sarah "TheDelicious" g.'s Profile

The moment we walked into the store, I was crushed by olfactory overload -- 250+ herbs, spices, and seasoning mixes with intriguing-because-they're-ambiguous names like "Sunny Paris!" combined into a full-scale attack and broke through the congestion.

I began to wander the store and look at everything, read everything, see everything, pick up, touch, open, and sniff everything. There was so much there, everything from A is for allspice to Z is for za'atar, a Middle Eastern spice blend. However, the store is not set up alphabetically in any way. There seemed to be some loose logic around how the spices are grouped together into mini "departments," but it's not totally clear.

No doubt, it's all on purpose so that even if you march into the store with a specific agenda, the confusing categorization and seductive scents will throw you off your own trail.

I wanted to buy everything. Except dried cilantro. Had I been alone, I might have headed down that dark path of abuse and addiction. Thankfully, I was limited by the dollar amount on a gift card.

http://www.thedeliciou...

The drive is long, parking is confusing, dirty birds everywhere, air feels sticky, smells too strong of urban ocean, and the pier itself is crowded, loud and filthy.

Yet slipping through the mass of people in front of the cases of live seafood at Quality Seafood, picking out oysters by pointing, watching them shuck them right there, then sucking them down while standing next to a flower pot because there weren't enough seats in the large outdoor dining area...was totally worth it.

And I loved that I had to pick out little bits of realdeal shell after each one, that the lemons were fresh but Tapatio and horseradish came in condiment packets.

Condiment packets!!!

No one does a deep tissue massage for $50 better than Thanh. No one.

The Massage Company in Brentwood where Thanh (pronounced "tawn" or "tonn") works his magic is bare bones. There's no trickling waterfall, no dim serenity with flickering candlight and no complimentary cucumber essence water, and yet, in its stark austerity, it is absolute zen. I swore to myself I would never ever write about this little indulgence of mine, my weekly deep tissue massages with this tiny Asian massage therapist named Thanh. (I think he's Vietnamese, but you know how all us Asians look alike.)

I didn't want to admit that I actually do pamper myself once a week (I'm not a princess, I swear!), and I certainly didn't want to give away the secret that it's only $50. What if I told everyone and then they all call Thanh for a massage and he doesn't have time for me anymore? This is my moment of therapy. Mine! Some people pay 100s of dollars an hour to talk to a therapist. I pay only $50 an hour so I don't have to unless I want to. Sometimes a full hour will go by and the only words I utter are "thank you" at the end, and sometimes, I chatter on about how much I love/hate being unemployed. I'm pretty sure that he can't understand a word I'm saying. Is that horribly racist? No. It's exactly like the dentist who nods and smiles in complete understanding when he's got his two fists wadded up inside your cheeks. Thanh just responds to my muffled ramblings into a pillow doughnut with an occasional short, quiet "mm hm."

It's very therapeutic. Sometimes it makes me cry. (no, really, my back hurts so much, I ask for so much pressure, I cry - I love it)

There is valet parking in front of the 2 story strip that's $2.50 with the validation from the Massage Company. The street parking is metered nearby, too far away for the "free" residential.  There are actually a NUMBER of therapists i have tried there over the last 6 years, but Thanh is the best. Regular massages are $39, $10 more for deep tissue, $1 more to use a credit card.

original review here: http://www.thedeliciou...

I'm almost afraid to write a positive review of this place because so many people seem to hate it.

Of course, it might just be that I'm used to the somewhat apathetic, almost to the point of BadAttitude greeting from the woman at the desk, how busy the salon is, and the "gossip" that is VERY obviously about every customer in the salon. *eh* I don't care about that stuff.

I just like it because the location is convenient. It's in the Westside Pavilion, so there's "mall parking," and if the salon IS busy when you walk-in, you can shop for a bit (Nordstrom, H&M open there now). Is it also a stupid thing to say that they actually have CURRENT magazines to read while you're getting your nails done?  

I get my full set of acrylics done by Helen every time because I like the shape that she does - rounded bed, thin (so it looks "natural), and with slightly rounded square tips. She has a lot of regular customers, though, so if you want to go to her, you should probably call and request. Also, I just noticed recently that their color/brand selection on colors is not awesome. If you have a favorite color, take your own.

A full set is $25, fill $15.

