Animal.

My pictures are not the business. It was rather dark at Animal, and I have been making it a habit to forget the dSLR. So I was left to use my iPhone for this dark and dotty images. The images of the food will do no justice, so let's just move on to my thoughts of Animal.

We all know I splurge on food time to time. This is one of those times. 50 bucks got me beer, 4 dishes, and dessert. It was a good amount and range of food.

Mama’s Little Yella Pils
It's weird that I am getting into beers now. I decided to get one tonight. This wasn't bad. I can't say too much, cause my love for beer... this is just the beginning.

barbeque pork belly sandwiches, slaw
These sandwiches were AMAZING. The pork belly is well seasoned, and the fatty part of it just melts in your mouth. I had nothing to complain about this dish. The people at the table next to us left one on a plate, and I wish I could just take that off their hands... I hope it didn't go to waste!

poutine, oxtail gravy, cheddar
I've had poutine once before. You've probably seen the post earlier in my blog. That one was great, but this one... is... BETTER. The oxtail gravy totally makes a difference. I love oxtail, as is, so using that type of meat to top fries and cheese is pretty much perfection.

sweetbreads, creamed spinach, capers, oyster mushroom
I have never had sweetbreads before. I can't say it's something I would try in a heartbeat, but it's one of those dishes that I want to try at least once in my life. It was one of those times. I thought it was pretty good. The texture is definitely interesting. I did enjoy the spinach, capers, and mushroom that came with it. And the lemon scraps they added. If you put it all together, it was a pretty good combination in your mouth.

foie gras, biscuit, maple sausage gravy
I am not usually a fan of biscuits and gravy... but this is pretty damn good. I have never had duck liver either, so another weird thing to try. I definitely would not mind getting this again. Pricey little dish though.

bacon chocolate crunch bar, s&p anglaise
This is the one thing that attracted me to Animal in the first place. It was featured on Best Thing I Ever Ate. And of course, it was a must-have. I don't care how much I ate (see above), we ended up getting a dish of this to share between five of us. We each got a bite or two. Can't complain... this was GREAT. It tasted exactly like a crunch bar, but better chocolate and a slight taste of saltiness.

I was quite satisfied with everything here. I would go back again. Maybe not like every week. But once a while, I would not mind. Of course... unless I win the lottery. One can dream...

Food Truck Chase!

The food truck community in Los Angeles is insane. It seems like it has blown up over a span of.... a few months. We have fusion foods of all kinds, every single type of cuisine in the world, and specialty trucks. Sometimes, I think I should start my own truck... Hmm, maybe so....

I have a slew of food trucks I follow on Twitter, but I haven't even caught up with most of them. I was able to catch a few last Thursday. I helped plan a big food truck chase for my friend's birthday. Quite successful, I might add! The night starts off around 7pm and until 1am. We hit up the following: Gastrobus, Mandoline Grill, Kogi BBQ, and The White Rabbit. In that particular order too.

Kinda hard to plan a food truck chase. Sure there is TruxMap and other sites to help you locate each and every truck out there, but I was trying to schedule it all for one night and I wasn't about to drive well-across town in LA traffic (especially with 10 people). I did my research. I looked at all the websites for the trucks I could find. Most of them put their schedule up, so I tracked the ones on the East side of LA -- Echo Park, Silverlake, Los Feliz, and Eagle Rock. Very do-able.

I'm only going to highlight the ones I was most impressed with. So Mandoline Grill and White Rabbit, congrats!! You made it to my "I like you" list. :)

Mandoline Grill -- I have actually been to this place before at a food truck festival a couple months ago. It was OK to me at the time. I had their noodle bowl. I wasn't impressed cause it was just that - a noodle bowl. Sure it was delicious, but nothing to go home and write about. But that Thursday night, I was tipped off to their secret menu! And for some reason, secret menus are so fun!! I must say, it was pretty damn good. I had their nachos and tacos...with a Vietnamese twist!! Amazing.

