Nanciful’s Blog

I love beer. I love ice cream. So I when I found out about Food GPS’ beer float showdown, I was ecstatic! What made it even better was that most of the proceeds from the showdown went to 826LA which is a non-profit organization that tutors kids 8-16. How awesome is that?! For once my love of beer is somehow making this world a better place. To prepare myself for the showdown, I went without the maple bacon donut at Nickel Diner that morning so I would have more room in my stomach and more sensitivity in my taste buds to experience all the happiness that would be happening in my mouth.

The showdown is between Golden State and Scoops vs Bottlerock LA and MILK and the competition was held at Blue Palm Brewhouse in Hollywood. Hubs and I got there about 30 minutes after the event started and the placed was packed. We paid our $23 per person at the door got our score cards and stood in line to get our first taste.

We started out with Golden State and Scoops. They paired the Bruery’s Berliner Weisse with Raspbery & Yuzu Sorbet which turned out to my favorite out of the 4 offered in the entire showdown. We wasted no time and also got their North Coast Old Rasputin Imperial Stout and brown bread gelato.

The first selection with the Hefeweizen and the raspberry & yuzu sorbet was very refreshing. The lightness of the citrus notes in the Hef was brought out by the yuzu in the sorbet. The stout and the brown bread was a heavier and it felt like I was drinking coffee.

After slurping down our beer floats from Golden State & Scoops, we got in line for Bottlerock LA & MILK. I couldn’t help myself but to Twitter my thought provoking thoughts on my Iphone.

Bottlerock LA & MILK had Allagash Curieux with vanilla bean ice cream and Samiclaus with coffee toffee ice cream.

The first one with the vanilla ice cream didn’t blow me away since I thought the vanilla ice cream was slightly on the creamier side and masked the flavor of the beer. The second beer float with the coffee toffee ice cream was bitter and crunchy and delicious. It felt like I was eating dessert. By this time, I was feeling *good*. I realized that we slurped down 4 of these beer floats within a 30 minute time frame on an empty stomach. Then it was time for scoring!

I was so impressed with Golden State & Scoops’ Hefeweizen and raspberry yuzu sorbet combo that I gave them 6 points for originality although only 3 points max were available. Yes, I was plenty buzzed.  However, I did catch my own mistake and corrected it to 3 points.

Later that night, Joshua from Food GPS posted the results and the winner was Golden State & Scoops! Thank you to Joshua at Food GPS for holding the showdown. I can’t wait for the next one! *Thanks to Hubs for the photography as I was too busy downing my floats*

On the suggestion of our good friend R, (Hi R!) Hubs and I traversed to Downtown LA a couple Sundays ago to have brunch at Nickel Diner. I have been wanting to go especially for the famous maple bacon donut. However, when I was laying in bed that morning and looking at Nickel Diner’s menu on my Iphone, all I wanted was the bacon, spinach, garlic and goat cheese scramble.

I have worked in Downtown almost my entire life and there has been some great transformation in the area. The streets use to be trash strewed and buildings dilapidated. On Sundays mornings back in the day, there would be no reason to come to this part of town unless you were looking for your dealer. But that has changed in past few years in the redevelopment of Downtown LA. It has become much more urban chic so to speak and Nickel Diner is a great addition to this.

Although there was a long line outside, we were lucky enough that a couple of parties ahead of us left and we only waited for about 15 minutes before getting seated. The inside of the restaurant looks like a cross between a small town diner from the mid west and a New York deli.

After taking our orders, the waitress brought us a sample of the strawberry crumble donut and the bacon maple donut. Hubs said that the strawberry crumble taste like Good Humor strawberry shortcake bar and I thought the maple bacon donut tasted like one of those ham and cheese bread from the Taiwanese bakery. They were both good.

I debated whether I should get an full sized donut since they had a plethora of amazing choices such as red velvet, nutella and samoa just to name a few. However,  I resisted because we were planning to head over to the Beer Float Showdown later that day where I was ready to consume large amounts of beer and ice cream. The donuts looked might delicious in their cages though.

I was really torn between the baked pancakes or the scramble that I was hankering earlier. I ended up getting the scramble anyways. Once I get my mind made up, it’s almost impossible to deter it. Although this is just the run of the mill scramble with bacon and garlic, the goat cheese adds a different texture and taste to it.

