Cask ‘n Cleaver

November 19, 2008 by Brandon

It started with my parents making the realization that I would be at a cabin in the mountain for my birthday and unable to go out to dinner with them. An easy remedy to this is decided upon, that we would go out the night before. Although I always prefer a new place I can blog, my parents never go more than 10 minutes away for dinner, that limited me. My first and best idea was: “prime rib,” and that leads us to Cask and Cleaver.

This place has been in Riverside longer than I have, and that’s my whole life! The taste has been so consistent over the years and is such a familiar taste that I cannot honestly tell you if its good or not. I CAN tell you that I’ve enjoyed this same prime rib for 20 or so years, and I bet ill miss it when I finally move away. I will not miss the new look now that they “modernized it,” or whatever. It may or may not have helped business, but I miss being surrounded by empty old wine casks(maybe faux).
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I always have french fries with my prime rib, and I can’t imagine it being any other way. The Onion straws on the plate were a new addition in place of the usual vegetables, and they were the first thing I gobbled up. A quick cut of the knife and a double dipping of au jus and creamed horseradish equates to a shuttle of tasty to my mouth. My mom never finishes her prime rib either, so there’s always a couple bites left for me to steal.

The whole place isn’t that bad, and there’s other good things on the menu. My favorite appetizer is tempura avocados, but the prime rib and salad it comes with are always enough to fill me up on their own. I kind of think I am embarrassed that I like this place because Wayne is the only friend I have ever brought here.

http://www.caskncleaver.com/

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more grilled sourdough

November 18, 2008 by Brandon

Last week was surprisingly busy for me so I guess it’s time for me to play catchup. On the bright side it should allow me to put up a new post everyday for at least a couple weeks. Expect many of the entries to be pretty large because I’ve had an interesting couple of weeks.

I’ve spent the better part of a week eating the exact same thing for lunch everyday. There are 2 main reasons I resigned myself to eating the same thing for so many days. The first reason, sourdough and its wonderfulness. The other reason lies in the fact that I never eat Turkey Sandwiches, and this is a Turkey Sandwich
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Welcome to the typical sandwich I make at home. The only difference between this and my usual roast beef and provolone combo is that it has turkey and mozzarella instead. I don’t think I will ever get sick of sourdough sandwiches for lunch, and there is nothing wrong with that.

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Oreo

November 17, 2008 by Brandon

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This is my cocker spaniel, Oreo. She has a white stripe down her midsection that inspired her name. I’ve had Oreo for about 10 years and I still dont understand her.

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emergency election day post

November 4, 2008 by Brandon

dear republican friends,

I would never in a million years vote for a person who picked Sarah Palin as they’re vice president, shes an insult to what little remains of our great democratic system. Please stop trying to force me to vote for him. Some of you are approaching rude and I’m already disgusted enough with my mom for voting yes on prop 8. The last thing I need is to stop talking to some of my friends as well. I have many more reasons not vote for Mccain as well btw, so let it be. Also, I hope you remember that when Republicans were a great party, it was because they advocated LESS government, and you vote no on 8, because this country has always been about EVERYONE’S rights not just the Christians.

dear democrat friends,

Obama has said nothing to make me want to vote for him besides “no on prop 8.” Thank you for being polite and not putting pressure on me to vote for him. My republican friends should learn some manners from you. Thanks for entering into intelligent conversation with me and not trying to beat me over the head with your differing views.

-Brandon
a lifetime independent, despite being of wealthy cuban descent.

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Supermarket

November 4, 2008 by Brandon

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My favorite “graphic novel” (the Hollywood term for comic book) Is called Supermarket. It pairs Kristian Donaldson, one of my favorite artists with Brian Wood, my favorite writer. There are a whole lot of “favorites” in that sentence, but for good reason. Wood’s darker subject matter is beautifully offset by Donaldson’s Vibrant colors making it into something that is surprisingly unique, attractive to the eyes, and will inspire you to blow up the nearest shopping mall(I’m probably on my way to Guantanamo now for typing that).

By the way, all these pictures are uploaded at full resolution so clicks on them will enlarge to giant size!

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I’m always hesitant to discuss the story of something because I’m horrible about spoiling things. Forgive me as I try to give the most spoiler free description. The main character is a 16 year old half Japanese/half Swedish girl living in near future Los Angeles who spends almost the entire story on the run. She’s a great heroine and you know nothing can stop her. Despite taking place in the future it is not too different from our own time. The freeways are much wider, but with a lot more electric cars. Of course the malls are transcendentally huge, becoming their own self contained worlds with even the food courts spanning several stories.

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Since his first published work Wood has had heavy anti corporate/anti consumerism undertones in his writing, but while his early writing shows his youth his modern work benefits heavily from his maturity. I don’t mean to discount his early work at all, but hes certainly gone from a creative and fresh writer to an incredible writer that has done an incredible job at every genre he has written so far. Also, I can’t think of anything Brian Wood has written that wasn’t anti establishment, including his viking comic. I’m sure that plenty of his fans like him just because of that, but that just ads a personal touch to it if you ask me. He comes from an artist background, and I think that is why he always finds an artist that compliments his work so perfectly. I would have liked it if he had done the covers on supermarket just to see how he would match it up to Kristian’s work.

