krunkstar

time to once again play a little catch up.

Pollo a la Brasa

so glad we stumbled upon this place (with a little help from yelp of course)…
located at Western and 8th on a tiny little triangle in the intersection is a great little braised chicken place. They don’t really have much of anything else – and anything else we’ve tried there hasn’t really been that great, but the chicken…moist, seasoned, piled high. it’s just really so good. The place itself is a little, okay, a lot small, not exactly prestine, but its just the kinda place where you go for a reason – the chicken – not for ambiance.

so March 22 I posted about my bridge cats. whoa. I sound like a crazy cat lady if you don’t know what I’m talking about. In any case. They came back!!! I was so stoked when i noticed them that I had to take another picture. Thank goodness this one came out a bit better

Sadly – they were once again promptly removed.  I’m not a cat person, but these cats always make me smile on my way to work!!

i just haven’t had the time to keep up with this blog. I guess that’s just how things roll. busy busy busy.  I feel like there’s never any downtime, and even when we do get away (camping, etc) it’s busy busy busy doing something else.  i need a week of decompression.

Anyway, it’s nice having Joe work in Koreatown.  We’ve had some good, and not so good lunches around there.  Korean BBQ isn’t exactly what you think of as a lunchtime meal, but we had to go atleast once.  We went to Sonamu Korean BBQ a block down from his office – ended up getting the all-you-can-eat lunch at $16.99 each.  It was okay – not the best Korean BBQ I’ve had, but the service was pretty quick and the lunch came with a lot of little condiment plates (mostly varieties of kimchi) to eat with our meats.  Also came with the steamed egg dish that I love, but no “pancakes” to wrap the meat in, thin sliced radishes, or mushrooms.  Tried the Brisket, Spicy Pork Belly, and the Marinated Pork SpareRibs.  The spareribs were easily the best of the bunch.  The pork belly was basically a thick cut, wide, 6in long bacon in a kimchi-like sauce.  Took a long time to cook, and was tasty, but not that great. The heat on the grill just isn’t hot enough to get it to a crisp, so there was still a lot of chew on it and the fat was tough to get through.  The Brisket, though super-thin and had a nice texture, was pretty flavorless, and had to be accompanied by one of the sides.  Oh – and our server apparently doesn’t know the difference between 7up and Sprite.  Wow, now that I wrote all this, I realize that it sounds pretty negative.  Maybe there are just some automatic ++s added because I love meat…and cooking as I eat…and having endless amounts of meat sent to me with the push of a button.  Oh, how i love the convenience of the button call provided at korean bbq places!

Definetly better, and not nearly as close to his office was the Guatemalan restaurant that we went to. Restaurante Rinconcito Guatemalteco.

Small mural on the sidewall of Ronconcito Guatemalteco

Just south of Melrose, this super tiny restaurant had really good food, friendly service, and was inexpensive.  I had never had Guatemalan food before, so we ordered quite a few things off the menu.  Tostadas with avocado – basically a fried tortilla with some smashed avocado, onion, and seasoning on it;

an enchilada – which I don’t even know how to describe – tortilla with tons of stuff on it including lettuce, beets, cheese, onion, pork,…all i know is that it was like no enchilada i had ever seen before, and it was YUM;

tacos – which were basically pork taquitos, served with smashed black beans;

and a beef dish (damn me for not remembering the name of the dish – i wish i took a menu) - large chunks of meat, green beans, and squash in a super meaty, hardy stew, served with fresh homemade tortillas.

It was just the type of place that seems like it’s been there for years serving the community.

So everyday I drive into downtown LA I pass these cats. Sometimes I notice them and sometimes I don’t. They days I do, they always give me a little smile even though I’m sitting in the mess that we call LA traffic.  I decided I should atleast snap a picture of them about 2 weeks ago.  Mind you, driving in bumper to bumper traffic in a stick while trying to hang out my window and snap a picture didn’t result in the best photo.  But am i glad i did.

Saddly – last week (maybe the week before – it’s all a bit hazy, i’ve been sick forever) – CalTrans came out and had it painted over. But why oh why did they leave the graffiti on the other side of the freeway there.  It makes me sad. My friendly cats are gone.