Philippe's

 Oh Philippe!! Thanks to the show, "sandwich paradise" we found you. Well actually, we knew about you, but this really gave us an excuse to go.  You have to look up the show. They have all sorts of paradises. When I went today I actually felt like I was in paradise, except there were like 20 lines and they each had about 20 people in them. You had to be patient. BUT IT WAS WORTH IT. And while we were in line, we met a little friend. Actually quite ferocious. If you scroll down you can see some pix from the back of "her" or "him". And don't even get me started about the actual food. The only sandwich on the menu was the french dip but you could order it with different kinds of meat and cheese. They  dip the buns into the au jus sauce that they the marinate the meat in. The chili was also delish but the soup wasn't cutting it.   Now for dessert,  the coffee cake was out of this world.  We were trying to decide if it was better than my grandmas's.  So, I of course want to come back next weekend and maybe check out Olvera Street as well.

Lunch Time

Signage & the line

My parents ate these,  no comment

My french dip w/ american cheese

The BEST chili, good to the last drop!

Yummy coffee cake, my mom said even better than Hostess!

Guess who?!?!?!?!

Maple Bacon Donuts

Who the heck came up with these little pieces of heaven?   It tastes like pancakes with bacon on top which of coarse makes it that much better. When I got back from religious school on sunday, I came home to these heavenly delights on my counter. It was a gift from my grandpas.  They're pretty big so I shared one with my mom, knowing that I would have more heaven later.   But when I came back from my friend's after religious school I got greeted by my dad telling me that he had finished the last one. He wasn't even guilty about it. Shame on him!!!!!! If you want to know where to get one, you can go to The Nickel Diner. But you have to go in the morning because they're sold out by the afternoon. THEY'RE THAT GOOD!!!!!!!!!



nickel diner

Nothing Says Love, Like Butter, Happy Valentine's Day!

The good people of Wally's Cheese box notified us about this wonder...

I discovered this delight at A Frame

I CAN believe its not butter.

Butter, oh, Butter. The first of the seven wonders of food. At least most of these pictures are of butter. I can't believe my mother thinks this crap is butter. It doesn't even spread well. I CAN BELIEVE ITS NOT BUTTER.   I think anyone with normal taste buds can.
Some of the real delight is the Plugra that I discovered At the wonderful A Frame. I will only eat toast after it cools so I can enjoy the texture of the butter.  Plugra has extra fat so it's really creamy. It's not very salty so you have to sprinkle some on for ultimate pleasure.
The next wonder is Pamplie. It's european butter. It has hints of hazelnuts but it really just is creamy with hints of coarse sea salt.   It saves time so you don't have to add any on. Thank you to the good people of Wally's Cheese box for keeping me in the loop.  I'm getting fat writing this.  I'm so tempted to eat the entire block.

Slater 50/50

I have finally arrived!

The Maple Bacon Shake

Bacon Mac & Cheese

Happy me eating a fried pickle

Fried Pickles in the dipping sauce

Note that I still added bacon to my 50/50 burger

YUMMY!  As you can see the bun is perfect too!

Cassidy sucking up frozen bacon chunks

My mom's lettuce wrapped burger

Cassidy's friend, Sarah came along with us

Cassidy about to dig in

My dad having a yum yum moment

Jessie is so excited!

The moment we had all been waiting for.   Let's dig in!

Jessie with a face full of Slater 50/50

http://www.slaters5050.com/A couple weeks ago on a school free monday, we took a road trip to Anaheim to go to Slater 50/50. We found out about Slater 50/50 on a special show I tivod called "Bacon Paradise" on HGTV.  This was the only one of the restaurants featured, located in California and luckily it was only 15 minutes away from my dad's pharmacy. The restaurant is called Slater 50/50 because the 50/50 patties are made of half beef and half chopped delicious bacon.   Most people who go to the restaurant order the design your own burger. You get a piece of paper and check off what you want  on your burger. You can also get your burger wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun.  There is also a menu of burger options if you are too overwhelmed to build your own.  The burgers were absolutely delicious!!!!!! For appetizers we had deep fried pickles which were out of this world.   The pickles were warm & tangy, wrapped in a crispy, moist, deep fried pocket of goodness and love. UNBELIEVABLE!  Of course when we saw "Bacon Mac & Cheese" on the menu, we had to have that too. To go with our meal we had a milkshake that you never would have thought was possible. It was a maple bacon shake and it tasted like a pancake. It was the best.  It was breakfast in cup!  There were real chunks of bacon that would pop from the straw!!! Anyone who is willing to drive about 45 minutes for a delicious meal,  definitely should take my recommendation.              

A-Frame

The fire pit hang out

The A-Frame

The A-Frame from the inside

Me & my dad w/ the original spicy kettle corn

Cool hoop skirt lighting covers

sweet potato fries

Kind of my grandma's inside out potatos

Yummy wings and the "dipping sauce"

my mom's favorite pickle plate

chicken salad on corn bread

yummy ribs

empty plate

plate of naked bones

beer can chicken

The famous PLUGRA

My mom's other must have, rack of lamb

My sister Jessie's favorite, tuna sashimi

Last week my family & I went to the brand new A frame. The owners are the parents of a boy I do Tae Kwon Do with. They invited my parents to the grand opening and they said it was so delicious we all had to come back.  Before we even got seated you you get to sit at a fire pit outside and warmthen your body and chat with your group.   Right off the bat I just have to say that they have the best butter in the universe.   It's called plugra.  It has extra fat, which is just how I like it.   When it comes to ordering, you should know, my father likes to order everything on the menu; and that's pretty much just what we did.  I'm not even going to try to name all of the dishes.  Give your fingers a workout and scroll up. 

My favorite dish was the veggie tempura. Of course I devoured it so quickly I forgot to take a picture.  It was very crispy kale & squash I think.   It came with the most delicious dipping sauce.   I took the sauce to go. I also took the buffalo wings sauce to go.  They probably thought I was crazy but, who cares, I put them on my sandwich when I packed my lunch for school.  They also have in side out potatoes which I still think they stole from my grandma, they're that good. The beer can chicken was amazing and unexpectedly a finger food. The waiters bring the chicken and everyone just picks off and dips in the sauce. The picture below is what I looked like when I left; big eyed & smiles from ear to ear.

A frame

Mako

Jessie's crispy oysters

Mako is an outstandingly, delicious, Japanese restaurant in Beverly Hills. This is one of my grandparents favorite places to go eat. They love to take me and my sisters with them for special outings. I don't normally like asian restaurants because they smell like fish, but Mako just smells like delicious sauces. Last night my mom took me to do research for my blog.  This is the best way to make my mom take me to really good restaurants.  We all started with the Dan Noodles.  These are crispy ramen noodle pancakes with a yummy dipping sauce.  We talk about these noodles all the time!  I took my grandma's place by sharing the filet mignon and fried rice with my sister Cassidy.  The rice doesn't come with the steak but we substitute it because my mom wouldn't let us order too much & it goes great together.  The sauce that comes on the steak is so delicious, it makes me want to come back every night.  Last night Mako sent over a special dessert platter for our table.  When you're a guest at Mako  it's like your royalty. Everyone is so nice to you.

P.S. the Caesar
Salad is also scrumpdidiliumptious.  Unfortunately, we dug in before the photo shoot. The lettuce is lightly grilled, and in a garlic sauce. I'm getting hungry writing about it!       

won ton soup

dessert

filet mignon and fried rice