Thai Patio

Tark took me to this spot in Thai Town and you will absolutely never order TG express again. The eggplant-basil with fried tofu (5.99) can feed you for 2-3 meals and is OMG. Laila ordered pad thai, which was good, but once she tried the eggplant/basil/tofu, she gave up any pretense of eating her own dish. Granted, Chan Dara is still probably the nicest interior of a thai restaurant in LA, but for the Wow-goodness of this place's food, plus the unbeatable prices, it's solid.
I wish they delivered this far....
Oh, located on Hollywood blvd, if you take the 101, go east at the exit, and it's a few blocks, so it'll be between Western and Normandie.

link to the citysearch for map and hours
http://losangeles.citysearch.com/profile/44553034/hollywood_ca/thai_patio.html

South American dinner

So we just had probably one of our best menu's to date at a Moroccan Hound, and to commemorate it I am posting with the links to some of those recipes. I am always so amazed at how it comes together, as almost no one chooses what they'll make until the day of and I am stressing that we'll have 5 desserts and no main dish or something equally disproportionate. So the theme was a very general one, South American cuisine, and the menu:
Lily on the ceviche (ack, i do not have her recipe, but it had avocado and tilapia, yum)
Kate with a large chicken-chorizo empanada which was zomg delish.

I made fried macha bananas and chili-rubbed pork tenderloin (not really a south american recipe but i figure the chili powder made it count)

I didn't use a recipe, i just fried chunks of the bananas in butter and sprinkled cinnamon & brown sugar over them liberally.


I seared the pork on the stove first, as the recipe said, and then baked it (400 degrees, 16-18 minutes), perfect pinkness, perfect.
Tark, our brownie lady, made black bean brownies (only person to have ever made me eat black beans). Don't worry, there is no taste of bean-i-ness, it just adds to the texture.
and most importantly: Alex and Laila with mojitos
Also, Marzouk brought sugarcane and I have never had that before, really interesting.
All around, very delicious and all the recipes are worthwhile.

Resurrected for my own personal convenience, thank you very much

So I realize that no one really uses this anymore. That's too bad. I, however, have realized over the course of a number of unfortunate computer failures and subsequent losses of bookmarked prized recipes that I would prefer my go-to and tried&tested recipes to have a location online where I can access them at my ease. Also, I hope that upon my return to LA after a painful absence of 8 months, I will recommence posting about restaurants and such. As such, I hope my fellow moroccan hounder's would join me in this endeavor if they so choose :-)

For my first post back:
Queijadas
Portuguese inverse cupcakes with a non-cupcakey texture
For when you need a dessert quick-snap with naught but the most basic of ingredients.

INGREDIENTS
* 3 eggs
* 2 cups white sugar
* 3 tablespoons butter
* 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 2 cups milk
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a blender, combine eggs, sugar and butter. Blend until smooth. Pour in flour and milk, a little at a time, blending until smooth again. Stir in vanilla.
3. Pour into muffin tins, filling 3/4 full. Bake in preheated oven 45 minutes, until golden brown. Serve hot or cold.
They turn out rather 'custard-y' and there's a little indent should you choose to put berries or ice cream in. Though god bless you if you can wait long enough to get the berries and ice cream.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Queijadas/Detail.aspx

Magnolia

I've been meaning to post this for a long time. This restaurant is fabulous. My mom and I go here basically every time we're in Hollywood. It's pretty cheap for how incredibly classy (and delicious) it is, and I think they serve dinner most nights until like 2am. In short, it's amazing.

MAGNOLIA
6266 1/2 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Skewers

8939 Santa Monica Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Phone: (310) 271-0555

I recommend this place for the quality lunch special - 1 skewer & 2 sides for around $7-8. It's not actually on the menu but you can still order it. They have a selection of chicken, beef and seafood skewers, and sides that include the standard fries to hummus. I had the grilled ahi tuna skewer, and overall, rather tasty and cheap. Menu items had a blend of culinary influences, including mediterranean and asian but they also have a soju selection.
One weird thing though: the waiter didn't have enough cash in the register to break a twenty...umm, interesting?!! Seems they're operations are a little rusty but so long as you go for lunch, with a card, you should be golden

We finally made it to Versailles

http://www.versaillescuban.com/

So Kate and I have been meaning to go to this cuban restaurant since...last September. And this past weekend, after being turned away from the beach by the massive surf-competition throngs, and driving around aimlessly we saw a Versailles and pulled a lefty into the magnificently large parking lot of the Manhattan Beach location (we couldn't go the last time we tried cuz the La Cienega location had no parking whatsoever, in or around).

Suffice to say that being turned away from the beach was a blessing.

Kate got something off the pork selection on the menu (i'll let her write what actual item it was, i don't know the name) and that was pretty effin amazing!
Will had the famous garlic chicken which he seemed pretty astounded by, but I actually tried making that myself last night for dinner and it tasted the same so...it's tasty but I personally think it's not revolutionary. Also not revolutionary but still good was the Bistec de Palomilla (top sirloin) that I had.
Overall, I'd say that Kate's pork was the best, and oooh, the fried plantains, so yummy! The desserts also looked good but we didn't have it in us.
Prices are totally normal, decor a little threadbare, but food was quality

Tropics Frozen Yogurt

A new fro-yo place has just opened right next to V(b)istango's on Figueroa. It's in the vein of pinkberry--original and green tea, plus all the toppings, but cheaper and closer. It's almost similar to yogurt-flavored gelato (my fave!) but still fro-yo consistency and not creamy like the italian stuff.
Anyways--i do believe that this is my favorite fro yo place now :-)