I had the beef taco -- and yes. Delicious. I don't even remember what was in it really... but it was damn good. It's also very VERY very VERY spicy. I am OK with handling spice, so I continued to eat the whole taco. My nose was sniffling and I was semi-sweating... but all I could think was "Yeah, that was good!"
I didn't order the nachos, but someone else in our group did. I had to try it. And again, delicious! I don't think there was any cheese in here.. Or I could be wrong. But this one is very spicy too! Can't stop, won't stop.... too good.

The White Rabbit -- So... I believe that Filipino food is the best type of cuisine out there. But it's hard to please me cause... my family's Filipino food is the BEST Filipino food. Of course, ask every other Filipino out there. They will probably say the same thing. :)

I'm confident to say that they did a good job impressing me. I had the taco combo: Adobo, Tocino, and Sisig tacos. My favorite is the Sisig. I am pretty picky when it comes to that dish, but the Sisig in these tacos were on point. Crunchy and tasty!
Dessert: white chocolate champorado! I don't even like white chocolate, but I do love champorado. They added a twist to it, so of course I have to try it. I normally like my champorado more liquidy, not to sweet, and really soft rice. This one is almost... all of the opposite. It was more pudding-like, and you could taste every morsel. I still enjoyed it a good amount, despite my distaste for white chocolate. It wasn't too incredibly sweet, and I think the amount they give you is perfect. They add broken up barquillos and a strawberry on top, so that adds a nice touch. I still think they should have the regular champorado, but then again... can they top my Mom's? Yeah, that could be tough....
I guess fusion trucks won that night. Vietnamese tacos and Filipino tacos... I dig it! Now go find them on twitter, chase, and chomp down these dishes. I enjoy, and I hope you do too.

Happy eating!

Fritzy Fries

Fritz. Located at Davie and Granville in Vancouver, Canada. It's open till 4am. And yes, this has to be a great late night spot after your drinking ventures. I can dig that!

Poutine - means "a mess" in French. I have never had this before. Basically it is this: a mixture of French fries with fresh cheese curds (sometimes rasped cheese), covered with a hot gravy. It's pretty damn good. Especially that cheesy goodness. You can never go wrong with cheese... unless you're lactose and forgot your lactaid. ;)

I thought this was a treat. I wouldn't be able to eat a big thing of this though. It's quite heavy. Well... unless I'm significantly inebriated. That's another story!

They don't only have poutine. But they have fries and an assortment of dips! I tried the dill lemon and the cilantro pesto. Both were very good. I don't think you can really go wrong with fries and dip.

Fatass-ing in Seattle.

There was a lot of good food in Seattle. I only spend about 2 days here, and that isn't enough time to properly explore and be a fatass. My friend and I decided to do the Savor Seattle Food Tour. It was well worth it. We took the Pike's Place market tour. Thoroughly enjoyed myself... THOROUGHLY...

Pike's Place Chowder. Yes... it's the BEST clam chowder I've ever had. That's crazy... so you must try.

Etta's Seafood. Crab cake sample. SO GOOD. We came here afterwards and I had some oyster's. Same thing: SO GOOD. Tom Douglas is my hero... Not because of this though. I'll talk about his pizza place later in this post.

Daily Dozen Doughnut Co. Man oh man is that doughnut good. I could eat a ton of these...

Serious Pie. This is the reason why Tom Douglas is my hero. We came by here by recommendation. GREAT RECOMMENDATION indeed! We ordered an appetizer, pizza, and dessert. My mind was being blown each step of the way. Roasted Porcini was delicious. Never had it before, I think, and I was not disappointed. Sweet Fennel Sausage and Roasted Pepper pizza... absolutely yummylicious! Vanilla Panna Cotta... Geez, that was too good. I had a SERIOUS smile on my face after this meal. I have to say, life-changing... haha

I'll come back to Seattle for some major fatassery some time. That pizza is calling my name.

I lied to you...

This fatass forgot to blog about the filipino fat fest and the recent TrArtWalk fat fest...

I will now be leaving the country to engage in Vancouver and Seattle fat fest...

I'll be back later.

