We went to Gyu-Kaku for dinner on Thursday, September 3, 2009 to celebrate my wife passing an exam and finishing school. It’s a chain restaurant and we went to the branch at Victoria Gardens shopping destination in Rancho Cucamonga. Another reason we went is that my wife receives e-mails from Victoria Gardens and one of them announced that Gyu-Kaku was having a deal from August 2 to September 7 where the garlic filet mignon was only $3.95 rather than the usual $7.95. The e-mail also had a coupon for free s’mores with a $10 purchase, a $2.95 value. We had been to Victoria Gardens several times and eaten at several restaurants there but we hadn’t heard much about Gyu-Kaku. It was advertised as a Japanese barbecue and it looked like we would have to cook the food ourselves or have the food cooked right in front of us. In the week or so before going we referred to the place as “that $3.95 filet mignon place.”

I went to work early on that Thursday and got home at 4:45 pm. I figured it would take us about an hour to get to Rancho Cucamonga from home given the afternoon traffic. We left at 5 pm and drove east on the 210. We hit some traffic in spots and on the way we listened to a CD of the Jackson Five and early Michael Jackson recordings. His funeral and burial took place that day. We exited at Day Creek Blvd and drove south. Normally when we go to Victoria Gardens we turn left on North Mainstreet and park in the structure on the north end. But my wife was still recovering from a broken toe so we drove past North Mainstreet and past Versailles Street where we couldn’t turn left. We turned left on Victoria Gardens Lane, then left on Monet Avenue, right on Versailles Street and left on Waterland Place. Our final turn was a left into the small parking lot.

Gyu-Kaku is in the same building as the Flemings Steakhouse near the J.C. Penney. The parking lot was full, probably of people starting the Labor Day weekend early. Luckily a car left leaving us a spot. As we walked toward the building we could already smell the barbecued meat. It looked like the restaurant had some back doors but they appeared to be for employees only. We walked to the large front door along Monet Avenue. We gave our name to the hostess soon after we entered at 5:50 pm. She asked if we had a reservation and we didn’t but we still only had to wait for three minutes.

Every table, including ours, had a circular hole with a grill, a circular metal grid of half-inch squares. It looked like it had a gas-powered flame that they turned on after we sat down. Our server gave us a couple of multi-page menus. He was willing to answer any questions we had. The menu had several pre-set menu options of many different meats and side dishes. These cost $40-$50 per person. There was also an all-you-can-eat option that was $10 off or only $34.95 per person for a limited time. We saw from a couple near us who ordered the all-you-can-eat option that it’s actually “all-you-can-cook”. As for the individual items, there were many different kinds of meat including cuts of beef, pork, chicken, Japanese sausage, even bacon-wrapped asparagus. The menu said to order 2-3 meat options per person. They cost around $4-$9 for 3-4 ounces. Our plan, of course, was to get the discounted filet mignon. There were also vegetables for grilling both wrapped in foil and without. There were also many options that didn’t required cooking on the customers’ part including appetizers, rice, and noodles. We placed our order without much help from the server. He seemed to be steering us toward the more expensive preset meals and all-you-can eat options.

Along with the grills on each table, the décor consisted of dark wood tables and paneling, spherical Japanese lanterns hanging from the ceiling, and slightly dim lighting. The place was actually quite large with multiple rooms. Over the speakers they played 80’s music including The Ramones, Paul Young, Depeche Mode, Prince, and Michael Jackson.

The first thing they served was the calamari appetizer that was crispy and golden. It was cooked just right: not at all chewy, and it came with a light red dipping sauce. The rest of our (non-dessert) food came nearly all at once. Our garlic fried noodles came in a large black bowl that the server warned us was hot. The noodles were thick, flavorful and quite substantial. Our assorted vegetables came on a white platter. Unlike the calamari and garlic fried noodles, the vegetables would require cooking on our part. They consisted of two large cross sections of onions, zucchini slices, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, small ears of white corn, and green chili peppers. We grilled everything except the chili peppers that we skipped. We halved the mushrooms before grilling. The ears of corn were done first and, slightly blackened, they tasted sweet. The grilled mushrooms, zucchini, and tomatoes took a few minutes per side to grill and they were also good. The onions took the longest: about 4-5 minutes per side, but they were worth it with them retaining just a bit of their raw flavor mostly dulled by the grill.

The two 3.25 ounce servings of $3.95 garlic filet mignon all came together cut into chunks on a narrow black platter. We had wanted to order more servings but we could only get one serving per person at that price. Our server told us to place them in the middle of the grill and cooked them on one side until the juices started to run out the top. Then we had to turn them over and cook them until the juices run out or until desired doneness. We followed his directions. There were about 10-11 small chunks of meat. My wife didn’t mind having her share being a bit rare and I could keep mine on the grill until the meat was well done. I think it took about 10-15 minutes to cook all the pieces. When done my pieces were blackened and fully cooked but not chewy at all and they had delicious garlic flavor.

