Too Much Tsujita Annex - Los Angeles

What do you call too much with way too much? Some call it excessive. Others call it David Yurman and Mikimoto. I can't afford to call it any of those things so I call it Tsujita Annex.

It's hard to watch everyone else flaunting fabulous when you're strapped with med school debt in a conspicuously consumptive city. But just because no one put a Cartier ring on that...hand holding the chopsticks doesn't mean you can't have the most luxurious broth in all of LA.

The Ramen with Char Siu is loaded with a broth of liquid gold with ropes of ramen noodles as thick as Yurman's signature cable. The bunches of bean sprouts crisscross like the cable-enhancing crossover, and the precious pearls of floating fat are as close to Mikimoto I'll ever get. 

The only thing better than one piece of David Yurman jewelry is two pieces of David Yurman jewelry, and the only thing better than one bowl of kotteri ramen is three bowls of kotteri ramen in one. The broth at the Annex is by far the thickest almost-solid bowl-of-fat I've ever had, but all that richness is both satiating and overwhelming all at once. Eating at Tsujita Annex is exactly like walking into a Yurman store, actually. I get an unspeakable pleasure from sampling the luxuries...until the richness of the price hits me and punches me in the gut.

North End Caffe - Manhattan Beach

I made my first turkey this Thanksgiving. I brined the turkey...and my kitchen floor, and I popped in the oven and roasted it like a pro. It takes a true genius to put a buttered bird into an oven and turn the switch to 350 degrees. Good thing my "eat at your own risk waivers" absolve me of any wrongdoing in case I did poison my guests.

But just because I can roast a turkey doesn't mean I'll ever come close to the mastery of a chef...Or at least that's what I thought until I went to North End Caffe.

I only tried a few things, but I think I can make them all. Hopefully they don't sue me for revealing their not-so-secret recipes...Maybe I should make them sign a waiver too?

To make the Isabella breakfast sandwich, cut a baguette-that-is-not-really-a-baguette in half. Do not toast or warm the baguette in any way, but do put some pesto on it. Pour some oil into a skillet, throw in one egg, and wear long sleeves. I don't know about you, but I can't fry anything without being spattered by painfully hot oil. Flip the egg before it burns. Slice brie, spoon a not-quite-ripe avocado, add chopped tomato. Repeat with different ingredients, like bacon and some extra leaves, for example.

For unimpressive Side Potatoes, deep fry chunks of potato with no detectable seasoning whatsoever and garnish with inadequate mayo in a disturbing shade of Pepto-Bismol pink.

Beignets are the best way to end a meal. Deep-fry small balls of dough and top with powdered sugar. Let sit until cool and oil starts to seep and sugar starts to soak. Eat just one to end your meal - I guarantee you'll be too grossed out to eat anything else.

Despite having figured out their secrets, I would still come back to North End Caffe when I'm craving something simple and homemade...Homemade as in cheap-yet-pricey prime-ingredient sandwiches I could easily throw together myself. And although $7.50 makes for a dirt-cheap breakfast in Manhattan Beach, you can get an entire meal for double the price of a sad little sandwich. Seriously, go somewhere else. At least you'll be springing for edible sides.

Eating Well at Wang Xing Ji - San Gabriel

Foodies are the lepers of the culinary world. We are the nightmares of chefs, the yellers of yelp, and the scapegoats of common cooks. It seems like everyone has their own misconceptions about us and I’m as over being misunderstood as I am over this California foie gras foolishness. With a single post, I hope to put all these rumors to rest.

Misconception #1: Foodies only do fine dining.

Not true. The authentic experiences we seek take us to every corner of the earth, and they're not always the best of places. The most authentic ethnic foods, for example, always come with some form of norovirus. Wang Xing Ji, with its generic Asian décor in the middle of an aesthetically unappealing strip mall centered around a 99 Ranch is hardly Chinese Laundry, but the Juicy Pork and Crab Bun is the stuff of legends. Bread-bowl soup with a touch of Asian, this juicy bun is the size of your head and requires you to sip a cup of soup with a straw before biting into the thinly-wrapped bun. We don’t just do fine dining, we do dining at its finest.

Misconception #2: Foodies only eat at famous restaurants.

Din Tai Fung created quite a name and a whole lot of hype, but the way foodies flock for their juicy pork dumplings, you’d think they were larger than life. I was not the first foodie to make a special trip just for DTF because if it’s famous enough to have an acronym, it’s probably worth a visit for anyone with a mouth. But just because we’ve never heard of WXJ doesn’t mean it can’t trump DTF a thousand times over. And it does. The Juicy Pork Dumplings are better, and the Juicy Pork and Crab Dumplings are out of this world.

Misconception #3:  Foodies only eat expensive food.

