of Lebanese pastries to go with our demitasses of Lebanese joe. I'm not sure what they're called, but they were filled with delicious figs or ground pistaschios and were reminiscent of baklava without the phyllo. We totally made a mess, powdered sugar and crumbly pastry flying everywhere; white dust got all over my face and black pants, and I wondered if I should just keep it there to trick people at the office into thinking I have a lunchtime cocaine habit. Which woulda been funny, but I just wasn't hyped up enough. The coffee was the good stuff, not the crazy stuff, remember?
Skaf's Lebanese Grill (Go. Now.)
6008 Laurel Canyon Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA 91606
(818) 985-5701
Someone Get Me Outta Here, 2005
Brown Crayon on Butcher Paper
Inspiration: Recent lunch at Romano's Macaroni Grill with 11 of my coworkers.
Artist's comments: My artwork's far more inspiring than the food.
As much as people are closed-minded about trying other culture's cuisines, there sure seem to be as many similarities between the foods of different cultures as there are differences. I've met Mexican people that don't eat Chinese food 'cause it's strange and vice versa. My friend's Korean mom won't eat Italian food, why? Not because she's ever had it, but just because. But have any of these people ever stopped to notice the common denominators in our cooking? There's the obvious, like the fact that most everyone uses rice and noodles. And there's the not-so-obvious dishes that strike an uncanny resemblance to each other. Like the Chinese "joong," sticky rice and meat wrapped in a lotus leaf, which resembles the Mexican tamal--the same concept, only made with masa and wrapped in either a corn husk or banana leaf. Also similar are Puerto Rican pasteles, consisting of mashed plantains and bananas wrapped in a banana leaf. Different, but the same, and yet different enough for people to be closed minded!
I thought of all this when I ordered okonomiyaki for the first time tonight at Izakaya Haru Ulala because they had a little quip on the menu board advertising it as "Japanese Pizza!" Does it make okonomiyaki more appealing? No, not for me, only because I already knew what okonomiyaki is and have been wanting to try it for a while now. But to anyone else less open-minded, maybe a Japanese pizza is a little less intimidating. Kinda like: "If you can eat Dominos, you can eat this too!"
Can't get this at Domino's!
I think it may have been because Haru Ulala was a bit short staffed because service seemed slower than usual, but my okonomiyaki certainly took just as long as a pizza to cook. About 30 minutes, and my mixed "pie" of squid, shrimp and chicken finally came to the table. It was round like a pizza and it was sliced like a pizza. But boy, this thing ain't no pizza. Shavings of dried bonito adorned the top, writhing and squirming with the heat like they were alive. Underneath, sprinklings of dried seaweed were scattered between squirts of mayonnaise and a slathering of okonomiyaki sauce over a piping hot battered filling of squid, shrimp, chicken and cabbage, grilled to a golden brown perfection on the bottom. Delicious.
If anything, it's really more comparable to an Italian fritatta or the Korean seafood pancake Hae Mul Pa Jeon. But I bet if I tried to sell this okonomiyaki as such (it's a Japanese fritatta/it's a Japanese Hae Mul Pa Jeon!) to try to lure in more people like Haru Ulala did with the pizza reference, they still wouldn't bite. People are people and will always have their preconceived notions no matter how hard we try. Oh well, just leaves more food for me.
Izakaya Haru Ulala (for Japanese pizza and more!)
368 E. 2nd St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 620-0977
www.haruulala.com
My newest love, besides gold shoes and Tony Bourdain's show No Reservations, is Sherman Way in North Hollywood. No, not for picking up day laborers or hanging out at the liquor store or getting my car fixed, but for the loads of good and cheap, ethnic foods available up and down the street. You've probably already noticed, but my friends and I have already set out on our superstar international food tour of Sherman Way. So far we've been to Japan, Vietnam, El Salvador, Peru, and now...Thailand!
Authenticity seemed eminent from the moment we walked in: what looked like an entirely Thai crowd was dining, and dry-erase boards written solely in Thai characters were on the wall. Their menu, though in both Thai and English, must've had over 300 items in it and served to confuse us more than help us. We've also been playing the "Match The Picture and Number to the Menu Item" game alot lately, and at Swan Restaurant it was no exception. Must be a Sherman Way thing. Maybe if you're able to match all the pictures correctly within a certain amount of time, you win a prize. Like a free Coke or something. We couldn't do it, so we gave up and ordered.
Pad Thai's pretty much a given for us at any Thai meal, and for me, it's the gauge by which I judge Thai restaurants. ("I love pad thai", remember?) Yeah, so it's mainstream to the point it hurts, but you'd be surprised how many places can't seem to get it right. It's either too sweet, too sour, too saucy, too dry, too slimy, too much noodle, not enough noodle, you name it. But when you find a good one, like the one I had today, I'll give props 'til the sun don't shine. The pad thai at Swan had noodles that were moist and absorbed with flavor, but still retained a certain dryness that I like. Complimented with shrimp, chicken, egg, bean sprouts, peanuts, shredded carrots and lime, the noodles struck a perfect balance between slightly sweet and subtley sour and even had a tinge of smokiness that I've never tasted on any pad thai before. Trust me, this one's a winner.
