One of the things I love most about LA is the wide variety of food options available. When picking out an Indian restaurant for lunch in the West Valley, there are a range of choices: Indian buffet, lunch counter in the Sweets and Spices market, or vegetarian South Indian, to name a few. The top choice for the latter of those choices, for me, is always Woodlands Indian restaurant.

More than anything else on their menu, the Gobi Manchurian is what keeps me coming back time and time again. Read the rest of this entry →

Five Guys El Segundo, open at night

I’m a big fan of Five Guys burgers and fries, but rarely make the trip down to Carson. So it was a nice surprise at about 9:30 the other night, after a day of negotiations down in the South Bay, to be driving up Sepulveda Blvd. just short of LAX and to see the red and white Five Guys sign on the east side of the road. A quick maneuver into the parking lot, and more luck as Five Guys was open until 10 p.m. I saw, I scarfed. It’s in an office park-nice little shopping plaza with a courtyard and outdoor tables.

Five Guys also has other locations, and planned locations, in and around the Los Angeles area. Of these, the El Segundo outlet may be the most dangerous for me. The In-N-Out Burger just on the other side of LAX may have better views, but I’m partial to Five Guys’ food.

Yeah, Trader Joe’s has an annex and it’s in my kitchen. In a burst of New Year organizational energy, I tackled the depths of my main kitchen cupboard. After an hour of stacking organizing and grouping I was amazed. From the depths of my shelves, my cupboard is built really deep into the wall…came can after can of the same stuff! I’m nothing if not consistent.
Looking at the bounty, I realized, I may never have to shop again for any foodstuffs other than fresh vegies and the occasional piece of animal protein.

I was mortified at the number of unused Roasted Garlic Tomato Sauce jars I had (6), jars of Hearts of Palms (5), cans of organic black beans (6) and containers of olives I had (can’t even count em).
Forget about tallying up the gross amounts and varieties of pasta, rice, and quinoa stacked in my cupboard. It’s as if I expected that the world was gonna end and I had to have a stockpile of food to hold me over until spring vegetables could grow.
So now, part of my New Year’s agenda is to make every meal use some of the canned, jarred, dried or packaged food I have lurking in my cupboards. I should be able to cook til April.
I googled Trader Joes Recipes and found some on their site, chow hound and several more. Any ideas welcomed!

I’m also planning a trip to a shelter to share some of this discovered bounty!
I guess getting out the old broom is good every once in a while cuz we all win!

Oinkster Pastrami with Fries and Garlic Aioli

The Oinkster in Eagle Rock was our stop for dinner last night after the Auto Show. I learned about this place from my neighbor who gets around the city even more than I do. I was impressed.

Not being shy about hurling superlatives let me tell you that the “Oinkster Pastrami” was just about the best, scratch that, The Best pastrami sandwich I have ever had.  It is your classic corned beef that is hand pickled and roasted there.  It is the perfect blend of spice to slow cooked beef flavor without being too salty to enjoy.  It is on a french roll with sauteed onions, melty Gruyere cheese and red cabbage slaw.

Even the fries aren’t standard fast food fries. They are billed as Belgian Fries” and are double dipped for a nice crunch.  They are served with a nice garlic aioli…nice because yes you taste the garlic but its not so strong that it kills your taste buds for anything else. Read the rest of this entry →

Before the first time I ever visited Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, I had a bit of a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of eating fried chicken alongside breakfast food. Well, aside from buttermilk biscuits, I suppose, which are a fine addition to any meal, any time of day.

That being said, I tried Roscoe’s, and I was immediately won over by it. So when I joined some friends for a meal at Green Leaves (an establishment that has previously been challenged about being truthful regarding its menu) and discovered that they had “Chicken” and Pancakes on the menu, I had to give it a shot.

The verdict on this menu choice is in: I have ordered nothing else during all of my subsequent visits to Green Leaves, and so it seemed worthy of a Menu Mining post here at Blogging.LA. It purports to be vegan, and even gluten-free, but I make no claims about its value in either of those respects. The “chicken” has a nice crispy breading and tastes simply wonderful, especially when dipped twice the way I was first taught at Roscoe’s: once in the spicy and once in the sweet. Sure this isn’t Louisiana Red Rooster hot sauce, but it does the trick.

If you happen to be in Los Feliz or West Hollywood and looking for something different, don’t hesitate to check out the “chicken” and pancakes. The pancakes are also available in tropical version, if you’re into the fruity stuff.

Marky Ramone getting some California Sun

East Coast vs. West Coast rivals laid down their Glocks and picked up spoons last Saturday, as Marky Ramone, former drummer of the Ramones, flew in from Brooklyn to the Venice Whole Foods to promote his new pasta sauce. The sauce is called Marky Ramone’s Brooklyn’s Own Pasta Sauce, a fittingly complicated name from someone whose job it was to keep time for the rapid Ramones.

