I love Girl Scout cookies! Beth loves Girl Scout cookies! EVERYONE loves Girl Scout cookies!
We drove by this Rite Aid in Sherman Oaks, and saw a posse of Girl Scouts, the PTA moms, and boxes of absolute cookie goodness! It's Girl Scout Cookie Season! We parked the car in the lot, walked into the Rite Aid... and the mission was to buy a pack of chewing gum, get cash back, and buy ourselves some cookies! Girl Scout Cookies!
Wouldn't you do the same? Get off your couch! drive to the nearest supermarkets and drugstores! Support the Girl Scouts! Support your belly! This is an annual event! Get yo cookies NOW!!!
(sorry about the excessive exclamation marks... I am just really excited about the cookies!)
Beth got herself some Samoas, and I got my Do-si-dos and Tagalongs!
If I have all the money in the world I would definitely dine at ALL the finest restaurants in Las Vegas. Joel Robuchon's restaurant located in MGM Grand was definitely "Grand"! Beth loves French cuisine. The fact that the restaurant specializes in traditional French cuisine, will for sure earn me some major brownie points! I mean I could win the Best Husband Award... Can you imagine how much Beth would love to dine at this gorgeous palace?
Well, sorry wife... maybe next time :p
Il Fornaio Restaurant and Bakery was our final choice for our dinner in Las Vegas. We know it's a chain restaurant and it's not the fanciest restaurant in the world, but it's located inside our hotel New York New York.
Beth ordered the Fettuccine alla Friulana (Fettuccine pasta with Italian sausage, mushrooms, onions, tomato, thyme and cream sauce). She loved it so much, she ate the whole thing. I think she licked the plate after :)
I ordered Pizza Vegetariana (Fresh asparagus, grilled zucchini, fresh tomatoes, roasted reb bell peppers, button mushrooms, smoked mozzarella and basil). After I ate all that meat from the Korean BBQ few days ago, I feel the need to clean out my system by eating more veggies :)
That was a great dinner! we were satisfied and ready to walk off the calories :) Check out some of the photos I took during the walk to the liquor store.
Next Morning. Nathan's Hot Dog. Awesome.
need I say more?
XXX More photos in the slideshow below! Nude Meat included! XXX
An hour before I got off work, I received a text message from Beth... "Jake wants to threat us Korean BBQ tonight and it's all you can eat". Well, that made my day! Free Korean BBQ and its all you can eat?! I purposely left my Subway sandwich at work, just so I can eat more at dinner :)
We showed up to the restaurant, and the place was BANANAS !!! Its a dance party / bbq! It was packed with people waiting in line, the place was setup like a dance club, crazy lights and loud music! All you could hear was that stupid Far East Movement G6 song... But the wait was so long... its nothing like the G6.
The wait was worth it tho... We had beef tongue slices, briskets, spicy chicken, squid, pork belly and some other meat... We ate so much I don't even remember the exact list of meat we ordered.
The meal lasted about 2 hours... till the place closed down and they literately had to take our beer glasses away! At the end of the night, we suffered food coma and excess gas!
Viewer discretion is advised... MORE food porn images below
Few days ago, while Beth's dad was still here in L.A. we went on a wine country day trip up around the Santa Barbara area. On the way up we stopped by a little restaurant called Summerland Beach Cafe. Beth's has been here several times, and the food has always been good! The place is like a mom and pops diner that serves awesome delicious breakfast plates. Omelets, bacon, ham, country fried tomatoes, and their very own home made apple butter!
I don't drink wine (long story)... So, I don't do any of the tastings... it gives me bad heartburns :(
Beth loves wine, so she picked out three of her favorite wineries to visit!
Mosby
Melville
Babcock
We were happy that while L.A. was being showered on... Santa Barbara was nice and sunny!
10053 Valley Blvd. Ste 2
El Monte, CA 91731
(626) 350-0188
The name sounds funny, but the food here is quite serious! I like this place, I like it a lot! As much as I have a soft side for Ding Tai Fung, I have to say, Ding Tai Fung is only worth going when you are in Taiwan. The branch here in Arcadia is a rip off, and the servers are lame. Dumpling 10053 is cheap and they have this awesome signature pumpkin shrimp dumplings!
Because my father-in-law is in town, my parents wanted to take him out to a proper Taiwanese dinner. So my parents decided to take him to a dumpling house. You must be wondering how they got the name... Its their address, yup they named the place after the address of the restaurant! I read the reviews from this one annoying Yelper... She seemed to be confused with the name of the restaurant... umm did you read the address above the door? #shutupandeatyourdumplings
My mom has a habit of ordering a bunch of food... so much food that we ran out of table space for the dishes!
You are probably wondering... what are the red and green dumplings? Well, the green dumplings are Chinese cabbage and pork dumplings and the red dumplings are goji and chicken dumplings.
These little guys are delicious! although... not as good as what we had in Taiwan, but for now, this will do!