Rad pad thai
"Something tastes like A-1 sauce," is how my friend described the pad ka paow, a dish of fried chili, basil leaves, peppers, and our choice of meat, which was in this case, beef. It was *eh.* The thing that bugged me about this dish was not that it lacked any flavor, but it seemed it couldn't make up its mind on what it wanted to taste like. I couldn't distinguish any strong basil or chile flavor, and come to think of it, my friend was probably right about the A-1 thing. Not that the cooks used A-1 sauce to flavor this dish, but maybe some kind of bottled sauce that was tasty, but in a generic way.
Pretty but just "eh" pad ka paow
But the star of the show at our lunch was probably the most simple dish, yet one that seemed to explode with both flavor and interesting texture in every which way. Our chinese broccoli with crispy pork belly made us "oooh"and "aaah" and keep getting extra scoops of rice to sop up some of its delicious sauce. The slight bitterness of this leafy green went wonderfully with its garlicky sauce and the saltiness of the fried pork. When I was smart enough to break up a piece of a fried pork belly chunk and eat it along with a piece of broccoli, what I got was a snappy crunchiness topped off with the joy of feeling that smoky pork fat literally dissolve in my mouth. At that point, I wanted to be Homer Simpson: "Mmmm, pork fat..." Sometimes gluttony is a good thing.
Eat your heart out Homer!
There's also a whole menu of $2.50 eats posted underneath each table's glass top which we didn't order from this time around, but vowed that we'd eventually do a whole meal of just $2.50 items. I neglected to take notes on what was included on the $2.50 menu, but I do recall that it consisted mainly of soup-noodle and rice dishes that sounded heavenly. Stay tuned for that one...
Swan Restaurant
12728 Sherman Way
North Hollywood, CA 91605
(818) 764-1892
You may or may not recall that a couple of months ago, I finally lost my pupusa virginity. It was a big day in my (epicurian) life, this deflowering, 'cause I feel a little more wise now, more well-rounded, more grown up. And it made me want more, but not necessarily from the same pupuseria you see, as it was all I knew. I wanted to see what else was out there, sow my wild pupusa oats if you will, and know that I'd eventually find the right one.
So the other day, my friends and I were driving back from lunch on Sherman Way in North Hollywood, a well known pick-up joint for cheap, ethnic eats, when suddenly, our eyes met for a split second. Texis No. 4 stood indiscretely in the corner of a NoHo mini mall, yet had enough magnetism to lure me in. It certainly isn't flashy, which would have been automatically a big-turn off for me; maybe it's because I just have this "thing" for pupusas, and when I saw the painted sign advertising pupuseria, I just gushed. That day, it was already late and I had to go, but you bet your ass I was back not more than a couple days later to find out if this initial attraction was going to go anywhere.
Things didn't get started as smoothly as I thought they would as there was a bit of a communication gap. No hellos, no greetings from the counterperson, just a stare to let us know that we could place our order at any time. Texis No. 4 is also primarily a Spanish speaker with very limited knowledge of the English language. So in my best Español, I made the first move: "Dos revueltas y una Coca Cola, por favor." Another stare. "Es todo para mi," I said, nervously. Friend number 1 pointed to a "Lunes y Miercoles" pupusas special on the menu offering a pupusa, rice, beans and a drink for some outrageously cheap price that I can't seem to remember, showed it to the lady, and she said no. Whao-kay. My high school Spanish lessons flashed before me: "OK, I know Miercoles is Wednesday," I thought, as I turned to my friends. "Today is Wednesday, right?" Oh well, whatever--I didn't know enough Spanish to argue. Friend number 2 tried ordering a Diet Coke, but the lady taking our order looked at her like she was crazy as she held up a can of regular Coke and said something to the effect of "Only this." "Um, ¿que otras bebidas tiene?" I interjected. Water became an acceptable substitute for my friend as all we heard was Coca Cola, tamarindo and something else we couldn't make out.
I hoped all the awkwardness would reap a huge payoff, a bit questionable at first, but as we grabbed a seat at one of the few formica booths along the wall and heard the slap, slap, slap of pupusas being made to order, I became increasingly hopeful. Our counterperson brought utensils and napkins out along with a squeeze bottle of salsa roja and a big jar of the tart, crispy cabbage slaw curtido that I love so much out to our table, and I knew that things were going to be on soon. A few short minutes later and the plates with our fluffy discs of heaven were brought to us. And ya know, this time was better than the first time! Looking back at my first experience with Atlacatl, the pupusas were much drier and the filling a bit bland. The ones here at Texis were grilled golden brown on the outside but revealed moist, fluffy masa on the inside with a definitely tastier version of the revuelta filling: gooey cheese and subtley smoky roast pork and refried beans. Some of the cheese had even oozed out of some of these to form a yummy cheese crust where it had hit the griddle. Of course, no pupusa is complete without a few squirts of mild salsa roja and heaps of curtido on top to seal the deal. Which it soooo did.
Much better than my first!
My friend decided to stray a little from the norm and order the steak plate, 'cause she's a freak like that. And as all freaky things go, they often times turn out to be quite interesting and even quite good. The steak wasn't even a steak really, but more like big chunks of tender brisket that were stewed in a hearty tomato based sauce with some bell peppers and onions. On the side, small steamy pools of rice and beans along with fluffy discs of Salvadoran corn tortillas.
