Only one way to satisfy a craving...

I have been craving home made Mac n Cheese for a long time. It is a combo of my two favorite food items, noodles and cheese. But I have had really good Mac n Cheese from The South, so I can't just get it anywhere because it won't taste the same. (I won't even consider anything that comes in a box.) And The Pantry serves Mac n Cheese, too. I have been very tempted to try some for quite some time
Anyway, I got talking about Mac n Cheese yesterday, and the idea has been stuck in my head. Only one way to get it out of my head, is to get into MY BELLY!

Little butter, little flour, and some cheese.

Boil the noodles. Mix the cheese and noodles together and add an egg. Chinese people figured out the egg and noodle thing a long time ago. Long before Buddha.


Add more cheese, and bake for a few minutes so the cheese melts a little, but not too much.


WaLA. Paula Dean, eat your heart out.
P.S. This is probably the fastest post I have ever done from a great event. It made it to the top of my to do list for the night. I think I ate too much and I will probably call it an early night.

Tony Gemignani throws some pizza for his San Francisco fans..

Tony Gemignani was at a street festival I went to in North Beach, San Francisco.He was performing his world class pizza throwing skills for the crowd. One of his restaurants is in Little Italy.

Tony's Pizza Napoletana
1570 Stockton St
San Francisco, CA 94133-3306
(415) 835-9888




Giving some shade.

OC Greek Fest 2009

I am adding a new category in my blog. Food for Thought. For all those amazing eats I run across.

I am also changing Photo Field Trip category to Photo Adventure. Field Trips sounds planned and a bit elementary, my dear readers. Elementary.
For those that don't know me, anything I plan, I don't do. And I end up doing things that I don't plan. Adventures cannot be planned, and keep you on your toes.
Anything can happen in an adventure.

Anyway, guess what is coming to town...
OC Greek Fest is coming back! May 15-17, 2009.
I went to the festival last year for the first time, and they had the best gyros and spanakopita I have ever had in my life. I have been spoiled by these Greeks, and I have had a hard time eating gyros anywhere else all year.

I also have not seen so many Greek people in one small place, except for Mad Greek Cafe in Baker, Ca.

We found the @Kogibbq Truck!

My friend Justin called me at 9:30 on Saturday night. "Drive to Buena Park, NOW! The Kogi BBQ truck is coming to Buena Park in 30 minutes. We are waiting for the location to post on Twitter !" I have heard and seen this Kogi BBQ Truck on the news, and it looked real tasty. In fact, Justin has always showed me awesome Korean restaurants since we were in Junior High School.

So by the time we figure out where the truck was going to be, the La Palma police department was already waiting. No, not for the food. Cops only eat doughnuts and bacon. They somehow figured out the Kogi truck was going to be in their hood (probably from twitter), and they made the crowd leave the industrial area. So the Kogi truck moved down the street into LA county, and about half of the people followed.

Let me tell you, top 5 tacos I have ever had. I can't really call it mexican food, because you can put anything in a tortilla (peanut butter). They gave everyone a limit of 3 tacos because of the long line. I had a short rib taco, spicy pork, and a tofu.
Turns out, they have a restaurant in Culver City called Alibi Room. Everyone kept saying finding the truck on twitter is part of the fun. I say this truck and the long line is a lot of effort for a partial menu that the restaurant has to offer.

Justin's Blog, which I rightfully stole all of these images.

Nighthawks at the Diner.

I love diners. They are my favorite kind of restaurant. You see all of the local flavor. When I go to a new city, the first restaurant I go eat at is a hole in the wall diner. Diners are one of the few places you can go by yourself, and not be alone. Tonight, I went to The Pantry, in downtown LA. That is my favorite restaurant in Southern California.

While I was there, I got thinking.

Diners are a staple to the American culture. I was looking around and watching everyone come into The Pantry after the Laker game, and I saw how diners define Americans.

My other thought was, if a restaurant is open 24 hours, you should visit that restaurant at all hours. How about french toast 3AM?

Maybe I was tired, but I couldn't think of anything to talk to the server about. Any rowdy crowds? Naw, lakers play across the street... Economy? Naw, too boring... Does he eat after work? He probably never gets off work...

So I just sat in peace and quiet and ate my toast, hashbrowns, eggs over easy, & pancakes.
Shouldn't have ordered the pancakes...

And I saw the Nighthawks painting in Chicago a few years ago at their awesome world class museum.

Man Vs. Food

You may not know, but I don't really watch TV. (Generally, too many chanels with nothing on)
You may know, I like to eat.
Mix the two together, and I am hooked on shows like Man Vs. Food.
I saw the Chicago episode, and my mouth was watering.
Al's Beef, Lucky's Sandwich Shop , and the great Gino's East.

All I know is, I can't wait to go back to Chicago this summer.
Warning: Health conscious consumers, don't even bother. Sorry, this post wasted your time. (Well, not sorry at all)





Wikipedia Link

Eat at Joe's Camp Shack

This is a post about my camping tips. I have learned a lot by being on the road, and I am still learning. Travel efficiency is one of my top goals with dealing with my wanderlust. One of my pet peeves is over packing (and my other is finger prints). I might go camping and hiking this weekend, so I have been thinking about camping and travel efficiency.