:)

All I did this Weekend: EAT

At the beginning of this long weekend, I said to myself, "I will not eat a lot. I will control myself." I should know by now... that I should never say that. Cause what happens? The following:

Cupcake Truffle @ Yummy's Cupcakes in Burbank, CA. Close to heaven in your mouth... if you are into chocolate and nuts... Yum, indeed!

Peanut Butter Cupcake @ Yummy's Cupcakes in Burbank, CA. The best part of this cupcake is the middle: peanut butter. The frosting is too sweet for my tastes, but the inside makes up.

Potato ball & cappuccino blend, (strawberry-mango shake was not mine, but I tasted, and it is good!) @ Porto's in Burbank, CA. Potato ball never fails. Cappuccino blend is good, but might be too much sweet after a while... Or perhaps it's my cupcake craze above...

Guacamole, salsa, chips @ The Spot in Hermosa Beach, CA. I was incredibly hungry by the time we got here... but that guac is GOOD. Chips were OK.

Blue Plate Special @ The Spot in Hermosa Beach, CA. This place is known for their veggie patties. Above is the veggie patty with some sauce and mushrooms on top, and then broccoli and the carrots on the side. The only thing that I was not scraping off my place... is the carrots. ;)

Rice cakes @ Din Tai Fung in Arcadia, CA. It seems that I always have a strong craving for this place time-to-time. It happened again this weekend. These rice cakes are crack.

Taro dumplings @ Din Tai Fung in Arcadia, CA. These are even MORE crack than above. Better than the red bean dumplings... did I just say that? Yes, yes I did...

Lemon-Rosemary-Almond-Olive oil cake @ Village Bakery & Cafe in Atwater Village, LA, CA. This is pretty amazing. Not too sweet. Not too lemony-zest. And the perfect consistency needed for a cake...

Angel cake @ Village Bakery & Cafe in Atwater Village, LA, CA. Now... the consistency in THIS cake... is absolute perfection. Angels arrived in my mouth.... (Note: in effort to salvage your image of me being a complete fatass, I only had a couple bites of this)

Bread pudding made of Gruyere and Maple Bacon, topped with poached eggs and side of fruits @ Village Bakery & Cafe in Atwater Village, LA, CA. I was going to stick to something simple like their breakfast sandwich, then I started reading the specials chalkboard. Doomed after reading the description to this thing... I had to try it. I did not expect the bread pudding to be more like toast. But this was actually very good.

Sope @ Huarache Azteca Restaurante in Highland Park, CA. You'd think that after the brunch at Village, I'd had enough... but an hour later, you would have found me at this restaurant eating again! How could you resist... this sope was AMAZING. I haven't had anything like it before, and g'damn that pork was too tasty. You better save a couple dollars one day, and get yourself a couple of these. Amazing.

Now... All of the above was things I consumed from Friday-Sunday. I didn't even include Monday's food ventures. I don't have proof of that. And that proof is in my stomach that feels like a bowling ball. I figured I would relax this Monday, and take it easy on food. I did not. BBQ's on a nice sunny day are way too tempting to turn down. You would have found me eating: pancit, sisig, burgers, sausage, watermelon, pies, cookies, chips, ribs, and even drank beer and a margarita.

Yes. It has been a fatass weekend, no doubt. And yeah, let's not hold my breath... cause next weekend I will be feasting on filipino food. And when my family cooks... THEY COOK.

Hope you enjoyed the fatassery. And look forward to more next week! :)

Getting Creative

My roommate and I decided to do this thing where we're not going to go grocery shopping until we eat everything in our kitchen. Now... if you look in our fridge and our pantries, you'll see that we have hardly anything to work with! And yes... this will be difficult. It's not too bad right now, but I'm pretty sure by next week we'll be resorting to rice and... soy sauce! (Just kidding, or am I?)...

Tonight, I decided to make baked stuffed chicken. I have artichokes and spinach. Frozen, but... it's something. I look in Charlenne's cabinets, and she has bread crumbs. We also have lots of almonds. So here it is: chicken stuffed with artichokes and spinach (some almonds too), encrusted with crushed almond and bread crumbs. 400 degrees in the oven for about 30 minutes. Go!




