Salad Is Slaughter

Continued from here.

Saturday (July 21, 2007 if you’re scoring at home) was a driving day. It shouldn’t have been but that’s LA traffic for you. At my cousin Tim’s suggestion we took 101 through the city, and that turned out to be a good one. We got through town pretty quickly, and I’m sure that the 405 would have been a nightmare because the XM traffic report said that several exits were closed due to “police activity.”

The problems showed up after we left LA as we were driving down I-5. At first we thought we were experiencing “beach traffic” and it would clear up soon. That was not to be. There was some kind of fair going on in one of the towns between LA and San Diego and we got caught in the mess. The trip took several hours longer than it should have. If we had been aware of the fair, we would have jumped over to I-15 and (hopefully) missed the brunt of it.

We arrived in San Diego in mid-afternoon tired and cranky. We were going to walk around Old Town for a while but parking was non existent. We finally decided to eat a late lunch and find a hotel.

Lunch of course was at Casa Guadalajara. We first visited Casa Guadalajara last year and you can read about it here. The place was crowded but we did get a table outside almost immediately.

The food this trip was as good as we expected but the service was a bit off this time. This trip I ordered the chicken with pumpkin seed mole. If was very good, if a bit salty. I really enjoyed it but I have to admit that the pumpkin mole at Loteria Grill that I had on Thursday was better. I sampled some food from Janet’s plate and it was as good as I remember it. And once again the home made flour tortillas were wonderful.

It had been a long day because of the traffic, and we decided to find a hotel and relax. We drove north to Escondido, mainly because the next place we wanted to visit was close by there, and we didn’t want to spend all of our time fighting traffic on Sunday.

After walking around town a bit to get some exercise, we returned to our hotel and ordered dinner: Roundtable pizza delivered to our room. It was comfort food and we had enough for leftovers the next night.

To be continued.

Technorati Tags: travel, food

Continued from here.

When we drove Highway 101 from Hollywood to Sherman Oaks on the way to our hotel I noted that the exit for Universal Studios was clearly marked. Friday morning we took 101 south to Universal Studios and discovered that the exit wasn’t as clearly marked. We drove down to the exit for the Hollywood bowl, popped a U turn, and went north once again.

Universal Studios charges all that the market will bare and judging by the huge crowds they haven’t driven anyone away with their prices. Of course you have to pay for parking. Ten bucks gets you a space in the middle of nowhere, twenty gets you close to the door. Since we didn’t want to spend half our day walking to and from the car, we sprang for the premium parking. Admittedly, it was worth the price.

The lines for the ticket booth to actually get in to Universal Studios had to be seen to be believed. A helpful woman on a bullhorn directed people to the shortest lines. We finally got up to buy tickets and I was floored with sticker shock. $61 per person to get in, and people were forking over the cash. We noticed that for a mere $119 you could purchase the “front of the line” pass. We were going to be there for only one day and the crowd looked to be huge so we plopped down the cash for the pass.

It turns out that the “front of the line pass” is worth the money. They had a special gate set aside to allow us to bypass the crowds. Some of the attractions had 45 minute to one hour waits in line. We had 5 minutes, tops, for everything. We rode the Revenge of the Mummy ride twice before other people got to it once.

Universal Studios is a combination amusement park and working production studio. The Revenge of the Mummy ride is pretty good but I thought the Jurassic Park ride was really lame. They’ve got several 3-D theatres set up for Terminator and Shrek productions which are pretty impressive. They even pump in breezes and smells to enrich the experience.

During our Universal Studios visit I began to wonder just how awful the movie Evan Almighty had to be. They pushed it a lot during the animal actor show and the special effects demos especially hard. I figured that if they kept trying to drum up that much interest in it, it had to suck really bad.

Of course we took the traditional tram through the studio lot to see the cityscapes, the Jaws shark pond, the plane crash site from War of the Worlds, and so on. There was some active shooting going on for Ghost Whisperer (a show I’ve never seen and refuse to watch) and they were setting up a night shoot for the new season of Heroes, which I thought was pretty cool.

Despite the price, Universal Studios is worth visiting.