This isn't the best dumpling restaurant ever, but if you are craving for a nice dumpling meal and you don't want to put a hole in your wallet, this is definitely the place to go!
My father-in-law is visiting LA this week! We were going to take him to this restaurant in Hermosa Beach where you can actually dine on the beach... but it was raining!!! So, our plan B was to find a place with good wine and good food that's also close to a beach. We picked Sonoma Wine Garden in Santa Monica Place. Fancy place it is!
395 Santa Monica Place
2nd and Colorado
Santa Monica, 90401
(424) 214-4560
This place has a nice decor and it looks like they spent a lot of money on interior design :)
Beth ordered cauliflower soup with curry oil... we both thought it was pretty good. Btw, what the hell is curry oil?
Truffle Spaetzle. Sounds fancy, to me it's a tasty grown up version of mac n cheese. The pasta was really good, but I just don't think mac n cheese should cost $15.
Oh and remember to check in to your Foursquare and get the Sicilian Olives that taste like butter! for free!
This place is great, a little bit expensive for my taste, especially when it's located in a mall. But I much rather eat here than Cheese Cake Factory and spend the same amount of money :)
First of all, I'd like to congratulate the Green Bay Packers for winning Super Bowl XLV! And me being a Packers fan since 1995, I have a perfect recipe for this special event! Let's deep fry again!!!
Green Bay Panades
Panades is a Belizean street food that is very similar to South American's empanadas. In Belize, the panades are usually stuffed with fish, beef or beans and it is probably my favorite authentic Belizean food. Since this recipe is going to reflect my passion for the Green Bay Packers, I've decided to fill my panades with peas and corn! Green and gold baby!
Step 1 - Gather and Prep
To make an authentic panades you need a tortilla press. Fresh made tortilla is worth the $20 investment on a tortilla press. Once you have corn tortilla mix and a tortilla press in your life, you will never ever have to buy pre pressed tortillas!
Corn masa mix or any corn tortilla mix. You can find them in any grocery store, if not, try to hit up one of those hispanic markets, you'll definitely find some there!
One can of whole kernel corn
Frozen peas
Ground beef
String cheese
Garlic powder
Paprika
Ground cumin
Salt
Black pepper
Like spicy food? you can't eat Belizean food without a bottle of Marie Sharp Hot Sauce, its magical!
To make panades you need to do a lot of prepping. Start by preparing 4 main bowls of ingredients: Corn dough bowl, peas and corn bowl, beef bowl and cheese bowl
Corn Dough Bowl
1 cup of corn masa mix (corn tortilla mix)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of paprika
Directions: Mix the dry ingredients, then pour in 3/4 cup of water... mix again (don't be afraid to use your hands) You should end up with a dough that has a semi firm consistency :)
Peas and Corn Bowl (Green and Gold Baby!)
1 can of whole kernel corn
1/2 cup of frozen peas
1/2 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Directions: Strain the corn, then mix everything in a bowl
Beef Bowl
1/2 pound of ground beef
1 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 teaspoon of butter
Directions: Mix the meat and the seasonings in a bowl. Preheat a large skillet with 1/2 tablespoon of butter on high heat. Once the butter is melted, place the seasoned meat in the skillet. Break up the meat and stir every 30 sec till the meat is fully cooked. Once the meat is cooked, pour the cooked meat into a large clean bowl.
Cheese Bowl (you can't make Green Bay Panades without cheese)
4 sticks of string cheese
Directions: Cut and dice the cheese, yup thats it :)
Step 2 - Mold the Panades
So you bought the tortilla press and you are ready to make your first panades! Grab the corn dough bowl, place it next to the tortilla press... now start by rolling a 2 inch tortilla ball in your hands. Put wax paper on each side of the press, so the dough doesn't stick to the press. Place the ball in the middle of the press... close the press... now press the dough flat... like a tortilla!
Put about 1-2 teaspoons of cooked ground beef and come of the peas and corn mix in the middle of the flattened corn dough... then fold over the dough... close up the edges by pressing the dough together, if the dough starts to crack... just gently pinch it together :)
To make the cheese panades, instead of stuffing it with beef, put in the diced string cheese. Mold the panades then place all of them in a wax paper layered baking sheet.
If you want to be more adventurous, feel free to add the beef and cheese together :)
Step 3 - Fry the Panades
Pour cooking oil into a medium size pot... maybe pour in about 2-3 cups, depends on how many panades you want to fry at a time. Heat the oil to about 350-375 degrees F (don't over heat the oil, or else it'll get very smokey and burn the panades).
If you don't have a frying thermometer, you can flick some water into the oil, if it starts to sizzle... It's ready to fry.
Once the oil is about 350 degrees F, fry the panades about 1 minute on each side or until its golden brown :) Cool down the panades for about 2-3 minutes after it's removed from the fryer. Then its time to serve!
There are more photos of ingredients in this slideshow! Click the play button!
This recipe takes a lot of preparation and it's very labor intensive. Feel free to ask me if you have any questions or suggestions on this recipe! contact me at eatwithjoe@gmail.com
