Cafe Brasil

For my last dinner in LA, I kept looking around and found a few things. Then I was watching Take Home Chef and he picked up someone from a brazilian market in LA. Then I realized that there would be brazilian restaurants here! So that's how we ended up at Cafe Brasil. It also helped that it was only a few miles from the apartment.

The place is casual. You order up front and take a number and wait. Then you pick up your food when called. It's super cute inside, with mismatched tables and chairs in all kinds of colorful primary colors. Everything is bright and colorful. Maybe a bit too colorful. There's outside seating too, but that's probably only recommended when it's daylight out.
J got the red snapper. That came with rice, salad, beans, salsa, and plantains. It's a good thing he ordered this and not me. For whatever reason, everything came with a mustard base. The snapper had a mustard crust. The salad had mustard dressing. Even the salsa had some mustard in it. It was bizarre. I don't remember any of the food that I had in brazil having any kind of mustard slant to it.
I was feeling nostalgic so I got the feijoada. That was served with rice, farofa, collard greens, and oranges. We also got an additional side of plantains, which I gobbled up quickly. We also got a couple of pao de de quiejo (cheese bread), but these were not fresh at all and therefore cold, crunchy, and not that good. I enjoyed my feijoada very much. It had big hunks of meat in it, including fall off the bone pork. I'm not usually a fan of greens, but these were pretty good and nice and garlicky. The farofa? I dunno about this stuff. When I was in brazil, we always called it sawdust. Not because it tasted like sawdust, but just because it looks like sawdust. Well, this particular farofa tasted like bacon. Like bacon sawdust. I guess I just don't get farofa. I also got a guarana by Antarctica. That was the brand we always had in brazil. I was very happy to get my brazilian food fix!

Red Mango

On my last day in LA I did lots and lots of walking. Around 4 miles actually. And with my short stumps for legs, just think about how many steps that is! As a reward, I treated myself to some frozen yogurt.
Red Mango was the choice this time. They're a Korean chain that made it to the US last year. They don't seem to have as many topping options as pinkberry. I liked the store though. Clean and simple and modern, yet warm and inviting.
I never get any of the cereal or nut toppings, I'm just much more of a fan of the fruit. Their fruit selection seemed a bit limited, but I went with blackberry and mango. For a place with mango in their name, the mango was quite unripe. And being in southern california, I thought it wouldn't be too hard to find some ripe mango. At least the blackberries were good. The yogurt itself was good. There's something surprisingly tasty about plain frozen yogurt. I think pinkberry is still my favorite.

Santa Monica Promenade - Gaucho Grill

I met up with a couple of my west coast colleagues for a dinner at Gaucho Grill on the Promenade. I think it's supposed to be an Argentinian restaurant? The place was practically empty, which didn't seem to be the best sign. The place is fairly large and attractively decorated.J ordered an appetizer. It looks like an empanada, but I totally forget what it was. But I do remember it being good.
She also ordered the salmon entree. It was grilled with a sweet cherry tomato sauce and served with spinach and rice. She liked this very much.
To continue on the salmon slant, S ordered the grilled salmon salad. It was a huge portion served with a garlic vinaigrette. She liked this, but felt that the greens got soggy too quickly with the hot salmon and other warm ingredients being heaped on it.As for me, I was the lone non-salmon person, ordering the cuban chicken paillar. It was basically a giant flattened chicken breast with grilled onions. Simple yet tasty. I really loved the rice as well. The beans were ok. Overall, good food and good company. I'm not sure why this place was so deserted. It wasn't great, but it was perfectly good, affordable, and had good service.

New Meal at Library Alehouse, New President Too

On election night, we headed up Main Street to the Library Alehouse in Santa Monica. It has a bar with dining up front, and a back patio area for more outdoor dining. After watching election coverage all day long, I didn't want to take a break, but in order to be seated right away, we went in the patio. It's a lovely little space out there. Outdoors, but with coverage, and actually quite lovely. J got the fish tacos with mango salsa. He liked these very much. We also got complimentary chips and salsa, and we totally pounded those. The salsa had a slight kick. And we started noticing that around here, most places give out fairly spicy salsa. I had been craving pasta, so I got the pumpkin ravioli with a sage sauce. It was strange, like pumpkin pie in little pockets of dough, but I liked it very much. The sauce was creamy yet very light. It was just what I wanted. Service was great. Towards the end of the meal, when it go to 8 o'clock, we heard some cheering coming from the bar. We had a new president! But darn it, I was kinda bummed that after all that tv watching throughout the day, we missed the whole electoral vote going over 270 thing. Damn you timing!

