Foodies – thosecoolkims

Valentine Photo Shoot

We consider ourselves pretty lucky to have friends who introduced us to Isabella’s Cookie Company. (Thanks, Kim!) Not only are they amazingly delicious, super adorable and the best cookies we’ve ever eaten, they just so happen to like to take pics of Ruby munching on cookies. It’s a win win ’cause we all end up getting some pretty adorable photos!

Since she did such a great job around Christmas time, they asked us to be a “cookie pal” again this year! These Valentine’s Day photos just melt our hearts.

We love Isabella’s! :)

The L.A. French Dip Face-off: Cole’s and Philippe

We’ve been known to do a few foodie face-offs, and today we decided to compare Philippe and Cole’s to see who has the best French Dip Sandwich. They both claim to be the originators (read the rivalry story here) and are about 1.5 miles apart from each other. We’d been to Philippe before, but never Cole’s. While they both are amazing locations, we had to give Cole’s a slight edge on the ambiance. It’s dark and old-timey inside, and even has a urinal that was supposedly used by Charles Bukowski! :) The main difference is Cole’s is a sit-down-and-be-served establishment, with a bar inside. At Philippe, it’s bright and bustling inside, you order at the counter and seat yourself.

Cole’s served their sandwich with the au jus on the side, and it came with one of their “atomic pickles”. The pickle takes things over the top — they are so spicy, but really good! You’re supposed to add the hot mustard (seasoned with horseradish), but Ed and I weren’t big fans of the mustard.

Philippe serves their sandwich “wet”, which means the bun has already been dipped in the au jus. We could’ve asked for a “double dip”, but kept things simple. We didn’t realize you had to order the pickle separately (boo!), so we missed out on the pickle comparison.

The verdict? Ed and I both agreed on this one — it was Cole’s. We thought the meat tasted better, we liked dipping our own sandwich to meet our own preferential au jus to sandwich ratios, and the pickle … that pickle!

Of course, Philippe is still the bomb — it’s a great place to go, and a must-do in Los Angeles. But there can only be one winner of a face-off, and for us, it’s Cole’s!

Birthday in Vegas!

For my birthday this year, we bucked our Palm Springs tradition and headed to Vegas. We found a groupon we just couldn’t refuse and decided to jump on it. We stayed downtown a few years ago, and loved the old-school vibe, so we were looking forward to going back. Admittedly, this post makes it sound like we did nothing but eat, but what can we say — there’s a lot happening with food in Vegas!

As we drove into town, we headed straight for eat., which is a new breakfast and lunch joint in downtown Las Vegas. It’s a low key place with a super cool vibe, and features fresh, seasonal comfort food. I had the most delicious asparagus + arugula salad, while Ed had an incredible shrimp and grits dish.

After lunch we got settled in to our room at the Golden Nugget, and cruised around Fremont Street awhile. Then we headed out towards The Strip to fulfill a longtime dream of mine: We saw an Elvis impersonator live in Las Vegas! We went to Trent Carlini’s “The King” at the Las Vegas Hotel. I wish I could say the show was better, but at least now I can say I’ve been. The King did oblige me with a pic after the show, but too bad we were in Vegas about a week too early – we could’ve seen CeeLo Green in Loberace, a Liberace tribute show. Dang!

After The King it was late night dinner time! We were headed to José Andrés’ place, China Poblano at The Cosmopolitan. WHOA. The Cosmopolitan is absolutely amazing. A super hip vibe, great design throughout and so much style in everything there! It feels young and expensive all at the same time. We were in awe. China Poblano was an amazing marriage of Mexican + Chinese food. At one point during the meal, I had a lobster taco and a steamed BBQ Pork bun on my plate at the same time. It was so good!

Also in the Cosmopolitan was an amazing Chandelier Bar (click this link for pics that do it much better justice than any of my dumb pics) and Holstein’s where the menu looked super fun — Korean BBQ Hot Dog and Boozy S’mores milkshake, anyone?

The next day, after enjoying a morning where we could actually sleep in, we decided to explore and find a few places in Vegas outside of the usual tourist stuff. We got a great recommendation for a good coffee shop downtown called The Beat Coffeehouse. The vibe is very Seattle – music, vinyl, strong coffee and low-brow art galleries. We dug it and enjoyed the coffee ’cause we’re not afraid to admit we’re too old for morning booze. We skipped the buffet to save room for lunch!

We played a few slots at The D’s “Vintage Vegas” slot room, where you can actually pull the lever on the slot machines and real money spits out (instead of vouchers)! After working up an appetite, we left Downtown and The Strip for Vegas’ Chinatown and enjoyed some super tasty ramen. They say there’s a ramen revolution happening in Vegas, and it’s legit! His + Hers ramen bowls at Monta Ramen:

Also on our food tour of Vegas, we had dinner at Gordon Ramsay’s BURGR on the Strip at Planet Hollywood. Gordon doesn’t mess around — Ed says his burger was one of the top 5 burgers he’s ever had. I can’t argue, mine was incredible as well. Bonus points for his ridiculous mug on the inside of each menu:

After being extremely full, we headed back to our downtown home base for some real fun. I never tire of all the old school glitz of the neon signage downtown. It’s gorgeous.