Me and Homer Simpson Hanging Out at Universal StudiosWe had dinner Friday night with Jon Lovitz. Okay, technically I stood next to him in line at Pink’s, and he sat two tables away from us. But I’m still calling that dinner with Jon Lovitz.Pink’s is a hot dog stand in Hollywood frequented by a wide variety of people, and the line to place your order can wrap around the building. We only had to wait in line about 30 or 45 minutes before we could place our order, but by the time we left at 9:30 or 10:00 PM the people at the end of the line were waiting at least 2 hours, maybe more just to place their order. We knew that Pink’s is one of those places where celebrities drop in for a hot dog so seeing Jon Lovitz in line wasn’t a huge shocker.

Pink’s uses all beef hot dogs as opposed to a mystery meat mixture you find in other dogs. Considering the religious demographics of the Hollywood area and their prohibition on pork products, the choice of serving all beef dogs makes sense.

We each ordered two hot dogs. I had a chili cheese dog and a “lord of the rings” dog. I tend to prefer the mystery meat hot dogs over all beef dogs because I think they have a better flavor. However, the all beef dogs at Pink’s are really good and I can see why everyone goes there. The chili on my chili cheese dog was thick with a nice flavor, if a bit under spiced. A dash of Tabasco next time would fix that. The lord of the rings dog had about five or six fried onion rings on top and was drizzled with barbeque sauce. It was really good.

In addition to a chili dog, Janet ordered a Guadalajara dog, a hot dog topped with relish, onions, tomatoes, and sour cream. I took a bite of that one too, and it was great - possibly the best dog of the night. Pink’s has other specialty dogs that looked pretty good as well.

To be continued.

Technorati Tags: travel, food

“Wipe Out Chili Peppers” Demand Aliens

Representatives from the Intergalactic Drug Enforcement Administration (IDEA) demanded today that Earth governments take action and eradicate chili peppers.  Hot peppers are known to have an intoxicating effect on extraterrestrials and can lead to addiction.

“We want action, and we want it now,” said IDEA agent Qgtr.  “The capsicum in the peppers gives various species an incredible high.  Demand for increasingly hot chili peppers continues to grow.  We saw large jump in pepper trafficking after the alien reunion in New Mexico back in July.  We need to stamp out these drugs at the source and it has to be done immediately before more beings get hooked.”

Capsicum had been known to the extraterrestrial underworld for a number of years but demand for red-hot peppers increased after ordinary creatures gathered in Alamogordo, New Mexico last July.  Beings from around the galaxy sampled some of the local food and they were hooked.

“I couldn’t believe the high,” said reunion spokesman Klothgrrrrvask.  “There was always the pleasant burning feeling with each type of chili pepper, but each one gave a different kind of trip.  They were just awesome.”

Capsicum annuum, found in jalapeno peppers, is popular with beginners and has been called a gateway drug.  Long-time users “graduate” to hotter peppers and prefer the capsicum chinense found in habanero peppers.  Alien drug pushers and IDEA agents have adopted the Earth measurement of the Scoville Unit when talking about the strength of the drugs.

Fiery food fans were quick to denounce the IDEA demands.  “Just because they can’t handle the heat doesn’t mean we should have to give up something we love,” said Pedro Martinez.  “We’ll buy grow lamps and set up hydroponics in our attics if we have to.  We will not give up spicy food.”

There were no comments from any Earth government.

 Posted by: Mike Perative on 9/15/2003 10:12:16 AM

Continued from here.

Thursday was going to be a fairly long day of driving. We walked around Solvang a bit more, checked out of the hotel, picked up a couple of quilts, then headed down Highway 101 for a while, then cut over to the Pacific Coast Highway again. We considered doing more wine tasting since the Solvang area does have some decent wineries but there was a pretty big fire in the area and we didn’t know exactly where it was in relation to the wineries, and if there was a steady stream of fire trucks going back and forth. We did see a restaurant we think was in the movie Sideways while we were heading out of town, and lamented our choice of the previous night’s dinner at that Mexican restaurant.

The coast became more of the stereotypical California beach: warm, sunny and vast expanses of sand. You could also see off shore oil rigs dotting the horizon, but I couldn’t complain too much. After all, we were in an SUV.

We drove through Santa Barbara and cruised around Malibu. We were starting to get hungry but we didn’t want to eat too much because we were going to have dinner with my cousin that evening. We stopped in a Malibu grocery store (I think it was Ralph’s) and split a ham and brie sandwich from the deli counter. Brie works really well on a ham and cheese sandwich. You should give it a try.