After finishing dinner we had to wait a bit as our server was busy tending to the couple at the table next to us who had ordered the all-you-can-eat (cook) option. We gave him the printed coupon for the s’mores. Another server came by and removed our grill grid with a forked instrument and replaced it with a clean one. Then our main server brought us our s’mores, not yet assembled. They consisted of two marshmallows, two small slabs of Hershey’s chocolate, and four square graham crackers. They came with two metal skewers with wooden handles and forked ends. We roasted the marshmallows by holding them 1-2 inches above the grill with the skewers. This involved toasting them until golden on the outside. I had my s’more without chocolate, so it wasn’t a true s’more. To melt the chocolate for my wife’s s’more, we held it over the grill for a few seconds, using both skewers. The s’mores were good.

Our total bill, including the tip on the undiscounted total, came out to not much more than the discounted all-you-can-eat price for one person. As we left I noticed there was a dial on the side of the table for controlling the heat level of the grill. We drove home satisfied.

On Sunday, August 2, 2009 we went to dinner at Alondra Hot Wings to celebrate Dad’s (my father-in-law’s) birthday. My wife had obtained a $25 gift certificate (required spending $35) to that restaurant from restaurants.com for only $3. It seemed like a pretty good place specializing in hot wings but also serving other things such as pizza and sandwiches. We had wanted to make a reservation but when my wife called them they said they did not take reservations. On Sunday afternoon we drove over to Mom and Dad’s and after my brother- and sister-in-law arrived and Dad finished cooking some crab for the paella he was making for his birthday celebration the next day, we all drove to the restaurant. It’s in northern Alhambra requiring us to drive north on Atlantic Blvd. and turn right on Main Street. Alondra Hot Wings is on the north side of the street near the intersection with 5th Street. We turned left on 5th Street. There didn’t seem to be much parking behind the restaurant but there was a public parking lot on the east side of 5th Street. We just parked there, crossed 5th Street and entered the restaurant through the back door.

Alondra Hot Wings has a “gangster” theme, not in terms of gangbangers but in terms of old school organized crime and famous gangsters in history. We entered through the back door and walked down the hall. On the right wall were framed front pages of vintage newspapers detailed arrests of famous criminals. One the other wall were large black and white photographs of the famous gangsters, most of them portraits and/or mug shots. There were many we had heard of: Bonnie and Clyde (whose car we saw at the casino in Primm, Nevada in late June), Bugsy Siegel, Luciano, Gambino, Genovese, Capone, Gotti, and many we hadn’t heard of such as Gigante, a great name for a gangster. Each photo had a brief written profile below it with the gangster’s name and when they lived. The restaurant had a black and brownish red color scheme. Most seating consisted of booths along the walls and tables set together in the middle. Other large photos on the walls showed the New York City skyline, a couple showing the late World Trade Center twin towers. There were also several flatscreen TV’s showing the L.A. Dodger game. Over the speakers they played traditional Pop music, mostly Frank Sinatra.

The restaurant was cranking. Ever booth and table was full. I noticed one table where several cops sat and I wondered what they thought of the décor. At the large L-shaped bar and open kitchen on the left side of the restaurant they told us we had to give our name and the size of our party to the hostess at the desk up front. We did so at 6:54 pm and the hostess said it would be a 20-minute wait. While we waited I saw many people eating wings served on round metal platters on elevated on stands. I also had a chance to look at the menu. They served three different kinds of wings: original, barbecue, and teriyaki. For each we could choose a level of spice between mild, medium and hot. They all came with carrot and celery sticks and ranch dipping sauce. There were also many other sauces to choose from including “atomic” hot sauce, honey barbecue, and maple syrup.

The menu included a lot more than just wings, though. There were also deli sandwiches and burgers from the grill that included one called “The Big Apple” though it didn’t have any apples in it. The section “Organized Pizza” listed many pizzas named for gangsters or other gangster terms. Like the photos they had the “Bonnie and Clyde”, the “Gotti”, and the “Luciano”. They also had the “Don” and the “Sleeping with the Fishes” pizzas. Desserts included fried twinkies and doughballs or chunks of snickers bars coated in thick dough. I also learned from the menu that they have four locations: in Paramount on Alondra Blvd. (possibly the original location), Long Beach, Alhambra (where we were), and Montebello.

We actually weren’t seated until 7:25 pm yielding a wait of over 30 minutes. They put us at one of the group of tables in the center. We knew what we wanted so we ordered right away. My brother-in-law brought a bottle of wine and I believe they charged a $5 corkage fee. First they brought the Philly Cheesesteak sandwich that Mom ordered and then they brought a plate of 16 original wings, mild spice level. They were small but numerous enough for everyone to have some and enough for a meal for me. Even though they were mild they still had a bit of heat, enough to give them flavor. I also tried some of the fries that came with Mom’s Philly cheesesteak sandwich. They were good, especially after dipping them in the residual sauce from the wings. My wife enjoyed her tomato fried in buttermilk batter that she shared with the others. They also had a “Sleeping with the Fishes” pizza that has shrimp on it. For dessert, they ordered a fried twinkie though Dad was also given a fried twinkie for his birthday. The servers sang “Happy Birthday” to Dad, singing “Happy Birthday to the Gangster” in place of his name. The others also ordered some of those Snickers doughballs that they enjoyed very much.

The bill net of the $25 gift certificate came out pretty reasonable. We made out like gangsters.