Things got epic when we spent some time late night at the El Cortez — seriously old school, somewhat seedy and SUPER cheap! Ed and I even played the Blackjack tables and won, thanks to a very friendly and patient Ukranian dealer named Elena and Ed’s former co-worker Jim, who happened to be in Vegas too and met up with us. We hung at the El Cortez until after 2am, and then ended up at The D for an AUTHENTIC American Coney, a real piece of Detroit in Las Vegas! (Don’t worry, we haven’t turned, we still love Lafayette more than American!)

Last stop before heading out was Beijing No. 9 – a stunningly beautiful noodle house in Caesar’s Palace. I’m a sucker for the white + red!

We had a great time, but we sure were ready to get home to our little Bean. It’s always fun to have time together, but we sure missed that little daughter of ours!

Battle of the Coney Dogs!

If you didn’t know, Michigan is home to a very specific style of hot dog: The Coney Dog. Everywhere we went in Southeast Michigan, we saw restaurants called “Coney Island“. I was completely confused by this – I had no idea what a Coney Dog was, and I had absolutely no idea why there was a Coney Island shop on practically every street corner in Michigan (because isn’t Coney Island in NY?!). Well, my cousin Rachel + her husband, Brian broke it down for us and decided to hook us up with an original Coney Dog face-off between the infamous American Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island in downtown Detroit! You’re either a fan of one or the other – you can’t be a fan of both!

Needless to say, Ed + I were excited for the challenge. These two establishments are right next door to each other and have a serious rivalry going on. The original was Lafayette, which was opened up by two brothers in 1914. They had a dispute, one of the brothers left, and opened up shop with American in 1917, right next door. That’s some serious history. Brian grew up in a family that pledges allegiance to Lafayette, and we couldn’t wait to see which team we’d be favoring …

We started with American and each of us ordered one original Coney: that’s a hot dog with chili (no beans), mustard and onions.

(Top left: American’s Coney Dog, Bottom right: Lafayette’s Coney Dog)

The vibes inside couldn’t be more different.

Lafayette was pure old school – a counter, limited number of tables and chairs, no frills. American was bright, all red, white + blue and happy Americana all around.

I guess it’s no surprise we ended up favoring Lafayette. Aside from the old school vibe, something about that hot dog was just better. A little juicier when you bit into it, a little snappier with the bite. We thought the chili sauce tasted better at Lafayette, too.

All in all – we love a Coney Dog. We will look forward to another one at Lafayette when we return to Detroit!

My Second Father’s Day!

Sometimes I still can’t believe I’m a dad. And it feels surreal that Father’s Day, a holiday that I’d observed all my life to honor my dad, is now MY holiday. So what did we do on MY holiday? We had fun. LOTS of it.

Everyone knows that I live and breathe cars, but a lesser known fact about me is that I love to use alternate forms of transportation whenever I get the chance. I also love to eat. So, what did we do as a family for Father’s Day? Well, we did both – and LOTS of it too!

We started off the day with an epic (for us) family bike ride (there’s our first alternate transportation for the day). We had recently gotten a bike seat for little Ruby, who now pines for any chance she can get to go on a bike ride. Carrie did some research to find the best breakfast burrito (my favorite breakfast food by far) within biking distance. A joint called Golden Eagle seemed to have some serious cred, so that was our destination.

As you can see, I loved it…but Ruby, a big fan of tortillas herself, wasn’t going to leave without getting a bite for herself.

No doubt, it was a tasty burrito. Big and tasty. And fortunately, all that biking took the guilt out of eating such a decadent burrito.

After riding home, it was time for the next leg of our epic Father’s Day. For a long time, we’ve wanted to get a ride on the Long Beach Aqualink, which is a fairly large catamaran that transports passengers along the city’s coastline. It’s actually part of Long Beach Transit and costs a paltry five bucks for a really great 35 minute ride from Alamitos Bay to Shoreline Village. Our second form of alternate transportation of the day, then!

Some awesome shots of the ride, including this awesome one of Carrie’s feet in a very Wes Anderson-like composition:

We had every intention of riding the boat back to Alamitos Bay, but a few minutes after getting off the boat and walking through Shoreline Village, it was quickly apparent Ruby wasn’t feeling well. Yep, Ruby had gotten seasick! So, we picked up our third form of alternate transportation in the form of the Passport bus. Ruby was into it. She insisted on getting her own seat.

We thought about calling it a day after this already epic journey. Most sane parents would have. But we decided to press on. After all, I also happened to be lucky enough to be testing a 2012 Chrysler 300C that weekend – one of my favorite cars at the moment and in my possession!

Thanks to a recent episode of No Reservations about the food scene in Penang, I’d been craving Mee Goreng, a spicy fried noodle dish popular in Malaysia and Indonesia. And one of the few places to get it around here is at Singapore’s Banana Leaf at the Farmer’s Market on Third and Fairfax in Los Angeles. So, after everything we had already done, we got in the 300C (our fourth and final – and face it, the most awesome – form of transportation that day) and headed up to LA for some deliciousness.

What a great day. I think I like this Father’s Day business a lot. Thanks Tiger and Ruby for making it such a great day!