Blue Butterfly Coffee Company - El Segundo

Most coffee shops are small and intimate, but sometimes those little tables are so close together you can hear your neighbors chew.

You won't feel claustrophobic at this location. The warehouse setting boasts roomy ceilings and a few small, spread-out tables and a couple of soft sink-in couches allow you to sip your Cappuccino and socialize, work, blog, whatever you wish, without feeling crowded. This cappuccino is exquisite, and you'll get your espresso fix for sure. 

The Gunpowder Green Tea is strong, the flavor robust. It might be more caffeinated than half their espresso options if you let it steep long enough. The way they roll the tea makes the flavors explosive, but make sure you have a high tolerance for caffeine or you'll be up for days. 

The Lavender Matcha Latte is a creamy, gentler choice. They whisk the matcha with bamboo and make it the proper way. Lavender adds some fragrance, like a foamy hot chocolate without all the sugar. 

Coffee or tea and cupcakes are the best combo. Neighbor to Smoky Hollow Baking Co, Blue Butterfly gives this El Segundo nook an irresistible draw. Hang out for a minute or bring a laptop just to get out of the house. It’s one of the better places to sit in El Segundo. 

Hana Sushi - Temecula, CA

You only get one birthday, but every other day is your un-birthday. On this rare occasion the Mad Hatter makes sense. I've never really cared about my one birthday - it's the 364 un-birthdays that add up to so much more.

It's the same with adventures. I loved that 4-day safari, and I'm gearing up for a skydive, but for my one birthday, I wanted a day of unadventures, and that was so much better. 

Hana Sushi was a food un-adventure and I loved every bite. The Garlic Shrimp are super jumbo, an appetizer of fun. What's not to love about garlic and butter?

The Chirashi bowl is the most generous I've ever seen, a thin layer of rice laced with a hint of vinegar, cushioning thick cuts of very fresh fish. There's so much of it, and it's all arrayed in lovely filets. Salmon, snapper, tuna and albacore. The octopus is pretty soft, the whitefish is really tender, and the cooked shrimp is an exceptional surprise. Finish with a couple spears of tamago, but you might need a little help. 

I love adventures, but sometimes I love un-adventures more. I enjoy exploring and trying new things, but sometimes I just want the things I love most, tried and true. Hana Sushi was new for me, and I loved their sushi. I have many adventures left in Temecula, but I'd still revisit Hana Sushi when the craving hits. 

Preux and Proper - Los Angeles

LA. I love the museums, the art, the diversity, and the culture of active, self-care is awesome. But the food that comes with that? Not so much. Enough of the organic, untouched-by-human-hands quinoa and granola, kale-and-green-stuff juice. It's centers on the superfoods, the high-yield, low-carb, brain-boosting, muscle-maxing fuels for our healthier-than-thou lives.

I hate superfoods. Quinoa is like pebbles and kale tastes like wax. I love staying healthy, but enough of this nutritional pseudo-science, just slap me with some southern. 

I've always been pro southern food thanks to my North Carolina roots, but they don't make it proper here. It's more a fusion with a southern infusion, but you'll never hear me complain about the Smoked Beef Heart Pastrami Toast. I don't see anything southern about that, except for some beans, but wow, I've never had any pastrami so tender and thin.

Try the House Andouille Sausage is you want a ragin' taste of Cajun. Red peas and molasses complete the southern twang, and what they call house gorditas are hush-puppy pancakes, pure and simple.

I may not like kale, but I do love veggies on a grill. This Grilled Yellow Sweet Corn has pork cracklins and queso fresco, kind of a southern-meets-the-southern-border. Diversity results in delicious.

Market-fresh specials are a must, and these Blistered Shishitos are fresh and sassy. They only have a little spice, and they finish bold and bitter.

There's a Pasta special full of fresh peas and pappardelle. I don't like peas, but these are pleasing, and the whole dish tastes like spring. 

It's all about chicken fried and cold beer on a Friday night. The Chicken Fried Pork Belly and cold cocktails on a Thursday night also fit just right. The belly is fatty and gooey. Be sure to share - this one is heavy. 

If you're going to claim some Cajun, you better get your Beignets straight. Theirs are light and fluffy, bathing in powdered sugar that rising in little white puffs. there's a bananas foster dulce de leche for dipping and it has the texture of really sweet molasses.