Oh, and the Library Alehouse is actually an alehouse, so they have a bunch of beers on tap. We didn't drink there, but I was cold so we hopped to the Coffee Bean next door and got me a hot chocolate. The girls there were so excited about the election that they gave it to me for a dollar off. That was the tastiest, cheapest, and election-tastic hot chocolate I'd ever had.

No Window Dining at Kifune

Every time we'd go for a walk, we'd pass by Kifune. It's a very unassuming japanese place on the corner with no windows. To me, there's always something a little amiss about a place with absolutely no windows. As if they don't want you to see what's inside because it's so horrible. Well, after passing it so many times, we had to go in. And boy, were we wrong. The place is adorable inside. It's very traditional japanese with rice paper walls and wooden slatted everything. It's not swanky at all, it just feels like a traditional japanese home. Most entrees come with a salad and miso soup. I found the dressing not as flavorful as I thought it would have been, considering it's bright orange color, but it was still pretty good. I hadn't eaten fresh vegetables in awhile, so I relished it. J go tthe hibachi kushiyaki dinner, which came with three skewers of meat, some broccoli, and a spicy tuna roll. I dug on the spicy tuna roll. The meat was good and teriyaki flavored. Unfortunately, there was some weird sauce on the broccoli that he did not care for. And it was thick and everywhere, so it was nearly impossible for him to take it off. I got the sukiyaki, and man, it was gigantic. Can you see how big the dish is as compared to the bowl of rice? Oye. It was loaded with meat, mushrooms, green stuff, and shirataki noodles. I'd never actually had shirataki noodles before. When my mom makes sukiyaki, she uses some kind of clear japanese noodle, but it's definitely not shirataki. Shirataki is made from the konjac, which is some kind of weird vegetable. But the strange thing about shirataki is that it has no calories, no carbs, and no glutens. It's as if it's nothing at all. But when cooked, it takes the flavor of whatever it's cooked in. I also got some sashimi with my dinner, and it was a surprisingly large portion of some nice and fresh fish. Oh, our waiter was super nice and polite and actually japanese. So don't let the no window thing scare you off. Give Kifune a shot.

Buddha's Belly

Santa Monica has a plethora of shopping at the 3rd street promenade. You could spend hours just walking around. Well, we actually did do that, and so we got famished. There's tons of places to eat too, but as I've said before, I'm terribly indecisive. Well, eventually after walking round and round, we happened upon Buddha's Belly. It was a good thing too, because I was going to fall down from hunger.
It's a pretty cute place, cleanly decorated. Dark wood in the booths and the tables, with a smattering of really soothing colors. I guess it's considered an asian restaurant. It's got a mix of japanese, thai, chinese cuisines, just basically taking the best and most popular from each cuisine.
We started with some chicken lettuce wraps. J had never had these before. He'd only just gone to PF Chang's for the first time a few weeks ago, and he's never been to the Cheesecake Factory, so this was his first foray into lettuce wraps. I liked that this particular dish had jicama in it, and the little fried crunchy bits too. And guess what, he liked it! J ordered the japanese noodle set with veggie and shrimp tempura. That's an extremely long drawn out way of saying tempura udon. His first time having anything like this, and he enjoyed it. They make pretty good food here, and their presentation is also nice.
I'd been hankering for some ramen lately, and not from a packet, so that's what I went with. The spinach ramen noodle, with spinach noodles (they're green!) and a bunch of other stuff in a spicy miso broth. I didn't think the broth would be spicy but it was, but in a good way. I liked this very much. I was surprised.

Service was good, but it took our waiter forever to come by and see us the very first time. But after that, it was smooth sailing. The waiter was funny though, not because he was trying. He was just a weird dude that talked strangely. And he was freakishly tall.

