Back Door (Birmingham)

For brunch, we went to a jazz brunch called Back Door. I HAD to get the shrimp and grits with Balsamic Vinegar, and Brad got the Frittata with crawfish, shrimp and crab. My dish was the better one (for once!). The grits were perfect--not too heavy. And the balsamic vinegar gave it a touch of sweetness. There were also a lot of shrimp in the dish, which made it satisfying.

More home cooking in Birmingham

The best meal of the trip had to be the crab cakes that Brad's mom made for us. Made with real, fresh crab, it was accompanied with fresh peas, yellow rice, and a salad medley of pickled cucumbers, red peppers and artichoke heart.

Home cooking

Brad's mom made us a wonderful breakfast of lox and bagels, tabouli, and fruit. It was the best breakfast I'd had in a while, and beautiful too!

Dreamland BBQ (Birmingham)

My trip to Birmingham began with a nighttime stop at Dreamland BBQ! The BBQ sauce was just right--spicy, tangy and a little sweet. The ribs were fall-off-the bone.

Lately...

Lately, my bf and I have been going to some exceptional restaurants around town. Here's the list..

Keepin it real on the EASTSIDE:

-Square One (breakfast/lunch... try the eggs benedict or the baked egg dishes)
-Say Cheese (try the mariposa salad and barcelona sandwich)
-Palms Thai Food (thai elvis impersonator and yummy green papaya salad)
-Gingergrass (faux yummy vietnamese food)
-Pho Cafe in Silver Lake (no sign... 2841 Sunset Blvd)
-Tropicalia Brazilian Grill on Hillhurst
-Saito sushi (expensive, authentic, in a strip mall, freshest fish in town)

WESTSIDE AIN'T THE BEST SIDE, but it does have this:
-Mr. Cecil's BBQ

Glendale:
-Seoul Restaurant (small Korean restaurant on Brand Ave., cheap, and gives lots of veggie platters! Try the dumplings and kal-bi)

Sushi Night

Saturday we made sushi at Ron and Fran's place! I ate so much I didn't even have room for dessert!

Crepe Night!

Ron and Fran threw a big crepe party for their French and American friends, and I had the opportunity to make my very first crepe! Look at all those eggs... Yummmm.

En Sushi

June 24, 2007

When my friends and I say that we want to get sushi, we are inevitably referring to “En Sushi”, a casual and relatively inexpensive Japanese restaurant on Hillhurst in Los Feliz. En Sushi passes my five-tier sushi test:

#1 Are the California rolls mayo-free?
Call me a purist, but mayo has no place in, on or near sushi. Thankfully, En does not make this mistake. See Exhibit A:



#2 Is the sashimi firm and fresh?
You can bounce a quarter off of that fish.

#3 Is there complimentary green tea?
All you can drink.

#4 Is it affordable?
As sushi restaurants go, En Sushi is by far one of the best deals. You can get a rainbow roll for $12 that is better than most rainbow rolls in L.A.

#5 Can I see famous people there? (Haha, okay, I just threw this one in)
It's reassuring to know that famous people eat just like you and me. My friends and I have seen Christina Ricci (+bf), as well as Shirley Manson (of Garbage) eating here.



When I go to En, I usually get the Rainbow Roll. Tonight, however, I decided to mix things up. For starters, an oyster shooter (with sake, raw oyster, raw quail egg, fish roe and green onions):



This was a delicious mix of my two favorite super-foods of all time! (For non-health freaks, i'm talking about the raw oysters and raw egg... but i guess sake could be considered a super-food too!) I would have had ten of these, if not for the fact that they cost $7 each.

I also ordered the Fried Mussels appetizer, which was irreverently covered in mayonnaise (ugh!) and cheddar cheese (double ugh!). I peeled off the rubbery cheese covering and just ate the mussels underneath. This was an uncharacteristic miss:



Better than the mussels was the gyoza, which I always have to order when I come to En.



These gyoza skins are doughy and flaky, almost like pastry. They are surprisingly grease-less, and filled with chicken, ginger and green onion. Yum!

One of my friends got the Chinese Chicken Salad with mandarin oranges and crispy wonton garnish. She loves this salad:



There is just one caveat for this awesome restaurant: I have heard that the En Sushi on Santa Monica is nowhere near as good as the one on Hillhurst. A friend of mine took a first date there, and let's just say that it was the last time he went to that En, and the last time he went out with that girl!

En Sushi
972 N Hillhurst Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 664-1891

M Café de Chaya, Part 2

July 24, 2007

My friend and I went to Melrose today to do some girly thrift store clothes hunting, and guess what just happened to be on our way:



Is this an excuse to eat more cupcakes? Of course!

On a Tuesday at 4 pm, this place was a lot less crowded. I ordered the Grilled Tuna Sandwich (“glazed with teriyaki sauce and garnished with sliced avocado, umeboshi-pickled red onions, daikon sprouts, spicy yuzu mayo and fresh shiso leaf served on a house-baked whole wheat bun”). This came with a side of deli salad, so I chose the broccolini.

Now here is where I went a little crazy, as only a food blogger can: in addition to ordering the tuna sandwich and the obligatory Pellegrino, I got a Pistachio mini cupcake, a Chocolate mini cupcake, and a slice of their special Carrot Cake (it's okay, it’s macrobiotic!).

While I was ordering, I realized that I might get funny looks if they brought all of that dessert to my table, so I ingeniously asked for the dessert as take-out ("Huh? No, I'm not gonna eat all of that myself. Um, I'm just getting it for a friend.. *cough*").

The food was delivered in under five minutes. My tuna sandwich looked so pretty, I couldn’t wait to bite into it:



I was a little disappointed to discover that the tuna wasn’t a fillet: it was a patty of tuna mixed with green onions and peppers. But those lost points were quickly earned back when I saw that the patty was cooked medium rare.

With all the accoutrements, the burger was a unique, tasty blend of creamy (from the avocado and the mayo), spicy (from the peppers and the daikon sprouts) and tangy (from the pickled onions).


The pistachio cupcake was as amazing as I’d remembered only two days earlier.. The chocolate was great too, but still not as moist and buttery as the pistachio:



At this point, I was stuffed. But I felt it necessary that I move on to the carrot cake:



It was sheer bliss: not too sweet, with a cream cheese frosting to die for (but I’m sure that wasn’t real cream cheese, right? ;) ). It is amazing that this was made with no refined sugar. As a result, I didn't get that terrible sugar rush I usually feel after I eat a dessert. My friend doesn’t particularly like carrot cake, and she was blown away by M Café’s moist, gingery version.

My friend also ordered the two-salad combo of the seaweed salad and the kale salad after reading my last blog entry:



I think that she’s still dreaming about that kale salad, she loved it that much. The seaweed salad was less of a hit: it was just plain seaweed with no dressing or seasoning. Weird.

Regardless, the meal was a success, and we were already plotting our next visit before the day was over. M Café Part 3? Stay tuned… :)