eat: dessert edition: cookie monster's favorite

In the heart of Westwood near UCLA there lays a shop that is always filled with people and has a line pouring out of it and down the street. Diddy Riese is a well known cookie shop that college students love because you can buy 3 cookies for $1 or get an ice cream sandwich for $1.50. The cookies are always fresh and have that right out the oven taste to them. They have so many options to choose from that one has to get 3 just to have a taste of them all.

The ice cream sandwich is my favorite because you get to choose the two cookies and the ice cream that goes inside. I tend to go for a chocolate chip, snicker doodle and mint chip ice cream. Yum! The sandwich is one of the best I have ever had. Because the cookies are warm it melts the ice cream a little and it is the perfect amount of ooey gooey yumminess.

If you live in LA and have never been, you must go! If you come to visit LA, mark this down as a place you must visit. I promise it is worth it. Don't get frightened by the line either; it usually moves pretty quick.

Eat: Quest for the Best Burger in LA

Yesterday I decided that I wanted to embark on a quest to find the best burger in Los Angeles. I am a total burger girl and while I'd love to and have been a vegetarian I just crave burgers. The funny and ironic thing is is that one of my daily blog reads (Eaterla.com) posted that it is national burger month and there is a poll on facebook for the best burger in LA. Well, I am gonna visit some of these places and test them out for myself and let you all know my personal experience with them.

Last night I went to the first contender: The Counter.

I had been there once before with my boyfriend and only had the sliders (we were on our way to dinner and were so hungry that we couldn't wait). I think it is quite easy to make a good slider; they are small and compact so all the juices and flavors are kept in. Now to make a great burger, in my opinion, is a lot harder. The cool thing about The Counter is that you get to build your own burger from top to bottom.

They have tons of options to choose from, which I appreciate cause I am a picky eater. They also have sweet potato fries; my favorite! Anyhow, our burgers came and after I took some photos I dove in. I was a bit disappointed. The grilled onions were soggy and the meat was dry. The bun tasted like it was a couple of days old and the dressing was a bit flavorless. I was surprised because the sliders I had before were great and I hoped the burger would be the same.

The fries were delicious and cooked just right, but seeing as I am searching for the best burger they aren't a part of my decision. I do have to say though that in order to truly appreciate a burger, I need to have perfectly cooked and seasoned fries.

I was a bit disappointed, but it wasn't a completely awful burger. It just wasn't great. I definitely wouldn't put it in my top 3 best burgers and so The Counter is out.

Eat: Dinah's Fried Chicken

I look forward to the second Sunday of every month all month long. It is like a monthly holiday for me. It is the perfect day for two reasons: 1. the Rose Bowl flea market and 2. going to a new delicious restaurant with my foodie guru. Yesterday we veered from our usual brunch and went for fried chicken. Now, I am not a huge fried chicken fan. The grease freaks me out and there is no hiding that it in no way is it good for you, but I figured I'd branch out and give it a whirl. When the guru tells you it's amazing, you don't ask questions you just go. And so we went to Dinah's Chicken in Glendale. It is a little restaurant that probably seats 25 at most. It is very old school as you can tell by the sign above. They do a lot of take out and from what the guru says, the line can be wrapped around the restaurant.

We had no problem getting a seat and so we ordered fried chicken of course. I decided to go with mashed potatoes and macaroni salad for my sides. You get a roll as well that you spread their homemade apple butter over. The chicken batter was so flavorful and perfectly seasoned. I will say that it was better than any fried chicken I had when I was in the South. The sides were good (definitely not great), but the chicken was well worth it. My chicken was perfectly fried and so crispy. When all the meat was gone I was just picking at the skin.

The service was great and our server friendly. The decor of the small restaurant was country and warm. One would easily be able to spot that they have kept much of the original look. There was a small pie fridge on display filled with fruit and cream pies that are made in house. Dinah's reminded me of being young and going to old diners with my Mom. If ever you are craving fried chicken and don't mind the adventure, I recommend giving Dinah's Chicken a go. It is well worth it.

(My server didn't understand why I wanted to take a picture of the chicken bucket. She laughed at me actually. I just had to capture that Dinah's still has it's original charm somehow).

Eat: Langer's Deli

I went and met my food guru yesterday for lunch downtown. He had been telling me about Langer's for the longest time, but for some reason we just never made it there until yesterday. Langer's is a Los Angeles landmark and has been around since 1947. On their website they claim "the world's best pastrami" and so of course I had to order the famous # 19.

