Wed. 12/26 After Christmas dinner, I didn’t want to think about food…but that all changed the next morning when Amy’s sister Jenny suggested Chatsworth’s truest RF eatery,
the Munch Box at 21538 Devonshire St. for an early lunch. It was a beautiful day, 60 degrees and sunny, so we walked down the three blocks to find a sizable crowd of construction workers, neighbors, and people just enjoying the nice weather:
Look for our forthcoming review, but here’s a peek at the best chili dog in town:
I still can’t get over this garage on Canoga St., just around the block from Amy’s place. It was the primary scene in the movie
Punch-Drunk Love, starring Adam Sandler and Emily Watson. Sandler’s character worked here:
We bought tickets to see the L.A. Kings play hockey tonight, so dinner took some thinking. We’ve eaten at some great delis in the area, and some might tell you that Jerry’s Deli is the place to be, largely due to the celebs that eat there. I’m not a fanboy of that sort, so we revisited an old haunt, the more subdued
Art’s Deli at 12224 Ventura Blvd. in Studio City. Our review is forthcoming, but check out this half-pastrami/half-corned beef monster:
And we’re both suckers for good matzo ball soup, and
Art’s delivers the goods with a baseball-sized matzo:
We parked for free at the Universal City subway stop and took the train downtown to Staples Center to see the Kings play. It was our first time at a NHL game, and it was fabulous! The Kings lost 2-3 to the San Jose Sharks in more than a few frustrating moments of unfulfilled power plays, but between periods, they turned the whole rink into a huge TV, projecting images and hockey video clips directly onto the ice:
Thu. 12/27 We met our friend Kelli in her hometown of Simi Valley for lunch at the
Natural Cafe at 2667 Tapo Canyon Rd. in the Tapo Canyon Mall. Kelli, usually up for greasy Mexican fare from Tico’s Tacos or au jus sandwiches at the Hat, is trying to eat more healthily these days, hence the
Natural Cafe. Our review is posted here (http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Writeup.aspx?ReviewID=5354&RefID=5250), and Kelli ordered the chili tofu dog, Amy the avocado sandwich, and I the fish tacos. Everything was fabulous, especially the carrot shake (the key was the nutmeg!).
Afterwards, we headed over to
Tutu’s Hawaiian Ice Cream Shack at 4332 Cochran St. for Hawaiian shave ice. Hoping to get shave ice as good as Matsumoto in Haleiwa, Oahu (http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=1019), we were crestfallen when the staffer explained that she only prepared the prized adzuki beans on the weekends in the winter; “I end up throwing them out because they don’t sell, and they’re expensive,” she added. (N.B. We often are thrown into mental disarray when eateries are “out” of our primary choice, and it takes us some time to regain our bearings and figure out a Plan B. Are we alone here, friends?)
After quick consultation, we decide to order shave ice anyway, with our choice of ice cream in the bottom of the bowl. Amy ordered the Volcano (piña colada surrounded by Tigers Blood [coconut and fruit punch] syrup) with coconut ice cream; I got the Crater, Tutu’s specialty (blackberry, cherry, orange) with neon pink and blue cotton candy ice cream. If you’ve ever had sugar-on-snow (hot maple syrup poured over fresh snow) in New England and elsewhere, this is a similar texture: it melts in your mouth immediately, leaving behind a puddle of sweet flavor. In Tutu’s favor, what we missed in the adzuki beans was compensated by the soft consistency of the ice cream. Here’s the picture (guess which one’s the Volcano!):
The ice cream (Lapperts brand) was so good that we also got three scoops to go (clockwise from top): Date Casablanca, Hana Road (like Rocky Road), and Kona Mocha Chip:
Later that night, we visited some family friends who wanted to order pizza for dinner. We volunteered to be in charge of that—mainly so we could go to one of our faves, the
Pizza Cookery at 10371 Balboa Blvd. in Granada Hills. Among the three pies that we chose, the most photogenic was this large Cookery Works with 5 meats (sausage, meatballs, pepperoni, salami, and Canadian bacon) and 5 veggies (onions, green peppers, mushrooms, olives, fresh tomatoes). This pie seemed to weigh 5 pounds!