Sunday Morning Coffee

On a lazy sunday morning, we went rambling around the neighborhood. We were headed for coffee, but also happened upon the Mar Vista farmers market. I told you, on the weekend, there are farmers markets galore. People like their coffee here too, but not like the pacific northwest. With normal chains like starbucks and the coffee bean, there are still many local shops or smaller regional chains. Our ultimate destination was Venice Grind. We'd been passing by it a bunch of times and I really liked their "coffee" sign, so much that I wanted to go there.
The place had some pretty cool art, including big framed pics of celebrity mug shots. There was also lots of skateboardy type stuff. There are a bunch of little two-top tables, along with a more loungey section in the front, with big smooshy seats. But we decided to sit out back, in an adorable patio area. For whatever reason, J got an iced cappucino instead of his usual latte. It was a beautiful sunny day, so we got to enjoy the weather, and sat under a nice umbrella. There's wi-fi here too, and we enjoyed surfin on the patio.An adorable and extremely friendly cat stopped by. She was very vocal and very friendly. How can you not love a place that even a finicky cat loves?

The Great Burger Taste-Off of 2008: BYOB at the Counter

There's tons of places to eat around LA, so it's been difficult for me to choose. Especially when it's always on me to pick. And I'm terrible with decisions. I thought I would like a burger, so we went to the Counter. It's a BYOB - build your own burger. There's even a paper form, and you fill it out with what you want on it.
They have milkshakes too, and I had to indulge in a banana one. Props on this shake, with actual real bits of banana in it.An order of half sweet potato fries and half onion strings, served with 3 different dipping sauces. J was all over the onion strings and I scarfed these sweet potato fries. They were so damn good.
My burger on the honeywheat bun had meat, along with grilled pineapple, grilled onions, lettuce, and tomato. There are tons of weird stuff you can put on it, but I'm fairly simple. My sauce of choice was sweet bbq. I've been loving having bbq sauce on my burgers lately. I liked my burger a lot, but it's hard to eat. They make the meat patties really high and fat, so it's quite difficult to fit the darn thing into your mouth. You can also get your burger in a bowl, and now, I can see why. I just have to say that their grilled onions were alone worth the price of admission.
J got the counter burger, which is one of their signature burgers. It's got provolone, fried onion strings, sauteed mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, with a sun-dried tomato vinaigrette. When we went, the place was packed. We sat at the counter so we didn't have to wait. People are crazy about their burgers, eh? While the food was good, it seemed way too pricey for let's face it folks, just burgers. But if you don't mind that, then go ahead and try it out. It's a chain, so who knows, you may find one near you yet.

Intelligentsia in Silver Lake

While in Silver Lake, I took J to Intelligentsia to get his caffeine fix. I'd read about it on another food blog and it had come highly recommended. Look how cool this place is. Even though I don't actively drink coffee (you know, my caffeine problem), I'd hang out here cuz it's just cool. I love their logo.
It's a company from chicago, and they buy, roast, and sell all the beans themselves, and have a handful of retail outlets where they schlock coffee to fiendish hipsters. I believe this is the only shop outside of the Chicago area. I don't know about the coffee, but I liked that the shop was roomy. It wasn't one of those teeny tiny places where everyone has to squish in. They must have good coffee, there was quite a line. And people kept going on and on about how it's the best coffee they've ever had.
Behold a latte. I like it when they do fancy stuff with the milk, or froth, or whatever that stuff is. There were some chairs on the inside, well, more like stools. But mostly, it was open space. As with most places in california, there is decent places to sit outside. And of course, wi-fi. Sure beats starbucks any day of the week.

Good Brunch

We did some roaming around on Saturday and went to the Silver Lake neighborhood. It's a pretty cool neighborhood, just northwest of LA, with lots of little shops and restaurants and such. We also ran smack dab into their little farmers market. We were hungry, so after walking around a bit, we stopped into the Good Microbrew & Grill. We saw lots of people eating outside, so it seemed like a good choice.
I totally forget the name of this dish, but it is a corn pancake on the bottom, black forest ham on top of that, with two over easy eggs on top and then maple syrup dotted all about. This was delicious! And so different, but in a good way.
I got the huevos rancheros, which were awesome. The ranchero sauce was great, and came on a corn tortilla. It was served with rice and beans and some chips, all of which was also good. Also got a little bit of pico de gallo and guacamole with some warm flour tortillas on the side, which I was also a big fan of.