FOOD TIPS:
1. Think like a vegetarian/vegan. Stay away from meats and dairy because of lack of proper storing and refridgeration. Also, cooking meats and dairies is really different than how you would normally cook them. Stock up on fruit & vegetables, Cliff Bars, canned beans and soups. Basically, if it can survive out of a cooler. I like beans and soup because you can heat it over the fire and have a warm meal for $3. If you are spending over $12 per day, you are either eating too much, or living large.

2. Fire. No,
Fire logs. More efficient than regular fire wood in the cost department, enviroment department, and time department. Three firelogs piled on each other can get you one big fire for a garunteed three hours. And you don't have to keep adding wood to the fire to keep it going.

3. Bring a pillow. I always forget.

4. Tenting. Always put the rain cover on. Lately, I haven't put it on, and I got a surprise rain shower at 2AM. Weather can change it's mind whenever it wants, weather you like it or not.

Third Anniversary for Hurricane Katrina

Today is the third anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the City of New Orleans. They are still lacking the nessesary funds to get the city back on its feet. The estimated time to get NOLA back to where it was before the storm is 25 years. 25 MORE YEARS OF REBUILDING!! NYC was cleaned up in less than a year after 9/11...

AND...there is another hurricane floating around in the Gulf of Mexico right now.

So in honor of the greatest natural disaster in America, and in the coolest city, I am going to Bourbon Street in Fullerton and get some red beans and rice tonight.

Well, I wish I was in New Orleans, I can see it in my dreams,
Arm-in-arm down Burgundy, a bottle and my friends and me

Hoist up a few tall cool ones, play some pool and listen
To that tenor saxophone calling me home
And I can hear the band begin "When the Saints Go Marching In",
And by the whiskers on my chin, New Orleans, I'll be there

I'll drink you under the table, be red-nosed, go for walks,
The old haunts what I wants is red beans and rice
And wear the dress I like so well, and meet me at the old saloon,
Make sure that there's a Dixie moon, New Orleans, I'll be there

And deal the cards roll the dice, if it ain't that old Chuck E. Weiss,
And Claiborne Avenue, me and you Sam Jones and all

And I wish I was in New Orleans, 'cause I can see it in my dreams,
Arm-in-arm down Burgundy, a bottle and my friends and me
New Orleans, I'll be there

--Tom Waits

Tony's Pizza is BACK!

Tony's Pizza in the new Whittwood Mall is BACK! It is my favorite pizza and I remember eating there all the time when it used to be in the old mall. My favorite thing to eat is the spinach rolls. I took my mom there the other day (she really doesn't eat bread anymore), and she just said it was "damn good."
So be sure to stop by the best New York pizza place in town. This place is EXACTLY like the New York Pizza that I ate in Manhattan.
I never thought I would want to back to NY anytime soon, but after eating Tony's, I am seriously thinking of going back to NY within the next year. And also I ripped the jeans I bought at Macy's. So now I have two excuses to go to NY. Pizza, and shopping.

Our Diet Needs an Evolution

I wrote an article for my biological anthropology class earlier this week. We had to write about a biological problem of modern day homo sapiens. Honestly, the class was pretty boring because it just compared different kinds of monkeys and the similarities and differences of each monkey evolutions and cultures all over the world. I like to study people, not monkeys. So when we get to read and write about modern issues of humans, I get excited...

The evolution of our diets have evolved a little too much over the past 100 years. Ever since the dawn of mass producing agriculture and the industrial revolution, we (as humans) have made it easier to consume food on a daily basis. When was the last time you had to starve because you didn't have any food to eat. In America, probably never. We have evolved from hunter and gatherer society to a work and drive to the store society. This was a great step for man kind. It makes our lives easier so we don't have to worry about if we caught a wild pig in our traps today. We can enjoy a nice meal around our family table instead of around the fire pit.

Today, we have progressed a little farther from the drive to the store society to a drive-thru society. Faster is better. The problem is our society got used to the fast McDonalds drive in. We consume too much high calorie foods and do less physical activities. The the only reason we have is that McDonalds is cheap, easy, and we can get out in less than 10 minutes. We think McDonalds is tasty, but we dont know what it is! So we are constantly consuming all this high calorie fast food, and now we wonder why our bodies are so tired and developing cancer. Our bodies have not evolved enough to be able to process all this processed fast foods. So now we know someone who has cancer because our society has embraced this fast solution to our daily consumtion. Cancer is showing up more frequently because of years and years of eating fake sugars and over preserved package goods.

You are what you eat.
It took a long time for me to understand what this statement really meant. After years of consuming fast food and chips, I understood that a diet of fake foods and soda leads to fake health. The solution is to stay off of fast and packaged foods and start to eat the way our grandparents ate, at the table. They had less health problems because of the less processed food they ate.