After visiting the Grammy Museum at L.A. Live on Wednesday, July 22, 2009, we had dinner at the Panini Café.  It’s nearby in the South Park neighborhood of Downtown Los Angeles.  We left the Grammy Museum at 7:30 pm when it closed (see earlier blog).  We then walked north on Figueroa Street to 9th Street where we turned right (east).  Someone walking the other direction said to my wife, “I like your shirt”.  She was wearing her black T-shirt with the names Michael, Tito, Germaine, Jackie, and Marlon in white lettering on the front.  We passed the Ralphs Fresh Fare that’s now over two years old.  It’s in a building connected to an apartment building where we used to live 3-4 years ago.

Panini Café is in the ground level of the building on the southwest corner of Hope and 9th.  It has outdoor seating along the sidewalks of both streets.  We entered through the north entrance where they have a large bar.  The host said we could sit anywhere so we chose to sit inside in the room past the bar with windows looking out onto Hope Street.  Many other tables were occupied both inside and out.  The table next to us initially had a couple of loud talkers but they left early on.  Across the room from us a group of cops sat at a table.  The room, along with the bar had lots of light wood paneling.  It was well lit, though a ceiling fan above us created a strobe light effect.  Shelves near the bar indicated that they sell their own brands of wine and coffee.

The server soon gave us menus that were large.  Panini doesn’t just serve Italian food but also Mediterranean food.  The menu has separate sections for Panini sandwiches, salads, pastas, and Mediterranean wraps among other items.  We ordered and they were a bit late bringing my wife her glass of water.  The server had to be reminded.  But it didn’t take long for them to bring our food.  My wife ordered the stuffed eggplant.  It was a Mediterranean dish stuffed with rice and cooked ground beef with a large salad and hummus on the side.  It was so much food that she gave me the hummus and pita bread.  The bread was golden and had the right consistency of flour and oil.  The hummus was slightly spicy and enough for all the bread.  My order was also a lot of food: the turkey club Panini sandwich made with huge slices of the fresh bread.  The bacon in the sandwich was crunchy and there were many pieces of it.  The avocado was also an ample amount but not messy at all.  But the best part was the bread: billowy, thick and with its own great flavor.  It was so much food that I could only finish half of it.  I had the other half for breakfast the next day.

At our bidding they gave us our check.  We paid and walked north on Hope to the Red Line/Purple Line station.  The sidewalk was closed between 9th and 8th Streets so we had to walk over to Flower Street and walk by the front door of the apartment building where we used to live.  It didn’t look like much had changed since then.  We got to the subway station at 7th and Metro.  Unfortunately the next train wasn’t coming until 8:50 pm.  This was going to cut it very close for us since we hoped to catch the 9:00 pm Metrolink train from Union Station, the last train of the evening.  The subway took a little longer to get to Union Station because it opened on the opposite side of the platform from where it usually opens.  When we arrived we had barely 3 minutes to catch the Metrolink train.  We ran up the escalator and through the station.  My wife didn’t bother having her 10-trip ticket punched in the machine.  She had the conductor do it and he had to borrow our pen.  He also noticed my wife’s T-shirt.  The train actually lingered at the station 5-7 minutes after its scheduled departure time at 9, but it eventually left and we made it home.

We went to Las Vegas of the weekend of June 26-28.  I took a vacation day on Friday, June 26 and we rode as passengers with Mom and Dad, my in-laws.  Mom was going to see Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood with some of her sisters and nieces.  We left Socal on Friday Morning and got to Vegas fairly quickly, only stopping at a new-looking rest stop somewhere between Baker and Primm.  Michael Jackson had died the day before so they were playing his songs on KOST as we drove out of the L.A. area.

It was warm in Las Vegas.  The temperature would get up to 100 degrees on Saturday.  The evening of Friday Mom and Dad drove us to this shopping center on Maryland Parkway on the same street as a hospital and a JC Penny store.  The shopping center used to include the Zappos shoe store that my wife visited the last time we went to Vegas.  There was also a Red Ribbon bakery, a Valerio’s bakery, and an Asian seafood supermarket.  We parked near an eatery on the south end of the shopping center: Jason’s Deli.  Mom and Dad had eaten there several times before.  It was in its own building.  We entered and walked to the back right corner to study the menu.  It’s a large space with many 4-person tables and booths along the walls.  There’s a large salad bar on the right side.  The menu is also large with different sections for “Real Choices”, “Soups, Fruit, & Salads”, “Build Your Own” sandwiches, and wraps, “Po-Boys” (mostly sandwiches), “Paninis and Wrapinis”.  It seemed like there were many healthy options and they even listed the calories, fat, and sodium content of the “Real Choices” options.  The prices were fairly reasonable: $6-$8 per entrée.  We place our orders and sat down at a booth.

They gave us glasses for our drinks to fill up at the dispensers near the salad bar and numbers so they could find us when they served our orders.  They brought out the orders fairly quickly.  I got the Mediterranean Wrap, a new item under the healthy “real choices” section of the menu.  Most menu items came with cheese and this was one of the few that did not.  It was wrapped lightly like a taco in a small wheat flour tortilla rather than tightly like a burrito.  It was very flavorful with slices of oven-roasted deli turkey breast, cucumber, purple onions, Roma tomatoes slices, and greens.  The red pepper hummus and Kalamata olives gave it a strong, salty flavor so it was never bland.  That was a good idea to use hummus as a spread for a wrap.  I had several choices for accompaniment including fresh fruit, steamed veggies, and baked potato chips.  I chose blue corn tortilla chips and homemade salsa.  They were good and crunchy and the salsa had just the right amount of spice.