Service was good and friendly. We sat outside and it was very pleasant. The food came out surprisingly fast. They had a ginormous beer selection, but you know, it was saturday morning, and not quite time for boozing, so we had to pass. It was a good random selection.

Korean BBQ, Not All You Can Eat

LA is home to an impressive koreatown. It's sizeable and has tons of places to eat, of the korean variety, and otherwise. It also has multiple all you can eat korean bbq joints. I've never been to one, and I didn't want to pop that cherry on this trip. So instead, we went to a slightly fancier korean spot for bbq and other food - Soowon Galbi Korean BBQ. We went simple and ordered the galbi. We only ordered one portion, so we did not get to grill it ourselves. They only let you grill at the table with two or more portions. We didn't mind, because we were starving and didn't feel like waiting any longer than necessary. Unlike any place I'd ever been, we were given somes salad, and the above accoutrements for the meat. Some dipping sauces, thinly sliced pickled daikon, and rice cake wrappers. I've been eating korean food and korean bbq my entire life, and I've never seen these accessories before. Is this a west coast thing? Something new I haven't been made privvy to? Their selectin of banchan was pretty standard. They're so anal, they have to line up the banchan dishes just right. I liked their kimchi, it was fresh and light, not very fermented, the way I like it.We also ordered haemul pajeon to have a little something else to eat. This was unlike any haemul pajeon I've ever eaten. It was super duper thick, like a deep dish pizza. And the thing was so hot and steamy. I typically like it more thin and crispy, but it was still good like this. But really, I prefer the pancake thinner.And finally, the meat! It was pretty yummy. Good quality meat, nicely flavored, not super sweet. It's a bit pricey, but still a good portion. The service was really good. The dude that was our waiter was super polite and seemed to be fresh off the boat. It's a bit nicer than most bbq joints, so if you don't want to scare first timers, this would be a good spot.

Soowon Galbi Korean BBQ
856 S Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90005
(213) 365-9292

Baja Cantina

For my first night in LA, we decided to stay local and walk a few feet to Venice for dinner. There are many places to eat on this small stretch of Washington Blvd, and we ended up walking into Baja Cantina, a mexican joint. The place is pretty casual, with indoor and outdoor dining. We got a spot outside (but inside) far off in the corner. It was pretty cool. Looks like it's big on happy hours too, where you get your own chips and salsa.
We got some chips and salsa and some guacamole. The chips are spicy chips, and they will deceive you. I ate one and almost freaked because there's hidden chili powder on them. The salsa was a bit spicy as well. The guacamole with the little mini mexican flag was spot on and quite delicious. We were big fans of it.
They serve typical mexican fare... you know, tacos, fajitas, enchiladas, and the like. We both ended up getting non-typical stuff. Behold the above carne asada in a skillet. It came with rice and beans and fixins and tortillas so you could make your own little tacos. This was delicious.
I also went with a skillet, and got the muy muy mahi mahi fish tacos. That came in a tomatillo chipotle stew. Also quite delicious, with really big hunks of fish. And I was a big fan of the rice and the beans. Service was ok, nothing spectacular, but not terrible either. It was a nice first night out. The outdoor seating that seemed slightly indoors had good ambiance. It was low key and overall just quite nice. The weather has been nice too. Not hot, but not too cold either. But not exactly beach weather! Boo!

Santa Monica Pit Stop

Thursday night was my last meal in LA... then I was heading on home to good ol Philly. To laze the early evening away, we headed down to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica for a bit of the old beach time. After walking around a bit to all the shops and such, we stopped for some eats at Cafe Crepe. The place is pretty cute, inside and out, and very euro.

S went with the thincrust pizza with eggplant and squash. It was pretty good... seemingly healthy. The veggies had a bit of a smoky flavor to it.

Mmmm... a giant side of $2 fries. Simple, hot, salty. Pretty good stuff.

I went with a savoury crepe - ham and cheese, nothing complicated here. It was good. Nothing too thrilling, but perfectly acceptable. It was quite a lot of food, even though it doesn't necessarily seem like it.