The result is good. I am truly a fatass... I need to learn how to cut my portions. Food coma begins!

Random Trips and Good Food

Blue Water Seafood Market and Grill, as seen on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. This place is no joke. You can believe the hype. I drove down to San Diego with a friend.. just for the day. This was our first stop. I had orange juice for breakfast, and nothing else. I definitely had big eyes after an almost 2-hour drive, and I definitely ordered A LOT. There was 5 of us. We all ordered separate things, and some of us shared. Let me share with you... the party that ensued... in my mouth.

Ceviche. I've never had it with shrimp before. But this is delicious. Nothing bad about it. I enjoyed a couple bites, but not too many... cause I was waiting for the rest of my food...

Oyster Shooters. I ordered a dozen for our table. These are raw... and I chose the not-spicy ones. I have only recently welcomed oysters into my life, and these are fresh and really good. No grittiness or fishiness. They still look like boogers to me, but it's good. Add your lemon, pour some sauce on, and slip it into your mouth. REALLY GOOD. I had about 4-5. I lost count.

Mahi-Mahi tacos. Wow. These were amazing. Everything about it is right. There was a small block of Mahi-Mahi in the taco, and you just gotta squish it a little to make it small enough to put in your mouth. And you will eat it... down... to... the.. last little morsel. Yes, I cleared that plate.

Swordfish sandwich with the lemon garlic butter marinade. WOW is basically the word that popped into my head as I took that first bite. My eyes lit up, my heart fluttered, and my mouth was entering bliss. The consistency of the fish was very moist. I think the pairing of the bread and the fish was incredible. The swordfish would probably be amazing in the taco as well. I enjoyed every single bite of this sandwich. I could not stop eating it. And yes, I cleared that plate as well!

Halibut with lemon garlic butter marinade. I ate these in the order I show it. I cleared every single plate before I moved to the next. this was my last plate... and it's not the least. The halibut was amazing. Not as moist as the swordfish, but... so... so... FRESH. The rice underneath was just as incredible. And that Blue Cheese dressing is... THE TRUTH. If you have a friend that completely rejects Blue Cheese, have them taste this one. They will be very surprised. I was dipping my halibut in there too.

Gosh, I can't really say anything bad about this place. Everything hit the spot. I definitely packed my stomach with food, and I had no desire to stop because it was all too good. The great thing is that I didn't feel horribly full. I was OK. I was satisfied and very happy. I will definitely come back here again. The line was never short... always leading to the entrance. But there's a good reason why it is that way, Blue Water Grill is GOOD.

Easy Ways to Get Me Out

1. Food: If you know me right, you know that I will travel long distances for food. It's a great way to tempt/lure/win my heart. That's right... Take yo' notes.

With that said, my friend used Hash House A Go Go as a weapon to lure me into a impromptu Vegas trip this weekend. And I can't lie, that was a major tugger at my heart. They won. I drank. I danced. I played. It was fun. But I have to say that Hash House A Go Go was, perhaps, the highlight of the trip.. haha

I present you with FATASS-CITY:

This is the Sage Fried Chicken Benedict. The portions are totally fatass-plates. I already knew that I couldn't finish even half of it. This was pretty amazing. The chicken was crispy and tasty. The sauce on the top was such a great touch. And that biscuit is so fluffy and yummy! I don't even know how else to explain it. But it was such an explosion on a plate. The aftermath was not pretty.

I didn't eat this for myself. I shared with my friend. And I actually only had like... 4 bites. This is the Burger stuffed with Mashed Potatoes and Bacon. There is no way you can hold the sandwich and bite into it. It's one of those burgers that you have to knife and fork. My friend cut me a small piece, and I couldn't even fit that in my mouth.

Out of everything I tried, I have to say that this might be the favorite. Bacon Waffles. Simple: sweet and savory. There's nothing else to say here. But it's like heaven in your mouth... especially if you are a fan of bacon. I am definitely a fan of bacon.

