Monday 14 December 2009

I can cook!



I missed out on eating Kare Kare when I went home for Thanksgiving. Simply because I thought there would for sure be the same dish at one of the 3 other family parties I attended that same day. There wasn't. So after Thanksgiving this year, I had been regretting the moment I refused Kare Kare at that first party.

I decided to host a potluck at my place, and I cooked Kare Kare for the first time. It was a success! It was delicious! And my craving was fulfilled! It's actually not as difficult as I thought. Now I'm gonna go steal my grandma's recipe for another oxtail stew she makes. I can't wait to try that one out!

Sunday 8 November 2009

Umami Burger


Umami Burger has two locations. Near La Brea, and on Hollywood blvd in Los Feliz. I went to their newer location on Hollywood Blvd. Pretty good, I'd say. To make it short and sweet: decent portions, good burger, yummy fries, cute place.


The fries come with a free condiment. I decided on the Roasted Garlic Aioli. I don't think you can ever go wrong with that. At least I haven't come across any bad Aioli. The hand cut fries are triple cooked. I haven't looked it up, or asked... but I imagine boiled, baked, then fried. I could be wrong, so don't quote me on that. But I can tell you that they were delicious.


I decided on the Hatch burger. At first, it looks kinda small. I was thinking, "hmmm, is this enough for me?" It's definitely not a fatass-sized portion, but it is a decent size that doesn't make you feel like you're gonna suffer from a heart attack, and you won't starve afterwards. Anyway, the Hatch burger is supposedly spicy. It has 4 different chilies, of what kinds, I do not know. But it really wasn't spicy at all. The waiter said it was on a spicy level of 6 or 7. I thought it was a spicy level of 3. All in all, I thought this was a pretty good burger. I enjoyed the tinge of spice, but I kind of expected a little more. After all, I do love spicy foods.

Some weird-off things about Umami:
1. They didn't ask how well you wanted your burger cooked.
2. I felt like I needed more Aioli than they gave me.

Would I come back to this place? Sure thing, if I'm in the area. Not bad.

Wednesday 21 October 2009

NYC Pizza

This is pizza from ARTICHOKE. It was delicious and creamy. And very filling....


We went to GRIMALDI'S under the Brooklyn Bridge. We waited an hour. We ate ice cream while in line. That could have been a mistake....


But I still enjoyed it. New York Pizza, I love you.

Sunday 20 September 2009

The Fatty-Lazy Aftermath



Weddings are fun, but am I not right when I say that they alcohol makes them infinitely funner than usual?! If and when I get married, good food and open bar are a MUST. Anyway, tequila was the choice of poison. Nancy and I (but also some other folks who came by for random shots) finished a whole bottle. Needless to say, I was buzzing significantly happy happy HAPPY.

But let's talk about the day after. The day after drinking is always interesting. Well, usually. I find myself lazing around for the most part. I don't think I get hangovers much. It's probably only happened a few times in my life, but I must say I know my limits... (for the most part, hah!)

Sunday, September 20th. In San Diego. Football Sundays with Kerin and her roommate, Michelle. Good times. That Sunday was indeed lazy-fatass-Sunday, minus the inevitable drive back to LA later that day.

Let's get to the food though. I had been dreaming of California Burritos and El Cotixan ever since I knew that we were going to go down to San Diego. I didn't get my Cali burrito, but I did get El Cotixan! As pictured above, I had the Cotixan fries. Serious fat-ass worthy right there. Cotixan Fries have the following: fries, guacamole, cheese, carne asada, and sour cream. If you add their hot sauce it is AMAZING. In addition, we also enjoyed some chips and salsa and guac. Seriously, big eyes much?

As if that wasn't fat-ass-y enough, Kerin wanted Pizza from Fat Tony's. We ordered a giant cheese pizza, some fried garlic bread with marinara sauce, and some donut-type things. I don't even like Root Beer, but I had some since it came with the pizza. Tasted amazing in my mouth.

But let's get to the reason why being a fatass after a full day of drinking is great. I think it's to distract your stomach from feeling the hangover-ness. That's my theory, at least. For some reason, greasy fatass food is the best medicine for drinking too much on the previous day. I lazed around on Sunday before Nancy and I had to leave. We ate, we watched Sunday football (even though I have no idea how it really works.. I'm learning!), we sat on the couch, we passed out, we ate a lot, we passed out again, I ate some more, and passed out again. The Fatty-Lazy aftermath is necessary.

