boston hound for 9 days in LA, LAX, Anaheim, Fullerton areas

the trip so far:
Saturday - Pacos Tacos (enchilada and tamale plate) near LAX for lunch then Manhattan Beach Creamery for dinner - both very good.
Sunday - Dim Sum in chinatown at Ocean City and dinner at Redwood Tavern in Beverly - good dim sum; awesome craft beer and split a divine fish and chips :)
Monday - El Farolito Jr. (placentia) for lunch - enchilada and taco plate; dosa place in Tustin for some happy hour $ beer and chicken tikka and a south indian fish dish called chelapa pulusu (pretty darn amazing)
Tuesday - convention food for lunch; bubba gump for dinner (this was a "why did we do this? but the wife had wanted to dine here for over 10 years) - whatever done and a checkmark in place - good margaritas tho
Wednesday - more convention center food awesomeness; El Cholo in La Habra for dinner (sonora enchilada and chile colorado) - really really good. Wife gets to eat at Lemonade near Venice Beach for lunch - lucky girl
Thursday - El Taurino in Pico Union for the wife (she sounded super excited); i get to eat at the convention center again!! - for dinner we are thinking of In-n-Out OR a good ramen place in/around Anaheim/Placentia/Fullerton - ANY RECS?

For the remaining week, we still have Park's BBQ, hawaiian food, ethiopian food and sushi. For teh areas we have Temecula/Anaheim/Placentia/Fullerton and then back to LA and plan to spend a day on Saturday (if the weather permits) to go visit Malibu and bike down to santa monica and venice beach. Any other recommendations that would help us out?

It has been a great experience so far and I wanted to thank everyone who has taken the time to respond. I did find some of Das Ubergeek's posts that led us to El Farolito Jr. in the first place. Really enjoying our time here in SoCal.

Thanks again for any additional recs that you can give us...

ne_cyclone in Los Angeles Area

boston hound for 9 days in LA, LAX, Anaheim, Fullerton areas

Thank u - plan to try Park tonight. How about the Anaheim area - hoping that Disneyland did not create a huge tourist trap chai restaurant zone. Thanks again for helping out. There is some Chinese dim sum in Chinatown this morning.
Thanks again.

ne_cyclone in Los Angeles Area

boston hound for 9 days in LA, LAX, Anaheim, Fullerton areas

Trip has started today near LAX with a quick bite at Pacos Tacos. Tonight hoping to see a Pacific sunset nearby beach and maybe grab dinner around there? then off to LA tomorrow and then ANAHEIM/Placencia/Fullerton through Friday night and then LA again until we leave on Sunday morning.
Dinner is the biggest need and we are huge fans of Mexican Italian Korean Japanese any Asian really. Also things that a Boston area resident would find hard to get in our neck of the woods. We r hole in the wall people and trying to stay around 20 bucks per person.
Lunch recs in anaheim area for Monday thru Friday would be extremely helpful for my wife while I go to work.
Thanks so much for helping out with this great endeavor of ours. I will get more specificif needed to help us out.

ne_cyclone in Los Angeles Area

If you were to propose

Dear Hounds of Boston,

It has been almost 2 years since I last posted to this thread - every now and then I come back to read all the helpful suggestions and stories that you so kindly shared.
My wife and I are now celebrating our 1 year wedding anniversary during the weekend of 12/17-12/19. Its about 2 weeks after our actual anniversary but I married a doctor so there goes planning ahead...

I have booked us into the Renaissance again where we stayed when I proposed in Feb 2010. This time around, I am hoping for some more amazing memories and a grand old time. So far I have picked the Langham for Sunday brunch - http://boston.langhamhotels.com/restaurants/sunday_brunch.htm.

Plans for activities include the Slutcracker, BSO Pops and some walks around the Common with maybe a stop at the Four Seasons Bristol Lounge.

Since we are in the Seaport district, I was hoping for some suggestions in the general vicinity again for eating and/or other activities. Also, Mamma Maria private room - what is the realistic chance to get that?
Somerville Theater and Symphony Hall vicinity romatic options? We are also good food fans so everything is not to be uber-expensive and stuff. A hot dog on one afternoon would be manna!!
Also last but not the least, we will stay over on Monday - are food trucks worth looking into? We are fans of the NYC truck scene - has Boston become a good alternate for the choices they provide?