My wife enjoyed her quarter-muff.  A full muffatetta is made with a round loaf of bread about nine inches in diameter.  I believe the sandwich originates in New Orleans.  A whole-muff would have been huge and her quarter-muff looked pretty big.  It contained premium ham and hard salami, provolone, and homemade olive mix.  She got the quarter-muff deal that came with a choice of any cup of soup or fresh fruit cup.  She chose red beans and rice soup, one of the soups of the day and consistent with the Nawlins theme.  

While there we noticed several young people who looked like college students.  That made some sense because UNLV wasn’t very far away.  A notice near the salad bar said that Jason’s Deli was voted as a healthy restaurant by Health magazine.  Another notice near the door said they were voted one of Las Vegas’ best restaurants by a local newspaper.  We got a take-home menu that listed all the locations of Jason’s Deli.  There are many with most of them in Texas.  There’s only one California location in Riverside.  We later learned that the first one opened in Beaumont, Texas in 1976.

We finished our dinner and Mom wanted to shop at Valerio’s and the Asian seafood supermarket.  There was a Jollibee in the market.  Jollibee is one of the most popular fast food restaurants in the Philippines and there are many in the U.S. including at least one in West Covina.  We got to see their menu.  They serve spaghetti that I hear is sweet, burgers called “Yums”, fried chicken called “Chicken Joy” and several breakfast options including longanisa sausage or hot dog with eggs.  I don’t they’ll be voted healthy by Health magazine.

The next day, Saturday, we drove to the Palazzo hotel where Mom’s sisters, nieces, cousin, and brother-in-law were staying.  I believe her cousin got room comped.  It was a large suite, similar to the nearby Venetian where we stayed in October 2008, but newer.  The room was on the 16th floor and had a great view of the area to the northeast of the strip especially of the Wynn golfhouse, pool, and conference room buildings, the Las Vegas monorail, and beyond.  I saw this large sign near the monorail and I couldn’t figure out what it was for.  I thought it might be for the Las Vegas Hilton, but I couldn’t see that hotel nearby, so that wasn’t it.

We walked to the Venetian to see the tribute to Michael Jackson at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum.  On the way we noticed a few changes to the lobby and Shoppes at the Palazzo that had been made since we were there for the first time in June 2008.  There were all these colorful umbrellas hanging from the ceiling.  The large gold cup behind the front desk was now full of flowers.  Near the entrance to Madame Tussaud’s they had set up the very life-like Michael Jackson in a shiny white and gold outfit.  People had left signs and gifts in tribute including a Buddha statue and a sign that said “You were the Thriller of our lives.”  Many people hung around taking photos.  They had a guestbook that would be sent to the Jackson family.  We signed it.

Later we walked to the Encore hotel just north of the Palazzo across Sands Ave. and past the Wynn.  The Encore on the outside looks just like the Wynn only it’s curved in the opposite direction.  We crossed the overpass over Sands Ave. and entered the Wynn hotel.  With the hot weather outside it was more comfortable to walk through it to get to the Encore.  We had last visited the Wynn in 2005 during our honeymoon.  It looked very similar to the last time.  A few differences were that the Italian restaurant then called Cursa Cucina was now called La Strada and the store with the giant shoes above the doors was either no longer there or at least the shoes were no longer there.  There was, however, a shop at the Wynn and the Encore called Outfit that had a giant cloths hanger above it.

The halls of shops at the Encore had skylights and since it was afternoon we could take full advantage of them.  From the ceiling hung these elaborate chandeliers of purple and other colors.  At other parts there were these shiny gold-colored chandeliers with a single gold spike at the bottom.  On the floor colored tiles formed the shapes of butterflies.  Near the casino was a colorful forest and an entrance to a bar or restaurant with these shiny peacock sculptures.  In another part the walls had large red sculptures of flowers and near the theater there were many red butterfly sculptures on the ceiling.  We briefly walked around the conference rooms.  One of them would host a Teach for America reception that evening.

We walked back through the Encore and Wynn, exited and crossed the overpass over Las Vegas Boulevard to the Fashion Show Mall and we walked around there for a while.  It’s a very large indoor mall with many levels.  It has many stores including common ones like Macy’s.  They had their own fashion show there.  The runway rose right out of the floor.  The models were all women and they wore outfits from Macy’s that were more conventional than the ones we saw at the Fashion Empire 2009 Mood Indigo Fashion Show (see earlier blog).  During one part they played the Michael Jackson song “Pretty Young Thing”, a fitting tribute.

We returned to the family’s room at the Palazzo hotel.  For dinner, Mom and Dad and the others brought food from Jason’s Deli.  For the others they brought many containers of pasta including the chicken Alfredo and the Portabello Garden pasta.  My wife enjoyed the latter.  For me they brought a BLT that was made with three pieces of bread, one in the middle.  It had lots of delicious bacon along with lettuce and tomato between all three pieces.  It was very good and plenty of food.  It came with a bag of Jason’s potato chips.

