The Daily Dose

I never find myself in Downtown LA, but this weekend I went there to attend a cooking class in the lofts district (is that a place? We can call it the Industrial district maybe?) where the 10 freeway meets the 5. We arrived at the class an hour and a half early due to a scheduling mistake and had a lot of time to kill.

The first way we spent our time was walking around the neighborhood checking out the plethora of murals on the walls--some skunks, a dinosaur, a train with descriptive smoke. The neighborhood, although strange, was really a neat place for a visit.

On our walk through the neighborhood we spied the famous Church & State restaurant, a pub, a wine store, a hidden community garden and then down a small alley between two brick buildings a tiny cafe.  This cafe is one of those places that if you just had the address you may be driving around for hours trying to pinpoint, but it was the perfect find for our morning.

The first time we stopped by the cafe it was mainly for the use of the bathroom but I also bought a fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. The juice was a pretty bad deal but it was fresh (and therefore sour), but I should have gone for coffee because really that did sound delicious.

Later we returned to the cafe for lunch when our entire party was there.  At the Daily Dose it is rumored that the owner (who was there) makes everything himself.  We heard this news several times from the regulars while we were there. There is very little seating inside, the cafe is absolutely minuscule. Outside, however it has a full alley with tables and chairs, herbs and vines growing up the walls and even a fire pit.

I ordered The Scramble which is described as 3 FFO eggs butter, baguette, jam, heirloom potatoes, house sauce.  It was fantastic! The eggs were cooked just perfectly for my taste mixed with a bit of cheese and scallions scrambled right on top of a piece of baguette. There were a few purple potatoes with a drizzle of house sauce--some kind of spicy chipotle sauce. But the real stand out was the jam on the baguette with butter on it.  The jam is apparently made by the owner, and it was berry with cinnamon or cloves or something in it--an unexpected taste that jumped out at me.  One of my dining companions got the same meal as me but her bread came with apricot jam on it. I like how they mixed it up.

Our other companion had the sandwich which is probably a better deal for the size and amount of food.  Her sandwich was called the Taylor with roasted ham, cheddar, pickles, spicy mustard, sauce verte on a fresh baguette. I understand that it was delicious, particularly the pickles.

I also heard good things about the scones and all the food I saw looked great. The crowd was also the friendly sort--helping us get our plates to the table, chatting across tables and enjoying the scenery on a Saturday morning.  I would love to go back to the Daily Dose but I highly doubt I will because it is in such a strange neighborhood!  If I go to another cooking class though...I will be back there immediately for some of that jam on a buttered baguette.

The Daily Dose
1820 Industrial St Ste 104
Los Angeles, CA 90021
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800 Degrees

At the very last minute, we decided to jump on the bandwagon and go see the They Might Be Giants/Jonathon Coulton concert at UCLA last night.  As coincidence would have it, our friends were also attending the concert so we vowed to meet for dinner first.  My friend is good at reading about new places and then actually going to them so we headed over to the brand new 800 Degrees Quick Service pizzeria in Westwood.

Contrary to my memories of other trips to Westwood, finding street parking for $1 an hour was not actually very difficult.  Just be sure to read the signs!  We parked and headed to the restaurant with a line trailing out the door.  We left a lot of time so we waited in that line. It was about 5:30pm.  By the time we left the restaurant around 6:45 (yeah so not so much QUICK) the line was even longer, down the street, past Peet's Coffee and all the way to the corner.

The concept is creative.  People pick one of three base pizzas--the margherita ($6), the bianca ($5), or the marinara ($5) and then for $1/topping (with a few exceptions) can add on whatever interests them from the vast toppings list or stick with the very basic.  By the time you get to the end of the line and pay for your pizzas and salads and drinks; the pizza is out of the oven and ready to eat. Now there's the challenge of finding a table and getting all your food there, but once done, it's time to dig in!

The pizzas are about the size of a large dinner plate and if you weren't that hungry, you could definitely share with one other person--especially if you stop in at the burrata bar or add on a salad.

I ended up order the margherita with only the addition of pepperdews which are like slightly more acidic sweet peppers (really good!).  So my pizza was basil, tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, pepperdews, garlic and olive oil.  The pizza was really good. The dough is not crispy but instead a perfect kind of chewy.  It stood up pretty well to the toppings and the flavors were all there.

I also ordered from the burrata bar burrata with cherry tomatoes and pesto for another $5.  If you have never had burrata before I highly recommend it. It is a variety of fresh mozzarella that is creamier than the regular buffalo variety.  The cheese has a cream center that actually seems to flow out of it onto the plate. So good! Burrata can be found at stores like Bristol Farms for astronomical prices so you might as well get a $5 salad of it at 800 Degrees!

My husband ordered the marinara pizza that comes with sauce and herbs and no cheese as a base--you can of course add cheese on top them for $1 but he decided not to.  He said he didn't miss the cheese and enjoyed his pepperoni and bacon pie just as well.