Freakishly good Salvadoran steak plate
So am I finished playing around this pupusa playground? Am I going to settle down now? Hell no. My experience at Texis No. 4 just showed me that there's lots more good lovin' to be found; ya just gotta keep your eyes open and not settle for the first one that comes your way. But will I be back to Texis? You bet I will.
Texis No. 4
12650 Sherman Way
North Hollywood, CA 91605
(818) 982-0907
the Spam's not pictured, but trust me it was there!
After hearing about kale and its wonderful antioxidant qualities, I decided to pick up a bunch at my local grocer's to cook for the first time. I can't believe I'm actually going to admit this, but I chose a recipe from Bobby Flay (yeah, that guy) for sauteed kale that turned out surprisingly well! This dark green member of the cabbage family has coarse, curly-coiffed leaves that give it a sort of al dente texture and has the slightly bitter bite of collard greens which in this recipe, was nicely offset with the addition of garlic, broth and vinegar. According to this web article, it's a great source of vitamin C as well as phytochemicals that can help prevent cancer. Which is exactly why silly me ate my sauteed bowl o' health with none other than...fried Spam. So?? I didn't have any polska kielbasa laying around, so I went for the next closest thing in my pantry.
Sauteed Kale
(courtesy of Bobby Flay, FoodNetwork.com)
1 1/2 lbs. young kale, stems and leaves coarsely chopped
3 tbs. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1/2 cup vegetable stock or water
salt and pepper
2 tbs. red wine vinegar
-Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat.
-Add the garlic and cook until soft, but not colored.
-Raise heat to high, add the stock and kale and toss to combine.
-Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
-Remove cover and continue to cook, stirring until all the liquid is evaporated.
-Season with salt and pepper to taste and add vinegar.
I used chicken broth instead of vegetable stock which I think made for a tastier dish; I also substituted balsamic vinegar for red wine vinegar as that was the closest thing I had at home and I was too lazy to go to the store. It worked fine though.
I like green kale and Spam
I do!
I like them, Pam-I-am!
If you have a website or blog, checking your website stats on a regular basis is great! Not only does it clue you in on where all your traffic is coming from, how often they visit, etc., but it's also good for some good laughs. In checking my keyword stats, that is, what keywords people are typing into search engines to get to my site, I've gotten MANY searchers wanting info just on "gluttony." Doesn't surprise me, but I wonder if it's one of the more popular seven deadly sins. I mean, I like it better than say, wrath or envy.
Then I had one the other day wanting to know more about "new girl scratch eyes out." Hmm, did they want to get more info on how to actually do it? It's easy. Just do it like me and my coworkers did--no need to scratch the eyes out. If the new girl's got an eating disorder, just keep stuffing your face in front of her until she gets so sick she quits.
And I think the weirdest one of all is the visitor that found Daily Gluttony thinking they'd get to know more about their "burnt smelling pee." Um, to whomever performed that search, I may be able to enlighten you on evil asparagus pee, but if it's burnt smelling pee you're wondering about, you might want to actually consider changing your diet.
To the cheap jerks that run my company:
Listen up. This weekend, I attended the annual Summer Party thrown by my fiancee Isaac's company. Look at how festive the atmosphere is and more importantly, look how happy everyone is...
By the way, what you're looking at is a photo of his company's actual office grounds. There are places for employees to sit outside and see the sun and get some oxygen to their brains. Sun=serotonin. Serotonin=happy.
Even the caterers from Taqueria El Zarape in Montebello were having fun. Here is one of the caterers doing the "I love to make tacos" dance.
There were also free condiments for us to take. They did not charge $0.15 for a lemon wedge or $0.10 for a cup of water like they do at our nasty hospital food cafeteria.
Best of all, the free catered food was DELICIOUS. Complimentary AND quality food? Imagine that! Succulent carne asada, al pastor and pollo were freshly made and served on two layers of pillowy soft corn tortillas. A few splashes of their fiery salsa roja and a couple squirts of lime and we were in taco heaven. I scarfed these down along with the velvety rich refried beans and fluffy Mexican rice that came on the side. And they were so good I went back for seconds.
Awesome food, live music and great conversation amongst coworkers that actually like each other was made even better by vodka tonics and margaritas from the OPEN bar. Oh, and in case you didn't know, most normal people do have personal lives and families outside of work, so all the employees were encouraged to bring their spouses, significant others, kids, and dogs (yes, dogs!) to the festivities.
So what's the problem, yo? You run a multi-billion dollar company so why can't you stop being cheap bastards and invest a little more in your people? Your stinginess breeds anger and bitterness instead of happiness and teamwork. Take me as an example! Why, I'm sitting here bitching and blogging instead of working.
I'm not asking for immediate change. Just think about it. Take the model and pictorial essay that I just presented to you and think hard about how happy employees can be even more profitable to the company. In fact, go mull it over some kick-ass tacos. Here's the address:
Taqueria El Zarape
2575 Via Campo
Montebello, CA 90640
(323) 838-9405
Yours Truly,
Pam
(BTW, I know what the rest of you are saying...just quit yer bitching already and get another job. Rest assured, I'm working on it!)
"We're meeting T for dinner tonight at Rambutan Thai in Silverlake..." said Isaac.
"OK, cool," I interrupted.
"...He's bringing his date with him," he continued.
Whao-kay...this was going to be interesting. A double date. With Isaac's buddy, someone I do know, and his date, someone I've never met before.