Not authentic but not uninspired either. The dishes hit some fun notes, and there's a good balance between heavy and light. Plenty of fresh veggies, and the ingredients are quality for sure. It wasn't quite the carry-on sweet southern comfort that I thought, but it wasn't an unpleasant surprise either.  

SomiSomi Del Amo - Torrance

It tasted better in Hawaii. I hope the other locations are better. 

Matcha and ube swirl is a winner, but someone needs to learn to use the molds properly. Both of our taiyaki cones had sizeable holes/missing chunks, and the custard is spread thing rather than pumped in like a filling. I do love the texture of the cone, and overall it all tastes good enough, but this location has a rather disappointing quality.

Nightshade - Los Angeles

A week of N’s, first N/naka then to Nightshade. Two female chefs, culinary greats and LA legends. Chef Mei Lin stands at the counter at her first flagship, adding finishing touches to all her plates, giving a final nod of approval before a servers whisk them to their rightful place.

Mei Lin has the best eyebrows I've ever seen. They're full but all the same length and they have a symmetrical arch that doesn't fall too angular, demarcated by the sharpest lines. Her cooking is probably just as precise.

Cocktails are a waste of money...Not here. Their mixologist is skilled and dare I say...interesting. I could have ten more of these No. 914 Mezcal I traded my No. 12 Gin for. The gin drink has fruity notes with rhubarb and sour plum, a tart that is gentle, not sharp, with a settling sake and neutralizing tonic to smooth out the edges. I'm impressed by the gin, but I prefer the sharper surprises from the green dream. The shishito infusion makes it peppery and sharp, and acid from the lime cuts the spice. Potent little circles of black garlic oil climb up your nose just enough to make you think. 

Garlic then onion. Not the best for dates, but I'd never date anyone who doesn't eat garlic or onion. The Tom Yum Onion, fare for an Asian state fair, bathes in a seasoning that is strangely reminiscent for cool ranch Doritos. You're getting it for the coconut dip - it's creamy but ends things on a light and wholesome note.

This one is a smaller, lighter dish, the Baja Kanpachi in dashi with yuzu. Spoon up the citrus-water and drink with a springy slice of bright-and-buttery.

A side of Roasted Sunchokes suffices as a main. The artichoke-potato lovechild is creamy-soft, but the flavor takes on a nuttier note with an acid-alkaline mole. The deep-roasted strawberry notes are robust, perked up by a seedy granola crunch. 

An iteration of Prawn Toast, a juicy shrimp conglomerate on a crispy toast that keeps its integrity despite stewing in an aromatic Cantonese curry.

Nashville hot chicken is nothing compared to this Szechuan Hot Quail. It burns and it hurts so good, a gamier and dark-meatier little bird that doesn't play chicken. Its savor clashes with red-hot breading to brew a perfect storm. A cushion of fluffy Japanese milk bread is full of drippings, and a side of house pickles are a break from the spice and the grease - the daikon will change your mind about pickles even if you hate them. 

The Silkened Tofu mollifies the mouth like a burn-balm for the quail. It approximates the texture of a soy panna cotta, and chia seeds and green apple-sorrel add a fruity, forest-y, textured finish. It's an unexpected ending,one that doesn't sugar-load or over-sweeten but leaves you feeling less heavy and gross as you reluctantly get up to leave. 

We knew Mei Lin was brilliant, but we didn't know what she'd do without Mike. Now that her career as a sous chef is no longer written in Ink, I love seeing her shine as her own chef, a top chef for sure. At least 4 stars for the food, 4.5 for the execution and creativity, 5 stars for the eyebrows.

Uncle Tetsu Japanese Cheesecake - Torrance

I don't like my desserts too heavy and dense, and nothing rubs me the wrong way like giant blocks of sugar-saturated cream cheese. I don't hate cheesecake, but I'll never love it either. 

Famous last words because here's a chain for cheesecake that made me say "uncle". Uncle Tetsu, to be exact. His Matcha Cheesecake is so fluffy, a bubbly batter that captures the essence of cheesecake with alternating notes of matcha and cream. You taste the cheese, but it slides down and doesn't get stuck. It's an airy spun-sugar kind of finish, and it's genius!

I love dessert and I'm not afraid of sugar, but it's nice to eat something sweet without feeling like a thousand pounds. Uncle Tetsu is the only cheesecake I've ever loved and it's the only one I'll be buying!