Kogi tacos... the easy way

The not so new craze that has sweeped through most of Los Angeles has been Kogi taco truck tacos.

You follow the trucks on twitter and show up where ever they are, along with a hundred other people. Then you stand in line and pray that the tacos don't run out when you get to the window or that someone doesn't puke on your shoes.

Forget that.

Last night I went to Alibi Room - once a dive bar in Culver City, but is now run by the Kogi people.

We parked in the residential neighborhood next to modest 2 bedroom $600,000 homes like this one. (got to love this town)

The venue is small and consists solely of a triangle shaped bar and a small outdoor patio with limited seating. We went on a Tuesday night at 8:30pm and ended up standing at the bar since all the seats were taken. This place is worse than Father's Office. Hmph. Well, at least it's better than sitting on a curb in Exposition Park. I think.

The drinks are delicious and strong, but tiny. I drained mine in about 50 seconds. The first was the Lychee Cooler with Ketel One Vodka, St. Germain, and lychee puree. Didn't get a chance to take a picture. lol.

For the second drinks, I was more restrained. I got the Acai Margarita - El Jimador Reposado tequila with citronge, fresh lime and acai puree, served on the rocks with salt. Another winner.

He got Mint Sweet Tea ("to help my sore throat" - insert derisive snort here) which was hound dog sweet tea vodka with fresh muddled mint and lemon juice. Tasted like a mojito to me - little too much mint.

We started with a side of fries that were sprinkled with chili flakes. The dipping sauces were a chili sauce mixed with ketchup and sesame mayo. These were a perfect bar food and were finished quickly.

Next up were the tacos. Mr. Insom refused my request for "half-half" (where we get different dishes and trade plates halfway through) so we got identical items: the famous short rib taco.

As I ate it, I marveled at the simplicity. Tender marinated kalbi shortribs, kim chi, and a sparse dusting of lettuce and green onion on two slightly crispy corn flour tortillas. Wedges of lime and orange and an errant radish or two provide an additional kick. I can't believe no one's thought of this before.

As we left, we saw the taco truck waiting patiently in the alley. Maybe next time, big boy.

Hollywood Bowl - Dinner and Jewel

So this season of the Hollywood Bowl wasn't too inspiring to me. The only person that I was excited to see happened to be playing on the same weekend that I was going to New York. Awesome.

But we love the venue, so on Friday Mr. Insom bought some tickets to see "The Art of Song" featuring Jewel, Michael Feinstein, and the Hollywood Bowl orchestra. Okay.

Off we go.


The joys of stacked parking.

I love all the picnic boxes, coolers, and backpacks.

...although they make for a lengthy line at the entrance gates.

Before the concert, we picked up some amazing cheeses at Wally's (Rogue River Creamery Smokey Blue, Andante Dairy Figaro wrapped in fig leaves, and Marieke Young Gouda) along with a bottle of Rombauer and some Marcona almonds. We didn't bring much this time as we were planning on actually eating food prepared and served by the Patina Group for the first time.

We got a late start and barely made the cutoff for ordering food. Everything was brought out in a mad dash so we could get stuff before the concert started.

He got some sort of fishcake garnished with a mango salsa in a bowl of chilled corn soup.

I got the heirloom tomato salad with burrata, olive oil, and mixed greens. It would have been nice if this had some basil with it, and it needed some salt.

He got some chicken.

One of our companions got cod. I got one lobster ravioli. It was a large one, but still. lol

Time for the show.

Thomas Wilkins was the conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and did a great job, especially with providing accompaniment to the vocalists.

Michael Feinstein did a nice medley of songs from the American Songbook... some Sinatra, some Gershwin.

Some were kind of Vegas cheesy.

But one song in particular was pretty beautiful - a stripped down version of a Henry Mancini song that I've never heard before. It was just him at the piano without the orchestra accompaniment, serenading Mancini's widow (it was her birthday and see seemed very touched). I love quiet moments like these at the Bowl.

Intermission.

Apparently according to Mr. Insom, intermission is when celebs walk around and chat to their friends. It becomes quite the scene. lol He knows this because on Sunday night he went back to the HB with some friends and he met Halle Berry, Laurence Fishburne, and Apollonia (she of Purple Rain fame - my first glimpse of a "bad girl" as a kid! I wonder what she looks like now... Oh.). I couldn't go as I had already committed to chatting up homophobes in Glendale. Fabo.

But for me, intermission means dessert.

Berries with vanilla creme.

Assorted cookies, biscotti, and macaroons.

Pear tart with homemade ice cream.

Chocolate mousse.

All in all the food was presented well, but it tasted just so so. I did like my lobster ravioli, but I don't know... to me the Bowl means taking your own stuff. Our cheeses tasted better than anything we were served.

But now it's time for Jewel.

I thought she looked pretty. And her dress looked very comfortable, which is always a plus in my lazy fashion book. She sounded good too.

