lemonchicken

Jonathan Gold

brian — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 01:07:00 +0000

Hmmm, well at least he writes quite a bit so most might have overlooked this.

El Coyote Many restaurants resemble this place — from the cheap margaritas, to the “Mexican pizza” available in the ever-crowded bar, to the walls decorated with broken mirrors, to the wire-mesh-enclosed patio with its plastic smog-dusted foliage and visiting local sparrows, to the guacamole dinners, to the ersatz tostadas — but I could pick an El Coyote combination plate blindfolded out of 100 others, and most of the regulars could, too. 7312 Beverly Blvd., L.A., (323) 939-2255. Lunch and dinner Sun.–Thurs. 11 a.m.–10 p.m., Fri.–Sat. 11 a.m.–11 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking. Dinner for two, food only, $18–$25. MC, V. Mexican. JG $

I would like to point out that even though there are lots of places that offer up sloppy "mexican" food that really is just lard and some spices, that El Coyote is the worst mexican food (if not the worst food) in all of Los angeles. Anyway, this is the first time that I can remember having a strong disagreement with anything Mr. Gold has written.

catching up with....violets

brian — Sat, 26 May 2007 02:21:00 +0000

Again, I'm late to the party but the girls at violet sure know how to bake cakes and cupcakes and probably other baked goods but I only ever see cupcakes and cakes there.
Always seems to be a line which obviously is a good sign when they primarily only sell cupcakes at retails. Among the favorites are some sort of tahitian thing, strawberry short cake, the chocolate with cream cheese frosting. The one dislike was the french toast cupcake. Menu varies by season which is nice. Who am i kidding? I also liked the chocolate bomb thing, the cherry pie, the carrot cake and even the plain vanilla. Pistachio was also a bit disappointing. Why have we eaten so many cupcakes? We've ordered our custom made wedding cake from them.

Notice the sweet DOF (or lack thereof)? Just trying to up the photography caliber on the site.

The owner's name is Denise, but we are always greeted by the friendly and hard working jenna.

21 E Holly St
Pasadena, CA
91103

Phone: (626) 395-9821

750ml follow up.

brian — Thu, 17 May 2007 21:39:00 +0000

Michelle, being as bored as she is, sent me an interesting post from chowhound.

chowhound 750ml thread

I would say this place should be shut down. Hopefully it will go out of business on it's own.

750 ml sucks my will to live

brian — Thu, 17 May 2007 01:24:00 +0000

this is really just taken from a comment I left at another cool blog.
http://weblogs.variety.com/theknife/
check it out.

750ml was one of the WORST dining experiences I have had in several years.I eat out quite a bit. probably too much. but this meal was all wrong. 4 of us ate, but I think we shared dinner for 1. Dinner for 1 being 4 entrees and 4 apps. or should i say 8 small apps.
The wait staff appeared to be stoned out of their heads. The waitress kept apologizing for things taking so long because it was so hectic. There was 10 people in the restaurant. 4 were us, 2 were the waiter/waitress and 2 were the chefs. What does that leave? maybe 2 other people?
The breadstick thing was pretty lame considering how slow the service was. is bread expensive these days? i'm not sure and i guess I'm getting old because I remember when it was free.
The rib eye steak was the thinnest steak I have seen served other than skeak-ums or minute steak. fatty. not the good marbled kind of fatty, but the big gnarly piece of fat hanging around for no reason. fries were limp, oily and bland.

i would have loved to try the cheese that came with one of our salads but the piece was so small that it was only able to be cut into thirds.

even the tap water was really bad. not the usual snotty LA, must drink bottled sort of way. but the damn, what the hell are they doing kind of way.

750ml. 0ml good.
no photography necessary. just stay away. far away.

pinkberry. cantaloop.

brian — Sat, 12 May 2007 01:01:00 +0000

So there was some hullabaloo in the Times about whether or not pinkberry is real yogurt. Well, I'll wait to see what the FDA decides, until then cantaloop is my choice for delicious frozen yogurt. All natural, is one thing i guess, you can probably tell I don't really care about that. Their pomegranate yogurt is better than plain or green tea at pinkberry.

Anyway, it's on the corner of La brea and hollywood. The staff is much friendlier than the snobs at pinkberry too.

More burrata info

brian — Sat, 12 May 2007 00:32:00 +0000

My good friend michelle, who apparently is as bored as me, gave me this link from the LA times to further our discussion about burrata.

la times burrata article
free registration required.

