I remember Andrew Zimmern from Bizarre Foods visiting this restaurant. And since I’m a huge fan of him and his experiences, I wanted to give this a try as well. Red Medicine from my understanding is Vietnamese-cuisine-inspired but not necessarily Vietnamese by any means. Don’t go there expecting traditional Vietnamese dishes fused with new American elements. DO go here expecting to get interesting concoctions where everything is not only pretty looking but also very edible.

A colleague of mine, who is an avid wine drinker, mentioned this place in the Santa Monica mall as a place with good drinks and good eats. I’m not a wine purist since I usually drink wine like beer. But he’s on a quest to educate me.

This is restaurant #3 on my 2014 LA food expedition.

Note for 2022 migration: this is an old post from my other defunct blog.

Per word of mouth, there’s supposedly 1 uncontested BEST Korean tofu place in Los Angeles … Beverly Soon Tofu. Anthony Bourdain, from the CNN show Parts Unknown, also visited this place with Chef Roy Choy and described this place as “tongue-searing, ass-burning tofu soup that will make you forget every bad thing you ever thought about tofu.”

My personal favorite is Lee’s Tofu down in Gardena, so I thought I’d check this place out and compare.

I’ve been craving for seafood the last few weeks or months, and I didn’t feel like driving to Whittier to go to Portsmouth. I looked up Eater LA, and I found L&E Oyster Bar on their list of 2014 essential LA restaurants at #26.

This is restaurant #1 for my 2014 LA food expedition.

Note for 2022 migration: this is an old post from my other defunct blog. I recall back then this being a super hot spot in greater Los Angeles area. Silver Lake is a bit of a drive going cross-town and has always had that hipster notoriety.

Melisse is one of those restaurants in Los Angeles that was on my must-eat list along with Urasawa and Providence. Los Angeles has relatively very few fine dining restaurants that I’ve enjoyed, so I have very high expectations for this particular occasion. I’m hoping I won’t be disappointed as I also wanted to show my mum what kind of foods I’ve been eating outside of the valley. Fox W, a well known Foodspotter, also joined me for this and provided pictures.

Even though this place technically is not in LA, it’s within reasonable driving distance. Portsmouth is an oyster bar (with beer eventually) located close to downtown Whittier. The actual site is in a quiet location in suburbia, so it was odd to see the building. But with word of mouth, the internet, and Yelp/Eater-LA, it doesn’t really matter.

Portsmouth had just been opened for roughly a week. There was a soft opening a few weeks back. I accidentally stumbled onto this site when I was craving for seafood and didn’t want to travel to Santa Monica. As some may know, the westside is just a pain to get around. The parking is annoying, and the prices are less than friendly. Eater LA posted an article about this little place, and I figured it’d be a nice small road trip for myself. I met up with Fox W, who is a well-known Foodspotter.

I haven’t had steak in a while. I heard of this place from my buddy as a place he always wanted to try since he’s a steak guy. They do their own aging process here. When you walk into the restaurant, you can see through a window slabs of meat going through the aging process.

Note for 2022 migration: this is an old post from my other defunct blog. Around this time was when aged steaks started to be a huge thing in Los Angeles. This restaurant was relatively new, and the interior looked pretty fancy. My coworkers and I decided to try this out as an outing.

Please note: This is not a Wolfgang Puck restaurant. Wolfgang Zwiener was previously the head waiter for Peter Lugers in New York, so naturally the restaurant style is very similar. You order a cut that’s shared with your entire party.

So how does it compare?

Note for 2022 migration: this is an old post from my other defunct blog. As I reflect back at this experience, I was super excited to see some of the NYC restaurants coming to LA. I remembered bringing my old coworkers here expecting a similar Peter Luger’s experience, but unfortunately it didn’t meet expectations.

As a followup to my last Chicago post, we also went to this place. Not only do they have Chicago style dogs, but they also have a lady at the front counter talk in a rather abrasive manner. The first thing she said when my group walked in was “Hey, it’s the Jabbawockeez!” I, hadn’t known about this place before, so I was a bit surprised. But someone informed me that her remarks were perfectly normal as she was making remarks to other patrons.

I’m out in Chicago over the weekend for a special occasion. The decision was made to go to Roka Akor for dinner because it received great reviews and would be an excellent place to celebrate this occasion. So how did it fare?

Note for 2022 migration: this is an old post from my other defunct blog. I remember this experience being the quintessential feeling of why I don’t like dining at fancy restaurants in large groups. It just seemed weird to have them give us everything as shareable. I remember after all the food, I was still very hungry and not satisfied. The food was also excessively drenched with sauce. Regardless, this restaurant is still opened today if you’re into Japanese trendy foods.