After dinner we walked over to Caesar’s Palace hotel to check out the Forum shops.  I hadn’t been there since my first trip to Vegas nearly ten years before.  It had these curved escalators that I didn’t remember from my first time there.  We thought we might have some gelato and sorbetto from a gelato counter but it turns out that sorbetto had milk in it.  We checked out a collectables/memorabilia shop, the large FAO Schwartz, and saw this historical society cart with crests for nearly all families’ names.  We found ours on this poster for Ireland.  They also had posters for Scotland, England, and Spain.  We found a few more names in our family.  It looked like you could order decorative custom plaques with your family’s crest.

We returned to the room at the Palazzo, rested and got a ride back to my in-laws’ condo.  The next morning we had brunch at the condo of eggs, canned corned beef, vegetables, rice, and other foods that Mom had bought at that Asian supermarket.  I heard about the concert they attended.  Apparently, Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood did not perform any of their more popular songs.  They performed together the entire time and nothing was performed “unplugged”.  After packing up we left Las Vegas and drove to the casino and outlet mall in Primm, Nevada that’s just inside the Nevada border.  I had read earlier that the car in which the famous 1930’s bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde were killed was in the casino at Primm.  We quickly located it in a glass case along with mannequins of Bonnie and Clyde.  As expected, it’s full of bullet holes on the driver’s side.  They also had the now tattered shirt that Clyde wore displayed in a glass case along with video, old photos, and newspapers.

We walked around the outlet mall a bit and mostly waited for the others.  We eventually drove back, stopping in Hesperia to have dinner at an In-and-Out burger.

On Father’s Day, Sunday, June 21, 2009, we took Dad (my father-in-law) out to dinner at The Yard House in L.A. Live.  In the recent “Best of” issue of the L.A. Downtown News, the Yard House was voted best L.A. Live restaurant and best American food.  It’s actually a national chain with most locations in Socal.  There’s one at Victoria Gardens shopping destination in Rancho Cucamonga, another at the Shoppes at Chino Hills, and another in Pasadena.  I believe that the first one was in Long Beach.  The one at L.A. Live is in the building at the north end of the plaza.  It’s in the northwest corner of the building.  To get there we passed the Wolfgang Puck on the southwest end that didn’t look like it was open yet.  We walked by the tall Ritz Carlton and Marriott that were under construction.  There was a sign directing us to the Yard House, Trader Vic’s, and Rosa Moreno, the New York-based Mexican restaurant chain.  At last, we found it just past the Starbucks.

The Yard House at L.A. Live has lots of patio seating.  I believe I saw in an issue of the L.A. Downtown News that it is either largest or the second largest restaurant in Downtown L.A. by number of seats.  We heard a little about it and had done some research online.  My cousin had been to the one at Victoria Gardens.  He said they had many choices for drinks, including ones that come in the half-yard size glasses that give the place its name, but that the food was overpriced and not very good.  Online we learned that the Yard House has between 100-250 different beers on tap depending on the location.  They had a list of all the beers including Alaskan Amber, Red Hook, and Miller Genuine Draft.  They seemed to lean towards draft beer.  San Miguel beer wasn’t on the list.  Their website also listed the type of music they played that mostly consisted of classic rock.  There were at least two Bad Company songs listed.  Also online we found nutritional information for all the items on their large menu that helped us and Mom (my mother-in-law) pick our orders.

We entered the restaurant and they gave us a choice between indoor and outdoor seating.  We chose indoor since the cool June weather was continuing.  The place didn’t seem very crowded both inside and outside.  They had us sit at a long table between two long and comfortable benches.  Inside it was a bit dark and there were many flat screen TVs hanging from the corners of the walls and from the ceiling.  They showed either the Dodgers-Angels game or the WNBA L.A. Sparks-Sacramento Monarchs game.  Our booth was slightly elevated and from it we could see the long bar wrapped around an island in the middle of the indoor space.  Behind the bar were the beer tap faucets for all the different beers.  Pipes went from the bar across the ceiling to another room full of kegs.  Above the faucets hung the namesake half-yard glasses.  Also near the entrance was a room with many bottles of wine in racks.

The music sounded just like they described on the Yard House website: classic and mellow rock.  They also played some Country music.  I didn’t hear any Bad Company but I did hear some Credence Clearwater Revival and “Man on the Moon” by REM.

Our server brought us menus that had many categories such as appetizers, soups/salads, burgers, sandwiches, house specialties, steaks, and seafood.  There were also pages with all the beers on tap and another page with other beverages including wines.  We ordered and passed the menus back to the server.  They first brought the bottle of Blackstone Merlot that Dad ordered.  He had wanted another less expensive Merlot but they only had that by the glass.  After he had ordered the wine the server asked to see my brother- and sister-in-law’s ID’s.  Dad asked how come they didn’t want to see his ID.  Those that drank it said the Blackstone Merlot was good.  Next they brought the lobster dip appetizer that was made with four cheeses.  I took the others’ word for it that it was good.  They finished it, scraping it out of the bowl.  Next they brought us our entrees.  I had originally planned to get the chicken rice bowl because it was one of the few without cheese.  But data analysis revealed that it had a lot of sodium and the website also said that they work to meet their patron’s dietary needs.  So I ordered the avocado-Swiss burger without the Swiss cheese.

My burger tasted pretty good.  It was cooked well done but not overcooked and only a little bit greasy.  The fries were thin and crispy and weren’t an excessive amount.  The burger was fairly large and I finished it because I had had a fairly light lunch earlier in the day.  However, it may have been too much food because I suffered some digestive irritation for a few days afterward.  It may also have had dairy in it.  My brother-in-law thought it looked like they had put butter on the bun.  I thought it was just oil but he may have been right.  The others enjoyed their entrees especially Mom with her angel hair pasta and my wife with her surf and turf burger, a burger that came with lobster.  

