Help me find veal near Durham!

Thanks for the tips everyone - Cliff's was on my radar, but I haven't yet been there. The others are new to me. Thanks again.

tkemeny in Southeast

Help me find veal near Durham!

I'm new to the triangle area. I'm looking for a good butcher, and in particular I want to find veal for terrines. I'm willing to travel a bit to get it, within reason. Any ideas where to find it?

Much thanks.

tkemeny in Southeast

Help: L.A. hound seeking good spot for a family birthday dinner

Thanks TorontoJo: We're just six.

Some more searching has uncovered other possibilities that I would love to hear about in this context:

- Paramour
- Loire
- Globe Earth
- Mildred's Temple Kitchen

tkemeny in Ontario (including Toronto)

Help: L.A. hound seeking good spot for a family birthday dinner

Thanks for the comments. Black hoof is offal, right? Ok by me but not everyone in the group is into it. Also, sushi is out - a few members of the group are pregnant, and while i know you can eat sushi while pregnant, some are reluctant to push it.

Any other picks, people?

tkemeny in Ontario (including Toronto)

Trinidadian food in Orange County

I feel your pain. 7 years after moving here from Toronto, I have given up: there is no Trini food anywhere around here - not just in OC, but southern cali, period. Someone please prove me wrong!

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

Help: L.A. hound seeking good spot for a family birthday dinner

Hi folks,

My wife and I are visiting from Los Angeles next week, and we're trying to find a good spot to host a small and foodie family birthday party for a group of adults. Everyone is adventurous and looking for something Toronto really does well. I'm a Toronto native, but it's been years since I kept up with what's happening in the food scene.

We're open cuisine-wise, and willing to splurge, but not break the bank. The place should have some ambience and charm, be downtown-ish, and not super loud or pitch black - we want to be able to see each other and catch up without shouting.

A quick glance at the Toronto boards gave me some possibilities like Origin and Guu, but this, I'm sure is just the tip of the iceberg.

Suggestions, please!!

tkemeny in Ontario (including Toronto)

Hunting for Harissa

Harissa is so uneven. The little yellow french cans - they can be as little as 50 cents - are the best in my opinion. Aromatic. They aren't just spicy and they aren't overpowered by garlic. I used to get them at the little israeli market just north of rosewood on fairfax. They don't have them all the time (and the owner once gave me his homemade harissa in its place), but it's worth checking out.

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

mac and cheese

I second the lavender lemon bars at Surfas. Fragrant and amazing.

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

UCLA Eats!!!

Not too sure how veggie friendly, but Danube Bulgarian, on westwood just south of wilshire, is pretty awesome. Nondescript-looking but some really delicious stuff. Get their 'white snow' appetizer, with yoghurt and cucumber and tons of garlic. so delicious!

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

Grilled Cheese Month @ Clementine

oh man these all sound so good! thanks for posting!

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

visiting LA from toronto

i'm a toronto transplant myself! some recommendations nearby:
- musha for fusiony izakaya
- la playita on lincoln, it's a good taco stand but their ceviche tostadas are amazing. there is simply no mexican food in toronto, so you should fuel up here while you can!
- bottle rock in culver city is a cool wine bar, plenty of other good stuff in culver city

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

Recommended Izakaya or Yakitori joint in Little Tokyo or Sawtelle? What is the best?

definitely hit izaoyoi in little tokyo

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

REVIEW: Millions of Milkshakes? Not quite

On Friday my wife and I, and a couple of friends went down to check out the new Millions of Milkshakes store that we read about on EaterLA. It's in West Hollywood - Santa Monica and San Vicente, more or less.

http://la.eater.com/archives/2008/08/13/omg_millions_of_milkshakes_revealed.php

We love milkshakes. What's not to love? Well......

Ok, first of all the good stuff:
1) They love Michael Jackson. Dancing staff are fun (though an older staff member seemed to be exhorting them to dance...it should be voluntary and spontaneous I think, otherwise a little creepy), especially to PYT.

2) The place is nice, clean, bright and inviting.

3) Very friendly staff explained the whole concept to us, and waited patiently while we stood around and pondered the many (!) toppings.

4) Lots of interesting elements to choose from. They include chocolate bars (ranging from mars bars to toblerone and ferrero rocher), to fresh and dried fruit, to licorice and other candy, as well as various syrups.