We made our way in to LA traffic and made the mistake of taking the 405. I think the 405 is in perpetual rush hour because every time we came across it, it was backed up. We bailed out of the traffic and drove around on the Beverly Hills surface streets. They have some really nice neighborhoods, as if you didn’t know. We thought about heading to Rodeo Drive and getting snubbed at some of the boutiques but decided to head over to my cousin’s place instead.

After meeting his cats (one of which looks a lot like our Peek-a-boo) Tim took us on a drive around Hollywood and the surrounding hills. The canyons have some really beautiful places and the views are fantastic. Unlike a lot of Northern Californians (maybe because I’m not native) overall I like LA. I like the variety of things to do, the weather, the wide range of cuisines, and so on. We passed several restaurants that looked really interesting and if we were going to stay longer would have tried. Yes, the traffic is nasty and parking can be a problem but that’s typical of a lot of cities. I do wish they’d invest in some damned left turn signals, though. Making a left turn on a surface street is an adventure.

Tim took us down to the Farmer’s Market for dinner. While you can get produce there, the Farmer’s Market strikes me as more like a mall than a place where farmers gather. After walking around a bit to get a feel for the place, we went over to the food stand area. This is where the resemblance to a mall ends. The restaurants do not serve the typical mall food court fare. We stopped at a place called Loteria Grill.

We ordered a taco sampler for each of us and split some black beans and a plate of fried plantains. The black beans were firm and flavorful, a lot better than most of the beans you get in a Mexican restaurant. The fried plantains were really good, too.

The real stars of the evening were the tacos. Each sampler platter came with about a dozen unique tacos. Before you get too astonished at the level of our gluttony, you should be aware that each taco was maybe an inch and a half wide corn tortilla topped with the fillings. We’re talking a single bite, maybe two for each taco.

Normally I don’t look at vegetable tacos when I’m reading a menu, but Loteria Grill has changed my attitude. Each vegetarian taco was special in its own way and all were delicious.

The mole poblano taco from the chicken section was excellent, and was only eclipsed by the chicken with pumpkin seed and peanut sauce taco. The chicken with pumpkin seed and peanut sauce taco was probably my favorite on the plate.

The beef and pork tacos were also top notch. The shredded beef taco and the albondigas taco were very good. I didn’t see albondigas soup on the menu, but if they don’t have it, they should consider adding it. The meatball was quite tasty.

And you can’t overlook the pork tacos. I really liked the pork roasted in banana leaf with habanero taco. It tasted great and had a nice kick to it. Of course, the pork in tomatillo sauce was also good.

You can put Lotteria down as a place I’d gladly return to.

After dinner Janet and I said our goodbyes to Tim, headed over to Sherman Oaks Marriot Hotel and did some laundry.

To be continued.

Technorati Tags: travel, food

Why Are Electric Cars Ugly?

Dear Mr. Normus,

I went to several local car dealers this past weekend and took a look at both electric cars and hybrid cars.  They were all really ugly.  Why can’t car companies make energy efficient and alternate energy cars and SUVs that you would actually want to drive?

Samantha Collins
Detroit, Michigan

Dear Samantha,

Automobile manufacturers in both the United States and abroad design ugly energy efficient and alternate fuel cars on purpose.  The car companies are in league with the oil importers and refiners as well as the United States government.  If the car companies designed and built fuel efficient and alternate fuel cars and SUVs, the demand for petroleum would plummet.  Profits for the oil companies would disappear.  Since there would be less demand for oil, petroleum imports would drop and there would be no need for oil refineries.  Refineries would be padlocked, and oil workers would be out of a job.

In order to keep people employed, the United States government, the major oil concerns, and the automobile manufacturers have all banded together to discourage the use of energy efficient and alternate fuel vehicles.

Foreign countries in the South America and especially the Middle East depend upon hard American currency from the sale of petroleum.  The U.S. government knows how important it is to maintain good relations with these governments and to keep the good will of their people.

Through extensive research, the parties involved have found that the most effective and most subtle way to discourage people from buying these types of cars is to make them really hideous.  Isn’t guiding the American people toward gasoline-powered cars and trucks a small price to pay to keep our Arab friends and neighbors happy?  Don’t you want to keep American refinery workers employed?

We should all be thankful that Big Oil, Big Government, and the automobile manufacturers have agreed to work together to keep the United States dependent on foreign oil.

 Posted by: Richard E. Normus on 9/15/2003 9:51:39 AM