The service? Eh... not too hot. We sat there for an extremely long time before anyone came over and gave us a menu or asked what we wanted to drink. And the food took even longer. Everyone else was getting their food except for us. And the servers aren't exactly the nicest. They're a bit loud and rude, but honestly, I don't know that they don't realize that that shouldn't be the norm. I think they need a bit of a lesson in customer service. I bet the sweet crepes were good, but we just didn't have room.

Cafe Crepe

1460 3rd Street Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 576-0499

The Great Burger Taste-Off of 2008: In-N-Out Burger

We don't have luxury of having In-N-Out Burger out here in the east coast. It's a shame really, you hear everyone talking about it. So I knew I had to get my fix at least once while I was in California. There's nothing like a shopping center with an In-N-Out burger, check cashing place, and a back cracker. Sounds like a perfect afternoon...

The concept is mad simple here, either a double cheeseburger, a cheeseburger, or a hamburger. If you want onions on it, you can get onions on it. Fries? If you want. Then some sodas and shakes. That's IT. No chicken sandwiches or nuggets or fish sandwiches or anything. Just a burger, fries, and a drink.


K got the double-double combo and I got the cheeseburger combo with lemonade... pink lemonade too! Whoo hoo! I tell you what, these fries are delectable... really fresh, not at all greasy, and not at all salty. Folks, it's just the way I like em. I could have eaten... oh, 5 helpings of these! The burger is also pretty good, but my onion was a little bit too huge and overpowering. I thought it would be little bits of onions, but it was a huge ass entire slice. Next time, I'll nix the onion. All the burgers automatically come with a "spread", which I think is basically a thousand islandy type of sauce. It's probably not for everyone, but I like it. If you have a chance to visit, I highly endorse a visit to In-N-Out.

Gorging in Koreatown

Witness a dream come true - a 24 hour tofu house! Why can't we have things like this in Philly? S took me to Koreatown, well, not exactly in Koreatown, but I think on the fringe... for some good old fashioned soondubu (korean tofu stew) at BCD Tofu House. And did we ever strap on the old feedback and gorge ourselves silly!


The place is run like a well-oiled machine... you order, and everything shows up, like clockwork. Everybody knows what the hell they're doing here. You get plenty of banchan... the kimchi was a little weird, strangely sweet and fresh. I was surprised that everyone gets their own little grilled fish. This thing was so good.... so simple and perfect.


S got the bulgogi and tofu combo, so obviously, we got a bunch of bulgogi, which was a bit on the sweet side, but still good, and some delicious soondubu. You get to pick the spiciness of it, and we picked medium. The egg? You crack it and put it into your tofu.

I went with the spicy pickled crab and tofu combo. So yeah, it sounds crazy, but it's raw crab that's marinated with a spicy sauce. It might not sound appetizing, but my oh my, I love this stuff. I guess you kind of just need to grow up with it. And the soondubu? Yeah, this was good too. If you don't get the combo, you can pick whatever kind of soondubu you want, but with the combo, it's just the "premium tofu" which has a little bit of beef, shrimp, and clam, and of course, tons and tons of soft tofu!

Ok, so the best thing about this place? The rice comes in individual stone pots that are individually cooked. So it's not like they have these industrial sized rice cookers and then they just scoop the rice into these cute little pots. No, it's actually cooked in the pots over a big ass fire. I saw the video that they kept running, it's for real!

What's great is that the waitresses come around and scoop out the rice from the stone bowls and then put em into regular bowls for you so you can just eat. Then they fill the stone bowls with water so you can eat the burnt rice mixed with water later. Yes, this also probably sounds strange, but believe me, it's one of those weird traditional Korean things, and I love this stuff!

Yeah, that bowl just has burnt rice with water in it. But you can't imagine just how good this really is. And I could eat this as a meal.

S insisted that I take some pics of the aftermath. Put two little korean girls together, throw tons of food at them, and what happens? They eat it all up, and leave nothing but empty bowls and crab carcasses in their wake.

Seriously though, this soondubu was freakin delicious. And I ate it all up... If I lived near a place like this, I'd be here all the time!