Now on to the trouble:
1) They aren't really milkshakes. The concept is that you choose a size, a base (either vanilla ice cream, soy ice cream or yoghurt) and then toppings from the aforementioned extensive toppings bar, and then they blend it up for you, either as a milkshake or as a sundae. We got milkshakes, or so we thought. But actually what we got was closest to a DQ Blizzard. Actually, it was almost identical to a Blizzard. Now I like those things, but they aren't milkshakes. You figure a place called Millions of Milkshakes should serve at least one.

2) They aren't *good* blizzards either. The main problem is that the toppings don't get properly chopped up. I ordered a milkshake with dried figs and heath bar. But as I slurped it down, the figs in particular were not well chopped up. I got big clumps that blocked my straw, and were pretty tough to eat. I think they forgot to chop off some of the tops of the figs too, which was a particularly unpleasant surprise. At the bottom of my "shake" was a big clump of partially blended figs. Not nice. My wife got Raisinettes and caramel sauce. Her Raisinettes suffered the same problems as my figs. Big, cold, hard clumps of them sat at the bottom of her concoction. Our two friends ordered other varieties, but suffered the same problem. We were all a bit dissatisfied with the whole thing. It's not that it was bad exactly - how bad can ice cream and figs and heath bars be? But it wasn't a milkshake, and it wasn't very good either. One way to solve the latter problem at least might be to pre-blend the hard ingredients separately, before blending it all together into the final product. That way we probably wouldn't have gotten the unfortunate sludge at the bottom. Still not a milkshake, but probably a tasty Blizzard with unusual ingredients - a niche at the minimum.

3) Their pricing is also off base. You pay $5 for the base for a regular size, then 95 cents for each topping. So, even a minimal regular shake is about $7 dollars. I understand they wanted to keep things simple by using one price for each topping. But these toppings are not equal. They might consider a category of deluxe and regular toppings, with some being substantially cheaper than a dollar each. Or maybe they should reduce the price for 3rd and 4th toppings, since obviously they can't be putting equal amounts of toppings as you add more and more, otherwise your toppings would outweigh your ice cream, leading to a bit of a disaster. Bottom line though: it costs too much. I don't want an $8 milkshake. And if I did, it better blow my socks off.

4) It's all a bit overwhelming. We all stood there for a good 5 minutes, maybe 10, just staring at it all trying to figure out what to do. Of course people should have the freedom to come up with the combinations they want, but a bit of guidance about things that work well together might be helpful. Maybe a short list of pre-selected favorites would be good, to get the ball rolling. If nothing else it will give people ideas they can build on or adapt. I got the feeling people were afraid to go in there because they were intimidated by it all. I don't blame them.

Overall then - maybe they are just working out the kinks, but the kinks don't seem insubstantial. None of the four of us were too keen, and that included a friend who declared an undying love for milkshakes. I don't think we'll be back. Did anyone else have a better experience?

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

REVIEW: Tirupathi Bhimas, Artesia

I made the trek to Artesia to check out the place, on the strength of your post. My gf had a masala dosa and a salty lassi (more or less salty, thin yoghurt, but tasty and strangely refreshing at least in small quantities) and I had the thali, and we shared. Both absolutely fantastic - i don't think I've ever had such perfectly crispy dosa, and my thali had so much amazing, delicious variety. Basically, I felt high coming out the place. And our server was so incredibly nice, I thought he was going to hug us for coming at the end. Nearly brought tears to my eyes. Great place. Thanks again.

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

The Great Pupusa Roundup

Fantastic post. Can't wait to try some of these. I'm not really an expert, but I love a good pupusa or two. My gf and I like a little pupuseria at sunset and hyperion, squeezed into the corner next to the popular gelato place. Can't remember the name of the pupuseria, but they are so delicious my gf made up a pupusa song to sing every time we go.

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

The Hall in West Hollywood?

Has anyone been tried out this new brasserie on Holloway at La Cienaga? I passed by it the other day and they've got what looks like a decent menu and a nice patio.

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

West Hollywood = Chowhound Wasteland?

First off - thanks everybody for providing a wealth of suggestions, some of which I've tried and others that are new. I'm definitely interested in trying out Tere's, as well as some other ideas you have posted...Carlitos Gardel I know about - I wish my gf liked beef more!!

