Archive for the ‘Japanese’ Category

shojinchamps

8 Comments
Posted 12 Feb 2010 — by lolo
Category Downtown, Eating OUT, Japanese, Shojin, Uncategorized, hot babe, vegetarian

A couple of weeks ago, I took a cute boy to one of my favorite Japanese restaurants in LA. Incidentally it’s also one of my favorite vegan restaurants–Shojin, the quiet gem tucked away modestly on the third floor of a somewhat intimidating, very Asian mall downtown.

First of all, Shojin’s menu comes in a binder, if that’s any indication of how many ordering choices you have.

Second of all, while they were at Staples shopping for binders, they clearly stumbled upon these:

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which led to a whole lot of this:

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I ordered iced tea and my date had ginger ale, which I took a sip of before he even realized the eagle had landed. Make myself comfortable, why don’t I?

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As I sat down, I realized that I had lost my new, favorite, gift from my mommy purple scarf somewhere on the sojourn between car and restaurant.

I spent the entire dinner trying to imagine the whereabouts and foresee the fate of most favorite scarf.

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I let my date order since the entire menu reads like a series of haikus with pictures. In the spirit of bossing me around, he then stole my camera, set it to macro, and took my pictures for me. I’m taking him with me everywhere, whether he likes it or not.

We had the crispy curry broccoli and tofu served with Shojin ketchup:

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good shit yo.

Then we ordered the Shojin Go-Zen, a balanced assortment of traditional Shojin style dishes:

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Seitan Pepper Steak:

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daily vegetable dishes:

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kind of the most majestic tempura I’ve ever seen:

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(p.s. maybe I should limit the use of “majestic” to sea creatures?)

Then, because for some reason that wasn’t enough, we ordered The Caterpillar Roll with BBQ Seitan and Avocado:

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At this point we were pretty full and I was in not-so-silent mourning over my lost scarf. So…..

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Only one thing left to do, really.

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Schooled him, naturally. I don’t think he realized what he was getting into when he agreed to play Scrabble with me. Cause why on earth would he have guessed that I secretly played expert Sri Lankan strangers online for months a year during a very slow phase at work?

I’m going to file that under never should have admitted.

Got up to leave the restaurant and guess what I found:

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That’s more of a happy ending than any other I can think of that involves an Asian setting and a great date. Oh wait….

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Shojin Organic & Natural on Urbanspoon

ichallengeyoutoasoup

1 Comment
Posted 22 Dec 2009 — by lolo
Category Downtown, Eating OUT, Japanese, Uncategorized, vegetarian

A few weeks ago my friend (and hairdresser) Thy invited me to see her tree and get some dinner in Japantown.

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I’m allergic to cats but I like watching hers try to outsmart her, and get caught, every time I visit.

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We headed to Orochon Ramen despite Twitter outcries that Daikokuya is far better.

I checked out the Situation (not you, Mike) and discovered that only Orochon offers a vegetarian broth in addition to their pork based broths. Daikokuya, you might be better, but I’ll never know.

At Orochon you first choose a broth for your ramen–soy sauce, miso, or salt. Thy and I both asked for miso. The other two seem to cry MSG a little louder than miso did. No?

Then you choose your level of spicy–there are 7 levels, plus two additional extra spicy levels. If you are brave/dumb enough to order Special #2, meaning the spiciest, and you can finish your entire enormous bowl in under 30 minutes, you get your picture on the wall. I kinda wanted to do this until Thy said something like, “You’re a girl. Girls don’t do that.” But? so competitive? want picture on wall? brag about spicy? ok fine.

Anyway, then you pick your extras–maybe you want additional corn or bamboo or pork or noodles or bean sprouts or garlic, etc.

Thy’s ramen was porky to the max and mine was all veggie. We had beer in common though.

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Thy’s soup (spicy level number 2 –second spiciest if you don’t include the special #1 and special #2):

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I got mine the same level of spiciness, per Thy’s suggestion, and I realized there was no way I would survive the Special #2 30 minute challenge. Although now that enough time has passed I have blocked out just how spicy my soup was and I want to try again. Any takers?

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dude that shit was good. even though I felt like I had saline injected in my face the next morning when I woke up. Or whatever that probably would feel like.

so….basically just really bloated.