Hubs got the 5th and Main which is spicy bbq pork has topped with 2 eggs, sunny side up. There was a tad too much BBQ sauce and it was a little too sweet for my taste but all in all, BBQ for breakfast is awesome and sinful.

I look forward to returning to Nickel Diner to try the rest of the donuts and to experience peaceful Downtown on a Sunday morning.

Nickel Diner

524 S. Main Street

Los Angeles, CA 90013

Tel: (213)623) 8301

Since my last visit to Animal, I have been wanting to return with friends so we can just tear up the menu and order up a bevy of dishes. And that is what we did and this time we have a nicer camera and was seated at a table with much better lighting.

There were 7 of us so we ordered about 6-7 starters. First came the lamb chops, beets, fresh garbanzo’s, sumac yogurt. The lamb was not gamey at all and was cooked medium rare and seasoned to perfection. The table liked it so much that we ordered a 2nd plate and even got 2 of our non lamb eaters to try a couple bites. I guess it’s all about the quality of the meat and how you prepared it. Hubs was one of the 2 non lamb eaters and he gobbled those bites down.

Beets, feta, sungold tomato, kalamata

arugula, corn, pecans, Japanese tomato, parmesan

Since we were taking friends here for the first time, we were kind of playing “hosts”, making sure that everyone was okay with the food and etc. Hubs and I were also preoccupied with taking pictures as well. So I really don’t remember the lighter dishes such as the 2 above. I guess you can say their meatier dishes stood out more.

Here is the grilled squid, chorizo, chimmi churri. Couldn’t taste the chorizo much but the squid was very fresh.

So here is the groups favorite starter of the night, pig ear, chili, lime, fried egg. So much that we ordered another one within seconds of devouring it. The first bite really surprised me as it was such a tangy surprise. Sour and spicy and chewy and crunchy all up in my mouth. This is a MUST ORDER!

After reading all the reviews about this one, I ordered the poutine, oxtail gravy, cheddar for the beef eaters in the group. One beef eater was rendered speechless after the first bite. He was surprised how light the dish was despite the gravy over fries.

We doubled up on the pork belly, kimchi, peanuts, chili soy, scallion since Hubs and I really enjoyed it in our previous visit. Again, this dish did not disappoint.

Finally we are onto the main course. We decided on 4 of the 5 dishes offered that day.

Halibut, king crab, gold rice succotash, tabasco butter. I really liked this dish as there were so many textures. However, among the 7 of us, we all only got a bite of this. I plan to return very soon to have this all for myself.

grilled shrimp, fresh black eye’s, bacon, curry, creme fraiche.

We ordered the flat iron, artichoke hash, truffle parmesan fondue for the cow lovers and boy they were more in love with the bovine after they took the first bite. They were about to fall off their chairs. The steak was prepared medium well upon the server’s suggestion.

When the balsamic pork ribs came, the table and ooh’ed and ahh’ed . She was a beauty. The meat was succulent and slid right off the bone. Even the bone was succulent, it was cooked so thoroughly that I could bite into the bone. How do they do that anyways?

The ribs came with a side of blistered corn & zucchini, herb butter

Then it’s time for DESSERT! Of course we had to order ALL 5.

tres leches, dulce de leche. This was Hubs favorite. Again, it was not heavy but full of flavor at the same time.

panna cotta, saba

pound cake, strawberries, cream the famous chocolate crunch bar

Strawberry shortcake

Last but not least the apricot tart, pistachio creme fraiche.

I truly madly deeply love this restaurant. They are never afraid to slap you upside the head with flavor and substance but at the same time keeping the texture light. It’s comfort food on steroids, graduating from a liberal arts college. Okay, doesn’t make sense but all in all, the dinner was beyond expectation and had service to match.

We went on an extremely busy night and our table was not yet ready at reservation time because the party before us lingered a bit longer than expected. The hostess Madeline checked in with us often to give us updated news on our seating situation. She offered to take our drink orders first and gave us menus to peruse. Madeline also gave us the bigger table so we can be more comfortable. These are little gestures but make a dramatic impact on hungry diners waiting to be seated. I also noticed how everyone working at the restaurant pitches in to help. If there was a glass that needs to refilled or a table that needs to cleaned up, runners, servers, hostesses jumped right in and took care of it. I don’t care how great the food is or how many Michelin stars it earned or what culinary school the chef graduated from, if a restaurant does not have good service, it might as well be a Denny’s.