Thanks a lot and hope to hear from you all.

ne_cyclone in Greater Boston Area

Business trip to St. Paul - suggestions pls?

Made my way into Midtown Market ad tried out Tamales, Los Ocampo and the Bubble Tea at Pham's along wth some savories at the Salty Tart. They were all good (Huarachazo at OCampo, Tamale from Tamale place) but I didnt feel spectacular about the food either - maybe it was because of the entry time for me at 7 PM last night?

I am sad that some of my old favs are now gone - pork bao at China Jen was something I could go for right now. Maybe I will go check out Town Hall Brewery - i do need some recs for breakfast as I have a late start and something around the convention center that i can walk to ....

anything around the Mall of America that may be worth going to? Thanks again for all your help!!

-----
China Jen Restaurant
2193 Snelling Ave N, Saint Paul, MN 55113

Salty Tart
920 E Lake St Ste 158, Minneapolis, MN 55407

ne_cyclone in Minneapolis-St. Paul

Business trip to St. Paul - suggestions pls?

I come back to Minneapolis (More Minneapolis than St. Paul) and I hope that some of the restaurants that I reported on are still around? Or there are more cant miss places that I should hit.

The clock starts ticking with dinner 1 tonight and then 3 more before I fly out on Friday morning. Oh and I can go anywhere - staying in Eden Prairie tonight and then right next to the convention center for the remaining nights.

Same rules I guess - single diner, dont like pretentious (terribly) joints and just wanted to try some good food agian - your help is always much appreciated!!

Thanks all...

ne_cyclone in Minneapolis-St. Paul

NYC trip for an el cheapo street vendor weekend - potentially Memorial Day

Oh and we did visit the Williamsburg Flea last time. As a point of reference we loved it.

ne_cyclone in Manhattan

NYC trip for an el cheapo street vendor weekend - potentially Memorial Day

Wow thanks. I did have another follow up Q. Red hook smogasburg fort Greene and hester fair - can anyone rank as cannot miss to next time. I have a possible time constraint. Could do 2-3 but not all 4. Appreciate ur help - now for.a.swim before we head out again.

ne_cyclone in Manhattan

NYC trip for an el cheapo street vendor weekend - potentially Memorial Day

Thanks - looks like New Amsterdam Fair is not open on July 3rd

ne_cyclone in Manhattan

NYC trip for an el cheapo street vendor weekend - potentially Memorial Day

Thank you all for some great recs - we were able to hit Madison Sq Park eats, Williamsburg Flea and Taiim and RGR's LES Walk.
Also had some wafels and dinges - I plan/hope to put in a blog with our experiences and post back to this thread for others to follow.

Having said that, we are looking at July 4th weekend trip - actually 6/30 - 7/3. I am hoping that we can sample some of the food trucks on the weekday. Are there any other food fairs similar to MSP Eats and Brooklyn Flea during this time?

Thanks again!!

ne_cyclone in Manhattan

NYC trip for an el cheapo street vendor weekend - potentially Memorial Day

Thanks guys - I do have a starting point now. Considering the unbelievable cost of a hotel night in Manhattan, we probably will stay around the Newark area and take the train in.
I just came across RGR's LES food trail - sounded like a good option too.

One of these days we will just a few weekdays off and spend in NYC.....its hard to find any amazing street food vendors in Boston area.

ne_cyclone in Manhattan

NYC trip for an el cheapo street vendor weekend - potentially Memorial Day

Hello All,

After some amazing NYC trips noshing on seriously amazing "chef made reservation only dine in restaurants", the wife and I wanted to come back for a different take of NYC - street food vendors!!

So I found this blog/site http://newyorkstreetfood.com/

I am trying to figure out the percentage of vendors that open shop on the weekends esp the Memorial Day weekend. Any help or links would be appreciated. If there are certain neighborhoods where we can find more carts taht would be awesome - we are not cuisine specific esp not when trying to live a bit adventurously and try out the street food vendors.

Also if we were to go out for falafel/hummus/gyros - any cant miss places? And there will be a late night trip to our Mecca of pastrami - Katzs.