It was so full of flavor from top to bottom. The pastrami was tender and mouthwatering, the coleslaw was ideally dressed and crunchy and the rye bread had the perfect thickness and the flavor matched the rest of the sandwich. It was definitely the best pastrami I have ever had.

The restaurant itself still has it's original charm. It has counter seating and of course had a wait. The booths are the same as they were when it opened and the waitresses are adorable older women who, I would guess, have been there for a while. If you haven't been to Langer's yet or on your next trip to LA, this landmark is a must. I promise it will not disappoint.

Eat: Vacation Edition

I just returned from Cabo San Lucas a couple of days ago. It was a week filled with delicious food and lots of sun bathing. Whenever I go on vacations I always look for the little hidden gems and either the locals of my fellow foodie friends lead me there. I was lucky enough to find 2 blog worthy restaurants on this trip. The first was what a local man called "the best breakfast in Cabo." My friend suggested Mama Royale's to me and I am so glad he did. Mama Royale's food was so full of flavor and was well worth the walk from the resort. The restaurant itself was cozy and full of colorful tablecloths and walls. There was a saxist outside playing music while we dined. The waiters were great and very attentive. My boyfriend, our friends and I were starving after our long walk and so we quickly ordered. I ordered a fresh coconut and orange juice mix. For those of you who remember Orange Julius, it resembled there's. I also ordered french toast stuffed with cream cheese and topped with fresh mixed berry compote for the table.

Heather and Chris, both who consider themselves "non-sweet tooth people" loved the french toast too and had more than one bite. For my meal I ordered an eggs benedict that had green onions added to it. The green onions were a tasty addition.

The eggs were perfectly cooked and the potatoes full of flavorful spices. I added some of their house salsa which just enhanced the character.

The others loved their food as well and we all left with a smile on our face, stuffed bellies and a slower walking pace. If ever you venture to Cabo, this little gem is a must.

Eastside Eateries

My idea of a perfect night out is having cocktails or wine and dinner with friends and tonight I did just that. I finally got over to the eastside and met up with one of my dearest foodie friends and brought a westsider friend with me. I took them to one of the best restaurants I have ever been to in my life. It is a vegetarian restaurant and the food is just unbelievable. Whether you are vegetarian or not, you cannot deny that their food has so much flavor that you don't even notice that the meat isn't there. I am stuffed. The restaurant I am talking about is Elf in Echo Park. It is a small and quaint restaurant that is dimly lit and always filled with the eastsides finest hipsters. It is a real intimate setting where you can watch the chefs prepare some of the best food I have ever had. Because the cafe is so small there is almost always a wait and of course tonight was no different and so we walked across the street to the wine bar and had a glass of wine while we waited for our table.


The maître d’ was so great and called me when our table was ready. So, we walked back over and sat down in our own little corner and order some great entrees and shared with one another. We had a Baked Tart with Roasted Tomatoes, Carmelized Onion and Feta:


A Sheep Cheese Crepe with Chevre Butter:



And a Portobello Mushroom with Spanish Rice and Mashed Potatoes:


They also served cucumber infused water which was really refreshing. My friends both loved the food and were talking about the next trip back. It was so good that our dishes were being wiped clean by both of them which resulted in this:



A beautifully, artistic stack of dishes.

5¢ Diner

My favorite meal of the day is breakfast. I could eat breakfast foods for all 3 meals of my day. I feel that finding amazing breakfast spots in Los Angeles is actually a difficult task believe it or not. I mean there are a multitude of restaurants to choose from, but not many that I walk away from being blown away. I have been finding lately that the best breakfast is served at the little gems tucked away in different parts of my big city. The most recent being the 5¢ Diner in downtown. My foodie guru took me there last Sunday after a morning of blissfully wandering around the Rose Bowl flea Market. We started our brunch with a bacon maple glazed donut and a homemade strawberry pop tart. The donut was the best donut I have ever had and the pop tart has rekindled my adornment for the flakey pastry and showed me what a real pop tart should taste like.

After our filling appetizers I order a chicken sausage, goat cheese and roasted tomato scramble. The tomatoes were the best tomatoes that I have had since Greece (those of you who have been to Greece know what I am talking about). They were filled with so much flavor and the heat only emphasized the great taste. I didn't want to stop eating it was so good. My guru had a BBQ pulled pork hash and it was phenomenal as well. I am not a pork girl and I had a bit of it and it was mouthwatering.

Because it had been featured on the Food Network a couple of weeks back the wait was about 20 minutes and well worth every minute. I have not been able to stop talking about it to anyone who will listen. They have 5 different donuts to choose from; 1 being a red velvet donut. They also have a variety of other pastries. This gem is a must for anyone who enjoys great food and pastries.