I don’t have time to run as many food marathons as I’d like so here is a hypothetical Koreatown food marathon comprised of links from a few of LA’s best food bloggers:
Food GPS and Mattatouille try Park’s pork at Don Dae Gam and are pleased.
Kung Food Panda continues the pork escapades at Ham Ji Park.
Pleasure Palate gets pork and potato on her pizza at Mr Pizza Factory.
For those in San Diego you can get your Korean food fix as well courtesy of mmm-yoso.
This wasn’t a food marathon, but it should have been.
These were outstanding soup dumplings from Dean Sin World.
This was the Kogi truck outside Fred Segal on the same night that the Nom Nom Truck was two blocks west at 3.1 Phillip Lim. Finally some food truck action in my neighborhood.
This was Luna’s amazing chicken curry. She makes it fresh with homegrown habañero peppers.
We were in Santa Barbara for a wedding and Fiesta. These were huge slabs of ribs,
these were big, soft tamales and tacos filled with every meat you can imagine.
The better tacos were at Lilly’s Tacos.
These were the asada, adobada and lengua. It’s a great stop to add next to you go to La Super-Rica.
Last and surprisingly not least was spicy yaki soba with soy fish from Vegan Glory. Obviously it wasn’t spicy enough but it was pretty good for fake fish…
P.S. Here’s some burgers for good measure. Carl’s Jr over McDonalds every single time.
I’m virtually useless at cooking. My love for food is far outweighed by my impatient hunger. I get frazzled, I worry about timing things correctly, my palate eludes me completely. It seems E*star and Caroline on Crack can’t cook either. Luckily for us there’s a Food Network sanctioned Wii cooking game to help us learn without the risk of diced fingers or four alarm fires.
Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked is Iron Chef Michael Symon-approved, which presented an opportunity for a live cooking battle with slightly less drama than his usual television competitions.
Chef Symon is really easy-going (much less intimidating than the photo would lead you to believe), has his signature laugh at the ready and provided a comfortable chance to ask questions and generally socialize before the analog vs digital food fight started.
After chatting with the Iron Chef, trying out the game and munching on meatballs, potato pancakes and pierogies, the demo began.
Food GPS, Tara Met Blog and a number of others circled the ring like a UFC match (that’s Ultimate Food Championship in this case).
It was pretty amazing to see the timing working exactly as Symon cooked real chicken and broccoli while game developer, Michael Morishita, Wii-cooked the virtual variety.
In terms of a teaching tool and consequence-free cooking environment, Cook or Be Cooked is stellar. As far as satisfying hunger, you’ll still need to make do with real, farm-raised chickens (or Doritos if you’re a serious gamer). You can also try the new online LA restaurant delivery service, Magnifeast- cause heaven forbid you ever actually spoke to a human being again.
It’s early for holiday shopping but Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked will be released on November 3rd. So order now as a gift for your favorite food blogger with the initials FM…
I don’t have time to run as many food marathons as I’d like so here are hypothetical food marathons posted by a few of LA’s best food bloggers:
Teenage Glutster eats his way to Indonesia
Mattatouille’s worldwide adventures continue with pork, fruit and coffee in Indonesia
Gourmet Pigs posts about drool-inducing suckling pig in Bali
For those chained to their desks, my post about Indonesian food in LA
Also for a non-Indonesian option, Food GPS has walking food marathons for dineLA
I wrote about Choctal Ice Cream recently because it was so good that I wanted to share it. Same goes for Zhena’s Gypsy Tea. Just like Choctal isn’t your ordinary ice cream, Zhena’s isn’t your ordinary tea- especially their Biodynamic Green Tea line. Because everyone’s Fair Trade now, everyone is using eco-friendly materials but is anyone creating a smaller carbon footprint while producing such delicious tea?
The flavor that got me was the Mango Ginger. It’s so smooth and the subtle flavors blend so perfectly that it’s not too sweet, not too fragrant and not too watered down.
The Caramelized Pear, Blueberry Vanilla and Black Forestberry are great as well. Think of it as the Toyota Prius of tea- smart, sophisticated, good for the environment and as delicious to drink as new-car-smell is to smell.
I also like these totally unrelated tea items:
In honor of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (in theaters this Friday) we ran a meatball marathon after the film’s premiere. The movie is really good, not just kid stuff but a lot of smart, adult pop culture references and humor. Also a lot of action (referencing Star Wars, Armageddon and other Bruckheimer/Bay blockbusters). Not to mention Mr T voices a great role.
The first stop of the meatball marathon was Larchmont Larder. We grabbed two big meatballs and headed to Mozza 2 Go, where we grabbed some more. Then the comparison began. First, Larchmont Larders’ are softball sized, densely packed meatballs vs Mozza’s small, light fluffy version. Flavorwise they’re quite different. LL’s were on the bland side while Mozza’s were overflowing with garlicky, herb-infused richness. It doesn’t hurt that Mozza’s packaging is so superb- strong, clean, spill-free.
Not satisfied with just two stops we headed to one of my favorite pasta purveyors, Al Gelato. My grandma used to make the sweetest pasta sauce so Al Gelato strikes a childhood cord with me. Their sauce is so plentiful (to the point of overdosing) and sweet (to the point of dessert), that a lot of people hate it. I love it.
We ordered spaghetti with their giant meatballs, the first of which was a bit overcooked but the second was perfect. In terms of density, Al Gelato’s fall between Mozza and Larchmont Larder. They crumble with a poke of the fork but maintain good spongey texture in your mouth. In terms of flavor they can’t compete with Mozza’s, but come in second place for the marathon.
Go see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and if you need meatball recommendations, we didn’t have the stomach capacity to try Dan Tana’s or Dominick’s- both of which have highly esteemed meatballs. Also, I hear Ikea has great meatballs as well. Let me know what you think.
I don’t have time to run as many food marathons as I’d like so here’s a hypothetical downtown marathon of breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert as posted by a few of LA’s best food bloggers:
Caroline on Crack discusses midnight breakfasts at The Edison
Alli411 lunches at Bottega Louie
