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!