They have two in Vegas. One in Imperial Palace, and one way off the strip. That's the one that Adam from Man V. Food filmed. There's another one in San Diego... and I'm thinking that I'll be taking a trip down to SD soon... Oh yes, SOON.

Big Eyes. Not-so-big Stomach.

I like to say that I am a fatass... but in actuality, I believe my eyes are bigger than my stomach. WAY BIGGER. However, in some rare cases, I can eat like a dinosaur. I have some witnesses who can vouch for that. (OK, OK... I might be exaggerating. I am no Koboyashi).

Well anyway, I had driven almost an hour in rush-hour traffic in LA. Through the horror that LA-folks know as 101 and 110. I had just gotten off work. It was not rainy, but sprinkle-y... and apparently no one knows how to drive in that weather. And my stomach was about to start a brawl.

Gina had told me about this place: Flor Blanca, and since then pupusas were on the brain. It was the time to try it.

Prices are not bad at all. I bought 4 pupusas, 2 horchatas, and 2 plantains for about $17. That fed 2 people. It might as well have fed 4 people.

That horchata was DEEEEEEEEEELICIOUSSSSSSS. Now I don't know too much about the drink, but all I know is that this one was mighty tasty. The cup looked small, but it was just the right amount for me... (I realized that after the meal).

The pupusas are actually a good size. For only $2, that is not bad at all. I should have stuck to ONE pupusa. My eyes said two. My stomach didn't fight it. But I swear I felt the sides of my stomach slowly stretching.

I have had pupusas at several places in LA already. I actually haven't had a bad pupusa yet. Flor Blanca delivers, alright. The pupusa is so incredibly cheesy; how could you go wrong? I ordered the chicharron and the squash and cheese pupusas. I couldn't even tell the difference with the amount of cheese in those things. It didn't matter, it tasted amazing as soon as it hit my hungry, hungry mouth.

I could hardly finish my pupusas. I left maybe 1/5 on my plate. I moved on to this heavenly thing: plantain. I've never had plantains like this before. It was basically plantains surrounding some custard-y middle. It looked like a big burnt yellow potato. As soon as you cut into it, this is what you see. I didn't eat all of the middle since it was a bit too much for me. I do love plantains though. But it put me over the edge. I felt like I ate the world for dinner....

Flor Blanca is good. I don't know if I can call it the best I ever had though. I don't know if one pupuseria has caught my tongue yet. I haven't tasted THE ONE yet. But this definitely isn't a miss!

Indulging on Fat Tuesday

Some of you know that I partake in Lent. This year I will be giving up cookies, cupcakes, brownies, and the like. Lately, I have been going a little crazy eating them in large amounts. I've done this before, so I should be alright.


Yesterday was Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras. I celebrated with some friends at a local bar, The Coffee Table Lounge. The food is decent. They serve beers and wines for the most part. However, I also saw some Soju cocktails. I went with wine for the night. I ordered the Bleu Cheese Burger, with fries. I wasn't too impressed with this burger. They put a little too much Bleu cheese for my taste. But I almost finished the whole thing. I can't let food go to waste like that... The fries are good there. I had a bite of the chili cheese fries and the Parmesan fries as well. I gotta say, those Parmesan fries were really good. I could eat a whole basket to myself.

I went next door to their other cafe area, and got myself a vanilla cupcake, a red velvet cupcake, and a double chocolate cookie. They look DELICIOUS here, but they are actually so-so/meh. CUPCAKES: the cake part is good. The frosting is too sweet. I ended up scraping most of it off and eating all of the cake part. COOKIE: too crumbly and nothing special about it. I would have finished all of it if it didn't crumble in my hands.

All in all, I'd say go for the food rather than the sweets at Coffee Table. Probably the beer, too. They have a pretty huge beer selection.. just looking at that menu.

But farewell to my loves: cupcakes, cookies, brownies, macaroons, and the like. We'll meet again soon.