I would have preferred if she did just classics from the American Songbook too, but she sang her own stuff. Set list: Anything goes, I'm sensitive, Foolish Games, Meant 4me, Hands, Over the Rainbow.

She and Michael did a duet of something I don't remember. I'm not saying it wasn't good, I'm saying that I had drunk a lot of wine.

Some items from her twitter feed:

RT @jeweljk: Wow-what a rush! I LOVE the conductor! He saved me several time 2night-but what an honor 2 play @hollywoodbowl ! Woohooo!

RT @jeweljk: Thank you @hollywoodbowl & thank u audience! Wanna do this more-feels so good 2 really sing-the orchestra pulls it out of me :)


All in all, it was an enjoyable evening.
Next time though, I'm going to bring my own food.


Oh and there were fireworks! How bout that?

And it ends with a rim job

First things first...

Sorry for the delays in blogging. Work has been very crazy and on top of that, I misplaced my memory stick that had pics for at least four posts. If I don't find it, I'm going to have to go back to the Hollywood sign and ride another horse. :( But I digress... it's time for some new content!

On Wednesday, my friend Ionic and I went to the famous Bingo night at Hamburger Mary's.

Hamburger Mary's is located in the heart of West Hollywood and every Wednesday night they have a ribald bingo game at 7:00pm and at 9:00pm . The $20 donation gets you 10 games of bingo and goes to a local charity. That Wednesday the proceeds were going to Reading to Kids, a fun charity that I volunteer with once a month.

(I like how that Hamburger Mary vixen is covering up the B restaurant grade.) I've never played official bingo, so I was super excited. We were told by the Reading to Kids organizers to get there early, so we got there at 6:15 to make sure we got good seats. And boy did we. Right by the stage.

But unfortunately Reading to Kids didn't tell us that they didn't reserve a table for us volunteers, so we got booted to the patio. :( Actually it ended up working out great - the weather was nice, and we got a lovely seat outside that wasn't as cramped. But let that be a lesson - if you want to sit inside, make a reservation.

From our seats overlooking the sidewalk, we watched all the people line up. And we also watched this three car accident. It happened just as we were placing our drink orders. Everyone turned and said, oooo!

Then we went back to our conversations. See? I would have missed all the action if I were cooped up indoors.

The food wasn't too memorable, but the drinks were strong. Order as much as you can the first time you see your waiter, because once the tables start filling up, you will NEVER see him again.

We got double cocktails. Well, I got a double and Ionic got a single, but he brought her a double (and only charged for the single - he-ay!)

Mine was some sort of melon flavored vodka concoction. It got the job done.

We also ordered a large platter of nachos which the ideal choice - neither one of us was particularly hungry. I said no olives. Hmph.

Okay, so let's get down to Bingo.

Things got off to a great start when the woman sitting next to us won the preliminary raffle. She got tickets to some sort of theater performance... sweet! I was supposed to mail her this picture, but I lost her email addresses. Oops.

There are all sorts of witty callbacks you shout when the caller reads certain numbers.

"I-29"
"And holding!"

"O-69"
"Dinner for two, sauce on the side!"

When you have only one square left until Bingo, you shout, "It's on!"

The Bingo winner gets a prize bag and all of us surly losers crumple up our crappy Bingo cards and throw them at the lucky bastard and chant, "Pelt him! Pelt him!" as s/he runs around the restaurant. That was the highlight of my evening.

The resulting carnage was impressive.

Bad things happen when you call a false Bingo - you get paddled by a drag queen with a pretty strong arm.

The first few games were regular style bingo the way your grandma plays in the church hall.

Then other games got more fancy. Like one round was "I Got B.O." and you had to get Bingo vertically on the B column or the O column. For "Camel Toe", Bingo was a Y pattern on the game card.

One of the last games we played was "Rim Job!" where Bingo consisted of making the square that surrounds the free space.

Here's my Rim Job in process. Not too shabby. A little messy, but I'm nearly to completion.

Here's Ionic's...

Guess what? Iconic got a rim job! Well, she and another woman got rim jobs together! The tie breaker consisted of picking a Bingo ball and since Iconic got the highest number, she won. The loser got an item from the "Bag of Crap" as a consolation prize.

As the winner, Iconic had to run around the restaurant to chants of "Iconic got a rim job! Iconic got a rim job!" while dodging crumpled paper from the envious hordes.

Here's a shot of her alongside her fun and valuable prizes. Like a spiral notebook featuring Zac Efron.

Other items were half priced Magic Mountain tickets, Ed Hardy perfume, and a book about pirates. I was incredibly disappointed that there were no condoms or lube. I mean hello?! We're in West Hollywood people!

All in all, a great thing to do in Los Angeles.

LA Opera: Ring Cycle

Relieve Ring-related recounts

Background: Four Gold-en Rings
Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried
Gotterdammerung