Amy & I took our annual trip to Southern California (Los Angeles area) to visit her folks, and with us we brought a long list of Roadfood wishes. Here’s the first chapter…
Sat. 12/22 Amy flew out to California early because of her schedule, and I followed today with a layover in Baltimore. I was quite surprised to find a bee-yoo-tiful food court in the airport, and curiously I queued up at Silver Diner for lunch. Silver Diner is a small chain of eateries in greater D.C., and I bought a grab-and-go salad (since I was planning on eating Roadfood for the rest of my vacation!). It was HUGE and very, very good; the citrus dressing and peanuts really made the meal. This bowl was 4 inches deep, and it took me 30 minutes to finish, no joke. They must’ve used an entire bag of baby spinach in this!
Amy was waiting for me at the Ontario airport, whisking me away for my first and favorite SoCal meal, fish tacos, at Baja Fish Tacos, 3664 S. Bristol St., Santa Ana. My plate was a carne asada taco (left), blackened fish taco (right), with fabulous black beans and tender rice:
Amy got the beer-battered fish taco and different salsas to share (the best was the spicy hot green tomatillo salsa in the middle):
Sun. 12/23 Amy had visited Crumbs, 9465 Santa Monica Blvd., in Beverly Hills for designer cupcakes, which reminded us of Billyboy’s review of Sugar Sweet Sunshine in NYC (Crumbs is also in NYC). Not surprisingly, Crumbs is in direct competition with another cupcake spot in L.A. called Sprinkles! Here’s the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup(cake):
And the Crumbs box, which is perfectly in focus if you stand 10 feet from your computer…
Later, we met up with friends and went to Aroma Coffee & Tea Co., 4360 Tujunga Ave., Studio City for dinner. We sat on the outdoor patio, with tall propane heaters next to us (still chilly, though). After ogling this dessert case, I realized that we should’ve started with dessert, because we certainly didn’t have room after our meal:
We ordered two items to share, both delicious: the chicken & proscuitto panini…
and the goat cheese & walnut salad…
Mon. 12/24 Okay, on to the real business now: reviewing new RF places for the site! We don’t really think Pink’s is the be-all, end-all hot dog of L.A. (and I’m sooo glad that there are many of you who feel the same way!), and I’ve been eyeing Cupid’s for a couple of years now. There are a few of them around town, but we went to the stand at 20030 Vanowen St. in Canoga Park:
A formal review will follow later, but we got two dogs, one with relish, the other with chili, and they really hit the spot!
For Christmas Eve dinner, the family piled in the car and headed for Buca di Beppo, much to my future father-in-law’s chagrin (whose favorite is Romano’s Macaroni Grill). We think Buca is better, and it’s the only Italian chain that we’d visit. We had reservations at the store at 7500 Ventura Blvd. in Encino, and it was a hoot! First, an appetizer of spicy Arrabbiata pizza, with pepperoni, sausage, and caramelized onions:
Then an entrée of Veal Limone, an easy choice because of our current obsession with escarole and Tuscan beans:
Tue. 12/25 Cooking all morning, we sat down together for an early Christmas dinner of prime rib (with the cooking directions taken from the RF website, thank you friends!). Here’s my plate of (clockwise from left) prime rib with horseradish sauce, broccoli-cheese puff, fresh cranberry sauce, and the best Yorkshire pudding I’ve ever had:
Amy baked a Bourbon-Pecan Tart with Chocolate Drizzle that looked exactly like the one on the cover of the November issue of Cooking Light magazine:
And here’s a typical SoCal front lawn, decorated for the holidays with snowmen in Hawaiian attire!
More California and Arizona Roadfood to come! Stay tuned…
