Wines~!

La Crema
2007 Nine Barrel Pinot Noir

I normally don’t drink Pinot Noirs.  However a trip to the Sonoma Wine Country up in the Bay Area landed me in Healdsburg where the La Crema tasting room was located.  With some friends we tried their normal tasting flights which were decent.  The lady serving us was kind enough to allow us to try the “higher quality” wine.  She had us taste the difference between the Sonoma Coast, Russian RIver Valley and Los Carneros PInots.  There was a significant difference between Sonoma Coast and the latter two.  After whetting our appetite on these three Pinot Noirs, she brought out the Nine Barrel.

And wow!  The difference between the Nine Barrel and the other three was immediate.  The Nine Barrel left me very impressed both at the flavor and how smooth it was.  I generally do not like tannins and this one had very little comparatively speaking to the three previous PInot Noirs.

In the end, each one of us bought at least one Nine Barrel.  Her tactical whetting of our appetite brought in at least 2 bottles worth of sale.  

If you like reds and aren’t stuck with one particular varietal, I highly suggest you try this.  It might be expensive ($90/bottle) but it was worth very penny in my opnion.

Musical^2

West Side Story

For those who may never have seen the movie like me, you may have probably heard it was based off a 1960s musical with the same name.  That musical was loosely based off Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.  And I can’t help you if you’ve never heard of Romeo and Juliet.

This 2009 revival was nominated for the Tony award “Best Revival” category but failed to win.  Oddly enough, it also never won the category in its previous 1980s revival attempt too.  It is currently on tour in the US and was in LA for the past month.  Go watch it to support the Arts.  I did.

I went to watch this with 3 other friends in the mezzanine area.  The location of the seats were pretty good.  Although it wasn’t as “centered” as I had hoped I think for the price and the location it was pretty decent.  The alternative seats would be down in back orchestra much further back relatively speaking than the mezzanine seats.

I thought the beginning of Act 1 was pretty boring.  I think all the dancing and choreography that was done to imitate street fights back during the 1960s was probably very unique and interesting to watch.  I think the “fight scenes” were well choreographed but just lasted a bit too long.  The acting was fun to watch since these types of “acting” musicals are a rarity.  Act 2 was a bit better.  I did find out where two songs come from: Oh So Pretty and Somewhere.  I never knew these two songs came from West Side Story.  In fact I thought Mel Brooks wrote the “oh so pretty” song since I recall him singing it in some movie musical in the past.  I also thought Barbara Streisand was the one who wrote/sung “Somewhere” and popularized it back when she was a star.

Next to Normal

The National Tour arrived in LA sometime last month.  I went to see it with a friend of mine.  We bought balcony seats which were pretty cheap.  Since we both have no expectations, the upper balcony seats were a good trade off for something that could be good or could be horrible.

From the first number, we both realized that mezzanine seats were a must.  The stage was a multi-story background that had the actors walking on all three levels.  Unfortunately We were sitting higher than the third level.  The scenes on the first level were sometimes cut off due to our viewing angle.  As the show progressed, I began to get annoyed at the female lead.  She was singing in a low octave or singing from the belly.  Whenever she sang, about 50% of her words that came out were really muffled.  Most of her songs or songs she participated in sounded like it was missing an alto or soprano voice.  At the end, it sounded as if she was either fighting a cold or trying to sing an octave too low.

Overall the show was very minimalistic... like Rent.  It featured only 5 actors.  The music also sounded very similar to Rent’s rock ballad fusion -- bits of rock, bits of classical, bits of pop.  There were definitely some songs that I liked much more.  I think I enjoyed Act 2’s music more than Act 1’s.  

I think for the price we paid, we were surprised by how good it was.  It might be worth it to pay for mezzanine and/or orchestra seats.  This musical definitely made use of the multi-story structure of the stage effectively which added more to the story.  However, if the female lead sang like she did, I probably wouldn’t want to watch it at all.

Gourmet Food Trucks (13)

Re: GourmetGenie2Go
Looking at the menu, this truck offers Mediterranean food.  I’ve seen it a few times near work at Olympic and 26th.  There’s usually a small line that moves relatively quickly.  I guess Mediterranean food can be served pretty quickly.  On this particular day, I went with a coworker who was also going to go out to lunch.  She had never been to a food truck and had always been interested in going after I usually bring back food from the trucks.  So for that day, I had great company.

I chose the “Sultan’s Feast” since it looked interesting as a combo and offerec beef and chicken shwarma..  I’ve liked shwarma ever since eating the chicken shwarma plate at the Mediterranean restaurant in the Durant Food Court days.

The plate wasn’t that good.  Because it was a shwarma plate, I expected the meat to be juicy and flavorful from being slow cooked like a rotisserie.  Unfortunately it wasn’t.  The chicken shwarma was decent but the beef didn’t taste like it belonged in the dish... maybe it was the parsley?  The cabbage salad was also bland.  I think if it added some vinegar it may have tasted better and contrasted more with the hummus.  Their hummus was the only item I liked.  It also tasted very similar to the hummus you buy at super market or even at Zankou Chicken.  I think this truck could be even better if they made a hummus that looked like the normal hummus but tasted amazingly different from the regular store bought hummus.

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Re: Comfort Truck
This truck is has a “celebrity chef” who was a contestant from Season 1 of Top Chef.  I’ve seen this truck on the twitter aggregate as well as the google map aggregate that I frequent to see where the different trucks are serving food.  They have not been in Santa Monica for lunch or West LA for dinner service.  However, recently they were finally in West LA for dinner service and I took the opportunity to eat from them.