There are a variety of salads and the burrata bar as far as sides all for about $5 each unless you get something special (like prosciutto).  They have sodas for $2 with unlimited refills and one of those new-fangled fancy touch-screen coke machines that you can use to make a variety of flavors on top of your favorite soda (like Cherry Coke Zero and Orange Mellow Yellow).  They also sell gelato if by some miracle you are still hungry enough for dessert when you are finished!

While the line was very long and the system doesn't seem as fine tuned as it could be, the resulting food is fantastic and I would say worth the wait.  Admittedly, they just opened a few weeks ago and $6 pizza is a great deal so these nearby college students are probably going to be crowding the place for a while.  When the major buzz dies down, or maybe on a weekday evening, I highly recommend stopping into Westwood for your own signature pie.





800 Degrees Pizza, Westwood Village
10889 Lindbrook Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90024
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Another Broken Egg Cafe

A few months ago I noticed a new breakfast restaurant in town, Another Broken Egg Cafe had taken over the failed 3rd & Olive restaurant.  I put it on my list to try it and finally today, a super rainy Sunday morning and a cancelled softball game led us to breakfast.

We waited about 10 minutes to be called and were led to a sparse dining room with windows opening into the back wall and the lobby of the office building in which it resides.  The restaurant inside is sparse and not the least bit homey.  It feels like a restaurant in an office building.  It is very cold feeling.

We were seated and offered drinks but no silverware.  A few minutes later we ordered.  Then we waited. And waited. And waited.

Eventually our food came.  We ordered three totally different items--Huevos Rancheros, Baconado Omelet and Bananas Foster French Toast.  The FT only comes with FT, no sides except for an added cost.  The Eggs dishes both came with potatoes and the omelet also added an english muffing (with butter only and no one mentioned jam).  The tables aren't equipped with salt and pepper so you have to request it.

The food was good, but not spectacular.  The Bananas Foster French Toast was gigantic.  The plate was covered in toast, bananas and sauce. It was pretty sweet but also pretty good-although not amazing and not worth ordering a second time.  The Bacon, Avocado & Cheese omelet was $2.50 more than the regular bacon and cheese omelet and the only difference was that it came with some slices of avocado on the top.  Sure they were nice but I was hoping they'd be inside the omelet.  I was hoping the cheese would be inside too--it wasn't.  The cheese was just on top and the saturation of bacon and egg was a little over the top.  I didn't really eat the English muffin because I filled up on the crispy potatoes--which were likely the most excellent thing any of us had.  The huevos rancheros were a crispy tortilla topped with beans, medium-fried eggs and cheese with a little salsa.  This dish also came in a skillet piled with potatoes.  Good but not as good as other restaurants.

We left the restaurant shortly after noon and it was still hoping.  Our meal for three came out to about $40 including entrees and drinks--about $10 per entree.  The amount of food was certainly enough but the service was extremely slow--we were there waiting for our food much longer than wanted.

Between the cold atmosphere, the slowness of the food to come, and the just average food I might go back to Another Broken Egg Cafe but I want to find the thing on the menu that is their specialty--and see if they make that more amazing.

Another Broken Egg Cafe
250 E. OLIVE AVE #110
Burbank, CA 91502
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Mother Moo Creamery

On Friday night we took a surprise trip to Sierra Madre from a new artisan ice cream shop that opened this past July. Sierra Madre is the cutest town. It has that east-coast feel with old shops close together and offering walking distance restaurants and treats all together. The nightlife is slim but some of the restaurants still drew a crowd along with live music even at 9pm.

Mother Moo Creamery was still hopping at 9pm. The shop is sparse, with cement floors and a tiny ice cream freezer with one or two tables and a couple of chairs lined up against the wall on the sidewalk. It isn't really the place you want to sit and eat--but since the town is so cute you can take it to go and go for a little walk.

Mother Moo had about 8 flavors when we were there and they are constantly changing them so you can watch their Facebook page for more information. Since we went with a group I was able to taste several of the available flavors. I tasted salted chocolate, mint chocolate chip, strawberry and coffee cinnamon.

Salted Chocolate - really salty but kind of delightful if you have another flavor at the same time. Alone and near the end the salt becomes overwhelming

Mint Chocolate Chip - They use real fresh mint, so for anyone who loves fresh mint this flavor is for you! I don't really like mint much at all and fresh minute is way worse than the extract. This ice cream was too fresh and minty for me but others liked it a lot. This flavor was also really really soft so it melted fast and had more of a custardy feel almost like they didn't freeze it long enough

Strawberry - Good fruit to cream ratio, very solid

Coffee Cinnamon - This was mine so I ate the whole thing less a few tastes. By the end, I was getting kind of tired of the strong chewy coffee grounds littering the surface of the ice cream but I did like this to start off. The cinnamon flavor was strong too and I really liked the textures at first but I got tired of this ice cream as I went through my single scoop,

The scoops are served in small cups for one scoop, larger trays for two scoops or in fresh-made waffle cones in vanilla and chocolate. They have a few mason jars and a pitcher of water if you wait long enough to finish your choice inside the shop. They also sell jam and a few other odds and ends.