After we finished and left the Yard House we walked around the north building of L.A. Live a bit.  The building houses many restaurants.  In addition to the Yard House, Starbucks, Wolfgang Puck, Trader Vic’s, and Rosa Moreno, there’s also Kutsaya, Rock & Fish, The Farm of Beverly Hills, the Conga Room with its associated restaurant, Boca, and Lucky Strike Lanes.  The Conga Room is a salsa dance club that used to be just down the street from my Miracle Mile apartment many years ago.  We visited Lucky Strike Lanes, an upscale bowling alley.  It’s clean and stylish but I felt that the lighting seemed a bit dim for bowling.  My sister-in-law said they charged $25 per hour (per person?) plus $4 for sock rental and $6 for shoe rental.  I didn’t know that bowling alleys charged for sock rental.  Lucky Strike Lanes is a far cry from Channel Bowl in Juneau, Alaska.  Despite it being Father’s Day most places at L.A. Live didn’t seem very crowded.

As for the Yard House, my cousin’s assessment was more or less correct.  The food wasn’t that bad or overpriced but it wasn’t one of the better places we’ve tried.  I’d probably think differently if I still drank beer.

We had lunch at Afghan Palace on Friday, June 5 to celebrate my safe return from Baltimore the evening before.  I had Friday off work as a travel day.  My wife heard about the restaurant from Restaurants.com when they had their offer to buy gift certificates for restaurants all over.  Afghan Palace is within a 10-20 mile radius of us, though only $10 gift certificates were available.  Still, it looked interesting and I had heard about Afghan food while looking up Baltimore restaurants in the Fodor’s guidebook.  We figured why not just try a local Afghan restaurant.

To get there we drove east on the 210 and exited south on Carnelian Road.  We drove a ways down to Baseline Road, the cross street near Afghan Palace.  We were looking for a shopping center on the left side where my wife planned to take an exam in August.  We ended up passing it, doubling back and then finding it back near Baseline Road.  Afghan Palace is in a shopping center on the southwest corner and across Carnelian from where she would take the exam.  We parked in some angle parking on a bit of a slope and entered the restaurant.  It was a small place in a storefront with slightly dim lighting inside.  On the window was a poster for dancers that looked like belly dancers.  Inside there were many tables and Middle Eastern décor.  A map covered much of one wall.  On it were the words “British Army in Bolan Pass near Khyber Pass (1839).”  The Khyber Pass sounded familiar.  It may have been mentioned in the book Three Cups of Tea that I read late in late 2008.  The subject and coauthor of the book, Greg Mortensen, named his son Khyber.  Also on the wall was a relief sculpture of that famous photo of an Afghan girl that appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine in the 1980’s.  There were some shiny white mobiles hanging from the ceiling and in the back it looked like there was a stage and curtain for performers, though it was dark at that time.  When I went to the back to find the restrooms later I noticed there was a kind of lounge with Persian rugs and Middle eastern-looking chairs.

The hostess/waitress allowed us to sit anywhere.  There was no one else there though a couple of other parties would show up while we ate.  We sat down at a table towards the back that was covered with burlap and clear plastic.  The menus were contained in what seemed like burlap-covered photos albums.  They had several pages and different sections for appetizers, kabobs (more Persian than Afghan food; the place actually serves both Persian and Afghan), vegetarian entrees, sandwiches, soups, salads, side orders, desserts, and beverages.  Beverages included tea with Afghan spices (no surprise since I’ve read Three Cups of Tea) and one of the desserts was homemade Afghan ice cream (silky road).  As stated, the kabobs and sandwiches seemed more like Persian or Mediterranean food so we stuck with the Afghan-seeming appetizers, vegetarian entrees, and side orders.  All the Afghan items seemed to be vegetarian but that was OK because it made them less expensive.  We placed our orders and waited.

Over the speakers they played rhythmic Middle Eastern-sounding music that was fast and had a lot of drumming.  I think we heard the one song with vocals at least four times.  The first thing the servers brought was a basket of slightly crunchy pita bread with a small bowl of green sauce.  It wasn’t something we ordered but I guess they bring it for everyone.  It was good!  Next they brought my order of Kachaloo Gulpi that came in a medium-sized glass bowl.  It’s made with chunks of cauliflower and potatoes cooked in a spicy ginger and curry sauce, and it was very delicious.  It wasn’t too spicy, bland, or too anything, but flavored perfectly.  It was filling and actually more food than it seemed but that was OK.  I couldn’t get enough of it.  It tasted like it had a bit of crunch in it, too, making it even better.

They brought our appetizer order next: Bollanee, or grilled turnover filled with cooked leek and spices.  It was shiny with oil and looked like a quesadilla.  It came with its own green and white sauce and was also very good.  For entrée my wife ordered the vegetarian platter that came with lots of basmati rice and four small portions of vegetable dishes.  They included eggplant, kachaloo, cooked spinach, hummus, and a tomato sauce on another kind of rice.  She enjoyed it and gave me some of the hummus to have with the pita bread.  She couldn’t finish everything, though, and took some home.  She also didn’t have room for the Afghani ice cream that she had wanted to try.  This gives us an excuse to return.