They were already there when we arrived, sitting opposite one another at a table for four. Isaac's friend T got up to greet us, give us hugs, and introduce us to his lady friend. She was a cute little thing, perky in more ways than one, and seemed to be already having a great time. But she didn't get up. And he didn't move to her side of the table either. Meaning I had to sit next to her and Isaac next to his buddy. Or me next to Isaac's friend and Isaac next to his friend's lady friend. Of course we chose to do the former, but there was just something very un-feng shui about our seating arrangement. Something didn't flow right. It felt and looked as if these two guys opposite us, probably two stranger guys, had just picked the two of us girls up and were taking us out to dinner, neither of them knowing which one of us they wanted to be with yet and vice versa. Awkward indeed.
Considering the circumstances, I guess the guys picked a good restaurant. Rambutan Thai, although located in a Silverlake mini-mall, is a sexy little place once inside. It's a small, dimly lit space, dark wood tables lining both sides of the dining room along burnt orange dupioni silk covered walls. In the back, a small bar and a gold-leafed wooden relief carving of Buddha. No, not fat, jolly Buddha, but Buddha's other likeness, the more feminine, sexy Buddha. Rambutan's staff is sexy too--a little attitudy at times--but sexy nonetheless, walking to the rhythm of downtempo beats playing in the background.
Buddha there to wish you eating pleasure
So after we ordered, we got to talking a little bit. Her asking us how we all know each other, me asking how she and T know each other, etc. Turns out everyone met through work--she met T at his current job, Isaac and T know each other from one of their former jobs years ago, and Isaac and I actually met though work too. But what I didn't know is that she's not really a coworker of T's; she belongs to another company that just happens to work with his company and she is in town for a couple days on business. Oh, so it's that kind of date. Well, this is gonna be even more interesting than I thought.
Cocktails would help to make the night more fun for everyone. For the frisky couple that was with us, well, you know. And for us, a couple who's practically married, it would serve to loosen us up from a stressful week. Rambutan serves beer, wine, sake and soju, and like most beer and wine licensed only places nowadays, use soju as their non-full liquor license loophole in mixing cocktails. Soju, a Korean vodka-like liquor made from rice or other starches, is allowed at these types of establishments because like beer, wine and Japan's sake, soju is considered a food accompanying drink in Korean meals. Smart, huh? And it allows these guys to put sexier looking and tasting drinks on the table. My "Praying Mantis," a cocktail of soju, grapefruit juice and lime juice in a martini glass, was tasty, though not very strong, and flirtatious with it's big shiny red cherry all aglow from the flickering candle behind it.
Flirtatious soju-grapefruit martini
Because Isaac and I have already been dating for gosh, years now, are living together, and will be married in, oh, some amount of time soon, we're not so concerned about atmosphere and if it were up to us, would much rather go to some cheap Thai place in Thai Town or North Hollywood. But I guess if it were back in the day when he was still trying to woo me, this kind of place would fit the bill. Rambutan's dishes are way overpriced and cost around 50 to 100% more than the same stuff at the aforementioned types of places in Thai Town or North Hollywood. But they're served on sleek, square plates that you can eat out of with lime green colored chopsticks. And despite the higher pricepoints, the food, though not as good as that at my hole-in-the-wall favorites, is tasty.
Rambutan has a whole menu of Thai "tapas"--small plates of Thai or Thai-inspired foods that are perfect for those who will be, or hope to be, getting it on later on. Most of them are bite sized morsels that couples can feed one another from across the table with their lime green chopsticks. I've eaten some of their small plates before--their luscious lime-juiced beef waterfall in cute little cabbage cups, fried shrimp cakes with a sticky honey-like sweet and sour sauce, plump and juicy curry dumplings--and they were all feasts for the senses; just imagine if I were on a real date! Tonight, I ordered a plate of tua kak off the tapas menu, dry sauteed green beans with shredded pickles, Chinese radish and dried shrimp, for everyone to try, and even though it was way tasty, there was no feeding one another with this one...not with the four of us there. I'm just not that type of girl. Ha ha!
Tasty Thai tapas for the senses: tua kak
Our couple, whose loins were probably burning by the time the appetizer was served, split an order of crying tiger beef and panang shrimp--how cute! I didn't want to be too forward and pick off their plates (I have to try it if I'm going to write about it after all!) but fortunately, Isaac ordered the crying tiger beef too and I had actually had Rambutan's panang (but not shrimp) on a previous occasion. Me? I ordered a chicken pad thai, which was balanced well with both sweet and sour flavors--but a little on the slimy side, to split with my man. I could see that the two lovebirds were enjoying every morsel of their dinners, each of them picking off each other's plates, a bite of plump shrimp bathed in a sexy (and spicy!) milky red curry here, a bite of juicy, pink in the middle rib eye steak with a naughty little chili garlic sauce on the side there. Why, they both even ordered brown rice with their dishes. Horny and health conscious? That's a match made in heaven!
Slimy pad thai...not too sexy, is it?
