Woodranch Once Again!

After a busy and productive morning Saturday me and Cam went over to Woodranch over at Farmer’s Market. Or The Grove. Whichever you want to call it. I have had fun at this place each time I’ve gone and am glad to say that in a day and age where customer service continues to plummet across the board, this place stays friendly and fast.

I started off with a strawberry lemonade to drink. I love their lemonades here. They are sweet but not knock your teeth out sweet like some places make them. They even put a giant ass piece of mint which I removed and gave to Cam because it looked too close to a vegetable for me.

Cupcakes, Sandwiches, and Burgers

I have been slacking on my food blog which is sad. It really is because I’ve been broke and not going out to eat as much as I used to. But I have gone out some and either forgot to bring my camera like when I went to Toast last week. They redid the place. New look, slower service, and even smooth jazz. But the burger was great. Here is a rundown of some of the stuff I’ve had in the last month or so.

For my birthday last month Miss E. got me a treat from La Pain that was awesome. It looks like it’s a solid cake but when I cut it in half it had this amazing filling. I planned on eating just half of it but ended up finishing it a half hour later. Pastries and cakes are not safe around me.

Smokin' Steve's & Musashi

While out in Simi Valley the other day while hanging out with Cam and the Justice’s we had barbecue on the brain. It started out innocently enough with a bag of BBQ chips and spiraled out of control until all we could think about was getting out mitts on some damned meat that was cooked with sauce! So we headed to this place called Smokin’ Steve’s.

This place was good! They had a big ass menu. I have been to quite a few BBQ places in my life and have never seen a menu that had as much as this one. They also had a lot of different flavored sauces you could take home. I have a few cups of saucy goodness waiting for me. Miss Justice got some hotlinks and macaroni. I got two big ass hotlinks with potato salad. It was very good and filling as hell.

All About Kettle Corn

Photo courtesy of John the Neighbor.

Cam is one friend of mine that I will openly admit is a far superior cook to me. I can cook my ass off but she uses a lot of ingredients. Today we hung out watching about six episodes of Game Of Thrones on HBO which is a great show that I’ll be writing about on my Dante Rants blog. Cam made some kettle corn today and I could not stop eating it. I mean that in every damned sense of the word. I tried and would look down and my hand would be back in the bowl.

The Counter On Sunset Rules

The other day Miss Q. and I went to The Counter. No, not that shitty one on Wilshire that has terrible service, but the cool one on Sunset. Let me talk about that one on Wilshire. Not only have I had two shit experiences there, but Miss Q. had one as well with a group of people. That place really needs to get their stuff together before they go the way of the Koo Koo Roo that was there. Anyhoot…

The one on Sunset is great. We went there with Wolfenstein because they allow pets outdoors and they even brought us a heater since it was chilly outside. Yes, I know I live in California. And yes, you are a jerk for mentioning how much colder it is where you are. Sorry. Them’s the rules.

Bacon Flavored Popcorn...?

Cam got me a box of bacon flavored popcorn. This stuff is from the makers of bacon flavored mayo, salt, and I believe lube. I’m not kidding. So when I saw this I damn near lost my mind. So I had it for a day and decided to pop it in the microwave. Uh…it was an odd experience. Out of the package it smelled like bacon. I got excited and watched it pop…for over three minutes. There was no popping. Then once it did it smelled like wet dog food. That didn’t stop me because I’m a winner, damn it! So when it was done it ended up tasting like nothing at all. Yep. After all of that it tasted like plain ass popcorn. I love J&B’s intentions but they failed hard with this. At least I still have the bacon scented air freshener Cam gave me!

Good Microbrew Silverlake

A couple of weeks ago Cam and I went to this place I had passed a bunch of times when I worked downtown called Good Microbrew. We were in the area and decided to head there. We wanted some breakfast food and they had it so hell yeah let’s get some pancakes! Damn, I love me some pancakes. I got some with a side of bacon and scrambled eggs which tasted good.

On the other side I got a kinda soggy hash brown. I know these things are hard to make so I cant knock it that much. The place had just opened like an hour or so before so maybe the chef had to warm up a bit to get that perfect combination of brown going on them hashes. Either way I ate the damned thing because I’m hungry as hell at this point. Don't that look like the loneliest hash brown ever?