They have some pictures and stuff. good reading. better eating.

An apple.

brian — Sat, 12 May 2007 00:21:00 +0000

Hey, look at this apple i cut.
We were at Sears buying a bar-b-q for a friend's bar-b-q. Somehow (me) we were suckered into a 10 minute sales presentation for the all new and improved ginsu knife company. they had this stupid plastic knife that can cut diagonally into apples and stuff. anyway, they gave us a free orange juicer plastic thing. that is strangely available in amusement parks and gourmet stores.
i cut the apple with a regular knife. i'm crazy like that.

here's the action at sears.

Burrata. defined.

brian — Sat, 12 May 2007 00:20:00 +0000

Gotta love this wikipedia deal.
read up on the burrata. for some reason even people that work at some restaurants don't know what it is.

Wiki article

obligatory pizza mozza post

brian — Fri, 11 May 2007 20:47:00 +0000

What would a LA food blog be without a post on pizza mozza. Sure, its a month or 2 behind the 200 other Mozza postings, but cmon, I'm getting back up to speed in the blogging game.

We had a difficult time getting reservations for 6 people. That of course is to be expected. With all of the hype and celebrity star-power of this place, I can understand that. What I have a harder time understanding is the rudeness and nastiness from the various people we spoke with on the phone while trying to get these reservations. Anyway, enough of that. The food really is quite delicious and overall, I am very happy to have this pizza place in the city. I think we need a pizza battle sometime soon.

sausage and fennel or was it fennel sausage. pretty taste but a tad on the conventional side for a restaurant like this.

fried stuffed squash blossoms. freshly fried and served hot. unlike some places that let dishes like this sit around and get less fried and less delicious.

i think this one was the winner. giancale (pig's cheek bacon) spelling??
egg and asparagus. really really good.

duck confit. this is not a pizza. pizza mozza offers one special dish per night. this was really good. served on a bed of lentil.

burrata and roasted tomatoes. a pretty interesting twist. very tasty burrata. and the tomatoes were really good too.

first new post in 2 years.

brian — Fri, 11 May 2007 01:06:00 +0000

Well, one of the most recent fun food things I've participated in was a brief yet fierce gelato battle. We have these friends (who shall remain nameless for the time being) who swear hollywood gelato is better than pazzo's gelato. In the end, it was a tie.
Vanilla vs Vanilla went to pazzo.
Dulce de leche vs almond/chocolate went to hollywood.

it was a close decision and i'm sure we'll have another battle soon

where have i been all this time...

brian — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 00:07:00 +0000

good question. hopefully i'll post on my blog again soon.

pecorino

brian — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 01:47:00 +0000

I'm fairly particular about bread. Most people have some sort of food product that they're particular about; coffee, wine, meat, whatever. Its not just a certain kind of bread, don't get me wrong... I like all sorts of breads... sourdough, wheat, rye, challah, as long as its good and not some weird grocery store interpretation of what it should be. Long story short, pecorino has really good bread. We've been back once since this last series of photos and had an equally delicious meal. I'd definately consider this place as good or almost as good as angellini. very very close.

keeping with the whole signage theme, i have to say pecorino has done a pretty nice job here.

casita del campo

brian — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 01:35:00 +0000

stay tuned. tonight we're eating at a mexican place that's been down the street from us since we moved to the los feliz side of town.

Casita Del Campo
1920 Hyperion Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 662-4255

rated an 8.7 on citysearch...
not that i count on citysearch too much these days. but it always interesting to see what people say about places. some of the pros of this place seem to be the chips, margs, and its gay vibe. not the three most important things on my list when eating mexican food but hey, its los angeles.

New Concept

brian — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 01:20:00 +0000

700 S Atlantic
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 282-6800

overall, i wasn't overly impressed with new concept. There really isn't anything that new about this concept. maybe we didn't order the right items? i know they're known for some really creative and original dishes. perhaps another visit is in order. but it may be a while before they get that next visit. on a slightly random yet funny tangent, a vietnamese place across the street is named pho kim. i laugh when i say that outloud. every time. i'm laughing now. i'm easily amused.
recently i've gotten pretty bad with this blog. no postings for weeks on end. very sad. i even have pictures taken of places with no words to accompany the pix. what to do? and now i am sans camera for the first time in years. the sony dsc-t7 had to be sacrificed to the god of ebay. low light indoor shots were completely unacceptable, and for food blogs those are typically the shots that need to be good. my previous SD200 is now sorely missed and shall be replaced shortly. the sd300 and sd400 are nice but the higher resolution is unnecessary for my uses. i will not take part in the pointless megapixel wars.