Fri. 12/28 Amy’s friend Gabrielle came to visit, which was another excuse to show her the town and revisit more of our favorite haunts. One of the wonders of L.A., like NYC, is that we can find practically any kind of food we would ever want, and we’d talked about going to Glendale to eat in Little Armenia. Glendale has one of the largest populations of Armenians outside of Armenia, and Gabby was game, so we hit
Cafe Bravo at 1135 W. Glenoaks Blvd. Our review is forthcoming, but here’s a picture of the vegetarian plate with meatless dolma (grape leaves stuffed with fragrant rice), hummus, tabbouleh salad, and pita bread:
Gabby had never ridden the L.A. subway before, so we again parked at Universal City and caught the train to Hollywood. Stopping at the huge monstrosity that is the Hollywood & Highland Center, I had to have a cream puff from
Beard Papa’s just inside the entrance on Hollywood Blvd. Beard Papa’s is a Japanese import that sells only cream puffs, and we’ve also been to one in NYC. Our picks were (clockwise from left) coffee cream, regular (vanilla?) cream, and a chocolate fondant:
After spending an hour at Ameoba Music (verily, the biggest record store I’ve ever seen!), we went to see the movie
Juno—uproariously witty!—at the Arclight Theater. We caught the subway at Hollywood and Vine, my favorite station. We all have a favorite subway station, right? Memorable for whatever reason? L.A.’s subway is fairly new and still fairly clean of the grime and filth that goes hand-in-hand with public transportation after continual use. Here’s a shot of the inside lobby with its movie paraphernalia:
And this is the kicker: the ceilings are covered with old movie reels! How cool is that?
The drive home was not complete without a late-night stop at
In-N-Out, this time for a Logbook update and something new to us: Animal Style Fries (not on their advertised menu, you must be in the know and ask for it) with cheese and special sauce:
We also didn’t know that they make a cheese sandwich (no burger) animal style as well:
Sat. 12/29 Lunch today was a predetermined review trip to
Mama’s Hot Tamales Cafe, 2124 W. 7th St. downtown. They have a revolving menu of tamales from different Latin American countries, and we got one with chicken, olives, and capers, and the other with pork and chiles. Both were wrapped in banana leaves instead of the more traditional corn husks:
A late and leisurely lunch gave us time to get to the
L.A. County Museum of Art at 5905 Wilshire Blvd., on the same grounds as the old-timey tourist attraction, the LaBrea Tarpits (another favorite of mine—how can a pond of still bubbling tar
not be awesome?). The LACMA is free after 5 p.m., which saved us each the $12 admission, and we spent a couple of hours there, just in the contemporary galleries. This was a room-sized art enclosure emanating this eerie purple light:
Getting hungry again, we’d talked about the old L.A. Farmers Market in the past, so we headed over to 3rd and Fairfax Sts. for—no kidding here—the biggest food court I’ve ever seen! It took us 20 minutes just to walk around to assess our choices. You can get practically any type of cuisine in the world here, and I took mental notes on at least 7-8 places to return to later. We settled for the
French Crêpe Company, mainly because I’m a pushover for crêpes with Nutella. That was eaten so quickly that I totally forgot to take a picture of it, but here’s our panini sandwich, the Capri, with spinach, Italian mozzarella, black olive spread, tomato sauce, and basil:
If you haven’t heard about the
Pinkberry craze yet, here’s the skinny: frozen yogurt is making a huge comeback—but this has the texture of soft-serve ice cream
and the taste of real yogurt with active cultures (like Yoplait or Dannon). Pinkberry stores are sprouting up all over the place, especially in and around greater L.A. We stopped by the store at 12044½ Ventura Blvd. and indulged in their shaved ice/yogurt combo: shaved ice, a handful of mochi (Japanese equivalent of mini-marshmallows but made from rice flour), sliced strawberries, kiwi, pineapple, bananas, and vanilla frozen yogurt:
Sun. 12/30 Packed up the car to drive out to Arizona for desert camping to end our vacation, but we couldn’t leave Chatsworth without a visit to my favorite donut shop,
Earl’s at 20429 Devonshire St. We (well, mostly Amy) reviewed it for the site last year, and I smiled to myself when I saw a print-out of the review tacked on the bulletin board as I walked in. Donuts this good have turned me into a real snob, as I never buy non-local donuts anymore. But ye gods, if I can only have Earl’s once a year, then I’m okay with that. Feast your eyes on these, friends…
And that does it for Los Angeles! Next installment: the Joshua Tree area and Arizona (read: almost all Mexican food!), plus a magnificent dining experience with RF royalty Desertdog! Stay tuned and thanks for reading this far…Chris & Amy