Juicy crying tiger beef
Turn up the heat with some panang shrimp
No dessert for any of us; in fact, we spent just a little while longer chatting, and then they did the "OK, we're gonna go now," and left their half of the bill. Quick hugs and handshakes ensued and off they went to take full advantage of the rest of the evening, to enjoy some sexy LA nightlife or whatever else they may choose to do. *wink, wink* Isaac and I were left sitting there by ourselves. In practically-married boring old couple style we did the: "What do you wanna do now?" "I dunno, what do you wanna do?" "Wanna go home?" "OK." So yeah, we went home. Back to our place, with laundry baskets and dirty dishes and the like. But what we did when we got home, well that's for us to know. Let's just put it this way, the practically- married boring old couple knows how to have fun too. *wink, wink*
Rambutan Thai
2835 Sunset Blvd.
Silverlake, CA 90027
(213) 273-8424
www.rambutanthai.com
The possiblity that our Friday afternoon lunch restaurant, El Hatuchay, is named after a hotel sent me into obsessive-compulsive mode this afternoon to find the true meaning of "El Hatuchay." Who cares that I had to close out the month at work? There had to be a more glamourous significance to the name, perhaps the moniker of an indiginous person, maybe someone who meant something to the people of Peru, but the more I looked, the more it kept coming back the same old way: hotel, hotel, hotel. Well gee, the hotel must be named after something, I thought, but not even the hotel's own website could enlighten me. Eventually, I let it go, otherwise I'd never finish this post, but please, if anyone knows that there is a significance to the name "El Hatuchay" other than that of a hotel, please let me know!
Whatever its name may mean, whether it's really a just a hotel or if it's some sort of Incan figurehead, for the sake of today's post it's just a Peruvian hole-in-the-wall in North Hollywood. It's located on a stretch of Sherman Way in North Hollywood that I normally wouldn't just hang out in--I even get a little weirded out when I have to drop off my car at the shop--but it's also located on a street that I consider one of the best single streets at least in the San Fernando Valley for cheap, ethnic eats. North Hollywood's Sherman Way's got everything from wonderful Thai joints to tasty Mexican taquerias to Vietnamese Pho to El Salvadoran pupuserias. And now, to add to the list, Peruvian cuisine! The whole world on a street--I love it. The place was busy (a good sign if there ever was one), it's patrons mainly local ethnic families and blue collar workers, which made us stick out like a sore thumb. Flags of the various North, Central and South American nations line its walls amongst fake plants; faux Incan rock carvings line its back wall and on its ceiling sits a bright neon lit sun.
We've all had Peruvian food before from other places but El Hatuchay's menu seemed a little overwheling to us upon first glance. A regular menu, with its dishes categorized by meat-type, was given to us along with a $6.90 All Day Specials menu with the same dishes from the regular menu listed out in a big page-long list full of itty-bitty words. There were a color pictures of some of the more popular dishes around the perimeter, which seemed to confuse the issue more than not, as it was sort of a match by numbers type of game. Hmm, this picture says number 7, which is...*pointed finger moving towards the worded part of the menu*...Pollo Al Vino, which is...sauteed chunk chicken, onions, tomatoes, bell pepper and rice! Whoa-kay, next? Our hungry little selves poured over all the selections, wondering how many possible combinations of sauteed meat, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, cilantro, peppers, and rice there could possibly be. My friend literally closed her eyes and decided to order whatever her finger landed on. Hey, whatever works.
I really wanted to like the mint-green colored aji, a chile puree that came in a plastic squeeze bottle, but as you may or may not know, I have a really evil aversion to cilantro. I've tried this stuff before at El Pollo Inka and just couldn't get myself to eat it although the people I was with liked it so much that they were practically drinking it. It was no different at El Hatuchay: my friends raved about it, putting squirt after squirt on the rolls they gave us pre-meal. I put a small squirt of the stuff on my roll trying to convince myself that maybe cilantro is just an acquired taste that i could get used to. I really liked the creamy, spicy base of the aji but just couldn't get past the nails-on-the-chalkboard cilantro flavor. Oh well, I tried.
Rolls and the aji that I wanted so much to like!
At least I could pick the cilantro out of the ceviche de pescado, a cool, tangy medley of fish, lime juice, onions, cilantro and sliced potatoes. I'm not exactly sure what kind of fish was used for this--it looked like snapper to us--but it was extremly fresh, and nicely tenderized by the acidity of the lime and onion juices. We particularly enjoyed the two types of corn that flanked both sides of our zesty marinated fish treat--there were kernels of regular corn and larger, crunchy kernels of something that seemed like hominy. An odd treat--sort of like eating corn nuts soaked in lime and fish juice.
Tantilizingly tangy ceviche
There was literally half a crab in our parihuela, a Peruvian boulliabaise of sorts. We noticed a bowl of this steamy orangey-red broth on one of the tables when we walked in, and though it was about 100 degrees outside, could not resist ordering it. The seafood in it--fish, mussels, squid, octopus and crab--ranged from really fresh to not so fresh, depending on what it was, and the broth was a little reminiscent of that of menudo. I expected the broth to have a little more kick, but it was still tasty, and nothing a few squeezes of lime couldn't take care of. Floating in our parihuela was some chopped cooked cilantro, which I surprisingly did not taste. Could it be that I'm getting used to it??? I don't think so.