look at the signage

why must these always be so ugly?? i'll try and bring a little more attention to signage in future posts. but food and typography typically dont go well together. look at the visual clutter in a grocery store. mass chaos. i've noticed lots of thai restaurants seem to be spending more effort on the overall look these days. i wonder if its a trend that i am not aware of.

fancy tea pots. not really. very difficult to use for some reason.

travel kleenex pack? nope, just some napkins.

delicious and flaky egg custard.

shrimpy goodness

some sort of rolled rice noodle. delicious looking but bland and tasteless. quite disappointing.

you know this is good, just look at the friedness

green tea dumplings. another disappointment. nothing like the green tea dumplings at mission 261. why are these so green??

nothing special. but tasty

forgot what these are.

pretty good dumplings. slightly thicker skin than those at din tai, but very tasty fillings.

baked baos. yummm.

hmmm.

new concept cookies. a savory oddity. when i say savory, i just mean not sweet. bits of pork fat in this were really unappealing. chopped bits of onions were nice. but overall this just didn't work for me, but seemed to popular.

hungry hippo. no hungry cat.

brian — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 23:15:00 +0000

Jumping on the bandwagon, we decided to check out the Hungry Cat over at the shopping center on Sunset across from the Arclight. I've been a big fan of AOC for quite some time, so I suppose any restaurant opened by Suzanne Goin deserves a try. A glowing review in the Times cemented our resolve to check this place out. Reservations are pretty much required now, although on a Thursday night we were seated within 15 minutes. all shots taken with my new sony dsc-t7 camera. please read on for a brief rant on this beautiful piece of photographic equipment.

The wine list has some reasonably priced offerings, but this one seemed a little bit like a dessert wine. A little bit sweet for our dinner but still pretty decent.

Scallop Tartare was served with chili oil and mandarine slices. Both combine to form an interesting contrast with the scallops. Pretty tasty.

Pug Burger. This burger is amazing. Just as at AOC, the attention to quality ingredients really makes a big difference. Bacon, blue cheese, and avacoado were all top notch. The bun was from La brea baking company and also quite delicious. The fries arrived luke warm and not very crispy. A minor complaint, but at $14 everything should be pretty close to perfect.

Soft shell crab. Another extremly indulgent item, this was served fried with a nice batter and covered with some sort of delicious mayonaisse based sauce and resting on a bed of corn with big pieces of pork belly. perhaps the highest calorie density of any dish on the face of the earth. So delicious.

Blue cheese ordered on the side of the burger. No skimping here.

sony dsc-t7

brian — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 22:43:00 +0000

Well, I was trying to avoid any tech blogging, but the nerd in me has come out. I thought I had found my new blogging camera with the new Sony DSC-t7.

Unfortunately, the sony is very poor performing in low-light situations. Sometimes taking pics of food is pretty conspicuous so the flash is out. But getting a picture in focus with this sony can be quite challenging. A small tripod might help but there's no tripod mount built into the camera. nor is there a 2 second timer mode which helps keep camera shake down. All in all, the canon sd200,300 or 400 is probably a much better choice for food blogging. Although I am tempted to try the new fuji z1, which touts its low-light abilities and higher sensitivity settings.

Osteria Nonni

brian — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 21:54:00 +0000

Edit: this was written 2 months ago. Not that that matters.

We've been going to this little neighborhood for a few years now. Amazingly we still only order one dish. Last night was no exception, the lemon chicken special at Nonni is pretty much the only dish worth mentioning at this place. I know that sounds harsh, and in a way it is. The pizzas are passable, the bolognese was bland beyond compare, admittedly we were tempted by a meatball lasagna looking thing at the table next to us last night but we stayed the course. I'm not really sure how a place can get one dish so right but every single other item on the menu not quite right. Perplexing to say the least.
Sadly last night I was disappointed by even the lemon chicken. The creamy lemon sauce was neither very creamy nor very lemony. More of a buttery garlic concoction. Don't get me wrong, butter and garlic is a great combo... but any variation on this dish is cause for alarm. Its been the same for all the years we've been going. Another disturbing complaint I had was the chopping of the garlic, it looked as though it had been done by a 6 year old. Very large pieces, coursely chopped. Not good. And in a somewhat ironic display, the oglio and aglio was not very garlicy or tasty. The pasta was al dente (sometime last week) but when served was very mushy and not delicious at all.