Sometimes good food IS expensive. You pay a little extra for the prime ingredients, especially things that are harder to acquire and prepare. But some of the best pad thai comes from the street carts of Thailand at only a dollar-a-pop. And while these inexpensive Sesame Noodles didn’t blow my mind, the cold noodles with a savory-yet-unspecial peanut sauce were a cold, welcome contrast to the dumplings.

The Bean Sprout Seedlings were cheap, but they really hit the spot. Simple stir-fried greens with garlic and a touch of oil, but they were also the first dish to go. We scarfed that stuff down the minute it hit the table, and we fought over that last crisp, leafy shoot while half the dumplings just sat there and chilled.

There’s also something to be said about a spin on staple dish. Asian foodies still love our grandma’s flied lice, and this salty, savory Pork Belly Fried Rice was one of the best I've had.

Misconception #4: Foodies are picky eaters.

Just the opposite. We eat anything, we eat everything. We eat the offal, we eat the awful, and we'll put just about anything into our mouths at least once just to say we tried.

“You’re a foodie. I’m NEVER cooking for YOU…” is the most obnoxious thing you can say. Home cooking is a gift for a foodie – what could possibly be more unique than something you put together in the irreproducible environment that is your home? You could make me mac n’ cheese from a bag and forget to add the water, and I would still say thanks and mean it. I’m a blogger, not a bee with an itch. All I ask is that you put your assumptions aside when eating with me and stop judging me when I take a photo of my food…with flash.

Tea Station - Gardena

This menu is no TEAse for those with a passion for teas. The significant selection lets you be choosy and gives you leaf to let loose.

Tee off with Passionfruit Tea with boba but make sure to get it unsweet. The boba adds a little sugar but not so much that it stops tasting like tea.

The Tea Flavored Braised Pork Chop is the color of TEAk with a uniquely sweet flavor that steams all the way through. You just can't TEAch a sauce like this, and it deserves to be held in high esTEAm.
Cute cozy cafe with teas at prices that aren't very sTEAp. Tea Station critics can’t stand the service, but I'm a fan. I wasn't TEAring up or anything but I’d consider wearing the TEA shirt if they had one.

Cruising to OP Cafe - Santa Monica

When it comes to technology, I operate at level G. G for Grandma. A really old grandma who squints at the large-print screen and miss-clicks with her limited-range-of-motion arthritic fingers. To this day, I've barely become competent at posting to my own blog. 

Even grandma has her modern-day favorites, and imgur.com serves as my favorite waste of time. Photo sharing sites are about as original as Huevos Rancheros, but imgur reinvents the wheel by assembling the best parts with the all the best tools. The best of the best, the most viral of the viral. The huevos rancheros of the huevos rancheros. Two fresh perfectly-poached eggs over textbook corn tortillas on a bed of soft and savory black beans.

The internets have changed a lot in the past ten years, almost as much as dietary restrictions. Back in my day, it took ten minutes just to load my email, and Celiac's wasn't even a disease. Unlike me, OP Cafe's chefs kept up with the times, serving up sweet-wheat-textured Gluten Free Pancakes that taste like a dietary restriction without the restriction. These pancakes have a thinner, firmer, more definitive texture, and I prefer this version to the mushier flour of regular pancakes.

The best part of imgur is the captions. The wealth of wit from a meeting of the minds creates a forum where genius compounds. I don't know what kind of collaboration takes place in the OP kitchen, but it compounded into DIY tortillas full of eggs, beans, and salsa atop a fatty, savory shredded pork in need of a little salt. "Machaca con Huevos" is an inadequate caption for a plate so well put-together.

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but I sure showed them. After only a year of trolling imgur, I finally learned that "OP" stands for "original poster". And after only a year of living in SoCal, I discovered that OP Cafe serves one of the better brunches south of LA. You learn something new every day, and it won't be that many days before I pop in my dentures and venture back to OP Cafe.

Belize Chocolate Company - San Pedro, Belize

"All good things must come to an end" is a pretty depressing thought. Some things we never want to end. Bands play endless encores, meals can linger as long as eleven courses, and dermatologists dole out the botox in the quest for eternal youth.

I wanted to be finished with Belize even less than I wanted to finish Island Crunch. The sponge toffee is as porous as a coral reef with sweet dark chocolate coating its nooks and crannies. The toffee skims the surface while the milk chocolate House Truffle sinks deep into the stomach with its rich cream ganache.

People say you need the bad to appreciate the good, some bitter to appreciate the sweet. But my whole trip to Belize was all Chocochino sweetness, with all trace of bitter coffee are curtailed by chocolate milk.

Even the simple things stood out. The Chocolate Chip Cookies were a sweet shop staple, but it's all in the details, and the soft and chewy center with concentrated Kakaw chips made the trip to Belize Chocolate Company unforgettable.

Belize was as intoxicating as the guttural-yet-refined Green Fairy's alcoholic absinthe. But as much as I didn't want the trip or the chocolate to end, from every end comes a new beginning. This boozy little box finishes bittersweet as I leave one adventure behind and avidly await the next.