Food, Food, and More Food Thread

Im not a vegan but that looks very good. :beaten:

Eve wrote:Im not a vegan but that looks very good. :beaten:

Lot better than I thought it would be ;)

Tu_triky wrote:I went to The Veggie Grill, a vegan restaurant for lunch. Considering this was my first visit I was surprised how good the food tasted. It really was delicious.

I had an "All-American Stack" veggie burger with sweet potato fries & chipotle sauce. I couldn't believe this vegan "meat" tasted so good. I was rather shocked. A bit expensive though.

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Looks pretty good... Though I'm a traditionalist when it comes to fries: Russets all the way. :victory:

bmwracer wrote:
Looks pretty good... Though I'm a traditionalist when it comes to fries: Russets all the way. :victory:

I'm with you on that, man. :)

However, this is one of those "hip" vegan places, so sweet potato fries were the only type of fries they had. I will say this, they were extremely crispy and not at all greasy. I was totally savoring 'em considering those fries were the most decadent thing I've eaten in about a week or so.

Ever since the LA WEEKLY food tasting event I've thrown in the towel on letting my taste buds dictate my meals. :beaten: That weekend was a total pig (out) fest! I've been hitting the gym hard and eating really clean to make up for all splurging. :sweat:

Tu_triky wrote:Ever since the LA WEEKLY food tasting event I've thrown in the towel on letting my taste buds dictate my meals. :beaten: That weekend was a total pig (out) fest! I've been hitting the gym hard and eating really clean to make up for all splurging. :sweat:

I know the feeling. :sweat:

bmwracer wrote:
I know the feeling. :sweat:

Pigged out like a fool. me ----> [image]

Hung out at my fave sushi place for a couple of hours... No price changes are expected at this point. :fingerscrossed:

The owners have friends and family in Osaka, relatively far from "the action," but they did feel the shaking from the multiple quakes... :sweat:

bmwracer wrote:Hung out at my fave sushi place for a couple of hours... No price changes are expected at this point. :fingerscrossed:

The owners have friends and family in Osaka, relatively far from "the action," but they did feel the shaking from the multiple quakes... :sweat:

Right on. Yeah I've been keeping in touch with this one dude I met back in '09 who lives in Osaka; they've been left unscathed. Too far away from the Tohoku-Sendai area.

Lucky.

Tu_triky wrote:Right on. Yeah I've been keeping in touch with this one dude I met back in '09 who lives in Osaka; they've been left unscathed. Too far away from the Tohoku-Sendai area.

Lucky.

By coincidence, the owner had the Dodger game on and Hideki Kuroda was pitching... And he's from Osaka. :mrgreen:

Tu_triky wrote:I went to The Veggie Grill, a vegan restaurant for lunch. Considering this was my first visit I was surprised how good the food tasted. It really was delicious.

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Thanks! Another place to check out. I saw a branch by UC Irvine but (as usual) was hesitant to try it. I'm not a vegetarian but sometimes I like to eat light. :)

bmwracer wrote:
By coincidence, the owner had the Dodger game on and Hideki Kuroda was pitching... And he's from Osaka. :mrgreen:

Nice :)

Sengo wrote:

Thanks! Another place to check out. I saw a branch by UC Irvine but (as usual) was hesitant to try it. I'm not a vegetarian but sometimes I like to eat light. :)

Some of their salads look really good, too. If you wanted to eat light, I think one of those might fit the bill.

Sengo wrote:I'm not a vegetarian but sometimes I like to eat light. :)

It might be vegetarian, but it doesn't look that light.

bmwracer wrote:
It might be vegetarian, but it doesn't look that light.

What I meant was that sometimes I don't feel like eating animal protein.....want to give my digestion a rest. :)

Tu_triky wrote:

Some of their salads look really good, too. If you wanted to eat light, I think one of those might fit the bill.

Yeah, that sounds good! :thumbsup:

Sengo wrote:

Yeah, that sounds good! :thumbsup:

Please let me know if you try any of the food on their menu. I only went the one time I wrote about above. I would love to hear a review of some of their other offerings.