* pictures are again via cell phone.

Monday 17 August 2009

I love Korean Food!

For a while, I noticed the trend of South American food in my diet. Now, it looks like KBBQ has invaded my stomach! Last Friday, I went to Ham Ji Park in Koreatown with Gina. Yes, I encountered Ham Ji Park at the KBBQ Fest the week before. And they are pretty damn good.

I was introduced to Korean food by one of my good friends, Laurie. She opened my mind... or rather, my stomach to the wonderfulness that is TOFU SOUP at BCD Tofu House. I also tried the KBBQ they had there, and then tried Bibimbap and other dishes. I haven't gone beyond that. But Gina and I were perusing the pictures on Yelp, and my stomach was lusting for all the dishes shown fromo Ham Ji Park. We decided to go there and try their Pork Shoulder Soup. And YES, IT WAS AWESOME.

The meat was very tender. And the soup is GREAT! The meat easily falls off the bone, and those potatoes are super delicious! It was reminiscent to curry of some sort. I don't even know what else to say about it, other than YOU SHOULD GO OUT AND TRY IT NOW.

So of course, this dinner was followed by a super food coma. Not only do we get the side dishes, rice, and pork shoulder soup... we also ordered a plate of KBBQ. Big eyes, much? Yes, we were starving and yes, we overdid the ordering. But our stomachs were quite fulfilled.

Take note. Food is the way to my heart. <3

Sunday 9 August 2009

Being a true fatass at KBBQ festival in Los Angeles



This guy's face is classic. There was an AYCE (All-You-Can-Eat) contest, and several guys were competing to see how many Choco pies can be devoured within 4 minutes. Anyhow, that is how I felt after eating about 4 plates of Korean BBQ: like a CHAMPION, or more realistically - DEFEATED.



Deagle and I went to KBBQ fest in Koreatown in Los Angeles. A hot summer day, traffic on Vermont and Wilshire, and you could smell that awesomeness of KBBQ in the air. This was the first ever KBBQ fest held in LA, so they run the risk of being highly unorganized and having way too many people in one small place. That was the very case, but I still found it enjoyable. There are many things I could complain about: longass lines, not enough shade, and too many people... but that was overridden by eating from 4 different restaurants specializing in KBBQ. Stomach = happy.

Now let's remember that only maybe a month ago, I was pretty much a vegetarian and sometimes eating fish. I cannot say this enough: I AM SO GLAD I AM EATING MEAT AGAIN. Don't get me wrong, I could definitely do the veggie/fish diet...but nothing beats BBQ on hot summer days.

I tried 4 different restaurants KBBQ: Beverly Soon Tofu, Ham Ji Park, Jinju Pork, and Park's BBQ. My only real goal was to try PARK'S BBQ. And TRUST, I did, and the rumors are right: they are really the best. The other three were pretty good, but by far Park's blows those out of the water. The meat is SOOOOOOOOOO tender, and the marinate is perfect. So if you are ever in Los Angeles, and craving some awesome KBBQ... try out Park's BBQ on Vermont in Koreatown. I don't think you will be disappointed.



I'm pretty sure I fatass-ed it up enough yesterday. I only ate once that day...in a way: I ate from 3pm-5pm. No breakfast, and I didn't even really have dinner. We even took a plate of KBBQ and some other small dishes home cause we couldn't even finish those last few plates. However, Deagle did eat that last plate later that night. I had maybe one or two pieces of the KBBQ, and I could hardly stuff it down my throat. Maybe I'm not that much of a fatass. But no, come on... I ate about 4 plates of KBBQ. That's pretty fatass-worthy.


Advice to you, reader:
when at a food festival, eat a lot and be a fatass. You will have a major food coma, but your stomach will be on cloud 9. It's great.

Tuesday 4 August 2009

Definitely a HIT!

My cousin and I stumbled into this place unexpectedly. I could not make the decision of where to eat... like always. It was one of those days where I would drive somewhere, and we would figure it out. We ended up here at EL FLORIDITA. We were on Vine near the Arclight, and it was either Magnolia or this place. Being obsessed with South American-ish food, I decided we'd try this place out.



The outside looks not-so-great. But once we opened the door and entered, we were surprised to find nice decor which didn't even match the outside. Everything on the menu sounded DELICIOUS! I could hardly make up my mind. We decided on an CROQUETAS CON CHICHARRITAS as an appetizer. The croquettes were filled with chicken. And the plantain chips had some lemony-butter sauce drizzled over it. They also gave us bread while we waited for our entrees. The bread was amazing: so fluffy! I was already nearing full, and our entrees came out.