the perfect dumpling.

brian — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 08:27:00 +0000

stop and take a number.

stop and try the appetizer. no, its called the appetizer.

stop and admire its perfectness.

another pho cafe sign entry

brian — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 08:25:00 +0000

This was emailed to us a while back. just getting around to posting it.

anyway, Andrew from hereinvannuys.blogspot.com was kind enough to send that entry in. check out his blog...

rambutan thai

brian — Wed, 25 May 2005 08:55:00 +0000

Rambutan Thai
2835 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026 View Map
(213) 273-8424

not that i give much credence to the ratings on citysearch most of the time, but this place has a 9.9 which must be one of the, if not the highest rated restaurant on citysearch LA.
anyhoo, I wrote this post almost 2 months ago. guess i should have finished it and posted it at some point in the last 6 weeks. full time employment has killed my blog. hopefully it will come back to life.

check out the spiffy website!

A surprisingly well-polished little gem in an unsurprisingly unpolished mini-mall in silverlake. Just a few doors down from Pho Cafe, Rambutan is another reason not to judge a book by its cover. or something. have to say, generally not a fan of the strip malls that seem to dominate the La urban jungle. but with tere's for mexican over on melrose and these 2 places (pho cafe and rambutan) I might have to start giving more of these little places a chance.

gigantic thai iced tea.

Beef Waterfall
Northern Thai dish features slices of charbroiled top sirloin in a spicy lime chili dressing with slices of green and red onions. Served on cabbage cups.

Crab Rolls
Crab meat, minced chicken, green onions and carrots wrapped in rice paper. Served crispy with a sweet chili sauce.

some sort of rice noodle wrapped around some sort of ground chicken filling

Mee Krob
Traditional Thai favorite of crispy noodles, shrimp and chicken tossed in a sweet tamarind sauce.

Tom Yum Gai
soup

Naked Shrimp
crisp romaine lettuce and tomatoes with grilled shrimp
in a roasted garlic chili vinaigrette.

sticky rice w/mango
surprisingly delicious concoction of sticky rice and coconut milk.

chowhounds need our help...

brian — Mon, 23 May 2005 01:51:00 +0000

This email was sent to me over the weekend, so I thought I'd post it up here. Sadly it looks as if there is only a chowhound book for SF and NYC.

Hiya L.A. food Bloggers:

If you know and appreciate Chowhound.com please join me in a "grass roots" effort to get the word out about their chow books. My understanding is that the success of their recently published books is critical to their continued existence. So, if you have a mind too, please put a plug for their books in your blogs.

Here is what I have on one of my web pages. I am not asking that you publish anything as comprehensive as this, it is just so you get a "flavor" of what I am suggesting:

http://www.indefatigable-indolence.org/Chow_Books.html

Thanks for your time, and I wish your blogs success and a long life.

franklin avenue hits din tai

brian — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 21:43:00 +0000

see what franklin avenue has to say about our fave, din tai.

pho cafe sign design contest.

brian — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 15:39:00 +0000

For some reason, I've decided that Pho Cafe needs a sign. Let's have a design contest. Well, its not really a contest since there wouldn't really be a winner or anything like that. Anyway, Pho Cafe really does deserve some sort of sign since it is a pretty decent place to get some pho. I actually prefer trekking out to Pho 79 in Alhambra since they have a larger selection and the food seems quite a bit tastier. But inside the stark minimalist interior, Pho Cafe does serve a pretty good bowl of noodles.

and remember, pho kim if he can't take a joke...

email your sign designs to brian@lemonchicken.com

here's my entry into the design a sign fun....

edit: look at this, the entries are already flooding in!

eric busts some chrome for pho

gregg hits the silverlake rocker look right on the money.

bang takes the sign to a new level (literally)

bang with another eye catching sign.

another new link

brian — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 01:28:00 +0000

check out the enhanced restaurant health ratings on RestaurantWatch.com.
This is a pretty nice addition to the existing LA county site.

a new link

brian — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 19:15:00 +0000

Here's a link to some interesting recipes. I can honestly "crazy" Noah is the one of the least crazy people I know.

check it out