April 2010 Archives

Egg Plant
11266 Ventura Boulevard
Studio City, CA‎ - (818) 508-1800‎

Not sure if the egg plant is any good or even if they serve it but the sushi at Egg Pant is excellent. The atmosphere is very nice and if you're looking for a quiet dinner for two this is the place. Nicole and I decided to go out and celebrate some good news and rather than eat while being watched (judged?) by the sushi chefs at Midori we decided to try somewhere else.

Egg Plant is a little more expensive than Midori but they make up for it in service. They fly their servers in from Japan daily so they're always fresh (and jet lagged). Just kidding. Sort of. Our server happened to fly in the night before and very cheerfully explained it had left her a little "cuckoo" while at the same time crossing her eyes, sticking out her tongue and bobbing her head from side to side. It sort of made me think that anime cartoons really aren't that far fetched.

Nicole and I both ordered some sushi and a chicken entree. I don't know why we ordered entrees. We never do at a sushi place. Regardless, it was all delicious (even the pumpkin appetizer!).

Free Wasabi Cucumber Salad!

Yummy Pumpkin

Super Fantastic Crunchy Spicy Tuna in a Soy Paper Roll (or something like that)

Spicy Tuna

Saki. Mmmmm Saki....

Even though the food was great I think my favorite thing about the restaurant was our server. She was so happy, cute and polite you just wanted to put her in your pocket and pull her out the next time you were feeling blue. Perhaps next time I will get up the courage to ask to take a picture of her.

Egg Plant gets two thumbs up!

I love nerdfests. Lucky for me Southern California has a whole lot of them.

Since I won't be making it to Comicon in San Diego this year I went with a couple friends to Monsterpalooza. What's Monsterpalooza you ask? Well, it's a gathering for all those employed by and fans of the monster industry. I'm not talking sweet computer graphic monsters or anything either. I'm talking about oldskool puppets and makeup! I'm a child of the 80s when they had finally gotten good at it and will always be a fan. I'll never forget reading The Relic in 1995 by Douglas J. Preston and Lincoln Child and thinking it would make an awesome movie in the Alien costume/makeup sort of sense. Flash forward to 1997 and I witnessed an abortion of a great piece of monster literature in film. Rather than focus on the costumes and puppets they decided to use their budget on CG that just wasn't there yet. At least Tom Sizemore got to make a million dollars.

Anyway, Mosterpalooza was only $20 and with free reentry you could leave and go to the adjacent hotel bar (or your car) for drinks. Something about warm whiskey just makes monsters better.

Try it, it's best! (it says right on the menu) Wow, wow! Don't be shine!

I'm going to use the excuse that I did it for the blog but there's never really any good excuse to abuse your body is there? I don't care. Cheap greasy food is just delicious sometimes and this place does it best.

Oki-Dog claims it's an LA staple and world famous but I think it might be trying to ride the coat tails of Pink's Hot Dog Stand. Regardless, I marched into Oki-Dog and ordered the house specialty... You guessed it, an Oki-Dog.

For $6.00 even you get the signature item plus a generous helping of piping hot fries and a canned soda. Upon ordering the cashier/cook/entertainment asked me if I'd ever been there and if I knew what an Oki-Dog is. I replied, "No and no but I'll eat most anything.". He thought this extremely amusing and slapped the counter laughing and then said, "You're either hungry or hungover!". Within minutes I had a mountain of gray and nearly transparent food on a plate in front of me.

What's in an Oki-Dog you ask? Just read the clearly labeled sign posted over the front door:

While the staff is seriously cool at this place don't expect a shiny set of utensils or even a wiping of the table before you sit down. To prevent the soot from passing traffic on Fairfax from getting in your hot dog err... burrito, the owners of the establishment have taken it upon themselves to cut and secure pieces of OSB to the wrought iron bars of what I assume must have been an open-air dining room (or maybe they were just tired of all the salt shakers of seasoned salt getting stolen). In addition to the worn burnt orange bench seating they also provide an office chair (which I was bizarrely drawn to).

One of my favorite things about Oki-Dog is the efficiency. All business whether it be cash, food or conversation is done through one small window. While this may keep overhead down it can be a problem if one customer's food comes up while another is trying to order and if there's money being paid and food being served through this one 18x24 inch window just forget it.

And don't forget, cash only!

Perhaps it felt right at the time but much like a one night stand I am now full of regret and possibly a little sore.

I've written in the past about hiking up Runyon Canyon. I previously thought it was a great local place to escape some of the city in favor of nature. Well, it's more like escaping the city for a dusty, hot, dog pee drenched hike through the hills. At least you can let your (good) dog off leash and you're more than likely to see a celebrity in their sports bra.

After a few dozen times up Runyon it began to wear thin. I just didn't want to deal with the parking hassle and dog poo. An alternative came from an unusual place; when we moved into our new accommodations I'd wake every morning and see this lonely little tree perched atop the hill directly across the 101 (a "peak" over from the Hollywood sign):

I began to wonder if it would be possible to hike up to this little tree. Well, thanks to Google Maps and it's satellite imagery I found that there's a visible path all the way up.

The hike is more difficult than Runyon (as most of the trail is a drainage ditch) but the air is cleaner and the views are just as good if not better.

If you'd like to hike it map out 3629 Wonder View Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90068 and park as close to the water tower as possible and then look for the path/drainage ditch.

We were in the best of situations for a big quake like this: enjoying wine around our friend's pool. I recommend being outdoors for all earthquakes, its actually kind of amusing. At first most of us were staring at our wine glasses wondering just how deep that first glass was...until we realized the earth really was moving! At which point we all held on to our seats for close to a minute. Most of us experiencing vertigo and slight nausea at the height of it. The dogs seemed completely unfazed until the pool started sloshing, which was the biggest indication of just how powerful and long the shaking was.

Thankfully all structures in the area (Silverlake) held up to the prolonged rumble but when we realized the quake was a 7.2 our thoughts were with the folks closer to the epicenter. Amazingly, only two deaths were reported and we are so thankful that our Easter was only a bit shaken up here.

Hopefully Momma Earth has taken out all her frustrations now, but if not remember to Drop and Cover!