I had 1/2 POLLO ASADO A LA CUBANA. And my cousin had something similar except fried: 1/2 POLLO FRITO CON MOJO. Both were very good! The CUBANA was extremely tender, and the FRITO CON MOJO was the same but crunchy on the outside. I ate maybe 1/4 of my plate. It barely looked like I touched my food at all! But yup, pretty amazing, I'd say...

It's so awesome to randomly go to a place not knowing whether or not you get a hit or miss. This most definitely is a HIT! Woooo!

* Again, cell phone pics...

Thursday 30 July 2009

Tropicalia in Los Feliz


Tropicalia on Hillhurst. I have been eyeing this place on Yelp for a while. And I've finally tried it out. The place is small, but their food is pretty good. Somehow, I've been on a South American food-roll. I've tried two Peruvian places, and now Brazilian. What's next?

Anyway, I tried their Chicken Tropicalia Molhado: Grilled half (de-boned) chicken topped with tomato, malagueta and cilantro sauce, served with farofa. I don't know what malagueta is or farofa, but as always I will try anything. I was served a huge plate of food, and I finished it (though I shouldn't have). The chicken was tender and still juicy. The plate is really about the sauce and farofa. I mixed it with every bite of my chicken and rice, and it's like the best combination in your mouth EVER.

I was pretty content with the main dish, and I really didn't need to stuff anymore food in my mouth. However, we decided to look at their desserts. We ended up ordering the Brazilian Banana Split. This was basically the same thing as a normal banana split, but they used plantains. This was delicious! They served a very generous amount of ice cream, caramel, plantains, fudge, and whipped cream.

Yup, after all that food... I'm falling into food coma heaven.



** Please excuse the pictures. I did not have my digital camera with me, so I had to settle with my camera on my phone.

Monday 27 July 2009

Los Balcones



This past weekend I tried Peruvian food at LOS BALCONES in Hollywood. I got the recommendation from a friend, and I must say it is FANTASTIC! I should have tried something new, but I wanted to compare the same dish that I got at another Peruvian restaurant. This one was just as great. The only thing I found missing was the sauce that I had before. But in any case, just as good. Perfectly grilled chicken with over-easy egg on top and fries underneath, delicious plantains, yummy dressing on the salad, and perfect rice. I'd go back here again, that's for sure. Plus, it's way closer to me than EL ROCOTO over in Cerritos.

The portions are generous. I couldn't finish my whole plate. And I left satisfied. Mhmmm, so good.

Wednesday 15 July 2009

Freshest Sushi Ever


I remember the first time I tried sushi. I didn't like it. It took me a while to get used to. Especially the raw stuff. I could hardly chew and swallow the cold pieces of fish in my mouth. But time has passed, and I definitely LOVE sushi. If I were rich and didn't have to worry about mercury poisoning, I would eat it every day. No lies.

I made a trip out to Tokyo a few weeks ago and I got to taste the freshest sushi ever. Sushi in Tokyo is different. It's straight up fish on rice. I LOVE IT. Wherever I went, I did not see the spicy mayo or the spicy tuna. None of this americanized-type sushi. I ended the trip with the best breakfast ever: SUSHI @ TSUKIJI FISH MARKET. I was told to go see the auctions of the big tuna, then go to the small sushi bars nearby. But not just any small sushi bar; it had to be the one with the longest line. We did just that. Waited about one hour @ 7am. Got in about 8am. And the best 7 pieces of sushi entered my mouth shortly after.

My favorites were the fatty tuna, salmon, squid, and another one (I know!! I forgot! How could I?!) The fatty tuna was like heaven in my mouth. The salmon was like no salmon I've ever tasted before. I don't even really like squid, but this one was so good. It wasn't super chewy like others I've had. And the mystery sushi I had, I loved that small amount of ginger on the top.

Needless to say, if you are ever in Tokyo, I suggest you do the same. It was a great way to end the trip, and I'll say it was worth waking up at 4am. I swear there was an instant smile on all our faces after walking out of that sushi bar. Mhmmm, I dream of the day I come back and slap that smile on my face again.

Tuesday 14 July 2009

Beginnings

I started a food blog a while ago, and then shut it down. I would blog about every single thing I ate each day. I won't do that again, I'll just let you know about the amazing food I eat occasionally.

<3 food.