Intirayam Restaurant in Chinatown

Peruvian food in Chinatown? Why not? Intirayam Restaurant is located at 633 N Spring St, LA CA 90012. NOTE: they are closed Thursday. This was my 3rd time there so I wanted to order something different. I'd had the half a chicken before, which is excellent. Tenderly roasted with potatoes and onions. I went with my co-worker and rookie father, Noam Maitless. He ordered the Lomo Saltado which is a grilled vegetables with beef and I had the Saltado de Pollo, a lovely chicken dish. You get bread and soup with the lunch meal. It's a great deal. Well, we really enjoyed our meal. I mean, in between the conversation, we would periodically smile and say, this is so good...good suggestion. The food is prepared really well, like at someone's house with this sort of ancient confidence.

Aloha Food Factory in Alhambra

YAY!!!! HAWAIIAN FOOD!!!!! Aloha Food factory is a mom and pop shop located on 2990 W Valley Blvd Alhambra CA 91803. I ordered the Kalua pig and Lau Lau combo with rice and macaroni salad. The salad was awesomely delicious. The pig tender and not crazy salty, nice! The lau lau was amazing. I never had it in a broth. Is this a typical way to eat lau lau? I ate really fast because it was so good so my body was like, "want more!" So I ordered the "WORKS"; ice cream, azuki beans, sweet milk, and shaved ice. I picked mango syrup for my works. When it came, I laughed. Had no idea I was ordering a tub. So the owner said," we put it in a to go container. Maybe you could take it home and eat the rest later" WHAT? a challenge? I finished it. She came by and said, "Hey, you did good". I couldn't feel the right side of my face and walking was difficult. I was so grateful that the car was warm inside. It took me about an hour to thaw out.

Euro Market Bakery and Deli in Huntington Beach

Sandy Yang and Gabie Strong of Lady Noise invited me to a music gear swap meet at Huntington Beach's Old World Mall, German inspired mall of places to eat, buy and drink. I bought 2 used maple 24" bass drum hoops for $15. I couldn't believe it. I was stoked. I mean that's crazy talk! Anyway, Sandy was like, oh we gotta have breakfast at this bakery there. When we walked into the cool little place, the restaurant wasn't open yet so we ordered at the sausage counter. Bakery was open. I ordered this sausage called Landjaeger which was a delicious jerky kind of sausage. Really rich, I could only eat half of one. We ordered two pastries, the Berliner which was jelly donut like and very sweet and the Apple Streusel which was dense and tasty. We also ordered breakfast plates which didn't seem very German. I also bought this bread Sandy recommended, Bauernbrot. I can't describe this bread. It's not a rye but it's in that ballpark. Thinly sliced, when toasted you have to be careful to not over toast or your left with a cracker but it's tasty, especially in the sandwich context.

Fred 62 in Silver Lake

Fred 62 in Silver Lake, has been there for a while. I went with some friends who had been there before but unfortunately, I ate already so I ordered a dessert. Snowcapped Mt. Brownie. I don't think I need to explain this one, do I? Fred 62, 1850 N Vermont Ave LA CA. There open 24-7.

Old Yerevan in Glendale

Hadn't had a meal with artist Jeffery James Mohr. (Sashiburi jp.) He had to get some motorcycle parts so I tagged along, knowing we would get a bite to eat sometime during the journey. There's a huge Armenian population there, so it wasn't hard to spot a place. Had no idea what to look for. Old Yerevan, 1351 E Colorado ST, Glendale CA 91205 looked good so we walked in. I guess we were the first customers because they turned on all the lights in the place when we walked in. We basically asked the server, an older Armenian man who reminded me of Lou Grant (Ed Asner) from the old Mary Tyler Moore sitcom, what he recommended. We ordered the Old Yerevan combo. That's a no brainer. Well, it turned out the server was also the chef because Jeff saw him turn on the stove in the back. Yet, something told me this was going to be good and I said so to Jeff. Out came some Armenian breads, feta cheese and butter that was fresh and delicious. The lunch plates arrived with a mountain of basmati rice and several skewers of chicken kabob and Luleh kabob Filet Mignon along with grilled tomatoes, peppers and onions. Oh mann, this was some good eats. We were laughing on our way to the car we were so full. We practically rolled out fo that place. oh, and the hummus kicked our butts, so much garlic, so good.

K2 in Silver Lake

Apparently I stumbled into the third night K2 was open for dinner. Timing is everything. Such a clean and sharp interior. The food presentation is spot on. The servers are passionate and smart. I like this place and I didn't even order anything yet. I glanced at the menu...oh, it's a Cajun place? Crawfish? I've never had crawfish before. Let's dive in! WOW!!, the servers and chef gave me a crash course on how to eat the mini shell fish. It's a process of peel-rip-eat-and suck. Bathed in spices and broth, I was in a state of bliss-nirvana-enlightenment. Is this the collective unconscious? Note, the broth is like heaven's soup. Save that cornbread so you can dunk it in this liquid after you devour the shellfish. Unfortunately, the blue crab salad came afterwards or I guess I segued into it after my crawfish bonanza. I don't remember much of the salad. I think I was floating in the Mississippi in my very own parallel universe by the time I got to the salad.

