If New York had an embarrassing past of being in a weird 90s white rap-ish group, do you think it would have been called New Yorky York back in the day but would totally get pissed if you called it that now?
I have no idea what I’m talking about.
On a related note, here’s more food from over there.
A salad with falafel, tahini and hummous from Tahini in the East Village:
Last night was a very special somebody’s birthday and so, in celebration, I met the usual cast of characters at our favorite gaudy 80s Persian living room resturant, XIV.
Remember on Friends when Monica wanted to date Paul, “the wine guy”?
Well Sarah is dating Ben, the wine guy. Except her wine guy is less ’90s and more awesome.
Case in point:
First bottle of bubbly was on him. Cute surprise considering he wasn’t even at dinner with us.
Let’s discuss brunch at BLD with the Usual Suspects, Sarah, Diana and Sook.
Don’t bother clicking on the link to Sook’s blog. Blog Protective Services has removed it from her possession on the grounds of severe neglect and placed it in a home where it will never learn to develop into a normal, healthy website.
The best part is she still takes pictures at every meal. It’s like giving your child up for adoption and then buying it baby clothes just in case.
Little bit of this…
Little of that…
A giant blueberry ricotta pancake that deceptively had my name all over it but was not vegan:
Guess they didn’t need my help TCP (Takin’ Care of Pancake):
I got the vegan benedict. I almost took a bite of the regular benedict they brought out by accident and boy would I have been pissed. If I decide to take a bite of something non-vegan, I’ll own it. But if I eat ham, egg, and hollandaise because YOU got my order wrong, Imma have words for you. Also our waiter was kind of a penis.
I don’t care that the sauce was the color of Olean chips…that shit was good.
Sook had a Spanish frittata I think, with chorizo, manchego and paprika:
Diana had what I probably would’ve ordered back in the old days, the warm lentil salad with pancetta, cherry tomatoes, arugula, romano, an egg and a sherry vinaigrette. Good God.
Sarah had….uh…maybe the braised pork and poached eggs…
I don’t normally waste space on the potatoes but these guys earned a spot in the belly. So good.
After brunch we decided to spend the rest of the day drinking and shopping, both inappropriate yet therapeutic behaviors for a basically unemployed person.
On the way to The Grove I gasped at the site of this majestic creature:
Without even saying a word, Sarah knew I needed a picture and immediately flung herself into the shot. Big Up for that one, dude.
P.S. I own these shorts. They fall into the “I don’t wear these out of the house/I don’t rollerblade in them” category.
P.P.S. For this woman, they fall into the, “I wear this exact same outfit as I skate by BLD every single Sunday” category. I swear.
Thanks to all THREE of you who entered the contest below. You ALL deserve a free dinner for two and I sort of wish all four of us could just go eat TOGETHER! Winner will get an email pretty soon. I just have to work up the courage to not make everyone a winner. It’s not easy.
If you forgot to enter the contest/are too shy to comment/are too good for free food, don’t worry. You can still get 15% off between now and May 31, 2010 with this coupon. Lemme know if you like the joint. I’m a fan.
For those of you that make fun of me for eating at the same 5 places, you have nothing against me anymore because I have officially added a 6th favorite to my list. Joining the ranks of M Cafe, Sante La Brea, RFD, Tender Greens, and Lemonade is…
LIBRA BY THE POUND.
LIBRA, owned by Marcelo Ahn of Churrascaria M Grill, is a new buffet style Brazilian restaurant in Culver City where you get to choose from over 40 Brazilian (and other) dishes and you get to choose how much you want of everything! Let’s talk about this…
First of all, any restaurant that has “by the pound” in the name is right up my alley. You better believe if I’m in charge of serving myself that I will pile farro salad upon tabouli upon grilled veggies upon refreshing cucumber tomato salads to no end. NO. END.
And that’s actually pretty much what I did last Thursday when I had the pleasure of joining them for a media dinner:
If you’re nice and clean, you wash your hands first cause it’s a buffet and it’s the right thing to do.
Then check the super reasonable prices and pile on serve yourself food accordingly.
Of course they have meat and chicken and homemade meatballs and chicken cacciatore and all kinds of things you expect from a Brazilian place. But vegetarians also have over 30 meatless dishes from which to choose.
Everything here is made from scratch without using canned or processed foods. Can I get an Amen?
Nice space, right?
Plus exciting, exotic soda and Brazilian sauces, best if not consumed together…
Here’s what I got and what I plan to get every single time I’m there which will probably be, if I’m estimating things about right, three times a week for the rest of my life.
Now I’m gonna do that thing that you’re not supposed to do and post a bunch of different angles of the same meal so you can truly comprehend all aspects of the deliciousness.
K, I’m done. Ha, I always say that after dinner. But then I want…
My food (not including the brownie) and a bottle of water, weighed in at .860 lbs. at $9.75/lb. If my plate were in a fight, it might lose to the plate I plan to eat next time.
You should try LIBRA. Again and again. Cause you can print this coupon to use over and over between now and May 31st, 2010 for 15% off your entire meal! That’s over a month to try over 40 different fresh dishes made from scratch at 15% off.
Remember in Clueless when Mel tells Cher to get her ass home from a party in the valley within the next 20 minutes and she says it might take longer than that and then he tells Cher that everywhere in LA takes 20 minutes? And remember how that was actually kind of true in the ’90s? Well Culver City sort of is the one city in LA that is still only 20 minutes away from you, no matter where you are. So you have no excuse not to use this coupon every night you possibly can.
If 15% off really good food isn’t good enough for you then I don’t think we should be friends I have another offer.