I used to go to Christine's exclusively for my acrylic nails, and there was a period of about a year that I went every 10 -14 days to keep them maintained. The place was dark, cramped, overcrowded, and had terrible parking (street parking in westwood? nonexistent) but worth it, especially if you got Christine herself to do your nails.

Then they kept the change on a $100 bill I gave them (it wasn't to be obnoxious, it's just VERY random that I had it, and I alwyas thought businesses preferred cash transactions).

Either I was totally biased after that or their service just coincidentally changed for the worse at the same time, but, well, their service changed for the worse. I couldn't get a good set there - always came away with ragged, torn cuticles, nails that were not uniform in shape or size, misshapen, and the paint job looked messy. My finger tips always hurt/stung/burned afterward, and while I don't have the strongest nails to start with, they've never felt like they had had Ty Pennington get after them with a table sander.

Obviously, that makes the location and parking unbearable. I think perhaps their service got worse after a whole SLEW of nail salons opened up on that stretch on Westwood Blvd, which is strange, since competition usually makes businesses work harder.

{shrugs}

Updated prices below (after a visit this evening 10/17/2009)

For some reason, for a very long time, I couldn't bring myself to go to a salon screamed the letters B!!! and J!!! from the storefront.

Yes, i have the mind of an 11 year old.

Yes, i got over it.

I had to because B&J is a much easier trek right down Barrington than having to drive through west LA to my ATF westside nail place and though there isn't a lot of parking in the alley behind the place, there seems to be decent street parking within 1 block.

The salon is big, spacious, pretty clean, and doesn't feel as cramped and "sweatshop-y" as other nail places. It doesn't get too crowded, but then, I don't work during the day, so I probably go at slow times (not lunch, not between 5 and 7).

I always get a full set of acrylics or fills, and they do a good job, though I didn't _love_ the shape. I like the nail bed to look curved/rounded and rounded-square tips, but the girl who did mine (same girl last 2 times) made the nail bed a little too flat. still, for a few dollars cheaper than LA Nails, and MUCH closer/easier, it's not bad.

A full set is $20, fill $15. They charge $1 for using a credit card.

Let me say this first: I LOVE FRIED CHICKEN.

From whatever cuisine, chicken that is battered, seasoned, or totally naked before going for a fatty dip in a fryer is one of my favorite foods.

Actually, that's not even the whole truth. The truth is, I don't even like the chicken part. I just peel off the crispy, crunchy, salty, spicy SKIN and eat that. On that is what I base my opinions of KFC - Korean Fried Chicken.

Korean fried chicken is not new to me. I've been eating that as "tong dahk" and "yangyeum tong dahk" and other "nal gee" for many years (even before I got to LA) and have always loved dipping the already salty skin in more salt, "refreshing" my mouth with the pickled radish, and of course, washing all that filthy grease down with soju.

However, a restaurant dedicated to only Korean Fried Chicken is new to me, and in the spirit of what my Daddy always tells me "if you do one thing, do it WELL," i assumed that KyoChon would be AWESOME.

It was just okay, and to be quite honest, it would have been slightly better than okay if it weren't so expensive for what it is (FRIED CHICKEN, people), and how long it took. The plain was decently crisp, but it was the spicy that was a bit disappointing. In Korean food, spicy is supposed to be five alarm spicy. It was a candle flame at best.

If I had deeper pockets (or maybe a Sugar Daddy!), I would definitely go to the St Regis for brunch on the weekends more often. The food is the usual brunch/lunch buffet, but there are two things that make this stand out: 1) the view/setting, and 2) the Bloody Mary bar.

There you go. That's all you need to know -- Bloody Mary by the beach.

Really though, my family had brunch here, and the fact that EVERYONE was happy, even my Dad who has positive things to say about pretty much nothing, is a HUGE testament to the St Regis's buffet. There is something for everyone, and when I say something for everyone, I mean everything from a cheese selection to chilled seafood display to grilling on the patio outside. Most of the food is set up inside, so to be close to the food, you may want to sit inside, but the tables out on the patio/balcony is really the best seating in the house.

But like I said, all that really matters is the Bloody Mary bar :)

Kabuki Sushi is not good. If I had it in me right now, I might go so far as to say that Kabuki Sushi is quite possibly the worst sushi I've had in the last five years, but I won't. Let's face it, I've surrendered to late-night, lazy midweek supermarket sushi many times in those last five years.