I went to the one in Hollywood but I don't contemplate going there very often because it's a bit out of the way for me.

Hit the Spicy Soon Tofu (with mushrooms) to help combat the chilly, wet weather

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Tu_triky wrote:

Right on. Yeah I've been keeping in touch with this one dude I met back in '09 who lives in Osaka; they've been left unscathed. Too far away from the Tohoku-Sendai area.

Lucky.

That's good, Osaka is quite far from the area that got hit hard. I have friends in Hiroshima, and they are also unscathed as it is 500 miles away from the areas affected. I went thru old photos from my visit there, and I should post up some photos of the Okono-miyaki place they took me while in Hiroshima, it was quite good as they put noodles in their Okono-mikyaki and I got to take a photo with the owner of the restarant.

qilver wrote:

That's good, Osaka is quite far from the area that got hit hard. I have friends in Hiroshima, and they are also unscathed as it is 500 miles away from the areas affected. I went thru old photos from my visit there, and I should post up some photos of the Okono-miyaki place they took me while in Hiroshima, it was quite good as they put noodles in their Okono-mikyaki and I got to take a photo with the owner of the restarant.

Yeah Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki is famous; I'm sure it was good.

A Restaurant Owner Bites Into Something Foul, Dark and Winged
By KEN ORINGE and JOAN RAYMOND

The New York Times

IN my line of work, I have to go everywhere to get new ideas. When it comes to food, I will eat local delicacies to get inspiration, too.

I was a guest chef at a big festival in South Africa and decided I was going to extend my stay so I could see the Seychelles, a place I always wanted to go. The islands were as beautiful as everyone said. I got really excited when I found this little restaurant on one of the islands. The scents were amazing. I asked a staff member about the house special. It was bat.

I had never eaten bat, but I figured that since bats eat fruit, it couldnft be that bad. I ordered mine grilled. I can honestly say it was the single worst thing I have ever eaten in my entire life. The wings have more bones than any piece of fish on the planet. Ifm lucky I didnft choke.

But choking may have been preferable to spitting out bat stubble, which I had to do since the bat wasnft cleaned all that well before cooking. The meat, all one-half ounce of it, was nasty. The only way I knew I could get the taste out of my mouth was by drinking some tequila. There wasnft any. In fact, there was no liquor at all.

Several other restaurant patrons and I took a ferry to get to another island. I got sick, so did most everyone else who ate bat. It was like a horror movie. Ifm still trying to get the image out of my head of bat flying out of my mouth.

On the other hand, the ant larvae taco I had in Mexico was great. If you put on enough hot sauce, most anything is good.

Trying to recreate what I see when I travel is a lot of fun. Sometimes itfs easy; other times not so much. When I was in Spain, every tapas restaurant had a bullfs head on the wall. I thought it would be cool to get one for my tapas restaurant, Toro, but I never had any luck, and I looked everywhere, including South America.

When I was in Tijuana, I found this metal worker who was selling crafts. He had giraffes and crocodiles that he made out of metal, so I asked him if he had a bullfs head. He didnft, but he said he could make one for $50.

I told him I was leaving for Boston the next day. I thought there was no way he could do it before I left, and if he did finish it, I figured it would be about the size of my fist. Donft ask me how he did it in time, but he crafted a life-size bullfs head for me, and it was gorgeous.

Ifm an idiot and didnft think about how I was going to get it across the border. The thing weighs about 150 pounds, and wouldnft fit into a taxi.

So my girlfriend, Celine, with whom I was traveling, and I walked it over the border. The thing was so heavy we both had to hold onto it. I had to check it when we flew out from California and I thought Ifd never see it again.

But when we arrived at Logan and waited for the oversize luggage, there it was. Itfs now hanging in my restaurant.

Celine is now my wife. She didnft think I was an idiot and didnft complain once while helping me carry the thing, which are just two of the 17,000 reasons I love her.

By Ken Oringer, as told to Joan Raymond. E-mail: [email protected].