Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Misfit was a good fit

My latest LA restaurant endeavor was at Misfit, a Santa Monica hotspot with good cocktails and whole lotta comfort food.  The menu is small-plate style, so it's best for groups.  It's far from healthy (even the brussel sprout salad is topped with cheese and bacon - although we may have opted for the bacon add-on), but it's very delicious.  The salads were the surprising stars of the night and it's really hard to go wrong with fried anything or sliders.  All in all, pretty good.  The best part of the meal were the surprise chocolate chip cookies that they brought with the check.  Warm, gooey, extra sea salt piled on top.  Amazing. 
Kale Salad

Shoestring Fries

Short Ribs

Brussel Sprout Salad

French Onion Roast Beef Sliders

Fried Chicken

Sunday, October 23, 2011

A Los Angeles Picnic

I LOVE cheese.  I LOVE imported cheese.  I LOVE finding my favorite Argentine wine in Los Angeles for LESS than it costs in Argentina.  And most of all, I LOVE drinking wine and eating cheese with my best friends from college whom I haven't seen in months and months to cure a went-out-too-late-just-took-the-GRE-and-celebrated hangover (how'd you like that compound word GRE?). 

My friend Ashley Hovey and I went to Wally's wine store in Westwood and it has an amazing selection of not only Argentine wines, but every type of wine.  We followed it up with a trip to the Cheese Box next door where we ordered a grilled cheese on brioche and a fresh mozerella with veggies and pesto sandwich.  We also added some more bread, a sheep's cheese, a cheddar cheese, a salami, almonds, grapes, and chocolate to the mix.  I'd like to say we didn't devour the following spread, but that would be a lie.  We did and we loved it.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Tuesday's at Ebisu - San Francisco's best kept secret

I'm slightly embarrassed, yet proud to admit that the following sequence of photos was my first meal back in San Francisco from Argentina (and it was my lunch)!  Ebisu is the best Japanese restaurant in San Francisco by a long shot.  My family has been eating there for 15 years.  Every Christmas, in fact, my dad gives each family member a gift card to the restaurant and we take turns treating the whole family to dinner for the following two weeks.  The sushi is great, the sashimi salad is the best deal in town, there really isn't a way to go wrong at Ebisu. 

While on my 7 million hour journey from BA to SF, I began to assess the level of "ganas" I had for each of my restaurant favs in the Bay Area so that upon arriving, I had a solid plan of attack.  This time, I had the overwhelming desire for sushi.  I happened to arrive on a Tuesday and Ebisu happens to offer a chef's special lunch for $30 dollars a person where the top chef just makes plate after plate of whatever he wants (tuesday's only).  My mom and I ordered a sashimi salad and a sushi roll and then split the special.  Besides those two things the rest was the special that was so profuse in it's cantidad that I almost wanted it to stop coming.  For $50 we had the best meal ever and Tuesday's are not to be missed at Ebisu.  Welcome home!

Cold udon soup

Sashimi Salad

Extra Sashimi salad we ordered on the side

Some tempura deliciousness

Salmon

Asparagus with something???

Tempura onion rings and crab.  Amaze-socks

49 roll ordered on the side.  Unnecessary?  I think not!

Clam miso soup

No idea, but good

Fried scallop and tomato

Halibut, fish skin, and Uni

Rice soup, salmon, and egg

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Ok one more BA post: Lo de Carlitos

Dessert crepe free for bdays

Lo de Carlitos is a chain restaurant in BA that specializes in Crepes.  And by specialize, I mean offer 450 different variations of the crepe, LITERALLY.  We went a few weeks ago for Joanna's 25th bday and did some damage ordering about 10 different crepes.  We started with the savory route (except for joanna), and finished with a dessert round (joanna orders again)!  I don't really know what we ended up with.  A number 327, 421, 578, etc, etc.  Chicken with avocado, cheesy veggie version, I can't quite remember because, besides the crepe batter, the savory crepes were entirely forgettable.  The dessert crepes, on the other hand, are pretty delicious.  It's hard to go wrong with pancake, dulce de leche, ice cream, fruit, chocolate sauce, whip cream, sugar, sugar and more sugar.  I wouldn't go back to this place, but if you find yourself hanging out in Lo de Carlitos, go sweet or go home.