Peruvian boulliabaise: parihuela
If you order from the long list of $6.90 All Day Specials that I mentioned earlier, you get a bonus potato appetizer with your meal: a choice of papas a la huancaina or causa. We'd ordered two specials and decided to pick one of each appetizer. The little plate of papas a la huancaina tasted like cold sliced potatoes with a milder version of Cheez-Whiz glopped on top--a dish that we didn't get but couldn't stop picking at for whatever odd reason. Our other appetizer, the causa, was sort of like a potato-tuna mold. A small cube of packed yellow waxy potatoes with thin layers of canned tuna and olives inside sat on the plate next to some thinly sliced pickled red onions, a dish that was surprisingly good and a way better use of potatoes than the papas a la huancaina in my opinion. If this were an Iron Chef Battle Potatoes, whoever made the causa would win for sure!
Cheez-Whizzy papas a la huancaina
Causa: who woulda known that a potato and tuna mold could taste so good?
Luck was on my friend's side when her finger randomly landed on the tacu tacu con bistek. OK, so the bistek was just allright--a little tough--but the tacu tacu, a fried mixture of rice and black beans must have contained crack in it because it was amazingly delicious. It came in the shape of a mound, a little weird looking, and tasted of perfectly salted velvety beans mellowed out by fluffy rice and a nice hint of oil. Thin slices of pickled onion accompanied this dish, adding a little cool tang to the saltiness of the bistek and tacu tacu.
Amazingly good tacu tacu con bistek
I wasn't too impressed with the bistek encebollado, the other special we ordered. It was kind of like a typical lomo saltado, but with the beef and potatoes left intact. The beef was overly dry, and the sauteed onions seemed a bit much. Despite the dryness of the beef, the dish was a bit too saucy, with a lot of the brown sauce running into our mound of steamed white rice and making it overly salty and soggy. The best part was the lightly fried potato halves that came with, nothing too special, but good in their simplicity.
Not too impressive: bistek encebollado
El Hatuchay's service is friendly, but runs at a slow and leisurely pace, so don't expect to be back to wherever you have to be quickly. Which makes me think that perhaps El Hatuchay really does stand for a hotel near Machu Picchu. After all, who wouldn't want to be vacationing in the Andes?
El Hatuchay
12853 Sherman Way
North Hollywood, CA 91605
(818) 765-9907
I think I've come to the realization that I don't like Las Vegas all that much. I mean, what can you get there that you can't get here in L.A.? OK, there's the gambling, but I just don't have that kind of luck. I don't like to lose money without getting something in return which is why shopping and I are best friends. Free drinks with your gambling business? No thanks, my wasted money is more than paying for some watered down drink. Hmm, and I guess you can smoke indoors in Vegas, like that's a good thing (yeah right). Nope, I can stay right here in La-La land for crazy intoxicated nightlife, people watching, good food--all without the 100-plus degree, lung scorching weather that seems to linger even after 3am.
So if it's gambling you're in to, I know a way you can satisfy your craving of figuring out possible combinations and then getting a 100% return on all of them right here in L.A. The game is played at Suehiro Cafe in Little Tokyo and costs only $9.60 (plus tax and tip!). Its instructions are simple:
Please choose one item each from columns A, B, and C to make up your favorite plate.
Column A:
-Ginger Beef
-Pork or Chicken Katsu
-Broiled Saba (Mackerel) or Sanma (Saury)
Column B:
-Gyoza
-Shumai
-Edamame or Natto
Column C:
-Cold Tofu
-Lightly Boiled Spinach
-Two Eggs Over Easy
OK, so each of three columns has three choices, of which you get to choose one to make up a combination...that's 27 possible combinations right? Oh but wait, they threw in an embedded option of "Boiled Saba OR Sanma" and "Edamame OR Natto." So that's, um, forty-something...aaah whatever, I'm not a mathematician. Either way, I'm picturing the slot machine wheels with the bar, 7, and cherries spinning around right now, only this game has a helluva lot less combos. And you win every time--with a great meal, that is.
Suehiro's Okonomi Plate is essentially a bento box with options. Because I'm not much of a gambler, I usually go for Possible Combination #11 which is the pork katsu from column A, the gyoza from Column B, and the boiled spinach from Column C. And no, the restaurant didn't give this combo the number eleven. I am just a nerd. It's the number I would have given this combo if I had defined the combos using my particular sequence, so don't try to ask for a number eleven, they won't know what you're talking about. I love the crispy, golden brown panko breading on the katsu, the tender, white meat underneath made even more interesting with a couple squirts of the tangy tonkatsu sauce and if you dare, some spicy yellow mustard. The gyoza's thin wrapper, browned nicely on one side, contains a tasty filling of seasoned pork and vegetables. A side of lip-smacking ponzu sauce awaits on the side for your dipping pleasure. The boiled spinach looks like they shaped into some sort of tube, whacked it in half at an angle, then put a little hat of bonito flakes on the two stumps. It's a refreshing compliment to the crispiness of the katsu and gyoza.
Yesiree folks, we have a winner!
You get a couple extras--a few bonuses--with your prize, too. Comforting miso soup starts your Okonomi meal, a bowl of rice comes with, and in your partitioned plastic bento tray comes a little mound of potato salad as well as Suehiro's shredded cabbage salad, a simple salad of crisp shredded green cabbage and a light orange colored cream dressing. It's the kind of dressing that I look forward to getting in Mom and Pop-type Japanese restaurants--something that obviously contains Kewpie mayonnaise and who knows what else, but whatever the case I love its smoothness, creaminess and subtle zestiness.
