ConFyuShis's Xanga

when a great deal isn't ...

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:21:40 GMT

so now that you've seen some of the "value-packed" menus that restaurant week has to offer, i'm gonna take it a step back and say that great food deals can be found anywhere ... and it's not just related to the price ... well, ok ... price has a little bit to do with it, but so does taste ... and convenience ... who want to get dressed up and pay a $10 valet charge? ... who wants to wait for a table to open up? .... sometime you just want to eat good food quickly ... and i am all about that ...

why do we get food at bossa nova so often? it's not the cheapest joint in town ... but it is the closest sit down restaurant to my apartment ... and it's open until 4am ... what other joint can offer that without a lengthy drive and desperate search for parking? plus they have bad-ass plantains and their pasta dishes are pretty good (and calorific) ...

and you can get a taste of history in downtown for cheap ... less than $10 will net you a french dip and a couple of sides from philippe the original ... arguably the first place to ever offer a french dip sandwich in LA, the place has been around (at least in name) for over a 100 years ... and even though cole's is technically older, i'm gonna go out on a limb and say that they're not as famous as philippe ... but yeah, a french roll w/ meat of your choice drenched in meat juices ... double-dip the sandwich in meat juice if you want ... or even totally juicy sopping wet w/ tasty goodness ... don't miss out on the side man salads ... i'm a big fan of the mac salad for about a buck ...

and then you want bang for your buck ... we practically ate our weight in marinated meat for under $20 at tahoe ... amazingly not busy around noon on a sunday ... we got full service ... partially because they thought i was korean ... soups, salads, tasty pine-nut beverages ... all included in the AYCE price ...

you definitely don't have to wait for a designated week to get yo' grub on in LA ...

andy

late night lottery ...

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:44:00 GMT

and restaurants need our business bad enough that they'll give away gift cards to get you to come in ... palomino in westwood ... home to many a late night happy hour ... $5 food ... $4 drinks now up from $2 ... gotta make your money somewhere ... but i scored a few gift cards that are worth either $15 or $500 in palomino food ... how do i know how much? gotta rack up a bill first ...

so we met up and got the menu ... the entire menu ... like usual ... a couple mojitos ... a couple pizzas ... a couple cheese plates ... and cheese-y potatoes and salads ... and stuff ... it was delicious and cheap ... about $20 a person to be almost-sick-full ... can't beat that w/ a bat ... but yeah our card was worth $15 ...

if you want to see what the other cards are worth, give us a buzz and we'll check it out together after a couple of pizzas ...

andy

scares and dares ...

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 05:30:43 GMT

and we planned a nice evening for a dinner and a movie ...

the blue dog in the valley by kelly's old place ... a beer joint w/ a nice bar menu ... we got the veggie chili, greek pizza, meat calzone and the blue dog burger w/ a ton o' bacon ... we finished with a pizookie wanna-be which was delicious, but poorly executed ... ice cream b/w 2 hot cookies? it melts before you get to it ... that's why bj's method works so well ...

people came from far and wide for the movie ... paranormal activity ... and seeing as how i didn't want to spend $13 to watch my palms over my eyes, i opted out ... i don't have a very good record w/ scary movies ... the ring? yeah, i needed the lights on for a while after that ... the exorcist? yep ... emily rose? yep ... i figured 90 minutes of scares wasn't worth the sleepless nights ...

but yeah, i hope the bbc had a blast ... at least the food was rad ...

andy

restaurant week ... day 3 ...

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:38:51 GMT

months in the making ... our third restaurant week outing involved craft in century city ... the restaurant of top chef judge tom colicchio ... and since we're all top chef fans, we had to give it a go ... very good service ... i just wish that that the menu wasn't as dumbed-down for restaurant week ...

family style appetizers ... m'eh salad and salmon spread ... family style sides ... mixed veggies, mushrooms, potatoes ... m'eh ... and individual entrees ... small portions of tough beef short rib and tough sirloin slices ... ordering beef short rib at any sit-down restaurant is usually a no-brainer, but i've never had short rib that tough ...

family style desserts ... i'm a sucker for cheesecake, no matter how mediocre ... rich chocolate cake ... and an assortment of ice cream/sorbets ... strawberry, banana, hazelnut, vanilla ... but yeah for $44 i was definitely hoping for more ... but i guess you can't ask for that in a place that serves a tiny 30oz steak for $100 ... no piece of meat that small is worth that much money ... and this meal was not a deal at $44 ...

but we had a good enough time talking the talk ... shootin' the shit ... and all that good stuff ... we even received a few gift certificates for a future meal ... as long as it's from the standard menu, i might try it ... the minor food issues aside, it's always a happy restaurant week when you're w/ friends ... super props to renee for the reservations ...

andy

restaurant week ... day 2 ...

