Eating Out Arizona aka Chasing Coyotes

We loaded up the Scion with our jerseys packed away to see a Kings game in of all places, not Staples Center, but in Glendale, Arizona.  Shane, Chucho and myself found ourselves in the desert, discovering Phoenix and chasing Coyotes.

Music
Buscabulla - Sono

 

Tea and Toast Co at the Desoto Central Market 

The Arizona Biltmore

Wren House Brewing Co.

Waffle House 

This Week in SnackChat

I'm starting off my This Week in SnackChat with a bit of a rant. I hate it when they have a cartoon pig on a pack of bacon.  To me, its disrespectful and rude. It is one thing with animals, but who knew that fruits and veggies had the same heart.  This coconut is selling out its own kind! Your coconut friend has a fucking straw in its face and you are selling it for human consumption!?! Don't think you are in the clear Charlie Tuna, because you are not! Vegetables and fruits, you guys think you're so cool. But you are all the same.  If given the opportunity, you too would sell out your friends.

**end rant**

Okay so, it's thankfully the end of another week and we all seem to have made it.  I'm off the Arizona so we will see what that has in store...till then, enjoy Snackchatting!

Find me on SnapChat: log.lady

When I eat Macha Kit Kats, I hear God telling me that everything is okay, and to, "Break me off a piece of that would ya?''  

It's so tasty too? It sounds like what horses eat. 

#lattefart

Now I wonder what kind of night it was.

Basically Trois Familia right?!?

The BEST party favors ever! Where was my invite?

More food= more left overs.

You're a short rib.

German Potato Salad > American Potato Salad.  I don't care, come at me! 

It's like a Magic Eye.  If you look at it hard enough, then you can see it.

Faking It + Bonus Track Recipe + GIVEAWAY!

My love for fake food is real.

Fake food will always be there for you to help you make you decision better than any picture will.

It needs not refrigeration, just the love of a brain that thinks it is real.

Fake food can erase your mistakes and make things right.

In the world of fake food, a meal is forever.

They are perfect and will always be perfect.

My love for fake food is literal.

My love for fake food is magical.

My love for fake food can be bought,

but never sold.

My love for fake food is full, but fake food will never fill me.  The beauty of fake food is that in an ever changing world, where nothing is ever the same, fake food will always be what it was molded to be and it will never change. I take a weird comfort in that.

 

+ GIVEAWAY!

.  I am also giving away the Re-Ment Onigiri keychain! Comment below with what fake food means to you and you might find yourself with a little piece of fake food! If you follow me on Instagram, check back tomorrow with a different fake food giveaway!

Bonus Track Recipe! Make the real version of the fakes! Onirgi from Lucky Peach 101 Easy Asian Recipes

Makes 6 Onigiri

• 4 C freshly cooked short-grain rice (still hot)
• + sea salt
• + filling (choose one): umeboshi, mayonnaise-y tuna salad, chopped parsley (see below for amounts)
• + one of the following (optional): sesame seeds, 8" x 2" strips toasted nori

1. 1 Set up your onigiri-building station: Arrange a rice cooker or pot with cooked rice, bowls with salt and filling, and a dish of water within arm’s reach. Have ready a plate or baking sheet on which you will place your formed onigiri. If using sesame seeds, scatter on a plate.
   
2. 2 Fluff the rice with a fork. (For parsley onigiri, add 2 tablespoons chopped parsley and a little salt.) Wet your hands in the dish of water and sprinkle them with salt. Scoop about 2/3 cup rice into your hand and make a 1-inch hollow in the center of the rice with your finger. Then:
   For umeboshi: 
   Place 1 plum into the hollow, then seal the rice over the filling. Roll the rice into a ball, then gently shape and compact it with your salted hands, gradually forming a 1-inchthick triangular shape.
   For tuna:
   Place 1 tablespoon tuna salad into the hollow, then seal the rice over the filling. Roll the rice into a ball, then gently shape and compact it with your salted hands, gradually forming a 1-inch-thick triangular shape.
   For parsley:
   Gently shape and compact the parsleyflecked rice with your salted hands, gradually forming a 1-inch-thick triangular shape.
   
3. 3 If desired, wrap each onigiri with a strip of toasted nori or roll in sesame seeds to coat.
   
   Variation:
   Turn these into yaki onigiri. Heat a castiron skillet over medium heat. Add the onigiri to the pan and cook until a light crust forms, about 2 minutes. Flip and brush lightly with soy sauce. Cook until a crust forms on the other side. Flip and brush with soy sauce. Cook until golden brown and crisp, flipping as necessary, until crisp all over, about 5 minutes.
   