LA Street Food Festival FAIL

I expected to eat my heart out at the festival. That surely did not happen at the LA Street Food Festival. And luck was certainly not on my side that day. I thought I'd be green and take the Metro there. Thought I'd be smart to avoid traffic and parking and take the Metro. I thought that planning my strategy (wait in line, get food, bring food to next line, wait in line, get food, bring food to next line, and so on and so forth) at the festival would get me to accomplish the goal of eating from 10 food trucks. NO, NO, and NO!

I didn't even see the end of the entrance line that wrapped around the gates, into the parking lot, and back out the gates leading all the way to San Francisco. Oi, needless to say, we decided to leave and feed our hunger pains elsewhere. The destination was Little Tokyo and Wurstkuche.

Turns out Wurstkuche had the wUrst line. Har Har Har... So plans shifted from Wurstkuche to Curry House. We waited what seemed forever, and the sound of my name for our party was like the sound of heaven.


Had the Keema Curry. Not as spicy as the Chicken & Ginger dish. Still good, but I do enjoy the spiciness a lot more. But at that moment, anything that entered my mouth and stomach would be welcomed with the most open arms ever. Hunger and walking in the blasted sun is not a good combination.


We found this truck nearby: Dainty Cakes. Is this the only truck not at the LA Street Food Festival? Well, it wasn't that great. They only had freshly baked Red Velvet cupcakes by the time it was my turn in line. I wasn't even hungry. But we all know I have a weakness for sweets. I really wanted the Salty Chocolate brownie... but alas, none left. The Red Velvet was so-so. The cakey-part was good. But the frosting isn't the best I've ever had.


Red Bean Cakes at Mitsuru Cafe! I do enjoy these, but these aren't the best I've ever had either. Nothing will compare to those in Asakusa, Tokyo... of course.


Mochi ice cream at Mikawaya! I had the Kona Coffee and the Chocolate Mochi. I enjoy those chocolate bits in the Chocolate one. The Kona was good too. But I didn't know they had Mochilato's now! I forgot to buy one, so I'll be back for those soon.

Despite the total LA Street Food Festival fail, I consoled my sad, hungry stomach with Little Tokyo eats.

Note to self and yourself, perhaps: Just try the food trucks at LArtwalk. You'll have a better chance, and you don't have to pay an entrance fee. Follow them on twitter, and go leisurely.

DTLA Artwalk has also become a FOODwalk.

I've been to Downtown LA's artwalk about 3 or 4 times. The first time, I really did look at art. The next few times, all these food trucks started popping up, and I started getting hungry while walking all over for art. This time, I did a good mix of both. Here are my discoveries this time!

Big MAN Bakes. I was eye-ing this place the day before when I had a meeting across the street at Blossom Restaurant. It was closed, so I couldn't go explore it at the time. LArtwalk was my chance. And sure enough, I found myself waiting in line trying to figure out which ONE I wanted to try. I'd like to try all of them TBH. I tried "The Old School". $3.25 a cupcake. Pricey, sure. But I'll try anything once. The man knows how to bake cupcakes. Moist, very cakey, and that frosting is not overbearing. Thank you, William.

Nickel Diner. Eversince I had that bacon doughnut at VooDoo in Portland, I had to remember to compare it with LA's. I definitely find VooDoo's to be better. This one is not as Maple-ey. The bacon is sprinkled on the whole thing, so you actually taste the bacon in each bite. Verdict: VooDoo wins. Still, not bad Nickel. Another note... Nickel has a VELVET DOUGHNUT. Trust, you'll find me at the next LArtwalk with that in my mouth.

Grilled Cheese Truck. You know, when I first heard of this truck I didn't think too much of it. "Oh I can make those at home..." But then I actually read the menu, and I felt the saliva drip down my chin. We caught this at LArtwalk... our first stop. Pictured above is a Cheesy Mac & Rib w/ BBQ pork and carmelized onions grilled cheese sandwich + Gruyere & Bacon grilled cheese sandwich. Both of these have FATASS written all over it. Did I enjoy it? HELL YES. I'll have to try their dessert grilled cheese sandwiches.

LArtwalk has evolved quite a lot since I've been. I haven't even been going that consistently or for that long. But the mobile food movement truly brings me in a lot more. Where there is food, there I am...