As always - thank you all.

ne_cyclone in Manhattan

Acadia - July 3-6 $100/day for 2 people - foodie type couple

thanks a lot - will post our experiences culinary of course!!

ne_cyclone in Northern New England

Acadia - July 3-6 $100/day for 2 people - foodie type couple

On my last trip to Acadia, I had the pleasure of dining at Poor Boys, 2 Cats, JPH, Jordans and the Deck House in SW Harbor. Working off a bit of a budget this time and would like to have 1 "nice" dining experience and other good but not too expensive meals. huge suckers for breakfast and dinners - lunch can be light and breezy and cheap.

willing to forgo alcohol and even apps.

I looked up galyns and havana - any 1 better than the other? where would the locals recommend we plant ourselves for food?

thanks a lot!!

-----
2 Cats
130 Cottage St, Bar Harbor, ME 04609

ne_cyclone in Northern New England

If you were to propose

She said YES!!!
Its been a week and I am still excited :)) Ended up in Cambridge on the Charles River Bike path (our favorite spots) looking out over the river at the city she loves and the longfellow bridge with its trains. For the first time in her memory, two trains crossed right in the middle!! Good omen right?
I also couldnt believe that I chickened out 5 times - then a moment in the conversation provided the break that I was looking for and well some moments of gasps and a bit of fiddling in the coat for the box to come out - I finally asked her to marry me and she said Yes!
We ended up talking and dining at our favorite hole in the wall Helmand (I cancelled the L'espalier reservation) till closing. We went back to our hotel and there was the champagne and chocolate strawberries waiting for us :)
Saturday brunch at Flour Bakery and at night was another surprise with dinner at Bistro du Midi - ending with the chocolate souffle for her and Grand Marnier souffle for me - very very nice. Sunday rounded off with brunch at Michael Timothy's in Nashua - a long time coming.
I wanted to thank everyone who took the time to post and help me out. There are a lot of suggestions that I plan to use over the course of this year....
Thanks!!

ne_cyclone in Greater Boston Area

If you were to propose

Alright - back for some suggestions since the day is within the next 48-72 hours. OUr one weekend away for the next 3 months and every cloud in the world wants to see the proposal :)) maybe thats a good thing.
Ok - my question - I am staying at the Renaissance waterfront for the weekend and I remembered that my SO loves souffle (chocolate preferred). So i am lloking for a rec or two for excellent souffle - maybe we will just do dessert or the whole dinner thing.
Oh and btw, I am proposing outside of dinner :)

As always appreciate and look forward to your replies - thanks! NOW I am too excited.

ne_cyclone in Greater Boston Area

If you were to propose

Thank you with all my heart!! Your help and time taken is greatly appreciated :))

The best part about the whole polling for ideas is that not that I dont have some of my own but sometimes it gets to be too many and helps to get some perspective.

So once again - appreciate all your help - this event is gonna happen with the next month so in all probability I will return to post the day/night's events. Wish me luck :)

Thanks...

ne_cyclone in Greater Boston Area

If you were to propose

Thank you folks - I created the post and realized that I had not mentioned anything about us - we LOVE food, have been dating for about 1.5 years now. Our most memorable times were RW'09 in Boston and NYC - we hit up L'Espalier/Radius/Marliave/OCeannaire and the Bristol Lounge during the two week period.
Been to Carmen and Troquet and Angela's Cafe :)))
She LOVES Boston - I kid you not - but every drive into Boston (pike, 93, 2 any drive) is accented by "My Citeeeeeeeeee" when there is a view of the city
She loves music - so the evening is going to involve a visit to Symphony Hall (a venue she has performed in some time back) fora BSO (Levine conducted) performance. Loves the BU bridge and the Mass Ave bridges for views of the Citeeeeeeeee (ok couldnt help it). Other favorite is the Longfellow bridge in Cambridge (I think - apologies I am still nouveau to Boston) with the dual trains.

Sooooooooo with that in mind, all your recs are very helpful - i havent decided if the restaurant proposal is the one I want to short list.

Any thoughts on the carriage rides? and restaurants in that area - Carmen qualifies as being in the North End but is really tight for space.

ne_cyclone in Greater Boston Area

If you were to propose

what restaurants would make the short list to go down on one knee? I am researching options and this one is on my list for potentials.

And looks like Winter restaurant week is around the corner - time to pack my bag and head south from Massachusetts.