14 thumbs ups to Animal for incredible food and stellar service. I will definitely be back soon.

**Thanks for Hubs for helping out with the photography.**

Animal Restaurant

435 N. Fairfax Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Tel: 323-782-9225

Wednesday nights are usually spent out on a date with Hubs or upside down in tripod in yoga class or buried under piles of laundry. But this past Wednesday night, I broke out the crimper and dressed to the nines and attended the invite-only Blogger Prom. Hubs and I found our outfits at the thrift store and paired with finds from Claire’s and Hot Topic and my own closet. I ended up looking like a girl in a Taiwanese karaoke video. Maybe it’s the rainbow leopard tights? the crimped hair? the Monchichi pearl necklace? I guess I’m still a FOB at heart.  Hubs on the other hand channeled Duckie from Pretty in Pink. He rocked the piano tie pretty good.

Blogger Prom was held on the rooftop of the beautiful Andaz Hotel in West Hollywood.

I am a stickler for punctuality so we got there around 7:30PM which I know is nerdy early for some folks but I was already freaking out a little inside. Besides, it gave me time to take pictures of this awesome radio floral arrangement in natural light.

I was starving when we got there so I made a beeline for the cheese spread by the Cheese Impresario.

Here is the charcuterie spread but there were also some more food as well prepared by the hotel but I was too eager to check out the rest of the venue so forgot to take pictures.

Hubs and I sauntered out to the pool and we were greeted by some cabanas overlooking Sunset Blvd. I definitely want to return with my swim suit and lay out for the afternoon.

Around 8:30-9:00, more people started to pour in and we started to paparazzi it up.  I later found out that the above pictures is of Michelle Woo and M rockin’ the pink!

There were raffles every hour but alas we didn’t win anything. I was really looking forward to getting the brittle from Morning Glory Brittle or the gift basket from Edison’s. Here is Pauly Shore giving away tickets to the Comedy Store.

I spent the rest of the night looking for and finding the bloggers that I met from my night in Jitlada, Sinosoul,  Resforthree and Wandering Chopsticks. In the process, I also finally met H.C. of LA and OC Foodventures ,  Kung Food Panda, and Maya of Shop Eat Sleep in the flesh! I’ve only had contact via the blogosphere and Twitter with these cool folk so it was so nice to finally meet face to face.

Maya and I had a hide and seek via Twitter thing going on all night but finally caught up with each other the valet line when I was leaving. Come to think of it, it was TOTALLY LIKE AN 80′S MOVIE!

Anyways, I also had the chance of meeting some new people : Seeking Food, AV Flox from Blogher and Glozell and date.

Knowing that the food bloggers at Blogger Prom weren’t  going to let the night pass by without dessert, mini cupcakes and cheesecake sticks were served.

We wrapped up the night by picking up our goody bag that overfloweth. There were goodies from vodka to lube to coupons for the six dollar burger at Carl’s Junior. Going through the swag bag made me feel like kid after trick or treating on Halloween night.and we were dressed for the part too!

The Blogger Prom Committee did an outstanding job with the event. H.C of LA and OC Foodventures, Maya of Shop Eat Sleep, Caroline of Caroline on Crack, Esther of e*star LA, Lindsay of LAist, Marni of Happy Go Marni, Tara of When Tara Met Blog and Natalie of The Liquid Muse really made my very first blogger event memorable. Looking forward to the next Blogger Prom, maybe 90’s theme? I think I still have my MC Hammer pants somewhere in my parents’ garage.

Thanks to Hubs for being my date and photographer that night. More photos are available on the Blogger Prom Flickr site here!

I just found out TODAY that I have been bumped up from the waiting list to an actual invitee of Blogger Prom!!! So excited beans! This is happening on July 22, 2009 at the Andaz Hotel in West Hollywood.  I can’t believe how many sponsors have signed up for this event and the loot that will be in the swag bags! The Blogger Prom committee are incredible!

Hubs and I scouted out 80’s threads from the fashion district in Downtown to the thrift stores in Hollywood. I can’t wait to booze it up with all the other fellow bloggers. I will definitely post pictures up! Stayed tuned!