Read the rest of this entry →

A lot will happen in the next five years.  You’ll be an astonishing half a decade older. We’ll have the same or a new president with whom no one will be completely satisfied unless all that hope for change actually translates to more real dollars and a lot more sense. For Cornerstone Theater Company, the next five years will be dedicated to hunger: nine plays, to be exact, that will address the topic from all sides, including nutrition, environment, access, and food equity.

To kick off the series, Cornerstone is hosting “Creative Seeds: An Exploration of Hunger,” a two-week event starting November 7 and stuffed full of panels, discussions, art events, workshops, and demonstrations with Farmers, chefs, artists, performers, and food writers.  On the 10th, for example, popular organic peach farmer David Mas Masumoto will be part of a “Who’s Your Farmer?” roundtable (if you haven’t read his Epitaph for a Peach, go and get it, now), and on the 15th, our homegrown Jonathan Gold will part of a “Food Critics” panel discussing what “different generations of food critics hunger for.”  And, because this is a theater company after all, there will be an evening of one-minute plays for those whose attention lasts as long as their (in)ability to compose an wildly interesting 140-character tweet

The panel discussions are free, and most of the other events request just a modest donation.  See the full schedule here, and reserve your tickets here. And, if you want to start your food drive contributions straight away, you can donate non-perishable food items at all Creative Seeds events.  This looks like a good one, guys.  Go on. Five years will be here and gone before you know it.

In the spirit of the season of things coming back to life, I thought it was time to bring back Classic Eats and continue our enjoyment of L.A. restaurants and bars that have been around longer than most of us have lived here. From my calculations, this will be Classic Eats #15 and it’s going to be a fast and simple one. By that, I mean it’s happening later this week and there’s no voting because I already decided on the location.

The Red Lion Tavern in Silver Lake is a German Gasthaus and Beer Garden that was established in 1959 as an English pub. When the ownership changed in 1963, it took on its German theme. There’s food, lots of beer, and atmosphere at the Red Lion. Come out this Friday, November 4th at 7pm to have a bite to eat, a drink, and hang out with writers and readers of Blogging.la. If you missed a chance to celebrate Oktoberfest, now you can!

Classic Eats #15
Friday, November 4th at 7pm

Red Lion Tavern
2366 Glendale Blvd 
Los Angeles, CA 90039-3209

The Red Lion Tavern is about 5 miles north of downtown L.A. It’s located just south of Silver Lake Boulevard. Limited parking is available in lots on either side of the building. There is also plenty of street parking in the vicinity. Leave a comment or drop me a line if you plan to attend.

Here at Blogging.LA, we’ve always got an eye out for a good cafe to #occupy while we bang out our freelance writing, novels, screenplays, and even an occasional blog entry. We Valley-dwellers don’t have much to choose from, and the list gets even shorter when you knock off the places that lock up for the night when it’s still early evening. Sure, there’s the mandatory minimum 1.0 Starbucks/square mile ratio, but we all know that doesn’t really count. Studio City’s Coffee Fix, on the other hand, does qualify. Read the rest of this entry →

Don’t get me wrong the other stuff one expects at the LA County Fair is a lot of fun, but there’s other stuff too one doesn’t really expect to find that turns out to be quite entertaining.  People watching during the week is interesting and different than weekends.  Yesterday it was hordes of school children being shepherded by harried teachers and chaperones along with quite a large contingent of Seniors.

One of the big finds that I found to be a lot of fun was over in the Home and Garden center.  There’s a wine, beer and olive oil tasting room!  Of the hundreds of wines submitted for judging in the LA County Fair 436 are available for tasting.  Tasting fee for a flight?  A very reasonable $11 for 5 tastings.  They have a list sorted by suggested tasting order and number your glass to match what you select which also happens to be the order you taste.  Loved it.

Read the rest of this entry →

Photo courtesy of KCRW

If you draw a Venn diagram between donut lovers and pie lovers among blogging.la readers, I suspect that the overlap would be considerable. That’s why I’m excited that KCRW’s 3rd Annual Good Food Pie Contest will be held at LACMA on Sunday, September 18.

The Pie Contest will take place from 2-4 p.m. on the lawns behind the museum, and will be judged by notable Los Angeles area chefs and food writers, including LA Weekly‘s Jonathan Gold and Zoe Nathan, chef/owner of Huckleberry Cafe.  KCRW’s “Good Food” program host Evan Kleiman will emcee, which is appropriate since Kleiman’s blog about baking a pie a day was the inspiration for the contest. Additionally, LACMA’s Family Days in September will be dedicated to the theme of pie.