One day I will try my luck with another possible combination, perhaps #5 or #13? Or maybe I'll be daring and pick stuff at random! I know I'll probably get something good in return with those, but for now I know for sure that I get an excellent ROI on my chosen possible combination #11, so I've been sticking with that one. I know, I know, I'm too risk averse, but isn't this great? A game with a prize every time!
Suehiro Cafe
337 E. 1st St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 626-9132
The worst song to wake up to when your radio alarm clock goes off is Gwen Stefani's Holla Back Girl. I think Gwen wrote it in partnership with Chiquita and all the other fruit companies out there because I can't get that damn line about the B-A-N-A-N-A-S out of my head. Needless to say, I fought the urge and did not have a banana for breakfast. Stupid song.
You're jonesin' for some Korean food while at work in North Hollywood. You have about an hour and a half for lunch, give or take a few minutes, and decide to go get some. You:
A) Drive west to the Reseda/Northridge area.
B) Drive to Koreatown.
C) Drive to Burbank.
D) Drive to Glendale.
Is it...
...A? Wrong. While I've heard there are a few Korean restaurants in the Reseda/Northridge area, the drive's just too long. You'd be fired for sure by the time you got back into the office.
...B? Wrong. Koreatown's only about 10 miles away from North Hollywood, and 101 Hollywood Freeway traffic isn't that bad, but once you get into Koreatown, forget it. Lots of traffic, no parking, You'd be fired after coming back from here too.
...C? Wrong. There's one Korean restaurant called Seoul-Something-Or-Other on the trendy part of San Fernando Road near Ikea and all that. It's close enough to drive to at lunch but the food's not good.
...D? You are correct! Wow-how'd you guess? Only about 10-11 miles from lovely North Hollywood, there sits a little Korean sit-down restaurant called Seoul Cafe on a popular stretch of Brand Blvd. Traffic's usually pretty zippy getting there from the 134 and once you get there, there's a metered lot in back and plenty of street parking surrounding the restaurant.
At lunchtime, Seoul Cafe caters mostly to the downtown Glendale office lunch crowd--guys and gals in business or business casual attire, ID badges clipped to their waists. Most people go for one of the Korean BBQ lunch specials, although there are other menu items to choose from: jigae stews, jap chae, bibim bap. For about 8 or 9 bucks, the lunch specials are friendly to the average wage slave's pocketbook and a helluva good value for the amount of food they give you. A soup, usually a warm broth with slices of daikon, is brought first, along with a couple dishes of panchan, usually baechu (napa cabbage) kimchi, oi (cucumber) kimchi, ggak-dugi (radish kimchi), or shreds of pickled daikon. It's not the huge array of panchan that you usually get at your typical Koreatown restaurant, but for lunch it's good enough. And Seoul Cafe's kimchi ain't bad either; they've all got good, soaked-in spiciness and flavor and a good bite.
Cabbage kimchi and pickled daikon
Crunchy, pungent cubes of ggak-dugi.
Your BBQ meat comes out on one of those typical black iron cow sizzling platters--no cooking at the table here, but remember, you have to go back to the office afterwards, so the less smoky the clothes, the better. My pals and I always split the galbi (shortribs), bulgogi (sliced beef) and the daeji bulgogi (spicy pork). I like the galbi the best, it's got a good sweet and salty balance, and it's fun to tug the tender meat off the little nub of bone with your teeth. The bulgogi and daeji bulgogi are always juicy but slightly charred around the edges the way I like it; the daeji bulgogi, however, could use more spice. Oh well, what do you expect for Glendale? Sometimes we also get the dak bulgogi (chicken) to add to the mix. It's just allright. You know, it's chicken.
Sizzling galbi
Daeji bulgogi
Dak bulgogi and "regular" bulgogi
Each lunch special comes with its own plastic-trying-to-look-like-ceramic rectangluar platter with rice, a green salad with soy-ginger dressing, and a partitioned dish with more panchan. This panchan always changes, and ranges from good to not so good, depending on what it is. I like it when they have namul (seasoned bean sprouts) or bits of crunchy sesame infused broccoli. The last couple times though, they've served up a Korean version of a Waldorf salad--mayonnaised fruit chunks--which I just don't get, and some too soggy tenpura (fish cake).
Lunch special "sides" platter
I think our regular waitress, an older Korean lady, had a secret crush on my ex-coworker, a goofy 26 year old Japanese guy, so she's recognized us ever since she's laid eyes on him. We went on a non-Friday casual weekday once and she kept telling him how handsome he looked in his tie. Now, even after he's left us, she knows that we always want an order of jap chae with our meat to mix things up a little. In general, the jap chae is good: chewy noodles, good garlic and sesame flavor, nice ratio of stuff (meat and veggies) to noddles, but it has been known to be inconsistent at times, with the noodles being too soft at times, and with the amount of jap chae they give you varying.
A sometimes inconsistent jap chae; this time it was allright!
Because the people at Seoul Cafe are used to us office types having to eat and go, the service is generally speedy but at the same time very friendly. You're in and out of there in under an hour, so there won't be any worries about getting fired when returing to the office because you've taken a 3 hour lunch. And if you're lucky, you'll have time to spare to run across the street to Porto's to grab some pastries for dessert! (But don't come yell at me if it's Porto's that makes you get back to the office late and get fired--you KNOW those lines are long!)