The verdict? The ice cream is good but the flavors we chose weren't our favorites. We'll go back again and try something different and maybe share a bit more so we don't get tired of flavors. The shop itself could be a little more homey but maybe they are going for a come in, eat out atmosphere anyway.

Mother Moo Creamery
17 Kersting Circle
Sierra Madre, CA 91024
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Which Wich

There is a new sandwich shop in Burbank. It made it to the San Fernando Strip earlier this year and I've been wanting to try it ever since. The problem is that I already have a favorite sandwich shop in Burbank, and a second favorite, and there's a third one I kind of like...so I just haven't had room for another sandwich place in my life. But finally we decided to try it this afternoon.

Like The Counter, this sandwich shop has a bunch of brown bags on display where you pick your sandwich, bread and toppings before you get to the register. The bags are ordered by protein and then you use the provided red sharpies to add your bread, cheese toasted or not and other toppings and sauces.

I got the concept pretty quickly of filling out the bags but it seemed like a lot of people who came in for the first time were a tad confused by the system.

All of the sandwiches at the restaurant are the same price by size unless you add something extra like bacon or avocado. However, if you get a special sandwich like bacon, turkey and tomato combination that is listed on the bag the bacon comes with the bacon for free for the regular price.

I decided to start off by getting something I'd have at any other sandwich shop so that I could easily compare although I was very tempted by the Cuban specialty sandwich. I ordered turkey with avocado, cheese, tomato and deli mustard. I thought I also put on pepperocinis but I honestly don't remember if they were on there or not. The avocado was $1 extra but they made it worth my while by really piling it on the top.

I got the sandwich un-toasted and I thought he bread tasted fresh and chewy. My husband tried a sandwich that was toasted with ham, bacon and cheese. It won him over and he plans to take the sandwich card back there sometime and work his way up to 10 for a free one! This is a good substitute for Subway or Quiznos with some more fun options and lots of choice.

Which Wich is a small chain so if you live somewhere else in Southern California or in Arizona you should seek out your local branch for your next sandwich.

Which Wich
302 N San Fernando Blvd
Burbank, CA 91502
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Tarascos

This morning at 9 am I went to a Tamale Making class at Tarascos Mexican Restaurant in Silverlake. The class was actually rather short. A group of 30 of us or so sat around the dining area with bowls of masa, spices and fillings and made a few tamales each. After the tamales were made and the main instruction was over we opted to have our tamales steamed at the restaurant which was supposed to take about an hour to an hour and 20 minutes.

My friends and I decided to get our tamales steamed at the restaurant and ordered breakfast while we waited. At first I thought of just getting a few soft tacos but finally decided on huevos rancheros. Huevos rancheros was always my dad's favorite dish and somehow became mine the first time I tried it.

This huevos rancheros was actually rather healthy compared to some of the options out there. Usually it comes with fried tortillas, lots of cheese and piles of beans. This one though had one tortilla, just warmed, 2 fried eggs (over easy), a little red sauce, refried beans and some rice. I guess there was a little cheese maybe too. It was really quite delicious and filling. The eggs were perfectly cooked.

We also tried the salsas (knowing the restaurant also offers a salsa making class). They were good! The trio of salsas came with a thin tomatillo salsa, a creamy habenero salsa and a thick tomato salsa. The chips weren't the best but soaked in salsa they were fine.

The service was pretty good, the coffee was tasty, and the food was delicious. I'd like to go back for dinner sometime!

Tarascos

3319 W Sunset Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90026

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The Pizzeria

Las Vegas really isn't the cheapest place in the world. Food prices were really kind of crazy at all the different restaurants and we didn't really want to fall back on our favorite chains that dotted the landscape, but man, the prices were kinda outrageous at places. I thought the best deal on the strip were the people selling ice cold water for $1 on the bridges--I bet they make a tidy sum.

So, in search of a cheap lunch I happened to come across this place called simply "The Pizzeria." The reviewers on Yelp talk about the place as though it is a secret find--and it really does feel like that when you do find it. Like finding an old friend, the Pizzeria is hidden in down a nondescript hallway on the third floor of the new Cosmopolitan Hotel.

This restaurant was a great find. The slices are fresh large slices of greasy NY style pizza for about $3.50 each. If you want a whole pizza you can get one for about $20, more with toppings. As we waited in the short line a piping hot meat-lovers pizza came out of the oven and replaced an old looking pizza on the counter--that they promptly threw away due to sitting too long. The sodas come in red plastic party cups like the fraternity boys hid beer in in college. I hear it's free refills, although I didn't test the theory.

The pizza I had was warm, floppy but crisp and a smidge to salty (but it was meat lovers, what are you going to do?). My husband--a true pizza connoisseur enjoyed his slice of meat lovers and the plain cheese, folding them like a pro and avoiding any drips or crumbs on the flimsy paper plate.

There is minimal seating space at the counters but and a tiny bit to stand in, but you can always take your pizza out to the pool table or the business center where there's ample space. If you're craving something tasty and cheap the next time you're in Vegas don't miss The Pizzeria.

The Pizzeria, The Cosmopolitan Hotel

Las Vegas, NV

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