Mission a restaurant in San Diego

Apparently, there are several locations of the restaurant called Mission. Alessandra Moctezuma brought us to the one located at 1250 J Street San Diego CA. What's Chino Latino? This place is near the relocated Sushi Performance space and some really cool Victorian architecture. Everything you see is a little bit of Latin flavor and little bit of Chinese flavor. The burrito for instance was carne asada with a little bit of plum sauce. The food was yummy and filling. Not too over the top. A solid lunch before a performance at Mesa College.

San Diego Farmers Outlet

San Diego Farmers Outlet, 6410 Riverdale Street San Diego CA sells local produce and goods. There I discovered Julian Pies, a local favorite. As a gift, my friend, artist and gallery director, Alessandra Moctezuma bought my family a pie, which I shared when we got back that evening. The pie was extraordinary. That had boysenberry, apple, peach but we got apple fritter. So delicious, a little taste of SD. Steve and Omayumi got some goodies too.

Filter Coffee Shop in San Diego

Filter Coffee Shop, 1295 University Avenue, San Diego CA 92103, 619-299-0145, was a life saver one night in San Diego. It's a 24 hour place that caters to students from SD State and UCSD. Steve and I were in SD with Omayumi to perform our collaborative work "Red Flat" at Mesa College. The night before or rather the morning of, I woke up in our hotel room and couldn't sleep. I was in a state of panic. The Tsunami had finally sunk in a bit. I guess I was in shock for a couple of days and had the buffer of being on tour with my friends. After sitting on the sofa in the living room in silence, I put my clothes on and drove the car to Filter, which Steve and I had discovered earlier that night. I was comforted with the fact that the place was filled with 15 customers/students, despite it being 3:00 AM. I ordered a chamomile tea and wrote four pages of thoughts, evaluating my state of mind. If Filter wasn't open, I think I would have lost it that morning.

Cafe On The Park in San Diego

Cafe on the Park is located at 3831 Park Blvd San Diego CA 92103, 619-293-7275, very near Balboa Park as well as University Street. I was in San Diego with artists Steven M Irvin and Omayumi from Osaka to perform a work at Mesa College. Steve and I woke up early and decided to get a bite to eat. This place caught our eye and we were treated to some wonderful dishes for breakfast. I had the crab cake with eggs benedict. The crab was tender and the eggs benedict rich and not over cooked. There was also this homemade mixed berry jam that was awesome. It was not overly sweet, so that you were given enough room to taste the complexities of the bread. Steve had an egg dish that he enjoyed. I highly recommend this place if you're in the area.

101 Coffee Shop in Hollywood

I've been to this place two other times to eat the Chocolate Waffle Sundae, which will give you a cardiac if you try to eat it all yourself. Yes, I speak from experience. This time, I went with artist Megan DeArmond and actually had "food". The beer batter onion rings were exceptional. I could eat that for lunch, I mean, I did but I mean just the onion rings. They brought it over with some ranch. Crispy, not greasy, tender and golden, these rings were amazing. My cobb was really great. Although tossed, it was not soggy but crisp and fresh. Oh, but those were all just intros to the Banana Split. I think I really captured its glory in this picture. Do I really need to say anything else? Oh, side note, we were served by one the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, stunning. Tall, dark hair, brilliant eyes and strong. Her tattoos circled her neck to chin, arms and the back of her ears. Extremely attractive and a confidence that she could kick ass, s-e-x-y.

Cafecito Organico in East Hollywood

Cafecito Organico in East Hollywood is located at 710 North Heliotrope Ave, East Hollywood CA. Homegrown, Fair trade, custom, down home, slow pour, are some of the descriptions for this passion rooted coffee house. It's nestled in that cool block of Melrose, home to Scoops, Pure Luck, the Bicycle Kitchen and Orange 20 Bike Shop. I am a tea drinker but the coffee smelled so good I decided to order the Costa Rica blend. Oh my. I think I drank about three ounces and all of a sudden I was shaking. It was delicious and deceptively smooth.

Fromin's in Santa Monica

My friend has been telling me that Fromin's has the best matzo ball soup in WLA. I wanted to meet Jim Fox of Code Blue Records for months, who lives on the Westside, because he's been introducing Ear Meal webcast to many of his amazing composers. So I killed two birds with one stone today. I met Jim at Fromin's for lunch. Jim had the corned beef sandwich and I ordered the matzo ball soup and potato pancakes. The matzo ball soup had noodles and the chicken soup was very subtle. The potato pancakes were a little dense? I don't know how else to describe them. They weren't fresh with crunchy edges. I liked what I ate but I wasn't convinced this was the best in LA. Discussing it with Jim, it really comes down to personal preference. There so many subtle adjustments you can make with matzo ball soup and potato pancakes. For instance, he feels that the Carnegie Deli in NY has the best corned beef sandwich and pickles but he said if you say that to most NY folk, they will disagree and claim another place in NY has the best. Fromin's was fairly packed so I'm sure it's the favorite for a lot of people. I have my favorites but I wonder if they are my favorites because they are one of the first places I had i.e. potato pancakes. Nostalgia is always more delicious.