Seoul Cafe
312 1/2 N. Brand Blvd
Glendale, CA 91203
(818) 247-6955
So I'm up in the Bay for a few days visiting my parents. Today, the folks and I were at Safeway, the last stop in our morning of grocery shopping; I had walked ahead of them while they were still dinking around in the produce section.
Them: Ai-Yah! Pam!
Me: (turning around and almost literally having a heart attack) Oh my God! What?
Them: We should have bought the strawberries here instead of Trader Joes, they're Buy One Get One Free.
Now that's reason for alarm.
The bad news is that the system at work went down for the rest of the afternoon; the good news is that we were allowed to go home early...woo hoo!!! Being that I usually get home right when most happy hours end, I felt the need to take full advantage of today's free afternoon. I grabbed Isaac and we headed down the street to Weiland Brewery Restaurant to make pigs of ourselves at happy hour.
When I worked in San Francisco, I always felt like I was a part of a real urban work force. Maybe it was because we all swam upstream or downstream together like those cliche scenes in all of those Wall Street based movies. I felt like I shared something in common with all of the other corporate stiffs around me. But in LA, I don't know what it is, there doesn't seem to be as much of a sense of camradery between us office drones. Maybe it's because everything in LA is so spread out, but I felt a little outside of my turf when I walked into Weiland Brewery today (even though I live nearby) I wasn't sure if I was tripping or if people actually stopped to look us up and down as we walked into the brick-walled, loft-like building in Little Tokyo. It's as if happy hour for us office lackeys is what clubbing is to the younger, nightlife crowd. Is my 3/4 sleeve blouse not cool enough? Is your suit of a better quality than mine? Come on, be nice--this is downtown; skid row is only several blocks away. Perhaps it was still early and no one had enough drinks in them yet. OK fine, we had two hours to loosen up.
I think it was an off day, though. I think people were extra snarly today because of the heat and because the restaurant was out of Hefeweizen on tap as well as another one of their draft beers. Which is kinda shitty if you ask me...how does a brewery run out of beer??? Anyways, Weiland Brewery's happy hour is usually pretty happy. It runs from 3pm-7pm and then again from 10pm to close. I like the fact that it runs until 7pm instead of 6 or 6:30 like many places, which actually gives you time to enjoy. As opposed to those "bar area only" happy hour policies, Weiland's happy hour menu is honored throughout the spacious restaurant & back patio. I hate it when I go to those bar area only places and all of the seats in the microscopic bar area are taken up...no fair!
It's not a bad deal here...about ten different discounted appetizers are offered on their happy hour menu, ranging from $1.95 to $3.95 each. Cool pints of draft beer will cost you only two to three bucks each as they're a dollar off. We split five appetizers between the two of us, and because we're both trying to lose weight, shared one beer. (I'm being sarcastic!) Their garlic fries are delicious and a bargain at $1.95 for a big basket. The thin strips of hand cut potato are crispy, and seasoned so well with salt and garlic that you'll need a good supply of mints for the next day or so.
Awesome garlic fries
For some spice, we ordered a plate of buffalo wings and a plate of buffalo shrimp, $3.95 each. Both items were dipped in the same hot red sauce which was a "good" spicy--not bland, and not so spicy that it made me cry, but vinegary with a nice spicy kick. The buffalo shrimp only came with four shrimp but they were good sized, meaty prawns. They give you more wings--about ten--but I wish they had given us more carrot and celery sticks; they only put two of each on the plate. Waaah!
Where'd all the celery and carrots go?
Phat buffalo shrimp
Our chicken quesadilla was, though generic, pretty good. Mixed with melted jack cheese and jalapenos were pieces of moist, marinated grilled chicken for the filling. All of it smooshed between two lightly browned flour tortillas. A couple swipes of the guacamole and it was on. Another value at $3.95.
A chicken quesa-DILLAH (note the Napoleon Dynamite reference)
I should have known better than to have ordered crab cakes when I saw that they were $3.95. There is a certain risk there: quesadillas or hot wings at $3.95 are mostlikely going to be okay. Crabcakes or anything involving seafood at $3.95 is questionable. Fortunately, the buffalo shrimp turned out OK; unfortunately, the crab cakes did not. I don't think they were made with crab, but rather something that looked like and tasted like cat food. (Not that I know what cat food tastes like) They were also extremely dry. The $3.95 seafood theory also proves true with their fried calamari, which we didn't order this time for obvious reasons. The calamari here isn't your typical thin but snappy and tender rings and tentacles; instead, they're kind of like fried clam strips but blander. And they're breaded in a batter that you'd normally find on fried zucchini, not on calamari. I saw a look of surprise on two girls' faces when the server brought them their order of calamari; obviously they'd never had it here before.
Cat food, I mean crab, cakes
We left around 6:30 and by that time, the crowd at the restaurant was definitely livelier. And somehow the up and down stares that we'd gotten when we walked in never occurred as we walked out. Sounds of laughter and good conversations filled the air. Everyone had unwound, chilled out, and was having fun. OK, maybe all of us office drones are in this together, regardless of whether we're downtown LA suits or San Fernando Valley suits. Just give us some cheap food and alcohol first.
Weiland Brewery Restaurant
400 E. 1st St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 680-2881
www.weilandbrewery.net
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