Still, Nosh and Can't-talk have it right - when folks are posting Grace, Dan Tana's, AOC etc, they're missing the point of my post. What's absent from West Hollywood is not upscale (and sometimes just plain trendy for the sake of trendy) places. It's some good, down home, all-about-the-food, no nonsense places. Maybe I am asking too much, but it seems to me pretty absent. It's not that Lou, Jar etc. don't have good food - they do - but it's not a casual, got home from work late and don't feel like cooking but I want some tasty, cheap, unpretentious food - at least not on my budget. When I was in Silverlake I liked Cafe Tropical, Pho Cafe, a local pupuseria place whose name I forget...all places I could basically walk to. I have basically nothing like that in West Hollywood.

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

West Hollywood = Chowhound Wasteland?

I live in the heart of West Hollywood, close to Santa Monica, and have for about a year. I'm convinced that West Hollywood is an utterly empty foodie wasteland. Every meal my gf and I have consumed near where we live hasn't surpassed mediocrity. Some, like Gardens of Taxco, may scar us forever.

I'm looking for some unpretentious, good food. I really like Mexican, Thai, Korean, Japanese, and come to think of it, pretty much anything as long as it's good. I generally go for places that aren't too sceney, no bs, and not super pricey. I'm very willing to travel to Koreatown or Little Tokyo or San Gabriel, as me and my girl do when we can.

...But sometimes you just want to step out and grab a decent meal. Am I asking too much? Any seasoned west hollywood chowhounders out there with some good recommendations??

Much appreciated!

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

PLEASE POST YOUR VOTES HERE: Ultimate Los Angeles Restaurants 2007

1. Izayoi
2. Opus
3. Canele
4. Dino's Burgers
5. Dong Il Jang

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

Best Coffee in LA

cafe tropical in silverlake for cafe con leche. grab a slice of their guava cheesecake too.

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

boyfriend requests mexican

i strongly disagree with silverlaker's -- Garden's of Taxco is in no way Mexican food. it's also just plain terrible. One of our dishes was smothered in velveeta. Completely revolting - and expensive too. I felt like we were eating reheated microwave frozen dinners. I can't think of a restaurant experience I liked less than this.

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

the best SANDWICH in (Los Angeles) period.

I'm not going to argue with Langer's pastrami. Two other great sandwiches i can think of:

1. Lechon Asado sandwich at El Cochinito: the Lechon dinner is slighly better but we're talking sandwiches here. there's no better roast pork i've tried in LA. and it's a huge, salty, amazing sandwich.

2.They claim to have the best grillled cheese sandwich ever - tall order - but the grilled cheese at Surfas in Culver City is pretty great. Kind of the opposite of El Cochinito in that it's more on the austere tip, but totally delicious nonetheless. pick up a lemon lavender bar to go along with your sandwich.

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

Recco's for Surfas?

surfas has grilled cheese sandwiches that pretty much rule. they're advertised as 'world's greatest grilled cheese sandwich' and i'm convinced they're right. I like their lavender-lemon bars a lot too.

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

Around OR at the New Otani?

How about Izayoi.

It's nearby and I've had a high quality and pretty affordable izakaya meals there.

http://www.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&q=izayoi&near=Los+Angeles,+CA&radius=0.0&latlng=34052222,-118242778,9100794132833168044&sa=X&oi=local&ct=authority

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

Best Carne Asada Burrito In West LA Santa Monica?

I like Juquila - A downhome Oaxacan place on Santa Monica right near Barrington. They are especially good washed down with their negra modelo's ringed in chili salt. Juquila is also pretty good for mole.

Juquila Restaurant
11619 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 312-1079

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

Yuba tofu

Does anyone know where to get yuba tofu in los angeles - apparently the best quality tofu in the world - either in a restaurant or from a market?

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

Square One

we just returned from an excellent brunch at square one, sunday morning. we arrived just before ten, waited about a minute for them to prepare a table. the service was quick and efficient and the food was fresh and excellent. i had the chorizo omelette and my gf had baked eggs with feta. all great. we wondered whether maybe the owners were reading chowhound complaints and took action.

my only complaint is a lack of espresso coffee. come on people.

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area

the best beer I've ever had

hitachino nest beer, white ale from kiuchi brewery in japan. belgian style.

easily the best beer i've ever had - recently got it from surfas in culver city where they had it alongside the cash register, you know, impulse buying style, with a sign saying something to ther effect that it was worth losing an arm for. they're right.

http://kodawari.cc/engpage/kodawari/html/product_beer/white_ale.htm

tkemeny in Beer

Michelangelo's - Silverlake

had some nice thin crust pizza there this past friday. mix of family and hipster vibe. nice burrata too. i will go back there.

tkemeny in Los Angeles Area