KCRW is also holding an essay contest in connection with the event: “Tell us the story of the pie that changed your life, in 500 words or less”. The winner gets to be a judge in the pie contest. But hurry, just two more days to submit your essay.

To enter a pie in the contest, click on the second link above. The entry cost is $10. For non-contestants, admission is free, including a taste once the judging is complete. And this year,  to tie in with LACMA’s Tim Burton exhibition, the contest will include a category for “Tim Burton-inspired pie”. Now that’s something a Donut Summiteer could love.

Deep Fried Kool-Aid

If something deep fried that shouldn’t be isn’t a big enough hint its time for the LA County Fair I don’t know what is. This years outrageous deep fried thingy is Kool-aid, and it isn’t as bad as you think it might be. Maybe it was coming off of this years Donut Summit that made it all the more palatable but those Kool-aid flavored donut holes are something to behold. Imagine if you will a cherry flavored donut hole that is dusted with a blend of powdered sugar and cherry Kool-aid and you get the flavor profile of this deep fried treat invented by Chicken Charlie.

Last night was the LA County fair hosted local media types to come and get a tasting of the fare offerings this year. We got to graze through a sampling grazing of the biggies at the fair starting with Bubba’s and Chicken Charlies and into food trucks such as Piaggio’s and Crepes Bonapartes. You have to make the jump to get the deets on what I grazed upon as well as on the fair itself.  Read the rest of this entry →

How can you not trust a hot dog with a halo??

Since 1949, Papoo’s Hot Dog Show has been filling the tummies of Toluca Lake residents and visitors with tasty hamburgers, sandwiches, fries and of course….hot dogs. Countless movie and TV stars have been regulars over the years. Though the owners and recipes have changed, it has always remained a great hole-in-the-wall place for some really good grub. Well today, Sunday August 28, 2011 marks the end of 62 years of Papoo’s Hot Dog Show.

Hot Dog Show holds a special place in my heart as I’ve been going there since….well before I was born! My mom worked there when she was 16, her initials STILL carved into the counter. In fact, I only just found out that my parents met there. If it weren’t for the Hot Dog Show, I wouldn’t exist! Having lived only 1 block away for most of my life, I can remember riding my scooter or bicycle up there on a regular basis. I always ordered 2 plain dogs with ketchup, fries and a Dr. Pepper. While I would wait for my food I would play either Galaga or Ms. Pac Man with the “WOOZ” (upside down “ZOOM”) button. With that “WOOZ” button I could fly through to the banana stage in about 4 minutes flat.

I’ll miss you Hot Dog Show and I’m not looking forward to the rumored Italian restaurant taking your place. At least we still have Dale’s Jr. Money Tree Hampton’s IHOP Copper Penny Bob’s!

Tent City at Venice Beach

Yesterday was my annual pilgrimage to Venice Beach with the kids for their end o’ summer/back to school field trip.  (I celebrate the latter).

It is so sad to see the changes going on in Venice right now.  Where the sidewalk was once lined with artists and musicians it is now packed with EZ-up tents selling mostly swap meet type crap.  To even get to the tent city one has to wade through a gauntlet of a dozen or so “independent musicians” hawking their latest CD in a very aggressive in your face manner.

I can count on my hand the number artists left on the sidewalk of Venice Beach.  It was sad to see so few of them left.  It was even sadder to see the number musicians has dwindled to less than a handful.  I miss them all, they were the heart and soul of the Venice Beach that I have come to love over my years here. Read the rest of this entry →

Albano's Sign by Jodi 8/19/2011

For years, my absolute favorite pizza place in L.A. was Albano’s on Melrose, just west of La Brea. Having done my fair share of time in the Northeast, I am a bit partial to New York style, thin crust pizza. Albano’s was not close to where I live and the parking was often less than convenient , but the pies made it worth any hassle. For a short time, they opened a second location in The Valley (twice), which was easier to get to, but I still preferred visiting the Melrose location. However, by the end of 2007, Albano’s was no more. While the owner was briefly involved with Robano’s when it initially opened in Toluca Lake in 2008, he ended up leaving and their pizza hasn’t been the same since.

I was driving to an appointment last Friday and as I drove by the former Albano’s location, I looked over as I usually do. I was shocked to see the old sign instead of that of one of the pizza joints that took over the spot after Albano’s closed. I didn’t quite believe what I saw and was running early, so I drove around the block for confirmation. OMG! Later that night, we went for slices and were hugged and kissed by Anthony Albano, who knew us as regular customers before and appreciated us coming back over the hill for Albano’s, the Best Pizza in L.A. It’s delicious. Try it for yourself.