I had their BBQ chicken wrap and the corn relish.  I originally wanted to get the Chicken wrap since it was one of Chef Brian’s original suggestions as a menu item that represented the truck.  The BBQ sauce was a suggestion by the chef who said it would make the wrap taste even better.  Being the first time I’ve even been to the truck, I went with his suggestion.

The small balls at the bottom right are from Flying Pig Truck (see below)

The BBQ chicken wrap was delicious.  The sauce the chef used was sweet yet tangy and made me wanting more each bite.  I couldn’t tell what else was in each bite.  But it was good.  The corn relish wasn’t so great.  I thought it’d be almost salsa like with a vinegarette like flavoring since conjures up a profile of sweet yet tangy.  Unfortunately I only tasted the corn.  It felt like it needed at least some seasoning.

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Re: Mighty Boba Truck
I think I’ve reviewed this truck awhile back for its popcorn chicken and milk tea.  I don’t remember if I mentioned that they also had a “lunch menu” that consisted mainly of the Taiwanese snacks with rice.  So you can choose from popcorn chicken, taiwanese sausages, pork chops and tofu to go along with a side of rice and vegetables.  I had the chicken and pork chops for lunch.  It was actually a decent amount of food for the price and I only finished half of it.  I like the vegetables that they included.  It was cooked with garlic and seasoned just right.  Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures.

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Re: Flying Pig Truck
It’s a “can’t miss” Hot PINK TRUCK.  Their crab balls looked interesting (see above picture) so I just ordered it.  Unfortunately, it didn’t taste too good.  I think it was the honey drizzle that made it taste awful.  I remember eating this type of snacks when I went back to Taiwan at those night markets.  They were the exact size but had salt and pepper sprinkled on them.  I think having the balls be salty instead of sweet would have made this a better dish.

Gourmet Food Trucks (12)

Re:  Get Your Lard On aka the Bacon Truck
This truck was brought to my attention by a coworker.  Looking at the website, you can definitely tell this is a bacon lover’s wet dream.  Everything oozes with bacon... even the dessert!  I tried this truck one day since it was “close by.”  The guy behind the cash box suggested that I try their signature dish --” the Baco.”  Its a taco filled with potato and cheese, except instead of a normal tortilla shell, they used three strips of bacon.

Ya... I had it and it was good.  Just the smell of the bacon was intoxicating.  

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Re: Greasy Wiener
A hot dog truck.  I’m not a big fan of hot dogs... let alone gourmet style hot dogs.  I’ll eat them every so often with the usual toppings of ketchup, mustard, relish and onions especially at CostCo.  But when this truck was in town, I went to try their signature “Greasy Wiener” spicy hot dog.  The heat from the hot dog was pretty good.  Their bun could have used a little bit of heat to warm it up.  It was pretty stiff when I had it.

I didn’t like their pickle that they included.  I think I prefer relish more.  Although if you watch Food Network long enough, some of the shows say the “classic method” (meaning old) hot dog preparation is with pickles.  Go figure.  I”m not a fan of sauerkraut so I don’t really know what to say about it.
They have other items on the menu that might be worth trying.  Unfortunately it’s not really at the top of my favorite’s list.

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Re:  Shrimp Pimp
Similar to how Lard On truck is bacon inspired, Shrimp Pimp truck is shrimp inspired.  I’ve seen them near work a few times usually with a long line.  Generally, if there’s a long line, people probably consider their food to be decent enough to go back a second or a third time.

I tried their Shrimp and Chips.  They gave me like eight battered shrimp.  EIGHT!  They definitely aren’t skimping on the shrimp.  The shrimp itself was also pretty good.  The batter could be made a bit lighter.  I’ve had beer battered seafood in the past before and I seem to recall it wasn’t as thick.  Perhaps it’s because the dish is made in a truck and has difficulty perfecting the beer batter coating?  I enjoyed their spicy chipotle(?) dipping sauce.  I had enough of the fries to consider them decent.  My coworkers liked the fries though.  They think it tasted really good because the fries absorbed some of the beer battered shrimp flavor.

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Re: Fishlips Sushi
This is a sushi truck.  Ya... Sushi and truck just doesn’t seem “safe”.  However just like Shrimp Pimp, I see this truck near work usually with a good amount of people waiting for their food.  So it can’t be that bad can it?

Well... I found out they mainly specialize in rolls.  The california roll (crab/avacado), tempura roll (shrimp tempura) and spicy tuna roll (spicy tuna) seem to be their most popular.  They do have sushi though not in the traditional sense that you find at fine dining Japanese sushi bars.  Their sushi is in the form of mini rice balls with a small slice of sashimi layered on top.  I guess... it can still be called sushi.  

Anyways, being a bit hesitant, I tried only their “fully cooked” rolls like the shrimp tempura roll.  The roll itself was decently made.  It looks even better rolled then something you would find at Ralph’s or Whole Foods.  You could even say restaurant quality rolling.  A full roll gives you 8 pieces and these pieces were decently large (maybe as large as a sit-down sushi restaurant).  The shrimp tempura was fairly typical.  It wasn’t the best tasting but it also wasn’t as horrible as Ralph’s.  It’s a pretty passable alternative to grocery market made rolls.

I would probably like to try the other rolls they have.

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Re: Che Truck

Argentinian truck I had posted before.  They make good empanadas.  I’m sure there are other places that make great empanadas as well but these by far are the best ones from a truck (and so far the ONLY ones too). I highly recommend trying their empanadas if you ever get a the chance.

I highly recommend trying their empanadas if you ever get a the chance.