Donaldson brings something different to the table: a pretty unique artistic style that I am extremely fond of. You can see from the pictures that cartoon wouldn’t quite describe it because of the high level of detail. In fact, I find that the high level of expression he gives the characters is what makes them “pop.” I am also absolutely in love with the way he uses colors, and I think its what really sets him apart from other artists. When I visualize things in my head they are colored in a similar way so I’m dying to ask him if his brain works like mine or he just likes pretty colors.

http://www.tinymeat.com/tmstore/catalog/index.php?manufacturers_id=47 My birthday is this Friday if anyone wants to buy me something cheap, Kristian Donaldson wallets. They seem pretty girly, but I really like them.

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Cafe Aldente

November 3, 2008 by Brandon

My friend Charlie loves food, but says he finds it hard to not eat at the same places out of habit. His disposition coupled with my constant need to find new and good food made for a great pairing 3 weeks in a row. This week our motivation was to grab some delicious paninis for lunch, something I found amusing because Charles had no idea just how much I love sandwiches.

The restaurant itself was cute, a tiny little place with as much seating outside as it had inside. It was adjacent to an office complex but since we came before 11:30 it had none of the crowd typically associated with that. The employees were dressed pretty interestingly until it occurred to us that it was Halloween. The downside of it being Halloween meant that the gorgeous girl dressed as Dorothy wasn’t there to help me live out one of my more raunchy fantasies. It’s a shame too since she had a brownie craving to match my own

The decision of what to eat was actually extremely difficult, and both of us spent a very long time trying to figure out what we want. Our struggle was even more amusing since we were the only ones in the restaurant and there were 3 people waiting on us. The service was impeccable however, and our strike force of personal servers made sure our beverages never became less than half full, and with beautiful smiles the whole time.

Charlos ordered the grilled salmon sandwich for himself, but we would soon end up swapping sandwich halves. Obviously this isn’t a panini since it’s on ciabata bread, but his panini place ended up being a full service Italian restaurant so why not take advantage. The sandwich was chock full of flavor, leaving me with nothing but praise for it. I was actually worried that the onions would be to prevalent and overwhelm the sandwich, but there wasn’t a problem at all and the flavor was saved.

I ordered this exquisite chicken pesto panini for myself, and YUM. I ended up regretting sharing half of it with Chuckles not because the Salmon was bad, but because the panini was too delicious to share. Deciding whether to come here and try another sandwich or go try another new restaurant is only going to make eating in La more difficult. I suppose I cold blog their dinner…

http://www.cafealdente.com/

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Jack’s Classic Hamburgers

October 30, 2008 by Brandon

I’ve driven past this place more times than I could ever count for about a year now, and I’ve finally eaten there. This place is literally down the street from the friends I stay with in LA and we would have walked if Charlie wasn’t in a hurry. Johnny and Charlie have been hyping this place for a long time so it was exciting to finally eat there.

We had to wait around on a busy street corner for a while. The fact that it wasn’t TOO hot was heavily appreciated. When we payed for our food, the guy(who may or may not have been “Jack”) was way insistent about exact change, but he wasn’t a jerk about it, and he simply tried to get it out of everyone. He tried to get change out of every single one of us, but everyone pulled together for me and left Johnny out of change to pay on his turn :D.

Honestly, nothing better describes this burger than “Fuck yeah!”. I mean, look at that, 2 juicy beef patties with what is for me the perfect amount of bacon. It had everything you could imagine on a burger. This thing embodies what fast food burgers started out as, before everything was reprocessed. I was starving at the time, so I appreciated it on a whole new level.

Jack’s Classic Hamburgers
11375 Riverside Dr
North Hollywood, CA 91602
(818) 761-4599

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La Cresta Mexican Grill

October 29, 2008 by Brandon

Once again my parents dragged me out to check out the house they are building, which meant another restaurant in the Temecula area. I don’t generally eat a lot of latin American food because of the prevalence of beans so I was NOT excited to go to some Mexican restaurant, but I figured: “it’s close enough to the border that it should be ok.” I kept my complaints to myself, but played it safe by ordering things I typically enjoy.

The chips came out with a quickness and immediately after this picture were covered in copious amounts of salt. I think I need to hit my favorite Mexican place by my house because its been a while and that’s all i thought while eating these chips. Something was missing however…

guacamole…problem solved…or not. Well, it didn’t solve the problem because it had very little taste and I had to double dip it with the salsa to find some flavor. I’m hardly the biggest fan of salt, but whoever made the guacamole is even less of a fan.

Chile Verde is one of my favorite mexican dishes. The only reason I didn’t order it for myself is because I wouldn’t have touched anything else on the plate.

Not much to say about this, I didn’t try it because it was well plain beef and that didn’t make me curious in the slightest.

Both my parents had carnitas plates except one got all beans no rice and the other got vice versa. I thought it was pretty funny since they were sitting next to eachother. I’m not sure if they were lazy or what but my parents failed pretty hard when they ordered if you ask me.