When we walked into Kabuki Sushi, I knew it wasn't going to be the most authentic Japanese sushi experience. It was loud, crowded with people ranging from "dates" to gaggles of giggling girls to families of six with small children. It was these families, I think, that sort of did it for me. Kids screaming, laughing and running around in the aisles is totally not what I picture in a Japanese restaurant. In fact, my first impression as we walked in the front door was that we had just stepped into a cheesy, colorfully animated Disney Epcot interpretation of a Japanese food. There were also quite a number of people waiting on the sidewalk outside the restaurant for a table as well as sardined onto the few chairs inside in front of the hostess. If Kabuki had set up crowd control with sawhorses and white plastic chain links, the parallel would have been scary perfect.

Three women were standing behind the front hostess stand discussing the finer points of strategic customer seating in...Korean. When we stepped up, I held up two fingers in universal restaurant sign language. She looked down at the maps and lists, then led us to the sushi bar.

We opened the menu. I right about Kabuki being something like Disneyland. Like the theme park that has something for everyone, so too is Kabuki your one-stop Japanese food fun for-the-whole-family extravaganza. Appetizers include everything from dynamite to fried calamari to tempura to yakitori. They also had something called BBQ Beef Ribs, described as their special "oriental style" ribs, but let's just call it what I think they really are: galbee.

The menu has salads, typical dinner offerings like teriyaki everything, tonkatsu, combinations of these with sushi or tempura, items cooked on a hibachi grill, udon noodles, soup, and a half-dozen "gourmet dishes" - basically Japanese fusion things like miso-marinated cod. Mom and I weren't all that interested in any of the above except a tofu salad to start our dinner. Tofu salads are fairly standard now, and Kabuki's was nothing special. Mixed baby greens dressed with sesame dressing was a light, fresh way to start.

The Disney effect is in full-force on the menu not because of what is offered, but how it's offered - full chaotic color with pictures, advertising everywhere the fact that sushi is half price. I wasn't sure how good I felt about sushi being offered at half-price. Of course, it's all marketing and psychology, I know, but I really don't know that the psychology of "half" works for raw fish.

Maguro was a pale pink, rather than the bright ruby red I'm used to. Half-price, right? Across the the rice, the tuna was starting to separate at the natural muscle striations, and when I ate it, was a bit tougher and chewier than normal. I could feel the silvery fibers in my teeth that hold the flesh together, which I wanted to pull out of my mouth and place back on the plate. We encountered a similar fibrous texture with hirame, hamachi, and sake. The tekka maki was better, since the tuna was cut into smaller, narrower slices, and the pallid color was hidden between rice and nori. Albacore sushi was softest and least fibrous of everything, but it still doesn't mean it was good.

The sushi at Kabuki was not good, but that's not to say that there was anything disastrous. Obviously, offering sushi at half-price means that the business has to compromise a little bit of fish quality. And of course, since they do advertise half-price, they are turning out quite a volume, which means that chefs have to ration the time and care they put into each order. The preparations are sometimes a little disheveled, sometimes totally sloppy, but it's still edible. Kabuki caters to a crowd of sushi eaters who want to be in a loud, lively atmosphere, people who want to be able to bring their families, people who want to be able to enjoy the lightness of sushi without the lightness of wallet. If I wanted to eat sushi every day for the sake of eating light, healthy raw fish and rice, I would put Kabuki on my rotation. But sushi is a different type of experience for me. Not better. Not worse. Just different.

Angotei is like Sawtelle's Hide Sushi of Orange County - nothing fancy on the outside, a tiny space inside, not much in the way of decor, and a tiny space on the inside. Oh wait, did I already say that? Yes, Angotei is almost smaller than a large home dining room, which, along with the fact that it doesn't take reservations for any of the oh, about 5 tables in the place, is really just about the only thing that is bad about it.

I usually prefer very basic sushi and sashimi - raw fish without unnecessary accessories like sauces or garnishes. However, we tried the tuna tataki on the raving recommendations of others. It wasn't bad, as the fish was fresh, but there was just a tiny bit "too much going on" with the sauce and all the little adornments thrown on top (for me). The few pieces of nigiri we had were good.

Angotei also has small, hot plates. If it weren't for the fact that sushi is in my top three cuisines of all time, I could have gone to Angotei and just eaten the sauteed mushrooms. Hell, you could have kept the mushrooms and just brought me a spoon and bowl of the sauce that was rendered from their cooking.

The restaurant is cheap because it IS sushi after all, but in comparison to others, Angotei has great value.