We paid our check and made sure to leave before they played that song a fifth time.  On the way out we saw a photo on the wall of the chef and/or owner with Tom Hanks and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.  Wow, celebrities come all the way out to Rancho.  Maybe the photo is related to the 2008 film Charlie Wilson’s War in which both of them starred and was about a congressman who works to aid the Afghans in the late 70’s and early 80’s against the Soviet invasion of their country.  Well, I’m glad we can easily get a delicious taste of the country.

On Wednesday, June 3, 2009, I was in Baltimore, Maryland to attend a conference for work.  In the late afternoon/early evening after the meetings for that day had ended, the conference organizers sponsored a cash bar in the ground floor café of the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel.  This got out around 6:30 pm.  I noticed some of my coworkers leaving and they had earlier suggested I should have dinner with them.  The four of us were joined by colleagues from other companies: four from Indiana, two from Tennessee, and one from North Dakota making our total eleven.  I followed them outside not knowing where we were going.  We walked east on Pratt Street into the Little Italy section of Baltimore and then turned right (south) down a narrow street.  Ciao Bella was on the right side of this street.  It was across from another Italian restaurant, Chippareli’s, that I believe was mentioned in the Fodor’s guidebook of Maryland that I had borrowed from the Covina library.

Inside the restaurant it was dark and seemed small but there were actually several rooms branching off from the first room with the bar.  While in this first room one of my colleagues noticed my glow-in-the-dark cellphone charm that another coworker had given to me as a gift a few weeks before.  The hostess seated us at a long table or possibly several tables pushed together in one of the rooms with a view of the street.  There were other tables in the room but they were never used while we were there.  The staff directed other patrons to other rooms including some other colleagues from the North Dakota company.  The room in which we sat wasn’t as dark as the first room but still dim.  The tablecloths were white and on the walls they had these pictures of kids wearing old-fashion clothes.  The kids’ outfits and the backgrounds of the pictures looked like paintings but their faces looked like photographs making them seem somewhat creepy.

The waiter brought us menus that were several pages long and included separate sections for appetizers, soups and salads, meat, chicken, seafood, and pasta entrees.  The waiter also mentioned some specials including a chicken breast stuffed with crab.   Everything was rather expensive with most entrees ranging between $20 and $30.  Many of us had a tough time deciding what to order.  The meat section had several veal options including Veal Chesapeake.  I wanted to have crab since that’s what’s good in Baltimore.  They had some crab options such as a crab appetizer, special, and crab-stuffed shrimp entrée in the seafood section.  I ordered the latter: Shrimp di Stephano and requested that it be altered to be non-diary.  Some of the others ordered appetizers such as brushetta that I was surprised to see had cheese on it.  There was also bread and plates of olive oil with balsamic vinegar, all very good.  Later a different waiter (or possibly a chef) came by and said they could make my entrée without dairy but the crab would still have egg in it.  I said that was fine and he said they would replace the cream sauce on the fettuccine with a white wine sauce and capers, all fine with me.

All of the entrees came at once except one colleague from Tennessee whose red snapper special was late.  She went around trying everyone else’s food at our table.  One colleague from Indiana ordered some meatballs in marinara sauce (or “gravy” as his coworker called it, I guess they call sauce “gravy” in Indiana).  He shared the meatballs and I tried half of one.  It was very good, meaty and juicy with very little added flavor because it wasn’t needed.  My Shrimp di Stephano was also very good.  I could taste the crab flavor and, again, no added flavor was in it or needed.  The shrimp were large and thick, though they kept the tail shells on.  The pasta with a white wine sauce had a sweet taste that was a little strong but still good.  The others’ entrees also looked impressive.  My coworker’s eggplant puttanesca was very large.  He called it a burrito.  One of the others from Indiana had the same entrée as I only with the cream sauce.  He said it was “solid”.  Many people shared each others’ entrees.

We were there for several hours.  They offered dessert but only had cannoli, tiramisu and a third item I don’t remember.  No one ordered dessert but several ordered coffee.  Outside it would pour down rain, stop, and then rain some more at different intervals.  By the time we left it was raining again and we heard loud thunder.  One of our group impressively whistled for a cab that picked up four of us.  We waved down another cab that picked up another four.  I was part of the last group and we had to wait a while as cabs picked up people from Chippareli’s across the street.  Finally, one came for us and we rode the short distance back to the hotel.  Ciao Bella was good but expensive.  It seems that Baltimore either had either cheap food that’s just adequate or expensive food that’s very good.  There isn’t much in between.  I’m glad I had the Maryland crab but I was ready to get back to the “in-between” restaurants at home.

I later learned that there’s a restaurant called “Ciao Bella” in Riverside.

We took Mom and Dad (my in-laws) out to dinner to celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday May 10, 2009.  We went to Bottega Louie, a new restaurant and gourmet market in the redeveloped Brockman building on the corner of Seventh Street and Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A.  We first read about it in the Downtown News and heard that it was rated as one of the top 10 new restaurants in Downtown L.A. by the L.A. Times.  Later, the L.A. Downtown News “Best of Downtown” issue rated it as the best new upscale restaurant.  The restaurant gets its name from Bottega being Italian for market and Louie being a catchy name.  It was actually the first tenant at the Brockman building that was a highly anticipated adaptive reuse development.  I remember hearing about it at the Downtown Living Weekend in early 2005.  It has since been renovated but cost overruns have forced the developer into bankruptcy.  Originally planned as condos for sale, they have since announced that they’ll go the apartment rental route.  Now that they’re in bankruptcy, everything is in limbo except, luckily, the restaurant on the ground floor, Bottega Louie, that opened in April and will remain open.