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:16:23 GMT

honey was available for our second outing ... NineThirty at the W in westwood ... i think i'm trying to get a taste of all the hotel restaurants while there are deals going on ... so yeah, outdoor seating ... it's too bad it's fall ... and when fall happens in LA it gets chilly pretty quick ... and by "chilly" i mean 60-something degrees which sucks for LA ... but yeah the big issue with this hotel food joint is that the service blows pretty bad ... the server was more interested in the after-hours businessguys ordering the high-profit liquor than getting us bread or water ... despite asking two different people twice for bread, we never got any ... the two asian businessguys on a bro date behind us had bread to spare ... take from that what you will ...

when the food got to our table, we partially forgot the shitty service ... a creamy corn bisque w/ a crab fritter ... super rad ... standard salads (asian-ish and italian-ish, not pictured) for the ladies ... m'eh brazil style steak with rice and beans and plantains and a m'eh salmon on mashed potatoes ... filling, but still ... whatevs ...

we finished off the meal with sorbet (a no-no in my book from past restaurant weeks, but honey's an experimenter) and the best ... friggin' ... panna cotta ... EVER ... a lot of inappropriate sounds were made ...

so yeah, if not for the company and the panna cotta, NineThirty would be on my blacklist ... why waste the valet money for servers who don't give a shit about diners?

andy

restaurant week ... day 1 ...

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:52:31 GMT

so i've recovered enough from my birthday shenanigans to participate in this fall's restaurant week ... first dinner stop was OnSunset at the Luxe near UCLA ... shirley's schedule is all over the place, but we still managed to grab the last reservation of the evening ... trout two ways and a standard salad (not pictured) for the first course ... an overdone sea bass w/ some awesome basil mashed potatoes ... i'm guessing that ordering fish for your entree is the riskiest move during restaurant week ... i snagged the mini-crockpot veal stew ... i'm also a big sucker for polenta ...

dessert? how about vanilla creme brulee and a chocolate fudge cake? yep, we were both winners ...

so how did OnSunset do? food was standard ... service was through the roof awesome ... though i attribute that to the lack of patrons in a hotel restaurant during one of the worst economic crises in american history ...

but yeah, see you at the next joint ...

andy

ok, i give up ... i'm 30 now ...

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:56:51 GMT

and the official party was saturday ... vanessa was in LA for the festivities ... i'd like to think it was for the festivities, but there was family stuff for her to do ... so we eased her into the situation w/ a nice night out at frank n hank's ... a super-cheap, cash-only, hipster dive bar by vanessa's parents' house ...

we then got together at my place for a little abba/queen karaoke and costco cake ... i'm a big fan of karaoke, especially those love song duets ... let's just say i got a little carried away with the one-man-show ...

we caravan'd over to downtown where the plan was to bar-hop until last call ... mission accomplished ... the must bar with their sangria and finger foods ... some other dive bar (the down and out?) that was pretty much empty ... and then we wound up at some joint w/ a dance floor ... game over ...

so we danced and danced and danced ... a few more drinks than usual, but we all had a really good time ...

back to my place to wind down the festivities ... and woke up a little earlier than i wanted to the next morning ...

and then a low-key party at my brother's house ... thanks to lee and hiroko for hosting ...

make your own sushi ... lots of meat skewers ... and noodles ...

and follow that up w/ cake and tea w/ the family ...

happy birthday indeed ...

andy

not 30 just yet ...

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:35:10 GMT

who's 30 years old? not me ... but it's inevitable ... so we had pre-parties galore ... friends and family and favorite food joints ...

bbc time at paco's for some of the good stuff ... i don't even remember how we found time to get our in-n-out on, but we did ... animal style for the win ...

elaine's b-day post-party in atwater for a nice outdoor viewing of the princess bride ... very very rad ...

and then my parents met shirley's mom and sister over a little thai food in glendale ... lots of gifts exchanged and stuff, which was fun ...

and we rolled into a smaller combo b-day celebration ... alibi room shenanigans with the bbc with flan courtesy of paco's and cupcakes courtesy of sprinkles ...

i'm pretty sure i can't ever get sick of either the alibi room or paco's ... but i'm sure my wallet would have a much different opinion if i went there everyday ...

so yeah, we went there a second time w/ more friends ... the fern man and his lovely lady and the sheilster got together with us to partake of the tres leches chocolate cake and 'black and tan' ice cream sandwich ...

i tried the kogi dog again and it was actually much better this time around ... thanks to everyone for coming out and grubbin' w/ us ...

andy

drinking and diving ...

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:51:17 GMT

so yeah, you're never too old for a good ol' fashioned water slide ... but you can be too heavy ... maximum load = 200 lbs? ... yeah, maybe that's just a suggestion ...

was it a coincidence that i had my swim trunks w/ me? i guess i always keep a pair within reach for situations just like this ...

fun times for a great summer-y day ... though i'm not sure how the little kids felt with the big kid knocking all the water out of the pool ...

so what was the big event? it was my cousin's 21st ... now she can booze it up w/ the rest of us ... though i'm not sure how long she'd last considering she's 4-foot-nothing ... but yeah all her cousins were around and we hung out and ate and played games and stuff ...

happy birthday ...

andy

... like a fish ...

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 01:09:56 GMT

labor day ... BBQs and pool parties ... pretty textbook for us ... plus booze, of course ... ro and joe were, of course, always planning ahead and extremely hospitable ...

so there was a ton of meat ... and salad ... and wine ... and swimming in the pool ... and scaring the dog w/ our cannonballs and bellyflops ...

let's just say that there were some that appreciated the pool ... some that appreciated the meat ... and some that appreciated the wine ... a lot ... not me ... i'm the DD ...

so yeah, we made it fairly family-friendly while the sun was up ... kids had their pool time and we partook of the ice cream cakes and stuff ... but as the sun went down, the kids got tired ... and the stories got raunchier ... and the wine went faster ...

fun time ... just too bad that tuesday was a workday ...

andy