About Town

I'm pretty happy sitting around and doing nothing.  I really don't do anything. I mean, I like read or rewatch Munchies videos or look through cookbooks. But I quite like staying at home. There are other times when I like to get out.  I feel like the last part of last year was always, go go go. That there wasn't much time for me time or book time.   This weekend was a good mixture of doing something and doing nothing. 

On Thursday, I took a Kombucha class. This was a part of my, "This is the year I take a cooking class. "  Technically not a cooking class but still a class with some amount of science and skill so I consider it a cooking class. The best part was that is was all you can drink kombucha and they were tasty!  

I took the class at the Fermentation Farm in Costa Mesa and I hope to take more classes there, as I am now a member for life. 

I learned that this crazy growth I had in my red wine vinegar was indeed SCOBY and that I shouldnt have thrown it down the drain. But it looked like someone hawked a giant mucus membrane in my vinegar and I was too weirded out by it to Google it. 

Trying to make more Kombucha. The SCOBY is chillin in my batch of kombucha I made that night after class.  There is a wird film on the top.  After reading about it I guess it is normal. I might have touched it, but I think we're okay! Since there was some left over particles floating around, I'm trying to grow another. I'm trying to make amends with nature after the red wine vinegar incident.  I am also magically growing another one in a batch of chili vinegar I made.  That one is not on purpose.

After the Kings game we stumbled upon Tacos Michoacan #3 in Boyle Heights.  They are open 24 hours a day and would probably scare off anyone after 7pm.  But it was a great find!  They also filed Furious 7  here so it has a soft spot for tacos in my heart here. They had a great jukebox of all the Spanish jams and Black Sabbath.

The top two rows in this vending machine is everything. Regular and Lime Hot Cheetos in one machine? GTFO!

We ordered quatro tacos carnitas but we got cinco! 

We also got coffee in Downtown Stumptown and then it was off to home to make nilagang, Filipino comfort food to the max!  Threw the meat with various odds and ends I save in my freezer with some water and cooked it for the 6+ hours we were out and all I had to do was strain it and add veggies. I'll post a recipe for it eventually..

On Sunday it was Chucho's Birthday and he is so fucking cool that he got a cake with in face on it.  Later we all found out that the black frosting turned all our poo poos weird.  So it was like we all got a little present at the end!

This Week in SnackChat

Here it is, the close to week 2 of the 2016.  So remember that THEY don't want you to SnapChat me your SnackChats so keep them coming because you don't want they to win.  Also remember to drink water.

SnapChat: log(dot)lady

Hmm, not too sure about that one.

My rule: If it smells normal its totally fine.  I think I have Kewpie from over a year ago and I still use it.  I call it, "Diversifying my microbiome."

The king of fruits.  They smell like feet and taste like sweet gym bags. Yes SWEET.  If flowers are angels, then durian's are the Devil's athletic support.   

#bonezone #boneyard #bootybeburning

But when you sent it, it was Thursday morning.

I thought they were edible hats.

Bless their hearts! 

Weekend: Eating Out LA

It was a gloomy LA weekend.  There was a brief moment that the sun did peek out, but the temperature stayed on the cool side with rain drops here and there. While we got a late start leaving the house, it feels like we did a lot.

We got a burger at Hawkins House of Burgers.  It wasn't any burger, it was the Fat Burger.  When we ordered the Fat Burger, we actually did not know what it was.  On the menu, items are just listed by name.  We picked the Fat Burger and when you get to the order counter, a little paper lists everything in the burger.

In my dreams, this was the Fat Burger that Ice Cube references in It Was a Good Day because this day was something way better than that. But I know its not because Hawkins is closed at 2am.

 It is everything that is good about a hamburgers.  I don't want anything too fancy in my burgers.  Hell, I'm not a big fan on bacon in burgers.  The meat was perfect, crispy and juicy.  The best part there were two patties. You have to eat it quick too or else it will sog up because, it is that juicy. Or there were a lot of pickles tomatoes and lettuce,but I'm not complaining. No special sauce or avaocado, or chili but you can add such things if you wish. You can even add eggs. The meat really shined through and the other pieces played just nicely and did not over power the meaty taste.  A burger like this should be messy and it was and it was glorious.

...

They we made our way to the Grand Central Market in DTLA.


Eggslut was freaking closed but I convinced the dude closing the register, AKA asked nicely if I could pay in cash, for the eggslut x Pintrill colab and he was very nice and let me buy them.  I was a happy camper, especially when that was probably one of the sole reasons why I wanted to go there. 

Wexler's Deli was closed too, but I got to see this gem of a shirt.

See because they smoke fish in house everyday!

After a dinner snack at Sticky Rice II, a Churro sundae at McConnell's Ice Cream, and some espresso from G&B Coffee we headed to Staples Center to watch the Kings play the Blues.

It was a good day.