We walked to the restaurant, mostly north up Grand Avenue from our sister- and brother-in-law’s loft in South Park.  We passed the Stillwell Hotel with the Indian Restaurant Gill’s and a new diner called Mother Road.  There was a stand for valet parking right near the corner of Seventh and Grand.  The restaurant entrance is right there on the ground floor and most of its walls are glass windows looking out onto the street.  We actually entered into the section that’s the gourmet market.  There’s a counter with freshly baked items behind a the glass such as many colorful macaroons and some cannele pastries that my wife later tried.  Shelves against the floor contained house brand and gourmet brand pastas, pasta sauces, jams and preserves, and other non-perishables.  The place was crowded, probably due to Mother’s Day, but when we gave our name to the hostess at the desk in the middle of the restaurant she said the wait was only five minutes.  We looked around in the market and they came and got us very soon.

To get to our table we passed a large open kitchen, some elegant glassware stacked on trays, and a separate kitchen station where they made the pizzas.  There are many tables in the eastern half of the restaurant.  It has high ceilings and slightly dark lighting, white tables, chairs, ceilings, pillars, and walls (at least those walls that aren’t windows).  The floors are shiny gray stone and some counters and walls have elegant dark wood paneling with gold-colored trim.  They put the six of us at a long combination of 2-3 tables near the northeast corner.  Along the window near us were some shiny silver-colored Champagne buckets on stands.  The table cloth was white to match the rest of the color scheme.

They brought us menus.  Most of their choices are Italian but there’s such a wide variety.  They have salads, pizzas, pastas, soups (including a pasta fagiole similar to a recipe we made recently only that was made with Italian sausage and Bottega Louie made theirs with prosciutto), entrees, over 30 small plates ranging in price from $6-$8, poultry, meat, and fish.  The prices were fairly reasonable such as $12 for the meat and seafood pastas, $6 for soups, $12 for sandwiches, $14 for entrees, $23 for fish, and $33 for steak.  After seeing the Fettuccine Belmondo under pastas my brother-in-law mentioned that Belmondo was also the name of a famous actor in Europe.

For drinks, our sister- and brother-in-law brought a bottle of wine that the wait staff poured without charging a corkage fee.  The servers also brought us drinking water in elegant clear glass bottles with long necks.  The water came flat or sparkling.  Mom mentioned that in the Philippines they call this kind of sparkling water “soda” and what we call sodas they call soft drinks.   I should also mention that the salt shakers on our table contained pink colored salt.  The servers brought us small loaves of sliced crusty bread wrapped in white paper.  It wasn’t exactly French or Italian bread and reminded me of Ecuadorean bread.

After some deliberation we placed our orders.  First, they brought out an elevated rack for pizza and served that first: the clam pizza that also had roasted yellow and red pepper, mozzarella, and pecorino Romano cheese.  The peppers made it a very colorful pizza and my wife said it was very good, especially with the clams cooked just right.  Next they brought our entrees.  My sister- and brother-in-law had wanted to order the Arrancini Arrabbiata but the waiter said they were out of that so they ordered the Fettuccine Belmondo instead.  I enjoyed my three Kurobuta pork chops.  The many grill marks corresponded to excellent smoky grilled flavor.  They were fully cooked, juicy and not chewy at all.  Even better was the house-made applesauce that came with the pork chops in its own metal serving boat.   The applesauce tasted freshly made with little chunks of apple and no added sweetener.  It didn’t need any and went well with the chops.  In all it was a lot of food, but very good.

As a table we got a wide variety of food.  My wife ordered the Trenne pasta that she said was pretty good but she felt the rib eye in it taste more like stew meat than rib eye.  My mother- and father-in-law ordered the mussels and clams steamed in white wine broth.  They shared some with us and they were good.  We also enjoyed some of the Portobello fries that my sister-in-law ordered.  For drink, my wife enjoyed her blueberry lemonade that had a purple color and contained many large blueberries.

They brought out a dessert menu that listed some interesting choices such as Bulgarini Sorbet and Peanut Butter terrine.  There were also cheese and dessert wines.  We didn’t have dessert because we planned to get ice cream from New Zealand Natural at L.A. Live.  On the way out we shopped at the gourmet market.  We got some Bottega Louie-brand ragu sauce that came in a large jar and a jar of Bonne ____________, strawberry preserves from France.  The cashier said the preserves were very good.  We tried it later and found it was sweet enough to be a dessert or a fruit spread.  Dad brought my wife a cannele pastry that’s a chewy chocolate pastry with a chewy custard interior.  It’s shaped like a little Bundt cake.  She enjoyed it.  They also sell canneles at Trader Joes in the frozen section.

Eating at Bottega Louie was quite a culinary experience.  After leaving we walked to New Zealand Natural where I had the lime sorbet and my wife had the Hokey Pokey ice cream.