Pinches Tacos On Sunset

Earlier this week me and The Duchess went to this place called Pinches Tacos up on Sunset. I had to have passed this place thousands of times and never bothered to, uh, see it. Its so damned close I am mad that I didn’t know about it when me and The Engineer went to that weird ass Taxco place and had to suffer through the singing waiter with no menus. Now that I know this place exists I want to go a lot. Like, a lot. It was very good.

I was just talking to Cam a few days ago and she said that she was disappointed in the Mexican food in Los Angeles and I agreed with her. Knowing where we live and all the choices there aren’t that many that taste good. Most are…okay. Or just weird. Some of the best places are catering trucks and you have to know someone that knows which truck to go to. So I’m super happy that I now know that Pinches exists.

Ruffles Queso Fail

Yesterday I went to the store and using my Fat Vision I spotted some chips I had not seen before. Ruffles Queso. You all know I’ll try any new chip so I bought a bag. So there I am sitting on the phone with Cam and I pop one of these into my mouth. She asked how it tasted and here is my exact quote: “Oh, it tastes like that cheese popcorn I used to eat when I was a kid…and vomit! Aaagh!!!” I don’t know how they managed to reproduce the taste of actual vomit but they did. Shame on them for this shit. The worst part was that the taste took forever to go away. I know it didn't help that these were just covered in cheese. Thick, vomity ass cheese.

The Gardens Of Taxco West Hollywood

Yesterday me and The Engineer went to this place called The Gardens Of Taxco over here in West Hollywood. She grew up nearby and I have lived here for over a decade and neither of us had ever been to this place. Which is kinda weird because we eat at places all the damned time and this place is less than a minutes walk. I almost went here in 2010 but didn’t for some reason. I think someone said “empanada” and I ran in the other direction. For good reason as it turns out. Here’s what their enchilada looks like.

Daphne's In Culver City

Daphne’s is a Greek place that Cam and I went to earlier this evening. It was really good. I got a pita burger, fries, rice, and Coke. Not just regular Coke. But their machine had an extra button where you could squirt with cherry, vanilla, or orange syrup for flavoring. Damn, it was good! Cam got a chicken pita thing and some chicken soup. This place was pretty damn nifty and I wish there was one nearby. Now to the part of the story that led us to getting to Culver City.

Burger's At Calendar's

Went to Calendar’s the other day while on a mural tour. Cam, her mom’s friend, and I all sat down and had a very good meal. We never think to go to this place which is weird. On either side is Johnny’s (good food angry service) and The Counter (still on double secret probation for being asshats). I got a cheeseburger and fries with Sprite. They gave me four refills! Four! I’m like Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs where I need a certain amount of refills to make me happy. Cam had to explain that I will drink a ton and then not have to use the restroom for hours. That’s how I roll. I have trained my bladder well. Anyhoot, go to Calendar’s on Wilshire. Its good.

Blue Marlin On Sawtelle

Tonight Cam and I headed to this place called Blue Marlin. The way I said that makes it seem like it was really easy to find and we just moseyed our asses there with no problems. This was not the case. I had never been to this place or heard of it before she mentioned it to me, and she kinda knew where it was. So after driving around for a bit we found it. Thank god because I was getting close to bitchy. I’m so ugly when I’m hungry. When I was told about this place Cam kept saying that they had Japanese spaghetti.

Johnny's On Wilshire

Cam and I have now for some reason made a habit out of starving ourselves before finally eating somewhere. Between watching a documentary at the African American History Museum, shopping at multiple places, and screaming at people in cars while singing, we managed to go to this place Johnny’s that we haven’t been to in years. Its right on Wilshire right near the LACMA. We tried to figure out what we wanted (everything fro sushi to hamburgers) and settled on Italian since it covered every base we needed to be…covered.

Penguin's On Pico

This weekend while hanging out with Cam and running errands we both realized that we hadn’t really eaten all day. I wanted something different. Something I hadn’t had in a while. Fish and chips! And shrimp! We went to this place called Penguin's on Pico that I had never been to and probably passed all the damn time. We ordered catfish, jumbo shrimp, fries, and Snapple’s. This was exactly what I wanted and needed. This place was fast, good atmosphere, and the price was good. I’ll be heading here again. Better than going all the way to the ‘hood just for some fish. I got a side of macaroni while Cam got potato salad. Damn it. Now I'm hungry again.