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Orochon Ramen on Urbanspoon

Don’tDoIt

No Comments
Posted 12 Nov 2009 — by lolo
Category Eating OUT, Japanese, vegetarian

guess what you don’t want to eat if you already want to barf because you can’t handle a hangover?

Pickled radishes in the middle of your salad from Yuko Kitchen.

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Trust me. You just don’t feel like it.

realdeal

1 Comment
Posted 26 Oct 2009 — by lolo
Category Eating OUT, Hollywood, Japanese, vegetarian

Last Thursday Caitlin and I met at Inaka on La Brea for a vegetarian dinner. I once told her that my friends often defer to me to pick a restaurant even though I’m usually at a loss since I only eat at Lemonade, Mani’s, and M Cafe, give or take a few spots.

Plus I like surprises and new things. So i was pretty excited when she took it upon herself to plan our date so I wouldn’t have to think about it (thanks buddy). Not only that–she also found a vegetarian place for me since I’m still not eating meat. Jesus. How many run-ons do I think I can get away with here?!

Inaka has been around a long time and serves Japanese vegetarian cuisine, as well as seafood.

What kind of seafood?

Well not only do they serve the fish plate of lunch size!!

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But they also serve the fish plate of dinner size!

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Rad.

I grabbed us a bottle of poison mixed with rubbing alcohol disguised as undrinkable sake from Trader Joe’s since Inaka is BYOB. Sorry. I tried.
I guess a good indication of the quality would be that the price tag ($5) was less than the corkage ($6).

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Texty McText over here in the background blocking my light.

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I’m not gonna lie…These pictures suck. The food was simple, healthy, and balanced. We accidentally ordered too much of it. Next time I’d maybe skip the noodles with vegetables but the mixed vegetable plate was way more exciting than it sounds. Some reviewers have complained that the food was bland but I think that’s the point–simply food where the ingredients speak fro themselves without salt ruining the party for everyone.

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Tofu chocolate mouse was off the chain. I’m so bummed I just said that.

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Inaka Natural Foods on Urbanspoon

saketomeyakitori

2 Comments
Posted 04 Oct 2009 — by lolo
Category Eating OUT, Japanese, West LA, yakitori

Last night Sophie AKA Wink$y AKA Creechies and I stopped by Royal T in Culver City where my friend Tyler was curating an art show. It opened last night but you can go see it until October 18. Details here.

We left when Snoop’s Uncle made us all be quiet so he could sing.

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Ok fine, maybe it wasn’t Uncle Junebug, but they sure had a lot in common.

We didn’t feel like anything in Culver City for dinner so we headed west to Nanbankan, a secret back alley yakitori spot in West LA. Sophie always puts me on to good Japanese spots, even though she’s a British bird.

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Just as we began serenading each other with chicken meatball poems, we she remembered I’m not eating meat all month in honor of Vegetarian Awareness Month. She promised she wouldn’t report me if I ate meat, but I committed to nothing with a head all month and no matter how unhappy that makes me, I’m doing it. Hopefully. Seriously.

We ordered sake and edamame to get started.

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The only reason I told you that, since I imagine you could’ve guessed that and you don’t really give a shit about soybeans, is that I’m stalling. I have no idea what anything else we ordered was called and apparently Nanbankan is not only tucked away in a secret alley in real life, but it is also hiding from menupages.com. I wish I didn’t want to call everything agedashi tofu.

Ok got it, I think. We ordered yaki onigiri, or grilled rice triangles.

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Each was filled with a delicate amount of something delicious–Sophie’s with salmon and mine with pickled plum.

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To anyone who is either Mexican or has been overly adventurous with snack shopping at 7-11, the pickled plum tasted like saladitos.

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Then Sophster had the chicken meatballs–tiny, perfect little guys, begging me to violate the code of vegetarianism.

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I ordered a tofu and vegetable soup with ponzu. I’m not a skilled enough PI to figure out what this was called, but all I know is, this shit was hotter than a mother. The steam itself burned the shit out of my arm, in theory at least, since there’s not evidence of any harm done. I’m ok, I’m fine. Thanks.

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Afterward, we walked around the corner to the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

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Nah, I’m just playing. I don’t see movies past my bedtime unless I can sleep through them and pretend I’ve been awake the whole time when the person next to me taps me to wake me up.