I didn’t fail at ordering like my parents, although I made the safe order of fajitas. They were actually quite good and I was glad that my own food didn’t disappoint me because that is really all that matters. Very rarely am I disappointed with fajitas though.

deep fried ice cream is the only reason i go to non whole in the wall Mexican restaurants. While most of them have it, I rarely go to them and no other place does. A few days later I tried to eat vanilla ice cream with frosted flakes but it just wasn’t the same. The bunuello or whatever was sup good too and of course I devoured the whole thing.

http://lacrestamexicangrill.com/

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Oki Dog

October 21, 2008 by Brandon

Despite the fact I’m not really into the show I often find myself watching Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel because other people enjoy it.  Much to my excitement however I ended up watching an episode featuring La. Immediately I started paying attention because I knew it would lead to so new restaurants for me, and I secretly hoped he’d go to somewhere I already enjoyed.

Most of the places he went to were random ethnic restaurants that I could find anywhere, but there were 2 places that stood out to me. The first of those 2 places was Oki Dog, an eccentric hot dog place with heart attack inducing food, and the second place was a raw foodist restaurant, which in my opinion epitomizes LA. While I’m hardly interested in some vegan raw food joint beyond my normal curiosity, I could not wait to go to Oki Dog. Charlie, my friend who put the show on in the first place had the same idea and the following day at lunch would be our food adventure.

Behold the Oki Dog: 2 hot dogs, chili, cheese, sauerkraut, pastrami, and it’s all wrapped up in one of those giant tortillas you rarely see. It was a tremendous effort just to finish it, and left me in a food coma for the next 3 hours. I should have taken a picture that let you see just how massive it was, but I couldn’t get any good angle on the contents that way.

So we also ordered these chili fries, and much to my surprise Charlie was able to eat a significant portion. I was only able to take a few bites before the fullness overwhelmed me, but the chili fries didn’t compare to the world famous Oki Dog so I focused on finishing it first. Charlie’s ability to conquer both makes him my hero.

Saw this fly ride parked on the grass near where we parked. I didn’t want to be all rude photographing the hell out of it so I cant figure out what it was, pretty sure it was a mercury but it doesn’t look like any cougar I can find a picture of.

Oki Dog
860 N Fairfax Av, Hollywood
323.655.4166

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Cobras & Matadors

October 20, 2008 by Brandon

My dear friend Wayne’s birthday came around and I was tasked with picking a restaurant for it. Well, I wasn’t tasked with it so much as eagerly offering to help him pick a restaurant. I chose Cobras & Matadors not because I was thinking about Wayne or anything, but because I had been wanting to try it, but of course I thoroughly cleared it with him first. :D Next time we’ll remember to bring a bottle of wine as well because the restaurant doesn’t have any of its own but does not charge a corkage fee.

All the reviews I had read about the restaurant commented on its close quarters so I wasn’t surprised that the first thing I noticed was the fire code defying close quarters. I didn’t mind it for myself but I’d be terrified if I wasn’t so portably sized. The other obvious thing about the restaurant was that virtually all the other customers were gorgeous young women of at least drinking age. I’m hardly complaining but it was pretty obvious that our table had almost all the men. The more hurried nature of the restaurant(or maybe the staff just didn’t like that we had pen0rs) made it hard to take pictures and remember the order so here it goes:

First up was this delicious octopus with potatoes, chives, and some sort of delicious sauce. This was one of my favorites because it was full of flavor and Octopus is one of my food loves.

This was some sort of vegetarian rice with bread. I had a bite and while it was ok and had good flavor, it didn’t hold my attention anywhere near as much as the rest of the things on the table.

Sadly this bacon wrapped shrimp didn’t get a proper photograph. The bummer about that is that it was probably my favorite dish. The bread and sauce pairing really matched well with the shrimp, and just looking at this bad photograph makes my mouth water.

I’m not typically a fan of mussels so I initially wanted nothing to do with this. They proved to delicious looking to pass up however and I dove right in. I ended up having my fair share after all and going to town on the bread/broth combo as well.

I actually made 2 bad order decisions and was pretty disappointed in myself. It wasn’t that the taste was bad, but more that the taste was unremarkable. The first of these was basically chorizo, bread, and a nice garlic sauce on top.

the 2nd of these were tuna stuffed peppers, and honestly my problem with them has more to do with the fact that I can barely taste cooked tuna. I did however think they looked pretty neat.

Surprisingly good were these sardines. I typically don’t enjoy sardines or mackerel because they taste just like bait, but these were tasty.

My other favorite dish was this drunken goat cheese. I could care less about the dates or whatever but the cheese was phenomenal and it took a lot of self control to not horde it for myself. I definitely had more of this than everyone else, and for that I apologize.

A good firm flan, and quite tasty. I have no idea how to describe flan to someone who’s never had it, but if you have “firm and tasty” is all you need to know. It is definitely worth ordering.

MMMmmmmmm churros, and churros from a gourmet restaurant I have to say are as good as they should be. They paired with the chocolate deliciously, and that just might lead to me making my own churro and chocolate combo pretty soon.

Cobras & Matadors
7615 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036

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