March 25, 2010

• Song of the Day
  

  Food adventure time! Back to the 50′s! Cafe 50′s is tucked amongst the brick buildings along Santa Monica Boulevard in West Los Angeles. The inside of this joint is just like a souped up vintage movie set. This restaurant serves basic American diner cuisine, but part of the fun is checking out the 50′s era decorations and listening to the jukebox oldies music.

  So, I noticed there is this vintage bicycle and television set hanging from the ceiling…
  

  How about this mini jukebox and the racy poster, all from the 50′s…..
  

  (clockwise from top left) Eggs Benedict, Country Fried Steak, Corned Beef Scramble, French Toast with Blueberry jam. All very fresh and delicious…..
  

  

  
  Guess what? We brougnt along a $25 Gift Coupon, the final tab came out to $0.53! Such a Great Deal! The restaurant also gave us a $10 coupon for our next visit.

  Fondue time at The Melting Pot! W received a $50 off coupon for dinner at this fondue restaurant . I am not a big fan of dipping different kinds of meat and bread into a pot of melting cheese. But when someone is offering dinner for two at a huge discount, I’m all for it! Somehow, it took us three tries to reserve a table for a Saturday dinner. So, we called a week in advance to secure this booking. I guess there must be tons of customers with these discount coupons. For dinner, we had the “Alpine Big Night Out” which is a set menu consisting of FOUR courses and costs US$88 per couple. (The lighting is super dim inside the restaurant, please pardon the darkish photos).

  The server mixing the melted cheese and ingredients for the first course – “Alp and Dell Cheese Fondue”
  

  The mixture consists of a combination of white wine, garlic, whole grain mustard and nutmeg, with a smooth blend of Gruyère, Raclette and Fontina cheeses…..
  

  The Second Course is the “Alpine Ridge Salad”, which is mixed greens topped with oven roasted tomatoes, Gruyère, Raclette and Fontina cheeses, hard-boiled eggs and honey roasted almonds, mixed with a shallot vinaigrette. No photos here because the salad arrangement looked quite basic, have to rely on your own imagination. The Third Course is the “Fondue Feast”, a plateful of Filet Mignon, Sauerbraten NY Strip, Applewood Smoked Bratwurst, Hefeweizen Marinated Shrimp, Roasted Garlic Crusted Chicken, Sun Dried Tomato Ravioli and Fresh Vegetables…..
  

  Soupy mixture of fresh herbs, mushrooms, garlic, spices and burgundy wine…..
  

  Ravioli and Shrimp in action…..
  

  For dessert, Dippers – strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, Rice Krispies, marshmallows, pound cake and brownies…..
  

  “Yin & Yang” – Half dark chocolate and half whitechocolate, artfully swirled for a perfect balance, so delicious…..
  

  The final tab came out to US$59.25 ($109.25 minus $50) for two, which is quite reasonable, considering the sumptuous dessert with the delicious dark and white chocolate fondue. I’d gladly try this again if I can get another $50 discount coupon!

  Umami - is a loanword from Japanese meaning “flavor” or “taste”. Umami Burger would mean savoury meaty taste. This burger joint sits within a stretch of plain-strip-mall space on La Brea Boulevard just a little south of Wilshire, where you will find a mix-match of mom and pop restaurants and small shops. The inside of Umami Burger is small and pretty well-designed. As you may notice the interior has some Asian influences. The former space was occupied by an Asian fusion food restaurant serving Korean tacos.

  

  

  The Manly Burger – beercheddar cheese, smoked salt onion strings, bacon lardons…..
  

  The Umami Burger – meat is well-seasoned, cooked medium well. The Parmesan is baked into small bits, roasted tomato slices and caramelized onions…..
  

  

  Too bad they do not serve beer, which goes down very nicely with meaty burgers. As I dig into the umami burger, there are a complex mix of flavours, but I’m not sure if the meat has been over-seasoned with salt or msg (maybe?). But overall, it was very tasty and juicy. The buns are derived from Portuguese-style roll with a soft texture and quite satisfying. The final tab came to US$12 per person, which was quite pricey, considering we only had water and shared one order of fries. Talking about these fries, which were over-cooked, hard and brittle. We did not finish the dish and I would not order the fries again.

  Feeling UNSATISFIED, we headed a few blocks over to MILK …..
  

  Triple Chocolate Shake (rich chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce and chocolate chips) Strawberry Cream (tart starwberry cream soda with vanilla bean ice cream)….
  
  Red Velvet cup cake (soft and moist but not overly sweet)…..
  

  As you may notice, the above three segments of eating adventures may also be ideal for a one-day eating itinerary. Chow Down!

  • 3:00 am
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