Leave me a comment on this post telling me why you want/deserve/need a free dinner for 2 at LIBRA and I will be a selective asshole use my discretion to choose the best answer. Winner, while still totally allowed to use the 15% off coupon over and over, will get to enjoy a free dinner for 2 people at LIBRA once any time between now and May 31, 2010. Winner will be chosen and notified by email the evening of Monday, April 26, 2010 after 8pm, so leave your comment before then. Might I suggest you appeal to either my humorous side, my soft side, or my dirty side in your comments? It’s just better that way. Good luck!!!
Vegan turnovers from Mäni’s on Fairfax….Kinda into these right now….
Except they need to be grazed on throughout the day unless you want to feel like a lead belly.
Go for mixed berry or tropical. Apple you’ll get sick of faster than a heartbroken houseguest.
I don’t like crowds very much, and I don’t like competition when I go on a mission for dessert.
So when babycakes NYC came to LA at the beginning of the year, I patiently waited until my inner anxiety meter told me the coast was clear and the time was right. Turns out the time was right last Saturday.
Oh…and you know why I was so excited, about this, right? Because…
In case you need a gluten-free diet thanks to, say, a wheat allergy or celiac disease, it’s easy to tell what you can and can’t eat:
I was eyeing this bad boy but he escaped my wrath this time. I’ll get you next time, Gadget.
K. You hate me cause I keep showing you not-that-good shots of the case and not the amazing blueberry donut and strawberry jam with vanilla biscuit I inhaled daintily ate.
I bet if that donut was a person it would be all, “whoa, back up. why are you taking a picture so close to my face?!” And then I’d be like, “no, trust me, you look really good.”
In the world of vegan food, and particularly desserts, there are things that taste delicious to vegans, but non-vegans will still say “it’s good, but it tastes vegan” (you know who you are).
Then there’s shit like these motherfucking biscuits that taste so undeniably good and unrecognizably vegan. No qualifiers. No “good, but…” Just perfect. And able to hang with all the big (non-vegan) boys.
And that’s why it’s a problem for me that babycakes delivers.
Although before I knew that, I just planned on stockpiling after every visit…
What else should I try here?
Everything?
Are you sure? Well, you know best.
don’t be mad, but I don’t feel like talking. besides a picture’s worth a 1,000 words. So here’s some food from Akasha. The only thing the picture probably doesn’t say is “slightly under salted.” But I said it, so that’s enough. Other than that recurring issue, I’m becoming a pretty big Akasha fan.
There are a few good lunch options near my work. If you’re anyone but me.
There’s Subway, which if you know me, you know I think smells like a public restroom.
There’s Quiznos, which smells like a public restroom, but toasted.
There’s an Indian buffet place that is basically stuffed inside a Thai massage parlor and always has a gang of thugs that look like this lurking in the back:
There was, for a brief period, Flourish Cafe, a good, but expensive, vegan spot. They recently closed, though, leaving me with nothing. Or so I thought.
Live music often makes me panic so typically I ignore the El Rey Theatre. Turns out I have been doing myself a disservice since they are home to one of my new favorite spots–Cowboys and Turbans, a super cheap, and ultra fast Mexican and Indian fusion restaurant.
Lunch is usually around $6-$8 and should keep you full pretty much all day, unless you are a bottomless pit.
The first time I got the spinach tofu tandoori burrito. Completely vegan and seriously delicious.
Immediately after lunch a food coma of Thanksgiving proportions ensued and I went into unibomber disguise so nobody would talk to me.
Now I alternate between the burrito and the naanwich (also spinach tofu), on wheat naan.
The little shreds on top that look like cheese are actually chic pea strips. Not everything is vegan here since they serve chicken and quesadillas, and masala cheese fries (!), but there are plenty of vegan options, including a coconut based masala sauce with no dairy.
From left to right are the masala, a super spicy red sauce and an equally spicy and maybe more delicious green sauce.
Once I went to the El Rey location for lunch and then, in an effort to be inconspicuous, went to the Silverlake location for dinner. The owner saw me both times. As we left after dinner, he looked at me and my date and said to us “see you guys later” and then pointed at me and said “especially you.”
Embarrassing, maybe, but not enough to stop me from going back for lunch the next day. And basically 3-5 times a week ever since.
A few weeks ago I got email notification that Patty’s Pizza (gourmet take and bake) would be closing it’s retail location on Montana Avenue. Well, not exactly closing, but “relocating” to an online delivery service, that, much to my chagrin, will serve only West LA. If you live in Venice, Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, Malibu, Pacific Palisades or even Beverly Hills, you are super lucky. And not just because you live in a nice neighborhood. But also because Patty’s pizza is really fucking delicious. I’ve had their soy cheese pizza and I would venture to say it is, without a doubt, one of the best vegan pizzas I’ve had in LA.
Pizzas range from $8 to $20 and can (and should) be ordered online from www.pattyspizza.com
I joked in an email with Christina, of Blaze PR, that I was tempted to pull an Elaine and order pizza from a mysterious westside address and just wait in front of their house (or in the janitor’s closet) till it arrived. I wouldn’t put it past me.
I missed their closing party but here are some shots:
See, you take ‘em home like this and bake ‘em and then when your friends come over you give Patty no credit and pretend you made it all from scratch and also grew the ingredients mostly. It’s the right thing to do.
You can also get their frozen pizzas at Bristol Farms (or the Trader Joe’s Brand Pepperoni Pizza is also Patty’s)
I don’t know if the above pictures do justice to how good this pizza really is. I’ll get my hands on some, even though it might be harder than it used to be, and I’ll show you how good that shit really looks and tastes in person. When I invite you over to taste the pizza I “made from scratch.”
