I have reservations for 2 the last week of March for Noma. I have an extra seat. Please email me at hello@dylanandjeni.com for more details. If I cannot find another diner I will have to cancel my reservation. :(

-Jeni

I've been to Siete Mares (Silver Lake), Tacos Baja Ensenanda (ELA), and Best Fish Tacos in Ensenada (Los Feliz) and I have to say that the tacos at Best Fish Tacos in Ensenada are my favorite.

Eat Drink & Be Merry does a thorough study on these three joints: http://eatdrinknbmerry.blogspot.com/2...

Maxco...I think Marukai Forum in Gardena (Western & Artesia) has the biggest and cheapest Japanese kitchen section in LA. For dishes, I usually find dishes at the Marukai 98 shops (they used to be dollar shops, but have increased to $1.50 shop). Check out the Marukai 98 shop on Artesia Blvd. or on Hawthorne Blvd. There are some good finds on Japanese dishes for $1.50.

As for Japanese restaurant...I'd suggest Musha in Torrance (izakaya), Shin Sen Gumi in Torrance (yakitori), Santouka at the Mitsuwa food courts in Torrance or W.LA for shio ramen, and Sushi Zo in Palms for sushi. Have fun in LA!

You could start off with Sunday wine tasting at Silver Lake Wine (3-5pm)...

Add some orange juice. It'll thin out your Fage (which I think is too thick) and also give you that tang you're looking for. I eat my homemade wannabe Pinkberry with diced gala or fuji apples as well.

For Memorial Day, I made the Santa Barbara Spot Prawns with Tomato Confit, Garlic, and Chile, Sweet Corn Soup with Avocado Cream and Cilantro, and her Cornmeal Shortcakes with Apricots, Mint, and Soured Creme.

Santa Barbara Spot Prawns with Tomato Confit, Garlic and Chile
I loooove these live Santa Barbara Spot Prawns. If you have access to a 99 Ranch Market (CA, WA, Las Vegas, or Atlanta) you can find these live beauties for $12.99/lb in season. They're not only gorgeous, they are so much fun to play with! The meal with the spot prawns are so much fun as well. Our guests loved decapitating the prawns and peeling the shrimp...along with dipping crusty baguettes in her tomato confit. **To bring out a bolder yellow in the confit, I recommend using half yellow tomatoes and half orange tomatoes.

Sweet Corn Soup with Avocado Cream and Cilantro
I agree with RoseWater on serving this soup cold. I served it warm on the night of our dinner...and the flavors just didn't "pop" like I was hoping it would.

Cornmeal Shortcakes with Apricots, Mint, and Soured Creme
Peaches weren't quite ready when I was making this recipe, so apricots had to do. I was actually going to use nectarines, but they were too soft and i couldn't halve them with out fully mutilating the entire fruit. So I just pureed the nectarines, which worked quite well being the sour component to the sweet Apricots. I love her simple sugar btw. I even added some of that syrub into her harissa dip another night. Superb. Anyways, I really didn't care for the shortcakes. They just seemed to dry and dense. Too bad, because her sour mascarpone is so delicious. I think a castella cake would go nicely with the fresh fruits and sour mascarpone.

Here's my full post of the dinner: http://oishiieats.blogspot.com/2007/0...

YUCA'S!!!

Try their burritos....sooo delicious!!! Their machaca burritos are my favorite though...ohh...and thier cheeseburger too!

Congrats Hambriento! When I graduated from UCLA back in '05 and my main concern was 1. I was going to have very hungry guests since graduations are zzzz boring so the restaurant had to be close and 2. I wanted it to be reasonable for my parents. So, we decided to make reservations for Hop Li on Pico. Even though I had reservations, we still had to wait a good 30 minutes because everyone was there having a Father's Day dinner. Hop Li was good enough for us...we had 17 people and the bill came out to $120!

Good luck on finding a place. AND seriously, make sure your guests get out of the parking lots ASAP after the graduation. My parents were stuck in Lot 4 for a good hour. Wait, you're graduating on Fri? It shouldn't be a problem then. :)

USC's lucky for having La Taquiza (3009 S Figueroa St) right there. Great spit-fire al pastors and mulitas!

http://oishiieats.blogspot.com/2006/1...

Super cute place...but the food is pretty boring. zzzzzzz.

Go to Alcove instead.

El Taquito Mexicano #2 (467 N Fair Oaks Ave) have excellent $1 carne asada tacos. It's a small hole-in-the-wall sit down joint.

http://oishiieats.blogspot.com/2006/0...

They're only open on Sundays for Brunch and dinner!

I love The Cobbler Lady. It's just down the street from where I work too! The only downfall to their delicious peach cobbler is that they don't use fresh peaches while they're in season. :(

For dinner, if you guys have $$$ you can hit up Harold and Belle's (2920 W Jefferson) for the real deal creole/cajun. For cheaper creole/cajun, there's Bayou Grille (1400 N. La Brea). They've got a great shrimp po'boy and gumbo goin' on. Mama's House is in the same shopping plaza and they've got great fried chicken. M&M used to be my hang out when I was in grad school, but I find the portions way too filling now. Chef Marilyn by Taco Bell on Crenshaw is pretty cheap. I'd go there for a quick soul food dinner. If you're hitting up TCL on a Sunday, I highly recommend Dulan's (4859 S. Crenshaw).

Wat Thai (Thai Temple) LA in the valley is fun, but I definitely recommend eating in Thai Town (on Hollywood Blvd. east of the 101 fwy). Yai, Sapp Coffee Shop, and Ruen Pair are my favorites.

K&L Wines opens Saturday, March 10th!
1400 Vine Street
Hollywood, CA 90028
(323) 464-WINE (9463)
(323) 836-0853 (Fax)
Store Hours: M-F: 10-8p, Sat: 10-8p, Sun: 11-6p

Sorry about your experience at Top Baguette. The man is usually pretty nice when my mom and I roll in. Maybe he's going through manopause??? Anyways, we just go to Top Baguette for baguettes and head to Banh Mi Che Cali for banh mi's. The dac biet banh mi's at Uyenthy across the street have great head cheese and pate but are more pricey.

I find it best to get to Wat Thai at the end of the day when there's available parking and the lines aren't so massive. We got there around 4:45 one time and it was perfect. I have several posts on Wat Thai on my site that might help. Enjoy!

People at the SF store said that K&L Hollywood will open end of February. Register at
www.klwines.com for updates on the opening.

noodlewhore.com and I just went to Mei Long Village in San Gabriel. Their Beef Noodle Soup was pretty on point.

Thanks Weebie!!! I'll be checkin out Blossoms real soon. I've been craving some Banh Xeo like a mad woman! Are the tables sticky? I like 'em stickay!

I agree with BHAppeal...Dr. Hogly Wogly's Tyler Texas BBQ. I go there for the BBQ Brisket and baked beans. Good luck!