Eliminate Asian food spots - yes thats about it.

Thank you.

ne_cyclone in Manhattan

If you were to propose

what restaurants would make the short list to go down on one knee? I am researching options and this one is on my list for potentials.

Thank you.

ne_cyclone in Greater Boston Area

Steak in MSP

As someone who used the MSP CH'ers for recs before - the Strip Club in St. Paul comes to mind. Its different and steaks are grass fed.

The other recs would be easier to get to, I would imagine.

ne_cyclone in Minneapolis-St. Paul

Old Orchard Beach - 1 night only - any nice dinner recs

I have heard of Lydia's Blue something in York Beach and the seacoast wentworth marriott. any other recommendations?

Thanks a lot.

ne_cyclone in General New England Archive

Comfy/Romantic Late Night Lounge Recs - Midtown East

Our hotel:
e52nd bet lex and 3rd

coming in around midnight from NH and need some recommendations for comfy (busy but not overbearing) lounges without a long wait (Tuesday night). good cocktails and maybe some light fare would be great!! any recs woud be greatly appreciated - kinda in a pinch and price is not a big concern.....

thanks a lot!!

ne_cyclone in Manhattan

A multi-short-trip of sorts to Manhattan

Maze is the pre-theater restaurant - I am EXCITED now!! My hotels all got confirmed

Courtyard New York Manhattan/Midtown East
155 E 52nd St (between 3rd and Lexington)

New York Marriott East Side
lexington and 49th

Hilton New York
1335 Avenue of the Americas (bet 53rd and 54th)

Yes it is a bit weird, but I found that every hotel had cheap rates on different nights and this is NYC so money can actually run out!!

In the neighborhood of the Courtyard, are there any good lounges where we could relax late night (getting in around midnight) and get a cocktail?

Also, one of the neighborhoods we were planning was Greenwich/SoHo with an eye towards walk-in foodie places for one of the nights. any cant miss thoughts?

Thank you and please do give Beacon a shot - chocolate chip souffle - we are going again for lunch this time!!

ne_cyclone in Manhattan

A multi-short-trip of sorts to Manhattan

Dear RGR,
Thank you !!! You are a god-send. Ok another favor - I need some recs for good crepes in NYC. Anything that you might recommend? And the Maze menu is actually quite affordable for an a la carte. http://www.gordonramsay.com/mazeatthelondonnyc/menus/alacartemenu/
am i missing something?

thanks again.

ne_cyclone in Manhattan

A multi-short-trip of sorts to Manhattan

Thank you for the recs - I found it to be a bit on the pricier side. Keeping everyone's preferences in mind I was thinking in line of about $60 per person like a prix fixe excluding wine. One of the places was Beacon - I was wondering if you might have anything else to offer. Thanks a gain.

ne_cyclone in Manhattan

A multi-short-trip of sorts to Manhattan

pictures from Beacon and Alma de Cuba

ne_cyclone in Manhattan

A multi-short-trip of sorts to Manhattan

Hello,

Coming back to NYC 6/30 through 7/4. We are going to be spending an entire day with friends from Chicago and one of the activities on 7/2 will be the Phantom at the Majestic Theater on 44th.

Based on my last visit, I would like to expand the options and see and eat different things
a) Pastrami - Katzs - DONE!!
b) 1 definite Breakfast - Clinton St Baking Co. - any other top options - LOVE our pancakes!!
c) Pre-theater dinner - upscale

Anything close to the level of Town? Maybe the chef Zakarias opened a new joint? RGR, you recommended Ramsay/db Moderne/Modern - any priority order? anything that is must have? any new places that have sprung up near the theater district?

d) NY pizza for lunch - near the shopping district (Bergdorf's area or Macy's Hearld Square area)??

e) Korean BBQ - Madangsui got high marks - should i go for it?

f) La Esquina - Kenmare St SOHO - thoughts?

g) Israeli style falafels - veggie - where would I get them??

h) CREPES !!!! - any recs??

i) SOHO/East Village -

As always I really appreciate your help and recs - SOOOO looking forward to another blast in NYC

ne_cyclone in Manhattan

A multi-short-trip of sorts to Manhattan

Really!!! Economy taking its toll or was there something more sinister? Wow we will miss it ....

ne_cyclone in Manhattan